Manipulation of the facts? nah, i'm alright.

I find it distinctly worrying that in this day and age particularly, facts have become almost more subjective than opinions. The attitude of the public and the politicians that omission and manipulation are somehow different from lying shocks me and yet i am even more shocked by how rarely other people feel this way- there appears to be a growing blind acceptance of an enforced ignorance that truly is... soul-destroying. Perhaps, though i am choking on the very idea (no. literally choking as i type. i just took a very large and aggressive, rant-writing gulp of tea.), we even enjoy just swallowing the- if we're honest- bullshit that we are fed on a daily basis. 

What Bullshit, you ask? Well, I see it everywhere. I see it in how quick politicians and public figures are to play the blame game rather than really targeting the issues our world faces and how often the stories and statistics are warped in the press to suit an objective that is ridiculous, unfeasible and dishonest in the hope that the story is more commercially viable or better suits the tastes of their readership; surely we should be able to access raw and impartial news and facts! The BBC is as close as we get to this and relying on one source seems... limiting. We are (gladly) prone to sugar coating and being blinded by well-intentioned but superfluous 'neutrality'- why do i live in a world were people are afraid of saying that someone has "fucked up" but favours the "oh dear. hmm... seventeenth chance?" approach. 

We are building a society in which facts are synonymous with opinion and in this technology-driven, information and opinion heavy world this is even more dangerous than it was in the past because we are raising a generation of people who quote their ideas and thoughts from blogs and articles more than they form their own, that accept the "facts" offered to them and assume that they substantiate and validate the opinion that they are paired with and, worst of all, cannot distinguish projection, prediction and deduction from evidence. How can a jury hope to offer a verdict untinged by publicised opinion and speculation when we encounter this spiel of assumption on a minute by minute basis- scratch that, second by second! 

Nowadays if you want to have an opinion on something, you don't research facts or reference other opinions, you plagiarise people's very THOUGHTS. It worries me that if some form of neo-nazism were to gain any sort of real popularity or acceptance today, it would probably either grow twice as quickly or fail instantaneously depending entirely on what side the most popular tabloid press took. We don't need poster and rally propaganda any more. A google search buzz word is enough. Once you are the most read article, you are one of two things: the most despised and humiliated or the most accepted and celebrated. It's all terrifying. It's all just PR. 

I am not a cynic. I do think that humanity is still clutching onto its autonomy. But the threads are wearing thin and it is just so much more convenient to join a trend of thought and blindly accept all its ideas. We are a society of whole-hearted acceptance and commitment to ideology. We are no longer pickers and choosers or formers and creators. We are becoming far too lazy around idea generation. And as a result there is no call or desire for raw facts. We want them condensed and summarised and to come as part of an all-inclusive idea package. We are rarely prepared to trawl through entire books, essays and records from various sides and perspectives because it is so simple to choose one essay and search for a single phrase in a single paragraph and from that sign up to everything else. But ideas are not like package-holidays or contracts. They should be flexible, multi-layered, patch-worked and new. 

I am not telling you to stop reading or listening to others and their views. But I am encouraging you to go one step further. I am begging you to engage in debate. To think about other opinions and then discard, develop, adapt or absorb them (or parts of them) and, above all, please make sure that you aren't just nodding along (and if you find yourself doing such a thing, please remember: Human beings are not, surprisingly, nodding-dogs). 

We shouldn't be manipulated by manipulated facts. We shouldn't commit to an idea without thinking it through. We shouldn't bend our own thoughts to fit with the norm or please the powerful (i'm looking at you, Nick Clegg). We shouldn't be so easily convinced by speech-writing and rhetoric. Politicians should not be able to swing public opinion by pointing a finger and moaning without really saying anything (i'm looking at you, David).

We need to start saying things when we talk.

And the things that should be being said, should be.... interesting. 

BUT most of all- they should be OUR OWN.