Try as we might, how do we ever break through the impenetrable twin walls of ........

[Stinky The Clown]

..... corporate media consolidation and personal, willful ignorance of our fellow citizens?

On any day you dare to allow yourself to feel hopeful, think about those two tidbits.

The media can shape any message they wish. And given who owns them, the entire message - "liberal" media personalities notwithstanding - is not one that is on the people's side. Those glimmers of light for which we all cheer. In the end, they mean NOTHING. They change NOTHING.

And you can't even talk to your neighbors. If they don't listen to Fox news, they hear the Fox message anyhow. It is insidious. But instead of thinking about things that actually affect their lives, they watch increasingly moronic teevee shows about some hunky twinkie or busty floozie staying on some island or becoming some faux rock and roll star.

Ask your neighbor who Newt Gingrich or Joe Biden are.

Hell ... ask 'em who Dick Cheney is.

Maybe half can answer.

Ask them what Congressional district they're in. Or who the chief of police is.

We live in an ignorant society that is kept that way by the people who get rich because of that ignorance. And there's not a fucking thing we can do about it.




I dunno .... maybe its the cloudy, drizzly day that's affecting my mood ......

[Warpy]

1. People knew that stuff

when local papers were local papers.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. I think an alarming percent of our population is in an intellectual coma.

[imdjh]

3. Many people consider what we do here to be the equivalent of TV

I have tried to explain how a forum board can function both as a collective of learning, as well as a springboard for learning but they see it as chatting or "arguing with idiots". The truth is that you run into people on forums who don't always try to get multiple sources of information to form an opinion, they go for what they already agree with. So in some ways, it is TV.

I prefer to think it's superior to TV.

[Laelth]

4. I must concur, with great sadness.

However, I also argue that people are better-informed now than they ever have been in the history of the Republic. We have not reached the promised land yet, but we can see what need to be done to get there, and I am forever grateful that things are getting better ... slowly, but surely.

:dem:

-Laelth