Summary
A new AP poll reveals widespread political fatigue among Americans, with two-thirds limiting political media consumption post-Trump’s election.
Viewership on CNN and MSNBC has plummeted, with declines of 35-54%, as many Democrats and independents step away from politics.
In contrast, Fox News has seen a 12% ratings surge, dominating cable news.
The trend mirrors post-election slumps in previous cycles, though the erosion is sharper this year.
Some suggest focusing less on Trump and more on broader issues to re-engage disenchanted audiences.
I paid attention, I engaged, I voted, I urged others to vote. It didn’t matter. This country deserves what is coming.
Sadly, a two party system is inevitable.
To be fair, a majority of Americans chose not-Trump for 3 elections. And that’s ignoring the fact that voters in solid blue states just didn’t show up to vote because their votes don’t matter. If we lived in a Democracy and not a Democratic Republic, I’m confident he would have lost the plurality as well.
But also, half the country didn’t ask for this. Even in solid red states like the one I live in, a third of us didn’t ask for this bullshit.
What I’m tired of is the media sanewashing domestic terrorists and centrists giving the right a free pass by not paying attention and assuming “both sides” any time literally anything happens.
I feel you. But at the same time, I’m also afraid that as they dismantle the government, the brain drain from departing/retiring federal workers and knowledge about how the parts of government (for example the NIH or the NOAA/NWS) function on the day to day (including things like historical climate data) will be lost in the chaos. I’m not paying attention now, because I think it will be more important to pay attention in a month. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle it then either, but I don’t want some of what we do have to be lost forever because some assholes didn’t like it, and the rest of us thought they deserved it. Maybe they do deserve it, but the rest of us don’t deserve to lose it forever either.
Precisely. My only fear is the people who need the biggest punch in the face won’t get it. Or will be too stupid to understand it.
Tuning out of networks that are controlled by the government? Yeah, click.
I don’t want to repeat 2016. The media goes hyperbolic over every stupid speech or tweet this man makes. 90% of it doesn’t get done. The 10% that does… Will suck. And I can’t do anything about that at this point, enough of the country voted for him because of inflation that he got into to power because they don’t understand how government and inflation works.
I’m not going to raise my blood pressure over news that is just outrage porn this time. Shit is going to get worse, and I can’t do anything about it as a federal worker other than do my job and wait it out.
Then try to help rebuild the institution I work for after it is hollowed out by the incompetent political appointees made my the incoming admin once the political pendulum swing again in on the axis of low information capricious swing voters in this country.
He’s gonna get all that stuff passed to deregulate all his chum’s businesses. I’m pretty sure those private prison work camps (concentration camps, if you will) will happen. The US corporations are going to lose their Chinese slave labor pretty soon, and they can slap a Made in USA label on it.
Hopefully it’s just status quo and it’s the end of both parties. I haven’t decided if I’ll flee or stay to pop some reds in the civil war.
What’s the point when it’s all owned by billionaires anyway? It’s not like you’re gonna get the straight story without any corporate shenanigans. They won’t talk about anything actually important, or details about issues. It’s feels over reals from the media from here on out.
I remember watching my roommate, in the early 90s, and he was absolutely GLUED to some news outlet - pretty sure it was local news. I kind of laughed as I walked through the room. He followed me into kitchen - it had switched to the commercial break - and he was kind of wound up a bit for whatever reason. He demanded to know what was so funny. I chuckled and said “none of this is real news”. He huffed and puffed a bit and so I said I’d watch it with him and explain what I meant and that he should not really take offense - the mirth was not really aimed at him, but the situation. He was game for whatever reason.
And the rest of the show was the usual filler you can write off right away as not news: sports scores, local incidents of crime, celebrity gossip, the direction of the Dow. There was nothing that was going to have any impact whatsoever on either of us, with the possible exception of the weather, I suppose.
And at this point, I had not even read Chomsky, so I probably had less grounding on this.
Anyway, I don’t think it’s gotten any better. It’s always been bad, but I think algorithms can make it far, far worse.
And beyond the exhaustion, this is how representative democracy is supposed to work. We have an election, everyone decides which candidates are taller and have better hair, then we go back to our lives and let the politicians worry about politics until the next election.
I don’t know if it is exhaustion for me. It is more of lack of trust given how in the tank for Trump every major outlet was.
