What Actually Happened

What if there was a “news” site
that presented the rumours, opinions,
and outright lies of each day
as a quiz, with one item,
interspersed among them,
that actually happened?

Could we train ourselves
to recognize this ever-present useless,
pernicious nonsense when we see it,
if we felt motivated enough
to look for it every day?

Could we cure ourselves of the addiction
to the adrenalin rush of feeling right,
the seductive pull of affirmation bias,
if we were inspired by the possibility
of finding out the truth?

Should we wait for the prodding
of some enlightened soul’s initiative,
spoonfed for our own electronic enlightenment,
or should we take it upon ourselves
to ferret out what is real, and what isn’t,
in this deluge of information
that we are nearly drowning in each day?