We all have opinions and viewpoints. It’s what makes us individuals, for the most part. How or if we occasionally challenge those viewpoints is another subject entirely. Failure to see other views, or surrounding ourselves with only similar views, can lead to a distortion of view vs reality. Let’s dig.
When the only opinions you ever hear are those that agree with your own, this phenomenon is referred to as an ‘echo chamber’. There is no testing of such viewpoints—they are just regarded as accurate, but only by those within that circle. From flat-Earth groups to wild conspiracy groups, they bounce similar ideas and conclusions off of each other (hence ‘echo’), with no resistance or challenge, so they all are convinced their views are correct. As the late William F. Buckley stated, “Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view.” But echo chambers are certainly not limited to liberals. Conservatives, neo-Cons, Never-Trumpers, Always-Trumpers, and every nuance in between can all be guilty of this severely limited world view. We think it, everyone we know thinks it, so it’s obviously true! This can lead to abject shock and disorientation when a group member encounters a slice of reality that completely destroys their original idea—so much so, that it can (or should) shake them down to the bedrock of how they acquired such erroneous view in the first place.
Academia, news bureaus, and political think tanks are fabulous examples of echo chambers. Teachers of all grade levels are downright convinced that they and they alone should have sole input into what and how they teach their students. They come positively UNGLUED when parents assert their rights to question what is being taught to their children. News bureaus are high-tech parroting organizations—they can repeat a false premise for years (see: Trump collusion), be proven incorrect, but continue to believe they are correct—all because other news agencies reported the same erroneous story. Think tanks are assemblies of very intelligent people, but all supporting the same ideology. Very smart people can be echo chamber victims as well as those less capable.
We have seen some recent examples of the destruction of the assumed views of echo chambers in the news. CNN+, Disney, Netflix, and Twitter come to mind:
* CNN+. Holy cow. Some consultants convinced the management of CNN that more than 20 million like-minded viewers would pay a monthly fee to get CNN content streamed to their personal devices. They were so convinced, they invested $300M to create such a service. Reality: even in their free trial period, they only got around 10,000 viewers per day. They are shutting down this failed experiment after only 3 weeks.
* Disney. This media giant has long been suspected of dual-imaging its cartoons and other content for years, pushing alternate sexual messaging to children. Then someone leaked an actual Disney board meeting video of members bragging that exact method. They celebrated ‘gaying’ or ‘transing’ content whenever possible! They somehow thought that such progressive attitudes were in the majority of their customer base. Reality: Disney stock price is down over 30% since these revelations came to light, and the State of Florida is threatening to withdraw Disney’s self-governing tax and operations exemptions granted to them in Orlando. Subscriptions to Disney+, their streaming service, dropped nearly 300,000 last week. Stay tuned.
* Netflix. The first and largest streaming content service considered itself bulletproof and trend-setting for its original content production. They even created Barack and Michelle Obama documentaries, along with such progressive shows as ‘Cuties’, which depicts young girls as sexual attractions in a dance troupe, and ‘He’s Expecting’, where a trans-male (read: female pretending to be a male) is pregnant. Reality: Netflix stock is down nearly 40%, and they lost subscription totals for the first time ever. Now, that may be due to more competition, and the fact that Netflix decided commercials may be a good idea, but it might just be that the buying public just isn’t interested in the progressive push that Netflix thought it would enjoy.
* Twitter. This instant messaging platform may be the very definition of echo chamber. From banning former President Donald Trump for life, to removing any posts that disagree with their narrative on nearly any topic, to forbidding posts on Hunter Biden’s laptop (since admitted accurate by several media outlets), Twitter has been a single-side view of the world, nearly since its inception. But things just got complicated in a New York minute, as multi-billionaire Elon Musk purchased nearly 10% of Twitter stock, threatening to make it a ‘town square of all opinions’. The board of directors of Twitter so disliked that idea, they did things to damage their stocks, just to avoid Musk’s take-over. This is an on-going issue, and may change minute-to-minute, but what the entire ordeal highlights: Twitter, and the folks running it, have expressly stated that not only do they want their form of censorship, they NEED it. Alternate views to their own will simply not be tolerated! And the board of directors would rather destroy the stock value than remove such censorship. Reality: Musk has widespread support, from people of all political views, and the default view of the Twitter board is that of villains.
In each case above, the folks involved thought the public at large agreed with their views. They were certain that they held the majority view, regardless of how progressive those views were. And they were convinced of these approaches because they are surrounded ONLY by like-minded people.
Note: as a Conservative author, I am as guilty and susceptible to echo chambering as anyone else. Because of the ‘news’ I consume, I may be getting only the views of those I agree with. Whether it is regarding the Clintons and Bidens as crime families, or if the 2020 Presidential election was ‘stolen’, mask or vaccine mandates, or any number of Right-leaning views, I tend to give more credence to authors and outlets I generally agree with. It is a difficult syndrome to escape. I am as unlikely to listen or watch CNN or NPR as a Liberal is to read Victor Davis Hanson or Milton Friedman.
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