When you browse through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you are bound to see a wide mix of posts. Cooking content, maybe some fashion posts, a few conspiracy posts, and so on.
Political Pages
A popular genre of posts happens to be political posts where the creator gives their own opinions and views about politicians or certain political issues. There is even a plethora of YouTube accounts that devote all their time and resources towards uncovering, debunking, and broadcasting all manner of political news such as KiniTV and Mariam Mokhtar who happen to be popular Malaysian YouTube pages that create content about the messy Malaysian politics.
Other websites such as Political Cortex publish many articles about a wide variety of political issues such as reasons to vote, third world countries and political stability. All of this input from outside sources can really muddle the mind and influence people about how they should feel about certain political issues, especially if the person is not that familiar with the current political environment. So, why does this happen?
The Rise of Influencers
For one thing, the rise in the number of influencers on the internet contributes to this. Influencers are people who do exactly what their name suggests, influence other people. When people think of influencers and the things they promote, it’s mostly about simple things such as what brand of clothing to buy, how to do their makeup nicely or what products work well for different skin tones. People listen to these influencers because they like and trust them. When an influencer with three million followers recommends a brand of perfume, it stands to reason that their opinion can be trusted because they have so many other followers that value their opinion. The same can be said for political opinions as well. When a person does not know much about politics, they tend to sway in the breeze about which stand to take.
Do you think that people who handle food should wear the best quality gloves such as those from Medrux.com when handling food or is just washing their hands often sufficient? There are people who don’t even have an opinion about that. When you don’t have a firm and stable reason for why you feel a certain way about something, especially something as important as politics, it will not take much for someone to break you with their opinions. In the same way, when you are wishy washy about your political opinions, it is easy to just adopt the viewpoints of your favourite influencers because you trust them and their views.
Why Have Political Opinions?
A lot of people jump from one view to another and that is dangerous because it impedes your own judgement should that situation happen to you. For example, the issue of abortion is a very sensitive but extremely crucial one. Some people are on the side of pro choice, meaning they do not oppose a woman’s right to have an abortion as it is her body and she should have the right to make the choice she feels right while other people are on the side of pro life where they view the child in the womb as a gift and having an abortion constitutes as murder.
This issue has been going on for the longest time with both sides going at each other’s throats. Both sides have their own views and reasons for why they hold on to the opinion that they feel is right. Some say that legalizing it will just give people the option to take the easy way out when they just don’t want to keep the pregnancy for less than noble reasons while others feel that banning it altogether will create a danger where women that need an abortion will have to go to dodgy clinics where sanitation is not a priority and the doctors do not use proper quality medical tools. When it comes to medical procedures, gloves from Medrux.com are the best that you can find in the market. Many influencers have different views on abortion and not having your own firm opinions on it, you could go back and forth on what you feel is right and if the time comes where you need to make that decision, you will have the toughest time.
Smear Campaigns
There are also others who make it their business to launch smear campaigns against other people as well. This can be quite confusing and even dangerous. There is a difference in telling the whole truth, that means the good and the bad about a politician, candidate or issue, and launching false and untrue allegations against them, just to spoil their image and sully their reputation with other people. Research is key here. You should not take everything you read and hear as the gospel truth. Sometimes, if not most times, people just leave a hint of truth in a basket of lies and call that truthful news. Checking everything out for yourself is important as that is the only way to know the full story. If a piece of news is just full of praises or insults against someone or something, that is a clear indication that extra research is vital.
Conclusion
Political opinions should not be based on what your favourite influencer thinks. There is no harm in listening to opposing or different points of view. There is no issue with changing your views either, provided that you fully understand the issue that you are taking a stand on. Reading political content online or watching videos on YouTube can actually help you because the creator lays out all the facts in the open and that gives you all the information you need to make your own decision. Granted, many if not most of those sites do offer skewed views as they tend to speak more favourably on the issue or person they support but that is why doing your own extra research is important. All those social media sites can help but at the end of the day, independent research is needed to gain the most unbiased and honest views that will not influence your thoughts and opinions. Your political opinion matters, do not let someone take it away with just a few sweet lies. Find out the truth and form your views on that.
