Open & Opinionated
Reporting, commenting and discussing geopolitics, international relations, current affairs, news, and ideology from all around the world
The Mission
Geopolitical Eye reports, comments and discusses geopolitics, international relations, current affairs, and news from all around the world. The channel explores political and social ideology, as well as seeks to address the issues and pivotal questions facing society.
The motto of the channel is ‘Open & Opinionated’.
Open – a promise to engage with everyone across all political spectrums, to present all views, and be transparent in rationale and reasoning.
Opinionated – to debate and challenge each other’s positions, beliefs and reasoning to investigate the principles and ideals that our societies are built upon.
We have become too comfortable with sitting on the fence and fear honest discussion because the person sitting opposite us may disagree. As individuals, we do not have to agree with everyone and having an opinion is not only a right, but it is critical to navigate the world. By understanding that all of us are justified for holding the opinions that we do, and then communicating the reasons why we hold those views, then we can work to compromise to construct a more united society.
Geopolitical Eye aims to present individual stories and opinions, believing strongly in transparent reporting as well as fair, open discussion. The channel will engage in free debate, inviting guests from a variety of backgrounds to discuss their views on wide-ranging topics and will challenge them to justify those views to explore the rationale and reasoning behind them.
I endeavour to engage completely with the community; hence I encourage criticism of what I discuss and the sharing of your own ideas and beliefs on the topics this channel investigates. I only ask that you, the viewer, the reader, the listener challenge your preconceived views, form your own opinions, share your story, so we can all learn together to produce a more cohesive and empathetic world.
Admitting Bias
Bias is inherent to human nature and is derived from our individual beliefs, logic, and experiences. It affects how we interact with one another, the wider world, and society.
Most news platforms and discussion outlets aim to be unbiased which ultimately ends up being nearly an impossible position to maintain, inevitably resulting in failure and the undermining of their credibility.
Stating only the facts is effective at keeping us informed of the truth, however one must trust the source of the information for it to have worth. Statistics and numbers are too easily manipulated to serve one purpose or another. The reader is left with a sense of doubt over what the truth and their own opinion actually is.
We interact with and learn from people’s stories and opinions, not a fact sheet of numbers and figures that are instantly forgotten as soon as the article is finished.
Stories have bias, as they are a subjective telling of a person’s perception of reality. We may then be first tempted to disregard personal accounts as false, however, arguably, perceived reality is more important than objective truth and actual reality, as it is our perception of the world around us that drives our individual decision making and reasoning. Given that society is made up of individuals, therefore perceived reality is what drives societal opinion.
This is exemplified in George Orwell’s 1984 where the argument is made that the objective truth of 2 + 2 = 4 does not matter as if everyone thinks that 2 + 2 = 5, and acts as if it is so, then that perception is what influences society and objective truth ceases to matter.
Bias is not in itself bad, and we should not feel guilty for possessing it; it is an evolutionary survival tool. However, when engaging in debate, we must admit and recognise our bias in our perception of reality and consider how it has distorted our view of objective reality. Then we must do the same for those we may disagree with.
To understand the positions of those we disagree with, we should first consider how they may perceive reality and then how any biases they may have is likely to have impacted their view. This is most effectively done by taking the time to listen to each other’s stories.
Geopolitical Eye shares facts as well as the meaningful stories of stakeholders and the opinions of analysts to present both the micro and macro objective truth and perceived realities of a situation. Equipped with the truth, and in this effort to understand one another, we can seek compromise and come to agreement to improve the society and world we live in.
A Polarised World
The world is becoming increasingly polarised, fuelled by echo chambers on social media; disregard for the truth; and a lack of empathy for other people’s positions, backgrounds, and opinions.
As humans, whilst being driven by biology and emotion, we are also logical beings capable of rational thought. This has been forgotten. We disregard the opinions of those who disagree with us; a commonly used justification is to say that the other side are degenerate or stupid. Instead, we should consider that their reasoning starts from different emotional and logical foundations. They may hold a different view of the world and their perceived reality may be different from your own. When these differences are taken into account and their thought process is broken down, it then can become clear why someone feels, believes, and acts differently to you.
The misunderstanding of each other’s logical foundation and premise is the root cause of polarised debate.
We must not make the mistake of conflating the results of someone’s logical process with the deeper underlying root premise driving that reasoning, the outcome of which you may disagree with.
By more deeply and truly understanding the foundations and principles that we use to observe and form a perspective of the world through, society can progress and start to reconcile those differences. There may be new debate as we disagree with those root assumptions, however that then becomes a new question to discuss, and new ground to be broken. In this way, we can start to heal our fractured, polarised society.
