American Consumer Culture Essay

With political opinion as polarized as it is in the US, polarizing information is bound to be abundant in the media. This is especially true since the American media exists in a capitalist system, where a far-right or far-left outlet or publisher is much more likely to be profitable than one which reports from a broader, more-neutral perspective. The cycle of misinformation is self-perpetuating; by the time people reach an age at which they should begin to formulate their own opinions on social, political, and even scientific issues, many already adhere to the opinions and perspectives of childhood or adolescent influences such as family, religion, general ethnocentrism, etc.. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/14515/teens-stay-true-parents-political-perspectives.aspx) The media, especially news outlets, is very aware of what sort of information will attract the largest audience and, thus, garner the largest profits. People raised by conservatives tend to lean conservative, people raised by liberals tend to lean liberal. The same can be said in reference to a person 's religion, trust in science (or

Not the fact that we are a consumer culture, but the specific means and methods which characterize that culture. American consumers are not a group known for its free-thinking, individualistic tendencies. American consumers in general have shown themselves to be extremely suggestible. As a culture, we are slaves to trends, to popular opinion, to peer pressure, and to marketing. We are so suggestible, many of us are more inclined to believe a politician or a celebrity on a scientific issue than we are to believe a scientist, or even a consensus within the scientific community. As a culture, we allowed Jenny McCarthy to convince us that what is possibly the single most beneficial medical discovery in human history is poisoning our children.