“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears…”
George Orwell, 1984
In the age of Alternative Facts we must seek and cherish truth.
We don’t live in an Orwellian dystopia (yet), but politicians and media outlets are working so hard to obscure objective truth with spin, bullshit and outright falsehood it’s getting hard to identify the signal in the noise. But don’t take our word for that, here are some sources we find useful in navigating the confusion.
Links
Full Fact.
Billed as “The UK’s independent fact checking authority”, these guys do a great job of fact-checking claims made by politicians, and media outlets as well as social media viral sensations and high profile lunatics.
The Earth really isn’t flat. These guys checked.
http://www.fullfact.org
America’s Hidden Duopoly
Take half an hour to listen to this TED talk about American politics. You may find that there’s a lot here that is true for us in the UK too. Our political parties are more concerned with beating one another than doing good. Politicians no longer have an interest in reaching concensus; instead it’s about numbers and domination. The only way to grow when you take the middle ground for granted is to win support from the fringes; hence you get Momentum pulling Labour to the left and UKIP/ERG pulling the Conservatives to the right.
Most of us are in the centre. If you’re like me, you have much more in common with 80% of the people on the other side of the political divide than with the people dominating your own party.
https://gen.medium.com/americas-hidden-duopoly-9911e9f10b1e