{"id":3465,"date":"2021-05-20T15:55:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T20:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/?p=3465"},"modified":"2021-05-20T15:55:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T20:55:19","slug":"there-can-only-be-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/2021\/05\/20\/there-can-only-be-one\/","title":{"rendered":"There Can Only Be One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I started listening to this during a discussion of awards shows on one of the podcasts I was listening to.  I reject that. There can be many places where there\u2019s no ultimate winner.  Obligatory <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=%22there%20can%20only%20be%20one%22\" target=\"_blank\">UDict<\/a>.  (My mother used to watch that all the time&#8230;.wasn&#8217;t my thing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But more of it was listening to a discussion among <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lionsofliberty.com\/episodes\/ell229\" target=\"_blank\">these folks<\/a>.  Bryan and Thad were talking about things that happened in the South during the Jim Crow era, where people would just do things to provide for\/sell to each other in spite of whatever ways an authoritarian government, or other racist denizens wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No.  They just did their own thing.  Because of that, they were attacked either by the thugs with badges, or hoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is there really that big a difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there was a big push to be number one in the approved economy.  That led to the awards shows, and the like.  Bubuhbut Oscars So White!!1!  That problem&#8217;s been solved, and the audiences continues to shrink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Intertubes have given people a way to narrowcast, and people aren&#8217;t consuming things the same way they used to.  So your product ends up as &#8220;number one,&#8221; but does that really matter when your cumulative audience is smaller than the number ones from the past when there were less people around to consume?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is an older segment of the population who really still care about that stuff;  it was <strong>the<\/strong> thing not terribly long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The people worried about those things are the ones driving the news cycle.  They&#8217;ll continue crowing about it until their audience shrinks to the point when there isn&#8217;t anybody left watching\/listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can&#8217;t bring myself to be upset about this&#8230;and that&#8217;s part of why I&#8217;m a bad person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the same thing applies to the political parties.  Narrow down options, hope that people are okay with just one choice to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People will stop paying attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That they&#8217;ve got the guns might dissuade people, but I&#8217;m wondering, really, if it does.  Even under the threat of death, I&#8217;d probably just choose to not participate.  Oh well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I started listening to this during a discussion of awards shows on one of the podcasts I was listening to. I reject that. There can be many places where there\u2019s no ultimate winner. Obligatory UDict. (My mother used to watch that all the time&#8230;.wasn&#8217;t my thing) But more of it was listening to a discussion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scarred-brain-murmurings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}