This wolf pack meme is a classic example of social media bullshit. 

It claims to give insight into leadership by explaining how a wolf pack arranges itself out on the trail. They apparently use reasoning and strategy that makes good sense to anyone who has spent a lot of time watching movies where groups of people have to move on foot through hostile territory. The most frail lead and set the pace, while the rest are arrayed in a way that optimizes their security.

However, there are a couple of big problems with this imaginative tale of the pack’s organizational structure. First, the strongest lead, to break the trail through the snow. This is a well studied pack in a national park, so we know that it’s being led by the matriarch. Second, wolves are an apex predator, so adults on the move have absolutely no need for a defensive strategy. What are they going to guard against? Marauding deer?

This pack of lies has been roaming around the internet in slightly varying forms for a few years. One even bothers to name the photographer, but it’s another lie.

Here’s a symbolic interpretation of the pack that’s more useful for people out on the mis/information highway:

The three wolves in front breaking trail represent the type of people who shamelessly make up shit and share it online. Depending on whether it’s nasty, funny, sad, inspiring or ‘informative’, it all appeals to some of us. It’s made to feel or sound real, but it isn’t.

The next five wolves represent the social media influencers; the bloggers, celebrities, activists, politicians, like-harvesters, etc., who establish the new trail. Some don’t fact check because they’re too gullible, too lazy or too moved by it. Some know it’s BS and they just don’t care. The bottom line is the same—they share this kind of crap because they want the traffic and/or attention it can generate.

The big bunch of wolves in the middle represents the hordes of people who spot the newly established trail and unquestioningly file in, making the bullshit go viral. They’re all the people who mistake the realness of their emotional response or the satisfaction of having their biases confirmed for evidence of factual reality. 

The following five wolves represent the infrequent social media users. The people who stumble on the trail of BS long after most people have seen it. They share it too, keeping it alive long enough for it to spread to whatever corners of the internet had been free of its deceitful influence until then.

The last wolf represents the tired, slogging fact checkers. The people who know that truth is fundamental to our understanding of reality. Who know that we have to understand what’s real in order to take the actions we must to make the world a better place. Who know that making it better is a common sense imperative, not some high-minded ideal, because our generation holds the fate of the world in our hands. The fact checker picks up the trail of bullshit, then does their best to alert the others that it’s not real; to counteract the acceptance of more false information. Sometimes it feels as pointless as howling at the Moon, but staying silent is worse.

Terry McTavish

P.S. Please share information and corrections with kindness and humour. As explained here, https://fixignorant.com/2013/01/06/you-can-fix-ignorant/ , the intention is to reduce the misinformation that contributes to ignorance, not to attack the ignorant — that’s all of us, to one degree or another. Accordingly, any meanspirited comments that I find here, will be deleted.

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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wolf-pack-photo/?fbclid=IwAR0wCGN416GCcv_3ekYHv4mvNHBjt5be6XqMgSNECm22mpGednH9aXqcxlc

https://www.truthorfiction.com/photo-of-a-wolf-pack-explains-wolf-behavior/