Imagine for a minute that everything just came to a stop. All of it. Suddenly there was no work. No money. No cars on the road. Air pollution plummeted. Schools were closed. No one had to go to the office.
Everything stopped.
We all know right now that we don't need to imagine this because we're all currently living a variation of the above...or all of it. Maybe you lost your job because of the pandemic. Maybe you were told to work from home indefinitely. Maybe you're in a sort of limbo where you don't know how much longer you're going to have a job. Maybe you own a business and it was made to shut down. Maybe you were furloughed.
The point is that right now the world has drastically changed.
What if we find out tomorrow that we need to social distance for another month? What if we're told next week that this is how life is going to be until at least July...maybe longer?
What if, when this ends, in two years we experience an environmental crisis? Do you think we're ready to handle something like that?
It's no secret that we treat the planet like our personal dumping ground. We don't seem to care about it very much. Scientists have been warning us for some tome now - much like the ones warning of a pandemic - that something cataclysmic is going to happen environmentally and we don't seem to care. In fact, some of us (literally) laugh at the warnings.
What's going to change when this ends? Are people going to willingly begin pumping filth and exhaust back into the air like we were before? Do people still need to get into their cars in the morning, jam up the highways, bridges, tunnels, and roads to go sit in an office? It would appear that this has been completely and totally unnecessary for quite a while.
So why start doing it again when this ends?
What makes us think that we're above it all? What made us think that something like we're experiencing right now wasn't going to happen to us? Why did we believe that a global pandemic was out of the scope of reality?
I think it's because we haven't been living in reality for some time now. In the last fifteen years we have all become somewhat clueless and/or ignorant to the world around us. We have chosen to believe that none of us are connected. We look at politicians and rich people as if they're above it all - and they look down at us and think the same thing.
We also came to believe that we are separate from the environment. We don't believe we're a part of it. We think we're above it. We dump and pump filth and waste into the air, water, and soil like we own the place. Well - we don't own it. No one owns it. We're actually just another part of it - but we chose to stop believing that.
A virus is a natural biological thing. Think about that for a minute. It's not manmade. COVID-19 came from the natural world around us, and has brought the manmade world - literally - to its knees. A microscopic thing that you can't see or touch has bankrupted companies. It has taken your job. It shut down schools, universities, bars, and restaurants. It has cancelled concert tours and conventions. It shut down New York City. It cancelled graduations and proms. It wiped out 401K's, and it crushed the stock market.
It stopped everything.
What will it change though? How are we going to be better when it ends? Are we going to stop dumping filth and and waste into the air, atmosphere, oceans, rivers, streams, and lakes? Are we going to stop burying chemicals in the soil? Are we going to treat the natural world around us with the respect it deserves?
I think that we need to because I think that right now at this precise moment Mother Nature is sending us a very clear message: I don't need you.
Monday, April 13, 2020
The Pundit Effect
Recently the radio host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh announced he'd been diagnosed with lung cancer. I don't care what your political affiliations are, but this is horrific for anyone. I say this as someone who lost their mother to lung cancer when she was just fifty years old. Trust me when I say: No one deserves to go through this.
Due to this news, there's been a lot of discussion about Limbaugh - and his effect on American politics. To say that he has not changed the game completely is to say you have not been paying attention to American discourse for the last thirty years. After all it was Limbaugh who took the lightly acknowledged mindset of a liberally biased media and not only shoved it into the mainstream but can (and should be) directly acknowledged as the catalyst for Fox News. In fact, one could argue that you can draw a direct line from Limbaugh to Fox to Alex Jones to One America News to Sinclair Media to Breitbart...
You get the idea.
The thing with Rush is that he's not so much a well read intellectual high brow critic as much as he is a marketing genius. He did, after all, begin his career as a deejay who, typical to the profession, bounced around from station to station in an effort to gain prominence. He became disillusioned after a while and eventually changed gears to another career. When he eventually came back to radio, his timing was perfect.
Limbaugh returned to the air right after the Federal Communications Commission had repealed what was known as the Fairness Doctrine. This legislation had been in place since 1949 and served the sole purpose of making sure holders of broadcast licenses presented balanced views of controversial public issues. Basically, it said that radio and TV stations were required to give equal air time to both sides of an issue. When it was repealed (1987), the Fairness Act had been in existence for almost forty years. Its elimination meant that TV and radio stations were no longer obligated to present a balanced or differentiating perspective on anything.
Enter Rush Limbaugh.
In the time since, it is no secret what radio and TV "news" programming has morphed into. By and large they are simply spaces where pundits and/or personalities yell, scream, and berate the perspective that is not in agreement with their own. This is the Limbaugh model. He took to the airwaves and began delivering a message that essentially said "Don't listen to anyone but me". He made fun of the "mainstream media" and their biased perspective. He went as far as to call them outright liars. He began publishing his own newspaper of sorts - The Limbaugh Letter - and told his ever amassing audience to stop reading main stream newspapers and to, instead, read his (which one had to pay a subscription fee for).
This was all rolled into a narrative that chastised any perspective left of his. He didn't just criticize democrats, he vilified them. Since his station was under no obligation to present a different perspective or opinion, his word became Bible. And, perhaps most importantly, his audience grew.
Pretty soon the Rush Limbaugh Show was syndicated across the nation. America soon had a flourishing army of citizens who believed very little of what the "mainstream media" reported. They were good soldiers and didn't read the paper or watch TV news. They listened to Rush. Others saw dollar signs and soon, Fox News popped up. Their underlying message was (and still is) the same as Limbaugh's: Don't listen to anyone else. Fox featured their own Lihmbaugh-esque personalities who shouted the same message into the camera seven nights a week. Pretty soon there was a crossover and personalities like Sean Hannity not only had shows on Fox, but also radio shows. People could, literally, listen to Rush...or Sean...or Glenn...or Ann on the way to and from work then come home and watch/listen to them again on TV. The public were being bludgeoned with a message - and America was becoming more and more divided.
In addition, Americans were becoming less and less informed. We were not being very good democratic citizens - and how could we be? What was once an essential role of the news - keeping the citizenry of a democratic republic well informed - had morphed into a ratings game. Suddenly it had nothing to do with information and truth. What it did have to do with was advertising dollars and making money.
By the time the Internet age rolled around, the damage had been done and the door had been opened. The Internet didn't (still doesn't) have any guidelines for presenting fact or fiction. One can find entire websites and/or YouTube channels where complete lies and huge distortions are presented as "truth". This is how individuals like Alex Jones are able to present the inane and absurd lies he does. Because of him, grown educated adults believe nonsense like the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was perpetuated by "actors". According to Jones, no children actually died. The entire thing was a "false flag" staged by anti-gun activists. And while this sounds insane, people did (still do) believe it.
This mindset, and language, has made its way into the mainstream. Limbaugh (who has millions of daily listeners) has used the term "false flag" in his broadcasts and has moved into pushing inane conspiracy theories to his audience. The peddling of nonsense has overtaken society and has caused grown educated adults to believe things like the Pizzagate conspiracy. This was a theory that said Hillary Clinton (and other prominent Democrats) were running a child sex ring out of the basement of a Washington DC pizza parlor. And while this sounds absurd, the whole thing culminated with a Pizzagate believer showing up to the DC establishment with a gun and firing off a couple of shots in an effort to "save the children". It is because of complete nonsense like this that right now in America there is no consensus on what qualifies as "truth".
Thanks Rush.
There is no truth in America now and this should scare the hell out of everyone. Our system of government is reliant on many things, but perhaps greatest of all is a well informed populace. It is this well informed populace that elects the politicians who make the laws. But if this populace believes things like Pizzagate...I'd say we're in trouble. If this populace believes that vaccines cause autism (they don't) then people stop vaccinating their children and diseases once thought to be eradicated suddenly begin increasing. This happens despite pleas from scientists and the scientific community telling the populace this isn't true, but because there's a website(s) telling them otherwise, they don't listen. In fact, we're beginning to not listen to anyone.
I have friends who are avid Limbaugh listeners and/or Fox News watchers and they tell me things like all scientists are lying. Why? I ask "Because they don't want to lose their government funding" comes the response. These same people don't read a newspaper anymore and find my daily reading of the New York Times outwardly hilarious. They don't read books - unless they're written by people like Dinesh D'Souza or Ann Coulter. They don't go to the movies because they're all made by the "Hollywood liberal elite". They tell me (a school music teacher) that public school teachers can't be trusted. Why? I ask "Because they're all trying to indoctrinate our kids!" They don't trust college professors either. The only people they do trust are the ones who've been bludgeoning them over the head for the last thirty years.
Mind you, many of these individuals are highly educated people. They have at least a Bachelors degree. Some have an MA or have attended law school. Yet, they stand in front of me and repeat nonsense as fact. Not only that, they do so indignantly. They scoff at anything that involves critical thought or insight. I don't find it insulting, I actually find it terrifying.
This is what is preventing a critical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have grown men and women in the White House who don't believe in science. We have a President who pushes crazy conspiracy theories and who referred to the Coronavirus as the "latest Democrat hoax". Limbaugh himself told his (millions of) listeners the virus was "the common cold". It has reached that point. Now, people who were mere media characters, have enough power to sway a populace into believing things that could kill them. That's not only irresponsible, but outright criminal.
I am hoping when this madness ends, there will be a public reflection on our national sense of epistemology. What has happened to thought? What has happened to truth? How many people ended up in a hospital or, worse yet, morgue because they decided to listen to a voice on the radio? These individuals can no longer be allowed to spout unfettered nonsense on a daily basis without a sense of civic responsibility. If these individuals truly believed in America, they would stop doing what they're doing and encourage truth. They would encourage their listeners to investigate. They would encourage reading, listening, and the consideration of another perspective.
That's what democracy is.
Due to this news, there's been a lot of discussion about Limbaugh - and his effect on American politics. To say that he has not changed the game completely is to say you have not been paying attention to American discourse for the last thirty years. After all it was Limbaugh who took the lightly acknowledged mindset of a liberally biased media and not only shoved it into the mainstream but can (and should be) directly acknowledged as the catalyst for Fox News. In fact, one could argue that you can draw a direct line from Limbaugh to Fox to Alex Jones to One America News to Sinclair Media to Breitbart...
You get the idea.
The thing with Rush is that he's not so much a well read intellectual high brow critic as much as he is a marketing genius. He did, after all, begin his career as a deejay who, typical to the profession, bounced around from station to station in an effort to gain prominence. He became disillusioned after a while and eventually changed gears to another career. When he eventually came back to radio, his timing was perfect.
Limbaugh returned to the air right after the Federal Communications Commission had repealed what was known as the Fairness Doctrine. This legislation had been in place since 1949 and served the sole purpose of making sure holders of broadcast licenses presented balanced views of controversial public issues. Basically, it said that radio and TV stations were required to give equal air time to both sides of an issue. When it was repealed (1987), the Fairness Act had been in existence for almost forty years. Its elimination meant that TV and radio stations were no longer obligated to present a balanced or differentiating perspective on anything.
Enter Rush Limbaugh.
In the time since, it is no secret what radio and TV "news" programming has morphed into. By and large they are simply spaces where pundits and/or personalities yell, scream, and berate the perspective that is not in agreement with their own. This is the Limbaugh model. He took to the airwaves and began delivering a message that essentially said "Don't listen to anyone but me". He made fun of the "mainstream media" and their biased perspective. He went as far as to call them outright liars. He began publishing his own newspaper of sorts - The Limbaugh Letter - and told his ever amassing audience to stop reading main stream newspapers and to, instead, read his (which one had to pay a subscription fee for).
This was all rolled into a narrative that chastised any perspective left of his. He didn't just criticize democrats, he vilified them. Since his station was under no obligation to present a different perspective or opinion, his word became Bible. And, perhaps most importantly, his audience grew.
Pretty soon the Rush Limbaugh Show was syndicated across the nation. America soon had a flourishing army of citizens who believed very little of what the "mainstream media" reported. They were good soldiers and didn't read the paper or watch TV news. They listened to Rush. Others saw dollar signs and soon, Fox News popped up. Their underlying message was (and still is) the same as Limbaugh's: Don't listen to anyone else. Fox featured their own Lihmbaugh-esque personalities who shouted the same message into the camera seven nights a week. Pretty soon there was a crossover and personalities like Sean Hannity not only had shows on Fox, but also radio shows. People could, literally, listen to Rush...or Sean...or Glenn...or Ann on the way to and from work then come home and watch/listen to them again on TV. The public were being bludgeoned with a message - and America was becoming more and more divided.
In addition, Americans were becoming less and less informed. We were not being very good democratic citizens - and how could we be? What was once an essential role of the news - keeping the citizenry of a democratic republic well informed - had morphed into a ratings game. Suddenly it had nothing to do with information and truth. What it did have to do with was advertising dollars and making money.
By the time the Internet age rolled around, the damage had been done and the door had been opened. The Internet didn't (still doesn't) have any guidelines for presenting fact or fiction. One can find entire websites and/or YouTube channels where complete lies and huge distortions are presented as "truth". This is how individuals like Alex Jones are able to present the inane and absurd lies he does. Because of him, grown educated adults believe nonsense like the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was perpetuated by "actors". According to Jones, no children actually died. The entire thing was a "false flag" staged by anti-gun activists. And while this sounds insane, people did (still do) believe it.
This mindset, and language, has made its way into the mainstream. Limbaugh (who has millions of daily listeners) has used the term "false flag" in his broadcasts and has moved into pushing inane conspiracy theories to his audience. The peddling of nonsense has overtaken society and has caused grown educated adults to believe things like the Pizzagate conspiracy. This was a theory that said Hillary Clinton (and other prominent Democrats) were running a child sex ring out of the basement of a Washington DC pizza parlor. And while this sounds absurd, the whole thing culminated with a Pizzagate believer showing up to the DC establishment with a gun and firing off a couple of shots in an effort to "save the children". It is because of complete nonsense like this that right now in America there is no consensus on what qualifies as "truth".
Thanks Rush.
There is no truth in America now and this should scare the hell out of everyone. Our system of government is reliant on many things, but perhaps greatest of all is a well informed populace. It is this well informed populace that elects the politicians who make the laws. But if this populace believes things like Pizzagate...I'd say we're in trouble. If this populace believes that vaccines cause autism (they don't) then people stop vaccinating their children and diseases once thought to be eradicated suddenly begin increasing. This happens despite pleas from scientists and the scientific community telling the populace this isn't true, but because there's a website(s) telling them otherwise, they don't listen. In fact, we're beginning to not listen to anyone.
I have friends who are avid Limbaugh listeners and/or Fox News watchers and they tell me things like all scientists are lying. Why? I ask "Because they don't want to lose their government funding" comes the response. These same people don't read a newspaper anymore and find my daily reading of the New York Times outwardly hilarious. They don't read books - unless they're written by people like Dinesh D'Souza or Ann Coulter. They don't go to the movies because they're all made by the "Hollywood liberal elite". They tell me (a school music teacher) that public school teachers can't be trusted. Why? I ask "Because they're all trying to indoctrinate our kids!" They don't trust college professors either. The only people they do trust are the ones who've been bludgeoning them over the head for the last thirty years.
Mind you, many of these individuals are highly educated people. They have at least a Bachelors degree. Some have an MA or have attended law school. Yet, they stand in front of me and repeat nonsense as fact. Not only that, they do so indignantly. They scoff at anything that involves critical thought or insight. I don't find it insulting, I actually find it terrifying.
This is what is preventing a critical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have grown men and women in the White House who don't believe in science. We have a President who pushes crazy conspiracy theories and who referred to the Coronavirus as the "latest Democrat hoax". Limbaugh himself told his (millions of) listeners the virus was "the common cold". It has reached that point. Now, people who were mere media characters, have enough power to sway a populace into believing things that could kill them. That's not only irresponsible, but outright criminal.
I am hoping when this madness ends, there will be a public reflection on our national sense of epistemology. What has happened to thought? What has happened to truth? How many people ended up in a hospital or, worse yet, morgue because they decided to listen to a voice on the radio? These individuals can no longer be allowed to spout unfettered nonsense on a daily basis without a sense of civic responsibility. If these individuals truly believed in America, they would stop doing what they're doing and encourage truth. They would encourage their listeners to investigate. They would encourage reading, listening, and the consideration of another perspective.
That's what democracy is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)