It is one thing to have a conservative worldview. It goes without saying hat’s an honorable activity to engage in. The world is big enough for a multitude of perspectives. And, a healthy civilization requires the diversity of many world views, as does a functioning demmocracy.
But, so many on the right are just plain lying, and it has gotten truly pathetic.
From End of the Powerline by Ezra Klein:
They get nothing right. Their fact-checking skills are atrocious. They neither report nor call experts, it’s just whatever they invented twenty seconds ago. Watching them work is like attending a high school debate match in the impromptu event. Arguments are created on the fly, accuracy is unimportant so long as the product accuses the “MSM” or Democrats of some cardinal sin that’ll leave Powerline’s sycophantic readers moaning with the exquisite pleasure that comes only from having one’s biases expertly stroked. The plausibility of their claims ranges from pathetic to laughable (has Big Trunk debated PZ Myers on the biological uncertainty of evolution yet?) and their traffic and credibility is entirely predicated on the work someone else did, success they’ve been totally unable to replicate. They have failed.
Those who have obtained power by the process of propaganda and disinformation have nothing else to offer. Those who follow the liars have even less. So, they lie. Their problem solving skills do not exist. Their plans are not not geared toward creating any solutions, they are simply attacking what they do not like. They are dismantlers. Destructionists.
With such an outlook and scenario, it is inevitable that the right will destroy it’s own grasp on power. Because it is power built upon lies and fabrications. It’s power built upon propaganda and disinformation. It is simply meant to continue the illusion of power and correctness.
The Abstract Factory offers similar thoughts on the always idiotic and deceptive Jonah Goldberg:
The fact is, Goldberg doesn’t care in the least whether what he says is true and well-reasoned, and neither do his backers and readers. Goldberg’s function is not to say things that are true, nor is his function to present a reasoned argument. Goldberg’s function is to spew forth some roughly grammatical stream of words that appear to reinforce conservatarian ideology, so that his readers can listen, nod, and feel vindicated in their beliefs.And — this is what’s really maddening, all the outrages I’ve brought up wouldn’t matter in the least except for this point — virtually all right-leaning commentators, running the gamut from David Brooks to Rush Limbaugh to Glenn Reynolds, whether consciously or not, perform roughly the same function, and they’re wildly effective. The entire right-wing movement is like a hovercraft floating on the perpetually roaring whirlwind of sub-rational, self-reinforcing nonsense that gusts through the minds of its adherents. It goes on and on and on, and nobody stops the people who feed it; most of the time, nobody with a prominent voice even stands up to them and calls them on their nonsense.
Read it all, it’s on target.
We are calling them on their bullshit. Times are changing.
No related posts.