Chach

The point he makes I think is they keep levelling up on the partisanship to compete for the portion of the viewership that are actually tuning in now they don;t have to, I said in my original post that most people on both sides don't even care if it's true now it's all about feeding their biases. I also think it's much less influential than we give it credit for, we like politics and so does the media so we internally amplify it. Most people just aren't that engaged/have much information. Like I said originally, I think it's overreach in the liberalising of economies and borders, but there must be many other polarising factors when you did down. War, particularly long ones would be very polarising, religious beliefs that interpret abortion as murder would be very polarising, countries with huge disparities in social norms between regional areas and cities and the every growing issue of wealth inequality. You show me a country that's small, affluent and relatively homogeneous like Sweden and differences are going to be much less pronounced. AfD is a good example, in a very short period of time they have polarised internally to become very extreme as a result of the EU and immigration.

If you watched Fox News do you think you would be swayed by their agenda? If not, why do you think that is?

Your whole thing is to claim a causal link between news and in particular Fox News and political polarisation/divide and I am saying it does not stand up to any analysis, this is an opinion I come to reluctantly as my opinion used to be the same as yours, before it was changed by evidence presented through research by mostly left wing/liberal types. Your claim that the show is anyway hugely representative of the truth is very flimsy on its own, I watched it I was entertained but it was never intended to be objective. Case in point, the first 15 years of Sean Hannity's involvement was Hannity and Colmes, Colmes bringing the liberal viewpoint. Not mentioned/shown or in anyway consistent with the story narrative (I'm sure the book is a lot more honest that the show granted, and I think I will read it) I've posted this before have a listen, Ezra Klein is as inner city tree hugging left winger type as you can get. Founder of Vox which is also about as left wing as you can get. At 1:08 (if you don't want to listen to the whole thing) they talk about how the media got to where it's at now in response to Sean Carroll's idea that the Media is maybe the causal reason. You can literally hear him let go of the idea in real time as the facts are presented. https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/01/27/81-ezra-klein-on-polarization-politics-and-identity/

Please explain how it is "entirely accurate, it is much more than a TV show".

Dunno what's going on with the testing in the UK but there is zero chance your infection rate it correct, and needless to say if you don't know who has got it you've no chance of stopping it spreading.

How is the irony of 5 people liking a post that in response to a post saying people seek out information to confirm their own political biases, states that a TV show made by liberals, based on a book by a liberal, for liberals about a prominent conservative with the express intention of enraging them is an accurate explanation of how politics got the way they are. I mean, oh my fucking days. Where is the attempt at honesty and self awareness? IT'S A FUCKING TV SHOW.

Not saying I agree with anything Fox news has done but what you've spun their is the narrative that liberals (including me) having been spinning for years because it makes us feel better. I just don't think it stands up to any real analysis, you look at the numbers watching something like Hannity relative to the voting public and its a drop in the ocean, then add up all the other pro left news channels and there's more people watching that than Fox News. This quote from the show attributed (incorrectly) to Ailes sums it up "people don't want to be informed, they want to feel informed" people want to feed their biases including us. Let's be honest, Fox News and Trump are a symptom of the same thing, 40 years of neo-liberal overreach. On the flipside, how is this approach working out for us?

Agree with both points here, think I will keep reading fiction in print but have completely swapped to Audible for non fiction it's just so much more convenient, in the car or exercising you get through so much more and I concentrate much better when I'm moving. With regards the accents my pet hate has become the authors reading them themselves rather than a professional narrator, I find it something akin to that feeling of not wanting to read the book of something after you've already seen the movie because you tend to imagine the movie rather than imagine your own version. Have just finished The Madness of Crowds : Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray which he narrates and I found mildly irritating at first as his politics already grate on me, but also made me laugh out loud a few times. Just started Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them) By new testament scholar Bart Ehrman, very interesting for anyone with a past or present interest in the origins of Christianity.

From what I've read that trial was stopped because it was causing heart murmurs due to the high doses, but it's still being prescribed in mild cases but no clear evidence that it's effective.

Can you expand on what you mean by this this. I see Fox News and CNN as something akin to WWE as in the people watching it don't really care if it's factual. It's a product made with the intention of confirming the innate biases of the consumer. I notice this in myself all the time albeit much less than I used to now I am aware of it. First you have a feeling about what you want to believe based on your personal preference and then you seek out the information that confirms it, are you saying that you think politically biased media are driving the narrative or just ramping up the polarisation?

It's been very confusing watch people go after Bill Gates based on tin foil hattery,, seems to be mostly Trump supporters who want to discredit him because he's a liberal who has been been sounding the alarm on lack of preparedness for a pandemic for quite a while, Candace Owens went on a disgraceful rant against him on twitter last night. Guy has literally pledged to give away all his money, and is spending on it on the most disadvantaged and people are calling him scum online.

Caitlyn Flanagan from The Atlantic made the same point, he knows how to whip the vote and get things done but no leadership qualities. I am going to make the prediction that Biden will win handily, Trump is going to turn out the Democratic base for them and with the economy in the toilet due to restrictions from CV19 people will vote for stability. It is going to be ugly though, I may have to log off Twitter for the duration.

*from 15:00 if you want to skip straight to the homemade Youtube propaganda video.

This is amazing, and when I say amazing I mean completely deranged. The video he has cobbled together to demonstrate what an good job he is doing is breathtaking for what it represents. Propaganda from a would be authoritarian raging against being held to account by a free press. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNaCSwezJHo

You should consider logging off for a bit Pete, you're getting a but deranged.

I see from his Twitter post Trump is against having a mail in ballot, wonder if that based on any modelling he's seen or just standard Trump conspiracy peddling,

Have never voted for a conservative government in my 28 years of voting, being left wing doesn't mean you have to misrepresent the nature or ideas of your political opponents. which is primarily your modus operandi. You've literally just accused me of being a fascist because I never addressed all of the parts of your post that you wanted me to. Do you think that's balanced Pete?

For an election by postal ballot would they not just send a ballot to everyone registered on the electoral roll with a reply paid envelope? I don't think you could have people printing out their own ballots, way too easily rorted. Is that what's happening in your primary?

Fair enough mate, hope everything's ok with you and yours.

Mate, go back and read the post I was responding to, it was barely comprehensible. I was literally half guessing what point you were trying to make.

I don't need to present any evidence, you are the one making claims that the government is responsible for everyones poor health choices. Then when the holes are pointed out in you argument you just move the goal posts and say I have to provide evidence. Try and be honest or all your posts will be ignored. That video is a very simplified take on moral foundations theory, being the origins of morality and how it affects our politics which I have been espousing the whole time, not an "explanation regarding tory brains not being fully functional"

Honestly, when it comes to the politics of human morality you are the equivalent of a climate change denier. How many times does the science of why some people are liberal and why some are conservative and why it's important for the group as whole have to be pointed out before you reflect on how stupid it is to think half the population are evil because they don;t share your political views? You can't pick and choose the science you believe, truth is truth. Conservatives are not evil, they have different priorities.

Germany doesn't have the same healthcare system as the UK, in terms of the things you mention above there I would have thought that was self evident. Germany are dominant when it comes to manufacturing. Also I would make the point it's a bit early to be drawing conclusions about who is doing better, that's something that can only really be determined at the end.

Case fatality rate* All the deaths will be counted, take your tin foil hat off. Yes they might have got off to a poor start, they're a big clumsy organisation and preparing for something that has no one knew existed a few months ago or what symptoms it would cause is likely quite a bit harder than people imagine. The reality could very well be they're doing the absolute best they can under the circumstances.

You're still trying to deflect from the point you made about the government purposely downgrading the disease, that a very big claim for which you still haven't supplied any evidence. Is it so hard to just admit that maybe you misunderstood or were misguided by someone who had an agenda? You're "first hand information" is anecdotal, its a large healthcare system some areas will be poorly run, others will not. With regards to your last point, I have never been in a position where my employer was responsible for my PPE but I always took responsibility for my own and that of my employees.