It is Day 18 -- 18!!!!! -- of the Wall Street occupation protest!
How about a collective nation-wide rejection of the TV media that are massively rejecting this demonstration -- the protest's message and its worthiness!!!! A media that are turning their backs, along with the government and the amoral elite, on our present plight that the Wall Street fraudsters, our government and media, NOT us, are the cause of!
How might some of us show them and the thousands of others in other cities taking to the streets that we are behind them and willing to make a show of sacrifice, too, to fight this FIGHT OF A LIFETIME?
Since the CORPORATE mainstream media have been ignoring or at best minimizing the Wall Street action, why not fight them back where they actually live? By turning our backs on their programming for a five-day protest period? Why not the first five days beginning October 25th of the Nielsen sweeps research coming up at the end of this month?
Why not focus some collective protest on the product-profits-over-people’s-welfare-to-a-psychopathic-degree corporatists, kleptocrats, by organizing to turn off their advertising and programming for five days in a row of the too often “idiot box” that coaxes, seduces and distracts citizens away from real news, REALITY, and into a passive consumer NOT a proactive CITIZEN identity.
As I read on a T-shirt a while ago, “Politics is NOT a spectator sport”! But the media want us to think it is, along with a corrupt government that is pimped out to the corporate elite to “take care of our little brains”. We as spectators watch the media and this CORRUPT government (a friend told me at work last night approval rating for Congress now is a deserved 11%!) enable the kleptocrats to devastate our lives here and, with their ever escalating corporate warring, devastate the lives of the 99 percenters of the globe.
WE AMERICAN 99 PERCENTERS ARE OWED OVER TEN TRILLION DOLLARS THAT OUR GOVERNMENT HANDED OVER TO THE FRAUDSTERS WHOM THIS GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA CONTINUE TO PROTECT AND REWARD.
Five days of a TV boycott? Would you consider it? Maybe it sounds too modest or gratuitous, but if ENOUGH of us got serious, it would touch them, THE AMORAL KLEPTOCRATS AND THE SELL-OUT MEDIA, where they do happen to have an investment. Their advertising revenue and propaganda machines.
What say you, America? Could you turn off the box for 5 days?
18 DAYS OF THE WALL STREET OCCUPATION. Imagine it! Finally FEISTY American citizens are willing to sustain that kind of commitment to fight the grotesque injustice perpetrated so profoundly by the corporatist elite on 99% of the citizenry. These Wall Street activists in New York and elsewhere are fighting for all of us.
700 of them were arrested on Saturday on the Brooklyn Bridge, inadvertently but strategically "kettled", it was called, by the police.
How many Wall Street corporate fraudsters have been arrested for perpetrating our present economic calamity? Those who should have gone to jail but instead for whom $10 plus TRILLION of taxpayer dollars was WRONGLY used to bail them out and reward them. And these amoral monsters on Wall Street are now outraged at the idea of ANY tax or regulation being exercised against them AFTER ALL THEY HAVE DONE!!!!
Our government officials, our media, continue to honor their demands and needs at the expense of 99% of the citizenry. Bribed cronyism is turning our democracy into fascism. A government of, for and by the rich.
No arrests for the fraudsters. But yes on one rainy afternoon arrests of 700 rightfully angry and earnest citizens of Day 15 of the righteous protest of the fraud and extortion that devoured their -- OUR -- tax treasury that should be devoted to our basic security rights as American citizens (labeled “entitlements” to wrongfully deny their legitimacy), a treasury to be even further devoured via the government’s media-colluding present con of us 99 percenters called an “austerity” program.
It would be nice to do something to massively express our solidarity with all of the activists. The ones arrested, the ones risking arrest by simply but courageously exercising their right to assemble and their right to free speech. Two of the many rights now circling the bowl in slippery-slope to fascism America.
So, again, what say you, the rest of America? Spectator or activist? Ready to click off the box on October 25th for five days?
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
---------------
yes
You damn Skippy I could! I don't watch it a lot anyway, and for the cause, I can quit watching all of it. As I said the other day, the media is a major force in this, they are not on the sideline, they are intentionally "not" covering these protests, as they did the teaparty and all their marches and town halls and showing ignorant signs of Obama with a bone in his nose. They are owned by the very people we are protesting against, so of course they have to feel the pain. Let's have a "NO TV FOR A WEEK, week, and I'm there!
Absolutely! For those who really like watching entertainment, visit a friend and watch a good DVD, or for one week swap movies with friends and co-workers. Host a night of playing games or cards. I like to put together jigsaw puzzles alone or with friends, music is perfect in the background and it's amazing how much you chat as you look for pieces.
TV news is passé, it's what my parents watch but they're in their 80's and the internet frustrates them but for me there's no loss. TV ads make you crave junk food and feel inadequate and deprived. I think I can give up one episode of the Big Bang Theory to have my country back. If I want background voices I'll pop in a movie.
Wonderful idea. This is what we should be doing, sharing ideas and actively supporting this movement. I'm willing to boycott anything, I want my country back. Thanks for perking me up.
TV news is passé, it's what my parents watch but they're in their 80's and the internet frustrates them but for me there's no loss. TV ads make you crave junk food and feel inadequate and deprived. I think I can give up one episode of the Big Bang Theory to have my country back. If I want background voices I'll pop in a movie.
Wonderful idea. This is what we should be doing, sharing ideas and actively supporting this movement. I'm willing to boycott anything, I want my country back. Thanks for perking me up.
Thanks Elijah! :)
Scanner, this idea I got from what you said about the media. I think it has legs but how do we get it to go viral I wonder? I am spreading it among my own network. Here will help. Thanks for your inspiration and support on this! The more I think of what the media has done the more it feels like a way to go, an important statement to make! I too have pulled more and more away from the tube. I see how "played" we as viewers are. The media try to neuter us as a citizenry and succeed over and over! Time to take a stand!
libby
Scanner, this idea I got from what you said about the media. I think it has legs but how do we get it to go viral I wonder? I am spreading it among my own network. Here will help. Thanks for your inspiration and support on this! The more I think of what the media has done the more it feels like a way to go, an important statement to make! I too have pulled more and more away from the tube. I see how "played" we as viewers are. The media try to neuter us as a citizenry and succeed over and over! Time to take a stand!
libby
l'Heure -- I am so delighted you concur! Any ideas you have or word you spread to get this viral appreciated. It is just a seed now. We have til October 25th! I was responding to the other comments when yours came in. Thanks for yours, too! libby
boycott tv? that's political action?
turn on your tv and see what's going on in syria, that's political action.
folks, real change is not waving your fist for a week. it needs persistence and organization over years. it took women three generations to get the vote, and getting democracy will need one at least.
but you want it now.
turn on your tv and see what's going on in syria, that's political action.
folks, real change is not waving your fist for a week. it needs persistence and organization over years. it took women three generations to get the vote, and getting democracy will need one at least.
but you want it now.
but Comcast charges me whether I watch it or not...
Didn't expect a wet blanket from you, loomis. I say people willing to be proactive in whatever capacity go for it. If such a movement as boycotting tv for five days happens, God bless it and about time. The "manufacture of consent" that happens 24/7 by the media about war-mongering, about economic rape by the rich of the less rich or poor, the culture of celebrity and consumerism celebrated rather than one of integrity and morality needs to be addressed. The conscious registering by a significant number of citizens of the psyops crimes of our own media and this act of a boycott in my eyes would be a SIGNIFICANT symbolic act -- admittedly a long shot -- which would involve personal sacrifice to some degree, for some more than others.
TV is an opiate of the people. Personality cronyism culture with media role models has a profound influence on people. "We will do your thinking for you" happens way too often. Trust that commentator and celeb and stay a low-information voter and citizen believing you are in the best of hands. HAH. Mystification. Even the msnbc shows that cherry-pick what to be reality-based about and what to fudge over (like certain corruption in the OTHER "less evil"money (Dem) party).
Please don't mock beginnings of actions to enlightenment and sacrifice. We need IMAGINATION and commitment to combat what is happening now. It will arise in many forms. Please don't wet blanket it for not being perfect enough as a gesture of things that are terribly wrong. This may or may not be one that suits all the people. But if it is an outlet of protest for some, what is the prob? And imho it will have impact if enough of us do it nationally.
libby
TV is an opiate of the people. Personality cronyism culture with media role models has a profound influence on people. "We will do your thinking for you" happens way too often. Trust that commentator and celeb and stay a low-information voter and citizen believing you are in the best of hands. HAH. Mystification. Even the msnbc shows that cherry-pick what to be reality-based about and what to fudge over (like certain corruption in the OTHER "less evil"money (Dem) party).
Please don't mock beginnings of actions to enlightenment and sacrifice. We need IMAGINATION and commitment to combat what is happening now. It will arise in many forms. Please don't wet blanket it for not being perfect enough as a gesture of things that are terribly wrong. This may or may not be one that suits all the people. But if it is an outlet of protest for some, what is the prob? And imho it will have impact if enough of us do it nationally.
libby
this is an AWESOME idea & it emphasizes that all the pain we are now experiencing is mostly *self*inflicted* and yes, largely through highly finetuned propaganda control mechanisms that are mainly promoted thru television and other media eg magazines. yes, it would be cutting Goliath off at the balls if those were challenged in a meaningful way. it reminds me of Adbusters "buy nothing" day.... in fact I heard a rumor that Adbusters was behind the initial occupy wall st idea..... I cant wait for further analysis of that.....
oh yeah and coinciding it with Sweeps Week is *near*genius* ....
vzn -- from one imagination to another! :) ty for getting it! how can we give it legs? libby
Oh for pete’s sake;
“"I’m not gonna watch TV to “punish you” for not covering the “occupy” demonstrations across the nation”"......
What’s next.....
“"I’m gonna hold my breath until I get what I want?”"
Get it through your heads. You cannot “demand” your way into a better future - you need to build it!
As of now, I don’t think you deserve anything other than what you’ve got. Sure there are individuals who deserve better but not the collective population of the country. Same goes for my country.
Y’know what? I hope you go all out and actually bring down the government. The ONLY people ready to grab the helm and run the country are the silly socialists and the far religious/right. Have fun with them in power!! If you think things are bad now, wait ‘till you see what those jokers have in store for you!
This is all going to end up - at best! - as just cathartic. Those who think they ought to “do something” will gleefully do this kind of nothing then go home proud of their “impact.” Their non-existant impact.
It’s all so damn silly that I’m tempted to think that it was all set up by “them” to give you “activists” a way to blow off steam. If “they” didn’t, “they” should have.
While I don’t agree with everything al loomis says here and elsewhere, he’s a lot closer to the realities of the situation than those who see this as a possible start to a “revolution” that, they dream will carry them into power.
Total dreck.....
.
“"I’m not gonna watch TV to “punish you” for not covering the “occupy” demonstrations across the nation”"......
What’s next.....
“"I’m gonna hold my breath until I get what I want?”"
Get it through your heads. You cannot “demand” your way into a better future - you need to build it!
As of now, I don’t think you deserve anything other than what you’ve got. Sure there are individuals who deserve better but not the collective population of the country. Same goes for my country.
Y’know what? I hope you go all out and actually bring down the government. The ONLY people ready to grab the helm and run the country are the silly socialists and the far religious/right. Have fun with them in power!! If you think things are bad now, wait ‘till you see what those jokers have in store for you!
This is all going to end up - at best! - as just cathartic. Those who think they ought to “do something” will gleefully do this kind of nothing then go home proud of their “impact.” Their non-existant impact.
It’s all so damn silly that I’m tempted to think that it was all set up by “them” to give you “activists” a way to blow off steam. If “they” didn’t, “they” should have.
While I don’t agree with everything al loomis says here and elsewhere, he’s a lot closer to the realities of the situation than those who see this as a possible start to a “revolution” that, they dream will carry them into power.
Total dreck.....
.
sky, thanks so much for dropping by and pissing all over my idea. That's right, then stomp it all out as best and rudely as you can here and now. God forbid it get any traction. I am really getting the circular firing squad motif of the left or is it partly a gender thing, too at least with you? Authoritarian lock step of the righties, and on the left, at times an i'm okay but you are not egotism. sometimes elite cronyism of a blessed clique. why the condescension? no one hardly ever gets to leave square one on the left. the paralysis of analysis. No wonder there is such a communication gap between left and right. such resentment the righties feel to the superciliousness of us lefties. So many on the left are so good at mockery and deliberate, shallow and contemptuous mis- or under-understanding and overgeneralization to get to their victory lap of intellectual superiority. I lapse into this myself. This above tv idea is an idea that may work for a portion of the progressives and maybe non-progressives who identify with the angry protesters and the betrayal of corporate tv. Considering that tv-branding delivers our craven politicians over and over with the media's focus on personality and celebrity and surface over substance, reality and character and to focus off what matters and onto the short term distracting and titillating, it would be nice to kick the tv medium in the knee-cap for five days and flex some token rebelliousness and pushback as both consumers and awake citizens against its massive power. Obviously this idea does not resonate with some. Maybe it won't launch. That's okay. But why make it target practice for malice? What skin would come off your nose if it were attempted? I guess it was useful to you so you could dump a gunnysack of contempt on me and lefty Americans and my blog. libby
libby,
First lets get this ‘gender’ thing out of the way. I treat you exactly the way I would any person. I’ve made no reference to gender at all. For you to raise that is improper, unconscionable, and out of order. So stick that one in your ear - I do not accept it.
Next, I have supported many of your blogs here because I think you have some great ideas and I’ll back clear thinking and good ideas at any time, by anybody. Provided that I am thinking clear headedly myself, which is not always the case.
Conversely, when you espouse what seems to me a really dumb idea, I’ll jump on it with both feet. No, I don’t go easy on you for reasons of gender. I’ve read enough of your writing to know that you are a tough campaigner and can hold your own in any debate, discussion or argument. In fact you can probably chew the legs off of anybody here when you wish to. I argue ideas - not people.
This is one of the dumbest ideas to ever come down the pike. Here are some of the reasons I think so:
1- I makes those involved seem like spoiled brats
2- It gives the opposition a good laugh at our expense
3- It burns up the feeling of “wanting to do something” that people are developing and is of no earthly importance; not even nuisance value.
4- It trivializes any efforts to make a real change
5- It is ill conceived and will get zero result except negative ones.
6- You (and this IS personal) can do so much better at coming up with good ideas and presenting them. This just isn’t worthy of you or of those who follow your writing with great interest.
Now let me say that there are ways to give the mainstream media a jolt that are just as easy to do but WILL definitely have an effect where they will notice it - their bottom line. For instance, if you were to chose ONE ONLY of the main networks and start a campaign for everyone interested to take note of the goods advertised on that network then to boycott those goods WHILE AT THE SAME TIME writing to the manufacturers to tell them that as long as they advertise with that particular network you WILL NOT BUY products made by them.
To be effective this would have to be a long term commitment - not just 5 days of not watching TV, which leaves all the networks and advertisers in the exact same boat - all sharing any possible pain that might inflict (I personally doubt it will but who knows, maybe you are right).
Your broadside idea leaves all advertisers in the same position as regards their competition. Targeting certain company’s products upsets that balance. It puts some in the position of not getting as good a “bang for their advertising buck” if they advertise with the targeted network. How long will they tolerate that? They will take their advertising dollars elsewhere. THIS will jolt the network big time! Right in the pocketbook - their tenderest area.
So there is my thoughts on this. I still loves ya and I have the greatest respect for you. My comments are intended to rebut an idea I think is awful - not you as a person.
;-)
.
First lets get this ‘gender’ thing out of the way. I treat you exactly the way I would any person. I’ve made no reference to gender at all. For you to raise that is improper, unconscionable, and out of order. So stick that one in your ear - I do not accept it.
Next, I have supported many of your blogs here because I think you have some great ideas and I’ll back clear thinking and good ideas at any time, by anybody. Provided that I am thinking clear headedly myself, which is not always the case.
Conversely, when you espouse what seems to me a really dumb idea, I’ll jump on it with both feet. No, I don’t go easy on you for reasons of gender. I’ve read enough of your writing to know that you are a tough campaigner and can hold your own in any debate, discussion or argument. In fact you can probably chew the legs off of anybody here when you wish to. I argue ideas - not people.
This is one of the dumbest ideas to ever come down the pike. Here are some of the reasons I think so:
1- I makes those involved seem like spoiled brats
2- It gives the opposition a good laugh at our expense
3- It burns up the feeling of “wanting to do something” that people are developing and is of no earthly importance; not even nuisance value.
4- It trivializes any efforts to make a real change
5- It is ill conceived and will get zero result except negative ones.
6- You (and this IS personal) can do so much better at coming up with good ideas and presenting them. This just isn’t worthy of you or of those who follow your writing with great interest.
Now let me say that there are ways to give the mainstream media a jolt that are just as easy to do but WILL definitely have an effect where they will notice it - their bottom line. For instance, if you were to chose ONE ONLY of the main networks and start a campaign for everyone interested to take note of the goods advertised on that network then to boycott those goods WHILE AT THE SAME TIME writing to the manufacturers to tell them that as long as they advertise with that particular network you WILL NOT BUY products made by them.
To be effective this would have to be a long term commitment - not just 5 days of not watching TV, which leaves all the networks and advertisers in the exact same boat - all sharing any possible pain that might inflict (I personally doubt it will but who knows, maybe you are right).
Your broadside idea leaves all advertisers in the same position as regards their competition. Targeting certain company’s products upsets that balance. It puts some in the position of not getting as good a “bang for their advertising buck” if they advertise with the targeted network. How long will they tolerate that? They will take their advertising dollars elsewhere. THIS will jolt the network big time! Right in the pocketbook - their tenderest area.
So there is my thoughts on this. I still loves ya and I have the greatest respect for you. My comments are intended to rebut an idea I think is awful - not you as a person.
;-)
.
I'm in.
Boycott the sponsors! The TV isn’t paid for directly and unless you have one of their Neilson boxes they won’t even know it unless someone brings it to their attention. I don’t mean to be a wet blanket; I certainly agree with the objectives but the most effective methods should be used to accomplish them. Furthermore a complete boycott can’t go on indefinitely since many people have to buy necessities; however a complete boycott for all the useless crap can go on indefinitely, and so it should. When it comes to grossly over priced designer goods they should be completely boycotted along with cigarettes, gambling, non-effective diet scams and many other things they’re trying to promote that are useless.
Furthermore as I have suggested on other occasions we should also save receipts for things that are often subject to planned obsolescence and return them when stores are busy and discuss the problem in front of other customers. If a pick pocket told us it was their policy to have us go to the back of the store and ask to have our wallet back where the other victims of the pickpocket couldn’t hear we wouldn’t allow such a policy yet the oligarchies are picking our pockets with methods like planned obsolescence, price fixing, slotting fees to suppress competition and setting exactly that policy.
Furthermore as I have suggested on other occasions we should also save receipts for things that are often subject to planned obsolescence and return them when stores are busy and discuss the problem in front of other customers. If a pick pocket told us it was their policy to have us go to the back of the store and ask to have our wallet back where the other victims of the pickpocket couldn’t hear we wouldn’t allow such a policy yet the oligarchies are picking our pockets with methods like planned obsolescence, price fixing, slotting fees to suppress competition and setting exactly that policy.
Just because MSM won't tell us, four boring but oft cited goals of the Wall Street protest are:
1.) reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act
2.) audit the Federal Reserve
3.) Reverse 08-205 (corporate personhood) by amendment
4.) overhaul the corporate tax code
1.) reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act
2.) audit the Federal Reserve
3.) Reverse 08-205 (corporate personhood) by amendment
4.) overhaul the corporate tax code
sky, intellectual disagreement is one thing, contempt is another. ranting contempt is not okay with me no matter what degree of intellectual disagreement is inspired in a fellow commenter. dumping contempt on someone and then expecting their unconditional good will back maybe is workable while you are in your terrible twos and only with your (if you are lucky) parents, but with other people, adult to adult, there is more of "conditional" expectation of sustaining an orbit of mutual respect with a fellow adult human being. The "gender" issue came up because I was sensing a pattern of "my dear-ing" me one blog and playing whack-a-mole with me the next blog. I hadn't noticed you doing that with any guys on OS. It was beginning to make me emotionally seasick.
To the issue at hand, it is something we can all do from our own homes, turning off the tube. Doing it for a specific five-day period is sustainable for most people who are committed to the issue (and it would give an opportunity for those not near the cities where the protests are happening a doable action to become involved) and it would require some sacrifice since most people do have their specific information sources on tv as well as their guilty pleasures, too.
It is an opportunity to politically "call out" the ENORMOUS POWER of the media on this population and to PUSH BACK in an admittedly token way. Am I the only one who sees the media as monstrous, as scary as the wall screen in Fahrenheit 451????? The tv and its advertising overkill is mind-numbing enough. Then you have the sponsored news (no, now they call themselves "political" focused shows now, not "news" any more) that consider their jobs commentary for "political gamesmanship" and posture to guide the citizenry as they push out the talking points of their psychopathic-goaled corporate sponsors. Elections are like horse races with admiration for the ends justified the mean means winnahs!!!
I clearly underestimated some of my fellow progressives and liberals capacity for imagination in this orbit since though this was not that deep or complicated an idea to me it was a very audacious and on point one to a media that cakewalks through the decades without accountability when it has wrought so much damage and encouraged so much citizen denial and mind-numbedness. Media is (I know, grammatically it should be "are" but is comes more naturally to say is) everyone's faux-personal trainer for ADD and ADHD. It titillates and distracts and interrupts and throws the focus all over without lingering enough to encourage follow up on anything, especially anything deserving of attention and justice and morality.
This is a "broadside" idea, not about one sponsor, not about one network, because the WALL STREET OCCUPATION is also a BROADSIDE IDEA. Which is bringing out its critics for not being specific enough, but finally on the left there is some PASSION AND SOME ANGER AMONG MANY MOVING TO ACTION SIMULTANEOUSLY that sweeps over at this stage the intellectual analytical details and comes from the heart and the moral conscience. Yes, that can be dangerous. It can bring on manipulators who will want to piggyback onto and commandeer the spirited and agitated masses for their own callous aims like many of the emotional tea partiers got hi-jacked by the likes of the Koch brothers, Limbaugh, et al. What the US and European operatives are trying to do with the Arab Spring with their money and schmoozing corporate opportunism.
BUT with this idea, to want to over-analyze it and slow it down by parsing out the lesser and worse evils among the sponsors and the networks is going down that same road the learned helplessness legacy Dems are going down. "Duh, the Dems getting bribed are at least not as bad as the mean old crazy Repubs." No, they are not as in your face meanspirited, but they are knife in the back talk the talk for the people but walk the walk for the corporate overlords evil. I am talking about boycotting both Fox and the Newshour. Yeah, sometimes the Newshour gives good coverage and then again, sometimes they zip the lip and offer colluding commentary on amorality of our government and their guests don't begin to touch it. I am talking about Fox betrayal and Newshour betrayal. And that has contributed to the plight we are now in. BROADSIDE BETRAYAL. Our leaderships in government and in the corporate world, the military world and the media world HAVE BETRAYED US MASSIVELY. To begin for at least a small coalition of us, but enough of a coalition of us (though maybe that ship has sailed if I wanted this to go viral and I can't even get a majority of support on my own home website) to CALL OUT THE CRAVEN MEDIA. No 5 days will not hurt tv or the sponsors, but it will plant a seed in people's minds, even people who don't do the action but know people are doing the action, that something is rotten in the state of American media for sure. I used to be a teacher, and I call this CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING.
Zachd, again, I don't think it has to get that narrowly focused for what the intention of this upcoming 5 day boycott would be about. And THE TELEVISION TOXICITY on our identities as a citizenry has fostered learned helplessness. But as I said with sky, if it is so effortful convincing kindred spirits against the corporatists, I am more crestfallen that it won't launch but I think it would be a NOBLE not silly or stupid effort at all. No, I am not putting those words into your mouth. I appreciated your tone.
Noah, thanks for spelling out those goals. They will surface soon, in spite of the news blackout among the grassroots. And they need to be and the craven media for not putting them out there deserves our contempt.
Would Michael Moore call out the tv for this action? I don't think so cause MM is cronied up and does get some access on MSNBC especially. But it is too bad, since we could use a leader to call for it. I wonder if my Greens group would get it? I may try there. But I gird my loins.
Without the mainstream media coverage hard to get word to mainstream America, which is getting screwed royally by the elite overlords and their government and media pimped out puppets.
I feel like that wonderful actor who was in Northern Exposure at the end of the movie Quiz Show when he says, "I thought I was going after television."
You know I always come back to the four basic temperaments when some of my ideas, same ideas, get enthusiasm from some and inspire intense scorn or at best bewilderment from others. I am a very extreme feeler/intuiter and I think I make the thinkers and/or sensers in the world exasperated at times. Maybe this is one occasion. Just an idea. :)
Seer, I really like this one "Rated for action of any kind as opposed to vocal inertia." YES, YES, YES.
thanks, jane, for commenting. to me I see it that some people who would participate in the boycott from their very homes would achieve a sense of commitment from doing that and maybe the next stage for them would be for stepping out of the house with said sign, etc. Maybe they will do it the same 5 days they are boycotting. But this idea won't get launched without the will of many just not one eccentric blogger like me. I need serious networking.
Linnnn --- THANK YOU!
We don't need everyone to get it. We just need enough people to get it to do it. If the people who don't get it will let some of us who do get it just do it without going after us so contemptuously. But alas, it doesn't seem so, and here is an example of what is wrong with the left I am thinking. Bottle-necking and obstructing the more passionate emotional types in the movement. FWIW!
libby
To the issue at hand, it is something we can all do from our own homes, turning off the tube. Doing it for a specific five-day period is sustainable for most people who are committed to the issue (and it would give an opportunity for those not near the cities where the protests are happening a doable action to become involved) and it would require some sacrifice since most people do have their specific information sources on tv as well as their guilty pleasures, too.
It is an opportunity to politically "call out" the ENORMOUS POWER of the media on this population and to PUSH BACK in an admittedly token way. Am I the only one who sees the media as monstrous, as scary as the wall screen in Fahrenheit 451????? The tv and its advertising overkill is mind-numbing enough. Then you have the sponsored news (no, now they call themselves "political" focused shows now, not "news" any more) that consider their jobs commentary for "political gamesmanship" and posture to guide the citizenry as they push out the talking points of their psychopathic-goaled corporate sponsors. Elections are like horse races with admiration for the ends justified the mean means winnahs!!!
I clearly underestimated some of my fellow progressives and liberals capacity for imagination in this orbit since though this was not that deep or complicated an idea to me it was a very audacious and on point one to a media that cakewalks through the decades without accountability when it has wrought so much damage and encouraged so much citizen denial and mind-numbedness. Media is (I know, grammatically it should be "are" but is comes more naturally to say is) everyone's faux-personal trainer for ADD and ADHD. It titillates and distracts and interrupts and throws the focus all over without lingering enough to encourage follow up on anything, especially anything deserving of attention and justice and morality.
This is a "broadside" idea, not about one sponsor, not about one network, because the WALL STREET OCCUPATION is also a BROADSIDE IDEA. Which is bringing out its critics for not being specific enough, but finally on the left there is some PASSION AND SOME ANGER AMONG MANY MOVING TO ACTION SIMULTANEOUSLY that sweeps over at this stage the intellectual analytical details and comes from the heart and the moral conscience. Yes, that can be dangerous. It can bring on manipulators who will want to piggyback onto and commandeer the spirited and agitated masses for their own callous aims like many of the emotional tea partiers got hi-jacked by the likes of the Koch brothers, Limbaugh, et al. What the US and European operatives are trying to do with the Arab Spring with their money and schmoozing corporate opportunism.
BUT with this idea, to want to over-analyze it and slow it down by parsing out the lesser and worse evils among the sponsors and the networks is going down that same road the learned helplessness legacy Dems are going down. "Duh, the Dems getting bribed are at least not as bad as the mean old crazy Repubs." No, they are not as in your face meanspirited, but they are knife in the back talk the talk for the people but walk the walk for the corporate overlords evil. I am talking about boycotting both Fox and the Newshour. Yeah, sometimes the Newshour gives good coverage and then again, sometimes they zip the lip and offer colluding commentary on amorality of our government and their guests don't begin to touch it. I am talking about Fox betrayal and Newshour betrayal. And that has contributed to the plight we are now in. BROADSIDE BETRAYAL. Our leaderships in government and in the corporate world, the military world and the media world HAVE BETRAYED US MASSIVELY. To begin for at least a small coalition of us, but enough of a coalition of us (though maybe that ship has sailed if I wanted this to go viral and I can't even get a majority of support on my own home website) to CALL OUT THE CRAVEN MEDIA. No 5 days will not hurt tv or the sponsors, but it will plant a seed in people's minds, even people who don't do the action but know people are doing the action, that something is rotten in the state of American media for sure. I used to be a teacher, and I call this CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING.
Zachd, again, I don't think it has to get that narrowly focused for what the intention of this upcoming 5 day boycott would be about. And THE TELEVISION TOXICITY on our identities as a citizenry has fostered learned helplessness. But as I said with sky, if it is so effortful convincing kindred spirits against the corporatists, I am more crestfallen that it won't launch but I think it would be a NOBLE not silly or stupid effort at all. No, I am not putting those words into your mouth. I appreciated your tone.
Noah, thanks for spelling out those goals. They will surface soon, in spite of the news blackout among the grassroots. And they need to be and the craven media for not putting them out there deserves our contempt.
Would Michael Moore call out the tv for this action? I don't think so cause MM is cronied up and does get some access on MSNBC especially. But it is too bad, since we could use a leader to call for it. I wonder if my Greens group would get it? I may try there. But I gird my loins.
Without the mainstream media coverage hard to get word to mainstream America, which is getting screwed royally by the elite overlords and their government and media pimped out puppets.
I feel like that wonderful actor who was in Northern Exposure at the end of the movie Quiz Show when he says, "I thought I was going after television."
You know I always come back to the four basic temperaments when some of my ideas, same ideas, get enthusiasm from some and inspire intense scorn or at best bewilderment from others. I am a very extreme feeler/intuiter and I think I make the thinkers and/or sensers in the world exasperated at times. Maybe this is one occasion. Just an idea. :)
Seer, I really like this one "Rated for action of any kind as opposed to vocal inertia." YES, YES, YES.
thanks, jane, for commenting. to me I see it that some people who would participate in the boycott from their very homes would achieve a sense of commitment from doing that and maybe the next stage for them would be for stepping out of the house with said sign, etc. Maybe they will do it the same 5 days they are boycotting. But this idea won't get launched without the will of many just not one eccentric blogger like me. I need serious networking.
Linnnn --- THANK YOU!
We don't need everyone to get it. We just need enough people to get it to do it. If the people who don't get it will let some of us who do get it just do it without going after us so contemptuously. But alas, it doesn't seem so, and here is an example of what is wrong with the left I am thinking. Bottle-necking and obstructing the more passionate emotional types in the movement. FWIW!
libby
libby,
The only one here who has taken a personal swing at someone is you.
For that very good reason I will no longer comment on any of your blogs. I probably won’t read them either. You make a mistake when you think that you can just accuse a man of gender discrimination and get all “the girls” to back you up. Some will, just because of your gender, for sure; but more and more the women who speak up are standing on their own two feet and taking the place a PERSON deserves to have without crying “gender” whenever they don’t get instant adoration for their ideas and suggestions.
I challenge you to show me one instance where I’ve attacked you personally. I’ve used “My Dear” on a number of occasions with a number of people, including some of the men, with whom I’ve been known to have prefaced a comment with, “My Dear Sir”, just as I’ve said, “My Dear libby” on occasion.
If you chose to take offence at a polite address, then that’s your business. I am completely confident that had you found it offensive at the time, you’d have said so; you’re no shrinking violet.
Look, your idea stinks. Fortunately it isn’t going anywhere and that will save you some embarrassment in the end. Get over it. Not every idea is a good one - not even when it’s put forward by a woman of your caliber. If you want to blame me, or others here, for that lack of interest, you’ll end up sounding like a spoiled brat. But that’s up to you.
Bye.....
The only one here who has taken a personal swing at someone is you.
For that very good reason I will no longer comment on any of your blogs. I probably won’t read them either. You make a mistake when you think that you can just accuse a man of gender discrimination and get all “the girls” to back you up. Some will, just because of your gender, for sure; but more and more the women who speak up are standing on their own two feet and taking the place a PERSON deserves to have without crying “gender” whenever they don’t get instant adoration for their ideas and suggestions.
I challenge you to show me one instance where I’ve attacked you personally. I’ve used “My Dear” on a number of occasions with a number of people, including some of the men, with whom I’ve been known to have prefaced a comment with, “My Dear Sir”, just as I’ve said, “My Dear libby” on occasion.
If you chose to take offence at a polite address, then that’s your business. I am completely confident that had you found it offensive at the time, you’d have said so; you’re no shrinking violet.
Look, your idea stinks. Fortunately it isn’t going anywhere and that will save you some embarrassment in the end. Get over it. Not every idea is a good one - not even when it’s put forward by a woman of your caliber. If you want to blame me, or others here, for that lack of interest, you’ll end up sounding like a spoiled brat. But that’s up to you.
Bye.....
sky, it is unfortunate we are not connecting. i do get defensive with criticism, but i think you may be in denial of how personal-sounding your criticisms read. i am not gender-crony-mongering here at OS or anywhere, i was trying to be honest. i have felt patronized by you at times. i was wondering why familiarity as co-commenters was leading to what seemed an increased level of contempt from you at times. yes, i may have a glass jaw on criticism and criticism especially from males from my own particular history. i appreciate your references to what you consider saner and wiser statements from me, but i am not looking for adoration, i am just looking for that orbit of verbal mutual respect with or without intellectual and emotional disagreement on things from anyone who exchanges at OS not kind of an "opera mode" of disrespect, entertaining as it may be to some titillated onlookers. anger is an expected emotion to arise at times and that will come out in exchanges and that is okay if it is communicated without full-out over-the-top insulting -- in my not-so-humble opinion. libby
Libby, I don't mean to dismiss your idea just add to it and perhaps combine it with others. Previously you have written about the marketing to kids; this has been protested by many researchers in addition to you and me. They have, among other things advised ideas like a TV turn off day or week. this is just one of many suggestions that they have made and they intended them to be combined as I suspect you did as well, since you have used other tactics.
I don't think your idea would be silly or stupid; what would be silly or stupid would be to do nothing!
I don't think your idea would be silly or stupid; what would be silly or stupid would be to do nothing!
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