The continuing self-degradation of the
media is enabling, in all too obvious ways, the shipwreck of our public
discourse on politics and government.
The advent of Trump’s nativist demagoguery—and
the media’s willing role in keeping him on life support—has largely legitimized
the public expression of prejudicial fears and hatred and bigotry that we know
have always existed, but which have been at least nominally derided by decent
and/or “politically correct” folks.
The New York Times’ Wesley Morris
highlighted a specific element of it yesterday in his commentary on “Who Gets
to Be Called a ‘Patriot’?” Read it here.
Morris digs in to the doctrinaire spew
of the folks who lead the charge in disputing the patriotism of folks who have
a different skin color or a different religion or a different political stance
or a birth certificate that was signed in another country….
Such despicable bias gets all too much
air time and, thus, all too much credibility among folks whose powers of
reasoning too often aren’t used for full effect.
Morris offers this zinger: “As a result, modern patriotism has
become Kabuki citizenship.”
The masks and the make-believe and the
stylized exaggerations of sentiment are meant to be instruments of
entertainment….
…not the bling of the horrifying world of Twitter morality and
anonymously obscene commenters who hide behind ad hominem attacks……
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016
All rights reserved.
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