Vanquish
Vanquisher of shills
- Aug 14, 2009
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What I wonder is if the rhetoric is really any different then it was 50 or 100 years ago or if we've fundamentally changed how we view things.
In the past opinions evolved based on debate, based on newspapers, based on books. More and more it seems that opinion is based on short talking points, bumper stickers, 10-second sound bites, tweets, etc..., etc... In the past we examined issues, now we use marketing techniques to grab for attention.
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Time magazine did an article about how things used to be just as bad back in the day. Can't remember the title or the author...sorry. But like you, I just don't buy that. I think that this has to be the worst it's ever been...if only for the change in our culture where "anything goes" these days.
We went through a weird period of history...after a period where all news came from partisan rags (especially in the west half of the country, but certainly in the east, too)...to a point where we agreed that being non-partisan/objective was the ideal. We're back to partisanry...and I don't think we'll ever make it back.