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Originally Posted by KMA-628
Mr. M. -
Honestly, I was so set off by the title and the WTF part that I completely missed the "sorry" part. I even looked at it a couple of times and missed it every time.
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No problem.
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First, I think I might disagree with the foreign aid comment. I haven't been able to find a good source for numbers, but most of the info I saw doesn't seem to back up that comment.
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I'll dig up the specific references when I get back to Perth. I'm in Sydney at present. In the meantime, the point is detailed in a book called
Fifty facts that should change the world by Jessica Williams, ISBN 0-9729529-6-9 (
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...651205-6339312). An interesting read on many levels. It has copious footnotes to support each "fact". I'll post them when I return to Perth over the weekend.
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And yes, I used the "fixated" comment on purpose, as well as the loose Irish and Austrailian analogies. I wasn't being condecending, I was being pointed. Saying someone is fixated is hardly a derogatory remark. Especially when it is true.
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fix·ate P Pronunciation Key (fkst)
v. fix·at·ed, fix·at·ing, fix·ates
v. tr.
To make fixed, stable, or stationary.
To focus one's eyes or attention on: fixate a faint object.
To command the attention of exclusively or repeatedly; preoccupy obsessively: “TV and newspapers were fixated on high-technology as the solution to almost everything” (Jay Walljasper).
Psychology.
To attach (oneself) to a person or thing in an immature or neurotic fashion.
In classical psychoanalysis, to cause (the libido) to be arrested at an early stage of psychosexual development.
v. intr.
To focus the eyes or attention.
Psychology.
To become attached to a person or thing in an immature or pathological way; form a fixation.
To be arrested at an early stage of psychosexual development.
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Emphasis added.
I don't think I'm immature or pathological. Neither do I believe I'm neurotic. I also do not post exclusively on American politics.
Therefore, it is not true and it
IS insulting. However, that's not the point. I had (perhaps naively) thought my engagement in this forum was welcome and that it was noted that I try to maintain a fair balanced point of view; notwithstanding my obvious political leanings. I go out of my way to correct myself when proven wrong or to apologize if my facts are presented in an partisan manner. I can refer, for example, to my thread on the US deficit where I took your criticism as entirely valid. I also note that you deigned
not to reply to me on that thread (if memory serves me correctly).
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As far as the "conservatization" of the American Media. Huh? I hardly think the entire media establishment is leaning to the right. If that was the case, the likes of CBS and CNN would shrivel up and die.
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Perhaps "conservatization" was the wrong term. Or at least, I didn't mean it in the political sense it has come to imply these days. By conservative, I meant in a social or sexual manner. CBS and CNN are not dying out, but they sure as hell are being more careful with any dipiction of the human form, reproduction, pregnancy and any other "sexual" subject matter than they were before Bush was elected.
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What you see involves popularity. Media outlets that lean to the conservative side are becoming more and more popular.
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What I see is media outlets responding to massive fines imposed by the FCC at the instigation of the Bush Administration. No more. No less.
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Fox kills every other cable news outlet time and time again in the ratings. What does that mean? It means that Fox is providing a product that people want more than the other competing products. If Americans didn't want a news outlet like Fox, then Fox's numbers wouldn't be anywhere near where they are. They would be closer to the now defunct Phil Donahue Show on MSNBC.
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It's nothing to do with news. It's got to do with the Administration trying to impose it's "mores" on the majority. Of course, that's just my opinion.
One shared by many others "fixated" on US politics and society too you know.
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But I really cannot see the increasing popularity of the likes of FoxNews as an indication that our whole media establishment is turning conservative.
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Well, though this is not the point, let me answer that statement. If a conservative news station is getting increasingly popular and consistently outrating other stations... then by simply logical definition US media
IS becoming more conservative. Anyway, that's not really my point so let's move on.
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And, I will be pointed here, others show an interest our politics, your interest is considerably more. I am not saying you shouldn't say what you do or that you are wrong, I just have never seen a non-American go out of their way, time and time again, to point out the flaws in someone else's country.
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You've got to be kidding me, right?
I have
consistently stated that the world benefits from the US. I admire your country greatly. I think it's a force for good in the world. It does a HUGE amount of good. And I have gone on record as saying that over and over again.
But I do find the current Administration is "damaging" America's reputation overseas. Many of the US boardmembers here agree.
So, because I'm not American, I can't comment on the current Administration? Or more accurately, that I'm prejudiced if I do? Don't you think that's a little bit restrictive of you?
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Again, I am not criticizing you for it, I am pointing out my own observation as you clearly stand out in this category.
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Oh but you are. And if I stand out on this category, it's because as one of the "liberal" or "anti-Bush" posters, I go out of my way to see both sides and to accept when I'm wrong and when BushCo do good.
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It is fairly safe to say that, if a new thread is created by Mr. Mephisto in the Politics Forum, there is a 90%+ chance that it will be anti-Bush in some way or another.
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Personally, I don't think it is fair to say that. But, even if the figures agree, being "anti-Bush" is not the same as being "anti-American". If that was the case, you should also be criticising around 50% of your own countrymen and women.
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Usually I ignore such threads. This one got my attention because it tried to define my country based on a complaint of a fringe group.
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No it didn't. It used a story to create debate on a real topic.
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While I welcome the debate, I hardly think that America as a whole can be labeled because of it. Also, I see no evidence, whatsoever, that America is becoming "conservative". I live here. If my country were becoming as conservative as some people would like to assume, I would be jumping for joy. As it were, I am not jumping, nor do I foresee any jubilant bouts of jumping in the future.
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So you don't see a movement to "clean up the airwaves"? Hmmmm... maybe all the stories I'm reading are complete bunkum. Maybe the FCC didn't fine stations for trivial matters that, prior to Bush, would have warranted a rap over the knuckles. Maybe I, and the many people who agree with me in this thread, are mistaken.
Maybe.
Mr Mephisto