Poking Out of Your Own Bubble
Now is the time to step out of your bubble and read or hear what other Americans are reading and hearing. This doesn’t mean that you need to follow Hannity or Wonkette. But, it’s not a bad idea to pick something in the first three horizontal sections that skews some or strongly to the side you don’t agree with. You might learn something that will require a fact check or two.
Getting Out of Your Bubble, Tactic:
Read up on what the other side is saying on important issues of the election:
- Healthcare
- Economy – inflation
- Economy – tax policy
- International trade
- Gun regulation
- Border control
- America’s role in bringing forward an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and subsequent negotiated peace.
Read or hear a news story about something on the national agenda. Understand it from a source you normally go to.
Look up the same issue on a site favored by a source of a similar type published by the opposite side of the right-left divide. Read or hear it at least twice. Slow down and attempt to understand the internal logic of what the piece is saying. There will be one. Keep a calm, open mind to find it.
Fact check what is being said. You may be surprised. We all heard about how many lies the other side told only to find out that the side you support has been stretching the truth, too.
I fall into being in love with my own opinion. Lots of people do. For the month of September, it’s a good idea to get a little broader about how Americans see this election. If I remain in my own echo chamber — or bubble, or tribe – I get dumbfounded by people I know to be intelligent who are falling for what appear to be total lies. Chances are, there are flaws and contradictions in the character and actions of the people I’d prefer to see running the country. I should know what they are. So should you.
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