General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo Empathy, Only Anger - Those seeking to support Trump's party line need an excuse for their months
of denial and deceptionand theyve found it.https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trumps-dangerous-party-line/608383/
On the evening of June 21, 1941, American Communists went to bed subject to one party line. At the sun set, Britain was fighting an imperialist war against Germany, about which the United States must remain neutral. American Communists awoke on June 22, 1941, to discover the party line abruptly changed. Hitler had invaded the Soviet Union. Now the war was a struggle between democracy and fascism, one the United States must immediately join.
The personalities on Fox News executed a similarly abrupt and total pivot on March 13, 2020. The Washington Post produced a stark before/after anthology of the same hosts saying precisely opposite things a few days apart. Yet the many weeks of denial have had their effect. An Economist poll released March 18 found that only 38 percent of Fox News viewers took the virus seriously, half as many as among MSNBC and CNN viewers. For Trumps sake, Fox risked the lives of its own audience.
Like the old Moscow-line Communists, the upholders of the Trump party line now need an excuse for their long history of denial and deception. They insisted it was not Trumps fault that he, and they, squandered precious weeks and that his administration is suddenly dithering and failing. No, no, Trump's failure was Chinas fault! Did video evidence contradict the Trump party line? They accused anyone who recalled the truth of repeating Chinese propaganda. The Trump party line swaps new lies for old. Whereas once the ideological enforcers called concern over the virus a hoax, now they say that its a hoax to remember they said it was a hoax.
The Atlantic has been pulled into the crosshairs of the new lies that replaced the old lies in a retweet by the president himself. In response to an article that documented how Chinas official lying had aggravated the crisis in that country, and lamented that Trumps official lying had done the same here, the presidents Twitter feed repeated a slur that The Atlantic spews communist Chinas propaganda. This from a man who as a private citizen condoned the Tiananmen Square massacre, and who as president praised the mass-murdering Kim Jong Un as one in 10,000.
Trump wants Americans to call the novel coronavirus the Chinese virus. Trumps new slogan aims at two goals......
snip
wishstar
(5,271 posts)Two goals:
"The first goal is to shift blame away from Trumps failures and onto Chinas. This goal is very unlikely to succeed. We all saw Trumps catastrophic misjudgments inflict their toll in real time. It was not the Chinese Communist Party that decided to host a cash-for-access party at Mar-a-Lago for Donald Trump Jr.s girlfriend on the weekend of March 68, when a responsible president would have already begun modeling safe behavior. It was not the Chinese Communist Party that closed trans-Atlantic aviation and made no provision to receive throngs of returning Americansexposing air travelers to hours of penned-in close contact with visibly sick people. It was not the Chinese Communist Party that urged Americans to buy stocks at the end of February, devastating the savings of anyone foolish enough to trust financial advice from Larry Kudlow, Eric Trump, or this president.
No, Trump wont succeed in shifting blame.
Its the second goal that could succeed. By revving up hate among their supporters against China, Trump and Fox can redirect those supporters rage from the dangerous target it might otherwise find: the trusted political and media figures who lied and lied and lied to them, exposing those supporters to disease and death for their own crass ends. Hate China, not me!"
BigmanPigman
(51,632 posts)That is a classic. So is this one....
Whereas once the ideological enforcers called concern over the virus a hoax, now they say that its a hoax to remember they said it was a hoax
Celerity
(43,545 posts)chat boards (especially football, aka what you call soccer.) Many STILL cling to the 'it is all a Libtard Dem hoax' bullshit line. They are incredibly aggressive and impenetrable. Thank fuck one of my main boards has banned 2 of the worst, when they went on on a gay-bash rampage (because 'the gays' travel a lot (wtf?), they said that it was us (meaning LGBTQ, not me in particular as I do not even live in the US) who brought it to the US!, ffs.)
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)Asking for a few million friends?
Suing them dead; almost as good as toilet paper!
Alacritous Crier
(3,819 posts)more unfit to be President.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)Ivanka and Jenius Jr. are planning on running for the WH in the future. They have seen how much money daddy makes while doing the "job". Plus he never has to spend a penny of his own money. Everything goes on the taxpayer bill. Mnuchin is refusing to show how much it costs the treasury for the entire tRump family travels, etc.
Wounded Bear
(58,721 posts)All the old news goes down the memory hole and makes room for the new news.