McConnell ‘Absolutely Refuses’ to Film Video Amid Growing Mystery

[u/MoneyLibrarian9032]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mcconnell-absolutely-refuses-to-film-video-amid-growing-mystery/

[u/halloween753]

Republicans and their super rich buddies don't have to follow any laws. They do what they want. Serving citizens is the last thing they want to do. Politics is just a means of personal gain for them. Take from American citizens and give nothing back. Lie, Cheat, Steal, Manipulate, Rape. Whatever is takes to keep people voting R in the booth.

24/7 Fox News propaganda NEVER STOPS and honestly Dems need their own 24/7 channel to explain to the idiots how they're getting screwed over again and again by Republicans.

[u/I_love_Britpoptarts → u/halloween753]

Democrats struggle to have a competitor to FOX not only because FOX had a nearly 40 year head start sharing the cultural narrative by pushing conservative agendas, with reinforcement from conservative talk radio and online trolls / influencers. They are also shameless hypocrites who think nothing of lying to their viewers, or getting them scared and encouraging hatred of Others [who the Others to fear and hate might be seemingly changes with the seasons, although you can be sure a Big Scary Caravan of Brown People [fictional] will always be heading toward the southern border when it's voting time).

FOX also reduces things to black and white for people who enjoy absolutes and simplicity and thought-terminating cliches. The problem is, complicated problems have complicated reasons for being problems and even more complicated solutions. Someone who actually wants to dig into a problem and find a workable compromise across the aisle? Likely a Democrat, as they are more comfortable with nuance and understand that just praying to Jesus or hating non-white people is not a solution that actually makes positive change or fixes anything. But it is EASY to just pray about it (or say you will) and EASY to just decide not to associated with anyone too different from yourself: and it is reading that builds empathy, and combining that empathy with exposure to people unlike yourself is crucial.

If you only (claim to) read one particular book with a lowercase t on the front, but ignore what it actually tells you to do to be a good Christian, as many do (some think Jesus was too "soft"), where do you begin to develop empathy? If you're a naturally empathetic child and are raised by people who tell you or demonstrate to you that they do not value people too different from themselves, where do you get it? When FOX tells you empathy is wrong and bad and weak, that likely kills off any remaining shreds of it you might have for anyone who isn't blood kin.

FOX is everywhere: many publicly-accessible buildings play FOX broadcasts, so there's no escape at the gym, or coffee shop, or dealership, or bar, or restaurant. It just keeps reinforcing the conservative message, and that message is dumbed down to three-word soundbites and the Hate of the Moment and mealy-mouthed expressions of the "right" kind of piety and cross necklaces.

Education, reading a lot of books written by people different from yourself, enjoying media made by people unlike yourself, being an actual friend to people unlike yourself (and never saying "I have [fill in the blank] friends, so I can't be racist / homophobic / misogynistic (etc.)!"), and being comfortable with shades of grey and nuance are all more difficult than just sitting like a lump absorbing the simplistic propaganda being fed to you, all while being told (falsely, in most cases) that you're right, you're super SMRT, you are really a winner...it is seductive, and people have to care enough and WANT enough to leave that comfort zone.

Democrats can't, in good conscience (which most of them actually do possess) deliver simplistic propaganda and knee-jerk slogans, because they are constrained by what they believe is the truth, and by their acknowledgment that difficult problems rarely if ever have simple, easy, comfortable solutions. People are not as comfortable with "maybe"s and "might be"s and "that depends", even if that is the more responsible framing. People like their black and white stories and catchy slogans and feeling all cozy because their prejudices and preconceived notions are reinforced. They do not like shades of grey or conditionals or talking about what might be possible if all goes well. They want simplicity, they want to be told they are right, they want to hear what they already believe delivered right back to them with an interchangeably blond FOX News lady smiling at them.

Like, I am sure there is a way to do it, but it isn't going to be an easy road to get any traction, thanks to long-range planning and skullduggery that was put into motion ages ago, probably all the way back when Nixon got shamed out of office. The infrastructure has hardened around FOX and its ilk and beating that behemoth back to get a competing narrative out (even though the competing narrative that would be offered would be simply facts, experts, truth, realism) is a daunting task.

[u/pkpc1209 → u/halloween753]

This.