Why is it that the average person doesn't have the facts?

[louis c]

Last edited Mon Oct 7, 2013, 07:56 PM - Edit history (2)

I'm discussing the government shut-down with my co-workers and somebody comes up with "why doesn't Obama just negotiate".

Now the discussion takes on a civics' lesson.

What the hold up is that the short term budget (or continuing resolution) will not be brought to the House floor for a vote.

A CR is a budget that has already been negotiated. The Democrats want a Budget with over a Trillion Dollars, the Republicans proposed one at about 900 Billion. The Democrats conceded to the Republican proposal. End of negotiations.

Now, the Republicans want to hold up their own budget in order to extract concessions on issues that they can't win through the normal parliamentary process or at the ballot box.

That's not "negotiations", it's extortion.

[bowens43]

1. I have coworkers who are not even aware that it's happening.

I know people literally NEVER hear , read or see news unless there's a school shooting or a celebrity scandal. People who turn on a news channel long enough to see the sports scores and that's the extent of their interest.

The american people rich, middle class and poor , by and large are willfully ignorant. They don't care about facts. Facts and politics bore them. As long as they can go home, drink some alcohol and watch mindless TV they don't care about anything else.

[TxDemChem]

5. That is so true

Or you get the idiots who only watch Faux Noise and listen to Rush, who believe their bullshit. Sadly, I told my husband this weekend that America is in an awful lot of trouble - too many citizens have no understanding of what is happening in their lives, even when it directly affects them.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. It's the sorry state of our media coupled with a general lack of curiosity.

America is being gang-raped and she's too drunk to do anything about it.

[B Calm]

3. I thought the shut down was all about Obama Care!

You can see why the average person is confused! When republicans discovered the Obama Care angle wasn't working in their favor, they changed it to the debt ceiling.

[nenagh]

4. I didn't understand that myself...appreciate the information, I'm Canadian.

I need a Lawerence O'Donnell tutorial on the subject.

Essentially the TeaPartiers have closed the government over the CR and will also use the debt ceiling to force government to agree to elements of the Paul Ryan budget to be forced into being accepted into the budget because they know their extreme demands would never make it through the normal negotiation process....with the Senate Finance Committee.

Thus setting a precedent for the same extortion method to be used against future Presidents instead of negotiation.

Stay strong Pres Obama.

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. I'd say you got it.

[nenagh]

16. Well I would not have really understood except for your post.

We need to understand... and the extent of my knowledge was to growl at the notion of chained CPI.

I just didn't understand the context..

And when Leon Panetta is interviewed by Wolff Blitzer saying the fix up is easy, just get Pres Obama and Boehner in a room together to talk about chained CPI and more cutbacks...(no Reid or Pelosi allowed into the meeting)..

It totally 180's the message and the truth that you spoke of in your OP is lost to viewers .. No wonder people are confused..

We are being directed to look in another direction. We need better messaging...

Thank you..

[Cha]

7. the terrorists want Pres Obama to get rid of a Law.. that's gone through

Congress and the Supreme Court. The teajadists are terrorizing the country because they don't want millions of people to have health care.

Please Tell them that, louis.

[dipsydoodle]

15. Propaganda in your own media

denies your public the knowledge that it has passed into law.

[kydo]

8. Oh the answer to that question is so easy, Fox and the Hate radio

If your only news source keeps saying the same thing over and over and over again along with pictures and lots of hate and anger, even the most sane minded person can be brainwashed. And of course all the brainwashed are in denial saying it is the rest of you that got it wrong you need to watch the one place that has the ahem "real truth and facts."

I know lots of people that have contracted The Crazy Virus and it usually starts when one starts watching Fox.

We are under seize by zombies who needs Halloween this new version of the virus (hate radio like rush was the first version of the virus), was set free in 2008 and has been working its way through our population ever since. The only cure is to stop watching Fox and listen to music instead of hate radio. Victim's recovery depends on the amount of contamination. Most can recover if they are willing to take that first step and change the channel.

[Snake Plissken]

9. Instead of reporting the facts, the media draws a line down the center and declares it the truth

So if Obama is giving the media reality and the right wingers are pushing insanity, the media declares the the truth to be half way between reality and insanity.

[stillwaiting]

10. The average person doesn't care to even TRY to become informed on what's happening.

The knee-jerk opinion is ALL politicians are to blame. ALL politicians are corrupt, etc.

Very few even try to figure out what's happening. Of the few that try, some are captured by the right wing propaganda organ.

So, we have an uphill battle.

If we are ever to begin regaining ground, we will have to instill a sense of citizenship DUTY in American citizens again.

We have way too many American constituents (people living in America) that are not taking their citizenship duties seriously (which has allowed the global elite, through their assholes in Washington, to destroy the way of life we had for a few decades in the 20th century).

[B Calm]

11. +1

[Orrex]

12. $900 million?

[KurtNYC]

18. Good catch. Neither of the numbers in the OP is correct

Federal budget in 2012 was $3.5 tril

[melm00se]

13. This topic was discussed

in a graduate class I took.

The average person (folks at DU and other similar sites, regardless of ideology, are not "average&quot appears to only seek out and internalize information that they find interesting to them.

If Miley Cyrus shaking her ass on TV is important to them, they will seek out that information (look at the top searches as a prime example of this behavior).

Budget battles, sequestration, the ACA (and many others) are all complicated and, for the most part, nuanced topics and to many, they are, frankly, boring but can have an incredible impact.

One piece of data that is interesting to this point is the list of the top circulation magazines in the USA. it takes getting to #11 before a "news" magazine (Time) appears. in fact, Time is the "dedicated" news magazine in the top 25.

Looking at websites: news sites (Yahoo, CNN etc) don't appear until you get beyond the top 30.

Until political topics and an unbiased (or as close to that as possible) analysis feature prominently in the top information sources, the average person is not going to pay any attention to them.

[Javaman]

14. facts are hard. nt

[uponit7771]

17. Because the MSM takes Chuck Todd's stenographer attitude towards these issues

[KurtNYC]

19. Everyone has an opinion, few have facts

Many work from their emotions backward to "facts" they agree with.

"You can lead a horse to water..."