Domestic Politics

Although this project has been going for a while now, today's launch is still a huge step for The Young Canadian. The number of expressly multipartisan publications just went up by 1, and that will always be a good thing.

There's a problem with how we consume information online today. This issue combines two words that don't go together often: Terrifying bubbles.

I remember the first time I was stalked by a terrifying bubble. It seemed completely innocent. I had been scrolling down Facebook, and ran across a particular article. This piece expressedly advocated a socialist overthrow of property owners in western society. Violence wasn't mentioned specifically beyond a throwaway reference to overcoming bourgeois resistance, but the idea absolutely was to break down the rule of law and force the redistribution wealth in an extremely communal sort of way.

I personally have a deep aversion to communism. (Communists happen to have murdered most of my extended family). So, my natural response was, after reading this article, to click the little down arrow on Facebook and stop the publication from appearing on my feed in the future. Done. No more upsetting ideas.

And just like that, the bubble had me. By blocking out this alternative viewpoint, however upsetting, I had started creating an intellectual enclosure for myself. Information I agreed with would be allowed in, and anything else would slowly be moderated out. A happy little newsfeed, containing nothing upsetting to my delicate sensibilities.

So that went on for a while. Eventually this actually made me feel more anxious and worried about what I was reading. The articles I now had access to were railing against an otherness that I could not understand, because it was now, thanks to the bubble, unknowable and terrifying. Because of this, I started looking for news in places other than Facebook to escape this effect.

To keep the bubble at bay, it's necessary to look at lots of sources. Look at the Guardian or the CBC on the ideological left. (If you're convinced that the CBC isn't on the ideological left, I'm afraid the bubble has you already). Read the National Post or the Wall Street Journal on the ideological right. Of course, everyone has a mix of columnists and of agendas. Nothing about any major publication is clear cut. Generally, just try reading what the people you often disagree with are reading.

Another way to keep an open mind is to find small, high quality sources of information with an expressly multipartisan mandate, which, congratulations: You just did! Follow The Young Canadian on Facebook and Twitter for more. Keep the terrifying intellectual bubble away.