How did we get here? The dumbing of America, from Reagan to Trump and beyond Every Trump tantrum makes headlines, while the actual president's work is ignored. This is Reagan's legacy
How did we get here? The dumbing of America, from Reagan to Trump and beyond
This is why I submit that Ronnie Raygun - at least until little d came along - was the worst President in recent history.
He made everything worse at the time, and laid the ground for even worse things to come. Also his administration was the most objectively criminal in history. Again, the aftermath of little d still remains to be seen as to how many of his people are indicted - even if after the fact.
The thing is, little d did not create what he waltzed into and took advantage of - he's a symptom, not the cause. Ronnie's wrecking crew got the ball really rolling, people like Newt kept it up, as well as Faux and hate radio and the likes of Lil Alex, up until little d announcing his "presidency".
Reagan was the literal actor hired to play president by a group of Machiavellian assholes, many of whom were also behind the scenes of both Bushes, Nixon, and lots of Republican Congress members. Not disagreeing that Reagan is where they really got traction on their dreams of power, but Reagan wasn't the architect.
Don’t let Ford off the hook, either—some of the worst culprits started in his cabinet.
Oh, definitely not. He was the J.R. "Bob" Dobbs image that they slapped on the advertising of all the BS they were selling under his image.
Because news cycles play to the lowest common denominator.
Sex, scandals, arrests. Those topics get eyeballs.
And in the case of Faux News, they take that to the extreme by blatantly ignoring anything good that Biden may be doing in favor of spewing the latest far-right lies.
Biden could announce tomorrow that he has a proven plan that will end world hunger forever and the majority of people will still just tune in to whatever crap is currently on TLC.
Biden could announce tomorrow that he has a proven plan that will end world hunger forever
I can't figure out what my uncle would say but I feel sure it would be something like:
"That's actually the Trump Plan he's talking about and it would absolutely do what he was saying about it,, but Biden's gonna put some sorta socialism spin on it and really mess us up. Ain't nothing to do with socialism that's ever done one thing to benefit the country. Oop! There's the time and I've got to get. Gotta hit the interstate and get by the bank to cash my social security check on my way to the VA."
News sank to being edutainment. The outrageous gets air time and eyes while actual news that can be used is boooorrriiinnnggg. Then, we have to have the obligatory awww and feel good story at the end.
A m e r I c a S t r o n g
There's a straight line from Reagan to Gingrich to W to Palin to Trump. The scary part is that the "dumbing" is far from over.
Dumber than Trump and Palin? God help us
Ron Johnson just threw "Save the whales, ban wind power", out to the press. How does anyone connect these two, but here we are.
I think it's actually worse than the movie Idiocracy TBH. At least in that movie they eventually listened to the one smart person and actually did what he suggested to unfuck themselves. I don't think we would do the same, because we already haven't.
That movie’s eugenicist propaganda. If you’re going to rebut that, please watch the first 5 minutes again first.
But yes, our culture’s run by fools and it’s terrible.
There's nothing like The Media, asking why The Media only reports on Trump's stupid tweets and not on Biden's successes.
Look in the mirror, assholes. You people in the Media are just as complicit, probably more so in fact, in having this become a reality as anyone else.
Our useless news media let's right wing politicians get one free-pass after another, while they hold Democrats to impossibly high standards.
So much this. It's pretty clear the corporate media won't save us.
Reagan was a symptom, not the cause of the disease. The press has always acted like Watergate was simultaneously a moment of pride and a moment of shame.
First I've heard this claim. Got any sources?
Boomers elected Reagan. Their first big showing in politics and that was their choice. They have been making terrible choices since.
The media wasn't what it was today. Reagan created it.
Don’t forget to include Nixon’s contribution to how the GOP conducts business. He laid the foundation and Reagan just amplified it
The so-called "greatest generation" voted much more heavily for Reagan than the Boomers did. Reagan didn't create the media. He played the media. It turned out the media likes getting played.
He created a Republican party that's publicly obsessed with identity and image, and privately sets all policy to help the rich.
Stupidity and wealth are intrinsically intertwined with each other. Intelligence requires the ability to perceive and respond appropriately to nuance. Capital allows a person to disregard the nuances of reality in favor of a forced alternative. It hides problems and extends deadlines. There is a threshold at which the wealthy disconnect from reality and live entirely in their capital fueled delusions. At that point every decision becomes self-justified, and before the leadership can cope, they find themselves with an empty bag to pass off to some sucker before the bills come due. Capital blinds leadership and while it also motivates people, it only does so while it flows generously into the pockets of the working class. From their posts on the ground, the decay and ignorance is everywhere. The working class live in the heart of the corruption and strive every day to draw enough from the system to feed their families and pay their bills. The wealthy will hire middle management and public relations to string the employees along, but propaganda can never erase the daily reality of struggle. That's why they push for more police and military, because when bargaining breaks down the masks come off. Working for the ruling class was never optional. Every hierarchy is enforced by the violence of the stupid and cruel.
That was a really good read. Thank you
Yeah its crazy how far it goes back which does make me wonder as any further is hard to gage by anyone alive today. It has definately gotten worse though and reagan and trump have been big tipping points.
Well, the first thing I have to say is: "mandate my ass".
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LOLOLOL presidents "work" LOL thats funny.
Honestly american culture and its politics are rothen and they absolutetly brought this upon yourselves, just straight up, ehile the whole regan admin ended up having the effect of making the world the hellscape it is and it seems to not be slowing down, right now censorship is gaining a very real foot (in both sides) and its been working its way to make the religious nuts into full on nuts, and while they probably have been this way since the begining, religion kinda limited their madness by scaring them into believing they where gona go to hell if they didnt behave, but their bipartisan bullshit managed to replace religion in their minds and Just make them dance to wathever bullshit their favorite politician spews out this week.
And the left is no better, you guys used to promote anti-hate and freedom of speech, but now, What the hell happened to you? their head is so up their own assess that they became what they sought out to destroy, instead of promoting sane discussion they relegated into bipartisan tribalism and started censoring people they didnt agree with, even going as far as to defend the democratic party, even if their interests are as against the general population as the republicans, but since they where the ones that supposedly didn't want to oppress social groups (even if they totally still fucking do just look at the fucking border ffs) they are right and everything they spew out is right, and while trying to make a safe space online, in academia, and in political discourse, is just naive, promoting respectful language and tolerance to diferent social groups is not a bad thing, but the way they handle it is the definition of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions", specially in media.
They ended up making bipartisan hate grow into the other side on top of the hate they already had, and politicians (democrats and republicans ) took full advantage of this and we have what we have now in the political big picture.
American politics is just a fucking reality show now and I believe they deserve it, only problem is they take the rest of the world between their crotch and fuck us all up since they rule the world/economy. I really hope those guys wake up from their bipartisan bitch slapping nightmare and start fighting the real war which is the class war. Against, you know, the only assholes that get benefited by you too infighting.
Anyhow rant over, down votes to the right. But whrite a comment first, i really whant to hear why you disagree.
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Nice i have a fan.
But seriously now, im not trying to make it one, i just really wanted discussion from this thought i had, but i havent seem to find any, just people attacking me and not the subject, its a little disapointing. What im trying to convey is that they are becoming to attached to their political parties when it really shouldnt be like that in the first place at least in my opinion. But if you whant to call me an idiot and stalk my comments anyways then go ahead.
ಠ_ಠ
"Both sides!" idiots like you are not worth enguaging with
Lol.
Honestly it's probably too late for many adults who have succumbed to the psychological manipulation tactics of politicians and the media.
If we want to save this country we need to start teaching children and young adults to recognize the signs of manipulative behavior in school.
This will of course be strongly opposed by the media, politicians, and advertisers, all of which rely on these tactics to make a profit.
and by the parents. At this point teaching signs of manipulative behavior and logic 101 like recognizing fallacies would be considered liberal endoctrination by the cultists.
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Exactly. As I said above, they were (and probably still are) explicitly against the teaching of critical thinking, which of course should involve teaching things like how to recognize logical fallacies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html
Which is exactly WHY republican politicians are trying to destroy libraries, school curriculum, etc. Uneducated people are easier to manipulate.
Also it creates this weird sort of weird feedback loop of idiocy which is really hard to break. By that I mean, you cut funding for things like schools and libraries, and that naturally leads to a generation that's less well educated than the one before, who will then vote for more dumb shit like cutting funding schools and libraries, which then makes the next generation even less well educated and so on.
Generational wealth includes more than financial assets I suppose.
And that in return will let the well educated rather stay in a regular job where more money can be made with a brain (STEM) than with their mouth (politics).
And when they are hired for their "professional" opinion and recommendation and recommend the inverse of wanted or expected, they will be ignored to hell and beyond or get their words twisted beyond any resemblance to it's original.
The Republican Party in Texas already have had opposition to critical thinking as a plank in their platform. I suspect it is no accident. Cannot have too many critical thinkers out there, that will make it very hard to recruit people into their
cult"party".And now you see why education gets less effective funding with each generation, and why gun hazard is apparently considered just part of being a teacher.