One huge problem is that the media is owned by neoliberals. They don't cover themselves as a source of the problem, they think of themselves as conveyors of information. They don't get at the truth, they simply report the dispute. The result is "both sideism", distorting reality. I think the scariest news item I have seen lately is that ecosystems are no longer capturing more carbon than they emit. Will the media cover this, or will they focus on Trump fake dancing for 39 minutes? Is it just to scary to contemplate facts? So we react by supporting a farce?
Totally! The media has not been a true 4th Estate for quite some time, tho there are certainly still outlets that fill this void. Also, it is not that it is too scary to contemplate, it is that it is not profitable to contemplate, or seen as too risky to profit to pose contemplation to the viewers. Will you still sell ads? Cause you can guarantee ad sales for hate or love watching Trump. The media is not in the news business - they are in the ad sales business.
Here is an interview with Chris Hedges I really appreciate. Hedges has a gift of bringing out the best, and most painful points of truth in his guests.
Thank you for reviewing this book and i appreciate the review format! A written conversation...amazing!
I haven't yet read the book, but plan to. I would suggest the Wendy Brown book from a few years back "In the Ruins of Neoliberalism" if you haven't read it yet. I think this text is important context to understand how deeply APOLITICAL the neoliberal framework is and how far back it goes. The express intent of a global capitalism that just "runs" in the background while the populace is actively encouraged to think first (and only) of their immediate family (Milton Friedman and Thatcher), is covertly nihilistic messaging at best, deeply antisocial in its intent to force cultural disputes to the fore to allow economic power align with political power and be held outside of the reach of the people, and thus overtly apolitical. We no longer truly have a politic - it is all grievance and finger pointing (accept maybe on the true far left, but it is very small).
I have a problem as a materialist when one walks all the way up to the line but cannot acknowledge that this is a framework we choose to accept. History is littered with hinge points where the populace re-politicized...As a person serving in local elected office, it is a great antidote to an apolitical mindset - things must get done, and conflicts must get resolved for everyone's core needs to be met. The school has to open, the roads need to be plowed, the fires need to get put out - and we all agree that we must help each other do these things because "we care about our neighbors", sometimes at the expense of ourselves. From this initial step, it is not impossible to see the rebuilding of a sense of shared community beyond whomever literally lives next door.
I'd like to recommend the podcast 'Origin Story' with Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey, in general but particularly the episodes on Neoliberalism and Climate Change Denial.
I admire George Monbiot, can't always go along with everything he says and advocates, but he's infuriatingly right quite often and he always has the courage to a) insist that what people want to hear isn't always good enough and b) change his mind when necessary.
>>"As jobs dry up and people grow more frustrated at the ever diminishing services of our government, they become susceptible to the rantings of demagogues."
Perhaps people are just pissed off that an unaccountable, bloated, and inefficient federal bureaucracy which only exists to increase its own power at the expense of individual rights and freedoms continues to waste so much of our tax dollars on stupid shit and being pigeon holed into a "lowest bid wins" mentality.
>>"One of the big targets of this message [Reagan's famous most terrifying 9 words of "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"] has been schools and education."
Don't kid yourself, schools have been getting more and more money with ever-diminishing returns on investment. We have had decades now of high school students who graduate but can't read or write; they've been indoctrinated into programs like DEI, critical race theory, revisionist history, gender identity, and the like—yet don't know the 50 states that make up the U.S. republic, or the three branches of government, etc. ad nauseum. We don't want educated students, we want drones who will look to the government for dependency of their well-being. So when the GOP rails against the teachers' unions and failing schools, it's *precisely* because there's no skin in the game for failed teachers (and schools) to be held accountable. It's far easier to pass up the trash to the next grade than demand accountability and personal responsibility, especially from the parents. For example, there's a lawsuit in Massachusetts right now filed by a couple of rich, entitled whingers who are suing the teacher and school of their pwecious widdle screwup who got caught using ChatGPT to write a paper for his social studies class (and consequently screwed his chances of getting into Stanford):
This is what we get from a populace who takes no accountability or responsibility for their own actions but expects redress none the less, and which explains why—as a society who had the family structure vilified, demonized, and disincentivized—we cast off the yoke of mutual civility and assistance to fight poverty, care for the elderly and sick, get help for the addicted, and more by farming out the "dirty business" of being personally involved to the easier solution of "let the government do it for me."
What took its place? Narcissism and hedonism. We've quit books to watch Netflix and streaming content; we obsess about FOMO through social media, and promoted social media influencing as not just a legitimate but in fact *preferential* career choice to our youth. For decades we were told that to "get ahead" in life you HAD to go to college and that blue collar workers in the trades were uneducated, inbred illiterates. We've been told BY the coastal elites that everywhere inbetween is nothing but "flyover country" that's good for nothing and should be ignored. So as far as who is to blame, blame society for failing to be responsible citizens and guard against subversive, self-destructive behavior and loss of critical thinking skills, of failing to punish corruption and shunning evil, of being told that to speak out against a lie is to be guilty of an "-ism".
These are not the domain of the right, but rather, the delinquency of the far left.
One huge problem is that the media is owned by neoliberals. They don't cover themselves as a source of the problem, they think of themselves as conveyors of information. They don't get at the truth, they simply report the dispute. The result is "both sideism", distorting reality. I think the scariest news item I have seen lately is that ecosystems are no longer capturing more carbon than they emit. Will the media cover this, or will they focus on Trump fake dancing for 39 minutes? Is it just to scary to contemplate facts? So we react by supporting a farce?
Totally! The media has not been a true 4th Estate for quite some time, tho there are certainly still outlets that fill this void. Also, it is not that it is too scary to contemplate, it is that it is not profitable to contemplate, or seen as too risky to profit to pose contemplation to the viewers. Will you still sell ads? Cause you can guarantee ad sales for hate or love watching Trump. The media is not in the news business - they are in the ad sales business.
Here is an interview with Chris Hedges I really appreciate. Hedges has a gift of bringing out the best, and most painful points of truth in his guests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=see5c5Sgi14
Thank you for reviewing this book and i appreciate the review format! A written conversation...amazing!
I haven't yet read the book, but plan to. I would suggest the Wendy Brown book from a few years back "In the Ruins of Neoliberalism" if you haven't read it yet. I think this text is important context to understand how deeply APOLITICAL the neoliberal framework is and how far back it goes. The express intent of a global capitalism that just "runs" in the background while the populace is actively encouraged to think first (and only) of their immediate family (Milton Friedman and Thatcher), is covertly nihilistic messaging at best, deeply antisocial in its intent to force cultural disputes to the fore to allow economic power align with political power and be held outside of the reach of the people, and thus overtly apolitical. We no longer truly have a politic - it is all grievance and finger pointing (accept maybe on the true far left, but it is very small).
I have a problem as a materialist when one walks all the way up to the line but cannot acknowledge that this is a framework we choose to accept. History is littered with hinge points where the populace re-politicized...As a person serving in local elected office, it is a great antidote to an apolitical mindset - things must get done, and conflicts must get resolved for everyone's core needs to be met. The school has to open, the roads need to be plowed, the fires need to get put out - and we all agree that we must help each other do these things because "we care about our neighbors", sometimes at the expense of ourselves. From this initial step, it is not impossible to see the rebuilding of a sense of shared community beyond whomever literally lives next door.
I'd like to recommend the podcast 'Origin Story' with Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey, in general but particularly the episodes on Neoliberalism and Climate Change Denial.
I admire George Monbiot, can't always go along with everything he says and advocates, but he's infuriatingly right quite often and he always has the courage to a) insist that what people want to hear isn't always good enough and b) change his mind when necessary.
>>"As jobs dry up and people grow more frustrated at the ever diminishing services of our government, they become susceptible to the rantings of demagogues."
Perhaps people are just pissed off that an unaccountable, bloated, and inefficient federal bureaucracy which only exists to increase its own power at the expense of individual rights and freedoms continues to waste so much of our tax dollars on stupid shit and being pigeon holed into a "lowest bid wins" mentality.
>>"One of the big targets of this message [Reagan's famous most terrifying 9 words of "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"] has been schools and education."
Don't kid yourself, schools have been getting more and more money with ever-diminishing returns on investment. We have had decades now of high school students who graduate but can't read or write; they've been indoctrinated into programs like DEI, critical race theory, revisionist history, gender identity, and the like—yet don't know the 50 states that make up the U.S. republic, or the three branches of government, etc. ad nauseum. We don't want educated students, we want drones who will look to the government for dependency of their well-being. So when the GOP rails against the teachers' unions and failing schools, it's *precisely* because there's no skin in the game for failed teachers (and schools) to be held accountable. It's far easier to pass up the trash to the next grade than demand accountability and personal responsibility, especially from the parents. For example, there's a lawsuit in Massachusetts right now filed by a couple of rich, entitled whingers who are suing the teacher and school of their pwecious widdle screwup who got caught using ChatGPT to write a paper for his social studies class (and consequently screwed his chances of getting into Stanford):
https://www.foxnews.com/us/massachusetts-parents-sue-school-district-student-d-ai-social-studies-project
This is what we get from a populace who takes no accountability or responsibility for their own actions but expects redress none the less, and which explains why—as a society who had the family structure vilified, demonized, and disincentivized—we cast off the yoke of mutual civility and assistance to fight poverty, care for the elderly and sick, get help for the addicted, and more by farming out the "dirty business" of being personally involved to the easier solution of "let the government do it for me."
What took its place? Narcissism and hedonism. We've quit books to watch Netflix and streaming content; we obsess about FOMO through social media, and promoted social media influencing as not just a legitimate but in fact *preferential* career choice to our youth. For decades we were told that to "get ahead" in life you HAD to go to college and that blue collar workers in the trades were uneducated, inbred illiterates. We've been told BY the coastal elites that everywhere inbetween is nothing but "flyover country" that's good for nothing and should be ignored. So as far as who is to blame, blame society for failing to be responsible citizens and guard against subversive, self-destructive behavior and loss of critical thinking skills, of failing to punish corruption and shunning evil, of being told that to speak out against a lie is to be guilty of an "-ism".
These are not the domain of the right, but rather, the delinquency of the far left.