Saturday, October 13, 2018

This Week on "Tone Cop!": Bret Stephens


I don't know about you, but I'm old enough to remember the dying days of the Soviet Union.  The  1980s when, as part of their last-ditch effort to hold their empire together, the USSR stopped sending grumpy octogenarian party hacks in ill-fitting, standard-issue Communist suits to drone out their talking point to Americans, and instead dispatched Vladimir Pozner to the West to do their talking for them.   From the NYT, in December of 1985:
SOVIET SPOKESMAN ON AMERICAN TV

December 30, 1985

Since Vladimir Posner first appeared on American television in 1978 speaking flawless English with a Brooklyn accent, he has become one of the most visible spokesmen the Soviet Union ever put in front of a microphone.

In dozens of appearances on ''Nightline'' on ABC-TV and other American programs, Mr. Posner has, by satellite from Moscow, defended the Soviet position on everything from the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983 to Moscow's current objections to President Reagan's development of a space-based missile defense.

Because of his idiomatic American English, stylish appearance and friendly demeanor, Mr. Posner has played a key role in making Soviet propaganda more polished and persuasive, Western diplomats say.

''He sounds exactly like an American,'' one diplomat said...
In every interview, the TV-friendly Pozner -- who went to private schools in America, wore tailored suits and spoke American English with a Brooklyn accent -- would affably concede those things which could not be denied, and then relentlessly pivot-pivot-pivot to defending the obscene system which spawned him with a long list of  "Both Siderisms" and "Whataboutisms".

Which brings us to TV-friendly True Conservative Hero Bret Stephens, who went to private schools in America, wears real nice clothes and speaks American English with a patronizing William Buckleyish accent.   Mr. Stephens, who has made a post-Trump career out of affably conceding those things which cannot be denied, and then relentlessly pivot-pivot-pivoting to defending the Imaginary True Conservatism which spawned him with a long list of  "Both Siderisms" and "Whataboutisms".

Of course, I would write a long vivisection of the Both Siderist tripe which The New York Times paid Mr. Stephens to write today --
Liberalism Pierces Its Tongue, Again

The Democratic Party has become Donald Trump’s unwitting ally.
-- except I already wrote a long vivisection of the virtually identical Both Siderist tripe which The Washington Post paid True Conservative Hero Michael Gerson to write yesterday:


Democrats are playing with fire

One measure of the effectiveness of a political movement is how it changes its opposition. And President Trump is in the process of driving portions of his Democratic opposition insane...

Suffice to say that our fair-weather Never Trump friends on the Right have been never actually been our friends at all.  They have just been horribly embarrassed and inconvenienced by the fact that the unhinged, paranoid, racist base which they've been feeding and flattering in the GOP basement for decades finally kicked the doors off their hinges, elected a racist lunatic who is just like them, and have gone on a two year tear across the face of the Earth. 

A two year rampage which has shown the entire world what the Republican Party has always really been about.

In other words, Donald Trump has not only provided was the final, irrefutable proof that Left has been right about the Right all along, he has also exposed cloistered Beltway True Conservatives like Mr. Stephens and Mr. Gerson -- who, like Vladimir Pozer, have built careers out of dispersing and deflecting every atrocity their party has committed with glitter-bombs of Both Siderism -- as the simpering frauds which we on the Left have always known them to be.

So rather than rewrite everything I wrote yesterday, let me leave you with two thoughts.

First, Tone Police like Mr. Stephens always skip right on over the fact that we already had a perfect, eight-year test case to see what would happen if Democrats walked on egg-shells and treated his unhinged, rage-drunk Republican Party with the kid gloves he believes they deserve.  No loud noises.  No sudden movements.  No talking about their mamas.  Instead, the Democrats twice elected a calm, rational, humane, honorable, compromise-prone Centrist president who -- in the middle of two wars, a global economic collapse and a health care debacle all of which were brought to us courtesy of Mr. Stephens' Republican Party -- offered the GOP every possible opportunity not to be racist, seditious assholes.

In return they told Barack Obama to go pound sand and then elected the King of the Birther.

And for the record, this strategy of cleaning up Republican disasters while sacrificing Liberal policies and the reaching out to the Right at all costs (minus the blowjobs) was a virtual repeat of how the Clinton Administration did business in the 1990s.  In return Mr. Stephens' Republican Party spent six years trying to destroy Clinton at all costs, and then stole the 2000 election on behalf of the Worst President In History Until Trump.

And second, just where exactly have you been all this time, Bret?  Your party sold it soul to Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh at roughly the same time that Barack Obama was studying law at Harvard, which means you and the rest of America's preening, moralizing Republican Tone Police have roughly 30 fucking years to police your own god damn party.

So how's that working out for you?  I mean besides landing you a sinecure at The New York Times, where is list of "wins" your impotent hectoring and finger-wagging has put on the board?

Has it slowed the rise of Fox News?  Did it scare off Andrew Breitbart?  Did Premier Networks finally take Limbaugh and his hundreds of imitators off the air?  Did Jonah Goldberg think twice about publishing "Liberal Fascism"?  Did Steve Bannon abandon his dreams of leading an American white supremacist movement and instead die drunk and brok under a bridge somewhere?   Did my local paper finally stop publishing Ann Coulter's columns and start publishing columns apologizing for publishing Ann Coulter columns?

No?

Well then, since the monster you created no longer gives a shit what you think, by all means please  keep going after our manners as we try to stop your monster from destroying the world, Mr. Pozner.

Because we really, really don't give a shit.


Behold, a Tip Jar!


3 comments:

Robt said...


The blowing Tones of the ass horn - Part I Star studded Musical with Gerson headlined as the poster boy.

Stevens, Hannity, Brooks,Cal Thomas to Gerson's soft blossoming flowers his version of the first Amendment. and how citizens united reinforced the republicans wealthy donor rule.

Gerson completely ignores his Trump rallies of Lock them Up. How the media is the enemy. Unless it behaves as Gerson.

Trump/ GOP devaluing of the press has materialized in the form of a WAPO reporter possibly murdered. Acceptable because of financial ties with the Trump and his GOP.
Recall, GW Bush, "with us or against us" Dehumanizing opposition and getting permission from a minority base to strip their fellow Americans of the 1st Amendment.
It was GW Bush who stated, " Sometimes money trumps peace". Little did we know the double meaning of Donald Trump self-profiting as president in regards to this constitutional blasphemy, ( When trump and Trump are the same thing). So they just advertise how they "Love America".

Their hate speech of reporting they disapprove is smack in their face now. Does America (GOP America) care about a WaPo journalist, say as they did with 4 people in Benghazi? How about those 4 killed in Niger?

Kavanaugh's mouth blurted it out in his opening statement with those enemies on the left using their positions to question him in a confirmation hearing.
Such a naughty radical left that haven't learned their place in the minority.

They got the damn DOP memo!! Can't they read and comprehend?
As the minority party, as the opposition you must do as we say. You are obligated under our rule to kneel and agree and cast your vote as we order.

Robt said...

The blowing Tones of the ass horn - Part II, No finale.

I have had many employers and floor bosses who had their mentality and when pressed would wield their believed authority and tell me, "I better learn my station in life". Sure it made him angry hourly were paid more than floor bosses. That we performed or jobs better when he was gone and not in the way.
The reality of life's stations in his mind would go viral when all I had to do is go over his head. Put him in front of his immediate boss and put his disrupting the workforce and productivity on display. Because his immediate boss, never, ever wanted me to put him in front of his boss like that.

Suppress the vote, suppress speech, suppress wages and such is not convincing. Eventually it will get caught as it did with GW Bush economic collapse. The "shut up and sing conservative paying to listen to the Liberal arts performance. You know, Rush Limbaugh paying Elton John to perform at his wedding?
The mindless loyal shit eating mushrooms grown in the dark GOP base. Will realize they did not have to eat shit to blossom and who fed them it. Just like they did with the Bush economic collapse when it harmed them. Just like the speech tone police takes offense of "those others. Eventually the speech suppression is turned on them. For them, it is fine to treat those others that way, only when (and it will) , is harnessed on them will it be an issue.
Everybody chant, "it is good to be the king"
Not so much when you realize you do not get to be the King and are straddled to HIS" rule.

When will Gerson write the article where Trump and his Birtherism tone needed to be synthesized ?
How about Ted Nugent's Kill the black president and the HRC threats on the GOP campaign trails.
But Gerson is not talking/ writing about everyone. He is paid to exclusively write and espouse on his perceived enemies for a nice payday.

Which loops back to Gerson's idol saying, "sometimes money trumps peace".

Most have realized their GOP congress critters do not have any (if few) town halls. They arrange meetings with Chamber of Commerce and such. They do not care to talk with "their people". Cut off their voices. Sure communicate by mail or internet. They will pick and choose if and who they respond. They can have their paid writing staff put all sorts of words together. So you see. Speech and representation is floundering because., Citizens United allows them to go to one stop billionaire donate shop. They do not have to put their hands out for money from us and account to us. Ever again.

Dr.BDH said...

Something seemed odd about Stephens' choices of Democrats saying bad things, so I counted up the types: one white woman, two white Jewish men (from New York), two black men and two black women. Oh, and The New Yorker. I'm sure he'd say it was all coincidental but I believe Mr. Stephens should learn a few things about his subconscious. He could start with Project Implicit

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html