There's more than enough media to go around these days. In fact, there's too much, with people randomly airing their ideas on public access websites such as blogtalkradio.com and youtube.com while declaring themselves experts.
I myself have been a part of this in the sense I was one of the first RotoExperts, a fantasy sports writer whose sole claim to expertise was the fact I had the desire to read and write about sports conjoined with the fact I got hired by RotoExperts.com. I had little experience when I first started, other than I had learned the craft of writing. Immediately though, I was a fantasy sports expert, a term that in fact panicked me initially. There's always someone out there who knows more than you, and if you think you know everything, you've come to a place where either a) you should retire, or b)you need a good swift kick in the head.
Expertise comes cheaply these days. Political pundits have arisen for all sorts of narratives. Whether you were actually a journalist first like Anderson Cooper or you were a comedian like Dennis Miller, tons of pretty faces grace our airwaves in the glossy sheen of a news or information show, claiming impartiality while using whimsical wordplay to progress ideas that are anything but neutral. Some are simply unforgiving, screaming at the top of their lungs how wrong the other guys are and how right they are. Others are more tactful, whipping up facts and figures to meet their ideological desires.
In recent days, more and more people have taken to the internet, whether it be Facebook, or CNN message boards, to express their political views. It makes sense, there is an election imminent.
However, conspiracy theories these days aren't simply spun, but are whole-heartedly bought into by people who call themselves educated and it shocks even me. To me, the selection of what you read, who you listen to, and where you go for information is as important as the information itself. The reputation and backgrounds of those who place these thoughts for all to see should factor in. It's easy to post slanderous or ridiculous material on the internet for all to see when you are protected by anonymity. It's also easy just because nothing you post you have to answer for.
There comes a point where you have to separate reality from theory. There comes a time where you have to look at websites that have clear agendas versus those that try as best they can to present a balanced picture so that you as a viewer can make an informed decision. There comes a place where critical thinking has to be utilized, and by that, I mean one has to turn the mirror onto every possibility, ask every possible question, take a moment to see where your opponent could in fact be correct. Once that is done, you can come to a version of the truth that makes sense.
Unfortunately, I don't hear many conspiracy theories being spun by the left. And perhaps that's because I do, for the most part, tend to follow mainstream media, which indeed, tends to be centrist. I don't read the news to hear things I want to hear or things I like. There is no purpose in that. Anyone with half a brain realizes that. Any person with a clever mind knows that limiting yourself to only one side of things makes you not only biased, but misinformed.
However, the conspiracy theories of the right are now in the mainstream media, and are being confused as such. Rush Limbaugh and Stephanie Miller have microphones and large audiences. Both are completely skewed as to the reality of things, turning their worlds into our side and their side, with our being matched up with 'good' and their being paired with 'evil.'
The only people that are suffering are us. Not our government. But us. And of course, the process is suffering as well. The electoral process has sunk into nothing more than a mud-slinging contest to see who can be the loudest. Most times, the loudest is the last person you need to pay attention to.
I don't mind if you think Sarah Palin won the debate with Joe Biden last election campaign, as long as your reasoning for such is that you aren't taking up the idea that Joe Biden appeared too educated. I don't care if you thought Obama won his first Presidential debate, just don't tell me its because you think Romney is an idiot. That kind of reasoning is absent of thought and instead suggest that a person proffering such opinion doesn't really know what they believe or why they believe it. These are the ramblings of the scariest of the American public - the new expert.
We all think we know best. We all think we're smarter than the other guy. And this is where our education system has failed in the worst way, because educated people realize they can never learn enough. They can never find enough information to verify or disprove their opinions, and thus they spend lifetimes looking for information instead of spouting what little of their own they do have. Far be it from me as a 40-something to think I know life's secrets, or understand what's truly best for someone else.
Ah, but Mr. Expert knows.
Mr. Expert will tell you what you should believe and that there is no other way. Heck I heard recently (and haven't verified it yet) that Paul Ryan quoted six studies backing up his financial numbers but that one of studies he was using was a blog. That's right, a blog. Now again, I have to verify that, but if that's the case, shouldn't that disqualify him from being considered a serious candidate right away for any office. Would we not disqualify candidates for a job for such a misnomer? I mean, the fact that you're not able to distinguish someone's personal writings on a blog from independent studies? It doesn't mean the blog is wrong in whatever ideas it supplied, it means Ryan's wrong for not understanding that a blog can't be quoted as a true study if you have any desire to get results that you want believed to hold credibility. I would say the same if Biden or Pelosi or any person did the same thing. It has nothing to do with party. It has to do with common sense.
I don't care which candidate people vote for as long as they have done a little due diligence to make a cogent argument as to why they support that candidate beyond the lines of "he just seems nicer."
If you like Obama, great. If you like Romney, great. But don't recreate facts to fit the storyline into your little expert world.
This idea that Obama has hijacked his Presidency from the get-go (he's not american, he's muslim) is laced with waves of racist undertones. No President has been accused or has had to deal with these kinds of ridiculous accusations, perpetrated by those that have in fact no desire to find truth.
So you can dislike our sitting President if you feel the economy isn't doing better than you'd like. You can vote him out if you expected that his promises should have yielded an unemployment rate under 7%, or that the health care plan he delivered is killing your business. Just don't sit there and tell me and everyone else it's because he's secretly gay, Mr. Expert, and you are the genius who found it out - as if it mattered. Or that he's secretly covering up his desire to make us a Muslim country, and the Bin Laden attack was just a show. Or that he's creating a socialist society -- because clearly we are not one (though aspects of socialism have been prevalent in our democracy for years).
No Mr. Expert, conspiracy theories are not playing into my election world. The numbers provided by the commerce department are what they are. The future will be what we make it. And if you don't like where they are because you think they should be better, do something about it. But have the decency to find an intelligent debate, rather than mud-slinging garbage around and calling yourself Pundit.
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