An under-educated television culture population

[SHRED]

It's America's stupidity that will be our downfall.

The vast majority will roll their eyes at details.
They don't read.
They don't think critically.

I'm worried that the propaganda will override the truth revealed in investigations.
It's how he got in office.

[Blue_Tires]

1. +1000

[lindysalsagal]

2. When we first attempted this democratic experiment, we were relatively better educated.

Now, our minds are addled with Big Brother, Dr. Phil, Housewives of Nobody Important ,and the Kardashians.

[SHRED]

3. I know very little about pop culture

I think I'm better for that.

[trev]

13. I'm still stuck in the 1960s.

I've never gotten into the smartphone/social media obsession of today's culture. I don't play video games. I read serious books and watch independent films.

I miss the Counterculture.

[SHRED]

16. I miss it also

And good for you!

[cynatnite]

5. When it was the white men who were educated? n/t

[lindysalsagal]

6. And voted. The men who thought up this system were far, far better able to understand it than 90%

of the 21st century electorate.

[cynatnite]

8. Oh, yeah, we couldn't vote then and slave life sucked. Got it. n/t

[bigbrother05]

7. The Electoral College was to allow the informed to override the masses

The Electors were intended as single use officeholders to guard against populist hiccups.

The Voice of Reason has been replaced by The Voice, a 21st Century Fox Production.

BTW - have no clue which network airs The Voice.

[empedocles]

4. It takes time to educate and move political cultures. Politicians like Pelosi know this.

Look at what it took for the heroic, popular FDR to engage the American culture into WWII. FDR knew he needed a unified, aggressive public behind the war effort. Timing was so crucial. Pearl Harbor was the 'attention' getting turning point - of a long, much needed process.

Pelosi knows the time is not yet right. Yes, there is continuing damage and future great damage, [like Germany and Japan rampaging], but the good politicians work to win 'the big ones'.

[SMC22307]

9. Once upon a time the American labor force voted for Democrats.

Many weren't "educated" beyond junior or senior high so I don't think it's so much an issue of "education." The Democratic Party delivered for them. Since, the Rust Belt has been destroyed and many switched allegiance. We're being killed by right-wing media funded by right-wing billionaires, prosperity gospel preachers, bought-and-paid-for GOPers, the NRA, etc. And many American voters believing that Democrats won't do anything for them. We've GOT to change that.

[trev]

17. Yes, but until Johnson

the Democratic Party was the modern Republican Party. The Democratic Political Machines ran roughshod over the voters. The best known of these was New York's Tammany Hall in the 1920s.

We forget that it was the Civil Rights Act that turned the Democratic Party into what it is today. The Republicans merely transferred their tactics to the new regime.

[SMC22307]

18. You're entirely skipping over Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt...

and the rise of the middle class.

[trev]

20. True. Didn't think about that....

But the New Deal was not intended to create the middle class. It was an attempt to save the banks and create jobs. The subsequent rise out of the Depression--stimulated by WWII--resulted in the newfound middle class.

You may be right that this was the initial turning point for the Dems, but the party didn't really get initiated into its current incarnation until the 1960s.

[Ferryboat]

10. When TV first was available

Only the well to do could afford it. Programming was mostly high brow plays, thought provoking. It was only later when the cost came down that the general population owned one. Programming started trending toward more simplistic.

TV was a great idea at first, but also a squandered opportunity.

[roamer65]

11. Think Roman Empire.

It became lazy and stupid as well.

What eventually extended it was splitting it in two. The eastern half lasted another 1000 years, the Byzantine Empire.

[FiveGoodMen]

12. Propagandists have caused this

It's not just laziness or complacency.

Preachers, hate-radio personalities, and GOP politicians (as well as their co-conspirators in the news business), have been preparing this for decades.

We will not solve anything until we address that.

[Books_Tea_Alone]

14. Low-Information voters

Anecdotally, the people I know voted for the reality Apprentice star. They feed on an appetite of Kartrashians, Housewives and nonsense tv shows. You cannot discuss books, thought provoking films, relevant social issues with them. They are always distracted by the new shiny object and glom onto celebrity and 5-minute fame.
This is how we got this criminal clown in office- no one cared about his baggage only his fake "success" in business- and of course a hefty dose of racism.

[moondust]

15. All lies and jests

Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

The Boxer - Paul Simon, 1968

[monmouth4]

19. I remember looking at an old test my dad had to take in 8th grade. It was definitely college level.

[AwakeAtLast]

21. Idiocracy n/t