I Don't Read Blogs

I don’t even read the blogs of my best friends or favorite authors. Occasionally I read one if someone says, “Hey, Mark, you’ll enjoy this one.” For the most part though, I don’t read ‘em.

My thing is fiction. I’ve written non-fiction and found out some fascinating stuff, learned really cool things researching for fiction, and have really enjoyed doing both of those things. But blogging isn’t fiction or non-fiction - it’s (largely) opinion.

I formulate my own opinions on the facts available, and am not really swayed by another opinion. Even this post is, for the most part, opinion. It’s my opinion, and I don’t expect to have a large contingent of followers read this. That’s okay.

My blogs (I write more than one) are my opinion and I’m not trying to sway anyone. If anyone wants to know what I think, my blog posts are the best places to start. I’m guessing people would get enough information on my blogs to figure out what I think about any particular topic. I’m not defending positions, I’m stating opinions. Disagree all you like, but if you want to sway my views you’d better have facts in hand.

The thing about facts is they can be used in a biased way. For instance, the radio station where I work posted a news story about how the newly-elected governor of Wisconsin was getting slammed for his first four appointees being from the city of Milwaukee. The news story went on to say that the previous governor had four appointees from Milwaukee. Implying, “So sit down you naysayers and shut up!”

Wait. Did you just equate the new governor’s FIRST FOUR with the previous governor’s FOUR TOTAL? Yup. Both data points are true. While the news story didn’t actually EQUATE the two data points, the intent of the story was to get you to do just that in your mind. Therefore I contend the news department here isn’t posting news stories so much as biased blog posts.

That was an opinion piece, disguised as a news story. News organizations across the country - on both sides of the aisle - do the same thing all the time.

The upshot of this post is, your opinion is yours. My opinion is mine. Don’t let simple words sway your opinion, and be careful what you believe. A fact by itself may be true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

So if you have a blog post about Martha Washington’s Lettuce Pie, I’d be more inclined to read it than about how That Political Organization donated so much money to keep The Other Guy out of office.

The pie tastes better than your hypocrisy.