Just watched something on MSNBC that bothered me, and I do not know why.

[LuckyCharms]

A reporter was interviewing people in a dark bar who appeared to be anywhere from 40 to 60 years old.

The consensus seemed to be "Yeah, things just seem more expensive now".

As they stared off into space swilling down their bottles of Bud, like fucking zombies.

Yes, I know people have a right to sit in a bar and drink beer.

Like I said in the title, I'm not sure why this bothered me so much.

My first reaction was "Shut the fuck up already and have another gallon of beer".

I guess I felt that shit wasn't newsworthy or something.

I don't know.

Media seems to be beating this to death...people don't "feel" like the economy is better. Biden is old.

Oh yeah? Fuck you.

[Marcus IM]

1. Judge Kav likes beer.

So relatable.

[bluesbassman]

2. "Joe Sixpack" used to be a thing.

I guess the MSM is just recycling to sound like they're after the views of the "average American". A bar is not a place I'd go to get thoughtful insight. YMMV.

[lastlib]

40. If the people they talk to are at a bar drinking the suds.....

...there's a good chance the brain waves those folks are emitting are a tad scrambled. I wouldn't trust 'em to say anything intelligent. That's me, though.

[Mad_Machine76]

3. Still got plenty of money

to sit and drink at a bar though?

[LuckyCharms]

5. Yes, that's part of what pissed me off.

Not the entire reason, but part of it.

[AkFemDem]

41. Plenty of lower income people still scrounge up beer money

And you know what- why shouldn’t they? Life fucking sucks sometimes and if a cold drink with friends makes it feel like it sucked less for an hour or two I'm not gonna judge.

Ever watched the show Shameless? No matter how down and out Frank and most of the others in their low income Chicago neighborhood was, they always found a way to drown their sorrows.

[MOMFUDSKI]

67. That fact should have been pointed out.

That was MY first thought

[hlthe2b]

4. Well, it might be less off-putting than if they were complaining about food prices while chain smoking their

$8-12/pack cigarettes...

Everyone has their vices, but if they are expensive, well, I guess we all have our priorities.

[LuckyCharms]

6. That's another thing...

There was a puff of smoke or vape.

[lame54]

7. Straight out of the movies...

When characters are in a financial bind they always pout about it in an expensive bar

[getagrip_already]

8. Beer aint as cheap as it used to be....

Been a while since I ordered a beer in a neighborhood bar. Used to be about $3 a bottle for domestic.

I bet it's more like $5 or $6 now. That will put a dent in the paycheck if you do that every night.

This isn't a soccer mom issue, other than her lounge lizard partner is drinking all the food money with his buddies.

[Marthe48]

14. I remember when it was .75/bottle and 2.00 for a pitcher

Even then, it was a treat to go out to a bar and drink a few beers with friends.

The governments manage all the fun stuff, and get their cut. Doesn't matter which party, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, are dispensed by the government :/

[getagrip_already]

22. Hah, got that beat...

When I went to college in the 70's there was a bar in Somerville mass that sold 10 oz drafts for a dime and shots for a quarter.

Of course the drafts had a lot of foam, and the whiskey was weak and gawd awful, but still.

[SergeStorms]

43. You could leave your dorm room....

with 2 bucks in your pocket, get one helluva buzz on, and still have change rattling in your pocket on your walk back to the dorm.

Yeah, I remember those days too.
I'm a little older than you I guess. My college days were mostly in the 60s.
I don't drink anymore. I haven't had a drink in almost 30 years now, but back in my college days I could pound them down with the best of them. 😁

[getagrip_already]

47. Yeah, but that particular bar wasnt the safest place

For a college crowd. Kind of a locals place. They didn't like the college types.

But, beer was $4 a case on sale, so really cared.

[SergeStorms]

62. Safety in numbers....

was always our motto. We frequented some pretty seedy places ourselves, but college lads must do what college lads must do. 👍

[JustAnotherGen]

9. Just once

I would like the media to do a round of interviews in liberal places to understand why we love Biden and are with him.

I know we make fun of the MAGATS devotion - but seriously?

I totally 'fan girl' over Biden and Harris. Maybe the others need to hear the other side.

Instead - they interview the same type of people over and over again - which perpetuates that belief that the entire country is with Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump . . .

They'd be shocked to hear me say - Trump isn't fit to drink President Biden's dirty bathwater and 4 years ago today we have 'the rona' and our economy was shit - and he saved us.

[LuckyCharms]

10. +1

[PatSeg]

19. Yes, sometimes it does feel like they

intentionally seek out people who are going to complain about Biden and/or Democrats and people who mindlessly support Trump. So many of them have nothing meaningful or insightful to say. I can't see how that qualifies as "news".

I can go to any corner tavern and hear conspiracy theories and uninformed BS. I don't turn on the news to hear it.

[betsuni]

34. The NBC piece I saw was a former Biden voter (so he says) turned third party man,

a Republican turned independent supporting Biden woman, and finally the Glum Conservatives at the Tavern with Beers scene.

The only one aware of the reality of Biden's success was the former Republican. Ironic.

[Demobrat]

50. That's what they choose to run.

For every five minutes they show they shoot an hour. Then they show what they want you to see.

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. Instead of going to bars and diners, they should go to factories and infrastructure projects

Ask the workers there if they are better off now than four years ago.

Go to the non-union auto factories in the South, and ask the workers if they are pleased about the spontaneous pay raises they received after the UAW plants got their big boosts. (This actually happened)

[PatSeg]

20. Great idea!

[AKwannabe]

36. Wow that is so harsh and such a generalization

It makes me SICK!

Especially reading in DU!!!

…to spout this nonsense from behind a keyboard! Hahahahaha!
I am calling you out on it. Many good people go to bars. No matter their age. This whole thread is sickening actually. Especially for DU.

Have at it all of you! Sit behind the keyboard and call people names and such because they are in a bar drinking. You don’t even know them. Man this is sickening.

Hypocritical and sickening.


You don’t drink so they are losers cuz they do???

[kimbutgar]

54. I will delete my comment since it offends you.

I was just passing on what my Dad used to tell me.

[LuckyCharms]

57. You ok there?

[former9thward]

60. I wish I could recommend your post 1000 times.

[NanaCat]

69. It's not the drinking in pubs that's the problem

I'm all for people doing that.

What I find objectionable is complaining about how expensive things are while buying drinks at a pub, when every sane person knows how much more expensive it is to do that than it is to buy alcohol elsewhere and drink it in other locations--which can be done with friends just as easily as meeting at a bar. Have they not heard of BYOB restaurants and various public spaces which allow drinking alcohol? Do that if you want to have a drink on the cheap while getting out of the house, but don't sit there and complain about how expensive things are while engaging in the known #1 most expensive way to do something.

It's the hypocrisy about prices that's objectionable--not the drinking in bars part.

[Traildogbob]

13. Bull shit

Trump sneakers dropped in price 70 percent in a month. Thanks Joe with his war on inflation, non partisan, even fighting for MAGA’s.

[Captain Zero]

31. good one. we need to use that!

[Aristus]

15. I'm so tired of the national discussion being built around 'average' people.

To hell with the mediocrities and their stupid, ill-informed opinions. I want the nation's direction to be guided by above average Americans.

[LuckyCharms]

17. You nailed it. Well said. I think this is at the core of what disturbed me. n/t

[MontanaMama]

29. And with book banning and moms for liberty effing everything up

in public schools, we’re raising new generations of mediocre Americans with little to no critical thinking skills.

[BadgerKid]

16. Maybe it's something like apathy or acceptance

Being displayed. The level of gop/maga/TFG/etc. enablement that goes on is appalling.

[betsuni]

18. I was struck by how unnaturally glum everyone looked.

What I'm sure happened was they were joking and laughing as usual until filming started, then acted very serious and depressed as they complained about their bad feelings about bad Biden economy. Camera off, beery tavern joyfulness resumed.

Am reminded of The Blue Note bar:

[Ray Bruns]

51. "Bring me the strongest thing you got"

[limbicnuminousity]

21. I would say the vast majority of people

are one medical emergency away from being financially ruined. Karma is a bitch. Perceptions change.

[Hotler]

23. Nobody wants to work anymore. nt

[Kennah]

24. I was bothered by it as well

I would like to have known how they voted for President in 2012, 2016, and 2020.

[senseandsensibility]

25. At least half of cable news is about maga fee-fees

Anyone who isn't bothered by that isn't paying attention.

[LuckyCharms]

27. No, you.

[Xavier Breath]

44. Must have been a real good one to evoke that response.

I always seem to miss these things before they disappear. Probably a good thing.

[LuckyCharms]

46. They said "Have another bong".

[rubbersole]

61. Dude...

[LakeArenal]

28. My question is more: Why would MSNBC question people who are drinking.

Alcohol is a depressant.

For media, the more angst the better.

[Joinfortmill]

30. Not your every day working class types.

[relayerbob]

33. I solved the problem

I don't watch that crap any more.

[Vinca]

35. When I hear some of these stupid interviews about the economy, I wish there would be

a follow-up question about when they last bought a 60" television and if the tattoo parlors in their town had gone out of business.

[Katinfl]

37. I was troubled by it also.

I don't know where they find these people but a bar is not the place to interview them. They seemed very blue collar (not that there's anything wrong with that) and that's the GOP base. Also, the bar was called "Eduardo's" and it looked like it was a neighborhood hang-out. IMO.

[mountain grammy]

39. "STFU and drink another gallon of beer"

Now that’s a sentiment I can get behind. So simple and on point.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

42. I think I saw that interview. I was stunned ...

... that there seemed to be ashtrays on the bar. Indoors. Do those places still exist?

Anyway, if you like beer, there are cheaper places to drink than at a bar. Like in your kitchen.

Cheers.

[yardwork]

45. I share your annoyance.

The media goes along with many Americans' dive into mediocrity, and by going along with it the media promotes and amplifies it, speeding up a race to the bottom that honors all the wrong things: laziness, resentment, hopelessness, nihilism.

[GuppyGal]

48. I'm convinced people are ignorant and stupid. Just had to deal with a work group text equating Biden and Dump.

This shit comes from 'normal' 'educated' people. Fucking IGNORANCE ABOUND.

[GuppyGal]

49. And by the way stupids and ignorants ...prices are fucking DOWN and if u don't see that you don't know your prices and

it once again PROVES how ignorant you are

[lapfog_1]

53. on MSNBCorp

I saw either a reporter or a round table guest say "People are still angry about the 2008 financial melt down".

That was almost 16 fucking years ago.

Joe Biden wasn't President. Joe Biden wasn't Vice President. George FUCKING Bush junior was pRESIDENT.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden spent years cleaning up that mess, and yeah, a lot of people got financially hurt.

You know, if my mother hadn't sold her land in Kansas 20 years ago, I would have inherited land worth a couple of million now. So what... I am not angry about it. It was her land, not mine.

[PlutosHeart]

55. If they did more actual factual reporting

instead of all being failed film students we might get somewhere.

[SYFROYH]

56. Would the answer have been better if it came from somone in their home swigging cheap vodka in their underwear?

[LiberalFighter]

58. I think it was that stupid interview Dasha Burns had.

Complaining about the economy. One guy was a retired maintenance worker that still had two of his twenty year old sons living with him.

[Warpy]

59. Well, most things are still more expensive

water is wet and beer will numb their pain temporarily as they get sloppy drunk.

Once prices go up, no company has ever lowered them, not even during the Depression. People didn't starve because there wasn't anything to buy, they starved because they had no money to buy it with, something that finally dawned on FDR after his first months in office when the usual tricks hadn't worked.

That's what we're seeing now. The supply chain problems are going away but those jacked up prces are not. Wages have gone up, but not enough to keep pace with inflation. Republicans in Congress will block minimum wage increases, as usual.

I don't know why they went into a bar to interview people, it doesn't sound like a place you'd get many useful responses. Early in the day, however, it's a place to find retired men. Those guys probably repaired to the bar to swap lies with their buddis over a few beers because they were underfoot and driving the wife nuts at home. They're likely less zombie like when cameras aren't around.

Tittiy bars are when you find the zombies.

It might beat the picturesque diner out in godforsaken nowhere, but just.

[brush]

63. A lot of morons just regurgitate what they've hear on FOX or winger radio.

They don't really know anything, but apparently this guy wasn't too worried about how expensive beer is as it seems he's keeping 'em coming.

[JohnnyRingo]

64. The reporter could have asked if the price of beer went up as well.

..and how they can afford it in "this economy".

[uponit7771]

65. *** SAME THEME WITH OBAMA ECONOMY***

But at that time yes was below $2 and there was no inflation and there was 4% unemployment

It's no doubt the media amplifying this narrative. That's what they do. They amplify the same thing over and over again by repeating the same thing over again and people fall to the illusionary effect bias

[Patton French]

66. You're sure you didn't have it on Fox? NT

[NanaCat]

68. Don't know about you

But I have a difficult time empathising with people whinging about how expensive things are...

While drinking beer at a pub. That's rather hypocritical, innit?

If prices were the actual problem, they'd get together with their mates and buy some beer at a standard store to drink at home. Then they'd get all the same rubbish beer at a fraction of the price--and all the companionship of the pub, too!

When money is a big concern for you, you economise how you can, rather than whinging about things being expensive while chugging overpriced beer at a pub.

[IbogaProject]

70. Alcohol use is associated with worse financial outcomes

First it costs a lot, and second it can be a part of a pattern of bad decisions. I know many drink occasionally and moderately with little harm but on average the type of cohort that was on that clip are likely in the problem group.