I think talk radio is both a symptom and a problem of a social decline. Talk radio is about yelling at people and abusing them and talking over them as a way of winning an argument. It's about dumping your empathy and hating as hard as you can. It's about never leaving your own point of view, even for a moment.
And 90% of the time it's about entitled rich white guys explaining to each other how much they deserve their entitlements, and how anyone who hasn't made it as big as they have is a loser, and how brown people in faraway countries are cool to kill. It's a bully pulpit for bullies, and it legitimizes the worst kind of behavior.
That, I'm not so sure of. I only know about one in particular - Father Coughlin - but that's radio back in the 30s, if I recall correctly, and that makes me wonder how many others there might have been.
Granted, there's a sight more channels to choose from now, and that shit's on most of them. But it's on message boards, too - and television - the late and unlamented crossfire springs to mind.
The cultural footprint of this kind of drek is both bigger and older than the Limbaughnnabies.
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Re: There's nothing new under the sun.
Date: 2006-01-26 06:34 am (UTC)Re: There's nothing new under the sun.
Date: 2006-01-26 06:39 am (UTC)Re: There's nothing new under the sun.
Date: 2006-01-26 07:06 am (UTC)I think talk radio is both a symptom and a problem of a social decline. Talk radio is about yelling at people and abusing them and talking over them as a way of winning an argument. It's about dumping your empathy and hating as hard as you can. It's about never leaving your own point of view, even for a moment.
And 90% of the time it's about entitled rich white guys explaining to each other how much they deserve their entitlements, and how anyone who hasn't made it as big as they have is a loser, and how brown people in faraway countries are cool to kill. It's a bully pulpit for bullies, and it legitimizes the worst kind of behavior.
Yeah.
Date: 2006-01-26 04:27 pm (UTC)I don't like it either. Listening pisses me off. The tone of their speech does it. I pick up on the anger and it ruins my mood.
Re: There's nothing new under the sun.
Date: 2006-01-26 06:58 pm (UTC)Granted, there's a sight more channels to choose from now, and that shit's on most of them. But it's on message boards, too - and television - the late and unlamented crossfire springs to mind.
The cultural footprint of this kind of drek is both bigger and older than the Limbaughnnabies.
Re: There's nothing new under the sun.
Date: 2006-01-26 07:16 pm (UTC)Re: There's nothing new under the sun.
Date: 2006-01-26 07:26 pm (UTC)The Futurists would have loved it here. No secret they all went Fascist at the first opportunity.