Trump

[Kung Wu]

This is not how a civil society operates.

He is pulling literally tens of thousands of people from all cross sections of life to his events. I think you are better than to judge thousands and thousands of people based on the actions of a few, but maybe not.

Also, "the media" are 99% in Hillary's camp and have been caught straight up lying. Think they are above embellishing just a little?

[Play Angry]

Americans on both sides do not want anything close to objective news - they want their own views reinforced by their preferred source, and they want to hear that anything that doesn't line up with that worldview is malicious bullshit and the result of a vast conspiracy against them. Folks on both the right and left are generally too stupid or lazy (or both) to confirm the veracity of sources or individual stories and as a result they parrot some of the dumbest crap imaginable in an echo-chamber of like-minded imbeciles who will never refute the absurdities they take as gospel.

It is a depressing reality.

[Kung Wu]

Americans on both sides do not want anything close to objective news - they want their own views reinforced by their preferred source, and they want to hear that anything that doesn't line up with that worldview is malicious bullshit and the result of a vast conspiracy against them. Folks on both the right and left are generally too stupid or lazy (or both) to confirm the veracity of sources or individual stories and as a result they parrot some of the dumbest crap imaginable in an echo-chamber of like-minded imbeciles who will never refute the absurdities they take as gospel.

It is a depressing reality.

I disagree somewhat. I think the average _working_ American works their ass off and does their best to give what is left to their family.

I think the average American just doesn't have the time to sift through a MASSIVE overload of misinformation that is spewed at them from every direction. Too often, what was once a trusted source no longer is. It takes time for people to figure that out. Then no matter where you look, it is very difficult to find alternative/new trusted sources and unless you have a boring job that affords the time to goof off, it is simply overwhelming to most people. Even the supposed fact checking sources are full of ****. There has never been such a massive infusion of disinformation and misinformation intertwined with seemingly trustworthy information coming at you from every direction. It is a new era in the information age and it is quite time consuming for people that work to sift through it.

I still think the average American is a kick ass person. I feel bad for them.

[wufan]

Americans on both sides do not want anything close to objective news - they want their own views reinforced by their preferred source, and they want to hear that anything that doesn't line up with that worldview is malicious bullshit and the result of a vast conspiracy against them. Folks on both the right and left are generally too stupid or lazy (or both) to confirm the veracity of sources or individual stories and as a result they parrot some of the dumbest crap imaginable in an echo-chamber of like-minded imbeciles who will never refute the absurdities they take as gospel.

It is a depressing reality.

This.

[wufan]

Calling Trump a racist leaves the impression that he is a racist and Hillary is not, that saying "that f***ing N*****" is okay.

I saw something online, and I don't know if it's true. It said something to the effect that Trump has been in the media spotlight for 20 years and no one ever called him a racist until he ran for president as a Republican.

[MoValley John]

Where did this statement come from? I am not a Hillary supporter in the slightest. I agree with you. A sensible protest vote should not include Trump or Hillary.

I didn't say you were a Hillary supporter. It just seems to me, a guy throwing his vote away on Johnson, I see a whole lot of those statements made about Trump, all the time, while Hillary gets somewhat a free pass. Sure, she has to try and defend her actions, but rarely does the question of how could anyone vote for her, or her being evil, arise. With Trump, it's daily.

Maybe its because I don't listen to Limbaugh.

[Play Angry]

I disagree somewhat. I think the average _working_ American works their ass off and does their best to give what is left to their family.

I think the average American just doesn't have the time to sift through a MASSIVE overload of misinformation that is spewed at them from every direction. Too often, what was once a trusted source no longer is. It takes time for people to figure that out. Then no matter where you look, it is very difficult to find alternative/new trusted sources and unless you have a boring job that affords the time to goof off, it is simply overwhelming to most people. Even the supposed fact checking sources are full of ****. There has never been such a massive infusion of disinformation and misinformation intertwined with seemingly trustworthy information coming at you from every direction. It is a new era in the information age and it is quite time consuming for people that work to sift through it.

I still think the average American is a kick ass person. I feel bad for them.

While I appreciate the noble efforts of the white knight, this is silly IMO. If there was adequate demand in the market for truth-driven, plain vanilla news sources, more would be available. People (generally) do not want this, and that is why those outlets are few and far between (or serve as feeders to the major outlets on the right and left which heavily stylize and editorialize that content before passing it along to their horde of followers). If enough demand builds, more of those type of outlets will emerge. The trend has gone the opposite direction for decades, however.

People don't go to Breitbart or listen to Young Turks podcasts because (i) most of them simply got duped into thinking that particular information source features the most truthful content, and (ii) by golly, if only they had more time they'd surely want to seek out a more reliable news source. They love that stuff because it tells them what they want to hear, and the source molds current events to conform to their worldview - believing in the purity of the info they receive from those sources comes from their desire for positive reinforcement of their own views and not because some dumbass legitimately believes that Rush Limbaugh or Rachel Maddow is the best source for unfiltered facts.

American citizens reflect some terrific qualities and values. Most of them would also rather watch Monday Night Football and 9 hours of college football on Saturday than spend fifteen minutes reading an article written from a viewpoint opposite of their own. It's also not really anything new; in prior generations, what most Americans like to pretend is "news" was characterized as propaganda. There is just a lot more of it now thanks to technology, so much that you never have to view sources which uncomfortably make a person question their certainty of their own world views.

I am absolutely guilty of this as well. I don't really get the pushback and blaming the "media" for it though - they are simply catering to the demands of their consumers.

[SB Shock]

Americans on both sides do not want anything close to objective news - they want their own views reinforced by their preferred source, and they want to hear that anything that doesn't line up with that worldview is malicious bullshit and the result of a vast conspiracy against them. Folks on both the right and left are generally too stupid or lazy (or both) to confirm the veracity of sources or individual stories and as a result they parrot some of the dumbest crap imaginable in an echo-chamber of like-minded imbeciles who will never refute the absurdities they take as gospel.

It is a depressing reality.

Most americans don't care about the news at all if you start digging into the numbers. The top news program (which really isn't news but chatterheads) is Hannity on fox news with ~4 million views give and take. With an adult population of ~242 Million means that at any one time is 1.6% of the population watching the most popular show at any one time. So I would project at most 3-5% of the adult population is watching news daily. A Limbaugh, Hannity or NPR show draw about 1% of the adult listeners daily on the radio.

[Play Angry]

No doubt relatively few folks still watch news programs or read conventional newspapers. Web-based media fills much of the vacuum created by the shift away from those sources.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I saw something online, and I don't know if it's true. It said something to the effect that Trump has been in the media spotlight for 20 years and no one ever called him a racist until he ran for president as a Republican.

Google: "Trump called racist years ago" and this is literally the first result.

http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-racist-meme/

*sigh*

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I didn't say you were a Hillary supporter. It just seems to me, a guy throwing his vote away on Johnson, I see a whole lot of those statements made about Trump, all the time, while Hillary gets somewhat a free pass. Sure, she has to try and defend her actions, but rarely does the question of how could anyone vote for her, or her being evil, arise. With Trump, it's daily.

Maybe its because I don't listen to Limbaugh.

I feel like this has been addressed ad nauseam here, but I'll address it one more time.

1) I'm a conservative. I expect liberals to back lousy candidates, and when they do, I don't really expect them to care what I think.
2) It makes much more sense for me to get upset when "fellow conservatives" support someone so evil. That's "my team", and that frustrates me much more because of it.
3) Trump support vastly outnumbers Hillary support on this board. Criticizing Hillary is mostly just preaching to the choir here.

I don't give Hillary a free pass at all. I just see a lot less value in spending my time talking about her. Satan is bad too. I rarely feel the need to make a detailed argument proving that to be true.

*No, I'm not saying Hillary = Satan*

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I disagree somewhat. I think the average _working_ American works their ass off and does their best to give what is left to their family.

I think the average American just doesn't have the time to sift through a MASSIVE overload of misinformation that is spewed at them from every direction. Too often, what was once a trusted source no longer is. It takes time for people to figure that out. Then no matter where you look, it is very difficult to find alternative/new trusted sources and unless you have a boring job that affords the time to goof off, it is simply overwhelming to most people. Even the supposed fact checking sources are full of ****. There has never been such a massive infusion of disinformation and misinformation intertwined with seemingly trustworthy information coming at you from every direction. It is a new era in the information age and it is quite time consuming for people that work to sift through it.

I still think the average American is a kick ass person. I feel bad for them.

When my facebook feed is filled with links to stories from www.madworldnewsforpatriotslikeu.com claiming Hillary is a Satanic demon worshiper and her chief of staff personally abducted a kid from her bed and killed her...

...I tend to find it much harder to not conclude that way too many people are lazy, gullible, and possibly even just downright fools.

[RoyalShock]

When my facebook feed is filled with links to stories from www.madworldnewsforpatriotslikeu.com claiming Hillary is a Satanic demon worshiper and her chief of staff personally abducted a kid from her bed and killed her...

...I tend to find it much harder to not conclude that way too many people are lazy, gullible, and possibly even just downright fools.

If I had a dollar for every time I saw a shared story on facebook that said, "BREAKING NEWS: [insert sensational headline] . . . Hillary is finished!" I could afford to sit courtside at the WSU vs. Oklahoma State game with six of my family and friends, instead of up in the nosebleeds.

[MoValley John]

I blocked all of those sites. Proud Democrat, Chicks on the Right, Too informed to vote Republican...

Every time somebody posted a new one, I blocked that site. Facebook has been pretty palatable this election.

The funniest thing was, you would find the same news story, with the same event, spelling doom for both candidates. The only difference was which side spun it, and which candidate was doomed. Sometimes the opposing feeds posted one after the other.

[shocka khan]

I feel like this has been addressed ad nauseam here, but I'll address it one more time.

1) I'm a conservative. I expect liberals to back lousy candidates, and when they do, I don't really expect them to care what I think.
2) It makes much more sense for me to get upset when "fellow conservatives" support someone so evil. That's "my team", and that frustrates me much more because of it.
3) Trump support vastly outnumbers Hillary support on this board. Criticizing Hillary is mostly just preaching to the choir here.

I don't give Hillary a free pass at all. I just see a lot less value in spending my time talking about her. Satan is bad too. I rarely feel the need to make a detailed argument proving that to be true.

*No, I'm not saying Hillary = Satan*

Based on your posts and Occam's Razor, I don't believe you. This is all a big smokescreen fueled by your ego.