re: #35 freetoken

You’re right on with most of that, but I don’t think it’s so much that the conservative mindset feels angry and disenfranchised over the liberal turn America is taking or their political losses. I really don’t think that most of them are that aware of what goes on in the political arena other than a sense of ‘our side/their side’. Furthermore, I also don’t think there’s that much of a seismic difference in America as a whole over the time period they’re observing.

For instance, one might make the argument that much of President Obama’s policies are, in fact, centrist or slightly conservative. Certainly health care reform is far from what a true far lefty would envision. It’s not even close to what a pragmatic liberal would envision. There haven’t been a whole lot of changes in policy in 2009 from what it was in 2006. The American zeitgeist hasn’t changed much. Yet there’s a huge change in how Conservatives feel.

I think the reason is in fact much simpler, and much scarier, than many think. I think they are angry and unhappy because they’re told to be. Not in so many words, but in the sense that their emotional state is entirely under the control of the media they follow. Not just talk radio and FOX, the prime pushers of the cult, but also in the blogs, and in associating with those of like mind, who of course are also plugged into the same Conservative cult media, thus reinforcing the mutual feeling through self-association.

The media model is simple enough. Humans naturally connect and follow with things they have a strong emotional response to. The actual emotion experienced is less important, just that there is an emotional response. Talk radio, and FOX in the last decade, have turned exploiting this into an art form. Their listeners and viewers are subjected to a constant barrage of themes, ideas, and memes with the goal of evoking an emotional response, which will then cause them to seek out the media time and again, to continue to pull on the emotional strings.

Unfortunately, the easiest emotion to evoke is anger. Making your followers angry at ‘them’ is so easy, and much more consistent than making them feel pride, or love, or any other kind of emotion. And so those who get plugged into this media, into this cult, continue to do so, to reinforce their emotional responses with daily input.

I’ve said before that I used to listen to Conservative talk radio 8 hours a day for a few years in my workplace. It wasn’t my choice, but as an open-minded type and one interested in how politics works, I didn’t mind so much. And the biggest difference I found was that I was consistently angry. It didn’t make a lot of sense, because I didn’t agree especially with what I was hearing, nor did I feel especial anger towards the radio hosts as some might. I was just - angry. I talked to others who left that workplace, including the guy I replaced, and they noted that the biggest difference in being removed from the constant talk radio was how much less angry they were. I have noted personally (without any stats to back it up other than personal observation) that those who are plugged into the Conservative media, and who seek out that viewpoint on the internet, by and large seem to be either continually angry, or easily angered. Of course, there are angry liberals too, and people who are just naturally angry. But it certainly seems to me to be a recurring theme.

In short, I don’t think it’s so much that the constant banging on the drum is building to a head. I think it’s just a constant reinforcement of emotional responses evoked by clever marketing and headology. Remove these people from their never-ending barrage of emotional manipulation, and I suspect that most will deprogram in very short order. Unfortunately, we humans love to have our emotions manipulated. We thrive on it. And so, sadly, those plugged into the Conservative cult media will continue to seek it out, like junkies after their next fix.