We really need a way to instill skeptical thinking into early education, because mass media, mass social media, its a plague of nonsense and bunk that people buy into in frighteningly huge numbers.
Take this case on FB, a friend posted this horrible sounding petition, with a picture that breaks your heart.
http://www.causes.com/actions/167927...&utm_source=fb
PETITION: Please help stop French Islanders using live dogs and kittens as shark bait
After my initial shock and sadness at that image my first reaction was, really, could this actually be true.
So about 2 mins of work and here's snopes with a "partially true but quite inaccurate" verdict:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/sharkbait.asp
The petition has near 200,000 signatures. That is frightening to me.