>I could understand it in a dumbass NASCAR fan who gets half his news
>.....off Fox News,
>.......
>but I don't understand genuinely intelligent people, with nothing to gain
>personally, refusing to make the distinction.
>
>Yours WDK - WKiernan at ij.net
The UPS delivery driver for my area is really decent guy and likes the term "Nascar Dad" to describe him. He also watches Fox News. I have had many conversations with him about his beliefs and how he arrives at them. In a nutshell he sees basically two choices for news and information. Nightly News Dan Rather types saying that in spite of a few little things everything is basically fine in the US. The other choice is the Bill O'Reilly type saying everything is fucked up and it's the fault of NOW, Arabs, Jews, affirmative action, queers, blah, blah, blah. Mike (the UPS drivers name) knows that everything is not fine, it is in fact fucked up. He therefore listens to the talking heads that report that since he knows it to be true. When I wish to explain to him that a more "progressive" agenda is not the cause of his dissatisfaction but more likely a cure for what's wrong I will not be sharing the above statements with him. He may be offended to know that as a Nascar fan who watches Fox he does not qualify as a "genuinely intelligent person" to some self proclaimed progressives. I'm not certain this sort of thinking will help in winning more and more converts among the working class everyday.
John Thornton P.S. I realize that I have snipped a great deal but I don't think you can make a very good case for my quoting out of context. The above passage seems pretty clear in it's underlying intent.