So, right now, Canadian support seems to be roughly one-third for the appalling stephen harper and one-third for the appalling (but dreamy) Justin Trudeau. With one-fifth going for the Liberal-lite NDP and one-tenth going for the Greens.
In Toronto, the race for mayor appears to be between John Tory (who doesn't have a clue about most important things) and Rob Ford's less "charismatic" (which is to say that he's just a bullying thug with none of Rob's endearing "I'm a total fuck-up" charm) brother, Doug.
Signs of a debased and diseased political culture if you ask me.
How does this happen?
The other day I was visiting my 83-year old mother. She watches the news. She can't read the paper very much these days. I can't really say that she pays close attention to the news, because she is always very hazy on the details. (Her mind is as sharp as it's ever been. So it's not a case of old-age.)
But she regurgitates all the opinions that the right-wing owners of the news media so obviously want people to believe.
Out of nowhere she told me she didn't think Obama was a very good president. I agree with her that 's he terrible, but for entirely different reasons. She thinks he's an incompetent and a failure. She never said anything about the failure of the brain-damaged-by-drinking-repeatedly-to-black-out/cocaine-snorting george w. bush.
I could always tell she sympathized with Rob Ford. When I told her that I'd probably vote for Olivia Chow (the incredibly boring centrist who has a transit plan that already has the money in place) she looked at me like I was crazy. Again, Rob Ford's complete and total ignorance, incompetence, hypocrisy, stupidity, ... nothing. She sorta liked the guy.
Of course, she's quite worried about ISIS. And they're obviously bad dudes. But I explain in great detail how they're a product of US foreign policy, a deliberate creation, financed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab monarchies, and none of it registers.
It's a very powerful system.
I'm reminded of this young female co-worker I had back at the turn of the millennia. We were temp workers in a warehouse. This young lady loved nothing more than to take ecstasy and go clubbing. She didn't talk about anything but that and the warehouse soap-opera gossip. But one time, in a group discussion about the future, she concluded her musings with "Or maybe Saddam Hussein will blow us all up."
Obviously, by sitting in front of the television while the news was on, she'd absorbed that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat to the world and to her very existence.
Then, for ignorant people who are passionate about politics, there's FOX News and Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh is a shameless con-man. A sleazy huckster. The sort of guy who thinks nothing of taking boner pills to make his slimy pecker rise to the occasion (past all the barriers caused by excess cholesterol and etc.,) in front of an impoverished teenage prostitute. A guy in his sixties, on his fourth marriage, who tells a young feminist that he wants to masturbate to videos of her private sex-life. And he's supposedly a spokesman for "traditional values."
The cretinous, ignorant, hypocritical, bullying, moronic Bill O'Reilly, has the highest rated news show in television for years on end. I mean, the guy is a complete idiot. Lazy and stupid. But there he is, yammering as if he has a fucking clue.
I don't know how we change it. Some social forces combined together in the 1960's and 1970's to force it down. But then, the corporate elites and their "traditional values" hypocrites and chumps denounced them for their snobbery and elitism, and (as they always tend to do) pronounced themselves victims and rebuilt their fortress of ignorance and bigotry.
Something will have to change, but I can't say what it is right now.
In Toronto, the race for mayor appears to be between John Tory (who doesn't have a clue about most important things) and Rob Ford's less "charismatic" (which is to say that he's just a bullying thug with none of Rob's endearing "I'm a total fuck-up" charm) brother, Doug.
Signs of a debased and diseased political culture if you ask me.
How does this happen?
The other day I was visiting my 83-year old mother. She watches the news. She can't read the paper very much these days. I can't really say that she pays close attention to the news, because she is always very hazy on the details. (Her mind is as sharp as it's ever been. So it's not a case of old-age.)
But she regurgitates all the opinions that the right-wing owners of the news media so obviously want people to believe.
Out of nowhere she told me she didn't think Obama was a very good president. I agree with her that 's he terrible, but for entirely different reasons. She thinks he's an incompetent and a failure. She never said anything about the failure of the brain-damaged-by-drinking-repeatedly-to-black-out/cocaine-snorting george w. bush.
I could always tell she sympathized with Rob Ford. When I told her that I'd probably vote for Olivia Chow (the incredibly boring centrist who has a transit plan that already has the money in place) she looked at me like I was crazy. Again, Rob Ford's complete and total ignorance, incompetence, hypocrisy, stupidity, ... nothing. She sorta liked the guy.
Of course, she's quite worried about ISIS. And they're obviously bad dudes. But I explain in great detail how they're a product of US foreign policy, a deliberate creation, financed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab monarchies, and none of it registers.
It's a very powerful system.
I'm reminded of this young female co-worker I had back at the turn of the millennia. We were temp workers in a warehouse. This young lady loved nothing more than to take ecstasy and go clubbing. She didn't talk about anything but that and the warehouse soap-opera gossip. But one time, in a group discussion about the future, she concluded her musings with "Or maybe Saddam Hussein will blow us all up."
Obviously, by sitting in front of the television while the news was on, she'd absorbed that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat to the world and to her very existence.
Then, for ignorant people who are passionate about politics, there's FOX News and Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh is a shameless con-man. A sleazy huckster. The sort of guy who thinks nothing of taking boner pills to make his slimy pecker rise to the occasion (past all the barriers caused by excess cholesterol and etc.,) in front of an impoverished teenage prostitute. A guy in his sixties, on his fourth marriage, who tells a young feminist that he wants to masturbate to videos of her private sex-life. And he's supposedly a spokesman for "traditional values."
The cretinous, ignorant, hypocritical, bullying, moronic Bill O'Reilly, has the highest rated news show in television for years on end. I mean, the guy is a complete idiot. Lazy and stupid. But there he is, yammering as if he has a fucking clue.
I don't know how we change it. Some social forces combined together in the 1960's and 1970's to force it down. But then, the corporate elites and their "traditional values" hypocrites and chumps denounced them for their snobbery and elitism, and (as they always tend to do) pronounced themselves victims and rebuilt their fortress of ignorance and bigotry.
Something will have to change, but I can't say what it is right now.
9 comments:
Question:
I'm guessing that there must be a few conservative mps who are slightly prejudiced. Umm.
Anyway, I've been reading that Netanyahoo(spelling) is equating ISIS with Hamas. There might be a few people in Harper's group who think along similar lines although.......Anyway, how does Harper keep some of these Mps from speaking more plainly about their values?
I guess it's disguised in love for Israel and such. You'd think that one of these guys would be caught on mike saying some pretty nasty things. I havent' read anything totally overt.
Justin's sluttish dad once said that MP's are nobodies when they get 50-feet away from Parliament Hill.
Also, all politicians are trained to avoid controversy at all costs.
Look at all the shit Rob Ford got up to before the dam finally burst. Your average Conservative MP could surely get plastered at a bar once in a while and not get noticed.
Right, makes sense.
Umm. Another question.
Sun news. Is there a direct connection between Sun and the Harper camp? I mean, Are there cases where Ezra is told by the PMO to say certain things or is Ezra basically aligned anyway and it's not necessary.
I guess Ezra basically says what Mps would love to say themselves so there is a symbiotic relationship there.
Did you just call them gay? No, I would never do that. Symbiotic is not gay. I didn't think so. I've got to prune my rose bushes now.......I mean mow the lawn. That was close.
Kids in hall thing good. Thanks.
I'm squishing you!! (skit)
greg,
You must have read about Chomsky and Herman's "propaganda model."
People are filtered out who do not comply with the hegemonic world view.
How incestuous the relationship is between the harper cabal and SUN News, ... how much it's based on daily briefings, is impossible to say.
Ezra Levant's shameful, racist rant against the Roma did mesh with fundamentalist, closet-case Jason Kenny's policies denying their refugee claims.
There are close ties between the executive and leadership of both parties. Levant was a Conservative politician at one point.
They get much of their advertising revenue from federal government ads.
I don't want ISIS to cut my head off.
Why the fuck not?
Do you want someone else to do it? Is that it?
What the hell is head cheese?
Heard Paul Calandra on the HOuse with Evan Solomon. I think he's nuts. Blamed his bahaviour on some tweet he got. I'd love to read that tweet. He kept going on about how he wasn't going to tell us the message. I thought it was really strange. Evan was very gentle with him though, telling him things would be okay.
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