What a challenge we face in the 21st Century. We have a country that is incredibly divided, and becoming more so. Sorting out truth from fiction, lies and hypocrisy from truth and honesty, or good reporting from propaganda is becoming harder than ever.
We're all faced with that challenge.
My purpose here is to offer my views the world as I see it. Most people will label me a .... No, I'm not going to fill in the blank. If I come across as mindlessly advocating one position or another, I haven't done a very good job of supporting my position or stating my facts. If people mindlessly label me as something, perhaps they haven't done a good job of considering what I've said. Or maybe they just reject anything they don't agree with and dismiss it with a label.
"Once you label me, you negate me."
That's one of our challenges: to consider positions without dismissing them with a mere label. That tendency to just throw out a label is part of why we have become so divided. Lord knows there's plenty of things to attack. But we have to attack logically, rationally, and not just by categorizing someone, thereby negating everything he has to say.
I was considering the words "constructively criticize" in place of "attack" in the prior paragraph. But when I see a politician being a complete hypocrite or idiot, I'll call him out on it. I'm not here to pull punches. That's gets us to one of the challenges we face in viewing the news or reading a newspaper: their reluctance to call out errors or lies when they hear them. It's not "media bias" to report that what so-and-so said just ain't true. And it won't do to say "he misspoke," or that he "later clarified his comments. If he lied, they should say, "he lied" or "he doesn't know what he's talking about." That would be responsible journalism, in my opinion.
So I'm going to try to be responsible. I'm going to get on my high horse from time to time and rant and rave. But I'll do my best to be honest and fact-based about it. I'm not here to spread more lies. Or to waste your time.
