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What do you think would happen in America in a FULL MEDIA BLACKOUT?

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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:00 PM
Original message
What do you think would happen in America in a FULL MEDIA BLACKOUT?
For one day. Maybe two:

You'd have no use of the internet, cell phones would be cut off, as would television and radio. You couldn't talk on the phone (land line). You could send "snail mail".

Say it happens tomorrow, without any warning. What would you do? What do you think would happen?
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bridgit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:01 PM
Response to Original message
1. we will all take up knitting...
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:03 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Aw, GEEZE. We could knit tissue-box cozies for those in need!
:P :rofl: :loveya:
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Mme. Defarge Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:04 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Knitting what,
précisément? Shrouds, perhaps?
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:08 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Tea-box cozies, of course. Or tissue box cozies.
;) Or stairway bannister cozies, if we felt ambitious.
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ljm2002 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:11 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. Yikes!
(given your username...)
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Mme. Defarge Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:19 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. Sacré bleu !
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:28 PM
Response to Reply #1
18. Hit the streets
I'm sure all my neighbors would be out and kvetching.

However, this is really farfetched. Instead of a media blackout, they'll just keep reporting on Britney's flameout, on damsels in distress, on sports stars run amok, and how sunspots have fried the net.

Some folks might even buy it.

The net would be back in record time. Corporations can't function without it.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:35 PM
Response to Reply #18
23. See, I was thinking of that too. Corporations couldn't function without the net.
I know it's farfetched, but what if it actually happened? For even two days? What if this country all of the sudden failed to be communicable by long distance? Just for a little while? I think of people developing and telling stories from one generation to another, and these are generations.

If, for a little while, people couldn't communicate their greatest or smallest need, what happens after?
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Cha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:50 PM
Response to Reply #18
28. And Christian voters=
Value voters.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2374032
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:30 PM
Response to Reply #1
20. We should do that anyway
because there's nothing as warm as a hand knit, bulky sweater.

Those things mass produced out of plastic don't come close.
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Jackpine Radical Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:02 PM
Response to Original message
2. Except for the internet, I probly wouldn't notice.
Probly just go out in my shop & get started on the boat I'm setting up to build this winter.

Then I'd start to get the shakes from DU deprivation.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:06 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. But even if you tried, and kept trying,
as accustomed to you (we) are of how everything seems to run smoothly...how would you take it? Would you be really fed up for a while and then go back to living or would it CHEW your brains out? I don't know. I'd have to read some more Thoreau.
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Jackpine Radical Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 06:28 PM
Response to Reply #7
42. I dunno. I spent a couple of winters in a northwoods cabin
without running water, heating with a wood stove. I was trying to reglue my head after Vietnam. No TV, no phone, etc. I did have electricity and a radio.
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Prisoner_Number_Six Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:03 PM
Response to Original message
4. It would give me a chance to catch up on my sleep
and my reading. :shrug:
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:10 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. Make some tea.
Sit by the window and look at birds. You know, you're inspiring me.
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alittlelark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:05 PM
Response to Original message
6. People - neighbors, would have to actually TALK to one another.
Within 5 days of a total media blackout I would predict that MANY people would see the way this country works in a more realistic light.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:12 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. Hey! I remember I had full media blackout when I was in FL with Joani.
I swam, got a nice tan, read, and had a few healthy meals.

That was the LIFE.
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Lilith Velkor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:18 PM
Response to Reply #6
12. That's why it'll never happen.
If the powers that be are really up to something sinister, a celebrity media circus will appear to ensure that nobody notices.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:25 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. Hey, though, how would that happen, hon?
Would it strike a few days before zero and warn others? I suppose I think there'd be no warning. No chance to get used to the highly unusual happening. No chance to acclimate.
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Lilith Velkor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:46 PM
Response to Reply #16
26. I'm not sure what you mean.
By "that" and "it" are you referring to a media blackout, or a celebrity-scandal media bombardment?

If it's the former, I honestly don't see it happening unless my hometown gets nuked. My family and I would be busy acclimating to death from radiation in that case.

If it's the latter, that would be a simple matter of black ops setting up someone famous.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:53 PM
Response to Reply #26
30. "That" and "It" would be some kind of happenstance to which no one was immune.
Like it wouldn't even matter to anyone about Britney's kids or anything. It would be a blanket effect on our own civilization, one that was impenetrable even for a few days.

We wouldn't even be able to speak with each other, unless it was in person or through snail mail.

I've been accused of being "out there", but I'm only asking people to use their imaginations. :D
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Lilith Velkor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:09 AM
Response to Reply #30
35. DC going kablooey would definitely do it.
A lot of B*shies hauled ass out of here after the '06 elections, because they actually believe their own bullshit and as you know, they were bloviating at the time about how the terrists would attack us instantly if the Dems won.

They were also shitting their collective drawers about how the Dems were gonna raise taxes before they were even sworn in.

Pretty funny, in a totally not-funny way, now that a year has passed. Wouldn't you say?
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Rosemary2205 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:19 PM
Response to Original message
14. Been there done that -- now we have "The Patriot Act"
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:29 PM
Response to Reply #14
19. What would you do?
Would you rely on postage, or drive to another person's house to play telephone by ear? I think that's what I'd do.
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MiniMe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:23 PM
Response to Original message
15. We wouldn't have to hear anything more about Brittney or Natalie Holloway
or Paris Hilton. There could be an upside to it. Also, no more tapes from Osama.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:27 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. YOU.
:spank: :rofl: No more KFC commercials.
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TahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:30 PM
Response to Original message
21. I've done that. I call it "vacation."
Edited on Thu Nov-29-07 11:32 PM by TahitiNut
:shrug: I've done it for 15-16 days, even. I talked to the fishes. (... and other human beings, of course.)
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:40 PM
Response to Reply #21
24. LOL. Me, too.
But me, I'd be hungry for news of some kind. I've always loved your attitude, TN, but you'd have to throw me in the bin. Maybe I'll learn to cook a red snapper steak some time. :)
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Mojorabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:31 PM
Response to Original message
22. Did that for weeks after a hurricane
It was actually nice. I missed the net but everything slowed down, neighbors got together and barbequed stuff that was going to go bad in the freezer and talked, we played cards by oil lamps.
Other than sweltering without AC I did not miss most of it at all.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:45 PM
Response to Reply #22
25. I love that kind of living, but I'm weak for news.
WEAK. I LOVE the outdoors, and the one-on-one companionship that comes with basic, very basic living. But if I were cut off, somehow, I'm not sure how I'd deal with it. Also, knowing that really necessary needs were at stake, up to and icl. almanacs, farm reports, the rest of the world, and gas prices.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:46 PM
Response to Reply #25
27. Also, I'd want to see how my dad's faring, instantly.
:D
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magellan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:52 PM
Response to Reply #22
29. Here too
After a day or two of settling into the knowledge that we could do nothing it was nice -- except, as you note, for the lack of a/c.
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orleans Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:57 PM
Response to Original message
31. no DU? at first i thought we'd all come here--that all the leftist sites
would probably crash from the traffic

can't we come here? please? in your example, just don't cut out the internet.

otherwise...i guess we'd just go crazy!
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-29-07 11:59 PM
Response to Reply #31
32. If you pmmed me your number first..
oh, wait...SHIT.
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Donnachaidh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:03 AM
Response to Original message
33. there are these really NEAT portable thingies called BOOKS
You know, the thingies with the pages in them? And some of them have actual *gasp* pictures (these are for the folks who get cramps in their lips from reading too fast). They don't require electricity to run, unless of course you are reading at night. And they don't make distracting noises. But they can be pretty interesting to look at.

Some might have to take breaks from reading to *rest* the brain cells that aren't used to being used for reading - but you can build them up with a little work. Hell, I had an ancestor that could read a 1,000 page book in a weekend! WOW! Talk about stamina! :sarcasm:
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:12 AM
Response to Reply #33
36. Oh, I hear ya.
Who else I work with does? Maybe 3 or 4 people.

My intention was to ask people who are used to getting their information quickly and without interpretation. People who trust the sites they visit without any sort of spin take the truth's place.
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TheBaldyMan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:08 AM
Response to Original message
34. It has already happened Jan 2000- present
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:14 AM
Response to Reply #34
37. Aaack, it seems that way!!
:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:
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Richard D Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:36 AM
Response to Original message
38. Well . . .
. . . there would probably be total panic. I'm assuming no communication device would work, including radio. No way for cops or fire department to communicate with each other. No way to report violations of law, etc. If no warning or explanation people would think that the worst has happened. Rumors would spread like wildfire. I wouldn't be surprised if there were riots on a mass scale. Paranoia would be rampant.

Sounds like a plot of a sci-fi book.
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Sugar Smack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:39 AM
Response to Reply #38
39. I'm thinking the same, too.
It doesn't have to be real.:D
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denem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:44 AM
Response to Original message
40. Sex!
The same as in a power blackout.
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Speck Tater Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 12:49 AM
Response to Original message
41. I'd catch up on my reading. nt.
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KG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 07:14 PM
Response to Original message
43. i'd really miss talking to mon petit chaton.
:hi:
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sniffa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 07:16 PM
Response to Original message
44. will reality shows be affected?
if not, America is safe.

:loveya:
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 07:17 PM
Response to Original message
45. No one will know what happened with Lindsay's rehab or Britney's custody fight.
Other than that, no difference.
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Flabbergasted Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-30-07 07:22 PM
Response to Original message
46. I would go about my routine like most Americans. It could possibly lead to riots.
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