DISCLAIMER: I’M NOT FROM USA.
From the outside looking in, it seems like at least half of the inaction of the “left” is because ol’ Chucky just hinders everything.
“We wrote a strong letter” was probably the first time I actually, genuinely didn’t understand how he’s still the leader of the party.
Since then I’ve done some digging, and it seems like the guy is actually quite delusional. Not even his imaginary friends vote for him, which is kinda sad. Understandable though.
Now he’s talking about voting on whether they should block the military action in Venezuela. The ongoing one. The one that’s been planned publicly for months.
So, how does he still have his job?
That’s a fair point. Almost seems like a two-party system is fundamentally flawed.
Yeah it’s part of the problem. I think it’s exacerbated by the fact that the US basically legalized bribery with Citizens United.
Fairness doctrine being abolished was the end of America.
It’s one bullet point on a long list that got us here. Installing a Christian nationalist dictatorship has been the right’s goal for 50+ years.
People give the fairness doctrine too much credit; First it’s partially responsible for the current mentality of all opinions matter no matter how stupid. But more importantly it only ever applied to broadcast TV and Radio, not cable or satellite, or the Internet. So it never would have applied to Fox News, for instance.
It’s not a silver bullet, but it was a very useful way to ensure people didn’t become radicalized by just listening to one side lie constantly. There’s a reason why Reagan and Nixon wanted it gone, and we’re living through the repercussions of not having it now; radicalized far right extremists everywhere and in control of the government. Also, we could have made updates to expand it or introduce new legislation to curb extremism on other platforms.
Definitely far from perfect but better than our current reality.
On the contrary, lots of people were radicalized by hearing people like new age healers given the same airtime as medical doctors.
It’s taken 20 years to fail at making the publicly funded internet a utility. The purpose of the doctrine was to govern publicly owned airwaves. I strongly believe it would have been and is impossible to expand the FCCs jurisdiction to include privately owned networks. I also strongly believe that the current administration would abuse the fuck out of these regulations.
Yet here we are, with some people believing vaccines cause autism and the far right extremists to boot. I personally would’ve taken more idiots harming themselves with their new age junk than what we got.
Don’t misunderstand, I agree it absolutely wouldn’t have been a catch all and even in its time it lacked the teeth to do much but at least it was something. It combined with a stronger education system could’ve prevented a lot of what we’re dealing with now.
More legalized. Lobbying was already legalized bribery. Citizens United was just them making sure they get to pick who they bribe.
And also allowed them to bribe anonymously, don’t forget that very important part.
I think it’s not even the fundamental flaws that make it so bad (they could theoretically be worked-around or fixed), I think at some point the system was captured by a group that to this day ensures both parties remain ineffectual and operate towards the same war goals.
Saying “the whole thing is a pantomine” seems like a lazy throwaway remark from some stranger you meet at a bar or your disillusioned uncle, and yet it’s exactly the conclusion you have to come to. We are controlled by the illusion of democracy and illusion of own influence