Joe Bageant goes off on TV prompted by a letter from an Australian...

[laststeamtrain]

<snip>

Funny thing is, that here in the USA we have hundreds of commercial channels in this country, life channels for tear-soaked menopausal women, channels for Navahos and channels to babysit white trash latchkey kids, booty channels for ghetto minorities, business channels, weather channels, and of course dedicated bandwidth for direct shopping and consumption -- and alleged educational channels to feed us vital information about deadly great white sharks, and potential asteroids striking the earth.

God only knows it is an endless electronic landscape of political information pumps, ranging from propaganda penis pumps such as Fox News, to the eye glazing stuporific real-time, watching-paint-dry pump that is CNN. All of this, yet there seems not to be room for a socialist channel.

But whatever media sewer we choose to bathe in, one thing is consistent. And all of them tell us to buy, buy, buy. The one qualified exception is PBS, which tells us to acknowledge the kindness and generosity of sponsors such as ExxonMobil...

<snip>

Anyway, media is now the true environment for the average person, much more so than nature itself, which has taken up residence on The Nature Channel. Goodbye French Revolution, goodbye rough hewn America liberty. Goodbye jolly swagman camped by the billabong -- all the real men, the blood and guts patriots who would have never stood for this kind of shit, they have gone a'waltzing Matilda. What's left are the dregs. Otherwise known as consumers. And that includes you and me.

So go out and buy something.

Preferably beer.

<more>

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/06/goodbye-roussea.html

*

Pound for pound, Joe's the funniest around & he tells the truth. From his point-of-view anyway.

[babylonsister]

1. I take issue with 'tear-soaked menopausal women', so I'm gonna

go buy some beer.

[laststeamtrain]

3. Well, make sure to apply the product correctly.

I'm sure there's warnings on the container.

:hi:

[DinahMoeHum]

2. LMAO !! Ol' Joe hits another one !!

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/06/goodbye-roussea.html

(snip)
"...if four drinks make an Aussie a binge drinker, then half of your nation already qualifies for admission to the Betty Ford Treatment Center. Beyond that, I'd never trust a man who cannot hold four drinks anyway..."
(snip)

:rofl:

BTW, the paperback edition of his book Deer Hunting With Jesus is supposed to go on sale next week.

http://www.amazon.com/Deer-Hunting-Jesus-Dispatches-Americas/dp/0307339378/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213885054&sr=1-1

:rofl:

[laststeamtrain]

4. That's good news about a PB edition of Joe's book.

Makes gift shopping easier.

Sometimes you can laugh people into thinking.

:hi:

[tomreedtoon]

5. This Joe BagODonuts ought to meet Bartcop.

Bart may have some odd opinions now and then, but at least he's grounded in the real world. Specifically, Knuckledrag, Oklahoma, where the Bush economy has raped everybody three times and there's nothing natural or beautiful to distract you from that fact. When you're trying to make ends meet, there's less time to spend in Cloud Cuckoo Land like this Joe dude.

[laststeamtrain]

6. Huh?

Are you one of the 'college educated' therefore 'more intelligent' people I read about in polls?

If so, I understand why you don't 'get' Joe Bageant. Your mind has been exposed to advanced levels of colonization.

Joe's what Gramsci called 'an organic intellectual'. Up from the bottom.

Hell, I've heard him reference Baudrillard. That's pretty tone-y.

I really don't think he's in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Lots of people are though.

I think he's one of the strongest just-plain Socialist voices out there.

In a world where Michael Kinsley, etc, et al, represent 'the left' on TV & Tim Russert is 'objective' it makes voices like Joe's very valuable.

Of course, that's just the way I see it.

I don't know Bartcop. I guess he got into trouble for having his own opinions. 'Let it sink', 'let it stink', 'be a fink' & all that.

Pish.

It's a sad year. Voting for 'just another well-packaged neo-liberal' is sad. But it's the tactical thing to do.

Keep on opinin'...

[tom_paine]

7. You are so wrong about Joe Bageant, I don't know where to begin.

Usually I respect your posts tomreedtoon, so try not to take this personally, BUT...

Have you ever read anything of Joe's besides this?

Cloud Cuckoo Land? His book, "Deer Hunting With Jesus" is so grounded in day-to-day reality, as well as understanding of varios facets of life, it's quite a joy to read.

Interestingly you bring up Bartcop, living in the "read world" of Kunckledrag, OK, but Bageant lives in, is deeply connected with, and writes about Winchester, VA.

Having read both extensively, I think Bageant and Bartcop would get along just fine, whatever disagreements they might have about individual issues. I have no doubt that Winchester, VA and Kunckledrag, OK (Tulsa, right?) have an awful lot in common.

So let me just say how wrong I think you are. Bageant's article is spot-on as much as anything Bartcop writes (I like them both), and I think you would know that if you had any familiarity with Bageant's work.

I don't want to pile on, so I should just stop here and remind you (and me, too, as I have been known to do this from time to time) YOU CAN'T JUDGE WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT.

[tomreedtoon]

8. Sorry, he sounds like a Luddite ranter to me.

And I mean that specifically as "Luddite." I believe business is not intrinsically evil, but it does need discipline, rules and public responsibility to keep it from being evil. Wal-Mart, if it were regulated and forced to obey laws, would not be evil. But this Joe guy strikes me as a guy who would burn down every store before asking if anyone was inside.

Maybe I'm wrong, this being the first time I ever heard of the guy, but I got the strong impression that he's bought the used copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook from my sister in St. Louis. Where she wants weapons to wipe out the hordes of black people she is certain are going to riot in her suburb some day, Joe wants to wipe out anyone who uses money. Like I say, this is a first-light impression.

[tom_paine]

10. I believe you are mistaken.

Also, not be be smug or an asshole, but I KNEW it had to be the first time you've heard of the guy, because you couldn't make those assertions if you had read his body of work.

Is he a socialist? Hell, yes, and to the point where I strongly disagree with some of his socialist solutions. But that doesn't invalidate the core of what the man has to say, ESPECIALLY his observations.

We will have to agree to disagree.

I'll leave you with this though, it's a little theory of mine. When the Right Wing gains too much power and abuses it, suddenly the things the Lefties, even Far Lefties, are saying makes more sense. The converse is also true, though we have never really seen that side of things in this country, I am sure the current Chinese citizenry could vouch for it.

And that doesn't mean it makes us hardcore socialists or Communists to acknowledge that people to the Left of us can have good ideas and intentions. Paul Wellstone comes to mind. And you exaggerate. I don't believe Joe wants to "wipe out everyone who uses money". That's a staggering oversimplification.

It is merely, I believe a fact of human politics, call it the "seesaw effect". When one side hgoes crazy, then the other seems to make more sense...even the crazy parts.

Between the two of us, considering I have actually extensively read what he has written, includng his book "Deer Hunting with Jesus", I believe I have a firm basis to make that kind of speculation while you do not, having never read him before. It always a tricky thing, evenw rong, to judge someone on the basis of one single thing they said or wrote. To think that we know a person or what motivates them after reading only one single thing they wrote. Just my two cents.

I'd be lying if I said I never made that mistake.

But let's just agree to disagree.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. In seeing the virtues of the simple life-style, as opposed to promiscuous

consumerism, lusting after such worthless gew-gaws as "must have" cell-phones that make pancakes (a great term he used), have been recommended by the likes of Tolstoy and Solzhenitsin, not to speak of Christ. So, maybe it's you that's the nutjob, but you're too blind too see it.

[cap]

9. Joe has an excellent critique and a keen ear

but no solution and no hope. Maybe this attitude is why we have a meth epidemic.

Every once in a while I notice a flicker of hope within his writings but it never lasts.

Good lord there is so much to do. I am tending to look at this period as a tremendous opportunity to reexamine our core values and design a new plan for this country. It is a very painful process but something with a lot of depth.