Quote:
Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout
OK.
I realised a long time ago that there are some seriously Loony Tunes people in the States.
I just didn't realise quite how bad it was.
So Obama is the anti-Christ?
FFS.
Those guys are off their heads. Seriously.  |
any form of degenerate dialogue with a shred of plausibility to anyone who cant/wont think critically and takes the "logical path" shown to them will make its way out there by people who can talk really fucking loud. this isnt special to the US, but news has been a business for a long time, and it's obvious that we've gotten very good at fine-tuning these things. "making stuff up" is too diabolical, i dont even think the networks have a political agenda for it. presenting the right balance of actual news with "commentators" to color it as breathlessly as possible tells people whats happening and narrows down the dialogue to keep people tuned in. even if people think theyre smarter and dont buy it, they're talking about it on the network's terms. if people actually go whole hog and believe it, that's even better because those people end up in the street shouting it all back at them.
people are terrible. they were terrible against bush, they are terrible now. you can tell the tea-baggers that Rick Santelli, who originally suggested the "symbolic act" on CNBC, was paid off to lay the astroturf and they'll still think that they didnt just get chumped and made into pawns.
since this is mostly 101 stuff, i'm just saying it so that me also saying that there's something more than just looney tunes at work isnt coming out of the blue. this
still feels constructed, albeit differently. it's not the chaos of the news network's L.C.D., it feels more like the networks are the ones being marketed to based on their own formula. like a committee looked out to tap a natural resource of people too pissed off to think straight, sure, but also with a subfocus of exploiting the subtelties of racial relations that cant possibly be understood on a national level without inciting a reverse-victim complex.
it works too well.
white guys cannot talk about race, guys cannot talk about women, able-bodied people cannot talk about the disabled. most cant even address the idea of a cultural minority without soon feeling like they're being attacked, and then arguing with others' own perspective so that theirs still works. lecturing, socratic elenchus, and condescending to give them any other list of reasons because
someone obviously needs to be educated. this happens everywhere on the internet and
several times here. so: you start talking racism on tv, and do it long enough, the news stories of "
white conservatives say it's time for their own empowerment" slime out and the topic will make people who'd rather not address anything substantial roll their eyes out of 'overexposure'. because it's easier to believe that you're just being put upon to feel guilty rather than face the interesting idea that your cultural approach to race, sex, and identity might completely play into a form of oppression. it's not hard to understand overexposure, you keep generating news stories about race, you let the smart and the dumb bat back and forth and make fun of each other, and eventually you kill the dialogue by making the topic fall out of favor.
the astroturf that created what's generously being called a new political party was born out of corporate interest. these interests went through PR firms that went through news channels that became best-sellers. this kind of machination isnt a stretch, but it's definitely "strange" (as the thread title has it) because it's a new level in a very eerie way.