OT: Politics and other stuff that is sure to piss everyone off

[Forty_Sixand2]

I get all of my news from "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" on Sunday morning.

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

The Daily Show isn't a fucking NEWS SHOW!!!

You are right: it is definetly not news. I doubt many actually view it as such, but the viewership is always well informed in these surveys. My theory with this study regarding The Daily Show and to a lesser extent Colbert Report, is that those viewers take in various forms of real news and events during the day. TDS just happens to be one of the only programs of any kind that they watch on a regular basis, and it happens to be in the survey. My wife and I would likely fall into that category. It should be replaced by a "various" category of some sort, IMO.

 

[HokieGhost]

But you probably catch more truth and less bullshit on The Daily Show than you do from any of the others.

+1.

Knowing who owns the various news media organizations can help understand why they all seem to have a different agenda when reporting the news or offering opinions:

Media Giants

Take a look at this article about Operation Mockingbird, and you'll question just how "independent" the US news media has been over the last few decades:

Operation Mockingbird

 

[Hokie200proof]

Somewhat related...

Watchdog Group Asks FCC to Revoke Fox's News License

Not because they (as stated above), along with every major news outlet, do a colossally shitty job of reporting the News... but because of the wire-tapping deal.

Makes you wonder where all of the news gleaned from those illegal taps is actually going. I would imagine there would have been some morsel in there worth the risk.

 

[VT_Football_Fan]

MSNBC has got to be the WORST news channel on Cable. How in the hell are Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Keith Olbermann your pundits? Good lord, a gay black jew on welfare in San Francisco isn't as liberal as those schmucks.


Joe Scarborough is the only middle ground on that whole damn network.

 

[Camfantasy]

MSNBC has got to be the WORST news channel on Cable. How in the hell are Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Keith Olbermann your pundits? Good lord, a gay black jew on welfare in San Francisco isn't as liberal as those schmucks.


Joe Scarborough is the only middle ground on that whole damn network.

Same can be said when viewing Fox news from an unbiased perspective. They are all biased idiots (both fox and msnbc) blabbering nonsense to try to get the whole world to see their point of view.

 

[VT_Football_Fan]

I wish we could just clean house. Obama, every Senator and every Congressman fired. Get some people in there that care more about the country than re-election.

 

[wildturkey]

+1.

Take a look at this article about Operation Mockingbird, and you'll question just how "independent" the US news media has been over the last few decades:

Operation Mockingbird

After reading the above post, please tell me I'm not the only one that thought this first:

 

[Camfantasy]

I wish we could just clean house. Obama, every Senator and every Congressman fired. Get some people in there that care more about the country than re-election.

I would actually like some politicians that care more about the country and its inhabitants than its party affiliation. That would make my day.

 

[sparko]

I agree totally guys .. but we're living in a dream if we think good people will ever make good politicians .. When good people get into politics, they learn quickly to GTFO or they're forced out within their first few terms

 

[HokieGhost]

The major problem is the unlimited amount of money that can be legally "donated" to each politician at every level, especially from PACs and major corporations. Politicians used to bought by cash under the table, now they can be bought openly.

If a politician isn't totally financially and morally compromised before he or she reaches office, then they will be in a very short time when the "donators" demand repayment in terms of support for certain votes in Congress. If you don't play ball, they'll just find someone else who will.

My late Dad was a WWII vet, high school football coach, and a political conservative. In the years leading up to his passing in 2009, he had begun to believe that the only way out of the mess is an outright revolution. I'm starting to believe he was correct.

I guess the "key-word monitors' will be pinging on this post in a very short time.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I still think that the biggest problem with politics today is the "Go Team" mentality of the masses. People pick a side and root for it like a football team. If their side loses, they spend the next 2/4/6 years gnashing their teeth and trying as best as they can to undermine anything that that team does.

People need to realize that it is distinctly possible that both sided have good intentions but different plans. Even if your team didn't win, you ought to hope for and work for the best outcome because it impacts all of us. This is not sports, this is life.

I straddle the line. Socially, I am very left of center. Fiscally, I am moderate but lean right on some issues. I lean more to the right on international issues, but I come from a biased perspective as well.

I have voted for Republicans and Democrats in the past and will in the future. I miss the days of discourse and loathe the "talking point".

 

[Hokie200proof]

The major problem is the unlimited amount of money that can be legally "donated" to each politician at every level, especially from PACs and major corporations. Politicians used to bought by cash under the table, now they can be bought openly.

If a politician isn't totally financially and morally compromised before he or she reaches office, then they will be in a very short time when the "donators" demand repayment in terms of support for certain votes in Congress. If you don't play ball, they'll just find someone else who will.

My late Dad was a WWII vet, high school football coach, and a political conservative. In the years leading up to his passing in 2009, he had begun to believe that the only way out of the mess is an outright revolution. I'm starting to believe he was correct.

I guess the "key-word monitors' will be pinging on this post in a very short time.

Yes... and yes. Here's to hoping you'll be the top of the naked pyramid at Gitmo.

 

[HokieGhost]

Yes... and yes. Here's to hoping you'll be the top of the naked pyramid at Gitmo.

Yeah...being on the bottom of that pyramid would be....unfortunate.

 

[Hokie200proof]

MSNBC has got to be the WORST news channel on Cable. How in the hell are Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Keith Olbermann your pundits? Good lord, a gay black jew on welfare in San Francisco isn't as liberal as those schmucks.


Joe Scarborough is the only middle ground on that whole damn network.

I think Nancy Grace (and anyone who listens to her) is the worst. She's a failed lawyer turned full-time complainer and soccer-mom cult leader. She's just a loud talking bitch on TV... but women fucking listen to her.

I used to think Oprah was the worst... but she's a large and fleshy benign tumor compared to the Hot-Zone-grown, Ebola-CNN, intellectual-eating virus threatening all human progress that is Nancy Grace.

Of course... it takes a legion of fevered believers to truly give a cult leader power. Nancy Grace's gossipy soccer mom disciples make me physically and psychologically ill. I don't understand, and I never will, how girls (who, just a short time before, were dancing on tables and flashing for beads at Mardi Gras and Spring Break, who were hooking up with frat boys, football players ... and sometime me, who were dressing like $2 whores to go out every Thursday-weekend) get married, get pregnant, give birth and then turn into these creatures that think the spawn of their womb is the ONLY LIFE ON EARTH THAT MATTERS.

It's like a mental disorder. All of sudden their past behavior is shameful and disgraceful because "they're now a mother". Anything that they deem offensive or detrimental to their brood must be immediately removed from existence. These desperate, gossipy, pill-popping, functioning alcoholic harpies then listen to leaky gashes like fucking Nancy Grace (and Rosie O'Donnell before her) and hold what is said within their black hearts waiting to repeat it word-for-word to anyone who makes the mistake of listening. These are the same women who eat organic and then botox their faces to the point of bursting. They are the mob that burns books and derides free thought and human expression as a societal ill.

Fuck you. You're an animal who mated and breed. You're not the mother of christ so stop acting like what you think matters anymore than anyone else, especially if you're repeating fucking Nancy Grace and witch's brew of bile, shit and baseless opinions that have no relation to reality.

TL;DR - I don't like Nancy Grace and I don't think what she does is useful to humanity.

 

[Camfantasy]

I think Nancy Grace (and anyone who listens to her) is the worst. She's a failed lawyer turned full-time complainer and soccer-mom cult leader. She's just a loud talking bitch on TV... but women fucking listen to her.

I used to think Oprah was the worst... but she's a large and fleshy benign tumor compared to the Hot-Zone-grown, Ebola-CNN, intellectual-eating virus threatening all human progress that is Nancy Grace.

Of course... it takes a legion of fevered believers to truly give a cult leader power. Nancy Grace's gossipy soccer mom disciples make me physically and psychologically ill. I don't understand, and I never will, how girls (who, just a short time before, were dancing on tables and flashing for beads at Mardi Gras and Spring Break, who were hooking up with frat boys, football players ... and sometime me, who were dressing like $2 whores to go out every Thursday-weekend) get married, get pregnant, give birth and then turn into these creatures that think the spawn of their womb is the ONLY LIFE ON EARTH THAT MATTERS.

It's like a mental disorder. All of sudden their past behavior is shameful and disgraceful because "they're now a mother". Anything that they deem offensive or detrimental to their brood must be immediately removed from existence. These desperate, gossipy, pill-popping, functioning alcoholic harpies then listen to leaky gashes like fucking Nancy Grace (and Rosie O'Donnell before her) and hold what is said within their black hearts waiting to repeat it word-for-word to anyone who makes the mistake of listening. These are the same women who eat organic and then botox their faces to the point of bursting. They are the mob that burns books and derides free thought and human expression as a societal ill.

Fuck you. You're an animal who mated and breed. You're not the mother of christ so stop acting like what you think matters anymore than anyone else, especially if you're repeating fucking Nancy Grace and witch's brew of bile, shit and baseless opinions that have no relation to reality.

TL;DR - I don't like Nancy Grace and I don't think what she does is useful to humanity.

You sir, get some well deserved rep on that one.

 

[sparko]

I think Nancy Grace (and anyone who listens to her) is the worst. She's a failed lawyer turned full-time complainer and soccer-mom cult leader. She's just a loud talking bitch on TV... but women fucking listen to her.

I used to think Oprah was the worst... but she's a large and fleshy benign tumor compared to the Hot-Zone-grown, Ebola-CNN, intellectual-eating virus threatening all human progress that is Nancy Grace.

Of course... it takes a legion of fevered believers to truly give a cult leader power. Nancy Grace's gossipy soccer mom disciples make me physically and psychologically ill. I don't understand, and I never will, how girls (who, just a short time before, were dancing on tables and flashing for beads at Mardi Gras and Spring Break, who were hooking up with frat boys, football players ... and sometime me, who were dressing like $2 whores to go out every Thursday-weekend) get married, get pregnant, give birth and then turn into these creatures that think the spawn of their womb is the ONLY LIFE ON EARTH THAT MATTERS.

It's like a mental disorder. All of sudden their past behavior is shameful and disgraceful because "they're now a mother". Anything that they deem offensive or detrimental to their brood must be immediately removed from existence. These desperate, gossipy, pill-popping, functioning alcoholic harpies then listen to leaky gashes like fucking Nancy Grace (and Rosie O'Donnell before her) and hold what is said within their black hearts waiting to repeat it word-for-word to anyone who makes the mistake of listening. These are the same women who eat organic and then botox their faces to the point of bursting. They are the mob that burns books and derides free thought and human expression as a societal ill.

Fuck you. You're an animal who mated and breed. You're not the mother of christ so stop acting like what you think matters anymore than anyone else, especially if you're repeating fucking Nancy Grace and witch's brew of bile, shit and baseless opinions that have no relation to reality.

TL;DR - I don't like Nancy Grace and I don't think what she does is useful to humanity.

the nature boy would be proud .... woo!!!!!!


FTR: i hate that bitch too. fortunately the only time i have to see her is in the morning when Dan Abrams is owning her ass on GMA

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I didn't realize that she was stll on TV. I stay away from the news networks unless there is a breaking story or I am watching a debate or something. I get my news from NPR (and it hasn't made me a communist yet )

 

[Hokie200proof]

I didn't realize that she was stll on TV. I stay away from the news networks unless there is a breaking story or I am watching a debate or something. I get my news from NPR (and it hasn't made me a communist yet )

I do that too.


The problem is, we all need to pay attention to what these loud and obnoxious morons are yelling at their followers, because that eventually becomes that rabble's reality... whether it's based in fact or not... which is inherently dangerous.

A manipulated, loyal and unthinking mob of morons is the foundation for most of human history's lowest points. And yet, this cycle always seems to repeat itself. Don't trust some TV personality to do the due diligence for you. If you hear them same something, look into it. If you don't, you're allowing someone else to do your thinking for you. The due diligence, the investigation of a claim and testing that opinion against those who hold the opposing view - that is the path of understanding. I don't argue that it is knowledge... I'm a bit Platonic in that sense and believe "knowledge", as I define stricter than most people tend to, is perhaps unobtainable... but this kind of practical understanding is always the result of intelligent discourse and leads to the most rewarding conclusions.

So, I think it's best to monitor what people, even those who are clearly not thinking for themselves, are listening to so that when you hear it within your own social sphere of influence you can combat it and vanquish it. Otherwise, you're part of the problem.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I have said this a million times to you , H200.

These pundits are dangerous for society but brilliant, BRILLIANT people. Glenn Beck, Keith Olberman, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews etc etc etc.

They have the perfect business model:

1. Tell Ghost stories (Obama is a Kenyan socialist gay dropout that has ties to Al Qaeda, Bush is a megalomaniac oil tycoon with tiese to the Saudi family that works for the NWO).

2. Keep repeating the ghost stories ad nauseam and link every bit of news to these stories.

3. SELL BOOKS, MEMBERSHIPS, MAGAZINES, AIRTIME ABOUT HOW TO KILL "GHOSTS".

None of these nuts actually believe what they say. They are too smart for that. This is a short term business model for them and it is unbelievably effective.

Unfortunately, as you mention, it can have dire results and those results may well cause the downfall of a great nation. You and I disagree on almost everything political, yet we can have an intelligent and civil discourse. After conversations, i find myself looking deeper into certain topics and issues and seeing other sides of things. I may not agree with the stance but if I gain a better understanding of it, I am more apt to see it through and follow it's progress.