More or Less Informed?

I pretty much question everything I see or read. I like to form my own opinion on things and will change it if I realize I am wrong or biased for no good reason.

I follow several different news source, BBC, Al Jazeera and local/national news. All that together paints a decent picture of the world if you can identify the source's biases and focus on the facts.

Another good way to find diverging opinions is Reddit. I read the comments and always learn something new, or SMFH, and it overall helps me create my own opinion on a subject.

One thing I started doing is also not caring about certain things. I find that by not having a particular opinion on everything prevents me from always picking a side, which IMO is how tribalism starts.

But to answer your question. I strongly believe we are MORE informed, just on the wrong things.

I do believe there is hope, political tribalism was at an all time high here in Canada a couple years ago, but the last year has been very hard on the ruling party and they/our Prime Minister has completely lost face and the support of die hard Liberals. I think this is a good thing, not because I despise the man, but because at least one side of the political spectrum is willing to conpromise and change theit voting habits to rid ourselves of this shitshow of a government that has absolutely ruined what was once a great country.
A long walk in the wilderness is good for every party or ideology.
 
I've come to prefer a good ride on a horse. But, yes, the outdoors is good for the soul.
Necessary for me and many of the folks I work and hunt/fish with.

I have some hope that our two choices are starting to get more people to talk and come together to at least listen to each other. There for some years I saw families breaking apart over their choice of politics and the news sources they took in led to a lot of that. People stopped even talking about it--but that wasn't healthy IMO as they didn't stop taking in their preferred news sources or look at them from a more critical standpoint.

I do think the availability of information today shines lights into lives and areas we were blissfully ignorant of a few generations back--and that our politicians then had foibles and character flaws back then as well. We just didn't know it.

Maybe with one exception, but won't go there...

I remember a college civics/american government class where the professor wrote the textbook--wish I would have saved it, I think it was titled "the irony of democracy"-- and predicted the potential for the situation we have today. Opened my eyes a bit at the time--but can't say I would have guessed he nailed it as well as he did.
 
I have not lost any friends over politics. Where there is a divergence of viewpoint, we know where the fault lines are, and don't push it too hard. When my father in law was alive, he and I had many great conversations involving politics. He was a rock ribbed Republican thru and thru. The conversations weren't a conversion attempt, more on the lines of asking and explaining why you held a position. About the only time we became a little too close to losing it was concerning abortion, but we didn't.

Some time ago, a friend from the gym updated all of his Trump stickers on his Subaru. I decided to rib him a bit. So, I told him, while we were working out that some one had vandalized his car. He was quite concerned, and asked what happened. I told him that some one had slapped Trump stickers all over his car. He did not laugh, and got a little hot. So, I know not to press his buttons like that. So, we bust each other's balls about the things.
 
game-club.gif
 
We were just talking about this at work this morning. Lot if garbage to try and sift through .
In many ways 'yes', in many ways 'no'. If a person lets their phone/apps do a little of the sifting, they end up with more garbage (the garbage they want, of course). If the person wants to do a little homework and learn about something themselves, the data is typically there. See any thread on CWD, Social Security, NR permits, hunter pressure, etc. This leads to my general view that people are lazy. they might care enough to espouse an opinion on the internet, but don't care enough to do a Goole search. Too often any discussion ends up in a debate of things that are considered facts. Arguing data is done all the time on HT, but it is better to argue on the impact of potential changes. Debating opinions (ie. impact of any change) is very good. Debating facts is what drives me crazy.
 
Every gap has allowed tribalism to seep in. Some individuals who fail to complete their homework are deceived. Although facts are less meaningful, society as a whole is undoubtedly better informed.
 

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