How can you be "truthfully" informed?

This has been doing the rounds on social media again.

What gets me most about this video is his line " we were able to do all these things and be all these things because we were informed"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGa57az2VqY

I can't watch this video Bren. Do you have a link?

If you click the little Youtube logo on the bottom of the video it takes you to the original youtube video, which you should be able to watch.

Im not sure how to send the you tube link differently, but try the Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10154800513135321&id=551025320

Brenna wrote: This has been doing the rounds on social media again.

What gets me most about this video is his line " we were able to do all these things and be all these things because we were informed"

I think the reason it bothers you is because that specific line is just shoved in there because it's a show about news and it aims to make a point about news instead of making a point about the issues he lists before that. It's for entertainment, not information.
As for "how can you be truthfully informed" I'd say that truth varies greatly on perception so the manner in which people are informed also varies greatly because people are going to perceive different sources as trustworthy or not. For me personally, I never claim to be informed until all the facts are solidified, I get facts from as many different sources as I can, and I always operate under the assumption that everything I know could be wrong. I think in order to be informed a person has to be open to new ideas, question things, and investigate on their own instead of just taking someone's word for it.

"Truthishly", it takes a certain level of motivation and a certain amount of willingness to be wrong. Outside of those two things, nobody can be properly informed, but inside of them, there's no limit to what you can learn.

Oneiros wrote: I think the reason it bothers you is because that specific line is just shoved in there because it's a show about news and it aims to make a point about news instead of making a point about the issues he lists before that. It's for entertainment, not information.

Actually no. It doesnt "bother me" I think its the most profound sentence in the whole rant. Yes, Im aware that its for entertainment, but the heart of it is that unless you are informed (hopefully as factually as possible) everything you believe can be decided by someone elses agenda.

Oneiros wrote: As for "how can you be truthfully informed" I'd say that truth varies greatly on perception so the manner in which people are informed also varies greatly because people are going to perceive different sources as trustworthy or not. For me personally, I never claim to be informed until all the facts are solidified, I get facts from as many different sources as I can, and I always operate under the assumption that everything I know could be wrong. I think in order to be informed a person has to be open to new ideas, question things, and investigate on their own instead of just taking someone's word for it.

This is EXACTLY was I was getting at. And in order to be truthfully informed, we need to remove the filter of our own bias.

Brenna wrote:

Oneiros wrote: I think the reason it bothers you is because that specific line is just shoved in there because it's a show about news and it aims to make a point about news instead of making a point about the issues he lists before that. It's for entertainment, not information.

Actually no. It doesnt "bother me" I think its the most profound sentence in the whole rant. Yes, Im aware that its for entertainment, but the heart of it is that unless you are informed (hopefully as factually as possible) everything you believe can be decided by someone elses agenda.

Oneiros wrote: As for "how can you be truthfully informed" I'd say that truth varies greatly on perception so the manner in which people are informed also varies greatly because people are going to perceive different sources as trustworthy or not. For me personally, I never claim to be informed until all the facts are solidified, I get facts from as many different sources as I can, and I always operate under the assumption that everything I know could be wrong. I think in order to be informed a person has to be open to new ideas, question things, and investigate on their own instead of just taking someone's word for it.

This is EXACTLY was I was getting at. And in order to be truthfully informed, we need to remove the filter of our own bias.

Ooooooh. Oops. I read that as "gets to me" for some reason which I understood as "bother me." My bad. Sorta proves my point and what you were getting at about being open to the fact that one might be wrong and remove that bias filter. lol.
I'm not sure I'd call it profound because I don't really know to which previous generation he's referring to as "informed." The generation gripped by the Red Scare? The one that called AIDS the gay disease? All the ones that didn't see any non-white person as an equal human being? There are plenty of uninformed narratives propgated throughout each generation and we accomplish things in spite of them. Though, admittedly, this generation does seem to be more susceptible to misinformation.

Oneiros wrote: Ooooooh. Oops. I read that as "gets to me" for some reason which I understood as "bother me." My bad. Sorta proves my point and what you were getting at about being open to the fact that one might be wrong and remove that bias filter. lol.
I'm not sure I'd call it profound because I don't really know to which previous generation he's referring to as "informed." The generation gripped by the Red Scare? The one that called AIDS the gay disease? All the ones that didn't see any non-white person as an equal human being? There are plenty of uninformed narratives propgated throughout each generation and we accomplish things in spite of them. Though, admittedly, this generation does seem to be more susceptible to misinformation.

Lol. Sorry, I clearly needed to be less vague. I didn't mean just in context of the video itself. But the concept of being truthfully informed in general. But if the context of the video the (please dont shoot me for this) patriotic ignorance that it highlights is interesting.


For anyone really interested the scene is actually quite a bit longer and starts of with a discussion where he refuses to identify with any particular political leaning.

Brenna wrote: But if the context of the video the (please dont shoot me for this) patriotic ignorance that it highlights is interesting.

Absolutely. I see it all the time in the military. There's a good and bad aspect to everything and that ignorance is the bad aspect of patriotism. I think one could argue that acknowledging your respective country's shortcomings and working to improve them is more patriotic than just spouting the typical red, white, and blue taglines.