Think

People become self-radicalized because they don’t use critical thinking. They read articles on the Internet or listen to people on the radio or television and then assume what they read or hear is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They don’t apply filters of judgment and instead they rely on the judgment of other people to inform them.

For example, when I was looking at the news today, I saw an article on the Fox News website by news anchor Greta Van Susteren that was headlined “Greta: Why is Obama hiding the full Iran deal from us?” The story is very recent – dated Sep. 09, 2015.

The average Fox news viewer would think, “Obama is hiding the full text of the Iran deal, so it must be a very bad deal for America.”

But when I read the headline, my next thought was a question: “Is Obama hiding the full text of the Iran deal?” It just didn’t seem likely. To get the truth, I went to Google and typed into the search box, “full text iran deal.” Lo and behold, a number of websites popped up offering to display the full text. Here’s one of them: Iran deal text. Go ahead and read it. Warning: it’s 159 pages of highly technical legalese. I wonder how many Republican politicians have read and understood it. I’m guessing, probably zero. To be fair, probably the same number of Democrat politicians have read and understood it.

The Fox news article continues with, “The Iran nuclear deal may be the most important one of our lifetime and we don't know what's in it - not even the possible side deals.”

The average Fox news viewer would think, “Why is Obama hiding the side deals from us? These side deals must be very bad for America.”

But when I read that sentence, the word “possible” jumped out at me. Fox News wasn’t saying there are side deals, only that side deals are possible. Are there side deals? The White House took to Twitter to say, ““There's no ‘secret’ or ‘side’ deal with Iran. Congress has everything we have on the #IranDeal.”

Think. Everything you hear on TV news, or read on the Internet, is likely to be only a part of the truth at best. Listen to both sides of the argument. Be skeptical. Ask questions. Don’t let them radicalize you. When you find yourself thinking that one side (conservatives or liberals, Republicans or Democrats) is 100% right and the other side is 100% wrong, then rest assured: you’ve been radicalized.