Quote: (10-20-2016 05:52 AM)Phoenix Wrote:
For each of these debates the following seems to happen for me:
- These rvf threads report a major win or minor loss for first one.
- I search "presidential debate news" on google
- All returns either have a title like "Hillary reportedly wins debate", or the MSM article (CNN etc) is comically biased against Trump.
- I think perhaps Putin and his ilk are right in their treatment of journalists. 99% human slime. As a libertarian I would never dream of freedom of the press being abridged. But I'm not saying I wouldn't silently and comfortably watch with a box of popcorn as things happened. I don't consider these political agents "journalists" anymore than I consider Paul Ryan a "conservative".
This is actually a brilliant example of where ideology fails to meet the pragmatic demands of reality.
The whole basis of enshrining ideals like "freedom of the press" is to stop individual court cases setting precedents whereby legislative creep can slowly allow the government to take control of people's information sources, and their ability to freely express themselves. By drawing a line in the sand, these issues are supposed to be placed entirely beyond the purview of governmental power.
The problem is, the state isn't the only apparatus by which people can influence reality. The function of the press as a check and balance to government power is now entirely compromised, not by legal, but by social and financial means. The people's ability to freely express themselves is also entirely compromised by similar means. It is functionally meaningless to frame this argument from a Libertarian perspective, because ideologies are supposed to be created to meet the demands of reality, not the other way around; and something is clearly very wrong with reality that Libertarianism cannot address.
I'm not sure any ideology can coherently address this problem, either. Government interfering with the media is undesirable. What is government? The group of people who can successfully claim a monopoly over the legitimate use of force. There doesn't appear to be any way to fix the state of the media without the use of some kind of force, and if it is not applied soon there may not be another chance, as the sophistication and totality of their influence on the population's perception of reality is increasing rapidly. These people need the fear of god put in the fast, one way or another.
Civil war may be the only thing capable of bringing these people in line now, but it's a scenario in which everyone loses.