How would you truly feel about America if the media wasn't telling you to panic.

[Pirateship1982]

I watched John Oliver last night - at this point mostly for the entertainment of watching his sanity death spiral.

Right now the left wing media is pretty much behaving like passengers on a doomed airliner's final plunge. John Oliver looks very nearly broken and the rest of the media continues to plunge deeper into the abyss of panic. The world looks very grim when you look through the bubble of left wing media. It's no wonder people who get their worldview through it are likewise losing their minds. It can be a kind of contagious hysteria.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend and we were discussing media influence and the thought experiment came up: what would America be like if cable news were suddenly vaporized. How much of this "culture war" is fuelled by dueling cable news outlets dumping gas on social anxiety for ratings? How would our culture behave without a 24 hour scream machine telling us that 50% of America is ruining the country?

Because I have to say that when I take my eyes from the hysteria periscope and look around, things aren't looking bad. The economy is up, business is humming along, the country is functioning, and the sky remains firmly in place. There are international tensions, but nothing greater than normal, and overall everyone seems to be taking care of business. Hospitals aren't leaving people to die in the streets and it all looks like business as usual.

So this is my thought experiment. Try to imagine how you would see the world without mass media. This means ALL cable news. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the whole shebang left right and center and for good measure all national newspapers and websites. If you were to gauge the state of America based solely on America in the real world, without any form of mass media telling you the sky is falling, your primary source of information being nightly news and local papers and interaction with people, how truly scary is life under Trump - or any president for that matter.

[dgfred]

I ignore them now... so it is all good

[Bwaha]

Yeah, I'm a news junkie and I've never seen it so bad in my life as it is now. For example, Faux ran a hit piece on Trump about the locker room talk this morning. Now that story is done and over with yet they try to bring it back to life...

I looked around and neither AP or the Beeb ran the story...

IMO they (all) the media does now is peddle fear and mistrust, the days of non-sensationalism is sadly over.

[Arnold J Rimmer]

I quit paying much attention to the main stream news after Trump won.

I never watched CNN or MSN, as they are the least reliable sources available

The media is just so negative and biased that there really doesn't seem to be a lot of point..

[SRV Ron]

Every Saturday, Trump has his speech to the American people. The Democrats also have their speech as well.

Trump's speeches are mostly about hope and positive progress that has taken place the past several weeks.

The Democrats just start out with how awful things are under Trump and how bad and evil he is. They offer no alternatives.

Thank goodness for the Internet with its many alternative sources as the ALPHABET Lame Stream enters its death throes dragging Fox with them.

I cut the $80 a month basic cable last month. Free TV now has far less commercials and repetitive programming then Pay TV.

[Mountain Man]

I would still feel as I do now - that we are failing as a nation.

I pay attention to what businesses fail and what replaces them. How many lost jobs and how many jobs came with the replacement business. What kinds of businesses are refused or discouraged by the County Commissioners and the City council, and who gets "the nod" to proceed.

I also pay attention to what public services still work and which do not. What the government says it does, as opposed to what I can see that they have or have not done with my own eyes, and how that compares to what was stated and/or promised, particularly in the area of things like law enforcement.

And I watch the people around me. Are they cheerful, or sullen and depressed. Are they purchasing what they want, or what they can barely afford.

How is crime doing? Has the prison system hired the guards to both replace the critical shortage, or to open the brand new max prison which has yet to even see an inmate after many years? Or are things staggering along, barely staying in operation.

How are the young people behaving? Like future citizens or like future inmates? They can be openly viewed on the local streets and in the local businesses. I don't need a media "report" to tell me what they're doing, or whether or not they are receiving a useful education.

All in all, things are looking down in this part of the country. Drugs and crime are up, jobs are still down and America is still foundering after the betrayal by the last president. But of course, we never see the media on the ground in our part of America.

[Combat Engineer]

So candidate Trump lied when in Nov he was saying our economy was a absolute mess?????

Confusing.

[Trung Si]

I ignore them now... so it is all good

Best post of the thread without even reading further, same goes for me!

[Massena]

Which media outlet is telling us 'to panic'? Fox? Breitbart? Drudge?

It certainly isn't CNN, ABC or others in the 'mainstream.'

CNN does a pretty good job with both sides of the debate on the current administration.

If you don't agree, then take a look at it instead of just denigrating it.

[Karri]

When media and politicians don't tell you to panic you know for damn sure it is time to panic.

[Trung Si]

[QUOTE=Massena;

CNN does a pretty good job with both sides of the debate on the current administration.
[/QUOTE]
I also watch CNN, and NO it doesn't!

[lynelhutz]

I watched John Oliver last night - at this point mostly for the entertainment of watching his sanity death spiral.

Right now the left wing media is pretty much behaving like passengers on a doomed airliner's final plunge. John Oliver looks very nearly broken and the rest of the media continues to plunge deeper into the abyss of panic. The world looks very grim when you look through the bubble of left wing media. It's no wonder people who get their worldview through it are likewise losing their minds. It can be a kind of contagious hysteria.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend and we were discussing media influence and the thought experiment came up: what would America be like if cable news were suddenly vaporized. How much of this "culture war" is fuelled by dueling cable news outlets dumping gas on social anxiety for ratings? How would our culture behave without a 24 hour scream machine telling us that 50% of America is ruining the country?

Because I have to say that when I take my eyes from the hysteria periscope and look around, things aren't looking bad. The economy is up, business is humming along, the country is functioning, and the sky remains firmly in place. There are international tensions, but nothing greater than normal, and overall everyone seems to be taking care of business. Hospitals aren't leaving people to die in the streets and it all looks like business as usual.

So this is my thought experiment. Try to imagine how you would see the world without mass media. This means ALL cable news. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the whole shebang left right and center and for good measure all national newspapers and websites. If you were to gauge the state of America based solely on America in the real world, without any form of mass media telling you the sky is falling, your primary source of information being nightly news and local papers and interaction with people, how truly scary is life under Trump - or any president for that matter.

If Hillary had won the right wing media would have reacted like the apocalypse had arrived. Chump would have cried election fraud, and the Trumpeters would have followed him over the cliff. The government would have seized up and if the Republicans controlled Congress, it would be consumed with never ending investigations of Clinton and threats of impeachment.

In my view Trump is a disaster, even from the GOP's point for view, but he is not the cause. Trump is merely an acceleration of a process of political decay that has been developing over the past few decades as a result of binary politics and the erosion of the middle class.

I don't see anyway out unless there is a significant up turn in the economy that improves the quality of life and economic security for the bottom 80% of the population.

[Urban hermit]

So candidate Trump lied when in Nov he was saying our economy was a absolute mess?????

Confusing.

Just like when Billy Clinton ran against Bush Sr. and said we had the worst economy in 50 years even though it was growing at 4%?

[johns624]

When media and politicians don't tell you to panic you know for damn sure it is time to panic.

Exactly. There always has to be an "enemy" so that we won't focus on what's really happening.

[doubleD]

Trump, Clinton, Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal - what does it matter as things are right now ?

By and large they all could care less about me and you and the state of the country !

They're to busy on witch hunts, backstabbing, and political in fighting that they have no idea what's going on themselves.

Power and more money is all the vast majority are after, most are on the same bus. And it doesn't include any of us.