There is no contrition for these members of the press. They proceed as if they have been right about everything and continue to decry the purveyors of disinformation -- even after it is shown that they were the worst offender.
A generous spin would be they are worthless, useful political tools. In truth these types are a true social malady, infecting and spreading the most damaging information and normalizing caustic and destructive behavior that is rotting our foundations and institutions from within.
Like Renaissance courtiers, the MSM have learned that there are no consequences for being wrong, harmful, damaging or even murderous (Iraq!) but there are consequences for being outside the Serious People Consensus at the moment.
Au contraire, they have learned that there are very, very serious consequences for being wrong, so long as they are wrong in a way that agrees with the prepossessions of their subscriber base and potential new subscribers. Being wrong in that way creates hits of dopamine for said subscribers and formes greater allegiance. Through online analytics they also know exactly how many new subscribers come in due to such factually wrong articles that align with the faction's desired narrative.
Meanwhile, publishing anything that strays from that narrative, even something that is an opinion piece by someone unaffiliated with the outlet itself, is the new "wrong" and loses subscribers, and they can measure that as well.
The subscriber-based model is what has driven most of the media this direction, along with the high dependency on their own dopamine hits on Twitter that this media generation evidences.
"so long as they are wrong in a way that agrees with the prepossessions of their subscriber base and potential new subscribers.
I think you meant to say "so long as they are NOT wrong in a way that agrees with the prepossessions of their subscriber base and potential new subscribers." unless you are saying that lots more people hate-subscribe than I think do.
If my assumption was correct, well, that basically was my point.
We agree here, but the wording is simply confounding.
My point is that if they say the GA voting bill is "Jim Crow 2.0" they are wrong. But they are wrong in a way that agrees with their subscriber base's thinking.
TomS -- "Please list every correct fact that you've learned and then their mistakes."
OK, TomS, here goes, starting with the correct facts. Cincinnati is a city -- in Ohio, no less. Women play soccer. Certain ants (I forget exactly which ants) steal nests from other ants. People are more prone to catch colds in the winter simply because they're indoors together more in winter. You can make a log cabin from the cardboard thingies found in the middle of a toilet paper roll. Wool has to be carded before it's truly usable in a garment. Speaking of carding, linguists debate the origins of the word "card" to denote checking a bar patron's ID. There are still a few thousand operable rotary phones in America. Most plastic is never really recycled. Cats really do not care about you, and neither does your pet lizard.
Hey, TomS -- do you want me to keep going with the "correct facts" I've learned.? Because it'll be 2028 before I start listing "all....their mistakes."
What other lies? I generally follow the NYT’s and WaPo. I didn’t see any “lies.” Sometimes, everyone was wrong. But that’s not lying. I’m sorry if the world doesn’t conform to notions you formed when you were three years-old and have never grown out of — sometimes mommy and daddy are wrong. That’s not lying. And generally, those outlets were and continue to be correct.
As if, to give one example, the russiagate conspiracy theory never happened and was never breathlessly reported on by the MSM. As if you never heard of Iraq, or Libyan rape rooms, or any of the other lies told to support the wars.
The discussion was about THE MSM’s response to COVID. I’m not here to discuss Iraq, etc. If, by mentioning “all the other lies,” you intended to expand the conversation into a free-ranging Ramble-A-Thon about all the stuff you believe the MSM has lied to you about since 1967, I’ll bow out.
As far as COVID goes, I didn’t see very much outright lying. Sometimes there’s a fine line between delivering the truth and stirring up mass hysteria. Mostly what I saw were journalists getting a lot right, some things wrong.
The irony of all of them hating Donald Trump, whose motto is that apologies are for the weak, and to say you were wrong about anything invites legal trouble.
All of them are following his playbook. Maybe that's why they hate him so much, he exposes their entire worldview.
The only time I see MSM is on independent podcasts using a video clip. I think that is
why I gasped outloud when I saw the Mitch McConnell freeze-in-place video. I hadn't seen
him in years. He appears diminished physically and clearly mentally. Then the next day Senator
Feinstein grabs the headline due to her confusion, only to be told by Sen Murray, 'Just say aye' on a floor vote. I learned a new word: nonagenarian--people in their nineties. I want to see 30–50-year-olds in our Congress. Another fun word: Gerontocracy: A gerontocracy is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. Bing-O.
I'm no spring chicken either, but when you survey the landscape of our country's senior leaders like Pelosi, Feinstein, McConnell and Biden, it makes you think it might be time for an age cap in government service. Honestly, if you haven't made your mark by, say, 75, maybe you should take up gardening.
Nancy P. owns a vineyard. I hear she, and her husband, do their best work when sampling the crops. I’d make a joke about “getting hammered” but I’m above that sort of cheap humor.
Screw an age cap. We need a way to pick leaders that isn't the current one.
Democracy has risen to the top because it gets rid of the worst leaders quickly. There is very little evidence that it picks good ones very often. We need to rethink that part entirely.
I agree we certainly don't seem to pick good ones, but I like that WE do the picking, however flawed. Any ideas? What if we did away with Parties? What if all campaign spending was restricted to publicly allotted amounts? What if there was an intelligence/overall knowledge test for the Presidency? I don't know, just kicking around ideas.
How about we pick people we trust and then they go into conference and research candidates, put them forward, and vote on them? We could call it a "college" of people individually trusted by their local population to make the decision. Then they could get together and perform this "electoral" function.
Well, anyway that's the system we had from the founding fathers, that we overrode... why not see if it works?
The Republic of Venice and others historically used this system to remove factionalism from their politics.
Sounds good on paper. Who gets to be part of the electing elite? You say "people trusted by their local population", but outside of small communities where people know each other, these candidates would have to sell themselves in the usual political ways, with all the money, conflicts and favor trading that entails. No thanks. I prefer each citizen have one vote, and that we work harder towards educating our citizens and demanding more transparency from our elected officials and the 2 million federal employees whose job it is to manage us.
I think it is disease that is affecting representatives and not age. Longevity runs in my family, and that colors my opinion; nonetheless I have seen my elders hale and sharp into their late 80’s. I would certainly hate to see an effective Senator be pushed out, to be replaced by someone needing mentorship for several years.
Well, at one level I agree with you, Michelle. Henry Kissinger is an excellent example, and there certainly are many exceptions as you point out. The problem is that powerful incumbents become so politically entrenched that the ones that should retire cannot be dislodged. Besides, in a nation of 330m+ people, don't you think there are plenty of talented people who can step in?
There are definitely bright minds amongst us at the age of 80+, but name one that has been at the public trough for DECADES that hasn't been compromised.
And what's this nepotism thing? Apparently the only citizen qualified to take over when one of these dinosaurs goes down is his much younger wife or his namesake. I've seen it here in Illinois time and again. Only certain families are allowed access to political power.
And what's more, they're OK with the avg person being booted from their career, pension paltry, at the age of 65. They've had another 15-20 yrs beyond 65 with full premium health coverage, a fat salary, and the ability to inside trade. They've made 10-20x the normal person does in that time.
30 - 50 year-olds might provide that new Congressperson smell, but still they'll all answer to their Elite masters just as the 80 year-olds do. It won't be a gerontocracy, but the only thing that will change is the visual: fewer stumblings and bumblings from the physically and mentally diminished Old Guard. Having watched recent Weaponization committee hearings, though, there'll be no shortage of nonsensical mutterings by dim-wit degenerates like those who challenged Matt (the absurd Plaskett, loathsome DWS, etc....).
Good point. I was having a senior idealistic moment. Sigh. Just as AOC rolled over and is part of the establishment but pretends to be progressive when she knows her vote won't change anything. Yes, those committee hearings were an eye opener. I don't know how much those meetings were covered in the MSM. It's painful to see how little the committee dems have for the Constitution and Free Speech. Plaskett doesn't appear to understand the importance and concept of free speech. Her party's followers need to see her and DWS in action. A dark dangerous and dismal day for our republic.
What’s most troubling is that 1/2 the country believes that authoritarian or fascist rule is on the horizon in the form of Trump, blind to the fact it’s already here, in spades.
There is an article in Politico ---- vote turn out in college towns now causing formerly "red" states to go Democratic. Liberal education now stands for Party Platform education.
obsequiousness to the blob is of course a factor but it is important to remember that 40% of this country, and most of their readers, pretty much demanded that they be lied to. that is the scary part. As MT shows, that kind of bravery to stand up to that is rare.
Major press outlets have explicitly stated that they reject the principle of objectivity in journalism. Objectivity leads to platforming the other side (e.g., Trumpsters) when what is good and right is obvious to all who are good and right (e.g., them). No need to hear from deplorables and lepers who speak with forked tongues.
Well, legacy media (all of 'em) haven't done anything wrong at all! They are following their mandate to enforce a status quo and engage in activist journalism. The concept of journalism of yore is a dated and non-operational concept in the legacy media. Thankfully, independent media is the lifeline.
Exactly, they are a detriment to society, and unfortunately for the sheep that buy their noise, those things they don't print are more damaging than the lies they tell 24/7/365
Personally, I'm waiting for things to come full circle, and for Condé Nast or some similar large media company to announce their new online journal that will guarantee a lack of 'malinformation.'
They will unironically call this new publication 'Truth.'
Absolutely brilliant! It's a future where you must sign a Dis/Mis/Malinformation "Loyalty Oath" in order to attend concerts, reregister your vehicle, and pay your taxes.
I can just see Winston Smith in 1984 mouthing the words "Matt Taibbi has always produced Dis/Mis/Malinformation"
Not that hard... but it needs to be on cognitive function rather than age,because some octogenarians and nonagenarians are more lucid that people half their age. Anyone in positions of power should be required to pass these. (Hint: Brandon would fail... but would probably try to plagiarize...)
The problem is that Matt is assuming that organs like The Washington Post are in the journalism business. They aren't anymore. They've become propaganda organs for whatever the Dem narrative or policy is at the moment and censors to suppress information that runs contrary to that narrative or policy. They're activists, not journalists.
And the lies of omission are worse, or at the least, more damaging,than their outright lies they tell daily.hence the fucking retards that we all have to deal with on a daily.
My how things have changed. My whole family is unvaccinated and the single time we got Covid was after we came home from a trip to Jamaica with our school age kids in January 2022. No, we didn’t get it traveling. Jamaica briefly had a “test-in/ test-out” policy - and smartly regardless of “vaccination” status. TWe left for Jamaica just as Omicron was hitting our area and had to pay $250/each to get tested in time to leave. The resort slowly emptied while we were there because people from the US couldn’t find places to get tested to test-in.
There was a loophole if you’d had the virus within 6 months. We found it a few places, but despite living normally we couldn’t catch it. We’d been bullied and harassed so much for not being vaccinated, and had so many tests we were tired of to participate in life. It was snowing here so the kids’ school was closed and, since they stayed in person the whole time, our kids private school had old fashion snow days (not remote learning). Some friends had Covid. We said f-it - and had a Covid party. We were fine. A slight cold.
We are who Biden hoped would die. We weren’t just spreading “mal-information,” like billions of unvaccinated folks around the world who got mild Covid, we were living “Malinformation.” It’s the only time any of us ever got Covid. We lived normally, traveled often from the start - first week of June 2020 we were in wide open Hilton Head SC. Our kids school started on time, in-person, and unmasked mid August 2020. Even at the time I remember thinking most developed countries in the world would have been a lot better off letting people see the truth and people to make their own choices.
Major respect for standing your ground in light of the relentless attacks and bullying you and your kids most have faced . I was late to the party and did get my first vax believing it would save us all . Proud to never get boosted but I respect those that came ahead of me on this :)
Good for you for waking up and realizing it wasn’t good. And thank you for the kind words. My husband and I aren’t easily bullied..... the hardest part was not as much the bullying but feeling crazy - I couldn’t believe how few people actually looked at the damn data for themselves. It was mostly bar charts and line graphs. It wasn’t complicated. I was, still am, shocked at the way such a totalitarian mindset swept the developed world. I certainly better understand how so many historical atrocities could happen, though I would have preferred they stayed in the pages of history books rather than watching it unfold in real time.
It helped I actually plotted the March 27th “model” against the NC dashboard to teach my then barely 6 and 8 year old line graphs. The “models” claimed “even with” the shutdown, which began April 1 but was widely known would be ordered by the gov that day, there would be 30,000-40,000 people hospitalized with Covid in NC on April 17. They dropped it to 8,000-10,000 by April 1st. These people were already supposedly infected. Around mid April the NYT also published an article claiming, based on cell phone data, we live in the least stay-home compliant county in the nation. On April 17, 2020, per the NC Covid dashboard, there were actually around 800 Covid people in our state hospitalized with Covid. In addition to line graphs, my kids got an unintended lesson in models often being crap, and the power of propaganda.
My kids go to an incredible school, that is also a private, conservative, Christian school. Very few kids there were vaccinated (same with staff). It opened on time in August 2020. Summer camps opened June 1 2020. We had lived pretty normally for a long time when the shots came along, and it seemed unnecessary at best for people our age and health. We couldn’t catch it.
My kids learned about personal agency too. Not just check for yourself, but kindly convey your thoughts when appropriate. My daughter broke her ankle at an out of town soccer tournament in spring 2022. She’s tough - played on it the rest of the tournament. When it was still swollen that Monday we took her to the local orthopedist (mom fail). They were still playing Covid. It had been a long time since any of us would wear a mask for any reason. We wore the fake ones through airport security a few times, but flat out refused beyond that (and nobody cared on the planes - of it they did we couldn’t tell because they were wearing 4 masks). Anyway, the orthopedist lady told her to put on a mask or wait in a separate room. My daughter asked why. The lady said “to keep people safe.” My daughter flashed her dimples, smiled, lowered her voice, and responded “With all due respect, I’m not a threat to these people - their fridge is.” We all nearly lost it laughing (well, one of the check-in people wasn’t amused, but it was funny). Our kids take after their parents. We are far from perfect parents, but hopefully we’ve taught them to make decisions for themselves.
My father-in-law called us and begged us to get the vax because of the "Pandemic of the Unvaccinated" news story. My husband said, "Dad, that's propaganda. The media is lying to you." His dad said, "I don't think the news lies to me. Why would they do that?"
He's 80 so my husband just let it go. Ugh! If you have made it that far without realizing you are being HAD, why bother at that point. He was already doubled boosted. So it was not like we could save him from that. He seems fine, but clearly asleep. :(
Many of us could tell similar stories from those benighted years. Trouble is, those years have only extended to the present and show no sign of changing course. It's 1984 and most of Philip Dick's paranoia live and on stage everyday everywhere.
The persistent theme is: Any speech that suggests we should not be in a state of fear is considered disinformation.
Our situation as humans in the world will always contain some element of threat, no matter how minute, so to disregard or contextualize the threat can be classified as mal-/disinformation.
Russia, Trump, Climate, Infections, Straight White Men and their social structures of oppression -- all contain some threat or danger. Under this model, Silence may be Violence, but Context is Pretext (to Violence)
And if we're not in fear, we won't look to be saved by the government.
Supposedly Biden gave some kind of appearance yesterday about heat? And how the federal government needs to weigh in on hydrating? If we are that stupid individually, we deserve to melt.
«The persistent theme is: Any speech that suggests we should not be in a state of fear is considered disinformation»
In political jargon it is called "Project Fear" politics, and it has a reputation for winning elections after it worked in England for the scottish independence referendum and the EU membership referendum.
The argument is that most elections are won not by switching votes from the other side, but on increasing turnout of one side, and fear is a good motivation to vote instead of abstaining.
Indeed, this sums up modern politics. It's bound up with an inability to recognize tradeoffs or make compromises; either weakens the appeal of fearmongering.
"Our situation as humans in the world will always contain some element of threat, no matter how minute, so to disregard or contextualize the threat can be classified as mal-/disinformation."
Evidently it wasn't that embarrassing to them. Remember these were the same people who signed up for the Russian collusion case, the drinking bleach case, the insurrection case, the nothingburger Hunter Biden case, and the Hunter Laptop case. If they weren't embarrassed then, why do you think they would be embarrassed now. I think Glenn Greenwald said it best in a recent quote...
"There is no such thing as human power unmoored from principle, unmoored from ethics that will ever be anything but deeply corrupted. Once people tell themselves that they are fighting an evil so overarching that there are no ethical limits that can be recognized in what they do in the name of stopping it, those paths always lead to very dark places. "
I would say this definitely applies to the war in Ukraine and against Russia as well. We are being led to a very dark place under this administration and with the help of our institutions, academia and the media. Where this darkness will lead I cannot predict. but we are on our way....
«Glenn Greenwald said it best in a recent quote...
"[...] Once people tell themselves that they are fighting an evil so overarching that there are no ethical limits that can be recognized in what they do in the name of stopping it [...]"»
That was expressed well earlier in the script for "A man for all seasons" in 1960:
“WR: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
TM: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
WR: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
TM: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
Or by George Orwell in 1945:
“One of the peculiar phenomena of our time is the renegade Liberal. Over and above the familiar Marxist claim that ʻbourgeois libertyʼ is an illusion, there is now a widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods.
If one loves democracy, the argument runs, one must crush its enemies by no matter what means. And who are its enemies? It always appears that they are not only those who attack it openly and consciously, but those who ʻobjectivelyʼ endanger it by spreading mistaken doctrines.”
I can’t say I’m shocked but it’s still disheartening to see how far journalism has fallen.
I’ve long thought that it’s just incentives at play. If the establishment journalists get on board then their eroding jobs can be saved (they will save them by being the only permissible source of news on these platforms).
Honestly, and just speculation, I wonder if it’s worse that this though. Would it even be surprising at this point to find that their is some sort of shadowy misinformation funding setup by the government that is directly funding legacy media orgs? It would be disheartening to me if this was the case, but certainly not shocking.
Have you read the Twitter files? Way beyond that which you fear.when the fbi has an office in Twitter hq, I'm pretty sure we're way past your fear point.
They began with the "We CanDo This" Fed. p.r. campaign. They then indentured the outlets with contractual language threatening lawsuit if off-the-script news is featured.
It's legit and about the only way they could be doing what they have accomplished: shutting down the media.
Remember this: The Judas List. 3,916 media outlets and cultural organizations that took money from the Feds to lie to us. Never forget those bastards too.
I agree. What is to keep the IC from supplementing poor reporter salaries with funds set up for CHS’s. They could even do that without alerting newsroom bosses.
And two days ago the Washington Post wrote a very long piece about how Doctors who spoke out against vaccines and promoted Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine STILL haven't been prosecuted. It was a hit piece that was truly reprehensible and unapologetically STILL pro vaccine. Insane!
Facebook’s actions may have been understandable given the pressure the Biden administration was putting on them, but the actions of the press are unforgivable.
I mean look at the way the press treated Matt and Douglass Murray when they debated Malcolm Gladwell and Michelle Goldberg...and proceeded to beclown them.
Indeed they did. Zuck/Chan non profit threw over 500 mil at swing states elector selection campaigns. Hence old Joe is now doddering to the propaganda machines whatever his illicit handlers tell him
I think it is telling that Zuck spent millions helping ensure the Democrats won the election and still was uncomfortable with what they were asking Facebook to do.
There is no contrition for these members of the press. They proceed as if they have been right about everything and continue to decry the purveyors of disinformation -- even after it is shown that they were the worst offender.
A generous spin would be they are worthless, useful political tools. In truth these types are a true social malady, infecting and spreading the most damaging information and normalizing caustic and destructive behavior that is rotting our foundations and institutions from within.
Like Renaissance courtiers, the MSM have learned that there are no consequences for being wrong, harmful, damaging or even murderous (Iraq!) but there are consequences for being outside the Serious People Consensus at the moment.
Their top priority is no longer to convey true and accurate information, but to express the right attitude.
And above all else, maintain their membership in the country club(s) of the elite.
Disgusting sycophants.
Au contraire, they have learned that there are very, very serious consequences for being wrong, so long as they are wrong in a way that agrees with the prepossessions of their subscriber base and potential new subscribers. Being wrong in that way creates hits of dopamine for said subscribers and formes greater allegiance. Through online analytics they also know exactly how many new subscribers come in due to such factually wrong articles that align with the faction's desired narrative.
Meanwhile, publishing anything that strays from that narrative, even something that is an opinion piece by someone unaffiliated with the outlet itself, is the new "wrong" and loses subscribers, and they can measure that as well.
The subscriber-based model is what has driven most of the media this direction, along with the high dependency on their own dopamine hits on Twitter that this media generation evidences.
"so long as they are wrong in a way that agrees with the prepossessions of their subscriber base and potential new subscribers.
I think you meant to say "so long as they are NOT wrong in a way that agrees with the prepossessions of their subscriber base and potential new subscribers." unless you are saying that lots more people hate-subscribe than I think do.
If my assumption was correct, well, that basically was my point.
We agree here, but the wording is simply confounding.
My point is that if they say the GA voting bill is "Jim Crow 2.0" they are wrong. But they are wrong in a way that agrees with their subscriber base's thinking.
Yeah, except the MSM was largely correct about COVID and the COVID vaccines. Other than that annoying fact, your “theory” is spot on.
It’s amazing that you trust the MSM pre-COVID but astounding that you still believe.
Please list all the correct facts you’ve learned and then their mistakes. Please show your work.
TomS -- "Please list every correct fact that you've learned and then their mistakes."
OK, TomS, here goes, starting with the correct facts. Cincinnati is a city -- in Ohio, no less. Women play soccer. Certain ants (I forget exactly which ants) steal nests from other ants. People are more prone to catch colds in the winter simply because they're indoors together more in winter. You can make a log cabin from the cardboard thingies found in the middle of a toilet paper roll. Wool has to be carded before it's truly usable in a garment. Speaking of carding, linguists debate the origins of the word "card" to denote checking a bar patron's ID. There are still a few thousand operable rotary phones in America. Most plastic is never really recycled. Cats really do not care about you, and neither does your pet lizard.
Hey, TomS -- do you want me to keep going with the "correct facts" I've learned.? Because it'll be 2028 before I start listing "all....their mistakes."
Because they don't exist, you piece of shit.
Devoalan — I don’t think I’ll ever overcome the humiliation of being called a piece of shit by one so exalted as Devoalan.
Without conceding the point, that makes all the other lies okay!
What other lies? I generally follow the NYT’s and WaPo. I didn’t see any “lies.” Sometimes, everyone was wrong. But that’s not lying. I’m sorry if the world doesn’t conform to notions you formed when you were three years-old and have never grown out of — sometimes mommy and daddy are wrong. That’s not lying. And generally, those outlets were and continue to be correct.
As if, to give one example, the russiagate conspiracy theory never happened and was never breathlessly reported on by the MSM. As if you never heard of Iraq, or Libyan rape rooms, or any of the other lies told to support the wars.
The discussion was about THE MSM’s response to COVID. I’m not here to discuss Iraq, etc. If, by mentioning “all the other lies,” you intended to expand the conversation into a free-ranging Ramble-A-Thon about all the stuff you believe the MSM has lied to you about since 1967, I’ll bow out.
As far as COVID goes, I didn’t see very much outright lying. Sometimes there’s a fine line between delivering the truth and stirring up mass hysteria. Mostly what I saw were journalists getting a lot right, some things wrong.
The irony of all of them hating Donald Trump, whose motto is that apologies are for the weak, and to say you were wrong about anything invites legal trouble.
All of them are following his playbook. Maybe that's why they hate him so much, he exposes their entire worldview.
One of my son's teachers used to say “We hate most in others what we hide in ourselves.”
Bingo! Lucky son, lucky students.
And that is precisely why I never watch MSM.
The only time I see MSM is on independent podcasts using a video clip. I think that is
why I gasped outloud when I saw the Mitch McConnell freeze-in-place video. I hadn't seen
him in years. He appears diminished physically and clearly mentally. Then the next day Senator
Feinstein grabs the headline due to her confusion, only to be told by Sen Murray, 'Just say aye' on a floor vote. I learned a new word: nonagenarian--people in their nineties. I want to see 30–50-year-olds in our Congress. Another fun word: Gerontocracy: A gerontocracy is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. Bing-O.
I'm no spring chicken either, but when you survey the landscape of our country's senior leaders like Pelosi, Feinstein, McConnell and Biden, it makes you think it might be time for an age cap in government service. Honestly, if you haven't made your mark by, say, 75, maybe you should take up gardening.
And, term limits. If one hasn't scored enough money after 30 or so years as an elected public servant, maybe you should leave.
Nancy P. owns a vineyard. I hear she, and her husband, do their best work when sampling the crops. I’d make a joke about “getting hammered” but I’m above that sort of cheap humor.
Screw an age cap. We need a way to pick leaders that isn't the current one.
Democracy has risen to the top because it gets rid of the worst leaders quickly. There is very little evidence that it picks good ones very often. We need to rethink that part entirely.
I agree we certainly don't seem to pick good ones, but I like that WE do the picking, however flawed. Any ideas? What if we did away with Parties? What if all campaign spending was restricted to publicly allotted amounts? What if there was an intelligence/overall knowledge test for the Presidency? I don't know, just kicking around ideas.
How about we pick people we trust and then they go into conference and research candidates, put them forward, and vote on them? We could call it a "college" of people individually trusted by their local population to make the decision. Then they could get together and perform this "electoral" function.
Well, anyway that's the system we had from the founding fathers, that we overrode... why not see if it works?
The Republic of Venice and others historically used this system to remove factionalism from their politics.
Sounds good on paper. Who gets to be part of the electing elite? You say "people trusted by their local population", but outside of small communities where people know each other, these candidates would have to sell themselves in the usual political ways, with all the money, conflicts and favor trading that entails. No thanks. I prefer each citizen have one vote, and that we work harder towards educating our citizens and demanding more transparency from our elected officials and the 2 million federal employees whose job it is to manage us.
Bobsledding! Get it overwith on the first turn then call a special election.
I think it is disease that is affecting representatives and not age. Longevity runs in my family, and that colors my opinion; nonetheless I have seen my elders hale and sharp into their late 80’s. I would certainly hate to see an effective Senator be pushed out, to be replaced by someone needing mentorship for several years.
Effective Senator is an oxymoron
Well, at one level I agree with you, Michelle. Henry Kissinger is an excellent example, and there certainly are many exceptions as you point out. The problem is that powerful incumbents become so politically entrenched that the ones that should retire cannot be dislodged. Besides, in a nation of 330m+ people, don't you think there are plenty of talented people who can step in?
There are definitely bright minds amongst us at the age of 80+, but name one that has been at the public trough for DECADES that hasn't been compromised.
And what's this nepotism thing? Apparently the only citizen qualified to take over when one of these dinosaurs goes down is his much younger wife or his namesake. I've seen it here in Illinois time and again. Only certain families are allowed access to political power.
Effective senator, what a concept!
And what's more, they're OK with the avg person being booted from their career, pension paltry, at the age of 65. They've had another 15-20 yrs beyond 65 with full premium health coverage, a fat salary, and the ability to inside trade. They've made 10-20x the normal person does in that time.
Congress has a median age older than the Brezhnev-era Politburo.
They have a voting record of similar nature, too.; everything done by acclamation and the symbolic one vote for the resolution.
30 - 50 year-olds might provide that new Congressperson smell, but still they'll all answer to their Elite masters just as the 80 year-olds do. It won't be a gerontocracy, but the only thing that will change is the visual: fewer stumblings and bumblings from the physically and mentally diminished Old Guard. Having watched recent Weaponization committee hearings, though, there'll be no shortage of nonsensical mutterings by dim-wit degenerates like those who challenged Matt (the absurd Plaskett, loathsome DWS, etc....).
Good point. I was having a senior idealistic moment. Sigh. Just as AOC rolled over and is part of the establishment but pretends to be progressive when she knows her vote won't change anything. Yes, those committee hearings were an eye opener. I don't know how much those meetings were covered in the MSM. It's painful to see how little the committee dems have for the Constitution and Free Speech. Plaskett doesn't appear to understand the importance and concept of free speech. Her party's followers need to see her and DWS in action. A dark dangerous and dismal day for our republic.
What’s most troubling is that 1/2 the country believes that authoritarian or fascist rule is on the horizon in the form of Trump, blind to the fact it’s already here, in spades.
🥁
There is an article in Politico ---- vote turn out in college towns now causing formerly "red" states to go Democratic. Liberal education now stands for Party Platform education.
obsequiousness to the blob is of course a factor but it is important to remember that 40% of this country, and most of their readers, pretty much demanded that they be lied to. that is the scary part. As MT shows, that kind of bravery to stand up to that is rare.
Major press outlets have explicitly stated that they reject the principle of objectivity in journalism. Objectivity leads to platforming the other side (e.g., Trumpsters) when what is good and right is obvious to all who are good and right (e.g., them). No need to hear from deplorables and lepers who speak with forked tongues.
Endless loop of frustration and dismay. There has to be an image that depicts those seemingly infinite emotions.
There is no contrition because the press doesn't think they have done anything wrong.
THAT's a REAL problem.
Well, legacy media (all of 'em) haven't done anything wrong at all! They are following their mandate to enforce a status quo and engage in activist journalism. The concept of journalism of yore is a dated and non-operational concept in the legacy media. Thankfully, independent media is the lifeline.
Exactly, they are a detriment to society, and unfortunately for the sheep that buy their noise, those things they don't print are more damaging than the lies they tell 24/7/365
worthless, useful political tools
Personally, I'm waiting for things to come full circle, and for Condé Nast or some similar large media company to announce their new online journal that will guarantee a lack of 'malinformation.'
They will unironically call this new publication 'Truth.'
Absolutely brilliant! It's a future where you must sign a Dis/Mis/Malinformation "Loyalty Oath" in order to attend concerts, reregister your vehicle, and pay your taxes.
I can just see Winston Smith in 1984 mouthing the words "Matt Taibbi has always produced Dis/Mis/Malinformation"
Who wants to join me in a chant of USA! USA!?
Finally my disloyalty is paying off.
Not that hard... but it needs to be on cognitive function rather than age,because some octogenarians and nonagenarians are more lucid that people half their age. Anyone in positions of power should be required to pass these. (Hint: Brandon would fail... but would probably try to plagiarize...)
правда (pravda) = truth. What goes around comes around.
Yeah, but that publication was paper print and could provide at least some value to those exposed to it: reuse as toilet paper ;-)
Isn't Truth where Donald Trump started posting after he got banned from Twitter?
You've got me, I'm not on Truth Social.
Pravda means Truth, so yeah, probably coming soon. How soon before we address each other as Comrade?
Truth...Coming soon under new management!
AKA Pravda, for those unfamiliar with Russian.
Wait! Isn't that "Threads"?
Hold up...didn’t the Watchtower people already corner the market on this sort of thing?
The problem is that Matt is assuming that organs like The Washington Post are in the journalism business. They aren't anymore. They've become propaganda organs for whatever the Dem narrative or policy is at the moment and censors to suppress information that runs contrary to that narrative or policy. They're activists, not journalists.
"They're activists, not journalists."
The MSM are glorified fluffers to power, or smirking Renaissance courtiers, but with less colorful outfits.
Matt is also an activist
That’s why WAPO lost $100 million last year. But Bezos has unlimited money and apparently he thinks owning a propaganda outlet is worth a lot.
"Propaganda organs" is incorrect. They proudly publish FICTION. And they are very good at it!
And the lies of omission are worse, or at the least, more damaging,than their outright lies they tell daily.hence the fucking retards that we all have to deal with on a daily.
Ah, the infamous “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated!”
My how things have changed. My whole family is unvaccinated and the single time we got Covid was after we came home from a trip to Jamaica with our school age kids in January 2022. No, we didn’t get it traveling. Jamaica briefly had a “test-in/ test-out” policy - and smartly regardless of “vaccination” status. TWe left for Jamaica just as Omicron was hitting our area and had to pay $250/each to get tested in time to leave. The resort slowly emptied while we were there because people from the US couldn’t find places to get tested to test-in.
There was a loophole if you’d had the virus within 6 months. We found it a few places, but despite living normally we couldn’t catch it. We’d been bullied and harassed so much for not being vaccinated, and had so many tests we were tired of to participate in life. It was snowing here so the kids’ school was closed and, since they stayed in person the whole time, our kids private school had old fashion snow days (not remote learning). Some friends had Covid. We said f-it - and had a Covid party. We were fine. A slight cold.
We are who Biden hoped would die. We weren’t just spreading “mal-information,” like billions of unvaccinated folks around the world who got mild Covid, we were living “Malinformation.” It’s the only time any of us ever got Covid. We lived normally, traveled often from the start - first week of June 2020 we were in wide open Hilton Head SC. Our kids school started on time, in-person, and unmasked mid August 2020. Even at the time I remember thinking most developed countries in the world would have been a lot better off letting people see the truth and people to make their own choices.
We, too, are who Biden (and the rest of them) hoped would die. (Some of us they actually killed.)
Never, never, NEVER forget.
Never, never, NEVER forgive.
Never.
Major respect for standing your ground in light of the relentless attacks and bullying you and your kids most have faced . I was late to the party and did get my first vax believing it would save us all . Proud to never get boosted but I respect those that came ahead of me on this :)
Good for you for waking up and realizing it wasn’t good. And thank you for the kind words. My husband and I aren’t easily bullied..... the hardest part was not as much the bullying but feeling crazy - I couldn’t believe how few people actually looked at the damn data for themselves. It was mostly bar charts and line graphs. It wasn’t complicated. I was, still am, shocked at the way such a totalitarian mindset swept the developed world. I certainly better understand how so many historical atrocities could happen, though I would have preferred they stayed in the pages of history books rather than watching it unfold in real time.
It helped I actually plotted the March 27th “model” against the NC dashboard to teach my then barely 6 and 8 year old line graphs. The “models” claimed “even with” the shutdown, which began April 1 but was widely known would be ordered by the gov that day, there would be 30,000-40,000 people hospitalized with Covid in NC on April 17. They dropped it to 8,000-10,000 by April 1st. These people were already supposedly infected. Around mid April the NYT also published an article claiming, based on cell phone data, we live in the least stay-home compliant county in the nation. On April 17, 2020, per the NC Covid dashboard, there were actually around 800 Covid people in our state hospitalized with Covid. In addition to line graphs, my kids got an unintended lesson in models often being crap, and the power of propaganda.
My kids go to an incredible school, that is also a private, conservative, Christian school. Very few kids there were vaccinated (same with staff). It opened on time in August 2020. Summer camps opened June 1 2020. We had lived pretty normally for a long time when the shots came along, and it seemed unnecessary at best for people our age and health. We couldn’t catch it.
My kids learned about personal agency too. Not just check for yourself, but kindly convey your thoughts when appropriate. My daughter broke her ankle at an out of town soccer tournament in spring 2022. She’s tough - played on it the rest of the tournament. When it was still swollen that Monday we took her to the local orthopedist (mom fail). They were still playing Covid. It had been a long time since any of us would wear a mask for any reason. We wore the fake ones through airport security a few times, but flat out refused beyond that (and nobody cared on the planes - of it they did we couldn’t tell because they were wearing 4 masks). Anyway, the orthopedist lady told her to put on a mask or wait in a separate room. My daughter asked why. The lady said “to keep people safe.” My daughter flashed her dimples, smiled, lowered her voice, and responded “With all due respect, I’m not a threat to these people - their fridge is.” We all nearly lost it laughing (well, one of the check-in people wasn’t amused, but it was funny). Our kids take after their parents. We are far from perfect parents, but hopefully we’ve taught them to make decisions for themselves.
Instilling accurate, reliable and sensitive BS instincts is an important part of parenting. Congratulations!
Oh no. You are perfect parents. Teach your children well, which you are quite obviously doing!
My father-in-law called us and begged us to get the vax because of the "Pandemic of the Unvaccinated" news story. My husband said, "Dad, that's propaganda. The media is lying to you." His dad said, "I don't think the news lies to me. Why would they do that?"
He's 80 so my husband just let it go. Ugh! If you have made it that far without realizing you are being HAD, why bother at that point. He was already doubled boosted. So it was not like we could save him from that. He seems fine, but clearly asleep. :(
Many of us could tell similar stories from those benighted years. Trouble is, those years have only extended to the present and show no sign of changing course. It's 1984 and most of Philip Dick's paranoia live and on stage everyday everywhere.
The pandemic of independent thought, haha.
Well done. Now do “transgender” propaganda.
He could name it Xerxes
The Federal Government: Your One and Only Source of Disinformation.
"Never believe any story until it's been officially denied!"
Sad, that is what China Watchers say about news on China. You know it is true when the CCP denies it.
The only source of disinformation you will ever need. . . . Here for you! . . . Protecting democracy against MDM.
Darn right!
That's the scariest thought, that all this is intentional.
The persistent theme is: Any speech that suggests we should not be in a state of fear is considered disinformation.
Our situation as humans in the world will always contain some element of threat, no matter how minute, so to disregard or contextualize the threat can be classified as mal-/disinformation.
Russia, Trump, Climate, Infections, Straight White Men and their social structures of oppression -- all contain some threat or danger. Under this model, Silence may be Violence, but Context is Pretext (to Violence)
And if we're not in fear, we won't look to be saved by the government.
Supposedly Biden gave some kind of appearance yesterday about heat? And how the federal government needs to weigh in on hydrating? If we are that stupid individually, we deserve to melt.
«The persistent theme is: Any speech that suggests we should not be in a state of fear is considered disinformation»
In political jargon it is called "Project Fear" politics, and it has a reputation for winning elections after it worked in England for the scottish independence referendum and the EU membership referendum.
The argument is that most elections are won not by switching votes from the other side, but on increasing turnout of one side, and fear is a good motivation to vote instead of abstaining.
Indeed, this sums up modern politics. It's bound up with an inability to recognize tradeoffs or make compromises; either weakens the appeal of fearmongering.
"Our situation as humans in the world will always contain some element of threat, no matter how minute, so to disregard or contextualize the threat can be classified as mal-/disinformation."
Verily, and not just for humans.
Excellent comment.
When you’re a true believer AND have the power, the ends justify the means every time. Free speech for me but not for thee.
Evidently it wasn't that embarrassing to them. Remember these were the same people who signed up for the Russian collusion case, the drinking bleach case, the insurrection case, the nothingburger Hunter Biden case, and the Hunter Laptop case. If they weren't embarrassed then, why do you think they would be embarrassed now. I think Glenn Greenwald said it best in a recent quote...
"There is no such thing as human power unmoored from principle, unmoored from ethics that will ever be anything but deeply corrupted. Once people tell themselves that they are fighting an evil so overarching that there are no ethical limits that can be recognized in what they do in the name of stopping it, those paths always lead to very dark places. "
I would say this definitely applies to the war in Ukraine and against Russia as well. We are being led to a very dark place under this administration and with the help of our institutions, academia and the media. Where this darkness will lead I cannot predict. but we are on our way....
«Glenn Greenwald said it best in a recent quote...
"[...] Once people tell themselves that they are fighting an evil so overarching that there are no ethical limits that can be recognized in what they do in the name of stopping it [...]"»
That was expressed well earlier in the script for "A man for all seasons" in 1960:
“WR: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
TM: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
WR: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
TM: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
Or by George Orwell in 1945:
“One of the peculiar phenomena of our time is the renegade Liberal. Over and above the familiar Marxist claim that ʻbourgeois libertyʼ is an illusion, there is now a widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods.
If one loves democracy, the argument runs, one must crush its enemies by no matter what means. And who are its enemies? It always appears that they are not only those who attack it openly and consciously, but those who ʻobjectivelyʼ endanger it by spreading mistaken doctrines.”
Mal-information bad, Mao-information good.
stealing
That's why I call them paid-off, propaganda-peddling presstitutes.
I have no idea why The NY Times is still the "paper of record" when their journalists haven't been news reporters for years.
Because they are in the pocket of the powerful
Elon should have bought Comcast then incinerated MSNBC.
The image that popped into my head was of Elon breathing fire on Rachel Maddow like a dragon. 🔥
I would have paid a subscription fee to see that happen. The Termination of Rachel Maddow would break viewership records.
I can’t say I’m shocked but it’s still disheartening to see how far journalism has fallen.
I’ve long thought that it’s just incentives at play. If the establishment journalists get on board then their eroding jobs can be saved (they will save them by being the only permissible source of news on these platforms).
Honestly, and just speculation, I wonder if it’s worse that this though. Would it even be surprising at this point to find that their is some sort of shadowy misinformation funding setup by the government that is directly funding legacy media orgs? It would be disheartening to me if this was the case, but certainly not shocking.
The book Presstitutes was devoted to this topic, albeit for German media. It is worse than you think
Have you read the Twitter files? Way beyond that which you fear.when the fbi has an office in Twitter hq, I'm pretty sure we're way past your fear point.
Yes, I know how they shut down the press. Go read it: https://docpruyne.substack.com/p/on-journalism-i-know-why-the-caged.
They began with the "We CanDo This" Fed. p.r. campaign. They then indentured the outlets with contractual language threatening lawsuit if off-the-script news is featured.
It's legit and about the only way they could be doing what they have accomplished: shutting down the media.
Remember this: The Judas List. 3,916 media outlets and cultural organizations that took money from the Feds to lie to us. Never forget those bastards too.
I agree. What is to keep the IC from supplementing poor reporter salaries with funds set up for CHS’s. They could even do that without alerting newsroom bosses.
Y'all are catching on now!
And two days ago the Washington Post wrote a very long piece about how Doctors who spoke out against vaccines and promoted Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine STILL haven't been prosecuted. It was a hit piece that was truly reprehensible and unapologetically STILL pro vaccine. Insane!
Facebook’s actions may have been understandable given the pressure the Biden administration was putting on them, but the actions of the press are unforgivable.
I mean look at the way the press treated Matt and Douglass Murray when they debated Malcolm Gladwell and Michelle Goldberg...and proceeded to beclown them.
https://www.sub-verses.com/p/the-debate-which-exemplifies-why
Didn't FB throw a whole bunch of dough into electioneering in 2020? Did they brag about it in Time magazine?*
Facebook v. the Feds --- who to root for.
*I could be wrong.
Indeed they did. Zuck/Chan non profit threw over 500 mil at swing states elector selection campaigns. Hence old Joe is now doddering to the propaganda machines whatever his illicit handlers tell him
I think it is telling that Zuck spent millions helping ensure the Democrats won the election and still was uncomfortable with what they were asking Facebook to do.
He still did it though.
Half a billion with a B for illegal voting. Yeah. If I saw Zuck on the street...