Reader "t shorter" sent these comments via email which by a fluke of timing pair perfectly with bad taste which the previous post left my mouth:
I think I'm done with "TV" liberals altogether. Rachel Maddow especially. Are these people worth our time anymore? When "TV Liberals" are on TV arguing any issue they have to spot the conservative half of the floor as if every issue have equal merit. This is like watching a pet gerbil being sold with a free rattlesnake.... and yes you have to take both cause you know both sides. And if one ends up dead you blame equally the gerbil and the rattlesnake. I believe I have to stop watching if I can come up with better liberal counterpoints that start with "this lying asshole who receiving money from x group is being intentionally deceitfully" with the help of the "insert host name". The conundrum, stop watching they will say liberalism does sell well, keep watching and continue to temporarily give life to this extremely flawed medium. Who knew in a free country we would have a few limited choices. Have a nice one.
What "t shorter" is describing is the Apple Paradox from Taxi.
See also, "Why we can't have nice things."
I used to think that if we could just reach the Apple Man directly and tell him that we'd like fresh apples eventually we might get a fresh apple or two. That maybe he just didn't realize how bad things had gotten.
But I have come to understand that the Apple Man works on the top of a tall, tall building behind all kinds of screens and baffles designed to keep people like me out for a reason. See, the Apple Man actually works for the Mushy Apple Consortium and very much like the owners of the Chicago Cubs, has discovered he can make a ton of cash selling an cheap, inferior product, so why not?
Also he doesn't really give a fuck what I think about anything anyway.
See also, "Why we can't have nice things."
I used to think that if we could just reach the Apple Man directly and tell him that we'd like fresh apples eventually we might get a fresh apple or two. That maybe he just didn't realize how bad things had gotten.
But I have come to understand that the Apple Man works on the top of a tall, tall building behind all kinds of screens and baffles designed to keep people like me out for a reason. See, the Apple Man actually works for the Mushy Apple Consortium and very much like the owners of the Chicago Cubs, has discovered he can make a ton of cash selling an cheap, inferior product, so why not?
Also he doesn't really give a fuck what I think about anything anyway.
6 comments:
Why would he? I know I've pounded this drum before, but we're not his customers. The advertisers are his customers, who pay him for our eyeballs. Or, to put it another way (and if I'm not repeating myself here, I'm surprised):
"The [teevee] merchant does not sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client."
A quick Google search will show what word I replaced with "teevee", and thus show how long the problem has been recognized. The solution, on the other hand, has been made unrecognizable.
That's why I've decided that social media as a political tool is a cruel joke. All that screaming into the void day after day has devolved into a pointless exercise since the Masters Of The Universe simply aren't listening. They don't have to listen and besides, it cuts into profits.
Anyway, they can always hire somebody to make it look like they're listening so all good, right?
Bill Mahar recently gave a fairly softball interview to Judith Miller, who was crying all over his shoulder about how mean those awful liberals are for saying the country was lied into a war. You'd think these people would be popping champagne bottles and celebrating that they got away with it and were shown to be completely untouchable since no one lost their job (except the war critics) and no one went to trial. You'd think so but you'd be wrong. They also want to be loved for it. Or at the very least, stop saying mean things about them. Call the waaambulence.
Well, isn’t what you describe pretty much the reason the political left moved to the Internet in the early 2000’s?
I think it is safe to say we’ve lost on all fronts of “traditional” media with a few outposts allowed to exist to keep the Crazy Uncle Liberty believing the “Liberal Media Conspiracy!” and provide Both Siders with something/someone to falsely equate with blatant Right Wing propaganda?
@ DeistPaladin:
I propose two reasons Miller et al. do that: 1) Modern Conservativism starts at the idea that NO ONE is more prosecuted, unjustly demonized, and put upon in the U.S. than wealthy white conservatives who just want what is best for us all and 2) to lay the ground work to sell the NEXT illegal war/tax cut/welfare program abolishment/civil right negation/etc. by turning liberals being right to liberals being the ones responsible for reason 1.
@trgahan
Well, isn’t what you describe pretty much the reason the political left moved to the Internet in the early 2000’s?
You have that exactly right, although I would put the earliest of the new media effort at about 1996.
We thought we were going to save the world, or change it at least, and maybe we did - sort of - but the long term results have been horribly disappointing compared to the early hopes. Me? I think the peak came in 2006 and we have been on a slowly degrading plateau ever since.
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