How do we maintain our democracy when Repulbicans have given up on democracy and now want authoritarianism? (2 Viewers)

[coldseat]

It's hard to believe how far down the road we've gone towards authoritarianism. Republicans are not even trying to hide anymore. If they are able to recapture control of the House in 2022, I have serious concern about how much longer we'll be able to maintain our democracy. Just look at how far they're willing to go in the article below. How can we stop this speeding train towards authoritarianism and nationalism in the Republican party and get them to defend and support democracy once more?

Their polls found that after the election, a supermajority of Republicans backed Trump's efforts to overturn the results: 86% said his legal challenges were appropriate, 79% said they weren't confident in the national vote tally, and 68% said Trump really won. Another 54% said Trump should never concede, and a plurality said state legislatures should override the popular vote.
This set the stage for Trump, GOP lawmakers, and right-wing media outlets to continue pushing the lie that the election was "rigged," which Trump did yet again in a press release this week.


Additionally, only 34% of Trump voters said they would accept Biden as the legitimate president, according to the post-election polls. That pales in comparison to similar surveys conducted by Gallup after previous controversial elections -- 68% of Al Gore voters in 2000 accepted George W. Bush's legitimacy, and 76% of Hillary Clinton voters in 2016 accepted Trump's as president.
The organization was among the first to raise the alarm last summer about the potential for unprecedented political violence if the 2020 election was disputed -- warnings that became a reality with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. They released the new polls as part of a series of reports about the manufactured "crisis of confidence" in US elections.

New polls show GOP willingness to subvert 2020 election

New polls released Thursday show just how far Republicans were willing to go to support then-President Donald Trump's unprecedented efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

www.cnn.com

An excellent podcast on how Hungary's democracy has fallen and the similarities between what Orban and his party have done and how Republicans are doing the same thing here in the US.

 

[zztop]

Yes, they are less biased, but they pretend to be neutral. I believe that sort of deception is worse.

tell us, in your opinion, which is 100% neutral.
show me on their website where npr proclaims to be neutral
where are you getting this idea of "pretend to be neutral" from?
Let me guess you think associated press is also worse than faux news

 

[Paul]

tell us, in your opinion, which is 100% neutral.
show me on their website where npr proclaims to be neutral
where are you getting this idea of "pretend to be neutral" from?
Let me guess you think associated press is also worse than faux news

I agree, none of them are neutral.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

Ha, ha! !!!! That was clever!
Do you actually know why some people lean left and others lean right?

It doesn't seem like that question would have a one-size-fits-all answer.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Yes, they are less biased, but they pretend to be neutral. I believe that sort of deception is worse.

NPR never claimed to be neutral. Why is it you think that being highly factually accurate is not the most important thing for a news outlet?

 

[Paul]

It doesn't seem like that question would have a one-size-fits-all answer.

Look up the five big personality traits. In particular look at the traits of "open to experience" and "conscientiousness". Liberals (open to experience) have a personality that craves the new and the exotic. They embrace change, foreign cuisine, strange art, foreign nationals, body alteration, avant garde fashion, are more risk takers, impulsive, and less organized, etc. The conscientious types (conservatives) love the old ways, stability, organization, predictability, and naturally avoid the unknown such as foreign cuisine, foreigners, avant garde stuff, body art, etc. They prefer the old fashion ways.

Many people have a bit of both and that would be someone like me. Others are solidly on the extremes. What is really fascinating is that each extreme side thinks the other side is that way because they are dumb.

Did I forget tribalism?

 

[Paul]

NPR never claimed to be neutral. Why is it you think that being highly factually accurate is not the most important thing for a news outlet?

Accuracy is great. I did not say it was not. However, accuracy when only reporting one side of the story does not mean impartiality.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Accuracy is great. I did not say it was not. However, accuracy when only reporting one side of the story does not mean impartiality.

Yet you say Fox News, which is less accurate and less impartial, is better than NPR. You seem to hold a lot of contradictory opinions.

 

[Paul]

Yet you say Fox News, which is less accurate and less impartial, is better than NPR. You seem to hold a lot of contradictory opinions.

I did not say Fox was better. I said that pretending to be neutral is misleading and deceiving. I am not a conservative and i cannot stomach Fox for more than a milisecond.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

I did not say Fox was better. I said that pretending to be neutral is misleading and deceiving. I am not a conservative and i cannot stomach Fox for more than a milisecond.

Yes, you did:

I have tried to watch CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. I will say that CNN and MSNBC are now on the left 24/7. Fox is on the right during prime time. They seem to have some guys that behave normal like Neil Cavuto . I can only watch Hannity, Tucker, or Al Sharpton for a fraction of a second. NPR, is worse because they pretend to be objective. At least the righty and lefty networks do not hide the fact that they are not objective.

 

[brandon]

Yes, they are less biased, but they pretend to be neutral. I believe that sort of deception is worse.

Yea, NPR should really be ashamed of that “Fair and Balanced” slogan.

Oh wait.

 

[Paul]

Yea, NPR should really be ashamed of that “Fair and Balanced” slogan.

Oh wait.

Why are we discussing such a mundane topic as NPR?

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Why are we discussing such a mundane topic as NPR?

You were the one who brought up NPR and claimed that they were worse than outlets like Fox News.

 

[Paul]

You were the one who brought up NPR and claimed that they were worse than outlets like Fox News.

OK! My bad!
Let's move on.

 

[coldseat]

I did not say Fox was better. I said that pretending to be neutral is misleading and deceiving. I am not a conservative and i cannot stomach Fox for more than a milisecond.

This is preposterous. We already have incontrovertible evidence of which is more dangerous. It wasn't the people that listen to NPR that stormed the capitol.

And if you listen to NPR for more than a day, you know they have a left lean on opinion, but you also know that their reporting is accurate. NPR never claimed the mantel of "Fair and Balanced" they way Fox did.

Also, every story doesn't have 2 sides. Sometimes, one side (as with election fraud) is just a conspiracy theory and you don't report that as being factual.

 

[Paul]

This is preposterous. We already have incontrovertible evidence of which is more dangerous. It wasn't the people that listen to NPR that stormed the capitol.

And if you listen to NPR for more than a day, you know they have a left lean on opinion, but you also know that their reporting is accurate. NPR never claimed the mantel of "Fair and Balanced" they way Fox did.

Also, every story doesn't have 2 sides. Sometimes, one side (as with election fraud) is just a conspiracy theory and you don't report that as being factual.

I agree

 

[brandon]

Why are we discussing such a mundane topic as NPR?

OK! My bad!
Let's move on.

Nah bro, you don’t get off that easy. You said NPR was worse than Fox because they claimed to be neutral, even if they have a slight left-leaning bias.

But while I was able to show you with exactly zero research that Fox actually does claim to be neutral (via the Fair and Balanced slogan) and you have been shown by others that Fox is a much more biased channel, you have been unable to show that NPR either claims to be neutral, or that they are more biased than Fox.

So admit you were wrong and that NPR is not, in fact, worse than Fox by your own standard.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

OK! My bad!
Let's move on.

That's quite disingenuous of you, Paul. You haven't even addressed the fact that you outright lied in post 80.

 

[SFIDC3]

This is preposterous. We already have incontrovertible evidence of which is more dangerous. It wasn't the people that listen to NPR that stormed the capitol.

And if you listen to NPR for more than a day, you know they have a left lean on opinion, but you also know that their reporting is accurate. NPR never claimed the mantel of "Fair and Balanced" they way Fox did.

Also, every story doesn't have 2 sides. Sometimes, one side (as with election fraud) is just a conspiracy theory and you don't report that as being factual.

I was about to post something like above, you said it better though....

So admit you were wrong and that NPR is not, in fact, worse than Fox by your own standard.

It would be interesting to see a cross section of folks that get their news from NPR and those that get it exclusively from Fox....I bet none of us would be surprised at the results....Fox is better than nothing, those fools have brainwashed countless numbers of people....