Friday, September 18, 2015

MAINSTREAM MEDIA GOES WILD FOR TEEN WHO ACCUSES PRESIDENT OF "DOWNRIGHT HATRED FOR AMERICA"

Today's mainstream-press darling is CJ Pearson of Grovetown, Georgia, a thirteen-year-old African-American who's made a name for himself (with some professional help) by releasing a series of YouTube videos that mostly consist of right-wing boilerplate. In his latest video, Pearson attacks President Obama for inviting Ahmed Mohamed to the White House -- to the delight of The Washington Post ("This Ted Cruz booster is 13, black, and just shredded Obama on clock kid"), as well as Time , USA Today , and a number of local media outlets.

The Post gushes:
“Mr. President,” [Pearson] began, speaking with a Southern twang. “When Kate Steinle was gunned down by an illegal immigrant, you didn’t do anything. You didn’t even call the family. You didn’t invite them to the White House. Is that okay? I don’t think so, Mr. President.”

Twenty seconds had gone by -- but CJ was just getting warmed up.

“When cops are being gunned down, you don’t invite their family to the White House,” he said. “You never did.”

This was just the set-up. Then came the punch.

“When a Muslim kid builds a clock?” CJ said. “Well, come on by. What is this world that you are living in?”

As smoothly as a seasoned commentator three or four times his age, CJ then pivoted. He pointed out that it took Obama longer to lower the White House flags to half-staff than it did to light 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with rainbow colors after the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. He blamed Obama for the immigration policies that allowed Steinle’s killer in the country. He blamed Obama for rules that prevented Marines from carrying their own firearms in Chattanooga. He said Obama was trying to appease “domestic terrorists” -- that is, Black Lives Matters protesters.



Pearson's backstory is that he became well known in some circles for -- as the Post story puts it -- "another video critical of Obama." In fact, it was a video accusing Obama of "downright hatred for America" and "downright hatred for this nation." (Go to 1:03 in the video for those phrases.)



Almost immediately, Pearson demonstrated a genius for grabbing media attention. He was twelve when he made the first video, and he claimed that Facebook banned him for the content of this video rather than because he was underage. (He's back on Facebook now.) Subsequently, he received some harassing messages on Twitter, pursued legal action, and -- hey presto! -- made his first appearance on Fox News. By that time he'd connected with a firm called Vice and Victory that "assist[s] CJ with managing his online presence." I'm assuming Vice and Victory is responsible for this impressively slick homepage, complete with a logo that's better than some of the ones used in this year's presidential campaign:



I also assume Vice and Victory has something to do with Pearson's ability to get all those media hits.

Now, why is Pearson so upset about Ahmed Mohamed's White House invitation? Perhaps because, in a June 23 video, he asked the president to invite him to the White House, and he's never gotten a call back.



In this video, Pearson says he wants to tell the president about his "vision" for America -- but I've watched several of his videos and I have no idea what the hell his "vision" is.

The Post story would have you believe it's a nonpartisan vision:
If Ahmed -- a young man of color embraced by the White House for its own reasons -- is a political prop, isn’t CJ?

“Not at all,” CJ wrote. “At the end of the day, I’m not beholden to the Republican Party. They don’t own me and they never will. My political involvement is based on fighting for the conservative principles I believe in and fighting for the future of my generation.”
Pearson is "not beholden to the Republican Party"? That's odd, given the fact that one of his videos is titled "Why I'm Proud to Be a Republican."



In this video, he rattles off a few phrases that suggest what he actually stands for ("limited government, personal responsibility, equal opportunity") -- but most of the clip is Pearson telling us what he's against.
Conservative values have made this nation what it is today, and liberal values and the liberal agenda has turned this nation into someplace where we just don't want to be at this time. We're going down a dark, dark path, and it's time that we found ourselves on the right path once again. Like I said, I had the option -- my parents are Democrats, they wanted me to think their way, but I just couldn't, because I wasn't going to endorse failure. I wasn't going to endorse the failed liberal agenda, and I wasn't going to buy into the liberal plantation.... Republicans here, we have an agenda, an agenda that we stand by, that we fight by, and we will defend until we can't defend anymore. As far as Democrats, they seek to divide us all, to pit class warfare against the rich and the poor, blacks against the whites, Hispanics against everyone else. They seek to tear us apart so they can take over. But I will not allow it.
I'm giving him a hard time, but for a kid his age, Pearson is smart and ambitious. I hope someday he finds something worth living for that's bigger than "liberals suck."

13 comments:

theHatist said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Steve M. said...

Sorry! I really didn't mean to delete that comment, and Blogger still won't let you undo deletes.

You mentioned Jonathan Krohn, a young conservative who abandoned the right a few years after he was feted by the wingnuts.

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/07/cpacs-boy-wonder-is-all-grown-up-078068

Pearson actually calls Krohn out for abandoning conservatism in the "Why I'm Proud to Be a Republican" video (at about 3:35). I'd love to hear Krohn's response to that....

gocart mozart said...

This kid is going places. If he plays his cards right, Trump might even invite him to be his personal shoe shine boy. If he hasn't already done so, he should throw in some "Slavery wasn't so bad for black people" and "BLM are the real racists." If you're going to sell out, might as well get a good price.

Steve M. said...

he should throw in some "Slavery wasn't so bad for black people" and "BLM are the real racists."

I think he's got some of that. (I didn't watch the YouTube video where he bashes Al Sharpton.)

Feud Turgidson said...

I remember Alan Keyes - so weird.

I'm old enough to remember Jackie Robinson trying to 'be' Republican. He figured since he 'defeated' the white bigots in MLB, then he was the Right One to take on the white bigoted establishment right where it voted. Turned out, not quite so easy.

If I'm some young little teen exhibitionist looking for YouTube clicks, this is one way to work the scam. Doesn't even require the least talent or effort, whereas even "Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian" requires talent.

BTW, besides Betty Bowers not being Best at Christian, she's not Christian at all, nor even American - hell, she's not even a Betty or a Bowers! Fans of this young black storm-fronter may wish to consider he's in a very long tradition of people saying stuff that's not just not believable but even they themselves don't believe. In the animal world, it's called "displaying".

Belvoir said...

There's something ghastly about these stunts with kids being told what to say by the right-wing Republicans. Children who don't even know what they're talking about. There's something obscene and abusive about it, making kids parrot the bitterly meanspirited soul of the cheap, stingy, racist and war-loving Republican party. It's awful and shameful, using kids like that to parrot shit about corporate tax rates, as if a child knows fuck all about any of that. I mean, really? Bonus fake points that it's an African-American kid weirdly in love with Republican policies, I guess? UGH it is ferociously so weird, fake, a staged stunt. Child abuse, basically. It would be great to find out who's behind it, and SHAME them.

M. Bouffant said...

Does the little weasel even understand the difference between shootings/wrongful arrests by police who are seldom held accountable & random or purposeful violence by crazy people who aren't bearing arms under color of authority? (And who shouldn't have guns or maybe even sharp objects to begin w/.)

I just hope he doesn't wear hoodies or go places where he "doesn't belong". He might be in for a sad surprise some day.

giantslor said...

Kid's got a great hustle. Conservatives want so bad to think that young black people will suddenly turn to conservatism, they'll probably give this kid a lot of money to stroke their delusions.

Roger said...

Justin Wm. Moyer could benefit from a few lessons in remedial reporting. Or he could read this post.

"'It isn’t everyday you see a 12 year old black kid articulately advocating for conservative principles on the internet,' wrote one commentator on the conservative Web site Redstate.com."

What, does Pearson take his videos down on the Sabbath?

Glennis said...

Ho hum. Bristol Palin, only smarter.

Glennis said...

You do have to wonder at the self-involvment of someone who says, in essence, "I've become famous for attacking everything President Obama does and believes in, so why doesn't he invite me over?"

Unknown said...

(not the previous unknown)

So what does it say about us Americans that we celebrate a kid prodigy right-wing pundit more than a kid prodigy engineer? (And what would a modern Mozart have done under these circumstances?)

Matt Osborne said...

Ali Akbar is even worse than this post suggests. He's a petty felon with convictions in Texas and a long history of running exactly the sort of fraudulent nonprofits that Lois Lerner was looking for.