I have thought long about whether or not I should publish this particular piece of writing. Mainly because I cannot foresee the consequence. Which ironically is one of the reasons I wanted to write it in the first place. So let us see what happens.

Also this is a work in progress I will probably reiterate this post many, many times as I give it more thought.

I was born in 1989 which means I got to grow up in the nineties and beginning of the new millennium. It means that by the time I turned twenty, I had experienced the mobile phone and internet become mainstream. I watch opinion providers going from being experts on TV, on the radio, or in papers, to be whomever wanted to shouter their opinion out on the internet. I saw this rice of the comment section on news articles, the hatred it sparked, the rudeness, the unkindness, in particular to people of a different opinion. I witnessed the rise of the opinion influence, with this I mean those influence whom provide opinion on any topic be it political or not. And honestly it frightens me what I have witnessed and what it has become. It frightens me because the nuance of debate has been lost. I has become us versus them and they need to disappear

Enter almost any subreddit (for the uninitialised subforum) on Reddit and you will at minimum see one active “debate”. Where people are throwing slurs at one another because mentality “your dumb arse is wrong and I am write” is strong. Go to Facebook and read the comment track for a news article and see the anger and hate, even if people did not read the article. It is insane. But what is even worse, no one really debate. People stand first on their own opinion with no desire to even try and understand the other side. From arguing about if pineapple on Pizza is sacrilegious, to which band it better, to which political direction is better. No one wants to give up on their opinion and their, in lack of better words, right to be right.

We have become unable to see the side of an opponent. To see that their may be some truth in what the opponent say. It is a lost skill. I have heard and read in many places that this in part can be blamed on information warfare from Russia, China, and other adversaries of the west. But can it really? I have not actually seen a fully convincing argument for it being the sole reason. Others argue that it is the media, their click bait, the dividing stories. But is it? I would argue, no. The reason is that whilst the news do bring these stories that polarise, they do so because it is the once we read and interact with. With todays need for likes, clicks, and interactions, who can blame them? Would you pay for a media that do not do this? I know I want to but right now I do not. For instance I know Zetland exists, an amazing danish news outlet. But do I subscribe… No. Instead I subscribe to a none local news outlet, the New York Times and mainly due to their book and tech sections, not the news. But I should reconsider.

Therefore we should relearn that difference of opinion is okay. We should relearn to accept the opinions of others. We should relearn to evaluate our own opinions. It is a must.

./Lars