It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out. This was my wake-up call:
I can't remember which year this was, but it's when Bernie and Hillary were both vying of the Democratic nomination. I was a big Bernie fan. Donated twice to his campaign. Being on his email list, I would get emails from him constantly talking about how Hillary was basically the Devil, corrupt, evil, bad for America, etc.
Then when Bernie didn't get the nomination, he sent out an email telling us we should all vote for Hillary. After a year of saying she was corrupt and evil and must be stopped, suddenly, she's actually okay and we should all give her a chance.
So, that's personally what broke me.
I still vote, because I just can't stomach not voting. I would feel like I I was slapping all those women in the face who marched and fought for voting rights. But I'm not losing sleep over who wins.
And you are absolutely right about news media. When Trump left office, political podcasts saw a major dip in listenership. People only tune in when they're scared or outraged. I don't like that business model. It reminds me of Monsters Inc, where they have to scare the kids because their city is powered by children's screams.
It really is a game. I think the Bernie vs Hillary race was very revealing of the political underbelly. Safe to say it’s ugly.
The news media runs on ads and their sole metric is whether people are watching. I totally agree with you that people watch if they’re sacred or angry. I think there’s a good movement through platforms like Substack where more objective journalists are reporting on events, because people are fed up with the most popular media sources. I think there’s hope!
Isn’t this obvious? It is the system with its checks and balances, and not the morality of participants that makes democracy better than the alternatives. The same for the market, where we use the competition of greedy people to improve the general welfare. You try to cancel ambition against ambition (in republican politics) and greed against greed (in competitive markets)
Yup, I agree. There isn’t anything deep in this article. It’s just a collection of things I’ve been thinking for a while but haven’t put together in one place.
FOX has the advantage of having a financially stable parent company (News Corporation), whereas CNN's parent company (Warner Brothers Discovery) has been schizophrenic as of late. That makes a big difference as to how they can get their messages across.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out. This was my wake-up call:
I can't remember which year this was, but it's when Bernie and Hillary were both vying of the Democratic nomination. I was a big Bernie fan. Donated twice to his campaign. Being on his email list, I would get emails from him constantly talking about how Hillary was basically the Devil, corrupt, evil, bad for America, etc.
Then when Bernie didn't get the nomination, he sent out an email telling us we should all vote for Hillary. After a year of saying she was corrupt and evil and must be stopped, suddenly, she's actually okay and we should all give her a chance.
So, that's personally what broke me.
I still vote, because I just can't stomach not voting. I would feel like I I was slapping all those women in the face who marched and fought for voting rights. But I'm not losing sleep over who wins.
And you are absolutely right about news media. When Trump left office, political podcasts saw a major dip in listenership. People only tune in when they're scared or outraged. I don't like that business model. It reminds me of Monsters Inc, where they have to scare the kids because their city is powered by children's screams.
Thanks for reading, Pam!
It really is a game. I think the Bernie vs Hillary race was very revealing of the political underbelly. Safe to say it’s ugly.
The news media runs on ads and their sole metric is whether people are watching. I totally agree with you that people watch if they’re sacred or angry. I think there’s a good movement through platforms like Substack where more objective journalists are reporting on events, because people are fed up with the most popular media sources. I think there’s hope!
I avoid as much politics and humanly possible and the only social media I use is substack. My life is much more peaceful because of it. :)
This is the smartest way to go about it
Isn’t this obvious? It is the system with its checks and balances, and not the morality of participants that makes democracy better than the alternatives. The same for the market, where we use the competition of greedy people to improve the general welfare. You try to cancel ambition against ambition (in republican politics) and greed against greed (in competitive markets)
Yup, I agree. There isn’t anything deep in this article. It’s just a collection of things I’ve been thinking for a while but haven’t put together in one place.
I like it! I simply think it is half of the story. The players are awful, the game is better.
Fair point! I like how you frame it. I hadn’t thought about it like that
I would recommend the dictators Handbook if you are interested in an extended version of the argument:
https://archive.org/details/dictatorshandboo0000buen/mode/1up
I’ll check it out! Thanks, Arturo!
FOX has the advantage of having a financially stable parent company (News Corporation), whereas CNN's parent company (Warner Brothers Discovery) has been schizophrenic as of late. That makes a big difference as to how they can get their messages across.
That’s interesting, I didn’t know that!