In spite of everything that has come out

[still_one]

the polls are still at 50/50. That is a sad statement of how uninformed the people in this country appear to be.

[myopic4141]

1. Unimformed?

I think it is more "refusal to believe" rather than being "uninformed".

[caledesi]

6. Agree. "They " can't handle the truth. nt

[nofurylike]

2. what is your source, please?

interesting:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=axFETYfIQM7c&refer=top_world_news

current. says one hour ago, but saw the same earlier.

[still_one]

3. I was referring to the Rasmussen Report

I hope the Newsweek poll is right, but when I saw CNN say the Time Gallop poll though Rice had more credibility than Clark it really got me down

Saturday April 10, 2004--For the first time in a week, President George W. Bush leads Senator John F. Kerry in the Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll. The latest numbers, based upon survey interviews conducted Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, show Bush 46% Kerry 44%.

[TruthIsAll]

4. Don't believe Rasmussen. Or CNN/Gallup. They are Bush shills.

TIA

[nofurylike]

5. thank you for source.

siiiiigh.

it is dreadful how media is right back to full-on lying for *, et al. almost thought for a micro-instant that they were realizing it's their lives and futures shrubbites are demolishing, as well.

it is mass insanity - as you originally said, really.


peace

[leftofthedial]

7. America has gone utterly stupid

Otherwise, the Coup of 2000 would never have stood.

LOTS of kool-aid-drinking neocons and fundie bible thumpers with their fingers in their ears saying LA LA LA LA LA I'm ont listening.

L'il George could bugger an infant on prime-time TV and these people would still support him.

Zealotry and fanaticism can only be beaten by even greater opposing zealotry and fanaticism.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

8. Television reinforcing childhood indoctrination. We are fucked. Zombies.

Our fallow merkins spend all their lives watching TV and getting brainwashed.

You heard about the study showing that TV affects brain development in infants, toddlers, children? It also messes up adults.

It causes developmental disorders like ADD and ADHD (attention defecit and hyperactivity.)

This is the freaking out and dumbing down of our society. Insert propaganda and end democracy. Add Ritalin and Valium and a new car.

No wonder they want to reign in the internet where you can control your own content and learn what those neocon fuckers are doing.

[buycitgo]

9. you don't know how RIGHT you are

I WORK in a junior high school

even the brightest, most motivated kids have very little attention span

I've noticed, ever since watching a Robert Krulwich special that talked about how our minds are being rewired in the electronic age, that I have definitely been affected.

the example that sticks in my mind from his show was the transition from the rotary to the touchtone phone, of all things.

His thesis is that we become more and more impatient by dint of our brains actually becoming rewired. we get USED to things happening faster and faster. I go nuts waiting on the phone, at stoplights, waiting for my slower than slow dialup to connect, after being at school with their LAN line, etc.

PLUS, the REAL culprit....remote controls/VCRs/TIVO. this sort of electronic evolution--add video games, MTV editing, both audio and video (that's what I do at school, btw.....TV studio....lots of editing of both) has wreaked HAVOC on attention spans.

a ridiculous percentage of our kids are on ritalin or similar drugs, for their adhd symptoms. I'm more and more convinced, especially after that infant TV research, that their BRAINS are rewired!

add to THAT the societal/"cultural" influences, and we are in DEEP DEEP trouble

lots and lots of potential fascists, I mean republicans coming up

[Karenina]

11. Americans like mushrooms...

kept in the dark, fed lots of dung.

[mmonk]

13. Have to disagree

I have an autistic son and one with ADHD. It' neurologically based. Television didn't cause it. And it is real, not pop science. But most people feel as you do. No real frame of reference (not your fault).

[JohnOneillsMemory]

15. Agreed. It is very real. You have my support as another parent. But...

"What gets fired, gets hard-wired," say neurological scientists.

Neurologial science has determined that brains get wired by their environment through use and repetition.

Reference:
A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain

This book is by John Ratey, clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

It helped me understand how evolution and parenting (nature and nurture) are exploited by propagandizing and advertising.

Highly recommended for both parents and civilians.

While some brains start from birth with some 'wiring' problems that affect perception and function, outside stimuli from birth also influence how our brains wire up.

And obviously the databases we acquire and how we acquire them determines much of what we believe and feel. That's what indoctrination and propaganda works with.

Repetition on themes of fear is the strongest tool because our brains have millions of years of survival motivated fear of predators keeping us alive.

Visual identity of friend or foe is a human's primary tool of survival. This keeps people who look alike sticking together instinctively. This makes us very susceptible to visual programming and 'racism.'

That's where TV and film come in like Fox News and Leni Reifenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will' glorifying Dubya and Hitler.

Repeat the lies often enough and they are accepted as truth.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

16. Agreed. It is very real. You have my support as another parent. But...

"What gets fired, gets hard-wired," say neurological scientists.

Neurological science has determined that brains get wired by their environment through use and repetition.

Reference:
A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain

This book is by John Ratey, clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

It helped me understand how evolution and parenting (nature and nurture) are exploited by propagandizing and advertising.

Highly recommended for both parents and civilians.

While some brains start from birth with some 'wiring' problems that affect perception and function, outside stimuli from birth also influence how our brains wire up.

And obviously the databases we acquire and how we acquire them determines much of what we believe and feel. That's what indoctrination and propaganda works with.

Repetition on themes of fear is the strongest tool because our brains have millions of years of survival motivated fear of predators keeping us alive.

Visual identity of friend or foe is a human's primary tool of survival. This keeps people who look alike sticking together instinctively. This makes us very susceptible to visual programming and 'racism.'

That's where TV and film come in like Fox News and Leni Reifenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will' glorifying Dubya and Hitler.

Repeat the lies often enough and they are accepted as truth.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

17. Repetition, it's not just for breakfast anymore. n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

14. More on Television's effect on the mind

Experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman reveal that, when a person watches television, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is the seat of logical thought. Here, information is broken down into its component parts and critically analyzed. The right brain, however, treats incoming data uncritically, processing information in wholes, leading to emotional, rather than logical, responses. The shift from left to right brain activity also causes the release of endorphins, the body's own natural opiates--thus, it is possible to become physically addicted to watching television, a hypothesis borne out by numerous studies which have shown that very few people are able to kick the television habit.

This numbing of the brain's cognitive function is compounded by another shift which occurs in the brain when we watch television. Activity in the higher brain regions (such as the neo-cortex) is diminished, while activity in the lower brain regions (such as the limbic system) increases. The latter, commonly referred to as the reptile brain, is associated with more primitive mental functions, such as the "fight or flight" response. The reptile brain is unable to distinguish between reality and the simulated reality of television. To the reptile brain, if it looks real, it is real. Thus, though we know on a conscious level it is "only a film," on a conscious level we do not--the heart beats faster, for instance, while we watch a suspenseful scene. Similarly, we know the commercial is trying to manipulate us, but on an unconscious level the commercial nonetheless succeeds in, say, making us feel inadequate until we buy whatever thing is being advertised--and the effect is all the more powerful because it is unconscious, operating on the deepest level of human response. The reptile brain makes it possible for us to survive as biological beings, but it also leaves us vulnerable to the manipulations of television programmers.

It is not just commercials that manipulate us. On television news as well, image and sound are as carefully selected and edited to influence human thought and behavior as in any commercial. The news anchors and reporters themselves are chosen for their physical attractiveness--a factor which, as numerous psychological studies have shown, contributes to our perception of a person's trustworthiness. Under these conditions, then, the viewer easily forgets--if, indeed, the viewer ever knew in the first place--that the worldview presented on the evening news is a contrivance of the network owners--owners such as General Electric (NBC) and Westinghouse (CBS), both major defense contractors. By molding our perception of the world, they mold our opinions. This distortion of reality is determined as much by what is left out of the evening news as what is included--as a glance at Project Censored's yearly list of top 25 censored news stories will reveal. If it's not on television, it never happened. Out of sight, out of mind.

Under the guise of journalistic objectivity, news programs subtly play on our emotions--chiefly fear. Network news divisions, for instance, frequently congratulate themselves on the great service they provide humanity by bringing such spectacles as the September 11 terror attacks into our living rooms. We have heard this falsehood so often, we have come to accept it as self-evident truth. However, the motivation for live coverage of traumatic news events is not altruistic, but rather to be found in the central focus of Cantril's War of the Worlds research--the manipulation of the public through fear.

http://www.mackwhite.com/tv.html

[mandyky]

10. You should hear the GOP callers on CSpan this AM

I can't believe people who still trust idiot cowboy

[John_H]

12. LOL! 50-50 ? Chimp is dropping like a Freeper's IQ at a NRA rally

Down 7 in Newsweek, approval below 50, Handing of Iraq down 8 in a week and a half. I'll take that 50-50 any day.