Thanks, Matt. Why are the smart people I know and used to like because of their liberal values so dumb now? I don't even understand what's in it for them to go along with this totalitarian regime. All I come up with is that they're like abused cult members with Jim Jones as their leader. For four years I asked my friends who believed in Russian collusion why they believed it. They had no answer and cut off talking to me instead. Other friends I asked why they hated Trump or thought Biden was a great choice. They never - not one - could answer and would hang up on me. I grew up in CA during a time of cults. I could never reason either with friends in cults. Eventually I learned they had to do it for themselves. Many did. Others just went on to become YUPPIES and forget they ever worshipped a baby guru. And that's how I see these current Totalitarian media believers. I think many will come to their senses, but I also worry that's why the Soros/Obama/Biden administration is rushing so fast to secure their power and take away any right we have to vote them out before their followers do come to their senses. But I ordered extra copies of both your and Glenn's books to distribute at local libraries.
I have been black listed by several Democratic friends, including some in my own family. I can’t blame them for their ignorance if they watch mainstream news, which lies by omission. People don’t know what they don’t know.
Still, some more passive old folks have been exposed to lies from sources they have habitually trusted. Many have failed to detect a change in the papers and networks that used to be committed to (the appearance of) objectivity. Yes, I know they were always imperfect, and I myself never automatically believed them, but man, there really HAS been a change.
I used to tell my right wing friends, discussing talk radio and Fox all the way back in the 90s: overt lying is not the biggest concern. The biggest problems are (1) when a story turns out to be BS, they don't walk it back, they just stop talking about it and (2) the information that they will simply never put in front of you.
I have yet to encounter a "liberal" (these words have become meaningless) who knows about Trump's INF and START positions, for instance. They don't fit the narrative, and won't be mentioned.
Its called years of propaganda-- smarts, eduction doesn't matter-- lifelong propaganda then scare the shit out of people-- voila! raging Neanderthals-- the show of "Covid" is a perfect example.
I'm a 68 year old retired PI. I found years back that maybe the greatest liberation one can experience is not giving a rat's ass what people think of me. I do care what a few people think. They all fit @ my dining room table.
I live in Twin Cities but spend winters in San Diego. There was never an edict in MN for masks outside, although the scared sheep did, and still do, wear them. Being a PI, I can read people although masks make it more difficult. Once in awhile I would get a stink eye from a masker as I walk around one of many lakes[I walk daily].
California had a mask mandate outdoors when we got there in January and it was in effect until we left in April. Got many stink eyes as I walked the boardwalk and beach. I actually enjoyed the stink eyes, wearing their scorn as a badge of honor.
Being a beach walker, I've gotten to know lifeguards. Early on during the Purge, Newsom allowed no one on the beach. STUPID! That left the lifeguards to enforce the edict. Surfers organized. They would sprint from the boardwalk to the ocean[sans surfboard]. As soon as they saw lifeguards coming they would sprint off the beach and signal for another dude to sprint toward the water making the lifeguards do a U-turn to try and catch them. This would repeat itself until the lifeguards just said "fuck it" unless a supervisor was present. Surfer civil disobedience. What fucking science would say surfing was dangerous vis a vis Covid??
I’ve started using a different method with my friends that watch MSNBC and believe they are watching real news. I tell them they are consuming curated media. That they are only shown news that endorses the given narrative. Then, when something happens, like the shooting of that 16 year old, I talk about it before they watch the news, so they know the parts that will be left out so the story fits the narrative. Me and my friends can stay friendly, because I don’t harp on them for being uninformed. They get to see I’m not lying to them. It’s a slow process, but I think we will be rewarded, eventually.
The easy way that I can use to reach my MSNBC friends: they want you stirred up against the people that you already hate, because they are strictly in the ratings business. It's gotten pretty easy to point to all the stories that they were initially wrong about, in the most sensationalist manner available to them. Absolutely everything is clickbait now. Everyone understands clickbait.
They're binary, tribal thinkers, unwilling to hold their leaders accountable, which makes them identical to either Bush supporters when he was popular, or Trump supporters now. All of these people point to the obvious hypocrisy of the opposition and then, as though this was some kind of Hollywood movie, naturally assume their guy has to be the good guy in this flick. As Paul Simon wrote years ago, in the song "The Boxer", "All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
A few years back, Hillary came to Pasadena, Ca. to a book store named Vroman's to sign copies of her book, whatever it was titled, as to why she lost to Trump, so I showed up, and with a 2'x3' hand made sign, listed the factual reasons why she had lost, beginning with the fact that the EC decides our presidential elections, not the popular vote and specifically that she had lost the four swing states that had been decimated by free trade deals that ultimately made the difference, that Obama had insisted on campaigning for the TPP right up until election day, and that Chuck Schumer had confidently(and incorrectly) said that for every blue collar Dem voter they'd lost, they would get 2 or 3 moderate Repubs in the suburbs, all of these policies summing up the transition the Dem party had made years ago under the triangulating corporatism of first Bill Clinton, and later Obama.
My presence there, even though I was not making a ruckus, attracted a huge Secret Service guy who questioned me as to my being there, me replying that I was under the impression my 1st Amendment rights still pertained on this public sidewalk, where both the crowd, which was nearly 1,000, and I were located. He got on his cell, talked a bit and then said I was free to do my thing, as long as I wasn't confrontational, and he would accompany me , which he did for the 2 hours I went back and forth.
Coincidentally, this was the day Flynn admitted he had lied to the FBI, and the crowd was salivating at the prospect at the revelations to come, just as delusional as the Trump crowd this last Jan. 6, but without the war paint. I'd like to have had $5 for every time I heard the word, "Russia" come up.
Eventually, I called it a day and saw a flick at the Laemmle theatre next door, greatly in need of some popcorn, coke and a chance to escape the mind numbing madness outside. Jimmy Dore apparently showed up after I had done my bit and did a show from there, if you care to look it up on YouTube.
"Why are the smart people I know and used to like because of their liberal values so dumb now? I don't even understand what's in it for them to go along with this totalitarian regime."
...they might not have been that smart?
Everything in life is about low effort. If you are "successful," you get to the point where it makes sense to hire servants or the idea of hiring servants makes you gag.
"I asked my friends who believed in Russian collusion why they believed it"
(1) Trump Tower meeting in which Don Jr, according to his email, was expecting to get dirt on HRC, and (2) Manafort in hock to Russian mobsters, and (3) Trump openly asking Russia to provide HRC emails, all prove openness to collusion by Trump campaign, which to me is equivalent to actual collusion.
"I asked why they hated Trump or thought Biden was a great choice."
I hate Trump because he is a thug and a bully (see rallies where he asks for protestors to be roughed up) and a liar (see 20000+ documented lies) and a conman (see Trump U scam, Mexican condo scam, 3000+ lawsuits). There's also Jan 6, where he incited a riot in support of a coup that ended in multiple deaths and injuries.
Biden was a great choice because he was the only Democrat who could have beaten Trump, which he did. Though half the country does not believe it because of Trump's lies.
You and others have great reasons for hating Trump. Some of them are lies and some are truths. Problem is your hatred clouds the truths from the lies and you recite the litany without even caring which is which. Your first three examples are just rote stories fed to people who consume them without context or critical analysis. The rest of your post about Trump's B.S. has some substance. If beating Trump was that ONLY consideration, yes dumping Sanders was a necessary ploy by the DNC and others to win the Presidency in 2020. But was it really fair to Mr. Sanders and his supporters to kill their movement to "install" a very compromised and probably corrupt party tool? Since when do two wrongs make something "right?" In politics power and its acquisition seem to be the only consideration. Trump and his personality are not as terrible as some of the possible outcomes of the radical lefts policies and their future effects on America in an increasingly dangerous world. A nuclear war with Russia or China will be much worse that Trump's sins of omission or commission. For whatever reason our political process has produced a "worse and much worse choice" for the American voter. Would be nice if there were more than two choices and if the system that created these choices could be reformed. Term limits for ALL might be a first step.
“Trump and his personality are not as terrible as some of the possible outcomes of the radical lefts policies and their future effects on America in an increasingly dangerous world.“ Agree. I see politicians as employees, not people I need to have wet dreams about in order to vote for them. Would you hire someone to run a store you own when that person tells everyone what a lousy store you own, moves illegals to live in it and lets criminals destroy it? Of course not. I've been in several disasters. I didn't care about the personality or hair or egos of the people who rescued us. They rescued us. Biden trashes us - his legal citizens to the rest of the world - and compromises our safety against China and flirts with war with Russia. Then tries to look like a cuddly daddy figure who wants us to obey his rules for our own good or else he'll take away our privileges. Yeah, well I see how effective he was with his own son, Hunter.
"Your first three examples are just rote stories fed to people who consume them without context or critical analysis." Nonsense. Refute a cited fact rather than making farcical claims.
"dumping Sanders was a necessary ploy by the DNC and others" The VOTERS dumped Sanders, just as they did when he ran against HRC (and got 3 million fewer votes in the primaries).
I don't have to refute them that was done by Mueller, and many others. Trump Jr's. extensive sworn testimony before Congress and a few well written and footnoted books. Your three examples are mostly hysterical headlines and stories written utilizing sources paid for by Hillary and the DNC. Most have been either disproven or when given some context found to be less pernicous than that first "reported by the press." Just the Trump Jr. meeting alone has been investigated to death by every Trump hating organization and federal investigative organization and found to be a nothing burger. But you are free to keep howling at the moon over everything and anything media got wrong or just overhyped until they moved on to the next "walls are closing in" story. You think Trump is some master mind whom no one could corner or catch while at the same time he is a mindless demented fool. Can't have it both ways.
Okay, here's a refutation then: why don't you try actually reading what Matt has already written, at length, about this? I'll even hold your hand and give you a good starting point:
The Great Reset is going great so far! We're going to legalize drugs and prostitution but we're going to turn beef into a controlled substance. You can't make this shit up. I can't wait for cattle ranchers to start selling beef on the black market. We'll be lined up like a bunch of addicts with cash in hand.
Actually, you did just make that up, especially the part about turning beef into a controlled substance. The only drug that is being truly legalized, besides the accepted and far worse ones, alcohol and tobacco, is marijuana, which, while I don't use it, is far more useful, especially in pain relief and helping bipolar people's moods, than either of those drugs ever could be.
I am all for the legalization of drugs and prostitution. As for the beef restrictions, it is probably bullshit but I didn't make it up. To Bee or not to Bee is the question on this one and the jury is still out. I just think that it is funny because it sounds far more realistic than it should be. No pun intended.
I agree with your first sentence. As for beef ever being outlawed, just look at all the Mickey D's around, or In n Out in Ca. and that ain't gonna happen, though as a 73 year old who grew up in a middle class family that ate out one a month, tops, we'd all be better off if we ate less of the crap they serve.
I'd love to have a time machine and take some 20 something of today back to the 60's so they'd notice two things; how few fast food places there were and how much smaller people were back in the day.
Fast food, drugs, alcohol should all be legal, but really we should consume way less of them than we do, it would greatly reduce our healthcare costs.
Freedom requires maturity, something in short supply.
Have you ever noticed that as soon as Trump gets mentioned, the whole show becomes his, even if he's irrelevant to the subject (in this case, "lawfare" as happened in Brazil)? Makes me afraid he could come back, not because he has anything constructive to offer, but merely that he sends so many people (on both sides) into a mysteriously energized state. IMO he is a mere historical oddity, a bungler who was entrusted by his supporters to usher this land into post-modern authoritarianism, but who botched the job. We all dodged a bullet. Not all race-baiting demagogues are stupid and uncouth. What happens when a smart, cool, good looking one comes along? "L'état, c'est moi."
Most of the people I know who voted for Trump just hated Hillary that much. Which is a pretty good judgement. Our last presidential choices seem predicted by South Park.
My point being, I never saw as much "Trump is great!" stuff as is/was projected by most Dems and media people. A lot of Trump voters were embarrassed by him ("Just please stay off Twitter, ya baffoon!") and his manner. But look what the Dems have done, just to get the establishment, the corporate kleptocracy, back up and running smoothly. Jebus.
How'd all you people believe that? You're so vigilant about the MSM cooking up stories and when your guys and gals do it you swallow it as eagerly and uncritically as any liberal. I keep remembering the title of a book by Marshall McLuhan, I think it was: "They became what they beheld."
Well, good. I'm sure not everyone here does that. A lot of the men sound like the same guy, though, or their answers have been scripted by the same propagandist.
I don't eat beef, but I pay for YOUR burgers since the environmental disaster that is the beef industry has socialized the costs of clean up while keeping the profits private. This is something Matt used to understand, before he discovered that being a trumpista paid better.
I actually had a burger last night and it was amazing! I do love animals and feel awful for their mistreatment, but a good burger or steak is just a fantastic meal.
Okay, I'll tell the cattle to stop farting or feed them beano. Seriously, I cooked all but 4 of our meals for the last year and shop as much as possible at local farms for produce, eggs, meat and from local fishermen. I laugh at people like you on your moral lentil high horse. And where, sir, doth your virtuous non-meat meals come from? I bet if we took a carbon footprint competition you'd far outdo me.
You can you please reduce your carbon footprint by giving away your computer to a disadvantaged person and never logging on to the internet again? The rest of us thank you in advance. I'm getting really sick of all the global warning you're causing.
Yes, you are right. I see all of the devastation the meat industry has done to our country. All of our national parks, our seashores, cities...they are all devastated by the meat industry. And global warming too. And tsunami's and hurricanes and the wrath of god have all been rained down upon us by the unholy burger. May we live burger free and without sin. May the skies be cleared of the dreaded burger.
What a total joke. Take your hand off of your environmental bible and choke down a meatless burger for gods sakes. There is a term for people like you. Useful Idiot.
Maybe Mark watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs too many times. He thinks the common cheeseburger is going to destroy us all. Maybe he is right. I just looked outside and I can now see all of the meat devastation. Oh wait, that is just my dogs poop in the backyard.
Get off your high horse, jackass. Unless you're living in a cave and subsisting off of bugs and berries and wearing a loincloth, you are having an environmental impact on the rest of us. Do you drive a car? Have you ever flown? Do you run heat in the winter and A/C in the summer? Clearly you use the internet. Ever wonder where the lithium in your phone/laptop battery comes from? Do you know the environmental impact of chip manufacturing? Ever think about the slave labor that put together the electronics you're using or the ones who made the shoes and clothes you wear?
There can be an intelligent discussion on the pros and cons of meat consumption, and you are certainly welcome to start one. I don't think the person I was responding to was starting such a discussion, however. I know the Gates foundation has been trying to drum up up publicity on the matter ever since Bill invested in synthetic bee--- err I mean since Bill became passionate on the subject.
Just curious. When Obama was carrying out 9,000 drone strikes that, according to our own government, primarily snuffed innocent bystanders, did that push him into bully territory or was he just another garden variety erudite serial killer?
You are a bit out there. If we did what you say we would be the ONLY nation that ever existed that imprisoned EVERY leader elected. Great method for recruiting the best and brightest. Your zero sum justice system would defiantly result in someone in power NEVER leaving because just doing the daily business of governing would result in a prison sentence. My best guess is you probably might be more comfortable in another country that does not engage in armed conflict. Maybe the Swiss or other passive nations would suit you better. Really what is keep[ing you in this nation run by outright criminals in your opinion. Are you compromised or just a hypocrite?. We are not changing anytime soon. No one is holding you here either. Those other nations are fine places to live.
A fair answer. Also, when you mention Trump's collusion with Russia, a story that has large holes in much of its foundation, why is Joe, whose son's emails appear to detail the outright bribery of Joe by the Chinese, seen as a more sensible alternative? Seems like you're splitting hairs.
By your own list you show your dislike for every president since Nixon.
Why isn't Joe just more of the same old story, same old song & dance?
Since I no longer play in the voting sandbox I can't help wondering why you still give enough of a shit to bother showing up to choose?
At least Trump U did not exclude Asians and was much cheaper. Harvard and most Universities really don't give anyone a "good bang for the buck." Total scam based on the product that is graduated and their knowledge. At least Trump grads might bet lucky flipping real estate or whatever they were selling. By the way no government officials are calling for ME to pay the tuition loans taken by Trump students.
Don't forget how they fund ethnic studies and other self-propagating gobeldygook by taxing with "overhead" federal grants for science research. I guess money laundering is ok when Harvard does it.
University tuition has gone up faster than any other sector over the last 25 years, except for health care. And with health care, we are getting ever-improved treatments (new and expensive ones, anyway).
As the communication of information becomes cheaper, the schools have justified the tuition increase by...expanding the administrative layer. The value of this expansion has not been well-demonstrated.
"Trump openly asking Russia to provide HRC emails, all prove openness to collusion by Trump campaign, which to me is equivalent to actual collusion."
Are you saying that you're foolish enough to believe that when Trump joked this in a *public* setting he was "colluding" with them? Or that we (the readers here, never mind just the Trump supporters) are so stupid we'll believe this insinuation? What then would "collusion" -- you know, in the sense of the synomym "conspiracy", a word I trust you realize you must studiously avoid -- even mean in this case?
Trump's so called lies were mostly self aggrandizing salesman type assertions and counter narratives to those floated by the media. Bush and others created lies that resulted in the deaths of scores of Americans and possible millions of others from nations we attacked based on "media accepted lies" All Trump's actions and his stories never amounted to much as far as life and death or anything else. Yet he was treated worse than Hitler and Mao combined by the establishment media. Hitler was a hero in the early 1930's until he wasn't. Trump and his legacy will be a blip on the timeline of history. No hits, no errors and a few programs and policies that actually did some good for people who never expected anything from him. Tempest in a teapot.
Thank you both. Agree mostly with both of you. I think, though, that Trump's legacy won't just be a blip. He drove a tank through the Bushes' and Clintons' amd Obama's entitled elitism. I didn't vote for Trump in 2016. But after I saw how the media geared up to make it impossible for Hillary supporters to have any rational discussion about why she lost, I began to see how ugly the classist attitudes of the well-off Dems I knew were. I realized how many of them had no real values - just fake ones. I voted for Obama twice and protested against his policies, including his treatment of children at the border, his love of surveillance, his war-mongering and assassinations disguised as getting rid of dictators but really all about squelching any nation that didn't bow to the global elites. All the Trump haters I know told me this wasn't true, he didn't put kids in cages, he didn't use drones except against evil people. Okay, sure, let the Obama-loving media rewrite history for you. Obama's second term revealed how messed up in the head he is about identifying really with his white ancestry while feeling guilty about how little he really cares about black people. He was a mixed racial president who didn't see that as a way to unify the country, but used it instead to divide this country. Obama was the worst president ever. Sadly, this is his third term.
Just to clarify. Obama authorized a drone strike against an American citizen who was neither indicted or convicted of any crime. He was a supposed recruiter for jihad. He was outright murdered by remote control. His 16 year old son was also killed and was just a collateral damage casualty in military speak. Obama even bragged about this liquidation by drone. Claimed he had a list on his desk that only he could authorize. Media actually celebrated his Mafia like action.
Trump NEVER came close to this type of criminal behavior yet the media could not stop hectoring and attacking him on a daily bases. In any event the government is in the business of manipulating citizens reactions and beliefs. The media is their main organ of creating narratives and acceptable stories. The public is slowly awakening to the game and its skewered rules. The daily lies and obfuscations played out on MSM outlets is as bad as Nazi Germany's best efforts. Don't be "good" German's look behind the curtain and see the little man pulling the levers before you bust a gut carrying on about the latest "outrage" promoted by the media and political operatives.
One quibble. Did you miss the article where it was ADMITTED AND EXPLAINED that there most definitely was collusion and a coordinated attack on Trump to "correct" the election.
I believe it was in Time magazine, and the fact they admitted to running propaganda and fake news instead of reportage should concern you even more than a loudmouth NYC real estate developers' bad manners.
There is an answer to your question that is intuitively simple, but incompatible with the cognition of humans who live within the society they need to analyze from a detached perspective to see it in its true form.
Culture is autopoietic (self authoring). Having a cultural experience entails culture writing itself on a person's nervous system, such that that nervous system represents that cultural experience. Otherwise a person couldn't perceive that it is having an experience at all.
But once written, it is part of the person who is experiencing it. Culture is formative of identity. That's why a lie repeated often enough to a large population becomes "true" simply by the bruit force of repetition, combined with those who assimilate it repeating is back and forth to each other. Dominant culture, in that way, is a self-reinforcing mechanism.
Thus, whoever dominates culture, dominates identity. People are not autonomous agents in the world, operating of their own volition. They're nodes culture, which is constantly authoring itself on their nervous system. The volition is not theirs. Its culture's: culture's patterns replicated by a malleable nervous system, becoming the identity of the nervous system that replicates them.
There are people at the top of the information matrix of "this totalitarian regime" who know this, and they use it very skillfully. What they probably don't know, is that they are not autonomous agents either.
Remember the old joke about Karl Marx's book: we'd call it “Das Kapital - And How to Get It.” The current Marxists are all about $$$$$ and they figured out how to get it. Doubt any of the younger ones could take a quiz on Marx's philosophy without failing it. But we don't give failing grades anymore on the new Animal Farm.
Are there any left? I used to see some at demonstrations sometime. I don't think I've seen any since the '80s, really. I mean actual real-live believing Marxists, not 'cultural Marxists', whatever that means.
“Securing Democracy will someday be taught in journalism schools because it’s a guidebook for how to carry an explosive story from the moment of receipt across a distant finish line.”
Shows a level of optimism about the future in general and journalism schools/profession in particular. I’m finding it harder and harder to maintain such an optimism, and to what extent I can, it is coming, more and more, only after some level of horrific collapse and rebuild.
Yeah. MT's optimism in this piece is heartening but... optimistic.
Me, I'm a pessimist. I wouldn't want to try to be a "young journalist" in the current environment. Can we credibly say that 1) a job called "journalism" still exists, and 2) there are entry-level positions for those without familial/pre-existing network connections?
I explored journalism as a potential career back in the 90s, when I was the proud editor of my high school newspaper. Even then it was plain that only rich kids could afford the internship process, for instance, and not being a rich kid, I looked elsewhere.
Matt has written about this before, but there will be no more working class journalists. And it really, really matters. 2/3 of the country lacks college degrees. Most of the working class people that I know returned to work last March or April, and their employers have done everything possible to expose them to COVID, short of making them huff a vial of the stuff. Yes, they started blowing off your precautions some time ago, because what's the point? They will almost certainly be exposed, even if they've miraculously avoided exposure to this point.
It's impossible at a factory, or an Amazon warehouse, or Dunkins' drive thru, to maintain social distancing; the facilities' designs simply don't allow for it. Companies are still spending a fortune to pointlessly sanitize surfaces, while doing nothing about ventilation or filtration. Not for nothing, have you ever worn a mask for 8 to 12 hours while sweating? I know people with calluses on the tops of their ears. Some were vaccinated over a month ago, and wonder if they're just going to have to keep working in masks for the rest of their lives.
Meanwhile, the work-from-home crowd is swilling coffee, enjoying worthless crap from Amazon, and shaming people for being a mile from the nearest person on the beach. The working class perspective on this has simply been non-existent. I suspect that most "journalists" would hesitate to bring it up, for all the shaming that they themselves would endure, simply by making these points.
2/3 of the country is utterly without representation in the vast majority of media that is available for consumption. It's not a great situation and, no, the "I'm so exhausted" crowd doesn't have any credibility left. But the *real* problem is a country full of ignoramuses, right? Gosh, why aren't they gratefully receiving the moral instruction available to them on cable news?
I'm grateful for their moral instruction. It's a moral barometer. I can safely assume that the opposite of what they tell me is the most moral thing I can do. It's like the opposite of crowd sourcing for morality but only with journalists. For the record, I don't know what I'm talking about.
"I can safely assume that the opposite of what they tell me is the most moral thing I can do. It's like the opposite of crowd sourcing for morality but only with journalists. For the record, I don't know what I'm talking about."
That is all part of my devious plan for world domination... through my comments on... SubStack. It isn't a good plan but I'm over committed on Plan A and I don't have a Plan B so I'm going to stick with it.
> 2/3 of the country is utterly without representation in the vast majority of media that is available for consumption.
"The vast majority of media" is not that relevant. One website can reach millions. If you know German, allesdichtmachen.de is a pretty sharp take on COVID restrictions. I'm sure the link is circulating.
I'd rather be a journalist. I could just bullshit on the internet and have 2 or 3 different Twitter accounts to evade public shaming for wrongthink.
I watch cops trying to adjudicate traffic accidents, wearing black uniforms, in 90+ degrees heat. In a couple of months, it will be 110+ degrees heat. Who thought the black uniforms were a good idea? In my opinion, cops should adopt the dress and mannerisms of Hare Krishnas. They should keep the guns and motorcycles though.
The IRS should start recruiting disgruntled journalists and cops. With almost no accountability with nearly unchecked power, it is the perfect job for narcissistic assholes.
I just learned that the USPS has an investigative unit that is collecting *intelligence* on US Citizens and passing that onto the FBI to investigate them as domestic extremists. It really seems like it is a missed opportunity to use the USPS instead of the IRS for that. Don't get me wrong. The USPS would have a treasure trove of data but competence is not really their forte. The IRS, on the other hand, would be brutally efficient at locking up innocent citizens for *crimes* against the state. Letting that little bit of information slip seems to be like tipping your hand. If it isn't complete horseshit, that strikes me to be a fairly significant overreach of authority and a bit fascist. Seems kind of newsy.
Journos have gone so deep into advocacy on the left that they wear blinders ignoring critical analysis. The bullhorns of the left media rush to blast out an agenda to folks who aren't willing to invest their own time and analysis to find a balance. Just the other day, an MSNBC talking head refused to accept the Texas GOPer Rep's responses wanting him to repeat/acknowledge her position on "voter suppression." She plows over his attempt at explaining the issue as they see it. An average Joe like myself just flips off channel. She does not want to be replaced for not following the network's left leaning track to maintain ratings/revenues from Adverts. I look for depth and analysis and that's why I follow Matt and Glen.
Exactly Matt. I find there are two kinds of people on the left. Those who really see just had corrupted press has become and those who don't. Those who don't will continue to see Glenn as a suppressive person not because of what he thinks or writes but because he refuses to play the game of we're on this side and they're on the other side. We are the side of good and they are the side of evil. He doesn't do that. He appears on Tucker Carlson. He'll talk to Megyn Kelly (as will you) - he does things that are considered verboten by the strident left. Considering just how rare that is now he's a hero of mine for life. I know with Glenn (and you) I will get the closest thing to objective truth as can be found in news in 2021. It's funny and striking to me that they see him as such a threat simply because he refuses to adhere to the tribal code of conduct. We need journalists who will be brave enough to tell the truth and corporations who will back them.
Glenn, Matt and many others deserve accolades for bucking the trend. But you could also argue that they are opportunistic because they are practicing journalism with integrity. They are exploiting a market with very little competition but they would be fools not to do that. This happens to be one of the times where there is an alignment between business interest and ethical behavior.
The propagandists won't like it because you are disrupting their business model but I see that as a bonus. A friend of mine used to say that you will always get what you ask for but you will hardly ever get what you wanted. Sometimes, you have to give people what they ask for and let them learn the hard way.
In effect, major media outlets are now outsourcing the process of developing and releasing a story to government agencies and representatives. That is a much more cost effective model even if it is dishonest.
You can reduce the cost of hiring because candidates no longer need critical thinking skills. Universities are churning out activist journalists at an all time high. They are perfect for the job. You hand them a script, they add a little personality to it and publish.
The communications and marketing plan is part of the package. They can probably include some legal counsel through the DOJ as well. From a cost and productivity perspective, pivoting to a propaganda outlet is, in the short term, just good business.
Jonathan Chait is an interesting example of a smart guy who's degenerated into a raving loon (most but not yet all of the time) because of his rage and narcissism. A sad case study.
Yeah, all the weirder as he started some rationalist thinking foundation or something. Then went off the rails stating Trump was a Russian spy as far back as the 80's. Just totally unhinged.
I have been a huge fan of Glenn since long before Snowden. I once was one of his 5000 Facebook friends. And I share his work with others whenever I can. Which his always been problematic. His stint as a media darling was brief. But he is unfailing right.
As you state first sentence of your sixth paragraph, "Times have changed . . . ." I would like to hope Glenn's new book would be assigned reading in today's journalism courses, but I doubt that will happen for the many comments you offered regarding how Glenn is regarded by American "journalists" in the corporate media mill. They are products of another mill, academia. How do the purveyors of "journalistic integrity" at Columbia University regard Mr. Greenwald, I wonder. I would be very curious to know. Regardless, your review/commentary was, as usual, excellent reading. You offered new insight to Mr. Greenwald. I will purchase both books you referenced through a non-Amazon source. "(I)ntense public loathing is now a pre-condition of most serious investigative reporting." I fear for, envy, and highly respect your and Mr. Greenwald's strength, courage and dedication.
Great article Matt. People with integrity like yourself, Glenn, Assange and Snowden help continue my faith in people.💗 Know that you have people who are right with you. Left and Right are regardless, its faith in people-- not systems.
"....that’s the second history-altering scoop of Greenwald’s career, two more than me, and two more than pretty much everyone else in this business, with one or two living exceptions (they know who they are!)"
What a magnificent and witty review - thank you Matt. Despite of Glenn’s, Aaron’s, Max’s and yours years of debunking the scam of the century – the Russia-gate now 5yj-year hoax -- there is another major scoop coming – hopefully very fast. The suspense is:
Who will be the first current or former Democrat Congresswoman/man or Senator to publicly acknowledge and confirm the scam of the century -- the Russia-gate conspiracy – concocted by Hillary-Obama-Biden?
There is no "unity and healing" in the US until that. Most of them are millionaires, some even billionaires, especially among “hidden” but controlling DNC oligarchs – some might be tempted to confirm the obvious truth, many of their family members or close friends/lovers might provide detailed testimonies, etc. My personal hope is that truly high-integrity and heroic Tulsi Gabbard might state it, now that despicable Trump has defeated himself and is gone. Her epic response after Hillary criminally called her -- “Russia’s asset” is still ringing in my ears:
“Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton . You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose. It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly”.
By far the highest interest of Biden government and its oligarch cabal is that Russia-gate immense hoax – the scam of the century -- will NOT / will NEVER be exposed. The entire anti-Russian fairytale is a deliberate fabrication -- the worst scam in US history is neoliberals’ Russia-gate hoax. They lost to a TV host and instead of reflection, they latched onto a moronic conspiracy theory -- this includes the completely (proven) false accusations that Russia gave WikiLeaks Hillary's emails (hence the total silence on Assange torture). Assange must be silenced -- all the plotters/players agree...
There has been collusion between media, Democrat party, Hi-Tech companies and the deep state for now five years. The Russia-gate hoax and Ukraine-impeachment “entertainment” was concocted by Obama, Hillary, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Maxine Waters, Jamie Raskin, etc. and their intelligence and DNC executives on behalf of their Wall Street and military industry donors. That lying team is now back in power – note that Kamala Harris (and her sister) and Neera Tanden are Hillary's protégés; Pete Buttigieg was promptly rewarded for his role of election theft in Iowa, etc.
Remember, Clapper, Brennan & Hayden trio were among former 50 intelligence officials stating that Hunter-laptop is classical “Russian disinformation”.
-- They were also key promoters of the by now five-year Russia-gate hoax.
-- They were also key intelligence executives in Obama/Biden/Hillary government – the government which hunted Snowden (forcing Bolivian plane with Bolivia’s president to land to search it) and armed Al Qaeda (including brazen “white helmets” hoax) and staged ALL chemical attacks in Syria to remove its government.
When asked about Hunter's corruption laptops - Pelosi brazenly stated "All roads lead to Putin"; commenting on Capitol invasion Schumer said - "worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11"...
Lying Russia-gate team is fully back in power working at full speed -- massive censorship is mandatory for them preserving power..
So -- WHO among Democrat politicians will be the first whistleblower, demolish the MSM censorship and silencing barrier and confirm what most of the population already knows for years.
Nice job MT. Can anyone explain how the previous journalists Woodward and Bernstein have become mouthpieces for all the corporate narratives currently being pushed on cable news? After looking at their Watergate reporting it seems obvious that they were really a conduit for a Deep State vendetta run by the FBI. For their own reasons the FBI were against Nixon and Deep Throat along with others chose them to expose the political behind the scenes crap that morphed into a criminal cover-up. Nixon was NEVER involved in the day to day campaign business but the stories printed strongly implied that committed crimes during that stupid foray (criminal burglary) into the DNC.
Nixon fell hook line and sinker into the "cover-up" mode and was duly run out of an office he was overwhelmingly elected to in 1972. That election was overturned by Nixon's own paranoia, his many haters and the nascent deep state operatives who dogged him since the 1940's and his successful election against Helen Douglass. No defense of Nixon but just wondering about the useful roles that celebrity seeking egotistical journalists might play in the never ending struggles of political parties.
The two W.P. young naive hero journalists seem to have evolved into very establishment celebrity oriented mouthpieces for every conspiracy based crock of crap put out by the power wielding DC political class. The lies reported by this Burnstein guy were so easily de-bunked that he is either a willing tool or a moron. Was that true even in the 1970's or did he "evolve" into a jackass with fame and hubris?
I entered college in 1972 and was motivated to study journalism because of Watergate and Woodward/Bernstein. Watching them on TV now is gut-wrenching; celebrity mouthpieces for sure. Maybe that is what you turn into after your are depicted in film by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
As I recall, their Watergate reporting was subjected to hardcore editing by Ben Bradlee. He demanded source redundancy and factual verification x4. Who does that in the newsroom now? The newsroom of today looks like a woke mob action that would get old square Ben cancelled, and nothing leaves the room that doesn't fit the narrative. Story sourcing --- what's that?
Fifty years later it is sort of funny to look back at the role of Deep Throat (FBI deputy director) in light of the characters "exposing" the current "Russia collusion" story. Interesting.
I also seem to remember reading that many 60s radicals ended up on Wall Street, making a killing with a system they had very publicly hated just a few years prior.
I think it's covered under the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy of human survival tactics.
Noble rarely pays the bills.
When I was younger I used to be outraged at rich folk dodging their tax burden.
Now, after 40+ years of paying taxes, I'd dodge my tax burden in a fucking heartbeat.
"The two W.P. young naive hero journalists seem to have evolved into very establishment celebrity oriented mouthpieces for every conspiracy based crock of crap put out by the power wielding DC political class."
Oh, this.
Is it possible to admit that Nixon was clearly set up for The Fall without outing yourself as a card-carrying Nixon Fan?
No fan of Nixon but he and his aides sought to cover-up a campaign dirty trick that was also a criminal offense. Been done many times over the years without the full blown and sustained daily attacks that brought down a pretty naive and ill served President. FDR and his 14 years in office were filled with things that seems]ed to escape the media's attention. Pres. Wilson was a horrible racist and his wife ran the gov't when he had a stroke without much comment from the media or even his opposition.
Nixon had a target on his back for decades and he finally self destructed and "proved" all his detractors right. Just so odd how people like JFK carried on every sort of deception about his personal life and his health without a peep from the self righteous fawning media who knew his every secret. Media is about narratives and stories that they chose. And the individuals they chose to hobble or destroy. Nixon was one of those for whom no sin was ever forgiven or covered-up by the established media during his political life. Maybe that was for the best but it still was treatment reserved for the media's designated targets. Trump and his many personality flaws and a lifetime of bare knuckle business dealings and questionable enterprises was a target rich environment that sold papers and cable news ads. Probably not really about the integrity of and/or the operation of government but just the idea that "we've got to get rid of this son of a bitch" at any cost. Were they right? Seventy million voters did not think so. More voters apparently agreed with the picture presented by that ever so fair and unbiased media. I don't really like Trump but I detest Biden his M.O. and his career of grifting and "supporting" his family with gov't largesse and corruption.
I think it's simply what happens to anyone on a path to power. They looked like heroes in the 70s, but had far less noble personal goals. Same applies to anitwar turncoat John Kerry, probably many others. When times change, fundamental intentions are revealed.
The people that go after Greenwald simply realize they are no match for him and thus are made to feel inadequate, which of course their fragile little personae can't handle.
Yours is an under-rated comment and spot on. I used to walk around giants- average citizens who were real men and women. Nowadays- damn near nothing but children are to be found.
I will be very interested to see which journalism schools can weather the outrage of the trans promoters in order to assign Greenwald's book. Trans promoters are a weirdly barracuda bunch of cancel demanders. It's like they themselves are surprised at their new status as darlings of the progressives Dems who now compete, in "can-you-top-this?" fashion, to demonstrate who is wokest of them all. Accordingly, they will not allow anyone who has questioned their castration crusade to ever sell another book. It's enforced like a blood oath.
I'm just amazed at the internet-aggressive pursuit of Greenwald, who has been openly gay forever. What is he doing wrong? Should he be more gay? Should he be less gay? Why is sexuality conflated with politics, and who are the gatekeepers?
I think competitive progressivism requires a show of courageous commitment, and for most of us, sexuality is a tender subject, one where only the bravest take the radical position. I don't know what Greenwald did wrong, but the "no fake women" caucus (called TERPs) is largely lesbian led. Meanwhile, leading the more mainstream criticism of the transgender preference for early medical intervention are gay writers such as the meticulously rigorous Andrew Sullivan who wondered about the temporary "gender dysphoria" endured by most gay youth age 10-20 -- who are perfectly healthy kids and come out just fine -- with no need to cut off their breasts or their balls. For this view he was fired at New York mag and exiled to Substack.
Thanks, Matt. Why are the smart people I know and used to like because of their liberal values so dumb now? I don't even understand what's in it for them to go along with this totalitarian regime. All I come up with is that they're like abused cult members with Jim Jones as their leader. For four years I asked my friends who believed in Russian collusion why they believed it. They had no answer and cut off talking to me instead. Other friends I asked why they hated Trump or thought Biden was a great choice. They never - not one - could answer and would hang up on me. I grew up in CA during a time of cults. I could never reason either with friends in cults. Eventually I learned they had to do it for themselves. Many did. Others just went on to become YUPPIES and forget they ever worshipped a baby guru. And that's how I see these current Totalitarian media believers. I think many will come to their senses, but I also worry that's why the Soros/Obama/Biden administration is rushing so fast to secure their power and take away any right we have to vote them out before their followers do come to their senses. But I ordered extra copies of both your and Glenn's books to distribute at local libraries.
I have been black listed by several Democratic friends, including some in my own family. I can’t blame them for their ignorance if they watch mainstream news, which lies by omission. People don’t know what they don’t know.
I don't know, I think people gravitate to what they want to hear, and they're responsible for that.
Matt's Hate, INC. chronicles what you just said.
Still, some more passive old folks have been exposed to lies from sources they have habitually trusted. Many have failed to detect a change in the papers and networks that used to be committed to (the appearance of) objectivity. Yes, I know they were always imperfect, and I myself never automatically believed them, but man, there really HAS been a change.
I used to tell my right wing friends, discussing talk radio and Fox all the way back in the 90s: overt lying is not the biggest concern. The biggest problems are (1) when a story turns out to be BS, they don't walk it back, they just stop talking about it and (2) the information that they will simply never put in front of you.
I have yet to encounter a "liberal" (these words have become meaningless) who knows about Trump's INF and START positions, for instance. They don't fit the narrative, and won't be mentioned.
What they don’t choose to know
Its called years of propaganda-- smarts, eduction doesn't matter-- lifelong propaganda then scare the shit out of people-- voila! raging Neanderthals-- the show of "Covid" is a perfect example.
I'm a 68 year old retired PI. I found years back that maybe the greatest liberation one can experience is not giving a rat's ass what people think of me. I do care what a few people think. They all fit @ my dining room table.
Near your age and did the same thing not long ago. For me it was the insanity of lockdowns, wearing masks outside etc.
I live in Twin Cities but spend winters in San Diego. There was never an edict in MN for masks outside, although the scared sheep did, and still do, wear them. Being a PI, I can read people although masks make it more difficult. Once in awhile I would get a stink eye from a masker as I walk around one of many lakes[I walk daily].
California had a mask mandate outdoors when we got there in January and it was in effect until we left in April. Got many stink eyes as I walked the boardwalk and beach. I actually enjoyed the stink eyes, wearing their scorn as a badge of honor.
Being a beach walker, I've gotten to know lifeguards. Early on during the Purge, Newsom allowed no one on the beach. STUPID! That left the lifeguards to enforce the edict. Surfers organized. They would sprint from the boardwalk to the ocean[sans surfboard]. As soon as they saw lifeguards coming they would sprint off the beach and signal for another dude to sprint toward the water making the lifeguards do a U-turn to try and catch them. This would repeat itself until the lifeguards just said "fuck it" unless a supervisor was present. Surfer civil disobedience. What fucking science would say surfing was dangerous vis a vis Covid??
Exactly right. I agree 100%.
I’ve started using a different method with my friends that watch MSNBC and believe they are watching real news. I tell them they are consuming curated media. That they are only shown news that endorses the given narrative. Then, when something happens, like the shooting of that 16 year old, I talk about it before they watch the news, so they know the parts that will be left out so the story fits the narrative. Me and my friends can stay friendly, because I don’t harp on them for being uninformed. They get to see I’m not lying to them. It’s a slow process, but I think we will be rewarded, eventually.
The easy way that I can use to reach my MSNBC friends: they want you stirred up against the people that you already hate, because they are strictly in the ratings business. It's gotten pretty easy to point to all the stories that they were initially wrong about, in the most sensationalist manner available to them. Absolutely everything is clickbait now. Everyone understands clickbait.
They're binary, tribal thinkers, unwilling to hold their leaders accountable, which makes them identical to either Bush supporters when he was popular, or Trump supporters now. All of these people point to the obvious hypocrisy of the opposition and then, as though this was some kind of Hollywood movie, naturally assume their guy has to be the good guy in this flick. As Paul Simon wrote years ago, in the song "The Boxer", "All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
A few years back, Hillary came to Pasadena, Ca. to a book store named Vroman's to sign copies of her book, whatever it was titled, as to why she lost to Trump, so I showed up, and with a 2'x3' hand made sign, listed the factual reasons why she had lost, beginning with the fact that the EC decides our presidential elections, not the popular vote and specifically that she had lost the four swing states that had been decimated by free trade deals that ultimately made the difference, that Obama had insisted on campaigning for the TPP right up until election day, and that Chuck Schumer had confidently(and incorrectly) said that for every blue collar Dem voter they'd lost, they would get 2 or 3 moderate Repubs in the suburbs, all of these policies summing up the transition the Dem party had made years ago under the triangulating corporatism of first Bill Clinton, and later Obama.
My presence there, even though I was not making a ruckus, attracted a huge Secret Service guy who questioned me as to my being there, me replying that I was under the impression my 1st Amendment rights still pertained on this public sidewalk, where both the crowd, which was nearly 1,000, and I were located. He got on his cell, talked a bit and then said I was free to do my thing, as long as I wasn't confrontational, and he would accompany me , which he did for the 2 hours I went back and forth.
Coincidentally, this was the day Flynn admitted he had lied to the FBI, and the crowd was salivating at the prospect at the revelations to come, just as delusional as the Trump crowd this last Jan. 6, but without the war paint. I'd like to have had $5 for every time I heard the word, "Russia" come up.
Eventually, I called it a day and saw a flick at the Laemmle theatre next door, greatly in need of some popcorn, coke and a chance to escape the mind numbing madness outside. Jimmy Dore apparently showed up after I had done my bit and did a show from there, if you care to look it up on YouTube.
"Why are the smart people I know and used to like because of their liberal values so dumb now? I don't even understand what's in it for them to go along with this totalitarian regime."
...they might not have been that smart?
Everything in life is about low effort. If you are "successful," you get to the point where it makes sense to hire servants or the idea of hiring servants makes you gag.
...they might not have been that smart? Indeed
"I asked my friends who believed in Russian collusion why they believed it"
(1) Trump Tower meeting in which Don Jr, according to his email, was expecting to get dirt on HRC, and (2) Manafort in hock to Russian mobsters, and (3) Trump openly asking Russia to provide HRC emails, all prove openness to collusion by Trump campaign, which to me is equivalent to actual collusion.
"I asked why they hated Trump or thought Biden was a great choice."
I hate Trump because he is a thug and a bully (see rallies where he asks for protestors to be roughed up) and a liar (see 20000+ documented lies) and a conman (see Trump U scam, Mexican condo scam, 3000+ lawsuits). There's also Jan 6, where he incited a riot in support of a coup that ended in multiple deaths and injuries.
Biden was a great choice because he was the only Democrat who could have beaten Trump, which he did. Though half the country does not believe it because of Trump's lies.
You and others have great reasons for hating Trump. Some of them are lies and some are truths. Problem is your hatred clouds the truths from the lies and you recite the litany without even caring which is which. Your first three examples are just rote stories fed to people who consume them without context or critical analysis. The rest of your post about Trump's B.S. has some substance. If beating Trump was that ONLY consideration, yes dumping Sanders was a necessary ploy by the DNC and others to win the Presidency in 2020. But was it really fair to Mr. Sanders and his supporters to kill their movement to "install" a very compromised and probably corrupt party tool? Since when do two wrongs make something "right?" In politics power and its acquisition seem to be the only consideration. Trump and his personality are not as terrible as some of the possible outcomes of the radical lefts policies and their future effects on America in an increasingly dangerous world. A nuclear war with Russia or China will be much worse that Trump's sins of omission or commission. For whatever reason our political process has produced a "worse and much worse choice" for the American voter. Would be nice if there were more than two choices and if the system that created these choices could be reformed. Term limits for ALL might be a first step.
“Trump and his personality are not as terrible as some of the possible outcomes of the radical lefts policies and their future effects on America in an increasingly dangerous world.“ Agree. I see politicians as employees, not people I need to have wet dreams about in order to vote for them. Would you hire someone to run a store you own when that person tells everyone what a lousy store you own, moves illegals to live in it and lets criminals destroy it? Of course not. I've been in several disasters. I didn't care about the personality or hair or egos of the people who rescued us. They rescued us. Biden trashes us - his legal citizens to the rest of the world - and compromises our safety against China and flirts with war with Russia. Then tries to look like a cuddly daddy figure who wants us to obey his rules for our own good or else he'll take away our privileges. Yeah, well I see how effective he was with his own son, Hunter.
What 'radical Left'? We're talking about the US here, correct?
I'd settle for just radical; just radical enough.
DC is a cesspool. Agree with term limits. Love my country, hate my government.
"Your first three examples are just rote stories fed to people who consume them without context or critical analysis." Nonsense. Refute a cited fact rather than making farcical claims.
"dumping Sanders was a necessary ploy by the DNC and others" The VOTERS dumped Sanders, just as they did when he ran against HRC (and got 3 million fewer votes in the primaries).
I don't have to refute them that was done by Mueller, and many others. Trump Jr's. extensive sworn testimony before Congress and a few well written and footnoted books. Your three examples are mostly hysterical headlines and stories written utilizing sources paid for by Hillary and the DNC. Most have been either disproven or when given some context found to be less pernicous than that first "reported by the press." Just the Trump Jr. meeting alone has been investigated to death by every Trump hating organization and federal investigative organization and found to be a nothing burger. But you are free to keep howling at the moon over everything and anything media got wrong or just overhyped until they moved on to the next "walls are closing in" story. You think Trump is some master mind whom no one could corner or catch while at the same time he is a mindless demented fool. Can't have it both ways.
Good point.
Okay, here's a refutation then: why don't you try actually reading what Matt has already written, at length, about this? I'll even hold your hand and give you a good starting point:
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/russiagate-is-wmd-times-a-million
Well, I do hope you enjoy your monthly burger!
The Great Reset is going great so far! We're going to legalize drugs and prostitution but we're going to turn beef into a controlled substance. You can't make this shit up. I can't wait for cattle ranchers to start selling beef on the black market. We'll be lined up like a bunch of addicts with cash in hand.
Hard to believe isn’t it? So glad that awful Trump is gone.....
Frankly, I'm fine with legalizing drugs and prostitution, as well as beef as a food substance. All of these things make many people happy.
Actually, I am as well. I cover that further down but I wouldn't blame you for missing it.
Once these threads hit 200+ comments they become essentially unnavigable for me and I kind of just give up. Sorry.
Actually, you did just make that up, especially the part about turning beef into a controlled substance. The only drug that is being truly legalized, besides the accepted and far worse ones, alcohol and tobacco, is marijuana, which, while I don't use it, is far more useful, especially in pain relief and helping bipolar people's moods, than either of those drugs ever could be.
I am all for the legalization of drugs and prostitution. As for the beef restrictions, it is probably bullshit but I didn't make it up. To Bee or not to Bee is the question on this one and the jury is still out. I just think that it is funny because it sounds far more realistic than it should be. No pun intended.
I agree with your first sentence. As for beef ever being outlawed, just look at all the Mickey D's around, or In n Out in Ca. and that ain't gonna happen, though as a 73 year old who grew up in a middle class family that ate out one a month, tops, we'd all be better off if we ate less of the crap they serve.
I'd love to have a time machine and take some 20 something of today back to the 60's so they'd notice two things; how few fast food places there were and how much smaller people were back in the day.
Fast food, drugs, alcohol should all be legal, but really we should consume way less of them than we do, it would greatly reduce our healthcare costs.
Freedom requires maturity, something in short supply.
Have you ever noticed that as soon as Trump gets mentioned, the whole show becomes his, even if he's irrelevant to the subject (in this case, "lawfare" as happened in Brazil)? Makes me afraid he could come back, not because he has anything constructive to offer, but merely that he sends so many people (on both sides) into a mysteriously energized state. IMO he is a mere historical oddity, a bungler who was entrusted by his supporters to usher this land into post-modern authoritarianism, but who botched the job. We all dodged a bullet. Not all race-baiting demagogues are stupid and uncouth. What happens when a smart, cool, good looking one comes along? "L'état, c'est moi."
Race-baiting demagogues- you mean like Obama?
Most of the people I know who voted for Trump just hated Hillary that much. Which is a pretty good judgement. Our last presidential choices seem predicted by South Park.
My point being, I never saw as much "Trump is great!" stuff as is/was projected by most Dems and media people. A lot of Trump voters were embarrassed by him ("Just please stay off Twitter, ya baffoon!") and his manner. But look what the Dems have done, just to get the establishment, the corporate kleptocracy, back up and running smoothly. Jebus.
How'd all you people believe that? You're so vigilant about the MSM cooking up stories and when your guys and gals do it you swallow it as eagerly and uncritically as any liberal. I keep remembering the title of a book by Marshall McLuhan, I think it was: "They became what they beheld."
Hi Annie - actually I don't uncritically swallow anything I read.
Well, good. I'm sure not everyone here does that. A lot of the men sound like the same guy, though, or their answers have been scripted by the same propagandist.
I don't eat beef, but I pay for YOUR burgers since the environmental disaster that is the beef industry has socialized the costs of clean up while keeping the profits private. This is something Matt used to understand, before he discovered that being a trumpista paid better.
Thank you. Had a wonderful burger last night. It’s okay with me if you pick up the whole tab.
I actually had a burger last night and it was amazing! I do love animals and feel awful for their mistreatment, but a good burger or steak is just a fantastic meal.
There are 3 reasons to own a gun:
1. To hunt dangerous and delicious animals
2. To protect your family
3. To keep the king of England out of your face
-Krusty the Klown
Okay, I'll tell the cattle to stop farting or feed them beano. Seriously, I cooked all but 4 of our meals for the last year and shop as much as possible at local farms for produce, eggs, meat and from local fishermen. I laugh at people like you on your moral lentil high horse. And where, sir, doth your virtuous non-meat meals come from? I bet if we took a carbon footprint competition you'd far outdo me.
Shhh, it's the virtue-signaling- let him be
Pay the environmental damage costs upfront is all I ask.
You may be keeping your carbon footprint low, but I guarantee you that the vast majority of your fellow trumpistas are not.
You can you please reduce your carbon footprint by giving away your computer to a disadvantaged person and never logging on to the internet again? The rest of us thank you in advance. I'm getting really sick of all the global warning you're causing.
Yes, you are right. I see all of the devastation the meat industry has done to our country. All of our national parks, our seashores, cities...they are all devastated by the meat industry. And global warming too. And tsunami's and hurricanes and the wrath of god have all been rained down upon us by the unholy burger. May we live burger free and without sin. May the skies be cleared of the dreaded burger.
What a total joke. Take your hand off of your environmental bible and choke down a meatless burger for gods sakes. There is a term for people like you. Useful Idiot.
You see nothing, because you do not want to see.
And you see nothing, except what they tell you on TV.
Maybe Mark watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs too many times. He thinks the common cheeseburger is going to destroy us all. Maybe he is right. I just looked outside and I can now see all of the meat devastation. Oh wait, that is just my dogs poop in the backyard.
Get off your high horse, jackass. Unless you're living in a cave and subsisting off of bugs and berries and wearing a loincloth, you are having an environmental impact on the rest of us. Do you drive a car? Have you ever flown? Do you run heat in the winter and A/C in the summer? Clearly you use the internet. Ever wonder where the lithium in your phone/laptop battery comes from? Do you know the environmental impact of chip manufacturing? Ever think about the slave labor that put together the electronics you're using or the ones who made the shoes and clothes you wear?
This is becoming an echo chamber. Too bad, there used to be good discussions here.
There can be an intelligent discussion on the pros and cons of meat consumption, and you are certainly welcome to start one. I don't think the person I was responding to was starting such a discussion, however. I know the Gates foundation has been trying to drum up up publicity on the matter ever since Bill invested in synthetic bee--- err I mean since Bill became passionate on the subject.
Just curious. When Obama was carrying out 9,000 drone strikes that, according to our own government, primarily snuffed innocent bystanders, did that push him into bully territory or was he just another garden variety erudite serial killer?
Are serial killers better or worse than bullies?
Trump, Obama, Bush II, Clinton are all war criminals who should be in prison for life. (Ditto Bush I and Reagan, but they're already dead.)
You are a bit out there. If we did what you say we would be the ONLY nation that ever existed that imprisoned EVERY leader elected. Great method for recruiting the best and brightest. Your zero sum justice system would defiantly result in someone in power NEVER leaving because just doing the daily business of governing would result in a prison sentence. My best guess is you probably might be more comfortable in another country that does not engage in armed conflict. Maybe the Swiss or other passive nations would suit you better. Really what is keep[ing you in this nation run by outright criminals in your opinion. Are you compromised or just a hypocrite?. We are not changing anytime soon. No one is holding you here either. Those other nations are fine places to live.
A fair answer. Also, when you mention Trump's collusion with Russia, a story that has large holes in much of its foundation, why is Joe, whose son's emails appear to detail the outright bribery of Joe by the Chinese, seen as a more sensible alternative? Seems like you're splitting hairs.
By your own list you show your dislike for every president since Nixon.
Why isn't Joe just more of the same old story, same old song & dance?
Since I no longer play in the voting sandbox I can't help wondering why you still give enough of a shit to bother showing up to choose?
I used to think the Trump U scam was a big deal, too. Then I thought about the Harvard U scam, and the many others.
At least Trump U did not exclude Asians and was much cheaper. Harvard and most Universities really don't give anyone a "good bang for the buck." Total scam based on the product that is graduated and their knowledge. At least Trump grads might bet lucky flipping real estate or whatever they were selling. By the way no government officials are calling for ME to pay the tuition loans taken by Trump students.
Don't forget how they fund ethnic studies and other self-propagating gobeldygook by taxing with "overhead" federal grants for science research. I guess money laundering is ok when Harvard does it.
University tuition has gone up faster than any other sector over the last 25 years, except for health care. And with health care, we are getting ever-improved treatments (new and expensive ones, anyway).
As the communication of information becomes cheaper, the schools have justified the tuition increase by...expanding the administrative layer. The value of this expansion has not been well-demonstrated.
I don’t believe it. Biden is the saddest, most cognitively challenged President in our history. A corrupt racist. Congratulations.
"Trump openly asking Russia to provide HRC emails, all prove openness to collusion by Trump campaign, which to me is equivalent to actual collusion."
Are you saying that you're foolish enough to believe that when Trump joked this in a *public* setting he was "colluding" with them? Or that we (the readers here, never mind just the Trump supporters) are so stupid we'll believe this insinuation? What then would "collusion" -- you know, in the sense of the synomym "conspiracy", a word I trust you realize you must studiously avoid -- even mean in this case?
Trump's so called lies were mostly self aggrandizing salesman type assertions and counter narratives to those floated by the media. Bush and others created lies that resulted in the deaths of scores of Americans and possible millions of others from nations we attacked based on "media accepted lies" All Trump's actions and his stories never amounted to much as far as life and death or anything else. Yet he was treated worse than Hitler and Mao combined by the establishment media. Hitler was a hero in the early 1930's until he wasn't. Trump and his legacy will be a blip on the timeline of history. No hits, no errors and a few programs and policies that actually did some good for people who never expected anything from him. Tempest in a teapot.
Trump lie:” best meal I’ve ever had”. Very dangerous “lie”. What a joke.
Thank you both. Agree mostly with both of you. I think, though, that Trump's legacy won't just be a blip. He drove a tank through the Bushes' and Clintons' amd Obama's entitled elitism. I didn't vote for Trump in 2016. But after I saw how the media geared up to make it impossible for Hillary supporters to have any rational discussion about why she lost, I began to see how ugly the classist attitudes of the well-off Dems I knew were. I realized how many of them had no real values - just fake ones. I voted for Obama twice and protested against his policies, including his treatment of children at the border, his love of surveillance, his war-mongering and assassinations disguised as getting rid of dictators but really all about squelching any nation that didn't bow to the global elites. All the Trump haters I know told me this wasn't true, he didn't put kids in cages, he didn't use drones except against evil people. Okay, sure, let the Obama-loving media rewrite history for you. Obama's second term revealed how messed up in the head he is about identifying really with his white ancestry while feeling guilty about how little he really cares about black people. He was a mixed racial president who didn't see that as a way to unify the country, but used it instead to divide this country. Obama was the worst president ever. Sadly, this is his third term.
Just to clarify. Obama authorized a drone strike against an American citizen who was neither indicted or convicted of any crime. He was a supposed recruiter for jihad. He was outright murdered by remote control. His 16 year old son was also killed and was just a collateral damage casualty in military speak. Obama even bragged about this liquidation by drone. Claimed he had a list on his desk that only he could authorize. Media actually celebrated his Mafia like action.
Trump NEVER came close to this type of criminal behavior yet the media could not stop hectoring and attacking him on a daily bases. In any event the government is in the business of manipulating citizens reactions and beliefs. The media is their main organ of creating narratives and acceptable stories. The public is slowly awakening to the game and its skewered rules. The daily lies and obfuscations played out on MSM outlets is as bad as Nazi Germany's best efforts. Don't be "good" German's look behind the curtain and see the little man pulling the levers before you bust a gut carrying on about the latest "outrage" promoted by the media and political operatives.
Agreed. But this third term will be more destructive.
Keep on, Polly, you are in fine form...
One quibble. Did you miss the article where it was ADMITTED AND EXPLAINED that there most definitely was collusion and a coordinated attack on Trump to "correct" the election.
I believe it was in Time magazine, and the fact they admitted to running propaganda and fake news instead of reportage should concern you even more than a loudmouth NYC real estate developers' bad manners.
Politician = Lier. You can substitute any past President in this equation. I don't think Bush or Trump are the only ones.
I'd add that Trump is the consummate salesman.
There is an answer to your question that is intuitively simple, but incompatible with the cognition of humans who live within the society they need to analyze from a detached perspective to see it in its true form.
Culture is autopoietic (self authoring). Having a cultural experience entails culture writing itself on a person's nervous system, such that that nervous system represents that cultural experience. Otherwise a person couldn't perceive that it is having an experience at all.
But once written, it is part of the person who is experiencing it. Culture is formative of identity. That's why a lie repeated often enough to a large population becomes "true" simply by the bruit force of repetition, combined with those who assimilate it repeating is back and forth to each other. Dominant culture, in that way, is a self-reinforcing mechanism.
Thus, whoever dominates culture, dominates identity. People are not autonomous agents in the world, operating of their own volition. They're nodes culture, which is constantly authoring itself on their nervous system. The volition is not theirs. Its culture's: culture's patterns replicated by a malleable nervous system, becoming the identity of the nervous system that replicates them.
There are people at the top of the information matrix of "this totalitarian regime" who know this, and they use it very skillfully. What they probably don't know, is that they are not autonomous agents either.
"The Selfish Culture"?
The theory propagated in my comment would predict that no one would like or respond to my comment.
So tired of all the lying.
Remember the old joke about Karl Marx's book: we'd call it “Das Kapital - And How to Get It.” The current Marxists are all about $$$$$ and they figured out how to get it. Doubt any of the younger ones could take a quiz on Marx's philosophy without failing it. But we don't give failing grades anymore on the new Animal Farm.
four legs good, Chapo Trap House better
Times are strange for old-school Marxists.
Are there any left? I used to see some at demonstrations sometime. I don't think I've seen any since the '80s, really. I mean actual real-live believing Marxists, not 'cultural Marxists', whatever that means.
I met a real Maoist about 15 years ago at the annual hippie-fest in Columbus.
“Securing Democracy will someday be taught in journalism schools because it’s a guidebook for how to carry an explosive story from the moment of receipt across a distant finish line.”
Shows a level of optimism about the future in general and journalism schools/profession in particular. I’m finding it harder and harder to maintain such an optimism, and to what extent I can, it is coming, more and more, only after some level of horrific collapse and rebuild.
It's an endearing quality of Matt's that he does retain such a level of optimism.
Yeah. MT's optimism in this piece is heartening but... optimistic.
Me, I'm a pessimist. I wouldn't want to try to be a "young journalist" in the current environment. Can we credibly say that 1) a job called "journalism" still exists, and 2) there are entry-level positions for those without familial/pre-existing network connections?
I explored journalism as a potential career back in the 90s, when I was the proud editor of my high school newspaper. Even then it was plain that only rich kids could afford the internship process, for instance, and not being a rich kid, I looked elsewhere.
Matt has written about this before, but there will be no more working class journalists. And it really, really matters. 2/3 of the country lacks college degrees. Most of the working class people that I know returned to work last March or April, and their employers have done everything possible to expose them to COVID, short of making them huff a vial of the stuff. Yes, they started blowing off your precautions some time ago, because what's the point? They will almost certainly be exposed, even if they've miraculously avoided exposure to this point.
It's impossible at a factory, or an Amazon warehouse, or Dunkins' drive thru, to maintain social distancing; the facilities' designs simply don't allow for it. Companies are still spending a fortune to pointlessly sanitize surfaces, while doing nothing about ventilation or filtration. Not for nothing, have you ever worn a mask for 8 to 12 hours while sweating? I know people with calluses on the tops of their ears. Some were vaccinated over a month ago, and wonder if they're just going to have to keep working in masks for the rest of their lives.
Meanwhile, the work-from-home crowd is swilling coffee, enjoying worthless crap from Amazon, and shaming people for being a mile from the nearest person on the beach. The working class perspective on this has simply been non-existent. I suspect that most "journalists" would hesitate to bring it up, for all the shaming that they themselves would endure, simply by making these points.
2/3 of the country is utterly without representation in the vast majority of media that is available for consumption. It's not a great situation and, no, the "I'm so exhausted" crowd doesn't have any credibility left. But the *real* problem is a country full of ignoramuses, right? Gosh, why aren't they gratefully receiving the moral instruction available to them on cable news?
I'm grateful for their moral instruction. It's a moral barometer. I can safely assume that the opposite of what they tell me is the most moral thing I can do. It's like the opposite of crowd sourcing for morality but only with journalists. For the record, I don't know what I'm talking about.
"I can safely assume that the opposite of what they tell me is the most moral thing I can do. It's like the opposite of crowd sourcing for morality but only with journalists. For the record, I don't know what I'm talking about."
I think you know what you're talking about.
That is all part of my devious plan for world domination... through my comments on... SubStack. It isn't a good plan but I'm over committed on Plan A and I don't have a Plan B so I'm going to stick with it.
We're going to change the world by making comments on Substack,
"The working class perspective on this has simply been non-existent."
Is this a bug or a feature?
> 2/3 of the country is utterly without representation in the vast majority of media that is available for consumption.
"The vast majority of media" is not that relevant. One website can reach millions. If you know German, allesdichtmachen.de is a pretty sharp take on COVID restrictions. I'm sure the link is circulating.
<<the "I'm so exhausted" crowd doesn't have any credibility left.>>
Frankly, I blame the "I'm so exhausted" crowd. To me, "I'm so exhausted" reads as "I have no energy left and I'll do as I'm told -- By Experts!"
Among the least desirable jobs in America, it is a toss up between being a journalist or a cop.
I'd rather be a journalist. I could just bullshit on the internet and have 2 or 3 different Twitter accounts to evade public shaming for wrongthink.
I watch cops trying to adjudicate traffic accidents, wearing black uniforms, in 90+ degrees heat. In a couple of months, it will be 110+ degrees heat. Who thought the black uniforms were a good idea? In my opinion, cops should adopt the dress and mannerisms of Hare Krishnas. They should keep the guns and motorcycles though.
The IRS should start recruiting disgruntled journalists and cops. With almost no accountability with nearly unchecked power, it is the perfect job for narcissistic assholes.
An IRS full of disgruntled journalists would be a goddamned nightmare, but possibly better than what it is now.
Paraphrasing the opening credits of JOHNNY MNEMONIC:
"In 2031, corporations rule. Matthew C. Taibbi occupies the post of Commissioner of Internal Revenue."
I just learned that the USPS has an investigative unit that is collecting *intelligence* on US Citizens and passing that onto the FBI to investigate them as domestic extremists. It really seems like it is a missed opportunity to use the USPS instead of the IRS for that. Don't get me wrong. The USPS would have a treasure trove of data but competence is not really their forte. The IRS, on the other hand, would be brutally efficient at locking up innocent citizens for *crimes* against the state. Letting that little bit of information slip seems to be like tipping your hand. If it isn't complete horseshit, that strikes me to be a fairly significant overreach of authority and a bit fascist. Seems kind of newsy.
My cousin was in the motorcycle militia in Ukraine, he wanted to go KGB but the rest of my family escaping during WWII put the kibosh on that!
Journos have gone so deep into advocacy on the left that they wear blinders ignoring critical analysis. The bullhorns of the left media rush to blast out an agenda to folks who aren't willing to invest their own time and analysis to find a balance. Just the other day, an MSNBC talking head refused to accept the Texas GOPer Rep's responses wanting him to repeat/acknowledge her position on "voter suppression." She plows over his attempt at explaining the issue as they see it. An average Joe like myself just flips off channel. She does not want to be replaced for not following the network's left leaning track to maintain ratings/revenues from Adverts. I look for depth and analysis and that's why I follow Matt and Glen.
O, this. ---being willing to be the object of intense public loathing is now a pre-condition of most serious investigative reporting---
Exactly Matt. I find there are two kinds of people on the left. Those who really see just had corrupted press has become and those who don't. Those who don't will continue to see Glenn as a suppressive person not because of what he thinks or writes but because he refuses to play the game of we're on this side and they're on the other side. We are the side of good and they are the side of evil. He doesn't do that. He appears on Tucker Carlson. He'll talk to Megyn Kelly (as will you) - he does things that are considered verboten by the strident left. Considering just how rare that is now he's a hero of mine for life. I know with Glenn (and you) I will get the closest thing to objective truth as can be found in news in 2021. It's funny and striking to me that they see him as such a threat simply because he refuses to adhere to the tribal code of conduct. We need journalists who will be brave enough to tell the truth and corporations who will back them.
Glenn, Matt and many others deserve accolades for bucking the trend. But you could also argue that they are opportunistic because they are practicing journalism with integrity. They are exploiting a market with very little competition but they would be fools not to do that. This happens to be one of the times where there is an alignment between business interest and ethical behavior.
The propagandists won't like it because you are disrupting their business model but I see that as a bonus. A friend of mine used to say that you will always get what you ask for but you will hardly ever get what you wanted. Sometimes, you have to give people what they ask for and let them learn the hard way.
Very courageous is Glenn Greenwald...and you too Matt...
In effect, major media outlets are now outsourcing the process of developing and releasing a story to government agencies and representatives. That is a much more cost effective model even if it is dishonest.
You can reduce the cost of hiring because candidates no longer need critical thinking skills. Universities are churning out activist journalists at an all time high. They are perfect for the job. You hand them a script, they add a little personality to it and publish.
The communications and marketing plan is part of the package. They can probably include some legal counsel through the DOJ as well. From a cost and productivity perspective, pivoting to a propaganda outlet is, in the short term, just good business.
Jonathan Chait is an interesting example of a smart guy who's degenerated into a raving loon (most but not yet all of the time) because of his rage and narcissism. A sad case study.
Yeah, all the weirder as he started some rationalist thinking foundation or something. Then went off the rails stating Trump was a Russian spy as far back as the 80's. Just totally unhinged.
Agreed I can't stomach New York Magazine-- stopped my subscription 5 years ago.
Sadly GG continues to refer to these people as journalists instead of paid propaganda peddlers.
True. He throws in a "supposed" now and then, but gives them far too much credit.
I have been a huge fan of Glenn since long before Snowden. I once was one of his 5000 Facebook friends. And I share his work with others whenever I can. Which his always been problematic. His stint as a media darling was brief. But he is unfailing right.
As you state first sentence of your sixth paragraph, "Times have changed . . . ." I would like to hope Glenn's new book would be assigned reading in today's journalism courses, but I doubt that will happen for the many comments you offered regarding how Glenn is regarded by American "journalists" in the corporate media mill. They are products of another mill, academia. How do the purveyors of "journalistic integrity" at Columbia University regard Mr. Greenwald, I wonder. I would be very curious to know. Regardless, your review/commentary was, as usual, excellent reading. You offered new insight to Mr. Greenwald. I will purchase both books you referenced through a non-Amazon source. "(I)ntense public loathing is now a pre-condition of most serious investigative reporting." I fear for, envy, and highly respect your and Mr. Greenwald's strength, courage and dedication.
Great article Matt. People with integrity like yourself, Glenn, Assange and Snowden help continue my faith in people.💗 Know that you have people who are right with you. Left and Right are regardless, its faith in people-- not systems.
"....that’s the second history-altering scoop of Greenwald’s career, two more than me, and two more than pretty much everyone else in this business, with one or two living exceptions (they know who they are!)"
What a magnificent and witty review - thank you Matt. Despite of Glenn’s, Aaron’s, Max’s and yours years of debunking the scam of the century – the Russia-gate now 5yj-year hoax -- there is another major scoop coming – hopefully very fast. The suspense is:
Who will be the first current or former Democrat Congresswoman/man or Senator to publicly acknowledge and confirm the scam of the century -- the Russia-gate conspiracy – concocted by Hillary-Obama-Biden?
There is no "unity and healing" in the US until that. Most of them are millionaires, some even billionaires, especially among “hidden” but controlling DNC oligarchs – some might be tempted to confirm the obvious truth, many of their family members or close friends/lovers might provide detailed testimonies, etc. My personal hope is that truly high-integrity and heroic Tulsi Gabbard might state it, now that despicable Trump has defeated himself and is gone. Her epic response after Hillary criminally called her -- “Russia’s asset” is still ringing in my ears:
“Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton . You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose. It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly”.
By far the highest interest of Biden government and its oligarch cabal is that Russia-gate immense hoax – the scam of the century -- will NOT / will NEVER be exposed. The entire anti-Russian fairytale is a deliberate fabrication -- the worst scam in US history is neoliberals’ Russia-gate hoax. They lost to a TV host and instead of reflection, they latched onto a moronic conspiracy theory -- this includes the completely (proven) false accusations that Russia gave WikiLeaks Hillary's emails (hence the total silence on Assange torture). Assange must be silenced -- all the plotters/players agree...
There has been collusion between media, Democrat party, Hi-Tech companies and the deep state for now five years. The Russia-gate hoax and Ukraine-impeachment “entertainment” was concocted by Obama, Hillary, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Maxine Waters, Jamie Raskin, etc. and their intelligence and DNC executives on behalf of their Wall Street and military industry donors. That lying team is now back in power – note that Kamala Harris (and her sister) and Neera Tanden are Hillary's protégés; Pete Buttigieg was promptly rewarded for his role of election theft in Iowa, etc.
Remember, Clapper, Brennan & Hayden trio were among former 50 intelligence officials stating that Hunter-laptop is classical “Russian disinformation”.
-- They were also key promoters of the by now five-year Russia-gate hoax.
-- They were also key intelligence executives in Obama/Biden/Hillary government – the government which hunted Snowden (forcing Bolivian plane with Bolivia’s president to land to search it) and armed Al Qaeda (including brazen “white helmets” hoax) and staged ALL chemical attacks in Syria to remove its government.
When asked about Hunter's corruption laptops - Pelosi brazenly stated "All roads lead to Putin"; commenting on Capitol invasion Schumer said - "worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11"...
Lying Russia-gate team is fully back in power working at full speed -- massive censorship is mandatory for them preserving power..
So -- WHO among Democrat politicians will be the first whistleblower, demolish the MSM censorship and silencing barrier and confirm what most of the population already knows for years.
Après le déluge. May be a while...
Nice job MT. Can anyone explain how the previous journalists Woodward and Bernstein have become mouthpieces for all the corporate narratives currently being pushed on cable news? After looking at their Watergate reporting it seems obvious that they were really a conduit for a Deep State vendetta run by the FBI. For their own reasons the FBI were against Nixon and Deep Throat along with others chose them to expose the political behind the scenes crap that morphed into a criminal cover-up. Nixon was NEVER involved in the day to day campaign business but the stories printed strongly implied that committed crimes during that stupid foray (criminal burglary) into the DNC.
Nixon fell hook line and sinker into the "cover-up" mode and was duly run out of an office he was overwhelmingly elected to in 1972. That election was overturned by Nixon's own paranoia, his many haters and the nascent deep state operatives who dogged him since the 1940's and his successful election against Helen Douglass. No defense of Nixon but just wondering about the useful roles that celebrity seeking egotistical journalists might play in the never ending struggles of political parties.
The two W.P. young naive hero journalists seem to have evolved into very establishment celebrity oriented mouthpieces for every conspiracy based crock of crap put out by the power wielding DC political class. The lies reported by this Burnstein guy were so easily de-bunked that he is either a willing tool or a moron. Was that true even in the 1970's or did he "evolve" into a jackass with fame and hubris?
I entered college in 1972 and was motivated to study journalism because of Watergate and Woodward/Bernstein. Watching them on TV now is gut-wrenching; celebrity mouthpieces for sure. Maybe that is what you turn into after your are depicted in film by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
As I recall, their Watergate reporting was subjected to hardcore editing by Ben Bradlee. He demanded source redundancy and factual verification x4. Who does that in the newsroom now? The newsroom of today looks like a woke mob action that would get old square Ben cancelled, and nothing leaves the room that doesn't fit the narrative. Story sourcing --- what's that?
Fifty years later it is sort of funny to look back at the role of Deep Throat (FBI deputy director) in light of the characters "exposing" the current "Russia collusion" story. Interesting.
I also seem to remember reading that many 60s radicals ended up on Wall Street, making a killing with a system they had very publicly hated just a few years prior.
I think it's covered under the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy of human survival tactics.
Noble rarely pays the bills.
When I was younger I used to be outraged at rich folk dodging their tax burden.
Now, after 40+ years of paying taxes, I'd dodge my tax burden in a fucking heartbeat.
"The two W.P. young naive hero journalists seem to have evolved into very establishment celebrity oriented mouthpieces for every conspiracy based crock of crap put out by the power wielding DC political class."
Oh, this.
Is it possible to admit that Nixon was clearly set up for The Fall without outing yourself as a card-carrying Nixon Fan?
No fan of Nixon but he and his aides sought to cover-up a campaign dirty trick that was also a criminal offense. Been done many times over the years without the full blown and sustained daily attacks that brought down a pretty naive and ill served President. FDR and his 14 years in office were filled with things that seems]ed to escape the media's attention. Pres. Wilson was a horrible racist and his wife ran the gov't when he had a stroke without much comment from the media or even his opposition.
Nixon had a target on his back for decades and he finally self destructed and "proved" all his detractors right. Just so odd how people like JFK carried on every sort of deception about his personal life and his health without a peep from the self righteous fawning media who knew his every secret. Media is about narratives and stories that they chose. And the individuals they chose to hobble or destroy. Nixon was one of those for whom no sin was ever forgiven or covered-up by the established media during his political life. Maybe that was for the best but it still was treatment reserved for the media's designated targets. Trump and his many personality flaws and a lifetime of bare knuckle business dealings and questionable enterprises was a target rich environment that sold papers and cable news ads. Probably not really about the integrity of and/or the operation of government but just the idea that "we've got to get rid of this son of a bitch" at any cost. Were they right? Seventy million voters did not think so. More voters apparently agreed with the picture presented by that ever so fair and unbiased media. I don't really like Trump but I detest Biden his M.O. and his career of grifting and "supporting" his family with gov't largesse and corruption.
Yes, it is possible if you are an unabashed, loud and proud G. Gordon Liddy fanboy. RIP Gordon!
I think it's simply what happens to anyone on a path to power. They looked like heroes in the 70s, but had far less noble personal goals. Same applies to anitwar turncoat John Kerry, probably many others. When times change, fundamental intentions are revealed.
The people that go after Greenwald simply realize they are no match for him and thus are made to feel inadequate, which of course their fragile little personae can't handle.
Yours is an under-rated comment and spot on. I used to walk around giants- average citizens who were real men and women. Nowadays- damn near nothing but children are to be found.
By trashing GG, they are trying to "reduce the achievent gap".
I will be very interested to see which journalism schools can weather the outrage of the trans promoters in order to assign Greenwald's book. Trans promoters are a weirdly barracuda bunch of cancel demanders. It's like they themselves are surprised at their new status as darlings of the progressives Dems who now compete, in "can-you-top-this?" fashion, to demonstrate who is wokest of them all. Accordingly, they will not allow anyone who has questioned their castration crusade to ever sell another book. It's enforced like a blood oath.
I'm just amazed at the internet-aggressive pursuit of Greenwald, who has been openly gay forever. What is he doing wrong? Should he be more gay? Should he be less gay? Why is sexuality conflated with politics, and who are the gatekeepers?
He's a white "cis" man of Jewish heritage... he starts off at minus-4 on the meter.
I think competitive progressivism requires a show of courageous commitment, and for most of us, sexuality is a tender subject, one where only the bravest take the radical position. I don't know what Greenwald did wrong, but the "no fake women" caucus (called TERPs) is largely lesbian led. Meanwhile, leading the more mainstream criticism of the transgender preference for early medical intervention are gay writers such as the meticulously rigorous Andrew Sullivan who wondered about the temporary "gender dysphoria" endured by most gay youth age 10-20 -- who are perfectly healthy kids and come out just fine -- with no need to cut off their breasts or their balls. For this view he was fired at New York mag and exiled to Substack.