This week there have been a few images circulating on FB that I found to be helpful in regards to bias in the news media. The first, I reposted. It looked like this:

I thought it was pretty straightforward and helpful, even though they had to leave out SO many sites because, well, space and clarity of the image.

And then an alternative image started making the rounds, posited as better than the first:

And while I’ll agree that the graphic is better and includes more news sources, I take issue with one of the comments that are offered below, in reference to living in a bubble.  This one thing was enough to keep me from posting the image because honestly? Don’t fucking tell ME what it means that I’ve done some paring down on the people I interact with on a daily basis. It’s about safety and solidarity.

Just because I chose to have my social media be a true inner circle, a safe space, does not automatically mean that I’m not absorbing other points of view, or that I don’t interact in other spaces with people who have other points of view. And that whole issue aside, I remain firm on the idea that the problems that are currently in our national dialogue go beyond a simple political difference of opinion and I am sick. unto. death. of being told I have to “take the high road” and let them have their opinion.

I will not.

I will not allow racism, sexism and homophobia go unchallenged. I will not quietly live in a country that stands by and allows a sham president to take office for the second time in my adult life. I will not quietly live in a country that destroys the planet, ostracizes and oppresses people who are not white, middle-class and male. I will not quietly live in a country that knows it’s electoral process has been compromised and is doing NOTHING about it.

I will not go quietly into that good night.

What I will do is be professional, courteous and as respectful as the situation dictates. I will continue to absorb news and views from diverse places. And I will continue to use social media in a way that feeds me, rather than in some prescribed way that makes a lot of assumptions about the validity and intention of the “other” side that I don’t think is accurate. I will be loud, I will call things out here. I will engage respectfully in dialog and consider the points of view of people who have shown me that they are capable of seeing beyond conspiracy theories and complete BS, and that they’ve done some work to engage with their own privilege.

I will do that.