General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Rise of Donald Trump is a big flashing neon sign that something is very wrong in this country [View all]DFW
(54,330 posts)I live in Europe, where most countries have suffered, at some point or other, national brain-washing at the hands of their media. Spain's government and press poured out triumphant reports of America's imminent defeat at their hands in the war of 1898. A friend of mine, now deceased, was inducted into the Hitler youth before he was 10, luckily still too young to fight by the time the war was over, but he recalls how completely brainwashed he, along with much of the rest of the country, was by total Nazi control of the media. At age 10, he was totally convinced that the "German way of life" as well as the German people (the racially pure ones, that is) were superior to all others on earth. East Germany in southern Saxony, the part where western TV and radio was not accessible, were convinced that West Germany was hell on earth compared to the socialist paradise of East Germany. Many Soviet citizens, especially the ones without access to media other than that of their own government, were equally convinced that the world was out to get them, consumed by envy of their fabulous lifestyle. Today again, ´Putin is conducting a relentless, including murder, campaign against dissident Russian media. Journalists in some countries, notably Belgium and France, are being constrained for saying the wrong thing if certain people are offended (Charlie Hebdo was only the most extreme manifestation). IN Germany, due to the NAZI past, laws are in place that forbid dissemination of such hate speech. Not all countries have such good memories.
But even in the good old USA, protected (kinda sorta) by the First Amendment, Bill O'Reilly can go on Fox Noise, incite a murder (Dr. Tiller in Kansas) and then say WHO, ME? when it really happens. He wasn't even indicted. Trump gets wide media coverage for saying, in not so veiled terms, that someone (not he, for sure) should go shoot Hillary. Fox "News" and National Hate Radio in the USA are listened to by millions, and there are tens of millions that actually believe what they hear fro both sources. They tell it "like it is," don't ya know.
The free press envisioned by the Founders was intended to prevent and monitor government excess. They never imagined radio, much less the Internet. Anyone intending to create a rebellious stir in 1789 would have been conspicuous before he ever got a following beyond the town square. In 2016, you can reach fifty million people in seconds if you have a laptop and the right (no pun intended) audience, half of whom are armed to the teeth to prevent the government from coming to take away their Medicare.
THAT'S how we got here. What I want to know is how we get away from there.