Automatic Attitudinal Response

Automatic Attitudinal Response

The post that I would like to refer to with my response is to my 3rd OTM- Smoke and Handcuffs. 

This is easily the best example of my own personal bias. Never have I made secret my nationality. I was born in Mexico and brought to a small town in Utah before my 3rd birthday. Like many seeking a better life my parents immigrated to the US at the age of 19-20. My family did not have the good fortune to be able to cross over with legal visas and our residency situation hasn't changed much through the years. Currently I reside in the US with temporary legality thanks to DACA: an Executive Order implemented during Barack Obama's administration. Without a clear route to citizenship or even permanent residency in place for "Dreamers" in my situation any shift in politics can threaten our ability to live in the only country we know. My automatic has and might always be a constant fear of political power in the right wing conservative's favor. In terms of self preservation and seeing the welfare of my family any news story, election. or any comment made concerning undocumented immigrants/ illegals will spark a defensive response from me. Although politics is a big realm and involves many issues there are none that strike more to my core than my natural born-bias. Due to my fear of the right, and what that power can mean to the stability of my family, my stance is firmly liberal. In conservative Utah, some people's treatment of what's different be it race, nationality, gender, sexuality,  has been intolerant and rejecting. Being lumped with those also ostracized makes it easy to empathize with their cause. Growing up in a place with little diversity as a minority impacted my political stance from a very early age.

However:

Knowing why one is biased at an early age can actually be very helpful in life. Despite containing a strong distaste for the right-wing agenda, I have always been able to recognized my own bias and attempt to leave personal opinion out of, sticking (for the most part) to statistical factors instead. In the case of my OTM post I do not side with Trump's proposals, but rather than engage in a moral debate on treatment of people I state that "Despite my own bias... (here) are the clear statistics and data of the cost to deport illegals." Appeal to emotion is the strongest form of persuasion man can make. Despite this I prefer to reference facts or an appeal to logic instead because I understand that it is hard for someone to make a unbiased decision in politics when all they are provided with is "sob stories". It is hard to overcome a bias tied so strongly to a characteristic with which you have no control. For this reason I do not believe I will ever be able to be truly unbiased in politics, but I can try to formulate an opinion on logic, rather than emotion. Recognizing this, I believe, will only help to develop strong critical thinking skills.

On The Media #3

On The Media 3 - Smoke and Handcuffs

It may be the fact that we've been recently discussing the validity of news sources or just my personal perception, but a hot topic as of late has pushed (or at least tried to push) the common media consumer to research and evaluate the content that they are being fed by media corporations. In this week's on the media, the replacement host Bob Garfield, slammed Fox News for their relentless promotion of a heavy Right-Wing Agenda. My own personal views of Fox are skewed as growing up in a Very conservative culture where few questioned the bias in the news, I have definitely grown to dislike an contain an inherent distaste for the organization as well. The next point, and one that will probably be the topic of conversation for the entirety of his term is Donald trump.

The next topic on the On The Media talk show was about Sanctuary Cities. Anything dealing with Immigration is a topic that really hits home for me as I am a Recipient of DACA. The protection enacted by Pres. Obama allowing childhood immigrants brought to this country by their parents without documentation a real chance to integrate themselves productively into society without fear of being deported to a country they don't TRULY call home. "Sanctuary Cities", simply refers to the areas through the states that have pushed back on the activities of ICE. Although ICE officials state that the recent activity has nothing to do with the current presidential administration, It is hard to believe that the campaign promises of Trump aren't being executed. Despite my own bias, the only evidence needed to demonstrate what a huge waste of resources this is, is the clear statistics and data of the cost to deport illegals. If interested in learning the figures please read some of the info Here.

The immigration problem facing the nation does not contain a clear cut solution and the happy go lucky "Make America Great Again"  Promises of Donald Trump will NOT fix the underlying issue. The reason these Sanctuary Cities are able to gain such traction is the fact that not everyone buys into the mindless executive orders of the Trump administration. In order to Fix this problem there must be a more economically sound method. I believe the governors of these cities understand that operating this country on fear and shifting blame to others does not work.