A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
Friday, April 1, 2016
What About You?
"People go to a particular [news] source to confirm their views, rather than challenge their views," he said. "That has a feedback loop, so our politics also are becoming increasingly polarized. I certainly think that’s affected the presidential race. I just don’t think the Republican race would have played out the way it did without that kind of polarized media environment. There’s a sense, I think, that journalism ought to be making people less committed to their ideas, rather than more committed to their ideas."
Said Jens David Ohlin, an associate dean at Cornell Law School. It's an interesting comment in response to President Obama's rebuke of the media. It is something I have been saying for years: "people hear what they want to hear, see what they want to see, and believe what they want to believe."
My observation has come about because of the my interactions with others over the years. Also because of my facination with the OJ Simson case. I watched as witnesses testified about events and wondered why they would see similar events in so different a light.
Upon those observations, I formulated my comment about how people understand things. People bring biases to their observations and try, I think, to understand the events according to those biases. I, myself, try to be as even-handed as I can be in understanding what I see. And, sometimes of course, I fail but I understand I pretty much why I do and often I tie my mind into a Gordian Knot trying to overcome my biases and wish for Alexander's sword to ease my dilemma.
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4 comments:
One can only view things from their own vantage point.
Everybody has their own prejudices.
Common default of humanity.
That's my viewpoint from my own vantage point anyway.
And it's a good viewpoint... mostly because I agree with it.
I agree people bring biases to their understanding of the world and look for confirmation their biases. But some people are more biased than others. And some people actually do try to put themselves into another person's shoes; some people have empathy for others; some people ... do unto others as you would have them do to you.
The hardest thing for most to grasp is that we all have biases and, I think, a bit of bigotry which affects our judgment . My mother once told me how she would feel more nervous if a black male was coming toward her than a black female or a white female or male. I had not thought her to be prejudiced in any way before that. I was also shocked when my father, at age 79, made a remark that revealed his prejudice against black people. I had not thought of him as prejudiced either, he had not expressed it before then.
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