Written on March 9, 2019, (Updated 2025 and still important)
Friends, we are living in a world that may seem familiar, but one crucial aspect of our lives has undergone a dramatic and urgent change.
And this is one thing: the U.S. media. Yes, online sites, TV, social media sites – all of them – contribute to paranoia with partisan competition for power. Since the GOP won the election by an enormous upset of the Democrats, the stream of negative news prevails at most of the media outlets.
According to Harvard professor Thomas Patterson, “Trump’s coverage during his first 100 days set a new standard for negativity. Of news reports with a clear tone, negative reports outpaced positive ones by 80 percent to 20 percent. Trump’s coverage was unsparing. In no week did the coverage drop below 70 percent negative, and it reached 90 percent negative at its peak.”
Journalism, as it was before, has disappeared. Instead of honest and non-biased coverage of the news, the media pushes prepared propaganda, carefully crafted coverage, or pure fake news down into your throat 24/7 to achieve the predetermined political results by shifting your political views and getting you angry.
It's amazing. We are aware of how easily information can be manufactured. We also know that some people will do almost anything to get their way. Yet, many of us never make the connection between the corruptibility of man and the corruptibility of facts.
You may like or dislike the current President, but agree that the war announced by the Democrats in his office has reached an unprecedented level. The hate spewed from screens worries me, and it should concern you, too.
Our country is the United States, but we are moving towards a divided nation and a divided population. It’s a fact that Obama’s presidency has triggered the population divide. It’s a fact that Trump’s presidency added even more fuel to the fire.
All of it drives many people crazy. And it’s not a surprise. Negative media affects society. The press is absurdly unbalanced. Numerous surveys confirm that over 70% of the news is negative.
Vermont Newspaper:
Jon Gordon, an international best-selling author, said,” A society in a state of depression can’t think its way out of a crisis.”
The onslaught of negative media is brainwashing people. Claude Levi-Strauss, an anthropologist, shows that there is an increase in neural firing in the brain when individuals are exposed to negative press. This means that negative media triggers our brains more easily than neutral or positive press. The overwhelmingly negative media is causing people to view the world in a pessimistic light.
According to neuroanthropology.net, “The news is a mirror in which millions look every night, and what they end up seeing in the reflection is a life in imminent danger.”
People don’t need to be so overwhelmed with negative media. More positive and neutral press is crucial, as it enables people to view the world more optimistically. Due to the negative press, people are learning to view the world in a pessimistic light. It's time to take control of our media consumption and strive for a more balanced diet of news.
Huffington Post (Feb 19, 2015):
According to some psychologists, exposure to harmful and violent media may have severe and long-lasting psychological effects beyond simple feelings of pessimism or disapproval. The work of British psychologist Dr. Graham Davey, who specializes in the psychological impact of media violence, suggests that violent media exposure can exacerbate or contribute to the development of stress, anxiety, depression, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“Negative news can significantly change an individual’s mood — especially if there is a tendency in the news broadcasts to emphasize suffering and also the emotional components of the story. In particular, negative news can affect your own personal worries as more threatening and severe. When you do start worrying about them, you’re more likely to find your worry difficult to control and more distressing than it would normally be.”
According to Davey, the way that negative news affects your mood can also have a larger effect on how you interpret and interact with the world around you. Suppose it makes you more anxious or sad, for instance. In that case, you may subconsciously become more attuned to adverse or threatening events, and you may be more likely to see ambiguous or neutral events as negative ones.
Those facts are known to those who manufacture the news, but they don’t care about your well-being – they care about their political outcomes.
It's not the theory, guys. I have been seeing it in my own family. I felt it myself, and I am sure that the media has the same effect on you.
As soon as I recognized it, I limited my time spent on TV and internet news to a bare minimum. I don’t want to waste my life on “spiders in the jar” who fight for political power in Washington. I have a better idea.
Extreme negativism has given birth to the monsters of political ideas (old and new). I don’t want even to discuss Sanders with his sick socialism-communism ideas. Still, the new face, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is getting the same level of coverage as the President (thanks to a sick media that sells the “hot” news), and is a pure extremist. Even those people who are tolerant of her ideas are saying that “it is too extreme”.
In my opinion, the new faces in the DNC that are heavily promoted by the media are the ticking bombs. These individuals, with their extreme views and the media's amplification, are potentially destabilizing the political landscape.
The result.
The 'divide and rule' strategy is an old tactic for any politician seeking to maintain power. It involves creating divisions within the population to weaken potential opposition. The media is getting a score of 1:0 against the population. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that nearly 70% of Americans hold negative opinions about the state of the nation.
When respondents were asked to use one word to sum up their feelings, the most common examples included "declining," "disarray," "turmoil," "downhill," and "disaster." By a margin of more than 2-to-1, respondents said the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction. Only 28% responded that the U.S. is on the right track.
Even the former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova recently proclaimed on Fox News that 'Civil discourse in this country for the foreseeable future is over... It's going to be total war.' This prediction of heightened political conflict underscores the profound implications of the current media landscape.
That's pretty shocking when you think about it! Let’s see what the reality is.
Here is what A. Green said in his recent newsletter:
“Let's take a look at the state of the nation today:
- The country is at peace.
- The economy is growing at 3%, outpacing every other country in the developed world.
- Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of economic growth, is robust.
- The dollar is eight years into a rally that has taken it up nearly 25% in inflation-adjusted terms since its postwar low in 2011.
- S. manufacturing is at record levels.
- The job market is strong. Unemployment is at a 50-year low (including minorities).
- Energy is cheap.
- Poverty is down.
- Wages are up.
- The gender gap between male and female pay has narrowed. (And most of the remaining differences can be attributed to vocational choice, education, experience, and hours worked.)
- Leisure time is up.
- Homeownership just hit a five-year high.
- The gap between black and white high school completion rates has almost disappeared.
- College enrollment has soared.
- Domestic violence is down. Violent crime has plunged.
- Child abuse is down.
- Abortion rates are down.
- We are living longer.
- Living standards are higher.
- The air and water are cleaners.
- Information and communication are virtually free.
- And polls show that racist, sexist, and homophobic sentiments have never been lower.
Could someone please tell me what the heck Americans are so angry about?
Yes, I know, Donald Trump is a polarizing figure. But he will be gone in two or six years. And our republic will still be standing. “
Can you, guys, call it a “total disarray” as the Democrats mostly describe the nation today?
I am independent of any party and don’t take either side. What I see is total disarray in Washington, D.C., where the politicians are busy searching for the weak spots in their opponents instead of serving our citizens.
Every day, there is a new investigation or class action. Every day, there are new disgusting ideas, comments, or tweets from both political parties. I am personally sick of it. The non-stop negativity in the news helps media outlets attract viewers and make money. But what we get in return is an entirely unjustified pessimism.
My suggestion to you: don’t waste your time reading and watching the news, as it may affect your well-being (if it hasn't already). Concentrate on your family and friends, on your physical condition, on your hobbies and sports, on your education and self-control, and, of course, don’t forget about leisure time! As you see, there are many things to do beyond watching those “spiders in the jar”.
Be a man’s man.