November 9, 2021

Where is Jake Tapper's bullshit detector?

I follow Jake Tapper on Twitter, but I do not appreciate getting spammed by his "liking" phony-baloney statements from celebrities, like this:

It's one thing to have to see junk like this on Facebook, where I encounter various nice people I know who unthinkingly pass along inspirational "quotes" that would cause an educated sensible person to question whether that celebrity could have said that. 

It's quite another thing to get that kind of crap on Twitter, where I'm only following people I think might say something sharp and intelligent!

Anyone who cares what Hemingway said ought to know he's unlikely to have said "We are all broken — that's how the light gets in." And annoyed as I am to have been spammed because Tapper "liked" that, I'd be more alarmed to learn that Hemingway actually did say that. 

Quote Investigator has examined "We are all broken..." — which means the questionable attribution has been around for a while. Indeed, that Quote Investigator article is 5 years old. So this is a hoary annoyance! 

The investigation is interesting enough to thoroughly de-annoy me. I'm glad I got prompted to dig this up:
In 1929 Hemingway published a novel set during World War I titled “A Farewell to Arms”, and he discussed the universality of human pain and resilience. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI: 
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
In 1992 Leonard Cohen released the album “The Future” which included the song “Anthem” containing the following lines....
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack, in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.
The words of Hemingway and Cohen appear to have been merged to yield: “We are all broken. That’s how the light gets in.” As shown further [at the link], this quotation with an ascription to Hemingway entered circulation by 2013....

So the quotation process was broken, that wasn't how "the light" got in. The dark got in! In this case "the light" is a love for and understanding of Hemingway. In that light, you should know "We are all broken — that's how the light gets in" is not a Hemingway quote. Start there. And fact check!

96 comments:

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

That explanation leaves me wanting. It begs the question, how? How did those passages 63 years apart from each other get conflated? Are they the only popular works that talk about cracks and broken people? Now I fear getting sucked into the QI vortex to satisfy my curiosity.

MayBee said...

The Leonard Cohen song came to my head immediately. Of course Hemingway didn't talk about peoples' "light". Imagine.

This part:
"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially."

Reminds me of something Christopher Hitchens wrote:

“However, one thing that grave illness does is to make you examine familiar principles and seemingly reliable sayings. And there's one that I find I am not saying with quite the same conviction as I once used to: In particular, I have slightly stopped issuing the announcement that "whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger."
In fact, I now sometimes wonder why I ever thought it profound...
In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don't kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.”


― Christopher Hitchens, Mortality

Amadeus 48 said...

So, what about Zelda Fitzgerald on Hemingway? “A fairy with hair on his chest” and “phony as a rubber check.” Jake wouldn’t retweet those, would he, and they are real.

Goodness gracious!

Just because Zelda was nuts doesn’t mean she didn’t see through Hemingway.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

You know what lets in a lot of light?

A shotgun blast to the head.

Yes, I went there.

TheDopeFromHope said...

Why would anyone follow Fakey Jakey Tapper? To be bombarded with scores of lies every day?

Fernandinande said...

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.

So the world breaks everyone except those that it doesn't break. Check.

It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

It kills the very good, etc, and also everyone else. Check.

Man, that is some lame-o writing.

Kai Akker said...

Funny, and nice work. Even the actual Hemingway quote is one of those moments of profundity that seem to clash in tone and value with the sharp observation that made his writing good, IMO. That is his best novel, A Farewell to Arms, while I'm venturing an opinion; not a great fan of the novels but that one I've always liked.

Tapper's pseudo whatever also shows how people can substitute something like AGW for religion, doesn't it? Mock profundity, and it feels easier to handle than more complicated messages and relationships. Just as AGW's simplistic format lets people hate other people and thus elevate themselves; feeling better about themselves is what they need, they think.

Joe Smith said...

I have a friend who is very smart. She went to a top-notch school. She deals with complex problems every day.

And yet her Facebook/Twitter feeds are an endless stream of inspirational quotes and memes only one step up from the 'Hang in there, baby' cat.

No idea why.

Tapper has an excuse. I don't think he's nearly as smart as my friend...

Ann Althouse said...

"That explanation leaves me wanting. It begs the question, how? How did those passages 63 years apart from each other get conflated? "

I was going to add a line to the post saying click through to the whole article to see how that merger may have happened, but I assumed people know to click for more.

Let this be a special invitation to you.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

Where did Tapper leave his BS detector? Probably on the shelf right next to his copy of the Steele dossier that he flogged daily on his network appearances.

It is highly doubtful Tapper has a functioning BS detector. He's a Dem propagandist. His role is to generate BS, not detect it.

Ann Althouse said...

I'll add a line to the post though

Joe Smith said...

As for his 'bullshit detector,' he didn't see through any of the Russian collusion bullshit, so there's your answer...

LA_Bob said...

"The investigation is interesting enough to thoroughly de-annoy me. I'm glad I got prompted to dig this up..."

So, Jake Tapper's good for something after all! Who could have imagined?

holdfast said...

I’m confused, if you are looking for sharp or intelligent writing, why are you following a CNN journalist?

You would probably have more luck with tree moss.

rehajm said...

Imagine what would happen to media if FBI raided Jake Tapper under Trump.

Veritas Under Biden: cheering I suspect…

Joe T. said...

No one who has ever read Hemingway would attribute that quote to him. It's not like things Twain allegedly wrote that turn out to have come from someone else. They often sound like Twain. This one sounds like something Wayne Dyer would have written.

tim maguire said...

Anyone who's read Hemingway knows he wouldn't have said that. He might have had a character say it, but it wouldn't be a character we're supposed to admire.

But so what? My complaint about quotes is not how often they are misattributed, but that the fact that it was said by someone famous has no bearing on its value. A good saying is good because it's useful, not because someone famous said it (whether true or not).

Ever flipped through a book of Einstein quotes? Outside his area of expertise, he was embarrassingly simplistic and naïve, but his childish sayings get repeated all the time and we're supposed to nod in agreement because it's Einstein who said it.

"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. "

Horseshit. History is clear that there is no better way to ensure war than to fail to prepare for it.

tim in vermont said...

"I think might say something sharp and intelligent!"

And you are following Jake Tapper?

"In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don't kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.”

The one saying that still rings true to me, and has helped me a lot, even if it doesn't *seem* inspirational is "Tomorrow is never promised." It might not help me the day that any implied promises of tomorrow are broken, but between now and that day, it helps me to live better.

Gabriel said...

Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, and the Bible seem to draw more than their share of dippy fake quotes.

One of the most egregious being "When God closes a door, He opens a window" attributed to some random book, chapter and verse that the person quoting it could not possibly have looked up.

But the fake quote I hate most is "Clear your mind of can't" meaning something like "believe in yourself". What Samuel Johnson said was "Clear your mind of cant", by which he meant the things people say that they don't mean. The full quote:

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times." You don't mind the times... You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don't think foolishly.

Tim said...

I wonder, was the quote, and I mean the actual quote, from Hemingway or from one of his characters? The reason I ask is that I follow several authors, and someone (Heinlein, perhaps, who all the authors I follow are familiar with) once said that it was foolish to conflate the opinions of characters with the opinions of authors, as it was often not the same.

veni vidi vici said...

This post earns beaucoup kudos for use of the word "hoary". Such an underused yet excellent term!

Skeptical Voter said...

Following Jake Tapper's tweets trying to find something intelligent is an enterprise that's likely to disappoint the follower. Looking for a gold nugget of wisdom there will only yield iron pyrites.

Iman said...

When they said (they said) get bent (get bent), get bent (get bent)
I wonder what they meant
When they said (they said) get bent (get bent), get bent (get bent)
I wonder what they meant…

Chris-2-4 said...

"It's quite another thing to get that kind of crap on Twitter, where I'm only following people I think might say something sharp and intelligent!" ~Althouse

Wow. We do NOT have the same assessment of Twitter...

gilbar said...

i saw this one* on twitter, marked as a stupid high school yearbook quote
But, if you think about it; it's actually pretty profound.
Then, if you think about it some More; it's actually pretty stupid**

this one* When life closes a door... Open it back up; that's how doors work

pretty stupid** Actually it IS pretty profound, for something so stupid

The Crack Emcee said...

Where's everybody's bullshit detector? Aaron Rodgers does his homeopathy routine and nobody mentions me? Come on, Ann & Meade.

I told you James Randi campaigned against it - nobody says shit.

I told you Prince Charles campaigns for it - and nobody says shit.

Why must I be surrounded by all of you and you say nothing about my work in this field?

Because your own bullshit detectors are broken: they're irrevocably against my now-over-a-decade old message getting out.

Richard said...

I don't twit. But on Facebook, friends of friends I didn't know I had frequently post similar Hallmarkish stuff. Why?

The Crack Emcee said...

I am the "crack" Leonard Cohen was talking about.

J Melcher said...

More context: Sometimes a man brings so much courage into the world, that the world must kill him to break him. So, if course, it does kill him. The world breaks everyone....

tim in vermont said...

I liked your summary better than the QI article.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Thank you, Althouse. I accepted and it was quite illuminating. Especially this:

“There is a crack in every thing that God has made;” but through that crevice enters the light of heaven.

The quote is Emerson, and the added part about light getting in is from Benjamin Blood, in the 1860 book Optimism, and I'd say that formulary is closest to the mythical and misattributed Hemingway or the Hemingway/Cohen conflation, however you view that mash-up. From there they show a definite evolution and refining of the various permutations until we get to the fake Hemingway quote. Quite interesting, but also nearly 70 years after the Blood formulation said it closest to the final version. Which, given English language evolution, won't really be the final version. That is the only certainty among these many questions.

tim in vermont said...

Jake Tapper is a good-looking mid-wit, change my mind.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

‘Anyone who cares what Hemingway said ought to know he's unlikely to have said "We are all broken — that's how the light gets in."’

Interesting context in which to use the no true Scotsman appeal to purity.

effinayright said...

"Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger" is something I've always believed Christopher Reeve did NOT say.

Kevin said...

Why would Tapper retweet that? Because it aligns with his worldview.

We are all broken: Need for people to acknowledge their brokenness by supporting or being a victim of structural racism.

That's how the light gets in: Wokeness, repentance, redemption, reparations and the recreation of society.

cf said...

no way in Hell What's-his-face would tweet the bracing quote of Hemingway's, it's not dressed in placid.

Sebastian said...

"I'm only following people I think might say something sharp and intelligent!"

Jake Tapper?? You, a law professor emerita. You, blogging champ. You, --. Say it ain't so!

Paddy O said...

For good BS inspirational quote pushback and interesting history, I've really appreciated Fake History Hunter. https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt

Joe Smith said...

'Anyone who cares what Hemingway said ought to know he's unlikely to have said "We are all broken — that's how the light gets in."'

Correct. Hemingway was an inveterate drunk, womanizing misogynist.

Sounds more like something Stuart Smalley would say...

Kevin said...

Buttigieg is also retweeting:

"Inside the bus, poor riders like statues. Their progress stopped by bridges speeding white commuters on their way." -- Ernest Hemingway

Narayanan said...

to bring it up to modern language usage >>>> you need to pierce the bubble for light to get through

exhelodrvr1 said...

"Where is Jake Tapper's bullshit detector?"

Non-existent.

chuck said...

"whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger."

I always thought that was BS. Bad experiences usually damage people. They may recover, but most will limp a bit after.

rcocean said...

Yep, I immediately read that, and knew Hemingway never said that. He probably said "We're all broken. Because we've all gotten wounded in combat, slipped on Fishing boat, or survived a plane crash"

Left Bank of the Charles said...

“It's one thing to have to see junk like this on Facebook. It's quite another thing to get that kind of crap on Twitter.”

Ann Althouse

Wince said...

Althouse quotes…
In 1929 Hemingway published a novel set during World War I titled “A Farewell to Arms”, and he discussed the universality of human pain and resilience. “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

To that, Bob Dylan says…

Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Everybody knows that baby's got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls

She takes just like a woman, yeah she does
She makes love just like a woman, yeah she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl

William said...

"We are all broken. That's how the light gets in."....."Isn't it pretty to think so."

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

“Sometimes you can’t see your way out. The “dark night of the soul” – it’s a reality for many, many people.”
— Mariel Hemingway

Hello darkness my old friend 😆

Che Dolf said...

I follow Jake Tapper on Twitter, but I do not appreciate getting spammed by his "liking" phony-baloney statements from celebrities...

Choosing to fill your head with sludge and then complaining about it. Tapper's celebrity fluffing is the least bad thing about him.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of anon accounts that are better than him, but they don't register to you because they don't have the social endorsement you need to perceive someone. Not "better than Tapper" in a "better than bad" way," but because they're genuinely great.

Bill Peschel said...

How did those passages 63 years apart from each other get conflated? Are they the only popular works that talk about cracks and broken people?

I published a book of quotes for writers. If I didn't know the immediate source (I pulled many of them from interviews I've collected over the years), I searched for the original source.

Some quotes come through refinement. Sherlock never said "Elementary, my dear Watson," although he did say variations of it. It was P.G. Wodehouse (who knew and admired Conan Doyle and quoted from the canon in his stories) who refined it into the quote we know.

Some are simply made up. They appeared in books in the '60s and '70s from people who lived 50 years before and more. Others are quoted from memory and they didn't get it right, and someone else picks up on that and attaches quote marks to it, and hey, presto, new quote!

Many of the quotes attributed to Mark Twain are bosh. If it offers advice, it's bosh. One such quote -- "A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation" -- didn't come from Twain, but his wife's commonplace book, as quoted in Justin Kaplan's bio. Someone hastily took it and assumed it was MT who said it.

QI is a great resource for quotes.

Yancey Ward said...

I had never seen the misattribution, but I recognized the line as Cohen's instantly. I listened to the album again in just the last month.

"What pearls of wisdom would one expect from Jake Tapper," is the question I have.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

It's quite another thing to get that kind of crap on Twitter, where I'm only following people I think might say something sharp and intelligent!

That comment led me to ask "Where is Ann Althouse's bullshit detector?"

Jake the Fake is neither sharp nor intelligent. Just look at all the imbecilic garbage he wrote pushing the Clinton/Steele "Dossier".

If the stories in it were true, provided to him by Russians, then Putin would have killed every single one of those Russians, and their family members, for "outing" the fact that Trump was Putin's Manchurian Candidate.

It immediately followed from that but of thinking (would should only take you about 5 minutes to get to), that everything in that joke was a pool of lies.

So the only people who pushed it are either dishonest hack dupes, ignoramuses, and morons.

Which one is Jake?

As for Twitter, you can tell it to hide a tweet like that, and then tell it "I want to see fewer Jake Tapper Likes"

stlcdr said...

At what point do inspirational quotes only become inspirational based on the actual author of said quotes?

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

social media = vomit.
yes, ALL social media = vomit.

Craig said...

Oops, I've been guilty of posting inspirational quotes on Twitter lately. Good thing Althouse doesn't follow me!

Temujin said...

Well...reporters, such as they are, do not do research. They wait for someone to send them a Tweet. In this case, Jake was just doing what reporters today do by quickly reading it, accepting it, then amplifying the falsehood, the mistake, and putting his credentials next to it.

Thanks for doing the digging. At least we got from Hemingway to Cohen. One never knows the path these Althouse posts will take. Though I will say, if you're annoyed by stupid, supposedly inspirational misattributed quotes, you should probably not be on Twitter or Facebook. Or Linkedin. My God, Linkedin is a veritable cheap inspirational doodad factory. And so many of them are- for some reason- attributed to Sir Richard Branson. It's a cult-like thing. Someone posts a saying, some rather nebulous flat-line inspirational gobbledegook attributing it to Sir Richard, and thousands of clapping seals push the 'like' button or comment on His Saintliness. I used to use Linkedin for business. But the last few years I was in it, it was hard to keep from slamming those folks by the thousands in a comment. As national rep for a company, I had to bite my tongue. Or in this case, hold my fingers.

MayBee- you reminded me how I miss Christopher Hitchens. Especially in these last 10 years- we could have used his voice, his writings, his brain.

mccullough said...

Hemingway blew his head off. That’s how the light got in.

Critter said...

I'm surprised at the conflation of the two quotes. Hemingway's writing seems to explain what he will describe in the book, which I think is a serious and good novel. His quote also makes me want to hear more from him about what he means and how he sees it play out in life by reading the book. I understand it to be his take on the human condition. Good stuff to examine.

On the other hand, the Leonard Cohen quote leaves me cold. Perhaps there is something profound behind his quote, but I'm not convinced. I've always had that reaction to Cohen who shrinks in stature when I think of Dylan's profound insights into human nature and the extraordinary poetry of his words. The Cohen quote sounds like something people post on their refrigerator or get from their psychotherapist. It's just a play on the concept of wounded healer, i.e., with pain one can gain insights into fundamental psychic wounds and begin the process of healing. The metaphor also doesn't work for me - implies too much of a physical aspect of hiding or burying one's wounds. Almost cartoonish in the Monty Python style.

Peter Spieker said...

"Everything breaks in the end" is a quote I've seen attributed to Tallyrand.

cassandra lite said...

"Never trust content from Jake Tapper." -Bert Lahr

Luke Lea said...

"Where the crack in the teacup opens, a lane to the land of the dead." Quoted from memory, quite possibly inaccurately, from Auden I think. I know, I should look it up because I like this version better.

J L Oliver said...

I prefer:
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
You gotta kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight
From Lovers in a Dangerous Time by Bare-Naked Ladies

Or at least Rage, rage against the dying of the light…Dylan Thomas

Strength needs a bit of fight, I think.

JaimeRoberto said...

Huh, I figured it was from Mark Twain or Ben Franklin. They seem to be the source of all made up quotes.

Joe Smith said...

'But the fake quote I hate most is "Clear your mind of can't"'

Are you a Mexican, or a Mexi-can't?

-- Johnny Depp character in some movie

Chris Lopes said...

"The reason I ask is that I follow several authors, and someone (Heinlein, perhaps, who all the authors I follow are familiar with) once said that it was foolish to conflate the opinions of characters with the opinions of authors, as it was often not the same."

In general yes, but there are places in Heinlein's work where it is clearly Heinlein speaking. The words are usually being spoken by some crusty old guy (like Jubal Harshaw or Lazarus Long) and are filled with a folksy cynicism involving human nature. That is Heinlein speaking from the pulpit.

Drago said...

"Where is Jake Tapper's bullshit detector?"

Jake had to remove his BS detector when he went to work for far left democraticals and Handgun Control Inc.

He would have had to do something similar if he had gone to work for Omidyars'/Google's The Bulwark or The Lincoln Pedophile Project.

cubanbob said...

It's quite another thing to get that kind of crap on Twitter, where I'm only following people I think might say something sharp and intelligent!"

Twitter? Seriously? As for Tapper, bullshit can't sense itself. What were you expecting? Candor? Brilliance? Not the place, not the guy.
I don't subscribe to social media, it's mostly trash and I don't know enough people that I'm interested in to follow them on Facebook ( and discover stupid crap they post). Twitter at best is for quick news. Too much crap in social media to make it worthwhile for me.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Well if we’re talking well-circulated fake quotes it’s hard to beat the bastardized Bible idiom, “Money is the root of all evil,” because it’s not just wrong but 180 degrees out of phase.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Xavior Onasis

Jeff Weimer said...

Jake Tapper's "bullshit detector" broke at least 5 years ago. He lost any verisimilitude when he promoted the Steele Dossier.

Ann Althouse said...

“ I'm only following people I think might say something sharp and intelligent!" ~Althouse
Wow. We do NOT have the same assessment of Twitter.”

Calm yourself.

It’s not an assessment of Twitter. It’s my approach to following people on Twitter. I’m selective. I’m comparing it to Facebook, where I follow friends and family and therefore can tolerate dumb stuff.

Ann Althouse said...

Shoot yourself in the head. It’s how the light gets in. Hemingway.

Ann Althouse said...

Just seeing mccullough:”Hemingway blew his head off. That’s how the light got in.”

Wouldn’t have made the same joke if I had already seen it.

I agree with the joke.

Lewis Wetzel said...

I'm trying to think of an analogy for "expecting that a person's twitter stream reflects a real glimpse into that person's thoughts" and the best that I can come up with is that it is like going to a comedian's show two nights running and getting angry at him because he told the same jokes both nights.
Tapper may occasionally actually tweet something himself, but I suppose his twitter account is managed by some low level staffer.
Isn't this common knowledge? That celebrities have a social media manager (or team of managers)?

One of the funniest tweets I've read was in response to James Comey tweeting a picture of himself alone in a forest, from medium distance, looking upward contemplatively. the text was something along the lines of "sometimes you just need to get alone with your thoughts."
To which Brit Hume replied "Who took the picture?".

LA_Bob said...

mccullough, LOL

Wait...did Hemingway kill himself at night? I don't know.

If so, WaPo says, "Hemingway dies in darkness".

RigelDog said...

I immediately thought of the passage quoted by Barbra Streisand as she criticized George W. Bush. She actually thought this janky prose was Shakespeare!

She told the audience: "Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervour, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword...."

The quote goes on but I can't bear to inflict it on our fellow Althusians.

Ceciliahere said...

Following Jake Tapper on twitter? Seems like a waste of time.

fizzymagic said...

The Crack Emcee said...
Where's everybody's bullshit detector? Aaron Rodgers does his homeopathy routine and nobody mentions me? Come on, Ann & Meade.

Because Aaron Rodger's job is not to inform the public, but rather to throw a football. I, personally, try to ignore everything celebrities say. It would be a full-time job dealing with all the nonsense.

ken in tx said...

“Many quotes found on the internet are fake.” Abraham Lincoln.

nbks said...

I seriously thought this fake quote was a dark joke about Hemingway's death by shotgun to the skull.

gadfly said...

I have a PHD in Bullshit Detection

cfs said...

Today, Biden called for “more civility in politics” as a solution.

Now that is a quote for you!

Chris Lopes said...

"Tapper may occasionally actually tweet something himself, but I suppose his twitter account is managed by some low level staffer."

Tapper certainly wants his followers to believe the Tweets are his, therefore he's responsible for the content of them. But yes, a more honest hashtag would be #JakeTapper'slowlevelillpaidflunky.

Ann Althouse said...

Hemingway’s quote should not be paraphrased as “ We are all broken.”

He posits a set of people who are not broken except in the necessary breaking that is death. These people have wholeness and integrity but are vulnerable to total destruction.

The rest are living in a broken condition. Only some of them are stronger in the broken places.

Ann Althouse said...

@crack

You’re speaking as if there wasn’t a post about Aaron Rodgers, but there was. Yet somehow YOU feel disrespected!

Ann Althouse said...

“ Why would Tapper retweet that?”

To project intelligence, empathy, and attention to the higher things. That’s why the big fail is funny.

tim in vermont said...

Jake Tapper came to Vermont once, and toured a dairy farm, he stepped in a pile of cow shit in his $900 shoes and thought he was melting. True story, just as true as the stuff Tapper shovels out. He's like the fireman on one of those old steam trains, except that instead of shoveling coal into the firebox to keep the engine running, he shovels bullshit out to his viewers to keep the narrative going.

john burger said...

To paraphrase Alicia Silverstone, Searching for intelligence in any thing Jake Tapper says is as useless as searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie."

jvb

JAORE said...

Where is Tapper's BS detector?

Likely burnt out by the 24/7 BS exposure within his network.

rcocean said...

Hemingway had a genetic disposition to depression and suicide. His father, brother, at least one child or one grandchild, committed suicide.

He'd been committed to a mental hospital after he had a breakdown in Spain while writing for a magazine. As he put it, he couldn't drink, write, or fuck. So, he decided it was time to go. He'd also developed diabetes. He was lucky to live that long. Numerous concussions, broken legs, a bottle of rum/whiskey a day, and high blood pressure.

He thought the FBI was following him. This was written off as paranoia. But we now know, he'd been working for the KGB as late as 1948, and his fear was well founded.

Martin said...

If MSM journalists had working BS detector they would not be able get days worth of outrage porn from stories like Jessi Smollet and the Covington Kids.

A working BS detector is an absolute liability for a media person.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann Althouse said...
@crack

You’re speaking as if there wasn’t a post about Aaron Rodgers, but there was. Yet somehow YOU feel disrespected!

I feel disrespected because you add no context to this - I did a whole blog on it. You can see rants on this subject, that actually illuminate the subject, but you say and do nothing with it. To treat this like a normal story, when I've been covering it, here, for over a decade is bullshit.

Your blog have the level of popularity that could finally break this story open for me and you do nothing - even after knowing I've suffered over it for years.

Fuck Aaron Rodgers' lies - why and how does homeopathy (water with a belief system added) make people lie is the question.

The Crack Emcee said...

And, yes, YOU should've been saying "Crack was right!" instead of going along with the media take on it.

Lurker21 said...

When I saw "Tapper" and "Hemingway" I assumed Jake was talking about Mollie's new book, but of course he'd want that not to get too much attention.

If you know Hemingway, you know the correct quote. This is like that Faulkner/Shakespeare ruckus a few months back when somebody (Jen Rubin? Andrea Mitchell? I'm not going to look it up) tried to correct somebody else and it blew up in her face.

But when people create heroes, they make them inspiring and positive. They airbrush out their darker, more pessimistic side. When ever anybody becomes an icon they become greetingcardized.

Except for maybe Adolf Hitler.

And I'm not even sure he's an exception.

Drago said...

Crack Emcee: "I feel disrespected because you add no context to this - I did a whole blog on it."

If someone blogs in the wilderness, does anyone know it?

It is my experience that blogs that provide insightful commentary and/or content that is compelling and speaks to the life experiences of readers, those blogs achieve success.

Other blogs?

Not so much.

Iman said...

Get a grip, whinging whiners!