SnapSlav
NMA's local DotA fanatic
To address the original concerns, while acknowledging all the other comments that have been made, but not addressing them: that's all bullshit.
The news is a REALLY terrible place to get your idea of what it's like in the U.S. Even CNN is horrifically biased, so if you think you're getting a broad and "global" view from any of that, think again. It's not even because they're corporate; just the opposite is the case, in fact. Interest Groups rule the mood of the states, and what they want, goes. That doesn't mean Interest Groups actually control what happens here, however. Just the PERCEPTION of what happens here. The news can sensationalize racism all they want, it won't make it any more or less true than it actually is. It WILL, however, scare the shit out of some people who don't really know what's going on, that's for sure.
In the past year, there was a death of a black man at the hands of a white cop and the circumstances were dubious, at best. No, a racist white cop did not shoot down an innocent black man in cold blood. That just did not happen. But the NEWS sure made a gigantic issue of it all, and this led to some rioting. Very LOCAL rioting, and these were committed by ruffians and lawbreakers who were just eager for an excuse. Of course, the news made it looks like MORE anti-black overpowering by white police forces, so they just compounded the problem. Then when the topic finally started to settle down, another incident, similar to the first, transpired, and the cycle started all over again.
But what happened all over the COUNTRY in the past year? Not a whole lot. People just going about their business, mostly. Some people listened to the news and thought "that's terrible" while others thought "this is bullshit", among plenty of other perspectives. Cause this is a very wide ranging place, as far as ideologies are concerned.
The biggest thing to take into account regarding what to expect in the news from the U.S. is simple: is it within 2 years of a major election? If so, take U.S. news with a HEAVY grain of salt, because it's all going to be blown out of proportion to cater to someone's purposes, and once the election in question is over, whoever won will have won and won't need to shape voter bias anymore, and all the craziness will vanish from the news. It'll still be sensational, of course, so keep your salt at hand. It just won't be as bad. Right now, we're getting ever-closer to the 2016 Presidential Elections, so don't take ANYTHING you see in the news coming from the U.S. at face value. The chances of it being skewed to fit someone's purposes is simply too high to rely on them being factual and representative.
I live in Southern California, and apart from being hot as hell (because it's a DESERT, people, a fucking desert, AND it's summer!!!!!) and being surrounded by brain-dead hipsters everywhere I go, I'm quite happy here. Real estate prices are ridiculously inflated because it's a coastal state, it's densely populated compared to much of the rest of the country on average, and it's a veritable crossroads of cultures in very short distance from each other. So I get to experience all kinds of things in very close proximity to my place of living, and the resources at my disposal are really great. I'd still rather that Obamacare be abolished and I'd like it if the country were to stop teaching altruism and treat capitalism and rational centrism the way it out to be, so that prices for things and indeed many services (internet, to name an obvious one) would be much, MUCH cheaper and yet far superior in quality. But changes like that are just not going to happen overnight. As such, I am more than pleased with where I live... weather not withstanding, of course.
The news says nothing about what it's actually like.
The news is a REALLY terrible place to get your idea of what it's like in the U.S. Even CNN is horrifically biased, so if you think you're getting a broad and "global" view from any of that, think again. It's not even because they're corporate; just the opposite is the case, in fact. Interest Groups rule the mood of the states, and what they want, goes. That doesn't mean Interest Groups actually control what happens here, however. Just the PERCEPTION of what happens here. The news can sensationalize racism all they want, it won't make it any more or less true than it actually is. It WILL, however, scare the shit out of some people who don't really know what's going on, that's for sure.
In the past year, there was a death of a black man at the hands of a white cop and the circumstances were dubious, at best. No, a racist white cop did not shoot down an innocent black man in cold blood. That just did not happen. But the NEWS sure made a gigantic issue of it all, and this led to some rioting. Very LOCAL rioting, and these were committed by ruffians and lawbreakers who were just eager for an excuse. Of course, the news made it looks like MORE anti-black overpowering by white police forces, so they just compounded the problem. Then when the topic finally started to settle down, another incident, similar to the first, transpired, and the cycle started all over again.
But what happened all over the COUNTRY in the past year? Not a whole lot. People just going about their business, mostly. Some people listened to the news and thought "that's terrible" while others thought "this is bullshit", among plenty of other perspectives. Cause this is a very wide ranging place, as far as ideologies are concerned.
The biggest thing to take into account regarding what to expect in the news from the U.S. is simple: is it within 2 years of a major election? If so, take U.S. news with a HEAVY grain of salt, because it's all going to be blown out of proportion to cater to someone's purposes, and once the election in question is over, whoever won will have won and won't need to shape voter bias anymore, and all the craziness will vanish from the news. It'll still be sensational, of course, so keep your salt at hand. It just won't be as bad. Right now, we're getting ever-closer to the 2016 Presidential Elections, so don't take ANYTHING you see in the news coming from the U.S. at face value. The chances of it being skewed to fit someone's purposes is simply too high to rely on them being factual and representative.
I live in Southern California, and apart from being hot as hell (because it's a DESERT, people, a fucking desert, AND it's summer!!!!!) and being surrounded by brain-dead hipsters everywhere I go, I'm quite happy here. Real estate prices are ridiculously inflated because it's a coastal state, it's densely populated compared to much of the rest of the country on average, and it's a veritable crossroads of cultures in very short distance from each other. So I get to experience all kinds of things in very close proximity to my place of living, and the resources at my disposal are really great. I'd still rather that Obamacare be abolished and I'd like it if the country were to stop teaching altruism and treat capitalism and rational centrism the way it out to be, so that prices for things and indeed many services (internet, to name an obvious one) would be much, MUCH cheaper and yet far superior in quality. But changes like that are just not going to happen overnight. As such, I am more than pleased with where I live... weather not withstanding, of course.
The news says nothing about what it's actually like.
