Is mainstream media making our society insane?

Where did news go?

Not only has it become politically polarized, but the content is garbage. information presented in old
news clips appears more balanced, dry, and not identifiable as entertainment. News today is dramatized
and sensationalize so much they should create a new word and call it newtainment. Dont agree? Turn
on ABC nightly news – and the probability there is a story about some celebrity, or what an animal did;
is higher than Golden state warriors winning next years championship. The point is that the content is
full of totally irrelevant and inconsequential things, even while there are important issues to discuss on
a national level.

Trump phenomenon
Trump has really dumbed down the level of our society and its dialogue. Left leaning people are
nodding to that statement, but im actually criticizing them. Its as if trump pisses this group off so much
they are unable to think rationally. Or maybe these people cant think rational in any situation. Not all
left leaning people of course- and I am a progressive btw. To give you an idea, here is part of a
conversation yesterday-“end the day, I no longer have the patience for anyone supporting trump or his
policies. I am intolerant of anyone who openly agrees or supports trump”. What policies are those I
ask. no answer.

This is a typical occurrence when chatting politics. Or grabbing one issue such as immigration and
having a few sentences of incomplete thought. They dont know anything beyond what a mainstream
news outlet says or the title in a social media article. This is fascinating to me, because many of these
people are college educated. Its as if they unknowingly allow their conscious mind to leave when they
turn on the tv or are scrolling down the phone. The best example of the “trump fervor” has happened in
the past two days.

Russia!!

This narrative was invigorated since trump met and spoke with russian president putin. If you are not
aware, there has been a narrative of russian meddling in the US election and that trump was colluding
and he is a puppet of russia. Lets break this down one by one. How and why would trump collude with
Russia? To win the election? On July 27, 2016, Trump said at a rally “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope
you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” Do you think if he was colluding with Russia
he would say this publicly? Also, trump doesn't need a foreign state to expose information for him- he
has the money to hire consultants for that. On another angle, why would Russia do it? What did they
do? People are forgetting the original context of this and that this whole russia narrative is essentially
an ad homonym counter attack. Someone hacked and released information which prooved the DNC
and hilary campaign colluded against bernie sanders. So why is someone who exposed a corrupt
organization the focus? If we want to safeguard our election process, why dont we first examine the
DNC. And how is it meddling if someone simply releases factual information?This rational is not
rocket science, but so few people seem capable of doing it.

This whole situation blew up further because trump said he didnt see why it would be russia who
hacked the dnc and that he seemed to take putin at his word. The media went off! “trump is nothing
short of traitorous””trump betrayed the country” and “russia is our enemy”russia attacked the US”
and”Putin is a dictator”.. and this was not just an opinion of a guest but narrative being jammed into us
nonstop for multiple days. This is insane and irresponsible to agitate relations with another nuclear
power. War would be devastating. Isnt the left supposed to be anti-war? But somehow when trump says
he would like to be on good terms with russia then the left gets mad. Why is that? Why are neoliberals
so hawkish regarding foreign policy?

Is the US the worst actor of all?

It must also be brought up that while these people condemn Russia about meddling, the US is by far the
leader in this practice. Carnegie Mellon University researcher Dov Levin historical database tracks U.S.
involvement in meddling with foreign elections over the years. The U.S. has done it more than 80 times
worldwide between 1946 and 2000. One-third have been public, and two-third of them are covert. And
covert coup d'etats like the United States did in Iran in 1953 or in Guatemala in 1954 are not counted.
On the other side Russia or the Soviet Union since 1945 has tried to exert influence half as much or
about 36 cases.

This points to the much larger issue that american society has a problem being empathetic and placing
the shoe on the other foot. Such as why an irak life is worth less and rarely discussed. After decades of
occupying the middle east, a group decided to strike back by taking out the world trade centers of
which less than 3,000 people died.the U.S. government has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and
homeland security since the 9/11 attacks. And the total death tole is projected into the millionsny of
which are innocents.

I dont think the owners and producers at the major news channels are insane, but I question why they
are pushing for this narrative so hard. A war with russia is not a good thing unless your an opportunist
who somehow makes money from it. OR maybe there just trying to get more eyeballs on there channel,
and having reasonable conversation on policy doesnt bring viewership. So I beg the title question – Is
mainsteam media making our society insane? No but it is making our society full of uninformed,
irrational,sensationalist,that never dig through policies. Idk if it is human nature, but our culture is
addicted to entertainment. Ideally every channel or program except the news would be enterinment, so
that people might switch back on there critical thinking function. The emporors of Rome would have
been amazed to the degree of bread and circus policy implemented. That even serious matters of policy
have been turned into a circus and transmitted to every household.