Personal Bias Analysis

Reality frequently comes into question due to the unreliability of one's perspective. The way a person remembers an event is dependent on their emotions and state of mind at the time of occurrence. This may lead to the past being misconstrued by an individual's personal bias.

This distortion can be utilized by people in power to advance a personal agenda. Usage of the aforementioned distortion takes many shapes and forms, one of which being propaganda. The idea that everything is not always what it seems is more relevant today than ever before.

Unfortunately, people aren't the most dependable sources of truth. Reasons for manipulating the truth are common in our day to day lives. Twisting a story to suit your needs is a ubiquitous tactic utilized by a variety of people; from a child trying to get out of trouble to a general trying to rally his troops. It is probable that human history as it has been recounted to us isn't the reality of what happened. For example, in WWII both the Allies and the Axis powers believed in their causes. However, the way the war is depicted to us is from the Allies' perspective (the morally righteous allies defeated

the sinister axis powers) because they were the victors. If this is the case for all the conflicts in history, that the victorious side is the one writing history, reality may be radically different from what has been recounted to us.

The way news is presented to us is inherently flawed.

News networks are in full control of the stories they inform the public about, potentially allowing powerful individuals to influence a story to benefit them personally. This topic is paramount in the world today, especially when discussing the current United States President: Donald Trump. The president has consistently declared any story that negatively affects him as "fake news". The use of this term has increased distrust in the news networks by his supporters. This distrust allows Trump to brush off political scandals that would result in the termination of a presidency for any other person. As unhealthy of a practice this is, it has been extremely effective thus far. However, a byproduct of this tactic; a society in which reality repeatedly comes into

question.

Propaganda is a more strategic use of reality manipulation. While politicians have to improvise their stories, the use of propaganda is considerably more methodical. In times of conflict, propaganda is an effective stratagem. There are several different approaches to this tactic, one of which being demonization of the enemy. While effective at establishing a common enemy; this tactic can have long term negative side effects. Demonizing an enemy begins to resonate deeply in society even post-conflict, meaning prejudices towards the opposing side abide within the general public. For instance, during WWI and WWII Germans were portrayed as brutes who used sadistic techniques during battle. To this day, there is still a large amount of people who consider Germans to be an immoral people.

What we remember, whether it be distant or recent, can often be divergent from reality. The only way to establish a memory of something you were not a witness to is hearing another's perspective. One's perspective is bias in the regard that memories are far from absolute. Memories can be altered which makes them an unreliable source of fact. Cynical use of this fault is rampant in the world today, which has resulted in a general feeling of distrust. History could very well be an unrecognizable version of what we have come to regard as true, this means that we must take that knowledge and apply it to the present. To have a genuine understanding of events, we must take into account more than just one perspective.