It is distressing to me how much misinformation is being delivered to massive numbers of people on any given day. Much of it takes the exact same facts and skews them to fit into the ideology of a particular group. Or even worse, skews them to terrify members of set demographics so they emotionally respond rather than thinking things through or research the information for themselves. Plus, with all the individual groups sharing this information, it becomes nearly impossible to sort through the garbage to find actual facts! I can't be the only person in the country having this problem.
Now of course in the "information age" the internet is at the fingertips of nearly everyone. This problem is widespread among all topics. Heck, search "sore throat" and you'll get advice ranging from gargling with salt water to rushing to the ER for an MRI because you have throat cancer! Anyone and everyone with a computer or smartphone (myself included) can share their vast (cough, cough) knowledge on whatever suits them. Some of it is honest, some harmless, some reckless and some downright devious and manipulative. And in all categories the re-tweets, shares, blogs and comments on every forum imaginable (usually the ones using tactics that appeal on a deep emotional level) help to make an ever greater swirling soup of confusion. This makes finding a single morsel of truth or logic within the confusion too time consuming for most people; we want what we want now, to hell with verifying I'll just repeat what "they" say.
Add to that the people who are truly trying to help others. They believe they are doing so by spreading the word of a new danger (computer virus, fees added to a free service, etc) or sharing a plea for help with fundraising for sick children or such. That's why sites like Snopes.com were created. To help sort out what is and isn't a viable concern to web users.
Generally speaking, it is always best to go directly to the source whenever possible. The reason I am writing about this today is because I wanted some information regarding the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare as many call it. My question was, as a veteran, does my VA coverage count towards the required insurance coverage that is a part of the bill. Sounds simple enough, just type that into Google or whatever search engine and boom, there's the answer. WRONG!!! There were thousands of results but if you looked closely at the URLs under each heading, you could see that many were aligned with one side of the argument or the other. Not wanting to wade hip deep through the mire, I chose to go to the VA website itself and found the following:
Affordable Care Act and the Veterans Health Administration
The provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court will not affect the current role the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has in the lives of America's Veterans. We will continue to provide Veterans with high quality, comprehensive health care and benefits they have earned through their service. VA health care does not change as a result of the ACA.
For more information about VA's health care services, visit http://www.va.gov/health.
Quick and easy and I would have to believe the VA knows more about what the VA is doing than the rest of those sites.
But, all the contradictory results I initially received made me more aware of the divide among U.S. citizens either supporting or decrying the healthcare initiative. Are all of the people writing, reading and sharing these points of view fully aware of what is actually in the bill? I can honestly say that although I have read over many parts of it, I am by far NOT AN EXPERT. And yes, what I read was initially from fervent supporters of it. But I chose to go further and spent quite a lot of time searching for information that wasn't colored by either side's opinion only. Let me tell you, it was not an easy task! Going straight to the source here would mean reading through hundreds of pages of legal jargon the average citizen is not equipped to deal with. Even the resource I found still leaves a lot of questions but it does show both sides to each item. There is still much to be learned.
If you are interested in checking it out a site that takes on many controversial issues ranging from the aforementioned Obamacare to drug use in sports and explains both sides with equal scrutiny, then here you go: www.ProCon.org
Learn what you need to know, then make up your own mind. Don't let anyone else do it for you.
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