Thank you for the concise answer regarding UK political boundaries. I seems to be a better system, even if somewhat flawed. The local situation here in The Cultural Center of the Midwest (it says so right on the label) is similar to the one described in your district. There are, for example, “elected” judges (a concept i find very difficult to wrap my head around) who “run for office” unopposed in election after election. Same thing happens with school boards and other local entities. In such cases it is impossible to use my method of voting against something. It is certainly understandable that one would choose not to vote.
Of course dishonesty is quite often bad. Capitalism, individual liberties, and democracy work best when the populace has a high level of integrity. It’s a shame that we as a nation have condoned and even eagerly supported far too many politicians for far too long that have no integrity in order to advance narrow interests.
How do we get to a society that has critical thinking skills, is well educated, not easily duped, and has integrity? Well, I think that ship might have sailed. The threat of an ascendant China might help focus minds but I doubt it.
Fox News specifically? I don’t see them as a problem. The problem is people who only seek echo chambers. And they are far more numerous than just the Fox News crowd.
Politics have not been that much different in the US than they have been in the rest of the world up until very recently.
What politicians are you saying have no integrity? I know hat politicians over promise on the campaign trail. It’s how they get elected. They tell you all the things that they would like to do, and make it sound like they may actually be able to do them.
The pretty much always underdeliver. If you are surprised by this, then you are either new to the world, or new to noticing it.
What is dishonest would be making a promise on the campaign trail, and then actively working against what you promised. This is a new thing. Republicans making promises about healthcare that are just blatant lies. They cannot tell their supporters what their actual goals are, as if they do so, then their supporters will abandoned them.
If Trump had actually said, “Your job isn’t coming back, and I’m going to cut the benefits that help you to survive without a good job, remove the programs that can prepare you or your children for newer, better jobs, as well as gutting your healthcare.” then fewer people would have voted for him.
Instead, he made promises that he would get them their jobs back, that he was only going to cut benefits on those people and that he would fix healthcare and make it wonderful. He has not worked towards any of that, and in fact, has worked to the opposite effect.
Not cutting education would be the first step. Improving education would be second. Is that something that sounds like the republicans are doing?
Right, there’s infowars and limbaugh followers, too.
Sure, there are a few echo chambers on the left too, but they are few and small, and they do not broadcast their resonance to the public.
Most people aren’t smart enough or informed enough to realize or care that their media is biased - they just “turn on the news.” They aren’t seeking echo chambers, they just don’t know any better. CNN is extremely negative on Trump but they will air Trump-positive news when it happens. Fox not only spins farther right than CNN does left, they will completely leave out many Trump-negative stories. Hosts like Tucker Carlson and Hannity just outright lie. My father watches FOX news and the other day, while Tucker Carlson was on, I fact-checked him for my father in real time. My father was aghast. He quoted some Dem congressman so criminally out of context that he could have rightfully sued for slander.