Iowa, the "Great American Delusion Showcase" Kickoff?
BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, January 3 2012
Here's Clay Johnson, in the Atlantic, writing that the Iowa caucus is the beginning of a national from-here-to-November search for self-affirmation, in which the politically vehement lose touch with how their chosen candidate is really doing:
The problem stems from choice and selection. The democratization of media has made it so we can all be Howard Dean campaign staffers, or followers of Harold Camping. Anything we want to be true we can find online -- and who would choose to be informed when they can choose to be affirmed? You can see it start with our cable media, as Fox and MSNBC are scrambling to find new ways to affirm the beliefs of the right and left respectively, all the way down to the corners of the web, where you can find out why September 11th was a conspiracy, how vaccinations are responsible for autism, why our first black president must not be an American, and how the rapture is still coming soon. No matter the crazy thought in your head, there's a minor media outlet starting up just to serve you: the long-tail of affirmation.