Casting a Reverse Azimuth

Why I deliberately consume Left, Right and Looney Wing News on the regular

All sources are biased. This is the assumption you need to have about everything you consume in the information space, always.

The only way to offset and compensate for bias is to take in information from other sources with the OPPOSITE bias, and let your brain triangulate. Here’s what I mean:

If you’ve ever been a boy scout or done orienteering (yes, I’m old enough to remember when geocaching was actually done properly, without GPS:) you know that you can always identify where you are located by doing something called casting a Reverse Azimuth.

When you look at a compass and a landmark and plot where you’re trying to go, you’re creating an “asimuth”. In reverse, when you lose sight of this mark and feel lost, you can look back to the original landmark you started from and calculate a reverse azimuth in order to find out out how much you’re off course and what degree correction will re-align you with your destination and goal.

I find great value in deliberately trying to listen to left leaning news, right leaning news, figure out where they agree, where they differ, and where the “fog” is. The topics “of which they will not speak”.

So, whatever your orientation on the ideological spectrum, make a practice of deliberately seeking out news sources you don’t “agree with”.

Then, hold your nose, bite your tongue, and listen/read/ watch.

Your are adding a reverse azimuth bearing to your journey.

Stay lost and keep exploring!

-Jimychanga