god you guys are depressing. The one time I decide to be optimistic you guys are ready to throw the bed pan of the human race out the window and call the internet a tool that enabled bad people to be worse, as opposed to more evolved. At least Sean can see the bold new age coming
Regardless, I'm not really sure we're saying anything all that different at this point. I think we're just coming at this from different angles.
My angle is to desperately move away from post-partisan politics. I'm not optimistic enough to suggest that people would ever be "post-bias." I just want us to move out of this system of 1984-esque theatre of "choice" that plays out like pepsi versus coke
I'm firmly convinced that if this charade of democrat vs. republican continues much longer, people will be forced to rebel against the whole system. Because the "bias" problem goes deeper than the media and the internet.
For example, when Obama blames the economy on bush at the same breath he continues every single policy decision of the bush treasury, including all his wars, and when the dem news agents crucify bush for these policies but are silent about Obama's picking up where he left off, and when hannity all of a sudden decides a balanced budget is conservative, and when neither party are capable of pushing out legislation that does nothing more than promote the interests of the same banks and multinationals that stripped america's production and manufacturing and actually caused this mess, its going to collapse. maybe violently.
It will collapse in two possible ways. Either the two opposing sides will work themselves up into two caged dogs getting poked by their pundit handlers until they are let loose on each other, or a third, opposing grass movement will call bullshit on the whole facade. A coalition consisting of disgruntled independents, progressives and libertarians based on a platform of solving clearly defined problems with clearly defined solutions with the focus on individual freedoms, small businesses, and local economies.
I'm thinking that the only chance this country has is if the latter comes to pass.
What I'm saying is that drudge isn't just biased, he's partisan. Fox news is not just biased. They are the propaganda wing of the republican party. Actually they are the propaganda wing of a subset of the republican party that, through the 24 hour efforts of the network, appear to be the total republican party.
Assuming you prefer the huffington post and andrew sullivan I would ask if its because you necessarily agree with their bias, or is it because they are less partisan? (or that they talk in complete sentences)
Because I doubt, with our enlightened forum members, any of this is news to you all. I would be surprised if any of us consider themselves strongly republican or democrat. Which means we are using other criteria to decide what news sources are viable and which are bullshit that have nothing to do with partisanship.
And that's why we are saying the same thing. The original article talked about people getting entrenched in their own campsite based on who we agree with, without making any assertion about why they agree. We are making the assumption that all people are terrible and not capable of rational scrutiny, and that's the reason for the polarization. When its just as possible that some of the polarization is happening because the swamp gas republicans and the wide-spread-panic democrats are separating themselves from the critical thinkers. And the critical thinkers are just desperate for any news source that won't talk down to them like they should just assume the role of an angry manchild. Which is the reason I prefer the huffington post and andrew sullivan for the most part.
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Originally Posted by dubman
if truth becomes something that can be decided by whoever markets their version the best, and it becomes normal, and we all dont become a grotesque monstrosity out of it, the habit will be considered how news is done today, with objections being waved off as 'archaic' vs 'what people want'
i suppose thats speculative and alarmist, conceivably the rules of backlash could mean an era of real unromantic reporting sometime, but it seems less likely somehow
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You are right. The bumper sticker slogan of "Truth will prevail" should probably be rephrased. How about "Assertions that are true enough to not turn us in to grotesque monstrosities will prevail".
But either way, it is heartening to imagine that the internet has the power to speed up the process of that reckoning by way of providing information. So that people can go back and look through the audit trail of articles and see who was on the take and who wasn't, who should be voted out and who should be rewarded.