Could you please pass me the reality...and a grain of salt...

As if anybody cares what I think....here goes.

I enjoy going online as much as the next guy. That being said, could somebody please tell me what the heck is happening to our society? We are becoming increasingly isolated and have substituted real, meaningful relationships for our online persona's. (See here for more of my take on this subject.)
Also, with regard to politics, we have all witnessed how the Internet has become overladen with rumors, distortions and outright lies. I for one believe in putting the power into the hands of the people, and in no way would I ever be a proponent of censorship. However, it's just gotten ridiculous lately. Who can we trust? Are there any truly unbiased sources for news anymore? It seems that everybody has a horse in this race. Also see here - for a better example of what happenned to them (Carville, Begala & Zimmerman at CNN).
A good friend of mine has a classic comeback when discussing politics. When asked if he is a Democrat or Republican his reply is simply, "I'm an agnostic."

My take on this whole thing is that we want to hear what we want to hear, and naturally gravitate towards those who share our viewpoint. That being said though, I will admit that I am as biased as the next guy. But, I am getting sick of being told what to believe - politically and otherwise. Isn't it the goal of education, (and the aim of free speech) to give us the tools to make well-informed decisions about those things that most affect our lives?
The end result, (in my opinion) is that we have been conditioned to question EVERYTHING and trust nobody! While this is healthy, especially given the current political and epistemological climate, (such big words) we seem to have all become so cynical and jaded lately that it's just depressing! Chalk it up to the effects of postmodernism, or whatever you want to call it - I don't like it. Maybe I'm just naive, but I have become increasingly nostalgic for those simple days when things were black and white. At least we had a common enemy, and we knew (at least we thought we knew) who the bad guys were - they wore black hats!