dichotomies in media: exhaustive v exclusive.
Jan. 19th, 2010 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI think the news media is lazy.
First they created a false dichotomy about the abortion debate. They went out and found the looniest crazy people who would scream on the air and contrasted them with educated people who know that reproductive rights are the foundation of gender equality.
But the same news media puts assholes like Pat Robertson on the TV saying that Haitians made a pact with the devil and deserved what they got. Jon Stewart was on his show saying, "NOT THE RIGHT TIME!" but no one else was denouncing him. There are a LOT of people who have their own forums and no one, not even my friends, said anything publicly against the asshole.
Where was the dichotomy? Why didn't they have local church leaders saying, "We believe Christianity is about helping others." Or even regular people saying, "He doesn't speak for me."
The news media created the mainstream pro-life movement (which is, at the heart of it, about the subjugation of heterosexual women) by allowing the crazy people on the air. Now they put the crazy church guys on the air and make Americans sound like complete assholes who have no compassion for anyone else.
Christianity is lacking one major major thing as a religion. Smiting by god-thrown lightning. I'd be happy to be in church every Sunday if there was the face of a dude in the sky who exploded Pat Robertson with a ball of electrical force, preferably while he was on the TV so everyone would know god hates people who blaspheme. Without that, god seems ineffectual.
God can't get rid of assholes who speak in his name, why would god care if women use contraception so they can have fulfilling careers and not overpopulate the planet with children they don't love or want?
Pun intended. There are two kinds of dichotomy. The kind that says if it's not A, it's B. And the kind where if it's A, it can't be B. Called jointly exhaustive and mutually exclusive, according to wikipedia. So the news media manufactures dichotomies that appear jointly exhaustive and are probably mutually exclusive. I doubt that the scarily high percentage of Americans who claim to be Christian actually want Pat Robertson speaking for them. I've always taken their apparent silence for tacit consent, jointly exhaustive... if they're not Agreeing with Robertson, they'd Be telling him off. And that's a false dichotomy, there might be a C or D option or even a Q option.
First they created a false dichotomy about the abortion debate. They went out and found the looniest crazy people who would scream on the air and contrasted them with educated people who know that reproductive rights are the foundation of gender equality.
But the same news media puts assholes like Pat Robertson on the TV saying that Haitians made a pact with the devil and deserved what they got. Jon Stewart was on his show saying, "NOT THE RIGHT TIME!" but no one else was denouncing him. There are a LOT of people who have their own forums and no one, not even my friends, said anything publicly against the asshole.
Where was the dichotomy? Why didn't they have local church leaders saying, "We believe Christianity is about helping others." Or even regular people saying, "He doesn't speak for me."
The news media created the mainstream pro-life movement (which is, at the heart of it, about the subjugation of heterosexual women) by allowing the crazy people on the air. Now they put the crazy church guys on the air and make Americans sound like complete assholes who have no compassion for anyone else.
Christianity is lacking one major major thing as a religion. Smiting by god-thrown lightning. I'd be happy to be in church every Sunday if there was the face of a dude in the sky who exploded Pat Robertson with a ball of electrical force, preferably while he was on the TV so everyone would know god hates people who blaspheme. Without that, god seems ineffectual.
God can't get rid of assholes who speak in his name, why would god care if women use contraception so they can have fulfilling careers and not overpopulate the planet with children they don't love or want?
Pun intended. There are two kinds of dichotomy. The kind that says if it's not A, it's B. And the kind where if it's A, it can't be B. Called jointly exhaustive and mutually exclusive, according to wikipedia. So the news media manufactures dichotomies that appear jointly exhaustive and are probably mutually exclusive. I doubt that the scarily high percentage of Americans who claim to be Christian actually want Pat Robertson speaking for them. I've always taken their apparent silence for tacit consent, jointly exhaustive... if they're not Agreeing with Robertson, they'd Be telling him off. And that's a false dichotomy, there might be a C or D option or even a Q option.
