Steps To Stopping Fake News In Its Tracks

We have all heard all the claims being made about “Fake News” these days — thank you Donald Trump — It seems like everything that ever irritated Donald Trump somehow earned the title, “Fake News” and his millions of adoring worshippers are still using his definitions to qualify whatever they choose to receive and to believe.

Of course, I have to say, right now, “There is life after Donald Trump.” (More than 70 million of our Trump-washed fellow Americans may not believe that, but all available evidence proves that there is life after Trump. (I am surprised that The Donald has not come out with “The Donald J. Trump Study Bible” so that his minions can have a new tool with which to conduct their worship services in His name. (Of course I cannot say factually that people do actually worship the former guy, but it sometimes feels to me like they do because I interpret their actions and their responses to be evidence of such a travesty. Now you have had a sample of how terribly biased I can be sometimes for which I never offer apologies.

But I am talking about “Bias” here so let me say, “The first thing you need to do when you are hearing something or reading something is to determine if whatever you are hearing or reading slants toward a particular viewpoint. Bias is something that comes forth from somebody’s views and opinions on things.

I think we can agree that there are media outlets (blogs, tv stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, etc., etc.,) that can be identified as either Conservative or Liberal in their biases. Both of these kinds of bias specialize in feeding their consumers information that agrees with what the consumer already believes to be truth. That is one of the reasons that a lot of people have difficulty entertaining ideas other than their own. These kinds of people tend to regard every idea that does not agree with their particular bias as either a lie or as fake news and is, therefore, not worth considering at all. These are the kinds of people who have a condition that I like to call, “Locked-In Thiinking.” They believe a certain thing and will never believe anything else unless they suffer some great mental trauma that shakes them back into consciousness.

Here is an article that describes the various kinds of bias and how they take hold in the human mind and affect everyone’s individual daily life experiences:

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-identify-bias

The danger with media bias is that such media may not be giving you the whole story. I would venture to say that Media of all kinds give their consumers only those parts of any story that the Media moguls feel will cement the loyalties (and the support) of their consumers.

What The People Are Saying

Here is one quote from an article that talks about why people mistrust the Main Street Media bias these days:

I know I think that because they show favoritism toward their preferred political party, whether it be democrat or republican.

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-60-of-Americans-think-that-MSM-is-not-credible?share=1

I think it all boils down to people getting used to the idea that the things they are hearing on their favorite news source might be telling them something that is either a little more or a little less than the absolute truth and getting those people to start investigating and questioning on their own —- One way to do this is to listen to both sides of an argument and then comparing how your own life is affected by what you have been believing.

This kind of effort will require people to leave their comfort zones for a while but if the truth can be distilled from the effort, then the effort will be more than worth while.

I have learned something over the years that a lot of people will never agree with. I am a Center-Of-The-Road Liberal when it comes to politics. But I have discovered that there are some Conservative ideas that are worth listening to and so I do not lock them out or ignore them when I feel they have something worthwhile to say. Even the craziest of them seem to me to make sense on limited occasions — very limited to be sure — but sometimes they do sound sensible.