I just saw this posted on CurrentTV and it absolutely needs to be seen by everyone. This fits right in with the narrative that has arisen regarding the failure and interference of the corporate media. If there is one movie that will drive any sane person screaming from their couch watching cable news to the warm hills of the blogosphere and more people powered media.

Artist Brian Springer spent a year scouring the airwaves with a satellite dish grabbing back channel news feeds not intended for public consumption. The result of his research is SPIN, one of the most insightful films ever made about the mechanics of how television is used as a tool of social control to distort and limit the American public’s perception of reality.

I implore you to watch the first 10 minutes and recommend as soon as your gag reflex fully kicks in. This just demonstrates that our press has been crippled by its own fascination with itself and has been abusing its power for decades now. Just a few gems to be found in this footage:

• Larry King tells Bill Clinton that Ted, his boss is a huge fan and could do a lot to help.
• Several phone callers issue heated criticisms to Pat Robertson, which he responds to with meaningless stories and platitudes. As soon as they cut away to other coverage, we get to watch Robertson proceed to declare everyone who criticized him “total homos”, or some other such juvenile nonsense.
• Footage demonstrating how Democratic candidate Larry Agran was rudely and completely snuffed out of the ‘92 race by the media’s circular logic of “you can’t have media coverage until you get some media coverage”
• During NBC’s 500th Anniversary Propaganza Spectacular Columbus day special, an actual Cherokee Nation history scholar’s tried to describe the 2 years of genocide committed by Columbus after his ‘discovery’ of America. This is then derided off camera by Katie Couric, saying: “They just you know think that he ruined paradise and had no respect for nature and treated the Indians like dog doo…” (did I mention that she’s talking about a quarter million dead by 1494 and a tyrant who decreed that all boys who couldn’t find gold lost their hand? dog doo??)

I was shocked that this film isn’t widely held up and distributed throughout the blogosphere. The ENTIRE documentary is press footage, indicting them with their own words and images. It is impeachable evidence of the traditional media’s bias and fealty towards established power and the status quo. Please show this to anyone you can to remind people that all of the issues brought up by McClellan are nothing new, they’re the same old game and it needs to change.

As someone who has worked in the interactive industry for nearly a decade, I can say without a doubt that abolishing protections that keep the Internet free from corporate interference in the flow of information would be a major step backwards and diminish the United States’ in the global technology market.

Here’s how things work now, with net neutrality in tact. Let’s say that I wanna start producing hilarious cartoons or videos and build a website around them. I pay a hosting fee that is determined by how much storage space my website requires and how much traffic I expect to receive. But no matter how small or large my hosting package is, my site will be delivered to anyone who views it just as fast as Amazons, Comedy Central, ESPN, etc. If my cartoons are really popular, I have to buy a larger hosting package to accommodate my traffic, but that is my decision as the content provider.

Now let’s take away net neutrality from this scenario. Now my website can be moved into a ’slow lane’. For an additional fee on top of my hosting costs, I have to pay in order to get my site to go as fast as Amazon, Comedy Central, ESPN, etc. All who have way more money to outspend the average person, and thereby diminishing the quality of the internet for anyone who might not prefer to use the services of sites that can afford the ‘fast lane’.

The growth of YouTube and other broadband-intensive services is opening up vast new markets both in terms of economic expansion and personal expression. To abolish net neutrality would cease to give the consumers control of which services are successful, and place it in the hands of a few telecom companies that may not always have the consumers needs and interest ahead of short-term profits or stifling competition.

My entire career has been predicated on the technologies and trends that the openness of the Internet has fostered. The more control we give to private corporations over which trends and technologies will succeed, the less people like myself will be able to contribute to the market, ultimately stifling progress and possibly putting my economic stability at risk.

‘Nuff said, go sign the petition.

[Note: When I use the term 'authority', I am not only referring to governmental institutions, but to anything or anyone that holds sway over the behavior of a person. From religion and 'conventional wisdom' to fathers and bosses. The basis for my definition relies heavily on Robert Altermeyer's psychological study, The Authoritarians]

Politics is all about authority to me. Whether we’re talking about a populist uprising, a military coup, or the local election for county comptroller, it’s all about who gets to be in charge. Regardless of the form of that authority, the people who are subject to its will will tend to develop into a range of two extremes: those who absolutely trust the established authorities (right wing), and those who absolutely do not (left wing).

In between those extremes we find many different reasons why people behave this way, and many subtle degrees of commitment to their baser inclinations. I would consider an extreme left wing person to be someone who is radically opposed to the authorities, and that person’s right wing counterpart would be an equally radical supporter of the status quo.

Now, when it comes to ‘wings’, I pretty much leave ideology aside (we’ll cover those in another episode). The reason is because I believe that both liberal and conservative ideologies can manifest on either side. Here in America, we’ve been trending toward right wing extremism for the last 30-40 years now in that the population and the institutions they occupy have been subservient to the established authorities. If there is a defining indictment against our media and in the last 10 years, it is that they have not been skeptical enough of the established power structure. If there is a defining indictment of our government representatives, it’s been a refusal to question the status quo of ‘free-market’ capitalism, our aggressive foreign policies, and a refusal to address the need for massive change regarding our energy, transportation, and communications infrastructures. All-in-all, I’d classify the America of 1968-2008 as conservative right-wing in that we as a democracy have been dangerously dogmatic in accepting the status quo.

An example of left wing extremism would be “The Nowhere Kids”, a group I learned about recently in the new documentary, Off the Grid which is currently running on Sundance. The film focuses on life the people living out on the mesa in the New Mexico desert. The Nowhere Kids come into the story after the rest of the more peaceful community has been established. Here’s a description of the clash between the community and The Nowhere Kids from a review in Reason Magazine:

A more intimate enemy soon emerged as well. Shortly before the filmmakers arrived, a cultish group of runaways called the Nowhere Kids settled in. “They were extremists,” remembers Randy. “They were stockpiling weapons. They had X’s tattooed across their face.” The new kids’ brand of anarchy didn’t sit well with the other desert dropouts. “They act like a bunch of revolutionists,” snarls one, a pig farmer who frequently takes in teen runaways. “They cuss the system, and yet they’ve got their hand out…for everything they can get.”

Before long, the Nowhere Kids were stealing food from their neighbors. “We don’t want to call the cops,” Robbie tells the Stulbergs. “But we’ve got to do something about this. Some people already got their guns.” The film cuts to Moonbow, a man who sees no contradiction in talking like a vigilante while wearing a tie-dye. “If you’re not a good neighbor,” he says, “then we’ll band together and chase you out of here.”

The rhetoric escalates. The Nowhere Kids declare that they have a right to take anything they please as long as no one is using it at the moment. They also refuse to be filmed, telling the Stulbergs they’ll “put bullets” in their heads if they don’t keep their cameras off. The other Mesa residents start counting their bullets as well. An informal group of local leaders meets to plan a response to the thefts. At this point, a cynic might accuse the Mesa anarchists of forming a regime of their own.

These kids are dogmatically opposed to respecting any established authority, no matter how benign or accommodating. These kids ironically believe that they are anarchists when in fact they show themselves to be fascists. They impose their rules on outsiders whenever it suits them. When The Nowhere Kids decided that they have the ‘right’ to steal supplies from mesa residences they changed the rules of the community without discussion, and they refused to be held accountable for their actions and threatened the life of the people who simply tried to video tape the process.

That’s the problem with anarchy it inevitably results in fascism. They don’t realize that human beings cannot coexist without a form of government in the sense that we need stuff from one another. We need to establish rules that keep things fair, and whoever enforces those rules will have to be held accountable. The best way to do that is through transparency and criticism.

The point in all of this is that extremism in either opposition or support of the authorities in a society tends to be a very bad idea. It always ends up with a bunch of bullies in charge of a group that is too scared, too ignorant, or too comfortable living in a world of mortal enemies.

So my advice to each side right now would be as follows:

Right Wingers
You’re far too supportive of the authorities in your life. If your dominant authority is your church, you’re probably allowing them to make a lot of very bad decisions about how you should regard gays, history, or the contributions of science. Or maybe you’re still beholden to the views of your father, well to you I’d say “Look William Kristol, I’m really glad that you think your dad was a great guy. I would say that some of his concerns about liberals and left wing extremists in the 1960s were somewhat justified, and yes there are some scary muslims. But you’ve got to take a moment and reflect on what you have wrought.” And if I actually had the chance to round up the the entire republican party in one room, I wouldn’t turn on any gas, I’d simply try to show them that they have allowed their ideology and their inability to accept and offer any constructive criticism from both within and without to bring their party and this country to the brink of collapse. Of course, I wouldn’t hold my breath that they’d see the light, but recent revelations by Scott McClellan do give me hope.

Left Wingers
[Full disclosure: I'm an Obama supporter and I'm definitely a left-winger, though not an extremist I hope. To be sure that I'm not, I warmly welcome your critiques in the comments.]
First I have to say one thing to a few Hillary and Obama supporters. No matter how awesome your candidates are or how altruistic the movement behind them, we’re still gonna have to all do our part to hold his/her balls/boobs to the fire. Honestly, that’s about as extreme as the relevant political spectrum gets and that’s really not saying much. I want to emphasize that I only see this as a very tiny minority in both campaigns, but those of us who have our wits about us will have to deal with them none the less.

Oh yeah, to the really far-left hippie/libertarian who doesn’t get involved in politics because she thinks the whole system is crap has to completely crash, something that can only be defined as ‘genocide by apathy’. To her I can only say fuck you, you spoiled piece of shit. Yeah, our political process mostly sucks these days, the candidates are mostly milquetoast and it is usually choosing the lesser of two evils. DEAL WITH IT. Because things can get worse, and if we don’t keep an eye on our leaders no one will. Because if it all does come ‘crashing down’, it ain’t gonna be pretty. If we allow a country as powerful as the U.S. to continue it’s slow crawl up the hill and over the cliff towards authoritarianism, it will certainly ‘crash’ and it will ‘burn’ in the fires of tyranny.

Yeah, that’s the working title for a documentary I’m working on.

So far here’s the plan I have as I’ve begun some very preliminary research:

1. Interview subway commuters at various subway stations and find out how they feel about night and weekend service. Be sure to ask:
   • Where they commute to/from?
   • How often they go into the city during these times?
   • Would they be willing to pay higher rates for better service?
2. Once I have a good sample of opinions and a sense of common public sentiment, I’d like to start contacting the appropriate authorities on the MTA board about who makes these decisions. I also want to know if these people commute on the subway at all.

That’s it for now. More as it comes.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism, MTA, New York City

It’s not exactly a new topic, but I’ve reached the tipping point where I feel I must begin to participate in this movement and be an advocate for its legitimacy. I’m fed up with the traditional media doing nothing but chuckling over bowling scores and haircuts. I’m fed up with pundits pretending to speak for Americans, when the average American’s concerns are completely absent from the discussion. Most of all, I’m fed up with all the ridiculous crawls and graphics. Network and Cable news in its current form is officially a dinosaur and I believe we are the generation who will witness and participate in its extinction. Newspapers will change, but if I’m right it will be for the better as far as owners, journalists and the public are concerned.

Besides the fact that it so resembles a high school caste system, I’m also done waiting for the traditional media to start understanding how urgent an issue global warming. Sure the major science channels will do the occasional 1-2 hour ’scare the pants off you’ special, but no ongoing stories about what we can do on the local level. No ongoing stories of the people who want to spread the word about actions they’ve taken. And there’s very little coverage of actual local civic engagement. I have no clue what the hell is going on in my community.

While I am sure that a lot of issues are covered by my local paper, let’s face it, I don’t fall into a ‘reads the local paper’ demographic. Nor do I wish to. As i mentioned earlier, I believe that for newspapers to remain competitive, they will need to begin to invite and eventually rely on direct citizen contributions. If the success of YouTube and reality tv have taught me two things about the emerging populous it’s that 1.) they know how to work cameras and computers and 2.) reality is easy to produce. I can’t emphasize the second point enough. All the shittiest shows in TV land actually are harder to produce than quality documentary pieces because they need to trick you into thinking that shit is interesting or compelling. Case in point, Hell’s Kitchen:

Now as a counterbalance to what a solid people-powered media documentary takes to produce and have an impact, I give you this:

If you haven’t caught on by now, I’m a big fan of Current TV. I first heard of it due to Al Gore’s involvement and have been following it’s progress for a while now. It is essentially a media outlet that thrives on user participation. If you want the antithesis of what passes for news on other networks, I highly recommend CurrentTV if for no other reason than the fact that I want this news model to thrive.

So with relatively few resources, I am beginning this journey myself. I am going to participate in more community events, trying to connect with other concerned citizens and documenting as much of the process as I can. I don’t know if this will lead to participating in local politics, working in a community garden, or cataloging the timeliness of the subway on nights and weekends. All I know is that I’m excited about the outlets exist now for me to help create a more honest, legitimate and reflective media establishment. All I need to do now is wait for my new camera to arrive.

To quote one of my favorite authors, David Brin, from a lecture entitled “Evaluating Horizons” regarding how twisted these false prophets have it as far as Biblical precedence in support of science:

I mentioned the passage from the bible, here’s an example: In Genesis what is the very first thing that is requested of us by the lord? It is something that was asked of us before we fell from a state of grace, so it can’t have anything to do with sin. It was even before asking not to eat from the tree of good and evil. No, it was to name the beasts.

Now look at that passage, it’s actually expressed as a favor, as an act of curiosity. All through the rest of the bible, it’s all about, “you guys are gonna have to hard scrabble and work your way out of sin”. It’s the one moment when god asks us a favor–and it is to name all the beasts.

Can you think of an allegory that better suits science?

What could be more extraordinary or awe-inspiring than the idea that everything that sets us apart from other living organisms, such as our consciousness & sentience, our arts and technology, are all the result of a completely random set of unlikely circumstances? That’s the sort of thing I’d be more inclined to base a religion on than any one of the infantile, unimaginative, and egotistical deities that many people currently subscribe to.

I don’t understand the negative connotation so quickly ascribed to this explanation of our origin. If there really is a God as the major religious believe, how does belief in a complex biological system such as evolution do ANYTHING but make the Big Cheese look like even more of a cosmic badass!?

The people who refuse to accept evolution because it condradicts the Bible are really making their God look like a cheap magician. Especially when you compare the fairy tale story of the Garden of Eden to the well thought-out and self-sustaining system of natural laws that actually guide the world around us.

I’m hoping there are other weirdos like me who enjoy listening to lectures while they work. If you exist, here are a few that I’d like to recommend:

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Evaluating Horizons (Audio)
by David Brin

David Brin is the author of The Transparent Society. I’ve been pimping this guy’s stuff out to everyone I know ever since I listened to this lecture. I wrote a very long post over at Daily Kos, An Introduction to David Brin, with a lot more detail on that book. As for this specific lecture, it runs across a wide range of topics. From the pervasive theme of “question authority” in our popular movies to the value of criticism as the antidote to error. Here are a few exerpts:

Science and the Bible

I mentioned the passage from the bible, here’s an example: In Genesis what is the very first thing that is requested of us by the lord? It is something that was asked of us before we fell from a state of grace, so it can’t have anything to do with sin. It was even before asking not to eat from the tree of good and evil. No, it was to name the beasts.

Now look at that passage, it’s actually expressed as a favor, as an act of curiosity. All through the rest of the bible, it’s all about, “you guys are gonna have to hard scrabble and work your way out of sin”. It’s the one moment when god asks us a favor–and it is to name all the beasts.

Can you think of an allegory that better suits science?

Liberals’ Guilt Trip

Our very success makes us more self-critical, and the liberals have got to learn from this. See how the liberals brought last Tuesday about by always emphasizing guilt and never imagining using praise, for all the things we’ve done:

“You’ve bought our product for 50 years! It never worked! Buy more! You SUV driving, gun toting, racist sexist sons of bitches!”

As opposed to:

“You bought our product for 50 years! And look at the universities you’ve made! And these incredible bright kids! And the rising IQ scores! And the Earth that is half-saved from some ecological damage! And the karate-chopping Title 9 girls who we’ve got out there! And you fought the racisim in your heart until it’s about half gone. What amazing people you are! BUY MORE!”

——————-

How Would a Patriot Act? (Fora.TV)
by Glenn Greenwald

The next video is by constitutional law expert, Glenn Greenwald. If I were for some reason restricted access to only one blog, it would be Glenn’s. I first became aware of his writing in December of 2005 when the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping story broke in the New York Times. I credit him with helping to push that issue to the forefront by his careful and precise explanations of how FISA was violated and destroying all the legal arguments that have been put forth to justify the behavior of an out of control executive. These days he’s been doing an exceptional job of pointing out how the media continually allows the Republican party to put forth ‘mythical warriors of unquestionable manly virtues’ while the Democrats are constantly held up to be ‘effete, elitist freaks’. Glenn is also the one who first introduced me to the book The Authoritarians, which I believe I’ve plugged elsewhere.

In this discussion at a small book store, Glenn elaborates on the dangers of the Neoconservative theory of the ‘unitary executive’, and the necessity and urgency that we fight back against these ideas. This was a discussion prompted by his book How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok.

——————-

SCREWED: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It(Fora.TV)
by Thom Hartmann

Not since Howard Zinn has someone introduced me to so much history that I had not considered to seek out. Thom regularly has on staunch ideological conservatives to debate their ideas using logic, historical context and razor sharp common sense. In this book discussion he debunks various myths that are currently taken as fact such as the notion that a middle class is a natural state. He takes his audience through the history of the middle class’ rise and fall going back to the Renaissance up to FDR and then into present day.

This is going to be my first open identity blog. I’m sure this is something I want to do that may have an audience considering that I have never taken the time to create any official ‘memoirs’ of my shenanigans, coupled with the fact that I now have a wide variety of friends and family who are only aware of components of my life (each touching their own part of the elephant, so to speak). There’s at least a few of you who might enjoy these stories. Beyond that I’m hoping I’ll glean a little bit of sense about the path I’ve walked and where it’s taking me.

I’m planning on posting at least one journal a day, and at least one long story from the past each week.

That might sound like a bold statement, but I’m not gonna tell you about this blog until I’ve got at least 2 weeks worth of work up. Hopefully at that point I’ll have proved to both you and myself that I’m not a useless piece of shit.