Arin Dube thinks he knows the answer to an ongoing issue:
In other words, the answer is yes to both questions. People are concerned about their actual conditions and social media is making it worse.
But that’s wrong! The answer is no to both questions. The evidence is overwhelming that actual conditions are pretty good and that, generally speaking, people know it.
But— they are being overwhelmed by reports telling them how bad things are. And while it’s fashionable to blame everything like this on social media these days, Facebook isn’t at fault here. Fox News is, along with the rest of the conservative noise machine. You can’t get through a day of Fox News without hearing at least a dozen times that Joe Biden has wrecked the economy and produced ruinous inflation.
Why does it take so long to hammer this into people’s heads? We know people aren’t very upset about their personal situations because we’ve asked them. And we know that Fox News and the rest of the gang are infinitely more influential than Twitter or TikTok, especially among anyone over the age of 20. Come on, folks.
I know plenty of Democrats who are also bellyaching about the economy constantly even as they plan expensive vacations, buy new cars and shop like crazy. They also admit that they are doing great but are convinced that everyone else is in dire straits.
They aren’t getting this from Fox. They’re getting it from the other mainstream news sources like the networks, the newspapers and CNN/MSNBC. I watch them all the time and they relentlessly project doom and gloom in a circular feedback loop that tells them people are complaining about the economy so they must be unhappy so it’s important not to contradict something they don’t feel. But they “feel” this because of what the media is telling them.
It’s true that Fox presents the case in apocalyptic terms that you wouldn’t think any sane person would buy but we know that people who tune in to right wing media will believe anything. But the MSM isn’t all that much better. And it’s infected a whole lot of liberals and progressives too.
