Ever heard of Jesse MacBeth? Up until a few days ago neither had I. And, most likely, neither had you. But, thanks to the right-wing blogsphere, you and I now know who he is and what he is all about. Or do we?
You see, according to numerous right-wing blogs, Jesse MacBeth is a hero of the Liberal Left. Michelle Malkin referred to Jesse MacBeth as “the latest cause celebre of the anti-war Left…”. Odd considering no one had heard of him until a few days ago. Also, very interesting, since according to other right-wing blogs, Jesse MacBeth is a true blue example of the Hateful Liberal Conspiracy to Imitate Conservatives, Imitate Soldiers, and to Blame the Warrior Soldiers for Everything Bad and Evil in the World.™
…onservo-bloggers (once again doing the media’s work) has uncovered a crazed left-wing militant anti-war crusader who appeared from nowhere (or the moveon.org mailing list) claiming to be a former Army Ranger who witnessed “atrocities” in Iraq. A little reseacrh later by bloggers and, lo and behold, its all a scam! Jesse MacBeth had appeared on a website called “Peace Films” which has since been shut down by the operators given their fraud has been figured out. Anyway, I guess we can’t be surprised. It certainly isn’t the first time liberals have tried stunts like this. When they aren’t pretending to be disaffected Republicans who “are voting for Democrats this year, ” liberals are pretending to be former warrior soldiers, or faking hate crimes on themselves (a topic i cover extensively in my upcoming book).
Ah, from the mouths of babes. It’s important to remember that if a right-wing droid is repeating pablum like this, he heard it somewhere. Monkey see monkey do. And, that old maxim comes to play: If the right is saying the left is doing something, you can be damn sure the right is doing it. Misdirection works on dog brains.
Much like Maha at Mahablog (via Avedon), I simply clicked on Memeorandum three days ago to find… right-wing panties all in a twist. The wingnut blogsphere was going apeshit over some guy named Jesse MacBeth. And, there was propaganda video to boot. Bad propaganda video. It all seemed too good to be true for a propaganda geek like yours truly. So, I started to sniff around a little.
Consider, beyond a post on Demoractic Underground, (which was mostly about trying to discern if MacBeth was for real), and the posting of the video on a site called Peace Films, there was no indication at all that MacBeth was even on the radar of any Liberals beyond those above. (Unless an interview in something called the “Socialist Alternative” signifies masses of Liberals to you. Ever heard of it? Neither had I.)
Also, consider that the video in question, the focus of this viral movement, was only known to have been available on the Peace Films site, but then, thanks to a link by Allahpundit at Hot Air, a You Tube version became available, in three parts. Also of interest, that three part version is now gone from You Tube (“Removed by the User”), replaced (and linked to by Allahpundit) with a new and improved propaganda version starring… wait for it… Michelle Malkin! Those krazy kids. Proopaganda for the propaganda! Whowouldthunkitwaspossible! “We don’t want people to watch the MacBeth video, so watch this video about the MacBeth video instead.” Brilliant! Inspired! Oscar worthy!
Sadly, the larger agenda presented by the propaganda proffered by Malkin is as bad as the video it purports to denigrate and ridicule. Of course, the overall goal is to create a bulwark against more inimations of war crimes by US soldiers. All future accusations of such crimes, whether true or not, will be met by the 101st Fighting Keyboardists by similar tactics. Truth is not in their vocaulary.
Two days ago a basic search of both Technocrati and Google for Jessie/Jesse MacBeth yielded only about 10 hits each. Literally. It was a page and a half of hits, nearly all of them newspaper articles from the Arizona State University paper and the formerly mentioned “Socialist Alternative”.
Three days later a search of both “Jessie MacBeth” and “Jesse MacBeth” (it would seem even his name is wrong) on both Google (1) and (2) and Technorati (1) and (2) reveals that the vast majority of references to this “cause celebre” of the Liberal world are from right-wing blogs. And, each day the posts were increasing outward expotentially., spreading amongst the right-wing blogsphere like flies to caca.
And, predictably, (and much to the chegrin of those very right-wing yokels who had promoted it so fantastically) within a few days, the MacBeth video had gone viral, due almost completely, if Technocrati and Google information is correct, upon the massive blogging on it by the right. An irony lost on most of them. Be careful with that axe Eugene.
Of course, what is most striking about this entire story is the hate rhetoric coming from the right. It is bargain basement standard issue anti-Liberal hate which has once again latched itself onto a man of questionable background, questionable integrity, and questionable Liberal values who is held up by the right as some type of paragon of Liberalness (can you say Ward Churchill?) when it is more than clear to anyone with an ounce of common sense that such a generality is dubious at best. It’s a fact that most Liberals had no idea who Ward Churchill was, nor did they care. He was not representative of Liberal beliefs any more than Timothy McVeigh was representative of Conservative beliefs.
Prior to two days ago and the right-wing world bouncing on the MacBeth video, I’d venture to say that most Liberals had no idea who Jesse MacBeth was either. Even the DU kids were suspicious. What does that say? The video is obviously meat for the masses of right-wing true believers who need their forehead thumping hate to give them focus and power.
Case in point: “Darth Misha” at The Anti-Idiotarian Rotweiller goes so far as to make a prediction which serves no purpose other than to satiate his ravenous appetite for bloody Liberal meat:
…we suppose that it can’t be long until they (damn Liberals. ed.) note that they were “a bit ahead of the news cycle”, that the story is “fake but accurate” and Juan Cole tells us all that this is “one of those hoaxes that bespeaks a reality.”Which is all Moonbattese for “OK, so it’s a total and complete fabrication but, dammit, we want it to be true so it IS!“, followed by them banging their sippy cups into the tables of their high chairs and threatening to hold their breath until they turn blue in the face.
(I just love it when dogs italicize made up words as if it makes those made up words words real somehow. Wait a minute. Dogs can’t spell!) There was a pattern emerging, and it was not only familiar, but focused and had a specific agenda: Use the MacBeth video to incite hatred for Liberals. Granted, nothing new here. Right-wingnuts use anything they can to keep focused on that common enemy: Fascists, Communists, Terrorists, Liberals, pretty much everyone who is against them. But, this had something deeper and historical within it as well.
Sister Toldjah offers two points, the first predictable right-wing hate disinfo, the second is revealing and forward looking:
Just how far will the hardcore anti-Iraq war left go to try and smear the US military?Far enough for one of them to claim to be an Iraq war veteran who was ‘pushed’ by his fellow soldiers into committing numerious atrocities against the Iraqi people.
The hardcore anti-war left already has (unfortunately) legit (and by legit I mean “real”) instances of atrocities committed by some (by NO means a majority) of our troops (like Abu Ghraib). What’s the point in making up stuff?
(emphasis added)
Excellent point. And, as I watched the original MacBeth videos on You Tube, a few things came to mind… the first was that it is undeniably clear that the video is propaganda. It didn’t even matter if it was true or not, if MacBeth was an Army Ranger or not. People will believe what they want to believe. The video served a larger purpose: to enforce the preconcieved ideas already out there. Conservatives would see it as further evidence of Liberal hatred for the common soldier. Liberals would see it as proof that the war is wrong.
And, then it occurred to me. Perhaps truth and legitamacy weren’t the purpose of the video at all. Perhaps the purpose is simply to incite hatred, on both sides. Then, the question becomes: Who benefits from such a propganda campaign?
One of the memes I’ve seen repeated over and over again at places like Protest Warrior is that Liberals are going to turn against the military and the soldiers in Iraq eventually and blame them for everything, just like was done after Vietnam. Right-wing zeolots wait for the day. They pray and not so secretly hope for it. And, they do what they can to bring it on it would appear. From the post by Maha above:
Rightie bloggers have decided the guy is a poseur. And he may be; I wouldn’t know. “The pic on his wall shows the wrong t-shirt, wrong sleeves roll, wrong flash, this boy is so many flavors of wrong I can’t keep up,” says this guy.But then I read this comment: “Someone really should look into the background of the other IVAW members.”
Wow, does that take me back. During the Vietnam War era antiwar veterans often were accused of being poseurs. I remember allegations that some participants in the Winter Soldier hearings were not real veterans, and the allegations severely damaged the effectiveness of the hearings. And I understand it’s possible some of the participants were poseurs, in spite of the efforts of VVAW to screen out impostors, although certainly most VVAW activists were real Vietnam veterans.
I remember that every time a news story about a “fake”veteran hit the news, always someone would say “Someone really should look into the background of the other VVAW members.” And “I bet they’re all fake.” The allegations, true or not, undermined the credibility of VVAW.
Such sentiments are not uncommon, nor unrepresented in many of the rightie blogs posting on Jesse MacBeth.
The question was: Who was behind it? Who benefits from such a video? From the comment section to the post by Maha comes this most sentient statement by former Marine D.R. Marvel:
But if this bloke is a phony, chances are he’s a “plant”…As were so many of J. Edgar’s COINTELPRO-phylactics back in the day…It worked pretty well for them back then…One thing you can be sure of about the RW: they never get tired of “Old Tricks”…And their audience never fails to fall for them…
It’s an important point to remember, since all propaganda has a goal, and understanding that goal, and what it achieves, one is able to understand who is behind that propaganda.
Think about it. A video is offered on the internet. Right-wing propagandists, all versed in defined tactics of hatred for all things not of their liking, make a pointed (and very predictable) stand that the video is a bonifide example of Liberal hatred for the common soldier, is all the rage amongst the Liberal movement when it is clearly not, nor is the fact that the video is a Liberal creation any clearer than whether MacBeth was an Army Ranger. The selctiveness of the right-wing is amazing in this regard. They entirely dismiss the truthfulness and integrity of MacBeth (and by proxy all his statemnts) yet they entirely accept that this obvious piece of propaganda was created with the intent goal of bashing soldiers, rather than the goal of inciting the hatred of the right-wing and / or the suspicion of the left.
Bear in mind, I’m not saying that there is a conspiracy amongst the right-wing blogsphere. What I am saying is that they are being used, their behavior predictable and reliable, to push the “Liberals hate soldiers” meme out into the greater blogsphere and mainstream media. It’s what they do and do very well. The rightie blogsphere promotes hatred. It’s a cannon for it.
Now, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the man in the video. He holds all the answers.
