This thing that happened here is the thing that most drives me to distraction about Twitter in general. Folx get one piece of information and start spinning an entire narrative from it, usually about what will make them the angriest, and that gets built on as it passes around. https://twitter.com/Hello_Tailor/status/1294256112133459969

It's not just lies that make it around the world before the truth has its boots on. Wild-ass speculation approaches lightspeed. And the speculation quickly starts to look like the story. But the story was only ever a fragment; what we REALLY know is ][ thismuch.

Humans are very, very good at extrapolating a situation from fragmentary details. We had to be, to survive. Monkeys don't last long if they can't picture the whole smilodon based on just the moonlight reflected in its eyes.

Humans are also, perhaps relatedly, very good at spinning narratives out of minimal materials. Plot hole fetishists aside, we're experts at bridging gaps in known events and filling in missing detail so the story makes sense.

But those traits don't always serve us well.

Because these are survival traits, they create the illusion of surety even when we ought to remain curious. "I wonder if" and "maybe it's" become "it must be." Usually something bad. Often enough - too often - the worst interpretation we can imagine.

And look, I'm not saying we don't have lots of cause for cynicism, here in the year 2020 of the Common Era.

But that stuff is like any medicine. A little keeps you alive, but too much is poison.

Maybe it's not a bad idea to pause and try to remember that extrapolation from a little fragment is often a *panic response*. It's the monkey brain trying to work out if that shadow is a predator and erring on the side of caution.

So maybe you're not making a brilliant Holmesian deduction from the available clues. Maybe you're jumping at a shadow that looked like a carnivore out of the corner of your eye.

Consider that possibility before sharing a hypothesis like it's evidence.

None of which is to say "don't be safe." Absolutely be cautious and protect yourself.

But share your theories cautiously too. And try to be mindful when they're your fear talking louder than your curiosity.

That's all.