Like a lot of people out there, I have my own political biases. These are impossible to avoid because we all have feelings one way or another towards any particular topic. I live in a part of the United States that is overwhelmingly conservative but in a state that is normally considered "swing" because not everyone in the entire place thinks exactly the same. I'm fine with this and think that the fact that we manage to not have riots all over the place is at least partially because of this... well, that and the fact that we have relatively simplistic gun laws and also Castle Doctrine that allows us to protect our lives and property with lethal force legally.
I think a huge part of the problem that exists in the minds of people as far as their political affiliation is concerned is that they seek out ONLY information from sources that they are already aware are going to support what they already think. People who are conservative tend to watch FOX and people who are liberal would watch CNN or MSNBC. There are a litany of other examples but let's just stick with the big dogs for now. The people who choose to box themselves in and not even do so much as simply listen to another point of view are creating an echo chamber in which simply blinds them to having any original thoughts. It makes them automatons or NPC's.
Russell Brand was recently on Real Time with Bill Maher and was one of three guests: Bernie Sanders, who I have some respect for, Russell Brand who I now have a lot of respect for but honestly didn't know much about before the show, and John Heilemann, who is someone I had never heard of before this interview and I don't think he did himself any favors by trying to engage with the clearly better-informed and less blinded by their party affiliation Russell Brand.
Apparently John Heilemann decided to do the ol' trick that happens in the media so frequently and accuse Fox News of being illegitimate and disingenuous. Heilemann is an MSNBC correspondent, so I think he is probably bound by his contract to say exactly things like that.
Brand's response to him was something that quickly went viral because it is so damn true.
"John, I've not known you long, but I love you already, but I have to say it's disingenuous to claim that the biases exhibited on Fox News are any different than the biases exhibited on MSNBC, "It's difficult to suggest that these corporations operate as anything other than mouthpieces for their affiliate owners. Just spiritually, if I may use that word in your great country, we have to take responsibility for our own perspectives. I've been on that MSNBC, mate, it was propagandist nutcrackery."
John did his best to try to defend his employer but Russell just continued to shred him by showing multiple examples of times that MSNBC intentionally defrauded their viewers. John had very little to say back to any of it and embarrassed himself even more by saying this
"You don't actually know anything about any of these organizations you're talking about," he added. "You've been on MSNBC once, big f***ing deal!"
As if being on a show controlled by corporate masters would give anyone any greater perspective about how they are run - unless of course it was how they are run in a corrupt fashion. For me, I think it is extremely obvious that most of what is said on any network - even the one that you like, is likely a bunch of hogwash with crucial information intentionally omitted and comes complete with cherry-picked video and images.
Real Time with Bill Maher has kind of emerged as a sort of centrist voice of sensibility and I can't believe that I am actually saying that. I don't know much about Bill but I do know that he frequently invites guests on his show that are political opposites of him and treats them with the same respect that he would some bootlicker that is going to agree with literally anything he says.
Russell Brand gained a lot of respect from me after seeing this viral clip and John whateverhisnameis should probably be a bit concerned about his future as a "journalist" seeing as how he had no coherent response to what Brand was saying.
We as a people need to stop listening to anything the media has to say and this is a very unfortunate thing. We can only get so much by looking around in the world around us but it is the reality of the present. I don't know where to tell people to look for real information but I would suggest that Reddit or even someone who blogs here would be a better place to start than anything that major media outlets have to say.