This is a great article, and I love the term “preferred truth”. I was just talking to someone recently about the root of our societal conflicts in America right now, with regards to the media, is that there are multiple generations who grew up believing they could trust the media to report accurately. Journalists were held to high standards of research and reporting so that us average folk at home could be aware of what’s happening without having to spend the time doing the research ourself (especially when we don’t know how to).
Nowadays, the Information Age has riddled us with such a “fake news” default that the media has become so skewed in their reporting while simultaneously, society has become MORE lazy in doing their own research. Or the reality of everything getting online so quickly and everyone having access is that even if we do our own minimal research, we can likely find whatever “preferred truth” of the story we want to find, and our bias takes the lead instead of our desire to find truth.
Sure our political system has flaws. Sure our education system is falling apart. But the root of all these things is our hunt for truth; not being able to trust the media to accurately report AND not being able to trust ourselves because of bias or lack of understanding in how to hunt for truth.
We’re left with misinformation, a foundation without trust, and massive preferred truth that leads to tribalistic tendencies and harmful ideologies.
This is a great article, and I love the term “preferred truth”. I was just talking to someone recently about the root of our societal conflicts in America right now, with regards to the media, is that there are multiple generations who grew up believing they could trust the media to report accurately. Journalists were held to high standards of research and reporting so that us average folk at home could be aware of what’s happening without having to spend the time doing the research ourself (especially when we don’t know how to).
Nowadays, the Information Age has riddled us with such a “fake news” default that the media has become so skewed in their reporting while simultaneously, society has become MORE lazy in doing their own research. Or the reality of everything getting online so quickly and everyone having access is that even if we do our own minimal research, we can likely find whatever “preferred truth” of the story we want to find, and our bias takes the lead instead of our desire to find truth.
Sure our political system has flaws. Sure our education system is falling apart. But the root of all these things is our hunt for truth; not being able to trust the media to accurately report AND not being able to trust ourselves because of bias or lack of understanding in how to hunt for truth.
We’re left with misinformation, a foundation without trust, and massive preferred truth that leads to tribalistic tendencies and harmful ideologies.