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Last October, the students In Sarah Kandler’s seventh-grade English class in rural Tennessee, they were discussing the presidential election and echoing each other’s pro-Trump sentiment. One student dared to challenge other students: “Who are the Democrats anyway?”
A lonely girl raised her hand. “I looked stunned when I saw the other kids,” Candler recalled. Then Kandler also raised her hand.
The closed-minded dialogue haunts Kandler.She began to search the Internet for resources beyond mainstream news sources, such as New York TimesTo help her understand other people’s politics.She found All sides, A website founded by former Netscape director John Gable, displays headlines of the same stories from left-leaning, middle-leaning and right-leaning media.
Candler is one of the few but growing numbers of Americans trying to break the silos of information.They are looking for sites like AllSides; this Negative, Summarizing conservative and liberal news on a policy issue every day; and Ground news, Showing how various stories are reported by left-leaning, middle-leaning, and right-leaning outlets. For videos, Their tube Show simulated YouTube feeds for conservatives, liberals, conspiracy theorists, and climate deniers.
New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt (Jonathan Haidt) said: “We are in a country where people are either polarized or indifferent.” Heresy Academy, A non-profit organization that aims to encourage diversity of opinions, especially on college campuses. Gable, the founder of AllSides, added, “We have to get people out of their information bubble, and their relationship bubble.”
Most American adults say One-sided information On social media is a major issue, although many people may only express information that is contrary to their own beliefs.
Visitors to sites such as AllSides seek views that are inconsistent with them; they prefer to discuss political disagreements rather than the brief gratification of tribal disputes on Facebook. Some people are troubled by how their circle of friends and social media followers reflect their own beliefs. Some people, such as Kandler, want to get to know friends or acquaintances with different political positions.
Alan Steinney, an unemployed graphic designer in Tallahassee, Florida, voted for Obama twice and then for Trump twice. “Political heresy seems to only make me an enemy,” he said. “I have always felt politically homeless.” This feeling can extend to his family, where he deals with the tension between his liberal wife, Biden’s supporters, and her conservative parents.
He visited Flip Side and Ground News. “The more I study things like The Negative Side, the more I can understand her parents’ arguments,” he said. When he jokes about politics, half of the room opposes him, depending on which side he is making fun of. They rejected his suggestion to check websites such as Flip Side.
Saira Blair was 18 when she was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates as a Republican, which at the time made her the youngest person in the US ever elected to state office. After resigning in 2018, she tried to read six newspapers every morning Magazines to get a full range of perspectives. But finding time is difficult—now her job does not focus on current events—and the subscription fee adds up. She was frustrated with the prejudices in reading.
“I started to go my own way,” she said, looking for Flip Side and AllSides.She is “in love” Divide and perish, Another website aimed at bridging political divides. These resources helped her piece together the true stories behind important events.
Today, Blair thinks her position is more subtle.Recently she admired one article Before learning about West Virginia’s legislation prohibiting them from participating, the benefits of transgender women exercising with cisgender women. If she is still in the office, “I will do different things after reading that article,” she said. Overall, she will have “a more balanced, well-educated platform. These sites did not exist when I first ran it, and I really hope they exist.”
She also checks regularly Blinds, A tool provided by Ground News that categorizes users’ Twitter actions as tilting left or right based on their tweets, retweets, and other interactions with liberal or conservative news sources. Blair desires gymnastic balance: 50% of the interaction comes from the left side, and 50% comes from the right side.
“What we need is a way to plan from left to right and find the best thinking,” said Haidt, who created an online library For this purpose, videos, books and papers are produced. For example, in order to better understand the point on the left, the library provides an article by Edmund Fawcett “Revive liberalism. “Select the library door on the right and you will find something like Yuval Levin’s”Conservative governance vision. Haidt also reads Flip Side and AllSides every day.
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