One of the joys of being a tiny single-shingle blogger who plies his trade completely outside of the range of respectable company is that when I see someone like, say, Glenn Greenwald showing his ass in public, I get to point at it and say "Oh lookie! A man showing his ass in public!" and not worry about someone putting the squeeze on me.
The “Bernie Bros” Narrative: a Cheap Campaign Tactic Masquerading as Journalism and Social ActivismGlenn GreenwaldJan. 31 2016, 7:42 a.m.The concoction of the “Bernie Bro” narrative by pro-Clinton journalists has been a potent political tactic — and a journalistic disgrace. It’s intended to imply two equally false claims: (1) a refusal to march enthusiastically behind the Wall Street-enriched, multiple-war-advocating, despot-embracing Hillary Clinton is explainable not by ideology or political conviction, but largely if not exclusively by sexism: demonstrated by the fact that men, not women, support Sanders (his supporters are “bros”); and (2) Sanders supporters are uniquely abusive and misogynistic in their online behavior. Needless to say, a crucial tactical prong of this innuendo is that any attempt to refute it is itself proof of insensitivity to sexism if not sexism itself (as the accusatory reactions to this article will instantly illustrate)....
Even if I had the firepower to do so, I would never in any way wish to interfere with Mr. Greenwald's constitutionally-protected and really, really well-financed right to call Hillary Clinton a monster and her supporters dishonorable political guttersnipes. I do not agree with those characterizations in any way, but Mr. Greenwald's right to say such things is inalienable.
On the other hand, for the same guy who spent much of the Obama Administration going absolutely hammer-and-tongs after anyone who disagreed with him to the slightest degree -- who took giddy delight in relentlessly firehosing anyone who did not measure up to his standards of purity with an endless stream of drooling/jackbooted/boot-licking/O-bot/servant-of-fascism invective --
-- to use his brand-new media empire to bitch that someone else's use of a mean neologism is a...disgrace to journalism?If Leni Riefenstahl were an Obama fanatic and had a blog, this is exactly what it would look like: http://is.gd/icYrj #CreepyReverence— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 4, 2010
I tell you, I haven't laughed this hard in weeks.
And speaking of disgraces to journalism, if you decide to go into business as the Archbishop of Impugning Everyone Else's Integrity, best be damn sure that your cathedral isn't made of glass (from the NYT):
The Intercept Says Reporter Falsified QuotationsBy DANIEL E. SLOTNIKFEB. 2, 2016The news website The Intercept said on Tuesday that a former reporter had fabricated quotations in some of his articles and impersonated other people by using email accounts in their names.Betsy Reed, the news organization’s editor in chief, said that the first evidence appeared in late December and that the reporter, Juan Thompson, was fired on Jan. 4. In an online note to readers, she listed four articles that had been corrected and one that had been retracted......The Intercept was founded in 2014 with the financial backing of Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of eBay. Its best-known writer is the Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald, who most prominently covers national security issues...
9 comments:
How do such terrible writers like Greenwald, Dowd, Friedman, and Parker win Pulitzer Prizes? Really, Greenwald is a horrible writer.
Oh, and beware The Swarm, but of course you already know that. I trust your loins are girded.
Greenwald got a Pulitzer because Snowden was pretty sure he knew how he'd use the data dump.
Like Bluegal, I agree with a lot of what Glenn says, but when he goes wrong he goes wrong relentlessly. I can't for the life of me figure out why he's picking this fight of all fights right now. He could be hitting Hillary (and, uh, Republicans) on policy stuff - why try to defend groups associated with online harrassment other than to say "harrassers, stop, because a few of you're making your movement look like a bunch of assholes" and "movement leaders, please publicly tell these few assholes to shut the eff up"?
I gave up trying to read Greenwald years ago... He sounds like a sixth grader suffering from a crippling anxiety disorder and his parents can't get the Adderall dose right.
All that being said I do think he has a point... Many of HRC's surrogates' counter attacks dismiss any criticism as sexist. If they are feeling charitable he is unserious.
I happen to like Bernie... I am old enough to have unsuccessfully voted against Reagan in 1980 and have been disappointed most every election since— watching The Democrats nominate a string of mediocrities with the apparent hope of not offending anyone, to in turn lose to walleyed lunatics & drooling idiots. I don't think HRC would be the worst candidate the Dems have ever fielded, nor would she be the worst President in my lifetime by a long chalk.
Even so, Bernie is inspiring more enthusiasm which could be a better force multiplier down ticket. If Bernie is the better candidate, that doesn't mean Hillary was a bad candidate. If she does not get to be the 1st woman President, she still had a decent life: lived in the White house for eight years, Secretary of State for four, beautiful grandchildren and she will die a millionaire. It's like Michael Corleone says, "It's not personal. It's just business."
In fairness, many Bernie-bots on social media say horrible things about HRC. Stupid things. Paranoid things. Counter-productive things. But that's why FaceBook was invented, so that the stupid people could talk too.
I wish the Democrats would employ Reagan's 11th Commandment which the GOP has clearly discarded. Make the Republicans work hard for their own ratfucking, don't do the heavy lifting for them. If Bernie does in fact win the nomination, whichever CHUD claws his way to the top of the dungheap on the GOP side will be running wall to wall ads of every bitchy thing Hillary or one of her surrogates ever said about him. Conversely, I have not Bernie say anything about Hillary that would profit the ultimate GOP nom to repeat.
And, BTW, Bernie said that while he appreciated what Snowden did in making the public aware of the abuses of the NSA, he WANTS HIM TO FACE A PENALTY. In other words, he wants Snowden topay for his crime. Just like Hillary does.
Mister Driftglass, sir, you never disappoint.
Judging by what I have seen with my own eyes, most supporters of Senator Sanders (like myself) are good and decent and well meaning people yet the bernieswarm is a foul mouthed gang of moral degenerates who do The Cause far more harm than good. Somehow, the ability of both of these facts to be true at the same time is beyond the ken of Pernicious G and his ilk.
Oh, lordy... I like Bernie, and I certainly wouldn't use the term Bernie bro about all his supporters, but no one who has encountered the most fanatical of them can seriously deny that the species exists. And as for Bernie bros being "uniquely abusive and misogynistic in their online behavior", well...
http://wonkette.com/598261/bernie-bro-just-wondering-who-her-royal-highness-michelle-obama-thinks-she-is-anyway
They're not helping...
When push comes to shove, even Sanders, the alleged leftist, is a faithful servant of the Empire of Capital.
Please note that I said "Empire of Capital", not "Empire of the USA" or "American Empire".
Capital is Sauron; Uncle Sam is merely the Lord of the Nazgul.
Not that the primary adversaries of the Empire of Mammon are nice people, either; they are so many Sarumans (Sarumen?), except that while Saruman became ensnared into Sauron's service, they have so far maintained the independence of their evil fiefdoms.
Russia was almost ensnared into the web of the Great Vampire Squid (pardon my mixed animal metaphor), but Putin the Magnificent Bastard and his supporters seem to be extricating it.
The limits of the both siderism meme of Driftglass. GG tells it like it is when it comes to the limits of Obama and Clinton and their love of the national security state and their loyalty to the war machine.
But tribal loyalies die hard.
GG tells it like it needs to be told for them sweet sweet billionaire dollars to keep rolling in, is more like it. Hookers and blow don't pay for themselves, you know, not even in a gated complex in Brasil.
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