Thank you, again! Well spoken (as always)! Transforming rational, informed, and thoughtful people and their work into emotive-othering is a specialty of the folks who want to command people who are too lazy to think for themselves. The penchant to wrest credibility from someone (who has rightfully earned it), is a very old tired but effective trick. Those who distort integrity like this, know that they have a stupid audience who would rather have someone else do their thinking for them, simplifying things into black and white, good and evil, and separate their heads from their guts. This is one of the most effective ways to do it; 'otherize' the enemy and make them hysterical, unreasonable objects to treat with disdain. It is plain as day that they are trying very hard to prop up something (dt&co, etc..) that is insupportable. I only hope soon 'it' will implode without taking too many more casualties with them.
That line about wresting credibility from someone who earned it is exactly it. Once they turn the witness into a hysterical “other,” the audience no longer has to deal with the evidence. That’s the old old trick, and lemme tell ya it works because it gives people permission not to think. I appreciate you reading this so closely.
Thanks for posting this. Halperin is not on my normal reading list, so I would have missed it! You are absolutely correct to point out this absolute nonsense he posted. Beyond that, it was a lie. People have become so used to receiving lies from this regime that it barely registers when it happens.
Halperin’s remark means different things to you and I.
You see it as yet another phrase that intentionally belittles someone and gives permission for others to do the same.
I just see it as a lie that is said too easily in this current climate. I do see your point and think less of the person who put it out there!
Todd, I was trying pretty hard not to make the piece simply about Halperin, but yes. The shallowness is definitely part of the problem. Horse race analysis can sound sophisticated while dodging the deeper question: which is what is all this doing to the country?
I agree. The value I find and want to share with others that I'll be sending a link to your piece here is all you have taught along with conveying a simple alternative journalism lesson shaped by such useful material, with appropriate gravitas and street cred to shape a youth or even someone experienced enough to know such as to how media reportage is 'certified.' In short, how and what gets imprinted.
Praise be to Substack for allowing such 'newshole' to be filled with such nuanced teaching of the considerations usually reserved for the editorial gate-keepers. As a terminal Mass Comm major and unsuccessful journalist your decency resounds in a profession not known for it. The reader is gifted with more than standard Pavlovian\Consumerist trade craft. Bravo!
"Reconstruction was defeated by violence, yes. It was defeated by white terror, court decisions, political compromise, voter suppression, and the collapse of federal will. But it was also defeated by narration. America had to be taught to see Black citizenship as disorder, federal protection as overreach, white backlash as understandable, and national exhaustion as wisdom." Some things don't appear to change. The spinners of Reconstruction all those years back have repeated the same tactics under different lies. How much more mileage will they get?
Very insightful analysis. Well written. Thank you.
🙏. Thank you for your support Deepak.
Thank you for putting this out. I appreciate it. Shared.
Thank you, Joan. I almost talked myself out of writing this one, so I truly appreciate you reading and sharing it. You are exactly why I hit publish.
Thank you, again! Well spoken (as always)! Transforming rational, informed, and thoughtful people and their work into emotive-othering is a specialty of the folks who want to command people who are too lazy to think for themselves. The penchant to wrest credibility from someone (who has rightfully earned it), is a very old tired but effective trick. Those who distort integrity like this, know that they have a stupid audience who would rather have someone else do their thinking for them, simplifying things into black and white, good and evil, and separate their heads from their guts. This is one of the most effective ways to do it; 'otherize' the enemy and make them hysterical, unreasonable objects to treat with disdain. It is plain as day that they are trying very hard to prop up something (dt&co, etc..) that is insupportable. I only hope soon 'it' will implode without taking too many more casualties with them.
Dawn, thank you,.
That line about wresting credibility from someone who earned it is exactly it. Once they turn the witness into a hysterical “other,” the audience no longer has to deal with the evidence. That’s the old old trick, and lemme tell ya it works because it gives people permission not to think. I appreciate you reading this so closely.
Thanks for posting this. Halperin is not on my normal reading list, so I would have missed it! You are absolutely correct to point out this absolute nonsense he posted. Beyond that, it was a lie. People have become so used to receiving lies from this regime that it barely registers when it happens.
Halperin’s remark means different things to you and I.
You see it as yet another phrase that intentionally belittles someone and gives permission for others to do the same.
I just see it as a lie that is said too easily in this current climate. I do see your point and think less of the person who put it out there!
And (though if you were blunt/unkind enough to note it plainly I missed it) Halperin is a shallow analyst.
Todd, I was trying pretty hard not to make the piece simply about Halperin, but yes. The shallowness is definitely part of the problem. Horse race analysis can sound sophisticated while dodging the deeper question: which is what is all this doing to the country?
WH called a reporter who shared an image of the President’s eyes drooping a “moron.”
Just as with Trump Mobile, the clock is running out & Trump self promotion is #Blinking.
Resist MAGA gangster, grifter authoritarianism! Vote Sane. #VoteBlue! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZdkRiTs_4w
Thx for hitting publish. First one I’ve passed on
Thank you Susan.🙏
I agree. The value I find and want to share with others that I'll be sending a link to your piece here is all you have taught along with conveying a simple alternative journalism lesson shaped by such useful material, with appropriate gravitas and street cred to shape a youth or even someone experienced enough to know such as to how media reportage is 'certified.' In short, how and what gets imprinted.
Praise be to Substack for allowing such 'newshole' to be filled with such nuanced teaching of the considerations usually reserved for the editorial gate-keepers. As a terminal Mass Comm major and unsuccessful journalist your decency resounds in a profession not known for it. The reader is gifted with more than standard Pavlovian\Consumerist trade craft. Bravo!
Excellent. Thanks. Shared to my notes.
🙏
"Reconstruction was defeated by violence, yes. It was defeated by white terror, court decisions, political compromise, voter suppression, and the collapse of federal will. But it was also defeated by narration. America had to be taught to see Black citizenship as disorder, federal protection as overreach, white backlash as understandable, and national exhaustion as wisdom." Some things don't appear to change. The spinners of Reconstruction all those years back have repeated the same tactics under different lies. How much more mileage will they get?