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For better or worse, we are now into another campaign season.

The political landscape has not been dulled since the last presidential election between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump and it’s not likely to get any better as voters should be prepared for even more inflamed rhetoric that will inevitably be fanned further as we get closer to November.

While the divides of this country are deeply creviced into the ideological landscape, they will be strained more by truth that society seems more than comfortable with bending in order to support their side, whichever that might be.

While truth has been a stretchable entity throughout the history of American politics, in the last 10 years it has been tested like never before and voters need to be prepared for this.

Through social media and some fringe news outlets, the truth will be subject to a battery of falsehoods and fake news and that landscape is being further marred by the use of AI in creating false images and false narratives.

Part of being a voter isn’t just the right or privilege in being a voice for the direction of the country. It comes with responsibility and that responsibility involves being able to take it upon yourself to question what is truth and what is false.

That also requires the need to go outside the convenient and familiar sounding boxes of our own ideas. The hurdle isn’t the ideas themselves, because people will always have ideas on how they want to see the direction of their country’s progress. That’s healthy and that’s needed.

The public needs this voice, however, the hurdle is identifying the truths in determining these visions.

We have no problems in saying that X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook and other social media outlets are not the answers. There are answers to be sure, but they are far from credible answers because they are sounding boards and they are platforms that make it easy for people to find the exact opinions that back up their own ideas. At the same time, it’s far too easy to ignore those ideas you don’t like. This is how a one-way mode of thinking is formed.

Truth is necessary, truth is desirable and so we urge you this election season to do your own research through credible sources and become that responsible, informed voter we all need to be.

There will be untruths among the Democrats, there will be untruths among Republicans and there will be everything else in between. If you have questions about something, dig into it, find the roots and examine the information from within. To help with this, we have included some  sites for you to go to in order to double check what you are hearing. These are established sites, though not the only ones, that have reputations for providing background information to what we are hearing.

• Polifact: www.politifact.com/

• FactCheck.org: www.factcheck.org/

• Snopes: www.snopes.com/

Also, we invite you to visit: https://library.csi.cuny.edu/misinformation. It has a comprehensive breakdown on helping to determine what is real or fake across the internet.

Elections aren’t only about the candidates, they are as much about you as well. Take the time to truly understand what’s happening in the world around you and society will be all the better for it.