Read a left-wing tendentious article yesterday (6 May) in the Weekend Australian (page 13) from a Hugh Tomlinson in London. All about the so-called Proud Boys and their Trumpian plot to storm the US Capitol buildings. Here’s a short extract
One protester was shot dead and hundreds injured, including more than 150 police officers. One officer who was beaten by Mr Trump’s supporters died the next day. Four more took their own lives in the weeks that followed.
First, the protester, an unarmed young woman, was shot dead by a Capitol police officer, without any reasonable cause. We’ve all seen the footage. Mr Tomlinson is being deceptive in leaving out the circumstances.
Second, 150 police officers were not injured – unless you are gullible enough to accept police union reports and definitions of what injuries look like.
Third, a police officer did not die the next day after being beaten. This is a factoid which survives only because the Tomlinsons of this world give it continuing currency.
Fourth, if in fact four officers took their own lives after the event, it had nothing to do with participating in a melee at the Capitol. It is ridiculous and deceptive in equal measure to imply that it did. The real question here concerns the mental health of police officers, who we’d like to believe, with the power that they have, are generally of sound mind. If four police officer from those involved in the events at the Capitol on 6 January committed suicide, it seems to be an unusually high number.
What is to be done about the lying media? I’m not talking about dreadful woke, left, green opinions. The world has always been stuck with those in one form or another. For example George Orwell laid it out in The Road to Wigan Pier in 1937:
One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.
Dated, but we get his drift. What I’m talking about is lies. Plain and simple duplicity. There is no Christianity, no conscience, no common decency in evidence. Just insouciant mendacity. Enough lies from the fourth estate and are freedoms are history. We saw that when the media were complicit in beating up Covid hysteria. We are seeing it in the preposterous and destructive climate-change scam, when it would be easy for the media to check the fabrications about untoward weather events, and lay bare the base motives of those pushing the scam. But we can’t expect liars to fact-check and expose lies.
Enemy of the people. Trump nailed the press.
they aren’t lies
they’re truths that you have yet to synthesize
Here what you are saying, but we must also be wary of the urge to rid ourselves of troublesome priests.
Just treat media like you would a dog: always expect it to return to its vomit, and proceed from there.
The media and politicians are currently about 100 rungs below used car salesmen on the ladder of trustworthiness.
A well deserved achievement!
Fact checking for conservatives does not work (beyond the audience of the outlet doing the fact checking), primarily because the media cycle has moved on.
A simplistic conclusion is that broadly speaking, acting defensively & reactively will always place ourselves in a position if disadvantage. A lie needs only a toe in the water.
The alternative is to seize (& maintain) the initiative by predicting what the actions of our opponent/s might be, based on past actions, & implementing tactics to negate or minimise the impact of the same.
To achieve the above (which I consider we have the ability to perform, but I am hesitant to say we have the willingness), we need to understand to a greater depth both our own & our opponents’ strengths & weaknesses.
I made a comment a few days ago about regarding this existential task as either leading a professional sporting team, or running a business. Meaning that without evaluation & planning, we won’t achieve much in a competitive environment.
We seem to now regard ‘winning’ as an incidental bonus; the equivalent of ‘temporarily not going backwards,’ rather than as a VITAL, non-negotiable goal, to which all else, including participation, comradeship, and morality come second.
The mesozoic media can be manipulated – our opponents do it. (Besides, some of the more traditional media are on the verge of irrelevance).
Again, I truly believe conservatives have the capacity to saddle-up for this challenging ride. The question is about willingness.
If we were destined to be blessed with a Messiah to save us from getting our fingernails dirty, we’d have been blessed by now.
Stop reading communist government propaganda.
Betcha he didn’t mention all the glowies, like nice Mr Epps, who were trying to incite the protesters. Literally hundreds from the alphabet agencies and Antifa.
As for the Weekend Australian we know that Newscorpse wants to suppress anything about the stolen 2020 election, since if they fessed about that they’d be vindicating Trump. And they hate Trump and his voters like ebola.
time for a reminder of the modern-day definition of journalist:
a know-nothing lying c_nt who makes sh_t up for a living
h/t to whomever first expressed this
The dead police officer is the new ‘Plastic Turkey’.
No surprise the Uniparty went into meltdown when Carlson broadcast excerpts from the Capitol’s CCTV on January 6. We can safely assume Mr Tomlinson will not trouble himself with reviewing the evidence hiding in plain sight.
My impression is that the Left no longer see that there is anything amiss with expressing what they think, as opposed to what they know. This results in them not having what we would understand as “scruples” in rewriting facts according to their own world view.
I’m not sure if this is a result of the strengthening of their partisan approach to the world, or the failure of education standards in respect to teaching the difference between “facts” and “interpretation”.
Again, I truly believe conservatives have the capacity to saddle-up for this challenging ride. The question is about willingness.
If we were destined to be blessed with a Messiah to save us from getting our fingernails dirty, we’d have been blessed by now.
Muddy, you are right. I came face to face with this challenge over the Covid vaccine issue. A group of our locals in Sydney who are (bless them) opposed to the mRNA vaccines, formed a group which meets most Sundays. Initially, the purpose was to have some sort of social support since most had faced ostracism from family and friends over this issue. However, as time went on, many began to want to give short discourses on other (political) issues that moved them. When these preoccupations involved issues such as “free Julian Assange”and some wild theories on 5G, I no longer felt comfortable in the group.
In retrospect, I think I have behaved like a bit of a prima donna, especially since others who felt the same as I do, have nevertheless laboured on in their determination to “read the word” about the dangers of the Covid vaccines.
You are right – we do have to stand up and be counted in a consistent way.
Should have been “spread the word”!
What is to be done about the lying media?
Form a group called Schlepping Giants and shame their advertisers into withdrawing?
Lobby all coalition governments to take action … oh, wait a minute.
Just stop buying their products? Done that already.
Footnote: I’ve known that lying media is the biggest force for evil outside of the communist parties of the world, but too many people still think they don’t matter. There was a time when journalists and their bosses took pride in keeping the bastards honest, but that’s now a shrinking minority.
There are likely to be at least half a dozen answers to this, one of which is technological development, including so-called social media.
Whereas once upon a time, the direction of information was one-way, now every Joe, Jo, or Xo (pronounced ‘Lo’) Blow can publish their opinion and send it out there, with the possibility of influencing topical issues (i.e. ‘social justice’ campaigns).
The ability to manipulate people is not a new development, but the drivers of such propaganda have created a reward for online behaviour where the moral anchor chain has been cut, and all that matters is the outcome. With people able to comment often anonymously, there are few, if any, consequences, the fear of which would normally restrain one’s actions.
The system is based on gang culture, where an individual, upon becoming a member, receives benefits including social status (within the gang), self-esteem, and protection against outsiders for as long as the member adheres to the membership expectations. The gang rules supercede any outside rules, which members may be permitted to break, as long as they do not in turn break the internal gang rules.
With socio-political issues, conservatives have been positioned as outsiders, whose rules are largely irrelevant. Whatever an outsider says or does, is a possible threat to the gang.
People who perhaps feel they have no purpose or meaning in their own lives, will gravitate towards a group or issue, partly in the hope of receiving membership and the benefits that carries. That’s absolutely normal.
Crank these into the mix-
“How Corrupt Is Our Current Situation? It’s Worse Than Most Can Fathom…
May 4, 2023 | Sundance | 1,177 Comments
The football spiking by AG Merrick Garland today deserves some context. I am going to take you through a story that will highlight just how bad the situation really is.”
More at
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/05/04/how-corrupt-is-our-current-situation-its-worse-than-most-can-fathom/
And read it all. Plus
“Follow Up – Answering Questions”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/05/05/follow-up-answering-questions/
May 5, 2023 | Sundance | 358 Comments
“
another ian says:
May 7, 2023 at 7:58 pm
There is no such thing as corruption within one’s own gang. If it supports the goals of the gang, it is legitimate. Ditto with hypocrisy, the spotlighting of which requires the subject to possess the capacity for guilt and shame. (There is no guilt, nor shame, for contributing to the gang’s goals).
The footage of “The Shaman” being literally escorted around the building by officials is what sealed it for me.
Lies, lies and damn lies.
This statement of the bleedin’ obvious is “dated”, how exactly?
“The footage of “The Shaman” being literally escorted around the building by officials is what sealed it for me.”
Not the sight of an unarmed woman being shot by a cop, who was later lauded for his ‘bravery’?
This statement of the bleedin’ obvious is “dated”, how exactly?
For a start, the Sex-Maniac of 1935 might be the sacred minority being denied the right to read to children while in Drag in 2023.
Thanks for the heads up on “The Road to Wigan Pier” which should become a text for final year high school exams. It would teach (?) the students the life their forebears underwent and perhaps get them to question “is this all about to happen again?”
“The system is based on gang culture, where an individual, upon becoming a member, receives benefits including social status (within the gang), self-esteem, and protection against outsiders for as long as the member adheres to the membership expectations. The gang rules supercede any outside rules, which members may be permitted to break, as long as they do not in turn break the internal gang rules. “
While this is certainly true, it’s also true that on social media people chase “re-tweets”, “likes” and so on. This means the most outrageous claims and statements tend to be amplified. Worse, it means that the left/right divide is also amplified, pushing each other away, so we end up with “hyper-polarisation” where you are evil because of which side you are on, not what your specific thoughts on any particular issue might be.
Don’t think we’re immune to it either – as often seen here on the cat, people are lumped into groups based on an opinion on a single issue and forever branded as “friend” or “enemy” based on a simple disagreement on one topic. Even consorting with certain people and attempting to elicit a more nuanced answer often sees you pilloried from one side or the other, and often both sides.
I don’t think we have a “left/right” divide any more – more a “libertarian/authoritarian” divide. There are those on both left and right who want to tell you what to do, and those who want to discuss it and reach some sort of reasonable compromise. It seems to me that the left started this, as they tend to the authoritarian and the absolute, but the right is not innocent of it either – it’s just that the right tends to have more libertarians views to start with.
Apart from the usual woke bias, what value would the comments of a stringer in London have in relation to events in Washington?
Good comment, Kneel.
In terms of what is to be done we all know the bulk of the propaganda in Aust is generated by the ABC and SBS. We all scream for them to be shut down etc. That however is way outside the Overton window and won’t happen. However what has happened over the last 5 plus years is pretty much every household has taken on at least one paid streaming service. We should be just putting the idea out there that the ABC and SBS don’t need taxpayer funding they can just become one more streaming service. Its going to become a harder and harder argument for them to stand against. If it happens it won’t mean the complete abolition of leftist twaddle on TV’s, Ten has The Project for instance but I suspect it would be much harder to run a profitable streaming service with no subsidy trotting out unadulterated leftist propaganda. It may even be smart tactics, to in the first instance make no cut to their funding, but allow them to charge for streaming then start to pare back their funding as the streaming revenues grow.
It’s not the whole solution but its fairly big part of it.
@ Vicki:
“My impression is that the Left no longer see that there is anything amiss with expressing what they think, as opposed to what they know”.
Not quite.
Their greatest psycho-sexual jolly is to hear the peasants spouting the “standard true view” that the churnalists have fed them.
What the churnalists and the other usual suspects of the left allegedly “know” is NOT the key issue. The REAL issue is what they want YOU to believe and SAY.
The mangy tail wagging the rabid dog of politics.
Here’s the article in full:
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=468a4941-0f07-4fd9-b3a4-9631d04edeef