6 ms·

I'm with you. CNN is trying to straddle the fence between being a legitimate news source, and being a Fox-equivalent for the not-very-smart masses. Only Fox is

I'm with you. CNN is trying to straddle the fence between being a legitimate news source, and being a Fox-equivalent for the not-very-smart masses. Only Fox is fully cynical about it, knowing precisely how credulous their audience is and spoon-feeding them fabricated infotainment in harmony with Murdoch's worldview. I think we, as the intellectual "elites", need to accept the following ugly reality: 1) A huge portion of the human population is highly susceptible to propaganda. 2) Exposing them to nuanced reality doesn't help them. In fact, anything complicated turns them off. They want simple truths. 3) This subpopulation is never going to change, and they're always going to be with us. Given this reality, the only realistic option to protect our interests, aside from totalitarianism, is to feed this subpopulation counter-propaganda. To provide an alternative, easy-to-digest narrative that's aligned with humanism / Enlightenment values, but that is extremely dumbed down: The Voltaire Factor for the Hopelessly Credulous. The irony here isn't lost on me, but I see no gentle alternative.

h2odragon 5y ago
> we, as the intellectual "elites", > the only realistic option to protect our interests, If I'm on the same side of whatever line you're drawing; those words make me nervous. If I'm on the other side... then I want to prepare for when you decide totalitarianism is the more efficient course, after all. I'm never on anybody's side. That's why I advocate for the personal ownership of any and all weaponry known to mankind: I expect anyone else to want whatever protection we can get from folks that insist they know how we must think.
- exo-pla-net 5y ago
  I'm suggesting words to pacify the credulous away from extremism. Meanwhile, you're suggesting amassing weapons to counter the insidious agenda I apparently have behind my words. And yet I'm making you nervous? Anyway, if it's true that you're tribeless, then you're on my side of the line. You're a humanist. Maybe a humanist with some bizarre ideas about weapons and human nature, and maybe a humanist who's flirting with favoring abstractions over actual human lives, but a humanist nevertheless. On the other side of the line is nativism and xenophobia and fundamentalism and Grand Solutions -- the things that lead to genocide. Those are the ideologies I suggest we squash. If you wouldn't, then you're consistent, but you're unwise. When a wave of extremism rises, you either join in, you flee, or you get summarily executed. Your guns won't save you. You have to stop the wave from rising in the first place.
- mypalmike 5y ago
  The point here is that Fox News does indeed know how its viewers must think. Based on your conclusion, I guess you need to get your guns out. Somehow these guns will protect you against Fox News.
Jtsummers 5y ago
> 2) Exposing them to nuanced reality doesn't help them. In fact, anything complicated turns them off. They want simple truths. This entry in your list is rather hilarious with the rest of your comment. A lack of nuance throughout.
- exo-pla-net 5y ago
  Somehow I doubt you're laughing. You're taking a shot at me without elaborating. But to reciprocate, although nuts and bolts have informed my opinion, I was indeed writing about broad patterns, something I'm aware that low empathy people on the autistic spectrum struggle with. My comment wasn't for you, Jared.
  - Jtsummers 5y ago
    See my other comment, I actually did laugh. Your comment dismisses a large portion of the population for not being able to understand nuance, while completely lacking nuance in the gross dismissal of an ill-defined portion of the population. And it's irrelevant whether you feel the comment was for me or not. Put it in a forum I can't read next time.
    - exo-pla-net 5y ago
      I imagine the prevalence and contagiousness of QAnon must be a difficult thing for you to grasp. But looking down on people, that's bad. That's the thing we should be fixated on. Good job buddy, you're the picture of nuance. If words without autistic handholds and the world at large becomes too much for you, I anticipate you'll find a safe space in /r/aspbergers. Unfortunately, me and my mean words are staying right here.
      - Jtsummers 5y ago
        > But looking down on people, that's bad. That's the thing we should be fixated on. > If words without autistic handholds and the world at large becomes too much for you, I anticipate you'll find a safe space in /r/aspbergers. In your previous comment, I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. That you were not, in fact, using autism as an insult. Thank you for showing I was wrong and not "looking down on people", good job showing the world the way to the future.

h2odragon 5y ago

> we, as the intellectual "elites", > the only realistic option to protect our interests, If I'm on the same side of whatever line you're drawing; those words make me nervous. If I'm on the other side... then I want to prepare for when you decide totalitarianism is the more efficient course, after all. I'm never on anybody's side. That's why I advocate for the personal ownership of any and all weaponry known to mankind: I expect anyone else to want whatever protection we can get from folks that insist they know how we must think.

exo-pla-net 5y ago
I'm suggesting words to pacify the credulous away from extremism. Meanwhile, you're suggesting amassing weapons to counter the insidious agenda I apparently have behind my words. And yet I'm making you nervous? Anyway, if it's true that you're tribeless, then you're on my side of the line. You're a humanist. Maybe a humanist with some bizarre ideas about weapons and human nature, and maybe a humanist who's flirting with favoring abstractions over actual human lives, but a humanist nevertheless. On the other side of the line is nativism and xenophobia and fundamentalism and Grand Solutions -- the things that lead to genocide. Those are the ideologies I suggest we squash. If you wouldn't, then you're consistent, but you're unwise. When a wave of extremism rises, you either join in, you flee, or you get summarily executed. Your guns won't save you. You have to stop the wave from rising in the first place.
mypalmike 5y ago
The point here is that Fox News does indeed know how its viewers must think. Based on your conclusion, I guess you need to get your guns out. Somehow these guns will protect you against Fox News.

Jtsummers 5y ago

> 2) Exposing them to nuanced reality doesn't help them. In fact, anything complicated turns them off. They want simple truths. This entry in your list is rather hilarious with the rest of your comment. A lack of nuance throughout.

exo-pla-net 5y ago
Somehow I doubt you're laughing. You're taking a shot at me without elaborating. But to reciprocate, although nuts and bolts have informed my opinion, I was indeed writing about broad patterns, something I'm aware that low empathy people on the autistic spectrum struggle with. My comment wasn't for you, Jared.
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  See my other comment, I actually did laugh. Your comment dismisses a large portion of the population for not being able to understand nuance, while completely lacking nuance in the gross dismissal of an ill-defined portion of the population. And it's irrelevant whether you feel the comment was for me or not. Put it in a forum I can't read next time.
  - exo-pla-net 5y ago
    I imagine the prevalence and contagiousness of QAnon must be a difficult thing for you to grasp. But looking down on people, that's bad. That's the thing we should be fixated on. Good job buddy, you're the picture of nuance. If words without autistic handholds and the world at large becomes too much for you, I anticipate you'll find a safe space in /r/aspbergers. Unfortunately, me and my mean words are staying right here.
    - Jtsummers 5y ago
      > But looking down on people, that's bad. That's the thing we should be fixated on. > If words without autistic handholds and the world at large becomes too much for you, I anticipate you'll find a safe space in /r/aspbergers. In your previous comment, I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. That you were not, in fact, using autism as an insult. Thank you for showing I was wrong and not "looking down on people", good job showing the world the way to the future.