Last night I had dinner with life long friend and his wife, it was great to see them again. As I knew it would (because, at some point I'd steer it there) the conversation got political. I was hopeful before we started down this line, that my friend's politics would be close to mine. I was mildly disappointed. The Mark (not his real name) I knew was probably closer to my views years ago, but now, something's happened. And based on his comments, I think I know what happened. He's been watching Fox News. His comments and positions reflected what we hear from Faux Noise. The Mark I knew was still there, you could see it, it was just beneath the surface wanting to come out, but was stuffed beneath the propaganda of Faux Noise. And it has confused his perception of what's happening in the U.S.
How did this happen to Mark? Without asking him, I think I know. Mark is a dentist is s small town at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. And like most dentist's offices now days there is more than likely at least one television set on all day in that office and possibly one in every work station to accommodate is patients. Odds are they are tuned to Faux Noise, at the behest of his patients. This has had a toxic effect on a smart and thoughtful individual.
Many of us here are not thrilled with every move President Obama has made, but we are still hopeful that he is moving us in the right direction. Mark is not. I thought there was room to convince him otherwise in our short conversation until he mentioned Nancy Pelosi. I knew from those comments in passing that I didn't have enough time to present a good argument in our limited time to move him from these views. Again, many of us here have not been pleased with every move that Pelosi has done, but for different reasons.
Most of this conversation had gone on in his room where I was visiting he and his wife. At this point it was close to 8:00 PM EDT. It was time to go for dinner, the place found ourselves having dinner turned out to have a karaoke bar, so conversation turned to much lighter topics. Neither of us had enough to drink to venture to the karaoke mic. It was entertaining though.
The experience was eye-opening as to how toxic Faux News really is in our society. Mark is a smart and caring individual, but some of his reasoning for some of his positions had been warped from his exposure to Faux Noise. His wife, who doesn't spend her day listening to Faux Noise was not of the same positions as her husband. I know we often joke here about how brave someone from here is when they watch or listen to the RW noise machine, but let me tell you, from my brief encounter with Mark, it's not just brave, it's dangerous. I wish I lived close enough to Mark to spend enough time to ween him off of Faux Noise. He's not beyond redemption. But my greatest concern are for those in the Faux Noise audience who are not as educated and smart as Mark, it is a dangerous game they are playing over there and it could come back to bite us all. The hate and vitriol they exude can become very dangerous to our country.
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Mojo Friday Goals
A. At least 300 different commenters and 1000 comments by 1:30 PM EST and 1500 by 5:00 PM EST Friday Night that it's posted.
B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
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E. And always, fun fun fun.
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H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 200 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying.
For those of you new to MF (Mojo Friday) we have our own lingo about a few things. Thank's to MF'er Jez((the link will explain) go to this diary for a little more fun and explanation. Official Mojo Friday Snecktionary.