A nation of attention junkies: Trump and Elon are the perfect symbols of America's predicament

[marmar]

A nation of attention junkies: Trump and Elon are the perfect symbols of America's predicament
We can't give Musk and Trump the attention they crave (because it's literally impossible). We also can't look away

By BRIAN KAREM
Columnist
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 1, 2022 9:32AM (EST)


(Salon) It seems we are a nation filled with people who desperately crave attention.

Consider me a casual observer and commentator on what I find alarmingly and amusingly stupid from those willing to walk into the public arena and drop their diaper in a bid for that attention.

Whether you're a 24-year-old ignorant racist, fomenting hatred and gaining attention by showing up at the former president's Golden Disco Palace in Florida where you can smell the spray-on '80s vibe as surely as you can identify the spray-on tan or you are the man who makes history by being the first twice-impeached former president to announce another run for the White House historically early because you crave the attention.

Either way? You're an attention junkie, whore or addict. Pick your title, it's the same thing — though "whore" may be more accurate as most of these people manipulate others for money and are not merely innocent junkies. An adult "political junkie whore" might actually be the most accurate term, though perhaps not the most favored. Julia Roberts played a hooker with a heart of gold in "Pretty Woman," but political whores in real life bear little resemblance to that. They're more like the toothless hookers (of all possible genders and orientations) in Nuevo Laredo's Boys Town, turning tricks for cheap makeup and dollar bills.

....(snip)....

Musk is another entitled rich guy from the Trump club who gets the benefit of the doubt — and like Trump, he is given it far more often than he deserves it.

Under the banner of restoring "free speech" to his recently purchased Twitter empire, Musk has embraced an increasingly significant number of changes that make his claims untenable. Granting amnesty to Trump and other hatemongers has also drawn the ire of Apple, another media powerhouse, and the onetime golden boy of Tesla and SpaceX looks tarnished today. Reading his tweets is only slightly more amusing than Trump's old tweets. But they get him attention, and that is what Musk wants as he declares himself a patriot. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/01/a-nation-of-attention-junkies-and-elon-are-the-perfect-symbols-of-americas-predicament/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Thing is we give them attention only partly because we have to

Other part is the spectacle, entertainment, which is the cream of the profits for media companies.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. "patriot"