PSA: More Than One Source Needed to Develop a Political Position

I never really care what political bent one has, all I ask is that you REALLY know what your positions are and be able to stand by them when asked to elaborate on your "talking point." That is not the case in this video and it shows why we have such a politically uninformed populace in the United States. Certainly FOX News is not the only culprit, CNN and MSNBC are guilty as well (While Hilary Clinton should have exited the presidential race earlier, I think the overwhelming pressure came from 24-hour news stations like CNN and MSNBC).



Pierre Bourdieu puts it best in On Television when he says that "real information, analysis, in-depth interviews, expert discussions, and serious documentaries lose out to pure entertainment and, in particular, to mindless talk shows chatter between 'approved' and interchangeable speakers." It helps to explain why President Obama is considered a socialist by some who can't even explain to you what the term means when pushed.  I don't necessarily have an issue with the Tea Party (or the Republican Party for that matter) on its face.  But I think the party needs to educate itself.  What happens in the vacuum that is left when government gets out of everything?  What happens when, as some of the people in this video suggest, the Department of Education is abolished, along with the IRS and Social Security?  My guess is that they'd get a world that is far worse than the one that works in their Utopian view. 

It is also disturbing that these rally-ers just simply will not believe that taxes are lower and that 95 percent of Americans got a tax cut but only 12 percent know it.  (This is why we ALL need to read more).

Bravo to the folks at New Left Media for creating this video (I'm sure a similar video could be created with Democrats or Republicans).  But my Public Service Announcement for today is this: Please READ (not just one source, but several!) and develop your own thoughts so that when you are challenged to defend your position, you can do so intelligently and succinctly without regurgitating something you heard on the news.