Everything You Should Want To Know About Political Moderation :)

In the age of modern technology we exist in what is referred to as cultural bubbles. Essentially digitally enforced echo chambers that are designed to re-enforce your ideologies with content that is in line with your beliefs. This echo chamber effect became more concentrated thanks to the advent of search engine algorithms, and AI platforms feeding you exactly what you want to read/watch/listen to.

As such it is becoming increasingly obvious that political ideologies are moving towards polar extremes, and it's become so apparent with events such as the White House attack in 2021 that Hollywood was going to provide it's own interpretation with Civil War staring Kirsten Dunst. For those that don't know I like to use popular culture as medium for tackling difficult topics in an approachable and relatively enjoyable manner.

Recently, I have been reminded of some of the early Flash days on the internet, where it was far less popular to band wagon on concepts using social media, and it's was more proactive to present your stance using original artwork. A Flash Game in this example, of George Bush Junior holding off an attack on the White House single handedly in full action hero regalia.

I wonder how George would feel knowing that the closest thing to this scenario would actually be perpetrated by political extremism within his own Republican Party?

So that leaves me with the question of what do I believe:

1. Unions are good, labor rights are important, we should respect our employees
2. Independent thought is important we should encourage it among our ranks
3. We should respect women... not a big ask
4. Productivity is important it's the life blood of the economy
5. Money isn't evil, but it can make those who have an excess of it act strangely

Some of those points namely four and five would make me what you might refer to as a left leaning moderate. Not everyone is a special snow flake, not all opinions are equal, education matters, meritocracy can be enforced, and listening to the extreme version of every argument always leads to the worst possible outcome.

But to be fair Canada in the 90's was a nation of moderates we had the Progressive Conservatives, not terrible progressive but they were pretending to be. We had a Prime Minister actively joking about police brutality I'll let you guess which one, and the NDP was basically invisible prior to Jack Layton.

This is a long way of saying that the world was a less scary and polarizing place, the very idea of a nation of the United States breaking off from the main land and starting a Civil War would not have existed. It would have been some futuristic Orwellian nightmare world, not like ten years from now and playing in a theater near you!

The best way to counteract this real life Civil War scenario is Media Awareness. Quite simple understand how content algorithms work, why they work, and make an effort to seek dissenting opinions. I make a point of listening to the most extreme point of view from both the Right and the Left.

The right is mostly nonsense perpetrated by mouth pieces like Jordan Peterson, and the left is characterized by political satire from men like John Stewart with razor sharp wits. But the important thing is that I have heard both sides, and I know which way I lean and why.

I would encourage everyone in this modern age of internet consumption to do the same. Get in touch with your 90's roots, listen to the Man Who Sold The World by Nirvana, and start breaking free of your digital culture cages.