Fox News Is Staffed By Gibbering Lunatics

[DooM Bear]

Wow... just wow.

 

Am i the only one that found the mocking of the NZ accent at the end in really poor taste and a bit offensive? And that is from an Aussie (us and NZ have had a friendly rivalry going forever) and someone that hates people getting offended over nothing :-P

[Sunnyfruit]

I'll just be controversial though and say that there is no harm in letting people believe that the Earth is flat as long as they don't shoot other people for being part of the "Around the World" club. Right or wrong, you don't hold the recipe for heaven on earth and you're not supposed to dictate what other people should think, that's the difference between a society and a cult.

 

So yeah. Fox News? Brings gullible or weak people to chaotic behavior for the profit of some, and the other channels are not different, you need lunatic opponents to justify your own lunacy, and vice-versa. Which is why "Centrists" love Middle-East conflicts and revolutionary socialists hold whole websites on the morning habits of the wingnuts, just as the opposite is entirely true.

 

You just have to get out of that bubble and ponders that maybe the earth is flat or that your eyes are actually locked Megaspheres, but in your own little world and what you can do to live your last decades, this doesn't matter much.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Most western media and news outlets simply exist to preach to people who have already made up their minds, and to goad those people into believing their thoughts and ideas are the only ones that are correct. A lot of Americans enjoy jacking off to the fact that the (heavily biased and monetized) monkeys holding microphones and wearing expensive suits share their ideas and values. It gives both the viewers and news outlets more fuel for the fire, which they will use to express hatred and disdain for everyone who doesn't agree with them. Fox News is simply the most notorious because their headlines often pander to the lowest of the low, basically the TV equivalent of clickbait.

 

An even more dangerous reason for these outlets to exist is because they and sway those who are uninitiated or indifferent. Schools in America often show footage from both Fox News and CNN, and everything in between, when they should be showing footage from groups like PBS or National Geographic or Discovery. People who are easily swayed are the biggest danger of all, because they will believe the first thing they hear on TV, not bothering to do any fact-checking on the subjects they are hearing about. They will then assume themselves to be masters on the subjects they heard discussed for five minutes on TV, and preach to everyone else about how they are wrong. TV in America is like religion, people will usually believe whatever values are taught to them first, and anyone who shares different values than they do are wrong. Then they will preach their all-mighty values to their children, creating a culture where nobody bothers having their own ideas or values. People who need someone else to think for them are lazy, and people who need "important" people to make decisions for them are dangerous.

 

The path to evil is paved with indifference.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

53 minutes ago, Sunnyfruit said:

I'll just be controversial though and say that there is no harm in letting people believe that the Earth is flat as long as they don't shoot other people for being part of the "Around the World" club. Right or wrong, you don't hold the recipe for heaven on earth and you're not supposed to dictate what other people should think, that's the difference between a society and a cult.

 

So yeah. Fox News? Brings gullible or weak people to chaotic behavior for the profit of some, and the other channels are not different, you need lunatic opponents to justify your own lunacy, and vice-versa. Which is why "Centrists" love Middle-East conflicts and revolutionary socialists hold whole websites on the morning habits of the wingnuts, just as the opposite is entirely true.

 

You just have to get out of that bubble and ponders that maybe the earth is flat or that your eyes are actually locked Megaspheres, but in your own little world and what you can do to live your last decades, this doesn't matter much.

But where does it stop? If we let people spread incorrect information about things that have been proven, we are telling them it's okay to spread beliefs that are objectively wrong, regardless of their "opinion". Do we let them go on about how 9/11 was caused by aliens? Are we okay with them going online and talking about how Sandy Hook was a hoax? Do we really want them telling other people that COVID comes 5G towers? Or do we only have a problem with their false beliefs when we deem them as offensive to our own beliefs? There is a fine line between having an opinion and spreading lies.

[Xcalibur]

Fox is biased, but so is the rest of the legacy media at this point.

[seed]

7 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

But where does it stop? If we let people spread incorrect information about things that have been proven, we are telling them it's okay to spread beliefs that are objectively wrong, regardless of their "opinion". Do we let them go on about how 9/11 was caused by aliens? Are we okay with them going online and talking about how Sandy Hook was a hoax? Do we only have a problem with their false beliefs when we deem them as offensive to our own beliefs? There is a fine line between having an opinion and spreading lies.

 

Or serving your own needs and nothing else, and pushing for something as long as it benefits you and only you.

 

That being said, I'm not necessarily against "dumb thinking". It just makes it easier for rational people to realize who and what they should distance from - basically where they're standing -, and let their cultists fight among themselves to prove who is the bigger idiot. I kinda like indirect fuckery like that, not gonna lie.

 

Why? Because you can't make irrational and dumb people think, if they reached an important point in life and they still rely on others to make decisions for them or "form their opinions" it's just another exercise in futility, they can't think for themselves and more importantly they don't want to, so let them suffer at their own will, ain't got much sympathy for those.

[Sunnyfruit]

19 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

But where does it stop? If we let people be wrong about things that have been proven, we are telling them it's okay to spread beliefs that are wrong, regardless of their "opinion". Do we let them go on about how 9/11 was caused by aliens? Are we okay with them going online and talking about how Sandy Hook was a hoax? Do we only have a problem with their false beliefs when we deem them as harmless to our own opinions? There is a fine line between having an opinion and spreading lies.

 

Nah, I'm not fine with people saying the Covid crisis is some kind of foreign-funded blood-drinking cult. I'm not fine about defaming innocent people until some madman or extremely innocent person goes P****gate on them. And what we learnt this decade is that defamation and the utter lack of human decency is not only very lucrative for companies but also for fame-hunting nobodies.

I'm also not fine with people boasting about calling the police if they see someone outside during the lockdown. I'm not fine with politicians and their media proxies explaining how you should bend to the eternal values of the country lest you're a subversive element (the same people with social legitimacy who incidentally thrive on fake news). I'm not find with media pundits calling Americans cops tigers you shouldn't mess with and those are the so-called bulwark against the Internet fake news. To fight off against lies and plain cruelty we need social legitimacy but society is actually upside-down.

I don't think people who claim the earth is flat on the internet actually believe it but rather that they are in need for help and do whatever they can to attract attention. And the kind of perverse pleasure I notice in people endlessly bashing them is neither enlightened nor benevolent.

 

I agree with you and I don't want lies and especially not lucrative defamation to be spread that easily. But I think we should ask ourselves why are people spreading idiocies and why they are so apathetic about their own freedom of thought.

I'm a bit discouraged to be honest and I have no solutions.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

17 minutes ago, seed said:

 

Or serving your own needs and nothing else, and pushing for something as long as it benefits you and only you.

 

That being said, I'm not necessarily against "dumb thinking". It just makes it easier for rational people to realize who and what they should distance from - basically where they're standing -, and let their cultists fight among themselves to prove who is the bigger idiot. I kinda like indirect fuckery like that, not gonna lie.

 

Why? Because you can't make irrational and dumb people think, if they reached an important point in life and they still rely on others to make decisions for them or "form their opinions" it's just another exercise in futility, they can't think for themselves and more importantly they don't want to, so let them suffer at their own will, ain't got much sympathy for those.

Yeah, Doom taught me that sometimes the best way to take on a horde of dumb creatures is to let them all kill each other. Usually after egging them on :P

 

Edited October 29, 2020 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[seed]

7 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Yeah, Doom taught me that sometimes the best way to take on a horde of dumb creatures is to let them all kill each other. Usually after egging them on :P

 

Basically, fight the fights that are worth fighting, rather than wasting time with pointless endeavors.

 

9 minutes ago, Sunnyfruit said:

why they are so apathetic about their own freedom of thought.

I'm a bit discouraged to be honest and I have no solutions.

 

From somewhat personal experience I think I know a reason: it's the path of least resistance.

 

Because having your own opinions often implies you'll face some opposition or adversity in some shape or form, and that poses its fair share of problems. But you're rarely if ever going to face that if all you do is "listen and obey", and narrow-minded, small individuals love cultivating this apathy in others because it makes them all that easier to control, subvert, or manipulate. At one point they simply break and give up, and go with the flow.

 

Thinking for yourself is actually not an easy way. Or they're just naturally born stupid.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

6 minutes ago, seed said:

 

Basically, fight the fights that are worth fighting, rather than wasting time with pointless endeavors.

Yeah, it can be hard to accept, but sometimes the best solution is just to shoot at them and run away. Or you can punch the air to alert them, if you're a pacifist.

[AndrewB]

It's the only place you're ever going to see stories like this, which is incredibly sad.

 

 

[Mr. Freeze]

Anyone who falls for a Tucker Carlson story is a fucking idiot. 

 

"Fuck Tucker, Tucker sucks" - George Carlin

[snapshot]

It's a news channel, what did you expect. The title of this thread made me realize I haven't even watched TV for years.

Edited October 29, 2020 by sluggard

[EdwunclerIII]

Now that I look back at just how crazy the media is, I can't help but compare it to schoolkids in a play yard fighting. All finger pointing and conspiracies with politics, no action being taken on the real problems at hand. I did watch that vid and I regret finding out just how much of an ass she made herself.

[lazygecko]

Just another facet of that good old American exceptionalism at work. Any other country that has more sensible policies resulting in better overall success for its citizens has to be discredited and ridiculed in order to justify the status quo of the US and never make any attempts to improve.

[seed]

29 minutes ago, sluggard said:

The title of this thread made me realize I haven't even watched TV for years.

 

I don't think many of us have either, I mean, TV in its current format doesn't have much else to offer anymore.

[Mr. Freeze]

Only thing on TV is sports. 

[EdwunclerIII]

Agreed, the only good shows are ones that have stopped airing like the Sopranos or The Wire. Everything else is filler drama

[seed]

And with long ad breaks. And scheduled programs, etc...

[⇛Marnetmar⇛]

Yeah they really don't make mindnumbing consumerist drivel the way they used to

[seed]

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be either.

[Taurus Daggerknight]

Really, goes for all news agencies. Even BBC, which used to be pretty decent once upon a time, is just a bunch of drivel lately. 

 

With regards to Fox though, Order of the Stick put it best: 

 

[DSC]

Anyone else here remembers Homer Badman? 

 

[Murdoch]

18 minutes ago, DSC said:

Anyone else here remembers Homer Badman? 

 

 

Indeed. Brilliant episode.

[Murdoch]

7 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

The path to evil is paved with indifference.

 

Well put and very true. We need to fight our desire to only seek out those which validate our beliefs but at the same time questioning everything is ridiculous too. There's one YouTuber whose name escapes me that SciManDan frequently features. His basic premise seems to be that literally everything is a hoax. He even thinks penguins are a hoax. He is either a masterful, dedicated troll or he is going to be on the news soon for shooting up his local McDonalds. It's scary levels of paranoia and that has a tendency to not end well. Healthy skepticism is good. Check multiple sources. Try to be objective as you can. But disbelieving everything is just stupid.

 

7 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

But where does it stop? If we let people spread incorrect information about things that have been proven, we are telling them it's okay to spread beliefs that are objectively wrong, regardless of their "opinion". Do we let them go on about how 9/11 was caused by aliens? Are we okay with them going online and talking about how Sandy Hook was a hoax? Do we really want them telling other people that COVID comes 5G towers? Or do we only have a problem with their false beliefs when we deem them as offensive to our own beliefs? There is a fine line between having an opinion and spreading lies.

 

Spot on. Something as relatively harmless like Flat Earth is oft-times a conspiracy "Gateway drug" into beliefs that can be genuinely damaging. An alarming number of people seem to think "If I can't understand it, it's fake". Ignorance is not evidence. Flat Earth can be debunked simply by watching the path across the sky over a fine day and engaging your brain, and yet still people cling to it like it's some kind of emotional security blanket. The insanity around vaccines is a good example of a genuinely damaging conspiracy that has unquestionably killed children. And the former often leads to the latter, if the person was not there already. It plants the seed of doubt that can then be manipulated by con artists or other "believers".

[seed]

21 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

Flat Earth can be debunked simply by watching the path across the sky over a fine day and engaging your brain

 

Nah man, because you'd see trees and buildings bending too smh.

[ChopBlock223]

16 hours ago, Mr. Duk said:

@Murdoch

The USA wasn't always this bad. A lot of this began in the mid 90s with Rush Limbaugh, FOX News and Newt Gingrich. We were not always so divided. We've now lost a quarter of a million lives from coronavirus yet it's *still* a politicized issue. I take my dog for a walk and see people watching FOX News basically 24/7. Poison for the mind.

Both Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon wete widely compared to Adolph Hitler (for all their faults and misdeeds, still an absurd notion), and there's people who to this day think that JFK was some sort of heavenly savior we were all cruelly deprived of (when he did the typical crooked and evil shit presidents do up until his murder), an image frequently perpetuated by media. The political climate in the US has been ridiculous for a very long time.

[DSC]

6 minutes ago, ChopBlock223 said:

Both Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon wete widely compared to Adolph Hitler

I was very surprised by this, thought Reagan was one of the most beloved presidents...

[ChopBlock223]

By many conservatives, sure. Though a lot of conservatives with a strong pro-gun stance forget that he did things like sign the 1986 Hughes Amendment into law (closing the NFA registry for further transferable machineguns, all but banning them federally, to this day), all while affording himself a transferable select-fire M16, with the NRA applauding him and taking pictures of him.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

20 minutes ago, DSC said:

I was very surprised by this, thought Reagan was one of the most beloved presidents...

I wasn't around for the Reagan era, but there are a lot of people who loved Reagan. I think his biggest fault was his mishandling of the AIDS epidemic and the Iran contra. But comparing Reagan to Hitler is way overkill. These days everyone is compared to Hitler. Trump, Pelosi, Mitch McConnell....Louis C.K., Bill Clinton, etc. Yeah, plenty of those people have made terrible mistakes, and plenty of them are terrible people overall, but I wish people would stop the whole "[INSERT NAME OF SOMEONE I DON'T LIKE] IS HITLER!!" act. It both exaggerates the crimes of the person they are comparing to Hitler, and downplays the true, unadulterated evil of Adolf Hitler.

Edited October 29, 2020 by TheMagicMushroomMan