Althouse: "As a man charged with publicly explaining Donald Trump’s often meandering and colloquial vernacular in highly adversarial TV settings..."

March 22, 2019

"As a man charged with publicly explaining Donald Trump’s often meandering and colloquial vernacular in highly adversarial TV settings..."

"... I appreciate more than most the sometimes-murky nature of his off-script commentaries. But these Charlottesville statements leave little room for interpretation. For any honest person, therefore, to conclude that the president somehow praised the very people he actually derided, reveals a blatant and blinding level of bias. Nonetheless, countless so-called journalists have furthered this damnable lie. For example, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace responded that Trump had 'given safe harbor to Nazis, to white supremacists.' Her NBC colleague Chuck Todd claimed Trump 'gave me the wrong kind of chills. Honestly, I’m a bit shaken from what I just heard.' Not to be outdone, print also got in on the act, with the New York Times spewing the blatantly propagandist headline: 'Trump Gives White Supremacists Unequivocal Boost.' How could the Times possibly reconcile that Trump, who admonished that the supremacists should be 'condemned totally' somehow also delivered an 'unequivocal boost' to those very same miscreants?... Despite the clear evidence of Trump’s statements regarding Charlottesville, major media figures insist on spreading the calumny that Trump called neo-Nazis 'fine people.' The only explanation for such a repeated falsehood is abject laziness or willful deception."

Writes Steve Cortes, a CNN political commentator.

I suspect that they keep repeating the falsehood because they are so clearly wrong that they can't find any way to back down. And I also think they've seen the effectiveness of this attack on Trump. It has worked as propaganda, so why stop now? The hit to their credibility has already occurred, so why not keep manipulating minds?

141 comments:

exhelodrvr1 said...: You see the same thing here on this blog.; 3/22/19, 7:54 AM
R C Belaire said...: Perhaps the only way out is to elect another POC candidate...; 3/22/19, 7:57 AM
AustinRoth said...: MSM = Goebbels.; 3/22/19, 7:58 AM
pious agnostic said...: Lying is what they do; and if the lie is particularly useful, they will boost the signal to talk shows, late night comedians, twitter hacks, mooks, rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.; 3/22/19, 8:02 AM
chuck said...: Journalists live in their own journalistic la la land. I think they actually believe all that falsehood they report as fact and haven't any curiosity about what is true. It is a land where plastic turkeys roam the forests and Bush lied.; 3/22/19, 8:05 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: It's one thing for the Democrat party elites to spread the lies, it's another for the MSM to do it.

Oh wait - the MSM and the democrat party are one in the same.; 3/22/19, 8:06 AM
Gunner said...: Lefties see no difference between people who support the public placement of hundred year old Confederate statues and neo-Nazis.; 3/22/19, 8:06 AM
rhhardin said...: The charge gets stored as a feeling; the feeling then recalls the fact.

It's like reasoning with a woman.; 3/22/19, 8:08 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: pious agnostic,
You left out, probably most significantly, teachers and professors.; 3/22/19, 8:08 AM
Cassandra said...: AA: I suspect that they keep repeating the falsehood because they are so clearly wrong that they can't find any way to back down. And I also think they've seen the effectiveness of this attack on Trump. It has worked as propaganda, so why stop now?

It worked with Scooter Libby, didn't it?

Ms. Miller’s inaccurate testimony helped Mr. Fitzgerald persuade a Washington, D.C., jury in 2007 to find Mr. Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, guilty of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s conduct warrants revisiting not only to set the record straight about Mr. Libby, but also to illustrate the damage that can be done to national security by a special counsel who, discovering no crime, generates through his investigations the alleged offenses he seeks to prosecute.

...Mr. Fitzgerald didn’t charge anyone with leaking Ms. Plame’s identity or disclosing classified information to reporters. From the moment he took over the FBI leak investigation in December 2003, he knew Mr. Armitage was the leaker but declined to prosecute him, Mr. Rove or Mr. Harlow because the disclosure of Ms. Plame’s identity wasn’t a crime and didn’t compromise national security.

History has an odd way of repeating itself. Particularly when the same crowd gets away with recycling their morally bankrupt tactics in the name of "preserving the rule of law" and "upholding civilized norms".; 3/22/19, 8:08 AM
AllenS said...: They keep repeating falsehoods because they are liars, and they don't care what anyone thinks.; 3/22/19, 8:09 AM
rhhardin said...: They say whatever generates audience loyalty and clicks.; 3/22/19, 8:14 AM
iowan2 said...: And I also think they've seen the effectiveness of this attack on Trump. It has worked as propaganda, so why stop now?

Propaganda.

When the left is desperately trying to drive home a point of idiocy, what do they do? Link to some piece of propaganda. A story that starts with something like "sources close to the..."
Propaganda.
(still looking for even one hard data point that would lead a sentient person to think President Trump is compromised by the Russians); 3/22/19, 8:16 AM
Dave Begley said...: "But these Charlottesville statements leave little room for interpretation."

For any intellectually honest person, they do. By "good people on both sides" it is clear that Trump was referring to people who don't want to tear down Confederate monuments and statues.; 3/22/19, 8:20 AM
stlcdr said...: The continued propaganda of this type by 95% of the media, as well as social media, allows 'closet' white supremacist, racists, and all round psychos to see validation in their beliefs, and become very brazen. See New Zealand.; 3/22/19, 8:21 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Half the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important
They don't mean to do harm
But the harm does not interest them.
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
To think well of themselves.

T. S. Eliot; 3/22/19, 8:22 AM
FleetUSA said...: The truly sad thing is that millions have heard the MSM lie and deny any evidence to the contrary because they would need an effort to study the evidence. Lazy acceptance is corrosive to our democracy.; 3/22/19, 8:24 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I’m surprised ANYONE in the DNC-Media complex is allowed to deviate from the party line in this issue and discuss the truth. This CNN has confused me by virtue of his Kinsley Gaffe. What next? Admitting there was no collusion all along?; 3/22/19, 8:28 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: Regarding Chatlottesville, some folks thought it was a real bad idea to tear down statues of Robert E Lee. And many of those people aren't Nazis or Racists. But, Yes, probably some nut cases were intermingled within this "Unite the Right" rally.

And, on the opposite side, some folks think we should remove Confederate statues (they lost, right?) for plausible reasons, and intermingled with these folks were screwy Antifa activists looking to spark confrontations.

Why is this difficult to understand?

Because the Left is politically fueled by racial grievances - 75 years after the Nazis were destroyed and 55 years after Civil Rights law were passed.; 3/22/19, 8:30 AM
AlbertAnonymous said...: Great Blazing Saddles quote. Well done!; 3/22/19, 8:31 AM
Pillage Idiot said...: If you rewarded a 2 y.o. child with a cookie every time they lied, what kind of teenager would you raise?

The MSM gets a "reward" for every false story they write.; 3/22/19, 8:34 AM
wendybar said...: They know if they keep repeating lies, the lies will keep spreading, because MOST of the MSM have the same exact talking points. People think because they are all repeating the same talking points that somebody made up it will make it true.; 3/22/19, 8:36 AM
Phil 314 said...: I thought the very same thing as the events unfolded. I see two elements at play here:

1. The Trump as racist, misogynist, (fill in your preferred ____ist). Trump is boorish and impulsive but I don’t believe he has hatred for any particular group. And you can say that and not necessarily be a Trumpkin.

2. Expected outrage for evil “X”. Certain news items demand high level, no equivocation “in no uncertain terms” outrage. White supremacy is one of those. Incarcerated kids at the border (“IN CAGES!!!!”). is another. Trump can do disdain and contempt but he’s not good at the outrage, dignified or otherwise.; 3/22/19, 8:36 AM
Henry said...: The hit to their credibility has already occurred...

You have to ask -- credible to whom?

To back down would be to lose credibility with the people who still believe them. They don't care about their credibility with their detractors.

So the "they can't find any way to back down" theory makes sense.

You also have to accept the fact that many reporters and opinion columnists don't even know that they're wrong. Opinions get solidified as fact and facts confirm bias, even when they aren't confirmed as facts.; 3/22/19, 8:42 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Chuck Todd(D) is full diaper.; 3/22/19, 8:43 AM
Browndog said...: I don't think enough people appreciate how dangerously effective propaganda is.

In response to this Cortes article published in RealClear Politics, journalist Mollie Hemingway writes:

I have personally witnessed how difficult it is for smart, thoughtful people to accept what Trump actually said, instead of what they "remember" him saying, but it's really important that we speak accurately here and criticize for real things, not fake.; 3/22/19, 8:48 AM
Jaq said...: They are trying to smother the Enlightenment with a pillow, they know that it will require ignoring the victim's struggles.; 3/22/19, 8:51 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: The hit to journalists credibility has already occurred says our host. I agree.

As to "why not continue", I'm reminded of the scene in the musical Evita where Evita complains to a Spanish Admiral, "A whore, they called me a whore"! The Admiral replied that it had been a long time since he'd been to sea, but they still called him a sailor.

Let's just say that a lot of these "journolists" spelling intentional are into synchronized whoredom.; 3/22/19, 8:54 AM
Fernandinande said...: By "good people on both sides" it is clear that Trump was referring to people who don't want to tear down Confederate monuments and statues.

The MSM omits mention of the statues, so it became a "deadly white supremacist rally", and then one side of the "both sides" must refer to Naughty White People.; 3/22/19, 8:59 AM
William said...: The truth matters not a whit to the left, which manifestly includes the mainstream media. Do not look to them for accurate reporting of ANYTHING to do with Trump.; 3/22/19, 9:05 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Free speech, on the left, is the ability to lie lie and lie some more, all while they ban any speech that does not conform.; 3/22/19, 9:09 AM
M Jordan said...: The serpent in Eden was the first to twist information but provide himself deniability by tacking a question mark on at the end: “Did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?” Eve, sensing a subtle attack, immediately corrected it by correctly identifying the one tree they weren’t supposed to eat from: “oh no, we’re allowed to eat from all of the trees except one: the one in the middle of the garden.” But in doing so she went too far and added, “We’re not even supposed to touch that tree.”

A lie. A well-intentioned one, but a lie nonetheless. God never placed a touch taboo on the tree of knowledge. The serpent wins the round one.

This is our media. Attack, attack, attack but be subtle and shrewd always ending with that question mark. “I was just asking questions,” they can always claim. But maybe one of their questions will get you to over-react and now they’ve got you.

Trump has over-reacted at times in punching back ten times harder, but in the Charlottesville case, he was perfect. And the serpentine media is caught. And this is why I like Trump: he knows these snakes and is (sometimes) more subtle and clever than they are. Romney fled from the snakes and McCain was putty in their hands. Trump beats them at their own game (sometimes).; 3/22/19, 9:10 AM
Fernandinande said...: Do not look to them for accurate reporting of ANYTHING to do with Trump.

You have four extraneous words at the end of that sentence.; 3/22/19, 9:10 AM
Wilbur said...: I wonder if they (the national news media) know how detestable and descipable they are viewed by a large portion of the country. I really do wonder if they know.; 3/22/19, 9:12 AM
Andrew said...: What's even more offensive about how the media handled this is that Trump was doing something virtuous. He was preventing the media from exploiting the issue and painting everyone with a broad brush. He was detaching the "fine people" from the extremists on both sides. If I recall, 40% of African Americans in Virginia were against the statues being torn down. Were they all racists and Nazis?

I think Trump was also trying to avoid a trap, but they did their best to catch him anyway. He knows that no matter what he says, it will not be enough. Any hesitation or lack of intensity will be described as "refuses to condemn."

The death of Hoyer in Charlottesville was a tragedy. But the way the media salivated over her (while ignoring any complications to the narrative) was repulsive.; 3/22/19, 9:13 AM
Earnest Prole said...: Sounds like Steve Cortes better have his resume polished up — of all the mainstream media, CNN is most implicated in his observation; 3/22/19, 9:16 AM
Rob said...: Contra Ann, I don’t think they have any interest in finding a way to back down. They happily distort Trump’s statements because that serves the greater good as they see it. A similar example, dating back before Trump but continuing to today, is their characterization of opposition to illegal immigration as opposition to immigrants. These journalists are shameless.; 3/22/19, 9:19 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Dems believe this because they want to believe it. The facts are irrelevant. Their self-regard is at stake. They aren't going to give that up.; 3/22/19, 9:22 AM
Chuck said...: Okay, well first, this is not a news reporting problem, is it? Nobody doubts what Trump said. He said it on live national television and it was video-recorded.

If this issue is a problem, it is a problem of some news outlets (ideologically balkanized cable channels in particular, I gather) inviting some commentators to criticize what they think Trump meant, or had in his mind.

So in no serious way is any of this "fake news." It is people disagreeing about meaning and interpretation.

And to be sure, it is a problem that is laughably frequent with Trump since he waddles into so many of these controversies with his own odd and unclear spontaneous statements. Trump has an entire communications office that he shoud have relied upon for a better statement the first time. That office still exists, if he wanted to make a clarifying statement on race now. As a conservative and a Republican, I know full well that there is a world of left wing commentators who will twist and criticize anything that a Republican president says. That is why Republican presidents need the best speechwriters and communications staffs. And that is why Trump, ignoring that assistance, is so incompetent at the communications game.

I do understand that Scott Adams has analyzed Trump's statement on the Charlottesville violence, and Adams defends Trump's words on the transcript. Adams did a periscope on that subject just a couple of days ago. He parsed the transcript of Trump's comments that day and showed that Trump certainly condemned white supremacists before uttering the words that there were "very fine people on both sides."

But then, Adams does the most inadvertently hilarious thing. Adams picks on another story of the same day (Trump's Twitter backlash at George Conway, in which Trump claimed that Mr. Conway was "angry that I, with [Kellyanne's] help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted."

That was a stone cold lie on the part of Trump, but after his scolding of the media for getting the Trump/Charlottesville comments wrong, Adams celebrates Trump for his George Conway distraction and misdirection. For his part, George Conway shared the letter he wrote declining the job of Chief of the Civil Division in the Department of Justice for family reasons. Kellyanne has confirmed that they agreed that George would decline a big federal job for family reasons.

So to summarize; Scott Adams trashes the media for incorrect presumptions about what Trump said concerning the Charlottesville violence. And then he turns around and congratulates Trump for Trump's own incorrect presumption about George Conway.; 3/22/19, 9:24 AM
Original Mike said...: Well, that's one way to keep the 'back and forth' out of a thread.; 3/22/19, 9:29 AM
NC William said...: It's not laziness.; 3/22/19, 9:29 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Are you happy if neoconfederate sympathizer is substituted for neonazi?; 3/22/19, 9:30 AM
Lyle Smith said...: The media lying about Charlottesville is akin to white landowners lying to their black sharecroppers. They will do what they need to do to get their Benjamins.; 3/22/19, 9:32 AM
narciso said...: Look at their mindset

https://mobile.twitter.com/alimhaider/status/1109064577524920321; 3/22/19, 9:35 AM
narciso said...: The point is this panjandrum wouldn't have happened without governor mcauliffes standing down the state police and mayor signer, also backing down. The death of heather heyer was the blood price to get quilted northam and Fairfax elected.; 3/22/19, 9:43 AM
Jaq said...: "Are you happy if neoconfederate sympathizer is substituted for neonazi."

I would be if there was any evidence that that's what Trump was talking about. There isn't. I would bet that you would be hard pressed to find more than a few hundred "neoconfederates" and many fewer if you leave out the mentally ill, out of more than 300 million Americans.

But keep believing the propaganda that you are being fed.; 3/22/19, 9:43 AM
Original Mike said...: Blogger Chuck said..."Okay, well first, this is not a news reporting problem, is it? Nobody doubts what Trump said. He said it on live national television and it was video-recorded."

From the article: "Just last week I exposed this falsehood, yet again, when CNN contributor Keith Boykin falsely stated, “When violent people were marching with tiki torches in Charlottesville, the president said they were ‘very fine people.’” When I objected and detailed that Trump’s “fine people on both sides” observation clearly related to those on both sides of the Confederate monument debate, and specifically excluded the violent supremacists, anchor Erin Burnett interjected, “He [Trump] didn’t say it was on the monument debate at all. No, they didn’t even try to use that defense. It’s a good one, but no one’s even tried to use it, so you just used it now.”

Why are you apologizing for these bastards? (rhetorical question); 3/22/19, 9:45 AM
narciso said...: Frumdreher, that was the description mccains cousin robert stacey called the species typified by Brooks gerson et al, had the vapours and that's what mattered.; 3/22/19, 9:50 AM
Michael K said...: Nicole Wallace, while on John McCain's campaign staff in 2008, successfully ended Sarah Palin;'s political career.

She's been trying hard for a twofer,.

She only seems to convince "The Bulwark" readers, though.; 3/22/19, 9:57 AM
Gahrie said...: I suspect that they keep repeating the falsehood because they are so clearly wrong that they can't find any way to back down.

Try "fake but accurate".

They keep repeating it because they have been doing the same fearmongering since at least Barry Goldwater. They don't back down because it works with their voters who really don't care about truth. Remember these are the same people that have been telling us for the last sixty years that there is no such thing as truth.; 3/22/19, 9:59 AM
narciso said...: Standing up for our men in uniform:

https://mobile.twitter.com/codeofvets/status/1108845257951723527; 3/22/19, 9:59 AM
narciso said...: Oh how is that ignored

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/ryan-foley/2019/03/21/media-ignore-hunter-bidens-ties-china; 3/22/19, 10:07 AM
Wince said...: Unfortunately for the dissemblers, what's most noticeable about Charlottesville now is how far in the rearview mirror it looks.

As time passes, rather than a rising tide it looks more and more like overhang from the Obama years.; 3/22/19, 10:10 AM
Drago said...: "Are you happy if neoconfederate sympathizer is substituted for neonazi?"

One lie is as "good" as another.

We will file this latest obvious falsehood next to the lie that trump campaign/russia has been proven and the hoax dossier is "totes" real.; 3/22/19, 10:23 AM
Achilles said...: BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
It's one thing for the Democrat party elites to spread the lies, it's another for the MSM to do it.

Oh wait - the MSM and the democrat party are one in the same.

They are owned by the same people.

The difference is subtle but important.

They also own the republicans who oppose trump. Romney is one.

People need to understand this to understand what is going on.; 3/22/19, 10:23 AM
narciso said...: Comeys stall was just that

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-uncovers-more-classified-emails-in-hillary-clintons-unsecure-email-system/; 3/22/19, 10:24 AM
rehajm said...: Unfortunately for the dissemblers, what's most noticeable about Charlottesville now is how far in the rearview mirror it looks.

...and how stale it is- like old comedy. Is anyone still swayed by this propaganda? Seems like everyone should either see what they want in it or see thru it by now...; 3/22/19, 10:25 AM
Drago said...: "She only seems to convince "The Bulwark" readers, though."

There are no Bulwark readers of course.

Just as in the end there were no Weekly Standard readers.

This is because the wealthy lefty activists billionaires who own and direct the miniscule number of LLR//NeverTrumpers who produce their pro-dem content online and on blogsites only seek to amplify the daily left narratives and defend and deflect for the lefty MSM.

We see that on this very blog daily.; 3/22/19, 10:27 AM
traditionalguy said...: Pre 2016 Presidential run Trump's Racist score was at ZERO.But through hard work the Fake and Corrupt Media we own has raised the Bad Orange Man's Racist score to 110%. They deserve a well done and a pat on the back. Hell of a job all you paid CIA guys.

You have done your part. Now the Company's Assassination teams will take it from here. So far they are 0 for 4. But that just improves the odds of the next try making Pence President. We made Johnson President and came within minutes of making our guy own man Bush President.; 3/22/19, 10:27 AM
Jaq said...: The elasto-dictionary is incredibly powerful, it can turn someone who prefers beautiful sculptures in the town square that served to remind people of history that actually happened into people who would have switched sides in WWII.

The big problem is that the history is not spoon fed so it must be dangerous to allow people scope to think about that war in all of its complexity. Obviously slavery was an evil that needed to be eradicated, but I doubt that the average poor soldier was strictly motivated by defense of rich landowners" right to keep slaves.

But some people can only see things as black and white.; 3/22/19, 10:31 AM
cubanbob said...: I suspect that they keep repeating the falsehood because they are so clearly wrong that they can't find any way to back down. And I also think they've seen the effectiveness of this attack on Trump. It has worked as propaganda, so why stop now? The hit to their credibility has already occurred, so why not keep manipulating minds?"

Welcome to the party. The reality is minds aren't so much being manipulated but rather flattered. Follow the money. There is gold in giving the audience that wants to believe something that affirms what they want to believe. Think of it as the MSM as grifters and you won't go wrong.; 3/22/19, 10:34 AM
narciso said...: This is Canada's Texas after all:

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/calgary-university-cancels-event-by-ex-muslim-citing-sensitivity-after-new-zealand-attacks/amp?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true; 3/22/19, 10:35 AM
Scott Patton said...: Most recently, Scott Adams is saying that he doesn't think the press is lying. They are honestly reporting a false memory of what they think actually happened.
My prediction is most of them will simply stop making the erroneous claim, and if pressed on their previous statements, will assume the tried and true move on posture.; 3/22/19, 10:37 AM
Chuck said...: Original Mike, I am NOT "apologizing" for the news media.

If you have followed my commenting history, I have always acknowledged -- as I did once already on this page -- that much of the media is hard-wired to attack Republicans. And I railed against it, when we had Republican Administrations that I deemed to be morally worthy of defense.

We've had Fox News, the Media Research Center (run by National Review founder Bill Buckley's brother-in-law, Brent Bozell), National Review, the Wall Street Journal, etc., etc.; all of them unafraid of taking on the left-wing excesses of mainstream media's leftward bias. It's been one of their principal missions. Jonah Goldberg, Ann Coulter, Bernard Goldberg and a variety of other Trump critics have been assailing the left wing media bias for longer than Donald Trump ever thought about running for President.

I do think that leftist liberties were taken with what Trump said about Charlottesville. But Trump's problem is that he is the flabby orange "boy who cried wolf." I would have been fascinated, if Trump had delivered a careful speech in which white supremacists were crisply condemned, and civil war monuments were carefully defended. It is a tremendously challenging task for a speechwriter. I would have loved to have seen it. We saw with our own eyes on television the gangs of counter-protesters walking down Charlottesville streets with sticks and clubs, actively looking for trouble. And they certainly got it.

But no. We didn't get a careful analysis of that. We got Trump, and his tiny ham-fisted bloviating.

And whether you like Trump (I sense that you do) or you hate Trump (as I do), the real issue is that Trump was supposedly someone who can read the nation's psyche and desires in his own unique way, and speak to them in an effective way. But he didn't do much of that with Charlottesville. He succeeded in turning a 2-week story into a 2-year story. He should have known that his words would be parsed by his enemies (like me, on these pages), and he should have been more careful.; 3/22/19, 10:38 AM
narciso said...: No the standard was valuable before omidyar took it to the dark side, Charlottesville is th bloody shift, the eloi claxon to rally the troops; 3/22/19, 10:41 AM
narciso said...: The ewok and a few others are the ones who actually click on the bulwinkle like Robert mccain used to do with culture 11,; 3/22/19, 10:42 AM
Anonymous said...: AA: I suspect that they keep repeating the falsehood because they are so clearly wrong that they can't find any way to back down. And I also think they've seen the effectiveness of this attack on Trump. It has worked as propaganda, so why stop now?

I don't think that's true. First, I think you underestimate how unintelligent the average MSM-employed journalist is. Then throw in the fact that they, like the rest of us, are subject to confirmation bias, and tend to spend most of our time among like-minded people.

Result: "Reporters" who never question their pre-fab world-view, who already *know* that Trump is a racist/sexist/fascist. Thus it hardly matters that they got this or that fact or quote wrong. Even honest, highly intelligent people usually require reality to smack them hard upside the head before they're willing to dismantle a false world-view. Journalists?

While there may be people among those employing these journalists who are cynically pushing what they know perfectly well are falsehoods, what is "so clearly wrong" to more intelligent, disinterested observers is not at all "clearly so" to not-particularly-bright people who've been marinating in a particular world-view for their entire lives.

Hell, even a lot of the big-wigs, the movers and shakers, seem to really believe the crazy stuff they hire journos to propagate. I'd bet most "noble liars" aren't even clearly and consciously aware of what they're doing, no matter how egregious the falsehoods they are reduced to pumping out get. Shoring up the shaky premises of a b.s. world-view can be very time- and energy-intensive. Probably consumes all the mental and emotional resources that could be directed at any kind of critical re-evaluation.; 3/22/19, 10:48 AM
Darrell said...: Trump said there good people on both sides. He was wrong. There are no good people on the Left--just bad people struggling to break free.; 3/22/19, 10:50 AM
Drago said...: "This is Canada's Texas after all:"

Nowadays Canada's Texas is really just America's Illinois...but with lots of energy available to tax.; 3/22/19, 11:03 AM
Anonymous said...: Left Bank: Are you happy if neoconfederate sympathizer is substituted for neonazi?

I'm sure the people who're invested in the lie would be happy with the substitution of one equally slanderous bullshit propaganda term for another.

Afraid there's just no pleasing the people who don't like lying-sack propaganda no matter how it's phrased, though.; 3/22/19, 11:03 AM
Sam L. said...: This is why so many of us despise, detest, and completely distrust the media.; 3/22/19, 11:08 AM
narciso said...: Considering the last Carlos slims agita:

https://mobile.twitter.com/StratSentinel/status/1108877406797029376; 3/22/19, 11:09 AM
bagoh20 said...: So if a person or organization knowingly lied to the American people repeatedly, despite knowing the truth, in order to get the American people to make mistakes judging fact from fiction and purposely to get them to vote against their own interests, would it be appropriate to call them an "enemy of the people"? I think that's being too generous to them.; 3/22/19, 11:11 AM
bagoh20 said...: It might be laziness on Chuck Todd's part, becuase he is a "sleepy son of a bitch".; 3/22/19, 11:15 AM
Francisco D said...: Are you happy if neoconfederate sympathizer is substituted for neonazi?

Yes.

As a Civil War buff, I understand that many Southerners take pride in the valiant efforts of Robt. E Lee and others. It has very little to do with slavery or racism. It is more about pride in putting up a good, but ultimately losing fight.; 3/22/19, 11:23 AM
LA_Bob said...: There was an echo of the Charlottesville controversy when the media made a fuss over Trump's speech in Ohio about U S Grant.

To build up Grant as a great son of Ohio, Trump built up Robert E Lee as a great general. But, that's the part the media reported, mostly in order to imply, There he goes again, our racist president.

I would never have chosen the words "enemy of the people" to describe the press, but it sure is apropos.; 3/22/19, 11:30 AM
Michael K said...: He should have known that his words would be parsed by his enemies (like me, on these pages), and he should have been more careful.

He knew that no matter what he said, his enemies like you would twist his words. So he just told the truth,

There is a whole lotta lying going on by the left and their allies, like distorting a bunch of young men who know what is happening to them, "You will not replace us."; 3/22/19, 11:36 AM
Drago said...: If anyone is wondering what the "lifelong republicans" at the Truest Of The True Conservatives who are, like totally, "Conserving Conservatism" publication The Bulwark are writing about today it is this: conservative judges appointed by Trump are the absolute worst.

You know, if those True Conservative LLR's arent careful, they might inadvertantly come out in support of a conservative policy against the wishes of their beloved far left activiat benefactor from whom they take direction.; 3/22/19, 11:38 AM
walter said...: " He should have known that his words would be parsed by his enemies (like me, on these pages),"
If only the MSM "news" were so upfront in their smear merchant-ing.; 3/22/19, 11:38 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Boy, Chuck, avocados must have been on sale where you shop!; 3/22/19, 11:42 AM
walter said...: "Despite the clear evidence of Trump’s statements regarding Charlottesville, major media figures insist on spreading the calumny that Trump called neo-Nazis 'fine people.' The only explanation for such a repeated falsehood is abject laziness or willful deception."
--
My initial thought was "Embrace the power of and".
But these folks are far too driven and Schiffty to be considered lazy.; 3/22/19, 11:42 AM
Chuck said...: Michael K said...
He should have known that his words would be parsed by his enemies (like me, on these pages), and he should have been more careful.

He knew that no matter what he said, his enemies like you would twist his words. So he just told the truth...

I have not twisted Trump's words. There's not one place on this page where I have twisted anything in Trump's Charlottesville comments. I've said that Trump may indeed have had a valid point to make (but he didn't do it). I agreed, very reluctantly, that blind squirrel Scott Adams might have found his acorn when he argued the details of Trump's transcript.

That, on my part, is the opposite of my "twisting" Trump's words. I have essentially agreed that Trump's words may have been twisted by left-leaning commentators.

My point -- which evaded you despite your trying to twist it to your own use -- is that Trump regularly and routinely opens himself up to these controversies with his cloddish way of communicating.; 3/22/19, 11:46 AM
walter said...: If only Jeb! had recited a finely honed speech, Chuck Todd would have gotten the right sort of chills.
"Please clap."; 3/22/19, 11:49 AM
Kevin said...: I suspect that they keep repeating the falsehood because they are so clearly wrong that they can't find any way to back down. And I also think they've seen the effectiveness of this attack on Trump. It has worked as propaganda, so why stop now? The hit to their credibility has already occurred, so why not keep manipulating minds?

Shorter Althouse: The press has been purposely lying in an effort to deceive the American people.

Now since Democracy Dies in Darkness, would we say the fourth estate has been promoting freedom and democracy, or actively working against it?; 3/22/19, 11:53 AM
Anonymous said...: Francisco D: As a Civil War buff, I understand that many Southerners take pride in the valiant efforts of Robt. E Lee and others. It has very little to do with slavery or racism. It is more about pride in putting up a good, but ultimately losing fight.

Which has nothing to do with being a "neoconfederate", either, so I don't know why you would accept the tendentious (SPLC seal of approval!) "neoconfederate sympathizer".

It's purpose is precisely to tar those opposed to statue-removal, or any Southerner who takes pride in his ancestors and culture, as supporters of "slavery and racism" and morally equivalent to neo-Nazis.; 3/22/19, 11:56 AM
Kevin said...: Trump regularly and routinely opens himself up to these controversies with his cloddish way of communicating.

Extemporaneous communication is often inelegant and can lead to misinterpretation.

What's the media's excuse? How does every interpretation become the worst possible thing which might possibly have been uttered, and beyond that if we think we can sell it?; 3/22/19, 12:00 PM
Kevin said...: The press has been purposely lying in an effort to deceive the American people.

Next we'll find out the whole Russian collusion meme had no basis in fact, but it too will continue to be endlessly repeated.

At what point does the press we have become recognized as the enemy of the American people?; 3/22/19, 12:02 PM
Michael K said...: My point -- which evaded you despite your trying to twist it to your own use -

Hilarious example of "Civility Bullshit."; 3/22/19, 12:06 PM
pacwest said...: The average age of a journalist is 27. That would put a large portion of them getting their degrees during the Obama years. Couple that with the leftist indoctrination they received in college and the SJW classes they undoubtedly took.

The press are true believers and are on a mission for the greater good in their minds. This won't change anytime soon.; 3/22/19, 12:09 PM
Howard said...: Plausible deniability.; 3/22/19, 12:10 PM
Fernandinande said...: This is Canada's Texas after all:
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/calgary-university-cancels-event-by-ex-muslim-citing-sensitivity-after-new-zealand-attacks/
^^ Ex-muslim deplatformed.

The SPLC doen't like liberal- or ex-muslims:
"SPLC removed its “field guide to anti-Muslim activists,” which included Maajid Nawaz and Ayaan Hirsi Ali"

PS: You don't need this part of a URL, and it just helps their "tracking":

amp?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true; 3/22/19, 12:39 PM
narciso said...: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption/brazils-ex-president-temer-jailed-accused-of-heading-criminal-organization-idUSKCN1R21JW; 3/22/19, 12:40 PM
narciso said...: that last link related to the arrest of the interim Brazilian president, re a nuclear power plant scheme, this is why they got bolsanaro,; 3/22/19, 12:43 PM
Chuck said...: Michael K said...
My point -- which evaded you despite your trying to twist it to your own use -

Hilarious example of "Civility Bullshit."

Michael;
"Civility bullshit" is when political actors call for opponents (or indeed everyone!) to "be civil," when in fact the goal is to shut down the opposition. Althouse opposes all civility bullshit because it is all presumptively a weaponized version of civility, divorced from any moral notion of civility. I admire Althouse's writing about "civility bullshit," and I appreciate her making an Althouse tag out of it. (Just like "children in politics.")

But you are flatly misapplying "civility bullshit" here. I am not calling on Trump to be "civil." I am calling on Trump to be clear. I am calling on Trump to be clear and concise and convincing in an environment that is decidedly uncivil. And actually, I am not even doing much of that because I don't think Trump is capable of it. Trump isn't civil; his politically-motivated attackers from the left are not civil. (The closest thing to "civil" in all of it are the moralists from the right who do not oppose all of Trump's policies, but who only oppose Trump's undeniable lack of veracity and personal morality.)

Michael I don't give a damn about "civility" in the context you seem to cite. I expect you to understand that I loathe President Donald J. Trump, and I expect that you will hate me when I point out why I hate him.

No "civility" at all, much less any "civility bullshit."; 3/22/19, 12:43 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Okay, put on yer seat belts, because, like it or not, I'm gonna start waxing all philosophical on ya.

What we are seeing here on the part of the media is not simple mental laziness or mendacity. What we are seeing is a clash between (at least) two competing epistemologies.

The modern "mendacious" Left that we struggle with here each day (the media, academia, activists, etc) are Post-Modern Lefties. Epistemologically, they do not believe, especially as concerns social phenomena, that there exists any such thing as "objective" truth. There are only competing subjective viewpoints, viewpoints mediated by language & subjective experience. These subjective viewpoints linguistically develop & cluster into "discourses". Whoever propogates the discourse that crowds out the others wins, and that discourse is called "True".

For the rest of us who are conservative, libertarian, or classical liberals, we tend to come out of the philosophical traditions of Natural Law or out of the Enlightenment, and we tend to believe that language is simply an instrument that we use to communicate about an objective reality "out there" to which we all have epistemological access. We see situations, even social situations, as having foundational facts, beyond dispute after examination. The PoMos don't.

This is why the loss of emphasis on Free Speech & why the turn to "de-platforming". Why the rhetoric of the Left now emphasizes emotional & visceral rhetoric ("Racist!") rather than the consciousness-raising study of Marxist dialectics. Why the Left just doesn't seem to want to argue, but rather to shut down discussion. The PoMo Left believes there is no Truth. There are simply Regnant Discourses, and the only way to ensure your favored discourse becomes & stays regnant is by Political Power.

Consciously on or not, the part that many speakers on the Left play now is evangelist for Post-Modernism. We are working through a clash of world-views essentially unprecedented in Western History.; 3/22/19, 12:47 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: But Trump didn't denounce Nazis BEFORE he denounced them, or BETWEEN THE TIMES he denounced them, or AFTER the last time he denounced them. SHAMEFUL!; 3/22/19, 12:51 PM
n.n said...: denounce Nazis

National Socialists are the worst. Nazis without borders are worse. And babies... well, they are a burden and "burden". That said, with reverence for #TooManyLabels, #ColorBornIdentities, and PC, let's just assume, assert that Nazism and other bloc ideologies are monolithically, monotonically divergent, and coronate them with a necklace.; 3/22/19, 1:18 PM
iowan2 said...: As a Civil War buff, I understand that many Southerners take pride in the valiant efforts of Robt. E Lee and others. It has very little to do with slavery or racism. It is more about pride in putting up a good, but ultimately losing fight.

That's a platform to stand on while debating the issue. Not anywhere near the best platform.
The Treaty of Surrender signed at Appomattox, clearly stated that in the interest of of re-unifying the nation, Confederate soldiers would suffer no recriminations, and citizens of the south would be allowed to honor their war heros. They would be allowed to erect statues and memorials honoring those that fought an honorable fight.

My question to the left is. "do you honor our treaties"

I fear social justice warriors are more than willing to sacrifice all, at the alter of their defined social justice. Even treaties crafted to unite a fractured Nation must be devoured whole.; 3/22/19, 1:18 PM
Drago said...: There is nothing funnier than those who proudly declare their mission is to smear Trump and then demand he speak more clearly or concisely.

The only rhetorical tactic Trump could adopt that would move these dishonest "analysts" into Trumps camp would be for Trump to simply adopt the entirety of the dem/left agenda as the LLR's/NeverTrumpers have done, usually for a paycheck from their lefty billionaire sugar-daddies like Reid Hoffman, George Soros, Tom Steyer, Pierre Omidyar, et al.; 3/22/19, 1:21 PM
narciso said...: I don't mind, but honestly can't he come up with original angles, at least admit that McAuliffe stood down the state police,; 3/22/19, 1:39 PM
Bilwick said...: " . . . a CNN political commentator." Pretty much says it all.; 3/22/19, 1:41 PM
Krumhorn said...: I never tire of pointing out that lefties are nasty little shits.

- Krumhorn; 3/22/19, 1:42 PM
Howard said...: Trump smears himself. Don't blame the messenger.; 3/22/19, 1:44 PM
Drago said...: In fact, wouldn't a self-described smear merchant prefer Trump not speak perfectly clearly and thereby make it easier for Team Left-Smearers to more easily smear Trump?; 3/22/19, 1:47 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “Left Bank: Are you happy if neoconfederate sympathizer is substituted for neonazi?”

“I'm sure the people who're invested in the lie would be happy with the substitution of one equally slanderous bullshit propaganda term for another.”

So the nice young men marching with torches and Nazi flags were just normal southerners protesting the removal of a statue?

Gotta shake one’s head...; 3/22/19, 1:50 PM
Michael K said...: Michael I don't give a damn about "civility" in the context you seem to cite. I expect you to understand that I loathe President Donald J. Trump, and I expect that you will hate me when I point out why I hate him.

I know you don't and "pity" is closer to what I feel about you. I have had a couple of civil exchanges with you, over med mal litigation, for example.

I have my reservations about Trump but he is all that stands between us and chaos. I am glad that I am old enough (elderly as Inga puts it) that I will not have to deal with whatever comes after Trump. It will not be pretty and you seem able and willing, even enthusiastic, to see it.

Pity is the word.; 3/22/19, 2:11 PM
James K said...: It reminds me of the Bush "plastic turkey" story, that as Tim Blair diligently documented, persisted in the MSM for at least a decade despite being decisively refuted. Obviously this is a more serious lie, but there's nothing Trump could have said that would not have been twisted by the media, or at best ignored.; 3/22/19, 2:13 PM
JAORE said...: Can't find a way to back down? Are you kidding. They still are looking for ways to double down. The follow up sentences, the lies are effective, hold the truth in them.; 3/22/19, 2:32 PM
Tom Maguire said...: Describing Steve Cortes as a "CNN political commentator" is accurate but incomplete to the point of misleading.

Although on balance CNN tilts left Cortes has been a Trump surrogate and supporter since 2016, per his bio:

"Steve Cortes has appeared daily on TV news programs for over a decade. His broadcast career began at CNBC where he commented on financial markets, primarily as part of the "Fast Money" franchise. In recent years he transitioned to politics, serving in 2016 as a primary TV surrogate for the Trump presidential campaign and was named to Trump's Hispanic Advisory Council. Regarding his hundreds of TV hits on behalf of Team Trump, Maria Bartiromo of Fox News said "Steve was a strong communicator who understood very early on what the people wanted in a commander-in-chief."

Post-election, Cortes is a political commentator for CNN and heads Rise Strategies, a media messaging and public affairs company. He also remains an informal advisor to the President."; 3/22/19, 2:43 PM
Drago said...: Even when the actual video and audio evidence clearly demonstrates reality, the hoax dossier crew "bitterly clings" to their lies.

Unexpectedly.; 3/22/19, 3:04 PM
Milwaukie guy said...: "So the nice young men marching with torches and Nazi flags were just normal southerners protesting the removal of a statue?"

Charlottesville™ is like a Reichstag fire. Only 300 Nazis in the Tiki march and only two dozen at the Unite the Right march in D.C., far outnumbered by communists and anarchists. Many, many Southerners, including Blacks, thought the statues should stay.

In Portland, Antifa outnumbers Patriot Prayer at least 15 to 1. Who's zooming who?

Witches and Bronies [adult male My Little Pony fans] are much larger social movements than "the Nazis." Socialists are the real danger.; 3/22/19, 3:08 PM
Chuck said...: Michael K said...
Michael I don't give a damn about "civility" in the context you seem to cite. I expect you to understand that I loathe President Donald J. Trump, and I expect that you will hate me when I point out why I hate him.

I know you don't and "pity" is closer to what I feel about you. I have had a couple of civil exchanges with you, over med mal litigation, for example.

I have my reservations about Trump but he is all that stands between us and chaos. I am glad that I am old enough (elderly as Inga puts it) that I will not have to deal with whatever comes after Trump. It will not be pretty and you seem able and willing, even enthusiastic, to see it.

Michael we both know better than others here (who may not have cared) that there is all kinds of space where you and I could have extensive, interesting conversations about a whole range of professional, recreational and social mutual interests. (Medmal litigation, for sure.) I never lose sight of that. It is the main reason for my engagement with you here as opposed to other deplorables whom I ignore for Althouse's benefit.

I just don't accept your premise that Trump is all that stands between us and some kind of Democrat Socialist nightmare. I'm really worried that "more Trump" is precisely how we get there. There will never be a Socialist nightmare in the US as long as the Senate is majority-Republican. And now Trump has a third of the Republican Conference in the Senate is becoming embarrassed to be on Trump's side of anything. From the "National Emergency," to Trump's asinine attacks on the late John McCain, to Trump's inexplicable preference of Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin to U.S. intelligence.; 3/22/19, 3:11 PM
Drago said...: Some lefty posters have decided it will be better to go with a new and improved strawman lie to paper over the completely debunked previous lie.

This was completely unexpected.

Also of note, "spark of divinity" islamic supremacist sets school bus full of children on fire.

Just another day.; 3/22/19, 3:18 PM
Krumhorn said...: This is why the loss of emphasis on Free Speech & why the turn to "de-platforming". Why the rhetoric of the Left now emphasizes emotional & visceral rhetoric ("Racist!") rather than the consciousness-raising study of Marxist dialectics. Why the Left just doesn't seem to want to argue, but rather to shut down discussion. The PoMo Left believes there is no Truth. There are simply Regnant Discourses, and the only way to ensure your favored discourse becomes & stays regnant is by Political Power

RIGHT HERE is why I read this blog! Apart from the eclectic interests of our hostess and her remarkable ability to dig out that which is hiding in plain sight, it’s this kind of hammering clarity and lucidity that rings the big bell. By contrast, pointing out that the lefties are nasty little shits is a tiny little tinkle of truth.

- Krumhorn; 3/22/19, 3:35 PM
Drago said...: There is literally no lefty talking point that the LLR/NeverTrumpers wont advance.

Its like having the Omidyar funded Bulwark lap-poodles posting directly on Althouse.; 3/22/19, 3:38 PM
Mad Bohemian said...: Some beliefs we won’t turn socialist because of “Republican Senate” are extremely naive to me. The Republican Senate????
Those loathsome squishes have sold my vote away forever. With them at the helm I would have the utmost confidence we will be socialist all the sooner.; 3/22/19, 3:50 PM
rcocean said...: This is a perfect example of why defensive responses ("No, that not true..no one hates racism more then me".. "here's my 32 page memo on why I'm not a racist") NEVER work. They've lied about Trump and they are going keep on lying and smearing him.

The left uses this as a tactic. They are NOT interested in civil, intellectually honest debate. I'm sure some of the stupider Leftists/Liberals, really can't put things in context or understand simple English. And can be reached. But the vast of majority of them, know perfectly well that their conservative/Republcian opponents are NOT racists or bigots - as normally meant. The Liberal/Left uses it as a CLUB to beat people they don't like.

Trump understands this and fights back. But many dumb Republicans REFUSE to learn the lesson. They persist in attributing good intentions and intellectual honesty to people who don't deserve it. Honestly, quit getting into these, defensive "I'll persuade you that Trump/myself/whoever is NOT a racist" - you're just WASTING your time. Counterattack!; 3/22/19, 3:59 PM
Drago said...: John McCain would have stood up to those socialists in precisely the same way he stood up to the obamacare backers!

He also was really "string" in standing up to dem/left/LLR Stasi tactics in weaponizing the govt against dimestic political opponents.

He was like a Gibraltar!; 3/22/19, 4:01 PM
iowan2 said...: So the nice young men marching with torches and Nazi flags were just normal southerners protesting the removal of a statue?

What crap. No one has made any such suggestion. Leftist airheads are incapable of understanding basic facts and when presented facts, are forced to come up with the lie that 'the other side' are full on supporters and adherents of Nazi skin heads. God you're a disgusting clueless troll.; 3/22/19, 4:01 PM
rcocean said...: How often and how long are people going to keep attributing intellectual honesty to Never Trumpers? From the time Trump declared in August 2015 to November 2016, they were sliming Trump as a Neo-Nazi, racist, fascist - with no proof. Then they moved to insinuating it, which people like Mitt Romney, Bill Kristol and Jonah Goldberg are STILL doing. Where is the proof? There is none. And they do the same with Ann Coulter, Steve Bannon, or anyone else who aggressively supports Trump.

I'm always puzzled by people who think Liars and Intellectually dishonest people are worthy of debate. At a certain point, I jut write them off. I've stopped reading the Never Trumpers. I don't get Conned twice. But evidently, some gullible fools think that if they just *reason with them* they'll come around. I mean, how many times does someone have to piss down your back before you stop believing its ice cream?; 3/22/19, 4:10 PM
Michael K said...: And now Trump has a third of the Republican Conference in the Senate is becoming embarrassed to be on Trump's side of anything.

Can't Agree with that. Romney and Lee have some Morman thing, I think. Many of the others are beholden to donors whose interests are not congruent with the middle class. This was a majority middle class country until 2015. The future looks more and more like California.

Foothills Arizona with plenty of ammunition will be where I spend my declining years, more than Inga assumes, perhaps. I am very pessimistic about the country right now, having lived 60 years in California and watching what happened.; 3/22/19, 4:11 PM
narciso said...: Oh never mind:
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/splc-taps-lawyer-who-interfered-in-smollett-case-to-investigate-workplace-harassment-allegations/; 3/22/19, 4:32 PM
Drago said...: MK: "I am very pessimistic about the country right now, having lived 60 years in California and watching what happened."

My home state of CA had oodles and oodles of LLR's who couldnt wait to help their lefty allies implement lefty policies.

Its now at the national level and those same supposed conservatives continue acting as leftwing mouthpieces.

At least 1/3 of the senate republicans would absolutely love to deliver transformational victories for the left, but like McCains lies to the republican base, these republicans know they cant quite unleash their "inner socialist" (per Ahoy!-Cap'n Kristol and his Bulwark crew) until the time is right.

Until then its more of "just build the dang wall" and promises to repeal obamacare even though they have zero intention of following thru.

More hoax conservative Brexit-like shenanigans.; 3/22/19, 4:32 PM
Qwinn said...: The thing is, Chuck, Trump was 100% clear in Charlottesville. There was no legitimate way to disinterpret Trump the way they did. They twisted it anyway. You keep claiming that Trump brings it on himself by speaking unclearly, but this instance proves the opposite. Your prime complaint about him is completely without merit. Even when he is clear, they pile on and lie about what he said, just as they did about Bush and even Romney and McCain. Trump hasn't brought anything on himself that wouldn't have been brought to him anyway.; 3/22/19, 4:34 PM
pacwest said...: I thought Drago made some excellent points the other day in defending his use of LLR. The Republican Party has been co-opted by Trump, and I can understand LLR's dismay, even anger about that. But the old guard is never coming back. So sorry LLR's, you were ineffective and needed replaced.; 3/22/19, 4:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Young Hegelian: The modern "mendacious" Left that we struggle with here each day (the media, academia, activists, etc) are Post-Modern Lefties. Epistemologically, they do not believe, especially as concerns social phenomena, that there exists any such thing as "objective" truth.

There may be academics and political operators among them who act from that level of philosophical sophistication, but among the general population of the people we're short-handing as "lefties", I see little evidence that they don't believe - sincerely, simply, and concretely - the dumb things they purport to believe. (And I include the average journalist or lefty grad student/professor of Soft Studies in that latter group.)

This is why the loss of emphasis on Free Speech & why the turn to "de-platforming". Why the rhetoric of the Left now emphasizes emotional & visceral rhetoric ("Racist!") rather than the consciousness-raising study of Marxist dialectics. Why the Left just doesn't seem to want to argue, but rather to shut down discussion.

I think you can attribute this more to general dumbing-down and infantilization (dare we say, feminization) of education and public discourse, than to deeper epistemological shifts/differences. They don't want to argue because...they can't. Never attribute to "conscious denial of objective reality" what can be explained by inability (innate or otherwise) to parse statements more complex than "see Dick run", combined with having been the recipient of an intellectually incoherent, but morally fundamentalist, education. (I'd probably be lashing out in rage and frustration, and yelling "shut up!" a lot, too.)

And those who want power don't have to "go pomo" to understand what they need to do to manipulate people like that.; 3/22/19, 4:50 PM
Anonymous said...: iowan2: God you're a disgusting clueless troll.

Is it possible to be both clueless and a troll? At any rate, I don't think mindless Pavlovian reaction to key-word stimuli counts as trolling. To put it another way, trolling can involve pretending not to understand what was said, but if you just don't understand what was said, you're not trolling.; 3/22/19, 5:05 PM
Fen said...: "There's not one place on this page where I have twisted anything in Trump's Charlottesville comments."

You've made a dishonest argument. You've claimed that there is room for disagreement ren Trump's remarks because Trump has rambled incoherently in the past. You've then pretended Trump did so in this speech so you can excuse the gross mischaracterization of what he said.

But the problem is that you've overreached here - Trump's speech WAS clear and concise to anyone capable of objectivity.

Worse, your narrative insults the intelligence of anyone capable of thinking for themselves. I'm afraid you have fallen so in love with sophistry that you overestimate your rhetorical skills. To such a degree that you never consider you come off as a poor imitation of Grima Wormtongue to most everyone here.

The only way Trump's speech could be misunderstood is with deliberate malice. And you've already confessed to that.; 3/22/19, 5:29 PM
Drago said...: "But the old guard is never coming back. So sorry LLR's, you were ineffective and needed replaced."

Along these lines, Trump commands a 93% approval with a very large % of those strongly supporting Trump.

So strongly that they are unmoveable by the typical left/LLR/establishment crew.

This is why they are in a panic and the lefty billionaires have gone "all in" to purchase, like small toys, as many of these unprincipled LLR hacks to carry the dems water as they can.; 3/22/19, 5:40 PM
narciso said...: Here's the thing, they only care about 'free speech' to dismantle institution, that's clear in the port huron statement, which was published in 62, three years before Vietnam was in full fury, similarly they saw computers and the internet as a progressive tool,; 3/22/19, 5:45 PM
Fen said...: "I suspect that they keep repeating the falsehood because they are so clearly wrong that they can't find any way to back down"

No, it's more sinister than that. It's a brainwashing.

How many times have you come across a liberal who just "knows" something but can't show how they know? This is that. And I wish I had a grant to prove it through research and experimentation.

Imagine if I programmed 20 women with headlines, images, video and talking heads all asserting that "Jack" was a sexual predator. For a month, lets say. A month of warning these 20 women about all the horrible things this "Jack the Ripper" will inflict upon them should they ever draw his attention upon themselves.

And on the 30th I issue a retraction. My source lied, mistaken identity, it's a different Jack and he's been captured, this Jack in the pictures and videos they've been shown is completely innocent.

Then I bring that innocent Jack into the room with them.

What do you think happens?

I will wager that all 20 women will have a visceral reaction to him. Even though, logically, they know he has been cleared of any wrongdoing. Their body language will compress, they will pull the tops of their blouse closed, cover their legs, even avoid eye contact with him. They will react emotionally to him because for 30 days the input was emotional. And the one day where a retraction (reason) was given is not enough to wash out the emotional programming.

That's what the media is doing. They are saturating their viewers in a way that a simple retraction can't reverse. They can apologize for comparing Trump to Hitler, and everyone will reach a conclusion based on reason that Trump is not like Hitler, but they will still react to him on an instinctual level as if he was Hitler.

And this is deliberate. Like the quote from The Newsroom: "The NSA has spent $1 trillion on domestic eavesdropping methods... do you think they aren't using it?"; 3/22/19, 6:13 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Only Trump knows what's in Trump's head. If even that.

Arguments against giving Trump's alleged racism the benefit of the doubt:

1. His obsession with undoing the legacy of the first African-American president, no matter how dubious the result.
2. His untruthful denial of ever having known David Duke, and reluctance to denounce him and his support of his candidacy.
3. His remarks about "shithole countries," and testimony from his most trusted attorney to the effect that great nations can never be run by blacks.
4. His obsession with "genes" as an explanation for everything, which includes going so far as crediting his success to his "German blood," which he said is "great stuff."

It's unclear whether he thinks his great genes or nationalized blood is responsible for his inability to use the internet or email, need to have people read and write things for him, or creating policy based on whatever the last person he spoke to said.; 3/22/19, 6:32 PM
Moneyrunner said...: I just don't accept your premise that Trump is all that stands between us and some kind of Democrat Socialist nightmare. I'm really worried that "more Trump" is precisely how we get there.
To Trump’s enemies, his powers are incredible. He’s responsible for everything that goes wrong from Jussie Smollett’s fake hate crime to the massacre in New Zealand. If the Democrats turn into Anti-Semites who want to turn America into Venezuela, it’s Trump’s fault. To the Chucks of this world, Trump has Super Powers. I wonder where he got them; from sleeping with Stormy Daniels perhaps?
There will never be a Socialist nightmare in the US as long as the Senate is majority-Republican.
As if the Senate is divinely destined to be in Republican hands. Right! At the same time the Never Trumpers are advising Republicans to vote against the dastardly Trump supporters in Congress, which – if anyone actually took them seriously – would lead to the end of the Republican Senate.
On a related note, consider the average Republican lifer in Congress whose number one objective is to keep his job for as long as possible. Does anyone have any doubt that they would vote for Socialism in a heartbeat if that became popular and their re-election depended on it? Recall that It was Jeb Bush – that great and stalwart leader of the Never-Trump Republicans - who called illegal immigration an “act of love.”
And now Trump has a third of the Republican Conference in the Senate is becoming embarrassed to be on Trump's side of anything.
Many of those who voted against Trump’s emergency declaration did so because they simply don’t want any President to declare a national emergency. The excuse du-jour is the fear that Democrats will use that power, ignoring the fact that Democrats and Republicans have both used that power for “emergencies” that are nowhere near emergencies in any manner. Presidents have declared 58 national emergencies since the law was enacted, like the one that named associates of Zimbabwe’s Mugabe as a national emergency.
From the "National Emergency," to Trump's asinine attacks on the late John McCain, to Trump's inexplicable preference of Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin to U.S. intelligence.
It’s becoming apparent that McCain, the Department of Justice, the CIA and the FBI did more to undermine the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power via a national election than the Russians, the Chinese or the North Koreans.; 3/22/19, 8:20 PM
Birkel said...: Yeah undoing the legacy of being the only president without one year of 3 plus percent GDP growth is dubious.
Imagine wanting middle class wage growth and manufacturing jobs!; 3/22/19, 8:31 PM
Fen said...: 1. By such logic, an Auburn linebacker who nails an Alabama fullback to the turf is racist if that fullback happens to be black.

This is an embarrassingly lame attempt to allege racism, notwithstanding the animus that already existed between Trump and Obama, started by the classless way Obama allowed Trump to be insulted at his White House Correspondents Dinner. These kinds of roasts are supposed to be good-natured ribbing, and directed towards the President, not an ambush of his invited guests.

2. It's your account that is untruthful. Trump didn't recognize David Duke's name because of a faulty mic/headphone set. He misunderstood the question. And he had already denounced David Duke publicly before this interview, so its ridiculous to assume he would deliberately pretend to be unaware of him.

Likewise, there was no "failure" to denounce Duke as Trump had already done so twice. The Left was playing games and I find it difficult to believe you don't know Trump had already denounced Duke and was being prodded to denounce him a 3rd and then 4th time because the media wanted to make Trump about White Racism.

3. Any racism here is yours. Nations are not identified by race and Trump was including nations like Mexico, Venezuela, Syria and Libya. You are the one seeing skin color, not Trump. Europe, while identifying as white in your eyes, can be excused from the shithole list as all European nations are considered part of the 1st World (although an argument can be made for Greece and Italy)

4. Please. I'll bet every family in America (especially because its a melting pot) has had some discussion of the genetic traits (good and bad) inherited from ancestors. I've bragged about my Cherokee and Welsh genetics without ever even contemplating some kind of rank order vs blacks.

I guess I should be pleased that your examples of Trump Racism are so easily swept aside. But I'm annoyed at your theft of 15 minutes of my life. I feel like I'm owed a pound of flesh (damn Italians, or do we blame the Jews... or the Franks if you want to go after the messenger I guess)

Gosh, tribalism (the father of racism) sure makes everything more complicated. Are you sure identity politics is such a good idea? Getting Caucasians to self-identify as a race always ends with alot of running and screaming. At least according to my Cherokee and Jewish ancestors.; 3/22/19, 8:44 PM
Fen said...: "It's unclear whether he thinks his great genes or nationalized blood is responsible for his inability to use the internet or email, need to have people read and write things for him, or creating policy based on whatever the last person he spoke to said."

But then there is the striking incongruity: if Trump is such a melon head, why do so many of his very smart and apparently sophisticated enemies challenge him only to be seen whimpering away as if plowed under by a team of oxen. Hillary Clinton especially. She is brilliant and lethal.; 3/22/19, 8:56 PM
Kansas City said...: I find this very interesting. Smart Scot Adams attributes it to false memory. I am skeptical, because the media has persisted in the lie after it was clearly demonstrated to be false. I think it has to be intentional, although they have the fig leaf of one ambiguous on tape statement.

I think Scott Patton above is correct. The media will not admit a "mistake," but they will stop talking about it and, when pressed, say let's move on.; 3/22/19, 9:46 PM
ken in tx said...: Did that guy in New Zealand say anything about Robert E. Lee in his manifesto? Just asking.; 3/22/19, 10:14 PM
Michael K said...: At least 1/3 of the senate republicans would absolutely love to deliver transformational victories for the left,

I disagree a bit here. The 1/3 Republican Senators belong to the same uniparty as 1/3 of Democrats. The ones that aren't crazy.

2/3 of Democrats are crazy. We see examples here. But there are others, Joe Biden is an example, who are just corrupt. They have deals going and some Republicans have similar or even the same deals going,.

Who gives a shit about voters ? Watch UK and BREXIT for a more open case.; 3/22/19, 10:31 PM
Jaq said...: Anybody who opposes Obama’s policies is obviously racist. Yeesh people! You have to give peepeetapes that much.; 3/23/19, 8:25 AM
RMc said...: Shorter Chuck: Orange man bad, therefore the media is allowed to lie about him.; 3/24/19, 7:54 AM