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ZooeyModeratorI don’t think you can separate Americans from the media stew they grow up in. Their ignorance, apathy, and short attention spans are deliberately cultivated and exploited.
And I don’t think there was a time in American history where that wasn’t true. It may be worse now, but the powers-that-be have been massaging the message since the beginning. Part of it is that many people today realize that things are not always what they are told, but to them the lies are only coming from the group they don’t identify with. They cling to and vehemently defend the propaganda that fits their own word view, and dismiss out of hand any alternatives as fake news.
The saturation level is much higher now, both on TV and the radio, and the message is more consolidated. And I think the message is more proactive now rather than reactive.
May 21, 2020 at 1:44 am in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #115145ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModerator’m not saying it addresses your notion. Just something I thought was interesting.
It doesn’t because I’m not saying poor people are having more children. I’m saying the raw selfishness and lack of interest in current issues has to do with parents-wealthy or poor. IMO those parents who are unable to give to their children the elementary nature and value of civics are the ones producing far more children. And in order for democracy to work it needs an informed and curious public. It doesn’t work well if we are for the most part ignorant on the issues in front of us. And corporations will always have their way with the ignorant.
Well, I agree with wv that this is a systemic failure, not an individual failure. I blame this factor – this ignorance and apathy – on the media, and in particular to the dismantling of the Fairness Doctrine. There is a straight line from there to these conditions. Another major driver, imo, is the profit motive in the news media. It is no accident that the consumers of NPR/PBS are the best informed – factually – on current affairs, and the FOX and MSNBC have the most misinformed audiences. Sensationalism will draw more viewers for longer periods of time, and in depth reporting on issues is discouraged by the profit motive.
I don’t think you can separate Americans from the media stew they grow up in. Their ignorance, apathy, and short attention spans are deliberately cultivated and exploited.
ZooeyModeratorA good friend of our family recently died of COVID-19 in a nursing home in Philadelphia. He and his wife had been my parent’s best friends since I was in my teens. Our families vacationed together in the Outer Banks every summer. He was a kind and fun-loving man. He was suffering from Alzheimer’s and had been living with his son’s family, but he started experiencing “Korean War” flashbacks accompanied by a lot of screaming. He was frightening his son’s small children, and not knowing what else to do, they put him in a nursing home. I had not seen him in years, but from what I have heard, Alzheimer’s had taken the man I used to know. He no longer existed. What was left was a frightened, tormented, shell of his former self who didn’t know where he was and didn’t recognize anyone around him. Perhaps this is one case where COVID-19 was a blessing.
Oof. Alzheimer’s is the worst, I think. What meaning does life have if memory is destroyed, and the personality becomes tempest-tossed? That’s tough.
ZooeyModeratorWelcome to the Slough of Despair.
Bash on, regardless.
ZooeyModeratorI want to clarify the comment “I am afraid that many Liberals are blind to this. They think these people won’t ‘go that far.’”
I think that rich people are totally fine with wiping out the much-talked-about Middle Class.
They don’t need middle class people. I think liberals tend to overestimate the degree to which their interests align with the wealthy. A lot of Democrats worry about Sanders going too far with his social policy because they instinctively worry that it will cost them something, that they will lose privileges of some kind. They kind of feel like they shouldn’t fight for these things.
They think the system needs tweaking. They don’t realize that the wealthy want THEIR slice of the pie, too.
They are coming for pensions and all health care. They want everything commodified. And I don’t think many middle class people see what they’re going to do to them.
ZooeyModeratorOkay. Leaves out the “radical disregard for national laws and domestic lives.”
I think people are deluded who think that these contemporary conservatives have some kind of sense of noblesse oblige to their own countries. They don’t. They are actively pursuing wealth and power and KNOW that the consequence will be increased squalor.
They don’t care about us. At all. They have said so. McConnell has repeatedly stated in public that they are coming for Social Security and Medicare if Trump is re-elected. These people are quite clearly comfortable saying the quiet parts out loud now. They are comfortable with the knowledge that many people in this country can see plainly that they do not serve the interests of the bottom 90%.
I am afraid that many Liberals are blind to this. They think these people won’t “go that far.”
They will. They are. They are throwing people back to work without proper protections, and passing legislation to prevent the ownership class from liability. People are disposable. They have calculated that a million dead people won’t drive up the cost of labor, and they all know that AI is coming anyway, so there are going to be too many people. Sharing resources with them plays no part in their plans for the future.
ZooeyModeratorCongratulations, grandpa. I hear it’s a good gig.
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ZooeyModeratorThere were not as many holes last year, but Gurley didn’t pop through the ones that were there. It’s too bad. He had HOF talent on blasted knees.
May 11, 2020 at 2:39 pm in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #114807ZooeyModeratorWhen Donald Trump starts gasping and wheezing from COVID-19, I’m going to make it my ringtone.
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) May 11, 2020
ZooeyModeratorHoward Balzer@HBalzer721
Orlando Pace rightly stirred up a hornet’s nest when Rams assigned No. 76 to 7th-round pick Tremayne Anchrum. Pace said it “speaks to the disconnect between the organization and Rams tradition.” Well, team has “quietly” changed Anchrum’s number to 72.Saffold wore #76 for years. WTF?
ZooeyModeratorHow can the interests of sociopaths be represented if they can’t hold public office?
I don’t know, Nittany. How can the interests of Seahawks fans be represented if they can’t win the Super Bowl?
ZooeyModeratorOh, fer chrissakes.
I just read the thing, actually paying attention this time.
It’s satire.
I just got so excited because it’s such a great idea.
ZooeyModeratorOkay. So. Dead serious. I have been thinking for YEARS that preventing sociopaths from working in the government is the ONLY hope for humanity, and I just thought it was logistically impossible to do. I am very interested in this.
I wonder if sitting government employees will have to take the test, and what will happen to them if they…you know…pass.
I still can’t imagine this happening in the US because…litigation.
But this is seriously the only hope.
Screw Thailand. Iceland is supposed to be a pretty nice place.
ZooeyModerator“Almost Heaven, Westylvania…”
I heard a John Denver song yesterday, and I got to thinking about our pal. He never brags about John Denver, or pens his praises.
And I figured…it’s prolly because John Denver LEFT West Virginia to go live in Aspen.
ZooeyModeratorMoldy Pesto? Dude, you have to freeze it (basil the plant doesn’t like cold, but Pesto the sauce freezes great).
We retrieved our son form Boston on St Patty’s day. He goes to Northeastern and was doing a Co-op in Boston (still working remote, which is nice, because he is applying all his Co-op income to tuition for the fall). Anyway, he has gone vegetarian on us, but also doesn’t like tomatoes all that much. It is good for all three of us, as we have sort of gone vegetarian too (but every so often, maybe once every two weeks or so, the wife and I will have a burger on the grill or a pulled pork sandwich or something like that. I think I’m going to get some PIE Mussels for Mother’s Day lunch tomorrow). Anyway, I thawed out a half pint of pesto and boiled up a bag of cheese tortellini. So friggin good, we made another batch the very next day.
Oh, we have frozen pesto. Probably a quart of frozen pesto, and I’d guess over a dozen pints of refrigerated pesto, and 22 basil plants (4 varieties, including a purple one) growing in the garden right now. I don’t care if it goes moldy. It’s a way to free up refrigerator space.
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ZooeyModeratorI have pesto from 2018. My wife makes so much pesto…and then she defends it like it’s green gold, and we can’t use it. When she catches me throwing into some dish that isn’t elegant enough, she yells at me, and tells me not to waste it on “that.” But a few weeks ago, I pulled out, not one, but two pints of moldy pesto from 2018, and showed them to her before throwing them in the compost bin. And now she says I can use the pesto liberally. She makes about a gallon a year, and gives away a lot of it, but there is never a basil shortage in this household.
And I don’t think we had a single freeze this entire year, btw. Getting warmer every year. Looking forward to this year’s edition of Fire Season in California.
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ZooeyModeratorwe need to incorporate the best practices of all types of farming to come up with the most environmentally friendly form and understand that some types of farming may not work everywhere.
Oh, I have that covered.
ZooeyModeratorWell…that sounds a little sketchy to me. How many forests are being cleared for organic farming? I mean….
ZooeyModeratorOrganic farming also contributes more to climate change on a per acre basis than conventional farming does.
Why?
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ZooeyModeratorI can’t even recall Everett’s first name right now. That’s how much of an impression his stay with the Rams has made on me.
Whatever. What’s-his-face will replace Everett. Fine.
I don’t expect anything from the rookies this year anyway. They’re all red-shirting, except Akers. I don’t see how you get anybody ready for the NFL without camp. I mean…most rookies aren’t ready to play WITH the full off-season training program.
ZooeyModeratorRight. They think the absence of government = freedom.
And, as you say, the absence of government = private tyranny. And that’s worse. Because – with government – there is at least some transparency. FOIA. Elections. Open debate. And we all know those things are seriously flawed in our system, but they are better than nothing.
Plus…theoretically, at least…government has some interest in the well-being of the country – the land and the inhabitants. Private rule is interested only in wealth/power/domination.
The fact that they don’t understand the Very Basic Fact that private tyranny is worse – and I’m calling it a fact without reservation (i.e. I don’t think this is an Ideological difference) – makes them worse than useless in the political forum. Furthermore, they don’t even recognize tyranny when it’s right in front of them anyway. Unravel THAT.
They are dangerous. They show up at capitols, fully armed, in the middle of a pandemic, at the drop of a hat when a tyrant suggests it. They preach Liberty while fostering the worst kind of dogmatic, racist domination, and a preposterous percentage of them are in complete denial that that is what they support. Libertarians are SO full of shit that, as Leftist libertarian/anarchist types, we can’t even find common ground on the Small Government issue.
Libertarians suck.
ZooeyModeratorHere’s what I don’t understand:From the beginning, they told as worst case would be 4% fatality.
The other day, we had one million people infected, and 60K dead.
Maybe I’m no good at math, but that looks like 6% to me, and many of the confirmed cases haven’t recovered yet.
ZooeyModeratorI try to steer clear of debates with right wing Libertarians now. They live in a world of complete fiction. I really don’t know of a single principle of theirs that is actually true. Their premises are all wrong – demonstrably wrong – and consequently every policy they support on the basis of those premises is absurd. And there is just no talking to them. They think Ayn Rand is the Enlightened One, and they are holders of the sacred economic texts. They are out of their minds.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
[Kung Fu Monkey — Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”
― John Rogers
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