Just goes to show how polarized the media has become. I feel like there are two entirely different media ecosystems going on, and each is talking right past the other. Each hating the strawman of the other's side, and cherry-picking the best of their own side. Tribalism in a nutshell.
But I worry about the breakdown in honest communication when it seems like we have to parallel timelines going on in the news. It's getting harder and harder to distill what the central objective truth is because of the bias on both sides of the media reporting (and the memes associated with each side, as well).
Does anyone else see this happening? It's getting emotionally exhausting because people are getting more and more emotional and refusing to see the truths that the other side realizes are real. Each seeing half the truth, but thinking they're fully correct. Furthermore, the media is keeping people divided and conquered so they refuse to entertain the ideas of the other half, thus blinding everyone to at least half of the truths out there, because they refuse to entertain them because they associate those ideas with the opposite side.
It's very worrying though to see the "heads" of both parties trying to openly jail the other. But it's also understandable when nearly all of them have committed crimes... it's a spy vs spy blackmail situation, like a mexican stand-off. Each trying to have a strong offence as their main defense.
I don't like the two parallel media worlds, because it makes people hate each other. It creates a situation where if you can find any attribute of that person that casts them as a proponent of the side you don't like, then you may stop being friends with them or worse. The media is trying to goad people in to this way of thinking. "Oh she's pro-gay, she must be a Hillary/DNC supporter" or "Oh he likes guns, he must be a Trump/RNC supporter" and it makes us oversimplify each other, just like our news is oversimplified. And then we turn to hate out of frustration (and because the media are pushing our emotional buttons) as we "simply can't understand" why person on the other side would be on that side... we begin assuming they must be dumb, or even worse sub-human or evil. This attitude, multiplied across millions of people (via a media network) is exactly what causes a civil war.
So if we truly wish to avoid war, we must constantly work to overcome this top-down messaging system that takes advantage of our natural emotional responses to things, in order to shape our behaviors to further empower those who already have power.
I feel like people are sleepwalking right in to doom. But I also think the media wants me to think that, so I'm not sure how true it actually is. Can anyone relate?
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