Use your thinking cap

 When you read or listen to news do you have your thinking cap on? Or are you accept unquestioningly whatever comes to you by ear or eye? I fear for most it is the latter. It's not that people are purposefully deceptive or incompetent - though some are. But communication is a two part process. Those who listen or read must carefully evaluate what is being said or written so that true education is taking place.

Let me give you an example. Recently Fox News reported that a poll they had conducted on immigration showed that 46% of respondents believed that border security was worse now under Biden than under Trump. On the surface this is not good news. However there are serious issues with the news, and the source of the poll is not the major problem.

For one thing this is an opinion poll, not a research paper. It is subjective, not objective. Likely most of the respondents do not live in border states, let alone not in border communities. They have at best second or third hand information on border conditions. Any poll is just a snapshot of people's opinion on situations not an ongoing study of conditions. 

Also, the accuracy of polls is dependent on many factors, such as the way questions are asked, how the respondents are reached, what is the sample size, etc. It also is dependent on the purpose of the poll -what is it being used for? Unconscious bias can creep into any poll, even among the best of pollsters. And how specific are the questions - security worse - how so? Does not sound like a question that comes with a grade scale.

If one is really interested in the immigration/border situation it would be more helpful to communicate with those who handle those issues - border patrol, local border community leadership, immigration lawyers and courts, etc. Those who have the facts, not just opinion. To me it is very important for folks to understand not only what is going on, but the framework of the current immigration system. You might be surprised.

And, as always, ask questions to check the validity of information, don't just swallow it whole. As Joe Friday used to say "just the facts, ma'am"