It's simple -- these people aren't really journalists. They are simply paid to peddle propaganda, so that's what they do. Plenty of people are willing to sell out, so if they didn't do it they know somebody else would.
I think for minority you might be right, but overall I disagree, there are many ways to put bread on table, we all do it, but there is an easy and dishonest way and that is what people go for. The system is setup the way that worst shit gets to the top and it is that way by design.
Full disclosure - I reused Jimmy Dore's quote he applied to Aaron Mate. But true, we Canadians are nice. At least that's what I remember (I've not lived there for a long time now...)
I will never ever understand why, as Americans, we worship greed like it's our god. In any circumstance, beyond being greedy for material wealth, greed is looked at as a vice and not a virtue. If you're greedy for material wealth then it's a virtue, one that is revered over any other quality a person may have. Look at Jeff Bezos, douche bag treats his employees like they're his personal serfs while he increases his net worth by 100 billion during the pandemic. If America was sane the media would be absolutely condemning this man for his utter greed but nope, people look at him like he's doing something good for the world. Hedgefund managers/stockbrokers/financial services are all the same way, greed on top of more greed, it truly is the American Way.
Another author wrote "humourously" that real estate prices are the USA's national religion.
Underlying all this is the typical theology of right-wing places: social darwinism. Because social darwinism "justifies" the power and wealth of the strong and rich.
The funniest thing is that line journalists aren't even paid that much! I mean, I'm sure Taylor Lorenz wants to be Rachel Maddow, but I doubt she makes anywhere near the same kind of bank. There can be only one...
You are forgetting that these people have no imagination or talent. This limited people are riding a gravy trains and only need to do the bidding of their masters and the most loyal ones will get better jobs to encourage the rest of them. The system is foolproof if you ask me.
Another great read, Matt. Best $60 I ever spent. Thanks! (But we're all so fucked.)
It's amusing to read the comments. Anyone reading your writing or listening to Useful Idiots would know it's laughable to suggest you're a Trump supporter. Anyone with an iota of intellectual honesty would notice the legacy media have been completely co-opted by the ruling class or simply can't fathom how utterly compromised they've become by groupthink.
For example, a commenter here posits that the Don Jr./Trump Tower meeting is proof positive of Trump/Russian collusion without bothering to mention that the 'Russian' who attended that meeting was working with Fusion GPS and met with Glenn SImpson before and after that (brief) meeting. Given that Fusion/Simpson/Natalia Veselnitskaya/Steele/Danchenko were all working with Russians, doesn't that suggest that HRC/DNC and Perkins Coie were actively working with 'agents' of Putin's Russia?
I hate to keep saying this, but George Orwell was a prophet. This is exactly how the ministry of truth operated. They used journalist and ordinary citizens to promote propaganda and to spy other on other citizens. We are living in 1984.
No, he was just describing current conditions, this is a quote from a column he wrote in 1943:
“Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.
I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.”
And this is what Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter in 1814:
“I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, & mendacious spirit of those who write for them: and I inclose you a recent sample, the production of a New-England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which we are fallen. these ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and lessening it’s relish for sound food. as vehicles of information, and a curb on our functionaries they have rendered themselves useless by forfieting all title to belief.”
I think he was imagining the gaslighting politicians of his time with far more powerful tools for manipulation, surveillance and control, much like those that exist today. I believe he extrapolated out to the more technologically advanced future for a reason; the result absolutely terrifying.
George Orwell was not writing about the spanish press, but the english press, which was not ostensibly government controlled during the spanish civil war, and he was referring to both the left-wing english press and the right-wing english press as making up events for the sake of party propaganda.
"if you check enough boxes, you may not be able to post on Internet platforms, fly a plane, use credit services, buy advertising, go on dating apps, work in your chosen profession (or at all), or do any of a dozen other things." -- This sounds exactly like Communist China's social credit system.
Thank you so much, Matt. Beyond excellent. My question: how do I get my useful idiot friends - who either now write media propaganda or believe the media propaganda to which they subscribe - to read this and let it sink in that what they are doing and believing is the opposite of the virtuousness they believe they're defending? My theory, for what it's worth, is that they're terrified of the true reality of what's really going on and control their anxiety by being good little members of the totalitarian army, and executing the orders so nothing bad will happen to them. But maybe I'm granting them too much humanity.
Everybody thinks that their loyalty to the party will save them. They're convinced there's been a huge mistake all the way up to when the firing squad shoots.
I think the same thing. My friends are good people but they're blinded by anxiety and they feel safer being on one side of the endless battle between good and evil. The idea that the entire war is bullshit is too terrifying (and too hidden from the mainstream) to contemplate.
“Robert Harmon is a newspaper journalist in the late 1990s. As the Internet begins to take over and print circulation declines, he is forced to make a series of unethical and immoral decisions leading to his downfall.”
As Miller said in "Repo Man", everything is connected :-).
Great read. I am not wading into the comments. Someone else commented, and I have commented in other threads, that it would be great to be able to edit/ mute/ curate cretinous voices off our individual screens after your articles (not off everyone's screen, just our own). Your article was super and spot on. The state is both necessary and the greatest potential evil. For those of us in the third estate (almost all citizens), free speech, and a free/ fearless/ engaged press to wield free speech on our behalf are our only defenses against increasing trespass from a self referential state getting ready to serve us all up at table and feast upon us like Goya's Saturn. Anyone who thinks white supremacists, climate change, or improperly regulated bathroom access are anywhere near the existential threat that an unmoored and rapacious state is... well, they misinterpreted the lessons of the most recent century, at a minimum. But I believe I restate your point, which you make elegantly as usual, and with facts. Thanks for that, Matt. Keep it up. BE
Branson - the commentariat here, by and large, is well-mannered and light-hearted. Stories like this get so much commentary because those of us who see the world as we know it evaporating in front of us have adopted somewhat of a gallows humor towards it all.
This really isn't like reddit. There are a few trolls who don't seem to get it, but if you do get it, you will see that most people commenting here are coming from a sensible perspective.
Publius_x, I appreciate your attempt to bring me to a more generous view of the "commentariat" here, and I agree that the majority are commenting high mindedly, though I question your use of the adjective "light hearted." I am not light hearted about the issues Matt reports on, except when he is reporting light heartedly, which is not the case here. My problems arise (and they may be mine alone) when I attempt to read the comments, and immediately find myself nostril deep in the effluvia of some leaf-eating diplodocus who has lumbered their vacuous mental bulk into the conversation, completely missing the point, and who goes on to smash across the otherwise fertile plain in search of some other mentally meatless meal, ignoring the repast Matt so eloquently served. I prefer the warm meal in front of me, and I like to tear into the meat and gristle of it, drink a little of the rendered fat and blood from the carving platter, and, yes, masticate a leaf or two (mostly under social pressure). When I attempted to find a word alliterative with "leaf-eating," with which to regale you, and I thought of "lumber," which works well in reference to the diplocids of the commentariat and their given paleobiology. I googled "lumber," and the first thing that came up, ironically, was "lumbersexual," a wholly new term to me, from the Urban Dictionary. It almost too perfectly describes the way I feel about the narcissistic ding-dongs who might think a rapacious state is somehow less threatening than some few disenfranchised conspiracy theorists, or some other wingnuts, or this or that topical train wreck (none of which were the focus of the article anyway). So I cut and paste the definition of lumbersexuals in here for you in a light-hearted spirit, as a humorous gift (it also makes me think of the catchy Monty Python tune "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK," a favorite): A lumbersexual is "a not-so-manly man dressing like a lumberjack (although a lot more refined) and sporting a beard that has the volume of a lumberjack's beard and the groom of a hipster, cashing in on the 'rugged, outdoor stereotype.' Most of these guys aren't very good with their hands and only want to seem so because God forbid they would get those soft, lotion treated hands dirty. Lumberjacks are typically known for their strength and being able to work with their hands. Most lumbersexuals would be stumped changing a tire." Well, Publius_x, I tire unchangingly when I faceplant into the mental effluvia of a leaf-eating, lumbersexual diplodocus. I suppose "I grow old ... I grow old ... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled." Sorry, you didn't ask for this response, but according to a famous philosopher, "Wherever you go, there you are." BE
ARTHUR: Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! ’Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him! [to MAYNARD] Brother Maynard! Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!
ARTHUR: Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! ’Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him! [to MAYNARD] Brother Maynard! Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!
hahahahah, i love this reply and the vocabulary used in it, was like reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age(fantastic book but it will force you to use your dictionary)
I wish there was some way for civilians to weed out the obvious comments posted by the very IC agents discussed. It would save us all a lot of time and grief.
This piece is top shelf. It is why I subscribe. That being said, I am so sad. ". . . by the time reporters realize . . ." There is no "realization" forthcoming. These people are too busy being thought police rats and getting invited to Georgetown (or campus) lattes. There are a few out there keeping the flame alive; there are some of us listening. But, God! Can someone tell me why it was given up so easily? Was it the machines? People give up their personal info to get a coupon for something they don't need, they post 5,000 pics of themselves on-line to save 5,000 pics of themselves In The Cloud, they give up their home information so Alexa (or some entity) can turn on the outside light and start the vacuum cleaner. And they don't understand how valuable their speech is. Jesus. Maybe if they used it as much as their camera . . .
We need to start an alternative to the Pulitzers, Nobels, etc. They have sort of lost their seriousness. This article deserves a prize. Apparently if you win a prize, maybe people out there will pay attention.
"That’s not journalism, it’s a Crowdsourced Inquisition, and by the time reporters realize what they’ve signed themselves up for, it will be too late."
Except, in relation to this recent Glenn Greenwald piece:
... what if they know *EXACTLY* what they are doing so there can be no point at which they start "realiz[ing] what they've signed themselves up for," nor any point where they will decide things have gone too far even at a point that would be "too late."
It is hard not to imagine that with traditional mainstream media in such a terrible freefall that many of its participants have realized the only reliable way to save their hide (without attempting the admittedly difficult and scary job of cutting out on their own, such as via substack) is to just knowingly and willingly whore themselves out mind-body-and soul to the New Gestapo. As Glenn Greenwald showed in the linked article, that approach has proven to be a very effective way to guarantee a massive upward trajectory in one's "journalist" carrier time and time again.
Everyone is the hero in their own story. Almost no one believes they're a bad person. People believe it's okay to bend principles, just a little bit, as long as it's for the greater good. Same thing with bending language (like the definition of 'white supremacist') as long as it helps turn the arc of history in the right direction. It's even *better* if doing so helps move you're career forward: doing well by doing good.
One of Orwell's keen observations: the Inner Party believed its own propaganda most fervently.
«they wouldn't even think twice about cheating in an election to beat Literally Hitler. The ends justify the means.»
But it might have been also legitimate defense: many democratic activists involved in running the election must have believed that in case of another Trump victory the MAGA hat squads would soon come for them and their families to dump them into mass graves.
They were thus sure that they were not just defending democracy itself, and oppressed minorities, but the lives of themselves and their loved ones.
You've got plenty of your own. The GOP aren't the good guys, they're the same guys. Expect Trump at the 2028 DNC (if there's still elections by then). It's millionaires and billionaires looking out for themselves, and trying to trick the rest of us into fighting each other. That's why the Authoritarianism has been so seamless from GWOT to "anti-racist".
The question is how you undo this? The current generation of journos seem to lack the inherent mistrust of officialdom that many journos from prior generations channeled into their work. Every abuse of power by a government organization has some banal bureaucratic explanation now that gets accepted at face value. There have always been journos who kissed up to power, but usually it was to individual politicians they were friendly with or some celebrities, not security state administrators. It just seems like there's almost nothing the government can do at this point that can torch its credibility with journos because it's one giant feedback loop of manufactured consent: individual journos (as people) are influenced by how the public feels about issues, yet the public gets their info from journos and social media orgs who set a narrative, which winds up reinforcing itself.
You’re gonna have to wait until all the Millennials die. These people were raised by the worst parents in recorded history, hovering around them, supervising their playground interactions and teaching them that all unpleasant experiences—including hearing new ideas—were “unsafe,” and they should immediately run to authority to step into and resolve every dispute. They are fascists to their bones and don’t know how to navigate the world any other way than tattling.
I don't think you are hopeful enough. Most people will have that moment, that moment where their beliefs are challenged. Some will wake up. The question is when.
I mean yeah, my generation was raised by institutions more so than any other in recent US history so it makes sense that we tend to be more trusting of authority and institutional clout. The problem is that's crowding out healthy skepticism.
You are spot on! Im a GenXr dating a millennial. He told me that my generation is responsible for the downfall of western civilization. I laughed. Then I realized - he's not wrong. GX overcompensated for the fact that we were pretty much abandoned by institutions and were growing up in the wake of a different cultural revolution. One where divorce, single parent or dual income families became increasingly normal and the 'latch key kid" was born. The result: my generation overcompensated with oversight WITHOUT INVOLVEMENT.
Daycares, public schools, universities, companies. If you had two parents who work, you were pretty much raised by these types of programs. It's all one pipeline that professional class millennials went through. We learned how to navigate bureaucracies at a really young age because of this, but it also left a lot of us completely dysfunctional outside of organizational settings.
funny since I disagreed with him on bashing millennials (I am millennial), but I was raised outside of USA and I can see a lot that you say in my friends. who were raised here.
This is such a tired description of Millennials. If Millennials were raised as you say then you should be directing your ire at the generation that raised them.
I've been saying it for a long time. My basically Silent Generation of Gen X, the ones nobody talks about were the last generation to accept the beatings of our parents, and decided (STUPIDLY) because of a book that said you should put your children in timeout, and then started to go after all of the institutions that maybe whacked us in the ass from time to time. Once again, because some parents were a bit too heavy handed on that.
Today? Kids don't respect their elders, they don't have manners, and they don't have respect for each other. Not all of course, but too large a portion and likely a majority.
We always seem to go overboard when a small percentage of the population is extreme.
I think your post is funny, and I have chosen to reply to your post because I did not want to cause any undue stress to other posters. Those who think the "latch key" thing was born with them are a little late to the party. All these women who think they are on the front line of the women's movement are also a little late to the party, but hey! Better late than never. (That's an old saying.) The #MeToo girls need to go to a screening of "The Burning Bed."
Maybe if the federal government wasn't so involved in our lives our children wouldn't have to "navigate bureaucracies" at a really young age. And growing up "without involvement (small case)," what does that mean? You didn't draw your mom a picture for Mother's Day, or you didn't march in a protest until you were 10?
>> And growing up "without involvement (small case)," what does that mean?
To me it means that mom and dad work full time jobs and interact with the kids for maybe 2 hours from the time that the kid wakes up to the time that they go to bed. And half of that time is eating breakfast/dinner. As soon as maternity leave ends, assuming Mom/birthing person is fortunate enough to have such a benefit, complete strangers with no vested interest in the child's development and well-being are paid low wages to do the bulk of the child care duties.
I appreciate your response. What do you think of the government's new plan to mandate education starting at age 3? I wonder what effects this year-plus lock down will have on this generation of children. Based on what I witnessed in a store yesterday, adult "care-givers" are stressed out. A year of isolation with a depressed or sad or angry parent can't be good.
Got any links on the mandatory schooling at age 3 thing? I wasn't aware of that having any real traction. Personally I think parents spending more time with their kids over the past year is probably a good thing for most. When my kids were of that age, I could spot behavioral differences between the day care kids and those who stayed at home with a parent. To be clear I'm not in any way taking a swipe at working parents, but I do believe that if it is financially possible that it is in the child's interest not to be put in daycare.
" A year of isolation with a depressed or sad or angry parent can't be good. "
And the daycare workers aren't sad or depressed? How so? Because they're working during a pandemic? Those kinds of jobs pay barely above minimum wage, you know. Spending time with whoever has the child's best interests at heart (usually this is the parents/guardians) is ideal.
You don't. It took all the world's biggest players to stop the Nazis during WWII, and without that you'll be pissing up a rope. Find a nice quiet corner of the world and sit it out.
i think we should let the imbecile brigade have the country while the rest of us cross the border illegally and take over Mexico. We can wave in the narcos on our way out. It's not like anyone is going to arrest them or anything.
It's not about millennials and other generations. US educations system doesn't teach critical thinking, as such all generations from "boomers" to "Gen Z" are just functional idiots and they will never have that moment. If their eyes are not open yet, they will never open them, they are too drunk on their "dream"
Progressive journalists were always going to be blind to misuse of government power by a progressive government. The problem is partisan, not cultural. They will re-discover their mistrust of government the minute a Republican controls it - at least a Republican that is not at war with his own executive branch.
I dont think there is a lack of mistrust of officialdom. I think the problem is that we lost any culture of good government, of government as problem solving.
Its funny that you think we ever had it. This is what i mean by being in love with a dream. This country has been run by war criminals fro decades so can you explain when exactly did we have "culture of good government"
You are right, this was before my time, so I dont know how it looked from the inside back then, but I think from FDR to LBJ there were some successes, which include, not least building up western Europe after the war.
You said it FDR and around his time. I am millennial so yeh I also never seen that. Just heard about it. The issue is that its not coming back, I just can't see how it can come back.
I don't know man. The guy got elected 4 times and he did a lot of things that a socialist/progressive like me can appreciate. Best of the bad bunch maybe?
At the time, the ruling classes of the West had to win the cold war, so they needed to make concessions to their people. In Germany it was clear to see: The West proved that capitalism was better at socialism so successfully that in the end East Germans climbed the Wall to be part of this affluent society. Since then, our ruling classes stopped to compromise. The welfare state was dismantled. Tories are regularly complaining about how lazy the British workers are. Etc. But we are now approaching a new cold war. To win any war, one also has to win the propaganda war. So I think, again, we will be in a position where the West has to show that democracy is better. We will have to reign in mass shootings, mass incarceration, systemic racism, people dying without health care, student debts, etc. Unless, of course, we choose to self-destruct, which seems not impossible ...
Let's be blunt about this. The new 'Cold War' is with China and the US has already lost. In the US we are dismantling GT (Gifted/Talented) programs because they are supposedly 'racist'. In the China, merit is take very seriously. In the US 'woke' is the dominant religion of the elite. In China, 'woke' is ridiculed as "Baizuo' (defined by Wikipedia "as a sarcastic reference to those whose political opinions are perceived as being guided by emotions or a hypocritical show of selflessness and empathy'). Game over.
"The welfare state was dismantled". The just left-wing BS. In essentially every western country, welfare spending has risen over the last 30 years. The US is one case in point. In 1990, Medicare plus Medicaid plus Social Security plus Food Stamps was 8.123% of GDP. in 2020, the same programs were 11.353% of GDP. 'Gutted' is just a PC lie.
Agree to the extent, but times now are different. Capital is more concentrated, Russia in also a democracy, internet, social media has divided and made us more stupid. The elite don't need to compromise any longer. The will divide us, continue manufacturing consent and slowly push us into form of autocracy. We will still vote, but our options will be limited and vast majority of the population will not even participate. Th elite can't give an inch because internet made us dangerous too and that is why you see all the censorship. That is my thought
The idea of 'systemic racism' can be tested. Are the most successful groups in America non-Jewish whites? Actually, the answer is no. The most successful groups in American are all non-white and Jews are more successful than non-Jews. Now I have a question. Do the supposedly omnipotent 'racists' favor Jews or do you go for the Jewish conspiracy theory? Enquiring minds want to know!
After I spent some time in the wapo article forums a few months ago, I would say the liberal media has a huge asset there in indoctrinated believers in the cause. I think those people would, with gusto, report anyone that has the temerity to have an opposing opinion. It's like a cult. It wouldn't surprise me at all if one of the agencies mentioned here tapped those forums to recruit an army of brownshirts.
I mentioned this in another post that Kathleen Parker had a Sen. Tim Scott piece after his speech. I started reading the comment section and I couldn't believe the Uncle Tim stuff that was being posted, probably by a lot of really enlightened people. Where do these people get off?
Juan Williams had a piece on The Hill something like Tim Scott should be a Democrat. Good luck with that, he's said after all of the Uncle Tim and Oreo stuff that he couldn't be happier to be a Republican. Why on earth would he want to be in a party with people who would speak of him like that.
I was going to comment on William's piece then I saw your post. I'm conservative-libertarian, and used to find Juan Williams to be sane even as I usually disagreed with him. I'm afraid Trump, and TDS broke the poor man. So sad.😉
Ideologies that claim to be for "the people" -- or, really, for some people and against others, are the most vile. See Stalin. It pains me to think how many of the current crop of fanatics would send us to camps - without blinking. Rank bullies act out in the name of wokism. Individuals feel sanctified; their purity entitles them to abuse the non-compliant, reporters to spy on citizens, or co-workers to get someone fired. Scott is non-compliant, Unkindness is their badge, their daily pursuit. They perfect attitude and insults, because they are so good.
I agree. But my wonder is, how did it get this way? What was the impulse? How did political purification erupt? I have family members, I have friends that are so judgmental; you can't even joke with them about politics. And the Covid fear porn just resonates with them. This all happened in a very short period of time. Why?
I think we got soft, spoiled, fairly fast. We badly botched the aftermath of the Civil War. We took what people once died for for granted. We abused it. We lost our regional identities and roots and cohesion. We lost religion.
Convicted Weathermen taught our college kids. What did we think would happen? We are rapidly becoming Rome. And yes, it came from within.
100% agree! Not only did Weathermen terrorist take over university but one of their spawn is currently making SF unlivable for Asian Americans (Chesa Boudin).
The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world
"It wouldn't surprise me at all if one of the agencies mentioned here tapped those forums to recruit an army of brownshirts."
I suspect, but cannot prove, that most of the people on the WaPo forum would make pretty shitty brownshirts anywhere other than on the internet. How many of them do we suppose might be adept in street brawling and possess weapons?
Are you talking to me? I have a hard time following the geometry here, so I'm not sure. I kiss up to no one. Go on any wapo forum and ask a question that doesn't fit the party line, and see what happens.
Matt- be careful: Only a matter of time before they label or insinuate you’re a White Supremacist too.
Ever since last summer, starting with the lies after the Floyd murder followed by the denial or justification of the riots, we seem to be in a period of suspended disbelief.
Years from now (hopefully) people will look back at outstanding reporting by Matt to figure out what the fuck was actually going on?
Matt, you closed with this statement: "People like Brennan and Clapper must laugh themselves hoarse, to think they ever had anything to fear from this press corps."
This is along the lines I was thinking this entire piece. Voluntarily partnering with government investigative and intelligence apparatuses, media will be less likely (if likely at all) to report on other abuses (and there will be abuses) by those apparatuses. Let's say that the New York Times comes across an important story that Agency XYZ is engaging in troubling behavior in Country (or State) 123. Does the NYT make an editorial decision that pursuing that story would jeopardize its relationship with Agency XYZ, and the attendant prestige and feelings of importance?
That the question could even plausibly arise is reason enough for the media to steer clear of this kind of outsourced investigation.
"Let's say that the New York Times comes across an important story that Agency XYZ is engaging in troubling behavior in Country (or State) 123. Does the NYT make an editorial decision that pursuing that story would jeopardize its relationship with Agency XYZ, and the attendant prestige and feelings of importance?"
I'm pretty sure this has already been occurring for decades.
I tried ignoring this nightmare and realized I need to expose myself to some of it. I feel like a voyeur witnessing in real time a crumbling of a once great society. Seriously it’s gut-wrenching and yet from a historical perspective it’s not surprising. For almost 250 years this experiment defied the odds. The Trump presidency was a very short passage in a chapter of the story. It’s only given so much weight because the 24hr news cycle is now 24 minutes, news channels are the 21st Century’s soap operas and as we abandoned the concept of the intact traditional family (the product of other social engineering) we have largely ignored the dastardly deconstruction and re-engineering of our education system from K-University levels. I often find the trite yet apropos metaphor of the car wreck pretty much sums it up.
I wrote somewhere above about staying off the radar. Arm yourself well also. This is not going to end peacefully and you should have a valid argument at hand.
I don't know what getting more upset about it than you already are does to help matters. Did Germans take back their country by listening to Goebbels' broadcasts? (no)
The gun laws are so stringent here that my criminal record consisting of maybe 3 parking tickets (are they criminal?) is probably enough to keep me from legally arming myself. I'm even afraid to apply for a gun permit lest the Mind Crimes Division is keeping a list of people who have ever THOUGHT of getting a gun. Ugh
I actually am about #200 million and 1 in the government's list, so that's an accurate statement.
Some tips on avoiding their notice:
1) Don't stand out. Government is a hammer. Don't be a nail.
2) Don't use security measures that make you look like someone interesting. Onion router should be translated as "honeypot".
3) If you can manage it, become a part of the security state. Best place to hide. Ask Admiral Canaris. Well, up until the end.
4) Minimize your beyond skin-deep social interactions.
5) Stay off social media and off the radar.
Always keep in mind the government relies on denunciation more than anything else to identify its targets. There are just too many people and too few bullets and jail cells. How would you provoke denunciation? How would you avoid this? You have a road map for behavior right there.
You'd be surprised. The security state is much less competent than most believe. Also, there are steps to be taken to hide one's identity, even when paying for things.
Really? Its been working out really bad for me for the past 10 years. I keep disregarding those cunts, but all functional idiots around me are just making things worse.
Seriously... up until 2016 I was easily able to just ignore all of it, but now... NOW, if you say something that doesn't go right in lock step with the propaganda, people around you get squeamish and look like they are desperately wishing the government would whisk you away to a camp.
You can't avoid. They grow too strong without being challenged on their 'facts'. Trump broke their fragile brains and unfortunately that doesn't bode well for us.
Deep state elites secretly admire how effectively the CCP is able to exert control over the Chinese populous, and are adopting the same methods and tactics to try to control us. It is shocking to see so many in the MSM be active and willing participants in this effort.
Same with fortune 500 ceos. They see China, and say... why do I give a shit about the penny-ante American people who don't like working in sweatshops and are only 1/3 the size of the billion-man marketplace.
It's simple -- these people aren't really journalists. They are simply paid to peddle propaganda, so that's what they do. Plenty of people are willing to sell out, so if they didn't do it they know somebody else would.
Stenographers for the three letter agencies
that and also "Greed is Good". There are many benefits to sell out and many dangers not to, so why risk it for humanity, if you can just be wealthy.
Often it is not even greed. It is putting bread on the table.
I think for minority you might be right, but overall I disagree, there are many ways to put bread on table, we all do it, but there is an easy and dishonest way and that is what people go for. The system is setup the way that worst shit gets to the top and it is that way by design.
You could be right. Maybe it's a Canadian in me wishing for the best ;)
Typical nice Canadian :). It's been going on for so long, I am just too jaded.
Full disclosure - I reused Jimmy Dore's quote he applied to Aaron Mate. But true, we Canadians are nice. At least that's what I remember (I've not lived there for a long time now...)
I will never ever understand why, as Americans, we worship greed like it's our god. In any circumstance, beyond being greedy for material wealth, greed is looked at as a vice and not a virtue. If you're greedy for material wealth then it's a virtue, one that is revered over any other quality a person may have. Look at Jeff Bezos, douche bag treats his employees like they're his personal serfs while he increases his net worth by 100 billion during the pandemic. If America was sane the media would be absolutely condemning this man for his utter greed but nope, people look at him like he's doing something good for the world. Hedgefund managers/stockbrokers/financial services are all the same way, greed on top of more greed, it truly is the American Way.
«I will never ever understand why, as Americans, we worship greed like it's our god.»
This: https://dilbert.com/strip/1990-02-14
Another author wrote "humourously" that real estate prices are the USA's national religion.
Underlying all this is the typical theology of right-wing places: social darwinism. Because social darwinism "justifies" the power and wealth of the strong and rich.
Be careful with such statements. Or Jordan Peterson's hordes will descend on you.
The funniest thing is that line journalists aren't even paid that much! I mean, I'm sure Taylor Lorenz wants to be Rachel Maddow, but I doubt she makes anywhere near the same kind of bank. There can be only one...
You are forgetting that these people have no imagination or talent. This limited people are riding a gravy trains and only need to do the bidding of their masters and the most loyal ones will get better jobs to encourage the rest of them. The system is foolproof if you ask me.
American Pravda.
Another great read, Matt. Best $60 I ever spent. Thanks! (But we're all so fucked.)
It's amusing to read the comments. Anyone reading your writing or listening to Useful Idiots would know it's laughable to suggest you're a Trump supporter. Anyone with an iota of intellectual honesty would notice the legacy media have been completely co-opted by the ruling class or simply can't fathom how utterly compromised they've become by groupthink.
For example, a commenter here posits that the Don Jr./Trump Tower meeting is proof positive of Trump/Russian collusion without bothering to mention that the 'Russian' who attended that meeting was working with Fusion GPS and met with Glenn SImpson before and after that (brief) meeting. Given that Fusion/Simpson/Natalia Veselnitskaya/Steele/Danchenko were all working with Russians, doesn't that suggest that HRC/DNC and Perkins Coie were actively working with 'agents' of Putin's Russia?
Yes, it does suggest that the HRC crew did exactly what they accused the Trump crew of doing.
"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty." We know their playbook -- lets start acting like we do.
I hate to keep saying this, but George Orwell was a prophet. This is exactly how the ministry of truth operated. They used journalist and ordinary citizens to promote propaganda and to spy other on other citizens. We are living in 1984.
«George Orwell was a prophet»
No, he was just describing current conditions, this is a quote from a column he wrote in 1943:
“Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.
I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.”
And this is what Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter in 1814:
“I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, & mendacious spirit of those who write for them: and I inclose you a recent sample, the production of a New-England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which we are fallen. these ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and lessening it’s relish for sound food. as vehicles of information, and a curb on our functionaries they have rendered themselves useless by forfieting all title to belief.”
I think he was imagining the gaslighting politicians of his time with far more powerful tools for manipulation, surveillance and control, much like those that exist today. I believe he extrapolated out to the more technologically advanced future for a reason; the result absolutely terrifying.
To be fair, total government control of the press was instituted during the Civil War in Spain.
George Orwell was not writing about the spanish press, but the english press, which was not ostensibly government controlled during the spanish civil war, and he was referring to both the left-wing english press and the right-wing english press as making up events for the sake of party propaganda.
Particularly the memory holes as 'new outlets' 'update' their stories without notice.
I tried to tell you!
"if you check enough boxes, you may not be able to post on Internet platforms, fly a plane, use credit services, buy advertising, go on dating apps, work in your chosen profession (or at all), or do any of a dozen other things." -- This sounds exactly like Communist China's social credit system.
Thank you so much, Matt. Beyond excellent. My question: how do I get my useful idiot friends - who either now write media propaganda or believe the media propaganda to which they subscribe - to read this and let it sink in that what they are doing and believing is the opposite of the virtuousness they believe they're defending? My theory, for what it's worth, is that they're terrified of the true reality of what's really going on and control their anxiety by being good little members of the totalitarian army, and executing the orders so nothing bad will happen to them. But maybe I'm granting them too much humanity.
Everybody thinks that their loyalty to the party will save them. They're convinced there's been a huge mistake all the way up to when the firing squad shoots.
I think the same thing. My friends are good people but they're blinded by anxiety and they feel safer being on one side of the endless battle between good and evil. The idea that the entire war is bullshit is too terrifying (and too hidden from the mainstream) to contemplate.
we're we're going we don't need sides
"Miller! What are you doing?"
"Goin' for a little spin."
"But you don't know how to drive!"
One of the most sublime scenes in all of cinema: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neJ1-iozVQA
Just noticed that the actress playing "Leila" also acted in "Blue Dream":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dream
“Robert Harmon is a newspaper journalist in the late 1990s. As the Internet begins to take over and print circulation declines, he is forced to make a series of unethical and immoral decisions leading to his downfall.”
As Miller said in "Repo Man", everything is connected :-).
Plate of shrimp!
The Proud Boys are not the Klan, no matter how many times CNN tells us otherwise.
The notion that White Supremacists are running rampant as never before is a lie. It’s simply untrue.
My favorite part is where the media opts for increased credibility by hiring the guys who lied to Congress.
We're through the looking glass here.
Great read. I am not wading into the comments. Someone else commented, and I have commented in other threads, that it would be great to be able to edit/ mute/ curate cretinous voices off our individual screens after your articles (not off everyone's screen, just our own). Your article was super and spot on. The state is both necessary and the greatest potential evil. For those of us in the third estate (almost all citizens), free speech, and a free/ fearless/ engaged press to wield free speech on our behalf are our only defenses against increasing trespass from a self referential state getting ready to serve us all up at table and feast upon us like Goya's Saturn. Anyone who thinks white supremacists, climate change, or improperly regulated bathroom access are anywhere near the existential threat that an unmoored and rapacious state is... well, they misinterpreted the lessons of the most recent century, at a minimum. But I believe I restate your point, which you make elegantly as usual, and with facts. Thanks for that, Matt. Keep it up. BE
Branson - the commentariat here, by and large, is well-mannered and light-hearted. Stories like this get so much commentary because those of us who see the world as we know it evaporating in front of us have adopted somewhat of a gallows humor towards it all.
This really isn't like reddit. There are a few trolls who don't seem to get it, but if you do get it, you will see that most people commenting here are coming from a sensible perspective.
Publius_x, I appreciate your attempt to bring me to a more generous view of the "commentariat" here, and I agree that the majority are commenting high mindedly, though I question your use of the adjective "light hearted." I am not light hearted about the issues Matt reports on, except when he is reporting light heartedly, which is not the case here. My problems arise (and they may be mine alone) when I attempt to read the comments, and immediately find myself nostril deep in the effluvia of some leaf-eating diplodocus who has lumbered their vacuous mental bulk into the conversation, completely missing the point, and who goes on to smash across the otherwise fertile plain in search of some other mentally meatless meal, ignoring the repast Matt so eloquently served. I prefer the warm meal in front of me, and I like to tear into the meat and gristle of it, drink a little of the rendered fat and blood from the carving platter, and, yes, masticate a leaf or two (mostly under social pressure). When I attempted to find a word alliterative with "leaf-eating," with which to regale you, and I thought of "lumber," which works well in reference to the diplocids of the commentariat and their given paleobiology. I googled "lumber," and the first thing that came up, ironically, was "lumbersexual," a wholly new term to me, from the Urban Dictionary. It almost too perfectly describes the way I feel about the narcissistic ding-dongs who might think a rapacious state is somehow less threatening than some few disenfranchised conspiracy theorists, or some other wingnuts, or this or that topical train wreck (none of which were the focus of the article anyway). So I cut and paste the definition of lumbersexuals in here for you in a light-hearted spirit, as a humorous gift (it also makes me think of the catchy Monty Python tune "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK," a favorite): A lumbersexual is "a not-so-manly man dressing like a lumberjack (although a lot more refined) and sporting a beard that has the volume of a lumberjack's beard and the groom of a hipster, cashing in on the 'rugged, outdoor stereotype.' Most of these guys aren't very good with their hands and only want to seem so because God forbid they would get those soft, lotion treated hands dirty. Lumberjacks are typically known for their strength and being able to work with their hands. Most lumbersexuals would be stumped changing a tire." Well, Publius_x, I tire unchangingly when I faceplant into the mental effluvia of a leaf-eating, lumbersexual diplodocus. I suppose "I grow old ... I grow old ... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled." Sorry, you didn't ask for this response, but according to a famous philosopher, "Wherever you go, there you are." BE
SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB, YOU TIT! YOUR TYPE MAKES ME PUKE! YOU VACUOUS TOFFEE-NOSED MALODOROUS PERVERT!!!
ARTHUR: Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! ’Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him! [to MAYNARD] Brother Maynard! Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!
YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELT OF ELDERBERRIES!
Quite frankly I abhor people who choose to vent their loquacity with such extraneous, bombastic circumlocution!
ARTHUR: Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! ’Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him! [to MAYNARD] Brother Maynard! Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!
hahahahah, i love this reply and the vocabulary used in it, was like reading Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age(fantastic book but it will force you to use your dictionary)
<<according to a famous philosopher, "Wherever you go, there you are.">>
I still want Matt and Katie to get Buckaroo Banzai on UI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF_Ed1pt_WA
Now I wish I was the subject of such eloquent writing. WIsh it was I who was referred above....
I wish there was some way for civilians to weed out the obvious comments posted by the very IC agents discussed. It would save us all a lot of time and grief.
This piece is top shelf. It is why I subscribe. That being said, I am so sad. ". . . by the time reporters realize . . ." There is no "realization" forthcoming. These people are too busy being thought police rats and getting invited to Georgetown (or campus) lattes. There are a few out there keeping the flame alive; there are some of us listening. But, God! Can someone tell me why it was given up so easily? Was it the machines? People give up their personal info to get a coupon for something they don't need, they post 5,000 pics of themselves on-line to save 5,000 pics of themselves In The Cloud, they give up their home information so Alexa (or some entity) can turn on the outside light and start the vacuum cleaner. And they don't understand how valuable their speech is. Jesus. Maybe if they used it as much as their camera . . .
We need to start an alternative to the Pulitzers, Nobels, etc. They have sort of lost their seriousness. This article deserves a prize. Apparently if you win a prize, maybe people out there will pay attention.
Seriously, thank you, Mr. Taibbi.
A great, if very upsetting piece.
"That’s not journalism, it’s a Crowdsourced Inquisition, and by the time reporters realize what they’ve signed themselves up for, it will be too late."
Except, in relation to this recent Glenn Greenwald piece:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/cnns-new-reporter-natasha-bertrand
... what if they know *EXACTLY* what they are doing so there can be no point at which they start "realiz[ing] what they've signed themselves up for," nor any point where they will decide things have gone too far even at a point that would be "too late."
It is hard not to imagine that with traditional mainstream media in such a terrible freefall that many of its participants have realized the only reliable way to save their hide (without attempting the admittedly difficult and scary job of cutting out on their own, such as via substack) is to just knowingly and willingly whore themselves out mind-body-and soul to the New Gestapo. As Glenn Greenwald showed in the linked article, that approach has proven to be a very effective way to guarantee a massive upward trajectory in one's "journalist" carrier time and time again.
Everyone is the hero in their own story. Almost no one believes they're a bad person. People believe it's okay to bend principles, just a little bit, as long as it's for the greater good. Same thing with bending language (like the definition of 'white supremacist') as long as it helps turn the arc of history in the right direction. It's even *better* if doing so helps move you're career forward: doing well by doing good.
One of Orwell's keen observations: the Inner Party believed its own propaganda most fervently.
In other words, every Nazi party member thought they were on the "right side of history."
The backside of the belt-buckles worn by Nazi soldiers WW2 were inscribed with the words 'Gott Mit Uns.' It means 'God is with Us'.
This never gets old: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU
"I just can't think of anything good about a skull!"
And that's why they wouldn't even think twice about cheating in an election to beat Literally Hitler. The ends justify the means.
«they wouldn't even think twice about cheating in an election to beat Literally Hitler. The ends justify the means.»
But it might have been also legitimate defense: many democratic activists involved in running the election must have believed that in case of another Trump victory the MAGA hat squads would soon come for them and their families to dump them into mass graves.
They were thus sure that they were not just defending democracy itself, and oppressed minorities, but the lives of themselves and their loved ones.
LOL their delusion isn't something that I need to humor.
You've got plenty of your own. The GOP aren't the good guys, they're the same guys. Expect Trump at the 2028 DNC (if there's still elections by then). It's millionaires and billionaires looking out for themselves, and trying to trick the rest of us into fighting each other. That's why the Authoritarianism has been so seamless from GWOT to "anti-racist".
I don't vote for the GOP so I'm not sure why you're bringing them up.
Never were more atrocities committed then under the guise of the greater good.
Erich Mielke is smiling somewhere.
The question is how you undo this? The current generation of journos seem to lack the inherent mistrust of officialdom that many journos from prior generations channeled into their work. Every abuse of power by a government organization has some banal bureaucratic explanation now that gets accepted at face value. There have always been journos who kissed up to power, but usually it was to individual politicians they were friendly with or some celebrities, not security state administrators. It just seems like there's almost nothing the government can do at this point that can torch its credibility with journos because it's one giant feedback loop of manufactured consent: individual journos (as people) are influenced by how the public feels about issues, yet the public gets their info from journos and social media orgs who set a narrative, which winds up reinforcing itself.
You’re gonna have to wait until all the Millennials die. These people were raised by the worst parents in recorded history, hovering around them, supervising their playground interactions and teaching them that all unpleasant experiences—including hearing new ideas—were “unsafe,” and they should immediately run to authority to step into and resolve every dispute. They are fascists to their bones and don’t know how to navigate the world any other way than tattling.
I don't think you are hopeful enough. Most people will have that moment, that moment where their beliefs are challenged. Some will wake up. The question is when.
I mean yeah, my generation was raised by institutions more so than any other in recent US history so it makes sense that we tend to be more trusting of authority and institutional clout. The problem is that's crowding out healthy skepticism.
You are spot on! Im a GenXr dating a millennial. He told me that my generation is responsible for the downfall of western civilization. I laughed. Then I realized - he's not wrong. GX overcompensated for the fact that we were pretty much abandoned by institutions and were growing up in the wake of a different cultural revolution. One where divorce, single parent or dual income families became increasingly normal and the 'latch key kid" was born. The result: my generation overcompensated with oversight WITHOUT INVOLVEMENT.
Hate to break it to you... but it was fucked up well before you showed up.
Wild. I know.
How was your generation raised by institutions? Are you sure it wasn't just you? ;-D
Daycares, public schools, universities, companies. If you had two parents who work, you were pretty much raised by these types of programs. It's all one pipeline that professional class millennials went through. We learned how to navigate bureaucracies at a really young age because of this, but it also left a lot of us completely dysfunctional outside of organizational settings.
funny since I disagreed with him on bashing millennials (I am millennial), but I was raised outside of USA and I can see a lot that you say in my friends. who were raised here.
I think this saying is apropos:
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
Looks like we’re in for some hard times.
This is such a tired description of Millennials. If Millennials were raised as you say then you should be directing your ire at the generation that raised them.
The wretches that produced the degenerates that raised the Millennials have some splaining to do. As do the goons who raised the wretches....
I've been saying it for a long time. My basically Silent Generation of Gen X, the ones nobody talks about were the last generation to accept the beatings of our parents, and decided (STUPIDLY) because of a book that said you should put your children in timeout, and then started to go after all of the institutions that maybe whacked us in the ass from time to time. Once again, because some parents were a bit too heavy handed on that.
Today? Kids don't respect their elders, they don't have manners, and they don't have respect for each other. Not all of course, but too large a portion and likely a majority.
We always seem to go overboard when a small percentage of the population is extreme.
Shhh... then he might find out he's culpable too.
There are at least a few good Millennials.
Yes, but unfortunately the apocalypse doesn't require unanimous consent.
but Col. Jessup doesn't want them on "that wall"
"that wall" is now Twitter etc. and public opinion shaping, so maybe he does.
I think your post is funny, and I have chosen to reply to your post because I did not want to cause any undue stress to other posters. Those who think the "latch key" thing was born with them are a little late to the party. All these women who think they are on the front line of the women's movement are also a little late to the party, but hey! Better late than never. (That's an old saying.) The #MeToo girls need to go to a screening of "The Burning Bed."
Maybe if the federal government wasn't so involved in our lives our children wouldn't have to "navigate bureaucracies" at a really young age. And growing up "without involvement (small case)," what does that mean? You didn't draw your mom a picture for Mother's Day, or you didn't march in a protest until you were 10?
>> And growing up "without involvement (small case)," what does that mean?
To me it means that mom and dad work full time jobs and interact with the kids for maybe 2 hours from the time that the kid wakes up to the time that they go to bed. And half of that time is eating breakfast/dinner. As soon as maternity leave ends, assuming Mom/birthing person is fortunate enough to have such a benefit, complete strangers with no vested interest in the child's development and well-being are paid low wages to do the bulk of the child care duties.
I appreciate your response. What do you think of the government's new plan to mandate education starting at age 3? I wonder what effects this year-plus lock down will have on this generation of children. Based on what I witnessed in a store yesterday, adult "care-givers" are stressed out. A year of isolation with a depressed or sad or angry parent can't be good.
Got any links on the mandatory schooling at age 3 thing? I wasn't aware of that having any real traction. Personally I think parents spending more time with their kids over the past year is probably a good thing for most. When my kids were of that age, I could spot behavioral differences between the day care kids and those who stayed at home with a parent. To be clear I'm not in any way taking a swipe at working parents, but I do believe that if it is financially possible that it is in the child's interest not to be put in daycare.
" A year of isolation with a depressed or sad or angry parent can't be good. "
And the daycare workers aren't sad or depressed? How so? Because they're working during a pandemic? Those kinds of jobs pay barely above minimum wage, you know. Spending time with whoever has the child's best interests at heart (usually this is the parents/guardians) is ideal.
Weird. Wonder how I ended up an anarchist?
Anyway, you're clearly just some idiot with one foot in the grave. Gods, I wish you'd just trip already.
Ouch!
but they did make sure their kids got orange slices and participation trophies, preparing them for the real world
Most journalists are too young to remember the damage that Joseph McCarthy did to our country. J Edgar Hoover also did terrible things with FBI power.
You don't. It took all the world's biggest players to stop the Nazis during WWII, and without that you'll be pissing up a rope. Find a nice quiet corner of the world and sit it out.
That is exactly my plan, to save more money for 2-3 years and leave the country for quit place.
I may end up having to walk my way out under the cover of night
i think we should let the imbecile brigade have the country while the rest of us cross the border illegally and take over Mexico. We can wave in the narcos on our way out. It's not like anyone is going to arrest them or anything.
Are you really suggesting that we colonize Mexico? Bold plan. I like it.
Can't wait for AMLO to be like "¡CONSTRUYE ESE MURO! ¡Demasiados gringos!"
Hahahaha...bastantes hueros
Why didn't we stop the USSR too?
It's not about millennials and other generations. US educations system doesn't teach critical thinking, as such all generations from "boomers" to "Gen Z" are just functional idiots and they will never have that moment. If their eyes are not open yet, they will never open them, they are too drunk on their "dream"
Progressive journalists were always going to be blind to misuse of government power by a progressive government. The problem is partisan, not cultural. They will re-discover their mistrust of government the minute a Republican controls it - at least a Republican that is not at war with his own executive branch.
I dont think there is a lack of mistrust of officialdom. I think the problem is that we lost any culture of good government, of government as problem solving.
Its funny that you think we ever had it. This is what i mean by being in love with a dream. This country has been run by war criminals fro decades so can you explain when exactly did we have "culture of good government"
You are right, this was before my time, so I dont know how it looked from the inside back then, but I think from FDR to LBJ there were some successes, which include, not least building up western Europe after the war.
You said it FDR and around his time. I am millennial so yeh I also never seen that. Just heard about it. The issue is that its not coming back, I just can't see how it can come back.
FDR is just what people bring up because they were taught that in school.
There's never been a culture of good government because good and government are mutually exclusive ideas.
I don't know man. The guy got elected 4 times and he did a lot of things that a socialist/progressive like me can appreciate. Best of the bad bunch maybe?
At the time, the ruling classes of the West had to win the cold war, so they needed to make concessions to their people. In Germany it was clear to see: The West proved that capitalism was better at socialism so successfully that in the end East Germans climbed the Wall to be part of this affluent society. Since then, our ruling classes stopped to compromise. The welfare state was dismantled. Tories are regularly complaining about how lazy the British workers are. Etc. But we are now approaching a new cold war. To win any war, one also has to win the propaganda war. So I think, again, we will be in a position where the West has to show that democracy is better. We will have to reign in mass shootings, mass incarceration, systemic racism, people dying without health care, student debts, etc. Unless, of course, we choose to self-destruct, which seems not impossible ...
Let's be blunt about this. The new 'Cold War' is with China and the US has already lost. In the US we are dismantling GT (Gifted/Talented) programs because they are supposedly 'racist'. In the China, merit is take very seriously. In the US 'woke' is the dominant religion of the elite. In China, 'woke' is ridiculed as "Baizuo' (defined by Wikipedia "as a sarcastic reference to those whose political opinions are perceived as being guided by emotions or a hypocritical show of selflessness and empathy'). Game over.
"The welfare state was dismantled". The just left-wing BS. In essentially every western country, welfare spending has risen over the last 30 years. The US is one case in point. In 1990, Medicare plus Medicaid plus Social Security plus Food Stamps was 8.123% of GDP. in 2020, the same programs were 11.353% of GDP. 'Gutted' is just a PC lie.
Agree to the extent, but times now are different. Capital is more concentrated, Russia in also a democracy, internet, social media has divided and made us more stupid. The elite don't need to compromise any longer. The will divide us, continue manufacturing consent and slowly push us into form of autocracy. We will still vote, but our options will be limited and vast majority of the population will not even participate. Th elite can't give an inch because internet made us dangerous too and that is why you see all the censorship. That is my thought
Never going to happen. Mark my words.
The idea of 'systemic racism' can be tested. Are the most successful groups in America non-Jewish whites? Actually, the answer is no. The most successful groups in American are all non-white and Jews are more successful than non-Jews. Now I have a question. Do the supposedly omnipotent 'racists' favor Jews or do you go for the Jewish conspiracy theory? Enquiring minds want to know!
After I spent some time in the wapo article forums a few months ago, I would say the liberal media has a huge asset there in indoctrinated believers in the cause. I think those people would, with gusto, report anyone that has the temerity to have an opposing opinion. It's like a cult. It wouldn't surprise me at all if one of the agencies mentioned here tapped those forums to recruit an army of brownshirts.
I mentioned this in another post that Kathleen Parker had a Sen. Tim Scott piece after his speech. I started reading the comment section and I couldn't believe the Uncle Tim stuff that was being posted, probably by a lot of really enlightened people. Where do these people get off?
Juan Williams had a piece on The Hill something like Tim Scott should be a Democrat. Good luck with that, he's said after all of the Uncle Tim and Oreo stuff that he couldn't be happier to be a Republican. Why on earth would he want to be in a party with people who would speak of him like that.
I was going to comment on William's piece then I saw your post. I'm conservative-libertarian, and used to find Juan Williams to be sane even as I usually disagreed with him. I'm afraid Trump, and TDS broke the poor man. So sad.😉
Broke beyond repair. Don't know how the man sleeps at night.
Seems racist for Juan Williams not to be pro choice
Ideologies that claim to be for "the people" -- or, really, for some people and against others, are the most vile. See Stalin. It pains me to think how many of the current crop of fanatics would send us to camps - without blinking. Rank bullies act out in the name of wokism. Individuals feel sanctified; their purity entitles them to abuse the non-compliant, reporters to spy on citizens, or co-workers to get someone fired. Scott is non-compliant, Unkindness is their badge, their daily pursuit. They perfect attitude and insults, because they are so good.
I agree. But my wonder is, how did it get this way? What was the impulse? How did political purification erupt? I have family members, I have friends that are so judgmental; you can't even joke with them about politics. And the Covid fear porn just resonates with them. This all happened in a very short period of time. Why?
I think we got soft, spoiled, fairly fast. We badly botched the aftermath of the Civil War. We took what people once died for for granted. We abused it. We lost our regional identities and roots and cohesion. We lost religion.
Convicted Weathermen taught our college kids. What did we think would happen? We are rapidly becoming Rome. And yes, it came from within.
100% agree! Not only did Weathermen terrorist take over university but one of their spawn is currently making SF unlivable for Asian Americans (Chesa Boudin).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
Been awhile since I read it.
Hoffer:
The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world
Love Eric Hoffer. I’ve read all his books but one. There really are a lot of true believers out there, scary time’s we live in.
"Where do these people get off?"
We've reached the point in the comment section at which I cease providing useful commentary (LOL) and instead just post old rock'n'roll videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMDFv5m18Pw
I always wondered-what do you call that click-rattle thing at the beginning of CT? I remember it from elementary school.
Is it true that Ozzy killed/abused birds in his act or is that fake news? Just asking. PETA good.
Buffalo Springfield/For What It's Worth
It's true. Fun fact - Ozzy used to work as a butcher before Sabbath.
Ick.
And he did bite the heads of bats and birds.
It took Twitter 10 hours to finally decide that “Uncle Tim” memes violated their hate speech policies. Despicable.
"It wouldn't surprise me at all if one of the agencies mentioned here tapped those forums to recruit an army of brownshirts."
I suspect, but cannot prove, that most of the people on the WaPo forum would make pretty shitty brownshirts anywhere other than on the internet. How many of them do we suppose might be adept in street brawling and possess weapons?
They'd be terrible at it. They're a bunch of know-it-all pussies, but I think they would gladly assist with information.
DNH
Care to give an example or are you just kissing up to Matt?
Are you talking to me? I have a hard time following the geometry here, so I'm not sure. I kiss up to no one. Go on any wapo forum and ask a question that doesn't fit the party line, and see what happens.
Vast forum of same think with 0 (ZERO!) sense of humour
Matt- be careful: Only a matter of time before they label or insinuate you’re a White Supremacist too.
Ever since last summer, starting with the lies after the Floyd murder followed by the denial or justification of the riots, we seem to be in a period of suspended disbelief.
Years from now (hopefully) people will look back at outstanding reporting by Matt to figure out what the fuck was actually going on?
"Only a matter of time before they... insinuate you’re a White Supremacist too."
This has already been done on Twitter and possibly other venues.
MT has already weathered one smear campaign. I have confidence in his cojones.
Matt, you closed with this statement: "People like Brennan and Clapper must laugh themselves hoarse, to think they ever had anything to fear from this press corps."
This is along the lines I was thinking this entire piece. Voluntarily partnering with government investigative and intelligence apparatuses, media will be less likely (if likely at all) to report on other abuses (and there will be abuses) by those apparatuses. Let's say that the New York Times comes across an important story that Agency XYZ is engaging in troubling behavior in Country (or State) 123. Does the NYT make an editorial decision that pursuing that story would jeopardize its relationship with Agency XYZ, and the attendant prestige and feelings of importance?
That the question could even plausibly arise is reason enough for the media to steer clear of this kind of outsourced investigation.
"Let's say that the New York Times comes across an important story that Agency XYZ is engaging in troubling behavior in Country (or State) 123. Does the NYT make an editorial decision that pursuing that story would jeopardize its relationship with Agency XYZ, and the attendant prestige and feelings of importance?"
I'm pretty sure this has already been occurring for decades.
The Deep State's coup d'etat of USA is written down in black and white. Thank you, US corporate media for guaranteeing this fait accompli.
I'm not criticizing your diagnosis, but why are we paying attention to them again?
The simplest way to roll is to ignore everything they say. It's been working nicely for me for years now.
I tried ignoring this nightmare and realized I need to expose myself to some of it. I feel like a voyeur witnessing in real time a crumbling of a once great society. Seriously it’s gut-wrenching and yet from a historical perspective it’s not surprising. For almost 250 years this experiment defied the odds. The Trump presidency was a very short passage in a chapter of the story. It’s only given so much weight because the 24hr news cycle is now 24 minutes, news channels are the 21st Century’s soap operas and as we abandoned the concept of the intact traditional family (the product of other social engineering) we have largely ignored the dastardly deconstruction and re-engineering of our education system from K-University levels. I often find the trite yet apropos metaphor of the car wreck pretty much sums it up.
I wrote somewhere above about staying off the radar. Arm yourself well also. This is not going to end peacefully and you should have a valid argument at hand.
I don't know what getting more upset about it than you already are does to help matters. Did Germans take back their country by listening to Goebbels' broadcasts? (no)
The ultima ratio regum even
The gun laws are so stringent here that my criminal record consisting of maybe 3 parking tickets (are they criminal?) is probably enough to keep me from legally arming myself. I'm even afraid to apply for a gun permit lest the Mind Crimes Division is keeping a list of people who have ever THOUGHT of getting a gun. Ugh
Parking tickets are usually civil.
they don't feel civil LOL
"It's been working nicely for me for years now."
I guess you have a high level of confidence they're never going to come for you.
I actually am about #200 million and 1 in the government's list, so that's an accurate statement.
Some tips on avoiding their notice:
1) Don't stand out. Government is a hammer. Don't be a nail.
2) Don't use security measures that make you look like someone interesting. Onion router should be translated as "honeypot".
3) If you can manage it, become a part of the security state. Best place to hide. Ask Admiral Canaris. Well, up until the end.
4) Minimize your beyond skin-deep social interactions.
5) Stay off social media and off the radar.
Always keep in mind the government relies on denunciation more than anything else to identify its targets. There are just too many people and too few bullets and jail cells. How would you provoke denunciation? How would you avoid this? You have a road map for behavior right there.
The ancient greeks summarised this as "lathe biosas" (live hidden) and the ancient chinese had a similar principle.
Unfortunately you fail at principle 5) as you are a subscriber to this blog, so you are in the top 1% of security service targets.
"you are a subscriber to this blog, so you are in the top 1% of security service targets."
...especially commenters on this particular article. I surmise they are swarming around here (both actively and passively) like flies on shit.
You'd be surprised. The security state is much less competent than most believe. Also, there are steps to be taken to hide one's identity, even when paying for things.
Really? Its been working out really bad for me for the past 10 years. I keep disregarding those cunts, but all functional idiots around me are just making things worse.
Seriously... up until 2016 I was easily able to just ignore all of it, but now... NOW, if you say something that doesn't go right in lock step with the propaganda, people around you get squeamish and look like they are desperately wishing the government would whisk you away to a camp.
In my case I hear 'I can't take this anymore. Find another victim'. "We have to work together, so don't challenge my views anymore'.
I dig your facial hair
Did you not have relatives with tardive dyskinesia before that? How did you deal with them? I apply the same methods. Humor and avoid.
You can't avoid. They grow too strong without being challenged on their 'facts'. Trump broke their fragile brains and unfortunately that doesn't bode well for us.
What if the stupid is not fixable in a useful time frame? That's my contention.
Doesn't bode well for us...
I think I may join you, I seem to exist in a constant state of upset
Deep state elites secretly admire how effectively the CCP is able to exert control over the Chinese populous, and are adopting the same methods and tactics to try to control us. It is shocking to see so many in the MSM be active and willing participants in this effort.
Same with fortune 500 ceos. They see China, and say... why do I give a shit about the penny-ante American people who don't like working in sweatshops and are only 1/3 the size of the billion-man marketplace.
The saw that back in the '90s, I think.
Or before they sent Nixon there.