Hannity and The Loss of Sanity

This isn't Sean Hannity, but they're in the same club.

Originally, this article was going to be called, The Loss of Sanity, but, I added the name Hannity for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a great rhyme. Secondly, it brings Sean Hannity, and lie-meisters like him to the forefront of the conversation, where they belong.

And, so why Hannity? He's the perfect poster boy for the right-wing echo chamber that appears to be an effective means of fooling white people into believing outright lies and voting against their own interests.

First let's look at the loss of sanity. I first noticed it when I began to notice things that I expected to turn out in a certain way, based upon my experience, turn out another way instead. The first example of this that comes to mind in the election of George Bush, Jr. in 2000.

When I write the name of George Bush, Jr., a creepy feeling comes over me, as though I'm writing the name of Lord Voldemort, "he who should not be named". But, the feeling that something's not right here, began when we first heard that "there was a problem in Florida". FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY... exit polls were wrong. The vote in Florida was "too close to call". They were "taking it out of the Gore column", then, "putting it in the Bush column", then, well, you know the rest. I shudder to think of it. George's "baby brother", the governor of Florida, may be able to tell us more about it. As a nation, it's when we decided to stop trusting exit polls to call elections, and started trusting hackable electronic voting machines and a right-leaning Supreme Court.

Is this when we lost justice?

I remember being shocked at the time that people were arguing that Bush was the better candidate. Arguing forcefully. Angrily. What was this? When Bush took office, we were shocked. And, he proceeded to do everything that Gore had warned that he would - started two wars, allowed lobbyists to write and carry out the legislative agenda, rolled back scientific research, and worse. All of the progressive gains of the Clinton Administration were gone - a huge surplus became a huge deficit; shady business practices became the norm; with a fall guy taking the rap, and no changes, legislative corrections or true accountability after the facts were exposed. We began to witness increased evidence of a lack of justice, in almost every area of American life.

 I think Hannity, Rush, and the rest of them appear legitimate because they're on t.v. or have vast radio audiences, especially in rural areas, where they're the only show in town. There used to be "truth in advertising", at least we thought, and the Fairness Doctrine. People must unconsciously think these are still in place, but the Fairness Doctrine, instituted in 1949 to protect the public airwaves, was rolled back by the FCC during the Reagan years.

People don't realize that Fox News can lie about anything, and get away with it. They must assume it's truth, or someone "higher up" would correct them. They must not realize that the "higher up" people are the ones promoting the false facts, having purged their networks of any moderate or reasonable employees who are unwilling to peddle their particular brand of false premises and erroneous conclusions. Acceptance of the mainstream media of this status quo lends Fox News and Clear Channel legitimacy.

From Daily Kos, "Learned Helplessness"

On television, there is not much value placed upon the truth. I think that can be very confusing for many people. Since there's no consensus based upon facts and research, people begin to believe that everything is just opinion, even provable facts become subject to debate. The dumb-ing down of America. There's no truth, only a "balanced" view, which accords equal value to lies  as the truth.

No wonder people are going off their rockers.