Right-Wing Media are Destroying Our Country

[phaster]

[quote=zk]
…we have a president with fascist tendencies, and a congress afraid to stand up to him, because it will hurt them with their base, because their base loves con man don, and they can’s see con man don for what he is because they’re watching Fox Propaganda, which is telling them how great he’s doing. He’s in the process of eliminating governmental checks on his power. There’s a good chance he’ll succeed, because nobody wants to stand up to him, because that would be an unpopular move with republican voters, who think he’s doing a great job because they watch Fox Propaganda.

What happens when you have a fascist president with greatly reduced checks on his power? Unfortunately, I think we’re about to find out. And we have right-wing media to thank.[/quote]

[quote]
Is the GOP right? Should states just declare bankruptcy?

As states shell out billions of dollars on unemployment and other responses to the coronavirus—and as business shutdowns and payroll and sales tax declines whack tax revenue—state budgets are being blown apart.

…To address this, many governors and economists are recommending that the federal government put emergency funding for the states into the next coronavirus response package. Some members of the GOP, however — including President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Florida Sen. Rick Scott — have responded by saying that states should instead just “declare bankruptcy.”

Is this a smart idea?

No.

Forcing states to declare bankruptcy right now would have the same effect as forcing dozens of giant airlines, hotel chains, and other companies to declare bankruptcy — namely, triggering millions of additional layoffs as states are forced to cut spending and, thereby, radically worsening the country’s overall economic crisis.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-mcconnell-gop-states-declare-bankruptcy-coronavirus-aid-2020-4
[/quote]

the GOP $64 trillion leadership question

[quote]
Trump’s Taj Mahal — the ‘8th wonder of the world’ — sold for pennies on the dollar

…The Trump Taj Mahal, the Atlantic City casino that the real estate mogul built for $1.2 billion in 1990, went for 4 cents on the dollar when it was sold in March. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday revealed the price that billionaire Carl Icahn got from Hard Rock International for the shuttered casino: $50 million. The sale was publicized at the time, though the purchase price wasn’t.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-trump-taj-mahal-sold-20170509-story.html
[/quote]

thought I’d point out the GOP idea of bankruptcy because just read another piece that San Diego is in deep debt shortfall

[quote]
The economic impact of COVID-19 is widespread and local governments will be hit particularly hard due to their reliance on sales tax and other declining tax revenues.

In fact, with the tourism industry suffering more than many industries, the city of San Diego is expected to be hit disproportionately hard. This translates to a projected $427 million shortfall in Mayor Kevin Falconer’s proposed 2021 budget.

Opinion: San Diego City Council Should Lead by Cutting Its Own Budget

[/quote]

AND then there is the financial mismanagement problem has gone on for decades and is off balance sheet

http://www.TinyURL.com/13thcheck

[FlyerInHi]

I think the right wing media has also nfected so called independents.

Now that Trump has turned out to be so horrible, you’re hearing more “Democrats caused Trump” because Democrats didn’t turn out to vote, Democrats didn’t nominate someone more inspirational, blah blah.

Really? The people responsible for Trump are Trump voters. They own Trump and they are first and foremost responsible. There is no blame shifting allowed.

I was talking to a friend who voted for Hillary but still had Trump sympathies, but has now seen the light. I did not allow him to blame Democrats for Trump. Republicans are the first line of responsibility.

[livinincali]

[quote=FlyerInHi]
Now that Trump has turned out to be so horrible, you’re hearing more “Democrats caused Trump” because Democrats didn’t turn out to vote, Democrats didn’t nominate someone more inspirational, blah blah.

Really? The people responsible for Trump are Trump voters. They own Trump and they are first and foremost responsible. There is no blame shifting allowed.
[/quote]

Obviously you own what you voted for. I think for a lot of people this last election was viewed as a choice between 2 bad choices. That’s the mindset of someone who makes that sort of comment. They’re saying you gave me two really bad choices. I made the one that I thought was marginally better than the other but neither was my first or ideal choice. I didn’t vote for either so I don’t own Trump or Hillary for that matter but it also meant I wasn’t going to be voting for the eventual winner.

It’s a bit like the choice that Covid-19 has put on the various executives in our government and other governments. Choose between two pretty bad choices. Let the virus run it’s course and kill people or basically destroy the economy for however long you think you can before the cure becomes worse than the disease. I’m sure plenty of progressive liberals and independents will vote for Biden. Not because they want Biden but it has to be better than Trump.

[zk]

[quote=livinincali] I think for a lot of people this last election was viewed as a choice between 2 bad choices. [/quote]

I think most people in that category were influenced by right-wing propaganda.

I mean, I can see not thinking Hillary would be a great president. I can see not thinking she would be a good president (although I would disagree).

But thinking she was anywhere near as bad as the piece of shit now in the oval office required belief in a lot of the bullshit that fox news and the rest of the right-wing propaganda machine were spewing.

Which is exactly what I was talking about when I started this thread.

[livinincali]

[quote=zk]I think most people in that category were influenced by right-wing propaganda.

I mean, I can see not thinking Hillary would be a great president. I can see not thinking she would be a good president (although I would disagree).

But thinking she was anywhere near as bad as the piece of shit now in the oval office required belief in a lot of the bullshit that fox news and the rest of the right-wing propaganda machine were spewing.

Which is exactly what I was talking about when I started this thread.[/quote]

Oh really let’s see here. Fox news reaches it’s highest primetime viewership ever of 3.5 million viewers in February 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/media/highest-viewership-network-history-msnbc-cnn-2020. I think we can agree to be brainwashed you’d probably need to watch that far right media a lot. You’d probably need to be in that group of 3.5 million average primetime viewers to even be considered brainwashed.

So how many people voted in the 2016 presidential election? About 139 million. So how much is 3.5 million of 139 million? About 3%. So was the bulk of the electorate influenced by right wing brainwashing? No, but it’s a convenient excuse for not actually understanding how other people live their life and why they vote the way they do. Most importantly it doesn’t explain why Trump beat Hillary.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=livinincali][quote=zk] Most importantly it doesn’t explain why Trump beat Hillary.[/quote]

80,000 voters in 3 rustbelt third tier states elected Trump. I’m sure they listen to right wing talk radio.

Of course, there is a cultural element to Trump. I liken Trump to the daddy of the deplorables.

[zk]

[quote=livinincali]
Oh really let’s see here. Fox news reaches it’s highest primetime viewership ever of 3.5 million viewers in February 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/media/highest-viewership-network-history-msnbc-cnn-2020. I think we can agree to be brainwashed you’d probably need to watch that far right media a lot. You’d probably need to be in that group of 3.5 million average primetime viewers to even be considered brainwashed.

So how many people voted in the 2016 presidential election? About 139 million. So how much is 3.5 million of 139 million? About 3%. So was the bulk of the electorate influenced by right wing brainwashing? No, but it’s a convenient excuse for not actually understanding how other people live their life and why they vote the way they do. Most importantly it doesn’t explain why Trump beat Hillary.[/quote]

First of all, “Primetime viewership” of fox news has very little to do with how many people watch or trust fox news.

According to the Suffolk poll, of the 31 percent of Americans who believe Trump is honest and trustworthy, nearly two-thirds of them say Fox is their favorite news source. Among Fox-first viewers — who comprise about 25 percent of Americans in the survey — 78 percent say Trump is honest and trustworthy, while just 15 percent disagree.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/28/who-thinks-trump-is-honest-trustworthy-fox-news-fans-very-few-others/

So right there you can see that 25 percent of Americans say Fox is their favorite news.

You can also see how much of an effect it has on their view of trump (although they were most likely also influenced by other right-wing propaganda). Of people who didn’t watch fox news, 15% thought trump was honest and trustworthy and 80% thought he was not.

Not sure how close you can get to the truth using numbers regarding this sort of thing, but if we’re going to run numbers, let’s run ones without a bunch of assumptions (such as the idea that only primetime viewers watch fox news and that “You’d probably need to be in that group of 3.5 million average primetime viewers to even be considered brainwashed.” Or that I said brainwashed. Or that I said anything about “the bulk of the electorate.”)

129 million Americans voted for Clinton or trump. 25% of Americans, according to this poll, favor fox news. Of those, 78% think trump is honest and trustworthy, while only 15% of the rest of America thinks so. So if everybody had the same view of trump as non-fox viewers, then 129,000,000 x .25 x ((78-15)/100) = 20,317,500 fewer Americans who voted for Clinton or trump in 2016 would think trump was honest and trustworthy than in the actual, propaganda-ridden America.

Those are fox news viewer numbers, and, like I said, those idiots are also most likely influenced by the rest of the right-wing propaganda operation, which includes rush limbaugh, alex jones, and dozens of other radio talk show hosts, and also breitbart, redstate, blaze and a thousand other websites. Plus bots and pundits and meme writers on facebook and other social media.

Right-wing propaganda isn’t the only reason people like trump. They also like him because he hates the same people they love to hate, because he’s conned them into thinking he actually cares about them, because he doesn’t talk like an elite, because he plays to their fears and hates, because he’s conned them into thinking he’s a good business man and a tough negotiator and a tough guy in general, and a few other reasons. But he did all that conning and convincing with the help of right-wing propaganda, and without that propaganda, he wouldn’t have convinced nearly so many people. It was a very close election that was almost certainly decided by a WAY smaller number of people than the number of people successfully cultivated by right-wing propagandists.

[FlyerInHi]

Trump is the “average” American but a lot more over the top. He’s their daddy.

I think America’s culture of ignorance is ruining the country. If we are to thrive in the 21st century, we can’t have 40% of population distrust education. Education, intellectually curiosity, and lifelong learning are by definition elitist. We should strive to become elites, even if we never achieve it.

[FlyerInHi]

These are the 80000 or so people who elected Trump ion MI, WI and PA. All the other reasons Trump got elected are ancillary to the culture of Trump.

LETTER FROM MICHIGAN
Life at the Trump Tailgate: Spiked Slurpees, Culture Wars and the Coronavirus Hoax
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/21/trump-michigan-tailgate-274416

[phaster]

[quote]
Trump is set to announce an executive order against social media companies

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump is set to announce an executive order against social media companies on Thursday, days after Twitter called two of his tweets “potentially misleading.”

…”In a country that has long cherished the freedom of expression, we cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to hand-pick the speech that Americans may access and convey online,” the draft order says. “This practice is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic. When large, powerful social media companies censor opinions with which they disagree, they exercise a dangerous power.”

On Tuesday, Twitter applied a fact-check to two of Trump’s tweets, including one that falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud. Trump immediately shot back, accusing the social media giant of censorship and warning that if it continued to offer addendums to his messages, he would use the power of the federal government to rein it in or even shut it down.

A fight Trump wants to have

The move highlights what Trump believes is a fight worth having. In many ways, the latest episode with Twitter feeds Trump’s narrative that there are powerful forces in the media aligned against him, and that his is the only voice his supporters can trust.

“This plays right into President Trump’s hands,” said Jason Miller, the communications director for Trump’s 2016 campaign and someone who has been directly involved with Trump’s social media strategy. “They basically handed him a massive gift.”

http://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/politics/trump-twitter-social-media-executive-order/index.html
[/quote]

sigh,… trump has kept his promise to make America first

[phaster]

…about TRUMP and his so called “free speech” executive order about twitter fact checking (i.e. acting as a gate keeper)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-preventing-online-censorship/

looking at the source news of the alleged murder, etc.

http://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/business/letter-to-twitter-ceo.html

found out some forms of free speech are limited

https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/what-type-of-speech-is-not-protected-by-the-first-amendment-34258

https://lawshelf.com/shortvideoscontentview/freedom-of-speech-exceptions-categories-of-speech-not-protected/

bottom line,… all the facts point to this shitstorm being yet another communications distraction/misdirection by TRUMP (i.e. an excuse why things are not working)

[scaredyclassic]

I think even the dumbest among us can figure out twitter could kick tbst shiitstain off their website if they wanted to

[pinkflamingo]

Thanks for this sub forum zk. I had the unfortunate experience of posting on fb about the recent “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” and “only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” tweets. In-laws jumped to say, democrats are pro violence just look at ANTIFA. They can’t even admit that something so egregious is wrong coming from a president.

It’s been a challenge having chronic fox news in-laws. We have been trying to ameliorate the situation but it’s exacerbating probably because of the pandemic and election year. We’ve found a documentary, “Brainwashing of My Dad.” It’s on amazon. We enjoyed the back story of fox news the progression of news in general. Essentially fox news uses anger to attract viewers, which explains why most of them are so angry most of the time.

And we found several posts of this sort on reddit.

Has anyone successfully weaned a loved one off Fox News?
by u/SparklingH2oh in Maher

Family gatherings are becoming a drain because all they want to talk about are fox news talking points. We joke about hacking their cable tv to block fox news.

It nice reading this forum. thanks

[FlyerInHi]

Thanks, ping flamingo, I’ll watch the movie tonight.

I have heard of situations like yours, where in-laws or parents were so much in disagreement with their children, but I have never experienced it first hand.

Did the in-laws become more radical because of Fox News? Or were they always right wing and your spouse somehow escaped that mindset.

[zk]

[quote=pinkflamingo]They can’t even admit that something so egregious is wrong coming from a president.

[/quote]

Yeah, the true believers (and there are tens of millions of them) cannot be reasoned with.

That’s the worst part. They’ll never change their minds because all the objective truth in the world can’t get them to see the tiniest bit of the error of their beliefs.

I don’t think they want to see the truth. I don’t think they want to see the error of their beliefs. I think they’re in denial the same way that an alcoholic is in denial or a person just diagnosed with terminal illness can be in denial. They want so badly to believe – that they can still drink normally or that they’re not going to die this year or that they are in the righteous tribe – that their mind just refuses to accept the truth. And any evidence pointing to the truth is immediately and completely dismissed without analysis or inspection.

How does one deal with that?

I guess all we can do is outnumber them this November.

[Author]

Posts