intellikid and yours truly at MIT's Stata CenterI have been pretty succesful in my recent efforts to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the electoral circus, but while I can easily change the channel on the TV or exit out of a web page that threatens to raise my blood pressure, my upbringing makes it very difficult for me to walk away from real-life dialogues that venture into matters politic. I stumbled into a conversation with my mother recently where, miracle of miracles, we both agreed that special interests and corporate entities exert too great an influence in matters where their own interests are served before those of we the people.
However, due to her exposure to toxic levels of Fox shit, my mother has lost her ability to think critically and craft informed opinons relating to many matters. For example, when I went on to say that I was unhappy with the Republicans for repeatedly supporting policies that favor big business and the wealthy at the expense of the health & welfare of everyone else, including the critters on the planet, however, Mother took exception. That's all Obama's fault, doncha know (and global warming is a figment of another Democrat's imagination).
While the media is holding a funhouse mirror up to reflect what's what in the country, it's easy for folks like my mother, I suppose, to focus on the piece of the vision that is most appealing, most entertaining. But it's not reality. I know that my reflection in the Stata Center doesn't accurately depict my physique. Why can't my mom see that Fox News' reporting is just as distorted?
However, due to her exposure to toxic levels of Fox shit, my mother has lost her ability to think critically and craft informed opinons relating to many matters. For example, when I went on to say that I was unhappy with the Republicans for repeatedly supporting policies that favor big business and the wealthy at the expense of the health & welfare of everyone else, including the critters on the planet, however, Mother took exception. That's all Obama's fault, doncha know (and global warming is a figment of another Democrat's imagination).
While the media is holding a funhouse mirror up to reflect what's what in the country, it's easy for folks like my mother, I suppose, to focus on the piece of the vision that is most appealing, most entertaining. But it's not reality. I know that my reflection in the Stata Center doesn't accurately depict my physique. Why can't my mom see that Fox News' reporting is just as distorted?
Posts
Democracy has become a sport. My team right or wrong. A sport with deadly consequences.
ReplyDeleteWhy did you buy those red shoes? Because it fits with the outfit you believe will look nice on you. Your mom is yearning for a day that will never return and Beck and O'Rielly and Hannity and the rest of those thieves for their millions will tell her how to get back to a time that is gone, never to return. She hears words that as a little girl she learned meant something completely different than what the above named mean by them.
ReplyDeleteWhen they say no tax hike, they mean they are protecting their own wealth,
When they say freedom, they mean freedom to be homeless and hungry without any social support.
She hears words that have great meaning to her but does not know what they mean in this new generation, this new context of corporate governance.
It's the Great Wall of America...nothing can penetrate it. I don't even try any longer.
ReplyDeleteNice Legs.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a "Fox News North" yet, but one is coming, apparently. Sun TV has applied for a license. I'm sure their right wing news programming would be at least as informative as the SUN newpapers in Ottawa, Toronto, etc...
ReplyDeleteDoug... I would wager the money behind it comes from Rupert Murdoc.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I get the feeling that Punch didn't read the post?
ReplyDeleteMr. C - only in this instance, it's the fans who are doped, not the players!
Walking Man, that's one explanation, for sure. Yet there are plenty of folks my mom's generation (she's 78) who are aware of the con - I wish she'd engage in conversation with them instead of listening to the boobs on the tube all day!
Jaded, more like tilting at windmills, I think...
Doug, my condolences. Does this mean I need to rethink my retirement in Port Hope?
...and again, Mr. C, you are undoubtedly correct. Good article in this month's Harper's about just how dangerous Murdoch is, for those who weren't already convinced.