5/07/2007 01:33:00 AM
It'd give him the thing that keeps him so popular
Though they are in the minority, right wing extremism has built for itself an ultra-concentrated media complex. One TV news organization. One radio band with one line up. One type of popular music. And so forth.
This concentrated mediaplex is the reason they can honestly claim the most popular cable news network, the most popular radio personalities, etc. For instance, although total viewership of non-hyperconservative news channels outnumbers viewers of FOX News by a ratio of 3 to 1, the rabid right can technically claim they've got the most popular cable news channel in the country.
This tendency to clump around singularities is what defines hyperconservatism. It's a greedy mindset. Stay close to home. Stockpile your assets, and store them all in the same vault. When untouched by outside, regulating forces, it's the kind of thing whose growth is undone by its own overreaching. Without the liberal democratic base, it's dangerous (see: Hitler); in a liberal democracy it's the sort of thing that regularly self-destructs via political implosion. The Whigs, the American Civil War, isolationism, McCarthyism, Nixon.
So, ironically, when we "outsiders" successfully police (e.g., Imus) the singularity-focused type of hyperconservatism that we find alive and well today, this hyperconservatism actually strengthens. It draws its members closer together, confirming for them the world "really is out to get" them. It's as if a delusionally magnified sense of persecution oils the machine that drives these nuts towards their goals.
I think it's better if we ignore the nutcases, like those who run the Excessiveness In Buttboils network, who bait society with their "Barack the Magic Negro" type of nonsense. When they're left to their own devices, they overcram into their condensed locales, ultimately imploding. When outsiders come in and police their stupidity, they actually gain more momentum towards growth, not the overcrowding that regularly does them in.
So, the "Barack the Magic Negro" sort of stunt is more successful at propagating the right wing paranoia machine when it's shut down by mainstream society.
Why not leave them alone, leave them to their own demise?
....
Though they are in the minority, right wing extremism has built for itself an ultra-concentrated media complex. One TV news organization. One radio band with one line up. One type of popular music. And so forth.This concentrated mediaplex is the reason they can honestly claim the most popular cable news network, the most popular radio personalities, etc. For instance, although total viewership of non-hyperconservative news channels outnumbers viewers of FOX News by a ratio of 3 to 1, the rabid right can technically claim they've got the most popular cable news channel in the country.
This tendency to clump around singularities is what defines hyperconservatism. It's a greedy mindset. Stay close to home. Stockpile your assets, and store them all in the same vault. When untouched by outside, regulating forces, it's the kind of thing whose growth is undone by its own overreaching. Without the liberal democratic base, it's dangerous (see: Hitler); in a liberal democracy it's the sort of thing that regularly self-destructs via political implosion. The Whigs, the American Civil War, isolationism, McCarthyism, Nixon.
So, ironically, when we "outsiders" successfully police (e.g., Imus) the singularity-focused type of hyperconservatism that we find alive and well today, this hyperconservatism actually strengthens. It draws its members closer together, confirming for them the world "really is out to get" them. It's as if a delusionally magnified sense of persecution oils the machine that drives these nuts towards their goals.
I think it's better if we ignore the nutcases, like those who run the Excessiveness In Buttboils network, who bait society with their "Barack the Magic Negro" type of nonsense. When they're left to their own devices, they overcram into their condensed locales, ultimately imploding. When outsiders come in and police their stupidity, they actually gain more momentum towards growth, not the overcrowding that regularly does them in.
So, the "Barack the Magic Negro" sort of stunt is more successful at propagating the right wing paranoia machine when it's shut down by mainstream society.
Why not leave them alone, leave them to their own demise?
....
4 Responses to "Don't Edit Limbaugh"
5/20/2007 04:42:00 AM
5/23/2007 09:44:00 AM
"Why don’t you try to provide the content of 'Barack the Magic Negro'?"
Because the point of my entry was not to silence Limbaugh. It was certainly not to ban the satirical song. Indeed, the sentiment I expressed was quite the contrary.
Here's a tip: the next time you attempt to respond to another's ideas, you should first comprehend them. Maybe then you won't have to refer to your journalistic experience as a thing of the past.
tim,
"Has it occurred to you that the 'right wing mediaplex' is so successful and popular because maybe people like them and agree with their viewpoint?"
Okay, you've got the mind of a toddler, so let's turn it into something simple:
Imagine a town with only one diesel fuel pump. In the same town, there are 200 unleaded gasoline pumps. Each unleaded pump (all 200 of them) dispenses 500 gallons a day, whereas the SINGULAR diesel pump dispenses 520 gallons per day.
Is diesel the most popular fuel in this hypothetical town? Obviously you'd think so.
7/11/2007 08:24:00 AM
You use the terms "hyperconservative," "nuts," "nutballs," and "rabid right." Calling others names advances no argument. (Leftists, for some reason, regularly resort to name-calling. I have made a list of name-calling instances that demonstrates the hatred and viciousness of many leftists.) Your definition of a “hyperconservative” errs. As others have noticed, the most charitable among us tend to be the most religious & many consider them to be “hyperconservative.” What you think on that and other matters diverges from reality and the truth, nor are your views fair or balanced.
The "mainstream" news media do not report certain stories that harm the leftist agenda and distort the views and performance of politicians identified as conservative. A recent "profile" by Craig Smith of The New York Times on Nicolas Sarkozy could serve as an exemplar of media bias. One can expect Fox News's critics to ignore that and other transgressions of journalistic ethics, as they attempt a hit job on Fox News.
This writer worked as a newspaper reporter and has a clue about journalism. Fox News is not perfect. Other major news services in this country, like the Associated Press and the New York Times News Service, are far more imperfect than Fox. I know of no newsmagazine or daily newspaper whose reporting on politics can be trusted. After decades of watching ABC, NBC, and CBS news programs, I have welcomed Fox News, which is far more likely to report the news truly and fairly than ABC, CBS, or NBC.