January 14, 2025
The American Dream? Or Keep Americans Dreaming?
By John Myers
By Giannie Arana
Regardless of the result of this extremely high-stakes election cycle, some woke up on November 5th relieved and elated that their elected candidate delivered their victory speech. At the same time, others woke up in panic about what this meant for the future of their democracy.
How can we fix this in a polarized nation?
It all comes back to how we handle these post-election conversations. What we say must be factual, and how we deliver it will determine whether we can come together to address our country’s challenges or remain rooted in division.
Understanding the difference between fact and opinion has become more difficult for Americans to grasp. Americans find it incredibly challenging to tell whether something is a factual statement or a statement of opinion. This inability to overcome differences of opinion for American adults has become a much larger concern than many of the issues themselves, as some of these ideas are formed on political misinformation.
Misinformation comes in all forms of monsters however the most behemoth of them all would be the tiny computers we carry in our pockets. Yes, our smartphones. On September 24, The Pew Research Center released an article titled, “News Platform Fact Sheet” that reported on “different pathways Americans use to get news on their digital devices.”The article also stated, “A little more than half (54%) at least sometimes get news from social media, and 27% say the same about podcasts,” making independent news the preferred method of upholding information. Defeating the narrative of factual “news” as our news feed pushes algorithms that are catered to our political interests and ideas.
A study published in March 2024 by the Harvard Kennedy School of Misinformation Review, revealed that “The capacity to differentiate between a statement of opinion and a statement of fact is vital for citizens to manage the flood of political information they receive on any given day,” said study author Jeffery J. Mondak. Mondak also stated, “There’s a huge amount of research on misinformation. But what we found is that, even before we get to the stage of labeling something misinformation, people often have trouble discerning the difference between statements of fact and opinion.”
“How can you have productive discourse about issues if you’re not only disagreeing on a basic set of facts but also disagreeing on the more fundamental nature of what a fact itself is?” Mondak said.
The study also highlighted the significant role of partisan bias in shaping how individuals interpret statements. Partisan bias led respondents to view statements as factual if it aligned with their political party, and opposing statements to be viewed as opinionated. This strong bias showed how deeply political polarization influences our perception of reality.
“As partisan political views grow more polarized, Democrats and Republicans both tend to construct an alternate reality in which they report that their side has marshaled the facts and the other side merely has opinions,” Mondak said.
People of America: we need to stop and regroup.
We are “one Nation” not a divided one.
Rather than accepting everything we read at face value, let’s exercise the wonderful liberty to ask questions and uncover information for ourselves, especially when electing a future leader of the United States. We need to relearn how to listen and talk to one another for the sake of our country, implanting hope for our future, not fear.
