(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Fox News commands much influence. But something more must add extra oomph to evoke viewer violence [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-24 As surely everyone here at DKos knows by now, Fox News has fired Tucker Carlson, their top-rated host with the most bigoted megaphone. While I am celebrating along with everyone else, I am doing so a bit quietly. I know this is more a lull than a full halt to Tucker’s rhetoric—he’s due to land somewhere. In the meantime, we should keep in mind that Fox News as an entity will continue marching, enacting its right-wing agenda. Lately, a couple of diaries (including one written by the esteemed Thom Hartmann) described the influence of Fox News as an addicting drug. (To wit, Mr. Hartmann likened Fox News to heroin in its ability to overwhelm the viewer.) To my surprise, I found myself needing to rebut these claims, if only to remark on how much of a stretch they are, considering what we know of the power—and thus the limitations—of language. I surprised myself because I, too, have been attempting to alert people to the distorting effects of Fox News et al. (the remainder being their partners in crime, the smaller outlets that have emerged in the wake of Fox News’ success in the commercial realm). Media as a force is incredibly influential in our culture. In fact, it helps determine culture. It engulfs and shapes us everyday. Even those of us who do not consume media are surrounded by those who do. But as sympathetic as I am to the idea of outsize influence being promulgated by Fox et al., I cannot completely capitulate to this concept because it’s clear that confirmation bias creeps in. What about all of the people who watch Fox News and don’t go out and commit crimes? What about the people who commit these impulse murders who don’t consume any news at all? These logical holes must be filled; and the major gap that I see is that of the fact that humans are blessed with faculties that can be fitted to the task of disambiguating rumor and innuendo, biases and false beliefs, even if peddled under the placard of news. People can check their emotions, even if such are stirred up by an irresponsible broadcast. I mentioned earlier that we’re surrounded all the time by messages meant to influence us. Not only from media but from family, friends, coworkers, etc. Language itself is a medium meant to bend. Unless we take a stance of hardline skepticism, we’re perpetually open to persuasion. And in such a mindset, anything can reach the subconscious, irrational part of ourselves (especially if it's designed to capture the emotions instead of appealing to reason). But that’s what our frontal cortex is for: putting on the brakes when the amygdala and other more “primitive” areas of the brain become activated. We have higher cognition in order to review what we just heard and to evaluate it to see if it’s in line with what we already know or if it makes internal consistency among its own constituent parts, etc. We have double-checking mechanisms. But if these mechanisms were drawn or knocked offline, then perhaps malicious influence could indeed find purchase in such vulnerable, newly susceptible minds. These people would be rendered freshly suggestible, representing a vast risk that would otherwise go undetected, completely invisible. Influence + diminished capacity = commanding force. Consider that Covid, in many ways, was a mass disabling event. Usually that phrase is uttered with respect to the physical sequelae of the disease, but for neuro-Covid that also must encompass the psychological and cognitive changes that accompany the disease. These changes can be profound; and, in the case of long Covid, they are widely considered to be indefinite, perhaps even lifelong. IQ changes. Perception ranges. Impulsivity rises. Emotions heat. Cognition speed slows. Attention wanders. Confusion intrudes. Depression descends. Thought processes zigzag. False beliefs affix. In short, mentation alters. This can serve, in many cases, diminished capacity (though I am not, in the speculation that follows, speaking in any legal sense). It’s less capacity with fewer resources and in some instances even incomplete or damaged tools. It’s working at a clear disadvantage. This can serve as a starting point for inordinate impressionability. It’s not the “arguments” presented by Fox News et al. that are incapacitating (though they can be quite persuasive) especially to those disposed to accepting those ideas. When combined with a state of diminishment, however, those concepts could coalesce into a new and fraught situation. Suggestions, especially those phrased as imperatives, can become commands or indelible rules of conventionality. Similarly, equalizations (“X = Y”, when in fact X only implies Y or is only somewhat associated with Y) would become absolutely identical; so when Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses Democrats of being pedophiles, to such an addled audience, those things would be the same in every respect. Opinions coming from the mouths of trusted anchors or spokespersons would be ineradicable pronouncements on the way the world simply is. This, if true, would constitute a new danger. Some call me an alarmist; some, a Cassandra; and some feel, I’m sure, that I am too devoted to the idea of Covid as an intervening force in our society. I do contemplate Covid a lot. However, I tend to do so through the lens of sociological analysis, which constitutes the core of my training. I think a lot about how this widespread and devastating disease might be affecting American culture at multiple levels, the individual in terms of health as well as that of social processes. The one event we have in modern history with which to compare this moment is the 1918 influenza outbreak; and while that occurred while the Great War was ongoing, its effects redounded for the next ten to twenty years, which, as it turned out, culminated in the launch of World War II. Can I say for certain that a virus that crippled the world in 1918 made its force felt two decades later in the form of war? No. But I do look at how quickly German society warped itself (with, of course, warped men at the helm). How much can be disaggregated from the disease that ravaged their region? Encephalitis lethargica was a legacy of the first monster influenza outbreak. Also, children born of women infected with viruses have a threefold higher risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia. These are real complications. This is merely to point to the fact that we have yet to truly grapple with the ramifications of what Covid may mean for our own society; and those may be manifesting right now. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/24/2165657/-Fox-News-commands-much-influence-But-something-more-must-add-extra-oomph-to-evoke-viewer-violence Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/