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Media Meltdown and also Media Bias 101


pfife

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58 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Like SNL?

The problem with US politics today is not trivialization.

It's the F.U. politics as generated/ practiced by the Tea Party Republicans, white trash bigots, Trump and his fascist followers; preceded/ inspired by Limbaugh/ Buchanan/ Gingrich and the like.

The American proletariat have always had a simple-minded understanding of politics. The trivialization is self-inflicted and ever-present. Not requiring Maher or SNL's influence. It's just there... like the WWE, monster trucks, and Nascar.

I believe the FU politics is a symptom, not the cause.  As a whole, both sides stopped looking for a discussion and compromise is now a bad word.  Gingrich's 'win at all costs' mentality very well may have been the beginning point, but both sides are all in now.  

Add to that a media that doesn't have the time, patience, or financial incentive to investigate and all we have is talking points being shared.  

If anything, we might need more political comedy.  Find a way to get everyone to relate to something and laugh at it.  Good comedians don't only make us laugh, they make us think of things differently.

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1 minute ago, ewsieg said:

I believe the FU politics is a symptom

well, FU politics is as much a symptom of the general coarsening of US culture. Not sure how you separate it.

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  • If anything, we might need more political comedy.  Find a way to get everyone to relate to something and laugh at it.  Good comedians don't only make us laugh, they make us think of things differently.

while there is value in that, I still think it's overall a factor that leads to political passivity. "I've had my laugh, now I'v done my politics."  It's another thing that comes at you. Of course the same is true more globally in the fact that media has moved so totally into the video/visual realm in the last 70 yrs. I think that whole shift has been a passivating influence. You don't engage with with the talking head - other than maybe emotionally, which is probably worse than not at all.

Heck - the kind of mental discipline that hanging out here and thinking through an attempt at an intelligent conversation is more useful intellectual exercise IMV  than 100 hr of watching video.

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1 hour ago, pfife said:

Biden has made many attempts for bipartisanship.   

The other side led an insurrection

both sides!

And that's the problem, IMO.  You can't take any criticism of anything your side may have done wrong, heck, questioning it is even out of bounds.  You go out and present an aura of infallibility and if challenged, point to what you believe is the worst thing the other side has done to build that red herring.  

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On 4/3/2022 at 2:51 AM, gehringer_2 said:

I don't like Maher because shows like his are part of what has trivialized politics in the US as entertainment first, civic responsibility maybe later. I don't mind political comedy, I like political comedy, but once you go that route don't expect me to then take anything you do seriously because you have suddenly 'shifted gears' for the moment. The fact that he is there as an entertainer *first* playing for laughs inevitably undercuts any message that I, or anyone would ever need actually act on any information he imparts, for instance any more than I would take some other comic's riff about some faulty kitchen appliance of his as a serious product review.

I've detailed my problems with Mahar before (Fife's comment on his trashing of religion is a big factor)...

But the other problem that I have with Mahar is the same problem that I have with Rogan, Carlson, Maddow, Oliver or any TV talking head (whether on cable or on HBO) or almost any op-ed writer at this point.... they are paid to push a view point but it is unclear to me why anyone should even care what their views are.

The older I get, the more I just want straight news. I can read the A section stories in the local paper or the NYT or Post to get that, or get the equivalent on the local morning news. I dont know what additional insight I'm supposed to gain from Bill Mahar or Rogan or Maddow. Not to mention the countless idiot pundits across the political spectrum pushing Substack subscriptions... the world would probably be better off without the lot of them.

Edited by mtutiger
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On 4/3/2022 at 12:01 PM, ewsieg said:

If anything, we might need more political comedy.  Find a way to get everyone to relate to something and laugh at it.  Good comedians don't only make us laugh, they make us think of things differently.

Of course political comedy existed in the past, but it feels different now in that people's identities are tied up in their politics and people turn to politics for entertainment. And I cannot say that is a good thing or something we need more of... the fact that more and more people seem to have turned away from other forms of entertainment in their lives toward being rage farmed by cable news and political punditry hasn't left us any better off, just more divided.

On 4/3/2022 at 12:12 PM, gehringer_2 said:

while there is value in that, I still think it's overall a factor that leads to political passivity. "I've had my laugh, now I'v done my politics."  It's another thing that comes at you. Of course the same is true more globally in the fact that media has moved so totally into the video/visual realm in the last 70 yrs. I think that whole shift has been a passivating influence. You don't engage with with the talking head - other than maybe emotionally, which is probably worse than not at all.

Heck - the kind of mental discipline that hanging out here and thinking through an attempt at an intelligent conversation is more useful intellectual exercise IMV  than 100 hr of watching video.

This is spot on.

I would just add that the decreased lack of physical engagement that has kinda left people siloed off from the rest of the world, and as we have discussed here before, it is so much easier to dehumanize when discussing politics (especially the culture war stuff) whenever you are doing it over the internet versus dealing with someone in person.

On a personal and micro level, I've made some changes to my social media diet and media intake diet to change, but I don't know how you can fix that on a macro level... the culture, particularly online, seems addicted to rage

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You want to see Media bias, go right now and look up Judge Mizelle.  I have yet to see anything in print yet discussing the reasoning behind her decision.  CNN and others only have background information on her, pointing out she was appointed by Trump and didn't have a favorable review from the ABA due to limited experience.  Others are portraying her as a hero.

 

 

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On 4/12/2022 at 5:16 PM, chasfh said:

 

"Particularly men ...

 

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... because men are predators."

So... from time to time I check the local sex offender registry. It has come in handy a couple times. One such instance, there was one of those afternoon run clubs, and a guy was inviting ppl to his car to come get shirts for the club. I spotted him in the dB and alerted the girls I knew.

A couple years ago right before covid I saw a girl younger than me... early 30's and googled her. Saw she was a teacher busted with a student and had just gotten out of prison. Fastforward a couple weeks later, the local dog park/bar was hosting a singles night around Valentines Day. And this girl my friends were talking to looked familiar. Yep, it was the pedophile. I pulled them aside to alert them.

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