Do you actually believe everything you read online?
Introducing discernment, the key to being critical of your sources
Every day, we absorb various pieces of information. From scrolling mindlessly on TikTok to engaging in shop talk with our friends at mamak, our minds have been conditioned to receive large volumes of information in a short amount of time. Yet, have we ever stopped to question and process the information that we see? Especially the ones that we see online?
Take a look at the news headline below. What are your first thoughts?
Focus on race not ‘inherently problematic’, Ramasamy tells PSM chairman
The phrase ‘not inherently problematic’ suggests a dilution of the conversations surrounding the racialisation of politics, and how it has unjustly affected many of the lives of minorities in Malaysia. However, did it prompt you to think critically as to whether the statement is true? Or did you glance through it without a second thought?
Given how fast-paced our lives are, it is the norm for most of us to do the latter. We scroll through social media while waiting for the next train and skim through the news during lunch breaks. With our attention divided across countless notifications and updates, we rarely pause to scrutinise every piece of information we encounter.
But why is it important to practice discernment?
Discernment refers to the ability to judge things and people well. In this day and age of constant information, it becomes even more important for us to practice discernment towards the information that is disseminated to us. Otherwise, malicious actors can easily weaponise information, turning it into rhetoric that targets us in our most vulnerable moments.
“Let’s have a few from Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. Do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they’re good at is going after ships,” Trump said as he addressed supporters in Pennsylvania.”
— Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric targeting a specific ethnic group
The blatant generalisation of an entire community with derogatory terms is often rampant with and done to form an “us vs them” narrative. This is supplemented with implicit and targeted messaging towards our inner self-preservationist instincts. It tells us that we are the “good ones”, and the “bad ones” are out to get us.
Perhaps not all of us believe in this divisive rhetoric, but some of us do. However, that does not inherently make us bad people. We are often the targets of carefully crafted political messaging, in which information is selectively presented, distorted, or weaponised to serve broader rhetorical and political goals.
In many ways, we are like the prisoners in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Facing the cave wall, we mistook shadows cast before them for reality itself, not because we were irrational, but because those shadows were what was presented and deliberately created by the puppeteers who control us in their game of politics.
However, practising discernment allows us to recognise these shadows for what they are, enabling us to pierce through the crafted narratives and to see the information for what it really is.
How do we then practise discernment? Here are three ways:
#1 Diversify your sources
Most of us get our news through Instagram story reposts, posts on Threads, or even word of mouth. However, this is rarely enough to give us a complete picture of what is happening around us.
More often than not, we are confined within algorithms that are carefully tailored to reaffirm our existing preferences and beliefs. Every time we like, share, or engage with content that resonates with us, we reinforce those preferences, prompting the algorithm to show us even more of the same. Over time, this creates a self-perpetuating cycle, an echo chamber where we are exposed to only one stream of information and one perspective on current events.
That is why it is important to step beyond the comfort of our algorithmic bubble. We should make a conscious effort to seek out news reports, opinion pieces, and perspectives from a variety of sources, including those that may challenge our existing views.
#2 Think and empathise first. React second.
News headlines have a way of provoking our emotions beyond reason. The headline below is an example of this:
[KOLUMNIS] Rohingya: Jangan gigit tangan yang menghulur bantuan
The headline suggests a sense of inferiority surrounding the Rohingya communities in Malaysia, placing them “in debt” towards Malaysians. It seeks to rile up a sense of anger towards the Rohingya communities, without prompting us to question if this rhetoric is even true to begin with. It dehumanises communities, appeals to our individualistic and selfish nature, all while bypassing emotions such as empathy and compassion. Further, it turns a blind eye to the harsh conditions that the Rohingya communities still face to this day. Worse, it validates and justifies the ongoing discrimination that these communities are subjected to every day.
It is easy to instinctively feel anger, frustration, or even a feeling of validation towards the ideas that we already hold, which creates discussions among us that are unproductive and often emotionally charged, spiralling us down further into rhetoric overload rather than empirical information. This creates a race to the bottom, where the loudest voices command the most attention, while the quieter and more reasonable voices are drowned out amidst the noise.
Hence, it’s important to approach every issue with a critical mindset matched with the same amount of compassion. This looks like:
Stopping and fact check. Is this statement true? Are there objective data and statistics to back them up? Are there contrary objective data that debunk it?
Reflecting. What are my personal biases? Can I put them aside? Can I practise empathy and compassion first?
Going back to square one. How do I currently feel about it?
#3 Use artificial intelligence with caution
The convenience of AI, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, has normalised a trend of using AI to obtain news and information as opposed to scouring the internet for them. While it is good to have information just one prompt away, this practice risks blind validation of our biases through information fed by AI.
We have the power to craft the prompts into the AI model to fit our narrative. This is especially dangerous when it is done subconsciously, where we implicitly guide the AI to provide us answers that validate our beliefs. This can create a feedback loop in which AI-generated responses serve less as a tool for discovery and more as a mechanism for confirmation. Hence, while it is good to use AI to stay up to date on current affairs, there needs to be a line between information obtainment and validation.
AI is also not 100% accurate. It has the risk of hallucinating, meaning it conjures false, non-existent, or inaccurate information for the sake of answering the prompt. Therefore, AI ought to be used as a supplementary tool alongside your research on the internet. The same critical thinking process ought to also be applied to the process of using AI.
Conclusion
Building discernment is not something that can be achieved in one day. However, we can slowly work our way to it by constantly asking ourselves the validity of information that we receive every day.
By doing so, we reject being hiveminds and puppets of rhetoric. It is time to recognise the shadows against the cave walls, and to acknowledge that we too, can leave the cave to seek the truth of life.
REFERENCES
Free Malaysia Today. (2025, August 20). Focus on race not ‘inherently problematic’, Ramasamy tells PSM chairman. https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2025/08/20/focus-on-race-not-inherently-problematic-ramasamy-tells-psm-chairman
Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). Discernment. In Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/discernment
ABC News. (n.d.). Trump ramps anti-immigrant rhetoric, embraces phrase. https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-ramps-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-embraces-phrase-hole/story?id=128279166
Astro Awani. (n.d.). Kolumnis Rohingya: Jangan gigit tangan yang menghulur bantuan. https://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/kolumnis-rohingya-jangan-gigit-tangan-yang-menghulur-bantuan
TechCrunch. (2026, June 13). KPMG pulls report on AI usage due to apparent hallucinations. https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/13/kpmg-pulls-report-on-ai-usage-due-to-apparent-hallucinations/
Going Concern. (n.d.). EY gets busted and yeets cybersecurity report littered with AI hallucinations. https://www.goingconcern.com/ey-gets-busted-and-yeets-cybersecurity-report-littered-with-ai-hallucinations/