Al Franken: Bring Americans together? Good luck with that!

[question everything]

(snip)

If you’re reading this, chances are very good that on election night you were shocked and depressed at how close the race was. If you’re among those who believe that the election has been stolen from the real winner, then you are almost certainly not reading this. That’s because Americans are divided into two completely different information universes. And that’s a problem.

In 1995, I wrote a book that called Rush Limbaugh “a Big Fat Idiot.” While the book was satiric, its intent was entirely serious. Limbaugh had been first to exploit a little-noticed repeal of the Fairness Doctrine by the Federal Communications Commission. Adopted in 1949, the rule required broadcasters to present controversial issues in a fair and balanced manner. The doctrine’s repeal in 1987 cleared the way for disreputable broadcasters to present manifestly dishonest and unbalanced content, and Rush, it turned out, had a real talent for just that kind of thing.

Before long, Limbaugh had attracted an audience of 20 million a day by spewing wildly racist, xenophobic and sexist bile and wildly untrue twaddle about everything from climate to tobacco to the number of murders committed by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Like Father Coughlin, who regaled his millions of loyal radio listeners with anti-Semitic and isolationist propaganda in the lead-up to World War II, Limbaugh became a huge political force. After the 1994 midterms, when House Republicans were swept into the majority for the first time in 40 years, the new speaker, Newt Gingrich, named Rush an honorary member of the class of 1995. It’s no coincidence that this year, Trump honored Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which had been previously awarded to the likes of Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Apollo 13 astronauts. Without Limbaugh, there would be no President Trump.

(snip)

Purporting to provide a balance to the liberal mainstream media, Fox built a huge, rabid audience by relentlessly attacking Democratic administrations and functioning as state TV for President Trump. From “Fox and Friends” in the morning through its prime-time lineup with Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, Fox and its commentators have slavishly (and tragically) echoed this lazy and irresponsible nut job. Early in the pandemic, Hannity told his audience that the coronavirus was a hoax. Ingraham’s audience learned that the left was “weaponizing coronavirus fears.” Nothing has more starkly underscored the gulf created by America’s two information universes than the refusal by Trump supporters to wear masks in public places.

(snip)

Stephen K. Bannon, the former Breitbart News executive chairman who lately literally called for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s head, ran Trump’s 2016 campaign. The Twitter phenomenon QAnon has followers who are winning seats in Congress. And Facebook’s algorithms make sure to maximize the time its 2.7 billion users stay on the platform. Are you activated by particularly vile content? Then we’ll give you more of it! Whatever keeps you on, so we can sell more advertising. That’s our business plan! Four years ago, many Americans were puzzled to learn that a not-small number of Trump supporters believed that a not-small number of Democrats were bloodsucking pedophiles holding children captive in the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor. This fall, when YouGov put specific QAnon allegations to voters in a survey, fully half of Trump supporters said they thought Democrats were involved in elite sex-trafficking rings, while another third said they weren’t sure.

(snip)

Last Tuesday, Joe Biden received more votes for president than any candidate in our nation’s history. Then again, Donald Trump received the second most. In his speech Saturday night, the president-elect reached out to Trump supporters, imploring all Americans to “put away the harsh rhetoric” and to end “this grim era of demonization.”

What, do you suppose, are the chances of that?


https://www.startribune.com/bring-americans-together-good-luck-with-that/573046281/

[kurtcagle]

1. We are heading towards civil war

I am thankful that Biden won the election and has effectively claimed the legitimacy of the Presidency, but I fear that it may do little good. Trump is a demagogue, and if he has proved nothing else, he has proved that he is capable of mobilizing millions of people around the most absurd of messages.

While I hope he just "retires", I don't see that happening. Instead, I suspect his goal is to flee the country to a place where the US has no extradition treaty, then he will set himself up as "The President In Exile", using the Internet as his platform of choice. His goal: sow the seeds of sedition and secession, ultimately to try to get part of the country to break away, with him as Dear Leader. I don't think he'll succeed, but he's going to be raising an awful lot of muck in the process.

[bamagal62]

2. Yep. He's going to try anything and everything.

It’s whether he succeeds or not. Worrisome times.

[disalitervisum]

3. As predicted by Paddy Chayefsky's brilliant masterpiece from 1976, "Network"

Whatever keeps you on, so we can sell more advertising.

[pfitz59]

4. Theater of the absurd

We all love the freak show at the Carnival. Trump is the Freak in Chief. I don't see a change for the better.