Apparently one TV show has the ability to destroy the nation

[Blue_Adept]

and empower one side of the political divide to win.

That's pretty damn impressive.

Of course, just like every tempest that we get - sometimes multiple times a day with different events - each one is the singular thing that's going to end everything and must be inserted into every topic. The chicken littles are definitely out in force around these parts.

[MineralMan]

1. Well, I assume you're talking about the reboot of "Roseanne."

You didn't say, but...

So, what's one more thread among many? I expect several more today, and then it will die out, as things usually do.

[Blue_Adept]

2. I'm not talking about the show but the seeming hysteria about it

Particularly since so many don't even watch TV and a good segment goes off on how all TV and film is just pure propaganda anyway.

The hysteria level is just baffling with how much power people are giving a single show. I'm hard pressed to think of anything else that's even remotely "conservative" on primetime outside of Last Man Standing and that got nixed a year ago because of low ratings.

[PatSeg]

48. The show surely is getting a lot of publicity

because of the controversy. Makes you wonder if that was the point, though that might be giving Roseanne too much credit.

Meanwhile, the people who won't watch it, seem to be the people, who never liked or watched the original.

The show is not a conservative show. It is socially progressive and the politics are a bit on the satirical side, similar to SNL skits.

[rzemanfl]

3. You mean "The Apprentice" right? n/t

[Blue_Adept]

4. Heh

Never watched it, though saw snippets early on during its run. Never saw Trump's appeal going back into the 90's when I became culturally aware.

But even that show was never "conservative" or anything. It was just corporate bunk with no tether to reality.

[Initech]

13. I was thinking Fox & Friends.

[maxrandb]

5. Yes, we should ignore RightWingnut Retrumplican Propaganda

its not like it's skewed our government to the right of Attila the Hun over the past 20 years or so

[Blue_Adept]

7. You realize the show in question everyone is freaking out over had more left-wing politics to it?

Or are you just going by soundbites?

[OliverQ]

14. The lead in the show is a rabid Trump supporter who just got

a personal phone call from Trump to applaud her on her huge ratings, and next he'll probably offer her a Cabinet position.

You act like this crap doesn't normalize him and raise his approval. In case you haven't heard, a new CNN poll showed us lose 10 points in the Generic Congressional Ballot. We were at 16 (which seems to be an outlier), but now dropped to 6. And Trump's approval has been improving.

People are getting used to this crap, and it's going to lead to Republicans winning again.

[Clarity2]

26. Think of it this way: The rabid trump supporter

is most likely being used as a tool...a lure...for a progressive network, and a show that might change peoples minds.

She’s too much of an ignoramus to realize it.

I’m good with that.

[maxrandb]

40. Oh, I get it

It's reverse, reverse, reverse, reverse psychology...

Sorry, too many good shows and choices for me to put one thin dime in the pocket of this Retrumplican "Hillary ran a pedophile cannibal ring" has-been.

[tazkcmo]

53. I liked the first one.

Not so much for Roseanne but the supporting cast. Same reason I watched Seinfeld, the supporting cast because the lead was rather weak in comparison.

I would probably feel the same way about this version, too but I'll have to miss it because of Roseanne Barr. I don't know of anyone here who is freaked out by the show itself but I am aware of many, like myself, who just don't want to support a Trumpkin like Barr in any way, shape or form.

It sucks for me because I really, really like the other cast members.

[GusBob]

6. Like Fox and Friends?

I hear our reality TV star president likes to watch a lot of TV. I hear this show in particular is watched and policy decisions concerning our nation are influenced buy it

[hurple]

8. No, you're all wrong...

The OP is obviously referring to American Idol!

The one and only show that can utterly destroy this nation and, verily, the entire world...

[Dr Hobbitstein]

9. Indeed they are. nt

[Paladin]

21. You're more fun when you're trying to lay guilt trips on critics of Roseanne's new show. (nt)

[Dr Hobbitstein]

24. I havent laid a guilt trip on anyone.

I did call out uninformed criticism (ie, criticizing something that one has not watched at all), but no guilt trips here. You don’t wanna fucking watch? Don’t fucking watch. But if you’re gonna rail against something without knowing about something, it makes one look foolish and ignorant.

[RandomAccess]

42. We need a LOT more of that attitude around here

I've been quite dismayed by the response by people who don't have a CLUE what they're talking about. All they know is that Barr likes Trump. Anyone just looking at the first 2 shows would be hard-pressed to call it conservative or even pro-Trump.

Really disgusting to read all the denunciations based on sheer ignorance.

[Blue_Adept]

45. It's the kind of stuff that reminds me that the left can be just as bad as the right

[RandomAccess]

57. I'd quibble about "JUST AS bad," but yeah -- we've got our own

authoritarians and a whole boatload of them are right here on DU. More's the pity.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

47. Thank you.

We can’t rail against the ignorance of the right when we’re being just as ignorant on the left.

[LAS14]

54. Thanks! You made a similar point in another thread a day or so ago.

I was glad to see it. I tried to make a case for clear thinking in a thread loaded with ALL Trump voters are this and that. I really got dumped on. All I wanted to do was to urge us not to slip into a kind of thinking that we've derided on the part of the right.

[Initech]

11. I really feel like we're living the Hunger Games right now.

We have a corrupt psychopath in charge of the free world, and we have tributes getting eliminated at the drop of a hat and replaced with yes men. And it's all broadcast live on Fox News, with Fox & Friends and Hannity talking directly to the president, and advising him on what his next move should be, and he listens and agrees with them. What's it going to take for us to rise up?

[Kaleva]

12. It's kind of laughable how people are so excited about this.

[jberryhill]

32. ...and giving it free promotion

Had it not been for umpteen threads here about a television show, I would not have even known of its existence.

[Farmer-Rick]

15. It all adds up.

Think about how every damn cop drama has a tough criminal being beaten, abused or tortured.Then they breakdown and spill their guts to the cops because someone tortured them. Despite the fact that torture has never been proven to illicit factual or truthful information. Torture is only useful to propagate propaganda. To Get the victim to say what you want them to say.....not necessarily the truth.

Actually giving them a few drinks works better.

Think about it. If someone beats you, are you going to lie to them and send them on a wild goose chase or are you going to suddenly give up the only info that is probably keeping you alive?

And yet we see cops performing successful torture every day on the tv.

[Clarity2]

16. Lol, I totally missed the sarcasm

but agreed. People have to remember this is on ABC not FOX. Abc is rather progressive. It may open up some minds on the right. I may or may not watch it again...a litle perturbed that trump praised roseanne and she lapped it up. But it would never sway me from my steadfast political views. Its rather annoying that people are freaking out.

I’d rather people on the right watch this than Hannity.

[boston bean]

17. The show was more liberal and not favorable to trump.

I really don’t get why some people are freaking out over it.

Yeah Roseanne herself is a deplorable. But the show was not pro trump.

Surrogacy, gender issues pussy hats and nasty woman t shirts.

Didn’t find much there that would impress a trumper.

[Clarity2]

20. Absolutely...it is NOT pro trump at all nt

[Blue_Adept]

22. If anything, I thought it was more representative that most sitcoms these days

Because many families do have these divides and the generational aspect is even more visible now than it has been in the past.

And it has these characters actually talking to each other. Yeah, there's the yelling moments, but there are the quieter moments as well.

[Clarity2]

27. And thats what putin wanted

To divide us all. He wanted to rip the divide so wide there would be a civil war. Its easier to destroy a democracy that way. So if this makes people put down their swords and reconcile, thats a good thing.

[Blue_Adept]

28. There've always been divides but it's certainly gotten worse. Putin gets a fair share of it

But it predates a good bit with Fox as so many of us have seen our parents fall sway to it.

I'm certainly not saying this show will fix everything, or anything, but with sizable numbers and a range of messages that cross ideology, that's a good thing overall.

[Clarity2]

30. People are far more left and right than they were

prior to this election. Theres no one in the middle. The middle is where everyone can at least try to compromise.

Absolutely, fox has their hands in it too. They amped up propaganda even more since Obama was president. Now its totally a tool of this admin. Never seen that before.

[LanternWaste]

18. The important thing is we trivialize them for not watching... or ridicule them for watching.

The important thing is we trivialize them for not watching... or ridicule them for watching.

I s'pose it depends on who the "we" and the "them" are; but once I have that straight and know who to point at and mock, I'll get with the program (so to speak).

And mocking "them" certainly lets our self-esteem get super-charged, and isn't petulant or peevish in any way.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. We were taught in college not to erect straw men just to knock them down.

It's a flawed mode of argumentation.


The strawman-

"Apparently one TV show has the ability to destroy the nation."


No sentient person is arguing that. What some of us are arguing is that Roseanne is a shitty person who has described Trump's adversaries in the most disparaging ways possible, i.e. such as calling them pedophiles.

[Blue_Adept]

29. Maybe you need to step back and look at some of the conversations about the show

There are plenty of instances where it's being called one of the worst things and how destructive it is. Yeah, there's some hyperbole to my original statement, but so many are so invested in destroying this particular show because of the person that they're becoming the thing they hate. And they're doing it to themselves without realizing it.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

35. Roseanne sucks.

Roseanne is an absolutely awful human being. Some of us see watching the show as validation of her but I don't believe anybody here believes her series is going to change things in any fundamental way. We just don't want to see her successful.

[cwydro]

43. Newsflash.

She is already successful.

And very, very rich.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

44. You seem fond of her.

[fescuerescue]

34. Actually its more powerful to just ignore it

They expect...they WANT the ridicule because they repackage and then ridicule us their take on our take.

[cwydro]

19. Lol. Well stated.

It’s been pretty amusing around here lately.

[Blue_Adept]

25. Hell, look at it this way; every show needs its Villain. it's rare for the title character to be it.

With most of her family not on her side - a familiar situation for many of us, I'm sure - there's likely some minor redemptions to be had. We saw that in the second episode with the gender fluid grandkid and how the family circled to protect one of their own. Again, another traditional conservative trait that can help -generationally speaking - to break the cycle over time.

So much of what we get are bubble shows where there's nothing challenging either side. it's just a side. There's a reason this'll click with a lot of folks. They see their situation in it.

[fescuerescue]

31. More like one thread. Some times one poster!

The ability to over react, and overly value something that never in short supply.

If we could turn paranoia into clean fuel, we could solve half the worlds problems on the front page alone!

[Blue_Adept]

33. Now there's a visual! :D

[ismnotwasm]

36. Meh.

Of course I can say that, not being much of a TV watcher. From what I’ve read, the show is a balm for the angsty white soul in The Time of Trump, since many of us have bigoted relatives and friends.

It’s just a TV show and yet another TV show I won’t watch, not being interested in TV shows in general*.

*Except for “American Gods”—the first series I’ve watched an entire season of in real time for many years. Yay me.

[Blue_Adept]

46. American Gods is stunning

Just that slave ship opening sequence alone blew me away.

Sadly, I'm wary of the second season with the showrunners departing over budget and creative differences with the network.

[TlalocW]

37. This show being back is weird and conservative support of it is weirder

I remember when it first came on, and conservatives hated it, especially when it was put up against Cosby and started doing better than him in the ratings. Conservatives lost their shit over one Thanksgiving show because the Connors had Native American friends over to celebrate their culture.

Now it's back, and it's exactly like Evangelical support for Trump - conservatives (including Trump) don't care or are blinded by all the other issues on the show just so long as the main character voted for Trump.

TlalocW

[Initech]

39. You should have seen the backlash that ABC got when they canceled "Last Man Standing".

Oh the republicans and Trump fans went absolutely apeshit when they canceled that show. And they resorted to their usual nonsense of burning their DVRs and cancelling their accounts. Conservatives love them some mindless entertainment - especially if it speaks their language.

[Mr. Ected]

38. I, too, thought you were referring to "Fox and Friends"

Since it seems that Trump takes his lead from whatever those talking heads are barfing up at the moment.

If the new Roseanne show, which I didn't watch and will likely never watch, ends up being a progressive tool to tear down the facade that Trump's lies have created, then it's a worthy television show and may even end up converting some of the borderline MAGATS.

But since it's Roseanne's show and she's a MAGAT, I doubt that will be the case.

[Initech]

41. Glad I'm not the only one!

[lpbk2713]

49. Yeah, I never did care much for the Kardashians

[Blue_Adept]

51. I know, it conflicted with Duck Dynasty

Thankfully, both have lots of reruns!

[Va Lefty]

50. If indeed one TV show has the ability to destroy the nation

perhaps that nation doesn't deserve to exist.

[CatMor]

52. One TV show did destroy the nation..

it was called The Apprentice and it gave us trump.

[Skittles]

55. it wasn't the show

it was the fucking idiots who found that bullying piece of shit entertaining

[TNLib]

56. I was a Rosanne fan but didn't watch the show

It is just a show and the producers, writers and Rosanne can do what they want. But it turned my stomach to find out a feminist progressive TV character from one of my favorite TV shows became a Trump supporter. I just couldn't watch it.

But to each there own.