Episode #877
November 22, 2025
Most social media and news reporting have become biased in one direction or another.
These outlets are split almost evenly in the US between red and blue viewpoints. Non-politically, red and blue can be associated with conservative and liberal. Few outlets are truly unbiased.
Consider these two definitions from the dictionary:
Conservative:
Characterized by the maintenance of traditional institutions, customs, and values. Resistance to change, static. Defined by respect for authority and social order, personal responsibility, and minimal government intervention.
Liberal:
Characterized by a focus on progress, reform, and social change, progressive. Supportive of government intervention to promote equality and protection of individual rights. Emphasizes personal freedom, social justice, and the expansion of opportunities for all.
Excessive government intervention skews both conservative and liberal views. Militarizing the police, censoring speech, and fixing elections contradict the essential tenets of both conservative and liberal ideologies.
When government intervenes excessively, conservatism tends to resist or push back, emphasizing limited government, individual responsibility, and protection of traditional institutions. As long as it does not submit to authoritarianism, this pushback can keep conservative ideology on track.
Liberalism tends to respond to conservative overreach by advocating for reform, defending personal freedoms, and promoting social change. As long as it does not slip into anarchy, liberalism remains true to its beliefs.
These tensions are polarizing at best. They have become tribal. They separate those views into opposing social media viewpoints.
I have observed Twitter transposed from an even-handed forum for expression into an angry, narrow-minded forum as X.
Reddit always leaned liberal, but has become accusatory and reformist in response to conservative government overreach.
Somewhere in between is the new social media platform, Bluesky. It is an open-source “stackable moderation” system, allowing users to customize their content experience by subscribing to different moderation services.
Bluesky’s user base tends to lean left. However, its decentralized architecture and customizable moderation tools provide mechanisms that can support a range of political perspectives. This potentially facilitates a more balanced and open discourse. There is still the danger of designing a Bluesky feed to match preconceived beliefs, but that is ultimately the choice of the user.
Conditioning is subtle:
“A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”
— Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels
Encouragement for critical thinking:
“Let the buyer beware.” (ie, do the research before you buy)
— Roman law
Consuming the conditioning and programming that are inherent in extremely skewed media content is a slippery slope. Excluding other opinions can cement prejudicial ideologies in the minds of partisans.
Keeping an open mind to contrary ideas draws all ideologies together.
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