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Think for Yourself [1]
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Date: 2022-10-28
Think for Yourself
In America we work with a system of two dominant parties among the many. It has been the way politics has been most of America’s history. We call it the two party system, while there are other parties and some 50% of voters now consider themselves independent of either of the major two parties. Nevertheless, it is this two party system and these two parties that constitute the vast majority of our legislative work, and write our laws.
The two parties have, and have had, different philosophies of government, of how Americans should be able to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Over time, a competition grew between the two for the control of our Senate, House of Representatives, office of the Presidency, our government. Now the depths and lengths this competition may reach is nothing new to American politics. The Andrew Jackson vs John Quincy Adams election of 1828 saw political pamphlets and posted bills with accusations as harsh as Jackson being a bigamist, his wife is a whore, his mother in law is a brothel keeper, he’s a murderer and a cannibal. Were some of these outlandish, even unbelievable? Or is it the case they were used simply to tarnish a candidate in the voter’s eyes, as in deliberate misinformation. Disinformation. So we see our political system has had a good head start to achieve the volume of disinformation we see in today’s political landscape.
Why Does Disinformation Work?
How is it that media sources that employ disinformation have flourished in our lifetimes? There are contradictory news media these days, and many have large audiences. How is it that disinformation takes hold with so many people? Looking back we have actually been encouraged to imagine wildly for most of our lives by all the seemingly harmless media we are exposed to. Starting with nursery rhymes, children’s stories, and then the movies, plays, TV. They all rely on the audience to accept a level of suspension of disbelief, for the story to work. This skill we acquire, selective suspension of disbelief, uses the same mechanism, and except for the scale is very similar to accepting, and adhering to some information source that is in fact disinformation. In the above suspension of disbelief childhood example, the media is thought of as either benign or just entertainment. Still, we have all been exposed to this willingness to ignore reality for the good of the story background. Now this skill can later expand in some adults into following a particular offering of modern disinformation and accepting it as is. Sometimes it’s not even distinguished between information or disinformation with those first becoming a follower, and then a new path can be taken. Moreover once that same path is taken by a large group of the people we can easily wind up with large public disagreements, with polarization. Which is what we see today on a huge scale. Furthermore we must realize that we are all predisposed enough by this suspension of disbelief practice to be susceptible to believing disinformation. Even if for a short time, in some cases we can all accept disinformation of some type.
Impact of Disinformation
One major way disinformation has a real impact on real life is in how it affects our choices when we exercise our sacred right to vote and be counted. So before we cast our ballots it makes sense to do our due diligence and look at our own voting choices, and at least try to sort out how much disinformation has maybe affected us. We also must be aware disinformation can come at us from many different sources. We may hear friends, coworkers, and family reinforce various disinformation paths that are circulating. Still, as a person making voting decisions it is our duty to make the best decisions we can.
Along Sun Tzu’s advice to know your enemy, it greatly informs our decision making to really look at the other side beyond their slogans. To do our level best to try to understand another point of view. Just how do the others think? Throughout this process of expanding our perspective we must think for ourselves and reach conclusions of our own. It is our duty to look at all that is out there and make our own personal choice.
When Voting
As I said, voting research requires of us the ability to have an open mind. And above all our own individual selections must guide us. Now of course the bigger the scale of the election all the more we are obligated to do our own due diligence and make our own decisions. Especially with our next major upcoming vote after the primaries, the midterms. Especially in today’s whirlwind of media content, it is the perfect time to step back, take in the candidates issues, and then make our own personal selections. Whatever selections those may be it is our duty to make sure that they are our own.
We must not abdicate, and allow our friends, coworkers, softball team, beer buddies, our favorite news broadcast, even family to be the deciding factor in how we vote. The vote must be our own. We don’t need to, and must not allow someone else to tell us how to vote. We don’t need to vote the way our parents, or even spouse votes. We need to think for ourselves, really think about how we vote, about how we exercise our sacred honor of casting our ballot. It is our right and our duty to stand up, be an individual, and make our own choices.
It is vital for us in today’s political challenges to sort through all that’s out there, and to educate ourselves about the sacred voting choices we make. Be certain that the choices are our own choices. Resist voting simply the same way as others you know intend to vote. Think for yourself! We must all stand up and choose to think for ourselves.
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