For the ‘debate’ on Wednesday

posted by The Vidiot @ 2:02 PM Permalink

A teacher I know gave his seniors the assignment to watch the debates. Now, keep in mind, these seniors can barely write a complete sentence and a goodly portion of them can’t pass the NYS Regents exam. The school system cheated them out of a decent education loooong before my friend got them in his class. Anyway, the scary thing is, they all ‘got it’. They all saw that nobody actually answers the questions and the best you can hope for is for one of them to at least attempt to seem like he’s answering the questions. They made a lot of rather insightful comments, at least, more insightful than expected.

A testament to my friend’s teaching ability? Maybe. More than likely though, the real reason is that our political discourse had descended to such a low level, that working-class high school kids can understand it and discuss it.

And what does that say about the talking heads and politicos that closely follow the debates and discuss it afterward? They’re basically taking something that has no redeemable content, then manufacturing something out of that empty content and then filling the airwaves, printed paper and digital media with glop. They parse and dissect and spin these debates into a narrative that will then be used to convince you to pay attention, to think it matters. They shore up and manufacture political reality and what is it all based on? Nothing. Emptiness. Useless drivel.

It’s bad enough that the candidates don’t really say anything substantial. It’s bad enough that what they do discuss is so narrowly contained in the false dichotomy that is “our two party system.” But what’s even worse than that is the nonsense that happens AFTER the debate, by people who are paid extremely well to spin, cajole, craft, massage and otherwise lie.

It’s a complete and utter fabrication!

Labels: 2008 election, debates, discourse, propaganda