Examples of Democratic Party leadership

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
You cannot successfully regulate this.

The only defence against it is herd immunity against lies through education. So we're fucked.

We are very close to fascism.
I respectfully disagree, you can regulate it on broadcast and social media by changing the law and expanding the powers and reach of the FCC. You can't eliminate it but you can tamp it down enough so the truth can compete and there are several way to do this. One would be to reassign the AM broadcast band to digital and enforce antitrust laws for TV stations, newspapers and radio networks, nobody owns more than one station. No hate radio networks owning hundreds of stations all pumping out the same right wing billionaire bullshit. Regulation of spoon feed media (radio and TV) has always been with us because everybody knew it's power and danger. It's why these asshole own networks, provided Rush's content for free while paying him hundreds of millions of dollars. It's why if you go to the fox news web page it's almost ad free and much more useful than the CNN site which is choked with ads and paid content. Foxnews wants to reach rural America with a site that loads over shitty connections, they aren't after revenue, they are after power.

A billionaire can buy this shit for pocket change and hate radio, along foxnews control rural America, look at the map, it's not so much red state blue state as rural versus urban. You educate your children and attempt to mold their character in ways that lead to their happiness and flourishing, this is done in all cases by curating and filtering the information they receive. You won't allow your child to be influenced by hate media and turned into a racist sucker.
 
Last edited:

Unclebaldrick

Well-Known Member
I respectfully disagree, you can regulate it on broadcast and social media by changing the law and expanding the powers and reach of the FCC. You can't eliminate it but you can tamp it down enough so the truth can compete and there are several way to do this. One would be to reassign the AM broadcast band to digital and enforce antitrust laws for TV stations, newspapers and radio networks, nobody owns more than one station. No hate radio networks owning hundreds of stations all pumping out the same right wing billionaire bullshit. Regulation of spoon feed media (radio and TV) has always been with us because everybody knew it's power and danger. It's why these asshole own networks, provided Rush's content for free while paying him hundreds of millions of dollars. It's why if you go to the fox news web page it's almost ad free and much more useful than the CNN site which is choked with ads and paid content. Foxnews wants to reach rural America with a site that loads over shitty connections, they aren't after revenue, they are after power.

A billionaire can by this shit for pocket change and hate radio, along foxnews control rural America, look at the map, it's not so much red state blue state as rural versus urban. You educate you children and attempt to mold their character in ways that lead to their happiness and flourishing, this is done in all cases by curating and filtering the information they receive. You won't allow your child to be influenced by hate media and turned into a racist sucker.
In my opinion, this is a double edged sword that is likely to end up in our gut.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
To not allow them would be a chapter from the trump playbook.
I disagree, you either have a grasp on reality and the truth, or you do not. They need to be challenged on the narratives they present to the public and lies should not have a free ride or equal billing with professional journalism. Are they news organizations or are they propaganda organizations with an agenda? Why not the Klan network? The Nazi network? Foxnews, Newsmax and others should be removed from cable as public health menaces. How about a TV network that tells people not to wear masks or get vaccinated, even though the owners and presenters are vaccinated?

TV and radio were such powerful media since they have the ability to shape the opinions of people who don't read the news and were always regulated right from the beginning. The kinds of people who are owned by these organizations are generally not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Even newspapers general followed this trend and became largely neutral instead of the partisan organizations they were in the 19th century.

The next challenge is upon us with social media and YouTube, and they spill out of the USA into Canada and other places and are affecting other democracies. The quality of our decisions is dependent upon the information we have to work with, this applies to everybody. If this kind of "freedom" is absolute, then the Nazi channel should be very popular in America, why fuck around, just cut to the chase.
 

Unclebaldrick

Well-Known Member
I disagree, you either have a grasp on reality and the truth, or you do not. They need to be challenged on the narratives they present to the public and lies should not have a free ride or equal billing with professional journalism. Are they news organizations or are they propaganda organizations with an agenda? Why not the Klan network? The Nazi network? Foxnews, Newsmax and others should be removed from cable as public health menaces. How about a TV network that tells people not to wear masks or get vaccinated, even though the owners and presenters are vaccinated?

TV and radio were such powerful media since they have the ability to shape the opinions of people who don't read the news and were always regulated right from the beginning. The kinds of people who are owned by these organizations are generally not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Even newspapers general followed this trend and became largely neutral instead of the partisan organizations they were in the 19th century.

The next challenge is upon us with social media and YouTube, and they spill out of the USA into Canada and other places and are affecting other democracies. The quality of our decisions is dependent upon the information we have to work with, this applies to everybody. If this kind of "freedom" is absolute, then the Nazi channel should be very popular in America, why fuck around, just cut to the chase.
You can't defend against hate and lies with legislation any more than you could cure the pandemic by passing a law against COVID-19.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
In my opinion, this is a double edged sword that is likely to end up in our gut.
There are greater risks in doing nothing, there is profit in hate and disinformation. You have seen the result of doing nothing, how's that working out for you? Jesus won't save you and nature is indifferent, the truth does not win on it's own, lies spread much faster and people tend to believe what they hear first. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. You are at war and there are risks in every war, the biggest risk is to do nothing or act only defensively, in this case a good offense is required.

If the republicans ever gain power again in America they will have no problem limiting your speech or steeping on your neck. You are not dealing with a democratic political organization, you are dealing with an organization that wants to cling to power by any means and they are supported in this by a base that has the same objective. This tribe even has it's own for profit information system and "alternative reality" fueled by bullshit.

A house divided cannot stand and in America now there are two tribes with no middle ground between them. It only took the brain farts of a sociopathic moron to trigger America's fatal preexisting condition, image if Trump actually had a fucking brain.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
You can't defend against hate and lies with legislation any more than you could cure the pandemic by passing a law against COVID-19.
We do have public health laws for a reason and part of the problem is that they were not enforced and it's a current problem here in Canada.

You don't have the Nazi network or the confederate network, yet, both would be profitable in America. It's only getting sued by private entities and existing hate laws that are a check on them. OAN, Foxnews and Newsmax are all getting sued by voting machine companies. Like I said, TV and radio are in a special class (YouTube too), in that they can influence the opinions and beliefs of many low information and frankly, stupid voters.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
“The best revenge is to not be like your enemy” - Marcus Aurelius
A wise stoic, but this is not an applicable example. Marcus killed his fair share of enemies of the state and was one of the better emperors, but he was an emperor and his wittings were private affairs, not meant for publication. It's the difference between justice, retribution and revenge, justice when you can have it, retribution when you can't, revenge is just self indulgence.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
We do have public health laws for a reason and part of the problem is that they were not enforced and it's a current problem here in Canada.

You don't have the Nazi network or the confederate network, yet, both would be profitable in America. It's only getting sued by private entities and existing hate laws that are a check on them. OAN, Foxnews and Newsmax are all getting sued by voting machine companies. Like I said, TV and radio are in a special class (YouTube too), in that they can influence the opinions and beliefs of many low information and frankly, stupid voters.
And who decides what to allow? I have mixed feelings about even what Facebook has done re the power to influence what is reported. Yes they shut down a lier and a fool but who’s next? It seems a slippery slope that gives the flavour of the month a huge amount of power.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
And who decides what to allow? I have mixed feelings about even what Facebook has done re the power to influence what is reported. Yes they shut down a lier and a fool but who’s next? It seems a slippery slope that gives the flavour of the month a huge amount of power.
Well I won't go into the slippery slope logical fallacy, yet, ;) but power can be distributed in such cases. The main point is, these people have not just reached a tipping point, they are beyond it. It does not matter what you do, if they gain power again, they won't worry about your free speech rights or mine. Speaking of the slippery slope argument, free speech will be the least of our worries when the death camps start to smoke. Make no mistake, that is the logical path (the real slippery slope) where this bullshit ends, genocide. If brown or black people are the problem, and they are, for anybody who wants a white homeland, then they will "do away" with the problem.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I get it. My question was more rhetorical than anything else.
To be there, is to have credibility bestowed upon you, it is not a right, not just anybody can show and get a seat, credentials are required. The first part of credential, is credible, believable, truthful, a preexisting agenda kinda gets in the way of credibility, if the facts clash with the owner's approved narrative. Foxnews has fired journalists for telling the truth or trying to, Sheppard Smith is now working for the NBC networks, and is but one example. Rupert Murdoch wanted power for its own sake and wants his socially divisive narrative promoted at the expense of the truth, we are witnessing the results. Others have now picked up the cudgel and are pounding away at the roots of democracy for profit.
 

CunningCanuk

Well-Known Member
I respectfully disagree, you can regulate it on broadcast and social media by changing the law and expanding the powers and reach of the FCC. You can't eliminate it but you can tamp it down enough so the truth can compete and there are several way to do this. One would be to reassign the AM broadcast band to digital and enforce antitrust laws for TV stations, newspapers and radio networks, nobody owns more than one station. No hate radio networks owning hundreds of stations all pumping out the same right wing billionaire bullshit. Regulation of spoon feed media (radio and TV) has always been with us because everybody knew it's power and danger. It's why these asshole own networks, provided Rush's content for free while paying him hundreds of millions of dollars. It's why if you go to the fox news web page it's almost ad free and much more useful than the CNN site which is choked with ads and paid content. Foxnews wants to reach rural America with a site that loads over shitty connections, they aren't after revenue, they are after power.

A billionaire can by this shit for pocket change and hate radio, along foxnews control rural America, look at the map, it's not so much red state blue state as rural versus urban. You educate you children and attempt to mold their character in ways that lead to their happiness and flourishing, this is done in all cases by curating and filtering the information they receive. You won't allow your child to be influenced by hate media and turned into a racist sucker.
As long as there are responsible people answering these questions, the idiots just make themselves look stupid anyway.
 

CunningCanuk

Well-Known Member
To be there, is to have credibility bestowed upon you, it is not a right, not just anybody can show and get a seat, credentials are required. The first part of credential, is credible, believable, truthful, a preexisting agenda kinda gets in the way of credibility, if the facts clash with the owner's approved narrative. Foxnews has fired journalists for telling the truth or trying to, Sheppard Smith is now working for the NBC networks, and is but one example. Rupert Murdoch wanted power for its own sake and wants his socially divisive narrative promoted at the expense of the truth, we are witnessing the results. Others have now picked up the cudgel and are pounding away at the roots of democracy for profit.
I don’t disagree with you in principle.

Newsmax and the like are less of a threat now that responsible leadership is at the White House.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
As long as there are responsible people answering these questions, the idiots just make themselves look stupid anyway.
To those with brains only, the yokels never see it, only the gottcha moments. They hear about from the guy who asked the question after it's filtered through the producer. Having discredited people and organizations credentialed, lends them credibility, merit in the news business is earned with integrity and honesty. A broadcast license was granted for the national and public good, spreading disinformation that murdered 600,000 people and destroyed the credibility of institutions and the government, is not in the national interest. Nether is promoting Russian propaganda and disinformation on election fraud and vaccines.

There are ideals, then there is reality, these people have gone beyond the point where 18th century ideals can deal with the situation in a world of mass communications and rapidly changing technology. Concepts like free speech are not absolute, even in America and worked quite well as long as the lunatics were confined to soapboxes in public parks.
 
Top