Trump's America (Casino & Slots!)

[nacho]

Oh, and, let's dispel the low voter turnout myth. 58.6% voted...and the turnout is still being tallied up. Most of the west coast hasn't been properly counted yet.  It might hit 60% this time. Maybe even more.

The voter turnout for the 2016 election is the highest since 1968.

Sources: Wiki, fivethirtyeight, electproject, Business Insider

Yes, everyone of the Fox, WaPo, national idiot news ilk are saying turnout was a 20 year low...but that was reported on Friday when only roughly 60% of the overall votes had been accurately counted and reported.

[RottingCorpse]

Hate voting. I'm shocked that so many people came out to vote for two candidates nobody liked. I assume they did it to vote against the other person rather than for the one they pulled the lever for.

Even 60% turnout means 40% of those kids give two fucks and just don't want to sit through Chemistry.

[nacho]

Oh, not disputing your conclusions. Yes, the school walkouts are dumb. Yes, they're just bored and looking for an adventure (like me!).

But I wanted to stop the low turnout thing that's currently consuming the news cycles. Accepting that, in fact, is part of the healing process. America did, indeed, speak by a (for our particular and bizarre democracy) mandate in terms of turning out to vote.

We went right down the middle, as usual. Which is the urban vs. rural battle that's kind of scarred representative democracy for the past, you know, 2500 years.

[RottingCorpse]

We went right down the middle, as usual. Which is the urban vs. rural battle that's kind of scarred representative democracy for the past, you know, 2500 years.

Read this. It'll brighten your day. And by "brighten your day," I mean "send you screaming panicked into the street before you collapse, go fetal, and simultaneously piss, shit, and vomit all over yourself."

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2403-6-reasons-why-new-civil-war-possible-terrifying.html

6 Reasons Why A New Civil War Is Possible And Terrifying

[nacho]

Hey, Charlie warned us about this 40 years ago, man!

[RottingCorpse]

Oh man, don't get me started.

[nacho]

So, new topic...

The media is so anxious to torpedo Trump -- as we're seeing with the reports on his transition team. Trump and even those departing the rotating transition team all say things are progressing, and Trump's actually been pretty open about the hardship of such a transition. But the media is "setting him up the bomb," if you'll pardon the All Your Base meme parlance.

I'm starting to wonder who the real enemy is here -- Trump or the media? They've played Dr. Frankenstein to both his rise and, now, seemingly, fall.

[nacho]

I mean, of course the media is doing that. They always do. But in the context of protest, revolution, and anger... I think we're off target when we point at Trump. I think he's our scapegoat. We should be burning down Fox News outposts.

[RottingCorpse]

"The media is the problem" has been a theme here on GS since the beginning, no?

But, yes, they made Trump. They *loved* the ratings he brought them and accidentally got him elected president. Now they feel guilty about it. Too little, too late. Write that as an epitaph on the gravestone of humanity.

Missus RC says the solution is that we all pay for newspapers and the like so they don't have to rely on advertisers for revenue. I'm not sure it's the soundest of strategies, but making money has certainly overturned responsible journalism as the main function of most news outlets.

That said, I'm always a bit gunshy about regulating any first amendment rights. I'm a "slippery slope" guy. Trump's noise about suing journalists during the election run-up bothered me at a core level. Laws that protect bigots, liars, fear-mongers, and assholes also protect the rest of us.

[nacho]

Financially supporting newspapers won't help. It's an ocean of competition out there. Rather, we should simply boycott the worst offenders and focus on international media. Don't even go to WaPo's site. Don't even give them the clicks.

We're all too hungry for the screaming headline and the soundbyte. We should be more responsible about how we approach and deal with the media.

[nacho]

You know, I think you give the media too much credit by saying that now they feel guilty. I think they're not that self-aware or capable of humanity. They created Trump, now they'll destroy him, and there's no rational cause and effect going on here. They're doing it simply because it's good headlines...and what we expect. And we do, don't we? Half of us scream "I TOLD YOU SO!" and the other half become enraged and feel betrayed. And 100% of us click-click-click-click....

[RottingCorpse]

Financially supporting newspapers won't help. It's an ocean of competition out there. Rather, we should simply boycott the worst offenders and focus on international media. Don't even go to WaPo's site. Don't even give them the clicks.

We're all too hungry for the screaming headline and the soundbyte. We should be more responsible about how we approach and deal with the media.

I love Wa-Po.

Responsible media consumption has been something of a post-election theme, no? Yet as always, people want to blame somebody else rather than taking responsibility. They want to lay the blame squarely as Facebook's feet for allowing fake news to get to them. There's so sense of self-regulation at all. Have we lost the ability to be responsible consumers of media? Did we ever have that ability?

[nacho]

I outlined how on the front page!

And WaPo is an Amazon shill. Boycott!

[RottingCorpse]

It's a great piece. I really appreciate your mention of the Southern Poverty Law Center too. I've been tooling around their website the past week myself trying to get a handle of just what the fuck is really out there. I focused on the local groups of which there are more than you'd expect in and around "liberal" DC.

[RottingCorpse]

Though in terms of "call to action," this is pretty good.

http://www.holyfucktheelection.com