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11.26.11 - 10:50 PM
And Some Wonder Why Americans Are So Dumbed Down?
The covers of the US edition of this week's Time Magazine compared to the international editions.
We can't make this stuff up. It kind of says it all...
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139 Comments so far
Show AllYeah, Time is KNOWN to be a liberal magazine, so it's clearly the liberal press that is guilty here.
Been watching this happen for at least 3 decades, now. You're JUST NOW catching on to it? Jeesh.
Hah!! Decades indeed. Time/Life and Luce: The American Century, coined in 1941, before Pearl Harbor. In response to Luce and even serialized by him, Charles Beard wrote "The Republic," an essential book it's clear too few have read. Time was always propaganda, but sophisticated and hard to see as such. It was a great item to use for instruction in critical thinking since there were always several flaws not caught by editors.
If we are to believe David Halberstam, author of The Powers that Be (which covers in detail the history of several old school American media, including Time/LIFE), the company was founded as a Republican magazine, per se. The entire publication is about viewpoint.
In theory, the liberal counter part was Newsweek, long owned by the Washington Post, bastion of [theoretically] liberal media).
Liberal press? Time? I have never seen it that way. No such thing as the liberal press unless you are talking about mags like the Whole Life Times, etc.
Anyone who thinks ANY of the msm remotely, has, or ever, speaks truth, IS lost in delusion !
But, there is a global awakening going on, and the propaganda outlets for the fascist empire are only involved to the extent that they are trying to cover it up/ smear the Rebellion with lies. But, this time it will not work ! The oppressors will fall !
Msm pretending ows ain't happening does the country a grave dis service. Msm is our feedback mechanism and when it fails to identify and harp on important issues eg income disparity, those problems left to fester become crises. Whether or not ows survives as a movement, the conditions which spawned it are probably only get worse without radical changes in public policy--changes that seem highly unlikely given our out of touch government. Msm could make difference here, but is obviously choosing not to. Instead a peaceful ows, its successor might be random violent riots--they might become the normal..... for better or worse, msm is our national consciousness, and a consciousness of denial of reality is not helpful in the long run.
Yes, if you are an avid follower of the Fox Disinformation network, you know that any Corp media left of Fox, ie., virtually all media except Fox, is liberal because that is what Fox tells you. Time is part of the Corporate media ring that supports the establishment (powers).
The American public are being 'dumbed down' as part of a national plan to further fascism in our nation and to allow the top 1% to keep the 99% from upsetting their greed party. Not only are we deprived of information by the media, our public schools have been destroyed by actions of our federal government. We no longer educate the young but train them to regurgitate the 'right' answer (as decided by some test maker in Texas) quickly. No thinking required or allowed. Then there is our diet. We are all eating junk food with no nutritional content. We eat stuff that is legally a pesticide and are not even allowed to know we are eating GMO food---well, it is not really food at all.
Then we have the wonderful work of the shrinks and the P.R. boys to run our political campaigns on emotions, not facts. They use colors, music and phrases that make us feel good. Last presidential election the winner got a prize for the best PR job of the year. (He got a peace prize too, go figure.)
I'd like to get one idea over to the dumbed down. Face the fact that our Congress is totally corrupt. They work for the top 1% and screw the rest of us. Knowing that, you must not send ONE of them back for another term. Never mind the other corporate party may be even worse. What we have is bad enough for us to say, 'NO MORE OF YOU. YOU'RE OUT!" We need to keep doing this until the people in office have to pay attention to what the people want because the money will not be enough to keep them if office if the people won't put up with the corruption any longer. Finally we may get some good people in office. First throw out the corrupt to make room for the good people.
What's "liberal" got to do with it? Stupid is as stupid does -- F. Gump.
Just look at who TIME's men of the year have been and you will not want to identify with or associate with "liberals".
Time Warner Inc. guns for the oligarchy.
I'm not sure if you're playing with sarcasm here, but I'll take the bait. Two comments here, first please look up the definition of liberal and conservative in the dictionary and then decide which you'd prefer to be identified with. Second, the list of Time's People of the Year span all political and social groups. In fact, Reagan and both Bush presidents are on the list (not that they deserve to be). Here's a link to the whole list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year. Not only will I not apologize for being a liberal, I'm proud of it.
Time is a commercial enterprise, and one that clearly knows its demographic.
Nobody in the States is going to buy a magazine with a cover photo featuring an angry brown guy from a place nobody's heard of.
A cartoon etching of a middle-aged, balding white guy? NOW you're talking $$$.
It's U.S. ex-pats and travellers and businesses that are buying these foreign editions of TIME, remember.
No need for a racist comment about angry "brown" people. Shame on you!
There is something racist about pointing out the anger of brown people? You
ARE a clueless white liberal!!
Read Dr. Vijay Prashad's "The Darker Nations - A People's History of the Third World." Dr. Prashad is an angry brown person too - good for him!
Really? I thought the comment was right on the money.
Anxiety is good for whom?__ School bus drivers perhaps? __ How good is it?
Just the right amount helps you focus. Too much and you can't function, too little and you won't function. It's not only good, but it's awesome in proper doses.
What a load of BS. You mean you won't drag yourself off to the factory to make someone else wealthy unless you're worried about losing your house? Yeah, that's a good thing. For the .01%. One can focus fine on the things that interests one without having to be prodded by anxiety.
I experience anxiety every time one of my grandkids ask to borrow the car, or when I can't shit for two day straight... Can't say it's good for me though.
Then once the television set caught on fire and we were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, back and forth to the kitchen carrying glasses and pans of water to douse the flames... Our youngest daughter was trying to dial 9-11... No one answered,, later discovered she was using the TV remote... Anxiety? OMG,, it was right up there... Was it "good" for us? I don't think so.
water is not a good idea on electrical fires, Wayne.
and we know that god moves in mysterious ways but do not need the same info concerning your bowels thankyouverymuch.
Dear vdb:
I don’t know about you, but taking a shit is right up there with eating, and climbing Mount Everest. Wayne forgive me this is not aimed at you. You may be a young oldster.
However, when one has reached their senior years there are really only two things one talks about, and that is eating and pooping. Life can become unbearable if either of these functions is compromised. The young have yet to discover this.
Dogface - as a cancer surgery survivor - I'd like to confirm your noting the importance of bowel function. It impacts function of the entire nervous system in ways youth would be wise to attend to. Side effects of medication in surgery was one of the greatest and longest battles I had. To youth who prefer to have blinkered conversation, I can only say that to be well forewarned is to be well prepared - that is if memory serves them.
Gee, I'm sorry that I started this shit, it's off topic,, unless one thinks of the bullshit our MSN and our 536 DC elected toss out.
The water worked vdb... Didn't have a fire truck handy. .
Hey, don't feel sorry. You gave me an excuse to share some free advice:
Eat plenty of vegetables, leafy greens and fruits. There's ZERO fiber in meat and dairy. Natural roughage and adequate water intake is all you need to keep things moving at a steady, healthy pace. It's a great feeling! :) And there are other benefits from a well-functioning digestive system. And other risks avoided, too!
Not funny, but I couldn't help it. 75 and sympathize. Tony
~Alycon~ is correct ,, Actually I only had a problem there once n my life from eating too much fried rice in Thailand.,, 78 and counting... Can still do 35 pushups and 200 situps though.. I eat lots of natural peanut butter and mayo sandwiches on whole wheat bread with a big polish dill pickle.... Like spinach and hard boiled egg sandwiches with cider vinegar too, on a French bread roll... Now I am way off topic... Sorry. .
Probably not good for you ... but I admit I laughed pretty hard.
You're wrong, some amount of anxiety is a goad just like pleasure of doing somthing. I love my work, but sometimes it helps me focus when I know that I have a deadline.
That may be what sells in Western Civilization because of the discontent and the need to keep the people's rage at bay but here is one Native American perspective from Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Nation ( 1768-1813):----------------------------------"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. . .
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. . .
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."
Wonderful; thank you.
Beautiful words, inspiring sentiment. Thank you for posting.
Great advice to reflect on! It's the kind of antidote needed for the stupidity that says some anxiety is good for you!
I must voice a healthy skepticism as regards the origin of this quote. Though I would love to believe that Tecumseh issued such philosophical wisdom, it sounds to my ear as though it has been contrived by someone from the dominant white culture, as was done in the case of Chief Sealth.
Let the reader beware. We of the prevailing culture are notoriously fond of the ennobling myths and romanticizations that we have projected upon those who have been victimized by Western civilization.
This is quoted in Shawnee History by Lee Sulzman.
"Don't follow leaders, work it out for yourself." Brian of Nazereth.
So half the nation is going broke, and I guess that is good for all those experiencing anxiety. Also, love the headline in the upper right hand corner: "Ok, go ahead and buy that lottery ticket."
Smirk. Lottery tickets, aka: The Stupidity Tax... Guaranteed to pay .50 on a 1.00 and only 20 years to collect it. Boggles the mind, can't even make this stuff up.
Good thing we have the Internet and sites like Common Dreams. If you get all of your news from mainstream media you're an American Idiot as Green Day plays it! I've learned the hard way that media is strictly controlled by greedy people who milk it for their own bottom line, not ours! Too many people get their news from places like Fox, which makes me sick!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dX41SkKN0tQ
Fox business at least has the judge.
Here's a hot surprise, andyz7@yahoo.com: I haven't watched the news on TV much at all since 9/11, and I don't even watch Fox News, let alone anything else, because the news on TV is bullshit, really. I go to internet sites like Common Dreams and afew others for precisely that reason.
say the distinctly un-anxious pricks in the well-paid press.
Tyme Warmer aspires to be Murdurch.
http://www.didyouknowthat.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/hitler-Time-man-of-the-year.jpg
Was just at my Mom's house (we went to 'The Descendants' together: excellent film about family emotions surrounding the death by coma of the mother - both funny and heartbreaking. Ask yourself why the subjects are in the 1%: maybe they just lead more interesting lives than the rest of us?). She's a big Faux News viewer, staunch Republican, astute monitor of the markets, and trained critic of the 'socialists' amongst us, she picked up on my criticism of 'The Descendants' real fast: like Faux had trained her to do so, which it has (and millions of others).
And there, on her coffee-table, was this TIME magazine, with its bespeckled 'everyman' filling his heart with his anxious connection to the world. Say what you will, but TIME knows which picture is going to find its way onto the coffee-tables of American 70-somethings: its the picture Faux selected for them. We all love our elderly, but too many of them represent a kind of 'lost generation' (which, not ironically, is the term Faux has taught them to refer to us).
A good question with many angles to answer. I'll offer a couple of stabs at it.
The US media conglamerates are infested with national security apparatchiks. Yes there is self censorship (the please her, please him crowd- the who do you know higher up thing) that pasteurizes the news so that it offends no one, but there is sure as shootin' an infestation of undercover journalists working for the man injecting 'news' that fits the interests of the rich and powerful. The media is battleground #1 for it directly affects the minds of the masses. Why then do we hardly ever see a Naomi Klein or a Noam Chomsky on mainstream punditry?
The US media like Time wants not to shake anyone up with worldly events, those that might be a threat to their power. The Egyptian revolution is one scary thing for the State of Things and they want none of those ideas catching fire here.
Also there is the issue that the msm are part of the 1% and thus are going to find it difficult to find the system that rewards them so handsomely to be fundamentally flawed. In addition there is the issue of msm group think and how much it has drifted to the right over the last several decades eg aei and other right wing organs are now considered the center v the voice of a klein or chomsky. When ike warned us about the mil indu complex, he obviously left out the central player that would largely determine the future of that complex--i doubt that he was as cynical about the msm as we are today.
Good reason CNN is known by some as the 'Comedy News Network''.
Much ado about nothing! The cover is different but the articles are still the same. Look at the top of the cover - notice that the Anxiety story is on the European mag and the revolution story is on the USA version. If you are literate you should be able to get both stories and more. If you read the electronic version you don't get any cover at all. Why even have the discussion?
Hmmm you seem to not have much experience creating journalism or critiquing media. What the editors put on the cover says everything about their intentions, and their perception of what they can sell to the audience. What is inside the magazine matters not. It could be chopped liver.