by Josephine Chien and Melanie Speir, Civil Discourse Team
Civic engagement, misinformation, and disinformation were the subject of several excellent LWVUS webinars at the 2022 national convention. Among the topics discussed were the neurological basis of “Them versus Us” perceptions, effective techniques for identifying and addressing misinformation or disinformation, and tools for dealing with them.
- Educate yourself to recognize misinformation and report it to organizations like Junkipedia.
- Ask questions objectively about what others believe and why.
- Show empathy and be curious.
- Share your perspective and personal experience.
- Counter tribal behavior and reestablish a sense of community connection by creating pleasant non-political events that include food, fun, friends, family.
Our League will use the detailed tools and information we gathered to further our annual priority of fighting misinformation and disinformation, but we need more volunteers! We especially need committee members to help strategize/brainstorm at monthly meetings, to form subcommittees for topics such as misinformation/disinformation, to facilitate group workshops, and to hand out brochures at appropriate League tabling events.
We are actively seeking new members for the Civil Discourse team - people who are concerned about political intimidation, polarization and misinformation! Please join this effort - we need all hands on deck this election year!
To join the team or volunteer or for more information about Civil Discourse, please email us at civil.discourse [at] lwvdv.org (subject: Helping%20with%20Civil%20Discourse) .
