In 1915, Albert Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity which, among other things, predicted that gravity bends light. Or, rather, that gravity bends space and that light follows the curvature of that bend. It was quickly dismissed as fringe nonsense by the sensible majority of the scientific establishment of the time. And since the gravitational effects would have to be huge and relatively close-by for the curvature to be measurable, there seemed to be no way such a goofy theory could ever be put to the test in the first place, so who cares?
Until four years later, in 1919, when the planet Mercury became visible during daylight during a total solar eclipse. And lo and behold, instead of showing up to the party where classical cosmology said it was supposed to be, Mercury was exactly where Einstein's theory predicted it would appear to be due to the warping effect of the Sun's massive gravitational field.
And that's how the conventional wisdom of of the scientific community was radically changed a century ago.
So what has this to do with politics?
Well, for decades, we on the Left have propounded a fairly simple and easy-to understand explanation for how and why the Right has gone mad and how and why the establishment media has enabled it. And during all that time we have been slandered as Murrica-hating, terrorist-loving Commies by the Right, and mocked and dismissed as partisan kooks by the establishment media.
But the past 30 years have proven us right. And as tragic and ugly as they have been, these decades have also served as one, long and very public proof-of-concept for our theory of media and politics. And lo and behold, in the darkness of the eclipse of democracy caused by Donald Trump, any fool can now see with the naked eye that the Republican party is exactly where we crazy Liberals predicted it would be, and the establishment media is exactly as craven and complicit as we told you it was.
And yet the rules of politics and media have not changed to reflect the painfully observable reality of the times. National media organizations still demand their employees rhetorically contort themselves into impossible shapes rather than report the simple truth that the Left has been right about the Right all along, and then explain the consequences of that truth to the public. And down here at the local level, in the name of Almighty Balance my local paper continues to syndicate the deranged ramblings of clowns like Hugh Hewitt, Marc Thiessen and Byron York even though, sub rosa, the handful of people who still work at the paper know perfectly well that Hewitt, Thiessen and York are full of shit.
Thus we on the Left are once again left with the problem of trying to develop an explanation for yet another a phenomenon which we are unable to directly observe. And this time that explanation must be able to answer the following questions:
Why does the media collectively insists on remaining broken? Especially since so many people both inside and outside of the media can plainly see that this charade of false equivalence is both ridiculous and toxic?And one thing more. Since we face pretty much universal and cowed silence from anyone who could provide first-hand accounts of exactly who and what is stopping the media from doing the one fucking job it was created to do, it's fair to assume that the motives behind the media's collective intractability in this regard must be pretty goddamn squalid.
Who is enforcing this ludicrous incentive structure that punishes people for telling the truth and rewards them for peddling Both Siderist bullshit? And what are their motives for doing it?
No, I Won't Be Going To Politicon!
8 comments:
Good question, because there is nothing they could do to placate these people.
The media remains broken b/c the oligarchs run the damned thing and they would never dare to bite the hand that feeds them.
Did you ever have a job? And when you had that job, did you do what you wanted to do or what the boss wanted done?
The mainstream press is not broken. It is doing exactly what it is intended to do. Thanks to Reagan's deregulation the press is virtually entirely owned by rich people, who feel entitled to use it for their own purposes. The media are not the Republicans' dupes, they are their collaborators.
I am sorry to have to tell you this, Driftglass, but you are just not cynical enough about the mainstream media. Bet nobody told you that before.
Damn, you're a hell of a writer. Thanks for your willingness to continue to write such on-point and readable content.
Politics is not science, no matter how hard they try to sell it as such. In science, established fact is bedrock. In Politics, established fact is at best malleable, at worst anathema.
Also, Money and Power. the media does what it is told to do, because that is what it is paid to do.
And yes, I know - preachin' to the choir. :)
The story of Einstein and proof of the curvature of space was memorably explained by the one and only Lord Buckley in "The Hip Einie." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrtcktHUYU0
Nothing like sciencing the shit out of it......
Einstein in his Relativity of Gravity bending Light.
Never concluded if gravity was aware of it's power to bend light or Lights ability to be self aware enough it was being manipulated.
In politics, I have observed serious Gravity of truth bending the righteous, pure ideology of superiority into self preserving vampire seeking the darkness of a cave. To survive from the living daylights of earnest application f reason.
BECAUSE: the mission of the media is to sell your attention. that's why the NYT envies facebook...because mentally masturbating among the echo chamber of our pals is more financially rewarding than learning useful truths...so we need to sooth rather than educate...keep the charade of our ability to do functional government going, to keep the music going in musical chairs..
'Especially since so many people both inside and outside of the media can plainly see
that this charade of false equivalence is both ridiculous and toxic?
Who is enforcing this ludicrous incentive structure that punishes people for telling the truth and rewards them for peddling Both Siderist bullshit? And what are their motives for doing it?'
Post a Comment