He's giving this away, so read it. After discussing the sanewashing compulsion of the corporate media:
But let’s move beyond the things that editors and headline-writers might directly influence. Let’s move on to the much larger threat—which is apparently beyond control by anyone who might want to change it in a positive way. That threat is the death-cloud of misinformation, ignorance, lies, myths, fears, stereotypes… or any other terms to describe the gulf between “reality” as human beings have evolved to understand it, and the artificial reality playing out in the minds of citizens. . . .
In essence, “news” is everything you don’t see or experience yourself. And with each passing year, a growing share of the “news” on which people base their sense of reality has come neither from personal experience2; nor from “regular” news organizations, flawed as they may be; but instead from the surrounding climate of social media and other sources that have been skewed in a nihilistic, suspicious-and-hostile direction. A large part of that skewing is intentional—a supercharged version of Fox News, as those I’ve linked to above all argue. Part of it just comes with the technology. And evidence suggests that in 2024 this mattered more than anything the official news media did.3 People had “heard” that the economy was terrible and no one could find a job and illegal immigrants were everywhere and Kamala Harris was an affirmative-action cipher. And they could see that eggs were expensive—and that Donald Trump had come up, fist-first, after the bullet whizzed by. No contest.
The result explains a lot about these past week in public affairs. If nothing matters, if everything is terrible, if elections are just about swapping one liar for another, why not just shake it all up? Or burn it all down? At least it will be entertaining along the way.
I know this leaves people feeling helpless. Don't. Keep communicating. Keep organizing. The truth will penetrate more minds in time. I'm still working at it. So should you.
4 comments:
I refuse to believe a large chunk of our population live the rest of their lives in the kind of fog that James Fallows describes them going about when making decisions about politics. They must be doing this because they are bored with, confused by, or just plain don't care about what happens in politics. When I listen to comments on a broadcast sports event, the announcers assume their audience knows much, much more about the details, people, and history of the sport than any talking head on TV would when discussing politics. People pay attention to things they care about.
I think politicians are largely to blame for this. When asked a hard question they're experts at avoiding actually answering directly. Instead they make a long speech about vaguely related topics in a such a way that you're left with the impression that they answered but can't pin down exactly what that answer was. They will never admit to making a mistake.
Most losing coaches are able to acknowledge that they lost, and then discuss ways they can improve before the next game. And coaching between a dozen and ten times that many athletes to a winning season in a well defined sport is indeed difficult. But it is child's play compared to trying create good outcomes for 330 million people in a number of ill-defined areas for which rule books are confusing and contradictory.
I'd be so much more enjoyable listening to a politician who starts out admitting that it is impossible to make everything work out for all his constituents. And since he never has complete information or enough resources he will inevitably make mistakes. We live in a flawed real world, and there are good reasons why some problems are hard. When asked that tough question, he'll admit that he doesn't know how to solve the problem, but he has worried about it and thinks he has come up with some ideas for making it less severe.
I hope that people would respect that kind approach regardless of their ethnicity, education, pronouns, or job description.
Chucky --
Fantastic post! Thank you! Yes, people are not generally stupid: they are mis-educated and are SO used to being bullshitted in the U.S. Is there even ONE politician out there who directly answers questions (perhaps AOC?)? And is there a single interviewer/"journalist" who holds politicians to a DIRECT answer? And yet they try to "appear tough" ("we have to 'hold their feet to the fire' as part of our job" -- BULLSHIT!).
One honest politician would be SO powerful. How many Americans, however, would listen to said politician if they weren't a Caucasian male? And then the Republican bullshit/slander-slinging machine would defame this politician. Any thoughts?
My only hope, and it's a bleak one, is that this administration will really screw things up, but not fatally. Everybody will feel the pain, including those who mistakenly voted MAGA. The scales will fall from their eyes, they will see that they didn't pay attention to the fact that they were blatantly lied to, and they will magically become interested in politics - at least enough to prevent them from being scammed again. (A jilted lover can become obsessed with payback.) And a golden age of honest politics will arise, phoenix like, from the ashes of Trump's Presidency.
But then again, maybe not.
Chuckie, you took the thoughts right out of my mind, so to speak. There is no question that this so-called administration will screw everything and everyone. My worry, is that the Fucks network Will continue to gaslight everyone into thinking that it's someone else's fault. My hope, of course, is that since no one else will be in power but Republicans, even the most ignorant people will be able to see through that transparent bullshit.
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