Altercation: How Republicans Argue: They Lie

[babylonsister]

https://prospect.org/politics/altercation-how-republicans-argue-they-lie/

Altercation: How Republicans Argue: They Lie
Which the media generally doesn’t bother to point out (or contrast what they say with the truth) after quoting them
by Eric Alterman
May 13, 2022


snip//

The second piece of meta-context to always keep in mind when reading about U.S. politics is how deeply the contemporary right wing is embedded with the enemies of democracy, including its murderous dictators. It’s not just that CPAC is having its convention in Victor Orban’s Hungary. Nor is it just that Fox News is a more effective propaganda tool for Vladimir Putin than RT ever was. It’s also that the Republicans keep nominating candidates who are either personally, financially, or via their staffs playing for Putin’s team as well. It wasn’t just Trump and the people with whom he peopled the government. It was, as Steve Schmidt revealed this week, also John McCain, something that was originally reported by The Nation back during the 2008 campaign but lied about by the campaign and ignored by the McCain-besotted mainstream media. That article noted, and Schmidt has now confirmed, that “despite McCain’s tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have cultivated deep ties with Russia’s oligarchy—indeed, they have promoted the Kremlin’s geopolitical and economic interests, as well as some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and geopolitical stupor.” (If one wants to be really cruel or learn something important about the psychology of the Washington press corps, go back and read the loving coverage offered to McCain in real time. I wrote about that here, again, back in 2008, and here, two years later. I’ve got more, but that’s enough for now.)

The third and among the most important meta-media-related factors never to forget in contemporary political reporting is the mass addiction of contemporary conservatives to the practice of “bald-faced lying.” (I’m using the term in its philosophical senses.) This compulsion is evident even among many who profess distaste for Trump’s brand of dishonesty. Look, for instance, at this Peggy Noonan column in The Wall Street Journal. In support of her nutty contention that a leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion—which is not even against the law—is somehow the equivalent of a murderous insurrection designed to overthrow the government of the United States, Noonan argues, “Other high court decisions that liberalized the social order—desegregation of schools, elimination of prayer in the schools, interracial marriage, gay marriage—were followed by public acceptance, even when the rulings were very unpopular.” I suppose it is conceivable that Noonan—a regular not only in the Journal but also on NBC News’s Meet the Press—is so ignorant of history that she is unaware that the case she picks first—desegregation of schools—was met with what was proudly called “massive resistance” in the South up to and including one district in Virginia shutting down its entire public school system rather than comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Now, Noonan may just be nuts. There is certainly evidence to support this view. But she has editors and copy editors and other people—researchers, I imagine—who help her produce her columns. Most likely, all of these people have gone to college and are at least minimally familiar with the history of the United States in the second half of the 20th century. So the only explanation for her ridiculous contention is that Peggy feels she has a license to lie. And it doesn’t even matter if her readers know she is lying. That’s the beauty of the bald-faced lie. The truth doesn’t matter. What matters are the politics and in this case, it’s a neat combination of racism and anti-feminism tied together by know-nothingism: a pretty good, albeit partial, description of the contemporary Republican Party. (I’ve no space to get into personal corruption, for example.)

snip//

Republicans know they cannot win without lying. And they know that most of the time, the media will “both sides” their lies to the point where citizens cannot discern what’s true and what’s not (to the degree that they are sufficiently engaged with old-fashioned politics even to care). And so Republicans resist all attempts to address the issue, no matter how vulnerable it leaves the rest of us to violent extremists, both from within and without. It’s actually amazing to me, as I write these words, the degree to which conservatives have become virtually carbon copies of the enemies that so excited them during the Cold War. I haven’t watched this crappy movie for a long time, but if it were being made honestly today, it would be called I Was a Republican … well, the FBI is not allowed to look into this kind of thing either.

We are really screwed.

[walkingman]

1. Liberalized the Social Order?? How about represented the social order.

“Other high court decisions that liberalized the social order—desegregation of schools, elimination of prayer in the schools, interracial marriage, gay marriage—were followed by public acceptance, even when the rulings were very unpopular.”

All of these issue were long overdue and there are several more that should be added to the list. The only people that would view them as "unpopular" are those that think we should live in a world dominated by religion. I personally don't have a problem with people believing anything they like but don't force your ideology on me.