TheMaster666
Potential
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2021
- Messages
- 320
I want to make a semi-rant, if you'll allow me. Don't worry, there is (hopefully) no controversial opinion here.
First, let me define political. There are two sides to the term. There's politics that is discussion of or reporting on the actual policy that legislators are voting on that could potentially be law. Things like tax reform, abortion laws, infrastructure bills, whatever. All of that is fine, and it is the sign of an informed, engaged electorate to care and discuss such issues (peacefully and amicably of course).
And then there's politics that's the inevitable rat races every 2 or 4 years, alternating between a presidential election and midterms the way we alternate between the Winter and Summer Olympic games. The major news sources seem to treat elections more seriously as a major sporting event than they do the Olympics. It is this kind of politics that grinds my gears.
Now of course, I am not suggesting that people do not or should not care about the vote; people have fought and died for your right to a free election and for democracy and all that patriotic crap. But that should be my prerogative as a citizen. My privilege, my right. I am a free man, capable of doing his own research, coming to his own conclusions, and that's what I'm going to do anyway.
When and if I choose to vote is my business, and I don't view it as anything more than an employee review session. The government, in theory anyway, are public servants. They work for us. They aren't celebrities to be followed and gossiped about. They aren't kings or nobles to show our allegiances to. They are employees of the populace, and election time is when we have the right and duty to conduct a performance review (on incumbents) or engage in a hiring process for new applicants. Just like the people in HR, we should evaluate people based on things like character, experience, and qualifications. Of course political bias will factor in, but I believe political beliefs are secondary in nature to how a person is. Once a man (or woman) is elected, it is unlikely they will dictatorially redesign the world in their image, but it is certain that they will face grave responsibilities, and when they do I want someone competent to address those challenges in office.
All of that is to say, during the 99% of time when we aren't having an election in the next few days, which is, y'know, just normal everyday life, I don't need or want to hear about so and so's chances in early polling, or popularity ratings, or how much funding certain PAC's are getting (paying anything to annoy the crap out of and/or manipulate people into voting how you want them to should be a crime, but our courts ruled that money is free speech). None of that is newsworthy. None of that is even really political. It's completely removed the actual policy and details of laws from the equation and reduced the whole affair to an insufferable competition about which asshole you don't give a crap about is going to ascend into power many months from now. And as soon as he or she does, they'll start inundating you with propaganda for the following race. It's almost as though what people do or how they behave in office--the entire point of an election in the first place--is entirely irrelevant. All that matters is getting them there and keeping them there. It's a sick, perverse point of view, one only those aspiring to attain power would have.
Depending on where you get your news from, the media corporations (of which there are only maybe 4 or 5 that own the rest) will invest a great deal in encouraging you to think about supporting their party candidate. Like all forms of marketing, it is just grating to be on the receiving end of, and in a democracy, it's downright near immoral.
Just so you can see what I'm talking about:
cnn.com
nbcnews.com
abcnews.go.com
foxnews.com
reuters.com
apnews.com
Take your pick. Go ahead. I dare you to find even a single major news publication that won't have at least 1 headline on the front page that deals with this "marketing" kind of political. You don't even have to scroll down. It is the first thing you see on landing there.
First, let me define political. There are two sides to the term. There's politics that is discussion of or reporting on the actual policy that legislators are voting on that could potentially be law. Things like tax reform, abortion laws, infrastructure bills, whatever. All of that is fine, and it is the sign of an informed, engaged electorate to care and discuss such issues (peacefully and amicably of course).
And then there's politics that's the inevitable rat races every 2 or 4 years, alternating between a presidential election and midterms the way we alternate between the Winter and Summer Olympic games. The major news sources seem to treat elections more seriously as a major sporting event than they do the Olympics. It is this kind of politics that grinds my gears.
Now of course, I am not suggesting that people do not or should not care about the vote; people have fought and died for your right to a free election and for democracy and all that patriotic crap. But that should be my prerogative as a citizen. My privilege, my right. I am a free man, capable of doing his own research, coming to his own conclusions, and that's what I'm going to do anyway.
When and if I choose to vote is my business, and I don't view it as anything more than an employee review session. The government, in theory anyway, are public servants. They work for us. They aren't celebrities to be followed and gossiped about. They aren't kings or nobles to show our allegiances to. They are employees of the populace, and election time is when we have the right and duty to conduct a performance review (on incumbents) or engage in a hiring process for new applicants. Just like the people in HR, we should evaluate people based on things like character, experience, and qualifications. Of course political bias will factor in, but I believe political beliefs are secondary in nature to how a person is. Once a man (or woman) is elected, it is unlikely they will dictatorially redesign the world in their image, but it is certain that they will face grave responsibilities, and when they do I want someone competent to address those challenges in office.
All of that is to say, during the 99% of time when we aren't having an election in the next few days, which is, y'know, just normal everyday life, I don't need or want to hear about so and so's chances in early polling, or popularity ratings, or how much funding certain PAC's are getting (paying anything to annoy the crap out of and/or manipulate people into voting how you want them to should be a crime, but our courts ruled that money is free speech). None of that is newsworthy. None of that is even really political. It's completely removed the actual policy and details of laws from the equation and reduced the whole affair to an insufferable competition about which asshole you don't give a crap about is going to ascend into power many months from now. And as soon as he or she does, they'll start inundating you with propaganda for the following race. It's almost as though what people do or how they behave in office--the entire point of an election in the first place--is entirely irrelevant. All that matters is getting them there and keeping them there. It's a sick, perverse point of view, one only those aspiring to attain power would have.
Depending on where you get your news from, the media corporations (of which there are only maybe 4 or 5 that own the rest) will invest a great deal in encouraging you to think about supporting their party candidate. Like all forms of marketing, it is just grating to be on the receiving end of, and in a democracy, it's downright near immoral.
Just so you can see what I'm talking about:
cnn.com
nbcnews.com
abcnews.go.com
foxnews.com
reuters.com
apnews.com
Take your pick. Go ahead. I dare you to find even a single major news publication that won't have at least 1 headline on the front page that deals with this "marketing" kind of political. You don't even have to scroll down. It is the first thing you see on landing there.
