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Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

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Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#461

Post by ptero »

vsskanth wrote: post #8

I tried this experiment: read nytimes, wapo, fox, national review and politico. I wanted to get different perspectives. However, I encountered a bunch of issues: They dont talk about or even cover the same things, which makes it hard to compare liberal vs conservative perspectives. This is the most common form of bias I've come across. In the rare case they do cover the same thing, many articles either simply do not…

I tried this, too and realized similar things. I then decided that I do not really care (at least not that much) about understanding which way each source wants to spin things. I instead want information about the world to form my own opinions.

I started reading international news. That is, focus on publications outside country X when reading about X.

Reports from Sweden, Korea, Russia and UK (thanks google translate!) translated into English, awkward wording and all, plus a minimal dose of CNN and Fox works better for me than a mix of American media. Just my 2c.

I might even wrap it up as a convenient page or app.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#462

Post by totalZero »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #242
apocolyps6 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do your Muslim friends celebrate Christmas? Do your Jewish friends? Most non-religious americans are something like Christian Atheists. They don't believe in a god, but their worldview, ethics, and cultural norms are still originating in Christianity.

About half of my Jewish friends celebrate Christmas. And my one Muslim friend (that immigrated from a Muslim majority country) celebrates it too. He also has gotten into the habit of saying "god bless" because I guess they say that a lot in Georgia?

I mean, Muslims believe in God too.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#463

Post by standardUser »

_-david-_ wrote: post #351
standardUser wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps your political viewpoints are fairly mild compared to mainstream conservative discourse? It's difficult to have civil discourse with someone who says your identify (or the identify of those you love) should be outlawed or otherwise severely restricted by the state. That's been a core tenet of conservative politics and policy for several years now and I do not have the intellectual tools nor the emotional stre…

Excellent job not understanding what the opposite side believes and why.

I know what legislation they pass. "Believing" sounds nice and fun, but legislating directly impacts the actual lives of people.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#464

Post by gre »

dfsegoat wrote: post #138
vsskanth wrote: post #8

I tried this experiment: read nytimes, wapo, fox, national review and politico. I wanted to get different perspectives. However, I encountered a bunch of issues: They dont talk about or even cover the same things, which makes it hard to compare liberal vs conservative perspectives. This is the most common form of bias I've come across. In the rare case they do cover the same thing, many articles either simply do not…

I cannot recommend the show and podcast 'Breaking Points', by Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball enough. They are top notch journalists who formerly hosted a daily news show called 'Rising' on The Hill, but left recently in order to be more independent and free of advertiser influence (censorship). While they are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. They cut through much of the partisan, mainstream BS - and get t…

Try the podcast Moderate Rebels as well. It's hosted by Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal from https://thegrayzone.com/

https://soundcloud.com/moderaterebels

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#465

Post by dragonwriter »

rayiner wrote: post #432
pmoriarty wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CNN and MSNBC are not the opposite of Fox News. The opposite would be something like The Nation or Democracy Now! .

Fox News has moderated a lot over the past few years, while CNN and MSNBC have moved quite a bit to the left. You see it more on cultural issues than say economic or foreign policy issues. Joy Reid, for example, just says the most outrageous falsehoods and goes completely unrebutted: https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1403950560907300865?s=20

> Fox News has moderated a lot over the past few years

They moved slightly back from Trumpism back toward their earlier pre-Trump far-rightism late in the Trump period (not abandoning the former, just not going in whole hog on it), which might be seen as moderation from a tribal/partisan viewpoint (as pre-Trump far-rightism currently lacking a major party home, to the extent many anti-Trump-but-far-right voices advocated voting for Democrats over Republicans despite ideological issues with Democrats in 2020 as essential to the defeat of Trumpism), but is not moderation ideologically.

While the D-R partisan split is not independent of left-right ideology, its not the same thing.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#466

Post by ddingus »

dfsegoat wrote: post #138
vsskanth wrote: post #8

I tried this experiment: read nytimes, wapo, fox, national review and politico. I wanted to get different perspectives. However, I encountered a bunch of issues: They dont talk about or even cover the same things, which makes it hard to compare liberal vs conservative perspectives. This is the most common form of bias I've come across. In the rare case they do cover the same thing, many articles either simply do not…

I cannot recommend the show and podcast 'Breaking Points', by Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball enough. They are top notch journalists who formerly hosted a daily news show called 'Rising' on The Hill, but left recently in order to be more independent and free of advertiser influence (censorship). While they are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. They cut through much of the partisan, mainstream BS - and get t…

Seconded. I have avoided cable news for a long time now.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#467

Post by dahfizz »

XorNot wrote: post #44
burnished wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for me, personally, absolutely not. I want thoughtful portrayal of character in media that I consume, but am in no way desiring yet more religious representation.

This seems like an odd take to me. What is the point of film and fiction if not to see and experience things you otherwise cannot or would not? The question I have is what is being preserved by not having a diversity of backgrounds, ethnicities and belief systems in films?

Having "diverse" characters does not automatically make a movie more interesting. In fact, if you are relying on demographics (religion, race, sexuality) alone to make a character interesting, there is a very good chance the characters are flat, boring, and lazily written.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#468

Post by Moodles »

pmoriarty wrote: post #457
Moodles wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read that article? I mean, even that article has the multiple bitchy comments thrown in. I would quote, but honestly it would be every other paragraph. But yes, the headline is generally positive I guess. Now, could we find a similar article for Biden in Fox over the next 4 years? I would guess probably. Anyways it's kind of pointless to argue what the "opposite" of Fox is as it's really ill-defined. i think…

"Now, could we find a similar article for Biden in Fox over the next 4 years? I would guess probably." Biden's not the opposite of Trump either. Biden pleases some conservatives, which is why he got the nomination over Sanders, so that he'd stand a chance of winning over "undecided" (ie. right wing, but not extreme right wing) voters in battleground states. Many neocons are also fans of Biden, so I wouldn't be at all…

> Biden's not the opposite of Trump either.

Right, which is why this is kind of a pointless thing. What the hell does it mean for one media organization to be the opposite of another anyway?

I agree I did kind of start it with my earlier comment though.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#469

Post by alisonatwork »

nickthegreek wrote: post #18
vsskanth wrote: post #8

I tried this experiment: read nytimes, wapo, fox, national review and politico. I wanted to get different perspectives. However, I encountered a bunch of issues: They dont talk about or even cover the same things, which makes it hard to compare liberal vs conservative perspectives. This is the most common form of bias I've come across. In the rare case they do cover the same thing, many articles either simply do not…

Ive recently started reading the Tangle newsletter. It’s a daily drop that focuses on 1 topic and provides the left, right and their take on an issue. https://www.readtangle.com/

I unsubscribed from that newsletter a few months ago when I realized it was just perpetuating the problem by reporting on "both sides", even in cases where there wasn't much worth talking about on either "side". It's interesting if you would like to understand what propaganda the elites in each political party would like their base to digest, but it's not very interesting if you just want to see what actually happened on a particular day.

Someone on Hacker News a while back recommended the Wikipedia current events portal[0] and I have to say this feels like a more efficient way to consume the news. It feels less tied to trending topics and manufactured drama, and is more centered on what actually happened in the world that was especially notable on a particular day.

I feel like a lot of "news" that's reported in the American political media is just ideological argument, which after you've read the same argument for the nth time doesn't come across as very interesting any more.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

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