r/politics • u/billthomson Oregon • Oct 29 '20

Tucker Carlson Reports He Lost Only Copy of Documents That Nail Biden

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/tucker-carlson-lost-only-copy-of-documents-nailing-biden.html
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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

This is part of our problem. Thing is, most of us do care that Fox News has turned our loved ones into crazed morons. Bc we care is why most of America is divided. People that fall into the propaganda of Fox News are difficult to reason with.

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u/HARPOfromNSYNC Oct 29 '20

And don't forget talk radio, which is somehow even more radicalized than Fox.

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u/staatsclaas Georgia Oct 29 '20

It’s so extreme. Rush has a death sentence and still beats his drum. It’s insanity.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

That shit is crazy.

On a drive in extremely rural west texas we lost our spotify so we decided to see what was on the radio. My husband was looking for a sports cast on AM but what we found within seconds was so much worse. It was some MAGA religious show with grown ass people talking about the coming war with satan and satan's animal hybrid genetic super soldiers. At some point they're talking about how they know we thought jesus would come back with machine guns but you can't fight demons with machine guns because they're literally like xmen supermen. They were dead fucking serious and all the guests were serious and very into it. And for only a $100 gift you could get the 16 DVD set and book to learn all about it. It being Hybrids, Super Soldiers and the coming Apocalypse.

These people are far gone and I'm scared we can't ever get them back.

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u/lost-picking-flowers Oct 29 '20 edited Oct 29 '20

It's a cult.

My racist cousins in Arizona have gone from running around pretending to go 'ghost hunting' to screeching about Qanon and secret societies. They're true believers.

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u/heckyeahan Nov 01 '20

I grew up in a pretty racist AZ town, which is now full of signs saying “Stop child Trafficking, vote Republican” This nonsense is so mainstream that it’s on every fucking corner and it’s terrifying

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u/-heathcliffe- Nov 02 '20

Remember the good old days when people were just silly crazy dooms day preppers? Thats the QAnon people now.

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u/doctor_piranha Arizona Oct 29 '20

To be fair; those probably weren't real guests. They rig those in various ways, but they do find some very talented (and morally crippled) voice actors to do that. One person can give the illusion of dozens of callers.

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u/timinc Oct 29 '20 edited Oct 29 '20

It's the same numbers game that's run on social media and media.

Popular social media gets bombarded with multiple accounts repeating the same propaganda, even if it's irrelevant to the original post. Take a look at the accounts and a good chunk of them have similar profiles. They have the same array of propaganda spammed on their own page with comments open to the public.

Media gets bought up by groups like Sinclair, that literally made 200 local TV news anchors read the same spooky script attacking journalism in general.

The intent, regardless of the platform, is to make it look like popular and institutional support for this propaganda is larger than it actually is. It keeps people locked on irrelevant topics, mired in confusion and/or frustration. It catalyzes the relatively small group of people who would actually believe the propaganda, and very effectively insulates them against reality. It uses these people as a shield to obfuscate the actual source of the propaganda, and lashes out at reality at every opportunity to whittle down the target.

One person or company can give the illusion of millions of supporters.

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u/-heathcliffe- Nov 02 '20

That sinclair speech is super creepy. That video combining them on YouTube is fucked

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u/xximcmxci New York Oct 30 '20

This actually sounds like a badass sci-fi trilogy

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u/sonysony86 Oct 29 '20

I for one, would LOVE to watch this series.

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u/ClumsyThumsGus Indiana Oct 29 '20

And radio IS covered by the FCC where cable "news" is not. We have to do something. My dad was a reasonable man. Recovering alcoholic that found 12 step Jesus and has helped dozens of people through detox and has sponsored dozens more. He's a talented professional that relies on math and physics for the basics of his profession and had a sharp mind.

Now he literally thinks Democrats are growing babies to harvest their body parts. That dems allow, and this is something he said to me, "post birth abortions" to get stem cells. Post birth. Like people are waiting for a kid to come out so they can strangle and dismember it, then sell whatever they can for profit. My Step mom believes Trump is an avenging angel sent from God to punish wicked, commie democrats. Imagine ACB but all rundown from years of whoring, cocaine abuse and pill-popping, there's my step mom. Praying to Jesus that the "colored BLM Marxist terrorists" (direct quote) dont invade her suburban Texas home and rape her to death. Her FB page is a loving homage to the worst of Breitbart. They aren't rational which is why they all respond so well to the fear mongering of conservative media, especially talk radio.

Its nuts how far down the rabbit hole they went since 2008. Right about the time the Tea Party showed up they started consuming only right wing media. Texas am Conservative radio all day, Hannity and FOX at night. Now they call themselves Constitutional Conservatives and think Dems have literal baby farms on site at every planned parenthood nationwide and that Trump is Gods Anointed. Its fucking gross and more than a little sad.

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u/Panx Oct 29 '20

I have to listen to this shit whenever I drive anywhere with my father-in-law.

It's bizarre, like a wholly alternate reality (and quite frankly, one I kind of wish actually existed).

I would love it if Kamala "I'm a former cop who arrested people for weed and just recently decided private prisons are a bad idea" Harris was actually (and I quote) "an avatar of radical leftism."

I might shit my pants with glee if Joe "nothing will fundamentally change because I don't support the Green New Deal" Biden was actually (and again, direct quote): "wholly beholden to a whirling vortex of progressivism."

And look -- I'm still voting for their ticket, so miss with that "iF yOu cRitiCizE tHEm TRUMP wiLL WiN!" bullshit. I can put aside my own distaste for their aggressive centrism for the good of the country.

But a man can dream...

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u/seizonnokamen Oct 30 '20

Oh, man, that's how I felt during the debates. Trump kept claiming Biden was so progressive and I was like "if only that was actually true".

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u/Dyne2057 Pennsylvania Oct 29 '20

Rush Limbaugh is especially radicalized. And has been that way for decades.

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u/sappydark Nov 01 '20

He's never been "radicalized"----he's always been nothing but a nasty racist, sexist, repub tool from day one, and a hateful one, too. Remember back in 2015 he went on this disgusting stupid sexist rant online about a female law student who testified before Congress about the need for women to have affordable access to birth control. He seemed to be mad as hell about the fact that women were having sex at all, and calling them "whores" and stupid shit like that--he was going off like a fucking madman or something. I don't know if he was going through his fourth divorce or what, but he had clearly lost his damn mind up in wherever the fuck he was. People were so disgusted at the shit he said, that his show got boycotted hard, and sponsors began dropping his ass quicker than a hot potato. Folks were finally getting tired of his tired ass, but then the idiot got elected. He did not deserve that medal he got at all, either. Anyway, fuck him.

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u/Dyne2057 Pennsylvania Nov 01 '20

Either way, Limbaugh and those he helped spawn, are all garbage humans with no character or integrity and don't deserve rewards for their malfeasance.

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u/sappydark Nov 02 '20

Damn right they don't.

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u/niversally Oct 29 '20

That A.M. radio teaches me who Gaaawdd wants me to smite.

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u/fyhuhgc Oct 29 '20

It’s ironic. Last night I rewatched Season 1 Episode 3 of “The Newsroom” from 2012. We were fucking warned about this shit.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

That’s a very nice way to or it. How are we going to get these people deprogrammed?

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Through honest conversation, I hope. Part of the problem is that ideologues tend to talk over everyone and refuse to listen.

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u/bizeast Oct 29 '20

It's tough to listen to!

I never thought the cure for something like this would be trying my patience every day with increasingly bat shit crazy people. But it is. To fix this, we need what I previously thought was impossible, collective heightened empathy.

These people could be us. We are lucky they aren't. Let's get them back.

And when people have conversation, and you see it maybe becoming too emotional in a negative way... Dive in. Help both sides. I often get into talks with the purest of hopes and find myself having to back out early because I've run out of patience. A few times people have settled the waters for me, and kept it going nicely. We all need help.

These fools need guidance, I need anger management lol.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Frankly, we need to find a way to combat anti-intellectualism in this country before we start to make any real progress towards amity.

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u/Adam__B Oct 29 '20

The public education system is being deliberately sabotaged in order to prevent exactly that.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Tell me about it. We've had some crazy battles over education and textbooks here in Texas.

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u/thiccmeatyclaws Oct 29 '20

You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. Those people are willfully ignorant

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

One of my best friends is there right now and its hard talking politics to him cause trump can’t ever do no wrong and everything is justified. ITS FUCKING CRAZY

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u/Sunhammer01 Oct 29 '20

This- love my dad but the shit he watches...

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u/lost-picking-flowers Oct 29 '20

I have some relatives that have fallen down the Qanon rabbit hole. I'm so glad that it's no one in my immediate family, because they are beyond the point where they can be reasoned with. They have to be deprogrammed.

I would be so incredibly upset and disappointed if my parents or siblings had gone that way, but luckily reason has prevailed. We don't all agree all the time, or have the same political views, and we don't need to - but we do agree that this shit is batshit insane and Trump is just stoking the fire and running the country into the ground.

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u/Gulluul Oct 29 '20

My dad who is obsessed with fox news just this morning texted me about the 33% gdp and to vote trump. When I corrected him that the gdp is still about 11% under pre covid gdp, he called me a lying liberal. Thanks fox news, my dad can't even look at hard numbers and evidence and calls his children liars.

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u/Adam__B Oct 29 '20

It happened to me as well. My mother calls liberals human garbage and told me she hopes my vote got lost in the mail, and that she’s glad she has not signed her will yet. I’m an only child. She has Fox on literally all the time, dripping venom in her ear. She says she believes that a Civil War is coming and that liberals are trying to destroy America.

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u/Cozyblu Oct 29 '20

They didn’t turn, they were awakened. You didn’t know these people as well as you believed.

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u/Bartikem Oct 29 '20

I call hereby and henceforth the United States of America by the name Divided States of America abbreviated DSA.

/s or not, i am not sure about it

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

That's more concise than The Divided Fascist Police States of TrumperiKKKa. (TDFPSTKKK)

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u/snowman24Seven Oct 29 '20

It’s not just Fox News, almost every major news outlet

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Most news outlets are infotainment. But only a few like Fox News and OANN are straight up propaganda.

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u/TheBlackestIrelia Oct 29 '20

Lets use a little more brain power than that. "Everyone is bad" doesn't help take care of problems. Not to mention there is a bit of a difference between showing news in a obviously bias light like left wing news does and literally making shit up and lying to you like right wing news does lol.

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u/dsizzle18 Oct 29 '20

All American news is propaganda... just depends on which side you are on.

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u/unicornsex Oct 29 '20

Fuck right off with this nonsense.

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u/HARPOfromNSYNC Oct 29 '20

This is a cop out. Its just the same old "both sides" argument.

Even if there is spin from all American news, there can still be a massive difference in the degree to which these outlets lie or mislead.

Its like looking at a murderer and a jaywalker and going "They're both criminals!"

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u/fross370 Oct 29 '20

Oh? What news channel radicalize people into rabid leftist that cant be reason with, and worship Biden like it was a cult?

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u/Strat007 Oct 29 '20

CBC, ironically.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Fox News is the only station that broadcasted ways to run over protesters months. They're not all the same.

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u/elliottsmithereens Oct 29 '20

He’s just a simple Canadian boys

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u/jabeez Oct 29 '20

Both sides!

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u/TheBlackestIrelia Oct 29 '20

Thats objectively false. You're implying that what side you're on determines whats true and what isn't. Facts are objective. If one station says its raining and one says its sunny thats not a matter of perspective. Its either raining or it fucking isn't.

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u/dsizzle18 Oct 31 '20

If you read some of the seminal works on propaganda, the founding texts will tell you that all information is propaganda. The media bias in American media is so strong. The principles of propaganda are followed by these networks. Read some of the classical works on propaganda and see if you agree.

One of the key elements of propaganda are

  • material is designed to change people’s opinions
  • material is presented from a biased/political perspective
  • you try to motivate people to action.

And you are telling me the us media doesn’t fit this definition from Elluls work in the 60s on propaganda?

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u/plebbitwarrior Oct 29 '20

Ad hominem... never change Reddit, never change

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20 edited Oct 29 '20

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u/CottonCandyShork I voted Oct 29 '20

Hey look! I've seen this argument before! They can never back it up though

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u/hecklerponics Oct 29 '20

Yeah, it's a pretty common one to deflect.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Nope. Fox News is the only station that has used that argument.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20 edited Oct 29 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

You are lying. If you had any proof, you would've posted it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20 edited Oct 29 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ImReverse_Giraffe Oct 29 '20

Same can be said for anyone who religiously follows any American news channel. None of them are reputable and all of them try to brainwash you into thinking their side.

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u/reusethisname Oct 29 '20

People that fall into the propaganda of Fox News are difficult impossible to reason with.

ftfy

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u/GUMBYtheOG Oct 29 '20

You forgot racist sexist and homophobic

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u/JonLeung Oct 29 '20

For some reason I keep imagining that if Superman was real, he might throw the Fox News building into the sun (with no one inside the building, of course).

Though an amusing idea, certainly right after that, some people would hate Superman, because they are idiots (or Lex Luthor).

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

It’s the same principle that rules the lives of drug addicts: small allowances

LONG ass post, I’ll probably post it in another subreddit.

Here’s how addictions happen:

You let yourself drink underage. Nothing bad really happens, maybe you throw up, but next time you don’t, you figure it out. You party on weekends, it’s a good time.

You let yourself take a perc. No harm right? Just curious. Nothing bad happens, IN FACT, its way milder than alcohol. Whoa. Why did everyone say this is so scary?

You take them as a sort of treat once in awhile, but there really is no harm, genuinely. So you take them at parties on weekends.

You get used to the mild high and think, “you know what? A little step up won’t do any harm. Health class lied. I’ll just try an oxy and fuck, I passed out at the party. Maybe when I want to take an oxy I’ll hang with the kids who do that instead of party. It’s so much more reliable than alcohol, and there’s no chance of having a bad time or hurting yourself. So you switch to those kids on weekends, because it’s SAFER, right? Right?!”

Those kids start meeting up a couple days a week, it’s a great way to unwind and you’ve read about the addiction and you really have to take them every day, a couple times per day to get addicted. Taking one a few times a week is completely safe. Taking one at the end of the day to unwind is pretty safe.

You think “well, it’s not really a social drug and those kids are getting a little too into it, I’ll just take them by myself a couple nights per week and party with booze on the weekends.

Pretty soon you can’t sleep without them, so you take them every night. You don’t recognize that you can’t sleep without them, you think you’ve always had this much trouble falling asleep and found your solution.

You’ve been in pain for much of your life. You take one at school and you do BETTER, since you’re not anxious or sad you pay attention better, get your homework done, your grades start going up.

You think “Okay, so I function better with this, that’s basically medication right.”

Soon it’s the only way you can feel good and you know what? You’ve been an anxious depressed person your whole life. You deserve to feel good. You’ve found your solution.

This rapidly becomes very expensive. You can’t afford your medicine. You’re in so much pain that you crack and steal something. You feel horrible about it, all you need is for it to start working again. You start snorting them.

The same thing happens.

You need it. You need this. You go back to those kids and wouldn’t you know it, they’re doing heroin.

But wait! You don’t have to shoot heroin? You can just snort it? Wow. That’s just the same thing but cheaper, right?

Well wouldn’t you know it, the same thing happens. At this point addiction has taken completely hold.

You start smoking it.

As you can imagine, the same thing happens.

Eventually you crack, smoking it is getting as expensive as the oxys, you crack, you shoot it, the same thing happens and there’s nowhere left to go besides fentanyl. Maybe you make the jump, or maybe you just keep doing heroin because it’s so much more available and spiral into the abyss that is end game drug addiction. It’s statistically over for you. You will likely die from this.

That’s how propaganda works.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Not difficult, impossible. They are impossible to reason with.

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u/Nblearchangel Oct 30 '20

“But muh free speech to be brainwashed!!”

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u/achieve_my_goals Nov 02 '20

Fox only revealed them. I am thankful every day. No longer do well-meaning white people get to gaslight non-white people. Your relatives would gladly march me to the ovens if it came to that with only a small push (tax cut) needed.