Friday, July 03, 2009

Don't believe everything you're told, especially from the media

The Dow to 36,000, or so we are told in September of 1999. A new era of prosperity, where the old rules don't apply. This was the long bull, so we were told and the authors proceeded to ridicule the nay-sayers.

We never even got half way. The Dow, for all it's flaws, peaked last year at 14,000 and now it falters in the lower 8,000s.

Everyone has opinions, but no one take responsibility for them

Opinions are cheap and they're a dime a dozen. Follow the wrong ones and they may end up costing you and if they do, it's "whoops, my bad. Here's a pat on the back, I'm sorry for you." and that's about it. This is one of the reasons why I am sick of TV pundits, commentators or whatever. Watching a debate on TV makes my stomach churn because it's all garbage.

It's always with the chest thumping when they're right, and they'll pretend that they never said anything if they are wrong. Anyone can be right sometimes, a broken clock is even right twice a day. And that's the problem, we've got too damn many broken clocks, dinging all the damn time. And what if someone's opinion was wrong and it caused damages or losses to you? If they can't stick their neck out and take responsibility for what they say then there is no point in listening to them.

This is how shallow discourse has become; it isn't about trying to find the best explanations or truths together, it's instead about everyone trying to show off that their opinions are always right, all the time. I'm sorry, but as a viewer and the common man, I'm going to have to call bullshit on these people. For all the people always yammering about their opinions all the time, it is dead certain that not all of them, and not even most of them are going to be right. If I had any advice to give to them, I'd have to say "please, shut the fuck up."

If there is one thing that we are missing right now, it's honest people (and no, I don't mean people pretending to be honest). The truth is not about some person being right, quite often the truth will be inconvenient. Those loud opinionated people usually ignore anything inconvenient. When a person with the need to be right trumps the facts, that is the time when the conversation ends because you will never learn anything good from these kinds of people. People that demand that their opinions are always right have no perspective. So thus I shake my head at the mass media. I've given up on them.

If you want to find truth, then you're on your own

A person that believes everything they're told is naive or even a fool. And that's what our society is becoming, especially through the mass media. The mass media has no incentive to be right or punishment when they're wrong. All they have to be is convincing and it's easy to be convincing when everyone doesn't know better. A 10 year old, for as silly as they can be, will always be incredibly convincing to their younger sibling... and I'm afraid that when it comes to the general public, they're stuck with big brother.

If you want to find truth, it will be a hard path to walk. Every detail must be scrutinized, sources verified and your perspective must always be in check. Sometimes the truth isn't what you expect or even want it to be, those who can't except it will never find it.

For those that can't walk this path, then you're stuck with listening to the truth as told from others. But one day it might not be, and you'll never see it.

It's not my job to tell people what to do, so choose your path.

No comments: