There's something called Poe's law, stemming from an online discussion about Creationism.
The original comment was as follows, "without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article," but has come to be generally understood that on the internet, without clear intent, some readers will interpret a parody as the author's genuine beliefs, regardless of how exaggerated the parody.
This seems extremely relevant in today's age, where views on both the left and the right seem so extreme that they appear as parodies themselves.
When browsing Facebook, you inevitably come across a discussion on the latest thing Trump did, a discussion about the upcoming BC election or a variety of other topics. They're usually rife with factual inaccuracies (on both sides) often times not even intentional.
The recent shooting in a Quebec mosque is an excellent example. The police initially arrested a Moroccan man because he started running from police. From his perspective, when he saw a man with a gun, he thought the shooter had come back.
The police released him and issued a correction. The erroneously identified man even stated that he understands and respects that he was caught by police.
By this point, however, the damage had been done. Most news organizations picked up that police had arrested a Moroccan man. As of last night, many news organizations hadn't updated their stories, and those who did had received many more views on the original report than the correction. This all led to some poorly based discussions and the ridiculous situation of Justin Trudeau asking Fox News to correct their story.
A lack of factual trustworthiness and accuracy seems to be permeated throughout all of society. For example, within science, there has been difficulty to successfully replicate studies, precipitated, at least partially, on academic merit being based on the frequency of publication and, to some extent, media coverage.
Especially as we start heading into a provincial election, it's important to check the facts: what the candidates say, what your friends and family say and what the news says.
Discourse is important, especially with those we disagree with, but unless it's based on facts any dialogue is simply going to serve our own narratives.