Why We Should Stop Watching the News (and Leave Social Media, Too)

In November of 2018, a video titled “Fighting Manspreading…with Bleach!” was uploaded onto the Internet.

In the video, a “radical feminist” walks through various subway cars with a bottle of bleach. When she sees a man “manspreading” (sitting with his legs spread open), she pours the bleach onto the man’s crotch and runs away.

Shot from a “hidden camera” perspective, the clip immediately went viral. And anywhere the video was posted, small-scale wars would break out in the accompanying comment section.

For some, the video was proof that feminism is a dangerous, irrational, and intolerant ideology. For others, it was a humorous and brave portrait of a young woman taking aim at the patriarchy — it wasn’t so much what she did, but what the act represented.

Here’s the catch: The video was fake, and was shot and produced by a Russian propaganda website. Everyone in the video was an actor. The bleach was actually water in a bleach bottle. It wasn’t even filmed in the United States.

And, yet, it lit up the Internet.
But it’s not even an isolated incident.

For example, in Texas, a “Pro-Muslim” rally was held at the same location and time as an “Anti-Islamification of America” rally on May…