Yet more evidence that right wingers are in their own far-out universe, in this case from a fascinating new study by Pew (“Political Polarization & Media Habits”). You know how the corporate media and others like to always claim that there are two equivalent “sides” in every debate, that there’s a “left” and a “right” that are equally “extreme,” blah blah blah? Well, of course that’s complete bull**** in every way, with no factual evidence at all to back it up, yet still they persist. Take media viewing habits, for instance. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that Fox is just the right-wing version of MSNBC, or some such idiocy. Well, in fact, right wingers are WILDLY different than liberals in where they get their news: basically, right wingnuts only believe Fox, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and a few others. In stark contrast, liberals get their news from a wide variety of sources, and – perhaps to a fault – are more trusting of news sources (28 of 36 surveyed) compared to the “consistently conservative” crowd, who only trust Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Drudge, the Blaze – also a Glenn Beck project – Fox, the Wall Street Journal and freakin’ Breitbart – hahahaha. Think about that: right wingers only trust extremist nutjobs like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. I mean, it’s not surprising to most of us, I’m sure, but still…WTF?!?
By the way, I must say that I find it disheartening to see how many liberals watch trash networks like CNN, which basically traffics in triviality, superficiality, “if it bleeds it leads,” extreme weather, shark attacks and other assorted garbage. I mean, seriously, if you get your news from CNN, you have no clue what’s going on the world. Same thing, frankly, if you get your news from the major networks’ evening newscasts – same basic crap as CNN (weather, fires, idiocy, triviality, etc.). My recommendations out of Pew’s list for where anyone who’s not a right wingnut should be getting their news? How about any/all of the following: NPR, PBS, the BBC, the Economist, the Guardian, Mother Jones and the New York Times? As for Politico, I’d just take that as “Tiger Beat on the Potomac” infotainment and faux-narrative creation for the most part.
Anyway, the bottom line is not that liberals are necessarily super-well-informed people. Again, if you get most of your news from CNN or comedy shows or whatever, you’re not going to be. However, the right wing simply lives in a bizarre, freakish alternate universe that bears zero resemblance to that thing we call “reality.” What it DOES do very well, however, is to stoke fear, anger, ignorance, outrage, and other manifestations of the “worse angels of our nature.” For the folks stuck in that echo chamber, all I can say is: run, don’t walk, as fast as you can away from it! The brain cells (not to mention sanity) you save may be your own. 🙂
P.S. It’s funny and appropriate that nobody trusts BuzzFeed. Unless you like cute dog and cat “listicles” and other assorted cotton candy for the brain.
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
