I've been avoiding responding to this story because the topic depressed me. But then I saw @culturedleftfoot's arguement and wanted to put some counterpoints on it. And then I actually read...
I've been avoiding responding to this story because the topic depressed me. But then I saw @culturedleftfoot's arguement and wanted to put some counterpoints on it. And then I actually read through the story and I realized that I disagreed with the entire concept of it.
You cannot possibly blame people distrusting media on "the media". "The media" includes respected journalism outlets who have consistantly put out high quality reporting, but it also includes gossip rags and outright fabrication factories. It includes TMZ and Facebook alongside Reuters and Newsmax. All you need to be "the media" is to have a website that will publish your works. That's why losers like Andy Ngo can still get away with calling himself a journalist instead of the troll he really is.
The fact of the matter is that the people who "don't trust the media" do trust media - just not actual fact-reporting news media. Go to r/conservative and you'll see a number of alternative media sites that they are willing to immediately accept as gospel truth even when the stories they post are easily disproven by the article itself.
The problem we have with popular discourse has nothing to do with the media. The problem is the people themselves. They have lost themselves in a Gnostic fantasy, where they think that they have the real truth and if you tell them otherwise, clearly you are the one who is lying. These people have no care for the objective truth, they only care to enforce their objective reality on the world around them.
The article actually gets to the core of the issue right after the first paragraph:
“You know why I do it?” the 45th president told the 60 Minutes correspondent. “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
These people are already lost to their own psychosis. There is nothing that Biden could ever do to repair it, and frankly that's not what he's here to do; he shouldn't even be trying. It would be one thing if these people had a competing philosophy, guiding principles or even things so simple as morals or ethics, but no; they are just a mob of people who want to change the world around them so that they will be right. Why else would they put all their weight behind a fascist authoritarian figure? There is no reasoning with them. Trying to tell them they are wrong is exactly the same as trying to destroy their entire world.
Trump has definitely provided challenges, but it's the media establishment at large that's responsible for the public's lack of belief in their credibility, more than anyone else. Even this...
Trump has definitely provided challenges, but it's the media establishment at large that's responsible for the public's lack of belief in their credibility, more than anyone else. Even this article just totally disregards the stats in the fifth paragraph that contradict their presumption. Just as many people were distrustful of news media before Trump as now, and they largely prefer to operate as usual instead of taking a hard look at themselves.
I've been avoiding responding to this story because the topic depressed me. But then I saw @culturedleftfoot's arguement and wanted to put some counterpoints on it. And then I actually read through the story and I realized that I disagreed with the entire concept of it.
You cannot possibly blame people distrusting media on "the media". "The media" includes respected journalism outlets who have consistantly put out high quality reporting, but it also includes gossip rags and outright fabrication factories. It includes TMZ and Facebook alongside Reuters and Newsmax. All you need to be "the media" is to have a website that will publish your works. That's why losers like Andy Ngo can still get away with calling himself a journalist instead of the troll he really is.
The fact of the matter is that the people who "don't trust the media" do trust media - just not actual fact-reporting news media. Go to r/conservative and you'll see a number of alternative media sites that they are willing to immediately accept as gospel truth even when the stories they post are easily disproven by the article itself.
The problem we have with popular discourse has nothing to do with the media. The problem is the people themselves. They have lost themselves in a Gnostic fantasy, where they think that they have the real truth and if you tell them otherwise, clearly you are the one who is lying. These people have no care for the objective truth, they only care to enforce their objective reality on the world around them.
The article actually gets to the core of the issue right after the first paragraph:
These people are already lost to their own psychosis. There is nothing that Biden could ever do to repair it, and frankly that's not what he's here to do; he shouldn't even be trying. It would be one thing if these people had a competing philosophy, guiding principles or even things so simple as morals or ethics, but no; they are just a mob of people who want to change the world around them so that they will be right. Why else would they put all their weight behind a fascist authoritarian figure? There is no reasoning with them. Trying to tell them they are wrong is exactly the same as trying to destroy their entire world.
Betteridge's law of headlines
Trump has definitely provided challenges, but it's the media establishment at large that's responsible for the public's lack of belief in their credibility, more than anyone else. Even this article just totally disregards the stats in the fifth paragraph that contradict their presumption. Just as many people were distrustful of news media before Trump as now, and they largely prefer to operate as usual instead of taking a hard look at themselves.