I had planned one other follow up post - mainly to explain why I said the Establishment suffered from groupthink.
My thoughts have gone in a different direction, however. If there's one thing I've struggled with in making a life in the civilian world, it's that I know at least a little bit of what's going on in the rest of the world. I can't turn a blind eye, can't pretend it isn't happening.
I feel out of step, because so many others are focused on daily living...and yet I'm hunting up articles on the Yazidi or reading up on modern slavery.
I suppose it does tie in to groupthink, at least a little bit. See...I've noticed that my news sources have different topics and serve different purposes. Facebook tends to cover what the average person is really thinking, even if it's some quick little meme.
I like memeorandum just to keep tabs on the major news media, even though a lot of it never shows up on facebook and only matters to the few news wonks (like myself) who follow this sort of thing.
And I originally had some feeds going to Google Reader, when Google Reader went away I wound up transferring them to Digg. I select ones that are thought provoking, that force me to consider another point of view. Or they're just fun bits of history that introduce me to things I never knew. :) They do not always reflect my own views, but they're worth reading. So here's a sample of articles I found and saved, whether through my own feeds or through the Digg engine. Some of these are long and dry, not well suited to the quick memes we see on Facebook or the short tweats on twitter. They're more substantive, thought-provoking, and often touch on issues that I think are deeply important. And so I find myself wondering, when all this other stuff is going on, why the news is so full of 'issues' that seem so trivial and unimportant.
Some of these, btw, seem truly concerning. Like Chicago's Homan Square, where people are detained in violation of everything I'd ever heard about the legal process.
So anyways. I'm rather disturbed by how often I find an article that truly seems important, and it comes to be via Digg or Facebook and hardly makes a blip on the mainstream news. I've heard the phrase 'echo chamber', and I've unfortunately come to conclude it's pretty apt. I keep tabs on what they say, but I don't think they're truly covering the important issues of our time. Which is pretty disturbing, when you think about it.
Yet I don't feel I have much to do with that. I'm not in a position to make any of it change. I'm more concerned with finding a way to get involved, to do something about the things I am aware of...and hopefully, do something in a way that lets me keep paying my mortgage.
My thoughts have gone in a different direction, however. If there's one thing I've struggled with in making a life in the civilian world, it's that I know at least a little bit of what's going on in the rest of the world. I can't turn a blind eye, can't pretend it isn't happening.
I feel out of step, because so many others are focused on daily living...and yet I'm hunting up articles on the Yazidi or reading up on modern slavery.
I suppose it does tie in to groupthink, at least a little bit. See...I've noticed that my news sources have different topics and serve different purposes. Facebook tends to cover what the average person is really thinking, even if it's some quick little meme.
I like memeorandum just to keep tabs on the major news media, even though a lot of it never shows up on facebook and only matters to the few news wonks (like myself) who follow this sort of thing.
And I originally had some feeds going to Google Reader, when Google Reader went away I wound up transferring them to Digg. I select ones that are thought provoking, that force me to consider another point of view. Or they're just fun bits of history that introduce me to things I never knew. :) They do not always reflect my own views, but they're worth reading. So here's a sample of articles I found and saved, whether through my own feeds or through the Digg engine. Some of these are long and dry, not well suited to the quick memes we see on Facebook or the short tweats on twitter. They're more substantive, thought-provoking, and often touch on issues that I think are deeply important. And so I find myself wondering, when all this other stuff is going on, why the news is so full of 'issues' that seem so trivial and unimportant.
Some of these, btw, seem truly concerning. Like Chicago's Homan Square, where people are detained in violation of everything I'd ever heard about the legal process.
So anyways. I'm rather disturbed by how often I find an article that truly seems important, and it comes to be via Digg or Facebook and hardly makes a blip on the mainstream news. I've heard the phrase 'echo chamber', and I've unfortunately come to conclude it's pretty apt. I keep tabs on what they say, but I don't think they're truly covering the important issues of our time. Which is pretty disturbing, when you think about it.
Yet I don't feel I have much to do with that. I'm not in a position to make any of it change. I'm more concerned with finding a way to get involved, to do something about the things I am aware of...and hopefully, do something in a way that lets me keep paying my mortgage.
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