You go to an expert to operate on you and an expert to fix your car, an expert to rebuild parts of your house, etc.
But when it comes to political wtiting online, no degree and/or education is needed anymore. Anyone with a username can open a blog and make uncheckable claims- no knowledge of actual events is required.
Is it coming to the point where there are so many uneducated people blogging about politics that it takes more effort to separate the truth from fiction than it did before there were blogs?
Are the uneducated mass of poltical blogs really hurting the idea of democracy and free exchanges of rational thought by drowning out the rationality with nonsense under the guise of "free expression?"
As a former syndicated editorialist for a newspaper, I find that most blogs are poorly written and the writers are poorly educated on the issues.
What makes Joe Shmoe from Nowhere, USA think people will award his opinions about Global politics any merit ?
2006-10-20 03:52:19 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Government
And just to be clear, this question isn't about taking away the RIGHT for someone to blog, but more questioning whether the intelligent debate is getting drown out to the detriment of our democracy.
2006-10-21 04:01:19 · update #1
and why is jl_jack my biggest fan, this guy answers every single question I ask on here, he must love me. He even talks about me in his blog, instant street cred- he better watch out though, what he doesn't understand is that if he keeps reposting my PUBLISHED material on his blog he's going to get sued and since he claims his blog is HUGE and staffed, nothing would feel better than taking away from him.
2006-10-21 04:13:06 · update #2
Excellent question. As long as people consider info from a blog as not necessarily any more authoritative than Joe the bartender, then this additional opportunity for political discourse is valuable. There are opinions you won't hear from your friends. For example, even here in this less than learned environment, one can pick up new insights, test arguments, as well as view a range of opinions. If someone is rude, just minmize with thums down. So for opinions I think forums and blogs are good, but for info, facts, I go to AP, Newsweek, NYT, Wash Post, LATimes.
2006-10-20 03:55:43 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
So much useless crap gets recycled all the time, people with conspiracy theories reference useless sources and keep repeating the same old empty stuff, until some people start to believe nonsense without doing any research. One would hope that the marketplace of ideas will allow the best written and most thoroughly researched to rise to the top, and the crappy ones to die on the vine, but experience does not necessarily dictate that that will actually happen.
This idea of an open democracy, with freedom of speech and all the other freedoms that we enjoy, can get messy sometimes, and it's regrettable that not everyone has the same respect for accuracy, decency, truth and wisdom... I think eventually those that are worthwhile will get the respect that they deserve. I prefer our messiness to the stagnant stinkiness of countries that don't allow any free speech.
We just need to all be better educated, and to exercise discernment in what we believe, and make anyone making any assertions, whether we agree or disagree with them, be more vigilant about what they are saying. Challenge lazy thinkers and make them squirm, wherever and whenever possible.
2006-10-20 04:52:43 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Seems kinda childish to report a post but have at it. As to your question. Almost none of my blog is written by me. It's all facts. Take any one fact and prove it wrong. You can not do it. Not one. I have a staff that does the real work for me. Just as I have a secretary to do this stuff for me. This is what you don't get. You don't decide who has freedom and who does not. You also don't get to decide what others choose to read or not. You don't have the power to do that. Without power your just one of those who becomes the critic of others with real power. BTW, my blog had 3600 hits last week, must not be all that bad. When is the last time you got 3600 phone calls in one week asking you "what is your thinking on this issue"? BTW. Karl. Now your being really funny. You claim to be better educated then anyone and think you can file suit over material that has not been copy-written. How dumb is that?
2006-10-21 01:53:37 · answer #3 · answered by jl_jack09 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It does open the doors for people to do everything you said, but at the same time, it give people a chance to see the views of others....As was already stated people just have to realize that is only opinion stated on the blog and not fact....It opens an avenue of comunication about politics but you are right.....people can't take the as fact and need to to their research. But we should be doing that anyway.
2006-10-20 04:06:52 · answer #4 · answered by yetti 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Blog = Webpage Template.
Same as aol homepage, yahoo profile, even comparable to a post like Answers, or Email to usenet archives.
Anyone everyone and their grandmas have 50 data outputs somehow.Blogs simply throw em in a nice little searchable format for you to decide is complete crap, or interesting enough to take some processing power of your brain for a moment. Or 2 moments. Or daily. Or weekly.
The real problem is folks who click the first buy now link.
2006-10-20 05:44:09 · answer #5 · answered by kool_rock_ski_stickem 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, blogs definitely are making people less interested in googling political information. Instead they're stuck reading the editorials on news pages in addition to regular news stories. Blogs and discussion forums have definitely removed intelligent discussion about political issues.
2006-10-20 03:57:29 · answer #6 · answered by J G 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
its called free speach baby...its a beautiful thing....something that this country was founded on..........but sadly there is a dummy in the white house trying to take that right away from you and me...
2006-10-20 04:56:46 · answer #7 · answered by Unfrozen Caveman 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it opens the avenue of the lonely, they realize that there are others out the with very similar opinions....
2006-10-20 03:58:08 · answer #8 · answered by lost&confused 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋