Lots of ordinary people in the midwest don't even know about the oil spill.

[leftyladyfrommo]

People who just go about their lives, get up, go to work, go home. Don't pay much attention to the news.

Surprises me. I will say something and they just look at me and say "what oil spill?"

I guess ignorance really is bliss. Here I've been so worried about it and most people just don't even know anything about it. Some will say they heard about a spill in the Gulf but they don't really know anymore than that - just anothrer oil spill somewhere. Doesn't affect them.

[RKP5637]

1. The oil spill is all we hear about here. It dominates the news. n/t

[Syrinx]

3. I wouldn't even say it dominates the news where I live

And that's Alabama.

I'm sick at the idea that Gulf Shores will never be the same in my lifetime. That's hard sad.

[RKP5637]

5. I think what has happened at least in my lifetime is that people seem to

have tuned out to a lot of what goes on anymore. Maybe just because it's too much 7x24... there is so much information pounding on people and for many just getting through the day/night can be quite occupying.

Years ago we drove along the gulf... along the coast of Florida and over to Texas. Much of it was beautiful and it really devastates me that mankind has created such a mess. And apparently it could have been prudently prevented by acoustical valves.

Where I grew up as a kid the tankers used to leave an oil slick... something about they used to purge the tanks. The practice was stopped years ago, but I recall as a kid seeing oil slicks and purple on the beach, having to avoid the mess, and that was nothing compared to the destruction of the gulf.

For many it will not sink in I think 'till they see it first hand... otherwise, as with many things today, it's out of sight, out of mind.

[Skidmore]

2. I don't know where you live but everyone around my neck of the woods

have electricity and can read.

[HillbillyBob]

6. Does not mean they pay any attention

Had a 'discussion' with mom about the founders of the teabaggers when she started pushing beckerhead bs at me.

I said one of those founders Dick Armey former congressman took $ to start that tea bag movement is funded by insurance companies and has ties to an Iranian terror group and the global climate change denial movement is partly funded by people like Don Blankenship, you know the mine company ceo that owns the Big Branch mine that killed 29 last week well 25 known dead 4 missing you know the union busting guy?
What mine explosion?
I did not hear anything about that on beck or bill o ..I said well not to start an argument, but you need to start getting your news from different sources instead of taking what fox says and running with it and then trying to preach at me.
I get my news from a large variety of places, not just cable news. We have relatives in the area where that mine is and you are trying to convince me that what those rich bastards do does not matter to our lives?

By the way the electric in your home comes from those same wv mountain removal mines. The conversation went on for some time, in the end I said we can agree that we need public campaign funding.."where is the $ gonna come from?" she asks.
Well firstly our government needs to start collecting taxes from energy corporations and all those other too big to fail companies that have not paid taxes in years thanks to republican deregulation and dem spinelessness. You know the tax breaks that were supposed to create jobs, but instead took our jobs overseas. She is a smart lady and I don't understand how she could become so immersed in the teabag nonsense. Hell she still believes (*) actually won those 2 elections fair and square.
We are spoon fed nonsense from corporate news and we are surprised that we don't hear about real news when all they are spouting is the latest Tiger Woods mistress revelation.

Its called wilful ignorance.
Just because they can see lightening and hear thunder does not mean they are willing to be informed.

[RKP5637]

7. Yep, lots of people in the US believe what they hear on Fox and similar. Fox has a magical

recipe that seems to attract viewers... and they seem to have trouble getting out of their minds what they first heard on Fox. It would be great if you could get her to at least watch KO or Rachel a couple of times. We have so much information available today, but many seem to want to cling to RW propaganda. It always amazes me.

This is a very gullible nation. Possibly because for so many years many did not have to be concerned about the enormous number of problems we have today. And often the news was just news, not the intense propaganda we have today. So, I do think, many still just trust what they hear on cable news... It's exactly what you said, "It's called willful ignorance."

[sufrommich]

4. We in the midwest have this thing called television, on which

the news is presented to us on a nightly basis.:eyes:

[dems_rightnow]

10. What is this television thing

Of which you speak?

Here in the Midwest, we consider ourselves well-informed. Though it's been a while since President Eisenhower spoke to us. If there's anything worth knowing, he'll tell us.

[MidwestRick]

You too?

I thought I was the only one :)

-MR

[chillspike]

8. That's because...

news is librul

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. These are the same peope who say "What election?" and "Who's the governor again?"

Dancing With the Stars is more exciting. Screw 'em.

[Bill McBlueState]

11. you could replace

'midwest' with any region of the country and 'oil spill' with just about anything and you'd still have a true statement.

People not knowing shit about anything is a big problem for the US.

[B Calm]

12. They had an oil spill in the Hillbilly Riviera?

[Tsiyu]

14. I always heard "Redneck Riviera"

First coined by my Dad (I always thought) circa 1975.



Hillbillies don't go to the beach.

We go to the local mountain waterfalls for swammin' :)

[Odin2005]

13. I'd guess about 1/3 to 1/2 of people don't really pay attention to news.

They don't care about anything that isn't happening in "their actual lives" because it "doesn't affect them". They are simply cognitively incapable of making connections involving how the wider world affects them, it involves degrees of abstraction that they can't comprehend.