I reject the label of Trump supporter or Republican. I have a dare for you: BEFORE you *read* anything about the unscripted Macron meeting in the Oval Office, watch the FULL video coverage:
DON’T search for the video either, because you’ll see headlines and excerpts if you do.
These unscripted gaggles are remarkable to me.
The point here is to see no media biases before you watch it for yourself. After that, then do searches and compare what you saw versus the headlines about it, with critical thinking. If you’re anti-Trump, don’t worry – you’ll easily find headlines that smack of bias, because that’s how algorithms work: They’ll feed you what you always see – hatred and violent speech that darkens any hope or optimism, which is the intentional structure of the old-order relationship between the press and the body politic. Negativity sells because we each have an evolutionarily hard-wired bias toward the negative. You (nor I) are an exception – it’s not voluntary. It’s scientifically factual.
It’s hard to be politically optimistic if you do not spend your politics time viewing the raw source of information from this administration. I appreciate that watching a 40+ minute video takes more time than reading a biased written article. But I encourage you to do it anyway, instead of spending your time being mindlessly fed algorithm-selected memes and headlines and liking them and forwarding them to fortify your status within your tribe. You do recognize that is pure egocentrism, right?
We are quick to blame the tribal polarization that has divided previously tight-knit American families on Trump and his supporters. The sister at the Thanksgiving table wants her brother to be fed the same algorithm-selected propaganda. The Dunning Kruger effect tells us that we tend to think we are above average. Which of course means no one is average!
Today, the average person has their ego satisfied by mindless advocacy shaped by propaganda and media-feed algorithms. Let’s call lazy what lazy is, and take some honest time in an effort to see the world from the opposite bias. Try it. You might think it’s hard if you haven’t tried it, but it isn’t. It doesn’t take more than 24 hours for your feed algorithms to serve up the opposite bias propaganda. What a wonderful tool to appreciate how average we are. But it hurts, because we can’t avoid also realizing how stupid we were to argue with a beloved relative at a feast.
But take heart in being average, because the people you may have alienated are likely average also. Once you gain some dominion over your own hyper-emotional reactionism to biased propaganda, reconciliation becomes not only possible, but likely. “Be the change you want to see.” It works for the average and the elite alike!
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Neil D. 2025-02-25
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