....right. People who watch fox news would join the Klan if it didn't exist. This is sterling logic and clearly highlights the rational thought processes going on in this thread regarding the issue present in the OP and the analysis of Fox's responsibility and culpability in the situation.
Fox news is klan light. let us be honest here. i will agree that MSNBC is liberal central. They go to the other extreme, but fox is very xenophobic and they have their racist and sexist moments. They do it for a reason, because their listeners want to hear it. there may be a small bunch of easily misguided good people who get whipped up into the frenzy, but for the most part the people who get into it are already thinking that way. Fox just agrees with them. yes, a lot of those people are the same ones who say racial things. Don't lie to me, i am a white male. i have heard the closet racist stuff all my life. I have heard the off color jokes. I have seen those conversations that happen when the others are not around. you can lie to the black folks and the hispanics about it, but i know what gets said. I have seen the underlying racism. like some people i thought for a time it is really nothing. it is just blowing off steam. It doesn't actually effect anything.
Then it hit me. I got discriminated against. No not because i am white, but because i am bisexual and transgendered. I wasn't out and in your face about it. if i never told anyone no one would ever know. I do the guy thing good. ****, i spent my weekends playing war with some of the roughest guys you will ever see. Anyway, it does end up making a difference. people do look at you differently even if they don't think they do. What really pissed me off was i realized i was doing it, and I certainly was not raised that way, and I had good reason not to be that way. people just don't understand that even that little bit of joking and stuff you think is BS it has a much bigger effect than you intend. I will even agree that you don't intend it to be that way, but that does not change what happens.
I will try to explain it to you. you are not racist, but you hang out with a group, and in that group is bob. Bob is a racist, and you know it. Everyone knows bob is a racist. he spouts off and says dumb things. Over there is a guy named darnell, and he is black. he knows bob is a racist too. because of that he is standoffish with your entire group because he does not know which ones of you share bob's opinions and which ones of you brush him off. because of that you get the idea that darnell is a bit of a dick because he never wants to be around. All of a sudden you have a negative opinion of him that is not directly based on your prejudice, but has it;s roots in prejudice.
How about another example. you are at work and someone gets outed for being gay. next thing you know that person is getting picked on, talked about behind their back (which they can always see), looked over for promotion, and even possibly harassed in hopes that they leave. You are not prejudiced, but you watch it knowing if you say anything you will join them in abuse. your job and your family are in danger if you speak up. that gay guy probably gets why you don't stand up because they probably don't want you going through the same crap they do.
So before you start in on how the racist, homophobic, sexist, religious, and every other slant fox has is not as bad as the Klan remember it leads to the same thing. Yes, you are probably like most people, a silent participant in it who wishes not to be a part of it. but they suck you in and use you, and don't think they do not know exactly what they do because they are well aware of it. I have been there and had them use me in that way before also. Unfortunately, when i realized the problem lots of the blacks do not want a sissy little faggot on their side. It doesn't stop me from pointing out the racism when i see it, but everyone has their prejudices.
