This admonition from the Buddha not to accept any claims on face
value, but to investigate their sources, might indeed compel all citizens
in Myanmar to critique rumors or generalizations made about others.
Nothing should be accepted readily as “truth” about reality until
it has been thoroughly examined from a trustworthy source. However,
the further challenge is that much of what comes through rumors and
hearsay can, at some point along the chain, be attributed to a “trustworthy”
source, whether an elder, a neighbor, or a religious authority.
There has been limited research on modes and networks of communication
in contemporary Myanmar, but anecdotal accounts suggest that
it could be challenging to develop a counternarrative that undermines
the authoritative voice either of monastics or of the “community” writ
large (Schissler 2014).