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Monday, May 25, 2015

Brainwashed

  Respected GOP economist Bruce Bartlett tells the Conservative world that they live in a bubble and are brainwashed by Conservative media. Ya think? It's only taken a major Conservative 16 years to recognize something that liberals understood way back when. That's not bad, Conservatives usually don't react quite so quickly, 16 years is remarkable...

  It becomes easier to understand why there is such strange and fact free information coming out of the right. If the only source of information one gets literally all week long comes from FOX then to Limbaugh then to Drudge then back to FOX, one could easily conclude that this is the entirety of news in the world and that this must be what everyone understands to be true. It is the Conservative echo chamber, most famously seen in action when Karl Rove was shocked to see that Mitt Romney lost the election in 2012. The echo chamber had convinced the Conservative world that Romney was a shoe in. Nothing has changed here, in fact one could easily argue that the echo chamber has become more radical and fringe based.

SSRN: How Fox News Changed American Media and Political Dynamics by Bruce Bartlett

Raw Story: Ex-Reagan adviser: Fox News is ‘self-brainwashing’ Republicans into a radical fringe party

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5 comments:

Glynn Kalara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
9:24 AM
Glynn Kalara said...

In a strange kind of parallel Universe the same was true before the Civil War in the South. Are we heading back in the direction of Civil War? Maybe, but at the very same time the Corpocracy is everywhere and the same and it only cares about $$$. It might seem odd but in the end it might be Comcast and At&T that binds us all together. The social issues that divide us today aren't IMO enough to tear us apart the way Slavery did 150 yrs ago. Or are they?

9:26 AM
Jim Sande said...

I think the mark of a mature person is their ability to hold several ideas maybe even conflicting ideas in mind at the same time and carefully compare and explore their viability one by one. When we automatically assume that our affiliations hold the only answer, that's when things go bad. At this time we don't equate conservative thinking with open mindedness. Conservatives are isolating themselves and I see the conservative movement becoming more and more extreme in their views. Take Jeb for example who is thought to be a mainstream conservative - he is a neocon, a signee of the PNAC document, and believes the Iraq War was a good idea, he is a conservative Catholic and opposes gay marriage, he denies global warming, and on and on. He is a product of the conservative bubble, no light is getting in there, he has it all figured out. At this point conservatism has become an anchor on the ankle of progress.

9:47 AM
Glynn Kalara said...

Many of them certainly tend to wear a pair of Conservative tinted glasses from which they filter reality through. Fox and the talk radio people are very aware of this and they feed their base exactly what feels right going through that filter. I have more then a few Conservative friends that are deeply bemused when you disagree with them. Many times their reaction is what I call mock outrage or even a kind of dismissive contempt for those that disagree with them. Many times their filter is so strong it tends to completely cut off debate and even destroy prior relationships. Many of these people have even lost hold of a really core value in a free society that others have the right to agree to disagree with them. I know people that don't believe that anymore and feel that if you hold ideas contrary to theirs they have the right to ignore you or even attack you. Corps. are very good at this upon interviewing people these days. They not only want a good employee that is qualified but many of them want a "conservative employee" and some a white Christian conservative employee."

4:47 PM
Jim Sande said...

Well, I know a lot of people that think we are going to hell in a hand basket. I keep imagining that something has got to give. I read recently where social progressives are now outnumbering social conservatives. That won't stop the conservatives from using every trick in the book to push things their way.

6:59 PM

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