Nonfiction

It’s Not The Media

Over the past six years, there has been a gathering swell of complaint from conservative America. Every wrong-headed notion held by the liberals stems from one source, it would seem: the liberal media.

The War in Iraq was going just fine until the media convinced people not to support it. The dissolution of traditional values is a clear result of the brainwashing efforts of the media. The media, apparently, loves the terrorists, hates our freedom, and wants the United States to dissolve into a bog of one night stands and rampant drug abuse.

Unfortunately for those who wish for such simple cause and effect solutions, it’s not the media which is making Americans more liberal. It is the steadily more liberal beliefs of Americans which are influencing the media.

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Beyond Rational: How To Discuss Contentious Topics and Keep Your Cool

In “civilized” society, we know that one of the cardinal rules is that there are certain topics one just simply does not bring up: politics, religion, money, and sex. The problem, of course, is that without these subjects most dinner parties devolve into inane conversations about the weather, and online communities such as Newsvine would not even exist. Being a lifelong veteran of the art of asking questions which bring dinner parties to a sudden and ominous silence, and yet rather partial to discussions which go somewhere other than “taking it outside”, I thought it might be of value to share some of the insights and techniques I have acquired over the years in the hopes that we can all get a little farther in discussing topics which are actually topics (as opposed to the weather, which I assure you really isn’t).
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