Reading the NY Times' series about the power and reach of FOX's Tucker Carlson, e.g.
"Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news — and also, by some measures, the most successful. Though he frequently declares himself an enemy of prejudice — “We don’t judge them by group, and we don’t judge them on their race,” Mr. Carlson explained to an interviewer a few weeks before accusing impoverished immigrants of making America dirty — his show teaches loathing and fear. Night after night, hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege — by violent Black Lives Matter protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies and cultural elites who will silence them, or label them racist, if they complain. "
Adding:
"Alchemizing media power into political influence, Mr. Carlson stands in a nativist American tradition that runs from Father Coughlin to Patrick J. Buchanan. Now Mr. Carlson’s on-air technique — gleefully courting blowback, then fashioning himself as his aggrieved viewers’ partner in victimhood — has helped position him, as much as anyone, to inherit the populist movement that grew up around Mr. Trump. At a moment when white backlash is the jet fuel of a Republican Party striving to return to power in Washington, he has become the pre-eminent champion of Americans who feel most threatened by the rising power of Black and brown citizens. "
What boggles Janice's mind is how this entitled little white nationalist, pro-Russian maggot believes he can influence millions of whites by expanding their paranoia, and actually succeed. Even in getting 5 times more eyeballs and ears than Rachel Maddow - Janice's one and only "star girl".
In truth, it isn't that difficult to grasp why so many have been trapped in the perverse orbit of FOX and Carlson. Start with a column by Charles Blow in the NY Time 2 weeks ago ('Covid Cracked Us') where we read:
"COVID-19 cracked us. The mass trauma of the pandemic actually may have produced a form of mass psychosis. The disruption has caused a societal distress. I think that we ignore or underestimate the extreme trauma that society has endured, and is living with, at our own peril.
There are nearly 1 million fresh graves in America over the past two years, deaths directly attributable to COVID-19. The first year of the pandemic brought the largest decline in American life expectancy since 1943, during World War II. As The Washington Post reported, according to one study, the United States is faring worse during the pandemic “than 19 other wealthy countries."
He essentially nailed it but never explained why the pandemic cracked more whites than other groups. My now tenure -track Psychology niece Shayl's theory is that whites were more susceptible to propaganda and mental misdirection, especially launched by Trump and his cabal from the early days of the pandemic. Recall the little orange bastard denied the virus was any more concerning than the flu, and there wasn't any need for masking up. His White House, rallies and gatherings were notorious for being maskless. But when bodies kept piling up - now over 1 million- many, even in his devoted Red states - had to take notice. As Shayl put it:
"The whites experienced a massive cognitive dissonance. They desperately wanted to believe Trump's lies that the virus was no biggie and masks and lockdowns were an overreaction fueled by the anti-Trump media and Democrats. Also that it was a hoax the desperate Dems were using to try to bring him down for the 2020 election. But when the relatives kept getting put into body bags in hospital wards reality came crashing through. They couldn't handle it and millions of brains turned to FOX and Tucker Carlson to keep feeding them lies and bunk about Covid."
Indeed I'd written more than one post about Carlson's antics and B.S. e.g.
Shayl also suspects whites were more likely to be suckered in by the 'macho' meme, i.e. that wearing masks was effeminate and the proof is it was so often echoed by FOX's cretins. Especially one who spotted Joe Biden in a mask during one presidential visit and asked if he also carried a purse. Add that to the scenes of death and too many cracked but instead of coming to grips with reality jumped into embracing the Big lie and then ever more subsequent nonsense spouted by Carlson. As she put it, "this MAGA crowd is now the biggest threat to the U.S. being turned into an authoritarian state because of stoking white grievance and victimhood and using that ignorant replacement nonsense."
She's referring, of course, to the egregious excrement that the Dems want to bring in more immigrants - black and brown - to replace white voters to win in the coming mid-term elections. It sounds idiotic on its face, but millions of whites tuning in to this blather remain susceptible, as they are to Trumpism and Trump overall. She believes this also explains the preponderance of whites using "rage rooms" e.g.
But cautions, as one Psychology Today columnist (Kevin Bennett ) does in an article (Rage Rooms Not A Good Idea' ), writing:
Rage rooms offer a place to go for people who are feeling the impulse to become physically violent, but they do not want the mess that comes with attacking others. Is this a good prescription for chronic ragers? Unfortunately, many people still subscribe to the “aggression as a pressure cooker” model of human behavior. According to this logic, if you don’t let off some steam or release your aggression in a timely manner, it will manifest itself in dangerous, weird, and inappropriate ways. Do not hold it in for too long or you will eventually go berserk and lose all control. Hence, the rage room.
But as Shayl, and Bennett point out, all that really happens is the pressure and distress don't abate and other excuses are found to take out violence on others, directly or indirectly. This could explain the explosion in mass shootings, as well as widespread vandalism of churches, and Jewish graves, synagogues. (Over 500 in Colorado alone in just the past year).
Finally, author William Davies (Nervous States: Democracy And The Decline Of Reason') comes closest to what I suspect is the underlying basis for white gullibility and mental crackup, in watching Tucker's trash and accepting so much of it.: Too many Americans have become hostage to too many external, manipulating messages in social media. The overexposure to this toxic dross has ravaged brains, leaving too many without resilience and critical thinking capacity. This after distorting objective truths (like about the election and Covid) as well as historical facts.
The cure is simple, but manifestly difficult to put into practice: Go cold turkey watching FOX, and also going on to Twitter or Instagram. Do some meditation, reading of outside print sources, and critical thinking, instead.
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by Thom Hartmann | May 3, 2022 - 6:57am | permalink
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