Uptight short sided narrow minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth..."
John Lennon-"Gimme Some Truth"
As a child, I was one of the few 7 or 8 year olds I knew that watched the evening news with interest. It was a fascinating time, even to a child my age, and I wanted to learn as much as I could about it. The Soviet Bear vs. The USA, the struggle of the Filipinos against Marcos, hostage crises in the Middle East, the Achille Lauro, the assasination of Indira Ghandi, the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics, the rise of video games, an era in popular music that was like no other, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, Pope John Paul II, the fall of communism and the rise of freedom throughout not only Eastern Europe, but the rest of the world as well (sincere apologies for all the events I left out, I'd have a book)...I dare anyone to say that there was a more interesting and thought provoking time in history than the 1980's and early 90's. I wanted to learn it all. That hunger for knowledge also pushed me to the limit in history and geography classes in school as I aced countless tests and finished second in our school Geography Bee in middle school. World capitals? World leaders? Come on, give me a challenge, teacher! Current events? Easy. The religions of the former Yugoslavia? I thought you said this was a hard test! God, I wish I remembered a lot of that like I used to...getting old.
As I grew older, I still had a hunger for knowledge, but it just was not as strong as it was in school. Maybe because there was no more pressure to get good grades, the motivation left me. Or, maybe it was growing my hair and ditching my dork past, becoming more interested in the history of rock than the history of the world. Who knows...
I think I am more interested in the truth more than I am interested history anymore. I don't mean talking about lizard people and black helicopters, but just getting the straight story about everything from our news media, with no bias...on either side. Since none of the news outlets decide to give us the proper story, I decided to shut them all out and ignore them all. Since then, I have become more of a centrist, with both conservative and liberal views on events formed by my core values, my experiences as a father, a husband, a musician, and a man, and my religious values. In other words, divorcing myself from the chatterbox of cable news has helped me make up my own mind on more things, but not to the point where I don't rely on talking to others to see how I should feel on certain things.
Another downside is that I am probably the most out of touch with world events I have been since I was a preschooler. Sure, I know what's going on through social media, but there is more bad sources on social media than there are potholes on a Pennsylvania highway. So many sites with crap news on both sides of the aisle: HuffPost, HotAir, NewNowNext, Young Turks, NewsMax, The Blaze, Addicting Info, InfoWars, I could go on forever...Every person with an opinion and a video camera claims to be a news source and to have the truth on the issues of the day. Sure, I'm going to get my opinions from some dude sitting in his car filming himself with his iPhone, or some "news analyst" who says "fuck" while he is doing a report or a commentary, or calls someone rude names, or openly insults people who have *gasp*, a different opinion! Show some decorum.
Then, we have the satirists who are filling up the airwaves: Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jon Stewart. All very talented and very funny people who are good at what they do. You can't deny that. However, when you only pick on one side, you lose all credibility with me. When did Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert ever criticize a policy decision by a Democrat? If you can find me an instance, do so, and then maybe they will have some credibility with me. Go ahead, I'll wait...(I've made this challenge for years on social media, still no takers)
Didn't think so. You have to be willing to go for throats on both sides. It's called intellectual honesty. You cannot treat one side as the saviors of humanity and the other as the political equivalent of the bubonic plague. I'm talking to you, Rush Limbaugh. I'm talking to you, Rachel Maddow. Guilty as charged.
In all honesty, do we care more about the real story, or do we care more about winning? Kicking the shit out of those evil (insert name of political party here) seems to be all we care about. Act like the brave resistance when out of power, become the authoritarians when in power. Away go the Guy Fawkes masks and the Gadsden flags and out come the suit and tie. Goodbye Occupy, Goodbye Tea Party, we have the power now so we don't care about you little people anymore.
I don't watch the news anymore because I don't know who to trust or believe, who is right? Who is wrong? Who is giving me good information and who is just a shill for their ideology? What study is correct and which one is funded by the Sierra Club or the coal industry? All I want is the truth, like Lennon said.
It also doesn't help that many of us as citizens have taken the "Hypocratic Oath". We say one thing and do another. We talk about how corporations and technology are evil while lining up in droves to buy the newest iPhone or the newest tablet and while blogging on our computers. Sure, many companies have been guilty of bad practices and deserve to be punished for their actions, but come on, not every CEO is a caricature of the villans from Captain Planet, chomping on a big cigar and laughing as they dump radioactive waste into the river. Think twice on how that technology that you love so much got into your hands before you criticize corporations, or feel free to toss your smartphone and your computer into the trash compactor. Have we become afraid of achievement and success as a society? Why aren't innovators like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs not studied in school like Thomas Edison or the Wright Brothers? To borrow a phrase from Sebastian Vettel, honestly, what are we doing here?
Once we become more intellectually honest, truth will rule the day instead of opinions disguised as truth, and agenda disguised as research. News can become the armor of the republic like a free press is supposed to be, instead of a cheering section for Democrats or Republicans. And maybe, just maybe, Stephen Colbert can make a joke about Nancy Pelosi for once and Sean Hannity can give a Democrat props.
I don't ask for much. All I want is the truth, just gimme some truth.
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