I’d agree that multiple perspectives are good, but the media presented the opposite view points as equal. That’s how “vaccines are bad” or “Nazis were misunderstood” became normalised. These intermediate steps were needed before the public would accept emotional masturbation as news reporting.

But yes, I’d agree that the intention is to curry favour with the interests of those with power.

I see a continuous line that can be drawn between the issues. Once journalism became akin to hosting a debate rather than a statement of verified facts, then we ended up where we are now.

I think this dates back to the 1980s and the insistence by the Christian right-wing that “both sides” be heard on subjects such as evolution. It changed journalism so that a opposing view must always be presented as equal, however weak that argument might be.

I didn’t realise this until I was 52. After my father died I discovered he’d disinherited me and ”edited” the family photos to remove me. My family literally erased me. Don’t waste a second of your life on a family that merely tolerates you.

Fuck. That’s so shitty - for you and your Mum.

Thanks, I honestly thought all families were like that. They fucked me up for life. My advice to anyone whose family shows no respect would be to cut al contact and move on.

They’d left the final crushing blow until their deaths. My mother told me I’d never been wanted and my father disinherited me. I have nothing to do with the rest of my family now. I only wish I hadn’t attempted to do the “right thing” and had cut contact decades ago. My family hated me for being gay

My family always gave me the feeling of being worthless and unwanted. I thought it was my fault. They even pressurised me to disinherit my husband of a decade in favour of my sister‘s family. I still stuck it out, trying to the best thing for my parents, looking after my father at home.

I eventually learned to take a gym holiday before I hit the exhaustion brick wall. Actually, that’s a big lie, I’ve only managed it once or twice.
But take a week off exercise. Be kind to yourself and do the things you like doing. You’ll actually feel stronger when you go back.