My 22 year old, college from his bedroom son, informed me that anyone against woke/cancel/antifa culture is a Nazi. When I asked him if he thought I was a Nazi, he smirked & shrugged, which was an obvious passive aggressive affirmation of my Nazi-ness. While I don't feel like a Nazi, it took most of will power to not go all SS on his punk ass. So much so that it's pushed my heart into a crazy 2 day arrhythmia.
It's been a tense 2 days here. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends my 30 year marriage.
The irony I suppose is that I didn't even vote for Trump, just pointed out the bullshit around Trump.
I used this McCluhan quote before. Didn't think I'd be the idiot.
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is a hallucinating idiot...for he sees what no one else does: things that, to everyone else, are not there.”
I don't excuse the lawlessness in DC, but the reaction to it is as scary as the act itself. I see talk of sedition charges, companies firing their employees without any sort of due process, sycophant CEOs jumping on the opportunity to denounce the violence as if they are doing it in the spirit of altruism and patriotism. Please... The mainstream media, for their part, is just lapping it up. The usual useful idiots giving air time to talk of impeachment, which would be just more wasting our time and energy, and would just serve to stoke the fire of Trump supporters even more. The big news of cabinet members leaving....whoopee, they are probably just happy they can have a couple of extra weeks off before they left and get to look virtuous for doing so. The media and both parties are so corrupt, I have a hard time seeing our way forward without a meaningful third party run or a constitutional convention to bring term limits, campaign finance reform, among other things.
Matt's analysis and the group's broader discussion is accurate but not the whole story.
A large subset of the American population no longer feels represented by their government. Their jobs were offshored, their heritage demonized, their communities are wastelands of decay. Downtown shopping districts -- where people could once interact as humans -- have been condensed into an Amazon van. They wander like vagabonds, bearing witness to a destruction that lacks even a culturally approved name and parades -- in a permanent state of justification -- under the euphemism "economic efficiency". They are politically, ideologically and culturally homeless.
I watched some of the videos of the events at the Capitol. It appeared at least some of the "rioters" were allowed in by security, stayed deferentially inside velvet ropes and appeared reverential in attitude. There were even videos of groups organizing to prevent destruction by would-be vandals. Afterward, there were reports many remained on the Capitol grounds to pick up trash and clean up. In my view labels like "QAnon followers" and "Trump supporters" -- while they are true in specific cases and in broad generality -- are the kind of lazy synecdoche that too easily scapegoats. It seemed to me that most at Mr. Trump's rally and speech were there because of their personal experience and direct observation of the reality around them (which he and Bernie Sanders alone among national politicians seemed willing to acknowledge) -- not because of a quack cult. It appeared the vast majority neither expected or approved of the mayhem that followed. While anecdotes are not data, I recall of one bewildered attendee who said "I organized a group to come here today but I didn't sign up for this!"
The eminently quotable Albert Camus wrote "No matter what cause one defends, it will suffer permanent disgrace if one resorts to blind attacks on crowds of innocent people." Our cultural and political language is currently in a state of impoverishment. It's a dead zone of meaningless cliches and meretricious declamations. We may expect that from politicians -- as the politician archetype is always prone to reductive caricatures -- but from our writers, reporters, thinkers and intellectuals, we should expect more. The reality out there is far more nuanced and alive with the full dimensionality of the human condition than the stories you are telling about it.
After 4.5 years of spying on Trump, attacking Trump, impeaching Trump and lying about Trump, it's understandable that conservatives are frustrated. This election appeared to be full of fraud, but I never heard of an investigation. Where is the Department of Justice? Why are Democrats afraid of an election commission? What are they hiding? There are videos of cheating in Atlanta and election rules not followed in other swing states. Is this my country? I am too busy and probably too old to go and vent my frustration with other conservatives but I understand the anger. I am pissed off but as Matt said, the media is responsible for almost all of this. They lied, they made up stories...they even got Pulitzer prizes for making up "Russia Collusion" stories. Who is there to investigate, when the investigators and the media don't do their job?
If you catch 100 red fire ants as well as 100 large black ants, and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground the ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. The thing is, the red ants think the black ants are the enemy and vice versa, when in reality, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. This is exactly what’s happening in society today. Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. White. Pro Mask vs. Anti Mask. The real question we need to be asking ourselves is who’s shaking the jar ... and why?
The critique of today's "journalism" by Matt, Krystal and Saagar is part of, but not the whole, story. The assertion that we have gone from the anodyne broadcasts of ABC, CBS and NBC of decades ago to the bipolar "news" broadcasts solely when Roger Ailes and FOX news came on the scene, leaves out a significant phase that made the receptivity of FOX so significant. The missing phase is the rather corrupting influence of New Journalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Journalism) introduced by Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, David Halberstam in the 1970's. Wikipedia - " It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non-fiction and emphasizing "truth" over "facts", and intensive reportage in which reporters immersed themselves in the stories as they reported and wrote them. This was in contrast to traditional journalism where the journalist was typically "invisible" and facts are reported as objectively as possible." Wikipedia includes a comment that New Journalism is generally considered to have ended in the early '80's. My take is that it was the beginning of "pushing a narrative" that not only didn't end in the '80's but became increasingly pervasive to the present day. This "story-telling" has now resulted in competing narratives and the phenomena described in this video. The only additional observation is the seeming participation of Matt, Krystall and Saagar in inadvertently pushing the narrative that this lies at the feet of FOX and Republican (the only named culprits in their video). Actually the history goes much further back than that, as can be understood by reading The Image by the noted American historian Daniel J. Boorstin.
I was so horrified when watching what was happening at our Nation’s Capital on Wednesday, but what was worse was what I witnessed on social media between family and friends. I deleted my accounts after reading so much hate between people who I know love each other. The problem is when you put the word “All” in front of whatever group of people you are referring to...All Republicans, All Democrats, All Christians, All Muslims, All men, All women, etc. We are all human beings first and foremost, and we are Americans before anything else. There are “fringe” radical humans in every single one of the fore mentioned groups, and when we take the small percentage of those radicals and group them together with the majority, we are not only lying to ourselves, but creating a hateful divide that we will not be able to mend until we stop this. The media definitely fuels this behavior and it is disturbing and disgusting. I am a Christ following, conservative Trump supporting Republican that loves my Country, my family, my fellow Americans and the human beings of this World. I am appalled by the actions of the “Trump Supporters” that engaged is such destructive and illegal behavior! Everyone of us is unique, and to be lumped in with lunatics that act out in violence is so utterly offensive. Peace will not be attained until we stop being intolerant towards others that have different points of view. I fear the conservative voice will be pushed into silence if we are continually being grouped with the radical fringe. I will not be silenced, my voice is equally as important as anyone else’s. We all should be unified against violence, this should not be a divisive argument.
Perhaps the worst scam in US history is neoliberals’ Russia-gate. They lost to a TV host. Instead of reflection, they latched onto a moronic conspiracy theory and stayed with it for now 5th year. Now that the Trump nightmare has defeated himself – how many Dem congressman/senators will finally publicly state that
- The entire anti-Russian narrative and “Ukraine impeachment” were deliberate fabrications
- And request resolution of Biden-Hunter corruption (Ukraine, laptop, China)
Dems should finally come clean that the entire anti-Russian narrative is a 4+ year deliberate fabrication -- while nothing was done for M4A, STOP sanctions, #3K/month to all, etc..
Trump was an incompetent amateur surrounded by religious extremists. The next “Trump” will be far more dangerous since corrupt Dem party without change is walking dead
It's too absurd. In the midst of the INSURRECTION! OMG! OMG! coverage we see that Pelosi got re-upped as speaker with no commitment whatsoever to M4A. I seem to recall all of the D candidates raising their hands like 8 year olds when asked if they supported this. So, "the squad" showed what craven frauds they are, just as Jimmy Dore predicted. At the same time I saw D senators interviewed and yakking about the "60 votes needed yadda yadd". So, no move to end the filibuster, either.
Meanwhile, on the R side, we have the Weeping Turtle and the fist-pumping, Ivy League young man of the people douchebag. Oh, and Lindsey Graham saying he's "done" with Trump. Really brave there, Lindsey.
The crowd storming the Capital reminded me more of Revenge of the Nerds than the storming of the Bastille. Maybe it was the guy in the buffalo hat. Many of the cops were just too fat to do anything about it. Or something.
Unscripted Joe Biden reminds me more and more of Charles Manson for some reason. His #2 has her own astroturfed "digital army" apparently. Soul of the Nation and the K-Hive, baby!
Watched it earlier this afternoon. Well done. Your book "Hate Inc" proved to be prescient, but I do think the system is working exactly how people with power want it to (divide and conquer).
Last night I listened to the Grayzone's analysis of the Capital fiasco --- Blumenthal, Parampil, Haiphong, Mate, and Norton. And as you might expect, there is a lot of anger with both the DNC and RNC at this point. I am wondering how far we are to really organizing a third party --- that can begin to knock out big structural issues (healthcare, defense budgets, lobbying pay to play systems of influence, and education instead of penury).
This "interview" is hilarious, three lefties pretending to be objective. The people who "lit the match", the crazy rightwing uncle, and a couple of other examples all come from a left perspective. It was like listening to three children saying we are a little bad but they are really, really bad. These people see themselves as the adults in the room and the people they look down on, the easily manipulated, need their guidance.
I enjoy reading Matt's pieces but stuff like this makes it somewhat difficult to take him too seriously.
I poll watched and my friend Christine volunteered for mail-in voting in 2016 in different US counties both of us lost faith in the integrity of our elections back then. If our voting system was ridden of any possible fraud and people abandoned the 2 party system and instead looked solely at how our elected officials voted on legislation that's a start.
Ah, nice to see what you look like! Are you going to actually say Ted Cruz and all these people shouldn't investigate this mess?? And are responsible like this chick claims? She is doing JUST what you are talking about!! You don't call her on it. Come on, MATT. I read New York Times, I'm a teacher and I listen to all of it. And you just talka bout FOX News? When you KNOW the left media is the one really doing this? And y ou don't call her on it? Oh, boy, now I can't keep reading you. You know full well THEY are doing the same thing!! Did they say this about BLM and Antifa? Ok, not going to give you the $5/month anymore. You should have called them on this. Ok, now you at least say the mainstream media is also doing it, but you didn't tell them the truth. Or stand up to these people when you know they are equally to blame. And do you REALLY believe Donald Trump is any more dangerous than this globalist elitism? You will find out soon. SHE was NOT encouraging. She was part of the crap. And you know it.
One of the more amusing extremes of the media is calling a small mob of sad characters an attempted coup or even "just" a protest with an insurrectionist character. From the same media I have seen no evidence of tanks or ground bombers attacking the capitol, or infantry or special forces brigades surrounding it.
It is hard to believe that the president of the USA who is also a billionaire can only raise a small mob of sad characters to perform a coup on his behalf.
The capitol is pretty much a fortress, Washington is heavily garrisoned, the security services monitor constantly all possible troubles: it is astonishing that a small mob of sad characters were allowed to get as far as they did. I wonder who is going to benefit from the inevitable turn of the screw on civil liberties, I doubt it will be the outgoing president.
My 22 year old, college from his bedroom son, informed me that anyone against woke/cancel/antifa culture is a Nazi. When I asked him if he thought I was a Nazi, he smirked & shrugged, which was an obvious passive aggressive affirmation of my Nazi-ness. While I don't feel like a Nazi, it took most of will power to not go all SS on his punk ass. So much so that it's pushed my heart into a crazy 2 day arrhythmia.
It's been a tense 2 days here. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends my 30 year marriage.
The irony I suppose is that I didn't even vote for Trump, just pointed out the bullshit around Trump.
I used this McCluhan quote before. Didn't think I'd be the idiot.
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is a hallucinating idiot...for he sees what no one else does: things that, to everyone else, are not there.”
I don't excuse the lawlessness in DC, but the reaction to it is as scary as the act itself. I see talk of sedition charges, companies firing their employees without any sort of due process, sycophant CEOs jumping on the opportunity to denounce the violence as if they are doing it in the spirit of altruism and patriotism. Please... The mainstream media, for their part, is just lapping it up. The usual useful idiots giving air time to talk of impeachment, which would be just more wasting our time and energy, and would just serve to stoke the fire of Trump supporters even more. The big news of cabinet members leaving....whoopee, they are probably just happy they can have a couple of extra weeks off before they left and get to look virtuous for doing so. The media and both parties are so corrupt, I have a hard time seeing our way forward without a meaningful third party run or a constitutional convention to bring term limits, campaign finance reform, among other things.
Matt's analysis and the group's broader discussion is accurate but not the whole story.
A large subset of the American population no longer feels represented by their government. Their jobs were offshored, their heritage demonized, their communities are wastelands of decay. Downtown shopping districts -- where people could once interact as humans -- have been condensed into an Amazon van. They wander like vagabonds, bearing witness to a destruction that lacks even a culturally approved name and parades -- in a permanent state of justification -- under the euphemism "economic efficiency". They are politically, ideologically and culturally homeless.
I watched some of the videos of the events at the Capitol. It appeared at least some of the "rioters" were allowed in by security, stayed deferentially inside velvet ropes and appeared reverential in attitude. There were even videos of groups organizing to prevent destruction by would-be vandals. Afterward, there were reports many remained on the Capitol grounds to pick up trash and clean up. In my view labels like "QAnon followers" and "Trump supporters" -- while they are true in specific cases and in broad generality -- are the kind of lazy synecdoche that too easily scapegoats. It seemed to me that most at Mr. Trump's rally and speech were there because of their personal experience and direct observation of the reality around them (which he and Bernie Sanders alone among national politicians seemed willing to acknowledge) -- not because of a quack cult. It appeared the vast majority neither expected or approved of the mayhem that followed. While anecdotes are not data, I recall of one bewildered attendee who said "I organized a group to come here today but I didn't sign up for this!"
The eminently quotable Albert Camus wrote "No matter what cause one defends, it will suffer permanent disgrace if one resorts to blind attacks on crowds of innocent people." Our cultural and political language is currently in a state of impoverishment. It's a dead zone of meaningless cliches and meretricious declamations. We may expect that from politicians -- as the politician archetype is always prone to reductive caricatures -- but from our writers, reporters, thinkers and intellectuals, we should expect more. The reality out there is far more nuanced and alive with the full dimensionality of the human condition than the stories you are telling about it.
After 4.5 years of spying on Trump, attacking Trump, impeaching Trump and lying about Trump, it's understandable that conservatives are frustrated. This election appeared to be full of fraud, but I never heard of an investigation. Where is the Department of Justice? Why are Democrats afraid of an election commission? What are they hiding? There are videos of cheating in Atlanta and election rules not followed in other swing states. Is this my country? I am too busy and probably too old to go and vent my frustration with other conservatives but I understand the anger. I am pissed off but as Matt said, the media is responsible for almost all of this. They lied, they made up stories...they even got Pulitzer prizes for making up "Russia Collusion" stories. Who is there to investigate, when the investigators and the media don't do their job?
If you catch 100 red fire ants as well as 100 large black ants, and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground the ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. The thing is, the red ants think the black ants are the enemy and vice versa, when in reality, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. This is exactly what’s happening in society today. Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. White. Pro Mask vs. Anti Mask. The real question we need to be asking ourselves is who’s shaking the jar ... and why?
The critique of today's "journalism" by Matt, Krystal and Saagar is part of, but not the whole, story. The assertion that we have gone from the anodyne broadcasts of ABC, CBS and NBC of decades ago to the bipolar "news" broadcasts solely when Roger Ailes and FOX news came on the scene, leaves out a significant phase that made the receptivity of FOX so significant. The missing phase is the rather corrupting influence of New Journalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Journalism) introduced by Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, David Halberstam in the 1970's. Wikipedia - " It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non-fiction and emphasizing "truth" over "facts", and intensive reportage in which reporters immersed themselves in the stories as they reported and wrote them. This was in contrast to traditional journalism where the journalist was typically "invisible" and facts are reported as objectively as possible." Wikipedia includes a comment that New Journalism is generally considered to have ended in the early '80's. My take is that it was the beginning of "pushing a narrative" that not only didn't end in the '80's but became increasingly pervasive to the present day. This "story-telling" has now resulted in competing narratives and the phenomena described in this video. The only additional observation is the seeming participation of Matt, Krystall and Saagar in inadvertently pushing the narrative that this lies at the feet of FOX and Republican (the only named culprits in their video). Actually the history goes much further back than that, as can be understood by reading The Image by the noted American historian Daniel J. Boorstin.
I was so horrified when watching what was happening at our Nation’s Capital on Wednesday, but what was worse was what I witnessed on social media between family and friends. I deleted my accounts after reading so much hate between people who I know love each other. The problem is when you put the word “All” in front of whatever group of people you are referring to...All Republicans, All Democrats, All Christians, All Muslims, All men, All women, etc. We are all human beings first and foremost, and we are Americans before anything else. There are “fringe” radical humans in every single one of the fore mentioned groups, and when we take the small percentage of those radicals and group them together with the majority, we are not only lying to ourselves, but creating a hateful divide that we will not be able to mend until we stop this. The media definitely fuels this behavior and it is disturbing and disgusting. I am a Christ following, conservative Trump supporting Republican that loves my Country, my family, my fellow Americans and the human beings of this World. I am appalled by the actions of the “Trump Supporters” that engaged is such destructive and illegal behavior! Everyone of us is unique, and to be lumped in with lunatics that act out in violence is so utterly offensive. Peace will not be attained until we stop being intolerant towards others that have different points of view. I fear the conservative voice will be pushed into silence if we are continually being grouped with the radical fringe. I will not be silenced, my voice is equally as important as anyone else’s. We all should be unified against violence, this should not be a divisive argument.
Anyone notice that the stock market was up while the "government was being toppled"?
Perhaps the worst scam in US history is neoliberals’ Russia-gate. They lost to a TV host. Instead of reflection, they latched onto a moronic conspiracy theory and stayed with it for now 5th year. Now that the Trump nightmare has defeated himself – how many Dem congressman/senators will finally publicly state that
- The entire anti-Russian narrative and “Ukraine impeachment” were deliberate fabrications
- And request resolution of Biden-Hunter corruption (Ukraine, laptop, China)
Dems should finally come clean that the entire anti-Russian narrative is a 4+ year deliberate fabrication -- while nothing was done for M4A, STOP sanctions, #3K/month to all, etc..
Trump was an incompetent amateur surrounded by religious extremists. The next “Trump” will be far more dangerous since corrupt Dem party without change is walking dead
So funny to watch the hosts miss Matt's point and obliviously push their preferred narrative anyway.
It's too absurd. In the midst of the INSURRECTION! OMG! OMG! coverage we see that Pelosi got re-upped as speaker with no commitment whatsoever to M4A. I seem to recall all of the D candidates raising their hands like 8 year olds when asked if they supported this. So, "the squad" showed what craven frauds they are, just as Jimmy Dore predicted. At the same time I saw D senators interviewed and yakking about the "60 votes needed yadda yadd". So, no move to end the filibuster, either.
Meanwhile, on the R side, we have the Weeping Turtle and the fist-pumping, Ivy League young man of the people douchebag. Oh, and Lindsey Graham saying he's "done" with Trump. Really brave there, Lindsey.
The crowd storming the Capital reminded me more of Revenge of the Nerds than the storming of the Bastille. Maybe it was the guy in the buffalo hat. Many of the cops were just too fat to do anything about it. Or something.
Unscripted Joe Biden reminds me more and more of Charles Manson for some reason. His #2 has her own astroturfed "digital army" apparently. Soul of the Nation and the K-Hive, baby!
Watched it earlier this afternoon. Well done. Your book "Hate Inc" proved to be prescient, but I do think the system is working exactly how people with power want it to (divide and conquer).
Last night I listened to the Grayzone's analysis of the Capital fiasco --- Blumenthal, Parampil, Haiphong, Mate, and Norton. And as you might expect, there is a lot of anger with both the DNC and RNC at this point. I am wondering how far we are to really organizing a third party --- that can begin to knock out big structural issues (healthcare, defense budgets, lobbying pay to play systems of influence, and education instead of penury).
This "interview" is hilarious, three lefties pretending to be objective. The people who "lit the match", the crazy rightwing uncle, and a couple of other examples all come from a left perspective. It was like listening to three children saying we are a little bad but they are really, really bad. These people see themselves as the adults in the room and the people they look down on, the easily manipulated, need their guidance.
I enjoy reading Matt's pieces but stuff like this makes it somewhat difficult to take him too seriously.
I poll watched and my friend Christine volunteered for mail-in voting in 2016 in different US counties both of us lost faith in the integrity of our elections back then. If our voting system was ridden of any possible fraud and people abandoned the 2 party system and instead looked solely at how our elected officials voted on legislation that's a start.
Ah, nice to see what you look like! Are you going to actually say Ted Cruz and all these people shouldn't investigate this mess?? And are responsible like this chick claims? She is doing JUST what you are talking about!! You don't call her on it. Come on, MATT. I read New York Times, I'm a teacher and I listen to all of it. And you just talka bout FOX News? When you KNOW the left media is the one really doing this? And y ou don't call her on it? Oh, boy, now I can't keep reading you. You know full well THEY are doing the same thing!! Did they say this about BLM and Antifa? Ok, not going to give you the $5/month anymore. You should have called them on this. Ok, now you at least say the mainstream media is also doing it, but you didn't tell them the truth. Or stand up to these people when you know they are equally to blame. And do you REALLY believe Donald Trump is any more dangerous than this globalist elitism? You will find out soon. SHE was NOT encouraging. She was part of the crap. And you know it.
One of the more amusing extremes of the media is calling a small mob of sad characters an attempted coup or even "just" a protest with an insurrectionist character. From the same media I have seen no evidence of tanks or ground bombers attacking the capitol, or infantry or special forces brigades surrounding it.
It is hard to believe that the president of the USA who is also a billionaire can only raise a small mob of sad characters to perform a coup on his behalf.
The capitol is pretty much a fortress, Washington is heavily garrisoned, the security services monitor constantly all possible troubles: it is astonishing that a small mob of sad characters were allowed to get as far as they did. I wonder who is going to benefit from the inevitable turn of the screw on civil liberties, I doubt it will be the outgoing president.