THE MEDIA ISSUE: VOLUME 123, ISSUE 152
MUSLIMS, BLACKS AND MEXICANS, OH MY
by Malik Isasis
Muslim, blacks, and Mexicans, oh my--Muslim, Blacks and Mexicans, oh my. The corporate media are following the right wing, white supremacists down the yellow brick road, Fox News, especially are counting down to the midterm elections like a child waiting on Christmas, for the expected Republicans gains.
Republicans can never win on merit or ideas, they have to start wars, lie and raise the xenophobia level to get any kind of political attention. Groups like Blacks, Muslims and Mexicans have been the go to political strategy over the last 18 months-- not policy that addresses the shit they've left on the front lawn, but pure unadulterated hate. A post on one of my favorite blogs Altnet got it right about the Republican Party, referring to them as a sociopathic ex-boyfriend. Everytime the Republican Party has lost in the modern era, they have had If we can't have the country, no one can attitude.
18 months ago when Obama was elected his approval ratings where in the 60s, and the Republicans' ratings where in the low-to-mid 20s. Today, Obama's approval ratings are in the low-to mid 40s, while the Republicans' approval ratings are still in the low-to mid 20s. For Republicans to have any chance of gaining seats in the Congress they had to do something to bring down the president's ratings. How does a party with no ideas, awareness, or political interests in the working class, get itself back into power?
With two steps: bring down the confidence in government by complete obstruction, and leaving one party, the Democratic Party to governed the country on its own, and when Democrats attempted to address the economy, jobs, and health care, the Republicans were able to water down the most effective parts of Democratic Party's proposals and blame them for its lack of effectiveness e.g. the stimulus bill, which in the end was too small, and at the time of passage Republican opposed it for being too large. The Republicans understanding the psychology of the Democrats, knew that if they'd obstructed enough, the Democrats would absorb the Republicans framing of every issue and began obstructing themselves. It worked. Obama and the Democrats (especially in the Senate, gave away the store on every big political policy debate).
While paralyzing and bogging down the government in political minutia, the second step back into power was to tear down President Obama and his credibility by tapping into the darkest corners of America's consciousness, its xenophobia--using people of color to frighten poor and working class white people.
The Republicans have said as much about their strategy and the corporate media has allowed the Republicans to get away with both strategies, this is why in the upside down world known as American politics, a large portion of Americans surveyed still believe that Obama is a Muslim, as if being a Muslim is a bad thing. The level of obtuseness in the American populace is astounding, and nothing short of remarkable. It is remarkable that white supremacists, and corporatists have been thoroughly effective at turning every political thought into almost a religious belief, so that when confronted with facts, it doesn't matter e.g. Obama's citizenship. The corporate media's talking heads treat such uninformed people like they would when discussing religious beliefs--making facts and belief weigh the same. There are truths, and then there are beliefs, they are no equivalent.
Corporate media knowing we have a significant uninformed, or what pundits called low-information citizenry, use the skewed information in daily/weekly polls to drive opinion--or rather, reinforce opinions of Muslims, Blacks, Mexicans, taxes, women, gays, the poor, the rich, and on and on. Corporate media gets the results it wants because they are the ones feeding the misinformation. To complete its campaign, the media polls the same misinformed people for their opinion.
MASS DELUSION
The corporate media is tracking the upcoming midterm elections like sports, and it's useful for the media to tap into sport-like commentary of our political infrastructure, it turns politics into over simplification of complex issues, rather than a thoughtful and articulate discussion, issues of the day become about political seats won or lost. Americans can relate to watching sports, so the simple sports-like way the corporate media frames politics plays to the narrative of emotions, pure emotions, so the American people aren't asking Republicans about their solutions, they are exercised by manufactured outrage around the building of an Islamic Community Center two blocks from Ground Zero, pushed into the public square by corporate media.
You keep us distracted, you keep us asleep. The Republicans and their corporate handlers are very effective anesthesiologists.
MUSLIMS, BLACKS AND MEXICANS, OH MY
by Malik Isasis
Muslim, blacks, and Mexicans, oh my--Muslim, Blacks and Mexicans, oh my. The corporate media are following the right wing, white supremacists down the yellow brick road, Fox News, especially are counting down to the midterm elections like a child waiting on Christmas, for the expected Republicans gains.
Republicans can never win on merit or ideas, they have to start wars, lie and raise the xenophobia level to get any kind of political attention. Groups like Blacks, Muslims and Mexicans have been the go to political strategy over the last 18 months-- not policy that addresses the shit they've left on the front lawn, but pure unadulterated hate. A post on one of my favorite blogs Altnet got it right about the Republican Party, referring to them as a sociopathic ex-boyfriend. Everytime the Republican Party has lost in the modern era, they have had If we can't have the country, no one can attitude.
18 months ago when Obama was elected his approval ratings where in the 60s, and the Republicans' ratings where in the low-to-mid 20s. Today, Obama's approval ratings are in the low-to mid 40s, while the Republicans' approval ratings are still in the low-to mid 20s. For Republicans to have any chance of gaining seats in the Congress they had to do something to bring down the president's ratings. How does a party with no ideas, awareness, or political interests in the working class, get itself back into power?
With two steps: bring down the confidence in government by complete obstruction, and leaving one party, the Democratic Party to governed the country on its own, and when Democrats attempted to address the economy, jobs, and health care, the Republicans were able to water down the most effective parts of Democratic Party's proposals and blame them for its lack of effectiveness e.g. the stimulus bill, which in the end was too small, and at the time of passage Republican opposed it for being too large. The Republicans understanding the psychology of the Democrats, knew that if they'd obstructed enough, the Democrats would absorb the Republicans framing of every issue and began obstructing themselves. It worked. Obama and the Democrats (especially in the Senate, gave away the store on every big political policy debate).
While paralyzing and bogging down the government in political minutia, the second step back into power was to tear down President Obama and his credibility by tapping into the darkest corners of America's consciousness, its xenophobia--using people of color to frighten poor and working class white people.
The Republicans have said as much about their strategy and the corporate media has allowed the Republicans to get away with both strategies, this is why in the upside down world known as American politics, a large portion of Americans surveyed still believe that Obama is a Muslim, as if being a Muslim is a bad thing. The level of obtuseness in the American populace is astounding, and nothing short of remarkable. It is remarkable that white supremacists, and corporatists have been thoroughly effective at turning every political thought into almost a religious belief, so that when confronted with facts, it doesn't matter e.g. Obama's citizenship. The corporate media's talking heads treat such uninformed people like they would when discussing religious beliefs--making facts and belief weigh the same. There are truths, and then there are beliefs, they are no equivalent.
Corporate media knowing we have a significant uninformed, or what pundits called low-information citizenry, use the skewed information in daily/weekly polls to drive opinion--or rather, reinforce opinions of Muslims, Blacks, Mexicans, taxes, women, gays, the poor, the rich, and on and on. Corporate media gets the results it wants because they are the ones feeding the misinformation. To complete its campaign, the media polls the same misinformed people for their opinion.
MASS DELUSION
The corporate media is tracking the upcoming midterm elections like sports, and it's useful for the media to tap into sport-like commentary of our political infrastructure, it turns politics into over simplification of complex issues, rather than a thoughtful and articulate discussion, issues of the day become about political seats won or lost. Americans can relate to watching sports, so the simple sports-like way the corporate media frames politics plays to the narrative of emotions, pure emotions, so the American people aren't asking Republicans about their solutions, they are exercised by manufactured outrage around the building of an Islamic Community Center two blocks from Ground Zero, pushed into the public square by corporate media.
You keep us distracted, you keep us asleep. The Republicans and their corporate handlers are very effective anesthesiologists.
posted by Malik Isasis at
8:29 PM
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