As a heads up, I am not posting this expecting any recs or comments, this is intended to be my first diary that appears under this DKos username so that anyone trying to get some perspective when reading any of my future diaries may go back under my username and read this for a broad philosophical overview.
After nearly a decade of reading without an account, I finally felt compelled to wade in, create an account, and write and post a diary here! But as I wrote that diary I wanted to give general background to me as a diary writer for anyone trying to come into my writing from a different perspective, so I wound up writing this diatribe that attempted to put into words my philosophical ideology on how I approach political thought and the journalistic spaces, which then felt appropriate to add more concrete information about myself to and then break out as a separate diary that would be my introduction to the site. Which is a long way of saying: here we are.
I’m a gay cisgender male from the SF Bay Area suburbs in my late 30s, and while my political knowledge started in my early teens with an odd affinity for Bill O’Reilly, that soon crashed into the rocks of the illogicality that was exposed to me via the right-wing legal concept that “rights stem from property” which I simultaneously saw as both underpinning most of conservatism but also the bulk of injustice and inequality, and I turned away from the political right. Since that revelation circa 2003 I’ve practically always landed somewhere between democratic socialism and the political center depending on the topic at hand, which averages out to be solidly progressive and I wind up being generally among the most outspoken left-wing people I know. While I had bits and pieces of political awareness about events in the 1990s, notably how little sense the Clinton impeachment made to me circa age 12, it was the Junior Bush administration’s actions from 9/11 onward through the Iraq War and leading into the first election I was old enough to vote in, 2004, that really began my consistent engagement with political news.
By education and licensure I’m a civil engineer with focus on soils, groundwater, and environmental pollution though I haven’t practiced in a few years owing to chronic pain from a few injuries (I have things to say about healthcare in the US for sure!) and disillusionment with the way the infrastructure and development industries worked in practice, at least on the private consulting side. I am enthusiastic about the earth sciences, have a reasonably advanced grasp of climate science and climatology, have a lifelong love for things that move (cars, boats, trains, planes) that is interested in the engineering of the individual vehicles while also informed by a public infrastructure perspective and an environmental view. I developed an affinity for history in my 20s, should’ve stuck around college for one more quarter to add a History minor to my bachelor’s degree but didn’t, though that did not stop me from absorbing a fair deal of nonfiction books mostly while commuting via bus for a year and a half while living and working in the Seattle area. This complex web of views definitely leaves me in some independent niches, though I try to justify what I do and think rationally and if I can’t explain my views I eventually seek to adopt a more widespread attitude in a way that balances myself and ‘the big tent’. I hope my username AnOceanOfNotions makes more sense after saying that, because there’s a lot of things sloshing around in my head!
Currently my main sources of news are Daily Kos and The Guardian, my local SJ Mercury News newspaper, MSNBC, LastWeek Tonight, and bits of (an inexhaustive list follows:) The Atlantic, Slate, Mother Jones, AP, Reuters, CNN, and several things that the Google News feed tosses at me like Business Insider, SFGATE, and more. I’m also informed by some humorous but rather smart and very left-leaning podcasts such as Well There’s Your Problem, Behind The Bastards, and KillJamesBond! as well as the more left-leaning side of automotive and motorsport coverage, though that overall errs centrist in the grand scheme. Just because I read, hear, or see something doesn’t mean I necessarily believe it, and while there are clearly differences in ideology, accuracy, and presentation quality between the outlets I take information from on average, I refuse to endorse any outlet completely; every statement and article can be judged on its own logical and truthful merits, and past performance does not dictate present or future trustworthiness.
This is not to say that I believe I am a perfect arbiter of truth, I am too skeptical of any authority not least of which myself to say that, but to note that I endeavor to scan for truth and update my understanding of truth when faced with new information that appears verifiable and accurate, and work to appreciate sources that do that in good faith even if they are also imperfect. With a continued process of updating my knowledge I do not seek or claim perfection but instead constant good faith improvement. I never expect this process to be over until I myself am over. I say this not to claim exceptional expertise but “more informed than the average American citizen” seems fair (and a low hurdle to clear…but I digress!) I realize this ramble divorced from other content is a bit strange but I hope as my first diary, doing something self-explanatory may inform readers of whatever diaries I end up posting here, the first of which I have already drafted, is about bothsiderism in media, and I intend to post it shortly. Thank you for your kind attention if you made it this far, apologies for any wasted time!
Updated 3/11/24 at 12:35 PDT to include link to my first proper diary