Extreme Blogging

Generally speaking, I try to keep my posts pretty consistent.

They are generally a snapshot into my mind at any particular moment to display the feelings that occur when I see / feel / hear / observe something that I find particularly interesting. The humor to me is found in the everyday things in life that most people either choose to ignore or choose to accept all things as natural every day world experiences.

I find it funny, that as I approached a homeless man (who happened to be black) he asked every white person who walked by him for money, but asked me for a cigarette. Now I could infer any number of reasons why this occurred, but I find shit like this fascinating.

The social constructs that are ingrained into people that affect how they react to certain people and in certain situations is one of the great plays on the stage of life that never ends and never gets old. Do I have bias? of course. I'm sure in certain situations, I see things in ways that probably aren't meant to be taken in the way that I see it. For example, in my annual review at my last job, my manager said, "You speak so well." I didn't know whether to get offended or take it as a compliment!

But I try to just call things as I see it without trying to influence anyone's thinking one way or another. However, there are some blogs that are clearly full of extreme views that lean far to one side or to another in order to influence people's thinking. These 'extreme blogging' sites have created a niche for people to get the type of news they want to hear that basically supports their own points of view.

This is a problem for a number of reasons because earlier (back in time), the news was neutral and everyone received their news from the same sources. Now, people can go to places that give them news and information to support their own internal biases / prejudices against another group of people. These sites aren't really news at all but become a conduit for people with a poor understanding of an issue being preached to by people who only share the parts of an issue that benefit their own thinking.

Their belief system is then 'emotion based' and this is what their thoughts and actions are then based on... emotion. Fear that Mexicans are taking all the jobs, fear that every Muslim is a terrorist, etc... There isn't really any point to all of this except to let people know that his stuff exists, for both sides of the coin and to be aware of it and understand why it exists and where we fit within these two opposite ends of the spectrum.

What Really Happened is a site that sits on the far left where you will find information on the Abu-Ghraib prison scandal, fake Bin-Laden videos, 9-11 cover up info, etc..

Powerline is a site that sits on the far right where you will find information on obstructionist Democrats, the goodness of Big Brother, and how we've liberated the Iraqis, etc...

I'm sure there are sites that are much further to the left or right, I just don't know about them. So, check them out and judge for yourself where you and your views are.

~C

CD of the moment: Mark Farina - Mushroom Jazz 5