My version of “just minding my own business” always includes criticizing people! That’s because the people are “in my business!”
It can be anybody, almost. Foremost in my mind are Whoopi and her evil friend Joy, the “View” hostesses that make everyone’s day a little more … fantastic!
These are people who live in a fantasy, and expertly act out reality to entertain stay-at-home folks who want to know what the heck’s going on! Back in the day it was General Hospital and soap operas with lots of soap commercials, but entertainment and “news” officially merged some time in the 80’s, when “Entertainment Tonight” was a new show.
Wikipedia tells us “In its early years from its 1981 inception, Entertainment Tonight – following a local newscast-style format – consisted primarily of coverage of the latest movies, music and television releases and projects.”
Sounds innocent enough! Some awesome entertainment news!
Those two words, entertainment and news, would from now on be melded. Meh … not sure if that sounds innocent any more!
What ended up happening, years into this experiment, is there’s no more news. Not a single news outlet that can be trusted. Lots of shows identify as entertainment and hawk the news, some specializing in delving deep into current affairs. You can’t break it apart any more. The View is, whether you like it or not, a source of news for over 3-million viewers per episode.
The wicked witch is not dead at all. She has a coven and a TV show.
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Along these lines, someone asked a question on Quora …
I’ll leave my answer below. Feel free to click through to Quora for more interesting articles from a wide variety of experts and writers!
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A: None of that stuff is happening; it’s happening, but not for the average person. The average person works all day. They may have time to read some news online in the morning, maybe not. Same at end of day. Days may go by with the person being a good, well-meaning, responsible citizen, but with a busy schedule and no time to do research, no time to begin a new hobby as Sherlock Holmes, and no incentive to, either, as they don’t wish to play “forever-skeptic” like some of us!
It takes a skeptical mind to scratch the surface of the truth, to see that some media outlets are biased, some outright hateful and many are overconfident and unqualified but still pose as authorities. The ladies on “The View” are a good example, where comedienne Whoopi Goldberg plays up her “strong woman” attitude while pretending to be, for example, an expert on the US Constitution. For whatever reason (and it feels like outright lying and propaganda), the View hostesses are quickly becoming famous for a new thing; being unreliable sources of information. Nevertheless, they adorn their “news reporting” and commentary with lots of drama. They are good at appealing to a certain population, still mostly women, who “stay at home” during the daytime. They do it intentionally, and well. But the incentive for the propaganda, hate and what appears to be absolute ignorance is really anybody’s guess. They do lean far left, and so sometimes try to balance their show with a “conservative” guest, but they also manipulate the show by instructing the audience to clap, boo, laugh, when cue cards are shown. A guest may be in the middle of disagreeing with Whoopi, she interrupts, quips out something, cards go up, audience all laugh, as if they’re on her side, and it can appear they’re laughing at what the guest just said. From my perspective, as a journalist for 45-years, it’s the pinnacle of revolting, an insult to journalism.
But that’s the gist of the answer to your question. It’s not so complicated. It’s the media. They get to control people’s thoughts. If I told “the average person” (and there are hundreds of millions of them) ABC news routinely lies and you shouldn’t believe anything they say, they’d find it hard to keep a straight face; it’s unbelievable, literally. And that’s the game we’re playing. It’s going to take a hard knock in the head (or pocketbook) to force the average person to MAKE THE TIME to do even just a little research on the truth, to become appropriately skeptical of what they hear!
This game has been going on for years, and if someone were to seek the truth, using modern methods (using a computer on the Internet and searching around), it would be impossible they wouldn’t find things to support skepticism as I describe. That still, is only the starting point. What you get when one political party, which decides to play by no rules, sleeps with the obscenely-wealthy owners of media outlets … is the ability to control hundreds of millions of people’s minds.
The “powers that be” WILL NOT stop playing this game, with no rules, which they will never lose because they’re currently in power. So your question, as phrased, is moot. The truth for the average person will never change from whatever ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, AP and many others choose to report. They create this truth, and people believe it, to the point of being willing to fight for it. This vengeant attitude, based on their “truth” is quite justified, and puts Donald Trump consistently in the crosshairs. But what I’m saying, in plain terms, is having done a lot of research myself, I’d have to be a complete idiot to believe much of the Democratic narrative.
And since the powers that be will not stop, clearing up the confusion has to be done BY those same hundreds of millions of average citizens, after they get home, maybe, after an eleven-hour day working to support their loved ones every day. This is nefarious and intentional, the taking advantage of the average person’s limited time. It has potentially resulted in lost friendships, but I wonder if that’s as tragic as it sounds; even without the strong twist politics can put on a relationship, relationships change and end for many reasons, and life goes on.
You asked about “protecting the Dems” by demonizing their opponents. What I’m suggesting is most Democrats probably don’t care if you disagree with them politically any more than you care if they disagree with you. Most Democrats think their friends are “99% decent and law abiding.” The idea of partisan politics doesn’t need to come up in conversation. You can go years. Think about it. I have a car mechanic; he’s a cool guy and I’m friends with him ’cause I’ve been bringing my cars to him for years. I know lots of people like this, great people! There, I said it! I publicly told everyone I think they’re great people! And I never mentioned if me and them were all Democrats or whatever … it isn’t a part of it. I have no idea what my car mechanic thinks about politics. I’ve never breached the subject with him, and for my entire life, up to five years-ago, I generally didn’t talk with my friends about politics, didn’t care to, didn’t miss not having the conversations.
It’s only since the media started creating false stories about Donald Trump, which was the beginning of weaving an irreconcilable web of lies, in cahoots with the money people … only since then that we even talk about this dynamic, as if we have something to suddenly be afraid of … running into a friend and being face-to-face with a political disagreement, and maybe they’re vicious and they end up hating us! But remember, this is a wild fantasy. Sure it could happen, but I’ve been walking around, getting my car fixed, beaching, concerts, local convenience store … all the hot spots for running into that violently difficult person for my whole life and I still have no idea what my mechanic or many of my friends even think about politics because having a friendship does not demand having a conversation about politics. It’s the weakness in the formula. We, hundreds of millions of us, can still go get our hair cut, pick up groceries, see a show, and be friends. It’s a no brainer, really!
I know what’s going on, because I have time, and it’s in my blood to research; I’m trained to double-check my sources. But I have no intention of teaching my good friends. It’s up to them to find the time to do research, be open-minded and double check their sources. I’ve written over 600 articles, many on current affairs. I won’t twist your arm, but they are not hard to find.
Little by little, as things slowly get worse and worse, it will be harder and harder for the most stubborn supporter of the false narratives to keep his feet on the ground.
I believe most people are well-intentioned, and don’t want politics to invade their personal lives and make their relationships challenging. They don’t mean to be ostriches, either, and will make the time; it’s just a matter of time. It’s a shame we have to run a race like this against a sinister plot to destroy the country.
“It can’t happen here” is happening.
Be good!
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Mark Urso
mark@markurso.com
@A_Candle_Lit_2