Sharpen your Knives for the Second American Civil War
It is widely believed that America has become more politically and culturally divided than ever before. Following our last two presidential elections with their "nut-hair thin" margins of victory Americans have temporarily abandoned their age-old apathy for politics. Unfortunately, this apathy has been replaced in most of us with a deep loathing for the roughly 50% of the electorate that voted for the party we are against
If you go to any bookstore in America this hyper-polarization is readily apparent. Gigantic promotional displays of Stupid White Men, Treachery, Deliver Us from Evil, and Bushwhacked are front and center competing for the consumer's attention. Just the mention of names like Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush has the ability to raise the blood pressure in a good majority of our population.
There is no political debate in America anymore, really. People are talking past each other as if they existed in parallel universes. If you were to listen to George W. Bush and Al Gore quote statistics back and forth in their debates, you would think they were talking about different countries. The American public does not benefit from this kind of 'debate.' The only thing apparent from this incoherence is that if both of them are saying such wildly conflicting things, then at LEAST one of them is a huge fucking liar.
The nightly news deals with the issues of our time by enlisting rival talking heads into giving 30 second soundbites. Some of the time they don't give both sides a voice on at all. The television networks are failing to inform the public about the important issues. And honestly, if the television doesn't inform Americans, who the fuck else is going to? Even though the internet is altering our political landscape, television still has an important hegemony on political debate in this country.
Political debate T.V. shows have degenerated into pairing two partisan extremist, either as guest or hosts. These pundits' jobs consists of trying to yell over each other for 30 minutes while twisting their opponent's words against them. At it's best we get Paul Begala's annoying wiseassery, at it's worst we have Bill O'Reilly turning off people's microphones as he screams at them to "shut up."
"Red and Blue states," the Ten Commandments, gays, Michael Moore, abortion, prayer in school, Fox News, these are the signposts of our current political landscape. There seems to be a gigantic rift growing right down the middle of American society. It is something we need to think about. Over the next couple weeks I am going to be posting more updates on this theme. Hopefully, these will generate some comments and ideas about what our current political divide means, and how we can get over it.
If you go to any bookstore in America this hyper-polarization is readily apparent. Gigantic promotional displays of Stupid White Men, Treachery, Deliver Us from Evil, and Bushwhacked are front and center competing for the consumer's attention. Just the mention of names like Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush has the ability to raise the blood pressure in a good majority of our population.
There is no political debate in America anymore, really. People are talking past each other as if they existed in parallel universes. If you were to listen to George W. Bush and Al Gore quote statistics back and forth in their debates, you would think they were talking about different countries. The American public does not benefit from this kind of 'debate.' The only thing apparent from this incoherence is that if both of them are saying such wildly conflicting things, then at LEAST one of them is a huge fucking liar.
The nightly news deals with the issues of our time by enlisting rival talking heads into giving 30 second soundbites. Some of the time they don't give both sides a voice on at all. The television networks are failing to inform the public about the important issues. And honestly, if the television doesn't inform Americans, who the fuck else is going to? Even though the internet is altering our political landscape, television still has an important hegemony on political debate in this country.
Political debate T.V. shows have degenerated into pairing two partisan extremist, either as guest or hosts. These pundits' jobs consists of trying to yell over each other for 30 minutes while twisting their opponent's words against them. At it's best we get Paul Begala's annoying wiseassery, at it's worst we have Bill O'Reilly turning off people's microphones as he screams at them to "shut up."
"Red and Blue states," the Ten Commandments, gays, Michael Moore, abortion, prayer in school, Fox News, these are the signposts of our current political landscape. There seems to be a gigantic rift growing right down the middle of American society. It is something we need to think about. Over the next couple weeks I am going to be posting more updates on this theme. Hopefully, these will generate some comments and ideas about what our current political divide means, and how we can get over it.
posted by Gentleman Loser at
6:26 PM
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