Face it - most people just don't care

[Ugnmoose]

As an involved activist, I regularly take the opportunity to share my views of the dangers presented to our democracy by the Neocons.
I have spoken to many people over the past year about the various crimes committed and outright abuses of the Constitution that are so well known to us here at DU. Few if any seem to really care enough to get involved or do anything about it. There is an astonishing amount of apathy in our populace. It is quite shocking.
It seems that most people are so rapped up in their daily activities that they cannot find the time or lack the inclination to do their own homework. They want someone to spoon feed them what they need to know and oftentimes rely on the mainstream media to be the source of that information.
My strong belief is that no democracy can thrive without an independent and objective fourth estate that is willing to aggressively challenge the words and deeds of its elected officials. Until such time as we truly have unbiased news reporting from our major media we are destined to have a populace cloaked in ignorance and largely apathetic.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

1. yep - you've got it right....

n/t

[Demeter]

2. They Will Care Eventually--When It's Too Late for Them!

[leftchick]

3. yes, when the round ups start

it will be too late. :(

[jhrobbins]

5. Exactly - but I think this is the way that most people have always

been - they go about their lives, ignoring the powers that govern them until those powers intrude on their daily lives and routines. Then the scream and cry - all for naught.

[dkofos]

4. How unfortunately true

I'm afraid it will have to get much worse before the sheeple wake up.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

6. Looks like things are going to have to get much worse before they will

n/t

[RestoreGore]

7. How so sad but true...

All the majority of Americans seem to want to do is sleep, eat, watch TV, shop, shop, shop, and shop....even though they have nothing to use to pay for the "Made in China" crap they buy but a plastic card that represents nothing but more debt for them. They have been anesthesized by mediocrity, and government is a word they care nothing about as long as they have theirs. The founding fathers are now rolling in their graves.

[MADem]

8. Well, I honestly think only twenty percent, tops, of either team cares

And less than ten percent of each team "keeps up" with what is going on. And perhaps only FIVE percent really give enough a shit to get out there and do ANYTHING. And maybe three percent are fairly effective, and only one percent VERY effective.

So blaming the media is convenient, but the fact of the matter is, they are only pandering to THEIR constituency...the vast sixty to eighty percent of Americans who are clueless fucking morons when it comes to politics and international relations. These aren't BAD people, they're just ignorant.

If Americans suddenly found politics to be sexy, we'd see them covering it like a Paris Hilton flashing her boobs episode, or a Tom Cruise in a gay bath house expose.

About the only way you could make it work is do like New Zealand, where you don't HAVE to vote, but you DO have to show up at the polls and sign in, or pay a forty dollar or so fine for skipping out on your duty(unless you can get a doctor's note).

I suspect people would be a lot more interested and informed if there were financial consequences for staying out of the loop. They'd vote, too. Might as well, since you have to show up anyway, or be fined...!

[Johnny Noshoes]

10. "financial consequences for staying out of the loop"

The thing is that there ARE financial consequences. People gripe and complain about the cost of gas, or food, or what have you. They don't make the connection to politics and the role government has in making policy that effects those prices. So many things converge to make people choose ignorance they just don't care to know until its WAY too late.


"Bill O'Reilly is apparently on al Qaeda's death list. al Qaeda said they don't even think of him as an infidel. They just want to cut off his head, so he'll shut up."
-- Bill Maher

[MADem]

15. Sure, you know that, because you pay attention.

The idea is to penalize people who don't pay attention, who don't, to use an Oprah-ism "Get the connection" between politics and their pocketbook. Hit them over the head with a Political Dunce ticket, a fine for being obtuse.

It certainly helps in NZ...most people vote and have a rudimentary awareness of local and world affairs there.

[Johnny Noshoes]

19. I like the idea actually

There are a lot of people I work with who could use that smack upside the head.

[INdemo]

9. At no time in history has the media supported such an incompetent

leader..it is becoming more clear that the Repukes through the MSM has brainwashed America

[mmonk]

11. They really don't have a clue. That's the real problem.

[Ugnmoose]

12. The makings of another Third Reich

The similarities between this Admninistration and that of Hitler's Third Reich are stunning. One only need to take a page out of history to see what uncontrolled facism really looks like. And worst of all the sheeple will do their bidding until such time as they realize they have all been had - then it will be too late.
One can only hope that some true patriot will arise and come to our aid - a modern day Paul Revere if you will. If only they could expose just one smoking gun of Bushcos many crimes. All it would take would be just one irrefutable piece of evidence and the house of cards would crumble.

[rudy23]

13. You're right

An alarming number of people I know don't really care about
innocent people being murdered
torture
the constitution
democracy
the government lying
the government kidnapping and disappearing people they think are bad
any living soul from another country, race, ideology, region, etc.

If someone can convince them that right now, the best thing to do is morph into a fascist dictatorship, like a Transformer, they will be in favor of that. These people don't do a lot of "moralizing", that's pretentious, that's for the ivory tower types. They are all about survival, and feeding their id, and they think that as long as they're honest about how shitty they are, and they sign some sort of remote, functionally meaningless contract with God, everything is alright. Their survival method is to conform to the highest authority and empathize with their m.o., and if that means being a fascist dictator, then hey, makes sense, I guess that's what I'd do too.

[nam78_two]

14. I sadly have to agree

My own area of concern (primary that is) has been the environment and I can corroborate that...people don't care squat about anything that doesn't have to do with their own lives by and large....

[acmejack]

16. People only care about themselves now.

Everybody has become so self centered that a democracy cannot work. An institution based on the concept of community is doomed in this atmosphere of Meism.

[Gregorian]

17. Petroleum has made our lives so easy,

Who cares about anything. It's not like life is difficult, or anything.

Other than that, I cannot figure out how people can actually be so beligerent about not facing the truth.

I've been watching this phenomenon. I honestly think it's the lives of utter ease we have. And that is due completely to the free flowing gasoline.

It's all about oil.

[Johnny Noshoes]

20. It's all about oil.

Yes it is for NOW. When the oil runs out or is too scarce to bother pumping because it won't be worth the effort things will change and it won't be pretty.

"We've turned into this nation of overfed clowns, riding around in clown cars, eating clown food, watching clown shows. We've become a nation of cringing, craven fuckups."
- James Howard Kunstler, author of "The Long Emergency"

[Gregorian]

21. Kunstler is cool.

I have been feeling so alone lately. Trying desperately to find a place to call home, where the automatons and cars aren't. But they ARE almost everywhere. I wrote my reply to the sounds of some shithead blasting away on a 45 caliber, outside my window. Miles of forest, and the idiot picks my backyard for target practice.

It's just too damn many people combined with the ease of modern living. It's cheating. And no one cheats nature. Nature is going to spring back at us. And to make things worse, it's all a hit and run situation. Our use affects the lives of those who live tomorrow. Just like the baby boom. They had kids, and WE get to sit on the freeways behind them. I know that is cynical. I'm cynical now.

So it's cool to read a little of what Kunstler has to say.

I'm losing my patience.


Edit- This is really weird. He values some of the things I do. I have been preaching about the degrading rail systems. And architecture is a huge one. The offensive crap that is being built these days. I mean residential. Filthy McMansions from hell. I love his sentiments on quality design. This country is nearly devoid of cultural values. I needed this. Thanks.

[Johnny Noshoes]

23. "I needed this. Thanks"

You're welcome. Well at least in NYC - my part anyway - I hopefully won't be hearing any gunfire tonight. Just boom cars and street traffic. I don't get the boom car thing - I don't drive don't need to in NYC but what's up with the LOUD music in the car. How the hell do you hear what's going on around you. I think its just nature's way of taking care of the stupid. My sister lives in rural NH and I joke that the only thing you can hear up there is the birds and your own thoughts.:)

[TheCentepedeShoes]

25. I agree. n/t

[Johnny Noshoes]

26. Great name

I have this vision of a tiny bug wearing thousands of pairs of tiny sneakers:)

[ThomWV]

18. I Can't Even Get People To Call Their Representatives

Folks around here act like I was a loonatic for calling Byrd or Rockefeller's office - or even that worthless Representative of ours who shall not be named even if I am forced by Party loyalty to vote for him.

[blue cat]

22. You are right

Noone talks politics at all anymore at work. We just talk tv entertainment shit.

[babylonsister]

24. Agree. Every time Olbermann does a commentary, I send it out

to about 10 people, exclaiming how wonderful it is to see the truth. I'm lucky if one person replies. :-(

[Singular73]

27. Yep

Hence, there is only a reaction when they cut SS, or raise prices of gas.

Everything else, noone cares.

This country has long been ripe for Fascism.

[clovis29]

28. And that is unfortunate n/t

[Jcrowley]

29. There is a direct correlation

between what you say, and I sadly agree, and the lack of knowledge about the issues that is breathtakingly (is that a word?) apparent in the land of soft fascism. TV, techno-toys, institutional education and a constellation of other items make the grey matter of the american mind incapable of understanding not only what is going on but the consequences. The most propagandized people in the history of the planet.

[OneBlueSky]

30. public apathy is an intentional by-product of capitalism . . .

to corporations and the governments they control, individuals are not citizens -- they are consumers . . . and that's all . . . and this identification is so pervasive and so dominant that even individual citizens consider themselves cosumers first, last, and always . . . they have no identity as "American citizens" other than that which involves shopping and buying, and earning (or otherwise acquiring) the money to do so . . .

when people view themselves as consumers rather than citizens, all of their concerns focus on consumer issues, and almost none on citizenship issues . . . it's just who they are -- because that is what they have been trained to be all of their lives . . . media coverage of world events is simply one more commodity that they purchase in order to convice themselves that they are "well informed" . . . what they don't realize is that the commoditized news they're buying with their cable tv and newspaper subscriptions is all designed to reinforce their consumer identities and negate their citizen identities -- and prevent them from thinking as citizens . . .

people who are consumers and not citizens are living in an artificial and false reality . . . eventually the real world will catch up to that false reality and shatter it into a million pieces . . . and that's when people will start thinking like citizens again . . .

I once read a quote by a Native American elder that summarizes this situation rather well . . . I don't recall who said it, and all I can do is paraphrase, but it was something like "Why is it that all the white man wants to do is trade? When does he live?" . . .

[rman]

31. The primary reason why people not doing their homework is a problem,

is because the big corporate MSM isn't doing its homework.

Realistically speaking, most people are just so busy with their job and family that they don't have the time to also be their own press agency - nor should they have to be their own press agency.