Eric Alterman talks about scandals becoming frozen with nothing ever happening.Scandals keep coming in torrents with no explanations or accountability or resolution.Before one scandal expires, several other pop up demanding our undivided attention.Soon, we become numb and do not pay attention to any of the proliferating scandals.This is exactly what Rove wants.
Scandal Fatigue,so he can unleash his real agenda without any one bothering him.
So what pisses you off the most?
1.New Orleans after Katrina?
2.Dick Cheney shooting his friend and the friend being forced to apologize?
3. Scooter Libby hiring a memory expert?
4.Larry Summers’s Economics colleagues making money on Russia’s privatization plan undertaken at the behest of Harvard?
5. Tom Cruise pulling a Michael Jackson on a gullible Katie Holmes?
6. Randy Cunningham having a price list for his “services” to Defense contractors?
7. Reichsfuehrer Rumsfeld denying he had anything to do with tortures at Abu Ghraib,Gitmo and Bagram?
8.Alan Dershowitz defending torture, so long as the victims are Arabs?
9. Cheney claiming that “Deficits don’t matter.Ronald Reagan proved that”.
10.No one keeping score of the dead and wounded Iraqis?
11.Joe Lieberman claiming Iraq is a just war?
We are being worn down by the sheer numbers unleashed by these criminals.No defense is possible because there is simply no place to hide.That dovetails with what the CIA found in its torture experiments:
The best way to torture a person is through sensory deprivation over a long time.I would modify it by saying sensory overload can be just as damaging.
The second element is through self inflicted pain. When we are assaulted daily with one scandal after another that goes against our grain, we feel pain infinitely worse than what a real torturer can inflict on us.
These people have become adept at psychological warfare on Americans,a la Orwell.
For some reason, I feel the need to make my top list , so here it is:
There are probably many more – but these are the ones that bother me the most. I know they all probably wouldn’t be considered “scandals” in the traditional sense.
Its an interesting exercise to do. Makes me feel depressed, but helps me understand all the underlying angst I feel.
Scandal fatigue is a good word for it.
I’ve been talking about this aspect of it for a long time, esp when my friends in Europe ask me: why the fuck aren’t you people doing anything about any of this shit?
Short answer: it’s a little hard to keep up with it at this point.
And yes, it is indeed looking like “strategy.”
Dumb em down, and for the ones you can’t dumb down, numb em down. They’ll give up eventually.
Oh heck, there’s nothin us poor rubes can do. It’s just politickin as usual. Hey, did you check out American Idol last night? And I sure hope that pretty Anna Nicole Smith gets her money.
Oh heck, there’s nothin us poor rubes can do.
This has been proven many times and each failure of elected leadership adds to the fatigue.
The ones in a position to make a difference, aren’t demanding the accountability. The next election is likely to be a bipartisan house-cleaning.
It is similar to me as to when they wear people down with noise. Loud speakers blasting 24/7 outside a home where someone has taken hostages. No wonder I don’t sleep well anymore. Yes, they are trying to wear us down. Excellent points.
I actually started a list that I called “1,000 Points of Reich” but it was too depressing to keep it going. I bet we could collectively get to 1,000 without any problem, though. Might be interesting to try one weekend as a group effort. Anyone interested, or is it too depressing to contemplate?
that you didn’t try to make me choose in a poll.
I’m doing an article right now (diary will follow) on Information Overload. I do think there is strategy behind it. And it has worked very well.
We who are more inclined to follow the news in depth can barely keep up. People who only give it a half hour a day drowned long ago. And those who rely on a few minutes of headlines? The news has become white noise and very little gets through.
Every time I hear someone say, “Oh it’s just too much, I just have to turn it off” I get really pissed, like thinking, “Just where DO you get off thinking you have the luxury of ignoring this shit? What makes you think apathy is something you can afford? Ignorance? Indifference? Inaction? Do you understand who is paying the price for your apathy, your ignorance, your indifference, your inaction?”
“Price? What price?”
It’s just too damn deep and goes too far back….this is what happens when for 500 years you teach people to “fight for their rights” without constantly reminding them that there are RESPONSIBILITIES that go with those rights and, while you may have the “right” to relinquish those responsibilities, it’s really not in your long-term best interest to do so.
I’m really pissed right now at ANYONE in this country who thinks it’s not his or her business to stay on top of the news, and/or to “ignore” what’s going on in “politics”–it is so disgusting, so irresponsible, so ‘let the world take care of itself’, so UNIQUELY American.