(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Debating MAGAs a frustrating and potentially counter-productive process [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-16 Look, I'm a black man, I have been my whole entire life. I know what it's like to feel like people are against you and out to get you. I know what it's like to feel like the government is biased against you. However, when black people talk about feeling that way - it's not just a feeling. It's not just made up. It's based on actual facts. It's based on the Tuskegee experiment. It's based on Redlining us into polluted divested neighborhoods. It's based on the criminal injustice system targeting us more than other people even though the data shows we don't commit "more crime" than anyone else. I get it, I really do. But MAGA paranoia is largely based on - frankly - a fantasy. It's a delusion. It's a strategic narrative that they've been shoveled for decades by Right-Wing media who specifically say "You can't trust anyone else, only us." But the facts don't back that up. They really don't. So, you tell us now that the "government is biased" and the Justice system is "two-tiered?" Fuck dude, Black people have been saying that literally for *decades.*. We said that in the 60s when the FBI did surveillance against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We said that in the 70s when they tried to get John Lennon deported for preaching for peace when they killed Fred Hampton in his bed while he was asleep and used COINTELPRO to illegally spy on U.S. Citizens because they were against the war or in support of Civil Rights. We saw in the 80s with the "War on Drugs" and again in the 90s with "Super-preditors", 3 Strikes and the Crime Bill. We've seen it time and time again. NOW you tell us the government can't be trusted? Oh really? No shit. Of course, it can't. But it's the only government we've got - and it's our responsibility to fight to fix what's legitimately wrong with it. When we point out the flaws in government and in the nation - they call it "Hating America." We call it helping America - finally - reach and live up to its own ideals. When they attack America - and I do mean literally ATTACK - they call themselves "Patriots." Ironic, ain't it? Wearing an American Flag shirt, holding a “Thin Blue Line” flag and beating the shit out of a Capitol police officer with it. What’s more patriotic than that? Mainstream media is deeply flawed and imperfect. They *are* biased and show it all the time, but it's not bias against conservatives, it's a bias for *Corporations* and against workers, customers and consumers. They have blindspots where they don't report things that they should because it may have a negative impact on the corporate bottom line of one of their advertisers. Why do you think defense contractors always advertise during Meet the Press and Face the Nation? Do they have a fresh new line of F-16s to sell to the public at rock-bottom prices? Can you pickup an AMRAM off of Ebay? No, you can’t. What are the trying to sell to the public when they have nothing to sell to the public? It’s because if anyone on those programs says anything that they think threatens their corporate bottom line they have the power to retaliate by pulling their advertising. That’s how they keep the mainstream media in line and on message. The UAW is going on strike and does the mainstream media talk about how income inequality has skyrocketed or how manufacturing workers have been demolished and left behind? No, they talk about how "greedy" those workers are trying to put food on their table and how it just might "cause a recession." Biased much? If anything, they BEND OVER BACKWARDS to paint conservatives as the "Heartland" of America while attacking "Democrat cities" filled with crime. The fact is that states that voted for Trump have 40% higher murder rates than states that voted for Biden. Does the mainstream media report that? Fuck Nope. They repeatedly do focus groups full of conservatives, and sit down in little dinners and ask conservatives what they think about basically everything. Do they ever go out and ask Democrats or Liberals what they think about anything? (Unless it's whether they think Joe Biden is "too old?"). Fuck no. They don't. They don't provide *any* of the Democratic or Liberal perspective AT. ALL. Conservatives think the mainstream media shuts them out? Well, sometimes yes, but usually no. Liberals get shut out almost completely - so don't come whining to us about it. We know what you mean already. So, beyond the culture wars - beyond groomers and beyond CRT - do we have a common ground on the issue of the economy, jobs, personal freedom from government intervention and being able to make a living wage, raise a family and - hopefully - achieve the American dream? Of course, we do. The Right likes to blame "Immigrants" and "Minorities" for all the problems of the working class - whereas the Left feels that most of those problems will not be solved by corporations, but instead by public investments in people and communities to help them get over the difficulties that are holding them back -- and -- that much of funds for such investment is being drained by tax cuts for corporations who used them to send jobs overseas and buy back their own stock to increase their dividend payouts. The Right blames the Poor while the Left blames the Rich. Can we agree that there are multiple sources both domestic and international for why it feels like the dollar is falling further short every day? Can the Left admit that some government spending is perhaps wasteful and not useful and that we need to have far better controls on immigration? Perhaps. Can the Right admit that corporate greed is a threat to the survival and growth of the nation? Perhaps. We are not getting to that potential agreement going the way we're going. At this rate we're headed for more and more strife, more and more vitriol and more and more violence. And I admit I have no idea how to help us change direction at this point. I'm open to suggestions. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/16/2193730/-Debating-MAGAs-a-frustrating-and-potentially-counter-productive-process 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/