The asymmetry of the two major parties is driven in part by information asymmetries that feed extremism. The decades-long project of Fox News and the conservative movement to destroy shared truth has paved the way. Regular imbibers of Fox News, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, occupy a climate more extreme than other Republicans, who tend to have more varied and less dishonest information sources.
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the assault must be made. Breaking the hold of this collective delusion is a national imperative. If there is one thing America has learned in 2020, it is that defeating a virus — whether biological or informational — requires an honest and engaged president.
Francis Wilkinson
October 22, 2020
Biden’s First War Would Have to Be Against Propaganda
[Via email from Chet.
I “love’ the guy’s referenced expert, “the Public Religion Research Institute”. Who has heard of this organization before? And why a religion research institute? Why didn’t he link to the survey? And why can’t I find the survey on their website?
This looks like a combination of projection, delusion and lying.—Joe]
I guess Fox’s effort to suck up to the Left isn’t going well. Hahahaha.
It never does. They will hate Fox for decades, no matter what Fox does.
You’d think they’d have learned their lesson when Megan Kelly quit Fox and tried to play nice with the leftwing media, only to be attacked by the left even worse.
Her show tanked in the ratings and she’s basically a nobody now.
The left doesn’t even play well within their own circle, you’d think that conservatives would learn that there is no getting along with the modern left.
I went to check the comments to the article itself and found this:
“Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting.”
Interesting.
Re the “public religion research institute,” nope, never heard of them either. But since a couple hundred bucks can buy you a registered non-profit or similar business, it’s very easy to set up a (hopefully) impressive-sounding entity that actually is made of thin air.
In this case they have a wikipedia entry and a website, so someone at least put in slightly more than the minimum effort required.
But looking at their Wikipedia page, I’m getting the impression of a one-man show; apparently it’s been around since 2009, so there is some history.
The words “public”, “research” and “institute” in an organizations name are like the words “democratic”, “people’s” and “republic” in a country’s official name. The more of those words in the title, the more of a sh*t hole the referenced entity.
This continues the same pattern as I’ve been seeing about ACB and a 6-3 (5-4) conservative court. When it was them with the 6-3 it was the way it should be, but when the pendelum swings in the other direction, it is horrible and they have to change the rules.
In this case, the issue is news dissemination. They tell us that “Fake News!” is a horrible attack on journalism, but “Faux News” was perfectly OK. Pointing out how often CNN gets the story wrong, or lies by “experts say” or “an anonymous source reported” is just news reporting.
But because there is an alternative view point available to people, it must be silenced. The rules must be changed. IT’S NOT FAIR!
When AM talk radio, the worse form of radio started having conservative talk hosts those shows started to get listeners. And the more people heard the alternative view point, the more the left got upset. So they started their own competing left leaning talk shows, and failed. So they then tried to get the FCC to bring back the “Fairness Doctrine” with the intent of forcing all broadcasters with FCC Licenses to broadcast as many minutes/hours of left leaning content as right leaning content.
But all of this hides the fact that it is possible to hide the bias of a broadcaster by choosing what stories to cover and which to ignore. So not covering Hunter Biden’s laptop contents story doesn’t mean you are left leaning media. Reporting what top Democrats say about a story doesn’t mean you are left leaning. The talking head didn’t say “Trump is guilty”, that was some Democratic spokesmen.
On the other hand, having a discussion about policy, that does show bias. And disagreeing with the Left means it must be propaganda or fake and it MUST be STOPPED.
What I find remarkable is that this is another article where the left is making plans of what to do with us while we seem mostly silent about what to do with the left. And this has been going on for a long time in areas like gun control and education. We’re always playing defense. Why?
I can think of some explanations such as: media bias and particularly differences in mindsets. It also seems that when conservative groups do come out, then they are labeled extremist, while groups on the left like ANTIFA and NFAC are viewed with understanding.
They have two things we lack. Monetary and political cover. Until those things are removed, it will always be thus.
On the other hand. We have invested in firearms and ammunition. Which is the last piece of their puzzle.
To me, watching the communist in this country trying use bureaucracy to cover all the unintended consequences is hilarious.
Just reading the first couple of paragraphs of Wilkerson screed produces images of Baghdad Bob.
I mean, Do you know anyone that would go down on the likes of Willie Brown? For a political appointment? (Sorry for the mental image. But that’s their vice-president.) Ouch.
Completely destroy your last shred of credibility for the likes of Joe Biden? Ha! Go look for a job after that!
Imagine Rachel Maddow sitting across from you with a resume in hand? How is that going to go for her? Believe it or not. I see them bleeding out. Being loud and thrashing around a lot as they do is truly annoying. But that’s what death throes look like.
I watched a seventeen year old kid in Kenosha eat their lunch. They don’t stand a chance.
Their money and politics can evaporate faster than a morning fog.
So chin-up bro. Suns out!
I watched a seventeen year old kid in Kenosha eat their lunch.
And this is what it looks like to have the switch flipped. Everybody at the riots in Kenosha either had their hand on the dimmer switch or a light switch. You could tell the ones with their hands on the light switch, they were carrying firearms and not rioting. They were rendering aid and acting politely.
The ones with their fingers on the dimmer switch were the ones getting in peoples faces, yelling, screaming, spitting and rioting. And because they were not getting the response they wanted they kept twisting that knob a little higher.
And then they saw their chance, they twisted that knob one more time when they saw their intended victim. Somebody cut from the herd and they choose to attack. They saw their victim cut and run and knew they had him and were going to deliver a message at volume 9!
What they forgot was that their victim had his hand on the light switch, and as they turned the dimmer switch to 9, he flipped the switch to 10 and one man died.
They reengaged him and he left again, being dim wits with that dimmer switch still in hand, still cranked to 9, they moved it to 9.5 and punched him in the back of the head. When their victim went down they leapt to finish it, all at level 9. But again, the light switch was flipped and another man died. And the switch went back off. Our third attacker waited only a moment before he sacrificed his arm to the dimmer gods as the switch was thrown one last time to on.
In his hospital bed, he commented, paraphrased: My only regret was that I didn’t flip the switch and empty my mag into him.
The left plays with the dimmer switch and they are normally very good at it. But as the level gets turned up, it becomes normal, and they turn it up again, and that in turn becomes normal. It is very easy to lose sight of just how high that knob has been cranked.