But they seem to really like the Airing of Grievances

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Fox News host flips over atheist holiday display: ‘Baby Jesus is behind the Festivus pole!’

"Why do I have to drive around with my kids to look for a nativity scenes and be, like, 'Oh, yeah, kids, look, there's baby Jesus behind the Festivus pole made out of beer cans! It's nuts!"

Doesn't your church have one of those, lady? It's not City Hall's responsibility.

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I'm a little surprised that the nativity scene is allowed
at the state capitol. I thought that was no longer allowed.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Satanic Temple Monument in Okla. May Include ‘Interactive Display’ for Kids (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/12/satanic-temple-monument-in-okla-may-include-interactive-display-for-kids/)

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I guess that makes sense: you just have to refrain from
showing favoritism. Like that is really going to happen!

[trog.livejournal.com]

If this happens I will send them a donation.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

Shit just got real:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/11/hindus-join-satanists-demanding-equal-placement-on-oklahoma-capitol-grounds/

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

That totally depends on the state.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

But I thought the Supreme Court had settled it as a federal matter. A state does not get to mix church and state anymore than the federal government. The answer I'm getting here, though, is that it is okay if you allow other, non-Christian displays as well.

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

It was settled as a Federal matter. The thing is, there is no real penalty for ignoring the Federal mandate, either.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

And much as the Federal government is derided as some terrible force, they aren't going around to state capitols and demand that Ten Commandments monuments be demolished.

I think it's good that other religions are talking about putting up monuments on that shared space, because it helps people realize there isn't a religious monoculture in America and it's really okay.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Every time I'm in NYC, I often walk by their studios because I spend a lot of time midtown, and it's just so bizarre - thinking that right there, in the middle of Manhattan, these dead-eyed loons spout of the most insipid nonsense you can imagine. I can only conclude that the vast majority of them are really nothing other than actors and opportunists, more processed food product for the country's expanding midsection than anything else.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Years ago (many) I read a book by M. Scott Peck called People of the Lie. He described human evil as "militant ignorance." I think it applies here.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

The problem with the media message that feeds the militant ignorance that dominates so much of our country's culture is that it's too precisely engineered to be merely the emergent nonsense of a bunch of half-processed preconceptions and biases that it appears to be. The people who write the lines that come out of Gretchen Carlson's mouth must know what they're doing, because if they were as stupid as their writing might otherwise suggest that they are, they would occasionally slip and let something unorthodox slip through.

It's such a fascinating phenomenon, when observed directly. Every cable news channel is trying to achieve a kind of attention-span bank-shot - not so much interested in informing the viewer as keeping them watching, which requires a slightly different blend of "information." Yes, yes, again we have the nonsense about the "war on Christmas," and then flip over the The Daily Show and you can see it yet again skewered just like it always is. This is not the stuff of "militant ignorance," though it might make an easy representative target. It's like accusing the producers of confederate flags of racism.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Though I agree with many of your opinions, I'd ask you to examine this sentence in light of what you already know about chaos theory, evolution, and emergence: "The problem with the media message that feeds the militant ignorance that dominates so much of our country's culture is that it's too precisely engineered to be merely the emergent nonsense of a bunch of half-processed preconceptions and biases that it appears to be."

You're too bright not to see the problem.

It doesn't have to be precisely engineered...think about the organ of sight and the Biblical literalists. Different context, same watchmaker. :)

[oslo.livejournal.com]

We're talking about cable news, not complex organs that have evolved over eons - or the phenomenon of militant ignorance itself.

I don't really know anything about chaos theory, evolution, or whatever you might mean by "emergence," but I do know that applying these things to the media requires something more than a hand-wave. For example, what evolutionary process do you suppose is at work, in producing what we ultimately see anchors like that featured in the OP say? It may be true that the message we see is the message that turns out to sell the most ad space, but that doesn't mean the process hasn't been "guided" by analysts, editors, producers, and executives or that putting its production in evolutionary terms is in any way helpful to understanding its emergence.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I used to work around the corner from Fox's studios. It's right around the corner from NBC; and CBS is right up the street too. When Roger Ailes started Fox, he made a deliberate decision to get younger talent on the staff, they'd be more loyal and easily controlled. He had attempted to do a Republican / conservative based cable outlet before, and the older talent was much harder for him to manage. They were bothered by real standards apparently.

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

I can only conclude that the vast majority of them are really nothing other than actors and opportunists

If you read the tales of those who have worked for Fox News in the lower ranks and subsequently left, you begin to understand this is correct. Everyone there is in it for the money.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

"We've already established that. Now we're just haggling over the price."

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that the first thing I thought upon seeing that pic was "Invisible Sean Hannity"?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Short answer: yes
Long answer: that's terrible, yes.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

I'd like to propose a compromise: no non-Christian religious displays, however the only Christian displays must either be live reenactments of the brutal torture of Jesus Christ with all the blood and gore, or those scenes from The Passion of the Christ projected on the side of the Capitol building and played on a loop starting after Thanksgiving and ending on January 1st. Alternately, I would settle for each Fox News personality being nailed to crosses for three days straight and distributed to all the major capitol cities across the country so we can all look upon their horrific persecution in awe.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I remember shopping in a mall in Arlington TX during the Xmas season and there was a stand showing 'Animated tales of the New Testament." All the Pharisees were depicted as shifty villains with hooked noses and Disney evil eyebrows.

Animated Tales of the Old Testament would be something right out Tarantino.

[bikinisquad3000.livejournal.com]

I got stuck on "drive around with my kids to look for a nativity scene." Can't stop laughing at the thought of this grim, chilly car ride going on into the night and getting more and more tense by the minute.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

IF I DON'T GET MY NATIVITY FIX, SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET HURT!

[pirho-maniac.livejournal.com]

There was a different image here, yes? I swear the first time I saw this post it was something from The Daily Show.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

The original:

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

the Festivus pole made out of beer cans

I know what I'm working on this weekend

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Remember to use PBR lest you be accused of heresy!

[foolsguinea.livejournal.com]

They're just trolling us now, right?

Actual Festivus poles?