...and an example of why I don't feel I "malign" the other side...
(you have to click off a bunch of adds to get to the video!)
... because for the most part
I think there's no substance or consistency in a majority of their arguments. A lie is a lie. And sheep are sheep. There aren't two sides to every story, there is one truth and many perspectives. It's hard to value the standard right perspective when it is so out of whack.
If anyone wants to have a nationwide conversation about reality, I am there. But I refuse to sit at the table and try to reason with birthers, those who don't believe in climate change, those who think unions are all bad and corporations are all good, those who will never vote for anything that increases taxes one cent, those who think that if the government is involved its bad, those who think democrats are socialists etc etc.
Bill Maher, A COMEDIAN not a newscaster, has some good examples of why its hard to play nice with the other side and give their point of view consideration when it's
often illogical, backward, hyperbolic, ill-informed, under-vetted propaganda.
The right has fed its base endless untruths... Obama taking away guns... Obama killing jobs in the private sector with tax increases...health care will hurt grandma etc etc etc How do you argue with lies? I know there are people who come at the issues from a different philosophical perspective than mine. What I am hearing is not that.
It seems that they have decided to lie or manipulate the truth because it works, time and again. How else do you get the masses to believe that it is in their best interest to defund the EPA and public education and instead put their hopes in the crap shoot that is the charter school system. (Why not work on fixing the public school system to incorporate charter school principles??...that's the kinda debate I'm talking about...) How do you get Americans to vote against people who are fighting for health care for all? or those who want to make college affordable? Jeez. Instead they've somehow convinced many Americans that their freedoms are in jeopardy, that their #1 priority is lowering the deficit and taxes. Always taxes. The very most a middle class American could save in the tax breaks Republicans want couldn't pay for half of the services they will lose.
Truly, the only way they get these folks to vote for them is by scrapping the truth and letting them all connect their not-so-subtle-dots that lead to our country to the fear-fact.... America will completely fall apart. Come on. Nothing Obama is doing is leading to that.
And I'd like to see how very different 2 years of Mc Cain would have been. Even with a completely different economic plan, I can't imagine two years looking that much brighter. No one could. I remember the republicans talking about realistic expectations for the economy in 2008 when they were imagining John Mc Cain winning. They were definitely cautious.
But that's politics right? Wrong.
Right now the most outrageous and contentious and relentless misrepresentations come from the right.
I do not approve when it comes from the left either, by the way. (GOP is not trying to dismantle social security, or is it?, and the deficit has risen considerably since 2008 and Obama does want to lift the taxes on the rich to where they were under Bush Sr. True True True.) I am also sure there are many more misrepresentations, especially during elections. I hate it.
I still assert that most of the maligning seems to be coming squarely from the other side. And our side has to waste valuable time in news hours (to compete and counteract...), in lawsuits (check out the new investigations targeting Obama, reminicent of the Clinton years), in selling and re-selling ideas that people voted on but have been continually encouraged to question (healthcare reform, the existance of climate change, Obama's birthplace etc). Anyway, this video snippet is pretty much how I feel. I am not, however, fond of fat jokes.
4 comments:
Thanks for your intelligent and articulate presentation of the issues surrounding the way "news" is presented and the importance of fact checking vs. "fair and balanced." Who ever thought it would get this bad in our country? Who ever thought it would be OK to say anything to further a cause, even lie to further a cause, and this type of deception would succeed? It's very discouraging, and I know you are more optimistic than I, but to me it looks pretty grim. That there should be such a great philosophical divide in the US, and that the divide is encouraged by inaccurate and misleading hyperbole makes the prospect of moderation and reasoned debate a pipe dream -- unless something changes pretty soon. Thank you, Annie. Thank you, Jon Stewart, and thank you Bill Maher.
Thank you Annie. For bringing up the subjects here and helping me figure out why I feel so fricken BAD about politics and our country's overall health. I have been clicking around and reading stuff I would not normally have found on my own.
What I really wish is that, as a country, every week there would be a lesson channel that everyone somehow love to watch that explained all these different philosophies of governing. (rather than endless shows about the manipulations of politics!) I'd love history lessons about the effects of certain policies on actual events etc etc. Like nightly documentaries that captured the imaginations of the masses. (Sure.Hahahaha!)I am positive that many would be surprised, connections would be made that could bring us all together.
The one thing I know to be true. No one wants the country to fall apart at all. I just don't think that most people know that much about what's going on, just what the media tells us is important.(Including me in many cases!)
For instance, did you know that 30,000 people have died in Mexico in the past few years with all this drug vioulence!! That could very easily be the talk of the nation. But it's not. And its big.
Weird. The media is a strange fact contorting beast fueled by US! There is actual news on every single night (BBC) but we opt for the more senstional and now we believe opinion IS news. Yikes!
Hey, wouldn't it be cool if adults were forced (like kids) to go to 2 days of school a week where we HAD to practice our instruments, do PE, study history and read the classics? I'd love the time the do this, but don't make the time and these are all things that would make us all better people.I think we might have a different kind of country if this were the case. Oh to be a kid again. (Not for the usual reasons but for the ones a kid would never choose...time set aside out of every day to be more educated/well-rounded people!! AND Santa!! ;)
annie
I would love to watch those history lessons! Something like you say that shows effects and actual factual interesting applicable info. I love learning as an adult and I do try to find the things that make me a more educated more rounded individual but I don't even seek out the news because it's so wack. Trolling the wires on Salon is a totally depressing affair. School AND Santa? Sign me up.
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