"You have to get a gun, because the n*****s are coming to steal your stuff" has worked on White people for over fifty years now. It was a motivational factor, unrealized or not, behind Tuesday's results. For starters.
Of course it goes back to the Southern Strategy and beyond, but just in this century its lineage goes back to swift-boating, and you’d think by now the Democrats would have learned that taking the high road is a mug’s game. You have to FIGHT the culture war, not sniff at it from a lofty height because conservative’s claims are ridiculous (even though they are).
AOC is a master at this kind of combat, and one of the reasons I like John Fetterman – even with his problems – is because he operates this way too. He hasn’t achieved the mastery of the form AOC has, but he knows he’s got to go head to head with the bullshit to have his message break through.
"because, face it, the store writes these losses off and how is it worth the unpaid clerks’ or guard’s time to fight people in the aisles" -- Let's not forget the ever-increasing likelihood that everyone in this scenario is armed, a store-wide bloodbath could bust out, and Walgreens is better off losing some Pampers than having to hire a pricey PR firm to entice shoppers back into the stores, because Freedom.
So the internet is good for funny animal videos, how - to videos for everything under the sun from polish dumplings to repairing old record turntables. Finding parts for said turntables and antique mowers, Kenmore Dryers and vintage buggy parts. It's a source of wonderful writing (Mr. Ed Rosos' work comes to mind) and a grand reference work for most every bit of knowledge mankind has aquired.It's also great at proselytizing everyday folks into raging hate mobs that threaten to destroy our society and providing a place where anyone with a weird vile urge or notion can find a large support group for their worst impulses.
Taking all that into consideration, I suggest we return to hard copies of books from the library and getting to know our neighbors. I'll miss all you folks but. you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Somebody handed me a crack pipe once and being me, relatively young and convinced I was going to live forever ( and fuck it if I didn't) I hit that motherfucker like Muhammad Ali hitting Sonny Liston down for the count. I realized at once this was the GREATEST THING EVER and if I ever tried it again I probably wouldn't survive a year.
We maybe need to put that internet pipe down. Sure we lose a lot but our odds of survival increase.
We can chip in to get Roy a roll of stamps and a mimeograph machine.
Well, now, overlooked in this righteous, impossible-to-criticize rant is the role of the media or, more specifically, the irresponsibility in reporting.
In the sad case of Boudin’s defeat is the simple fact that a prosecutor’s effect on crime is minimal. To the contrary: If the DA looks bad, it’s safe to presume that the real problem is with Porky, which, regratbly, is an issue our exceptional mainstream reporters will not, cannot touch.
In other words, Boudin was seen as failing because the made it clear that he was failing, facts and truth, as they say, be damned.
The Boudin defeat made me think back decades to 2014 and the run up to the 2014 elections. The mainstream wildly echoed GOP claims of Obama and the Democrats failing to respond vigorously to the huge threat of Ebola. Fact: At its worse, the number of cases in the US were in the double digits because back then we were a functional nation (Compare to the response to Covid which y’all know has been far from what it should be.) Within days of the election, the Ebola crisis disappeared from the news.
Amongst other mainstream bullshit that does no good is that Timesman who wrote the book on Jack Welch as the result of an epiphany that maybe a reporter shouldn’t be a mindless cheerleader (or groupie??) for business but report facts and stuff. His epiphany doesn’t extend to the fact that Welch engaged in arguable securities fraud in order to keep goosing GE’s stock price or that he left GE in awful, awful shape.
Or, one of my other current bete noires: That the current trendy mass shootings coverage overlooks two related facts that should be part of all the coverage: Mass shootings happens on average daily and school shootings at least once a week. So in that regard, the media (ideally) need to explain why this one’s special given all the other shootings they don’t report. (I know; in that regard, the media are size queens, the more killed the better. Still, a little framing and context would help.)
And the instant classic: The inability or refusal to call GOP pols’ response to mitigating Covid is literally deadly, making said pols by definition killers.
Meanwhile, to say the GOP has been pulling shit for decades is a gross understatement. But they’d have had a shit ton fewer successes without the help from the mainstream media. You know, like if there was all appropriate honest, fact-based coverage.
I'm always struck by those voters outraged by the burgeoning homeless population. Those voters are PISSED that so many people have no place to live. So the voters vote out the incumbent and vote in someone who will "do something" about the homeless.
And that's when things get stupid because the only ways to deal with homelessness is with liberal applications of money and changes in zoning. Shelters, transition housing, low-income housing, increasing welfare benefits, providing substantial mental health resources, fully funding substance abuse programs--these are the things that actually do something about reducing homelessness.
And these are the very things that voters will always vote against.
I've been thinking that the first 4 words in response to these lies should always be: "This is a lie" after that go into the reasons. Not first explain what the problems are with the reporting and hope that people then get that this is a lie. Whether or not that would work, I don't know, but it might have the advantage of getting peoples attention.
Your mention of Orwell puts me in mind of 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘳𝘮, which was required reading in my seventh grade English class. The paperback edition had a helpful foreword, in which the editors explained that what we were about to read was an allegory setting forth the wicked workings and chilling consequences of communism. The author himself was quoted: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism.” Well and good, but (as I discovered some years later) the original sentence, in its entirety read (emphasis added, natch): “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵.” Er, “George,” that last bit’s, you know, kinda off-message. You won’t mind if we memory-hole it, will you?
In this Time of Need, I am happy to introduce the John Munch Anti-Crime Act of 2022, which is to require police departments to hire actual DETECTIVES whose ONLY job is the INVESTIGATE violent crime. Trade off some beat cops driving around checking for non-functioning tail lights for actual detective work that might nudge Chicago's clearance rate on murders above 50%. A young black man gets shot down on the west side, instead of the cops saying, "Eh, he was probably a drug dealer, LOL", they investigate the crime like his life actually mattered, like he was a tourist shot on his way to the Cubs game.
Left out an important point about Boudin's term: according to some post I read somewhere yesterday violent crimes generally were down significantly during his tenure. Several thousand fewer than the previous period. But the national press cares not, and the locals were/are/always will be/freaked out about derelict/unkempt/undermoneyed humans living on the pavements.
I remember reading that in 2020 (I think) Walgreens stole tens of millions of dollars (maybe more) in wages from its employees in California. The employees sued to recover the wages but ended up having to settle for like .25 cents for every dollar stolen by Walgreens. So Walgreens legally kept about 75% of the proceeds of their theft. As always though with the media, real crime is someone boosting Huggies and Noxzema makeup wipes.
Lotta good stuff in this post and comments. I live in the Bay area and married into a SF family, and can testify that the bums with their bum poop and tents is a big big deal with the locals (tourists are a mix of horrified and think it's some sort of art installation). SF is not a cheap place to live, and a rather painful place to run any sort of business, so locals believe they have a right not to have to deal with bums in exchange for the money they pay to live there. A long-winded into to saying the Bum Problem mattered a lot more to voters than all the misleading anecdotes about Boudin "refusing" to prosecute criminals who rob Walgreens (there were also a series of smash-and-grab robberies of higher-end stores that were on high rotation on the tv, though those guys got caught). Car break-ins are another raging problem, a few anti-Boudin commercials claim he "shut down" prosecution of car break-ins. Between the cops (based on a few sf cops I know they hated his guts) and the bums Boudin never stood a chance.
" I have my own ideas about how the Democrats could pitch it better, but//"
Well, we'd like to hear 'em.
"You have to get a gun, because the n*****s are coming to steal your stuff" has worked on White people for over fifty years now. It was a motivational factor, unrealized or not, behind Tuesday's results. For starters.
Of course it goes back to the Southern Strategy and beyond, but just in this century its lineage goes back to swift-boating, and you’d think by now the Democrats would have learned that taking the high road is a mug’s game. You have to FIGHT the culture war, not sniff at it from a lofty height because conservative’s claims are ridiculous (even though they are).
AOC is a master at this kind of combat, and one of the reasons I like John Fetterman – even with his problems – is because he operates this way too. He hasn’t achieved the mastery of the form AOC has, but he knows he’s got to go head to head with the bullshit to have his message break through.
"because, face it, the store writes these losses off and how is it worth the unpaid clerks’ or guard’s time to fight people in the aisles" -- Let's not forget the ever-increasing likelihood that everyone in this scenario is armed, a store-wide bloodbath could bust out, and Walgreens is better off losing some Pampers than having to hire a pricey PR firm to entice shoppers back into the stores, because Freedom.
Sigh.
So the internet is good for funny animal videos, how - to videos for everything under the sun from polish dumplings to repairing old record turntables. Finding parts for said turntables and antique mowers, Kenmore Dryers and vintage buggy parts. It's a source of wonderful writing (Mr. Ed Rosos' work comes to mind) and a grand reference work for most every bit of knowledge mankind has aquired.It's also great at proselytizing everyday folks into raging hate mobs that threaten to destroy our society and providing a place where anyone with a weird vile urge or notion can find a large support group for their worst impulses.
Taking all that into consideration, I suggest we return to hard copies of books from the library and getting to know our neighbors. I'll miss all you folks but. you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Somebody handed me a crack pipe once and being me, relatively young and convinced I was going to live forever ( and fuck it if I didn't) I hit that motherfucker like Muhammad Ali hitting Sonny Liston down for the count. I realized at once this was the GREATEST THING EVER and if I ever tried it again I probably wouldn't survive a year.
We maybe need to put that internet pipe down. Sure we lose a lot but our odds of survival increase.
We can chip in to get Roy a roll of stamps and a mimeograph machine.
Well, now, overlooked in this righteous, impossible-to-criticize rant is the role of the media or, more specifically, the irresponsibility in reporting.
In the sad case of Boudin’s defeat is the simple fact that a prosecutor’s effect on crime is minimal. To the contrary: If the DA looks bad, it’s safe to presume that the real problem is with Porky, which, regratbly, is an issue our exceptional mainstream reporters will not, cannot touch.
In other words, Boudin was seen as failing because the made it clear that he was failing, facts and truth, as they say, be damned.
The Boudin defeat made me think back decades to 2014 and the run up to the 2014 elections. The mainstream wildly echoed GOP claims of Obama and the Democrats failing to respond vigorously to the huge threat of Ebola. Fact: At its worse, the number of cases in the US were in the double digits because back then we were a functional nation (Compare to the response to Covid which y’all know has been far from what it should be.) Within days of the election, the Ebola crisis disappeared from the news.
Amongst other mainstream bullshit that does no good is that Timesman who wrote the book on Jack Welch as the result of an epiphany that maybe a reporter shouldn’t be a mindless cheerleader (or groupie??) for business but report facts and stuff. His epiphany doesn’t extend to the fact that Welch engaged in arguable securities fraud in order to keep goosing GE’s stock price or that he left GE in awful, awful shape.
Or, one of my other current bete noires: That the current trendy mass shootings coverage overlooks two related facts that should be part of all the coverage: Mass shootings happens on average daily and school shootings at least once a week. So in that regard, the media (ideally) need to explain why this one’s special given all the other shootings they don’t report. (I know; in that regard, the media are size queens, the more killed the better. Still, a little framing and context would help.)
And the instant classic: The inability or refusal to call GOP pols’ response to mitigating Covid is literally deadly, making said pols by definition killers.
Meanwhile, to say the GOP has been pulling shit for decades is a gross understatement. But they’d have had a shit ton fewer successes without the help from the mainstream media. You know, like if there was all appropriate honest, fact-based coverage.
I'm always struck by those voters outraged by the burgeoning homeless population. Those voters are PISSED that so many people have no place to live. So the voters vote out the incumbent and vote in someone who will "do something" about the homeless.
And that's when things get stupid because the only ways to deal with homelessness is with liberal applications of money and changes in zoning. Shelters, transition housing, low-income housing, increasing welfare benefits, providing substantial mental health resources, fully funding substance abuse programs--these are the things that actually do something about reducing homelessness.
And these are the very things that voters will always vote against.
I've been thinking that the first 4 words in response to these lies should always be: "This is a lie" after that go into the reasons. Not first explain what the problems are with the reporting and hope that people then get that this is a lie. Whether or not that would work, I don't know, but it might have the advantage of getting peoples attention.
Excellent.
Your mention of Orwell puts me in mind of 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘳𝘮, which was required reading in my seventh grade English class. The paperback edition had a helpful foreword, in which the editors explained that what we were about to read was an allegory setting forth the wicked workings and chilling consequences of communism. The author himself was quoted: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism.” Well and good, but (as I discovered some years later) the original sentence, in its entirety read (emphasis added, natch): “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵.” Er, “George,” that last bit’s, you know, kinda off-message. You won’t mind if we memory-hole it, will you?
In this Time of Need, I am happy to introduce the John Munch Anti-Crime Act of 2022, which is to require police departments to hire actual DETECTIVES whose ONLY job is the INVESTIGATE violent crime. Trade off some beat cops driving around checking for non-functioning tail lights for actual detective work that might nudge Chicago's clearance rate on murders above 50%. A young black man gets shot down on the west side, instead of the cops saying, "Eh, he was probably a drug dealer, LOL", they investigate the crime like his life actually mattered, like he was a tourist shot on his way to the Cubs game.
Left out an important point about Boudin's term: according to some post I read somewhere yesterday violent crimes generally were down significantly during his tenure. Several thousand fewer than the previous period. But the national press cares not, and the locals were/are/always will be/freaked out about derelict/unkempt/undermoneyed humans living on the pavements.
I remember reading that in 2020 (I think) Walgreens stole tens of millions of dollars (maybe more) in wages from its employees in California. The employees sued to recover the wages but ended up having to settle for like .25 cents for every dollar stolen by Walgreens. So Walgreens legally kept about 75% of the proceeds of their theft. As always though with the media, real crime is someone boosting Huggies and Noxzema makeup wipes.
Lotta good stuff in this post and comments. I live in the Bay area and married into a SF family, and can testify that the bums with their bum poop and tents is a big big deal with the locals (tourists are a mix of horrified and think it's some sort of art installation). SF is not a cheap place to live, and a rather painful place to run any sort of business, so locals believe they have a right not to have to deal with bums in exchange for the money they pay to live there. A long-winded into to saying the Bum Problem mattered a lot more to voters than all the misleading anecdotes about Boudin "refusing" to prosecute criminals who rob Walgreens (there were also a series of smash-and-grab robberies of higher-end stores that were on high rotation on the tv, though those guys got caught). Car break-ins are another raging problem, a few anti-Boudin commercials claim he "shut down" prosecution of car break-ins. Between the cops (based on a few sf cops I know they hated his guts) and the bums Boudin never stood a chance.
. . . the obscene levels of inequality that the intense wealth generated by capitalism should be able to alleviate without breaking a sweat.