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Oct. 17th, 2014 07:28 amMy mother, after staying with her ailing mother, made a great critique of televangelists when she noted their spiel was really designed to isolate people from their family and friends to ally instead with the telepreacher. Curiously for all their family values talk, the family values crowd actually distances members from their families with their save/distrust them all preaching, with the heavy emphasis on fearmongering for fundraising purposes.
Well my mom watches nonstop MSNBC or CSPAN and lives online with a community of far-left bloggers. She can be hard to understand as she disappears so deeply into self-referential communities that she doesn't realize she's 1337speaking to people who aren't in their echo chamber. She's here, but we don't actually communicate much as I computer and she follows more arguments than news, and is easily as sensationalist as the news is (I complain about the lack of issues that actually effect lives, like local politics, though I note the news is a business and most people don't care).
It's funny as most of my criticism is of FOX, with which I'm mostly familiar from my traveling for work. FOX freaks constantly change tv stations everywhere they go to FOX: hotel lobbies, gyms, waiting rooms...whether they are there or watching is apparently irrelevant. I think they think if they just show their tv kool-aid to others they'll "see the truth" and be convinced to fear the same things they fear. I also see enough FOX to know the spiel, the fearmongering, and the predictable anchor appearance.
What I see now is the same audience, same techniques, and the same effects. The left and right are buried in fearmongering, and their audience is a balledfist group of torchbearers who are so addicted to their identity that they fail to make meaningful social connections.
I should compare news junkies to fetlife.
I think the thing that really drove the parallel home to me was the fact both MSNBC and FOX have virtually the same ads: medical malpractice trolling lawyer connecting groups, viagra, lose weight without exercise or diet changes, negative political ads, and pet food.
A positive is I am distracted by how much and often she drinks. Nothing makes me want to drink and not drink like my mother.
I may not retire. I want to have a purpose in life, to potentially matter, or even just be distracted by actual events in person, to avoid falling into the addicted to tv trap. Then again, I post and read facebook and this...it's just this is interspersed with actual life and social experiences.
My mother is not young but as we spend time together I find we're far apart in a lot of ways. I'll miss her when she passes unless I'm fortunate enough to go first (that'll show her!) but right now our time together feels more like disagreement, argument, distance, and a lot of "dear god how many crumbs can this woman produce." Posted while grumpy.
Well my mom watches nonstop MSNBC or CSPAN and lives online with a community of far-left bloggers. She can be hard to understand as she disappears so deeply into self-referential communities that she doesn't realize she's 1337speaking to people who aren't in their echo chamber. She's here, but we don't actually communicate much as I computer and she follows more arguments than news, and is easily as sensationalist as the news is (I complain about the lack of issues that actually effect lives, like local politics, though I note the news is a business and most people don't care).
It's funny as most of my criticism is of FOX, with which I'm mostly familiar from my traveling for work. FOX freaks constantly change tv stations everywhere they go to FOX: hotel lobbies, gyms, waiting rooms...whether they are there or watching is apparently irrelevant. I think they think if they just show their tv kool-aid to others they'll "see the truth" and be convinced to fear the same things they fear. I also see enough FOX to know the spiel, the fearmongering, and the predictable anchor appearance.
What I see now is the same audience, same techniques, and the same effects. The left and right are buried in fearmongering, and their audience is a balledfist group of torchbearers who are so addicted to their identity that they fail to make meaningful social connections.
I should compare news junkies to fetlife.
I think the thing that really drove the parallel home to me was the fact both MSNBC and FOX have virtually the same ads: medical malpractice trolling lawyer connecting groups, viagra, lose weight without exercise or diet changes, negative political ads, and pet food.
A positive is I am distracted by how much and often she drinks. Nothing makes me want to drink and not drink like my mother.
I may not retire. I want to have a purpose in life, to potentially matter, or even just be distracted by actual events in person, to avoid falling into the addicted to tv trap. Then again, I post and read facebook and this...it's just this is interspersed with actual life and social experiences.
My mother is not young but as we spend time together I find we're far apart in a lot of ways. I'll miss her when she passes unless I'm fortunate enough to go first (that'll show her!) but right now our time together feels more like disagreement, argument, distance, and a lot of "dear god how many crumbs can this woman produce." Posted while grumpy.
