Pandering to the lizard brain: American media versus objective reality

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Americans are moving more in the direction of living in bubbles where we don’t ever have to consider opposing points of view. Much more so in Internet fora than in the face to face world.

This happens both on rightwing sites like Free Republic and leftwing sites like BoingBoing.

Look at all the posts here to the effect of “Fox News is always ranting about …” when you know damn well that the poster has never listened to one minute of FNC in their life.

Personally I take a little pride in the fact that I’ve been banned or suspended from sites on both sides of the fence.

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See also: refusal to use the T word in describing a man travelling across the country to kill people as an act of political intimidation.

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Since you are objective, where are these posts?

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And well you should!

Of course, you’ll be far more effective in challenging the meme-chanting followers of any particular site’s orthodoxy if you can manage not to be banned or censored.

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This is what he’s referring to:

That’s pretty good, but I’d be more impressed if you’d been promoted to a mod on both sides.

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Okay, but there actually was a faked video that was played on Fox News, right? I mean, I can find it on the Fox News website. I’m a little loath to give the link, but it was the second hit on my google search for “fake video of murdering babies fox news”. I mean, if people were always going on on this site about “those things” Fox News says without ever finding out what Fox News says I could understand being critical of that. But to cite a specific example of Fox News editing video together to present fiction as truth that really happened seems like fair game, even if you haven’t watched the video yourself.

I get a little tired of people presenting the idea that there is a rational middle between two extremes. Just as often as there is a rational middle, one of the two extremes is just plain correct. I don’t want to have a balanced view of evolution vs. creation, or a balanced view of the world ending on Dec 13 vs. it not ending on that date. I don’t need to have a balanced view of whether planned parenthood is killing babies for the purpose of selling their body parts, nor am I wrong to criticize Fox News for running a story with the title, “Planned Parenthood sells dead baby body parts.”

I also tire of the idea that somehow unpopular opinions are silenced around here, an idea that is somehow sometimes presented by the majority voice. “You guys are just as bad” is a tiring refrain. And bringing out getting suspended like it was a badge of honor is ridiculous. How hard is it to get suspended? Pick an editor and start claiming to have proof they are child pornographer. Banned in a heartbeat.

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Are the products of “investor-driven media” the same as what’s published by nakedly partisan media? Nearly all organs of partisan media are thoroughly commodified even if generally understood publicly to represent different politics. But doesn’t the commodification more often shape what can and can’t be reported?

The lizard brain is not the autonomic nervous system. If I misunderstood it that way I’d be tired of hearing it too.

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What is the collective noun for strawmen? A field of strawmen?

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A Copse of Strawmen?

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A bale of strawmen?

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Sheaves of Strawpersons?

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A camelback of strawpersons?

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I hate to break the spell of trying to find a collective noun for sham arguments, but it is objectively not true that “the liberal side is just as bad as the right-wing side…” when it comes to mendacity. Claiming that “both sides do it” is something I mostly hear from conservatives, FWIW.

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I’ve been thinking around that topic for some time and the best I’ve come up with is that religion plays a leading role in this sort of “dissociative thinking” (I would call it that as reality & the far right ceased being on a first name basis quite some time ago). Anys, initially religion, specifically Christianity (in the west - & I’m talking about the “true believers” where the bible is literal not parable) for when children are indoctrinated into it they lose the ability for critical thought in that “fact”/“truth” does not need any supporting evidence beyond someone else -typically someone who is “your better”- telling them it is/what is true.

If one were to require all facts be supported it could cause their entire world view to collapse & if “we” continue to condone religion as “healthy” we will remain at the receiving end of a whole heap load of unpleasantness.

Just, ya know, IMO n all…

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I’m liberal; my husband is conservative. I am unhappy with the state of reporting on all sides. It’s not about “both sides do it” or “my side is better than your side” - I just want something factual instead of things that are so slanted that I have no confidence in any of it.

As soon as the shooter story hit it was all over my social media how it was definitely a wing nut and it was definitely stirred up by the right wing media. I am totally opposed to all the Planned Parenthood video bullshit that went down, but no one knew what the fuck was happening during that shooting or why and everyone went right into analysis mode facts be damned.

I’m sick of it.

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If true, how is that an irony? And that’s a big assumption a) about how many liberals watch Fox, and that b) they do it for “thrills.” I watched a fair amount of Fox after 9/11 to understand what sort of narratives they were pushing and how their audience was thinking about what was going on. It certainly opened my eyes to just how much they were willing to tell outright lies or create whole-cloth fictions to support their agenda (and how the rest of the media was unwilling to call them on it). I felt sick watching it; I certainly didn’t feel any thrills.

But hey, apparently “a lot” of liberals watch Fox News. To be fair, it’s almost impossible to have avoided ever seeing any of it.

Not sure why. If you consistently act like an asshole, you’ll consistently get banned places. (It’s up to you and some self-reflection to say if that’s the reason.) It certainly proves nothing about your intellectual integrity, however.

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Dualist pap!

We’re soul/body/mind as a unit. Your body is as much a part of everything you do as your mind. In fact, you can’t have your “mind” without the input of your body, as we’re discovering.

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