First, a quote that has stuck with me for many years:
“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.”
― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
I recently read a
diary about how conservative talk is dieing and progressive talk is rising. I think that's alright. But progressive talk is an echo chamber too. MSNBC is an echo chamber. This site is an echo chamber. If you don't move away from it and hear other ideas and other opinions and get news from other sources, sources that don't agree with you, then you are falling into the same hole that the right has dug for itself. More thought below the noodle.
I grew up in a conservative house in a conservative state with conservative talk on the radio. For a while I considered myself a conservative too. Even then I couldn't understand why anyone would listen to Rush. The idea that one side is 100% right about everything and the other side is 100% wrong about everything seemed like utter nonsense. If the Democrats cured cancer, Rush would still show up to work the next day and talk about how much better we all were with cancer. Think of all the jobs we would lose!
When he's on the radio he's not a person he's a personality. He's a cardboard cutout of a human being. A walking talking political platform. I'm not asking for sympathy for Rush here. He chooses to do what he does. What I'm saying is that opinions expressed by him aren't opinions at all. They are advertising. They have as much weight as the claim that Red Bull gives you wings.
The other day I saw a diary about how republicans are wrong about everything. The modern day GOP rejects science and education and really does seem to be wrong on just about everything. But that doesn't mean democrats are right about everything. And it doesn't mean the right will always be wrong about everything or the left will always have the better solution.
Fox News is the product of a previously unfilled demand. A whole segment of the population felt (justly or not) that their opinions were underrepresented until, "Fair and Balanced," came along. It was a reaction. As Jon Stewart put it, they are the, "lupus of news." A dangerous overreaction. If we respond in kind we will only increase the division. The reality is that I can't take more than a few minutes of Fox or Rush. But I could watch Maddow or read Daily Kos all day long. This is almost entirely a product of how palatable I find their ideas and that right there is where the trap is.
I'd like to go into actual issues and how I see this bias slip in on all sides but I think that would get too long for one diary. So I will finish for now with a simple appeal to keep your mind open. When someone raises a point you don't agree with, try to see the merit in their approach. When all else fails, look for someone who is at least honest about their bias. I used to say that I got all my news from comedians because at least with them you can tell when they are joking.