An early scene in George Orwell’s legendary dystopian novel “1984” has the main character rewriting history to suit a repressive government’s political agenda. What we actually have in 2016, 32 years after the Orwell’s fictional world, is a news environment in which private citizens and those who want to manipulate us can create, share and often believe fake news — fictions that have the power to reshape our government.

Newspapers and other “legacy” organizations don’t have a monopoly on the truth. We are prone to our own biases — often a nearly unconscious belief in moderate politics and incremental change for the common good. Even so, we are traditionally reliable curators of the news, providing a record of the facts that is literally printed in black and white. Falsehoods and biases are fairly easily spotted and challenged. A newspaper that too often blatantly disregards the facts doesn’t stay long in business. Those that have longevity have done so by building credibility within the communities they serve and keeping it on a daily basis by diligently working to separate fact from fiction.

Slippery do-it-yourself news of the kind so commonly found on Facebook isn’t so easily policed or punished by the marketplace. It has neither cost nor consequences. In fact, as Americans increasingly seek validation rather than objective information, there are rewards for even flagrant lies online, so long as they achieve enough popularity to be shared among people with like beliefs.

“People most readily believe that which they can believe most conveniently,” Cliffs Notes observes in its essay about “1984.” This is almost the definition of modern U.S. politics, in which many Americans choose to believe or disbelieve stories based on complicated personal and political preconceptions.

It is a fact of modern life that more Americans get information from Facebook posts than directly from the entities that actually do the hard work of fact-gathering. If you have friends with diverse political beliefs and levels of education, you are certain to encounter Facebook posts denying climate change or asserting the truth or falsehood of other matters. There was, for example, a posting last week that boldly asserted Donald Trump overwhelming won the popular vote, despite the objective fact that the opposite is true.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has struggled with a response to widespread accusations that his company aided and abetted the dispersal of falsehoods that warped the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. In essence, his problem is how to maintain Facebook as freewheeling marketplace for ideas, while somehow not allowing it to be an easily manipulated stooge that regurgitates lies that are packaged in superficially believable ways.

After initially denying it was the problem, Facebook now reportedly is looking into third-party verification services, better automated detection tools and simpler ways for users to flag suspicious content.

In a Nov. 18 column in The New York Times, John Herrman notes that these fake news items are “indefensible, easy to identify and extraordinarily viral.” The bigger problem, in his opinion, is the more subtle manipulation of people through a clever blending of out-of-context “facts” that mesh with reader biases and preconceptions.

Herrman is pessimistic about Facebook actually correcting a profitable system in which its members get to decide on alternative versions of reality. “Those who expect the operator of the dominant media ecosystem of our time, in response to getting caught promoting lies, to suddenly return authority to the companies it has superseded are in for a … surprise,” he observed.

Even on Facebook, it is possible to be a sophisticated news consumer. Double check the credibility of sources and look for stories by organizations that have a direct financial and reputational stake in being reliable.

Ultimately, there actually is a true version of the facts. Any community that wants to play for real and actually succeed can best do so by embracing reality. Facts, not fantasies, are the path to success.