Politics & Religion

From a young age, I was told that these were the two subjects that you shouldn’t discuss because you’d end up falling out with everybody. We all have our own political views, and even those within the same political spectrum argue amongst themselves. Religion is similar. Even those of the same faith, split into different denominations and argue about the meaning of scriptures, other books, and teachings. Both politics and religion cause wars.

At the end of the day, we usually don’t end up changing a person’s views. We can argue with them, discuss with them, and present a strong case for our own opinions, but at the end of the day, it’s usually the case that the other person will still hold their own views fundamentally unchanged.

So I sit back and I think, is it worth the time? Is it worth the effort? Unless you’re actively involved at some political level within your community or your country, then, surely, your time is better spent doing things that you find enjoyable.

You can’t change what you can’t control. You can protest by writing to your local and national representatives and elected officials. It’s undoubtedly important to make your views known to the people who can do something about the world, the country, your town, and your street. However, is it really in anyone’s genuine interest, and especially in these days of social media platforms, to spend hours sitting at a keyboard, ranting and getting angry and stressed when your words aren’t reaching those who really can make a change?

Check This Out!

I’ve always been one to ask questions. I don’t believe what anyone tells me, without satisfying myself that they’re telling me at least a modicum of truth. Social media is dangerous for spreading wild unsubstantiated material, simply because it isn’t regulated in any way, and anyone can pretty much post anything, even if they just made it up a few seconds ago!

Now, Andra Watkins, who I know personally, is a New York Times bestselling author, who has take on this issues, and is keen to spread the truth about what is going on in the United States right now.

It’s the other side of the Atlantic, I hear you say. Let them get on with screwing themselves over. The issue is that what happens in the US, ends up over here in some way or another. Don’t believe what you read on the Internet without checking it out.

Check out Andra’s Substack ‘For Such A Time As This’ to get the lowdown on what’s really going on out there.

Censoring Or Deleting Lies?

There’s been a debate rumbling on for some time regarding the major social media platforms. It seems that they’re wrong if they do and wrong if they don’t.

I’m talking about removing posts that are not considered truthful. The problem with social media is that we can all be journalists but without doing any investigative work or research.

Users can, and do, repost articles from both within these platforms and from outside sources without checking if they’re actually factual. We’ve all got a built-in bias and tend to echo material that fits our own ideology – that applies to many areas of life, not just politics.

Since the US election there’s been something of an exodus from the two major platforms – Facebook and Twitter – by right-leaning folks who feel that these platforms are censoring conservative material unfairly. The networks respond by saying that they’re just removing material that is clearly false.

Are they removing any left-leaning posts in the same way? If not, why not? Perhaps there are more dubious conservative postings than liberal ones? Either way, the arguments are not going to stop anytime soon.

It’s the problem that arises when everyone can be their own journalist and publisher, and it’s probably here to stay. My view is that with freedom of speech, surely comes the responsibility to be truthful. The issue there is that everyone’s version of the truth can be different.