tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post2420496778558321246..comments2023-10-24T09:06:30.200-04:00Comments on No More Mister Nice Blog: Steve M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-30580157025740072042014-07-15T18:50:03.191-04:002014-07-15T18:50:03.191-04:00My first reaction was that Bier had written a reas...My first reaction was that Bier had written a reasonably balanced report, but then I asked myself why report Kerry's comments in the first place? They were made at an insignificant internal State Dept get-together, and entirely un-newsworthy. The ONLY point in reporting them is to whip up confected outrage at the lines highlighted by Bier. This has been duly carried forward on other right wing blogs, minus of course the context that Bier included in his "balanced" post. All in all a very clever bit of meme-seeding by Bier that lets him plausibly deny any bias.Ken_Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11709548046018362581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-28514298455475710592014-07-15T16:24:03.531-04:002014-07-15T16:24:03.531-04:00"Too many children are being born into econom..."Too many children are being born into economic conditions that almost guarantee failure." -Barack Obama<br /><br />See? Obama thinks too many children are being born! He is planning forced sterilizations and mandatory abortions! Pure evil! Aaackspsht! Fphrtglnshpppp! BENGHAZI!!!!RoadScholarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05328387184587639197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-37836613449570569212014-07-15T12:57:09.544-04:002014-07-15T12:57:09.544-04:00Jeryl? Really?Jeryl? Really?Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17803231988989969133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-64530187822250942122014-07-15T10:31:39.740-04:002014-07-15T10:31:39.740-04:00Makes me anti-nostalgic for the 2004 campaign when...Makes me anti-nostalgic for the 2004 campaign when Kerry's comment that we should reduce terrorism to a mere "nuisance" was trumped up into "Kerry thinks terrorism is just a nuisance!" and the word went forth to every hate-outlet to repeat that ad nauseum, which along with the Swift Boat lies resulted in a a narrow loss in Ohio and the election.<br /><br />Not sure for whom I have more contempt -- the rubes who just swallow this, or the cynics who spread it knowing its a lie.Peter Janovskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07590229306105292675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-27800705016408355562014-07-15T09:04:47.016-04:002014-07-15T09:04:47.016-04:00I've really come to read this stuff as a kind ...I've really come to read this stuff as a kind of force field of denial that the right wing puts up to prevent people from stepping out of their cocoon and even considering, for one moment, that the people on the other side of the aisle might simply be fellow citizens trying to do a job. Its not just, as Victor rightly points out, that the patient is addicted to outrage and needs greater and greater doses or that the patient is going deaf and needs louder and louder shrieks to hear the message. Its also that this constnat drumbeat of "they are anti american, they are hateful, they are liars" prevents the listener from even considering the policy issues which are being fought over.<br /><br />Recently (and rather famously on our side) the Republican Student College President of Mississippi (?), a Cuban American kid, switched from Republican to Democrat. When asked why--and why not "independent" as though that were some natural halfway point--he said simply that he had gone to college and taken some courses which helped him realize that of the two parties one was more aligned with his core beliefs and the things he wanted to see done politically in this country. When he asked himself "how can I get the country to move in the right direction" (paraphrasing, not a direct quote) or, in other words, when he thought programatically instead of theologically, it became clear to him that not only could he choose to join the other party, that it would be a good idea to do so. <br /><br />This is the opposite of the kind of thinking that revels in these "gotchas" and these "secrets" that the MSM is keeping from you. But there's a long history of this kind of demonization because it works. To me its redolent of the kind of scandal sheets and attacks on the nobility in an aristocratic system--for the delectation of the peasantry there is no point arguing about the gold standard or military engagements. You just exemplify the awfulness of the current rulers by attacking Marie Antoninette as a foreigner or as a spendthrift. Which, come to think of it, is literally the meaning of the attacks on Michelle Obama as being Marie Antoninette. Personal attacks, attacks on patriotism, substitute (or as they would argue are a convenient short hand) for any actual political argument. And it has the addded benefit that it keeps the actual policy issues off the table.aimaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03956073425680585780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-64161425649134755842014-07-15T08:36:29.722-04:002014-07-15T08:36:29.722-04:00Rage junkies, always needing ever increasing amoun...Rage junkies, always needing ever increasing amounts of rage, to get that same high for today's "16-hour Hate."Victorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06609452382111686086noreply@blogger.com