The scary reality behind Trumps long Tuesday of weird tweets

[babylonsister]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/3/16844404/trumps-tweets-north-korea-fox-news

The scary reality behind Trump’s long Tuesday of weird tweets
He’s relying on Fox News for all his information.
By Matthew Yglesias@[e-mail] Jan 3, 2018, 10:10am EST


snip//

The tweet was just one of many inflammatory statements by Trump over a long day of bizarre tweeting that included everything from fanning the flames of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to attempting to take credit for airplanes being safe, calling for the prosecution of a top aide to Hillary Clinton, attacking the new publisher of the New York Times, and plugging Lou Dobbs’s show on the Fox Business Network. Along the way, he also reiterated a New Year’s Day dig at Pakistan.

It’s a puzzling array of topics that at first glance appears to defy any explanation as a communications strategy or a set of policy priorities.

But the source turns out to be clear: It’s all Fox News. Per Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star, that was the common pattern throughout Trump’s remarkably active Tuesday of tweets.

Link to tweet

Everything from Trump’s alarming suggestion that the Justice Department prosecute former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin to his absurd contention that he deserves credit for an aviation safety streak that dates back to 2009 had its origins in a Fox News segment.

Trump skeptics probably shouldn’t waste their time sowing fear of nuclear conflict in Korea — Asian stock exchanges, including in Seoul, do not appear particularly alarmed about Trump’s social media antics — but his allies should take more seriously the notion that this is a terrible way to do the job of president of the United States. Even at its very best, cable news is not an ideal source of information about the world, and the Fox News shows that Trump prefers are not cable news at their very best.

Trump-era Fox has frequently been compared by its critics to a state broadcasting network in an authoritarian regime. But the Soviet Union’s top leaders were not relying on their own propaganda outlets for information about the world. For the president to govern effectively, actual problems need to be brought to his attention. But in the propaganda bubble that Trump prefers to inhabit, there is no endless darkness in Puerto Rico or falling life expectancy amid a growing opioid crisis.

Even on the economy, which is definitely the bright spot of Trump-era America, it would behoove the president to hear some skeptical notes. As the labor market continues to improve, for example, the actual pace of job gains is slowing down, and the economy added fewer new positions in 2017 than it did in any of the five previous years. And the increased business investment of 2017 seems to have been largely driven by higher oil prices, which revived the fracking trade after a pause. That doesn’t alter the fact that the basic economic situation is good, but a realistic consideration of strengths and weaknesses would help the president see potential problems and ideally avoid them.

Instead, we have a president who not only avails himself of information cocooning to maintain the support of his shrinking base but actually inhabits the bubble himself. So far that mostly hasn’t ended in disaster for everyone, because the country mostly hasn’t been tested with an urgent crisis. But where crisis has arrived — whether that’s Puerto Rico’s power grid or North Korea’s nuclear ambitions — Trump has proven entirely incapable of rising to the challenge or even acknowledging what the dimensions of the challenge are. And it’s exceptionally unlikely that we will get through three, or seven, more years without facing more challenges.

[dalton99a]

1. Somebody should hack Fox News and tell him to eat shit

Would be an interesting experiment

[get the red out]

2. But

it would be the best shit! The biggest shit......................

[MontanaMama]

14. Of course!

Dotted only eats the best shit. The most fabulous shit.

[Girard442]

3. Kind of reminds me of that old flick, "They Live".

At the end, the rebels take down the system that's broadcasting mind-altering rays concealing the aliens running Earth. At the time, I thought it was an entertaining yarn. Who knew it was a documentary?

[Fred Sanders]

4. So you see dear DU comrades, what is obvious and has been since day 1 is only real if

someone in more prominent media with a soso prominent name says so.

NUTS!

One word explanation. This is your brain on Fox.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

5. In the words of el stupido himself "someone do something!"

[Corvo Bianco]

6. I prefer state media where grumpypants instructs the network,

not the other way around

[Iliyah]

7. The reality fake news (Murdoch) is couplable

in the insane and terrifying continued destruction of the emotions as well as the economy of the good ole USA, all at the bidding of many foreign countries, i.e. Russia. fake news is the GOP's party before country so called news outlet. That and sin sin clair (which is terrifying as well).

[Mc Mike]

8. That's his job, to sit on his overstuffed behind, watch fox all day,

and angrily tweet about it.

We see Repuglinazi 'leadership', in action.

[kimbutgar]

9. Twilter has been brainwashed by Fox

Like the father in the movie, the brainwashing of my father by fox documentary. I see so many parallels to twitler and the movie. He wasn’t that crazy in the 80’s and 90’s but starting in the 2000’s when fox became a media sensation he got caught up in their brainwash web. That said he has always been an arrogant jerk. This is different.

[Ligyron]

15. Faux saved the GOP - no doubt about it.

After Bush, they were on the outs and headed downhill but Fox joined Rush at the perfect time to rake their shit out of the fire.

Unlike the D's, the GOP at least had/has a coherent strategy they put into effect.

[Hekate]

10. KnR

[BlueTexasMan]

11. Buy Fox

Let's (as a nation) just buy it and shape sane policy from the inside.

[louis-t]

16. The fox zombies would have no direction in life.

They would be like the inhabitants of the planet in the original Star Trek with a computer for a leader. "Landru, guide us!".

[lunatica]

12. Fox News, the spreaders of Trumpaganda

[Egnever]

13. Of course

It's hard work being president.