Hemingway Was Biased AF

"For your information in stories about the war I try to show all the different sides of it, taking it slowly and honestly and examining it from many ways. So never think one story represents my viewpoint because it is much too complicated for that.

We know war is bad. Yet sometimes it is necessary to fight. But still war is bad and any man who says it is not is a liar. But it is very complicated and difficult to write about truly. For instance to take it on a simply personal basis — in the war in Italy when I was a boy I had much fear. In Spain I had no fear after a couple of weeks and was very happy. Yet for me to not understand fear in others or deny its existence would be bad writing. It is just that now I understand the whole thing better ...

I would like to be able to write understandingly about both deserters and heroes, cowards and brave men, traitors and men who are not capable of being traitors. We learned a lot about all such people ...

Don't just think who is right. As a man things are as they should or shoudn't be. As a man you know who is right and who is wrong. You have to make decisions and enforce them. As a writer you should not judge. You should understand. - Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway on Writing

Forget about war. This is true for everything.

They taught me to be "objective" as a journalist. There's no such thing as writing "objectively." Just minimizing and hiding your bias. Which gives a reader nothing to latch on to.

Journalists "cover" stories. Their minds envelop the thing they're writing about, stewing over it from all sides. By definition, they can't be "objective." They are immersing themselves in the thing. Relating to the "subject." Subjectively.

When writing or talking about a thing, the idea is to consider all sides subjectively. Most people have trouble considering opposing viewpoints. We need to work on that. But it's fine to be biased ... as long as you know you're biased, admit your biased, and leave room for uncertainty and argument.

It's not about being objective, it's about being empathetic and real. If you're not a monk, you can't be "detached" when writing or talking.

Everybody has a voice worth listening to, yet we muzzle ourselves for "objectivity." And our friends. And strangers. And enemies.

Stop that, speak up, then listen.