For inexplicable reasons, my car radio is stuck on the a.m. dial. This is the second time this has happened and I’m resigned to the fact that I may never again be able to listen to WDST or any other progressive music radio stations. As long as I have my aux cord, I can stream Spotify and Apple Music to my heart’s content. Plus, I have that Allman Brothers’ CD for times when I can’t access a signal.
These days, I’m occupied with relistening to Demon Copperhead, but when N is at work using the Spotify account, I often find myself scanning the options available on a.m. radio. Occasionally, I torture try to educate myself by stopping on a station which presents a political perspective which, shall we say, diverges from my own beliefs.
You know, it’s like comparing apples and those influenced and empowered by an orange man.
On Wednesday night, the station I landed on (890 WGNA) featured a man sharing some WWII history about the Japanese response to being backed into a corner by American soldiers. According to the speaker, the Japanese had been so convinced by their government’s repeated warnings about the horrors they would face if they were captured by the Americans. Rather than surrender, thousands opted to jump to their deaths. As the voice on the radio explained, the Japanese were tossing themselves (and their children as if they were pieces of wood) off a cliff on Saipan in an act of bravery and love.
At this point in the tale, I was waiting for what I knew would come – some sort of comparison to contemporary politics and the ability of the government to persuade people to accept and believe their warnings and then act upon them.
The radio “historian” did not disappoint. The details he provided did not stick with me, but essentially he was warning his listeners about the perils of believing what the government says. The government can’t be trusted to act in our best interests, get it?
Because my radio remained on the station I had listened to the previous night, I received a second dose of the brainwashing listeners of conservative consume. This time, though, it came in the form of advertisements. In fact, during my entire drive from home to yoga in East Greenbush, all I heard were advertisements. There wasn’t an iota of “content.”
This was more than on brand since it seems that listeners of this type of media are consistently being sold something – a narrative, false information, a bill of bullshit goods. Why not offer folks the opportunity to actually purchase something with real money?
The first advertisement was for pharmaceuticals to address ED. You know (whispering loudly) ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION. Due to the sensitiveness of this topic, what was being offered was the opportunity to reach out for treatment online, avoiding the awkwardness of in person visits. A fella could complete some intake forms electronically, be assigned to someone local to them and receive medication through the mail. How easy is that?
Let’s just say, far easier than when a woman seeks reproductive healthcare.
Next up was a promotion for a company which sells gold, which is described as a safe and profitable means of accumulating wealth. Food prices are just one of the things Democrats are manipulating and, as the narrator (DJT, Jr.) warns, the socialists are coming to take away your $$. The only safe way to hold on to your wealth is through investment in precious metals, namely gold.
Got to hear this advertisement twice. Oh, lucky me!
I then heard an offer to help listeners break their timeshare contracts. As the speaker proudly repeated, he isn’t even a lawyer, although he might look and sound like one. No, he would never want to be a lawyer, all he wants is to help you shirk your financial obligations. Commitment, schmitment. Call right now! Operators are standing by.
How many times as Donald Trump declared bankruptcy? How much money does he owe people with whom he had written contracts?
The daily Wall Street report led with the value and activity of shares of Tesla. This is what you get for $75 million in campaign donations – a candidate and preferential promotion from the financial market. Why is our government enabling this man?
Other than the financial recap of the market, each radio spot featured the male voice equivalent of what has been described in women as “shrill.” Kind of up a notch in both speed and hysteria.
Hard to hear without an increased heart rate response.
A political reporter I’m friendly with told me recently that he believed Trump was going to win. His prediction has sucked some of the positive energy I’d been feeling away.
I don’t know how to live healthily through another Trump term.
I understand that the way Harris was presented as the democratic candidate was problematic in its lack of democratic participation, i.e. a primary. However, I truly believe that a decision needed to be made and the Democratic Party had zero time to present anything less than a decisive and unified front. Biden could not do the job.
Women, immigrants and BIPOC people are justified in their stance that the Democratic Party should not presume that they will receive their precious votes. Codify reproductive rights, work to end discrimination in all areas of society, recognize and reward the contributions made by marginalized individuals. Earn their votes with deserving and tangible actions.
But, speaking of deserving, I don’t know if those who are willing to sit out this election cycle understand the treatment to which women, immigrants and BIPOC people will be subjected should DJT be returned to the Oval Office. He and JD Vance will be coming for them, gloves off.
A woman’s reproductive healthcare options will be regulated and managed by agencies beyond herself. Gender identity will no longer be respected. Black Americans will lose with anti-discrimination laws weakened, cuts to the Education Department impacting early childhood education and increased use of the death penalty which disproportionately affects Black people.
Going right is all wrong.
Vote.
DelSo 
Amazing Sil Lil. Thank you!
😘