Yes, I stole that title from Stephen Colbert.  But, I couldn’t think of a better way to title this, so… it is what it is.

 

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my political positions on things, patriotism, the intermingling of church and state, conspiracy theories, 2nd amendment, and other tabu topics of the sort.  Ultimately, how awesome it is that I live in a country that allows me to do so.  The dang-o-US-of-A.  If any of you knew me in my teens, you’ll know that this is not a new thing for me.  I was quite the outspoken kid in high school and was never shy with questioning authority.  Needless to say, now that I’m 30, I’ve learned to pick my battles and keep a few more things to myself.  That being said, I am not a liberal, or a conservative.  I don’t claim to any particular party, etc.  I am, what you would call, an activist.  If you don’t know what that means, google ought be your friend.  Never-the-less, I have had a recent resurgence of some of the passion I had once when I was in high school, in regards to a specific topic: 

 

News, and where it comes from. 

 

A lot of this stems from the daily, and almost hourly visual defecation of social media.  Someone reads this, and posts that.  Which angers someone, who posts some other article in their opinions defense, and an E-war ensues.  Then when you do some research on said topic you realize both parties participating are completely wrong, and at the end of the day its just a bunch of click bait and advertising.  It is this very thing that has piqued my interest in being more aware (and believe me, I am quite educated, and very aware of current events as is) of whats going on.  When I say ‘more aware’, I mean, paying attention to how most people are getting their info on current events, and what is going on in the world.  This is something that interests me greatly, and I would hope that it interests others as greatly as it does me, too.  For some reason… I don’t think thats the case.

 

The internet is a wonderful tool, that has helped the world over, have access to almost any amount of information you could possibly imagine.  At the same time, it is also host to an incredible amount of misinformation, false advertising, and any other number of ill informed methods of grabbing ones attention.  But, how do we begin to discern what is right from wrong?  What are the peoples’ personal agendas, who are posting this information?  Will I ever be able to know what the truth about anything, really is?  If I go and find the right information, do I get put on some list because I went to a certain site?  This is, to me, a super important issue.  I feel and see that the general populous needn’t be bothered with the time it might take to question what they just read, and are now reposting to the world as their personal opinion.  The more shares something gets, the more “real” it becomes.  And then you have something very incorrect ingrained in the minds of would be caring people.  The danger, I suppose, is how easily we accept the headlines we read, that are plastered all over ad space on whatever time suck website we choose to visit on the can, on our phones, after our morning cup of coffee.  Still, how do we teach the people of our county to ignore the bullshit and get on with the facts?  I don’t know the answer to this question, and I’m not sure that anyone does.  I do feel, however, that it needs to be seriously addressed.

 

There are two very recent issues that I wanted to briefly mention, that I feel paint a really clear picture of what I’m talking about.  

 

• The Michael Brown Shooting.

• The Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao Fight

 

 How many times have you seen ridiculous articles floating around in regards to these two completely separate topics?  I’ve seen more than I can count.  

 

For the Michael Brown shooting.  I can find you, ad nauseam, articles supporting either side of the case.  Arguing that because the stars were aligned a certain way that it was self defense.  Because Darren Wilson hesitated 1.4 seconds, it was premeditated murder, etc… The only people, who know what really happened, are those two.  One of them is sadly no longer here to plead his side of the case (bear in mind, I am not, as writer of this article, choosing a side or interjecting my personal opinion in this.  I just think Death is sad regardless of the circumstances).  In this case people have forgotten that, and have allowed ridiculously distorted facts, on either side, to come into play; so some website can get more clicks, a news station to get higher ratings. 

 

The big fight.  Good god, is all I can say on this one.  It’s been a mere three days since this went down and it’s all over anyones feed at this point.  Again, ridiculous, seemingly overwhelming amounts of facts and opinions from either side of the story are being thrown around.  With a passion and fervor I wish people had for other issues.  At the end of the day two dudes got paid 180 million dollars each…  I’m gonna go ahead and say that again.  180 MILLION DOLLARS EACH, to stand toe to toe and throw punches.  Now all we can do is sit around and argue points about things we don’t necessarily know a damn thing about.  In all fairness to the two athletes, the only people who know what really happened in that ring are the two who were in there.  Again, people forget these things.

 

I wanted to raise these questions to anyone who reads this.  What are you reading, and why?  Where did it come from?  I believe in America, and I think that it can be a really amazing place.  I don’t always see eye to eye on a lot of things that take place here.  Thats neither here nor there.  But, I feel a lot of that depends on the choices we make based on what we know, or what we think we know.  I think its awesome that more people are sharing their opinions on topics.  I’m glad that people are angry about certain things, I think thats fair.  I’m glad people are stoked on other things, I think thats fair, too.  I’m stoked that the internet has given more people the opportunity to have access to  more knowledge.  But, with that access comes great responsibility.  At the end of the day, thats what I’m trying to get at.  Take some time and care in what you read.  Slow down, form your educated opinion and then share it with the world.  Share it with the world!  Don’t stop doing that, ever. 

 

 …just be prepared to get flamed.

 

Regards