SOCIAL MEDIA KEEPS PROVING THAT IGNORANCE IS FATAL
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 15-17, 2019) — Last week, NFL Films released its fabulous “Mic’d Up” film of Super Bowl LVIII. These productions never fail to provide fascinating glimpses of men under pressure, from the Rams’ Aaron Donald psyching himself up before the game with a constant monologue to Patriots’ head coach Bill “8 Rings” Belichick showing the stoicism and calm of experience calling an all-out blitz that forced a game-winning interception and another Super Bowl win in the Patriots’ unprecedented run of greatness.
But this story isn’t about the Patriots, the Rams, or the Super Bowl. It’s about the internet and social media, that guillotine of thought and deliberation turning a generation of young people into ideological cattle and leading them unblinking to an intellectual slaughterhouse. In cyberspace, commercial publishers are interested only in clicks, and their tantalizing, teasing headlines become like junk food loaded with salt, sugar, and chemicals to create instant craving. You’ve seen the headlines: “You Won’t Believe What Looks Like Now” or “Five Things You Are Eating That Are Destroying Your Health.” Invariably, the “stories” produce vapid content and a bewildering array of flashing ads, GIFs, and banners that resemble the faces of slot machines and take you to other pages you never asked to see.
One of the stories had a picture of mic’d-up Patriots QB Tom Brady on the sidelines, conferring with Belichick. The headline said “Brady, Belichick Argue About Game-Winning Play.” The actuality is that nothing like that happened. When you go to the clip, you see Brady suggesting a 41-yard FG to win the game. Makes total strategic sense on 4th and inches up by seven with under two minutes left. Belichick is on his headset, running it by his offensive coordinator, John McDaniels. The seconds-long conversation ends, and Belichick calmly calls for a field goal. No argument. No controversy. No nothing except out the FG unit to make it a two-score game.
Later, the number of hits on the non-story showed how many are quick to jump in on social media, most of it betraying that people hadn’t even seen the clip. They were talking about talk about an event that hadn’t occurred!
The same thing happened after President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address. Going viral: A meme on Nancy Pelosi applauding Trump; a “story” on women wearing white, bringing in references to suffragettes and A Handmaid’s Tale; and Alexandria Ortiz-Cortez not smiling.
Those stories drove much of the “discussion” afterward on young people’s preferred medium. You would think these events were substance of the SOTU speech.
Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker and third in line of presidential succession, applauding … A woman’s clothing as political … A O-C “not smiling” during Trump’s talk … They were “non-story” “stories.” We live, folks, in the age of ironic quotation marks.
All of it does not bode well for the “Republic for which we stand.” Representative democracy requires participation, yes, but participation without knowledge, good information, or the ability to think critically becomes social nitroglycerin. It forms the fermentative environment for demagoguery, despotism, ideology, blind nationalism, absolutism, and the type of divide that has injected itself into nearly every aspect of daily life. Buying produce at the market? You’re making a political statement if you don’t buy organic. Buying a cup of coffee? Used to be you put down your money and got a “cuppa joe.” Now you better be drinking from beans picked from sustainable acreage for companies that have signed on to the Rainforest Accords.
Ignorance is fatal.
And the bad news is that in Pittsfield, municipal elections happen this year. Do the math.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Keep the comments intelligent. The bouncers will be bouncing.
WARNING: ANY COMMENT CONTAINING A PERSONAL INSULT WILL IMMEDIATELY BE REDACTED. THE POSTER WILL RISK BANISHMENT. THE TIME HAS COME FOR A RESTORATION OF REASON — AT LEAST AS MUCH AS AN INTERNET FORUM WILL ALLOW.
——————————————————————————————–
“It was thinking about Casagema’s death that started me painting in blue” — Pablo Picasso.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The views and opinions expressed in the comment section or in the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not necessarily endorsed by the operators of this website. PLANET VALENTI assumes no responsibility for such views and opinions, and it reserves the right to remove or edit any comment, including but not limited to those that violate the website’s Rules of Conduct and its editorial policies. PLANET VALENTI shall not be held responsible for the consequences that may result from any posted comment or outside opinion or commentary as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and this website’s terms of service. All users of this website — including readers, commentators, contributors, or anyone else making use of its information hereby agree to these conditions by virtue of this notice. When PLANET VALENTI ends with the words “The Usual Disclaimer,” that phrase shall be understood to refer to the full text of this disclaimer.
14, 2019 | Sher Zieve
Posted on 2/15/2019, 4:11:13 PM by detective
In a move that veritably boggles the mind, fired FBI’er Andrew McCabe has admitted his role in the – mercifully – ineffective coup against President Trump and his administration…aka government. In an interview scheduled to air on next Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” McCabe detailed his and his FBI co-conspirators parts in the planned, plotted and implemented attempted coup against legally-elected President Trump – using a fake Russian dossier. Mueller’s and Rosenstein’s parts in the scheme were for Rosenstein to appoint former FBI Director Mueller to the position of Special Counsel to investigate Trump. This position requires that a crime be listed before the investigation may go forth. There was never – and still isn’t – any crime listed. As I’ve written in several columns, this investigation was illegal from its inception. Still…no one in the government has made any attempt to stop it! That, coupled with the fact that the now-infamous “dossier” against Trump was made up out of whole cloth and that Russian Agents were hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign to write it should – at the very least – cause the arrests of the perpetrators via US Marshall’s office.
Another portion from the to-be-aired Sunday interview, McCabe admitted that he and the FBI “get Trump out” FBI/DOJ cabal also planned and conspired to use the 25th Amendment (“incompetency of the POTUS”) to remove him from office. McCabe said at 2 meetings, Rosenstein agreed to war a wire, with the purpose of entrapping President Trump. Rosenstein has said that he was just “kidding around.” McCabe said that they were all “dead serious” and that Rosenstein had agreed at both of the 2 planning meetings.
Mr Big. A special prosecutor wasn’t appointed to find videos of trump reading bedtime stories to his paid hookers. He is being investigated for possible collusion with Russians and obstruction of justice. The 60 minutes piece showed more than enough proof of obstruction of justice. This is like a big puzzle. All of trumps top cabinet officials have already been indicted and are in jail or going to jail. A puzzle is solved by putting all the pieces together and it looks like these missing pieces are very close to being inserted. In case you missed a tid bit McCabe talked about. Let me explain. McCabe said that in anticipating that trump was dirty he kept very meticulous notes regarding trump that no one has seen. Pelly asked him where the notes are. He replied. MUELLER has them. Now that is what I think is important. How about you????
Mc Cabe is nothing more than a federal level gobsig that you pretend to detest. He’s nothing more than a deep state weasel who’s pissed because he’s being deprived of his pension. The only pension he deserves is 3 meals a day and an hour in the prison excercise yyard. Down with the deep state weasel s.
The Human Rights Commission here,wants the City to denounce White Supremacy.
Pete White?
We need them to denounce Gobsig supremacy.
Big and Sig. Yés
The coup against Trump, exposed;
http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/15/7-big-takeaways-andrew-mccabes-planned-coup/
McCabe lied to the FBI. The FBI goon squad should show up at his house and give him the Roger Stone treatment. And that’s the final word.
Our intelligence agencies are the best in the world. If you were a good american you would put your faith in them. Look how successful Mueller has been so far, But you haven’t seen anything yet but you will.just sayin
Mueller is a criminal who kept innocent people in jail. He prosecutes people for process crimes that he creates. No good American tolerates this soviet style.
AOC killed the Amazon deal because she didnt think NYC had room for another river.
That was funny
Hilarious.