i try to stay away from commenting on politics, not because i don’t have an opinion, but because i don’t have all the facts.
and the reality is, we will never have all the facts. the media is presenting what sells. and we as a consumer buy what feeds our ego. but the news has become nothing more than a confirmation of our biases, not an expansion of our minds.
rarely do people ever seek the opposing side; they seek the information that validates their beliefs. but arguments can and will always be made for both sides of the story. and the reality? reality will never be known. because there’s three sides to everyone story: yours, theirs, and the truth.
whenever something happens in the world, i find it entertaining to see how quickly people choose one side over the other as though they are experts on the events. experts on the intentions of the parties involved. experts on interpreting biased, misleading information. all one’s opinion does is highlight their own biases, their own prejudices, and their own narrow-mindedness.
what if instead of choosing a side to argue, the side that supports our beliefs and biases, we tried to understand the alternate perspective. we tried to understand how or why an event like that could have happened. what if instead of making it personal, we make it about solving the problem. what if we took the emotion out and considered both sides, no matter how confronting.
is this difficult? absolutely. why? because it’s not convenient. it requires effort. effort to not judge. effort to not jump to conclusions. effort to educate. and it sometimes requires effort to hold up a mirror for introspection. but what it requires most? empathy. and this world could sure use a lot more of that.