Freebasing Fear

Bob, frist off you need to remember that its a mock news show on Comedy Central, not the 6 o’clock news on CBS. Second, don’t you think that the Colbert audience would be a bit smarter than to go insane after one of his interviews? Give them a bit more credit please.There was no fear mongering in the exchange, mock fear mongering maybe, but not real hardcore, Fox news, scary music, big flashy graphics fear mongering. Its Comedy Central for crying out loud.

@ZaphodClearly Colbert was joking and this post really has nothing to do with him — however, Graham’s duct tape remark wasn’t a joke.Seriously, aren’t you sick of talk like that? Eight years of orange alerts and duct tape was enough for me — irrespective of show, network or format.

Sure that kind of talk is always disturbing, but at this point most sane people ignore that crap anyways. I believe that the recent election results show that the “fear factor” no longer plays. Outside of the wingnut, loony, daft base of ignoramuses that call themselves republicans, no one is buying the fear they may try to sell.

Zap, if you read this…elected officials are held to a different (higher) standard on political discourse than any teevee personality…I think you agree. Just saying “so what I had a gun and fired it in a crowd? It wasn’t loaded, noone got hurt” is unacceptable behavior in any context.That’s the point Mr. The Bob was making. Get it?

Okay, Americans need to quit idolizing the t.v. So many people see something repeated on the propaganda box and they believe it, even if what they are hearing directly refutes the knowledge they actually possess.”Up is down.”"Up is down.”"Up is down.”"Nine out of ten dentists recommend our toothpaste”;”Car and driver car of the year” (they give out a million of those);”George Bush is the next President of the United States of America” (oops);”Too big to fail”;”Iraq has weapons of mass destruction” (oops again);”Mission Accomplished” (twice oops).Are we seeing a pattern? And it’s not just the last few years, the entire 20th Century was building to this moment.Just because the television says be afraid of this or that, our first reaction should involve scrutinizing the source for conflicts of interest. Then we should remember that television providing information is inherently a conflict of interest because television’s number one purpose is to sell you lots of stuff. And I know many people don’t want to hear this, but maybe we should just be turning the television off. With the advent of the internet we have a much more egalitarian and just plain better form of communication. Television is people talking (or yelling) at you. It’s one way. And it can tell you that everyone else thinks and feels the way it feels, and no one has an opportunity to communicate a different message. And everyone else around you has heard the same things so it becomes the crux of a whole paradigm. Conversely, the internet is a democratic– while still imperfect– form of communicating. There isn’t a central voice. It’s many conversations (back and forth) at the same time. And you can still watch your shows.Point being, maybe if we all stop putting so much stock in what the t.v. says we can pull our country back from the precipice. We’re already in debt for at least a generation. If we keep listening to the mouthpieces of the Super-Rich on t.v. our great-great grandchildren will be paying off our debt and fighting for survival while the progeny of the wealthy frolic at their summer home in Sweden (or where ever is tolerable in the final livable years before global warming wipes us out). Let’s at least put up a fight.