I am part of the problem - a reader blog from TPM

[housewolf]

I realized this weekend that I am part of the problem
By - April 21, 2008, 8:50AM

Actually, I think the stage got set during the debate. But this weekend, I was watching the talking heads as I do every Sunday, talking about who is or isn't "bitter," who is or isn't "patriotic," whether Michelle Obama is more like Abigail Adams or Mrs. John Kerry...

I was at the gym on the treadmill, so you can see all of it at once on separate TV's. But there are other things on too. Rock of Love, MadTV, Yankee replay, church!, the movie Major League.

And I realized, out of nowhere really, that I didn't want to watch these people talk about this stuff. More than that, I couldn't. That it would be wrong. It suddenly occurred to me that my watching these old farts talk about our country and this important election as if it were a race they had no dog in, it occurred to me that this is exactly what Obama's been imploring me not to do. It's precisely what this whole "change" is about. It's about the way I think, and how I behave. It's about me.

Because these pundits, these programs, they're so stuck in the old-think, the Right v. Left, Tax Cuts v. Big Government bullsh#t that we all know isn't even true or real or valuable, but they're so invested in the state of politics as they see it, that they cannot imagine the world would be different. To them, I am a demographic, and to them, the nation is a bunch of funny little anecdotes you share at a dinner party.

If McCain wins, and this country stays in this war, and thousands more troops die, will one single person ever come on the air and pull their hair out and yell and say what the hell is going on in this world? No, of course not.

more (please go read the rest, it's a good read & will give you something to think about) ...

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/04/i-realized-this-weekend-that-i.php

[KoKo]

1. Interesting read and comments....n/t

[truedelphi]

2. Here's one solution to TV

For instance tomorrow I will want the TV set on - as I will want to follow the PA primary.

What I do is to turn the set on, and keep the volume OFF.

That way any pie charts, announcement boards, crawlers and trailers can be read. I can track how well the candidates are faring, without the inane chit chat of these repugnant people who get paid Big Bucks to propagandize everything.

The network execs think that their logos that say things like "Clinton Leading" or "Obama wins state" are just clever graphics - but I have found that they give me the option to avoid hearing the pricks hired to dumb us down.