Basically the world has two problems.
And then there are three responses to this.
Going through mental gymnastics to tell themselves and others than those two “problems” are actually good things, or, outright hoaxes. In the world of right-wingers, the income gap is a good thing, selfishness is a virtue, capitalism is an unknown ideal, catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is just a hoax, and whaddayamean white supremacy when I can’t even say ______ or ______ on TV?
Really open-eyed, clear and crisp analyses of the problems but very little in the way of solutions, or, rather, in the way of solutions that are actually good. (Not to imply that the other camps have any solutions either; how could they, when they aren’t even aware of the problems?)
This is my own camp basically, which means I flinch of guilt&shame whenever someone says something because Sturgeon’s law definitively applies.
So what’s good about this camp is that there is this “we’re in it together” mindset. To me there’s something appealing about that. There’s something cozy and philantropic about being part of humanity, part of society, not wanting to rock the boat too much.
What I’d see as bad about this camp is that it tends to underplay urgency and severity of problems, and, is about as bad at coming up with solutions as any of the other camps are. It can be a bit of ostrich-head mode sometimes, or it can be slow-going and slow to change.
There’s also this extreme susceptibility to media.
There are also people who affect one of these three ways, or a mix, even though they know that what they are saying is BS, in order to keep their job, keep their wealth gap, keep getting those bribes etc. To just “win” at the “game” of politics—they don’t gaf about the position they assume, just about the short-term results it’ll gain them in their own lives.
Given that the preceding is how I view the world, it follows that I think the media is doing a really awful job, since it tries to give equal time to wrong as to right.
When it comes to policy, I’m not always convinced that the left’s policy proposals are actually the best (it’s case-by-case—I agree about the problem, but the solution needs to be better than the problem).
When it comes to reporting, however, media should be super left wing. Media needs to be frank about the problems and reality. That way we can come up with some solutions that have left-wing heart but also fully address the environmental, existential issues.