Sam Smith - The problem that Trump represents is mainly the result of changes in American behavior and culture that allowed him to triumph. Not alone, but key to these changes, are the deep corruption of media and the collapse of community values.
It is hard for those who watch NBC or read the NY Times to realize how many Americans define reality in no small part based on what they see on Fox News or read on the Internet. It's not that people are just wrongly comparing truth and lies; a stunning number of them are receiving falsehoods presented as facts - and then accepting them.
As for community, the decline in church attendance, boy and girl scouts, school teachers labor union membership are examples of what has happened to what used to be key to our cultural values, Just as one example, the percent of workers who are members of unions is about half of what was true forty years ago. I'm quite aware of these changes, thanks to moving to a small town in Maine about 14 years ago after living most of my life in Washington DC. Among the differences, no one like Donald Trump would do well here. Reality is too important. As I tell folks about local farming, the only bullshit you find there is on a field or in a barn.
It is unfortunately the decent news media that ignore factors like this because of a trade bias towards personalizing major changes. Thus America collectively collapses quietly while individuals get the blame. It's way overdue to spend more time on our collective collapses rather than just on those evil critters who make the most out of them.
1 comment:
Maybe we need score cards to separate the truth from the media driven propaganda and keep score on each media outlet.
Semper Paratus
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