There's a middle ground between demeaning Trump supporters (stupid, delusional) and glamorizing them (patriots, ardent in their beliefs) that has escaped the media. Blue collar guys eating in diners and driving pickup trucks are no more - and no less - "American" than the people who program computers or teach philosophy at an Ivy League school. The diner crowd is a caricature that the media is using as a device...not to bridge or understand a political divide, but to sustain it.
It goes back to the days of Reagan and Bush and John McCain’s “real Americans.” The NYT just cannot stop legitimizing an outdated and unacceptable premise. I mean, Mitch McConnell made a distinction between “Americans” and “African Americans” only LAST WEEK.
Omg. I just found my next op-ed topic. I’ve been struggling all morning and it just jumped out at me while I was typing this. Thanks!
The reality is that Trump supporters are all kinds of people of differing income and educational levels. Yes, the ones that stand out are the flag-waving, badly dressed fire breathers. Their numbers alone didn't elect Trump. There are plenty of suburbia dwellers, including those with college degrees, who support him. Granted, the media has created and pandered to a stereotype, and in recent history blue-collar workers have tended to vote Republican. What they often have in common is they get their information (aka propaganda) from Fox and other right-wing sources and to one degree or another fear and/or dislike people of color, especially Blacks. That said, GOP gains among Latinos is a growing problem.
You are right that many — most? —Trump supporters don’t fit the media’s blue collar/red state stereotype. I know quite a few Trump supporters and they are all college educated and have good jobs. You are right about Fox News being where they get their news. For many Fox was their gateway drug to extremist sites.
There are educated, well off people in my extended family who have gone off the deep end in the last few years. I don’t think they are anti-vaxxers but they have even drunk some Qanon Koolaid. One of them is convinced the Clintons have had a ton of people murdered.
I also know a woman and her twenty-something daughter who were never political until the daughter married an active duty military guy. The man is a graduate of West Point. He is not only anti-vax, he is a full-on conspiracy theorist. I keep wondering how this is affecting his military career but I no longer have contact with them. Both mom and daughter were at the 1/6 rally. I don’t think they marched to the capital. It really feels like how I imagine Germany was in the 1930s.
Your examples are emblematic of what ails us. It's all baffling. Rampant propaganda has done incalculable damage to countless relationships. Perhaps people, especially those unable or unwilling to think critically, have always been suckers for even the most outrageous misinformation. But in the not-so-distant old days, before the Internet, they were exposed to much less of it. And I'm sure grotesque shortcomings in our education system contribute to the problem as well.
What people don’t realize is that we have been subjected to literally decades of orchestrated, well-funded right wing propaganda. Wealthy people like the Kochs and Scaife, libertarian academics who spread Milton Friedman’s “profits uber allies” garbage (now called shareholder capitalism) Reagan and other Republicans who deregulated and gave tax breaks to the plutocrats, right wing lawyers who formed the Federalist Society, etc. Read Kurt Andersen’s book “Evil Geniuses” or just listen to one of his book talks to get more details. Now the right doesn’t even try to hide it.
We really have been subjected to a vast right wing conspiracy to undermine our democracy and replace it with a plutocracy.
It’s really chilling to see how much this effort has permeated our idea of what is norma at least since the 70s. As a result of this organized effort they have managed to shift the Overton Window to the far right.
I don’t think the blame lies with normal people or lack of education/ There is no way average people could have known how they were being manipulated. Journalists were the only people who were in a position to inform the public about what was going on behind the scenes to normalize the “greed is good” philosophy of our plutocrats. Instead they aided and abetted it.
Let's recall that in 1923, when he was convicted of treason for the Beer Hall Putsch, the NYT reported that Hitler was planning to leave politics and return to his native Austria.
This does it. I am uninstalling the Times app on my phones and deactivating my digital subscription through PayPal. Done. If I need to know about future Times journalistic malfeasance I can count on Eric pointing it out. I don't need to continue to contribute to the Times' campaign for the death of democracy.
I cancelled my subscription last summer. I certainly was not going to continue paying them for their bias. For months I had noticed I wasn't reading it but was doing the crosswords and the weekly news quiz. And why the hell don't they give us access to NYT Cooking? And then, their full-throated hatred of Joe Biden was revealed in their coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Regarding "NY Times fawns over Trump's insurrection...", one is reminded of a 1938 magazine article Good Housekeeping did on Hitler showing him relaxing at his home in the Bavarian Alps. Same normalizing of a fascist leader as Sunday's front-page story in the New York Times. Then in 2025 the Times will have one of their classic 20-20 hindsight articles in which they fault everyone but themselves for the death of democracy in this country.
The question is, will they be allowed to even acknowledge it happened? Or will media be put on notice as Trump and his stooges dismantle the 1st Amendment if it isn’t 24/7 complimentary and fawning?
Should Trump get back into the Oval Office I'm sure the NYT will have no regrets but will be delighted. I'm reminded of watching English language TV in Cairo in 2015, the fluff show "Entertainment Tonight" was on and an announcer was covering Trump's descent down the escalator. The announcer crowed, "This is great television!" I'll never forget it for the rest of my life, btw.
Right down there with the NYT reporting that after he was convicted and sentenced to prison for the Beer Hall Putsch, "Adolf Hitler plans to leave politics and return to his native Austria." They've been a Kollection of Klucks for a loooooonnnnnnnngggggg time.
A mystery or something to ponder: The media love to profile MAGAts and conservatives yet consistently ignore the supermajorities who want, say, affordable healthcare or whatever other progressive policy both parties ignore or refuse to provide. In other words, why do the media consistently ignore the majority of the nation's people?
The NYT is losing subscribers by the boatload because of their anti-Biden, anti-liberal coverage. I don’t see how there’s money to be made by catering to brainwashed rightwing idiots who would never read them in the first place.
I would welcome profiles of frightened and bewildered liberals wondering what happened to their country and way of life with the creeping-and-now-leaping authoritarianism.
Back in December when the media was obsessing about the supposedly bad jobs number I heard Austen Goolsbee explain that they should calm down because recent monthly numbers have had to be revised upward. He explained a major reason for the upward revision is the record number of new businesses being formed. He explained that those new businesses are not included in the survey of employers that they jobs number is based on.
Funny how most of the media has chosen to ignore this impressive news about record new businesses. You know if that had happened under Trump they would have been shouting it from the rooftops. Instead we have a media deeply committed to the dishonest “Biden is failing on the economy” frame. Then they act surprised that Biden’s poll numbers on handling the economy keep dropping.
Imagine if reporters had been making it clear that inflation is being caused mostly by our strong GDP and jobs growth and the resulting supply chain problems. I doubt that most are even aware just how good our economy is or that many would say they prefer higher unemployment and anemic growth to inflation.
Unfortunately for our democracy our childish media thinks there is a quick and easy solution to this temporary problem but Biden is refusing to apply it.
Adding insult to injury the NYT also printed a long piece on the anxieties of “independents” in the Sunday Review. There was not one Democratic leaning independent in the bunch.
My only guess, and to defend the Times, is that all these years later there is still this desperation to figure these people out. Why are people that are comfortable or living overall good lives, the economic anxiety theory has been debunked, so angry. For example, that woman in Virginia that threatened to bring her guns to school over wearing masks. This person had a nice job working for her dad's dental practice. Why so angry. And they all make no sense. They talk about freedom and liberty but want to live in a police state. They mock cancel culture yet want to burn books. They say they are angry that the government does not care about them but then vote for a party that does not care about them.
And also, the big one, even given the issues, even if you could some how understand their anger, why, why, do they follow an absolute idiot.
After the 2016 election I tried to understand and reached out to some Trump supporters. I discovered after several months that they had no real reasoned explanation. One especially was a very nice guy. None could articulate their support beyond being against "the libs." For so many of these people, they have listened to RW media for so long, or fallen down the rabbit hole of Q, that it is baked in, and purely about tribalism. Not all are racists, these people are willing to put up with racist BS because "well, I don't like it, but the other side is worse."
I'm not disagreeing with you; it is, for many of these editors, about trying to understand people who are so different in their beliefs and who though are a minority, seem be rather successfully taking our country down a very dark path. of course, the media with their constant attention is helping with that.
If the Times truly wanted to understand these people, they'd interview psychologists, political scientists, etc who could actually break down and identify the roots of their devotion/anger/etc. And do it in the same story. But the Times doesn't do that. They just keep doing the same stories devoid of context over and over again.
That is correct, heck, we should see more stories about cults than some inflation number. But that would be difficult, it's easy to keep doing the same story over an over again.
I do wonder if the media was ready to pivot away from Trump directly after the election. Then were shocked, as many of us were, by how many votes Trump got after what was a disaster of an administration. Sure, maybe 50 million plus, but to break even his original popular vote from 2016 seemed absurd given just how bad he was as president.
I still think of that photo of Trump getting off the helicopter in the dead of night, sweaty, with no tie, his shirt unbuttoned, his makeup all smeared on his shirt collar. Then think how could that the same folks that dragged Obama over the coals over a tan suit or putting his feet on the desk, vote for this man.
Exactly, which is why I for one question their motivation. I think they just want the drama, and golden goose clickbait of Trump, by amplifying these people. They miss the money his BS brought to the paper. None of it is about actually understanding these people. They really don’t care about the fallout to our country or the world if Trump or another authoritarian wins again.
As a Filipino whose country elected another unhinged & incompetent jackass into office, I could tell you that people here in the Philippines were somehow fooled by the media here into believing his late predecessor wasn't competent or was out-of-touch with the public. They also riled up the public into blaming him for problems beyond his control (e.g. heavy traffic, bad infrastructure, crime, slow processing of passports and manufacturing of car plates). They even downplayed the growing economy by unwilling to directly credit the previous administration's economic policies.
Previous admin wanted to believe people here would be smart enough to recognize their achievements without the need for press releases and giant signs. However, a lot of Filipinos turned out to be easily outraged idiots riled up by the media in demanding for better leadership.
Enter the current president, the mayor of a provincial city, a misogynist who seemed to get off from hearing about people being murdered, and a lazy style of governance that involved showing up at city hall in the afternoon. That asshole took advantage of the public clamor for new leadership and presented himself as a no nonsense man of action which many voters here fell for hook, line and sinker. Of course, the media here had a hand in his rise to the presidency normalizing his death threats and misogynistic statements claiming that it was just him being "authentic."
Now, add a spatulaful of racism and a fear of changing demographics and you get Girth Vader. Both of them preyed on the people's alienation, desperation and hopelessness claiming they would be one who would lead them to greatness. Both claimed that they can do it better than those with governmental experience. They allowed people to be assholes towards those who they didn't like to listen too (e.g. scientists, journalists, professors, teachers, specialists, etc) because those people thought they looked down on them. So, I'm guessing they're okay with following an idiot for the reason I mentioned.
Thanks, I'm just a non-American that's bothered by the right-wing/alt-right/conservative movement's gradual shift from protecting democracy to embracing facism & authoritarianism.
My country will be holding our general elections in May of this year and the frontrunner is the son of the dictator who left it with an economy in shambles, massive debt which we will be done paying by at least 2025, massive corruption, the imprisonment & torture of dissidents, and the never-ending Communist insurgency. His leading opponent is the current female vice-president, who is the best choice to lead my country out of the chaos created by the current administration.
The restoration of democracy and rule of law is a life or death issue here in the Philippines. So, why can't the American mainstream media can't get their heads out of the "Joe Biden is the new Jimmy Carter" ostrich hole, and stop normalizing the awful behavior of the GOP and their minions in right-wing media?
That’s because right wing, authoritarian propaganda is everywhere.Just look at how the UK fell for the Brexit lies and the many lies Boris told. His support has only recently slipped enough to threaten his hold on power.
Indeed, the 2016 general election in my country was allegedly the test case for Cambridge Analytica's data-mining and algorithim manipulating operations before Brexit and the U.S. general election.
I read somewhere that people are more easily triggered to anger than to happiness. This explains why people in Ohio get all pissed off about illegal immigration.
Some are easily made fearful. From my experience it seems to vary by personality and gender. Several women I know who have become more and more right wing and are now Trump supporters were the ones who freaked out about stranger danger and other urban legends. When Oprah use to have stories about germs in bathrooms or carjackings they got really paranoid. My city has a very safe downtown but several of these women won’t set foot there.
The guys seem to be more angry about somebody talking their money away from them or disrespecting them.
These are the brie-chomping, chardonnay-swilling, volvo drivers who have been in a defensive crouch ever since they got accused of a "liberal bias" by the Right. They have backbones made of a single overcooked Angel Hair pasta strand.
Can you imagine what would have happened on Jan. 6 if DC allowed the open carry of firearms? Remember the scenes at state capitols in Michigan and Wisconsin No one in the press ever mentions this fact.
Exactly. This NYT article is irresponsible journalistic malpractice. I am a firm believer in the 1st Amendment, being a journalist myself, but this has got to stop. There has to be some accountability and standards, like a disclaimer letting readers know this isn’t real news or newsworthy or an accurate representation of any significant demographic, whenever a news story doesn’t meet basic journalistic standards, instead of rewarding obvious garbage with a front page headline. A BS button, if you will.
I get the need to understand and expose the motivations of the insurrectionists, but the NYT is over the top on this. how many times can you interview Trump supporters in the heartland? where are the articles about the many people who voted for Trump in 2016 but have broken off support from him? If you look at the voting results, they are out there. there's a good chance that Trump will break the R party into two, which would be fine with me. where are the articles about that?
Anyone who was on Capitol grounds that day committed an illegal breach -- it wasn't just those that made it inside the building. The crowds of tresspassers made it all but impossible for law enforcement to get to the building and secure the entrances from outside. But the Times ignores those obvious facts,. and pretends that those who impeded law enforcement efforts did nothing wrong.
As a non-American, it's both frustrating and disappointing to see a country I once admired for its supposed democratic values become embroiled in hatred & division because a loud & vocal minority of white people are unable to confront your country's racist past, and unable to accept a present & future with a diversity of ethnicity, culture, religion, thought, gender identity & expression.
It's made worse because your country's mainstream media isn't doing their job of telling it like it is. They're too busy creating a false narrative of failing presidency which means they ignore or downplay the positive economic news claiming they're "balanced" while somehow acknowledging the crisis in American democracy, but not actually confronting the members of a political party-turned- cult of personality who are pushing the "Big Lie" of an unhinged narcissist.
There's a middle ground between demeaning Trump supporters (stupid, delusional) and glamorizing them (patriots, ardent in their beliefs) that has escaped the media. Blue collar guys eating in diners and driving pickup trucks are no more - and no less - "American" than the people who program computers or teach philosophy at an Ivy League school. The diner crowd is a caricature that the media is using as a device...not to bridge or understand a political divide, but to sustain it.
They also are not more American than those of us who are educated but the media sure seems to act like they are.
It goes back to the days of Reagan and Bush and John McCain’s “real Americans.” The NYT just cannot stop legitimizing an outdated and unacceptable premise. I mean, Mitch McConnell made a distinction between “Americans” and “African Americans” only LAST WEEK.
Omg. I just found my next op-ed topic. I’ve been struggling all morning and it just jumped out at me while I was typing this. Thanks!
The reality is that Trump supporters are all kinds of people of differing income and educational levels. Yes, the ones that stand out are the flag-waving, badly dressed fire breathers. Their numbers alone didn't elect Trump. There are plenty of suburbia dwellers, including those with college degrees, who support him. Granted, the media has created and pandered to a stereotype, and in recent history blue-collar workers have tended to vote Republican. What they often have in common is they get their information (aka propaganda) from Fox and other right-wing sources and to one degree or another fear and/or dislike people of color, especially Blacks. That said, GOP gains among Latinos is a growing problem.
You are right that many — most? —Trump supporters don’t fit the media’s blue collar/red state stereotype. I know quite a few Trump supporters and they are all college educated and have good jobs. You are right about Fox News being where they get their news. For many Fox was their gateway drug to extremist sites.
There are educated, well off people in my extended family who have gone off the deep end in the last few years. I don’t think they are anti-vaxxers but they have even drunk some Qanon Koolaid. One of them is convinced the Clintons have had a ton of people murdered.
I also know a woman and her twenty-something daughter who were never political until the daughter married an active duty military guy. The man is a graduate of West Point. He is not only anti-vax, he is a full-on conspiracy theorist. I keep wondering how this is affecting his military career but I no longer have contact with them. Both mom and daughter were at the 1/6 rally. I don’t think they marched to the capital. It really feels like how I imagine Germany was in the 1930s.
Your examples are emblematic of what ails us. It's all baffling. Rampant propaganda has done incalculable damage to countless relationships. Perhaps people, especially those unable or unwilling to think critically, have always been suckers for even the most outrageous misinformation. But in the not-so-distant old days, before the Internet, they were exposed to much less of it. And I'm sure grotesque shortcomings in our education system contribute to the problem as well.
What people don’t realize is that we have been subjected to literally decades of orchestrated, well-funded right wing propaganda. Wealthy people like the Kochs and Scaife, libertarian academics who spread Milton Friedman’s “profits uber allies” garbage (now called shareholder capitalism) Reagan and other Republicans who deregulated and gave tax breaks to the plutocrats, right wing lawyers who formed the Federalist Society, etc. Read Kurt Andersen’s book “Evil Geniuses” or just listen to one of his book talks to get more details. Now the right doesn’t even try to hide it.
We really have been subjected to a vast right wing conspiracy to undermine our democracy and replace it with a plutocracy.
https://youtu.be/EdbV1D2lELo
It’s really chilling to see how much this effort has permeated our idea of what is norma at least since the 70s. As a result of this organized effort they have managed to shift the Overton Window to the far right.
I don’t think the blame lies with normal people or lack of education/ There is no way average people could have known how they were being manipulated. Journalists were the only people who were in a position to inform the public about what was going on behind the scenes to normalize the “greed is good” philosophy of our plutocrats. Instead they aided and abetted it.
Exactly. At this point, this routine is tired and insulting. How are their readers not sick of it yet?
Let's recall that in 1923, when he was convicted of treason for the Beer Hall Putsch, the NYT reported that Hitler was planning to leave politics and return to his native Austria.
I swear, it’s like a plot out of the Marvel universe and the NYT is just another arm of Hydra.
This does it. I am uninstalling the Times app on my phones and deactivating my digital subscription through PayPal. Done. If I need to know about future Times journalistic malfeasance I can count on Eric pointing it out. I don't need to continue to contribute to the Times' campaign for the death of democracy.
I cancelled my subscription last summer. I certainly was not going to continue paying them for their bias. For months I had noticed I wasn't reading it but was doing the crosswords and the weekly news quiz. And why the hell don't they give us access to NYT Cooking? And then, their full-throated hatred of Joe Biden was revealed in their coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Same. I cancelled my subscription last Spring.
I did that long ago. Glad you have seen the light.
Regarding "NY Times fawns over Trump's insurrection...", one is reminded of a 1938 magazine article Good Housekeeping did on Hitler showing him relaxing at his home in the Bavarian Alps. Same normalizing of a fascist leader as Sunday's front-page story in the New York Times. Then in 2025 the Times will have one of their classic 20-20 hindsight articles in which they fault everyone but themselves for the death of democracy in this country.
I’m not even sure there will be the hindsight articles
There will be at least one because it will offer an opportunity to blame Dems for not stopping them and ask "what are they gonna do about it?"
The question is, will they be allowed to even acknowledge it happened? Or will media be put on notice as Trump and his stooges dismantle the 1st Amendment if it isn’t 24/7 complimentary and fawning?
Touché 🙌
Should Trump get back into the Oval Office I'm sure the NYT will have no regrets but will be delighted. I'm reminded of watching English language TV in Cairo in 2015, the fluff show "Entertainment Tonight" was on and an announcer was covering Trump's descent down the escalator. The announcer crowed, "This is great television!" I'll never forget it for the rest of my life, btw.
I think the Times will be outraged if Trump gets re-elected —- at Biden and the Democrats.
Right down there with the NYT reporting that after he was convicted and sentenced to prison for the Beer Hall Putsch, "Adolf Hitler plans to leave politics and return to his native Austria." They've been a Kollection of Klucks for a loooooonnnnnnnngggggg time.
Yep. Either that or they will go full-on right-wing propaganda, lest they be shut down.
A mystery or something to ponder: The media love to profile MAGAts and conservatives yet consistently ignore the supermajorities who want, say, affordable healthcare or whatever other progressive policy both parties ignore or refuse to provide. In other words, why do the media consistently ignore the majority of the nation's people?
Biden got 81M votes….so where are the Biden Voter stories?
There’s the kind of story that’s of some importance and there’s the ones the media care to tell. And some the former just aren’t the latter.
There's not enough money for the Times to make on those stories.
The NYT is losing subscribers by the boatload because of their anti-Biden, anti-liberal coverage. I don’t see how there’s money to be made by catering to brainwashed rightwing idiots who would never read them in the first place.
The NYT would have to admit Biden actually has voters, ones who are even really happy with his performance.
I would welcome profiles of frightened and bewildered liberals wondering what happened to their country and way of life with the creeping-and-now-leaping authoritarianism.
You know, for balance.
Ugh, me too. But given that liberals, by and by, have a fact-based how the nation got to this point, any such story could be frightening.
And snark wins the Internet for the day. Haha!
Back in December when the media was obsessing about the supposedly bad jobs number I heard Austen Goolsbee explain that they should calm down because recent monthly numbers have had to be revised upward. He explained a major reason for the upward revision is the record number of new businesses being formed. He explained that those new businesses are not included in the survey of employers that they jobs number is based on.
Funny how most of the media has chosen to ignore this impressive news about record new businesses. You know if that had happened under Trump they would have been shouting it from the rooftops. Instead we have a media deeply committed to the dishonest “Biden is failing on the economy” frame. Then they act surprised that Biden’s poll numbers on handling the economy keep dropping.
Imagine if reporters had been making it clear that inflation is being caused mostly by our strong GDP and jobs growth and the resulting supply chain problems. I doubt that most are even aware just how good our economy is or that many would say they prefer higher unemployment and anemic growth to inflation.
Unfortunately for our democracy our childish media thinks there is a quick and easy solution to this temporary problem but Biden is refusing to apply it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/30/why-the-green-lantern-theory-of-presidential-power-persists/
Adding insult to injury the NYT also printed a long piece on the anxieties of “independents” in the Sunday Review. There was not one Democratic leaning independent in the bunch.
oh yes, entire Sunday Review section on Biden “struggles.” I don’t recall same Trump coverage when he was at 37%
I looked at my wife and asked if the entire section had been written by the RNC. It was a disgrace.
I just poked around on Twitter and there are 2 hashtags that have some volume. #boycottNYT and #cancelNYT. Feel free to join in!
My only guess, and to defend the Times, is that all these years later there is still this desperation to figure these people out. Why are people that are comfortable or living overall good lives, the economic anxiety theory has been debunked, so angry. For example, that woman in Virginia that threatened to bring her guns to school over wearing masks. This person had a nice job working for her dad's dental practice. Why so angry. And they all make no sense. They talk about freedom and liberty but want to live in a police state. They mock cancel culture yet want to burn books. They say they are angry that the government does not care about them but then vote for a party that does not care about them.
And also, the big one, even given the issues, even if you could some how understand their anger, why, why, do they follow an absolute idiot.
After the 2016 election I tried to understand and reached out to some Trump supporters. I discovered after several months that they had no real reasoned explanation. One especially was a very nice guy. None could articulate their support beyond being against "the libs." For so many of these people, they have listened to RW media for so long, or fallen down the rabbit hole of Q, that it is baked in, and purely about tribalism. Not all are racists, these people are willing to put up with racist BS because "well, I don't like it, but the other side is worse."
I'm not disagreeing with you; it is, for many of these editors, about trying to understand people who are so different in their beliefs and who though are a minority, seem be rather successfully taking our country down a very dark path. of course, the media with their constant attention is helping with that.
If the Times truly wanted to understand these people, they'd interview psychologists, political scientists, etc who could actually break down and identify the roots of their devotion/anger/etc. And do it in the same story. But the Times doesn't do that. They just keep doing the same stories devoid of context over and over again.
That is correct, heck, we should see more stories about cults than some inflation number. But that would be difficult, it's easy to keep doing the same story over an over again.
I do wonder if the media was ready to pivot away from Trump directly after the election. Then were shocked, as many of us were, by how many votes Trump got after what was a disaster of an administration. Sure, maybe 50 million plus, but to break even his original popular vote from 2016 seemed absurd given just how bad he was as president.
I still think of that photo of Trump getting off the helicopter in the dead of night, sweaty, with no tie, his shirt unbuttoned, his makeup all smeared on his shirt collar. Then think how could that the same folks that dragged Obama over the coals over a tan suit or putting his feet on the desk, vote for this man.
Exactly, which is why I for one question their motivation. I think they just want the drama, and golden goose clickbait of Trump, by amplifying these people. They miss the money his BS brought to the paper. None of it is about actually understanding these people. They really don’t care about the fallout to our country or the world if Trump or another authoritarian wins again.
As a Filipino whose country elected another unhinged & incompetent jackass into office, I could tell you that people here in the Philippines were somehow fooled by the media here into believing his late predecessor wasn't competent or was out-of-touch with the public. They also riled up the public into blaming him for problems beyond his control (e.g. heavy traffic, bad infrastructure, crime, slow processing of passports and manufacturing of car plates). They even downplayed the growing economy by unwilling to directly credit the previous administration's economic policies.
Previous admin wanted to believe people here would be smart enough to recognize their achievements without the need for press releases and giant signs. However, a lot of Filipinos turned out to be easily outraged idiots riled up by the media in demanding for better leadership.
Enter the current president, the mayor of a provincial city, a misogynist who seemed to get off from hearing about people being murdered, and a lazy style of governance that involved showing up at city hall in the afternoon. That asshole took advantage of the public clamor for new leadership and presented himself as a no nonsense man of action which many voters here fell for hook, line and sinker. Of course, the media here had a hand in his rise to the presidency normalizing his death threats and misogynistic statements claiming that it was just him being "authentic."
Now, add a spatulaful of racism and a fear of changing demographics and you get Girth Vader. Both of them preyed on the people's alienation, desperation and hopelessness claiming they would be one who would lead them to greatness. Both claimed that they can do it better than those with governmental experience. They allowed people to be assholes towards those who they didn't like to listen too (e.g. scientists, journalists, professors, teachers, specialists, etc) because those people thought they looked down on them. So, I'm guessing they're okay with following an idiot for the reason I mentioned.
Excellent!
Outstanding. Very well-said!
You've become one of my favorite commenters, Eric. Keep 'em coming!
Thanks, I'm just a non-American that's bothered by the right-wing/alt-right/conservative movement's gradual shift from protecting democracy to embracing facism & authoritarianism.
My country will be holding our general elections in May of this year and the frontrunner is the son of the dictator who left it with an economy in shambles, massive debt which we will be done paying by at least 2025, massive corruption, the imprisonment & torture of dissidents, and the never-ending Communist insurgency. His leading opponent is the current female vice-president, who is the best choice to lead my country out of the chaos created by the current administration.
The restoration of democracy and rule of law is a life or death issue here in the Philippines. So, why can't the American mainstream media can't get their heads out of the "Joe Biden is the new Jimmy Carter" ostrich hole, and stop normalizing the awful behavior of the GOP and their minions in right-wing media?
Because we live in a time where it seems no matter where you live people would rather believe a LIE over TRUTH.
That’s because right wing, authoritarian propaganda is everywhere.Just look at how the UK fell for the Brexit lies and the many lies Boris told. His support has only recently slipped enough to threaten his hold on power.
Indeed, the 2016 general election in my country was allegedly the test case for Cambridge Analytica's data-mining and algorithim manipulating operations before Brexit and the U.S. general election.
I read somewhere that people are more easily triggered to anger than to happiness. This explains why people in Ohio get all pissed off about illegal immigration.
Some are easily made fearful. From my experience it seems to vary by personality and gender. Several women I know who have become more and more right wing and are now Trump supporters were the ones who freaked out about stranger danger and other urban legends. When Oprah use to have stories about germs in bathrooms or carjackings they got really paranoid. My city has a very safe downtown but several of these women won’t set foot there.
The guys seem to be more angry about somebody talking their money away from them or disrespecting them.
Why do you think Facebook is the swamp it's become? That's the algorithm. for them and most of so-shall meee-deee-ya.
These are the brie-chomping, chardonnay-swilling, volvo drivers who have been in a defensive crouch ever since they got accused of a "liberal bias" by the Right. They have backbones made of a single overcooked Angel Hair pasta strand.
Haha!
All of this. It boggles the mind.
Can you imagine what would have happened on Jan. 6 if DC allowed the open carry of firearms? Remember the scenes at state capitols in Michigan and Wisconsin No one in the press ever mentions this fact.
Exactly. This NYT article is irresponsible journalistic malpractice. I am a firm believer in the 1st Amendment, being a journalist myself, but this has got to stop. There has to be some accountability and standards, like a disclaimer letting readers know this isn’t real news or newsworthy or an accurate representation of any significant demographic, whenever a news story doesn’t meet basic journalistic standards, instead of rewarding obvious garbage with a front page headline. A BS button, if you will.
I get the need to understand and expose the motivations of the insurrectionists, but the NYT is over the top on this. how many times can you interview Trump supporters in the heartland? where are the articles about the many people who voted for Trump in 2016 but have broken off support from him? If you look at the voting results, they are out there. there's a good chance that Trump will break the R party into two, which would be fine with me. where are the articles about that?
I have seen a couple of stories about those voters who turned on Trump — stories about how bad they think the economy is.
Anyone who was on Capitol grounds that day committed an illegal breach -- it wasn't just those that made it inside the building. The crowds of tresspassers made it all but impossible for law enforcement to get to the building and secure the entrances from outside. But the Times ignores those obvious facts,. and pretends that those who impeded law enforcement efforts did nothing wrong.
As a non-American, it's both frustrating and disappointing to see a country I once admired for its supposed democratic values become embroiled in hatred & division because a loud & vocal minority of white people are unable to confront your country's racist past, and unable to accept a present & future with a diversity of ethnicity, culture, religion, thought, gender identity & expression.
It's made worse because your country's mainstream media isn't doing their job of telling it like it is. They're too busy creating a false narrative of failing presidency which means they ignore or downplay the positive economic news claiming they're "balanced" while somehow acknowledging the crisis in American democracy, but not actually confronting the members of a political party-turned- cult of personality who are pushing the "Big Lie" of an unhinged narcissist.
Talk about hitting out of the Park! Great, gutsy piece. Thankful for having Eric and his voice. This one especially hit home for me.
The NY Times wants to be on what it thinks is the winning side.
That's it, in a nutshell.
Thank you for this. I read this Times piece and imediately felt the same. Keep calling them out!
Gee, funny how they NY Times has blocked commenting on that article.
They often do that, and on certain op eds as well. I can't think it's not deliberate.
WaPo is too.