this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
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You can blame the gullible listener to only wanting to hear what they want to hear ....
... or ...
You can blame the well trained, educated and directed media for promoting, highlighting and normalizing the idea of spreading semitruth and fabrication in order to push an overall agenda.
I'm no conspiracy theorist, I don't subscribe to dumb delusions of aliens or illluminati cults running the world ... but I do believe that there is a culture of highly trained individuals working in media these days who just knowingly spread extreme views and pass them off as legitimate enough to be debated. A politician like Turnip shouldn't be normal ... but a national media has made it completely normal to have someone as unwell, politically unstable and sociopathic as Turnip to be acceptable enough to talk about endlessly as if there is nothing wrong with him.
In this case .... I blame the messenger
Why does it have to be either or? It's totally reasonable to blame BOTH.
I could agree .... but the gullible masses have no idea they are being manipulated ... while the trained and educated media managers and owners (and to a lesser extent the actual journalists) know exactly what they are doing and why
I can blame the listeners for being stupid ... but I still blame the messenger for intentionally misleading the public.
Moreover, the founding fathers warned us of this happening, in advance. They knew that it would, they told us that it was all but inevitable, we have had multiple centuries of time in which to shore up democracy... like to implement ranked-choice voting, while instead... we chose not to.
I do not hold out hope for democracy to last much longer, not against such repeated assaults as this. The game of Russian Roulette never ends in happiness, but it does always end.