I rarely have spare time on my hands to just "aimlessly surf the Internet."
Today, I ended up with a spare 45 minutes I couldn't really do anything much useful with — because I had to leave for an appointment — so I caught up on some of those eternal "read later" updates from a variety of news sources.
Clearly, we are all going to die...
Or not.
Russia is winning. Russia is losing.
The Democrats are evil. The Republicans are evil.
Red meat will kill you. Red meat will save your life.
Crypto is dead. Crypto is the future.
When reflecting a bit on this, I come back to the point of how anyone can actually hope to be informed in a world where more information is being spread in service of "gaining clicks for a YouTube channel" than in service of sharing actual facts with people.
Now, I am using the word facts here, rather than opinions or even someone's "version" of the Truth. In many cases, "Truth" is a pretty subjective concept, because it tends to be informed by someone's perspective.
Maybe things simply seem more contentious than usual because of the Presidential election hoo-hah, here in the USA.
The mudslinging is fierce!
In keeping with my initial assessment, the Democrats/Republicans are going to win/lose by a whisker/landslide.
And whatever the person on the opposing party said at their last rally/press conference, it clearly meant "the end of their chances in the race."
Once again, what strikes me is not whether or not anyone is right, but the truly stunning level of cognitive bias and blindness dominating the picture, making it completely impossible for anyone to simply examine the fundamental facts of any moment.
Sometimes it feels like we are living in a Banana Republic, and even that is likely to be completely offensive to someone, somewhere... even if said in jest.
Regardless, I don't feel much wiser than I did when I started the process.
And maybe that's what "they" want the outcome to be. If we all just stay in a state of emotional reactiveness where we're not capable of looking at facts and making informed decisions... then the circus can go on.
Not sure who — or what — emerges as the winner, but I'm getting a little tired of all the fear porn.
And that's all I have to say about that!
Till the next one... Feel free to leave a comment — this IS "social" media, after all!