Keeping Your Bias in Check

Taking in the totality of information is important. If you don't, then the very thing you may be fighting against, or standing up against is creeping in as part of your mantra. If you don't keep it in check, you'll become part of the problem you're trying to alleviate.

Since I returned to Minds, I've seen several posted articles from sources that are just garbage.

Quoting them, or using them is just as bad as quoting MSM, and "the establishment." Just because they craft a clickbaity headline that appeals to your bias, doesn't make them legitimate.

While NewsGuard isn't the end-all-be-all of authoritative content, nor should it ever be. It's a good starting point to weigh whether the source you're looking at is good, has some flaws, or is total junk.

I recommend you install it and use it, it goes on your browser as an extension. Yes, it works with Brave.

Here is, for example, a quick report from one of these websites & articles I mention. (see image) This is for a site called "mintpressnews dot com"

There's more nuance to the report, but the first click on the extension gives you a nice summary.

Unfortunately, the red flags are in the areas which are most important (at least to me), especially the one about deceptive headlines. All the other red marks are bad too.

As I read the article that was shared, I had to agree with the report. Then I looked around for a while on that site and then cross-referenced a few claims and definitely, the site is pretty deceptive.

But this isn't just that site, it's a lot of the sites from where people share articles. It happens here, it happens in FB, it happens on Twitter and Gab, and Mastodon. It's not a "social network" problem, it's a people problem.

So don't be fooled just because you're here, in Minds, following people that agree with you or are trying to "do better" or "fight the system".

Bias, deception, cognitive dissonance, happens to the best of us.