We live in a world where “news” is manipulated, no longer delivered to the public by professional journalists trained to report news as a career craft.
Instead, the “news” we get comes from “social media” platforms controlled by corporations and politicians who drive “content” based their needs, not on ours.
According to YouGov, 60 percent of Americans get “news” from Social Media, 39 percent from websites, and 14 percent from professional news sources.
Most “news” on social media is not really news, but is paid spin to achieve a political purpose.
PEW Research Center data shows the percentage of Americans who rely on social media for “facts”: Facebook 38 percent; YouTube 35; Instagram 20; TikTok 20; X (Twitter) 12; Reddit 9; Nextdoor 6; and President Trump’s “Truth Social” 2.
These non-news sources promote issues to target audiences using sophisticated computer techniques, to tap your emotional buy-in, that drive their profits.
The facts you get from social media are unreliable. But because it is emotion-driven, you embrace it and fight for it.
That’s the true definition of the term we often hear battling politicians fight with, “fake news.”
Real news gets little attention and in today’s world little attention means even less credibility. Because the measure of what is true and not true, or fake news, is defined not by facts but rather by popularity or political partisanship.
That’s what fuels the wide polarization that has divided this country. The far Right and the far Left are really far apart, but so are the average Right and the average Left. The Middle Ground is nearly empty. Vacant. A depressing void which symbolizes the lack of common sense and reason, replaced by extremist and fanatic views.
Social media is fueling this polarization and keeping it in place as minions who parrot and repeat falsehoods, inaccurate facts and partisan political misinformation.
So, what happens? It causes the political discussion to be skewed in favor of the needs of officials and candidates. Instead of addressing the real concerns of the voters, the debate that ensues focuses on the managed issues that fuel peoples emotions that deflect from the unanswerable real problems we face as a society.
Emotion distracts the voters from their concerns that politicians and government officials don’t want to address. Emotion is easy to lead because there is no answer to it.
For example, here are some of the issues we have been handed by many of our candidates:
· We’re fighting Donald Trump.
· People who criticize Donald Trump suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
· The economy is good and if could just reduce the factors pushing up the costs of diesel fuel, we would be doing great.
· Cracking down on illegal immigration is a crime and ICE should be disbanded.
· Crime is a racial issue, not a threat to law-abiding citizens.
· We need to care about the causes that produce crime.
· The gender of children in elementary school should be decided by government and policies, not by their parents.
The substantive issues that impact families are pushed aside. We don’t hear them nor do we hear the solutions for them.
They include:
· Rising property taxes – politicians and candidates don’t want you to focus on that.
· Rising government costs in conjunction with reducing government services.
· Insurance premiums skyrocket, but no one is confronting the powerful lobbies that fuel the campaign coffers.
· Crime is rampant, but numbers are manipulated.
· Most of our schools are doing a poor job teaching our children, so we simply lower the bar. An F becomes a D, and a D becomes a C, etc.
· Reduce taxes, fees and force government to live within its means. Families are forced to live within their means, cutting back because of rising costs and worsening economy.
Politicians force feed the public the managed falsehoods but avoid solving our problems. They don’t want you to wake up from reality distortion.
They assert they want you to vote, but in reality, their power is based on low voter turnout. If all the people voted, they’d be out of office. Low voter turnout empowers them. Their supporters make up the majority of those who vote. They don’t want you to vote. Worse, they blame you, arguing low voter turnout out is the cause of our problems.
Listen to the candidates. Who is throwing mud and not speaking to the issues? Who complains about problems, but offer no solutions? Who are fighting to reduce taxes and fees and demanding that governments provide more for less costs?
Wake up. Work harder. Vote. Make them hear you say No to higher taxes, and YES to more government services.
Get more on this at CourageousThought.com