Liberal Forum

Blackvegetable » Today, 11:21 am » wrote: ↑

Today, 11:21 am

We do not. We live in a soap opera country. We live in a social media/cable TV country. In our culture you don’t want to focus on boring policy questions; you want to engage in the kind of endless culture war that gets voters riled up. You don’t want to focus on topics that would require study; you focus on images and easy-to-understand issues that generate instant visceral reactions. You don’t win this game by engaging in serious thought; you win by mere attitudinizing — by striking a pose. Your job is not to advance an argument that might help the country; your job is to go viral.

 Hegseth is, of course, the living, breathing embodiment of this culture. The world is on fire, and what’s his obsession? Wokeness in the military. I went through high school trying to bluff my way through class after doing none of the reading, and in Hegseth, I recognize a master of the craft. During the hearing he repeatedly said he was going to defend the meritocracy. In what kind of meritocracy is being a Fox TV host preparation for being secretary of defense? Maybe in the one Caligula fancied when he contemplated making his horse a consul.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/opin ... =url-share

I believe what Dave is getting at is that America deserves an Infotainment administration as good as its dumbasses on the margin.

Dave must be another regular reader of "The Blackvegetable Review"