They are mad as hell and don't know what about, so they are accepting what the TV tells them.

But they are mad. Or scared. Society is changing and they don't know why, so they demand scapegoats to blame. They also belong to an us or them society with membership in each group largely determined by race. Only they can't say that because that would clearly be racist. So they grab onto what others tell them has to be the problem.

The TV they listen to caters to their fears, and it is run by the wealthy Australian fascist Rupert Murdoch who wants America to change into a society dominated by big business and large wealth. He's using the tea partiers' fear against them. When they figure that out, if they accept they were fooled they will become even angrier, so instead of that they will blame the "government."

See how easy that all is?

When Maddow ridicules ordinary citizens like this she is trying to intimidate them into silence. This is a clear infringement of their Second Amendment Rights.

Funny. I try to actually know something about the candidates I'm voting for/against. What do these people think the AG is in the position to do regarding guns, anyway?

Steve Benen wrote: "Ignorance spreads like a cancer, and right about now, it's making our body politic pretty sick."

Bad metaphor.

"A cancer" is alive, and spreads by itself. That's not the case with this ignorance.

What we have here is more like someone dumping massive amounts of toxic waste containing virulent carcinogens into the water supply, resulting in an epidemic of cancer.

And yet the Teabaggers are always complaining about being labeled as ignorant morons.

"When Maddow gives ordinary teabaggers a national platform on which to explain their views, the incoherent garbled noises they make results in them intimidating themselves into sullen silence.

This is a clear violation of their right to be closet racists and Retardo-Americans."

There you go Al, fixed yer post.

I think it's important to note that it's not ALL Fox News. Why Eric Holder? And why the New Black Panthers?

Fox News may channel and direct, and it may identify -- or invent -- specific targets or specific issues, but it's building on -- and encouraging -- a foundation of racism (and homophobia and misogyny).

"the Miller support replied, "I don't have all the facts, but I know that he is."- BLACK

-and that's ALL she needs to know. . .

"If you look underneath the surface of the Tea Party movement, on the other hand, you will find that it is not sophisticated. It's not like these people have read the economist Friedrich August von Hayek."." Rove said in an interview with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel

Well, I bet Karl wishes he could retract that statement now.

They want ignorant and powerless masses.

Nottashockinatall

Let's remember that not only has FAUX been pushing the ridiculously insignificant NBP story...so has the entire Republican political apparatus.

This is blatant race-baiting. They're not even bothering to use dog whistles. And they can only get away with it because our corporate media lets them.
~

Get A Brain Morans!

People never remember the setup. They only remember the punchline. Call it a "talking point" if you like. But it's really a punchline.

Democrats are all about setup.

Republicans are all about punchline.

If the Democrats would just figure that out, I bet they could come up with some decent punchlines of their own. (Grayson and Weiner are already on it.)

The Human Hate Botnet

Of course it is more than just the world Fox has created. They are prime movers for sure, but it is also the world that the Internet has created.

There is a reason Muslim hate has hit new US highs. Millions of anti-Muslim emails have zipped to inboxes over the last two years. They are cleverly written emails, full of terrible, believable scenarios. They have taken their toll. They have eaten into a plurality of American minds...

The same is true for the Holder nonsense: Millions of emails.
The same is true for the Kenyan nonsense: Millions of emails.
And so too with climate denial...

The Internet now accelerates and motivates the absolute worst in humanity. There is no undoing or unloosening these Hate Botnets. They are now permanent networks within our cultural landscape. What good can come of self-reinforcing echo chambers that grow to critical mass and ever increase in fervor?

No good, I am certain...

Those of you who say I am wrong: show me the love. Show me the good the internet has done. I say the evil it has brought far outweighs the good it has done. And I also say: It is only going to get worse before it gets better...

koreyel wrote: "Show me the good the internet has done."

Well, it enables me to read your comments.

koreyel you sure are taking a lot for granted thinking that those people can read.

Show me the good the internet has done.

I could say 'ready access to porn', but, in fact, if you are interested in reality, and facts, it is a boon. As a liberal in a red state, I learned I wasn't so alone.
And I met my partner in a chat room...

The mistake that Democrats make is that they believe elections are about facts and voters will review the facts and come to rational decisions.

Republicans figured out a long time ago that elections are about fear and hysteria.

koreyel wrote: "Show me the good the internet has done."

My, aren't we cynical today.

Because of the internet, many more people are informed about what is truly going on, and are working on counter-acting it. It's a slow process, granted, and the low-information dupes still outnumber us, but I can attest that I've save a few from the "dark side" because of what I learn here and at other sites.

I think you underestimate the power of knowledge. Once people start to learn, the more they want to know. One of the biggest problems in our society is that we don't teach kids how to learn, and many of them don't think they can. If we can overcome that obstacle, the battle is already won.

"One young man insisted that Holder is "the most anti-gun attorney general this nation has ever had."

And, what exactly, will Joe Miller, should he be elected U.S. Senator, be able to do about Holder?

The dumbing down, down, down of America. Indeed.

Palin, Huckabee and Rove have recently been saying things against the eastern establishment but thats exactly who they are bleachering for.

This is what Fox news does. What CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN should be doing is reminding the masses who don't just watch FOX noise is that what they are pitching is FALSE. They don't. They abdicate that responsibility to some other "power" willing to lie and as a result we have a ton of uneducated/undereducated/flat out stupid people made to believe FOX is THE only source.

Of course it helps that the FOX audience is already predisposed to being homophobic, bigoted, and angry. The US can function w/o Alaskans but if you add the South, Ohio, Indiana, most of the West to the mess we are truly screwed because the media won't address the lies.

Those folks aren't stupid (necessarily) they're rascist. They don't like Holder because he's black but they can't say that on TV(she should have asked them about the other members of the cabinet and seen what they said -- my guess, they wouldn't have even recognized the names except for Hillary Clinton). The worat that FOX has doen is provide them with a phony narrative.

koreyel beat me to it. The internet is it exactly. Never had a crazy relative you have had to tell flat out "Stop sending me that shit" ? Welfare mothers who are 28 with 12 children and making $70,000 a year - I know it's true - I read it in an email. Even when my wife who is a social worker asked them to just stop and think about the math, they responded "well,I know someone is getting away with it". They don't want the truth, just something to reinforce their beliefs and prejudices.

BTW If you forward this chain of comments to 10 of your friends Bill Gates and Microsoft will send you a million dollars ! Really!

You have to realize the 'Holder is anti-gun' is just the latest in a 4 decades long propaganda campaign by the NRA and the Right to scare those with a 'frontier' ethic (or hillbilly ethic, as here in North Georgia) into thinking Evil Libruls are gonna use the Gummit to come and take away their penises, I mean, Guns.
There has been an industry of this sort of paranoid idiocy, before the internets. Admittedly, the internet makes it easier to spread some of this, but I've been hearing it around here from Republicans since the Nixon years...

Shorter Miller supporter:

Have you gone berserk? Can't you see that man is a ni...? Uh...I mean anti-gun.

MR Bill - You got it. Notice how them gun and ammo sales skyrocketed when the ni.... I mean our new President was elected. This sales boost generated by the above mentioned email scare campaigns and non existent gun legislation.

The Miller supporters (and the rest of the vermin about to take control of the government) make me want to give up on satire altogether and head straight for the gun store.

I mean, I wonder, if enough heavily armed liberals showed up at demonstrations like the one depicted here and other Republican events, would they tend to start thinking Holder hasn't done enough to protect their sorry asses from the proliferation of deadly weaponry.

Guns nuts are against civilization. They evolve from an aesthetic of utter antagonism to their environment, the kind of people the remote frontier attracted because they'd have ended up in prison or otherwise isolated anywhere else, so the US has ended up with a higher percentage of this kind of personality than other countries, and Alaska, where you can experience a lot of daily antagonism with nature probably has even more.

They're born savages.

Asking a question isnt ridiculing people Al.

Feeding them tripe [canards and fear] and then laughing at them is.

koreyel wrote: "Show me the good the internet has done."

I had totally forgotten about how there wasn't war and hate and corrupt government and ignorant masses BEFORE the internet.

I'm such a bag head.

John R, the run on ammunition before and after the election was a thing to behold. One might even think the gun and ammo manufacturers were stoking the fears of the bucolic and fearful to increase sales...
And the prices haven't come down, as far as I can tell. The demonization of the Obama admin has been very profitable for some..

No, fox news didn't create that world, Maddow. Millions upon millions of white folks have ALWAYS thought this way. At most, foxnews gave those millions a convenient rally point.

And note that those millions upon millions of white folks were aided in feeling that way by the 10's of millions more white folks who have merrily perpetuated lies like "it's just a few bad apples" for decades.

It's also the world that 40+ years of underfunding public education has created. Stupid people are easier to manipulate, y'see.

-Z

I would just add that I don't think that they even understood that Holder is the Attorney General. They seemed to have no clue who he was. The Man said to look at his voting record. When that backfired, he indicated that she should just Google him. Finally, he said to read his press releases.

They appeared to be mad about a person that they didn't understand and know nothing about whatsoever.

I would have liked to hear a follow-up question asking if they need what race he is. My guess is that they would have known that perfectly well.

Furthermore, the Rand Paul crew stomping case has gotten even worse: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/27/head-stomper-demands-aplog/
Yes, URL says all: Tim Profit is quoted as part of:

Profitt has remarkably attempted to blame Valle for the incident in which he and another large man wrestled the 23-year-old woman to the ground, telling WKYT, “she was a professional at what she does and I think when all the facts come out, people will see that she was the one who initiated the whole thing.” Profitt has said he restrained Valle because he feared the petite woman represented “a danger” to Paul, and said he stepped on her because “I couldn’t bend over because I have issues with my back.” Meanwhile, Profitt now says he “fears for his safety.”

Yes, I would call them Faux Noizi Nation.

Uhh, that was me, above at 2:18.

And, as usual, SecularAnimist, bleh, ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©, Stephen, and stevio beat me to it.
I love Ms Maddow more than sliced bread, but on this one, I think she's pointed her laser in the wrong direction -- or at least in too few directions.
Fox isn't the only problem; ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and, sadly, NPR are much of it.
The NYTimes, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press are a fair amount of it.
And the Democratic Party, in its current state, with many of the most visible "leaders" continually reinforcing Publican narratives and other lies, is the rest.

One of my hobbies is shooting so I am a member of the NRA. I get all the stuff they publish. Ever since Obama was elected they have been non-stop pushing the line that he and Holder are openly and tirelessly active opponents of gun ownership, but when you look at what they have actually done, there hasn't been a more "pro-gun" administration in 30 years. The NRA has gotten far more of its legislative agenda passed with administration support than the progressive caucus. The anti-gun crowd should be really angry.

With the right, reality has nothing to do with their deeply held convictions.

FOX News is the scab over the infected sore.

FOX News didn't manufacture its audience, it found its audience. It's a for profit organization that targeted an existing audience.

Get this,

Alaska's untapped oil reserves estimate lowered by about 90 percent,

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/10/27/alaska.oil.reserves/index.html

I realize we've had decades of underfunding the public education system, and now have adults who were taught by teachers who would have failed out a generation earlier, but is that all it is? How can there be such inability to think so widespread in the population? Is there something in the water? Has BPA or some other chemical in the environment destroyed brain cells in utereo? How are these people able to dress themselves, with brains that work so badly?

biggerbox: underfunded public education isn't all that there is, but it's far and away the biggest part. One of the reasons that the US won WWII in the Pacific, and then won the Cold War, was that we were smarter than the opposition. Not so anymore- if WWII were to take place w/today's USA, we'd both be too stupid to win it, and we'd need to ask the Chinese to manufacture all of our weapons.

-Z

America the ignorant.

So much good racist projection for one place.

A good link re all this:
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010104222/fascist-america-election-next-turn

The genius of Fox is that they have figured out that a shocking lie has a whole lot more impact than the calmly reasoned explanation that is needed to correct the lie. It also makes far more interesting TV. The frosting on the cake is that it puts the Dems on the defensive all the time and distracts them from making their case on their issues.

It's deeply cynical and highly effective.

I wonder if our problems aren't that we teach our kids to appreciate Proust instead of how to do motorcycle maintenance?

Just a small joke with a serious overtone. Maybe our kids would feel better about themselves if they realized they knew enough about their world to fix a broken machine.

Ron Byers..WHERE in Heck do your children go to school? I'm betting you can't find many students who know WHO Proust is let alone appreciate him! As for fixing a broken machine...that might just require some smarts too...and the ability to think critically...something that is sadly lacking from our education system...TTTT being the operative for the day...

Yup. These people don't know why they're protesting- they're just relying on cut-and-paste emails which fuel their racism.

But what exactly is Joe Miller, a potential SENATOR, going to do about a US Attorney General?

I also find it ironic that these guys want to elect a senator who wants to get rid of THEIR RIGHT to vote for senators. Dumb people with misguided ideas are more dangerous than cruise missiles without guidance software.

"They are mad as hell and don't know what about, so they are accepting what the TV tells them."

And blogs are better? What they heard (via Fox News or some blog - really, the two are no different half the time) is mostly correct. Eric Holder has brought up the Assault Weapons Ban again, and it is pretty widely known that he is anti gun.

Even the "left" knows this.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/11/18/202950/27

But hey, let's just hurf durf "Faux News sux0rs roflmao" some more...

Assault weapons should be banned.

I personally own more than 20 firearms, including the one I got for my 10th birthday, but I was also working traumas in an inner-city hospital when the damned things started flooding the streets again when the ban was lifted, and the carnage started in earnest.

Nobody, and I do mean nobody, needs a fucking machine gun. They were made for killing people. Not home defense, not hunting. Killing people is the only utility they have, and anyone who thinks they need a fucking machine gun needs psychological help. And to never be anywhere near any gun. Ever.

We in Canada are going to have to borrow your border fence. You won't need it - no self-respecting Mexican will bother to show up if these idiots take charge. We'll need it to keep out the crazy.

Those willing to rescind their citizenship of the United Fascist States of Jesusland are welcome to join us. Bring as many guns as you can get your hands on. We'll need the defense when President Palin invades us to take our oil.

They are angry because there is a Black man in their White House, who put another Black man in charge of the DoJ.

It's really that simple.

Time after time we've heard Tea Party people rage on at Obama over things he had nothing to do with. "TARP!!!" That was Bush. "TAX CUTS!!!" Obama gave them tax cuts in the stimulus. "DEFICT!!!" Obama's first budget (2010) cut the defict by over $100B. On and on.

Their moving goal post of rage can'once allowed to rest on their real reason... "NI@@ER!!!"

Personally I think the other media outlets are too cozy and polite to actually go after FOX. Which isn't a news channel but a propaganda channel.

I hoping some of there domestic terrorist events FOX has instigated will start a national boycott of their advertisers.

Imagine if Al Qada had a propaganda channel. How would America react? Well.... What's the difference?

So.....there are a lot of Black Panthers in Alaska?

Ah yes, the old reliable standby: white fear of the angry black man who will take something from white people.

This is your brain of Fox News.

The Internet has spread goo through the populace like measles among early Native Americans, but it has also enabled people like me, who felt isolated through all the Dixie Chick-stomping and French winebottle-breaking of the early Iraq invasion fever era, to realize I have ideological allies. These days, it helps me to endure the *licking the so-called librul media is ceaselessly bestowing on the corporatocracy and their Noise Machine. If there is one thing worth fighting for in dark days to come, it's net neutrality, because if this medium of communication is taken away, I daresay our democracy is toast. Look well, O wolves!

What's hilarious to me is that these people are CORRECT. Holder is vehemently anti-gun.

Here's a handy link that details how anti-gun he is.

Just because those people didn't know specifics doesn't make their point any less valid.

http://volokh.com/posts/1227228105.shtml

Here's that link :)