I spent twenty years inside the machine that builds the news you consume. I was a Young Republican national delegate way back in 2009. I have marched with Occupy. I have written for publications you have read. I have sat in rooms where editors decided what the story would be before the facts were even collected.
And I am here to tell you the most uncomfortable truth about how I got here: I believed everything.
First, I believed the right-wing narrative completely. I could explain why every story on the left was a distortion, why the media was biased, why the real America was being ignored. I had the talking points, the sources, the outrage.
Then I completely believed the left-wing narrative. I could explain why every story on the right was a distortion, why the media was biased, why the real America was being ignored. I had the talking points, the sources, the outrage.
I was not lying. I was not stupid. I was not unique. I was simply human, and humans are spectacularly good at believing things that make us feel like we understand the world.
The breaking point was not a single fact or a devastating rebuttal. It was the slow, horrifying realization that both sides were running the same machine. The same narrative architecture. The same emotional triggers. The same certainty that only their people could see clearly.
What I learned - and what I will share at the What Is Truth? Summit on July 17-18 - is that discernment is not about being smarter than everyone else. It is about being honest about what you are actually looking at.
I will walk you through the framework I use now: the difference between a narrative and actual news. The telltale signs that you are inside a story someone else built for you. The three questions I ask before I believe anything make me feel righteous.
And I will tell you what it actually feels like when the architecture breaks - when you realize you have been living inside a construction that was never designed to help you think, only to help you stay engaged.
This is not a talk about centrism or both-sidesism. I have no patience for that. This is a talk about seeing.
If you are tired of feeling manipulated, exhausted by the certainty that seems to be everywhere, and ready to build something better than reactive outrage, I will see you there.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.