How Fox News DESTROYS America's Democracy
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...When we moved to America in the late 2000s, one of my greatest surprises was, Fox News.
Raised to believe that America represented the pinnacle of modern civilization, I simply could not understand how such a Barbaric television station operated legally.
Let me say that again.
BARBARIC.
It was pure evil, in my opinion.
Night after night, smiling hosts with wholesome demeanours delivered certainty where there should have been caution, outrage where there should have been reflection, and falsehood where people had come looking for truth.
And Mr. Beck was the worst of them.
It was, and remains, deeply saddening to see what that company has done to American democracy.
Whatever direction civil rights happened to be moving, Fox News seemed determined to carve out a role for itself.
If civil rights were advancing, make things worse.
If civil rights were deteriorating, lubricate the machinery of decline.
The pattern was remarkably consistent.
The Puzzle
I can understand why a certain demographic hangs on every word that emerges from that ecosystem, even when those words turn out to be demonstrably false.
What continues to perplex me are people I went to school with.
People I grew up with.
People I know.
How does one become enamoured with that cathedral of darkness?
That factory of grievance?
That broadcasting furnace where conspiracy theories are endlessly smelted into political identity?
I genuinely do not understand it.
Democracy's Mental Pollution
Fox News has polluted American democracy with a feverish intensity that borders on the theological.
What do they know about the future that the rest of us do not?
In addition to damaging democratic culture, I would argue that Fox News damages minds in ways not entirely unlike pornography.
In some respects, it is a form of pornography.
Political pornography.
Designed to stimulate.
Designed to addict.
Designed to keep its audience returning for the next emotional injection.
And perhaps worst of all, it often presents itself as something it is not.
Christocentric.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Ah Yes, Obama's Tan Suit
Where was I?
Ah yes.
Obama's tan suit.
Before proceeding, let me be clear.
Obama disappointed me on several occasions.
One of those moments was when the White House was illuminated in rainbow colours following the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling.
Another was his refusal to defend the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA).
I vividly remember walking around Hermann Park in Houston discussing Obama's decision not to defend DOMA with a Nigerian-American friend of mine, a deacon at Lakewood Church.
I was deeply troubled.
His response was simple:
"Obama is a secular leader, not a spiritual leader."
I left that conversation feeling considerably better.
"Obama Was Divisive"
One of the most curious things I encounter on social media is the claim that Obama was "very divisive."
Very divisive.
Yet the accusation is rarely accompanied by specifics.
Rarely explained.
Rarely examined.
I sometimes suspect that much of this alleged divisiveness stemmed from his willingness to acknowledge and reach out to groups that had long existed on the margins of American society, including members of the LGBTQ community.
Whether one agrees with those policies or not is a separate discussion.
But I suspect that is what many critics are referring to when they invoke the word "divisive."
What fascinates me is that many of the same voices seem entirely comfortable with the conduct of what may well be the most divisive political figure of the twenty-first century.
The Jumbotron Test
As I write this, I am watching Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
A picture of Donald Trump appears on the jumbotron.
The crowd erupts in boos.
Huge boos.
It made me wonder.
Did Obama ever receive that kind of reception at a sporting event?
Even after leaving office?
I honestly do not know.
But I doubt it.
Which suggests that perhaps the tan suit was not quite the civilizational catastrophe some people made it out to be.
What a Waste
Looking back, what strikes me most is the sheer wastefulness of it all.
The wasted years.
The wasted outrage.
The wasted opportunities.
The wasted civic energy.
A vast attention-harvesting machine consuming millions of hours of human life and converting them into resentment.
Fox News has been one of the great misfortunes of modern American public life.
At least that is how it appears from my seat in the Molue.
I rest my ANVIL.
Don Kenobi
#OldManInTheMolue
#BigAgendaAfrica
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