At the risk of sounding like some “Get off My Lawn” old man (after a few sentences it will be too late), I have to say, I am sickened by what is happening, and has happened, to our culture.
I think my generation, generation X, is a pretty hip generation. I am 53. We grew up during Watergate (anybody else remember being pissed that all the afternoon cartoons were preempted by the Watergate hearings?), the tail end of the Viet Nam war, Reagan and the roaring 80s, the fear of Nuclear Annihilation, and the Fall of the Soviet Empire.
We also grew up a critical juncture for Civil Rights writ large. The AIDS crisis had gays coming out swinging for such rights, the ERA was a hot topic and the post Civil Rights era allowed us to talk issues of race and ethnicity in ways that had never been done before. A lot of the talk came through media and entertainment, and increasingly in politics.
Richard Pryor, Freddie Prinz, Norman Lear and such shows as All in the Family, the Jeffersons, Good Times, What’s Happening. Mel Brooks through the 70s and 80s produced Blazing Saddles, and History of the World Part I.
It seemed to me at least, we found a way to laugh at things such as racial inequity, gay rights, anti Semitism, (and the horrible things they predicated upon) but at the same time look at them honestly, without filter. Dialogue meant risking offense, but ultimately forgiveness and understanding. I think we all started getting an understanding of each other in ways that the 60s and before did not allow.
Today, SMH. So I was watching History of the World and there were several gay, black, and Jewish references that were hilarious. And I thought to myself — no way you could make such a movie today. No way All in the Family would fly today — even though you can bet Archie Bunker would have been a staunch Trumper. But Archie Bunker over time mellowed, he changed his views (anyone remember the episode where Archie had a blood transfusion and he learned he got the blood from a black guy?). And George Jefferson who “made it” as a black man, but never hesitated to refer to his white neighbors as honkies, and his was appalled by their mixed marriage.
Today, it appears to me, conversations about race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and culture generally are not conversations at all. “Discussions” of this sort are one way screaming screeds, where no one actually talks to each other. It is usually a person on one side of an issue (typically extremely so) screaming injustice in the forum that is amenable to his/her views.
What really irks me as much as anything are Ivy-educated minorities on TV running down everything our country has ever done. I mean, I what’s the point? I would love to have been so oppressed to go to Harvard or Columbia and get paid large to spout crap on TV. I am equally irked by folks on the other end who have no stomach for trying at all to understand and tease out the truth of what such persons are saying (their angst is not wholly unfounded).
And so now, America bad. And anyone who is not gay, black, Latin -x (did I do that right? I am half Mexican (at least) and do not know what the hell Latin x means)), trans, or whatever (you get a bonus if you are all of the above) you are part of the power establishment and should apologize for your very existence. Conversely, and I might say to some extent justifiably so, such folks become deeply resentful. I know of a lot of poor white folks who would LOVE to be so oppressed.
It appears to me that have completely lost the ability to talk to each other rationally. We have lost the ability to laugh, to recognize fault but quickly follow up with redemption and forgiveness, and to work together to forge ahead and build a better future — it appears we are all victims seeking redress for present and past grievances.
Something has to change, but I don’t know how. But I honestly think that, after all my years, most of the blame for the division and lack of ANY nuance is the “media.” primarily social media and TV. And to some extent capitalism (before you freak out, I am not a communist or socialist). Indeed, I think our country and capitalism is to some extent collapsing under its own weight. Mind you, i was (at least at one time) considered a very well educated person on business — at least on the theoretical level. I hold a BBA in Finance from Texas, with about 27 hours of accounting to boot!
While Conservativism has long held the media in some disdain for its liberal bias, today’s media function in ways that look nothing like the media I grew up with. TV news operations were largely money losers for the networks. And newspapers while profitable, were not crazy profit centers. There appeared to me some integrity in how things were reported (I know many will take issue with this vociferously). Today, ALL media are profit centers which are focused solely on profit and market share. And with audiences being so vast, one can make a lot of money without large an audience for niche markets.
What we have been subject to is terrible Balkanization of how we get our news, politics, and entertainment. We all, to some extent, live in bubbles, created by media for profit. So it is no surprise that we see niches that are moving faster and faster to extremes because media see profit by catering to them.
It is what it is. And I do not know how to solve it. All the media outlets that cater to radical lefties, for example, have no incentive to be objective. Heck, if anything, they have motive NOT to be objective for fear of losing market share. Case in point: Fox News. I read an article the other day that viewers are moving away from Fox because it is being perceived as too liberal. OAN is the beneficiary— a network that is really pushing the envelope on right wingerism.
But we are not communists. So how do you monetize objectivity? How does an outlet become profitable if it is truly objective and balanced?
Sorry for the length. Just some of my thoughts.
I think my generation, generation X, is a pretty hip generation. I am 53. We grew up during Watergate (anybody else remember being pissed that all the afternoon cartoons were preempted by the Watergate hearings?), the tail end of the Viet Nam war, Reagan and the roaring 80s, the fear of Nuclear Annihilation, and the Fall of the Soviet Empire.
We also grew up a critical juncture for Civil Rights writ large. The AIDS crisis had gays coming out swinging for such rights, the ERA was a hot topic and the post Civil Rights era allowed us to talk issues of race and ethnicity in ways that had never been done before. A lot of the talk came through media and entertainment, and increasingly in politics.
Richard Pryor, Freddie Prinz, Norman Lear and such shows as All in the Family, the Jeffersons, Good Times, What’s Happening. Mel Brooks through the 70s and 80s produced Blazing Saddles, and History of the World Part I.
It seemed to me at least, we found a way to laugh at things such as racial inequity, gay rights, anti Semitism, (and the horrible things they predicated upon) but at the same time look at them honestly, without filter. Dialogue meant risking offense, but ultimately forgiveness and understanding. I think we all started getting an understanding of each other in ways that the 60s and before did not allow.
Today, SMH. So I was watching History of the World and there were several gay, black, and Jewish references that were hilarious. And I thought to myself — no way you could make such a movie today. No way All in the Family would fly today — even though you can bet Archie Bunker would have been a staunch Trumper. But Archie Bunker over time mellowed, he changed his views (anyone remember the episode where Archie had a blood transfusion and he learned he got the blood from a black guy?). And George Jefferson who “made it” as a black man, but never hesitated to refer to his white neighbors as honkies, and his was appalled by their mixed marriage.
Today, it appears to me, conversations about race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and culture generally are not conversations at all. “Discussions” of this sort are one way screaming screeds, where no one actually talks to each other. It is usually a person on one side of an issue (typically extremely so) screaming injustice in the forum that is amenable to his/her views.
What really irks me as much as anything are Ivy-educated minorities on TV running down everything our country has ever done. I mean, I what’s the point? I would love to have been so oppressed to go to Harvard or Columbia and get paid large to spout crap on TV. I am equally irked by folks on the other end who have no stomach for trying at all to understand and tease out the truth of what such persons are saying (their angst is not wholly unfounded).
And so now, America bad. And anyone who is not gay, black, Latin -x (did I do that right? I am half Mexican (at least) and do not know what the hell Latin x means)), trans, or whatever (you get a bonus if you are all of the above) you are part of the power establishment and should apologize for your very existence. Conversely, and I might say to some extent justifiably so, such folks become deeply resentful. I know of a lot of poor white folks who would LOVE to be so oppressed.
It appears to me that have completely lost the ability to talk to each other rationally. We have lost the ability to laugh, to recognize fault but quickly follow up with redemption and forgiveness, and to work together to forge ahead and build a better future — it appears we are all victims seeking redress for present and past grievances.
Something has to change, but I don’t know how. But I honestly think that, after all my years, most of the blame for the division and lack of ANY nuance is the “media.” primarily social media and TV. And to some extent capitalism (before you freak out, I am not a communist or socialist). Indeed, I think our country and capitalism is to some extent collapsing under its own weight. Mind you, i was (at least at one time) considered a very well educated person on business — at least on the theoretical level. I hold a BBA in Finance from Texas, with about 27 hours of accounting to boot!
While Conservativism has long held the media in some disdain for its liberal bias, today’s media function in ways that look nothing like the media I grew up with. TV news operations were largely money losers for the networks. And newspapers while profitable, were not crazy profit centers. There appeared to me some integrity in how things were reported (I know many will take issue with this vociferously). Today, ALL media are profit centers which are focused solely on profit and market share. And with audiences being so vast, one can make a lot of money without large an audience for niche markets.
What we have been subject to is terrible Balkanization of how we get our news, politics, and entertainment. We all, to some extent, live in bubbles, created by media for profit. So it is no surprise that we see niches that are moving faster and faster to extremes because media see profit by catering to them.
It is what it is. And I do not know how to solve it. All the media outlets that cater to radical lefties, for example, have no incentive to be objective. Heck, if anything, they have motive NOT to be objective for fear of losing market share. Case in point: Fox News. I read an article the other day that viewers are moving away from Fox because it is being perceived as too liberal. OAN is the beneficiary— a network that is really pushing the envelope on right wingerism.
But we are not communists. So how do you monetize objectivity? How does an outlet become profitable if it is truly objective and balanced?
Sorry for the length. Just some of my thoughts.
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