and neither are you. Then why the hell are we being treated that way? Think about the number of times a day you read or watch something that is telling you what to think or how to feel about any number of topics and issues. Please, please tell me it's just folks trying to make their points and not people assuming the general public is so damn stupid it can be pushed and pulled into changing their minds just because someone tells them to.
Hang on, you know it'll make sense soon. Everything seems to be geared to swaying our opinion. Of course it doesn't hurt to listen to opposing arguments and ideas, because to be honest I'm not always right. Given a compelling argument, I've been known to change positions (yes, that's what she said). But this whole bullying me and you into thinking like someone else simply because "everybody's doing it" is insulting.
It's a constant bombardment, even with seemingly insignificant things. How you should think about this or that celebrity, what about this hairdo or that. A group of fashion "insiders" sit on high stools in their incredibly expensive shoes telling us what dress is pretty or not. And if you don't agree, you immediately feel like the kid on the playground who showed up with the wrong brand of jeans. It's like everything on television is trying to make us feel like junior high kids who should be doing anything they can to be popular. Screw that mess. I survived junior high once, there's not a chance I'd choose to live there everyday of my life.
Here's where this is coming from... actually it's coming from several different directions... but let's start here, somewhere shallow. I was watching the Golden Globes arrivals and a group of my girls and I were Facebook group discussing it. The thing is all of these girls are different. We're different hair color, skin tone, ages, heights and body shapes. We loved what we loved and hated what we hated, but we didn't have to agree. Some liked that Emma Stone dress, some not so much. But none of us tried to convince the others that they were wrong about it. You loved it or loathed it and that was it.
We disagreed on accessories and color of dresses and the big ass porn star hair. OK, we probably agreed on their hair because we all love jacked to Jesus hair. We're all big girls, so we all made up our own minds. Then today on all the morning news shows I see "experts" dissecting those dresses. They make you feel like a dumb ass if you don't agree with them. "That fashion forward gown was so goooorrrrgeousssss!" and if someone disagreed with the "expert", they acted like they had just noticed gum stuck to their $1200 shoes. All disdain and disgust. They use words like "fashion forward" about a god-awful-ugly-ass-dress (in my opinion), so that if you disagree it must mean you're fashion backward.
Here's the thing, all of those women looked like a million bucks, likely because that's about what it took to get them looking like that. And bless them, it's their job to look that good. Now I am aware that the job of the critic is to uhhhh critique them, and I'm cool with that. But don't act like you are somehow the final word in what's cute. One morning show had on an ex-soap star who quite frankly needs to stop the Botox and spray tanning to offer her "expert" opinion. What made her an expert? She wears clothes?
This isn't the only place all this "better-than-thou" stuff happens. Cable sports shows spend all day every day dissecting the latest game and discussing the next one. And they hammer you about how you should feel about so-and-so or this and that. That poor Tebow kid got nailed by the "experts" months before he threw a pass. I get it's their jobs to analyze, but even those folks seem to talk louder and louder until everyone agrees with them. Of course you have commentators who go the direct opposite way and disagree or be the "I told you so" when the majority is wrong, but that's not forming your own opinion it's conforming or intentionally not conforming (which is actually conforming... work that one out.)
Sweet sparkly baby J, what about all the cable news talking heads? They argue and argue and argue about who did what and why they think it was done. They are so up in your face wanting you to agree with them that if you don't you feel like a bad little child who needs to be sent to bed without dinner. They assume you can't think for yourself or form your own opinion without their telling you what your opinion should be.
If I hear one more time about how the "mainstream media" is controlling America I might likely start screaming and not stop. Please. People believe what they believe and they gravitate toward watching, reading and associating with people who believe like them. If you are a card carrying liberal, the only reason you'd watch O'Reilly or listen to Rush is to give your heart a work out from the fury you feel. If you are conservative to your bone, you're not watching Rachel or Keith for any reason other than to piss yourself off when they say something negative about Bill and Rush. People don't watch the other side's yammering to change their minds, they do it to reinforce their beliefs.
One of the things about this whole "mainstream media" crap that drives me batty is that people get pissed when someone reports something negative about one candidate or politician and doesn't report something equally negative about the opposition. Let's say someone drove 12 hours with a dog in a crate on top of their car, but no one on the other ticket did something equally nuts, should the dog abuser story wait until something equally disturbing is dug up? One for you and one for me. Really?
I hear constant chatter about which candidate is being babied and protected by the "mainstream media" and who isn't. Are you f**king kidding? If you think that's real, turn the damn channel and you'll hear someone bitching from the other side. And just my opinion, but if you're one of the top rated cable news shows, you ARE the mainstream media. You aren't operating out of someone's basement, you have a fancy set and someone who picks out your clothes and researchers and soundbites. That's the definition of mainstream to me.
What you don't have is the ability to control the mind of those who have made their own up and have the courage of their convictions. What you don't have is unfettered power, either side, to take away from me truths I believe to be self-evident.* What you don't have is the ability to make me into a dumb ass. Because honestly, the only way that could happen is if I blindly followed this or that person's or party's or pundit's or expert's path without ever forming an opinion on my own. So stop treating me like I'm simple-minded because I can't be swayed. Stop pretending that if I agree with the majority I'm a sell-out or if I side with the minority I'm unsophisticated. I do know that there are people who chase the majority; who find out what's popular and make it their own. Those people are often called politicians. Dr. King said, "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." Bring on that genuine leader.
Maybe some people reading this are dumb asses. That's cool. You be you. No worries if you need to be told what to think and how to think and you need to be spoken to like you're the lowest common denominator. I can see where that would be seriously appealing, because you could not have to figure it out for yourselves. But I firmly believe true dumb asses are a rarity. We're too smart for that as a whole, don't you think? Otherwise, hell would be empty and all the devils would be here**, just like junior high.
* Big ups to the Declaration of Independence
** That crazy brilliant Will Shakespeare is kind to let me paraphrase
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