The Real Problem with the United States of America!

 After extensive research and a lot of soul searching... I have come to the conclusion that the United States of America is suffering from a malady or malaise that is threatening to tear the country apart!

Oh, it's not the usual suspects like the Military-Industrial Complex or Big Pharma or the Health Care System or the Pandemic or Wall Street or the Insurance Industry or Gerrymandering or Voter Suppression or Climate Change or the Economy or Unemployment or Corporate Corruption or Election Reform or Lobbying or the Media or.... or... or... well I could go on and on, but you get a general idea of what I'm talking about!

No, my friends, the problem with the United States of America is not with "things" it's with the people themselves. 

The States has become a sick and divided country that is slowly rotting at the core and unless something is done to change the people (the culture) and their problems nothing will prevent America from sliding into oblivion... just as it happened to Rome over 1500 years ago!

As of this writing, there is a sizable percentage of the American population that has come under the spell of what we euphemistically call the cult of Trumpism, while there is also a big chunk of people that is revolting over the discrepancy between the rich and the poor. (While the rich have continued to get richer... the middle-class has remained stagnant for the past thirty-plus years!)

The American population also has a sizable chunk of minority groups mired in racism and poverty while the plight of the poor has also not improved in the last half-century. (More and more groups fall below the poverty line while the welfare state is slowly eroding from within!

There are big groups of people who believe in the propaganda spouted by Fox News and Rush Limberger as well as followers of QANON and Alex Jones of Info-Wars.

Need we mention that millions of gun owners who want to be able to intimidate anyone they want... and the religious movements that wish to prevent anyone from aborting a human fetus... but are all for capital punishment of grown-up humans!

There are countless individuals who are engaged in crime and violence while others are members of the underground drug culture. 

Fringe groups and mainstream movements dot the landscape with gay rights and LGBTQ awareness while ethics and moral/religious values decline... and fracture American Family Values!

After everything is said and done there are so many fringe and disparate groups that contribute to the general decline of the United States culture that we have been able to identify only one single, solitary family in the whole country that could still be considered somewhat normal.... and even that's a stretch!

The way I see it anyway!

(The Clark Griswald family while on vacation!)

 

KILL FOX NEWS!

 Some time ago your long-suffering reporter did a comparison of the three major cable news networks and I found one hell of a difference in what they were broadcasting. 

MSNBC and CNN stayed true to their left-wing and middle-of-the-road ideologies but FOX News was broadcasting way out to a right field Twilight Zone... as were radio hosts Alex Jones, Rush Limburger, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Dave Ramsey, etc.

Now there's a reason things are so screwed up on the air-waves! 

They used to have a fairness doctrine: 

• What it was: The Fairness Doctrine required that TV and radio stations holding FCC-issued broadcast licenses to (a) devote some of their programming to controversial issues of public importance and (b) allow the airing of opposing views on those issues. This meant that programs on politics were required to include opposing opinions on the topic under discussion. Broadcasters had an active duty to determine the spectrum of views on a given issue and include those people best suited to representing those views in their programming.
• Additionally, the rule mandated that broadcasters alert anyone subject to a personal attack in their programming and give them a chance to respond, and required any broadcasters who endorse political candidates to invite other candidates to respond. However, the Fairness Doctrine is different from the Equal Time rule, which is still in force and requires equal time to be given to legally qualified political candidates. (The fairness doctrine is not the same as the equal-time rule. The fairness doctrine deals with the discussion of controversial issues, while the equal-time rule deals only with political candidates.)

Then in 2011, this rule was thrown out the window at the request of certain media outlets... and nothing has been the same since!

Radio and Television are now sliding over into territory formerly occupied by the Internet with their Community Blogs and Social Review and Networking sites and Discussion sites.

This, in turn, has caused a wild west show to erupt on certain radio and TV outlets that is dragging Americans down to the lowest common denominator and totally polarizing the electorate!

Although Fox, as well as a lot of the Right-Wing Radio hosts, are mostly responsible for this mess... unless there is some sort of Fairness Doctrine re-established in American broadcasting... the only way I can see it headed is further down the rabbit hole!

The way I see it anyway!

P.S. On Fox News tonight I heard some foreign doctor with a heavy accent telling the listeners NOT to get a vaccination against COVID because it was too dangerous! Think about that for a while!!!!!!!