4 ms·
> My Dad immediately jumped to the conclusion that encrypted communications the police can't read is obviously a bad thing. Then I think the problem here is yo
by clouddrover 5y ago
> My Dad immediately jumped to the conclusion that encrypted communications the police can't read is obviously a bad thing.
Then I think the problem here is your dad, not the media. Your dad's lack of clear thinking or otherwise is his responsibility.
You can't run around in square circles claiming that it's all the media's fault for your dad's supposed wrongthink. There are two possibilities:
1. Your dad is a dumb, unsophisticated, unthinking lump who has no ideas of his own and who is easy for the evil Media to manipulate.
2. This is his genuine opinion.
Either way, he gets to take responsibility for himself. And you get to respect him enough to engage with his point of view rather than invoking The Media as a pantomime villain.
- arc-in-space 5y agoThere is a third possibility. Sometimes people make mistakes due to a limited perspective. One might argue this is merely a variant of your second option, but in that case the media would be very much at fault.
- grecy 5y agoI used my Dad more as an example of how "the average Australian" thinks and is processing all of this, not really to focus on him alone. He was a High school Maths/Science teacher for 40 years, and I'd generally consider him to be very thoughtful, intelligent and good with reasoning. He has been exposed solely to Australian media for essentially his entire life - he lives on an island that is very far away from the big wide world, and his thinking on topics like this reflects what I consider to be "The average Australian", which is why Australians seem "complacent" as the title says.