You know, I check in at progressive (formerly known as: progressive communist socialist liberal) places like Yahoo and Huffpo and I find myself amazed. How in the world can progressives not be winning if what these places say is true?
On a typical day, you will see:
Trump has the lowest ratings of any President ever... more hated than Hitler.
Trump is having an affair.
Trump's administration is beset by scandal.
The economy stinks! It's never been worse!
Trump lies about weight!
Trump tweeted about X and got taken down by everyone.
Trump has broken every promise... except the evil ones.
Trump is racist.
Trump is stupid.
Scientists say Trump's plan will destroy world.
Shrinks say Trump is crazy!
Trump's kids are criminals... one is retarded.
Trump's renegged on promises to keep campaign issues!
Here's a photo of Trump doing XXX, but no one believes it!
Trump's wife won't even sleep with him, she hates him that much.
Diplomat says foreigners never hated us as much as now. Whole diplomatic cores wants to quit!
Trump's staffers hate him!
General says Trump knows nothing about military, that draft dodger!
Trump inflamed North Korea, angered China, pissed off Russia, squandered Europe!
Celebrities bitchslap Trump in one perfect tweet!
Woman gives powerful speech against Trump.
Polls say Republicans doomed!
They even use their click-baitiest headlines. And you can swap out any prominent conservative/Republican for Trump in the above and you'll see the same stories. There is no rumor too obviously false, no meme too stupid, no lie to crazy for the left not to run with these things. It's fascinatingly deceptive. So when will their zombie followers start to wonder why the world isn't conforming to what they read. They must know they are being lied to, right? How can they not?
I don't get it. I guess they would rather live in a fantasy world than face the reality that they are wrong. Interesting.
Thoughts?
On a typical day, you will see:
Trump has the lowest ratings of any President ever... more hated than Hitler.
Trump is having an affair.
Trump's administration is beset by scandal.
The economy stinks! It's never been worse!
Trump lies about weight!
Trump tweeted about X and got taken down by everyone.
Trump has broken every promise... except the evil ones.
Trump is racist.
Trump is stupid.
Scientists say Trump's plan will destroy world.
Shrinks say Trump is crazy!
Trump's kids are criminals... one is retarded.
Trump's renegged on promises to keep campaign issues!
Here's a photo of Trump doing XXX, but no one believes it!
Trump's wife won't even sleep with him, she hates him that much.
Diplomat says foreigners never hated us as much as now. Whole diplomatic cores wants to quit!
Trump's staffers hate him!
General says Trump knows nothing about military, that draft dodger!
Trump inflamed North Korea, angered China, pissed off Russia, squandered Europe!
Celebrities bitchslap Trump in one perfect tweet!
Woman gives powerful speech against Trump.
Polls say Republicans doomed!
They even use their click-baitiest headlines. And you can swap out any prominent conservative/Republican for Trump in the above and you'll see the same stories. There is no rumor too obviously false, no meme too stupid, no lie to crazy for the left not to run with these things. It's fascinatingly deceptive. So when will their zombie followers start to wonder why the world isn't conforming to what they read. They must know they are being lied to, right? How can they not?
I don't get it. I guess they would rather live in a fantasy world than face the reality that they are wrong. Interesting.
Thoughts?
18 comments:
I submit that feeding fantasy isn't a bad political strategy nowadays. A racist conspiracy theorist who goes on about Ted Cruz's father being involved in the Kennedy assasination, Obama having a fake birth certificate, Jewish money in politics and a judge being untrustworthy due to his ethnicity is president.
Along those lines one should recognize the division between truth and relevance. Both Trump and Clinton based their lives on the teachings of Hefner, but that is something known before they won office, so such news didn't damage them while in office. That is not to say the public is indifferent to such things across the board, but it accepted it with those two.
Last and probably least despite an abundance of misreporting and outright lies the only loser newswise in the past year is not someone caught in a lie but someone who failed to 'dance with the one what brung him' (Bannon).
Andrew, I look at both sides and find that clickbait headlines abound for both.
Example: “Tick Tock”; “Big reveal on my show tonight” ; “You won’t want to miss this”; “We have the real truth from an insider”; “Trump reveals his secret plan to destroy the Dims”
I really am getting tired of all the anticipation from both sides that the massive conspiracy is about to be revealed in this article, or that segment, by this host/reporter.
All these “classified” materials and hearings turn out to be nothing but snarky texts/emails that show how petty even the highest ranking players are. They have no discipline, no morals, no ethical base.
Just goes to prove that anyone with any sense of propriety does not get involved in politics, especially when waiting/hoping for the final proof that the opposition has finally proven themselves corrupt, evil, or whatever.
It’s all about the Benjamins in the final analysis.
Patriot, Our politics has gone off the rails, with the people who watch politics having become conspiracy junkies -- on both sides. Rather than promoting ideas, these people now hope to see the other side imprisoned. It's delusional. It's also depressing and tiresome to watch. There hasn't been a genuine thought coming from the political class or their followers probably since pre-impeachment Clinton on the right and JFK on the left. But it's really taken a turn for the idiotic starting with the left in the Bush Jr. years.
Wow is the left furious about the shutdown. They are seething against Schumer and Pelosi. They are almost giving Schumer the same treatment they gave Republicans! This is such fun to watch! :)
Anthony, It is a good strategy to get elected, but it's a horrible strategy in terms of achieving anything. It's purely a short term thing than explodes in futility almost immediately as you become a captive to the crazies.
In terms of the media, I think they are all losers. They are a failing industry that seems to be in the middle of a series of purges (the latest based on sex crimes) with no end in sight because they no longer offer wanted services.
Patriot, Andrew, et al. I've heard it said many times by many people now that we live in an attention economy. And it rings true. Get used to the anticipation, because anticipation draws eyeballs (page views). Of course, this is as old as "leave 'em wanting more" but it's prominence is much greater today.
As for feeding fantasy, that's not new either. Hoover campaigned on "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." Before that, McKinley promised "A Full Dinner Pail." Before that, Lincoln told voters to "Vote Yourself a Farm." We have another term for building fantasies: "salesmanship."
The difference between a sleazy salesman and an ethical one is whether they oversell or they over-deliver.
I have long believed the internet has been the most powerful factor in how we’ve changed, politically, in the last 25 years...especially the last 15. My generation was brought up on 3 channels and 1 point of view. We now have the ability to hear from literally thousands of citizens on many different perspectives.
People can do research on their own....pursue trains of thought and ideas that before we’re limited to academics or people with way too much time on their hands. With a few clicks we can have our biases confirmed, or shut down, based on what we find in our clicks.
What I’ve found is that “clickbait” headlines, that then turn out to have nothing to do with what the headlines claimed, affect me the same way that diet ads and auto lease ads do. If they claim something that “sounds too good to be true” then I dismiss them. Sort of like political claims by people running for office.
I felt that way about Trump when he was running, but he has proven me wrong many times since he became President. I find him rather refreshing in his desire to communicate directly with regular Americans through his tweeting, rather than through the media filters.
So I’ve found I don’t find myself clicking through on links when there are amazing claims that someone “destroyed” someone else in an interview. They’ve lost me and my interest if I see that in a headline or link.
So, my bottom line is I love the internet and the ability to get myriad points of view easily and without a lot of time spent. But as with anything, I have to tolerate the craziness and lies that go along with that.
And that is out it should be. No “Net Neutrality” for me thank you.
Tryanmax - I like that "attention economy". I never really thought of that before, but it so true.
And that goes along with Patriot's comment about how the internet and access to instant information has widened our persepective if opinions (and not necessarily in a good way all of the time).
But I what have observed people are now more emboldened than ever to say things that we used to only say behind closed doors with people we knew. Kids under 30 have never had it any other way, so being hyper-reactive to click/beeps/bells and other notices is downright Pavlovian.
And I agree with Patriot - I find it kind of refreshing that Trump is completely unfiltered. Okay, not completely thrilled, but I really knows how to jerk peoples' chains. And he ain't subtle. But then I knew he was exactly like this...he is exposing many truths and he's certainly is bold. And frankly, let the world be shaken up a little. We have spent way too long trying to placate tyrants.
Bev, I forgot where I read it lately, but some reluctant #NeverTrumper put in an article that no one should be surprised that Donald Trump wakes up as Donald Trump everyday and suggested maybe it's time to get past the "I don't like how he talks" complaints.
For my part, I put it in my own sarcastic way:
"I sure do miss the guy with the nice clothes and the fancy words. This new guy with the baggy suits and the crude language is an obvious charlatan!"
1:27 PM - 19 Jan 2018
Someone has been surprised by Trump? Huh. He hasn't surprised me yet.
Speaking of not being surprised I predicted that there would be a rally round the flag effect and that the party would bend to his whims (early interparty critics of Clinton, Bush and Obama were a very small minority, even in matters their parties came to regret). Such things inevitably happen early(ish) in wave elections.
To be fair, Anthony, you are the least surprised person I know.
Patriot, The click-bait stuff drives me nuts. It really shows just how far the "respectable" world has fallen. Most news articles have become rumor or opinion. They are typically little more than the headline itself in terms of substance. And they try to trick you into opening the link so they can sell advertising.
This, in turn, lowers attention spans and we end up with a society of morons running around believing that they know what is going on, when all their knowledge is based on click-bait headlines.
I can't think of a better way to destroy society.
Bev at al., In terms of Trump, I don't recall anyone predicting that he would end up putting in place an agenda that looks a lot like Reagan II or him getting it. I'm seeing more and more people starting to like him now.
As an aside, he's setting himself up to steal the immigration issue right out from under the Democrats. Interesting.
Andrew, Patriot, the way I've stated it elsewhere is that most news articles today exist only to excuse the headline. The basic model is (1) outlandish claim to serve as a talking point" followed by (2) 5000+ words explaining how to interpret the title claim as something other than an outright lie.
tryanmax, That sounds about right. I'm amazed how often the article doesn't back up the headline. Sometimes, it doesn't even mention the headline!
BTW, I mention Trump's achievements being Reagan-like... I saw yesterday that the Heritage Foundation agrees. They just ranked Trump above Reagan. I wouldn't go that far, but his achievements are close.
Heritage is bound to over-rank Trump because he's working down their checklist. I like it regardless because it makes it apparent that #NeverTrump is really only about Queensberry Rules and not about any alleged conservative principles.
I know some of ya'll are lawyers, so let me ask this,....I noticed that the Hawaii employee who sent that fake missile incoming message is refusing to cooperate with the investigators..I have to ask, when did the idea evolve that you just don't have to answer an investigator's questions if you don't want to?
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