The food analogy isn't very helpful, but I think it does reveal your implicit psychological model as pivoting on acclimation. No, wait.....Can't you see how much is being begged by the reference to "legitimate public institutions"? In the sense I'm arguing, "legitimacy" would imply that for someone watching these shows anxious/depressive/shitty emotional responses are parried off by the "legitimacy" of the anger, and so humor would not be as necessary in a defensive/fantastic sense.
> To make my point clear - ideas are like food, you like what you are
> familiar with. People who not exposed to, say, Ethiopian food, are
> unlikely to like it - no matter how much you try to persuade them. To
make
> them like it, you need to introduce a bunch of restaurants serving the
> Ethiopian cuisine to the area.
>
> Ditto for political views and opinions. The left is not institutionally
> represented in this country in any commonly recognizable form (fringe
> campus groups are NOT legitimate public institutions), hence the US public
> has no taste for left views and opinions. The only way to change it is to
> build "left food restaurants" - legitimate public institutions (such as
> political parties and unions) representing the left point of view.
>
> wojtek
>
>
>