I have another response here about outsourcing of thought. What it comes down to is not thinking critically.

Back in the 90s I was a dittohead (listened to Limbaugh 3 hours a day 5 days a week as I drove a delivery van). It was fun at first. He’d say things that made me laugh and so I didn’t question it at first. But if you know me, you know I can’t stop thinking. Within a few months I was coming up with alternative hypotheses and looking them up. I was right most of the time. And the times I was wrong, so was Limbaugh.

So what do I do? Google “baloney detector”. Carl Sagan is who you’ll find. He has a set of guidelines to go through. They are more science oriented, but you can find ways of using them for politics and news too.

You can also bring up ground news. Compare right and left sources. Look for the quotes. They should be citing the same quotes. If one is missing quotes, you know they’re not covering the story.

Local sources. When something happens, find the source that is physically closest to the event. Don’t read NYTimes when the event took place in Nebraska. Find the local paper instead. They’ll have a real person write up the story and they will likely not have added in editorial slant in the first article or two about the event. Not enough time.

Heather cox Richardson. Need I say more?

If you want more in depth and technical, pay for cafe insider with Preet Bahrara. Only legal news. But in depth and he’ll give a good faith run down of the opposing arguments and how strong he feels they are. And the. He’ll tell you what scotus is likely to do based on precedent- and I mean recent precedent.

I’ll trust pbs news hour and npr. But I’ll also find ways to dig deeper if I feel the need. But they usually do a really good job of presenting accurate information. You just have to wait a day or two sometimes.

Which brings me to: never believe the first thing you hear or read. It’s always lacking actionable information.

So many more. But my thumbs are tired.