Does Trump do things just to be at the top of the news cycle?
GL2 said:
I retired in '07, around 6 months after the iPhone was introduced and before social media exploded. Americans are largely fat, ignorant, and lazy, preferring not to read or think deeply. Comfort and materialism rule - big-*** cars, oversize sofas with cup holders, and giant TVs. I often wonder how I might be able to teach English/writing/research in 2018 when so little emphasis on thinking is valued. That said, I believe that willful ignorance goes along with American values. Thinking/reading/understanding is tough work. When your news comes from social media and the ever expanding evil of so-called conservative media, the balance tips to the easy-to-understand sources.
The majority seems comfortably numb and relies on the affluent, educated minority to keep the wheels turning.
I don't think any of this is new. I don't remember a point in my lifetime in which most Americans weren't suspicious of "book learnin'." I believe our culture has always been proudly anti-intellectual.
tjohn said:
You're starting to sound like an old fogey.I'm not going to pretend that we don't have problems, but I would say that being misinformed is the default condition of the human species. What is new is the way in which instant and round-the-clock "news" intersects with this default condition.
I'd suggest that the default condition was uninformed rather than misinformed. Now, though, certain media outlets and people in the public sphere (notably, Trump and his enablers) are engaged in a massive disinformation campaign to cause people to be misinformed.
ml1 said:
GL2 said:I don't think any of this is new. I don't remember a point in my lifetime in which most Americans weren't suspicious of "book learnin'." I believe our culture has always been proudly anti-intellectual.
I retired in '07, around 6 months after the iPhone was introduced and before social media exploded. Americans are largely fat, ignorant, and lazy, preferring not to read or think deeply. Comfort and materialism rule - big-*** cars, oversize sofas with cup holders, and giant TVs. I often wonder how I might be able to teach English/writing/research in 2018 when so little emphasis on thinking is valued. That said, I believe that willful ignorance goes along with American values. Thinking/reading/understanding is tough work. When your news comes from social media and the ever expanding evil of so-called conservative media, the balance tips to the easy-to-understand sources.
The majority seems comfortably numb and relies on the affluent, educated minority to keep the wheels turning.
Agree that a major chunk of the U.S. is "proudly anti-intellectual." But, as I posted, education is foremost in the minds of affluent and those aspiring to upward mobility.
A tangent: the red state teacher actions are two-part: money and support for schools. Listened to a guy (on TV) from OK talk about his MA in math and also his second job at a dollar store. His kids (all 35) don't even have a common textbook.
tjohn, I am an old fogie!
You nailed it.
In the old days, our authoritative sources of information - government, media, academia and a small handful of think tanks - were generally on the same page regarding what the facts were. The differences lay in what policies the different parties preferred to deal with those facts.
That's not the case anymore. Our information authorities have split into two - and one of them simply makes up "facts" as it needs them and ignores the inconvenient facts that would undercut their manufactured reality.
IMHO, this is by far the most dangerous issue the country is facing. And it's getting worse and worse. If you don't share common facts, there's no way you can have a useful discussion and come to meaningful compromises.
Steve said:
tjohn said:
You're starting to sound like an old fogey.
I'd suggest that the default condition was uninformed rather than misinformed. Now, though, certain media outlets and people in the public sphere (notably, Trump and his enablers) are engaged in a massive disinformation campaign to cause people to be misinformed.
BG9 said:
Of course, he likes his Tweets.
He likes the attention he's given. He loves it when media he watches, such as Fox & Friends, laud him and his Tweets.
He's a very insecure, a person who needs constant reassurance on his greatness, a need to be constantly lauded.
His cabinet has his number. Which is why in his first publicly viewed cabinet meeting they lined up lauding his "greatness" and what a privilege it is to be given the great honor of serving under him. Disgusting.
A follow up:
BG9 said:
Of course, he likes his Tweets.
He likes the attention he's given. He loves it when media he watches, such as Fox & Friends, laud him and his Tweets.
He's a very insecure, a person who needs constant reassurance on his greatness, a need to be constantly lauded.
His cabinet has his number. Which is why in his first publicly viewed cabinet meeting they lined up lauding his "greatness" and what a privilege it is to be given the great honor of serving under him. Disgusting.
And his "only I alone can fix it" statement.
Trump's statements show serious insecurity with a large dose of megalomania.
At this point, seeing what is obvious, Trump's supporters are fools or corrupt. Nothing else.
If corrupt men take over even the best laws become feeble ramparts against ambition and intrigue – Marqui de Condorcet
We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. - FDR Speech, 1936
From Preet Bharara (rough paraphrase): Bezos should reach in his back pocket, buy Twitter, and ban DJT.
mrincredible said:
mjc said:
Baldwin, pls note that mrincredible did not address earning/deserving, only strategy. And he's right about that, imo.
Yep.
There are people who voted for him who could probably be convinced it was a mistake. But not by insulting and dehumanizing them. The 2016 presidential election was decided on razor thin majorities in key electoral college states. Control of Congress may come down to the same kind of thin margins in the Fall.
Trump won the Republican nomination by building a coalition. Some of them are white nationalists whose fears about immigration he stoked, and I'm not sure those folks could ever vote for a Democrat. But there were a hell of a lot of people in the country who felt abandoned by the two major parties and were willing to roll the dice on someone who claimed he would buck convention to act on their behalf. Those people might be regretting their choice, but calling them "opioid-fueled zombies"? You might as well put up a sign on the voting booths that says "Democrats Don't Want You if you Voted for Trump!!"
I'll throw one example in here of what I'm talking about. In the Alabama (corrected from Arkansas) special election for Senate it's easy to say "White Evangelicals voted for Roy Moore", which is largely true ... it was about 80%. But ~20% didn't ... and most of them voted for a pro-choice Democrat, which should have been a big news story. Ordinarily that 20% would have been less than 10%. What would happen to the electoral map if you switched even 5% of voters from the Republican column to the Democratic? Can you do that by telling them they're stupid?
To bring this back around to the original intention of the thread, I think there is something strategic to what Trump is doing, but I'm not sure how conscious it is. A lot of his actions line up with a marketable concept of "America First!" I'm a firm believer in most liberal/progressive economic and political theory but man it's a lot easier to say "I'm punishing China for taking away American jobs!" Lots of people vote on their emotions, so I think he is employing a strategy to keep the emotions of his voters fired up.
Well, if this helps you sleep, good for you. I am not buying.
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If American education got us to care more about the accuracy of the quotes we copied, it would be a small victory.