SamSpade
Well-Known Member
When I was a kid, and then a teenager, the pressing, existential terrifying news was - we're at the brink of nuclear war. Pesticides will destroy the world and agr chemicals will permanenty make the soil infertile- world starvation is IMMINENT - and we were headed for an ice age. For the public health sector - the Northeast woodlands would be destroyed by the gypsy moth - we were being invaded by killer bees - and the nation's plants were being destroyed by acid rain.
To their CREDIT - environmentalists WERE able to turn the corner on persistent problems in air pollution, water pollution and litter.
Would you believe that the ALLIGATOR was once considered - endangered? As was the bald eagle. Bison are returning.
But that never stops in American politics - every Republican elected in my lifetime was going to end the world. Certainly REAGAN was going to do that. I remember the news asking Reagan, how many children have you killed today?
BUT - when he got re-elected - in a landslide - life went on. People largely forgot the name of Mondale - and Geraldine Ferraro - as they did Dukakis - and Bentsen - and life went on. There was no frenzy of panic and hate and fear at the White House and the Inauguration. What do I remember about Reagan's Inauguration? I didn't realize the Metro Buses weren't running - and I missed my ride home.
SO - what the hell happened? What brought about this permanent PANIC when the other side wins? What changed in American politics such that the other side is permanently demonized as a threat to everything?
I have - a conjecture. (I hate to use theory to mean "conjecture" - they are not the same thing).
Two huge things happened around the early to mid 90's. One, was the rise of the Republican Party in Congress. Until 1994, they were out of power in the House for forty years. I heaed Newt say the other night that the Republican Party was always the underdog, always apologizing, because outside of a few wins in the White House, they were simply expected to wield no power. I remember this. I had a roomie that interned for a Senator on the Hill and his stories were legion of a Democratic Congress keeping ACTUAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS out of meetings - because they could.
Once the GOP became a force to be reckoned with in CONGRESS - Washington and the way it was used to doing things - changed. They weren't just going to roll over as they had for almost two generations.
The other was the rise of the Internet and round the clock NEWS cycles. Previously, if you wanted to know the news - you waited until the evening or you read the paper - if you read it at all. TV shows went off the air after Carson - sometimes earlier. And there was just the major networks. SUDDENLY we had a flood of news.
That's good, right? I mean, NOW we had channels like C-SPAN, which showed stuff LIVE in the Capitol. We had talk radio, and numerous cable shows and daytime shows telling us about the world, and not just five minute blurbs before the next soap opera.
What they needed from YOU however, is the same thing all those other things needed from you I listed above - for YOU to be engaged, fearful and determined to watch it all the time. ROUND THE CLOCK NEWS NEEDS YOU TO STAY in a modest state of panic and fear. And it will exaggerate and distort just enough to make sure you stay connected.
If this election cycle has you all bothered - take a break. Take an actual vacation, leave the Internet behind. See if you don't feel better. I am suggesting a "purge" just like asking you to eschew high fructose corn syrup and processed foods. You will feel so much better you will wonder why you didn't do it before.
Because the media NEEDS YOU to stay anxious. Don't be.
To their CREDIT - environmentalists WERE able to turn the corner on persistent problems in air pollution, water pollution and litter.
Would you believe that the ALLIGATOR was once considered - endangered? As was the bald eagle. Bison are returning.
But that never stops in American politics - every Republican elected in my lifetime was going to end the world. Certainly REAGAN was going to do that. I remember the news asking Reagan, how many children have you killed today?
BUT - when he got re-elected - in a landslide - life went on. People largely forgot the name of Mondale - and Geraldine Ferraro - as they did Dukakis - and Bentsen - and life went on. There was no frenzy of panic and hate and fear at the White House and the Inauguration. What do I remember about Reagan's Inauguration? I didn't realize the Metro Buses weren't running - and I missed my ride home.
SO - what the hell happened? What brought about this permanent PANIC when the other side wins? What changed in American politics such that the other side is permanently demonized as a threat to everything?
I have - a conjecture. (I hate to use theory to mean "conjecture" - they are not the same thing).
Two huge things happened around the early to mid 90's. One, was the rise of the Republican Party in Congress. Until 1994, they were out of power in the House for forty years. I heaed Newt say the other night that the Republican Party was always the underdog, always apologizing, because outside of a few wins in the White House, they were simply expected to wield no power. I remember this. I had a roomie that interned for a Senator on the Hill and his stories were legion of a Democratic Congress keeping ACTUAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS out of meetings - because they could.
Once the GOP became a force to be reckoned with in CONGRESS - Washington and the way it was used to doing things - changed. They weren't just going to roll over as they had for almost two generations.
The other was the rise of the Internet and round the clock NEWS cycles. Previously, if you wanted to know the news - you waited until the evening or you read the paper - if you read it at all. TV shows went off the air after Carson - sometimes earlier. And there was just the major networks. SUDDENLY we had a flood of news.
That's good, right? I mean, NOW we had channels like C-SPAN, which showed stuff LIVE in the Capitol. We had talk radio, and numerous cable shows and daytime shows telling us about the world, and not just five minute blurbs before the next soap opera.
What they needed from YOU however, is the same thing all those other things needed from you I listed above - for YOU to be engaged, fearful and determined to watch it all the time. ROUND THE CLOCK NEWS NEEDS YOU TO STAY in a modest state of panic and fear. And it will exaggerate and distort just enough to make sure you stay connected.
If this election cycle has you all bothered - take a break. Take an actual vacation, leave the Internet behind. See if you don't feel better. I am suggesting a "purge" just like asking you to eschew high fructose corn syrup and processed foods. You will feel so much better you will wonder why you didn't do it before.
Because the media NEEDS YOU to stay anxious. Don't be.
