cSc61 Loc: Austin

It is very natural for us to gravitate toward whichever news outlet seems to share our world view.

Liberals have no problem watching MSNBC, reading Huffington Post or Salon, and listening to NPR. For them, these are trusted, reputable news outlets. Conservatives know them to be heavily left leaning - and would take what each says with a grain a salt. Conservatives seem to get their news from Fox, Drudge, The Conservative Post, Limbaugh, etc. Liberals, for the most part, wouldn't spend 5 minutes listening or reading this stuff.

The trick is to resist getting all your news from a single source or single political bent. If you spend all your time listening to just a handful of pundants who share your worldview, you will probably have a very shallow sense of what is true and lose all objectivity in the process.

Are you willing to accept every allegation against Trump as true with little to no proof, but then quickly dismiss the FISA Memo as i***tic and baseless? Do you believe Trump is literally the second coming and the FISA memo is grounds for immediate execution of the perpetrators? If either statement is true then chances are you've lost all objectivity. And even if you're in denial or unwilling to admit it your posts give you away.

Better to argue the facts than the opinions ... because as opinions go, everyone is entitled to be wrong. Meaningful discourse breaks down when facts are ignored but allegations and innuendo are treated as gospel.

Liberty Tree

I have said several times that the two most dangerous groups in America are those who blindly condemn Trump no matter what he says or does and those who blindly praise him no matter what he says or does.

jack sequim wa Loc: Blanchard, Idaho

I think it is important to note that the liberal news sources when fact checked have proven to be "fabricated" endlessly and opinion of reporting sold instead as fact.
Granted many worthy news sources can be guilty of jumping the gun and reporting before sources have been fact checked or have relied on a single source instead of at least two, the standard in reporting. In light of reporting errors, none come fractionally close to the liberal owned media.
Another divide in communication breakdown on OPP, after a few years on this forum, I have posted Empirical Evidence, Facts, documentation dozens of times and not once, zero, zilch, never has a liberal acknowledged and yet multiple times I have witnessed conservatives conceding when a liberal has posted facts. In most every case after dozens of threads I have found and posted empirical evidence, facts or documentation at which point the liberal vanished from the post, only to be found later on another post bashing conservatives with the very same lies that have been proven false with empirical evidence, facts or documentation.
I find with extreme exceptions liberals to not only be liars, but deceptive, dishonest 10-1 over conservatives.

Anyone else experience the same?

It's not only the f**e news, it's the f**e party as a whole, as a group.

rumitoid

Such sanity I have found here is not welcomed. Not taking sides, a wise and intelligent choice, is mostly seen as a betrayal of both parties or a useless wishy-washiness in a time that demands complete loyalty.

PLT Sarge Loc: Alabama

I agree 100% with your assessment. I have not watched TV in over a year and feel better for it. I realized that my news was coming from other peoples opinion. Now I get my information on line, more options. Sure it's still other peoples opinions, but now I have more sources. Most of the time I read the Left view first. Then I read the view from a Christian standpoint. Next I read from the Right. Digest the views on each subject and form my own opinion. I agree with Liberty's reply to your post. I think the biggest problem we have here on OPP is that we let the Trolls bait and d**g us into one of their senseless rants. So, I ignore most of them. When a Troll posts something that is against my God, Country and Family instead of going into an endless debate, I make fun of them. Just finished a post back to Kev. Very seldom do I get a reply from any of them. It really is fun.

cSc61 Loc: Austin

I agree. And there's nothing new under the sun. There are just as many Trump h**ers in America as there are/were Obama h**ers (or would-be Clinton H**ers had she won). They just happen to be different halves of the same America. We are definitely a divided country. I fear civil war (or at least civil unrest) may be in our future. Thankfully I'm on the side that believes in the right to bear arms.

rumitoid

However, I find your objectivity, perhaps, severely c*********d: "I find with extreme exceptions liberals to not only be liars, but deceptive, dishonest 10-1 over conservatives." Too freaking funny...or maybe true.

A call for objectivity with something of the above disclaimer. Do you see how absurd that is?

rumitoid

Blind is never good.

cSc61 Loc: Austin

I can't argue this point. I certainly don't know what the ratio is, but I do believe liberalism is based more on emotion than fact. If it feels right, then it's right - facts be damned.

One quick example of this might be the argument for or against a living wage ... or universal income ... or wh**ever it is they're calling it these days. All facts and previous attempts prove that minimum wage laws do not work but do in fact more harm than good. But facts don't really matter to the liberal/socialist. Raising the minimum wage to $15 just feels right. And anyone who FEEL differently MUST be a white, rich, greedy, capitalist. That's what they're told so that's what they believe. Because it's true? No. Because it feels right. Showering liberals with a mountain of empirical data isn't going to change their opinion because that opinion was not based on fact - it is based on what they perceive to right or good or just. Their thought process is two-dimensional really. Guns k**l children therefore we must eliminate guns. It just feels right.

I'm not slamming liberals really, it's just how I see them. I think conservatives, as a rule, could be a bit more empathetic. I know I could be. I think we'd be able to bridge this divide much better if both sides were a bit more balanced ... if conservatives were a bit more compassionate and liberals a bit more pragmatic.

cSc61 Loc: Austin

Amen brother! I stopped watching TV as well -- totally cutting the cable. It became increasingly obvious to me that I was being manipulated by mainstream media ... and I include FOX in with that group. Not just giving me the news but telling me how I should think and feel about it.

Now I make a conscience effort to find news sources that only present the facts "as they seem them." Then I bounce those 'facts' against multiple sources to determine if the source of those facts is legit. This helps me formulate my own opinion without outside influence. I'll still watch the talking heads from time to time (via the internet), but I am much less likely now to be influenced by someone else's agenda. It really helps me maintain my objectivity.

rumitoid

Minimum wage increases were natural and moved this economy forward for almost four decades. What happened? One thing is that a Republic Congress allowed overtime to lapse, and has kept it in limbo. This opened a door. Since then sick and vacation days, retirement and health benefits, merit raises, and full-time employment has steadily decreased. It was a nod to Big Business. And now such things taken as the American Way of life maybe 10 years ago are now considered abuses promulgated by the Left. Unions, that saved and advanced the middle class from the late 19th Century into a major inducement for our National Growth, slowly became the enemy. How convincing is the Right?

To speak about the history of labor is to be automatically labeled a c****e and history revisionist. Why? It paints a very ugly picture--and accurate--picture of Corporate America, specifically "the Robber Barons," hailed by the Right as "the aristocrats of civilization." "Social Darwinist." Top of the food chain and the innovators. Workers were merely cogs in the well-oiled machine of the "betters."

Manning345 Loc: Richmond, Virginia

There are those who want to stand above the teeming masses and tout their "objectivity", while at the same time not really committing to a side. Then there are those who have diagnosed the nations problems well enough to understand what must be done and which side to take. As a Conservative, I want the ideals and directions of CONSERVATISM writ large to become the dominant ideals of our nation, and that by definition includes Christianity, too. Thus any story, any action, any post that is counter to those ideals is, for me, suspect.** In my view we are in a fight to preserve this nation, and to return it to sanity, right reason, the philosophy of Freedom, constitutional adherence, the rule of law, and Agape,*** and I clearly see the Left now as diametrically opposed to this agenda. In Sowell's well formed phrase, I am very tired of putting up with the "Verbal Verbosity of Intellectual Elites"* and snobs. My ranting has only begun!
* "Intellectual Elites and Society" by Thomas Sowell
** Suspect until properly vetted, I should say.
*** Agape: Love of God, and Love of Neighbor

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

Absurd is when you answer your own comments,are you even aware that you are talking to yourself ?

PLT Sarge Loc: Alabama

What party was the U.S. President that signed into law Minimum Wage ? What party was the U.S. President that freed the s***es ? What party fought segregation in the 60's ? What party had the KKK as their enforcers. What party now has B*M as their enforcers ? What party were the s***e owners ? Do I really need to continue ?

Raylan Wolfe Loc: earth

Study has proven those who watch Fox news are less informed than those who watch no news at all!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/fox-news-less-informed-new-study_n_1538914.html