Why has our political discourse become simple slogans?

Question

What happened to honest conversations? I invite you to respond without using any cliches, sound bites or talking points from wither side of the aisle. And no name calling either.

Answer 1

--Because, since at least the 1940s, we've lived in a culture that slanders, defames, and attacks the intelligent people at every opportunity. Really. We wouldn't *have* half the school shootings we do today if it weren't for a toxic "jock" culture, a "superstar" ethic that hypes up athleticism and sex appeal at the expense of being smart and knowledgeable. Want to test this? Do a keyword search in your own head....how many insults can you come up with for somebody who is too "smart" or "brainy", versus someone who is stupid, or not terribly bright?

I bet you will come up with more insults for intelligence than you will for stupidity. But the point is, our culture just has *zero* respect for anyone with a good education or a high natural intelligence....even the "well read" come under attack if they haven't read the "correct" books.

--Our ad-agency driven Mass Media, in their pursuit of more and more money from those CEOs who own them, has to cut and chop up the news they offer into smaller and smaller bites so that they can wedge as much advertising (and revenue for their fancy computer gadgetry and travel-expense budgets) as they can into their half-hour to one-hour slot.

Meaning you don't *get* debates like you once did on _Politically Incorrect_ or _Meet the Press_ anymore.....even the "news shows" that are supposed to examine a few issues in more depth and detail, like _20/20_ or _Dateline_ or _60 Minutes_ end up looking at more and more issues on a shallow, superficial level rather than dedicate a *whole entire show* to one issue at a time...and some of us encourage this very trend by not watching the things when they *do* attempt to cover anything in some depth.....between advertising and our major tool for *avoiding the commercials*, the remote control/channel clicker, we've created multiple generations of Mass Media viewer, for both TV and Internet news, who have the attention spans of *hungry gnats*.

As in wee tiny bugs you can barely see, who likely have maybe a *handful* of brain cells at most. Who, no small coincidence, can be manipulated by currents of *hot air*, which is what your ad agencies have to offer most of *us*. :)

--Stress. People are generally over-worked, and seriously under-paid, and under constant pressure to *do more for yet less*. Combine that with ever-more adversarial media telling them that either they're *for* a side in an argument or *against* America (whether that argument comes from PBS on one side or from Fox News on the other, it isn't good logic, it is an appeal to violent threat). Combine that with folks constantly up in their faces only presenting the worst and most horrific sides of society, any society.....combine that with rising tides of frustration as tax-starved infrastructure and social services and public schools just end up *failing folks* with some great flagrancy....

Well, you get the point. Most people here in the States at least are justified in thinking they live in a society of psycho predators, and that they *have* to be relentless and ruthless and just as irrational as the abusers *they routinely have to appease* to survive....and with that much distress going on, you get cortisol on the brain and a *short circuit* of whatever thought processes are left after a) a lack of quality education, b) a total disregard for what education and intelligence there is in existence, and c) massive Media indoctrination into that whole "Greed is Good" and "you're worthless without your bling" materialism....

--Finally. Allowing us to have honest conversations where we make decisions and come to a consensus sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? And it is....for everyone *but* the Powers That Be.

Because the Powers That Be, they know what comes of that sort of thing. When people do that, they *solve* problems....and we aren't allowed as people to do that.

We are on the ragged edge of entering the Post-Petroleum Era, and in the interest of maintaining Corporate Wealth, we are not allowed to solve problems anymore. Why? Because there are more *paying jobs* to be had in *maintaining* and exploiting problems indefinitely than there are in solving them once and for all, with a definite *end* to the problem.

Consider a small humble example from my own life? I am up to my eyeballs in debt. Student loans, credit cards, you name it.

Will I ever get that debt paid off? Not likely. I am dirt poor to destitute courtesy of a mood disorder or three, and have immense difficulty getting and *keeping* proper treatment going for them, especially if I want to work in a workplace that refuses to pay one red cent for psych issues on their "healthcare" plans (am online only because of a donated computer). And the fees and interest rates I have to pay, quite frankly, are now worth *more* than the original debts are by a factor of two or three, depending on the individual debt in question.

So WHY are credit card companies sending me notice after solicitation wanting me to get into MORE bad debt?

Because it keeps people working. God forbid if I should, I dunno, get better and then get full time work and get *out* of my debt, then I swear a few hundred people *per debt* would be out of a job. Too many people are getting paid *quite well* to bill me and harrass me and solicit me and charge me fees on top of fees and to transfer bad debt after good to *yet another* collection agency once I call the first one and tell them, "Look you, I am in therapy for a real and *diagnosed* illness and will likely NOT have your money in the future unless I decide to NOT EAT for a really long time, or unless I decide to NOT PAY RENT and go homeless for a year or three..."

But yeah....I'm not the only one out there like this. Exploiting the bad debts of people like me, and then digging people out of that hole with credit counseling is a *multi-billion* dollar industry: If too many folks like me got out of it alive, people would be out of work on a massive scale, and we can't have that, can we?

Exploitation of problems creates too many jobs in the Post-Petroleum Era. Solving problems, while it solves problems and does well enough on its own, *denies work* to too many Suits to be allowed in the 21st century.

Which is crazy. And people know this, and it *makes* them crazy.

Sorry to rant on so....but I hope I was at least slightly helpful.

Answer 2

Because these days it has been discovered that with the enormous amount of information available, most people's attention span has shrunk. Most news web pages, or television news channels now work on the assumption that if you are not 'grabbed' by what they are saying within 3 seconds, then you will move on to another channel or web-page.

This means that most people will not devote more time to discovering for themselves the truth about the state of political reality. They rely on quick sound-bite headlines.

Knowing this, the political spinners and advisors have to mold a message to make it have resonance and meaning to a target demographic in as short a space of time as possible.

"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" was a brilliant peice of this kind of political message compression.

The truth or otherwise of the soundbite is for others to debate, but this is why we are in this situation now.

Answer 3

I agree but everything IS soundbites now a days. I miss the real conversation too...our world (yours/mine) is just doesn't exit anymore and sadly...the young people don't know the difference as they never heard it. We'd probably bore them anyway. They'd roll their eyes and say..."TMI. (too much information).
Strangely, they are all connected to those damn cell phones though....just keeping tabs on one another but no real conversation going on there either. We are all connected and not even wired. As for the news and commentaries...it seems the commercials are longer than the programs and often a lot more entertaining. .Your point is well made tho. One the new channels should pick up on. Is anyone listening....?

Answer 4

I get bored easy because it seems people say the same thing over in a new form. They also seem to try to avoid what we want to really hear. I wish I could concentrate on things better, for i think politics are very interesting and want people to talk Worth in the fox valley area of Wisconsin. Your questions arer great and make me think Thank you sir

Answer 5

The attention span of the typical american has been lowered to a max of 30 seconds, the length of a typical soundbite from the media or a politican.

Answer 6

Because you talking about people who have no arguments, just 5 second sound bites! And most are unable to think! How do you hold an "Intelligent" conversation with an idealog??

Answer 7

Because we loose interest so quickly. So much info to deal with including work, movies, TV. We have microwaves and complain it takes to long to heat a meal or a cup of water. We want instant gratification

Answer 8

I heard a great thing on NPR the other day about this. We are the soundbite nation. Probably because we have such short attention spans, we need to cut things short in order to be heard. And when we need to be heard, we need to make it "sexy."

Answer 9

because we live in an age where nobody HONESTLY cares about anything if it does not benefit THEM in some way.furthermore,because they have maypo north of the eyebrows,they can only regurgitate what others have already spewed forth.pity.

Answer 10

Not that many are interested in politics. You gotta sell it like you sell your freaking sandwiches and burgers.

Answer 11

I think it has something to do with the invention of the microwave, instant coffee, etc, etc.