The thought occurred to me the other day, that in the news, all that we ever hear about are the divisive issues, over and over again. To the point that it really makes you think that the news agencies are just propaganda machines delivering the daily fodder.

Which led to the thought, is there anything that we as citizens of the United States agree on? (As a collective).

Communism requires continuous crisis and revolution to survive.

We are "there".

anger, despair, hatred, anxiety, etc. are all way more monetizable emotions than their positive equivalents. people engage with stuff that pisses them off more than stuff that makes them joyful.

as long as we keep devouring the slop, the media companies will keep feeding it to us. recognize that they're manipulating your lizard brain to sell ads and rise above.

In reply to Old McDonald

Old McDonald said:

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anger, despair, hatred, anxiety, etc. are all way more monetizable emotions than their positive equivalents. people engage with stuff that pisses them off more than stuff that makes them joyful.

as long as we keep devouring the slop, the media companies will keep feeding it to us. recognize that they're manipulating your lizard brain to sell ads and rise above.

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only one side is devouring this slop. conservatives for the most part have moved on from the propaganda channels.

We live in the most racially diverse country in the world

Try that in the Gaza should be the next Jason Aldean song

In reply to Detmersdislocatedshoulder

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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only one side is devouring this slop. conservatives for the most part have moved on from the propaganda channels.

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lmao

The differences politically have always been there. But this intense social division to me really got ramped up at a geometric rate during Hussein's time as potus. This was his "fundamental change"

In reply to Buford T. Justice It's easy to identify it's all propaganda, and largely driven by social media, national media, and universities...how? I go about my daily life and all is relatively normal. Everybody gets along well.

The only place I really see crazies it when I visit big downtowns for business trips, or at airports & malls.

I'm strictly speaking socially. the proportion of people who are radical left & right in this country is still a relatively small %, but they get the most broadcast coverage. It's really odd.

Every member of the media could fall of the face of the earth and the world would be better for it.

Nobody is more responsible for where we are as a society than the media.

After watching the foreign aid bills pass without any border control for the USA I am convinced that it is a uniparty.

Team Red and Team Blue are singing songs out of the same hymnal.

In reply to Tumble Weed

Tumble Weed said:

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After watching the foreign aid bills pass without any border control for the USA I am convinced that it is a uniparty.

Team Red and Team Blue are singing songs out of the same hymnal.

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Two sides of the same coin. It is largely political theater, and nothing more. All our "leaders" really care about is retaining their positions of power and enriching themselves.

In regards to social media and some of these less than reputable news services feeding the political extremes in our country, it's a great way for malignant foreign governments to stir the pot.

As racially, socially, and politically diverse as we are; combined with our freedom of speech, we make a ripe target.

Stir….stir…….stir the pot.

In reply to Buford T. Justice

Buford T. Justice said:

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The thought occurred to me the other day, that in the news, all that we ever hear about are the divisive issues, over and over again. To the point that it really makes you think that the news agencies are just propaganda machines delivering the daily fodder.

Which led to the thought, is there anything that we as citizens of the United States agree on? (As a collective).

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Eighty-seven (87) of the NPR Washington office journalists are registered Democrats and Zero (0) are registered Republicans. Now do CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, etc. The majority of the main stream media is Democrat Leftists at odds with about half of the United States.

I don't know about yall, but what I hear on the news and what I experience in my daily life are two completely different countries. Yes I know things are not great in a lot of different ways, but it's no where near as bad as it sounds on the news.

In reply to HoustonAg2106

HoustonAg2106 said:

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I don't know about yall, but what I hear on the news and what I experience in my daily life are two completely different countries. Yes I know things are not great in a lot of different ways, but it's no where near as bad as it sounds on the news.

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Journalist make common sense "divisive" with their lies and fabrications.

Stick to the local news. At least they celebrate local birthdays. And we can all agree that the weather and traffic sucks.

In reply to Buford T. Justice

Buford T. Justice said:

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Which led to the thought, is there anything that we as citizens of the United States agree on? (As a collective).

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FJB!

In reply to Buford T. Justice

Buford T. Justice said:

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The thought occurred to me the other day, that in the news, all that we ever hear about are the divisive issues, over and over again. To the point that it really makes you think that the news agencies are just propaganda machines delivering the daily fodder.

Which led to the thought, is there anything that we as citizens of the United States agree on? (As a collective).

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People love to hate. It's human nature. The media is just giving people what they think they want.

In reply to oldag941

oldag941 said:

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Stick to the local news. At least they celebrate local birthdays. And we can all agree that the weather and traffic sucks.

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My local news is 10% local, 90% content generated by the network or the 100 station conglomerate that owns them

Its ridiculous to see a news reader breathlessly tell me of an event 1000 miles away, as if it occured nearby

Just as bad is the local anchor "talking to" "our Washington correspondant" and calling them by name, as if it werent canned content being repeated on 100s of local newscasts

In reply to CanyonAg77 That sucks. Ours is all local. Maybe 90% local. Dallas market.

In reply to oldag941 In Amarillo, the sports and weather are local, "news" is pretty useless

In reply to Buford T. Justice

Buford T. Justice said:

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The thought occurred to me the other day, that in the news, all that we ever hear about are the divisive issues, over and over again. To the point that it really makes you think that the news agencies are just propaganda machines delivering the daily fodder.

Which led to the thought, is there anything that we as citizens of the United States agree on? (As a collective).

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The bigger problem is this: those organizations push those stories because it's what people read/watch. This board is a great example. The ratio between divisive issues and bipartisanship is massive. The road to media solvency is littered with the bodies of "good news".

News orgs get money based on clicks and views. Stop drinking up divisive media, and you'll stop seeing it posted.

It also doesn't help that many of the links here are to fringe media sites or people freaking out about an article in the NYT about cicadas.

In reply to Buford T. Justice

Buford T. Justice said:

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The thought occurred to me the other day, that in the news, all that we ever hear about are the divisive issues, over and over again. To the point that it really makes you think that the news agencies are just propaganda machines delivering the daily fodder.

Which led to the thought, is there anything that we as citizens of the United States agree on? (As a collective).

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It is called "control by division" and everyone knows that the MSM is controlled by the Democrats. When I was assigned to a Corps of Engineer Research Lab, the Division Chief, a civilian, kept all of his Principle Investigators (PI), also civilians with Ph.Ds, at each others throats by spreading lies and misinformation. the reason I know this because he used it on me against the PI to which i was assigned to assist.

The reason I know this was that I took a more formal approach to him, which was a change in attitude and he noticed and asked what was going on. I explained to him what the Division Chief said to me that he had said and he bluntly stated that it was a lie (had to do with my performance) and he stated that he never uttered a negative thing to him but praised me for my work. That was when I figured out what the Division Chief's "modus operandi" was in controlling his Division.

But the paradox of it was even after explaining what the Division Chief was doing, I stated that he should go to the other PI and discuss what the Division Chief had said but he would not do it but seeth in his anger.

The only way to defeat this is for all sides to discuss what is happening but unfortunately, seething in anger is what people prefer.