Why is anyone, and I mean anyone, paying attention to anything these clowns have to say? I’m serious. How stupid do you have to be to believe anything featured at that website?
Big Suckers
by John Cole| 76 Comments
This post is in: Assholes, Bring on the Brawndo!, Our Failed Media Experiment
me
As dumb as ABC News I guess.
WereBear
John, John, John. You keep thinking reality has any bearing on what gets reported or even observed!
We’re Post Reality ™ now!
(And yes, I would properly put a hyphen between them, but this blog makes me so fearful of dashing…)
James E. Powell
With right-wingers the question is never “Is this true?” or “Should anyone believe this?” The only questions are “Can we use this to promote one or more of our themes?” or “How can we use this to promote one or more of our themes?”
Just look at Palin’s tweet on the obviously sarcastic birthday greetings to Ahmadinejad. It doesn’t reflect any objective reality, it doesn’t relate to the meaning of the Crowley’s message, but it does give the right-wingers a peg on which to hang their theme: Obama is kowtowing to Iranians! He hates America and Jesus!
So, yeah, no one interested in truth or reality pays any attention to right-wing liars, but how many people are really interested in truth or reality?
JPL
What will ABC news say…but we’re not paying him..just giving the ass a big forum….but it’s not for cash… then what is it?
13th Generation
There must be some super-secret pact among journalists wherein they never, ever, ever, publicly disparage another journalist. Even if that person is not really a journalist in any sense of the word.
Irony Abounds
Compare the coverage of Beck’s POS rally (i.e., considerable), to the coverage of Stewart’s rally (i.e., virtually nonexistent), despite Stewart drawing a much larger crowd and there being no attempt by politicians to use the rally for their own purposes (yes, I’m talking about you, Sarah the F***ing Bitch Palin). Conservatives have figured out how to manipulate the media. Scream LIBERAL BIAS, LIBERAL BIAS, force the media treat their faux outrage as real, and just lie, lie, lie. I am trying hard to subscribe to Stewart’s pleas not to demonize the opponent, but it may take a far better person than I.
Omnes Omnibus
@Irony Abounds: Jesus died nearly 2000 years ago, so don’t feel bad.
jwb
@Irony Abounds: It would probably help if we all recognized that the real opponents consist of those who own the media and other corporations rather than the teabaggers, who exist primarily as shiny objects to distract everyone.
The Republic of Stupidity
Did this somehow involve furry handcuffs, Vaseline, and a dildo?
And what about the wet suits? Not one, but TWO… wet suits…
Evolved Deep Southerner
I click on that link and get the WaPo screen, but it’s empty. Metaphorically, that’s perfect. But in the context of someone wanting to know what the fuck you’re talking about, what the fuck does it say for those who can actually read it?
ETA: Nevermind. Got it on the fourth try. Carry on, please, and ignore me for the rest of the afternoon. I’m still half-drunk from the Georgia-Florida game.
Loneoak
Is this just Breitbart trying to pay back ABC for the fluffing?
Martin
Well, from the comments I would say that the WaPo transformation to attractive News Corp property is complete. Let the acquisition talks begin.
JPL
Katie Couric got nailed for asking Sarah the tough questions. I’m still not sure what the tough questions were but whatever. The liberal media now has to bow to Breitbart and the rest of the wingnuts or their feelings will be hurt.
kdaug
It’s about constructing a narrative for the proles. The world is complicated, so let’s give them a nice, simple story to adopt as their “world-view”. And like jwb said, the ones constructing the narrative are multi-national corporations.
They don’t have to be true, they just have to make the lowly downtrodden steer their votes towards those who will enrich said corporations.
Mark S.
I’m still in awe of Sarah’s shoelaces remark. That might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard a politician say. He was a fucking military lawyer! Not to disparage what they do, but it’s not like fighting at Iwo Jima.
Cat Lady
Clicking the link takes you to the WaPo, and apart from Greg Sargent, your question is even more relevant.
James E. Powell
@13th Generation:
It’s like this: if you (journalist) want to have a job with us (corporate press/media), then you will help us make money from the advertising sales of our [whatever it is]. AND you will not disparage or interfere with the other ways (odious pseudo-journalists) in which we make money. Moreover, you will never, never, never, question the corporate ruling class’s right to rule, or the perfection of the ‘free market’ system. To do so would call into question the right of our advertisers to make as much money as possible by whatever means they can.
General Stuck
Just goes to show you that Breitfart attended the wingnut school on snookering the media over the short and long run.
Or, take any advantage of any opportunity, no matter how flimsy or outright false to plant the subliminal seed that in the future, any criticism of any GOP and especially tea party candidate will be met with screams of liberal bias and conspiracy. And it has worked like a slow charm over the decades, and helped to warp coverage to the benefit of goopers. It is a very subtle form of psychological terrorism and you can see it play out everyday throughout the msm, watching them, largely unconsciously play favor to wingnuts hoping to avoid the liberal bias charge. Even if and when the charge would be obviously absurd. It is right there in the secret Heritage Foundation playbook.
Plus, Breitfart is still trying to extricate his asshole from his throat over the Sherrod caper. It is a lot of asshole, and the operation could take a while.
demkat620
I swear to god, this is going to be a circus in the next congress. These clowns really think they are going to tell the crazies to sit down and shut up.
Oh boy, this country is in for an awful two years.
Is there nobody left in the GOP or the
conservativemainstream media, other than Larison, who has a functioning braincell left?General Stuck
@demkat620:
Mostly, I weep for my country. But the tiny part of my primitive brain that is still playfully evil, a little bit looks forward to the circus. I know full well I will see libtard hell for this guilty pleasure, but I doubt I’ll be alone.
The Republic of Stupidity
@kdaug:
Also a perfectly valid explanation of why pro wrestling and American Idol are both so successful…
ACS
This is just a preemptive thing so they can eventually claim it was all the fault of the liberal media when Miller loses. They don’t care how believable it is or how easily debunked it is, or even–and this is the important part–whether Miller actually wins. Whether he wins or loses, this will just become another part of the alternative reality they’ve created for themselves to feed their bizarre persecution complex, which is all that really matters for them.
Nylund
Its about fabricating your own truth, not pursuing an objective truth. They crave anything they can use to reinforce their pre-existing beliefs, even if it means manipulating reality to match their world view. There will always be a market for anything that allows people to avoid confronting their own cognitive dissonance.
The Republic of Stupidity
It’s O/T but just too funny to pass up…
Well, geez… considering the sort of ‘penalties’ the Chinese routinely hand out, I’d say Imada still got off pretty cheaply…
kdaug
@ACS:
Ah, there’s the rub. They’re not creating it. They’re being fed it.
The creators sit in the 1%, trickling down memes to the masses, indifferent to the shit they make of things. They’re not in the business of caring about the country (see: Multinational), they’re in the business of making money, and ensuring the government stays out of their business.
Didn’t I read recently that Eric Prince, founder of Blackwater/Xe, has found it advantageous to re-locate to Qatar? Or was that Halliburton’s HQ?
Either way, the point’s the same. They don’t give fuck-all about old ladies dangling tea-bags off their hats or wearing purple bandaids. They DO care about investigations into their business, and ensuring the people that get elected would never consider such a thing.
MattF
Well, you’re dealing with an audience that admires Glenn Beck– so, someone who actually bothers with deliberate dishonesty and distortion of evidence is actually a step up.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T
RIP, Theodore Sorensen.
Citizen_X
@demkat620:
It’s worse than you think. According to the LA Times they’re going to go to war against the EPA AND start investigating scientists as to how they conspired to make the Earth seem warmer:
That, right there, is justification for voting for ANY goddam House Democrat on your ballot, and I don’t care if you’ve got the most insufferably self-important Blue Dog in the whole Congress representing you.
Roger Moore
@WereBear:
Given which newspaper this was being reported in, that’s doubly appropriate.
Martin
On the phone with my mom this morning we got onto energy policy and she was remarking that Cali’s energy policy wouldn’t work nationally, that getting the country off of coal would be too expensive and too ruinous to consumers. I explained how our policy works and the measures that show effectiveness, how the system is structured so that everyone (energy producers, individuals, business) has a positive incentive to work toward the same goal (reduced consumption).
I told her about the study that when consumers were compared to their neighbors consumption, that those people that described themselves as ‘liberal’ voluntarily reduced consumption while those that described themselves as ‘conservative’ voluntarily increased consumption.
Before I could even finish she blurted out ‘Well of course! They’re reacting to government telling them what to do!’ I said, no, the government didn’t tell them to do anything, and that this isn’t an entitlement program where there is some service or resource that they aren’t getting. This was information from a for-profit utility, not the government at all. And when they volunteer to use more energy, they are volunteering to pay more for that energy. They’re simply wasting money to prove a point – a point that nobody other them would see. It’s akin to telling them that they spend $100 less their their neighbors and having them respond with an ‘oh yeah, well I’m gonna show them and burn this $100 bill!’ Not only was it perfectly reasonable that people would react this way, she defended it in terms that had nothing at all to do with the situation.
My point in bringing this up was to say that in a good energy policy, consumers have control over the role they play. If consumers step up and conserve, and the state provides means for incentives to be created (most of the CA energy incentives come not from the state but from the utilities – their excess energy fees get funneled back into incentives) then it’s really up to consumers to decide to use those incentives, help the cause, and reduce their own bill, or to reject those incentives, not help the cause (the cause being energy security, something both parties seem to agree on), and instead incur higher costs. She was basically arguing that consumers should resist such a set of incentives as a means of protesting the government actually trying to achieve the goal that consumers have demanded.
I pressed her a bit on alternative means to do this (also noting that she couldn’t draw on any existing system that hasn’t produced measurable results) and she had no answers other than ‘well, they should find a way to do it without the government having to tell people what to do’. To which I had to yet again point out that the government didn’t tell anyone to do anything. The energy producers were giving consumers choices. One of those choices is to keep all of your lights on 24/7 and pay up to 5x the base rate for power. That’s a choice. If you’re willing to spend $1000 a month to cool your house in the summer, nobody is stopping you.
It was quite an awesome conversation. I’ve never seen her take the Glenn Beck mindset and apply it so thoroughly. Usually I can break through it and get her to at least concede some ground. Not this time. And she’s a pretty reasonable conservative – liberal on social issues, but pretty Club for Growthish.
So yeah, I think we’re doomed. Logic has completely lost to widespread paranoia. I think we’ve reached the point where we can’t kill the zombies faster than they can turn people into zombies. Getting on time for the survivors to get in the boat and look for that deserted island.
General Stuck
@Citizen_X:
It is going to be a non stop clown parade the House wingers will be conducting. But the good news is, they will have to show the country what it is they stand for again, and not just throwing mud at Obama. In a sane country, this would not have been necessary for the public to be educated again, after only two years since the last lesson. But we live in an insane country, that has the attention span of an Amoeba, and curiosity of the living dead.
jwb
So I see CBS has a crowd estimate for the rally, yesterday: 215,000. They had Beckfest pegged at 87,000. The best part, however, is the comment section, which is filled with wingnuts claiming conspiracy on the counting, when CBS provided the photos they used to derive the estimate. Wingnut: “Our rally was bigger. Because we said so, that’s why.”
fasteddie9318
@jwb:
It would help so very many things if we all recognized this simple truism, but most people still think that the CEO of United Healthcare is denying life-saving treatment to people and collecting a nine-figure salary in return because he cares so much about the welfare of all peoples.
Martin
@Citizen_X:
Wow, too bad there isn’t a lesson in hauling ordinary citizens before congressional panels to defend their day-to-day activities against charges of anti-American behavior that we could draw on.
El Cid
There’s no amount of lying and fraud which would disqualify a right winger from being a valued source of news and an invited analyst.
beltane
This must mean that Andrew Breitbart and the bosses at ABC are members of the same pedophile ring. I’m sure that if we tried hard enough, we could
makefind video evidence for this.beltane
@jwb: They have a point. After studying pictures taken at both rallies, I have concluded that Beck’s rally had the greater total mass. The Stewart rally, in contrast, was over twice the size but less than half the weight of the Beck rally.
Mark S.
Is our teabaggers learning? Garrett Epps attends a day long tea party constitutional seminar:
From what I can tell, most of this bullshit comes from Glenn Beck’s favorite historian, W. Cleon Skousen.
demkat620
@Mark S.: Oh sweet Jesus on a pogostick!
I can’t laugh anymore, this isn’t amusing in the least.
beltane
@Mark S.: WTF. Really, WTF. I wish with all my heart that James Madison could rise from the grave this Halloween night and give this assclown a history lesson he’ll never forget.
Part of me (OK all of me) would enjoy the spectacle of seeing these people dosed with LSD and subjected to a stage performance of Jesus, Moses, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson telling them that they are the worst people in the world and that the only way they can avoid God’s wrath is to move to the Australian Outback.
David
Breitbart spends so much time and energy on these failures. Now comes the red-faced, spittle flecked accusations that everyone and everything hates him.
The Republic of Stupidity
@beltane:
And that’s because the crowd at the beck rally was so completely full of…
jwb
@beltane: Can’t argue with that. I suppose that also explains why Beckfest was weightier.
Mark S.
Only lamestream historians think the Anglo-Saxons were pagans. Real Americans know they were the lost tribes of Israel.
Vince CA
Welcome to the other echo chamber. This echo chamber, unlike the other one, is full charts and facts and figures (and instructions on dancing). The other has guano crazy gun-toting maniacs. Pick your poison.
My inlaws are in town this weekend, and they are immune to reality. I’d say it’s a disease, but so many people have it (including a majority of the voting electorate), that at this point I’m inclined to commit myself to get out of the loony bin.
Joseph Nobles
@beltane: But Madison, in his immensely detailed examination of the various governments around the world and in history, was really just listening to the voice of God. After all, according to Romans, God establishes all governmental power on Earth. By studying them all, Madison was able to find that still, small voice of God that whispered human rights amid all the whirlwind of man’s tyranny over man. The American system of government is inspired by God.
/wingnut
S. cerevisiae
@Mark S.: Their heads would explode if they realized that some of the ideas expressed in the constitution were borrowed from those heathens of the Iroquois Confederacy.
S. cerevisiae
I would so pay to see this.
Calouste
@Mark S.:
Having a quick read through wikipdia, is seems that Hengist and Horsa* were mercinaries from Germany who were invited over to Britain by a Briton lord and then betrayed him.
Sounds like a fairly appropriate rolemodel for Beck.
*) Stallion and Horse, probably referring to some pre-Christian horse cult.
Calouste
@Joseph Nobles:
Which is why, according to some Christian denominations, you can’t be against the government, even if you disagree with it. Obviously, the solution for the contradictions that entails is to suggest that the government that you disagree with has really been created by the devil.
jrg
@Mark S.: Wow. Every time I read something like this, I think “They have to have jumped the shark, there’s no way people are dumb enough to believe this”.
…Every time, I’m wrong.
Allan
@jwb: I read comments to a liveblog over at Michelle Merkin’s House of Hate and came to the conclusion that Liberals, like vampires to mirrors, are invisible to Teatards. Her commenters also saw only vast greenspace in DC and an empty stage. However, they were able to make out and misinterpret the satirical signs that the invisible liberals were holding.
John O
Uh, (1) because he’s telling them what they want to hear, and (2), very, very stupid?
Trick questions?
arguingwithsignposts
Somewhat related, following links on this story, I found this gem of a blog post about Scott McAdams at mudflats. I hope he pulls it out, seems like an okay dude.
Maody
These constitutional classes are much like the right wing evangelical home school program and having handmaidens like Michele Duggar give you many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many children to brainwash even if her body is giving out, who cares! – after all, every zygote deserves to be free and Xtian. Been up close and personal with these maniacs (fn. 1) in Ohio and down here in North Carolina. I ask why don’t they call it the KKKonstitution and be done with it? Would that be too transparent?
footnote 1: christian identity, whack gun jobs, militia, KKK, aryan nations, christian home schoolers and mean white people in general.
PIGL
@El Cid: things that bear repeating should repeated.
From the rooftops.
Maody
@arguingwithsignposts: But is he tall enough to see Russia?
snark
Allan
Also too, let’s not forget that Sarah Palin called for Rahm Emanuel to be fired for his use of the word “retarded” in private.
Today she stabbed her little grandson Tripp through the heart every time she said “bastard” on national TeeVee.
grumpy realist
Oh, yeah….the Roman Empire was formed for the reason to spread Christianity trope.
St. Augustine had to spill quite a lot of ink explaining away the fall of the Roman Empire. (No, see, it’s only the empire down here that’s gone! We’ve got this invisible empire that’s still continuing to expand!)
Litlebritdifrnt
@Omnes Omnibus: If he really existed at all and wasn’t just another personification of Horus that is.
gbear
Read Greg Sargent’s posting then made the mistake of continuing down to the comment section. Sometimes I think that comments should just be discontinued at news sites. Nothing but vile, mean, ignorant trolls who think their comments are just as important and insightful as the story above. Better to let these little hitlers stew in their own juices than to let them spew all that garbage below the story.
Elizabelle
Cutting to the chase:
in addition to working furiously on GOTV activities this weekend:
Who here knows ABC News’ major advertisers?
Let’s get a list together and we can all email and call them to say we will not be watching ABC’s election night coverage as our standards for choosing network news programming does not include being subjected to Andrew Breitbart or any other serial fabulists.
Therefore, we will not be seeing any of the advertisers’ nifty commercials.
The rightwingers poutbomb the networks constantly.
That ABC News would even consider adding Breitbart to their lineup — in however small a role — says they need to be set straight by their rational viewers.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Allan: What Allan said, twice, with sprinkles.
jwb
@gbear: I’m convinced that a large amount of posting to comment sections of major media outlets is by paid trolls.
Elizabelle
@gbear:
The WaPost does not moderate its comments, and they are sewage on the screen with a few rational souls trying to make reasonable points.
Whoever said the WaPost was now ready to be acquired by Rupert Murdoch probably called it correctly.
Katharine Graham’s newspaper is gone. The Post.com version is actively geared toward rightwingers. (Check out the headlines and features that don’t appear in the dead paper version.)
(Couldn’t get a screengrab for Balloon Juicers, but two nights ago, around midnight Pacific time, WaPost.com had illustrations for 2 halloween-related stories:
** Nancy Pelosi, drawn in green and black, wearing a witch hat
** Scary halloween masks: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Period.
Interestingly, when you clicked on the Pelosi link, you got a full illustration that included Christine O’Donnell.
They took the illustrations down within hours, and before dawn Eastern.
Litlebritdifrnt
Why has Bobby Jindal not commented on this
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/31/raj-goyle-mike-pompeo-billboard_n_776659.html?ref=tw
Anyone who thinks these MF are not just damn racists is delusional.
Moses2317
Your post is exactly right. The way we need to respond to this crap is to dismiss it out of hand, often even with ridicule, and then return back to our message. This way we can start creating our own storyline, rather than having to constantly be responding to the lies thrown up by the conservative wingnuts.
http://www.winningprogressive.org/ignore-the-republican-circus
jwb
@Moses2317: No, ridicule seems not to work any more. They are impervious.
catclub
@Citizen_X:
“insufferably self-important Blue Dog in the whole Congress representing you.”
ooh, ooh, pick me! Gene Taylor is fighting mad that His opponent says he voted with Nancy Pelosi more often than zero times, and setting the record straight. his only campaign promise? To vote against her for speaker. Serious nose holding coming Tuesday.
Mnemosyne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I thought Jesus was Dionysus? Geez, I just can’t keep track of which god brought back to life is which.
Moses2317
@jwb: It does not matter if the wingnuts and the conservative media are impervious. What matters is whether we continue to let these whackjobs take us off of our game and appear legitimate to moderates.
When we constantly respond to their attacks as if they are legitimate, we just give those attacks a bit of strength, allow the media an excuse to cover them even more, and distract ourselves from getting our message out. Brief ridicule, followed by going back to our talking points, avoids those results and creates our own storyline for those in the middle.
Winning Progressive
JAHILL10
@Mnemosyne: Sorry, but Jesus’ resurrection is more a syncretism with Horus’ father Osiris who was raised from the dead by his sister/wife Isis.
Calouste
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Bobby thinks the usual conservative thought, namely that the rules don’t apply to him.
Methinks he is going to be mightily disappointed at one point in the future, probably about early 2012.
D-Chance.
How stupid do you have to be to believe anything featured at that website?
It’s not about believability, my man, it’s all about generating heat… generating the hostile reaction, which leads to links, which leads to hits, which leads to buzz, which leads to more hits, which leads to ad revenues.
It’s professional wrestling at its carny best.
Triassic Sands
I have a good friend who grew up in the DC area. He’s lived in Colorado for the last 35 years and he only sees the WaPo when he goes east twice a year to see his mother. Thus, despite the changes in the paper, especially the editorial page, he continues to believe that the Washington Post is a pillar of liberal America. Watergate still figures prominently in his perception of the paper.
How could that be possible? I think the initial imprint was so strong that his current occasional reading fails to make even the slightest dent. He is a basically liberal guy, who has zero use for Republicans, but his knowledge of politics is extremely superficial. He has never heard of Fred Hiatt. He doesn’t own a computer, so he never sees blogs, which would probably be the only effective way I can think of to alter his misconception of the WaPo.
I suspect there are lots more people like him in this country, and thus, long after the paper has become a sham and an embarrassment, it maintains its reputation as a great newspaper. A great liberal newspaper even.
Bender
New Ball Juice slogan: “Where ad hominem isn’t a fallacy — it’s a way of life.”