Experts Say Misinformation Is Destroying Our Mental Health

Belief in misinformation has been linked to a string of mental health problems, including depression and fits of rage (which we have seen evidence of in videos posted online.) Mental health experts are warning that the poisoning of America through misinformation is effecting all of us - whether we believe the garbage that we see online or not. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening and why we need to fight against it.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Recently a new study out of Harvard University has shown that misinformation mostly, by the way, misinformation about COVID-19, the vaccines, the treatments, all of that, is bad for our mental health. And for the record, it's not just bad for the mental health of those who buy into the misinformation that they find online. It's bad for everybody's mental health. But one of the researchers specifically points out the fact that the belief in misinformation leads to an increased incidents of depression. So please people who believe in all of this misinformation that they're seeing online are far more prone to depression. Now, to me, that's a very interesting finding because I want to know more about that. I want to know if misinformation is actually causing the depression, or if people suffering from depression are more susceptible to misinformation. See that I think is a piece of the study that's missing there and I really do think that that is something that should be looked into. Obviously we do have increased cases of depression here in the United States that basically started with the pandemic. You know, lockdowns took their mental toll on a lot of people, especially people who had to lockdown without other people. You know, families in close quarters having all kinds of arguments, you know, divorces out there. So yes, there's lots of depression. So is the depressant, depression driving people to misinformation or is the misinformation driving people to depression? I want to know the answer to that.

But here's another thing and this part is something none of us can deny. Another thing that misinformation is doing to affect our mental health is it is making people far more aggressive. It is making them paranoid. And It is leading to the freakouts that we are seeing in videos pop up on social media all the time. The people freaking out with their tirades when they're asked, hey, would you mind putting on a mask? Hey, it's our policy. I can't let you in here if you don't put on a mask. And then people losing it as if the individual just threatened to murder everybody they've ever loved. Obviously that's not the case. That's not what's happening. It's a simple request. Hey, you're going to be in my grocery store for 20 minutes, uh, put a small little covering over your face and we'll be good to go. And people become irrationally angry at these requests. They lash out in ways that ordinarily they would not. So I think one of the bigger things this, this pandemic has done, the misinformation surrounding masks and vaccines and all of that, has led to this psychosis, this angry, violent psychosis amongst some of these individuals who truly believe deep down that the rest of us are the ones who are getting it wrong. That the majority of people are totally wrong and only they know the absolute truth. And it's driving them mad.

You know, not full blown padded room mad, but mad enough to where they throw these massive temper tantrums, temper tantrums that are getting them fired from their jobs. That are getting them put on the no fly list. You know, actively destroying their own lives because they think they're the only ones that know the absolute truth and the rest of us are idiots. We need a system to combat this misinformation. You know, we can't devolve into full blown government censorship of online media. No, absolutely not. We need to train people and teach people how to identify misinformation.