None of this is true! But it is printed in social media/online

 

The Sky is falling, the sky is falling…wait…no its not. But when you read it, you see that its true right? Often we read things and take them at face value, this had lead to polarization of our countries nearing a civil war level status. People not questioning what they read is a story old as time! Most of the time when we read something that opposes our thinking we don’t use it as a means of growth, we ignore it, seek to discredit it or we stop reading!

What we choose to read and how we choose to interpret what we read shows confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is rampant in our attempts to grow and the direction our thinking goes in. I have seen a massive chasm growing in the last decade or so in regards to this. It may be my age and my current level of development mentally but the confirmation bias has pushed us further right and left, not many of us centralists exist anymore.

The confirmation bias has grown and moved from only paying attention to what you agree on or even ignoring that which you don’t agree to and moved to almost violent opposition to what we don’t believe in.  it used to be that we would simply skim over that which we don’t agree with and we moved to attacking online blogs that we don’t agree with or attacking those on line we don’t agree with directly.

When forming our own thoughts on a subject we have moved from reading proof and using critical thinking to assess if we agree, build our own thought process up to not believing facts even when they are printed for you to read. Sometimes the proof is common sense stuff too and we can not believe it even when its printed and obvious. Sometimes proof is not enough proof at all! You can have years and years of printed and accepted proof and yet people still don’t accept the proof of fact as enough.  This is not more obvious than when you talk to flat earthers or when you talk to those that don’t believe that the earth to moon trips actually happened! We have video, they say its fake…..we have radio and TV proof, they say that is fake….we have bloody moon rocks with elements not found to easy here on earth and they say they are fake.  We have accounts of people who actually walked on the moon and they say its people faking it. No level of facts will prove this happened. Conversely someone suggested the earth is flat, gave no facts but some weak ass arguments easily shot down…but because it matches their personal bias…well that was enough they believe it.

For the most part we have failed to realize we have stopped thinking for ourselves. The fact that something is on social media or in print is proof enough for us. We see this as proof and this proof is enough for us. In the past people read two kinds of news, and by in the past I mean the 40’s to the 70’s. the news was designed to be bland, unimaginative and basically the news was what people saw with their eyes, things that were physical and tangible, however some color commentary did exist. We held some very specific group ideals that pushed the news to be bland and with out opinion, just a focused report of what was going on.  If someone slipped an ideal into the news it was outed as hog wash right away…..however today we expect opinion as proof and we migrate to the news networks and sources that support our own ideals as truth.

For the most part we fail to realize that networks like Fox news is feeding us back our own bias and reporting things that are centered around those ideas for the most part and CNN will side with the opposite set of ideals as a default. They see news events through specific ideological lenses. We fail to realize that we had stopped thinking for ourselves and, much like the matrix, we have been force fed our own bias in news and opinion and then forced further in the directions we are already aiming in. If you are a liberal who has left leanings and watch CNN you will be getting pushed further left, if you are a liberal with left leanings and watch Fox you probably will be upset and then moving further right. If you are a right wing person with far leanings to the right and watch Fox….you will start to look at a deep dive, and the same goes for the left. We have given up our rights to think for ourself so we can adhere to the tribes ideals.

The problem is that the personal bias that the Social media and media sites help spread are more than a little speckled with Bull shit and made up lies or at the least, twisted and warped ideas and facts that are pushing you the polarized side you first identified with and we slowly gave up our right to think or have opposing ideas to the tribe. Again, we fail to realize that we have stopped thinking for ourselves.

It’s a chicken and the Egg set up too, what came first “Tribalism” or the polarization in media?  The question is important because it answers the humanity question about cause and effect!  Which was the cause and which was the effect.?  If its Tribalism that caused the media changes then we need to use the same tools to reverse the tribalism or at the least bring the media back to just reporting the news, and if it’s the news that caused Tribalism….we need to eliminate the issues and start over.

One of the biggest and most annoying traits of the media however is “Pivots, Pivots and what abouts” the media uses the tools of pivoting and using “what abouts”.  This type of attitude or approach to reporting events is seen as being annoying when the “other side” uses it and acceptable when the reporting side uses it.  The “Pivot” approach is used when you want to distract from a question or issue that is asked that makes you uncomfortable or to get to the agenda points one has. For instance when Kellyanne Conway is interviewed she has a specific agenda that she wants to talk about to make her boss look good….if the media person puts her on the spot by asking a question that does not make her boss look good….she pivots to answer a question never asked…or bring up a situation or subject she wants to talk about! This is also when “What about” arguments come out…..”your boss said this”……” well what about the argument that this is bad”. Often the “What abouts” are used to pivot but they are not as artistic as the other pivots. The use of these is also something that the media does to itself as well…and because its printed or on video…its true.

The point is that we need to stop getting our “Truth” from any media sources, view them with scepticism and realise its their job and their goal to convince you. They are “Fact” salespeople! They want you to move to one side or the other in an argument and have distain for the other side of the argument. For the most part we have all given up our rights and expectations of thinking for ourselves. When you give into whole hearted tribalism you become a Sheeple.