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Zonie63 -> RE: 1in 4 think Obama is the anti-christ (4/5/2013 6:07:16 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: vincentML
quote:
I think you're correct that people select the media and government that validates their beliefs, but I also think that the opposite is true. People deselect whatever media and government they don't trust or believe is telling them the truth.
I find the part about deselecting interesting. At first glance it seems so rational. People decide they don't trust who is telling them the truth. I would contest that it is rational. I think the deselecting process is based on the same emotions as the selecting process . . . deselecting what does not validate prior beliefs. Look at the Birther phenomenon for example. A good portion of the Republican/Tea Party base still believes Obama is an alien president, born in Kenya. I'll bet that is one emotion based motive they tune out the MSM who have consistently threatened that cherished belief. I wish I had the youth and energy to write the definitive book on the impact of the first Black president upon those with conspiratorial minds.
I can see your point, although my sense is that the views under discussion here must have been formulated far sooner than Obama's presidency. The Republican/Tea Party base you mention seems around my age or older (I'm 49), so they seem quite a bit more seasoned and likely took an entire lifetime to reach the views that they have now.
I'm not entirely sure that this is partisan politics either, since there are those on both the left and right who deselect and largely reject the mainstream media. I think that there's a process that people go through to reach that point. For example, if the government does something that people find incomprehensible, confusing - something they don't really understand - and the media aren't doing much to clear the air, then someone else may come in and try to solve the puzzle for them.
So, I guess that's where my criticism of the MSM comes in. When they do a sloppy job and give an incomplete, vague picture of events, it leaves people guessing and wondering just what the heck is really going on. I've seen this happen with the local media around here. There's a lot of stuff about local government that seems to get ignored or whitewashed by the main newspaper, so in order to get information, people rely on the Weekly or some other alternative media. Gossip and rumors also seem to be more reliable than anything one gets from the "official story." It's kind of sad that it comes to this.
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