Politics and Truth

I've recently had some interesting discussions and arguments with family members about politics. I hate that it's about politics. There's a reason I always used to say that I hate politics. I think it should be about the issues. So when I present an opinion that's different from someone else's, I really hate it when the response is that it's just because I'm liberal. I recognize that I'm not perfect in this respect, but I want to continue to improve myself in my opinions being well-founded. I don't want to be liberal or conservative. And I've found that I've recently been falling into the trap of labeling myself and others. The problem is in propaganda emails, I find. As I continue to get similar emails, primarily from family members, that paint one story as an attempt to stereotype an entire group or claim that something is simply a hoax, I get more and more frustrated and begin to see things from the opposite side more. The reality is that I shouldn't form my opinions based on my frustrations with people sending me opposite viewpoints. I should rise above that and begin to do research. So I'm trying to do that. But it's not easy. I started by watching a few recent documentaries. I've watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine in the last few days. When I started with An Inconvenient Truth, the first thing I wrote down was that this film was propaganda. That is, this film was created to present one side of the issue. I have been provided with a stack of papers about an inch thick by someone I work with that supposedly prove that global warming is a myth. I will shortly begin to read through those articles, attempting to find the truth between these two forms of propaganda. With Bowling for Columbine, however, I found that I didn't need to view this as propaganda, a work presenting only one side, because Moore's goal was to explore the problem of gun violence in America. I was surprised to find that there were parts of the movie that were not contradictory to conservative standpoints, despite the fact that conservatives tend to despise Michael Moore. I wonder how many Michael Moore haters have actually seen any of his movies, but that's a different topic. Moore's exploration of other countries' gun violence rates in comparison to the American problem showed that it wasn't a problem of people owning guns. He explored gun control laws, but ultimately showed that Canada has similar gun ownership percentages, but much lower gun violence rate problems. My curiosity as to how many Moore-haters had seen any of his movies also led to a curiosity as to how many people who believe global warming is a hoax and despise Gore for An Inconvenient Truth have actually seen the movie or seriously looked into global warming from the opposite perspective. I'm going to read the stuff the guy at work gave me and then ask him if he's seen the movie. Because he's not at liberty to claim that global warming is a hoax if he hasn't heard both sides and considered the science.

So I would challenge anyone who is reading this to watch either of the movies I mentioned or Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. I hope that I get to that soon. I think documentaries are the easiest and most entertaining way to research this, so if you know of a documentary that presents another view, please recommend it to me. There's one that I believe is mentioned in one of the articles refuting global warming that I will try to find. So I guess this is the start of a journey in attempting to discover truth. I hope I always remember to search for truth. And I'll ask anyone who wants to accept the challenge to help hold me to that.