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I think the real truth of the matter is the majority of Americans know the sky isn't falling. Profit motivated media is blowing the political divide way out of

I think the real truth of the matter is the majority of Americans know the sky isn't falling. Profit motivated media is blowing the political divide way out of the water, fear mongering to sell eyeballs to advertisers. I've got a few friends who are utterly convinced America is on the cusp of a civil war, but that's only a few. They're the ones who watch too much Fox News or CNN I think.

fakedang 6y ago
Still waiting for the "inevitable civil war Trump supporters will instigate, because they have guns", as mentioned to me by one of my friends.
- bigbubba 6y ago
  I think the overwhelming majority of people who make claims like that are just full of hot air. If the shooting ever started, they'd be hiding indoors with the rest of us. This is one of the reasons I think the scenarios they propose is unlikely. This is nothing new of course, there have always been people willing to talk about extreme grandiose nonsense they'll never do. These people aren't hard to find if you go looking, making it easy for the media to broadcast their prattling to scare everybody else shitless. Scared, people stay tuned during the commercial break to hear the latest up to date news about what horrible things are surely imminent. A few months ago I had a few friends of either political persuasion telling me there would be a revolution or coup the day after the election. That didn't happen, and I think most are starting to realize it won't happen. By this time next year, when Biden's presidency is well underway, I think many of the people feeling very concerned today will feel foolish in retrospect.
ritchiea 6y ago
For the majority of Americans on HN or employed in tech or finance or some other salaried office work, the sky isn’t falling, we’re doing well. but we’re also a minority of Americans. Walk through towns & small cities in Indiana, Kansas, Florida, Alabama. In a lot of these places the sky is falling, there are few jobs & high rates of opiate abuse. There isn’t much of a social safety net. Unfortunately many of these people vote against their own financial interests, and honestly the democrats also aren’t addressing the roots of inequality sufficiently. The United States is basically divided between those of us who are doing well and those of us for whom the sky is at least looking brittle. That’s the issue putting pressure on society today.
- bigbubba 6y ago
  I'm not saying that times aren't rough. Obviously tines are rough. What I'm saying is that America is not on the cusp of a civil war and the overwhelming majority of Americans aren't itching to kill each other, they just want things to return to normal.
  - thisiscorrect 6y ago
    Even during the American Civl War, or any other war, were the majority of the people in the nations involved itching to kill each other?
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > What I’m saying is that America is not on the cusp of a civil war and the overwhelming majority of Americans aren’t itching to kill each other, they just want things to return to normal. The second half is probably true, the first half is less clearly so. On the actual cusp of the actual civil war, the overwhelming majority of Americans weren’t itching to kill each other and most just wanted things to return to normal. Of course, there were broad camps with radically different views as to the barriers to normalcy and considerable propaganda effort expended to nurture some of those views by people who had already come to the conclusion that a fight was, if not desirable, a necessary risk to secure their political goals. (Also broadly true of the Revolutionary War, for that matter, and, really, most other internal and international armed conflicts in history.)
- hiram112 6y ago
  > Unfortunately many of these people vote against their own financial interests... I get so tired of this poorly reasoned idea that continues to be spouted from the left as if it is gospel, and that the "rubes" are just not as enlightened as some journalist in New York or a javascript dev in Mountain View. How exactly would voting for someone like Biden help the average working class voter in middle America? * Tons more quota / diversity based help that will re-distribute the already small amount of aid to people who are NOT them. * Medicare for all and similar schemas: Ask them how Obamacare has worked out. It's likely they now can't even use any health services since they're still paying premiums, but now have a $7K deductible for their family of four. * Shoveling money from the right's corporate masters to the left's friends in the public unions, legal industry, big tech, etc. is not a net gain for these voters. * Increased immigration and globalization that may very well increase the economy as a whole, but certainly won't be trickling the wealth down to them. * changes in the tax code that may raise or lower rates by a few points here and there, but have absolutely no effect on average working class voters who don't pay much in federal taxes anyway. * Green energy initiatives that will allow rich people who can afford it to virtue signal, but will raise the prices of gas, heating, electricity, etc. for everyone else. Please let me know which actual policy changes that Biden and Co. can and will implement that would help these voters, but who are just too dumb to realize?
jfrunyon 6y ago
Trump and his enablers are literally leading an attempted coup right now and you think it's fear mongering?
- bigbubba 6y ago
  There is no coup, just some sore losers who aren't going to do shit except get laughed at by a few judges.
  - jfrunyon 6y ago
    Indeed, an attempted coup.
    - bigbubba 6y ago
      If that's a coup, then obviously not all coups are worth worrying about. They really are not going to do shit.
      - jfrunyon 6y ago
        Except their attempted coup has successfully convinced a significant portion of the public that they are the appropriate winners.
        bigbubba 6y ago
        Stupid people believe stupid things. Their wishful thinking doesn't alter the reality of their loss.
        fr11 6y ago
        an individual stupid person does not matter. A large enough mass of stupid people can overturn nearly anything. It seems likely that this time, the mass of people who've decided that Trump won won't be large enough to effect the coup that Trump is _attempting_, but it's larger than we've seen, and that's somewhat scary.
tim333 6y ago
So how to get some moderation back is the question. I guess state funded media like the BBC can help?
- jagannathtech 6y ago
  I don't see much difference between BBC and CNN

fakedang 6y ago

Still waiting for the "inevitable civil war Trump supporters will instigate, because they have guns", as mentioned to me by one of my friends.

bigbubba 6y ago
I think the overwhelming majority of people who make claims like that are just full of hot air. If the shooting ever started, they'd be hiding indoors with the rest of us. This is one of the reasons I think the scenarios they propose is unlikely. This is nothing new of course, there have always been people willing to talk about extreme grandiose nonsense they'll never do. These people aren't hard to find if you go looking, making it easy for the media to broadcast their prattling to scare everybody else shitless. Scared, people stay tuned during the commercial break to hear the latest up to date news about what horrible things are surely imminent. A few months ago I had a few friends of either political persuasion telling me there would be a revolution or coup the day after the election. That didn't happen, and I think most are starting to realize it won't happen. By this time next year, when Biden's presidency is well underway, I think many of the people feeling very concerned today will feel foolish in retrospect.

ritchiea 6y ago

For the majority of Americans on HN or employed in tech or finance or some other salaried office work, the sky isn’t falling, we’re doing well. but we’re also a minority of Americans. Walk through towns & small cities in Indiana, Kansas, Florida, Alabama. In a lot of these places the sky is falling, there are few jobs & high rates of opiate abuse. There isn’t much of a social safety net. Unfortunately many of these people vote against their own financial interests, and honestly the democrats also aren’t addressing the roots of inequality sufficiently. The United States is basically divided between those of us who are doing well and those of us for whom the sky is at least looking brittle. That’s the issue putting pressure on society today.

bigbubba 6y ago
I'm not saying that times aren't rough. Obviously tines are rough. What I'm saying is that America is not on the cusp of a civil war and the overwhelming majority of Americans aren't itching to kill each other, they just want things to return to normal.
- thisiscorrect 6y ago
  Even during the American Civl War, or any other war, were the majority of the people in the nations involved itching to kill each other?
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > What I’m saying is that America is not on the cusp of a civil war and the overwhelming majority of Americans aren’t itching to kill each other, they just want things to return to normal. The second half is probably true, the first half is less clearly so. On the actual cusp of the actual civil war, the overwhelming majority of Americans weren’t itching to kill each other and most just wanted things to return to normal. Of course, there were broad camps with radically different views as to the barriers to normalcy and considerable propaganda effort expended to nurture some of those views by people who had already come to the conclusion that a fight was, if not desirable, a necessary risk to secure their political goals. (Also broadly true of the Revolutionary War, for that matter, and, really, most other internal and international armed conflicts in history.)
hiram112 6y ago
> Unfortunately many of these people vote against their own financial interests... I get so tired of this poorly reasoned idea that continues to be spouted from the left as if it is gospel, and that the "rubes" are just not as enlightened as some journalist in New York or a javascript dev in Mountain View. How exactly would voting for someone like Biden help the average working class voter in middle America? * Tons more quota / diversity based help that will re-distribute the already small amount of aid to people who are NOT them. * Medicare for all and similar schemas: Ask them how Obamacare has worked out. It's likely they now can't even use any health services since they're still paying premiums, but now have a $7K deductible for their family of four. * Shoveling money from the right's corporate masters to the left's friends in the public unions, legal industry, big tech, etc. is not a net gain for these voters. * Increased immigration and globalization that may very well increase the economy as a whole, but certainly won't be trickling the wealth down to them. * changes in the tax code that may raise or lower rates by a few points here and there, but have absolutely no effect on average working class voters who don't pay much in federal taxes anyway. * Green energy initiatives that will allow rich people who can afford it to virtue signal, but will raise the prices of gas, heating, electricity, etc. for everyone else. Please let me know which actual policy changes that Biden and Co. can and will implement that would help these voters, but who are just too dumb to realize?

jfrunyon 6y ago

Trump and his enablers are literally leading an attempted coup right now and you think it's fear mongering?

bigbubba 6y ago
There is no coup, just some sore losers who aren't going to do shit except get laughed at by a few judges.
- jfrunyon 6y ago
  Indeed, an attempted coup.
  - bigbubba 6y ago
    If that's a coup, then obviously not all coups are worth worrying about. They really are not going to do shit.
    - jfrunyon 6y ago
      Except their attempted coup has successfully convinced a significant portion of the public that they are the appropriate winners.
      - bigbubba 6y ago
        Stupid people believe stupid things. Their wishful thinking doesn't alter the reality of their loss.
        fr11 6y ago
        an individual stupid person does not matter. A large enough mass of stupid people can overturn nearly anything. It seems likely that this time, the mass of people who've decided that Trump won won't be large enough to effect the coup that Trump is _attempting_, but it's larger than we've seen, and that's somewhat scary.

tim333 6y ago

So how to get some moderation back is the question. I guess state funded media like the BBC can help?

jagannathtech 6y ago
I don't see much difference between BBC and CNN