The Necessary Tools

As we are now well into the era of partisanship, polarization, and the politics of personal destruction, I have developed a method of discernment that may prove useful to others. (I'm probably not the first person to think of it, or write it, but I do believe it is worth repeating anyway) An antidote, per say, to the literally sickening public discourse dutifully transmitted, amplified, and distorted by the corporate media conglomerates.

1. When a partisan disparages a political opponent, the partisan is mostly correct. (one should allow for a small amount of hyperbole)

2. When a partisan advocates their own point-of-view or program, they are mostly incorrect and/or misleading. (one should allow for a large amount of hyperbole)

3. Beyond the large degree of truth spoken when a partisan addresses an opponent and the larger degree of untruth when a partisan speaks of their own side, are the most important issues of all:

4. the issues that are NOT addressed

5. the unintended (but most often, unpublicized) consequences of actions taken and/or advocated.

So how does one identify a partisan?

That is very easy to do nowadays, especially via Television. As the chances are 99 out of 100 that any talking head appearing on TV will be a former, future, or present, elected official, appointed-bureaucrat, or lobbyist.
Any (R) or (D) beside their name is a dead giveaway.

Partisans in print are a little more difficult to discern, requiring more time and reading. But the odds are still 9-1.

The definitive mark of a partisan is dichotomy. Their assertion that one side (theirs) is all "good" and their opponent's side is all "bad". Most often their preponderance of truth-telling about the evils of the other side (see 1. above) is accompanied by a sin of omission. Conveniently leaving out the valuable context of their own (side's) previous mistakes and failures.

And of course, a partisan derives financial benefit from advocating one side and denigrating the other.

This does not mean that a partisan is incapable of being accurate or 'telling the truth'. They can and do. It means that they can only do so when describing the other side.

And in today's age of "parallel realities", the ability to determine larger contexts and 'truths', is still, as always only even more so, all up to you.

Expect no one to do it for you.

(especially in finding the issues/questions that are NOT to be spoken of by corporate media)