4 ms·

They’ve all become hyper polarized in the last ~10 years. Go find some footage of BBC or CNN or MSNBC from pre-2010. You might be a bit shocked how, well, borin

They’ve all become hyper polarized in the last ~10 years. Go find some footage of BBC or CNN or MSNBC from pre-2010. You might be a bit shocked how, well, boring it all is. I apologize for my American-centric view of politics, but something fundamentally changed about the world around the time Trump, Bernie, etc were making waves in 2015-2016 in US politics. It’s almost like we entered a parallel reality. Shortly after the media has gone extremist, not only in the US but globally.

ceejayoz 4y ago
It's hardly just the media that's seen a change of tone; go look at a Presidential debate from 20-30 years ago. Look at how Bush and Reagan debated the issue of illegal immigration in 1980; it's a short clip, but it feels totally foreign these days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixi9_cciy8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixi9_cciy8w
- reducesuffering 4y ago
  That clip should be quite the wake-up call for those who are ignorant of how far the Republican party has veered right today. Those two candidates, Bush and Reagan, would be Democrats today. Reagan [wrt Mexico]: "rather than talking about putting up a fence... and open the border both ways by understanding their problems"
  - juve1996 4y ago
    Listening to old speeches or interviews (like radio interviews before TV) is also eye opening. The thing is, everyone wants to blame politicians. But we as people have deteriorated. These people are who we choose. We're so concerned about winning at all costs that we don't even care about the abhorrent behavior of our candidates, on both sides. It's a race to the bottom now. Hopefully our experiment survives.
bink 4y ago
Media consolidation in the 90s took decades to degrade our public discourse. I fear for what things will look like in another 10 years.
thewebcount 4y ago
I disagree. I saw a huge change when Clinton passed the baton to George W. Bush. For the last 2 years of Clinton’s presidency, the press (all of it, CNN, NBC, Fox, etc.) were reporting daily on the various scandals in the White House. They seemed to be asking hard-hitting questions all around and being very skeptical of the answers. Literally the first weeks of Bush’s presidency, it was like all of that went out the window and they just started accepting whatever his cabinet told them. It was like stepping into Bizarro land. Even the supposedly liberal outlets felt like they just gave up. It was so strange.
IAmGraydon 4y ago
I agree and I can’t figure it out. It’s not only the media either - it’s everyone. Extreme polarization is everywhere, and all of it seems to boil down to a struggle for power. Rich vs poor, citizens vs police, republican vs democrat, autocratic vs democratic - all being seen in extreme forms. It’s like the world has fallen under a spell or a mass psychosis. I would love to hear theories of what the root cause is. Is it due to massive state sponsored manipulation campaigns via social media? Worth reading: https://consilienceproject.org/social-media-enables-undue-influence/ https://consilienceproject.org/social-media-enables-undue-in...
- jesuscript 4y ago
  You ever heard a comedian work the crowd where he tells a gender specific joke? Goes something along the lines of “blah blah blah - fellas am I right? Clap if you know what I mean fellas”. And then all the men in the crowd cheer and clap, and all the women boo. And vice versa if the joke had been for the women. The two sides enjoy the clamoring. I’m sure you heard this song: [ANNIE] Anything you can do I can do better I can do anything better than you [FRANK] No, you can't [ANNIE] Yes, I can [FRANK] No, you can't [ANNIE] Yes, I can [FRANK] No, you can't Is that from a Broadway musical or the News/Internet? Or a comedy show? Hah, maybe that’s what’s going on.

ceejayoz 4y ago

It's hardly just the media that's seen a change of tone; go look at a Presidential debate from 20-30 years ago. Look at how Bush and Reagan debated the issue of illegal immigration in 1980; it's a short clip, but it feels totally foreign these days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixi9_cciy8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixi9_cciy8w

reducesuffering 4y ago
That clip should be quite the wake-up call for those who are ignorant of how far the Republican party has veered right today. Those two candidates, Bush and Reagan, would be Democrats today. Reagan [wrt Mexico]: "rather than talking about putting up a fence... and open the border both ways by understanding their problems"
- juve1996 4y ago
  Listening to old speeches or interviews (like radio interviews before TV) is also eye opening. The thing is, everyone wants to blame politicians. But we as people have deteriorated. These people are who we choose. We're so concerned about winning at all costs that we don't even care about the abhorrent behavior of our candidates, on both sides. It's a race to the bottom now. Hopefully our experiment survives.

bink 4y ago

Media consolidation in the 90s took decades to degrade our public discourse. I fear for what things will look like in another 10 years.

thewebcount 4y ago

I disagree. I saw a huge change when Clinton passed the baton to George W. Bush. For the last 2 years of Clinton’s presidency, the press (all of it, CNN, NBC, Fox, etc.) were reporting daily on the various scandals in the White House. They seemed to be asking hard-hitting questions all around and being very skeptical of the answers. Literally the first weeks of Bush’s presidency, it was like all of that went out the window and they just started accepting whatever his cabinet told them. It was like stepping into Bizarro land. Even the supposedly liberal outlets felt like they just gave up. It was so strange.

IAmGraydon 4y ago

I agree and I can’t figure it out. It’s not only the media either - it’s everyone. Extreme polarization is everywhere, and all of it seems to boil down to a struggle for power. Rich vs poor, citizens vs police, republican vs democrat, autocratic vs democratic - all being seen in extreme forms. It’s like the world has fallen under a spell or a mass psychosis. I would love to hear theories of what the root cause is. Is it due to massive state sponsored manipulation campaigns via social media? Worth reading: https://consilienceproject.org/social-media-enables-undue-influence/ https://consilienceproject.org/social-media-enables-undue-in...

jesuscript 4y ago
You ever heard a comedian work the crowd where he tells a gender specific joke? Goes something along the lines of “blah blah blah - fellas am I right? Clap if you know what I mean fellas”. And then all the men in the crowd cheer and clap, and all the women boo. And vice versa if the joke had been for the women. The two sides enjoy the clamoring. I’m sure you heard this song: [ANNIE] Anything you can do I can do better I can do anything better than you [FRANK] No, you can't [ANNIE] Yes, I can [FRANK] No, you can't [ANNIE] Yes, I can [FRANK] No, you can't Is that from a Broadway musical or the News/Internet? Or a comedy show? Hah, maybe that’s what’s going on.