One of the most depressing things about politics is the number of people who have been conditioned to accept something as true just because it's on "the news" in whatever form.
Even a lot of supposedly smart people are suckers for propaganda if it comes from a source they hold in high esteem (for no apparent reason) like the New York Times.
Americans, at least, especially older ones, have this bizarre "why would they lie?" or "why would they publish that if it's not true?" mentality that makes absolutely no sense to me.
@gwynnion They grew up in a different era. Being able to broadcast or publish information used to require a lot of credibility because it was expensive / difficult. There were fewer sources of information so they were more heavily scrutinized.
Part of this has to do with Americans' weird deference to authority despite thinking of themselves as revolutionary, independent free thinkers.
The French riot at the drop of a hat in comparison. Americans will put up with almost anything as long as it's technically legal.
And since they're squeamish about supporting protesters and angry at disruptions of any kind, the people who actually want to make a difference get reliably thrown under the bus.
Older white Americans are obviously easier to propagandize because they're accustomed to limited media options presenting a unified straight, white, male, Christian, American perspective.
It's really easy to game their reactions by presenting "news" that looks slick, expensive, and respectable even though that's trivial to reproduce. The default assumption is the media is honest, at least if it's telling them what they want to hear.
Our politicians behave as though the media were reality even with reams of data and experts telling them it's not. The only major change recently is the media ecosystem they believe in has split along roughly partisan lines.
@gwynnion People are terrified of the American police state. Even outside the context of protests, death, injury, and imprisonment are expected outcomes from supposedly benign interactions with police. Nonviolent cop city protesters are being charged with terrorism. BLM protesters were snatched up by unmarked vehicles and disappeared. Activist leaders hanged from trees and "conveniently" had their deaths ruled as suicide. And then there's the right wing stochastic terrorism like K Rittenhouse
@gwynnion We used to have a very honest news system. They couldn't lie because other news outlets would discover it and call them out on the lies. It all comes down to lack of independent voices in the news. We used to have 10,000s of independent voices. Not anymore. 5 corporations source >90% of the news consumed. Those corporations boards of directors set the news most see and hear.
@Eka_FOOF_A I wouldn't say very honest as it projected a very white, male, Christian, and American perspective on events. But it was largely unified and gave the impression of journalism being a fairly reliable edifice.
But there was, at least, a sense of competition between different outlets that has largely disappeared under corporate media consolidation, particularly as the ownership are all very chummy with each other and politically connected.
@Eka_FOOF_A Like, it was obvious to me even as a child that the 1980s news was not objective, particularly around matters of race, sex, gender, sexuality, and equality.
@Eka_FOOF_A Oh, absolutely, and no matter how many people pointed out what would happen, politicians like Bill Clinton signed off on it anyway. Because "the economy!"
Add comment