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This thread is long overdue. The subject of right wing media, its reach and the effect it has on the average U.S. citizen's thought process keeps coming up over and over again all over D&D, especially in the weekly election thread that Joementum runs. It causes a lot of de-rails and clouds a lot of discussion, to the point where it obviously deserves its own thread. Several SA posters have expressed interest in such an idea, but no one has started a thread specifically dedicated tot the topic. I've promised to do it several times so here it is, finally. I think the psychological effect of media outlets like FOX News and AM talk radio (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neil Boortz, etc.) is much more profound and psychologically effective at framing the national political discourse than most liberals around here would care to admit or acknowledge. To most of us, it all seems like a joke, and it largely is, but there's a reason that our current president, who has governed slightly to the left of Ronald Reagan throughout his first term, is the first thing people think of when they hear the word "socialist". There's a reason that roughly 40% of Republican voters still aren't sure where Barrack Obama was born and what his religion is. There's a reason that most Americans think that their taxes have been raised over the last 3.5 years. There's a reason that people believe that ACORN and the Black Panthers decided the 2008 election and that voter ID laws are necessary in order to prevent widespread voter fraud that doesn't exist. There's a reason that people think that poor people drive Hummers and eat lobsters paid for by their sweet, sweet welfare checks and food stamps and that most of those people are black. "Obama-phones", a program started 19 years ago, has become a meme, and was even featured in GOP campaign ads, for a reason. I honestly think that the reason for all of these things is due to the influence of right wing media. It's way more pervasive, effective and far-reaching than logical people here give it credit for. They tell lies with impunity every day and speak as if those untruths are accepted facts. Eventually they do become facts, at least for those that sit in cubicles and have radios on while they work. I listen to these shows from time to time, for as long as I can stand it anyway, and these people are horrible in ways that are truly poisonous to the way that average people view reality and their lives. I can't tolerate listening to it or watching it for longer than 5 minutes, yet I know a lot of people who fill their heads with it for 8 - 12 hours day. Let's take a look at the heavyweights of this phenomenon: Rush Limbaugh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh The grandaddy of right wing carnival barking and the most listened to radio show in the country. A disturbingly large percentage of the population receive their news from this man for 4 hours every day and think that he is the only person with a voice and who possesses the courage to tell them the truth. They laud him as a hero and a champion of the voiceless, oppressed, white, christian silent majority. When I first heard his show back in 1991, I thought it was a parody - and it was - until he started making money. Now he has supplanted Howard Stern as the king of radio. His racist, xenophobic and verbal diarrhea are a matter of public record and very well documented. He could have his own thread all by himself. He is now dead. Sean Hannity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Hannity Probably the second most trusted and popular right wing creep currently polluting our airwaves. The guy is the walking definition of a corporate shill and a sanctimonious prick who will do anything for a dollar and comes off like a used car salesman or infomercial spokesman every time you hear him speak. He lies with impunity ever single day, shouts down his interview subjects for refusing to answer loaded questions along the lines of "have you stopped beating your wife" and he and his callers jerk each other off taking turns calling each other "Great Americans", so long as they tow the Republican line and regurgitate talking points into each other's mouths and ears ever day. His show on FOX News used to be called "Hannity and Colmes", where he kept a supposedly left wing counter voice around to appear fair and balanced, but has since been re-named "Hannity!", exclamation point included. Neal Boortz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Boortz This guy used to make a certain amount of sense as a sort of libertarian alternative to assholes like Rush and Sean. He used to rail against Bush as much as he did Bill Clinton and was an early champion and proponent of The Fair Tax initiative. I think he's responsible for a much of its popularity. These days, he's almost entirely open about his racism, regularly calls our President and his economic policies "Marxist", "Socialist" and "anti-capitalist". He's retiring in December and since he announced it, seems to not give one single gently caress at all how loudly his racist dog whistles sound or any ramifications that might result from any of the horrible bullshit he says. To prove he's not the racist jerk he really is, his show will be taken over by Herman Cain. One of the good ones. Michael Savage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Savage This dude is probably the worst of the worst. He's most famous for telling a gay caller on his short-lived TV show to "get AIDS and die, you sodomite" which led to the cancellation of his show. His real name is Michael Weiner and he hates it when anyone tells him that or addresses him by that name. He's sort of the white, male Jewish version of Ann Coulter, who, like her, is so far out and antagonistic that it should be obvious to anyone paying attention that they're just in it to make money, and they've figured out a way to do it by just being professional trolls who took their shtick outside of internet message boards. Mike Savage is truly horrible in a way that Coulter can't compete with because he seems so deadly serious about it. Glen Beck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck This guy's star has fallen dramatically since his peak of teaching us all how Bill Ayers, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mussolini all somehow conspired to elect Barrack Obama. He's most famous for demonstrating this by writing on a chalkboard and crying every night and, over this time, largely succeeded in convincing about 30% of the population that fascism is a left wing political ideology, Hitler was an extreme leftist and that Barrack Obama was an extreme leftist, bent on fascism, who wanted to destroy America. He finally became so insufferable that even FOX News couldn't air him any more as an increasing number of advertisers refused to have their ads aired on his show lest they be in any way associated with him and his bullshit. ... God, I can't believe I posted that whole OP and didn't mention Matt Drudge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Drudge http://drudgereport.com/ This guy is sort of the godfather of of conservative internet news the way Rush is to radio. A lot of conservatives I know have The Drudge Report as their start up page. He sort of sets the table, even more than Limbaugh, for whatever the conservative agenda is for the day that all the radio shows and FOX will follow and hit on. The National Review: A right wing tabloid with an inexplicable reputation for sophisticated, intellectual conservatism. Founded by William Buckley, National Review got its start in the fifties defending segregation, and it's all been down hill from there. Home of pseudo-intellectual hacks such as Jonah "Liberal Fascism" Goldberg, Mark "OOGITY BOOGITY MUSLIMS" Steyn, and Suzanne "Stop the war on men" Venker. Its role in the right wing noise machine seems to be to take the talking points of guys like Limbaugh and Hannity and give them an air of legitimacy by paraphrasing them with big words, using its intellectual reputation to turn it into a Serious Thing that Serious People need to Seriously Consider. Also notable for the National Review Cruise, offering the opportunity to pay thousands of dollars to spend a week trapped on a boat with a bunch of conservative hacks. ... As more and more money rolled in and the idea of the persecuted white conservative rebel began to take hold, more and more copycats continue to try and repeat the successful model made famous by some of the people I listed above. It really is bad. These people have not only polluted and virtually rendered invalid the concept of real and honest journalism, but they've managed to convince a disturbingly large percentage of the population that honest journalism, fact checking, sourcing and confirmation are pointy headed pursuits, championed by unpatriotic geeks, part of a left wing conspiracy and that intellectualism is something worthy of scorn and distrust. Even worse, as FOX News has become more and more popular (the highest rated cable news outlet in the world in fact), based almost entirely on the idea that all other news media was "liberally biased", once respectable news outlets have not only begun to bend over backwards to avoid reporting the truth in an effort to shield themselves from this perception, but they've begun to copy FOX's model in an effort to attract ratings; becoming more sensationalistic in thier reporting and inviting more and more right wing "journalists" on their panels to "balance" their coverage. It's really sad. Since the removal of The Fairness Doctrine by Ronald Reagan, the right wing media machine has really succeeded in moving the Overton Window, over time, so far to the right that it has genuinely affected the national discourse, the language people use, and the way people view news, information and certainly the role of government. I don't think this success and its effects can be overstated. Read any comments section of your local news website, the letters to the editor section of your local newspaper, or just listen to your friends or folks you overhear talking in a bar or restaurant. ... This thread is for monitoring right wing radio, TV and websites, reporting and posting examples of outrageous claims and stupid and demonstrably false statements made by same, bolstered by screen caps and audio clips debunking the lies they say, and offering your own observations, wiki-links and what have you of anyone I haven't mentioned. Also, for anyone who thinks that the "left wing media" does the same thing all the time, this thread is for you to provide those examples and to source your claims. edit: added Matt Drudge. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Feb 18, 2021 |
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Oct 17, 2012 00:33
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Cross posting from the 2012 election thread, but here's what I heard today: Rush was just on the air telling me that the media narrative for tonight is already set and they're already predetermined to call the debate for Obama and run their "Comeback Kid" headlines. Of course he also tells me that "the media" is already in the tank for Obama and all that poo poo too so here's a grain of salt to go with my post. He said that "Romney will have to mop the floor with Obama tonight for the media to declare him the winner", ignoring that the media honestly acknowledged Obama's defeat in the last debate and somehow called the VP debate a draw. How badly would Obama have to destroy Romney tonight in order for Limbaugh or Hannity to admit that he won?
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Oct 17, 2012 00:53
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este posted:Is Bill O'Reilly no longer part of the Axis of He's now considered one of the "reasonable ones" because the Overton window has moved so far. He and Jon Stewart joke around these days. He's on The View and poo poo so liberals are somehow cool with him. He's as much of a dick as anyone I posted in my OP but, and as largely responsible for the coarsening of modern political discourse as anyone I can think of, but he's obviously happy enough now to coast on his accomplishments on into retirement and leave the bullshit to younger and more eager beavers. Reminder that Bill O'Reilly was one of the first media figures to openly call out victims of 9/11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BAFb97L3KU He's a human turd just like almost everyone else on FOX.
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Oct 17, 2012 01:00
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Stanos posted:It's a shame whatever caused Michael Savage to become such a bitter man happened because he used to do a show on Friday where it was a bit folksy and he'd tell stories about his childhood and his past. It was a lot more interesting in that Garrison Keillor type of way. Sucks about his disgusting views however. His bitterness is contrived and driven solely by profit. Don't feel sorry for him. His "folksy stories" just turned out to be less lucrative than being a screaming, antagonistic, bile spewing jerk. That's really all there is to it. If singing peace and love folk songs and telling stories about his childhood made him any money, he'd be well tot he left of Michale Moore.
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Oct 17, 2012 01:06
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fade5 posted:
Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of typos. I can't type for poo poo. I read it over and had my wife read it too so we did the best we could. Hopefully, people will get over it and forgive me. PM me what you find and I'll go back in the OP and edit it. Thanks.
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Oct 17, 2012 01:12
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computer parts posted:It's not like Europe is that much different these days anyway. I mainly started this thread to discuss U.S. media but I'd be interested in examples of similar stuff in Europe or the UK, sure. E: General Dog posted:I don't think Fox News, AM radio, etc. really shape public opinion that much, I think they really just tap into a market for people who want to have their opinions/biases confirmed. Just like you go to church and listening to the sermon helps you to maintain your faith, listening to Rush Limbaugh every day maintains your faith in your politics. Rarely is either going to convert nonbelievers, the goal is just to keep the masses energized. I think you're very mistaken here. Just read the comments section of any news site or the letters to the editor of any newspaper to see how pervasive their influence really is. The buzzwords are always the same in all of these places. ("Socialism", "ACORN", "birth certificate", "cut and run", "tree huggers", "activist judges", "voter fraud", etc.) I could always tell what FOX and Rush were on about in any given week just by eavesdropping in the lunchroom. These shows and their terms have a way of seeping into the discourse almost without people really noticing it. Your analogy to church sermons I think only serves to drive the point home more. Many, many people attend church in order to be told what to think. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 12:26
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I wonder sometimes how much these outlets' ratings are artificially inflated by people like me who tune just for train wreck and comedic value of the whole thing. Like after the debate last night, I immediately jumped over to FOX just to see what crazy poo poo they would say to make it a tie somehow. Their webpage didn't disappoint me this morning. http://www.foxnews.com/
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Oct 17, 2012 14:19
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Posted earlier, but today is a actually a fine example of right wing media outlets do. If you watched debate last night, you'll know that the moderator fact checked Mitt Romney about whether or not Obama called what happened in Libya an act of terrorism (he did). Today, all of the conservative media I've watched and listened to is parroting the exact same message: that Candy Crowley was wrong and is backing off her correction of Mitt. She's doing nothing of the sort, mind you, but this is a great example of how this poo poo works. FOX News posted:BIAS ALERT: CNN's Candy Crowley injects herself into debate, remarkably siding with President Obama's claim that he immediately labeled the deadly attack on the Libyan consulate a terrorist act — and not allowing Mitt Romney to call him out. TheDailyCaller posted:CNN’s Crowley backtracks: Romney ‘right in the main’ on Benghazi Obama called it a terrorist strike the next day. This is the sort of thing I hope to do with this thread. Monitor and call out the spin as it happens, record and post what these people say and then watch as it effects the national discourse and the 24 hour news cycle as the arguments get framed. Right now, every Republican in the country thinks that Candy Crowley has apologized and that Mitt Romney was right, in spite of provable, demonstrable facts that say otherwise. They do this poo poo every single day. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 17:35
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Radbot posted:The whole "left Rush" has been tried, and it died under an avalanche of liberals hand-wringing about civil discourse and other such poo poo. It died because Air America was mostly horrible, unlistenable poo poo. Even Al Franken's show, the lynchpin of the format, wasn't all that great or particularly funny. I enjoy listening to Stephanie Miller sometimes, as well as Thom Hartman and Bill Press, but the way I listen to these shows is almost passive - certainly nothing like the way that people listen to Rush and Sean during their commutes and lunch hours. I actually manage to get tired of red meat. The right wing base eats this poo poo up as actual, honest-to-god news and, worse, the only news to be trusted because the rest of the media is all left wing bias.
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Oct 17, 2012 17:40
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God, I can't believe I posted that whole OP and didn't mention Matt Drudge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Drudge This guy is sort of the godfather of of conservative internet news the way Rush is to radio. A lot of conservatives I know have The Drudge Report as their start up page. He sort of sets the table, even more than Limbaugh, for whatever the conservative agenda is for the day that all the radio shows and FOX will follow and hit on. Bombadilillo posted:You shut your face about Al Frankin. He and Air America saved me from being a dittohead. I love Al Franken but I thought his radio show was mediocre at best and not nearly as funny as his books or his sketch comedy. Strom Thurmond posted:I totally get you probably don't want to be going to their sites and giving them any additional page-views or ad revenue. Good catch (from Strom Thurmond of all people). That's why I linked wikipedia articles instead the news sights. Feel free to add whatever you've got since you seem to have a stronger stomach for listening to this poo poo than I do. Again though, I have to wonder, especially given what a few posters have said about listening to these people and visiting their sites, how much of their audience and ratings success is composed of and due to people like us who hear some piece of news damaging to Republicans and go "Holy poo poo! I wonder how they'll try and spin this poo poo?"
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Oct 17, 2012 18:06
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Here's a thing FOX News did today, swiped from the election thread: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/16/transcript-second-presidential-debate/ The transcript omitted Mitt Romney's answer regarding the gun question and about supporting the assault weapons ban. I can't believe that these arots of things are accidental mistakes any more.
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Oct 17, 2012 18:43
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Just gonna leave this right here. From FOX's front page.
BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 20:34
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flatbus posted:Posting my question from last page here for reference. I assume this is the question you want answered? Your writing style is a bit thick and somewhat difficult for me to entirely parse so I'm not sure precisely what you're driving at. But... I've pointed out the strengths of the right wing media machine throughout the thread. Their main strength is their complete and total ability to stay absolutely on message, every day, all day. Through sheer repetition they manage to not only spread general falsehoods and outright lies, but even when those fail and are debunked, they've usually at least managed to frame the debate on their partisan terms (See "swiftboating", "Dan Rather", "ACORN", etc.). They also attract a lot more advertisers because they shill for the corporate line and act almost as infomercial vessels disguised as alternative media. What can be done? Re-institute the Fairness Doctrine maybe but I think that ship has sailed. I've always thought there should be an official and labeled differential symbol or logo or something - like they do with magazine and newspaper ads designed to look like articles, where there's a fine print disclaimer or something that labels the information as opinion rather than fact, but I'm not sure who gets to decide that. What FOX does is almost EXACTLY like that: the ads you see in a magazine that look like real articles until you notice the little "advertisement" disclaimer in 4 point type at the top of the page. This is basically what these people do to frame narratives. They blur the lines of distinction between opinion and fact by pretending to offer 2 sides to every argument, even if one side says water is wet and the other says it's dry, and draw their credibility from the appearance of fairness and claiming a liberal agenda bias against everyone who's not them. It's horseshit. The main thing you can do is call bullshit what it is every time you hear someone spouting the daily talking points, but that can tiring and old pretty fast. The people that buy this nonsense have been worked on so hard and so gradually over the years that they ONLY trust Drudge, FOX and Rush to tell the truth and ignore everything else.
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Oct 18, 2012 01:00
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Mercury_Storm posted:I agree with the person who said earlier that right wing media plays to the fears, prejudices and ignorance people already have to rake in the cash. After all, there wouldn't have been a market for this poo poo in the first place if boomers and their ilk weren't clamoring for it. FOX just gives a giant blow-horn to the stupidity that already exists in America, and its not likely that that mouthpiece is going to be taken away anytime soon seeing how far it has seeped into US politics. I think the effect has been more gradual. When Limbaugh fist started out, everyone I spoke to believed he was a complete nut and a joke, but a few people would interject that "he makes a good point every once in a while." I'm not certain as to the degrees of cause and effect and the chicken and the egg, but I do think that over time, the repetition of this madness becomes "normalized" and more mainstream - to the point that now O'Reilly is viewed as sane and reasonable. People weren't predisposed to thinking Obama isn't a U.S. citizen, a christian or that Saddam had WMD's, ACORN rigs elections and Planned Parenthood is an abortion factory. They're taught it. And they're taught it by the things they listen to and watch. They think Obama has raised taxes. It's tangentally related, but I remember a TV host named Morten Downey who came out in the late 80's and was seen as outrageously over the top, rude and barbaric. He was sort of the original Mike Savage in a way. I remember when a fistfight broke out on Geraldo's show and it was a huge loving news story. Now we have fights on Jerry Springer every day and rude talk show hosts all over the place. What these people do has a way of achieving a normality to it as people become desensitized and used to hearing it. THEN it becomes a part of the listeners vernacular and mindset.
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Oct 18, 2012 13:06
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ZobarStyl posted:He'd swap sides in a heartbeat if he thought he could bilk liberal retirees out of their savings with ads for LifeLock and gold coins. I've seen this come up a couple of times and these ads aren't exclusive to conservative shows. Lifelock and gold are staples on Al Gore's channel also and all over the left wing talk shows. Glen Beck's ad even ran on Stephanie Miller's show for a long time.
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Oct 18, 2012 18:07
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deptstoremook posted:If the left has moral qualms about lying, or propagandizing, or pandering, then we deserve to lie in the grave that's being dug by the right. No, that's what makes us "the left" - valuing things like truth, honesty, sourcing, verification, confirmation and facts in news reporting. Adopting the tactics of the opposition would be a huge mistake and destroy whatever credibility we have. If I understand you correctly, you're saying that unless the left becomes dis-honest lying scumbags, then we deserve what we get. I think that's absurd and counter-productive on nearly ever level. If we want to maybe get a little tougher about calling out bullshit and being a little more vocal then that's a different argument.
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Oct 18, 2012 18:13
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So I guess some disparaging welfare spending numbers came out today since both Boortz and Limbaugh were touching on them. Boortz was talking about the increased number of people on welfare (which, you know, happens during a recession and poo poo) but he actually said "and we all know who those people are and who they'll vote for". Hmmmm...I wonder which demographic he was insinuating there. "Those people". edit: Oh yeah, and what little I caught from Rush today had this line (paraphrasing): "what were seeing today is 50 years of failed liberal new-dealism going all the way back to FDR" and "Obama is dotting the 'i's' and crossing the 't's'", putting the final touches on it all somehow. No mention of thirty years of supply side Reaganomics of course. He told me that Obama wants to destroy the private sector "on purpose". For...um...some reason I guess. I never heard him explain why Obama would want to do that, wreck the economy and unemployment numbers and sink his re-election chances, but I guess that's his plan. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 18:35
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MrSmokes posted:Came here after seeing that. Oh my loving GOD what the gently caress is wrong with them. Jesus loving Christ that makes my blood boil and my skin crawl. Also, if they're really going to do poo poo like this, at least they could make it a little more subtle and nicer looking. I know they really don't want Obama to win, but that looks so goddamn trashy and unprofessional. I thought they knew the President's religion and the matter was settled? *runs Reverend Wright video* Edit: As an aside, the more I think about it, Newshounds and Media Matters already do the lion's share of work monitoring and reporting on the day to day subject of American right wing media, so maybe that's not really the best direction for this thread to take, even though it's fun and most of us here are funnier than either of those websites. It might be fun to pull things they write and comment on them with an SA sense of humor though. I don't know why this poo poo drives me as crazy as it does and why I let it bother me so much. It's probably not so much what they say as it is how many buy into it hook, line and sinker. My Father in Law is a reasonably intelligent and accomplished man but I found out not too lon ago he's a Birther. My stepfather is a middle class pot smoking turkey salesman (yes) who's been trying to find a new job and is worried about being tested for weed. My mother has been on disability for 5 or so years now and has been hitting me up with questions about Obamacare that her conservative friends are feeding her and seems to be considering voting for Romney. This stuff really does permeate the language, through osmosis alone and by way of sheer repetition, and that bugs me more than anything. Someone brought up "how to debate a conservative" earlier in the thread, but every time I do it, I hit a brick wall of impenetrable false information that they have accepted as abject fact and the conversation ends there. They're getting this information from somewhere and a lot of them should know better, but they don't. I used to discuss politics with a woman I worked with who was relatively smart; was pro choice, pro progressive taxation, anti war, pro gay marriage, supported education funding, separation of church and state and was pro environmental protection but proudly voted Republican all of the time. Everything she supported would lead her to vote Democrat. Her information was just wrong. She loved Sarah Palin for some reason. Guess what was on her radio every day and which news station she watched? BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 19:50
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nachos posted:I think this is a good point and it should be noted that right-wing AM radio and suburbia have a very holistic relationship with each other. Not only are the suburbs echo chambers by design, but the drive/commute to work is a natural fit for right-wing dominated AM radio, which just strengthens and reinforces the overall conservatism of its suburban listeners. I wonder how much geography plays a role in this as well. A lot of rural, very red states are just giant land masses of nothing, and if you've ever driven through some of them, all you can get on the radio is either a church program or some form of Limbaugh talk. I wonder to what degree this helps make those states do solidly red. The more I think about it, whoever made the comparison of preacher sermons was spot on. edit: Let's see what we have today.  I wonder what Obama said? quote:In an appearance taped today for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, President Obama was asked if communication between government personnel had failed to provide "the optimal response" to the Benghazi attacks. Obama replied in part: "If four Americans get killed, it's not optimal. We're going to fix it. All of it. And what happens, during the course of a presidency, is that the government is a big operation and any given time something screws up. And you make sure that you find out what's broken and you fix it." BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Oct 19, 2012 |
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Oct 19, 2012 13:47
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VideoTapir posted:I'm really curious as to how this mentality is applied to everyday life. I imagine it must be incredibly frustrating. Read Yahoo! comments sometime. I think he's talking about how those types see a liberal conspiracy in everything, like how Avatar has a leftist environmental agenda or The Muppet Movie was ragging on oil companies. Also, how Michelle Obama's nutrition initiatives are some sort of government mandate on food. poo poo like that. His Microsoft example was weird though because his objection was based on them being a monopoly, when really, it seems FOX News types love that sort of stuff ("success").
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Oct 20, 2012 12:20
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I'm not sure if this should go here or not, but I got that "Dreams of My Real* Father" DVD in the mail the other day and, the more I think about it, realize that this is indeed part of what we're talking about in this thread. This movie, combined with the "2016" documentary, I think really illustrates how pervasive this right wing messaging really is. It's all stupid hot air and based on absolutely nothing. There are hundreds of reasons to dislike Obama but these people just invent things out of thin air.
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Oct 24, 2012 14:45
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cymbalrush posted:Noted sex-tourist Rush Limbaugh has something to say about the treatment of women? You left out 4 divorces. Real pillar of traditional family values. Honestly, how does anyone take this man seriously anymore? When he first started out, no one did. He was like a right wing version of Howard Stern, where people would just tune in to hear whatever outrageous poo poo the host might say next, but no one confused either one of them for intellectuals with deep and meaningful political ideas. Howard even wrote about it in his first book when he ragged on Rush for basically copying his schtick, albeit from a different angle and after failing in radio over and over, and in large part rode Howard's coat tails into popularity by basically learning that you could say anything you want and that the key to good ratings is getting as many people who hate you to tune into your show as those that like you. But Limbaugh's hypocrisy and indiscretions are beyond the pale. At least Howard is honest. Limbaugh has accepted the help of the ACLU when people were after his medical records for his drug problems after repeatedly labeling them as enemies of America for years. Rush is on record for harsher penalties for drug users but I don't remember him advocating locking himself up for his own good or even changing his position once he got in trouble. He's been divorced 4 times and advocates for traditional family values. He's the PT Barnum of AM radio, been exposed over and over as a fraud and a hypocrite, but legions of listeners tune into to his show and wait with baited breath every day to listen to him in order to absorb and regurgitate whatever news has been reported by the "liberal media". They don't know how to interpret reality until Rush does it for them. You can set your watch to this poo poo. Any time there's any bad news for Republicans or good news for Democrats, the conservative flock is eerily silent, but wait ONE DAY and and every message board, comment section, radio caller and op-ed pukes back, ad hoc, into our faces whatever Rush has decided is the way to view a situation and what to think about it. If it's over the top, then they turn to blaming the messenger and all of the focus shifts to that (Sandra Fluke, Donovan McNabb, Dan Rather, Katie Couric, Candy Crowley). He went from a guy trying to make a living in radio to the messiah of alternative conservative media and spokesman for the Republican party so fast that no one really noticed how he got there. He tells people what to think and they believe him. Every day. Even when he's wrong, he succeeds at framing the debate and putting the wrong targets on the defensive. I see it on this forum from time to time whenever a conservative rolls in to troll threads. I hate throwing Nazi comparisons around, but he really is the modern American equivalent of Joseph Goebbels. Hannity is a close second. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Oct 26, 2012 |
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Oct 26, 2012 19:41
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Pope Guilty posted:The big phrases I remember were "Support the troops!", which was code for "support the war or else you are a morally horrible person for hating soldiers!", and "if you can't respect the President, respect the office of President", which was code for "stop pointing out that George Bush is a horrible person." Along with a whole bunch of "liberal Democrats are trying to take down the President, a democratic congress is hoping we'll lose the war, etc" even though Congress gave Bush everything he ever wanted except for social security privatization. Rush's boys had 6 years to run the country and look what they did. Conservative media never took ownership of any of it, blamed non-existent, voiceless and powerless left wingers for every gently caress up and then turned around in 2010 and wondered why Obama didn't work miracles in his first two years.
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Oct 29, 2012 22:37
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Super Joe posted:Saying that Republicans are fascists doesn't accomplish anything. All you are doing is introducing another buzzword into the lexicon i. e. socialist. The person you are talking to is unlikely to truly know what a fascist is anyway. You're much better of being more specific with your criticism. Especially when most of those people have been taught that fascism is a left wing construct.
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Oct 31, 2012 15:01
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ShakeyDog posted:Rush hitting radio at that time was like the perfect storm. He had the talent and personality to take a radio host job and set the world on fire with it. Few people could have done what he did. It takes a crass, fearless man to get on the radio and send out a stream of conservatism that is regressive enough that the common people can nod along with it. It was a combination of AM radio dying and having tons of cheap air time available combined with the more open, aggressive, and in your face type of radio that Howard Stern made popular, where you pretty much just say whatever and garner publicity from the FCC and studio censors going after you. Rush had failed several times in radio, and has even collected unemployment benefits on more than one occasion. He's also accepted the help of the ACLU when he had his drug problems. AM radio when Rush started was a loving wasteland. They couldn't give airtime away, let alone sell advertising. There was a giant vacuum there waiting to be filled by something and Rush struck lightening by basically inventing the concept of the "conservative rebel". There's a Tim Robbins mockumentary film called Bob Roberts that very cleverly encapsulates this concept, though it's hard to find anywhere. Rush cashed in on cheap air time and exploited all the put upon conservative squares who never had a chance to be rebellious and cool and felt left out because they were no fun at parties, weren't funny, never got laid, and never had any original ideas or thoughts of their own. There's a certain percentage of the population, a disturbingly large one in fact, that LIKES being told what to do and what to think about things. I don't think, as many have suggested in this thread, that the conservative listener seeks reinforcement of preconceived ideas, so much as they lack the confidence in their own thought processes to formulate ideas and opinions on their own. They're frightened of change and evolving thoughts and ideas, and that the "status quo" moves over time, so they turn to people who willfully exploit them for commercial gain and give them their opinions because adjusting their mindset is too much work and they lack the confidence to do so. They're scared of not being "cool" and desperately want to fit in to something but lack the ability to move forward. I usually have to wait 24 hours to know what my conservative friends think about anything. It's because they're waiting to be TOLD to think by their authority figures. It's not reinforcement, it's a lack of independent logic. ShakeyDog posted:You really should ad Matt Drudge to your list, BiggerBoat. He's pretty much the voice of modern American conservatism. Added. Thanks. I know I left him out and did a separate post once I realized my error, but I'll add it to the OP. ShakeyDog posted:I'm curious about this subject though. What do you think a steady diet of someone like Matt Drudge does to the mind? It makes smart people think dumb things and makes dumb people believe in and double down on their dumbness. It normalizes the fringe. Talk to my father in law. Drudge is his start up page. He's not a complete idiot. He's a retired accountant. We were talking about the Wall Street crash one time and I offered the idea that I'm just as well off betting on football games in Vegas than I am giving my money to Charles Schwabb to pick winners in the stock market and he said my opinion was "asinine". I don't see a huge difference between betting on the Philadelphia Eagles or betting on IBM or GE, and to me it's all gambling except one game isn't fixed. I know there are differences between sports betting and mutual funds, but I hardly think the comparison is asinine. Oh yeah, he's also a birther so maybe he is an idiot.
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Oct 31, 2012 18:42
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cheerfullydrab posted:I believe the current political analysis holds that Christie wants Obama to be re-elected so he's in a good position for 2016. I don't think this is in the realm of conspiracy theory. We live in an age of perpetual Presidential elections and Christie is just doing some basic political math. It's a little cynical but not the worst of the worst by any means. I think it's as simple as Christie being smart enough to know that he'll need federal aid to keep his entire state from drowning on national television. He might be a True Believer and all, or maybe not, but say what you want about him, he's not a George W. Bush level dumb dumb. It bothers me that all it takes is for ONE conservative politician to praise President Obama and the left falls all over themselves saying how awesome he is, while the right can't wait to label him a RINO, but Bush had the support of almost every Democrat in congress up until he invaded the wrong country and somehow they were being treasonous.
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Oct 31, 2012 18:51
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Never change, FOX. Never change. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/new-black-panthers-back-at-the-same-08-polling-place-in-philadelphia/ New Black Panther spotted at polling station. edit: 
BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Nov 6, 2012 |
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Nov 6, 2012 21:06
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Logan 5 posted:loving hell I just came here to post about this. Nothing sends my blood boiling faster. God, I didn't even catch that. The Blaze article I linked showed one Black Panther dude but I had no idea it was an old photo. As an aside, I couldn't resist subjecting myself to a few minutes of Rush today. He was more insane than usual; going on about polls. I'm not sure what he was driving at or what point he was trying to make but his gist was "the polls are the best thing Obama has going for him/without the polls, where would Obama be?" and I just didn't (and still don't) know what the gently caress. Aren't the polls measuring voter intent and likely outcomes? What does what he said even mean? "Without the polls, the Obama campaign would be...?" What exactly? The polls are measuring data, correct? That's like saying "without all of those home runs, where would Babe Ruth be" or "without all of those voters, where would 'certain candidate' be", isn't it? Without all of those sportswriters I guess Micheal Jordan wouldn't have won all those MVP awards either. I think he was trying to make some weird point about skewed polls or something and how they're in the tank for Obama to keep the election but it came out as "without the polls, Obama wouldn't be winning!" Well...um...yeah...I suppose that's true! Without water cooled to 32 degrees, there'd be no ice either, Rush. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Nov 6, 2012 |
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Nov 6, 2012 23:27
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Zwabu posted:Rush sounds remarkably chipper this morning... Well, of course. His ratings are always better when he has a strawman/boogeyman to rail against. Boortz really threw me off this morning. He was raging hard against the far right social conservatives and their anti-choice big mouths that made women go so hard towards Obama. kind of surprised me actually but good for him I guess. Rush" "Why don't 'we' get credit for Condaleeza Rice?" whatever that means. edit: "Conservatism still has not been tried on Capitol Hill"..."This was not a conservative campaign"..."I'm not going to come on the air and introduce negatvism". This is glorious. gently caress you, Rush Limbaugh.
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Nov 7, 2012 18:43
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Radio Nowhere posted:Now excuse me, I'm off to get my Obama-check and Obama-phone promised to me from the gubbermit teet. Oh, poo poo. I totally forgot about that. I was too busy waiting for the mailman to deliver my Soros check for committing election fraud and turning my kid gay. Seriously, everyone with a passing interest in this thread - and as much as it pains me to say it, - tune in Rush right now. He's saying Obama is getting a "do-over", won by blaming the economy on Bush and asking where is the evidence that Obama's policies are making things better. I want to call him and reassure him that I don't blame Bush, I blame Reagan (and to a lesser extent, Clinton) and see how he walks that tightrope. edit: Anyone want to get in early and place their bets on what Hannity's theme will be this afternoon? Black Panthers? Election fraud? Liberal media? Sean is one of the few of these assholes I can't stomach at all so I doubt I'll be able to weigh in on it. RUSH: "We're outnumbered". Yes you are, Rush. Lastly, I totally forgot that perhaps the main reason I hate Rush as much as I do is for ruining a perfectly good Pretenders song forever. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Nov 7, 2012 |
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Nov 7, 2012 19:05
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Zwabu posted:Rush: "Our shabby last second pandering efforts to parade Condi Rice and Mia Love didn't counteract our decades of open vicious hate against brown skinned people, WTF? WHY DOESN'T IT WORK" You left out Marco Rubio (see? He's Hispanic. Why won't these libs recognize the American Dream when they see it?) *Barrack Obama is elected*  Never even mind that when someone steps out of line, they're ostracized forever (Chris Christie, John Roberts, Colin Powell). I'm listening to Rush now and trying not to TVIV this thread but Limbaugh must have heard a different speech than I did last night and has watched a different president than I have for the last four years. He's saying that Obama's message is to punish hard work when Obama said specifically the opposite. But they have PHONES and FOOD STAMPS and MICROWAVES!!! WHY DOESN'T IT WORK?!?! We're patronizing!! Why these bitches gotta get all upset when when we call them sluts and whores for seeking contraception? I want to call Rush and ask him about collecting unemployment (three times) and enlisting the aid of the ACLU when his medical records were being persued. I'm sure they'd patch me right through. At least Boortz seemed to have some semblance of a clue and called out the hard right social conservatives for shooting off their big, dumb, stupid mouths, but even then he was saying "see, we could have Akin and Mourdoch!" instead of being glad that those horrible fuckers are no where near positions of power. He's basically saying "if only these awful jerks had had the good sense to keep their mouths shut, we could have elected these awful jerks into positions of power!"
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Nov 7, 2012 19:40
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Also, if Obama is Santa Claus, someone tell him I want an OCC custom Batman chopper and Halo4. Just getting that in now. Also free sanitation service, a gold car and a vibrating massage chair. And some nag wheels (man...that'd be sweet).
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Nov 7, 2012 19:42
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Sylphid posted:I understand that Republicans / right wing have been demonizing socialism for years now, usually in the form of anti-communist rhetoric, but unless I'm mistaken, wasn't 2008 the election was socialism became the buzzword it is today? You're correct. "Socialism" (and its connection to Nazis and fascism) became the new buzzword(s) after Obama got elected, even though no conservative I know can name one single thing that Obama has done that's in any way "Socialist" or even define what it means or why it's bad, and also never even mind that what's so bad about socialism in the first place when it comes to clean air and water, law enforcement, firefighters, the military, schools, things that benefit us all etc. This is what I mean when I say that I disagree with posters who posit that people who listen to this poo poo do so for the purpose of reinforcing existing beliefs. No one ever even mentioned the word until Sean, Neil, Beck and Rush started saying it and now they just repeat it Ad nauseam without even knowing what it means or offering any evidence of how our President embodies the concept. The only thing I see them cite is Obama's off-hand comment to Joe the Plumber about spreading the wealth. ninja edit: Rush: the polls were skewed! It doesn't jive!
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Nov 7, 2012 20:12
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Zwabu posted:Okay for those who have continued to listen to Rush today, earlier it seemed like he was veering away from straight up "we wuz robbed" in favor of "country now full of dumb Obamaphone negroes who outnumber us", but just a moment ago before this current break he went with the really loud emphasis of "either we outnumbered OR THE BIGGEST ELECTION THEFT IN HISTORY HAS OCCURRED, one or the other". He's just trying to increase ratings and count his money. I seriously doubt he even cares what happened last night.
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Nov 7, 2012 20:43
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Zwabu posted:Yeah, show is kind of rambling and no clear message in my opinion. At this point it should be patently obvious Rush is just cashing checks and buttering his bread but hearing Boortz go after Akin and Mourdoch this morning reminded me why, at one time, I found him interesting and thought he had something to say. Then again, he's retiring and giving his show to Herman Cain at the end of the year so I imagine he gives even less of a gently caress than Limbaugh at this point what he says or who wins elections. I see people in this thread from time to time bring up the idea of a left wing counter point to people like Rush and Boortz. They exist, sort of anyway, but will never be as popular for a few reasons. Liberal minded people hear information and tend to go "Wait a minute. Is that right?" and then search for sources and verification. I think they also generally hear news and take it as one more piece of the puzzle and like to disseminate what the information in a larger context for themselves. The conservatives I know usually don't have an opinion on anything until 24 hours after it happens - or after they're told what to make of it. No liberal thinking people I know regurgitate whatever it was Rachael Maddow said last night or wait to decide what they think about it until she weighs in. Rush and Neil were right about a few things today though. They are outnumbered and the extreme right wing ideology of the GOP is dragging them down in terms of electability and the demographics of the country are changing. I remain sceptical about how much they really buy into this nonsense versus how much they just don't want to bite the hand(s) that feed them and keep their bread buttered. If there's one thing that unites their voices it's that making money is an ends unto itself, so I imagine they have enough faith in what they say, at least along those lines, but if there was money to be made in left wing radio, they'd just do that instead. I think measuring a person's value to society as measured by their income is a fundamental pillar of their ideology; meaning that if a person is rich or wealthy than they're automatically doing something right - and they may have a point to a degree - but if that person is a professional athlete, actor or musician they seem to find a way to make an exception to that rule. Jeez. I didn't mean to rant like that.
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Nov 7, 2012 21:15
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Isn't the "Obamaphone" something that started in 1993?Zuhzuhzombie!! posted:They usually point to GM and regulations as Obama being a Marxist. Amongst others. Whenever I ask someone what's socialist about Obama, they mention the ACA and frame it as a government takeover but, yeah, I see a lot of "This is my Last GM Car" bumper stickers around here so I guess there's that, but those same people think that TARP was under Obama too. It's weird. You'd think these types of people would champion unions and collective bargaining seeing as how the working man is the salt of the earth and really makes this country work, and how many of them mine coal, build cars, need their employee healthcare program and 401k's and work 60 hour weeks and poo poo but what do I know?
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Nov 7, 2012 21:24
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Zwabu posted:That hour or so of Fox News theater that followed when Rove challenged the Ohio result is some of the best live TV performance art I've seen in a while. I have no idea. I lack the fortitude to even bother trying to listen to it. Last night ran late and I'm still way too tired to tune into the one right wing shill I absolutely can't stand to listen to for 5 minutes even when I'm not hung over.
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Nov 7, 2012 23:14
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Just a quick reminder that Bill O'Reilly is still a complete rear end in a top hat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7CulHjij98 edit: Would this election be the first time that the right wing endorsed the candidate who wasn't a christian over the person who is? BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Nov 8, 2012 |
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Nov 8, 2012 20:13
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kik2dagroin posted:Sounds like Limbaugh is playing DJ today. He played Feliz Navidad to show his "acceptance" of hispanics, and then a Michael Bolton Christmas song. Why? Well apparently to hammer in a new talking point to equate the Democratic Party to Santa Clause because it gives out "free stuff" to people. Now he's railing on Nixon for creating government programs Typical Pubbie posted:This Santa Clause analogy has to be the dumbest thing he's come up with in a long time. Especially since he thinks Santa Clause gives free stuff to everyone, no matter who they are. I'm pretty sure the whole point of Santa Clause is that he only gives stuff to people who deserve it. Yeah, I came here to post this and it was beyond horrible even for Rush. I hated my radio for broadcasting it. He's back into the outrageous self parody and borderline satire that he was offering when he first started out. I wonder if he appreciates the irony that they say "Merry Christmas" over and over in that song when liberals supposedly have some sort of problem with that. edit: Where's all my free poo poo? I've been voting for Democrats since Mike Dukakis and haven't received anything yet. Where do I register for all the stuff I'm supposed to get? I've been a good boy. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Nov 9, 2012 |
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Nov 9, 2012 19:38
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jadebullet posted:So my father... Your Dad sounds a lot like my Father was. We'd argue all the time about politics and he wasn't so much a dick as he was just generally misinformed. He always accused me of reading and watching news that confirmed what I already wanted to hear and said he would watch FOX News and attempt to see a conservative slant to it but couldn't find one. There's some weird combination of confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance and false equivalencies all at once here. If you start with the idea that everyone but FOX is liberally slanted and extrapolate your subsequent opinions out from there, then you'll never see FOX for what it is because in your mind, they're just balancing out what all the other networks do. It's bullshit, of course, but once you've managed to let FOX convince you that you can only trust THEM then that's the only place you go and the propaganda starts to feed off of itself. My Dad used to ask me how I knew what was true and who to believe, and would chuckle when I said I get most of my news from the internet, cross reference and confirm sources and weigh credibility and then form my own opinions about things. He seemed to think that the web was the worst place to garner information and always wondered "but how do you know" when I would tell him that I'd confirmed quotes and stories by checking citations. I guess the fact that Ann Coulter had footnotes in her book automatically made her as credible as Richard Clark or Joe Wilson. He was a weird cat, my Dad, who just never quite got it. He thought that Sean Hannity and Dan Rather were just two sides of the same coin. He also hated Walter Cronkite and blamed him for the U.S. losing in Vietnam.
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Nov 13, 2012 16:26
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