Comments on: Hopping to Crazyland

By: jpinsatx

jpinsatx — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:12:04 +0000

The Republican party is… out of touch! President Obama was elected by Independents, Reagan Democrats, Blue Dog Democrats, Republican in Name Only, Libertarians, etc. From my “Independent” perspective… the GOP stands for 1) De-Regulation of Business and 2) Regulation of Morality. The De-Regulation of Business removed consumer protections, rewarded job outsourcing and caused the economic collapse. Allowing Evangelical Christians to set the social agenda caused the “Separation of Church and State” divide over: school prayer, sex education, AIDS prevention, abortion rights, gay marriage, etc. Today the DEMS stand for working class jobs and common sense. Who knows, next election may be the opposite!

By: justme

justme — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:07:02 +0000

Hey! You better cut it out with this kinda talk or the righties will fix you but good! They have weapons like tea parties and the 912 project! You better start quaking in your boots if you know what is good for you! Their leaders will keep telling their followers that they are doing the “right thing” in this “fight against socialism” and encourage them to “keep calling into to talk radio shows and trying to educate everyone they know” (yes, by all means! That will show us all on the left a thing or two! or you could just wear the GOP label on your forehead so we know how to avoid you) ….this is like a gallager(sp?) show…. just strap on a trash bag and wait for their heads all explode at the same time,all while trying not to get any on ya! Thats entertainment folks!….If they keep spewing like this just think of all the election funds the DNC could save…Now hush up and enjoy easter,,you know the time where the easter bunny brings Jesus back from the dead and delivers him to us in freedom baskets , along with colored eggs and assorted candy..!

By: CabinInThe Woods

CabinInThe Woods — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:43:57 +0000

Interesting article by Chris Hedges on AlterNet

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/135414

Snippet (emphasis added is mine):

A furious and sustained backlash by a betrayed and angry populace, one unprepared intellectually and psychologically for collapse, will sweep aside the Democrats and most of the Republicans. A cabal of proto-fascist misfits, from Christian demagogues to simpletons like Sarah Palin to loudmouth talk show hosts, who we naively dismiss as buffoons, will find a following with promises of revenge and moral renewal. The elites, the ones with their Harvard Business School degrees and expensive vocabularies, will retreat into their sheltered enclaves of privilege and comfort. We will be left bereft and abandoned outside the gates.

By: bill bush

bill bush — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:24:18 +0000

I’d like to see a Venn diagram of the three groups Fitter Happier mentioned in a comment toward the top of this heap. I wonder if there is enough of a population outside the union of the sets to create some dissonance if you could just get them all into a room. Some of these people would be inclined to look askance at each other, I think.

By: uncledad

uncledad — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:06:10 +0000

Maha,

I can’t believe that Zionist kook Pam Gellar has gotten two mentions and a link from this fine blog in less than a week. She really should be committed to an institution for mental evaluation!

By: uncledad

uncledad — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:54:14 +0000

“Mainstream media outlets in the US are more concerned about their ratings (and therefore profits) than actually informing its fellow citizens. And as a result they lend credibility to these people and their ideas, whereas elsewhere, they’d be ignored or ostracised for their crazy ideas (as they should be). ”

Exactly!

By: felicity

felicity — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:31:26 +0000

Moonbat – the Repubs figured out years ago that all things political and/or religious are processed by the non-reasoning sides of our brains, and they’ve been capitalizing on it ever since. (I previously cited a study done a few years ago which verified this revolting fact.)

Dems are literally going to have to ’stoop to conquer’ to effectively combat the phenomenon. Not a pretty picture, but politics is an ugly business.

By: moonbat

moonbat — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:34:36 +0000

Several thoughts:

About thirty or more years ago, the people who owned the Republican party realized they’d never win without building a media infrastructure to reach what we now call the 25 %. This was accomplished so successfully, that their media and their politicians so dominate the airwaves that this 25 % demographic seems bigger than it really is.

There are all kinds of tricks played with this the media, from simple to sophisticated, to keep this illusion going. I was listening to a clip of Rush Limbaugh the other day – something I rarely do – and I was struck at how his program now features a track of people cheering whenever he speaks, kind of like a laugh track used in sitcoms. Righties need to think they’re part of a strong tribe. It’s the same kind of nonsense Glen Beck (and Chuck Norris) spout when they say “We Surround Them”.

Part of it is the attention span and focus of an overstimulated people. In the days when television was still new, and when the culture moved more slowly than it does today, tv news regularly featured in-depth examinations of various contemporary issues (along the lines of what you might find on PBS today); the news itself was able to present the day’s events to a significantly greater depth than the sound-byte reporting today. The networks actually had foreign bureaus and reporters scattered all over the world – this has been largely eliminated today as being too expensive.

And so what news is presented today, is vapid. Simplistic explanations prevail, because they can fit into a sound-byte. Anything new or complicated doesn’t make it into television because it takes too long to explain. The demise of newspapers only feeds this phenomenon.

And so the result is a mass media environment that mostly increases ignorance, it cannot effectively challenge it. It’s everything the Republican overlords from thirty years ago dreamed of and more.

By: Fitter Happier

Fitter Happier — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:42:37 +0000

I’m wondering though if there’s a more base reason: its merely about profit.

Populist muckraking “outrage” crap sells, whereas information (which requires thinking, with various shades of grey) doesn’t sell. Its just about the lowest common intellectual denominator.

Wanna make a quick buck? Feed people sound bites and put on some raving loon like Lou Dobbs– keep the news content low. Don’t bore people with investigative reporting– too much information, too much thinking, not exciting enough.

Mainstream media outlets in the US are more concerned about their ratings (and therefore profits) than actually informing its fellow citizens. And as a result they lend credibility to these people and their ideas, whereas elsewhere, they’d be ignored or ostracised for their crazy ideas (as they should be). There are some xenophobic authoritarian types who are simply taking advantage of this anti-intellectualist atmosphere– they thrive in it.

But these nutters don’t get any traction in other developed countries– this isn’t to say they don’t EXIST in other countries, but the way they handle it is totally different from the US. Why is that? I still haven’t completely sussed out the reason for these differences.

By: Dave S

Dave S — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:26:20 +0000

That’s because they either own the media (Faux Nooz) or have somehow intimidated the media into submission.
It’s also because we’re a 2-party system, so if we give the MSM the benefit of a doubt and say they’re trying to cover both sides equally (snicker), with the other side totally dominated by crazies, that’s who we’re going to see an awful lot of on the tee vee machine.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss Bob Dole.