BREAKING - How Fake News Has Infiltrated Car Culture

In recent years, we have come to hear a lot about the growing threat of disinformation or - as many have come to refer to it - FAKE NEWS. Surely we have all grown a bit tired of the political conversations where this issue is most routinely batted about. Oftentimes, the term itself is wielded as a feeble dagger in the side of an opposing opinion. And if we’re arguing opinions more than facts, who is to say what is truly fake or not? There is certainly a factual basis to any one opinion, but the line between feelings and facts seems to be growing blurrier by the day. That being said, there is legitimacy to the growing threat of bad information all around us. And regardless of where you might stand on the political spectrum, this threat is nearer to you than you think. You won’t find it in the headlines, and the mainstream media may be too afraid to run the story: BREAKING NOW - ‘Fake News’ is one of the realest threats to car culture as we know it. And only you can stop it!

“Fake News” could best be defined as seemingly-true information that posits itself as factual based simply on the merit that it is broadcast to (and received by) a large, influenceable audience. The more this information is spread, the more it gains legitimacy in numbers. Effectively, the larger the captive audience, the less likely one is to be “fact-checked” when delivering their own version of the news. Furthermore, when threatened, if you back up your assertions with enough legitimate facts tangential to your assertions, you may very well exhaust your opponent before the curtain is pulled back enough to expose the actual truth. At this point, in the broader culture, we’re all familiar with how this phenomenon has manifested itself within cable news networks, and we might be at an irredeemable point with many of these channels. However, if you excuse yourself from the political joneses of everyday life, are you free from the pervasiveness of this phenomena? Sadly, you are not. At this point, you aren’t even safe within the confines of your own automobile.

As we dive deeper into this issue, let us consider a new archetype: the belligerent Facebook uncle. You know the type - the guy online who spouts off baseless conspiracy theories and rallies about who should or should not be allowed in what bathroom. Yeah - that guy. While we may ignore most of his activity in our timelines - maybe even going so far as to mute any and all posts from immediate engagement - that same guy continues to exist in the shadows around the rest of the internet. He posts about what he wants, when he wants. His opinions are as good as gospel (as far as he’s concerned) and as passionate as he is about the future of this great nation and/or the looming danger of a bio-mechanical vaccine conspiracy - or whatever the hell he thinks he read somewhere - he is just as passionate about his 2004 Subaru Outback! And who’s a ranking moderator of the 50,000 member Facebook group devoted to all things Subaru Outback? Yep - That Guy! And what - you didn’t think That Guy would be driving a Subaru Outback? Well, he does… And he has a niece at Oberlin… And you have 11 mutual friends… And you guessed it: That Guy is going to be the very first person to reply to your question about what spark plugs you should install on your Outback. He will respond with more authority than you would ever expect in response to such a pedestrian query, but of course he would - after all, he’s been a dentist in the county over from yours for thirty-two years. But he knows a guy who worked at Subaru once. They aren’t friends on Facebook, though.

Now that we have established a good sense of who That Guy is, let’s come back to identifying the issue we are faced with here: where are we getting our information? We live in a time where immediate answers are the only answers, and as long as it’s Googleable, you can ascertain any information depending on where you choose to click through. The sad fact is that the internet has created an open forum of information sharing that is rarely vetted by anything other than the internet itself. And as well-lubricated as the machine may be - in spite of how well-intended the larger portion of its users are - it is bound to develop some pretty serious issues if not corrected from time to time. And it almost never happens on its own. We recognize similar problems when asking the police to investigate themselves - what facts would you expect to shake out at the end of an investigation and how often are we convinced of the findings? Wait a minute - here comes That Guy again! Let’s just abandon that analogy for now.

While fake news is most obviously analogous in political terms, politics is an arena where subjectivity is par for the course. No one would suggest that political discourse is ever free of a particular level of subjectivity, plainly considering the inspirations of one ideology as it stands positioned next to another. Differences exist here, and different viewpoints are not inherently dangerous; save for the more extreme ends of the spectrum that can (thankfully) be spotted from miles away. However, when you consider the spread of disinformation among the automotive community, the facts should be much clearer. There is no room for subjectivity when it comes to engineering and mechanics. When pursuing his engineering degree at Manhattan College in the 1970’s, my father had a professor who famously graded his students according to the principled adage: “Bridge fall down, no partial credit!” And the same principle resonates today when discussing such things. Regardless of how close one is to getting the correct answer - no matter how far they are able to string out the problem until an error in the equation arises - if the answer is wrong, it is wholly wrong, and nothing less should be accepted. Period.

In recent decades, the ease by which we access information has surpassed any reasonable expectation of yesterday. On one hand, this is a triumph of technology that has pushed the bounds of news delivery, data, and communication into realms that suggest we have truly evolved into a new age of consciousness. The flip side of that coin is that - just as easily as this machine can be harnessed for good - the pitfalls and rabbit holes of the internet can often debase arenas of discourse where fact and fiction coexist in an ether of shitposts and message board trolling. The space between these two places is growing harder to navigate, and this is largely due to the fact that the abundance of misinformation grows exponentially by the minute here, tasking even the most diligent moderators with the impossible. It’s important to remember that the information we are coming into contact with is only as legitimate as its source, and how quick are we to take advice from handles like 2Fast2Care and HotRodUncle69 when stumped in our garages on a weak WiFi signal?

The fact must be admitted that the open-source nature of internet forums and Facebook message boards often creates waters that are far too murky to navigate safely. So why are we so quick to entrust the mechanical integrity of our project cars to the fingertips of faceless strangers behind a keyboard? The stakes are too high on one side of the exchange for this to be an acceptable (or safe) wager for we enthusiasts. Think about it - if you take the misguided advice of a novice mechanic on Facebook, pull your car onto the highway, and crash because of that very bad advice, you stand to lose a lot more than the bandwidth you wasted in soliciting your question in the first place. Chances are 2Fast2Care is going to be 45min into an ASMR video by the time the paramedics show up to your accident scene. Hell, the news of your crash may never even make it into his News Feed!

Frustrated, you may be wondering, “if not for the internet, where are we supposed to find the answers to our questions?” Well, where were they gotten before the internet? Remember BOOKS? When was the last time you read a MAGAZINE? Have you considered studying practical auto mechanics and informing your own sensibilities on how things work - if only on a fundamental level, for starters? Surely there are wholly legitimate outlets online offering good information, and I’m not suggesting that there are no estimable technicians on the internet, but remember: what are the stakes? Back in the day, factory service manuals could be found for every car on the road, and most people in the hot rodding / tuner world saw these texts as practical bibles in their faith. Furthermore, the industry was full of periodicals that published product reviews and modification how-to’s on a monthly basis. The calculated standard in the industry was that if you were publishing these how-to’s, the integrity of the entire publication rested on the merit of that information being true - and safe! And say that information were wrong: it could stand to destroy the credibility of the entire publication. Back then you could trust the places where you were getting your information because everyone had way more skin in the game. Sadly, as the internet has decimated the relevance of print media, we have lost one of the last bastions of truth in our culture. In the past couple decades, it has become open season for any and all information sharing, and at this point, far too many enthusiasts are left gambling with the suspect data they find while scrolling search-engine results.

While print media meets its maker, social media will continue to traffic information in even muddier waters. The tides may never change here. But the internet isn’t all bad! If you’re unable to find trustworthy channels of information and if legitimate websites fall short in answering your specific questions, the internet is still a tool. Use eBay! Try to source the factory service manuals for your car. Try to find magazines from the era when your car was relevant in the marketplace, and see if they include how-to’s or product reviews about your car. Hell - go ahead and use Facebook! But when you do, consider finding a local swap meet or car show that caters to your interests. When you get there, you can actually meet the people behind the screen names. Perhaps someone will be selling a catalog of texts about your very car. Maybe even someone-you-know’s uncle. And this guy might have the same car as you - only way cooler - as well as 20+ years of knowledge about the thing that predates your own. And when you tell him about all the trouble you’ve been having with getting Facebook to diagnose the problem you’re having with your ignition, he’ll turn to you and say, “Facebook? I don’t use that shit. What do you need help with exactly?” Yeah. That would probably be a much better start. Just be careful not to ask him who he voted for. After all, it’s important to remember: you’re never too far from That Guy...

John Roman

for The Curb Cut