Epoch Times

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Where are you seeing CNN is mostly central? The old chart I posted? Everything I see says they are skewing left.


The old static chart is from 2018, CNN has skewed left in recent years and their factual reporting has gone down though this depends program to program. CNN you gotta be careful if you are watching their live news segments or on one of their hosted opinion talking head shows. See the updated interactive chart

Perfect. Thanks. Was looking at old chart

[rotten42]

The thing is people do change. As much as would like to think we could be friends for life, some people just veer off in weird directions. I've accepted the fact that I need to let these people go from my life when they become a hinderance. If lost a few friends over this pandemic for sure!

[flamesfever]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

I was similarly hanging out with friends the other day, one of which we haven't really seen for two years (here and there). I was warned that they'd "gone off the deep end." The rest of what followed was me watching someone singularly focused on one topic area, bringing every topic back to it. The government was controlling us, we're going to socialist hell, the fascists are forcing vaccines on us, etc. When they started to make it personal (we have a friend who is a new dad, and they started telling him that he was abusing his child and sentencing them to death for following along with everything) that was it.

I don't plan to see this person ever again. I'm sure it's harder if you're older as I know making friends as time goes on gets harder, but it was like common ground just ceased to exist in a way that I don't think could ever be rebuilt.

I'm happy to disagree with someone, even if it gets catty (you know this, Cliff!). But I was honestly shocked. Like you said, it was someone living in an entirely different reality. I have plenty of friends I disagree with on political, social, or moral grounds. But this was beyond that.

So I don't know what you should do, but for me, there's definitely a line where a friendship no longer gives equal to what it takes.

A lot of anger is misplaced, and perhaps the reason for your friends behavior is all about other things going on in his life.

I have long standing friends who are "Fox News Enthusiasts" and "Trumpians", and friends who have been staunch Environmentalists and have run for the Green Party. If they insist on talking politics, I try to see things through their eyes and appreciate where they are coming from, before countering. I see good and bad in both extremes.

However, I think with all that has been going on over the past few years, politics has started to occupy more of people's minds, and obviously become very polarized. I think a lot of it has to do with social media, the biased press, financial pressures, and the feeling of being powerless. Combine this with other problems in life, and things can get emotional pretty easy... although usually not to the extent of your friend.

You are right that if you are older, the harder it is to make new friends...close ones anyway. It seems the older you get, the more you have to work to keep the friends you have.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Is there anywhere reliable to check news sources for 'bias'?
AllSides lists Epoch as just right of center.
I guess the news bias sites are biased?

I don't believe they were always ultra right wing, they just swung over at some point during the Trump regime. I assumed it was because you could pull in that audience with the pro-Trump stuff and also get your anti-CCP views in as well.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by flamesfever

A lot of anger is misplaced, and perhaps the reason for your friends behavior is all about other things going on in his life.

I have long standing friends who are "Fox News Enthusiasts" and "Trumpians", and friends who have been staunch Environmentalists and have run for the Green Party. If they insist on talking politics, I try to see things through their eyes and appreciate where they are coming from, before countering. I see good and bad in both extremes.

However, I think with all that has been going on over the past few years, politics has started to occupy more of people's minds, and obviously become very polarized. I think a lot of it has to do with social media, the biased press, financial pressures, and the feeling of being powerless. Combine this with other problems in life, and things can get emotional pretty easy... although usually not to the extent of your friend.

You are right that if you are older, the harder it is to make new friends...close ones anyway. It seems the older you get, the more you have to work to keep the friends you have.

Social media and Trump are the culprits here in my mind. Trump just because he is so decisive that he ups the outrage. With social media you are rewarded by engagements. You are rewarded for being outlandish and then algorithmically led to read more extreme viewpoints that you start to feel are the norm.

If people can keep an open mind than in person small politically talks can be helpful just to hear someone else's point of view. The person who wants tighter immigration isn't necessarily a racist and the person who wants socialized pharmacare isn't necessarily a raging communist. Having the conversation with an actual human being in person instead of an online rage machine can help humanize the opposition.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by flamesfever

However, I think with all that has been going on over the past few years, politics has started to occupy more of people's minds, and obviously become very polarized. I think a lot of it has to do with social media, the biased press, financial pressures, and the feeling of being powerless. Combine this with other problems in life, and things can get emotional pretty easy...

I think that’s exactly what’s going on. People who, for whatever reason, are feeling stressed and resentful have an endless supply of content at their fingertips to manifest that anger. And I’ve seen data that bears out your observation - middle-class people today are spending way more time immersed in contentious political issues than a decade ago.