Last article was a case study of how the media uses experts and studies to push its agenda. However, that is but one tactic used to sway opinion. The second is their unfettered ability to set the center of the discussion.
In football, “setting the edge” is a term used to describe setting the bounds of the “pocket” where the quarterback can move during a play. The defensive player uses leverage to move the offensive blocker in the proper direction, and the quarterback is contained inside by the defensive player. In essence, the defensive player has shrunk the field accessible to the quarterback.
In politics, the same thing occurs. Most of us are familiar with the Overton window, the bounds of acceptable discourse within society. The media are masters of “setting the edge” in a way that favors their agenda. By containing the public perception of events within certain bounds, the media grabs Orwellian control over the way that politics can be discussed.
There is a psychological theory called price bracketing, where a seller offers two versions of a product to consumers. The first version is the basic version (e.g. a base model car). The second version is the premium version (e.g. a car with option packages). Consumers will buy a certain amount of the basic version (let’s say 60% of total sales) and a certain amount of the premium version (40% of total sales). However, we’re evil greedy Glibertarians, so we want to make more money, which means selling more of the premium version. Being evil and having thumbed through the latest Psychology Today, we decide to try out this price bracketing thing. In order to do that, we introduce a third version of the product on the market, a super-premium version (e.g. a car with all the option packages and even more). Then, we price it so that it’s a poor value in comparison to the premium version. After a few months, we look back at the sales and see that they have changed significantly. Now consumers are buying less of the basic version (let’s say 25% of total sales), sales of the premium version have skyrocketed (70% of total sales), and a few rubes are buying the super-premium version (5% of total sales).
People want to feel like they’re getting a good deal, and you can trick them into thinking they’re getting a good deal by offering them a choice of a comparatively worse deal. The same trick can be played in the political realm.
Bracketing in the Political Context
Isn’t this how it always works out? You have two talking heads on the show, radical SJW leftist professor on one split screen, and establishment Republican think tank fellow on the other split screen. The show’s host sits in between, moderating the bloodbath. This is classic bracketing. In the eyes of the media, you have the basic version of political ideology (establishment Republican) and the super-premium version (the SJW leftist), and you have the bracketed premium version (the progressive leaning host). Inside the average person’s head, they’re thinking “Well, I want something better than the basic version, and the super-premium version costs too much, but that host is asking reasonable questions and making reasonable points.” Slowly, but surely, the culture shifts leftward as the sympathies of the media are ingrained into society.
Contributors as Intellectuals
People tend to defer to those that they find smart. It’s a shortcut we take that’s probably baked into our DNA. Our tribal instincts say “don’t waste your time reinventing the wheel, trust the egghead.” There’s a certain authority that comes with being deemed an intellectual. There’s also a certain condescending attitude. “Well ayctually” seems to be their verbal tic these days. This affectation seems to work because the arguments promulgated by these talking heads spread like wildfire. Their on-air preening signals to the audience that they and their opinions are important.
Cable news networks are notorious for exploiting this natural human deference to intellectual authority. Every segment starts like this: “We’d like to welcome Dr. Ukunwe Selekala, senior research professor of East African Postmodern Banjo Studies at St. Jemima’s-Maple Tap, Vice President of Aboriginal Affairs for the Southern Tennessee Coalition for Crisis Action, and author of a new best-selling book, ‘Twangs of Heart Strings: The Lasting Impact of Colonialism in East Timor.’ Dr. Selekala, thanks for coming on. My first question is why do state governments act in such a racist manner when they’re confronted with their Confederate heritage?”
The fact that is lost in all of the preening and groveling is that “Dr. Selekala” is no more qualified to talk about state politics RE: Confederate heritage than you or I. He’s a puppet, placed on the screen to parrot a predictable opinion with an air of intellectual authority. His last three research papers have been on Saharan ancestral music, and his book is an unreadable and poorly researched emotional screed. However, he’s a radical leftist, and he anchors the conversation in one direction. On the other side is either a withering establishment moderate or a conservative held on a very tight leash by the host. Neither talking head has any experience that is relevant to the conversation, but they play their parts and the unsuspecting viewers are pulled in by the intellectual authority signaled to them by both sides. 
Success in the Small Things
When viewed in the big picture, it seems a bit outlandish to assert that the media can drag people kicking and screaming to a new opinion. However, they don’t need to move the whole mountain. They can move it one grain at a time. Merely mixing a lie/mischaracterization/biased statement in with an otherwise completely objective statement can sway viewers. If you do this repeatedly, the lie becomes truth to the viewers. Irma is the most powerful hurricane ever in the Atlantic (except it isn’t)
Part of our perception that the media is going nuts is the fact that they’re doubling down on their injection of lies and half-truths into the conversation. They have lost control of the populace, and they’re trying to get it back the only way they know how, through rigging the debate in their favor. The only problem is that once you load the die too much, it becomes obvious that it’s off-balance.
Part 3 of this series will tie a neat bow on things by explaining how public opinion polling is a complete sham and how the media uses polls to sway their viewers’ opinions.
Comments
278 responses to “How to Craft a Narrative, Part 2: Setting the Center of Discussion”
Well, when they spent so much time calling people on the right literally Hitler prior to the election, there was really nowhere else to go after Trump won.
If helicopter Twitter is to be believed, the next stop after literally Hitler is Pinochet.
That’s tarded.
Well, yeah, it’s Twitter.
Helicopter Twitter? They’re just angling for a jobs program.
Well if you’re actually honest about the Nolan chart Hitler’s full authoritarian while being somewhat over in the left-wing quadrant, while Pinochet is still pretty high on the authoritarian level but is nestled firm over in the right-wing quadrant. So he’s ‘worse’ if you’re the kind of person who considers ‘right-wing’ to be the ultimate slur.
But the idiot left thinks Hitler was far-right. Never mind that his political statements read like a Bernie Sanders speech if you strip out the Jew-hate.
No need to strip it out, just rephrase it as the (((1%))).
Once you go Hitler, you never go back?
Once you go Reich nothing else feels right.
“Don’t be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party!”
When you enjoyed the monopolistic benefit of not only picking what would be news and wouldn’t and then got to spin it to favor the narrative your indoctrinated and stupid ass thinks will help the rubes finally see the benefit of a massive top down marixist paradise, losing that power will cause you to get peeved. Especially after you have spent a few decades as the mouthpieces of a political party while shutting down anyone daring to dissent with the good-think by basically labeling them as something vile. The problem with this approach is that the wolf crying, especially since it is practically always false and intended to kill any discussion that would destroy the feelings of the good-thinkers with those pesky facts and that annoying logic, will eventually not only lose its power, but create people that out of resentment will root for anyone willing to tell the dnc operatives with bylines that they are lying fucks.
That’s exactly what happened with immigration. Both the Democrats and Republicans dithered and whenever someone did try to discuss immigration and actually enforcing our laws, they were called racists and the discussion was immediately shut down.
I’m so thankful to the advent of the internet for breaking their monopoly. Now it is easier than ever to fact check them and find alternative sources. Just imagine modern media without us able to go to sites like Wattsupwiththat for a different perspective, or without a place like Glibs where we can make our own Overton Window.
Yup, that’s the risk with their strategy. If you don’t agree with the furthest, most radical aspects of the ideology, you’re a racist Nazi homophobe. Well, guess what? The further and harder you push, the more people will say, “Ok, pal, I’m a racist Nazi homophobe, now fuck off,” because the tent of Deplorables has become so big that it houses a lot of people who seem comparatively reasonable.
As Adam Carolla has observed: There has never been a better time to be an actual racist, because you are now hidden in and amongst the masses of people who get labeled as racist for no reason every day.
Does anyone else think this is weird if they’ve had a similar experience. I had never in my life before ever seen a Nazi with armbands and all of that, ever. More than 50 years on this planet and never even once. Now? They’re every fucking where. I can’t even go to Youtube without it being every other video with Nazis in full uniform, getting punched by brave freedom fighters. Something is not right here.
You’re being influenced by clicking on HM’s Youtube links.
But for the fact that the guy looked like he’d been knocked out cold, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out this was a false flag operation (false armband?).
Crazy fuckers who realize they’re not getting what they want will do all sorts of crazy fucking things to get their own way.
There’s not much airspace between faking some NAZI excrement on a dorm door, and wearing a NAZI armband and conveniently being filmed on youtube.
Lastly – from what I know of neo Nazis, they love authentic regalia. That armband looked new, and ‘modern’ in design – although that might not be an issue.
As Z quoted, the radical left has made the David Dukes and Richard Spencers of the world look tame by comparison.
People, mostly young people with bad haircuts, are loudly proclaiming that if you’re a white person or a heterosexual man your very existence is racist or sexist. If you don’t acknowledge that there are 74 different genders and pretend that Caitlin Jenner is actually a woman, you’re an oppressive shitlord, and holding those beliefs is the same thing as physically attacking people. The people who are claiming to hold the moral high ground revel in disgusting behavior, cause riots, destroy property, attack people with bear spray and padlocks, and generally behave like repulsive, spoiled vandals. Worse, perhaps, they loudly proclaim the justice of their behavior and tell anyone that doesn’t toe the line that they’re fascists.
To paraphrase Sargon of Akkad, when one group of people claims that white people are under attack, and you attack them because they’re white, what do you think that does to their argument? Antifa and the like differ from the “mainstream” Progressives only in degree; they’re coming from the same philosophical place. The increasing boldness of Progressives in the public eye has effectively taken the alt-right from a few people in Internet forums to a growing political force, and it’s precisely because they’re effectively proving them right.
I have. To be fair though he was on his way to a class that was going to reenact an event that needed him to dress like an SS officer. Don’t ask me why he made a detour to Target dressed like that…
Damn fine article. You are the Rene (Descartes) of refuse.
olet ergo sum
Unthinkable – “Grab ’em by the pussy”
Radical – “Only Rosie O’Donnell”
Acceptable – “We came, we saw, he died”
Sensible – “I gave the least untrue answer possible”
Popular – “To be sure…”
Policy – “Bake the fucking cake”
A really great article and one of the reasons why I don’t watch or trust anything from the media.
This article reminded me of the Rand Paul/Rachel Maddow interview when Paul ( who explicitly said he abhors racism in any form) said that while he may not agree with a business owner denying someone service based on their race, he argued that we ought to have the freedom to associate with whomever we want. Instead of her arguing his point she instead went on a bender and called him a racist who would bring back Jim Crow.
While she failed to note that Jim Crow was imposed by the State and opposed by business. Maybe she should read the original case of Plessy v. Ferguson
Almost always overlooked, and one of my pet peeves. Jim Crow laws were compulsory. They did not allow segregation, they forced segregation.
She doesn’t has to because Rhodes.
Maddow is the ultimate representation of credentialism over actual intelligence in the American media. Despite the constant calls of “RHOOOOOOOOOOOODES SCHOLAR” and people demanding she be called ‘doctor’ she has never shown herself to have any kind of well-developed or rational views that warrant any kind of respect.
I mean, when you constantly try to pretend that ‘trickle down economics’ is an actual economic concept despite no economist ever actually arguing it as a concept, you’re an idiot.
Whenever someone uses that term, it’s an indicator that they are dumb or disingenuous as fuck. No one in their right mind would ever advocate cutting taxes for the wealthy only and arguing that by do so, it creates wealth. Arthur Laffer or anyone else who refers to themselves as supply siders would never ever advocate for such a thing.
I used to be friends on FB with one of my teachers from junior high and she was arguing that the Bush tax cuts only benefited the rich, and I posted on her time line that the everyone including the rich got tax cuts, so her statement was factually incorrect.
What the left means when they say shit like that is that the benefits were disproportionately enjoyed by the “rich”, the latter being a pretty flexible designation. And in a sense they’re right, because the higher your tax bracket the more income tax you pay. What they gloss over is that many, many more people owe no income tax at all. If I’m in a room with another person, and I’m receiving hourly kicks in the balls while the other guy isn’t getting any at all, then cutting the room’s ball kicking by 50% will obviously benefit me more than him.
I don’t remember any Bush tax cuts. Bush had a tax rebate, and only for people making under 87K. Should have asked her how much rebate she got and if she refused to take it.
It is true though that if you were poor you paid no income tax and therefore could not get a rebate on something you didn’t pay in the first place. I guess people making 40K are “rich” in the eyes of the typical nitwit pedagogue.
Well, there’s also a dishonesty in equating “cutting tax rates” with “cutting taxes.” I posted some charts and graphs about this a few months back with the actual data, but liberals continue to believe that Reagan cut taxes and reduced social spending, and conservatives continue to believe that Reagan cut taxes and reduced social spending.
“Trickle down” and “Reaganomics” are the favored pejoratives of Thom Hartmann, who makes Maddow seem like an honest and intelligent young man.
I don’t like making fun of people for looking like a stereotype, but she does look a little like Harry Potter’s spiteful cousin, doesn’t she?
I’ve had to have this conversation so many times with leftists. ‘TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!’. Me: But the lowest earners got the biggest cuts in the Bush tax cuts. ‘ONE PERCENTER! LIES!’. Me: Look it up. ‘YOU CONS LIE!’. Me: Never mind.
And I hate Maddow with a passion. She is loaded with accolades and degrees and argues in such a disingenuous way that she’s not even dumb. She’s evil. Like Ivy Starnes evil.
She’s a leftist and fugly butch dyke. That’s a perfectly legit equal to intelligence in lefty land. If you put all of these people together on one planet which was an exact clone of earth, in the United states, in complete control of everything with no dissent, no kulaks or wreckers, they’d all be grubbing for roots and berries for basic subsistence in less than a century. I’m not even trying to be sarcastic, I truly believe that.
She got punked out by Nick Gillespie on Bill Maher’s show. I think that speaks to her weak intellectual abilities
Anyone that has to whip out their degree and go “SEE! YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO MEEE!!” obviously doesn’t deserve the degree.
HEY I’M A DOCTOR. LISTEN TO ME!
I am a doctor, I know what you need
It’s the same shit with Jon Oliver – “He’s not just a comedian – he went to Cambridge!”
There’s nothing quite so illuminating as seeing these “well credentialed thought leaders” on their soapboxes, demonstrating their intellectual acumen, night after night.
She needs to return that Scholarship. Does she even know who Cecil Rhodes is?
OMG! The image of Rachel Maddow having to discuss her Rhodes Scholarship with like Winnie Mandela or someone on national television makes me squeal with delight.
Somewhat related: I was listening to news radio this morning on the way to work, and there was a short piece on a new, nonpartisan outfit that has been put together by a left-leaning movie director and conservative pundit to get to the bottom of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The newsreader must’ve said “nonpartisan” three or four times. Who were these two brave servants, one from the right and one from the left, offering to help our hurting nation get to the bottom of this important issue? Rob Reiner and David Frum. Thus, the bracketing, and creation of a narrative that this is a level-headed outfit searching for truth. I knew when the newsreader started talking that Frum would be the conservative.
Frum is like a less likable Alan Colmes, if that is even possible.
We’ll take Frum back if you elect Secret Canadian Ted Cruz to the Presidency and Our Plans can begin.
I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for you yokels and that damn billionaire!
We can wait, Vhyrus, we can wait. We’ve plotted for decades, what’s a few years more?
I say Trump is deported the wrong people to the wrong border. All canucks should be forcibly removed
I-it’s not like I like you Canadians or anything, b-baka!
Why does that anime character have her top on?
Deport the icebacks!
You’re projecting again, JT.
Don’t be silly. The Canukistani jokes are not signs of hidden affection.
We insult everyobdy.
Fuck that, kuudere 4Lyfe yo.
We should build the northern wall first, so we have to catapult them back over.
Back off, Canucks. It’s us Russians who install Presidents in this country.
OH! You’re a Russian?
Look, it’s a bear, duh! Did you think he’s from California or something? There are no libertarians from California.
He could be a shitposting Australian!
Maybe he’s from Alaska and can see Russia from his cave!
Get off Sarah Palin’s porch! Oh shit… I just realized how Palin must be involved with the Russians too. How has the media missed this one?
The bear is from Alaska, i.e., historically Russian America.
Anna Navarro, David Brooks, Max Boot, … They do that crap all the time. I’d love to see a new Crossfire: Fuck off, Slaver! vs Racist!
I still have no idea where this Anna Navarro person came from. She just sort of instantly started appearing everywhere billed as a conservative/Republican pundit, and yet she doesn’t seem to have much in the way of opinions beyond “TRUMP BAD!”
She comes from the same laboratory that David Brooks and Jennifer Rubin comes from;
they’re people hand-picked by media to serve as ciphers for what lefties imagine represents “acceptable conservative opinion”.
never mind that there’s not a conservative outside Manhattan who actually looks at David Brooks and thinks, “That’s my kind of guy”.
what’s hilarious is that they all seem to be based on a template from the 1980s, of “Regan-supporting Jews”. Basically people who were never particularly ‘conservative’ to begin with, but who were anti-communist and support Israel. actual Neocons, basically.
Well, to be fair, rarely outside of Manhattan do you find the kind of perfectly creased pants that set Brooks’ heart aflutter.
Navarro probably came from a casting agency.
Not only is Max Boot a shithead, who has a more shithead name?
Ben Shapiro
@benshapiro
Oh good, Meathead is on the case https://twitter.com/woodruffbets/status/910139154004107264 …
9:56 AM – Sep 19, 2017
I’m not in alignment with some of Shapiro’s policy views, but what I like about him is that he’s too quick witted and intelligent for most leftists and fearlessly mops the floor with them, making them look like compete dunces.
I’d like him more if he used sign language.
I loved this:
Max Cady @TPD1990 2h2 hours ago
Replying to @woodruffbets
@realDonaldTrump ‘s goose is really cooked now that Meathead is on the case. Who else is runnng the investigation? Dean Wormer? Monty Burns?
Europe is on top of this
Fascism? That word doesn’t mean what they
thinkclaim it means.Actually i think i’m wrong; that’s actually from Canada.
I particularly like how American “Democrats” are positioned on the middle-right, and that “less govt, individual initiative” etc. is associated with “Fascism”
Free-market Capitalism aligned with Fascism, huh? This must be an import from the Mirror Universe.
“Did you sign the petition? Then you’re obviously a fascist”
– Nick Sarwark
I think that the concept involved in that diagram is wrong. It makes no difference whether it’s fascism or communism, or some watered-down variant of either one, it’s still authoritarianism. And it still leads to the same ends. The characteristics differ, but whether it’s Pinochet or Chavez, Stalin or Hitler, the result is imprisonment, torture or death to anyone who dares to defy the State or its machinations.
I also note that nowhere in there is a place for libertarians. Perhaps that’s by design.
Well, as far as graphical representations go, it’s like asking “Tea or coffee? Which drink tastes more like banana?”
Just as you’d expect for Europe, providing ‘relative level of individualism’ as a degree of freedom isn’t acceptable, because it’s a choice you’re not permitted to make.
Do you want spam, spam and eggs? or spam, eggs and spam?
*has fevered visions of Wehrmacht troops goose-stepping along and singing “lovely spam, glorious spam…*
Did you even look at the diagram? Libertarians are fascist by definition /Salon
BHAHAHA! The Republicans as very closely aligned with free markets and laissez faire! Oh that’s a good one.
The funny thing is, the list of concepts on the right side sounds really good. And is the most anti-fascist list I have ever seen.
That’s tarded.
Another great article, trsh. Have you read anything by Cialdini? I’m slowly working through his second book. Really liked the first book.
Nice job. Love your contributions.
MSM is shit.
Sort of related: a regular customer at work was teasing me at work. He was having a conversation with a coworker about PBS, and when I passed by he said, “Slammer watches PBS I’m sure *wink wink*”.
I said, “I wouldn’t be caught dead watching that garbage.”
A prog customer standing there had her face full of horror and revulsion when I said it. She blurted out, “What? Are you serious? They have such a wide variety of shows and opnions and are so informative!! You never watch??”
I said, “Very infrequently, and only if it’s something to do with music history…otherwise it’s Propagand Broadcasting Service.”
She stormed away with disgust and shock. I gotta be careful at work
Get a job where you can’t be fired.
” Oh please, dear? For your information, the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint. “
PBS isn’t nearly as bad as CNN and most other outlets have become. I think the News Hour is somewhat even handed. Plus they use to have the McLaughlin Group, which somewhat tilted right, since John McLaughlin had that disposition. And they use to have William F. Buckley’s Firing Line.
They’ve got their finger on the pulse of the Republican party.
Cnn and wapo are the two worst that used to be somewhat credible
WaPo is basically Pravda for the Democratic Party. The New York Times, in all of its disgraceful glory, is the mouthpiece for the quasi-socialist progressive movement. Both publications are not to be taken seriously.
CNN is a national laughingstock at this point.
Yea agreed on wapo but they appear to be going more cnn to way of the tabloid
I remember they both were sort of moderate-left, the Bill Clintons of the national media, but I think the high of the Obama presidency followed by the crushing withdrawal of the Trump election have pushed both all the way into lunacy.
Yea it was like a complete swing and over compensating for them
Anyone read a new issue of the New Republic (I mean this rhetorically, as obviously no one would ever read the New Republic)? They have gone from centrist Democrat to full-on Stalin apologist socialist. What a disgrace
so, in other words, they became The Nation Jr.
This. A great deal of the hysteria currently is a product of the one-two punch of the Obama-Trump Presidencies. The 2008 election elevated the left to the point where they thought they were untouchable, that even with some missteps they would remain in some degree of permanent control forever, and that they could continue to swing further left with zero consequences whatsoever. This was also backed by cultural changes that they thought would ensure this (the shift in opinion on gay marriage, for example, when all it really did is mean that suddenly Republicans largely care a lot less about it).
Then Trump pulled the rug out from under them and everything they believed was proven incorrect. It was the sudden shift from ‘undeniable power’ to relative powerless that is driving the left, who is desperate for some kind of control to indicate they ‘still got it’ (doubly so for the media, who both lean left and see themselves as cultural gatekeepers to the filthy plebs).
Good point. Its not so much Trump, its Trump right after Obama
This is also why their Maoist foot soldiers are so ready to become violent. They are losing and I don’t think enough people acknowledge this. Throughout the West, progressives and the Left in general are in retreat. They still control institutions, but this has lead to a distrust of institutions. Backed into a corner, they do what socialists have done for hundreds of years: they use violence to silence their opposition.
The central idea of ‘progress of history’ makes the left believe their ‘victory’ is inevitable. When they encounter severe pushback to what they believe is ‘progress’ it throws their entire ideology into question, and rather than to assess it it’s simply easier to lash out at what you see as ‘counter-progress’ forces.
And ironically, I could make an, admittedly Marxist argument, that a lot of Trump’s support, outside of those who just hated Clinton, is a proletarian response to a bourgeois hierarchy attempting to enforce their rigorous morality and structural oppression onto them.
“is a proletarian response to a bourgeois hierarchy attempting to enforce their rigorous morality and structural oppression onto them”
Yes and yes! My God, I agree with a Canadian. Anything is possible.
I once had a discussion with a ‘woke’ bartender who was reading some trash about identity politics and he freely admitted that the working class doesn’t buy into their BS and that it is primarily an idea pushed by rich white liberals (he was forced to concede this point). At which point I asked him: “Did you ever think that maybe identity politics is a distraction devised by the so called ‘bourgeoisie’ to distract from the plight of the proletariat”. He had an overload and could not counter.
Added to which, we’re also seeing the violence inherent in the system.
Their system.
Ha! Yeah, there’s an enormously ironic element of class warfare in the Trump election and the continuing kerfuffle, including Antifa, BLM, and all that mess. It’s not quite as cut-and-dry as blue-collar for Trump, white-collar against Trump, but there’s definitely a narrative pushed by the media and the Progs that only dumb racist white trash support Trump (or didn’t support Clinton), and that these same poor dummies are the ones who are too stupid to know that they ought to support Progressive causes.
WaPo and NYT aren’t the only culprits. Nearly every newspaper has done this. Most news articles these days read like bureaucratese.
Plummeting revenues spark the questions “How do we get young people to buy the paper or subscribe to the website?”
Their only answer is “Push far-left politics.”
And their revenue continues to plummet. Their only answer is “We didn’t push left enough.”
Bureaucratic thinking results in bureaucratic language.
And yet, the Wall Street Journal remains the most subscribed newspaper in America.
If you put a racehorse jockey in a room with a bunch of ooompa-loompas, he’s gonna look tall too.
I read somewhere that the WSJ’s subscription levels continue to fall.
They all continue to fall and every now and then I read an article by the WaPo or NYT screaming that the Wall Street Journal has become a ‘pro-Trump publication’ on its editorial page. Anyone who has ever read the Wall Street Journal editorial page (which would require a reading level about grade 11, therefore disqualifying most of the Left) would realize that they remain committed to the same crony capitalist endeavors: more war, more immigration, and freer markets (but, keep the Fed).
I agree with them 50% of the time. Which is still better than how often I agree with the WaPo and NYT
The WSJ never asked themselves how to get younger people to read or subscribe to the content, they’ve always tried to appeal with money to invest.
The WSJ practically thrives on being the trial balloon floater of the Fed.
The sad part with WaPo is that I thought they might get better under Bezos. Instead, they started circling the bowl twice as fast.
Look, They do a good service – it provides Jeff and outlet for his proggie tendencies without endangering Amazon.
“Democracy Dies in Darkness” (dumbest tagline ever), but “Oligarchy is Hidden in the Daylight”
Alex Jones’s new site NewsWars does a nice job of making fun of that line.
Iowahawk’s slogan is much better and more accurate: Covering the important stories…..with a pillow, until they stop moving.
PBS has Rick Steve’s Europe. How could they be as bad. Watching that show is more relaxing than heroin.
The media is more useful than you think. I watch them and immediately conclude that whatever they just said is the opposite of reality.
I believe this is a variant of the “Hobson’s Choice.”
A timely and excellent piece.
I was upbraiding a cow orker today on media bias and just how worthless the media is, regarding the Pakistani/DNC Geek Squad, and had to explain the Overton Window. Well, I had to explain the Overton Window, selective reporting, media bias, the Gell-Mann Hypothesis and about 100 other things that we know far too much about.
“I never see this being talked about” quoth he, over-brimming with indignation. So I pointed him here.
I’ve gotta believe there’s a critical mass of great articles here that could be e-published.
mmmmmm. cow braids.
There Cow Orkers are out of control. You cannot just go around Orking cows! It’s 2017, mister!
Don’t you fucking misgender me, you nazi shitlord.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/09/19/revelations-of-comey-wiretapping-manafort-may-explain-uncomfortable-march-20th-congressional-answer/amp/
The lib media claimed this was watergate…I agree but not in way they think.
This time the opposition party won AND dems had a better excuse to cover their tracks unlike Nixon
“The uncomfortable aspect to this line of inquiry is Comey’s transparent knowledge of the politicized Office of the DNI James Clapper by President Obama. Clapper was used rather extensively by the Obama Administration as an intelligence shield, a firewall or useful idiot, on several occasions. Clapper is now a CNN contributor.”
Of course he is.
That’s a good read
Fun fact I was having a discussion with a prog on CNN money comment board once about taxing the rich
1. He was actually a nice guy and we didn’t name call or anything despite it being anonymous
2. Says rich don’t pay enough. I asked him what this is ….He wanted higher taxes on the rich. I asked him if 90 was good, he said no.
3. Eventually I asked what he would propose. He said a 15 percent flat rate which I sort of agree with.
Funny thing is though this would be an increase for the bottom 60 and decrease for top 15
A 15% flat tax would make my pants fit tight.
Taxes and guns, two subjects leftists are super excited to make laws over and never know any facts about.
You probably know a lot about tax and guns then.
If you knew about other subjects, you’d realize that the leftists don’t know any facts about all the other things they want to write laws about.
Ah, the Sarah Gellar effect.
I’m betting that was 15% flat on all income including investments. The perspective I often see is that the effective tax rate on high earners is very low because they shift their wealth to low/no tax burden investments instead of drawing absurdly large paychecks. So from that POV it’s a tax hike on the rich. Never mind the people who currently pay no tax.
The rate on long-term capital gains currently 15% for most, and 20% for those in the top bracket overall? This would be a tax break for almost everyone who actually pays taxes.
Obviously. The perception of tax rates and whether someone is paying their fair share is not related to actual numbers.
I cut my tax bill by making sure I didn’t flip my orphans in the same tax year.
Do orphans appreciate or depreciate? I’ve not been paying close enough the orphan market to keep track.
Well, if you but them early enough and train them right they appreciate up into their prime years.
Beyond that, I expect they would depreciate, but I work mine so hard, that when I notice a decline in the amount of hemp they’ve picked from those old ropes, I sell them to a glue factory, for a pretty good return, let me tell you …
I save the good ones and put them out to pasture for breeding purposes. By out to pasture, I mean the woods, and by breeding purposes, I mean as STEVE SMITH bait to get those awesome beast of burden genes into the orphan gene pool.
I can’t imagine the mutations that would result from multiple generations of this program! Paging SugarFree to the purple dildo courtesy phone!
I don’t think so. LT Capital gains and dividend income is already taxed at 20% for top earners
it would be a cut for people who’s income tax rate was already above 40%
If your belief is that their taxed in the realm of 0-5% combined with the emotional response to the difference between perceived rate and what was stolem by not paying the perceived 25% that everyone else does yes it seems like hike while also generously not demanding they pay as much as they should have were it not for dirty loopholes.
can i condense what you said to, “But people are dumb”?
Yes, i see that, but the reality is that ~15% is in fact what “the rich” already pay in most average circumstances
(*sure, if you eliminate many “loopholes related to deductions”, the very rich may pay less in any given single year; but many of those same deductions apply to everyone else – and importantly, are also used by everyone else – so those things can effectively be considered neutral/irrelevant for the sake of rate-estimation)
the problem with trying to ‘build the perfect tax-mousetrap’ will always be that the best system – the one that treats the vast majority in some similar way – will still allow some to escape it, provided they make enough effort. Trying to design a system that captures 100% of “The rich” without disproportionately harming “the not rich” is the main problem, and something dumb people don’t understand; most of the things they think will hurt the rich-folk by far end up hurting the average mope far worse, while still letting the rich-enough to skate.
Pretty much. It is worth remembering that the average person has no understanding of the specifics of tax policy so they may think they’re arguing for an increase when they’re quoting rates but actually arguing for cuts. Much like how the finance industry is “unregulated”.
As far the perfect mouse trap, some nerd playing a spreadsheet MMO had an observation that applies equally well to tax incentives and laws in general. “Whenever a
mechanics changelaw is proposed on behalf of‘new players’a disadvantaged class, that change is always to the overwhelming advantage of richer, olderplayerspeople.”Has ANYONE who says the “rich don’t pay enough” bothered to actually look up the data? I mean, it’s not hard to find.
Why would they do that? They already know that the rich don’t pay their fair share, because the rich have more stuff then them, which isn’t fair.
My favorite is how amorphous the terms middle class and rich are. As near as I can figure it out, the middle class can be defined as having a salary within 5% of the person complaining about the rich. You can have the same argument about working class/blue collar upbringing.
Obligatory
Ugh. Also Obligatory
Facts that clash with the narrative will be ignored.
It’s like you’re new here…
Great article Trashy. You’re spot on. Case in point:
Quote from Trump’s UN speech:
Quote from a WaPo article about the speech:
The paragraph before the highlighted quote does summarize the omitted line, but purposely omitting his preceding words changes the statement from an “if-then” to a “sure-thing.” It’s a very small -but powerful- edit.
+1 he looks black.
Righteous many? In the UN?
HAHAHAHAHA
You know who else knew how to craft a narrative…
Bob Ross?
Hans Christian Andersen?
Tom Clancy?
Sugarfree?
Not me.
David Attenborough?
Nerkish (thanks Fish) reviews social justice comics recommended for their strong female characters for kids…
…includes a series about gang rape in India.
“Is that what crippled people’s fantasies are, to have superpowers and a slightly nicer wheelchair?”
I’m going to hell for laughing at that.
Well, it’s not a wheelchair bound cripple, but there has long been Freddie Freeman, crippled boy.
Dude’s a helluva hitter for a cripple. Too bad he’s stuck with a shitty team like the Braves.
Do they still make Archie comics? Is Betty still hot?
Didn’t you hear? Archie was shot and killed protecting an openly gay democratic politician from a hateful right wing gun nut.
I am not making a word of this up.
Oh my God. This is so dumb. Veronica and Betty don’t even start kissing after Archie passes away?
So this is what progs daydream about, I take it?
They literally rub themselves raw to this shit.
Little did he know that the democratic politician murdered hookers.
Yes, old man, they still make Archie comics, but now there’s apparently some gay guy and some Muslim guy now. And Jughead is maybe gay or something?
Get off my lawn
And Betty was *ALWAYS* a TRAP.
Betty and Archie’s relationship is fundamentally dysfunctional. Veronica and Archie’s isn’t great either but they on average tend to slightly better themselves in the long run.
If your choice is a dumb bitch and a rich bitch it’s not much of a choice now is it.
So that’s why he chose the bullet.
A real pimp doesn’t have to choose.
To frame it as an either/or means you’re a beta cuck.
For anyone who’s never read it, Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes remains brilliant and timely even 50 years after it was first published.
Dear bog.
Just went to TOS (I promise, I rarely do it) and they have about 6 articles on H&R, and a total of less than 150 comments across the whole lot. I didn’t have the heart to go see how many of them were “I earned $87/hr with google”.
Maybe they should just buy Rolling Stone for their readership.
TOS already has more music articles than Rolling Stone. So sayeth Lou Reed.
Viewership and money don’t matter, they got them Kochdollars, it’ll keep the gravy train going.
Reason leans more towards the journalism tribe than the libertarian tribe. It’s not that surprising that they’d follow them into irrelevancy.
Eventually the Kochs may realize that they are not getting much bang for their bucks.
Or, worse, shriek or Tony.
At least Hank Phillips is still churning out that raw, undiluted gibberish he’s renowned for!
So, Reason.com’s following an Ayn Rand story arc?
I’ve never heard Hoover referred to as “Herb” before …
I also didn’t know that Nazi Germany existed as an entity in 1931.
Apparently Hoover was a time travelling Nazi cause he knew Germany would be defeated and went back to 1931 to cut their losses.
That is the best impersonation of BP’s ‘Random Drunk Asshole’ I have ever seen. All he needs to do now is mention Xenu and titties.
The greatest karmic justice for Reason would be a comments section inevitably just filled with mentally unbalanced people like Hihn, Hank and shriek. Unfortunately Hihn’s probably only got a couple years left in him.
With a cameo by HERCULE wossisname.
Oh, and alt-righters complaining about (((them))).
“Why’s your website a haven for anti-Semites Gillespie?”
What is dead may never die
So apparently CNN not only repeatedly steps on the rake it laid down but likes to step on it while screaming “WHAT RAKE!? THERE IS NO FUCKING RAKE RIGHT HERE!”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/politics/trump-wiretapping-manafort/index.html
Don’t interrupt them, they’re on a roll!
Everyone please send this to all your proggy friends.
Electoral College
Not sure if posted. Seems like there should be someone in between US cops shooting indescriminately and Frog cops allowing themselves to be beaten by punk terrorist wannabes.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/09/19/american-antifa-trial-france-attacking-police-graphic-video/
Something in between
I think I’ve figured this out. We let all of those guys come here, so that they’ll get shot by the fuzz. Mission accomplished.
That HAS to be the gendarmerie, unless the CRS totally lost their balls. Those guys used to be really nasty.
Of course xe is
So he gets to go to a women’s prison? How is that punishment.
Steve Smith’s sister, Triggly Puff is in there?
I presume its a popular antifa move when they get arrested to claim that they’re “Trans”, because…. well, look at Chelsea Manning? they can use the claim of their gender-identity to get media sympathy, and pretend they’re being oppressed
How bad a person does it make me that I wish, just once, that in one of these videos the police would just start shooting rubber bullets into the crowd. At eye level. In a nice, ordered line, a la the typical 18th century infantry regiment.
Well I would have been fine if the cop used real bullets on the dude that was violently assaulting him. If your going to act like an animal with rabies them you need to be put down.
Apparently someone fucked up and there is no lunch truck coming today. I also did not bring a lunch because I was told there would be a lunch truck.
As punishment for this I am not doing any work today.
Even better, they claim the truck broke down.
Still not doing any work.
Take 2 hour lunch
#FirstWorldProblems
Go out and kill your food like a man, cuck.
They don’t allow guns at work, and roadrunners are mostly bones anyway.
Pfft. Guns. Real hunting.
Of course we have to go up there and show you how men do it.
The hunter returned the next day and found the dead bear.
By being a coward and an asshole?
“You’re from Canada and he’s from New York. Neither of you are real men”
Sincerely,
The good people of the Midwest
Actually we had to come down to the Midwest to teach you how to be real men.
Forget all this “Florida Man” stuff.
Behold Connecticut Man
FWFW, I’m conflicted, Black bears are a real problem around here, and the bear/human dynamic is sufficiently unstable that I really believe kids are at risk.
So, fun fact: Grizzly bears are not usually out to eat people. If you’re attacked by a grizzly it is almost certainly out of fear or territory, so you should lie down and play dead. If a black bear attacks you, it is to eat you, and playing dead will only make his job that much easier. Fight like hell.
Black bears are actually considered more dangerous than grizzlies by many people.
It’s not until you see just how fast they move, that you really ‘get’ how outclassed you would be in an encounter. We have them walking past our house from time to time.
I don’t care that much about the local laws, when the bears are about, my M1A is within easy reach.
“Shot to death” while technically correct is not the best way to frame “killed with a bow and arrow” unless you’re trying to trigger a specific association.
If it makes you feel any better I’m stuffing my face with a Sausage and Peppers hero from the San Gennarro Feast in Little Italy.
There is nothing in the world like a good sausage and peppers sandwich
It made me want to eat another. But, sadly, I only had the one. My wife dogsits on mulberry Street, so I’ll get another tomorrow
You mean to tell me that Jimmy John’s doesn’t deliver to Boeing?
Just today, though, I’m sure.
Apparently, I say apparently a lot. I need to stop using that word so much.
Let he who actually has no verbal tic actually cast the first stone. Actually.
Oh goddammit, I could’ve written that…
Literally!
To be sure.
I say “Apparently” and “basically”… and a few other things, as a kind of shitty shorthand way to glue statements together
i don’t do this in my more-formal writing (eg. work / communications with friends/family) or in speech at all. its something specific to ‘internet commentary’ which falls in a weird space between casual speech and writing.
My comments are very casual. I think I write here in a way that is very close to how I speak with friends.
That’s true for me too.
… except I don’t have any friends….
So I went to the nazi party of America website once and their economic and environmental platform read like a prog wet dream essentially
Trump should tweet “I condemn neo national socialists (neo nazi of America) which are racist aryan progressives”
He could simply ‘duck season rabbit season’ them by reading off their points, getting a bunch of them to agree and then going “WHOS THE NAZI NOW, BIAATTTCCHHH!!?!”
That’s what I did in late university, I got the 1932 NSDAP platform and replaced ‘German’ with ‘citizen’ and got rid of references to the Treaty of Versailles. Lots of positive response by lefties.
Mussolini was expelled from the Italian Socialist Party for his foreign policy views. They never had any complaints about his domestic policy ideas.
There are times when I absolutely love me some Donald Trump. Today is one of those times.
President Donald Trump: The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. (long pause) From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venuzela, wherever socialism or communism has been adopted it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure.
+1 Stopped clock, blind squirrel+nuts, etc
Read the Whole thing, you may be wrong
Honest to god, how can you hate this man? How can you dislike the only person in power that tells the stone cold truth without any sugarcoating bullshit?
I don’t hate him – in fact, sometimes I have to remind myself that he’s no more of a Top Man, worthy of leading us, than any of the other deadbeats, morally bankrupt douchenozzles who want to control our life.
Sometimes, I have to stop myself from falling into “politics-as-baseballism”.
What I like about him is he isn’t really a top men technocratic type. And icing on the cake is he drives those type of folks bonkers
I didn’t mean you specifically I just meant it as general rhetoric.
It’s a sensitive issue for me. Being British, I still crave the thrill of being told what to do by a stern authoritarian.
In that case bring me a beer and then fuck right off.
They have women in tight leather suits you can pay for that kind of service.
Thatcher and Reagan would have said it 30 years ago. Other than Viktor Orbán and few others in Eastern Europe, no other national leader has the balls to make that statement today.
Cause it is what they want
What’s not too like about a prez who cuts regulations like no one ever has, tries to do more but pussy Congress gets in the way, says things like this, totally mocks PC, stopped Hillary Clinton from ever being POTUS, and wants to give us a massive tax cut? Come on, libertarians, when are we going to get better? When Rand wins maybe, not until then.
Brooks, Navarro, Rubin, frum etc are ways for media outlets to claim they represent views across spectrum while at the same time appealing to lefty audience by trashing trump/GOP and shilling for liberal policies. No actual content on conservativism from them
A counter example to this is Juan Williams at Fox News
IDK what to make of Juan. He goes from token liberal to TDS patient to calm and reasoned every single day.
Yea but he isn’t… pretend to be a liberal while shill for GOP policies and just trash democrats
His arguments are still reasonable, even when I disagree with him. Frum and Navarro are nut cases. If they want a Never Trump Republican there are far more rational characters: Ben Shapiro, Rich Lowery or pretty much anyone from National Review
Navarro is a democrat though.
She claims otherwise and supported Jeb! in the primaries
I think she was just a strategist for Jeb!
Impressive resume, then.
But see, Shapiro especially isn’t controllable and has a lot of kooky ideas from those crazy libertarians (ignoring foreign policy). We don’t want real conservatives, we want squishes!
In other words GOP who act like liberals?
Trump was the only GOP leader to have balls to pull out of Paris
“IDK what to make of Juan.”
Not bright but at least civilized.
Clean and articulate?
Dave or Jennifer Rubin (Or Robert)?
Damn political climate. Full of (((those people)))
Jennifer. Is she related to Dave?
Let me answer your question with a question.
Have you ever seen both of them iin a room together?
Exactly. I rest my case.
Honestly, I still think of the actress Jennifer Rubin when I see that name, not the hag from WaPo. As a connoisseur of bad cable movies from the ’80s and ’90s, I have fond memories of her and Patsy Kensit getting in on in “Bitter Harvest”.
I hope trump pardons Tim kaines son as a sign of solidarity, unity and bipartisanship
Jennifer Rubin seems unhinged to me. I wonder if it iAd an act?
Like I kind of think krugman is playing a part as well.
Just because someone is *playing* the part or “Ruprecht, the Dog-Faced Imbecile”, doesn’t mean they aren’t “Ruprecht, the Dog-Faced Imbecile”.
Same goes for Krugman.
I can’t wait for the inevitable melt down of the left over Trump’s excellent comments about socialism. 97% of Americans want socialism! And every other civilized country already has it! Everyone knows that Venezuela is state capitalism! This Nazi president must be stopped now!
Also, has the Hat ever said covfefe? I has a disappoint if not.
Clutch those pearls, baby! We can’t have people going around insulting the fat kid!
Susan Glasser
@sbg1
President just threatened to ‘totally destroy’ another country and mocked its leader at UN. Just take a moment to reflect on that.
10:57 AM – Sep 19, 2017
Wow.
Trump made a threat to destroy NK if they attack us or allies, which is pretty reasonable.
People are dumb.
Apparently it’s not OK to reflect on NK saying the same thing last week.
Of course, I, being me, look at the loaded dice illustration, and see the prominent “Warning: Choking Hazard” advisory, and all I can think of is, “Choking hazard- if you try rolling these dice in the wrong company, you’re liable to get the living shit choked out of you.”
What can I say? I am… unserious.
Whereas I was trying to figure out where they’d put the weights in the second die to ensure they came up with 2 or 6 ( or 5/1)
Is anyone listening to the MSM anymore? Paying attention to polls? I find it hard to believe anyone would be that naive.
“Cable news networks are notorious for exploiting this natural human deference to intellectual authority. Every segment starts like this: “We’d like to welcome Dr. Ukunwe Selekala, senior research professor of East African Postmodern Banjo Studies at St. Jemima’s-Maple Tap, Vice President of Aboriginal Affairs for the Southern Tennessee Coalition for Crisis Action, and author of a new best-selling book, ‘Twangs of Heart Strings: The Lasting Impact of Colonialism in East Timor.’ Dr. Selekala, thanks for coming on. My first question is why do state governments act in such a racist manner when they’re confronted with their Confederate heritage?””
lol.
Well done.