view the rest of the comments
politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
Why not both? Anyone can fall for propaganda but the worse your cognition the easier it's going to be to get sucked in.
Edit: IN. Sucked IN.
Sadly, I believe you’re correct, as I’ve seen firsthand its effects on someone without cognitive decline.
A few years ago my mother’s demeanor and topics of conversation (I lived 1000 miles away, but we spoke by phone frequently) changed markedly over the course of weeks.
Much more fearful, a sudden focus on border issues, illegals…took a minute to tweak, but then I asked if she’d changed news providers. Uh-huh, Fox it was.
I saw this shift with my father as his age made him have to spend more time at home and less being physically active. He'd once given a pan-handler a twenty dollar bill when I was a young adult. I asked why so much. The answer: "If he's going to humble himself by coming to me to ask, he clearly needs it more than me."
I asked if it bothered him that it might be spent on drugs or alcohol. The answer: "If that's what he needs to get through the night, it's not for me to judge him." This quick exchange had a profound impact on me. I tried to model my values on it going forward. It taught me a lot about compassion.
Years later, he thought Trump was a joke in 2016. By 2020, his health in decline, he was on the Trump bandwagon. It made me so sad.
A couple of years ago, my mom somehow seemed very insistent about the "caravan" crossing the border. Turns out she had started watching Fox news when I didn't even know her to pay attention to news at all.
I was trying to explain to her that this was really small potatoes news since - at the time - I had seen very few headlines about it on the usual subs on reddit. I also encouraged her to strive toward empathy about why a person would leave their home and all their previous life to travel by foot through Mexico to the US. And then after more news came out, tried to point out that they were asylum seekers from a country the US had intentially interfered with to maintain control in the region. She never got super Trumpy, but she seemed to keep talking about the "border crisis" almost every time we had a discussion. I then flatly told her that this was a distraction because of mid-term elections.
Eventually, she abandoned Fox news, but I'm not sure if it was my brow beating or some other reason. She started watching CNN a lot and a few times that I'd walk through the living room in the evenings, Don Lemon's big head (or Chris Cuomo) was just always at this shrill tone of exasperation. One day I told her that just because we may agree with what's being said here doesn't make this news either. News shouldn't tell you how to feel about what's going on in the world.
I'm harkening back to my college journalism days when my professors bemoaned the 24-hour news cycle. Working in a newsroom, we would sneer at the way TV stations covered current events. And now, I don't know how or when we will ever get to a point where the news can be communicated during prime time that doesn't get editorialized to hell - on either side of the aisle.
Where's the tent for getting sucked off? Sounds more fun.