There’s still time to help the rest of America break those bonds by explaining how profitable hate and fear are for these media and social media empires…
Yes! I work with people in recovery and many who never fully 'get it' cross-addict on Fox News, social media, conspiracy theories. The dopamine hit from drugs and alcohol is replaced by the media hit. One distinction; drugs/alcohol don't supplement our dopamine/gabapentin/endorphin systems, they hijack them; our natural brain chemistry dies out and the drug takes over. Media addiction does use our 'natural feel good' neurotransmitters but also completely hijacks that system as well so that the neurotransmitters are not produced without the 'hit'. 'Likes' on Facebook are addictive. You know what else is addictive? Having enough people 'like' my comments on this platform! Seriously, I could live without those 'likes' so it's not a disorder but, you see what I mean;). The only solution: treat this like any other addiction! And, a lot of people who are addicted to Fox, so to speak also have other drug/alcohol issues. We learn in 12-step programs that 'love and tolerance' is our code. I cannot be fully sober unless I live by that Tennent.
If you've been in and around 12-step programs (I have, and they probably saved my sanity if not my life), you've probably run into people who disparage the program by claiming that recovering alcoholics and addicts are "addicted" to it. Indeed: how many sponsors have told their sponsees ("pigeons" as an old-timer of my acquaintance still refers to them) in one way or another that if you don't keep going to meetings and working the steps you will probably relapse and die?
As you can probably guess, I disagree with these people. One *chooses* to go to meetings and work the steps in a way that an alcoholic or addict does not choose to drink or drug -- it's a sort of voluntary dependence. And those choices give you the opportunity to make more choices. Using curtails your future; recovery opens it up to new possibilities. But at the same time I see their point, and it makes me hesitate to describe anything that isn't physically addictive as addictive. I do know people who spend an astonishing amount of time on Facebook or Twitter, but for me and a lot of other people Facebook in particular is a useful organizing tool -- and it's fun.
I disagree. There is no 'choice' in addiction; it's a mental illness. You go or you die. I go to 6-7 meetings a week, 11.5 years sober and work with 3 sponsees right now. I have worked with up to 8-10 (retired, now). As for Facebook? I found it addicting and had to humble myself. As the book says, we're like the boy whistling in the dark... Don't go to the jumping off place!
I think you misunderstood me. One doesn't choose to be an addict, but one can choose to get into recovery. One chooses over and over again to "keep coming back." One can also choose *not* to get into recovery, and all too many people do make that choice.
That's fine. Whatever works for you is what works. I sometimes run into people who try to discredit the program by calling it an addiction. Pointing out that one *chooses* to go to meetings in a way that one doesn't choose to use seems to get through to some of them.
I just have to push back on drawing some "natural" affinity between alcohol (and marijuana?) habit/addiction/abuse and hate media susceptibility. If anything, my experience has been the inverse: particularly in that the teetotallers who were most judgmental and hostile toward substance use were the strongest adopters of wherever else the hate media directed their ire. Sometimes all mixed up: druggies and protesters and sluts and perverts and America-haters and Commies, oh my!
I only know what I know anecdotally but, the relatives and friends that I have who are 'alcoholic/addict' to some extent are all Fox News devotees. I wonder if we treated the substance addictions if we might make in-roads on the media addictions as well. I've done a lot of studying of the bio-chemistry of all this and even anti-depressants, other psych meds. hijack the brain's natural endorphin systems. We are a 'Prozac Nation', especially after the pandemic. Underlying all of it is fear; we all use 'hits' of one drug or another to 'treat' fear. That's why fear-mongering works so well.
Replying to Rita and Ginger. You’re right about the addiction factors in the Facebook platforms and the hate media that highjacks our natural brain chemistry. The “likes” are even more so indicating someone out of the blue “agrees” with you.
I realized I was spending too much time on Facebook and that I could feel it was unhealthy. So now I use it to look up recipes and watch how you shoe horses. I have science fiction authors I follow and belong to a few groups where we discuss books. I’m happy with that. I may look at my page from time to time but have stopped posting.
I spend time on Substack because I get great information plus meet interesting people across the country. I ENJOY this. I never walk away angry ( politicians and some judges excluded) at anyone. I like hearing about where other people live and I feel very fortunate to live in PA. I much prefer the positive reinforcement I get here and try to give positive feedback on other’s posts. It was a matter of recognizing my constant negativity was coming from an outside source.
I got off FB entirely almost 3 years ago after I watched the Cambridge Analytica documentary and learned how they are deliberately manipulating users. That horrified me, Plus, I realized as you also mentioned, that I was spending too much time on there and coming away from it feeling frustrated, annoyed, and angry. I’d find myself furious and not really know why. It took a couple weeks to find other activities to occupy my time but after that I find I don’t miss it. My garden has never looked better! And I think my mental health is definitely much better for getting rid of it and replacing it with gardening.
My husband paid me the highest compliment when he announced, “I’m almost afraid to say it out loud, but your chicken cacciatore is as good as my grandmother Gigina’s. Maybe a smidge better.” Whoa! Where’s my crown!
AFAIK, the Fairness Doctrine was trashed by a Reagan appointee. It also appears the supremes confirmed that the FCC could impose or remove the doctrine within its regulatory purview.
Fast forward to now. There are two democratic appointees and two republican. There is currently an open 5th seat which has been blocked by Senate filibuster since Biden took office - the latest being Gigi Sohn. Sohn was subject to a massive smear campaign and withdrew from the nomination. The FCC is generally stagnant since it requires a majority vote to pass any controversial initiative.
Appointee Brendan Carr is a Federalist Society lawyer appointed to the FCC by TFG. You may have seen him as pretty active on Faux Entertainment. Carr's term expires this 30 June 2023. Which would leave us in a month+ with a 2-1 democratic majority on the commission.
So to the real reason for this post: Is it correct that as of 1 July with the 2-1 majority could the FCC reinstate the Fairness Doctrine? If not, why not? Same applies to the tragic 'wild-west' propaganda being spread on cable and the internet. Anyone?
Maybe, because of the 1st amendment, we can’t stop their broadcasts. But couldn’t we at least force them to show a 24/7 warning label scroll or something? With cigarettes they have to put a cancer warning label on each pack. Maybe TV propaganda stations would be forced to do something similar? It probably wouldn’t help the current addicted viewers but maybe at least it would slow down the acquisition of new viewers. Murdoch, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and others like them are no different than drug cartel leaders. They don’t care who gets killed or has their lives ruined as long as the money keeps rolling in. And it seems governments are just as ineffective at stopping the propaganda media outlets as they are at stopping the cartels.
Yes, yes, and yes -- and yet . . . There's something missing in this analysis: sex. (No, I don't mean "gender." I mean *sex*.) The perps in all the incidents that have gone viral in the last week, where individuals have shot and in some instances killed people for no reason other than their fear or their cussedness, have been men. The perps in the overwhelming majority of mass shootings have been men. The majority of the insurrectionists on 1/6 were men. Are men (XY-chromosome people) that over-represented in the Fox audience? If they aren't, why are they over-represented among those so susceptible to Fox propaganda that it leads them to do violence?
I'll have a stab at your question. In general, I'm all on the nature side of "nature vs nurture." But society and religion do empower men and ratify their "okayness" differently than women. I worked for an educational workshop program, and I don't know how many times I heard "Boys will be boys!" as Mom's excuse for poor school performance. Used to do all my laundry at laundromats, and over and over I saw moms come in with a little girl who helped with the chore while little boy bounced off the walls, mom running a constant complaint about what a slob dad was. Riane Eisler "Chalice and the Blade" seems quaintly "New Age" romantic now. Maybe it didn't have to always be this way everywhere? Guess again, girlfriend! Most societies teach boys that what they do is right and if they go overboard, it's going to be excused. Not to mention their special eternal historical superpower: rape. So it's not their fault! Hah! Like they say in "Red Green" it's not our fault: we're men!
“Evil “is addictive and we are seeing the results of it. Multiple reports on people who have unwittingly walked into the devils trap.
Murdoch, sponsored by Regan continues to sponsor tag team evil through Murdoch , Trump, Marjorie T Greene, Jim Jordan and yes Tucker Carlson and Fox Lies TV. The underlying and outright fractures to relationship , to society that at least at one time we attempted to overrule by seeing people w different views as maybe wrong but tolerable. Now if you disagree with this weaponized group of addicts they shoot you and ask questions later. The truth is the answer .
To continue to tolerate out and out lies as an ‘alternative fact ‘ is deadly.
And its routine in Republican politics today .
Marjorie Taylor Greene may have come to believe her own lies .
But the damage caused by them is massive as was Trumps behavior, as is Jim Jordan’ s behavior and Kevin Mc Carthys and Mitch McConnells. I think all but Trump and Marjorie TG know the truth but are grooming themselves as they groom others to take their lies as truth.
There is a a campaign by the GOP to rout out young voters .
They have admitted they’ll lose without them .
We need to oppose their tactics to keep these voters as the GOP has already removed millions of Democrats from voter roles.
"...they groom others to take their lies as truth." This is the bigger scheme at work here, even bigger than the battle for democracy. Corporations have been doing this for years, peddling their lies as if they were truth, and it was a matter of time before one of their ilk would become President, where one of his closest advisers would spew the infamous "alternate facts" line.
Excellent article and analysis -- thank you Thom. Aside from the rush these Fox viewers get, something else that's interested me about their behavior is the way they all spoke of QAnon, like they had the inside line to top-secret, classified information. Who even knows the source? -- it could have been AI-generated, but it gave their egos something to relish, thinking they had information that noone else had, making them feel they were VIP's who were being entrusted with it.
Good reminder, Maverick! What about that "insider" thrill! I used to work Juvie Hall as a Public Defender, and the rapt look on a kid's face if I asked what some nonsense gang tag meant! It was a secret, and he knew, and nobody could make him tell!!!
The trick is not wasting your breath on those who found a home with the haters. This is from Google and it tracks:
"What percentage of the population has personality disorders? An estimated 9 percent of U.S. adults have at least one personality disorder. Also, a person may have more than one personality disorder." Specifically about those with anti-social disorders "....it is three times more common among men than women. Individuals with antisocial personality disorder often also have co-occurring mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or substance use disorders."
America has a built-in audience dying to hear just what the hate media preaches. And if it seems there are many more anti-social people than when you grew up, there is. The population doubled over a 30 year period. Nine percent of US adults equals 23,155,150. Also consider the internet where these folks can connect and build layer by layer their stupid, vile theories and conspiracies.
For your own safety, also try to be careful with the folks you don't know.
I witnessed the power when Michael Savage came on the air in my Mom's life. Multiple copies of "Elders of Zion" had been on display, so she could start a conversation about being "anti-Zionist" not "anti-semitic." Gone. He hadn't been on the air long, and she asked me, what did I think about Michael Savage? (Minefield alert!) I gingerly dared to note: well, he is awfully Zionist.....I got a killer look and a "Humph". All waking hours, local hate to Rush to Savage to Fox. But she was on board with the (now esteemed) Scarborough re: Iraq invasion. Kill all the Arabs! Barbarians! No culture, no art, no literature! Same lady who took me to the Alhambra reverently as a kid. Some of the Jan. 6 defendants are relating conversion, sometimes related to Covid social situations. Paging Mr. Orwell.....
"It's deeply imbedded in their subconscious minds." You make an important point. In analyzing our current plight, most only observe what they see on the outside, the result of our conscious minds. It takes time and effort to observe the subconscious, and so most people don't bother -- they make their judgments based on what's easily observable. This only leads to making the same mistakes again and again; we never learn from the memories stored in our subconscious. I'd even go so far as to say that all the answers to our problems are contained in an honest evaluation of our subconscious memories -- we've all had the "Fox virus" at some point in our history, yet we're all glued to MSM's coverage of it, as if it's the first time this behavior has appeared on the human stage.
Yes! I work with people in recovery and many who never fully 'get it' cross-addict on Fox News, social media, conspiracy theories. The dopamine hit from drugs and alcohol is replaced by the media hit. One distinction; drugs/alcohol don't supplement our dopamine/gabapentin/endorphin systems, they hijack them; our natural brain chemistry dies out and the drug takes over. Media addiction does use our 'natural feel good' neurotransmitters but also completely hijacks that system as well so that the neurotransmitters are not produced without the 'hit'. 'Likes' on Facebook are addictive. You know what else is addictive? Having enough people 'like' my comments on this platform! Seriously, I could live without those 'likes' so it's not a disorder but, you see what I mean;). The only solution: treat this like any other addiction! And, a lot of people who are addicted to Fox, so to speak also have other drug/alcohol issues. We learn in 12-step programs that 'love and tolerance' is our code. I cannot be fully sober unless I live by that Tennent.
If you've been in and around 12-step programs (I have, and they probably saved my sanity if not my life), you've probably run into people who disparage the program by claiming that recovering alcoholics and addicts are "addicted" to it. Indeed: how many sponsors have told their sponsees ("pigeons" as an old-timer of my acquaintance still refers to them) in one way or another that if you don't keep going to meetings and working the steps you will probably relapse and die?
As you can probably guess, I disagree with these people. One *chooses* to go to meetings and work the steps in a way that an alcoholic or addict does not choose to drink or drug -- it's a sort of voluntary dependence. And those choices give you the opportunity to make more choices. Using curtails your future; recovery opens it up to new possibilities. But at the same time I see their point, and it makes me hesitate to describe anything that isn't physically addictive as addictive. I do know people who spend an astonishing amount of time on Facebook or Twitter, but for me and a lot of other people Facebook in particular is a useful organizing tool -- and it's fun.
I disagree. There is no 'choice' in addiction; it's a mental illness. You go or you die. I go to 6-7 meetings a week, 11.5 years sober and work with 3 sponsees right now. I have worked with up to 8-10 (retired, now). As for Facebook? I found it addicting and had to humble myself. As the book says, we're like the boy whistling in the dark... Don't go to the jumping off place!
I think you misunderstood me. One doesn't choose to be an addict, but one can choose to get into recovery. One chooses over and over again to "keep coming back." One can also choose *not* to get into recovery, and all too many people do make that choice.
I don't agree.
That's fine. Whatever works for you is what works. I sometimes run into people who try to discredit the program by calling it an addiction. Pointing out that one *chooses* to go to meetings in a way that one doesn't choose to use seems to get through to some of them.
I just have to push back on drawing some "natural" affinity between alcohol (and marijuana?) habit/addiction/abuse and hate media susceptibility. If anything, my experience has been the inverse: particularly in that the teetotallers who were most judgmental and hostile toward substance use were the strongest adopters of wherever else the hate media directed their ire. Sometimes all mixed up: druggies and protesters and sluts and perverts and America-haters and Commies, oh my!
I only know what I know anecdotally but, the relatives and friends that I have who are 'alcoholic/addict' to some extent are all Fox News devotees. I wonder if we treated the substance addictions if we might make in-roads on the media addictions as well. I've done a lot of studying of the bio-chemistry of all this and even anti-depressants, other psych meds. hijack the brain's natural endorphin systems. We are a 'Prozac Nation', especially after the pandemic. Underlying all of it is fear; we all use 'hits' of one drug or another to 'treat' fear. That's why fear-mongering works so well.
Replying to Rita and Ginger. You’re right about the addiction factors in the Facebook platforms and the hate media that highjacks our natural brain chemistry. The “likes” are even more so indicating someone out of the blue “agrees” with you.
I realized I was spending too much time on Facebook and that I could feel it was unhealthy. So now I use it to look up recipes and watch how you shoe horses. I have science fiction authors I follow and belong to a few groups where we discuss books. I’m happy with that. I may look at my page from time to time but have stopped posting.
I spend time on Substack because I get great information plus meet interesting people across the country. I ENJOY this. I never walk away angry ( politicians and some judges excluded) at anyone. I like hearing about where other people live and I feel very fortunate to live in PA. I much prefer the positive reinforcement I get here and try to give positive feedback on other’s posts. It was a matter of recognizing my constant negativity was coming from an outside source.
I got off FB entirely almost 3 years ago after I watched the Cambridge Analytica documentary and learned how they are deliberately manipulating users. That horrified me, Plus, I realized as you also mentioned, that I was spending too much time on there and coming away from it feeling frustrated, annoyed, and angry. I’d find myself furious and not really know why. It took a couple weeks to find other activities to occupy my time but after that I find I don’t miss it. My garden has never looked better! And I think my mental health is definitely much better for getting rid of it and replacing it with gardening.
I’m sure of it!
My husband paid me the highest compliment when he announced, “I’m almost afraid to say it out loud, but your chicken cacciatore is as good as my grandmother Gigina’s. Maybe a smidge better.” Whoa! Where’s my crown!
Thanks Thom.
AFAIK, the Fairness Doctrine was trashed by a Reagan appointee. It also appears the supremes confirmed that the FCC could impose or remove the doctrine within its regulatory purview.
Fast forward to now. There are two democratic appointees and two republican. There is currently an open 5th seat which has been blocked by Senate filibuster since Biden took office - the latest being Gigi Sohn. Sohn was subject to a massive smear campaign and withdrew from the nomination. The FCC is generally stagnant since it requires a majority vote to pass any controversial initiative.
Appointee Brendan Carr is a Federalist Society lawyer appointed to the FCC by TFG. You may have seen him as pretty active on Faux Entertainment. Carr's term expires this 30 June 2023. Which would leave us in a month+ with a 2-1 democratic majority on the commission.
So to the real reason for this post: Is it correct that as of 1 July with the 2-1 majority could the FCC reinstate the Fairness Doctrine? If not, why not? Same applies to the tragic 'wild-west' propaganda being spread on cable and the internet. Anyone?
A good bg on the history of the Fairness Doctrine at: https://sisyphuslitmag.org/2018/07/the-fairness-doctrine-how-we-lost-it-and-why-we-need-it-back/
Maybe, because of the 1st amendment, we can’t stop their broadcasts. But couldn’t we at least force them to show a 24/7 warning label scroll or something? With cigarettes they have to put a cancer warning label on each pack. Maybe TV propaganda stations would be forced to do something similar? It probably wouldn’t help the current addicted viewers but maybe at least it would slow down the acquisition of new viewers. Murdoch, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and others like them are no different than drug cartel leaders. They don’t care who gets killed or has their lives ruined as long as the money keeps rolling in. And it seems governments are just as ineffective at stopping the propaganda media outlets as they are at stopping the cartels.
Yes, yes, and yes -- and yet . . . There's something missing in this analysis: sex. (No, I don't mean "gender." I mean *sex*.) The perps in all the incidents that have gone viral in the last week, where individuals have shot and in some instances killed people for no reason other than their fear or their cussedness, have been men. The perps in the overwhelming majority of mass shootings have been men. The majority of the insurrectionists on 1/6 were men. Are men (XY-chromosome people) that over-represented in the Fox audience? If they aren't, why are they over-represented among those so susceptible to Fox propaganda that it leads them to do violence?
I'll have a stab at your question. In general, I'm all on the nature side of "nature vs nurture." But society and religion do empower men and ratify their "okayness" differently than women. I worked for an educational workshop program, and I don't know how many times I heard "Boys will be boys!" as Mom's excuse for poor school performance. Used to do all my laundry at laundromats, and over and over I saw moms come in with a little girl who helped with the chore while little boy bounced off the walls, mom running a constant complaint about what a slob dad was. Riane Eisler "Chalice and the Blade" seems quaintly "New Age" romantic now. Maybe it didn't have to always be this way everywhere? Guess again, girlfriend! Most societies teach boys that what they do is right and if they go overboard, it's going to be excused. Not to mention their special eternal historical superpower: rape. So it's not their fault! Hah! Like they say in "Red Green" it's not our fault: we're men!
“Evil “is addictive and we are seeing the results of it. Multiple reports on people who have unwittingly walked into the devils trap.
Murdoch, sponsored by Regan continues to sponsor tag team evil through Murdoch , Trump, Marjorie T Greene, Jim Jordan and yes Tucker Carlson and Fox Lies TV. The underlying and outright fractures to relationship , to society that at least at one time we attempted to overrule by seeing people w different views as maybe wrong but tolerable. Now if you disagree with this weaponized group of addicts they shoot you and ask questions later. The truth is the answer .
To continue to tolerate out and out lies as an ‘alternative fact ‘ is deadly.
And its routine in Republican politics today .
Marjorie Taylor Greene may have come to believe her own lies .
But the damage caused by them is massive as was Trumps behavior, as is Jim Jordan’ s behavior and Kevin Mc Carthys and Mitch McConnells. I think all but Trump and Marjorie TG know the truth but are grooming themselves as they groom others to take their lies as truth.
There is a a campaign by the GOP to rout out young voters .
They have admitted they’ll lose without them .
We need to oppose their tactics to keep these voters as the GOP has already removed millions of Democrats from voter roles.
Another dank tactic from hell .
"...they groom others to take their lies as truth." This is the bigger scheme at work here, even bigger than the battle for democracy. Corporations have been doing this for years, peddling their lies as if they were truth, and it was a matter of time before one of their ilk would become President, where one of his closest advisers would spew the infamous "alternate facts" line.
Excellent article and analysis -- thank you Thom. Aside from the rush these Fox viewers get, something else that's interested me about their behavior is the way they all spoke of QAnon, like they had the inside line to top-secret, classified information. Who even knows the source? -- it could have been AI-generated, but it gave their egos something to relish, thinking they had information that noone else had, making them feel they were VIP's who were being entrusted with it.
Good reminder, Maverick! What about that "insider" thrill! I used to work Juvie Hall as a Public Defender, and the rapt look on a kid's face if I asked what some nonsense gang tag meant! It was a secret, and he knew, and nobody could make him tell!!!
The trick is not wasting your breath on those who found a home with the haters. This is from Google and it tracks:
"What percentage of the population has personality disorders? An estimated 9 percent of U.S. adults have at least one personality disorder. Also, a person may have more than one personality disorder." Specifically about those with anti-social disorders "....it is three times more common among men than women. Individuals with antisocial personality disorder often also have co-occurring mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or substance use disorders."
America has a built-in audience dying to hear just what the hate media preaches. And if it seems there are many more anti-social people than when you grew up, there is. The population doubled over a 30 year period. Nine percent of US adults equals 23,155,150. Also consider the internet where these folks can connect and build layer by layer their stupid, vile theories and conspiracies.
For your own safety, also try to be careful with the folks you don't know.
Rupert the Duper is worth 29,000,000,000.
Tucker gets 6,000,000 a year. Worth = 30,000,000.
The FOX audience, ie, the "suckers and losers" (to quote Donald re: dead vets) are each worth ???
And rake in *** a year ???
I witnessed the power when Michael Savage came on the air in my Mom's life. Multiple copies of "Elders of Zion" had been on display, so she could start a conversation about being "anti-Zionist" not "anti-semitic." Gone. He hadn't been on the air long, and she asked me, what did I think about Michael Savage? (Minefield alert!) I gingerly dared to note: well, he is awfully Zionist.....I got a killer look and a "Humph". All waking hours, local hate to Rush to Savage to Fox. But she was on board with the (now esteemed) Scarborough re: Iraq invasion. Kill all the Arabs! Barbarians! No culture, no art, no literature! Same lady who took me to the Alhambra reverently as a kid. Some of the Jan. 6 defendants are relating conversion, sometimes related to Covid social situations. Paging Mr. Orwell.....
"It's deeply imbedded in their subconscious minds." You make an important point. In analyzing our current plight, most only observe what they see on the outside, the result of our conscious minds. It takes time and effort to observe the subconscious, and so most people don't bother -- they make their judgments based on what's easily observable. This only leads to making the same mistakes again and again; we never learn from the memories stored in our subconscious. I'd even go so far as to say that all the answers to our problems are contained in an honest evaluation of our subconscious memories -- we've all had the "Fox virus" at some point in our history, yet we're all glued to MSM's coverage of it, as if it's the first time this behavior has appeared on the human stage.