Of course, as many people pointed out, the Political Compass test is more serious than the political quiz I posted yesterday. Still, look at the statements from the first set:
I’d always support my country, whether it was right or wrong.
No one chooses his or her country of birth, so it’s foolish to be proud of it.
Our race has many superior qualities, compared with other races.
These questions are very outdated, in my view. Wouldn’t everybody answer them pretty much the same nowadays? At least, among people who are literate enough to want to take the political compass test?
There is, however, a statement there that I didn’t even understand. It’s this one:
There is now a worrying fusion of information and entertainment.
What is this supposed to mean? What are the responses to this supposed to be indicative of? Has anybody figured it out?
Clarissa's Blog 
A proud Tea Party racist american patriot who supports his terrorist troops will be answer Strongly Agree, Strongly Disagree and Strongly Agree, respectively to these 3 questions.
These day, information and entertainment are closer-related than before.
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days
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Can such a person even read, though?
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Sarah Palin can read.
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Or can she? 🙂
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Rick Perry?
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Santorum?
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For many people Fox News, Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh are considered news sources and/or entertainment. I don’t have television reception or cable where I live, so I don’t get Fox News. I do listen to Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh at times and I am primarily offended that 50% of the air time is devoted to crazy “rip-off” advertising. These companies are cynically defrauding naive right wing listeners. Shouldn’t someone protect them from the latest “learn to use a computer” and gold schemes? The government maybe?
But, back to Beck and Rush. I find them somewhat entertaining. The only problem comes when I think some people who listen to them actually take them seriously and might act on their rantings, Jared Lee Loughner for instance. The couple who cut my hair, and run the most successful hair salon in the county, are fans of right wing media and that is where they get all of their news. Every month I go in and get the flavor of the month. Last Friday, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman were out and Rick Perry is their new hero. I am sure this will last less than six months and then they will find someone more entertaining on Fox, Beck or Rush. They have also switched positions on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Mexican immigrants (all Spanish speaker are illegal Mexican immigrants their estimation), the economy and unemployment depending on what ever they hear on their favorite shows. They have been in favor or out of favor depending on when I am getting my haircut. And the great thing, Clarissa, is that the husband is Canadian. Perhaps growing up in New Brunswick makes one a little crazy, sort of like growing up in Mississippi.
Of course, on the other side, the Minnesota Democrats elected a professional comedian to the Senate. Is that life imitating art or art imitating life?
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Somebody started sending me Glenn Beck updates every other day. For some reason, these folks must have decided I will be sympathetic towards the persecution he supposedly endures from the “Liberal media.”
“I do listen to Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh at times and I am primarily offended that 50% of the air time is devoted to crazy “rip-off” advertising. These companies are cynically defrauding naive right wing listeners.”
-I must be a very bad person. Because the first thing I thought when I read this was “Serves them right.”
“The couple who cut my hair, and run the most successful hair salon in the county, are fans of right wing media and that is where they get all of their news”
-My Ivy League thesis director has a photo of herself with Rush in her office. So much for the East Coast hippie liberals, I guess.
“Of course, on the other side, the Minnesota Democrats elected a professional comedian to the Senate. Is that life imitating art or art imitating life?”
-I think they finally got a sense of humor. 🙂 Thee place is teeming with comedians as it is, so why not bring a professional one into the mix? 🙂
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“My Ivy League thesis director has a photo of herself with Rush in her office. So much for the East Coast hippie liberals, I guess.”
¿¿¿The obese bloviator??? I could understand George Clooney, Marc Anthony, Juanes, Darth Vader, or maybe Shakira or Madonna if she is a switch hitter, but Rush? Was your thesis on “Aplicación viable del consumo en exceso”.
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I know. I have no explanation for this strange phenomenon either. If there ever was a disgusting clown, it’s Rush.
But go figure.
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For the first two or so odd months, I used to love Glenn Beck. He was my favourite stand-up (or sit-down, or jump-about) comedian, and I frankly thought preferring The Daily Show or Colbert Report to Glenn Beck was proof of American foreignness. My friend, who had moved to Florida, even called to say that everything we had heard about the US’s lack of interest in black humour or irony was ridiculous, since Beck was clearly so popular.
Then we discovered he was not a stand-up comedian.
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I know!! This must be a shared response to Beck among all visitors from other countries. I was absolutely convinced the guy was delivering a comic routine and considered him to be very gifted as a comedian.
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Rolling on the Floor, Laughing out Loud!
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“There is now a worrying fusion of information and entertainment.”
Maybe it means that we are living in a world were information most of the time automatically equals sensation. Every kind of occurence will get blown out of proportion, because nobody would consume (and therefore buy) news that literally say ‘nothing happened’.
And if news people can’t find something sensational enough, they will just upsize something. And that is how you get headlines like “Vicious murder; cat found dead; Police refuses to send in CSI” or “Horrible dude caught humping his Ford Pickup, are our children safe ?!”.
And in the end, you have one drama-, sob- or horror story after another. Because that is what gets people consuming.
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The question is how does agreement or disagreement with this statement mark one politically. Say, I agree. What does that make me?
Or, say, I agree that it exists but disagree that it’s “worrying”.
I just never thought of this kind of a statement as being a marker for political standing.
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The more you disagree with this assertion, the more you support the mainstream media.
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