Philosophers suck!
When reading this chapter about the trash working class comercialization it was really hard for me to not become emotionally enraged by what Habermas was arguing. He claims multiple times that the working class opionions are none other than worthless. However Mckee is very willing to defend Habermas for this stance insisting that he (meaning Habermas) "makes this claim not because he dislikes the working class... indeed his position is the opposite". I don't see how this is Habermas's position for he repeatidly says that he sees the working class's contribution as worthless. To me this is dumbing down anyone who doesn't have a college degree. Honestly it makes these rich "thinkers" seem like rich snobs who need to be punched in the nose. Just because they contribute to society does not mean what other people contribute isn't important just because they are not highly educated.
An example of someone who is highly educated but is not nessicarily smarter would be politicians who are the ones who decide how are school system is to be run. Not the lower class teachers who are with the kids on a daily basis and see first hand what works and what doesn't work for the kids. So of course our schools are so messed up when "these so called High-class" citazens decide that the best way to get kids through school is to test them till they have blood shot eyes.
The other point Habermas made which other classmates have already made and i think is wrong for Habermas to say is about entertainment, which he basically says is worthless as well. So in fact all the people who work twice as hard to earn half the income are not allowed to enjoy some personal entertainment because they are particapating in a "dumbed down" part of society is lame. Its entertainment for heavens sake, one benefit if nothing else would be to relieve stress away from their own life maybe the persons crumy job.
This is probibly a lot of rambling but overall I think these "high class thinkers" are truthfully really lame for writing off people in the working class just because they are not educated. Just becuase a person is not educated doesn't mean he/she can't bring their own life experiences to the table/public sphere.
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I would have thought that amongst the many good reasons why one could feel enraged when considering the state of the world, Habermas' work would be quite low on the list. What is it about his argumentation that gets you so worked up? All he's saying is that what fuels the obvious dumbing down of the media is that it makes money for the advertisers ...
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