Why is the country is such a bad shape?

[nadinbrzezinski]

Well part of it is what passes for news... and it is truly propaganda.

Let me count the ways on how CNN has been showing us how government has failed in delivering aide to Haiti... oh never mind it is in ANOTHER country and the largest disaster ever.

Then we move to what editors chose to emphasize...

It could be Haiti... or your local teabagger. While the US Press has been busy showing us the failures of the US (and mistakes are always made) OTHER news organizations have shown the positive. Well, have ten tea baggers turn at a demonstration, and the press shows up. but a couple million anti war and it is like it never happened.

So you ask yourself, why the country is in such a bad shape? Partly our news, partly our historic isolationism, partly our willful ignorance... I forgot that old time religion too.

And yes this makes for a very easy to manipulate population...

So if you want change... real change, first thing you need to realize is that the RULING ELITE really doesn't want change... that is the first step. The second is education... the third... it will come down to the barricades I am afraid... and I have no idea who among the many groups in this country will get there first.

[Ardent15]

1. A combination of bad media, poor education, cynical, indifferent population,...

......and sleazy politicians who capitalize on it.

[timeforpeace]

2. You can't be serious trying to extrapolate media reporting on Haiti to the shape the entire United

States is in. That would be myopic in the extreme.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Were they there during the demonstrations against the war?

How did they emphasize the tea bagger movement? And have you actually dissected the AGENDA at play?

You think they have none?

It could be Haiti, or the local puppy... there IS AN AGENDA.

[RagAss]

4. Education...Check your subject line.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. It is multifactorial and it is ugly

Isn't it?

And now I have to finally wonder, who of the many groups in this country will reach for the barricades first.

[Goldstein1984]

5. Causes create symptoms, which themselves become causes

This is far too complex to address in a post, but culture is like climate, with initial causes that create effects which themselves become causes.

Anyone who tries to follow events in Latin America, especially events like those recently in Honduras, understands that the last place to look are the U.S. media. Tell me where a person gets their news about Hugo Chavez and Venezuela, and I will tell you what opinions about them they hold. Willful ignorance seeks sources of information that will not create cognitive dissonance, and the sources just reinforce ignorance.

Since ignorant people have fewer options, and people with fewer options are easier to manipulate, I will always suspect that ignorance of the masses is not a problem awaiting a solution, but the solution to a problem.

[Name removed]

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[nadinbrzezinski]

8. This is WHY this happens

Lets take the war for example. You did see the multiple demonstrations against it over the years... if you tuned to BBC.

So there is easy to manufacture consent... that is what the media if for.

Why it is easy to do the low tax shtick? A well oiled propaganda machine. Go ahead ask neighbors who pays for basic shit like their schools? Dime on the dollar most folks do not know WHERE that funding comes from, or for their roads. The police and fire... perhaps, but roads... dime on the dollar most people don't realize where it comes from. So it is easy to go... WE NEED lower taxes...

I could go on.

[Orsino]

9. We let money vote.

And are surprised to discover that it votes for itself, rather than for us.

Most of our other ills proceed from there.

[underpants]

10. Money. Media. and we have become a nation of children

You have people ON public plans protesting so that they can pay more for less and it gets covered like it is the majority opinion....and slowly it becomes the majority opinion because, you know, it is what EVERYONE IS DOING

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. We are a nation that is treated like children

that famous line from a movie.. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

Well we can... or maybe we can't...