cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16451158
This is stupid. There are various good and bad reasons for both-sides-ism. It's not all a conspiracy. You just have to use your brain and engage everything on a case by case basis.
A very common phenomenon is that you have a few people who have particular unusual opinions, say on extreme deregulation. And they're often very intelligent and knowledgeable academics who can craft elaborate arguments in their favor. The more intelligent you are the more you can do the mental gymnastics to justify what you want to believe. The monied interests who want this deregulation find these people and amplify their voices or fund their campaigns. None of it needs to be a conspiracy. Every player has been selected for their genuine preexisting opinions.
There's a famous line from a BBC interview of Noam Chomsky by Andrew Marr. Marr asks "Am I self-censoring?". Chomsky replies "I don't think you're self censoring. I think you believe everything you say. But if you believed anything different, you wouldn't be sitting across from me right now." (Paraphrased from memory, not really quoted).