11-05-2016, 08:01 AM
(11-05-2016, 01:31 AM)Galen Wrote:(11-05-2016, 12:28 AM)taramarie Wrote: Has news in America always been like this? Always biased one way or another I mean.
It has always been biased, including the during the days of Cronkite back when I was very young. There were only three major TV networks and they all pretty much sounded the same. The newspapers, while more decentralized in many respects, got most of their national and international stories from UP or AP wire services just as they do now. This is why the US probably had about as unified of a culture as it ever would through most of the last century. That consensus started breaking down in the nineties and that trend has accelerated with the recession of 2008 and the lack of a real recovery, particularly in what is known as flyover country.
Every culture has its assumptions. Even the choice of rational thought as an objective is a bias toward rational thought as opposed to superstition, stereotypes, mysticism, ignorance, and solipsism.
Quote:The situation with the advent of the internet is more like that of the nineteenth century and its many regional cultures. I really don't see the US surviving in its current form due to this and the continuing economic stress due to the government living beyond its means. In an effort to maintain the status quo it looks as if both wings of the same party, known to most people as Democrats and Republicans, have decided that war is necessary. This is why much of the rhetoric about Russia sounds so much the like Cold War that I remember and prefer not to live through again.
"The government living beyond its means'? The government's means of existence is its ability to impose taxes. People generally do not oppose taxes that they associate with related improvements in life, as in gasoline taxes that support inexpensive and easy transportation. I live in a dreary hick town, and to escape its limitations I use expressways to get out of it to some small to giant cities where the culture is and where the retailing is more diverse. I would not do so so often if I were obliged to use Blood Alleys in which I might turn a corner and run into farm vehicles.
Quote:To get a feel for the mood and the absurdity of it I would recommend watching Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I would also spend some time and get familiar with Russian history because Putin's behavior in response to the US driving NATO right up to their border will make much more sense.
The Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and now the Russian Federation have alternated between status quo foreign relations and aggression. This is commonplace for geographic empires (including the USA).
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.