- Media literacy assumes that we all start our media engagement from the same foundation, and are operating with the same rubric for truth. - But [[our engagement with media and culture are shaped by our epistemological frameworks]]; people who rely on different ways of knowing *will* reach different conclusions about media and its messaging. - Moreover: [[they always believe that they are engaging in critical thinking]]. - Telling people that they need to engage with something critically is condescending and redundant – no one believes they’re engaging with media *uncritically*. - No one thinks *they* are the sheep. - By doubling down on individual responsibility for some amorphous idea of literacy, we are actively pushing people into [[media literacy requires people to doubt what they see|doubt]] and distrust. - Asking people to question without a shared epistemological foundation can reinforce polarization rather than resolve it. - As [[Doctorow, Cory]] [summarizes](https://boingboing.net/2017/02/25/counternarratives-not-fact-che.html): “We’re not living through a crisis about what is true, we’re living through a crisis about how we know whether something is true.” ([[Doctorow, Cory - 2017 - Three kinds of propaganda, and what to do about them - Clipping]])