Sunday, October 5, 2008

"People are feeling...." YOU DON'T HAVE THE FAINTEST IDEA!!!!

Hardly a news program goes by where someone--an expert, a pundit, a campaign flack--doesn't say something like "people are wondering if McCain is really tuned in..." or "people feel angry at Wall Street for riding high all these years.." Usually, the person speaking is imagining that "people" feel (fortunately) just like him or her. Of course, such speakers also have their heads completely up their asses, since they don't have any direct experience of what "people" think. They don't talk to people outside their narrow little fucking universe of other pundits or politicians or political parasites orbiting those in power. Occasionally they read polls which also don't tell us much. Why? Because questions are framed in ways that don't really get at what people feel at anything other than a superficial level, and a level defined by the pollster and the prevailing political blathering.

The fact is that few people really "listen" to others. Few people actually spend the time and have the curiosity and empathy to really find out what "people" think--even if they COULD EVER BE SUCH A THING AS THE GODDAMN "PEOPLE" WHICH THERE ISN'T. It reminds me of meetings or conferences where someone says "you know, Michael, people are feeling that they're not really being heard..." and it turns out that 2 out of 67 people said that. These talking head-fuckwads should be made to actually go out into the world, be trained to listen, and take a shot at earning their millions of dollars by hearing people in different social classes and ethnic groups actually talk about their lives.

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