the creation and sustainment of an outrage industry that spends millions of dollars (and countless man-hours) in the quest to destroy the lives and careers of the people it dislikes.French rails against ideologues who spend their days
looking for that “gotcha” moment, the word or phrase that proves “the bad man really is bad.”French sees fakery in the response to Carlson's old clips:
... no one is really hurt.... Instead, the atmosphere is one of vengeful glee. We got him now.French regards this as a brutal form of eliminationist politics:
Once you pass the ideological threshold that renders you an enemy, you’re fair game.I'd like to point out that everything I've quoted from French's piece is true about the right's response to a New York City advisory on ... toilets. The city is urging residents to limit what they flush down toilets to bodily excretions and toilet paper -- no wet wipes, no feminine hygiene products, no cooking grease. What the city hopes to do is prevent massive sewer system clogs called fatbergs, which damage wastewater treatment facilities, cause sewer backups, and damage the environment.
Here's a perfectly reasonable social media post on the subject:
Your pipes are our business, so take it from us—Don’t pour grease down the drain and don’t flush anything that isn’t poop, pee, puke or toilet paper. It’s time for a #FatbergFreeNYC https://t.co/04WsIKKw32 pic.twitter.com/uvYa6GTusd
— NYC Water (@NYCWater) February 22, 2019
Here's a longer video, with some appalling shots of actual fatbergs, narrated by the deputy commissioner who has the thankless task of coping with these problems:
Asking residents to give some thought to this matter doesn't seem like an imposition on the city's part. But the right hates New York City's mayor. So here's the New York Post in outrage mode:
Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken the concept of a Nanny State to a whole new level — instructing New Yorkers about what they can and cannot flush down their toilets.Here's a post at Sean Hannity's website:
LIBERAL PRIORITIES: Forget Amazon, De Blasio Issues Instructions on Proper Use of NYC’s TOILETSHere's the right-wing site The American Mirror:
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio left millions of New Yorkers scratching their heads Tuesday evening; posting bizarre instructions for the proper use of toilets in apartments and houses throughout the nation’s largest city.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is apparently concerned folks in the Big Apple don’t know how to properly use their toilets, so he’s offering a little advice.What the city is telling residents is not very different from what Bob Vila says; also Popular Science and FamilyHandyman.com, as well as this Texas plumbing contractor and this plumbing and heating company in Georgia. Good Housekeeping agrees that feminine hygiene products shouldn't be flushed, as do the makers of Kotex and Tampax products.
In other words, this isn't a liberal conspiracy to control every aspect of Americans' lives.
The right-wingers admit that the plumbing problem is real -- the New York Post and American Mirror pieces quoted above go on to describe fatbergs in gory detail.
But the key point is in the headlines and ledes: Liberalism is evil. Liberals are insane totalitarians. They must be demonized. Their careers must be destroyed.
*****
UPDATE: A Twitter follower posts this:
Time-tested advice!
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