tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post8246604792068642720..comments2024-03-28T09:14:20.479-05:00Comments on driftglass: Jonathan Chait Thinks Magicallydriftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-29943793040892316182011-08-14T16:45:32.161-05:002011-08-14T16:45:32.161-05:00Good grief, is it really so hard to strive for fac...Good grief, is it really so hard to strive for factual accuracy and <i>also</i> recognize that the Republican Party is so radical, reckless, obstructionist, corrupt and nihilistic that progress is extremely difficult? The first part, honoring that standard, kinda leads to the second part, the conclusion about the political landscape. <br /><br />Chait is a mixed bag. Normally, he writes quite well on economic matters, including wealth inequity, and wrote a very good piece eviscerating Ayn Rand a couple of years back. I occasionally quote/link him because of that (one in the hopper, actually). On the other hand, he was an Iraq War cheerleader, and wrote some shamefully disingenuous things while defending himself and his pals and attacking his critics. He slipped back into that mode on Libya. So perhaps that leaves him the typical New Republic, centrist, establishment Dem – supporting the social safety net to some degree, but frequently in favor of bombing foreign lands. Hippie-punching comes naturally to his crowd; or in this case, the play is to pretend that those correct-once-again hippies don't exist at all... and that they haven't been skewering Friedman or criticizing NPR for well on a decade. <br /><br />The passage you highlight here is utter and unmitigated bullshit (and some of Chait's commenters hit him for it, too). He's trying to be "provocative." Without detracting from your main point, I have to stick up for NPR a bit here. While I'm critical of its failings (mainly its timidity), it is an actual news organization, and much better than the propaganda outlet that is Fox News. Chait ignores these dynamics. To continue being foul-mouthed: Fox News and Limbaugh lie all the fucking time about factual matters. Their habit of doing that is extremely well-documented. The polite, reasonable NPR crowd tries to be accurate, even if they do so in an "objective and neutral" flavor that obscures the right's radicalism. But their listeners are often quite aware of that, and their starting point from the media they imbibe isn't pure bullshit. Some of this crowd does have a naïve kumbaya attitude, and that is a major impediment to progress. However, the bigger problem is conservative insanity. Conservatives' goals are reckless, and they believe things that <i>are not factually true</i>, because their leaders deliberately lie to them about every major issue under the sun. Where's the equivalence? Chait would have us believe that a Fox/Limbaugh listener who believes Obama is a far-left socialist Kenyan who hates America and wants to put him in a concentration camp is better informed that an NPR listener who hears Steve Inskeep politely press (but not eviscerate) Mitch McConnell on his latest bullshit. Yes, there is a battle going on, and Limbaugh's listeners are well aware of it because <i>they're the ones picking the fight</i>. They're not listening to Limbaugh's extended edition of the Two-Minute Hate for a deeper understanding of policy or ways to find common ground. The centrist kumbaya crowd needs to make a critical judgment and pick a side, but their failings are very different. And it's hardly surprising that a neutral news organization wouldn't serve the same Get Out the Vote aims as a hyper-partisan propaganda factory. (Meanwhile, as you point out, there's a whole throng of commentators who have consistently called the situation accurately.)<br /><br />To pick on one of those links, trying to claim that "corporations are so too people" is a pedantic debater's point at best. One of Chait's commenters nailed it:<br /><br /><i>Romney didn't say or even imply that "raising taxes on corporations is raising taxes on a certain category of people." He said it's raising taxes on people, period.<br /><br />He was deliberately obscuring the difference between the wealthy and regular workers. Chait, you've shoveled a pile today.</i>Batocchiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02193752396025012825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-47978896039594916172011-08-14T11:56:32.316-05:002011-08-14T11:56:32.316-05:00Is the picture at the top of this post from the 19...Is the picture at the top of this post from the 1970's movie "Nicholas and Alexandra". I remember a scene where Rasputin (played by Tom Baker, the "fourth Doctor",) takes time out on his journeys for some fun with a peasant lass in a haystack.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-34890520302622337582011-08-14T01:36:11.510-05:002011-08-14T01:36:11.510-05:00What a pantsload of useless typing there.
Conserv...What a pantsload of useless typing there.<br /><br /><i>Conservative pundits, while usually slanting their account in highly partisan and <b>often misleading </b>terms, do a fairly good job of grasping and explaining the fact that the two parties fundamentally disagree on the causes of and solutions to the economic crisis and the long-term deficit. </i><br /><br />So he's saying that conservative pundits are effective liars, but they do a good job at explaining how much they hate the other side they are defaming and lying about. Explaining that both sides "disagree" is not some marvellous feat of "sophisticated" conservative punditry there. It's something obvious to a retarded ocelot. <br /><br />And how is a Limbaugh listener "better informed" after you've already admitted he's a slanted liar, Mr. Chait? No, this is horrible incoherent writing and journalistic malpractice. I mean Chait - we all now what the likes of Limbaugh are. It's almost like Chait admires what successful liars they are. Because they..illustrate how both sides disagree? I mean, really? No one was clear on that?Belvoirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18434724232693713684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-83303101692700995092011-08-13T17:43:53.120-05:002011-08-13T17:43:53.120-05:00May I suggest, Super Saturated,respectfullyMay I suggest, Super Saturated,respectfullyknowdoubthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11647184346948896676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-64761201635071586292011-08-13T16:10:09.149-05:002011-08-13T16:10:09.149-05:00Gee,
And I was hoping he'd been reborn as Jer...Gee,<br /><br />And I was hoping he'd been reborn as Jerry Garcia.<br /><br />But, yes, we are saturated.<br /><br />With their BS.<br /><br />And just hoping that someone pulls the plug and they go down, down, down the drain.<br /><br />For good.<br /><br />Progressives are ready to take over and put in place policies that will get this country moving again and reclaim our civilization.Cirzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07070125217972397204noreply@blogger.com