Social media propaganda, media, and

I do not know about you, but every now and then while reading through the posts of various news and political stories someone posts something to the effect that people are getting paid to troll sites and make favorable comments about certain topics. These topics usually are around supporting certain businesses, (oil), some aspects of a certain political party (If it is happening I suspect both), or some extreme right wing view point.

I actually went to Snopes.com today to see if there was any validity to these accusations. I do not know if I wasn’t searching correctly or what, but I got absolutely nothing in my searches that resembled the topic I was trying to explore. So I still do not know if this is false or not.

I am of the group that believes that at some level though social media is being used to push certain viewpoints and some of the information being pushed is of a questionable nature in regards to facts. I am sure many of who have heard the phrase: say it enough times and it will seem to be true. Social media is now the same problem on steroids.

More and more social media is a news outlet, not officially of course, but opinions are being created from tweets. And anyone with even a smidgeon of paranoia can imagine how dangerous this can be. I fear anyone with enough computer power could create a media firestorm solely based on what they wanted to have happen. Imagine the movie (was it) Wag the Dog taken to all sorts of extreme scenarios. How would sane, rational, and just plain folk be able to pick through the insanity to find the truth in the story? Every now and then my brain takes a turn to the dark side and scares the crap out of me.

And just who do we go to trust? Shoot I like Jon Stewart, but even he has his biases. Anybody else and you are just pushing it. Did quality media die with Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley? What happened to the McNeil Lehrer report? Yeah I know this sounds old fashion, but………

And the media now a days just cannot keep it’s head on straight or its head out of its back end. And in doing so they have made Donald Trump a media sensation. Have you seen one story that actually asks what is Mr. Trump going to do if elected? There is the occasional mention that he has said he will bring jobs back to America and a build a fence. Doesn’t anyone want to ask him how? Some context here Mr. Trump or at least the media should be pushing him for some. Ain’t seen nothing!

And now all this is hissing me off personally. I have been trying for decades and for the last four or five years in this blog to get people to realize we need change. I have offered a whole political platform for a rehash of a historic political party. Argued constantly the need to build from the ground up a party to replace the two dinosaurs we have now. And from a couple weeks of insanity in the press everyone is now worried Mr. Trump will go at it as an independent.

And quite frankly even if he won, it wouldn’t matter. I once wrote a post about how an independent President would be a failure. You need a political party to actually create laws and policies. If he wins both parties would probably gang up on him and not pass any of his ideas. And anything they pass would be vetoed by him. The big question would be would establishment Democrats and Republicans be able to muster enough votes to override the veto. Maybe. Then would Mr. Trump prevent the executive branch from acting on the overrides? It could get really fun around D.C.

Yet that still brings me back to my continuous point. To make real change in DC and for the betterment of our country you need a new major party that builds up from the ground. A true grass roots organization that that can overcome the media’s bias towards the establishment parties and can enact enough legislation in a hurry that has enough of a benefit for the middle class to take root. Sure in fifty years they may become just as entrenched as the current group, but we could get 2 decades of change which would also be the framework for future generations to use when they needed it.

Mr. Trump is just a sideshow on the political stage that will produce no real benefit, but enough people actually believe in snake oil and love carnies that he is going to have traction for awhile. If this traction holds on too long we may have to unwind some real serious problems that will keep us from any positive traction to actually move us forward.
So our loveable Mr. Trump, if he becomes an independent candidate, will become the radical candidate, the one to win over a large group of people thinking he is actually different. And in some ways it is now chic to be a Trump lover, you are now the edge, even being a Republican has some radicalness to it. Sheesh and here I am the one person espousing change, a real radical departure from the norm, now sounding too staid because I am looking towards practical solutions to make actual radical change.

My world floats upside down.



And I am going to come back and finish up some thoughts on the family and how some of all this ties together. Have a great evening