A Border Tale of Mass Media Manipulation

Feb 24, 2024, 12:11 PM

I read a lot about the border these days given it's an election year and the media like to harp on it.

I'm middle-aged now. But all my years growing up and matriculating in Texas, immigrants were part of life. They were in many ways part of our family units. Most all of them were Mexican. Some were Latin Americans. All were really, really fine people who loved us and we loved them.

Border counties aren't geared to handle the humans, they have no tax base, no revenue, no real way to do anything about it, which is why the state gets involved.

It's why Abbott's shipping them off - he wants other places to get a taste of what it's like to have this moving, fluid, almost impossible human crisis on their hands.

(Abbott is a fine man, by the way. I've met him a couple of times and he's got one of the finest spirits I've ever encountered in a politician, and I've known a few. He isn't doing this because he's racist, or inhumane. He's communicating with Washington, sending a message.)

But please don't be manipulated by the media's coverage, which is SHALLOW at best, and flat dishonest at worst. Same goes for the talking heads and politicians.

Here's how it works: A border county judge calls Abbott and says we've got an influx that we can't handle. We need money, and we need some help.

So Abbott sends buses and maybe a few guys with guns.

The local LEOs string some razor wire to slow down the tide and the humanitarians show up to help out, pitch their tents and set up shop. Local network-owned news stations get wind of it and send a crew.

So it ends up in the network feed.

Then some network producer decides to work it into the A-block for David Muir or Lester Holt to read about.

Now it's on the evening news, and they're platforming it on social media, and all the sucker fish are working into their feeds, and because it's on the evening news and social media it MUST be a national crisis, right? So now the pols have to answer questions about it. Or seize it to make political hay with their bases.

So, if you're gonna go vote this year, vote our wallet, vote your conscience, vote your party. Whatever. But don't vote FOR Trump because he'll fix the border. He can't. Don't vote AGAINST Biden because he won't fix the border. He can't.

Build a wall if you want. But it won't stop people from coming. The border is not a red line on a map. It's a vast, untamed region that is pretty much a law unto itself.

Yes, human mobility is of course beyond what even my folks experienced down there in the 50s and 60s and 70s before they sold the land off. Pretty much, if they saw folks traipsing across our land, they knew they were migrant workers, seasonal.

Now, migration is a hemipsheric event leaving open the possibility that someone from another continent with bad intentions is heading to the border. I get it. And reasonable policies should be put into place.

But I'd submit that a kid in Beijing with a laptop and wi-fi could do more harm to "our way of life" than a battalion of wanna-be terrorists trying to figure out how to cross the big empty with just a gallon of water and a compass.

IF you read this far, thank you for your consideration. I hope it's received in the same spirit of reason in which it is given.

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the borders aren't "open." People use that word to imply it's just one happy, friendly, hospitable zone where folks just stroll on over to San Antonio, or Houston or Austin or Dallas.

But anyone who's ever been to South Texas or West Texas knows there's nothing friendly or hospitable about that country. Just driving across it can be a lonely feeling, never mind trying to sneak across it in a pair of old Nikes with a gallon or two of water.

It's why so many folks *WANT* to get caught in the homeland security net at the designated checkpoints. They know their best bet is to get processed into the system, not circumvent it.

It's just Ellis Island set to a western vibe.

"Open" and "secure" are dumb-down words intelligent news writers (and they are smart, believe me) use to keep up the fear-inform-empower cycle.

Scare em. (The hordes are coming for your way of life).
"Inform" em. (Tell 'em how the hordes are coming for your way of life and who can fix it.)
"Empower" em. (Give 'em some good language to use around it so they can talk to their friends.)

It's that dopamine rush, and we all love that dopamine rush.

A Border Tale of Mass Media Manipulation

Re: A Border Tale of Mass Media Manipulation

Never.

Re: Never.

I don't think the "No Such Agency" sees us as its citizens.

Re: Never.

Well, I have a masters in History.

Now factor in the logarithmic acceleration rate...***

7 billion humans on the planet.

Check the numbers. The disparity is self-evident.***

People believe what they want

My one and only encounter with border patrol went like this:

Exactly...doing their job and not spending time processing illegal immigrants.***

Yep. Absolutely nothing can be done. Let em vote.***

I read that in my Archer voice.

Unfortunately its a very effective tactic

That's the thing ...

Show us his tweets***

Re: A Border Tale of Mass Media Manipulation

Not every first-world country has 2,000 miles of it.

shut up

You working the stateside for the cartels, finding holes and all...?***

Anyone who's been to the border can vouch that

Groomer Grimm is back!!***

What a surprise

Yeah ...

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