media, uspol, shock radio, eric bogosian
Been watching Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio in the background while I work. It's exactly what it sounds like, adapted from a one-man play about a shock jock who's tilting towards an angry nervous breakdown on the air, over a failing country and a failing personal life.
It's weird. The politics in it were too intense and depressing for me to ever make it all the way through before. Now? Nothin'. The callus has gotten so thick and all the problems they're talking about have gotten to be so normal...
But I take a certain amount of relief from it. This movie was made in 1988, for crying out loud. We've made it thirty years with the kind of racist losers, trolls, and health crackpots portrayed in this film—and somehow managed to push gay marriage, a television renaissance, and open public discussion of democratic socialism past this cretin parade, even as its ranks have swollen.
Plus, oh my god, this film is a memetic gold mine. I think I'm gonna get about 40 ringtones from it. :) Some real gems about the high cost of freeze peach, too, especially if you let it rot in the gutter... Totally worth watching *if* you don't mind a quick, highly educational jog through an ideological sewer. But I have the requisite tolerance for sheer assholery, so maybe you're better off just letting the big mean kitty watch it for you. :)
Also, seriously, HUGE HUGE HUGE anti-Semitism CW for this film—the real-world radio host it was based on was murdered by Christian Identity loons. >_<
media, uspol, shock radio, eric bogosian
@zebratron2084 people are always killing us and always it’s downplayed or hushed up, so no big.
re: media, uspol, shock radio, eric bogosian
@Leucrotta Yeah. Are you familiar with the Alan Berg incident? Ugly, ugly stuff. People act like this shit is all new, but it's just more brazen and has a bigger megaphone. >_<
re: media, uspol, shock radio, eric bogosian
@zebratron2084 I’d heard about it before somewhere but Wikipedia gave me more detail this time than I’d had before. Thanks sort of?
This stuff happens and again, every time it does, it gets downplayed. There’s a little more bitterness there but; this country loves us when we’re contributing money, votes or uniformed bodies, but otherwise we aren’t and will never be equal citizens.