Another "Boys at the garage" story for you all

[ThomWV]

I had to take the truck to a different garage yesterday. I take it to Darrell's place for any repairs, but he is not licensed to do state inspections. My inspection expired in March and I had to take it to Joe's garage to make it legal again. That wouldn't matter, and doesn't matter, other than Joe, who I talked to yesterday, is a Whole lot more conservative than Darrell.

I go there around 7:30, not realizing he opens later than that, but there was already one old fart (OF) in the office with Joe so I just walked on in too. The two young guys who are mechanicing for Joe these days hadn't arrived yet and there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell Joe was going to do any actual work, so I just settled in with the other two. They were already talking about how bad off the country was and so I chimed right in.

What was said really isn't very important other than there was an amazing amount of misinformation floating around. Most of what we talked about was Social Security, and the welfare system, which in the minds of the other two was somehow an interchangeable pair. I am no great expert on the Social Security system, but it was clear to me that the 'facts' that Joe and the Old Fart were outrageously wrong. Actually they were so far off base that about the only defense of the system I could offer was that I was sure that someone had told him something that was not true. As it turned out I went fact finding last night and indeed his "facts" were way off base - and I'll be dropping by to talk to him a little later this morning to make sure he knows better in the future.

That aside here is the interesting thing. Time after time he he referenced where he got his information. It was not FOX news, it was the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. Over and over again he made refferences to programs he had seen on those two channels. That is where he was getting his information, and virtually every thing he was telling me and the Old Fart (who was in complete agreement) was wrong. As an example, somewhere in the Social Security system there is some special kind of payment that just goes to welfare and it is where most of the money goes; just absurd clap-trap like that.

The Discovery Channel and The History Channel, just as inaccurate as FOX news. That was what I learned at the competitors garage yesterday.

PS: By the way, last year approximately 80% of SS payouts went to Retirees or their survivors, with the remaining 20% going to disability payments to eligible participants and small portion to their dependents.

[annabanana]

1. General Media Ownership Page: (Who owns what)

http://www.nowfoundation.org/issues/communications/tv/mediacontrol.html

[Orrex]

2. I'd caution you not to bother trying to change Joe's mind

You could bring him the actual statutes and regulations showing that his information is incorrect, and he still wouldn't believe you.

He watches those programs not for information but for ammunition.

[lunatica]

3. Willful ignorance is just that. Deliberate

Anyone who wants to know the truth need only go looking for it. Today, with the internet it's never been easier to find facts. All it takes is the desire to know the truth and the ability to know how to ask questions of Google and other search engines. It's not rocket science. Finding information has never been easier than it is now.

[RKP5637]

7. This is quite true, very true, finding factual information is easy w/the Internet. BUT

sadly, there is also much misinformation and propaganda on the Internet to support those with the wrong facts like these guys at the garage. I have no idea how to get around that... It's like the old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink it!"

[lunatica]

9. The old saying, you can lead a horse to water is true

I've gotten to the point in my old age that I just let people keep their hard won ignorance since it seems to be such a precious thing to them. The human ability to self delude is pretty amazing considering we're supposed to be mentally superior to other species. Letting them be works wonders on eliminating frustration in my life. We all make choices. They've made theirs.

[RKP5637]

11. I'm reaching that point too. My friends tell me all I do is end up frustrating myself and

no change in others delusional, distorted and ignorant views. I'm old now, but I've always keep the spirit of fact finding, truthfulness and flexibility forefront in my analysis of anything. Eight years of George Bush really brought home to me how much of American is really ignorant. I was naive prior to that... I knew it existed, but not in such great numbers... and I remain shocked that it persists even in the face of logic. And then along came Sarah Palin...

What really annoys me today is the growing stereotype in this country that anyone older is akin to outrageous tea-baggers.

[GoCubsGo]

14. Exactly right.

People hear what they want to hear, even when they are presented the facts. I am not trying to defend the History or Discovery Channels here. Just saying that it's quite possible that those guys never actually heard the crap they claim they heard there. They likely listened only to the parts fit into their already-formed mindset, or they twisted facts to fit into their mindset. The rest of it went in one ear and out the other. It's like how they read the bible. They'll see the part about God smiting some group of people they hate, yet, they ignore the parts about Jesus saying, "Love one another."

[zeemike]

4. You see this all the time.

It is interesting dynamics because the right wingers are like a cult in certain ways....and they know each other by exchanging the same information over and over....so what Joe was doing was stroking Old Fart.....For instance Joe might say....socialist health care, and OF might know he was talking to a fellow cult member.
I predict that Jo or old fart would question the sources you present about the facts....the facts don[t matter to them, it is the bonding that matters.

[RKP5637]

8. I've presented absolute facts to guys like this before, and their response was, "well,

that looks good, but I can't trust it to be the truth." So they go wandering off with the same misinformation in their heads looking for stuff to reinforce their misguided notions of what is the truth... Very sad and disturbing... It's like talking to a rock...

[era veteran]

5. The Nostradamus, lost books of bible, UFO history, fake archeology, Hitler,

History of Armageddon, 10 commandments with Moses at Sinai, da Vinci code, angels and demons, ice road truckers, lumberjack, Atlantis, & etc. pseudo history channel? Fake history dressed up as fact. Now Discovery hires the idiot of the Mat-Su Valley to enlighten me about Alaska? The tv is an idiot box.

[progressoid]

15. That's what I see everytime I pass by those channels.

Pure Crap.

[chaplainM]

16. You left out "exploding toilets." n/t

[smoogatz]

6. He may have been talking about the government's raiding

of the SS trust fund, which it's done routinely for many years in order to cover other projects.

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. Joe makes a living off of government mandated programs

and he still doesn't understand it.

Typical. I see it all the time.

[RKP5637]

12. Yeah, "I don't want the governments' hands on my Medicare or SS." n/t

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. Not to mention mandatory motor vehicle inspections, which

his shop performs and from which he earns a living......

[underpants]

17. Tonight on the History Channel- Did Confederate ghosts advise Hitler?

that is my brother's apt summary of the history channel

[Gabi Hayes]

18. guess what.....he's lying to you. or, he's getting his 'facts' from the RW aholes

that populate the reality shows that dominate both those channels' current nightly schedule, and the ignorance of those ice road lumberjacking fishermen pawnbroker carjockies is pretty uniformly classically Faux-news obvious

I watch those channels quite a bit (used to, more accurately), and they have zero current affairs programming, and their 'historical' programming, while usually slanted toward a RW agenda, when one is noticeable, disusses social security, well, I've never seen it mentioned, except as a sidenote during an FDR show. AFA as welfare, how about never?

you should ask him to name ANY show on those channels that dealt with social security or welfare on more than a passing-mention basis, and ask him if, perhaps, he heard one of those reality stars waxing profoundly on the state of things politic

either way, the guy is totally full of it