# Reading Response Practice

There's a common question that goes *"Would you rather be sad but intelligent, or happy but ignorant?"*. Well, powerful individuals might have decided for you, as "agnotology" refers to the strategic and purposeful production of ignorance (Boyd, p. 3). **Agnotology** is a tool of oppression, and is commonly used in the digital age to keep people from accessing accurate, scientific knowledge. This has been used by many, but an event that has stood out in recent years has been the Christchurch event, where a white supremacist murdered 50 people in a mosque as he live-streamed the occurrences. The murderer took advantage of the web's data voids and created a strategic plan to get people to watch his live stream without being tracked at the same time as he spread his gospel to his viewers. He was able to successfully affect the epistemology of the viewers, as they would encounter white nationalist narratives when searching for buzzwords he placed on his live stream.

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## Current Examples

After reading this case, I thought about how agnotology plays a part in the COVID-19 pandemic. Most knowledgeable individuals are educated with scientific research on the effectiveness of vaccines. However, people who believe the vaccine is not functional and instead contains chips from the government with the ultimate purpose of controlling the population create their opinions based on fabricated, inaccurate information. Media manipulators spread websites where conclusions are not supported with factual scientific research, and these websites get shared across the web with like-minded people. I am well-aware data voids are difficult to fill, but now I wonder what could be done to make knowledge more available for people prone to COVID-19 ignorance. A step in the right direction is seen on Instagram, where CDC guidelines and websites appear when the [Instagram](https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/9/18553821/instagram-anti-vax-vaccines-hashtag-blocking-misinformation-hoaxes) algorithm detects the mention of COVID on their posts and stories. Nevertheless, **is** there more stuff that could be done, or will people have to rely on themselves to acquire knowledge, even when their fabricated algorithms with distorted information are in place?

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