It describes a "window" in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on an issue. Overton described a method for moving that window, thereby including previously excluded ideas, while excluding previously acceptable ideas. The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous "outer fringe" ideas. That makes those old fringe ideas look less extreme, and thereby acceptable. The idea is that priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison.posted by pracowity at 5:57 AM on April 17, 2009 [4 favorites]
O'Reilly began by talking about the protests in all 50 states today by people who are opposed to “entitlement spending.” (I didn't see that on any sign.) Claiming that President Obama always had an “entitlement vision,” O'Reilly said that the “class warfare” (didn't see that on a sign, either) has been successful for the President, but that the Tea Party protests are “valid.” Valid to offer complaints and whines but no solutions? As Howard Fineman said tonight on Keith Olbermann's Countdown, “This does not a Party make.” He also said that if Republicans think this is the “next big wave . . . it doesn't add up.”posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:47 AM on April 17, 2009
The dirty little secret of conservative talk radio is that the average age of listeners is 67 and rising, according to Sinton—the Fox News audience, likewise, is in its mid-60s: “What sort of continuing power do you have as your audience strokes out?”Wolff, for his part, chalks the audience bump up to good old-fashioned showmanship, which is probably partially the case. I wonder, though, whether this isn't also the kind of final flare up of a fire that's exhausted its fuel, the last burst of heat before it fades entirely to ash. Doesn't the intensity of it - its incoherent conviction, its fraudulent, self-contradictory certainty - suggest a kind of senile rage at the dying of the light? Never mind mocking these morans - if not for the still-fresh memories of Bush & Cheney, couldn't you almost pity them?
You can begin to make plausibly large statements about the end of—or at least a crisis in—conservative media. “There are fewer advertisers, fewer listeners, shrinking networks, shallower penetration,” says Sinton. “A lowering tide lowers all ships.”
What’s more, it’s the Internet that is the fast-growing and arguably more powerful political medium—and it is the province of the young and liberal. The only sensible market view of conservative talk is that it will contract and be reduced, in the coming years, to a much more rarefied format.
And yet, by the end of Rush Limbaugh’s fractious month of calculated outrage, his audience was back up to 20 million.
I didn't realize until now that Obama makes a much sexier Hitler than Bush did.
The new regime declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution, disbanded congress, banned political parties, and imposed strict censorship on the press — all in the name of turning back _______’s socialist experiment and rescuing the country from international communism.Beware your ammo-purchasing batshitinsane citizens, my friends. It has happened before, it will happen again.
from another thread
There are just too many creeps and cheats to be able to trust that voluntary compliance can work.It could work:
Article IVor even
1. Where previously it is written " ... and the stop sign shall be painted red two times per year, once in spring and once in summer" it shall now read " ... and the stoplight bulbs shall be inspected every six months"
Article IVand so on. Measuring legislation by word count is a bit like weighing sculptures to judge their artistic value.
1. The sentence " ... and the stop sign shall be painted red two times per year, once in spring and once in summer" shall br stricken from the law.
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"Barack Obama supports abortion, sodomy, socialism and the new world order
...so did Bill Clinton(D) and George W. Bush(R)!"
What kind of person do you have to be to consider George W. Bush a socialist? I mean, who would this guy accept as president? Double-Hitler???
posted by PontifexPrimus at 1:13 AM on April 17, 2009 [38 favorites]