Who is most responsible for dividing the US citizenry?

[tenderfoot]

18 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Vladimir Putin
	0 (0%)
	US based billionaires (Koch, Thiel, etc...)
	1 (6%)
	Rupert Murdoch
	4 (22%)
	A combination of all three
	12 (67%)
	Other
	1 (6%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Sneederbunk]

1. The MSM should be on that list.

[tenderfoot]

3. That could fall under "US based billionaires" due to ownership of the MSM

eom

[iemanja]

2. Trump

and his acolytes.

[Beastly Boy]

8. I was wondering why he was omitted from the survey.

He is by far the #1 cause.

[Reader Rabbit]

4. Newt Gingrich got the ball rolling.

Contract for America was the first I can remember where Republicans actively demonized and dehumanized those on the left side of the political spectrum. That may also have been when the whole "Democrat Party" BS started, too.

[electric_blue68]

6. THIS. That effin' Windbag!

[2naSalit]

11. It was...

And don't forget that at the same time the contract on America was signed, Rupert had issued a $4 million book deal for a book he never wrote because Rupert was in trouble with Congress. When asked about this seeming conflict of interests by an NPR reporter, and I have a near total recall on this one and this interview/questioning only aired once, live, he replied,
"Well, so Mr. Murdoch has some problems with the rules, we'll just change the rules and then there won't be a problem."

Seriously, that's what he said and he then went on, after hearing about his comment on the radio, proceeded to attempt to destroy public broadcasting. That's when we ended up with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which soon became a favorite place for the Kochs to dump some cash for bragging rights.

Fuck all these slow rolling traitors. If there's a hell, I hope they spend eternity there.

[UTUSN]

5. Limbaugh, Gingrich, Raygun, TeaBaggers, Drumpf

[electric_blue68]

7. 🤔 Was Rushbo on radio as a RW'r yet before Neeewt?

[UTUSN]

10. Yes, LIMBAUGH revived the whole dead Wingnut movement (John Birch Society), gave rise to GINGRICH

and the "GINGRICH Revolution" credited him for their taking over the House. And he and this bunch canonized Saint RAYGUN.

LIMBOsevic went national in syndication in 1988, GINGRICH revolution was 1994.

Funny that 1988 was the year Tweety came out with "Hardball" the book, the last time he was "a Democratic operative." Once he and RUSSERT got steam on cable they swiftly turned into outright wingnuts.

[electric_blue68]

12. Ty, Got it. Effing YUCK!

Hated them both. No fan of Ray-gun either!

There was that hysterical SNL skit of Ronnie affabily greeting like a bunch of Girl Scouts...

Then...

They leave and a painting slides up and reveals some map with war room troop moves (something like that), he becoming this hard nosed figure with a pointer...

😂

[UTUSN]

13. Then there's that real life story that he always carried a few dollar bills to give to street people

Yea, give one person a dollar and DELETE as much as possible of any social services programs that would help MILLIONS. And besides the wars you mention, his denying/ignoring the AIDS crisis.

[electric_blue68]

16. Hooo boy, BOTH of These! 😔

[Poiuyt]

14. I came here to say Gingrich and Limbaugh

Reagan started the decline of the American economy. And Trump, well, where do I begin?

[Wicked Blue]

9. Russians nt

[Amishman]

15. Cultural drift

We've grown; they haven't - at least half the right wants to reset the clock to 1950.

The wider the gap, the less common ground left.

[XRubicon]

18. Facebook

[radius777]

19. Lee Atwater deserves a mention here.

He and the Reagan/Bush crew managed to fuse RW economics with ugly racist/sexist tropes, which forms the basis of the modern day GOP. Trump just says with a bullhorn what they used dogwhistles for. Atwater's divisive narratives in many ways provide the justification for voter suppression and the Big Lie.

[Sympthsical]

20. People should read Ezra Klein's "Why We're Polarized"

There are quite a few answers there.

And I imagine a lot of people here would not like them.

[tenderfoot]

21. Why don't you share with us since you have an opinion on the topic?

[Kingofalldems]

24. Agree. WTH is that anyway?

[Sympthsical]

29. They're long answers

One of my bugaboos is that political media - particularly of the partisan kind - need to increasingly maintain narratives and characterizations in order to get the eyeballs and clicks and keep them coming. As a result, they increasingly play into biases, further confirming those biases, and creating an ever increasingly distorted view of reality.

The more partisan someone is, the less they accurately know about their political opposition.

People create, and political media reinforce, tribalistic bubbles for themselves.

Note how often it's said, "I don't read the NYT! Don't post that right-wing talking point here! Well if it came from them, it shouldn't be believed." What happens is a very narrowed down, narrowed band of information flow specifically designed to promote an incredibly narrow field of thinking. It isn't informed, and it isn't helpful.

The Right has Fox News and Breibart and Town Hall, etc. We have our MSNBCs and Twitter folk and a large swath of the media that promotes and buries stories however the narrative requires.

None of these platforms care. They just care about clicks, eyeballs, and dollars. They care about outrage and fear.

Their goal is not to inform. No, not even the ones we like.

[tenderfoot]

32. So it's 'BOTH SIDES' then?

Oh... okay.

[Sympthsical]

35. When it comes to bubbles

Sure. See: Rittenhouse trial.

It was like watching some kind of bizarre contest to see who could be the most aggressively misinformed about the facts.

Everyone won.

[Kingofalldems]

25. So Ezra Klein has all the answers?

[Sympthsical]

27. Yeah, to hell with books

Reading's so . . . Twentieth Century.

Twitter's where it's at.

[Kingofalldems]

28. Non responsive.

The poll was for DUers, not Ezra Klein.

[Sympthsical]

30. I have a hall pass

So the monitoring thing isn't really valid? I appreciate the attempts, but it's just wasting both our time.

[Kingofalldems]

33. What are you talking about?

[W_HAMILTON]

22. Conservative media.

So, I vote for Rupert Murdoch.

[JI7]

23. Racist Americans

[LakeArenal]

26. Media.

[marie999]

31. U.S. citizens. They do not have any idea what is happening to this country and they do not care.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

34. Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh

The division of the country could only be done through mass media.