Honestly I don't care what conspiracy theorists, science illiterates, and racists think. Let them believe the world is against their points of view. It should be! I want to make sure the ignoramuses don't infect others.
Davis' methods require time and work. Granted, his is largely based in meatspace, and I think offline communication is far more effective... but if I didn't think there was some merit to online communication, I wouldn't be trying here. Would you?
Online you have the option to click block/mute/ignore and move on. So if you are trying to convince someone, a specific person to change their point of view, it will be much harder to reach them.
However thinking about this, I'm surprised there aren't any activist groups who patrol around online and focus on individuals to try and persuade them to change. Broad messages are much less effective than 1:1 conversations.
However that also borders on or crosses the line of harassment, depending on view point.
The issue you originally brought up though concerns mass communication on a different level than those individual actions.
For example: Is the top of my facebook news feed an article about Daryl Davis (how his methods are helping misguided people and how I might apply or examine those in my own life to gain a better understanding of and more useful role in society) or is the top of my facebook feed an article about how there are many fine people on both sides and that maybe the KKK has a point and I should hear what they have to say?
The only thing I can be in control of, is what comes out of my own mouth. These are the things I believe in and stand for, that I earnestly think have a far better chance of rectifying things like racism, hatred, and our divided nation.
Having Facebook and Twitter do the work for us is alluring. But judging by its results so far, I don't think it's working. As Daryl said, he's a musician. Not a trained psychologist. If he can do it, so can you! Where should we invest our efforts? In what has been proven to reduce hatred, but is difficult -- or what we falsely hope will reduce hatred, and is easy?
>It's easy to sit back and call for Facebook to change the channel for me. It's much more difficult to be the channel of change.
The point is that these are two separate things that should both happen and should enable each-other in a positive feedback loop. I wouldn't phrase it in as dismissive a way as calling for facebook to "change the channel for me". Rather, I would say that I don't want facebook picking the channel for me in the first place.
Yet, As much as I have personally argued for following Daryl Davis' footsteps, and have attempted it myself, it simply does not scale in the face of massive action by dedicated firms.
The scale and rate at which misinformation wars are playing out, is beyond that at which an individual's actions can stem the tide.
At this point, our societies artisanal approach to thought, is giving way to the industrial approach to thought. Which is very dystopian, except phrased nicely since it is the early stages.
We are only starting to perceive the frightening outline of the leviathin which has finally stirred.