[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Still, I question the veracity of that article. FNC viewers should know the headlines of the day

Knowing the headlines of the day, and knowing what they mean, have very little to do with each other.

From what little I've seen of Fox News (I can't stomach it for long), it actively encourages simplifying complex situations and jumping to conclusions/explanations that are reduced to the max, and all-too-often just partisan bullshit not representative of any sort of reality.

An O'Reilly viewer seeing a negative headline somewhere and instinctively blaming Obama would be a (fictitious) example. Somebody not conditioned by O'Reilly or Hannity or other blathering dumbasses, someone who bothered to read up on the subject, might know that the headline was inevitable due to legislature passed during the Clinton administration.

You can also see it in the Poli Lounge on this forum all the time, where people continually misrepresent the scientific "agenda", and make obvious just how clueless they are about what science actually does, and how it works.

[Big Mac]

You're obviously too biased to have an objective opinion on the channel, SH. In a closely divided political country, FNC is by far the most popular cable news network, so it's somewhat insulting to paint most or all of its viewers with the type of stereotypical brush you use.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Spheric, your viewpoint seems to ignore the fact that scientists all have a leftist agenda and their conclusions cannot be relied upon, because those scientists all have an inherent bias to continue the funding for whatever field in which they are working.

Except for the conclusions directly employed or funded by corporations with an interest in the particular matter, of course - those conclusions should certainly be used, relied upon and immediately published on MacNN Forums for the purposes of lively debate.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

You're obviously too biased to have an objective opinion on the channel, SH. In a closely divided political country, FNC is by far the most popular cable news network, so it's somewhat insulting to paint most or all of its viewers with the type of stereotypical brush you use.

It's not actually a news network (which explains its popularity), and the study I linked to is not mine.

The trend towards bullshit simplifications and infotainment is by no means unique to your country, Big Mac. Our major tabloid, Bild, is guilty of the same shit (though they have gone on record actually admitting a political agenda in the past), and its readers show similar symptoms.

"Closely divided political country" is complete bullshit, btw. There's a healthy spectrum from the crackpot left to the crackpot right: it's just media like FNC that thrive off artificially creating an us-vs.-them split in anything and everything they report on. That's a major part of the simplification problem, and you've obviously fallen for it (it's insidious; everybody's susceptible to formulaic simplification, regardless of education or intelligence).

[Big Mac]

Thank you for the clarification. Sorry for the somewhat snap judgment. And I didn't mean there isn't a political spectrum in the US, I don't deny there is one. But the country's mainstream is pretty evenly split down the middle in national contests, which is why the relatively small independent vote is so crucial, especially in presidential cycles. Even Obama, who had nearly everything going for him and did trounce McCain electorally, only won 52.9% of the popular vote. That's a closely divided electorate.

As for falling for things, I don't think I have, but you're entitled to your opinion.

[Tiresias]

Mysterious structures in the Gobi desert. JFK. 9/11. Roswell. The bloodline of Mary Magdalen.

Come on people, it's obvious.

If you can't connect the dots, I'm not going to do it for you.

[osiris]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

That guy makes me look sane.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Thank you for the clarification. Sorry for the somewhat snap judgment. And I didn't mean there isn't a political spectrum in the US, I don't deny there is one. But the country's mainstream is pretty evenly split down the middle in national contests, which is why the relatively small independent vote is so crucial, especially in presidential cycles. Even Obama, who had nearly everything going for him and did trounce McCain electorally, only won 52.9% of the popular vote. That's a closely divided electorate.

Ah - the electorate COLLEGE is closely divided.

Your country actually isn't.

It's just that the electoral college system obscures the actual democratic process and favors a purely bipartisan solution, making representation of the actual political spectrum impossible by eliminating any chance of coalition government (and thus minority participation).

In reality, your candidates are closer to each other than you might think.

Obama won by emphasizing unity and working together, and he has completely failed because Republicans, often enough with absolutely no good reason beyond torpedoing Obama, have done absolutely nothing but boycott every effort put forth until it was obvious they could no longer do so without completely ruining the country, opting for a completely partisan view of the nation, rather than one that focussed on actually seeing a *nation*.

BTW, you may have seen this, but this is your divided country:



Republican-Democrat spectrum, based on counties, size-adjusted for population.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Ah - the electorate COLLEGE is closely divided.

No. . . Again, I said President Obama's Electoral College victory was commanding, but his popular vote victory was 53%, which may be good for a presidential election but shows that voters were split close to 50% and thus closely divided. That's a pretty cool map, but it doesn't change the point.

[Doofy]

Hang on, what's politics doing here? Sphere, didn't you have yourself banned from the Pol Lounge so you didn't have to see politics? And now you're talking about it here?

[Spheric Harlot]

Yeah, I knew from Big Mac's first response that I wasn't going to get my point across, but went ahead despite better intuition.

Not smart.

Apologies; carry on.

(also: what are *you* doing here? )

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I'm convinced.

Anyway, who is this guy? Is there a video? I need to know.

[Tiresias]

Got it.

Ancient Aliens | Know Your Meme

[Tiresias]

My favorite:

"If ancient aliens didn't exist, then how did they build everything?"

Touché!

[olePigeon]

Edit: Nevermind.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Tiresias 

My favorite:

"If ancient aliens didn't exist, then how did they build everything?"

Touché!

[Tiresias]

Seems legit.