Bernie Sanders exposes billionaires who are buying US government.

[-Jrabbit]

All they're doing is helping politicians get their message out.

I hate to be condescending, HC, but this is so adorable it can only be a troll. Both sides are feeding party-line propaganda to influence votes, not winning people to a point of view. The degree of context-deleted, deliberately misleading attacks has reached the point of cynical, orchestrated manipulation, exacerbated through instantaneous communication and repetitive cross-platform sloganeering. Yes, both sides. And if you think we're getting "the candidates' messages," I can only envy you the naivete of youth.

National politics in this country just suck.

Gawd, it's only July.

[MrFun]

*** thread starter, have any of those billionaires changed your vote? Why not?

shaddup ******, spic, or whatever you are this week

[Aeson]

I'm rich. I've donated a lot to candidates. Does that make me a thief?

You did steal a car boot ...

[Kuciwalker]

Intelligent, independent and forthright.

[Kuciwalker]

I hate to be condescending, HC, but this is so adorable it can only be a troll. Both sides are feeding party-line propaganda to influence votes, not winning people to a point of view.

Those are the same thing, and the difference you imagine has nothing to do with money. The "problem" is fundamental to democracy - you don't think the voters are intelligent.

FYI, it's pretty obvious that you are one of the dumb voters who is easily swayed by propaganda.

[kentonio]

It's amazing how an expensive education can still create such idiot children.

Everyone is susceptible to advertising and propaganda, and to think it's just the 'dumb' people displays a special level of stupidity. You think the worlds companies spent north of $450 billion dollars last year on advertising to just hit a small segment of stupid folks?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

It's amazing how an expensive education can still create such idiot children.

QFT

[Aeson]

It's amazing how an expensive education can still create such idiot children.

Everyone is susceptible to advertising and propaganda, and to think it's just the 'dumb' people displays a special level of stupidity. You think the worlds companies spent north of $450 billion dollars last year on advertising to just hit a small segment of stupid folks?

It's not that small of a segment unless you define it to be. "Stupid" is a relative term. You kinda gave up the right to a small grouping via definition as you want to include Kuci and HC in the "idiot" synonym group. So we can assume that roughly 95% to 99% of the population would also be idiots (or worse).

Not to mention that for an intelligent person there's a very large distinction between a commercial for a new product highlighting it's awesome features providing some incentive to try it out (reasonable)... and an attack ad convincing you that what you actually heard/read the person said was not what they said at all (completely unreasonable) ... or that it would even matter if it did happen that way.

[kentonio]

It's not that small of a segment unless you define it to be. "Stupid" is a relative term. You kinda gave up the right to a small grouping via definition as you want to include Kuci and HC in the "idiot" synonym group. So we can assume that roughly 95% to 99% of the population would also be idiots (or worse).

I generally assume that at least 99% of people are blithering ****wits, and have rarely been disappointed. For it to have any meaning in the way Kuci used it however, he must either have been refering to a small(ish) segment of society, or else he's an incredibly arrogant *****. This is generally my job, and I resent any intrusion onto my turf that he might have been making.

Not to mention that for an intelligent person there's a very large distinction between a commercial for a new product highlighting it's awesome features providing some incentive to try it out (reasonable)... and an attack ad convincing you that what you actually heard/read the person said was not what they said at all (completely unreasonable) ... or that it would even matter if it did happen that way.

No, there isn't a very large distinction. It's all the same art of disinformation and propagandizing. If you think you're immune to it, or can even recognize it 100% of the time, you're lying to yourself. We are all shaped by the news/information sources we get our information from, and no matter how much we might insist we are not susceptable to the sources bias, it's unfortunately not true. You'll see the obvious **** and feel smug about how you can recognize it and the poor dumb saps out there can't, but then you'll absorb the more subtle stuff without even realizing the irony.

[Elok]

It seems to me that the biggest problems with our country's democracy come from gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and excessive lobbyist influence. The idea that people who watch Fox News (or whatever) are being controlled is somewhat backwards IMO--people simply choose to watch things that confirm what they already believe.

[Dr Strangelove]

You lure them in by flattering them with news that confirms their beliefs, then you warp the information presented to them so that they come around to your beleifs.

I keep going on and on about the Kleck study on "defensive gun use", the alleged 2 million gun uses / year. The data presented in the study is easily proven to be grossly false, it predicts defensive woundings that are more than 1000 times greater than the observed statistics, yet the Kleck study refuses to die. People are still quoting it. That's the power of peopaganda.

[Guynemer]

You did steal a car boot ...

[Jaguar]

It's shameful that only HC understands the importance of free speech.

[Guynemer]

Not sure if serious.

[Jaguar]

Why wouldn't I be?