[alter_eco123]

> I suppose my cynicism towards the people I’m supposed to trust is the primary thing prevents me from having a more fact based view of the world.

How so? Is it not a fact that politicians can't be trusted, and that, as you said, the mainstream media is largely about programming the populace?

"Cynisism" is what people call realism when they want you to stop talking about reality.

[jrs95]

Perhaps at one point I was realistic but I think at this point I’ve seen enough blatant deception that I am overly paranoid as sort of a defense mechanism. This is probably still more accurate than how I viewed things before, but all I really meant by cynicism is that I am conscious of the fact that I am probably even more distrustful than what would be reasonable, just as a result of negative experience. Perhaps I’m right, but I don’t have an objective rationale for this, it’s largely based on heuristics.

To be a bit more concrete, it’s true that politicians and the media are liars, but then to extend that further to education, entertainment, and those who are culturally influential in general can be quite the stretch outside of a few specific data points. And how is it connected? How does this system actually work? It’s so complex it’s almost immeasurable. A critical view of this is necessarily heavily influenced by intuition and emotion IMO since you’re unable to trust a large body of your learned information from that mindset.

[alter_eco123]

> And how is it connected? How does this system actually work?

Look at things and keep asking: "Who benefits?"