I struggle with everything I post, knowing that 90% will read it incorrectly and use it against me. I’m a registered Independent. I’m conservative on many things, liberal on others. Sue me. But all my posts boil down to a couple basic premises:

I believe firmly that all media is biased, and that mainstream media is biased left.

This includes CNN, MSNBC, the major networks, and all major newspapers. FOX, of course, is biased to the right. Say what you will about FOX, and I’ll probably agree with you, but the big difference is that FOX takes full responsibility for their bias. I respect that, and simply wish that mainstream media would own up to their bias. I pass no judgement in either case because America needs options and different perspectives. But the mere fact that mainstream media refuses to admit and embrace their bias, and because so many viewers do not take the opportunity to learn other perspectives, I simply do not trust mainstream media.

Therefore, many of my posts are solely to point out media bias and double standards.

I hate Facebook memes containing lists of things pro or con, and I will usually play devil’s advocate.

I’ve liked, shared and commented on the fairness of memes regardless of political, social or cultural perspective.

For example, the meme of a quote from Donald Trump about running as a Republican because Republicans are stupid… That quote is widely circulated, but also widely known to be false. Although it is COMPLETELY believable, it is false. And to share the meme, knowing it is false, is so uncool, when there are SO MANY other great and truthful memes of ridiculous but accurate Trump quotes.

If and when I see a meme that is unfair, or contains information that I know to be false, I comment. Just ask Aj Pittman-Robertson or Edith Giles or Toy Battle. I love and respect them more than they know. They post a lot of great content, so I troll their accounts. 😉 And I know they’re sick of my comments.

It’s a bad habit, but if my timeline is full of bad information, and the person doesn’t know it’s bad information, I’m going to comment, because that’s what friends do. Opinion is one thing, but factual information is another thing.

The memes I have a hard time passing up are the ones of lists of statistics that don’t show a complete picture. I take full responsibility for being the jerk who drops a comment that explains how data can be expressed in all kinds of ways to prove a point, even if the data is expressed incorrectly.

Still, there are lots of funny political, and those are okay. Everyone should be able to laugh at themselves.

I’m staunchly anti-Hillary.

I’ve never liked her, not since her husband was president. I try to be fair when discussing her, but I still think she is corrupt and will be bad for America. Regarding her email scandal, I agree that 100 emails or of 30,000 are not enough to convict her.

(The percentage of emails found to contain classified information out of all of her email is mathematically the same as the number of guns used to kill people versus how many guns are in US circulation.)

So the FBI found 100 or so emails, and that’s not enough to convict her. HOWEVER, having a private server IS. LYING about having a private server IS. Not turning over and actually DELETING thousands and thousands of pieces of email evidence IS. All of these periphery activities should be enough to make the American public take pause and be outraged, but it ISN’T, and THAT is scary.

So yes, many of my posts will be about sharing information that supports the notion that Hillary is bought and paid for, that she is NOT what this country needs, and that, in fact, she will make it WORSE. She lies, she cheats, she operates above the law and consistently skates by, and she is greedy beyond measure.

I’m NOT pro-Trump.

I’m anti-Hillary (see No.3 above) and so I guess that results in pro-Trump by default. I admit when he first announced his candidacy that I was kinda stoked, because I’ve always wanted a non-politician to run. And I was a fan of The Apprentice for the first 5-6 seasons or so. But for all kinds of reasons – many the same as most people, many others different – I’m not pro-Trump. I’ll be truly conflicted come voting time if all things stay the same. But I will NOT vote for Hillary.

That said, I feel there is a lot of misinformation out there about Trump because of media bias. (See No. 1 above.) Too much detail to go into now, but the mainstream media has always relentlessly attacked conservatives yet coddled liberals. As an Independent, the lack of objective journalism bothers me, and it pushes me further and further right of center.

An example here is that Trump has NEVER said he hates immigrants, or that he would deport immigrants. Yet the media and pundits and talking heads CONTINUOUSLY quote him as such, and perpetuate this so-called “fear-mongering” when it’s THE MEDIA that is mongering the fear!

I try to live firmly, daily, by Stephen Covey’s first habit: “Seek first to understand, THEN to be understood.”

And I expect others to do the same.

I almost always try to ask questions rather than make statements. I’m a human being, always trying to learn and to challenge myself. Seeing or experiencing different perspectives gets me high. I LOVE talking about things and finding out what makes others tick. I LOVE the challenge of understanding why people think the things they do. Most of all, I LOVE learning about others’ perspectives, because I might agree and adopt that perspective as well.

On the flip side, this means I might appear to contradict myself. I actually might, but more often than not, I’ve found I can justify what might be an irrational discrepancy. Please confront me on that! Being consistent is incredibly important to me. Being fair and adopting the same, hopefully objective lens is also very important to me.

Anyway, there are probably five more things I could add, but I’ll save those for another post.

Congratulations if you got this far.