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I want to see how people come to the conclusions the way they do.
Do you let other people, public opinion or your own research on facts form the way you feel about politics?
Explain your answer and with examples if possible.
For me it comes down to values and a strong sense of right and wrong.
If I had gone with the crowd of public opinion I wouldn't have voted for Trump.
I get my news from NPR and Right Wing radio. It is a good balance but more and more it seems that the Left is really moving to the extremes.
Locally, I live in Mass which is a Democrat haven, I see liberal judges and politicians going to bat for illegal aliens and molly coddling career criminals and drug dealers. They are putting the good people at risk while demanding they pay more in taxes to fund their assistance programs while doing little to clean up welfare fraud.
I have always leaned to the Right and will continue to vote accordingly at least until the Dems can get their act together.
I read about 95% of the news I take in. I am able to surf through the various opinions and BS and find what actually happened. Reading news is much more objective to me than commentators who usually are biased one way or the other. I know writers are biased as well, but when you are reading words (instead of watching people read me the news), it's easier for me to spot and the skip over that material since my mind is more engaged.
I will listen to others, but eventually decide how to take things based on faith (in Christ), facts (real events not news gossip), and feelings (instincts)... in that order.
For me its both. Public opinion to me is a harbinger of what is probably the wrong answer, or uninformed positions, so I seek alternative points of view in my own research.
I'm completely at a loss to understand how any thinking adult could form their political views on the basis of what other people think about the issues. I guess it explains a lot about how people like Trump get elected.
People always SAY they do their own research. But in reality, most people follow the "tribe" they have committed to. They take in news only from sources that agree with their predetermined point of view, so are constantly reinforced that they are right. We all want to feel justified, so we listen to those who justify us. How many people actually do original research with eye witness/first responder/first reporter reports? The best we can do is to find unbiased reporting, but that is often hard to come by.
I'm completely at a loss to understand how any thinking adult could form their political views on the basis of what other people think about the issues. I guess it explains a lot about how people like Trump get elected.
People always SAY they do their own research. But in reality, most people follow the "tribe" they have committed to. They take in news only from sources that agree with their predetermined point of view, so are constantly reinforced that they are right. We all want to feel justified, so we listen to those who justify us. How many people actually do original research with eye witness/first responder/first reporter reports? The best we can do is to find unbiased reporting, but that is often hard to come by.
That's what makes us libertarians different; we actually DO our own research. It takes critical thinking to do that, and that's why we're in the minority.
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