Americans are exhausted by political news. TV ratings and a new AP-NORC poll show they’re tuning out
Americans are exhausted by political news. TV ratings and a new AP-NORC poll show they're tuning out
This is by design. As cited here: https://jordanrussiacenter.org/blog/propaganda-political-apathy-and-authoritarianism-in-russia
Russian propaganda derives its effectiveness from political apathy rather than its ability to persuade. Because citizens understand that their actions cannot affect the autocrat’s policies, they invest only minimal resources in acquiring political information or thinking about politics at all. This state of affairs, in turn, leads to a very superficial processing of information. Citizens use narratives imposed by the Kremlin as frameworks for interpreting political events, but do not incorporate them fully and do not formulate consistent political opinions. In other words, propaganda works because citizens are not interested enough in politics to form consistent opinions to challenge—or support—authoritarian rule.
And it isn't new either. From 1922: https://www.jstor.org/stable/6376?seq=2
Consequently to-day the average citizen confesses he really does not know what the facts are in this and many other important issues. He has been deluged with facts, near-facts and falsifications put forth by interested parties, so that he has a mass of undigested and conflicting ideas on these subjects, or else has become frankly partisan to one view.
Yep, it's not enough to be realistic instead of pessimistic.
Like, people need to be aware the current system is just a ruse, but it also needs to come with a plausible way out so people don't just give up and disengage.
But if they do, you can't shout them into re-engaging. That just drives them away further.
You convince them that it might be different this time. Not even the guarantee, just a semi plausible chance that things could improve if they re-engage.
As you pointed out all this is widely studied in sociology, it's not some secret knowledge no one has. There's just no money in it, so sociologists can't influence the parties when both parties use donation amounts as the only metric when picking leadership.
There's a couple good picks for the DNC election on 2/2/25, but there's a very good chance the double down and vote based on who brought in the most donations. If they do that, we need to mobilize a third party asap for 2028.
In 2008, Obama pulled off a surprising victory against establishment favorite Hilary Clinton, mainly off the back of a swell of online, small dollar donations. In his first term, among other things like stabilizing the economy in the midst of what we called The Great Recession (dumb name, I know, though a lot of people did lose their houses and jobs), he gave everyone health insurance subsidized by the government via taxes on health insurance and pharma companies, as well as Medicaid expansion. While not ideal, this was both realistically doable with the degree of Congressional support at the time, and a massive improvement over the previous system.
For some reason people have forgotten this in their zeal to pressure the dem party. I do get that, though I think it's important to retain a degree of memory of what actually happened and why. Anyway, are we really sure a third party is necessary, when it is possible to simply win this one?
Or even that great of an idea? Because unless you pulled all the dems with you, you're just leaving a dominant repub party by helping them divide and conquer. This is very frustrating, no question, but so is life sometimes.
I'm not giving the Dems another dime until I see a primary where they don't rig it in favor of the old guard.
This is why America is the way it is, Americans will never admit that their country is garbage. It’s ALWAYS Russias fault. lmfao
I'm not saying this is Russia's fault -- I'm pointing out that this exhaustion is a longtime goal of propaganda.
the entire point of misinformation campaigns is not to misinform citizens but to wear down the electorate into preferring ignorance
This comment should be highlighted.
As if the American electorate was ever really informed at large to begin with. I've been hopeful that we're seeing the start of a new age of enlightenment like the one that preceded the French revolution. But if the source of knowledge becomes detestable (enshitification of the internet) it may be slowed or stopped all together.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
Yup.
I'm done.
There's no room left for doubt. Americans are braindead stupid and our media is an international joke. After the election I stopped watching anything political. Made the jump from Reddit to Lemmy. And I'm only seeing this post because I was browsing ALL.
On inauguration day I plan on only browsing my local subs going forward. I don't need to be more ashamed of being American or know what clown car bullshit Donald Trump and his enablers have done that day to embarrass us on the world stage.
We've committed as a society to a degradation of our nation and that's what we're going to get. I don't need to watch that process under a microscope.
I'm in this camp as well. I followed the news closely the entire Trump administration and through the Biden administration, and despite knowing everything this prick had done the American electorate either shrugged it all off or didn't follow any of it and reelected his ass.
Nothing positive came of me knowing about Trump's every bowel movement via crappy media posts. Many voters didn't even know Biden had dropped out of the race.
I don't think the "Trump is good for ratings" media outlets anticipated this reaction of ours, but the nightmare scenario of a second Trump term has already arrived and the media -- if they had any effect -- aided him in his return to power. I'm through with clicking on the bait and pretending that "democracy dies in darkness" and subscribing to the same newspapers that help push right-wing narratives in an effort to appear unbiased.
Edit: I am, however, subscribed to a number of things via RSS to stay informed without being part of their clickbait games. I cannot recommend enough people going back to RSS.
Sounds like you are fed up of the poor quality circus coverage that passes for mainstream media news.
Perhaps you can find some better quality news and consume it at a time and place of your choosing? Maybe limit it to 10 minutes a day or a week?
It is understandable that you might turn to apathy having the news equivalent of highly processed, poor quality fast food shovelled into your face all the time; especially given how powerless to change these things we can feel. But you may be able to take back some control of your media diet.
It's not the quality of the content. I'm responsible when it comes to my sources. It's the sheer volume of legitimate depressing news making it crystal clear that our society is amoral and uneducated and that I'm probably not going to see too much progress in my lifetime and will probably struggle as much, or more, than I currently am until I'm dead. I could be getting my news from the absolute best, most unbiased sources and still be getting overwhelmed by utterly depressing developments that add up to a really grim outlook for the future.
Same here, I was already using Lemmy but I deleted the Reddit app the day of the election, and I actively avoid political news on any social media. I'm super done with it all and just focusing on myself.
Focusing on yourself is pretty much all you can do. If a society chooses to enter a downward spiral, then there's not much an individual can do to change that. We're just gonna have to spiral until we hit rock bottom and then hope Americans have what it takes to piece it all back together. Probably gonna be a lot of suffering and death before that happens though.
The next four years are in part going to be about Trump and his assortment of grifters, nut jobs, and ass kissers doing all they can to troll anyone not in their club. Damn straight I’m not tuning in for that.
Fox News views by dementia patients is still at an all time high.
Can confirm.
Source: I work in elder care.
It's our own dumbass fault for making our news particularly exhausting
"We" didn't do this. News outlets are not elected. Cable news was packaged and proselytized in the 80's and advertising revenue has never let it go away. Lazy political campaigns glommed onto a captive audience and continually underfunded grass roots organization for media buys. That became it's own industry and here we are.
However, at no point were any of these decisions made by the population at large. We didn't all get together and collectively decide, hey let's really fuck up our media diet and incentivize our most reactive take on an issue to further politicize the holidays and vaccines. This was done to us. It'll take a lot of work to undo, if it ever gets undone.
I think it's just part of the US return to its roots as it's post WW2 advantages are beginning to wane.
The American population bought American exceptionalism hook line and sinker so it's going to be a bit of an adjustment.
The "return" of yellow journalism is just part of the trend as the modern US returns to its late 1800s roots.
Seriously. Fuck Ted Turner for lots of reasons, but in this case specifically for inventing the idea of 24 hour cable news.
and then thinking it's okay to bury their heads in the sand afterwards.
Our political news is divisive, polarizing and isn't telling us anything we don't already know. There's basically no objective news outlets in the country. They're either heavily left-leaning or heavily right-leaning, and everyone watches the ones that align with their pre-existing views, which is only reinforcing what we already believe, or is designed to make us angry without offering any actual solutions, which is just tiring.
I didn't have any part in that, and I don't know anyone else that did either.
We’re in the find out phase of ending the Fairness Doctrine
You can thank Ronald Reagan…
Yep, this country wasn't over when Trump got elected either time. He's a symptom of this country's death in its current form under the current constitution.
Reagan was the deathblow, this has just been leftover momentum, that appears to have finally waned. From Trickle down, to legalized bribery, to conversion of their former opposition party into neoliberal corporate bribe takers, to ending real news in favor of corpo serving propaganda like "climate change is a hoax to sell books, CONSUME" on and on.
Trump's authoritarian rise is just akin to vultures helping themselves to the corpse. This country has been little more than an oligarch exploitation piggy bank for half a century.
Yes it would be painful, but we'd need to tear it down and start over, as the core constitutional mechanisms for change have been circumvented through intential propaganda to sow division and protect the sociopathy of our economy from the citizens it hurts and murders for private profit. But we won't out of cowardice, so climate change will do what we're too social opiate addicted and fearful to do in a couple decades when it will hardly matter anymore.
Maybe the media should stop being a bunch of useless corporate shitstains who bombard us with a 24 hour news cycle that exists mainly to make their owners more fucking money?
My dad has CNN on this morning. One of their segments was a top ten Crimes of the Year...
Let me guess, no mention of ending Trump's legal cases just because he's president. Nothing to see there.
The last election showed that. Cable news is dead. The American people now get their news from YouTube and podcasts.
My and my SO's grandparents have all moved on from fox to the daily wire. :/
Not YouTube or podcasts. TikTok and Facebook.
Facebook is ad revenue and an echo chamber repeating talking points from propaganda mills of external state actors. TikTok won't be an appreciable factor until 2026 when the mass majority of those viewers are eligible to vote. Also those TikToks usually are soundbites from podcasters or repeated talking points packaged by a different talking head.
It's turtles propagandists all the way down
Repealing the Fairness Doctrine was a very bad move.
Oh I'm not exhausted by political news, I simply refuse to injest political news from gigantic corporate monoliths. Within their "reporting", their interests will always come before the people's. Journalistic objectivity does not apply. If you believe these corporate news agencies have journalists, then you have been propagandized. "Seeing both sides" is not objectivity, it seeks to further the status quo.
May they fall into obscurity.
They'll show you 8 sides of the story before they show you the truth anyway.
Some of my friends have expressed a desire to do so. They're disappointed in the country. A third of the country voted for fascism, and a third of the country didn't give a shit. It's a hard fight to stay motivated, even for issues that directly relate to oneself, if the process feels hopeless - not simply by the opposition of powerful elites, but by the opposition of the overwhelming mass of your fellow citizens.
Does it have something to do with the rebublicanification of mainstream media?
Why watch any of the 15 choices I have if they all report the same slop in an endless loop?
It is funny how fascinated we have become with politics while it is this stupid theatre. I would prefer have the Government do a good job so I don’t need to think about them at all
Could it have something to do with how long the US election cycle is? It seems that basically the whole term is full campaign mode for the next election.
Compare to other countries with much shorter official election campaigns (4-6 weeks) and I wonder if they are less tiring.
That's true. They should consider limiting it.
The last eight years have been eight years too many of awful, horrible shit. I'm presently trying to decide whether I can attempt to ignore the next four or if they'll destroy me. This will guide whether I remain in-country or flee.
I'm probably consuming more political news than ever, but I'm certainly not getting it from TV lol
That is the deal: We give as much attention right up to the election as we can, then we get a break! Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are meant as a cooling off period. If we were supposed to keep paying attention, the president would be put into office the next day.
If we were supposed to keep paying attention, the president would be put into office the next day.
If we were meant to bake cakes, they'd be ready in 1 minute.
If we were meant to bake cakes the day after the 9 month ALL-CAKE-ALL-THE-TIME-athon, they would be at least good for you. We have 4 years of turd-cakes to eat come January 20th, can't we eat something else until then?
Sounds like that's your deal.
I think this headline is likely wrong. Political podcasts, for example, seem to be doing fairly well. It's just the shit the large news groups are putting out that people are running from. You can only fear monger and have 24/7 outrage for so long before people tune it out for their own sanity.
I know enough from the past few decades that voting for anyone in the right or center (e.g., corpo-dem) isn't an option. I don't want to spend 4 more years of hearing how Trump is getting the endangered species act or gutting the NLRB when there is shit I can do about it. Calling my deep blue legislators isn't going to do anything. So yeah, tuning out is the better strategy
I put a hard pause on any news after the election. No reason feeding into any narrative until the turd takes office.
If you are burnt out then perhaps don't read this, but for anyone who wants to know... https://theintercept.com/2024/12/18/trump-fisa-surveillance-spying/ - it doesn't seem to say much of anything though still it makes me worry. Clickbait? Obviously. Merely clickbait or not though I don't know.
French peoples are too.
Non-Americans are also exhausted by US political news.....
Lemmy gets better once you filter out:
Trump says
Trump wants
Trump demands
Trump claims
Trump will
Trump threatens
Musk says
Musk wants
Musk demands
Musk claims
Musk will
...that way you don't have to see the media frantically reporting on every stupid word vomit as if no lessons were learned over the past 10 years. Ragebait headlines is part of the problem, and I will take no part in it.
How does one attain this power?
Perhaps we should shorten that too:
Trump
Musk
You're not kidding, eh?
not empty?