To my regular readers, who may be wondering why I haven't posted anything lately, I think I owe an explanation. The simple truth is that my spirits have been rather down lately over the utter banality and craziness of one-half of the "health care debate" in this country. I don't know which depresses me more, the fact of Fox News [sic] and Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, or the fact that a large number of supposedly adult Americans listen to and believe them.And it doesn't help that some of these bewildering (and possibly bewildered) people are my neighbors and relatives. A letter printed yesterday to the editor of a local newspaper castigated another letter-writer, saying, "I don't know where that liberal gets his information, but a recent poll on Fox News says...."
And a cousin emailed me this morning about a conversation in his extended family:
Yesterday I visited them, and they started telling me about Hitler, and how he wanted to socialize everything. I'm like, "Whoa! Obama is nothing like Hitler. It's irresponsible to compare the two. Hitler was like the most evil person of the 1900's."
Then they were like, "You know what would happen if the Democrats got their way? They would euthanize H----d's son because he's mongoloid."
It's not even worth arguing with them anymore. A lot of senior citizens watch Faux News most of the day and listen to AM radio when they aren't watching their crazy propaganda "news." It's mind-boggling how irresponsible some of those crazy right-wingers are. They are scaring people into starting militias, and that shit is dangerous.
Are any of you depressed about this, too? The false rumor-starting, the fear-mongering, the hate-inciting? If you want to unburden yourself a little (as I have here), my comment box is open.
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ReplyDeleteMoristotle, I definitely understand how that could get you down.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the sic after "Fox News." I once watched the "show" on a day that I had a big glass of Chardonnay at my side and cannot believe that the idiots who watch this so-called news follow it and damn near drool when whoever speaks. I heard one ass pronounce, "I want my America to stay the same, no Communism for me!" I laughed out loud.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is depressing. Too bad that those who are shouting the loudest don't need immediate health care and can't get it.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you think when Soros and crew compared W Bush to Hitler?
ReplyDeleteThose crazy Fox news people, with their crazy propaganda. Whatever you do, don't tune into that crazy AM radio!
Look if you don't like the opinions Fox news is giving you, just turn over to Olbermann, Maddow, or Dobbs. They will give you the opinions you want to hear.
Seems like if it were not for Fox news and the people standing up at the Town Hall meetings, Congress would have already rammed this bill through. I think we all want health care reform, but don't expect everyone to shut up and get on board with something this important and this expensive. You really expect me to trust the politicians...cmon didnt we learn anything from W?
Joe, this may not be what you want to hear, but I'm not into seeking out opinions that I want to hear. I don't follow Soros (or his crew?) or Olbermann or Maddow (never heard of him) or Dobbs. Looks as though you, though, have found just where on the dial to turn.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you get your news? Your post mentioned how depressed you are about the Fox news false rumor-starting and fear-mongering. I therefore assumed you you do not get your news from Fox, since why would you want to constantly watch something you feel is depressing. So then I mentioned some other "news" channel's top shows.
ReplyDeleteI want to hear how you think the government getting involved in Health Care is going to solve the health care problem. I agree that some Health Insurance Reform is needed, but putting Health Care in the hands of politicians (Regardless of party affiliation) is the wrong move in my opinion.
I guess I am trying to say, seems like I see a lot of Fox News bashing. Don't get me wrong, I don't have an "I Heart Fox News" T-Shirt. I just see a lot of noise about Fox News this and Fox news that, when it seems that MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS lean more to the other side of the political spectrum. Seems like people are tired of these channels as apparent by recent Fox News program ratings. Maybe that is the Fox news strategy, bring out the right-wing nut jobs cause people are tuning in???
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I have a two year old, when I have time to watch TV I do not watch Fox. I waste my time on sports, or Mythbusters, or some other Discovery show.
Where am I going with this? I do not remember. If you are going to bash the media, make sure you are "fair and balanced" and bash all the media. All media outlets report based on their world view. We tend to agree with the opinions of people that share the same world view we do.
Joe, I don't watch "news" shows. I read newspapers, magazines, and books. As for information about health care, I am extremely fortunate to be in email correspondence with a small circle of Yale classmates, one of whom is a medical doctor and author who has written a few books on health care in this country, and another of whom is an extremely well-read economist. While we must of course be ever vigilant about our politicians, we must not forget to be vigilant about the profit-driven insurance and pharmaceutical companies and plaintiff's lawyers, and even doctors. Or, as the medical doctor mentioned above put the list of "culprits" in an email the other day:
ReplyDelete"[T]he number of people ripping off the 'health care dollar' to the tune of >$1million/year in personal wealth is astonishing: insurance execs, hosp[ital] administrators, interventionalists, MD's on the take, 'academic' leaders, widget makers and marketers, pharma and CRO crooks, marketing pimps....(it's late and I'm waxing angry. Sorry). It is estimated that 'overhead' is over 50% of the 'health care dollar' compared with <15% everywhere else and our bureacracy has far fewer players than everywhere else.
"I told Cutler a year ago (Obama's health econ guru) that to draw an economic line in the sand is to lose the marketing war. The only way to promote rational care is to take the moral high ground and defend it because its defensible."
I don't know how the government's getting involved in Health Care is going to solve the health care problem (or whether it will solve it), but I hope the government's involvement can be designed thoughtfully and relatively free of the self-serving influence of lobbyists (not to mention the shrieks of fearful, mostly ignorant members of the public).
Joe, you speak of "people's being tired of these channels [other than Fox] as apparent by recent Fox News program ratings." I try not to let the way "people" are feeling affect my thinking.
ReplyDeleteHow is "bash[ing] all the media" "fair and balanced"? Don't you recognize that there are facts and that some views are simply better than others? My main criticism of Fox may be that it isn't about facts at all but about orchestrating people's passions, playing on their anger and their fear. I commend you for having the sense not to watch Fox (although I'm surprised that you admit to wasting your time watching sports).
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ReplyDeleteJoe, I appreciate your sensitivity in removing your own rather silly comment! Good on you! I apologize for my snide remark about your admitting to "wasting time" watching sports. Indeed, our sentence in being born is to find something to waste our time on until we die.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was a bit too snarky and I regretted hitting post....
ReplyDeleteWaste time was my original wrong assessment...activities enjoyed in free time maybe?
"Snarky," good word. I've had my snarky moments too. We all have. Right, we "waste" time only if we think we do. I've watched sports myself, but at some point in my life I started to have these really terrible feelings of emptiness and loss upon getting to the end of a basketball game or a football game or whatever (or even upon just having watched a few minutes of a contest). The feeling was truly terrible; I meant the word 100%. It was, I could plainly see, my conscience telling me that I was truly wasting away the brief, precious time I have (left). I admit that that feeling, which is my own personal feeling, perhaps does not justify me in my "principled stand," now, against, for example, big-time intercollegiate athletics. But note the "perhaps"; I am not sure that it does not justify it, given that, objectively, intercollegiate athletics seem rather unproductive, promoting fanaticism, wasteful spending of financial resources, distraction from scholarship, and not even especially the revolting fact of basketball coaches' earning two or three or four times what university presidents or professors of critical academic disciplines earn.
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