What You Need To Know Before Sharing Your Political Views Online

Written by
Pic by Pixabay


"The degenerate left claimed President Trump had health issues after drinking water with 2 hands." tweeted DeAnna Lorraine (@DeAnna4Congress), on Jun 21, 2020.

"Today he drank with one and tossed the glass to the side!", she continued with rolling on the floor laughing emoji in that same tweet.

"GREATEST. PRESIDENT. EVER." she added. She also attached a video of it. 
Blimey, I wish everyone in my office as appreciative as this lady. 

Jokes aside, I understand that there's a context in her tweet as she can't fully explain everything in 280 characters. It's about Democrats accusation of Trump's health problem, and that's how he responded to it.

I had time to look at her profile, though. She happens to be a congressional candidate from Republican and obviously, a supporter of Trump. 

Without researching further, I refused to judge her as a stupid politician. Simply because she's vying to win more popularity. Now let's say even if her tweet looks stupid, perhaps she did that on purpose to win likes from #MAGA die-hard fans. As of this writing, this tweet receives more than 50.000 likes and 35.000 retweets. 

But let's be honest here. If you're just a common people like me, who doesn't follow the race for US President on regular basis, you must be either confused, curious, or simply laughing for how stupid that tweet looks. 

Even if you understand the context, it's absolutely weird to celebrate a man who can drink a water normally.

Bias

I understand that in politics, self-value or interest (or should I say selfishness?) often beating common-value (and common sense). It often leads to less desirable outcomes for greater good (Baron, 2007). Also, people tend to support politicians who represent their moral value and interest based on bias and intuition. So it's more of feeling rather than thinking.

When people use intuition in decision making, they seem uninterested to consider all available information. Even if that has proven evidence. 

'Trust your instinct', sadly, is a fallacy. As our intuitions frequently lead us astray (Soll, Milkman, and Payne, 2015). And that's also the case in political preference.

People always try to find confirmation and recognition of their initial thoughts on everything, including politics. To support them, they mostly pick news that affirms their pre-existing beliefs, and rejecting to believe any information that conflicting with their main interpretation (Kahneman, 2011). Even if that has solid evidence. 

And I'm here excluding how internet algorithm sowing our political bias to another level, by providing news we like to see. Simply just to entice us to spend more time online.

With the emergence of online social media, bias goes to another level. An introvert in real life can be an expressive person in social media. The interaction between two or more opposing political supporters sometimes lead to heated argument. 

People with political bias not only have rigid opinion, but they also have tendency to force their opinion to others. Sometimes with anger too. And it triggers serious hatred between supporters to personal level.

The hatred toward certain politicians make their haters believe that whatever they do, it's always bad, even when they're doing well. 

That's also the case when people blindly support certain politicians. They tend to support whatever they do. If their candidates made bad policy, they always find justification rather than trying to find the truth. 

Online platforms such as instagram, twitter, and facebook becoming more and more congested with such political discussions. And the fanatics, they voluntarily post or re-post their biased opinions online. Perhaps not knowing what sort of impact they can cause.

Readjust Habit

There are three main rules in posting your political views online that you need to know.

First, at least in the US, about 44.6% of people feel annoyed when there are politic discussions on social media. Second, arguing politics with people whose views differ does not lead to common ground (PewResearch, 2018). And third, always remember: whatever you post online, may last forever.

I personally think it's okay to talk about politics online. It's freedom of speech.

But internet is a public space. And in public space, your freedom shouldn't harm nor annoy others.

Sometimes I find it stressful to see ridiculous posts that based on nothing but hoaxes and biases. Even educated intellectuals also post these type of opinions

And it happens all around the world, in many countries with different economic backgrounds. Even in the well developed countries.

Bias might be a problem here. But I understand it's difficult to overcome bias. Even the smartest people exhibit bias in their decision making (Soll, Milkman, and Payne, 2015). While I'm campaigning de-bias in decision making for every aspect of our life (I started the campaign last friday by the way), it needs serious will and attempt. 

And it's not as easy as snapping our fingers.

But at least there's something that we can instantly do right now. Which is to readjust our habit in sharing our political views online.

Think about it. If your post is wrong, you share misinformation and it's a criminal offense (in Indonesia, of course). Also, you must always be aware that your political post can make yourself look stupid. Even if you're not.

In short, stop posting anything about politics without checking its validity or having more evidence. If you have limited information, think again before you post or re-post it. Find more information, especially the ones that conflicting your initial stance. That way, you can make fair and objective conclusion.

If you're too lazy doing so: post something else (your pet, your sadness), save as draft, exit, scroll again until you find another interesting distraction. Save your time, and save yourself from looking embarrassing. 

And guess what, it's actually as easy as snapping our fingers.

Comments

Post a Comment