Thread: Century of the Self Documentary

Originally Posted by fortheether

Do you mean NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, MSNBC, NPR, NY Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post are right wing? "

Well I am not familiar with all of those, they are not available where I live. Huffington Post is notoriously right wing though. I'd say all of them apart from PBS are too right wing for my taste.
I don't think PBS does news (probably can't afford it) and that's a real shame for Americans.
I heard that the BBC is widely available in thr US and at least that gives a somewhat different perspective. Perhaps Canada has some good channels.

Fortheether, why don't you try watching BBC, Russia Today, France24 and Al-Jazeera for a while?
Assuming you can get them on your cable/satellite? Neither of these are left wing in the least, but they do offer a somewhat more nuanced view of the world...

Originally Posted by Crocodile

I think you're too harsh on them. Have a look at the other countries. Do you think the two-party system is worst of them all?

Well I for one (and lots of other people in Europe) are of the opinion that the difference between the parties in the USA is so small that there is effectively no point in voting. Lots of people are of the opinion that there is no democracy there at all, since there are no alternatives.

In Sweden, I can vote for the environmentalist party, Nationalist front, Communists, the Christian democrats etc, and have representation of my views in the parliament, in form of however many representatives from these parties are included. All they need is more than 4% of the total vote.

But in the USA, people with anything other than democrat or republican will not get any representation at all.

Originally Posted by Hanna

I can vote for the environmentalist party, Nationalist front, Communists, the Christian democrats etc, and have representation of my views in the parliament, in form of however many representatives from these parties are included.

Excellent. So, would you be able to spill the beans how the coalitions are formed between so different parties? What is exactly happening when it comes to the important votes and the coalition should work out the solution and not to break apart? How the so-called "interests of the voters" are being "protected" by those who so-called "compromise"? In a nutshell, the most powerful parties in such system are the smallest parties! (That would effectively address the "fair representation" claim.) The small parties' politicians could switch and form coalitions with either of the more influential parties and get the most of it personally. I've seen that happening: a politician dodged contacting on the phone with either of the influential parties' representatives and waited until his aides were working hard to secure a better deal with both parties at the same time. You're saying that way is better?

Originally Posted by Hanna

Well I am not familiar with all of those, they are not available where I live. Huffington Post is notoriously right wing though. I'd say all of them apart from PBS are too right wing for my taste.
I don't think PBS does news (probably can't afford it) and that's a real shame for Americans.
I heard that the BBC is widely available in thr US and at least that gives a somewhat different perspective. Perhaps Canada has some good channels.

Fortheether, why don't you try watching BBC, Russia Today, France24 and Al-Jazeera for a while?
Assuming you can get them on your cable/satellite? Neither of these are left wing in the least, but they do offer a somewhat more nuanced view of the world...


Well I for one (and lots of other people in Europe) are of the opinion that the difference between the parties in the USA is so small that there is effectively no point in voting. Lots of people are of the opinion that there is no democracy there at all, since there are no alternatives.

In Sweden, I can vote for the environmentalist party, Nationalist front, Communists, the Christian democrats etc, and have representation of my views in the parliament, in form of however many representatives from these parties are included. All they need is more than 4% of the total vote.

But in the USA, people with anything other than democrat or republican will not get any representation at all.

Hanna by you saying "Huffington Post is notoriously right wing though." puts you on the spectrum way on the other side from where I sit. Nothing wrong with that. As for other news, I try to watch the news in Russian but they speak way too fast and use too many Russian words

Scott