In today's world of information chaos, why are any of us so sure that we know what's going on in DC?

[Writer]

I certainly can't be sure. Do you think you are well informed in today's media climate? How do you work around the chaos?

[RandomThoughts]

1. Heh, just know what you can observe.

They have not corrected beer and travel issue, so things are still unjust, as far as tv or Internet I would think them all fake, but have seen modifications in real life that match stuff like that also. So I figure much of it is propaganda.

So make your stand, decide what you think is right, and if you can defend it with body mind and soul, then you argue for it. Also why you stick to concepts not people, or even countries, since who really knows how much of what you read is accurate.

However if someone can argue why you might be wrong, then you should be able to listen and learn from it also.

[Peace Patriot]

2. That's a very good discussion question!

We REALLY need to evaluate information, not just absorb it. It takes a lot of work, but the Internet can be very helpful in this regard. Possibly you need a good grounding in history, recent and past, and some experience at critical analysis, to take full advantage of the varied sources of information that are now available--a truly amazing breadth of information simply unthinkable during most of my life (I'm an oldie). But anyone can learn the history and analytical skills needed to navigate whatever information that you are interested in.

One particular interest of mine has been Latin America and U.S./Latin American policy. With the Iraq War, I simply stopped believing anything that my own government said about anything or anybody--and in so far as the corporate-run press was echoing/promulgating Bush Junta views--which was most of the time--I stopped believing them as well. I was no novice about U.S. foreign policy. I have been an informed and activist citizen since Vietnam. So I had some premises to begin with--for instance, that probably everything our government and corporate press were saying about Latin America was a lie, and that the exact opposite was the truth. I went looking for alternative information, and DU's Latin American forum was helpful in finding web sites with a different point of view. A good example is: www.venezuelanalysis.com. It's a pro-Chavez web site but it does have some criticism of Chavez and it is information-rich. I read about their voting system (far, FAR more transparent than our own). I read the accounts of ordinary people who were benefiting from Chavez's education or other anti-poverty programs. I read about grass roots activists in Venezuela, and accounts from Americans in Venezuela who support Chavez. I read analyses by very erudite people--economists, academics, philosophers. I got day to day news reports from the Chavez government and its various agencies. And I believe this was the site where I first encountered the wonderful documentary, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"--a MUST SEE, if you want to understand our government/corporate news accusations that the Chavez government suppresses free speech.

This information, while it leans way toward Chavez, enabled me to evaluate what I was reading/seeing from our usual news sources. I began to be able to read between the lines--to divine what they were NOT reporting. Example: Venezuelan was just designated THE MOST EQUAL COUNTRY IN LATIN AMERICA, on income distribution, by a UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean. Read about that in the New York Times? Did you know that the Chavez government has cut poverty in half and extreme poverty by more than 70%? That it has wiped out illiteracy?

I call these the "black holes" of disinformation. If you don't know that Venezuela has earned the title of THE MOST EQUAL COUNTRY IN LATIN AMERICA, then you have no way of understanding how this "'dictator-bogeyman-incompetent-leader-of-a-failed-state" keeps getting elected in Venezuela, by big majorities, in honest, transparent, rigorously monitored elections (if you know that).

So, you need focus--what are you looking for?--you need some context (say, in my example, some knowledge of the history of U.S. interference in Latin America), you need to hone your critical skills and maybe you need to be really pissed off--but the information is out there, by which to EVALUATE what we are normally exposed to, and come to your own conclusions.

I've also been interested in our own election system and DU--and especially the DU Election Forum--has been absolutely invaluable at finding and analyzing information about it, especially in my biggest broken-hearted moment about our country--the 2004 (s)election.

Figure, if YOU are very interested in something, and feel poorly informed and want to get more information or a new perspective, SOMEBODY ELSE has felt the same way and may well have started a web site for that particular information need. That is the glory of the Internet. You can find it, if you're focused and look for it. Back when I was a student, early in the Vietnam War, there was only one source of good information that I knew about-one paperback book that we students passed all around and avidly read until it was dogeared. We could not have imagined the breadth of information available today. Although our war profiteers have advanced beyond our ability, as a democracy, to stop an unjust war, it is still our obligation to be informed and to do what we can to restore democracy here. Information will help us, believe me. It is the beginning. Our people are so DIS-informed, on so many fronts, that many have no clue about the most basic elements of our democracy, for instance, how our votes are counted and by whom. The Internet, for all its chaos, has that information, and has people who have studied and analyzed it and vital things to tell you about it.

And all I will say about that, here, is, the next time you read/view a corporate report about somebody being "elected," be skeptical. Be REALLY skeptical. Telescope into the "black hole" in that news story and try find the concrete evidence that it is true.

[polichick]

3. I don't buy that "maybe he/they know things we don't" excuse ...

We know enough about bills and policies to be able to believe our eyes, ears and brains when our "leaders" capitulate to corporate power and the wealthy over and over again.