There is a lot of unproductive negativism on ths board.
I think it is somewhat cyclical. In "good" times, it is easy and cool to be positive, bullish, optimistic. In "bad" times, it is easy and cool to be negative, bearish, despairing.
To me, that is a sign of people not doing the hard, contrarian thinking for themselves, but just letting their beliefs and emotions be directed by the prevailing mood and the media that they profess to despise.
To some degree I think it is also a reflection of the current "bloggers" mentality.
People increasingly get their news from blogs (what used to be called pundits and talking heads, before the pundits and heads got blogs). Some blogs are thoughtful indeed. But your average blogger has no new information or research or investigation of his own to contribute. Because, unlike a real investigative journalist, the typical blogger sits in front of his computer all day, rather than going out and digging in the real world. How can he do otherwise, when he's trying to produce multiple posts each day and keep the hit rate up? So he sits home, puts on his snarky, cynical, world-wise, hip persona and writes.
What he writes is usually formulaic. First, quote a news article. Second, make some sneering comment about how the stupid reporters just don't get it. Third, riff on at length with his own opinion - no new facts here, just his opinions on the reporting of others.
This is pretty dull stuff, and there are zillions of bloggers out there trying to get hits. So he amps up his opinion, makes it more extreme (he calls it "provocative"), and hopes that he'll get more hits by giving readers what they want to read.
What do people like to read? Stuff they already believe and that makes them feel smart and "in the know", but stuff that is actually close enough to what everyone else already believes that they don't have to do the heavy mental lifting of actually having a contrarian view.
Thus, the huge mass of bloggers out there acts increasingly like one huge herd of consensus thought. And so do those who get their news that way.
|
