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Quote of the Day: ‘Information Cocoons’
“We live in a country in which many people live in information cocoons in which they only talk to members of their own party and read blogs of their own sect.” — David Brooks
A friendly challenge: Every left-leaning reader and writer of this site should today read with open mind a right-leaning post or blog. Every right-leaning reader and writer should do the same, only (obviously) in reverse. Then tomorrow: Rinse and repeat.
So go ahead: Pick your “poison.” It might actually be an antidote, or at least an ingredient of an antidote to the divisions that ail us.
12 Responses to “Quote of the Day: ‘Information Cocoons’”
This IS my left-leaning site! (snark)
I think you're saying “right leaning” or “left leaning” with a healthy dose of liberty. The majority of the blogs out their are nearly so partisan that it just doesn't make any sense to try to read them with an open mind. Anyone whose ever tried to play in the comment threads at either HotAir or Think Progress knows what I'm talking about.
Perhaps a more interesting challenge would be to look at members of your own party and find something worthwhile to criticize them on.
I think The Moderate Voice has a good mix of right and left. Unlike the “information cocoons” David Brooks writes about TMV allows (invites?) views and opinions from both sides. That alone sets it above the partisan cocoons that refuse to allow comments from anyone with an opposing view.
p.s. – I regularly go to PoliGazette to see what the three people who comment there think to or to watch the occasional left leaning poster get banned.
I read lefty blogs (dailykos) and righty blogs (ace of spades). And you know what? There identical. Both distort facts to suit their political positions. Both try to make their respective parties of choice look bad, usually at the other’s expense. And both love to insult and demean anyone who should have the nerve to disagree with their points of view.
I meant both try to make their respective parties of choice look GOOD
I think the idea behind your challenge is good, but I think what will most likely happen is that people will confirm their own biases when they visit a partisan blog of the opposite 'side' and see reasons to continue ignoring the partisans from that side.
If anyone is to seriously take on the challenge in the spirit with which its intended, I'd suggest that we all nominate some good center right and center left blogs and suggest them to our ideological opposites.
For my part (as a resident rightie) I'd suggest Outside the Beltway and The Glittering Eye as two excellent blogs that lean right but aren't partisan water carriers.
If anyone can recommend similarly high quality center left blogs, I'd love to discover them.
A number of us non-lefties not only indulge in leftist current commentary as well as political works, but know them better than the lefties do.
OT, DLS, but did you notice that your demon sheep avatar is currently one of the snapshot freezeframes for the MSNBC videos that run in the sidebar?
No, I haven't noticed that. I don't get much displayed at all on the sidebar — Web ads are blocked.
As far as the thread's subject and the specifics as its beginning, I have to laugh at Brooks, who provides one of the most glaring and poor examples himself these days, living as he and others like him do in the
inside-the-Beltway (and NYC and related elite hot spots) cocoon.
*POW*
Rather than check out partisan websites of both extremes, a better approach is just to avoid them altogether. What is the point of going to ThinkProgress or RedState when you already know what they will be saying before you visit?
I like this challenge: on an issue, try to fully understand why each side believes as they do. If you don't correctly understand both sides, then you don't really and completely understand the issue.