Part II of my disussion on the American right asks the question: If right wingers love America, why dont they trust American institutions? It stands to reason that if you love something you tend to love the fruit it produces, right? Right wingers claim they love America more than their counterparts but have expressed utter contempt for all of its institutions. How can something so revered also be so reviled?
A partial list of untrustworthy institutions:
Why dont right wingers trust American Institutions?
Feel free to visit or revisit Part 1: Do right wingers actually ‘like’ America?
Post Inspiration:
Collapse of trust in government is a purely American phenomenon. Why? Because we have Fox News and the others don't. Oh, they have tabloids and conservative newspapers and so forth, but nothing like Fox News, which makes its living by spreading outrage over the way the country is run.
The power of Fox News is truly spectacular. Outrage sells, and the fact that one of the two major parties amplifies Fox uncritically means it has a surprisingly large influence in setting the agenda for the mainstream media too.
The truth is that US institutions mostly operate about as well as they ever have. But Fox pushes outrage over Dr. Fauci and trust in the CDC plummets. They push outrage over Donald Trump's loss in 2020 and trust in elections plummets. They go all in on CRT and DEI and trust in schools plummets. They push climate denialism and trust in science plummets. They insist that the rest of the news media are liberal pawns and trust in the very institution that explains reality plummets.
Has there ever been an institution like Fox News that works so relentlessly from within to destroy faith in a country by its citizens? It's a real-life version of what conservatives thought the Communist Party was in the '50s. And we all just let it happen.
A partial list of untrustworthy institutions:
- The American press
- Doctors
- Scientists like the CDC
- Educators and universities
- Environmental experts like the EPA
- Government leaders and administrators
- The Election process
- The legal system
- The actual government
Why dont right wingers trust American Institutions?
Feel free to visit or revisit Part 1: Do right wingers actually ‘like’ America?
Post Inspiration:
Fox News has destroyed American confidence in itself - Kevin Drum
This week the Economist wrote about the way American trust in institutions has collapsed over the past couple of decades. This is not news. However, this is a very interesting comparison: Collapse of trust in government is a purely American phenomenon. Why? Because we have Fox News and the...
jabberwocking.com
Collapse of trust in government is a purely American phenomenon. Why? Because we have Fox News and the others don't. Oh, they have tabloids and conservative newspapers and so forth, but nothing like Fox News, which makes its living by spreading outrage over the way the country is run.
The power of Fox News is truly spectacular. Outrage sells, and the fact that one of the two major parties amplifies Fox uncritically means it has a surprisingly large influence in setting the agenda for the mainstream media too.
The truth is that US institutions mostly operate about as well as they ever have. But Fox pushes outrage over Dr. Fauci and trust in the CDC plummets. They push outrage over Donald Trump's loss in 2020 and trust in elections plummets. They go all in on CRT and DEI and trust in schools plummets. They push climate denialism and trust in science plummets. They insist that the rest of the news media are liberal pawns and trust in the very institution that explains reality plummets.
Has there ever been an institution like Fox News that works so relentlessly from within to destroy faith in a country by its citizens? It's a real-life version of what conservatives thought the Communist Party was in the '50s. And we all just let it happen.
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