We Are Still Amusing Ourselves to Death—35 Years Later

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“…our civic life has become consumed by soundbites and Twitter feeds. Even those outlets that are supposed to be providing substance do not. Despite appearances, Fox News and MSNBC have much in common.” - TGC

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Avoid the hot takes: Takeaways for Christians after two mass shootings

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“…avoid the hot take. Christians especially should be slow to speak. People are complicated. Explanations that focus only on external factors of race, gender, ethnicity, or legal requirements may miss the motivations that animate individual human beings…. ‘out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.’” - WORLD

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The Dangers of Doomscrolling

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“we also need to remember that every headline is a sales pitch, crafted to grab our attention, accrue clicks, and make money. Media companies profit from our addiction to doomscrolling. They’re motivated to keep us doing it—drawing us constantly from one horrific headline to the next.” - TGC

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“...our online life is limited by the information bubbles we choose to inhabit”

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“Humans tend to have an anchoring bias, a cognitive bias that causes us to rely too heavily on the first piece of information we are given about a topic. It’s a tendency highlighted in Proverbs 18:17: ‘The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.’” - TGC

Discussion

Racism Is Real. But Is “Systemic Racism”? That Time I Was Published by Newsweek—For Two Hours

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“Hypersensitivity about ‘systemic racism’ has many people, of every race, hesitating about being honest about what they think. But honesty and forthright argument are the only antidotes to the fear many people feel, and the only road ahead to racial justice. I expect ad hominem responses to the essay that follows, or willful misunderstandings of its argument….But only good arguments—not silent cowering—can defeat bad ones.

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What Don Lemon’s Declaration about Jesus’ Sinfulness Actually Reveals

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“If you go on Twitter (enter at your own risk) you will see many rebukes of Don Lemon. Many Christians responded in shock at Don Lemon’s claims about Jesus’ imperfections. But I wonder if many stopped to think about what his declaration actually reveals about Christianity at large in America.” - Cripplegate

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One narrative to rule them all?

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“Long-running internecine media feuds, emblematic of the degradation of mass media as they are, are merely the smoke set off by the burning desire for one, all-consuming narrative….The only story we need to get straight is the story that really matters. Grounded in that story, the greatest ever told, we can deepen our understanding of ourselves and our world.

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