Wow, blaming Fox and Conservative Radio. I'm not sure if you stole that from Media Matters, the Daily KOS or Bill Maher.
Why would I need to steal such a simple assemblage? My little sister became a psychopath at around age 11, and through my lengthy experiences with her I became well versed in recognizing deception and emotional manipulation.
I do not listen to any liberal political commentators. They tread the same ground as me yet aren't as smart, so they are of no use to me.
Jon Stewart is the only media personality I've found that I can stand listening to expounding on their thoughts for any length of time. He even seems to be my better in some mental areas.
Now, perhaps you've never met a real philosopher before. Hi there, I'm DominionSeraph.
My philosophising has led me to atheism. So I have no gods. Please refrain from trying to posture to the contrary.
I do my own thinking, and sacred cows are just walking hamburger to me.
It is scary and a lille sad to hear this kind of narrow minding thinking from some.
And your lack of apprehension is, unfortunately, not unexpected. Because things like "propaganda" are named and have an idea attached, and because mental identification and awareness are so closely linked, people believe that they can necessarily identify something like propaganda when it appears. Because they believe that they can identify it when it appears, they believe that they will be in a position to put counteracting defenses in place. So, they essentially believe themselves to be immune.
This is, of course, an artifact of how they perceive, not valid reasoning. The propagandist in fact relies on this overconfidence. Because the targets believe their perception to be so good, they do not question what is placed before them. They wait for a perceptual trigger that never comes. It never comes because that's how propaganda is designed.
You may
want to believe that Fox News is a proper news organization, but reality doesn't give a damn about what you want.
There's a reason its nickname is Faux News. There's a reason its viewership consists of the NASCAR Nation -- a segment that isn't exactly known for its blazing intellect and keen perception. Glenn Beck is actually perceived to be a great thinker by these people. If you have any discernment, that should tell you that the discernment of the wider viewership may not be so robust.
Now, I am not going to break out a list of factual support for Fox News' manipulation. I am not here to take you under my wing and fix you. You can do your own damned work. If your own mind isn't important enough to you to do your own checking, that certainly devalues it sufficiently to me that I don't care what happens to you. IOW, you are only meaningful enough to me to help if you have the gumption to try to do it without help.
It's your mind. Take charge of it.
I will never understand why some progressives are so afraid of small government and lower taxes.
Afraid? Not here.
The government of Equestria has no defined taxation scheme. Taxation may be zero for all I know. No duties for the government are defined. Princess Celestia is responsible for raising the sun, but that is not defined as a function of government. She would likely still do it even if she wasn't the ruler of Equestria.
The system of government seems to work for the ponies.
I can observe such freely. My mindset does not require that I demand the observed conform to an ideal.
So, it works for the ponies; but if we're talking about a government for a large, diverse group of creatively opportunistic apes in a complex technological society... I don't think the smallest sufficient model for the government of Equestria would be sufficient to run that without encountering severe problems.
Do you disagree? Do you think a single princess and two palace guards would be sufficient to run the country?
The government of the United States is evolutionary. We've added new laws on top of old because we've had to -- we as citizens keep coming up with new ways to abuse the system. Every law leads to loopholes -- those holes were there before but now they're defined as being in place, making them easier to see.
We've added more and more entitlements because that's one way to get around our deficiencies in individual planning. We see people fail due to their lack of foresight and think, "Wouldn't it be nice if there was a safety net instead of a long, hard fall to the cold, unyielding ground below?"
Our government now encompasses our previous experiences. How does one strip out wide swaths without consequence when the underlying reality hasn't gotten any friendlier?
Just because the government keeps a cap on certain behaviors so they don't emerge in daily life doesn't mean that the impulses to perform those behaviors don't exist.
Your blindness to their existence does not mean they have disappeared from the underlying fabric of reality.
Why some feel the need to belittle another's faith any chance they get and feel that only their thoughts, their ideas are correct. Why some claim to be open minded, free thinkers and yet disgrace half the population and follow policies and views from guys like Marx & Mao.
What are you, 12?
That's childish nonsense. Learn to slice things properly.