There are ugly truths in this world. People are murdered on a daily basis, children are living in areas besieged by war and violence, and people in our own country are homeless. I stand among the people who do not wish to see that every day of my life. I want to see happy, Star Wars related news constantly, but I know that living with my head in the sand is not wise.
If you had asked me several years ago whether or not I would be invested in politics, I would have shrugged. I did not care one way or another after I left high school. However, the world of communications will forever be intertwined with politics due to the nature of the First and Fourteenth Amendment. At some point, you begin to realize that no matter how much you want to avoid it, you cannot.
When people tell me they do not care about politics, what I hear is that you do not care about your life or others. Decisions are made every day that affect millions, decisions influenced by your inaction or refusal to care. If you love hiking, but do not for politics, what will your reaction be to the destruction of the federally protected land that you love hiking on? If you love writing a blog about anything, how will you feel when a law is made that bans you from doing so?
You can stand there and say “but the Constitution!” At the end of the day it is a piece of paper and we are at the whims of those in power because we blindly assume that they will still follow the same laws we do. They will not because they can be held to a different standard. When someone wants to dismantle all the pieces that hold us together, eventually there will be nothing left standing.
When you have enough people believing something, you can do just about anything with them. Holding power over opinions is a powerful tool and weapon. Holding the power over opinions has become commoditized.
We must also stay away from the bubble that we create around ourselves when we block out different sources. We allow one bias, one opinion, one source to inform us of what we should be thinking about. That is not conducive to our society and a way of moving forward.
You may not like what a station is reporting, but that unfortunately does not make everything they say untrue. Bias will always exist due to many external and internal factors. External is the whims of the American public in watching news. Stations report what the people want to see and know about. If you want to see more hard hitting news, then watch it or demand it. The news and the media should serve us in that respect. Internal, unfortunately, is the pull that companies or the people who own the means of communication exert.
When you want to lay the blame on the men and woman who report to us, reconsider. Everyone has an agenda, but not everyone is trying to push theirs, despite what other people want you to think.
Imagine for one moment that news was filtered through one source. What type of regime or society does that remind you of? Is it one that you want?
There are several factors, but it also comes down to us as citizens to inform ourselves through various means. As much as we should try and vary where we get news, sometimes it is difficult. Most of us are busy Americans with little time to do some digging. I am guilty of relying on Politico for my news, since they are constantly and consistently posting updates on various situations.
Personally, I believe that political parties should not exist in the way that they do. These labels of “conservative”, “GOP”, and “liberal” do nothing to push us forward because they pull us back. It reduces the (supposedly) complex belief system we should have. I do not believe in needless spending, but I also believe that social reforms are vitally important to our way of life. I believe in a free press and the freedom of expression.
What I am trying to say is that you do need to care. Decisions about your life are being made by people who are not you without your consent if you do not care. Caring about it does do anything to harm you or the people around you. You have a belief system for a reason. Put it to good use.
