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Polarisation is a Drug

I am a huge Chomsky fan. What I am saying is straight out of Manufacturing Consent.
Right, I recognise it and the above was supposed to say Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, but somehow I erased things when trying to italicise the title, which is why the dangling possessive on his name is there. :)
 
Right, I recognise it and the above was supposed to say Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, but somehow I erased things when trying to italicise the title, which is why the dangling possessive on his name is there. :)

Matt Taibbi just wrote a book that he envisions as a continuation of MC, which I should read. It's got a great cover, with screaming Hannitys and Maddows. HATE INC.

You would think that the Iraq WMD fiasco would have put the nail in the coffin of the idea that the media are about truth-telling, but no, apparently Fox News is singularly evil.
 
Matt Taibbi just wrote a book that he envisions as a continuation of MC, which I should read. It's got a great cover, with screaming Hannitys and Maddows. HATE INC.

You would think that the Iraq WMD fiasco would have put the nail in the coffin of the idea that the media are about truth-telling, but no, apparently Fox News is singularly evil.
People like to hear what they want to hear.
 
and one thing that they want to hear is that people in power are good and the system is basically good. So corruption and evil must just be part of one faction.
Ummm.... except that the faction they are talking about ARE the people in power and are the ones who own the system. Nothing will ever get any better until the "conservatives" are no longer politically relevant. That's the first step to fixing anything.
 
Ummm.... except that the faction they are talking about ARE the people in power and are the ones who own the system. Nothing will ever get any better until the "conservatives" are no longer politically relevant. That's the first step to fixing anything.

Except, barring some unimaginable catastrophe, they will still be relevant, and even then.
 
Ummm.... except that the faction they are talking about ARE the people in power and are the ones who own the system. Nothing will ever get any better until the "conservatives" are no longer politically relevant. That's the first step to fixing anything.

The system is owned by many different factions following their own interests, which is why you have power struggles. They are almost all however united by close links with big business, or are big business themselves, and therefore pursue the agenda of magnifying the power of big business to the greatest extent possible, which is what they have been doing since the 1970s, which is why the US (and not just the US) has been moving continuously economically rightward. And is why public disillusionment with the system is very high, which is why you have people who would previously have been thought of as joke candidates doing quite well (Trump obviously, Sanders, AOC and so on).

EDIT: Trump has presided over what is supposedly the largest upward transfer of wealth in US history. How come the Dems and the media that target the Dem audience have been talking about russiarussiarussia and not that? That was a rhetorical question -- the answer is because they're cool with it. Same reason why the absolute worst thing Trump has done, which is helping the Saudis in Yemen, rarely gets mentioned at all.
 
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I sometimes wonder why people think the Dems will solve anything when the bulk of the Dems who came of age after Watergate are corporatists who eased out the politicians who brought in the welfare system that people claim to like.
 
I sometimes wonder why people think the Dems will solve anything when the bulk of the Dems who came of age after Watergate are corporatists who eased out the politicians who brought in the welfare system that people claim to like.

They're the ones that institutionalized Reaganism!

Polarization is a good way to retain support for people who in fact work against their electorate' interests. "Look at these horrible racists/socialists/bad thing that gets an emotional response X that are opposing us! You have to stop them by supporting me! Now look the other way while I fuck you over."
 
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