Why are white Americans more susceptible to conservative propaganda?

[Cali_Democrat]

The vast majority of the people who watch Fox News and listen to conservative talk radio are white.

In fact, a staggering 92% of Fox News viewers are white:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/only-1-of-fox-news-viewers-are-black/

I'm sure the numbers are about the same when it comes to conservative talk radio.

Also, when one watches the Republican national conventions every four years, one can't help but notice the audience is almost entirely white. It's odd considering how many minorities live in America today.

Why do you think this is?

[elleng]

1. Ignorance>Self-segregation>propaganda

[dawg]

2. Because that's who the propaganda is aimed at.

Conservatives learned they could exploit underlying racism to separate poor whites from poor minorities, so they have built a gigantic propaganda machine built specifically for that purpose.

[True Blue Door]

3. Fascist messaging appeals to threatened privilege.

So I'm not surprised that the audience is overwhelmingly white.

What does worry - and sicken, and aggravate me - is that a strong majority of American whites vote Republican.

It's not just that we're susceptible to this disease, it's that white people in general in this country are infected. It's consistent enough, and statistically dominant enough, that it becomes almost a cultural definition of whiteness.

It irks me that anyone, anywhere could reasonably suspect me of harboring right-wing sympathies by looking at my skin.

[nichomachus]

7. The Fox message is "they" are coming to get you

And the "they" are minorities. So, it's no wonder that the minorities aren't so much interested.

[Cali_Democrat]

15. Yup...only 1% of Fox News viewers are black.

Why watch a TV channel that demonizes you on a daily basis?

[JaneyVee]

4. Class warfare.

[Turbineguy]

5. Inbreeding perhaps.

[Tobin S.]

13. lol!

Good lord that got me cracking up.

[Jamaal510]

6. My guess is that

because American "conservatism" is about ultimately reverting to how things were back in the day (where mainly whites had power both economically and socially). Just look at some of their agenda. For example, they hate-monger when it comes to the safety net. They've tried to make voting harder for poor and non-white communities, and they've blocked minimum wage increases (a higher rate of non-whites have minimum wage jobs). A level playing field has no place in American so-called conservatism.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Because the basis of modern American conservatism is racism, that's why.

Nixon's Southern Strategy, Reagan opening his campaign in 1980 with a speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in which he talked about "states' rights", welfare "reform", etc. It's allone long reaction to the 1960's Civil Rights Act, it's also why the Republican Party has mostly gone from being the party of socially moderate Northern industrial interests to being a Southern party. Back in 1964? LBJ got the Civil Rights Act passed in the face of Southern Democratic opposition by shaming Republicans into voting for it, calling on "the party of Lincoln"; do you think that'd work, today? I don't, so much. Lee Atwater pretty much summed it up:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

http://www.thenation.com/article/170841/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy

[Bagsgroove]

9. Demographics

The base of the Republican party is largely more wealthy, white, male, more educated, and older. The base of the Democratic Party is less wealthy, more minority, more female, less educated, and younger.

The political party division is less about race than it is about wealth, though in this country wealth inherited over generations by white folks and opportunities denied to minorities make the two correspond.

In terms of simple economic self-interest, the party demographics may make sense. If you are one of the "haves" you support the party that promotes policy that preserves and increases your advantage. If you are one of the "have nots" you support the party that promotes policy that may give you a chance to move up.

The advantage the Democrats have is that their base is much larger than the Republican's base. The advantage the Republicans have is that their base votes.

[jwirr]

11. Good explanation. One thing you forgot to add is that the Rs have most of the money to support

their candidates.

[DonCoquixote]

10. ugly truth ahead

warning, this may be offensive:

Let's not forget, that our culture come from the United Kingdom (biggest misnomer in History.) In particular, we come from the period where England was becoming an Empire, and using all sorts of religious and cultural shit to justify itself. The Calvinist "work ethic" sold the idea that you could prove God loved you by getting rich, and that the only thing standing between you and gettign rich was your capapcity for Hard work. Everyone else was simply hated by God. Now what made matters worse is the way England handled it's Calvinists. The Anglicans (aka Royals and those who supported them) were perfectly willing to treat their Calvinists like shit, and did so with the idea that these stupid gits do not realize what is good for them. It's the same holier-than thou arrogance that you can get a whiff of whenever you read people like Polly Toynbee or Seamus Milne in the Guardian UK newspaper. It did not help that many of these Calvinists where descendents of the Celts that the English had treated like shit for Milennia.

Well, London had a lovely idea: "we just stole all this land in the Americas, let's ship thsoe crazy Scotch and irish and scot-Irish to there, so that they can work for us and we get the cream." Of course, they did not realize that they would not keep the beasts of burden in their pen for long. Then when America was born, these same people did NOT mellow out, but kept expanding and expanding, but never challenging the idea that the work ethic was good, or the idea that government was just a means for a bunch of lazy, smarmy elites to get the cream while the workers got the whey.

So in short, religion, and to a large extent, the desire to get revenge on English elites warped the soul to where propaganda is fed. Notice one thign about the modern conservatives, you never see an upper class person on there. It is nto that there are not scads of elitles in New England who can break out theiur Ivy league education to pontificate. No, they bring out the Rush Limbaughs, the Sean Hannitys, The Bill O Reilly's the people who can FAKE being working class, in order to appeal to a rabble whose grandfathers thought high class people wuz nuttin but crooks! Why do you think the most successful Bush so far, W. made a point of being an amplified cartton of a Texan, despite the fact that he was every bit the New England Brahmin. And sadly, the most successful democrats were people like Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, people who had brains, but knew well enough to hide it from the camera, as it it was something to be ashamed of. The people who make of the mass of America are still hiding in their log cabins, saying "look at him, he talks funny" as opposed to those that God meant to win the kingdom, broken English and all.

[JI7]

12. BecAuse conservatism in the US is very much about race

[99Forever]

14. I honestly can't answer that question.

I simply can't wrap my head around the idea of watching Fox New,regardless of one's race.

[AgingAmerican]

16. Race has nothing to do with it

A certain percentage of the population have enlarged amygdala, which makes them susceptible to fear and panic.

[Recursion]

17. Because we benefit most from it?

I don't think you need to look father than that. A person can believe almost anything it's in our interest to believe.

[pampango]

19. Indeed, perceived (or real) self-interest can convince the mind quite easily.

What is good for all of 'them' is not nearly as influential.

[daredtowork]

18. Sense of scarcity in rural areas

People in rural areas are poor (when there are jobs, those jobs are low quality/pay) and Fox reinforces the already inherent human tendency to increase "othering" and seeing enhanced threats in times of perceived scarcity. So people watch Fox and they see their problems are caused because immigrants are taking their jobs, their taxes are high because blacks in the city are getting away without doing any work on welfare (while there is no welfare available in the rural areas), and marriage and family values are also all the more important - because SCARCITY!

I grew up in a rural area. There were no immediate role models for "good" jobs. The jobs were as gas station attendants and grocery clerks. The "middle class" jobs were bank clerk, teacher, and minister. The 1% in town was the doctor and the political elite (which tended to also be the inherited wealth). The school did not have guidance counseling for college. No one in my class went to a 4 year college except me (and I did it by skipping out and going to school in another town). Most of the girls in my class were pregnant and at least on track to be married before they graduated from high school. The room that passed for a "library" had no information for colleges, but it did have recruitment information for the military. This is an age where planning coincides closely with the power of the imagination. I strongly considered the Air Force (though I'm a total nerd and don't have a military bone in my body) just because it the shortest basic training. It's sad to say that I was probably saved by the transcendent power of TV to reach into rural areas and homogenize culture: so TV has a liberalizing force as well as a conservative one.

But at the minute rural areas are poor and no one is doing anything about it. Fox News gives people a false narrative for where to place the blame. They win because their narrative is closer to the traditional one. If a liberal news channel gives the rural white poor a more convincing place to put the blame, they will be watching that news channel.