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Trump and the Press


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Good editorial from Vox.  Basically, Trump is throwing so much crap at us that we can't see the forest (the truth) for the trees (his crap). 

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/6/17599010/neil-postman-trump-amusing-ourselves

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In his classic 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman wrote of the difference between George Orwell’s and Aldous Huxley’s visions of fascism.

“Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information,” wrote Postman. “Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”

 

 

ending of the article - 2 quotes

 

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We normalized the media that normalized Donald Trump

Since Trump was elected, the bookshelves and op-ed pages have been alive with fears of Orwellian fascism — fears that, for the most part, remain far from manifesting. But even as Orwell’s dystopia has failed to materialize, Huxley’s dystopia has: We are buried under ignorance disguised as information, confused by entertainment masquerading as news, distracted by a dizzying procession of lies and outrages and ginned-up controversies, inured to misbehavior and corruption that would’ve consumed past administrations. We have lost control of our attention, if not of our government.

It is hard to read this paragraph from Postman without feeling he is speaking specifically about us:

When Orwell wrote in his famous essay “The Politics of the English Language” that politics has become a matter of “defending the indefensible,” he was assuming that politics would remain a distinct, although corrupted, mode of discourse. His contempt was aimed at those politicians who would use sophisticated versions of the age-old arts of double-think, propaganda and deceit. That the defense of the indefensible would be conducted as a form of amusement did not occur to him. He feared the politician as deceiver, not as entertainer.

The chaotic swirl of information, anger, conflict, identity, performance, and trivia that characterizes Trump’s governance also characterizes the mediums that created him. For all the talk of normalizing Trump, it was our normalization of the platforms he thrived on — reality television, cable news, and Twitter — that made Trump possible. Could Trump have won the Republican primary and the presidency in the days before he could call into cable news shows at will, get his rallies carried live on television, drive media coverage from the comfort of his Twitter account? Could he have won if we hadn’t come to see our politicians as entertainers, to believe conflict the true story of governance, to connect the quantity of media coverage with the quality of candidates? I doubt it.

 

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We have been, to our credit, alert to the dangers of Orwellian tyranny. We have been much less vigilant against the threat of Huxleyan distraction. Trump manages the government clumsily, but he controls public attention masterfully. He is showing, daily, how the truth can be drowned under a sea of irrelevance, how easily the defense of the indefensible can go down if it is cast as entertainment.

 

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1 minute ago, Making Chimichangas said:

Has any President, ever, in the history of the US ever declared that the free press is, "The enemy of the people"?

 

 

Not out loud. That (among dozens of other things) should have been enough for them to oust him using the “our president has lost/never had his mental faculties” option.

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The mass hysteria of Trump Derangement Syndrome continues.

 

The press attacks the guy everyday. All they talk about is how horrible, stupid, racist, miserable, etc. It’s been wall to wall negative coverage of him for years. So how do you think he’s going to react?

 

Trump is a lot of things. He’s goofy, thin-skinned, thoughtless, kind of a buffoon, and a loose cannon. I could go on. But my point is that he’s not evil. He’s not looking to ban the press. He’s not a unique threat to civilization. You’re giving him way too much credit by imagining him to be far more substantial than he is. And you’re making yourselves look foolish by losing your minds over everything he says or does.

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3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

The mass hysteria of Trump Derangement Syndrome continues.

 

The press attacks the guy everyday. All they talk about is how horrible, stupid, racist, miserable, etc. It’s been wall to wall negative coverage of him for years. So how do you think he’s going to react?

 

Trump is a lot of things. He’s goofy, think-skinned, thoughtless, kind of a buffoon, and a loose cannon. I could go on. But my point is that he’s not evil. He’s not looking to ban the press. He’s not a unique threat to civilization. You’re giving him way too much credit by imagining him to be far more substantial than he is. And you’re making yourselves look foolish by losing your minds over everything he says or does.

Our press should be more like Russias

 

Didn't Fox hysterically attack Obama for wearing a tan suit? He didn't seem to bothered by the medias ridiculous hysteria.

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1 minute ago, Ric Flair said:

The mass hysteria of Trump Derangement Syndrome continues.

 

The press attacks the guy everyday. All they talk about is how horrible, stupid, racist, miserable, etc. It’s been wall to wall negative coverage of him for years. So how do you think he’s going to react?

 

Trump is a lot of things. He’s goofy, think-skinned, thoughtless, kind of a buffoon, and a loose cannon. I could go on. But my point is that he’s not evil. He’s not looking to ban the press. He’s not a unique threat to civilization. You’re giving him way too much credit by imagining him to be far more substantial than he is. And you’re making yourselves look foolish by losing your minds over everything he says or does.

so a  thinned skinned, thoughtless buffoon with a loose cannon is going to make america great again?   consider me....skeptical

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1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

The mass hysteria of Trump Derangement Syndrome continues.

 

The press attacks the guy everyday. All they talk about is how horrible, stupid, racist, miserable, etc. It’s been wall to wall negative coverage of him for years. So how do you think he’s going to react?

 

Trump is a lot of things. He’s goofy, think-skinned, thoughtless, kind of a buffoon, and a loose cannon. I could go on. But my point is that he’s not evil. He’s not looking to ban the press. He’s not a unique threat to civilization. You’re giving him way too much credit by imagining him to be far more substantial than he is. And you’re making yourselves look foolish by losing your minds over everything he says or does.

That made me laugh.

 

Also, the US Senate passed this resolution. Unanimously. Are you saying they are all suffering from this TDS?

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