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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 21, 2010 - 10:16am PT
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Former president Carter said so last night on an interview on NBC. I agree with him. There is something particularly ugly going on in right-wing America, not easily explained by the policies of this administration. I watch those angry blowhards - Hannity, O'Reilly and others from time to time, just to keep abreast of what's going on in conservative circles. They are feeding the frenzy of hate and do so with blatent lies, half-truths, and misinformation. Millions of conservatives watch them. Everything they say is polarizing and contemptuous of the current administration. Polite discourse seems to be a thing of the past. This is bad for America. I don't know what anybody can do other than boycott.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Sep 21, 2010 - 10:25am PT
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Boycotting may be the only option. Your from Golden, I hope you boycott Coors- bunch of right wing kooks, and the beer sucks.
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Douglas Rhiner
Mountain climber
Tahoe City/Talmont , CA
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Sep 21, 2010 - 10:27am PT
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Watch the "news", boycot the advertisers.
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tom brogan
Trad climber
san diego, ca
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Sep 21, 2010 - 10:31am PT
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I hear from a good source that Donini will be a write in canidate for the tea bagger party.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Sep 21, 2010 - 10:31am PT
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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Sep 21, 2010 - 11:17am PT
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Wow Glenn Beck is aging really well.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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Sep 21, 2010 - 11:18am PT
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I agree with Carter (and you) on this, Greg. At the same time, I would add that Fox News acts as a trigger for a nation-wide anxiety that is already present. It's as if the country is a room full of combustible gas (you could go lots of places with that metaphor), and all it takes is a little spark to set the whole thing off. Fox has acted (in my opinion) like one of those electric ignitors on your gas stove--clicking, and clicking, and clicking.
The exponential rate of change this country and the world (be it technological, economic, cultural, etc.) has been experiencing creates more and more anxiety, and the natural fight or flight reaction is fed by (the likes of) Fox News by finding someone to blame for how we feel. Instead of learning how to manage our own emotions, we find it much easier to lash out and blame someone for our fear and discomfort. Fox has consistently been happy to oblige on that count, though--if you follow my logic--you can't really exclusively blame them either. They're playing one role among many in an emotionally regressing society.
It's systemic, and Fox's part is just a particularly immature component of a chronically anxious climate. It's entirely up to us to not get drawn into the polarities they are only too happy to foster. This is challenging, because--as Edwin Friedman put it--"It is always easier to be the least mature member of a mature system, than the most mature member of an immature system." I believe our country is, at present, a pretty "immature system."
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Bertrand
climber
California
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Sep 21, 2010 - 11:42am PT
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What a creepy, Orwellian topic this is.
Many could say Fox's news bias is no further right then MSNBC is left. It just depends on which "center" you're measuring from. If you think Fox has a monopoly on hyperpartisan crap journalism, let us remind you of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman. Hannity is tiresomely predictable, but O'Reilly actually praises the president quite often...he's just not slobbering all over him the way the other networks do, and maybe that puts him to the right of Wolf Blitzer and Gwen Ifill.
If you're trying to suppress news sources you don't like, then you are part of a MUCH bigger problem.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Sep 21, 2010 - 11:53am PT
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After looking at the asset list of Rupert Murdoch, thanks for the link, I am canceling my subscription to National Geographic. I didn't know he owned it, but I refuse to contribute to anything that he as owner of Fox News owns and profits off of. He, and his news channels are one of the biggest devisive element in the US today as you stated, and he should be charged with treason as far as I am concerned.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Sep 21, 2010 - 11:54am PT
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So Jimmy Carter is the new gauge of what is "divisive"??? And is divisive really a bad thing? Is unity a good thing if it falls under the wrong banner?
Gimme a f*#king break...
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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Sep 21, 2010 - 12:05pm PT
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Wait a second bluering. Are you actually implying that Jimmy Carter, the watered down oatmeal of American politics, is a divisive figure? Is that really how hair trigger you have become? What else makes you mad and want to attack someone's character instead of respond to the issue at hand? Ladybugs? Staplers? Meatloaf just makes me so.....angry....
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Sep 21, 2010 - 12:06pm PT
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A few catchphases for you Bluey...
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
United we stand, divided we fall.
LEB, you're an idiot as usual.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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Sep 21, 2010 - 12:07pm PT
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Oh hey look a giant post defending Fox news from L "I don't watch FOX" EB. I'm so shocked. Let's parse it for irony, shall we?
One one hand: "This type of thinking is arrogance to the max. It assumes omniscience and also takes a condescending approach to the intellect of anyone and everyone who disagrees."
And on the other: Well put, indeed. The left attributes far too much "power" to Fox News. They cannot accept the fact that the right opposes their agenda due to independent thinking and conflicting ideology.
Arrogant condescension while pretending to have all the answers and then condemning it only a paragraph later! Classic FOX...er...LEB.
Oh and this is just beautiful: Now, let us count, how many "enlightened" members of the left jump in with vulgar character assassinations of my intellect and/or call me obscene names. Red Queens veritably jumping up and down, foaming at the mouth, screaming "off with her head."
She's both condescending and sarcastic while ALSO playing the victim! All in one sentence! In a post decrying arrogance and condescension Magnifique!
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2010 - 12:11pm PT
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Let's list some of the issues that a disturbingly large number of Americans believe that are obviously false but have been promoted by innuendo or outright lies by Fox network.
Death panels.
Obama being a Muslim.
Obama not being an American citizen.
If a were a republican, I'd be awfully embarrassed to be associated with these views.
Then there are controversial issues like global warming that are completely dismissed with disdain.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Sep 21, 2010 - 12:13pm PT
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OH MY GAWD!!!
jghedge, thanks for posting those youtube clips.
You people HAVE to see those!!
A "news" organization does that?? Holy shitz.....
Blue, LEB, I challenge you to look at those clips and defend them.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Sep 21, 2010 - 12:15pm PT
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Actually the most divisive element in American culture is the inclination to see issues as black or white.
Politics does not follow a linear spectrum. It is multidimensional.
As a libertarian I tend to side with the "right" over issues of economic freedom and the "left" over personal freedom (its weird how the parties sort of flip flop over the second amendment issues).
Authoritarians are exactly the reverse.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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Sep 21, 2010 - 12:22pm PT
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LEB said Dissent and division are part of our inalienable rights as a Democracy.
You're right. And now you've been tricked into defending the practice of questioning the President's religion and nationality as rational "dissent." I see nothing slips by your wily mind.
*edit* Cavuto? Seriously? CAVUTO?
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BrianH
Trad climber
santa fe
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Sep 21, 2010 - 12:23pm PT
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Interesting thoughts on anxiety in the body politic up thread, if only because it's something I've been thinking a lot about.
A friend of mine noted that people who inherit money are always very anxious about losing it. They are not sure they could earn it again on their own, according to his take. Whereas people who have made their own money, are much less anxious. They know they have what it take to take care of themselves.
In many ways, Americans are "standing on the shoulders of giants" and are beneficiaries of a great inheritance. Our infrastructure, our civil rights and well functioning legal system and our economic and military power were build up over generations of hard work and wise, public spirited government (from both parties).
But something has changed, it seems. Or actually many things have changed. It doesn't seem like there IS as much work to do. What work there is seems more like churn then real productivity. We look at infrastructure that is 70 years old and starting to fall apart (gas lines explode, bridges collapse, water shorts out telephone lines in rural areas) and there is a sense of slippage, a feeling that something is running through our fingers and we don't know how to hold onto it. That makes many people anxious and fills them with dread.
Unscrupulous corporations such as Fox capitalize on that dread and anxiety. They can use those negative emotions to sell eyeballs to advertisers, to drive a wedge between us. More and more the "Other" is demonized and blamed for failure. Less and less we are willing to acknowledge hard truths, any sort of hard truth. Those who try are shouted down and kicked out of the tent.
IS there an endgame? Of course, and hopefully it's outcome is not set in er ...uhm ... stone.
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