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Anger porn [1]

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Date: 2023-04-02  

Sensory overload

A few weeks ago, I was eating dinner at a restaurant. Fox News was on the television over the bar, and I was “treated” to Tucker Carlson for the first time. I was both horrified and impressed. It takes a certain genius to channel what appears to be bottomless rage about issues that would otherwise not exist. Carlson is a master manipulator, having perfected the ability to raise his viewers’ blood pressure and confirm their worst fears, all under the guise of providing a “point of view”. It doesn’t matter that he is lying, since Fox treats him as an entertainer, not a news person. He brings in revenue and an audience. They like him.

Who is that audience? What do they get from Tucker that they can’t get elsewhere? Let's call them rage junkies. That rage brings them in and hooks them. Anger provides its own rush, and like heroin, it needs increasing doses to provide the same stimulation over time. What looked to me like an exercise in lunacy is apparently everyday stuff to Carlson’s audience.

Maybe a better analogy to what Carlson does is pornography. Porn stimulates instinctive drives, but after a while the pin-up poster or centerfold no longer provides sufficient kick, so the aficionado moves on to harder stuff. And on television, where do you get that? Premium channels and pay-per-view. I think it is time to make Fox News a premium channel on cable, like other entertainment networks. If people want stimulating fantasies, paying for it becomes a choice. Because as any drug dealer knows, once they are hooked, they will pay any price you ask.

If you are tired of involuntarily supporting Fox News through your monthly cable bill, push your cable provider to stop carrying Fox News as a basic cable channel, and visit unfoxmycablebox. Thanks to chloris creator for this link.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/2/2161671/-Anger-porn

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