Great summary, though it provokes a deep sadness. But thanks for a terrific swipe at answering a most difficult question: "How the hell did this happen to us?"
Another excellent chapter. It always saddens me to remember that people only want to hear what they want to hear and read what they want to read about themselves. Both media and history must make me feel good about myself and my kind, while hopefully telling me about how, while the world is going to hell, it is not my fault. We live in a time where white male Christians unironically fashion themselves as the real victims.
I have only ever lived in the US where resentment seems to be our principal domestic product although I suspect it is pretty strong other places, too. I don't know how a new fairness doctrine could be enforced given the internet but the brief period of its existence seems like an anomaly in American life. In order for something like that to work it seems to me that there needs to be willingness to at least appreciate that there can be good-faith differences of opinion. I don’t believe that that exists for much of the population of this country and not just the whacko right. It is almost as if everyone is hyperalert for the opportunity to be offended by something. And there is always someone there to benefit from division.
I tend to want to make a distinction between the true haters and the ambitious entertainers. Father Coughlin certainly had hate, as did Buckley, but Limbaugh is often portrayed as someone who was playing a role (and remember when Alex Jones’ attorneys tried to portray him as merely an entertainer when he was trying to get custody of his children in a divorce?) I am waiting for SCOTUS to throw out whatever Dominion might win in their defamation lawsuit and there we are, Fox stands for profit only, profit gained by placing wedges into various fault lines in US society. There free speech will be protected, but if you support BDS, I understand that you can be denied state contracts and SCOTUS would likely support that, too. I’m not sure that I don’t come down harder on those willing to tear down a country merely for profit be it personal or corporate than those driven by some irrational hate. (A pointless distinction, I know.)
Broadcast radio may have lost some of its luster in the era of streaming media, but efforts to make low-power local community stations work have run up against NPR that doesn't want the competition on their side of the dial. And, in much of the heartland, most of the radio is owned by two or three companies which, while having a different agenda from NPR, are not willing to allow competition if they can prevent it. There used to be a joke that we need an alien invasion to bring us all together. I no longer believe that that would be a sufficient reason for us to get along (and there is the history of one segment of the invaded hoping to benefit from the distress of their neighbors.) We are all in our silos, buying from Amazon, chatting with like-minded people on social media, we are scared to death of having to face the “other” in real life. My comfort zone! I was taken from my comfort zone!
I usually come around to the following, the forces driving the “me-generation” never died but simply got subsumed into the larger society. Your post finally forced me to take a clip (https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx-I43IA2KglPgoYKYMhiA66tbXDswGG9f)
These pieces make my brain want to explode (but in a good way.) ;)
Great summary, though it provokes a deep sadness. But thanks for a terrific swipe at answering a most difficult question: "How the hell did this happen to us?"
Another excellent chapter. It always saddens me to remember that people only want to hear what they want to hear and read what they want to read about themselves. Both media and history must make me feel good about myself and my kind, while hopefully telling me about how, while the world is going to hell, it is not my fault. We live in a time where white male Christians unironically fashion themselves as the real victims.
I have only ever lived in the US where resentment seems to be our principal domestic product although I suspect it is pretty strong other places, too. I don't know how a new fairness doctrine could be enforced given the internet but the brief period of its existence seems like an anomaly in American life. In order for something like that to work it seems to me that there needs to be willingness to at least appreciate that there can be good-faith differences of opinion. I don’t believe that that exists for much of the population of this country and not just the whacko right. It is almost as if everyone is hyperalert for the opportunity to be offended by something. And there is always someone there to benefit from division.
I tend to want to make a distinction between the true haters and the ambitious entertainers. Father Coughlin certainly had hate, as did Buckley, but Limbaugh is often portrayed as someone who was playing a role (and remember when Alex Jones’ attorneys tried to portray him as merely an entertainer when he was trying to get custody of his children in a divorce?) I am waiting for SCOTUS to throw out whatever Dominion might win in their defamation lawsuit and there we are, Fox stands for profit only, profit gained by placing wedges into various fault lines in US society. There free speech will be protected, but if you support BDS, I understand that you can be denied state contracts and SCOTUS would likely support that, too. I’m not sure that I don’t come down harder on those willing to tear down a country merely for profit be it personal or corporate than those driven by some irrational hate. (A pointless distinction, I know.)
Broadcast radio may have lost some of its luster in the era of streaming media, but efforts to make low-power local community stations work have run up against NPR that doesn't want the competition on their side of the dial. And, in much of the heartland, most of the radio is owned by two or three companies which, while having a different agenda from NPR, are not willing to allow competition if they can prevent it. There used to be a joke that we need an alien invasion to bring us all together. I no longer believe that that would be a sufficient reason for us to get along (and there is the history of one segment of the invaded hoping to benefit from the distress of their neighbors.) We are all in our silos, buying from Amazon, chatting with like-minded people on social media, we are scared to death of having to face the “other” in real life. My comfort zone! I was taken from my comfort zone!
I usually come around to the following, the forces driving the “me-generation” never died but simply got subsumed into the larger society. Your post finally forced me to take a clip (https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx-I43IA2KglPgoYKYMhiA66tbXDswGG9f)
These pieces make my brain want to explode (but in a good way.) ;)