My beloved GF had the execrable debate on TV tonight. She just likes to know about stuff going on. I love her. So it's okay. But it's interesting that in all these comings and goings, the commentators afterwards talked only about "Who won?" and "Who did themselves good?" and "Who delivered their message pitch-perfect or not?" Nothing else. Think about that! Is this not a bizarro world?
Now… I make no comment on the individual or his worldview. I am of very different mind on about everything than he, I am sure, though I do not actively follow the news, getting it largely filtered though this medium. But I have noticed the recent reporting—all really more commentary—about the US presidential candidate Marco Rubio. Because of some failures at the last debate, according to no less a news source than the New York Times, he didn't respond aggressively to attacks on him, was flustered and repeated himself, and sweated profusely. That news source and virtually all other major and minor ones that I quickly checked are going on about how that poor performance marks the end of his political career. The mocking tone almost seems like just making fun of him for being weak, passive and prone to anxiety (and, what, short too?). This is not about his policies or misdeeds. This is about the media's manufactured spectacle of superfice over substance, a new target for gossipy assault with every news cycle: left, right and center. This is the consumer circus, more than just uncivil, even gratuitously cruel; society has turned all people into disposable commodities.
Gabriel Fenteany, February 6 & 10, 2016
