Strange anger at Obama for Tuesday speech to schools

[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.

[dubman]

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.

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by dubman

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.

No it absolutely isn't a stretch. But corporations, like banks, or journalists, or governments or all four in cahoots are always doing what is in their interest, what everyone else is simply doing around them, and whatever they can get away with. So you can pretty much chalk up corporate dickheadedness as a constant in this equation.

What's a variable is just how much they can get away with, and how little people resist. Things like regulator capturing, lobby pressured law making, monopolies, favoring subsidies, etc have rose and fell in magnitude since the beginning.

So the question has become what is it about now that has made this corporate take over so potent, and the resistance so withered, and the people who should be outraged at the particular, glaring corruption so devoid of common sense or reason. Not to pick on him, as he's clearly a drop in the bucket, but how does someone like mongoose, who obviously means well and wants to make things better, end up getting a hard on when obama says "muslim faith" but yawns at the all too real examples of corporate corruption that is literally beating him in the face on a daily basis.

I firmly believe that americans, to stereotype, want to do the right thing. which is why they end up doing such awful things because someone succeeded in convincing them it was right and good. And that's only compounded by the fact that the government has so perfectly grafted the american christian church onto it and corporations have so perfectly grafted the government onto it, so that now its really easy to make it an ethical argument to say, not does it make uncle sam happy when you shop at walmart, it makes jesus happy too. Not only are liberals against capitalism, they are against God. This is *precisely* the reason why dialog has been so degenerated, and why talking to mongoose is not unlike talking to a street preacher about evolution.

My interest is not to make fun or condescend or sneer at people like Mongoose. My interest is to shame them into dropping the bullshit. That convincing them of giving up the pretense they have it all figured out and it starts with the knights templar is what is really good and right and what will make jesus the happiest.

[Sean]

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.

Why get concerned about facts now? This is a country where a full third of the population firmly rejects the idea of evolution - far more than in any other western nation. One study found that "the U.S. has a tradition of Protestant fundamentalism not found in Europe that takes the Bible literally and sees the Book of Genesis as an accurate account of the creation of human life." This is basically comparable to refusing to accept that the world is round (or slightly oblong if you want to get technical). So why should Obama get any more consideration than a proven, fundamental process like evolution?

As for Mongoose, I unfortunately hazarded a look at his last post, and I have to wonder who he's arguing against. Did someone here claim that any and all questioning of or opposition to Obama is motivated by racism? Most intelligent people raising racism have been clear that it's likely just one of many factors that influence opposition to Obama's policies. Not even Obama himself has claimed that racism is the overriding, motivating factor. Legitimate, thoughtful, constructive questions and criticisms are great. But the dumb-asses who attend rallies with signs depicting Obama as an African witch-doctor and the like should probably take a moment to look at themselves in the mirror while carrying said sign, and think long and hard about what's actually motivating them. I somehow doubt that in their case, it's a legitimate, thoughtful or constructive question or criticism.