On American Cable news networks in the Early 21st century: “… I watched them, baffled
at their narrative’s unbelievability. The world they presented seemed
simplified unto stupefaction, completely irreconcilable with the world of lived
experience: with the complex, often ambiguous, motivations and intentions of
those around us, our loved ones.
“Bushwhacked thusly by psychologically
depthless, ahistorical, wholly unrecognizable representations, is it any wonder
why only 30% of these American—citizens of one of the most affluent countries
in the world—had valid passports? Is it any wonder their police, often from white-middle
class backgrounds, felt justified in using surplus military equipment to patrol
their own streets, “keeping the peace?” Can we be shocked that—despite the
slightly-more-than-questionable history of their Government’s intervention in
the political and economic self-determination of countries across the globe—many
Americans were still surprised to find that so many people disliked them, or didn’t
trust them? Or, indeed that, after their economy failed in ‘08, so many were
left standing around, Hoover flags flying again, wondering what hit them and
muttering ‘CDO, Glass-Stiegel, Greenspan’ like the chorus of a pop song they
heard, somewhere—if they could just remember where…
“Could it be that their demand for
accessible and entertaining narratives—a news to drink a beer to, an easy
good-guy-versus-bad-guy bedtime fable—had been truly harmful? Could it be that
their so-called ‘truth with teeth’ turned around and bit them in the ass?”
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