Do you like cherry kool aid or blue raspberry?

It's been a while since I've offered anything to the blogosphere.   Like 4 years and even those were just some sporadic, self-indulgent posts about my car.  I've been thinking about getting back to my blog lately but haven't had much to contribute (and to be honest, Facebook and turned into my platform of preference for such things in recent years).     Earlier today I posted my thoughts on the modern media (post shown below) and it was interesting to see the support it drew from groups that traditionally duke it out in the comments on most posts.  

Could it be that there are still some things that truly bring people together?   I don't know.  Common sense seems like a thing of the past.  Nothing is common in modern times.  But, seeing the reaction was a breath of fresh air and hints at the potential that there are ways to connect diverse points of view on tough topics and have meaningful discussion.   We need that now more than ever.  


POST BELOW

CNN has an "interesting" way of stating headlines. I saw a link titled "Kellyanne Conway blames Obama for bump stock availability" and was pretty irate that KC would use this as a platform to throw Obama under a bus. 

Then I click on the link and the title changes slightly to "Conway defends Trump on gun control." A little less incendiary but still enough to raise my liberal eyebrow. 

Then I watch the exchange between her and the CNN reporter. Conway makes several fair points about how bump stocks were a fairly unknown thing to the average american before this event and they are legal to own (based on ATF regulations/reviews from when Obama was in office). She states the need for thoughtful, informed conversation and the more details we have, the more informed we can be in having that conversation. I would tend to agree with her (shockingly). The discussion then quickly devolves into agenda based nonsense on both their parts. 

My main point in all this is to be a critical consumer of information, you need to be willing to listen to all sides and try to reserve judgement until you hear them out. And when I say willing to listen, I mean listen to understand, not listen to respond. 

For whatever reason, Kellyanne Conway is still like nails on a chalkboard to me, but despite that, I can appreciate her perspective on this particular issue and agree that the more we can learn and have thoughtful discussions about this event, what allowed it to happen and how we can take measures to help prevent future occurrences, the better off we will be. 

My secondary point is to recognize that all news we get will inevitably have some kind of filter on it. We tend to notice the filters that go against our existing beliefs and ignore the filters that support them. CNN pisses off conservatives the same way FOX pisses off liberals. That alone should be enough evidence to support the presence of such filters. I think what happens, sadly, is that one side simple believes their media outlet is reporting the truth and the other side is delusional. I think there are kernels of truth in both sides, but different perspectives result in different interpretations and both sides have elements of delusion that come into play (in part though attempts to either oversimplify the story or play up parts that will increase viewership). It's all kool aid. You just decide if you want to drink cherry or blue raspberry.