pure wingnuttery | Hanlon's Razor

The true effect of right-wing lies and propaganda

By Hanlon, on July 22nd, 2010 at 08:43 AM

Some time ago, I made a vow to avoid talking about conservative/neocon/Teabagger idiocy with any real frequency. My reasoning at the time was that those weren’t matters of import. The point should be to cover and opine on things that have an actual effect on the world around us, not just be a political tabloid.

What I should have mentioned, however, is that occasionally right-wing bullshit has a rather profound effect on that world.

Take the story of Breitbart and Tucker Carlson heavily editing and lying about statements made by one black USDA official to make her sound both racist and acting in a racist manner on behalf of the USDA. The problem, aside from the obvious that the whole story was a fabrication, is that after this woman was fired… she didn’t get re-hired.

There’s a rather frightening timeline that comes along with these fake stories:

Some conservative propaganda outlet (Drudge, Rush, New York Post, Breitbart) breathlessly “breaks” some story that shows what the horrible libs are doing.
The mainstream media picks up on the story either immediately or after being browbeaten by the rest of the right-wing media for “ignoring” the story.
Action is taken in some manner or another to punish the parties involved.
Lies are exposed as lies.
Part #3 is not resolved.

You can make a list a mile long. Half of the 2004 presidential campaign was eaten up with Swiftboat nonsense, all of which turned out to be lies, and no effort was made by anyone to repair the damage to John Kerry’s campaign and reputation until long after he lost the election. ACORN lost their federal backing thanks to edited videotapes and heavily selective “reporting”, and thus far I’ve seen nothing to indicate that they’ll be getting anything back. This woman loses her job and there’s no push to get her re-instated. That’s just three, there are many more examples.

There’s an old saying that a lie repeated often enough becomes truth. Another one that says what happened doesn’t matter, only what you can convince people happened. What we’re seeing is an expert exploitation of this fact.

What’s the cause? There could be a few. I suspect one is the fear of being assumed liberal, and one is the desperate desire to be ahead of the competition. Some story “breaks” on a right-wing website and the old MSM wants to make sure they get the scoop, so they just run along with it without doing any checking. Next thing you know, there are House Resolutions and White House statements based on what was reported, and no one digs in to see if it was even true.

It’s pathetic, and that’s how things seem to work these days. And there’s an interesting secondary point: the people who originated the story knew that they were lying, and did so simply to destroy someone’s reputation and cause trouble for them, so isn’t that libel? I say yes, but again, I don’t suspect much will be done.

Beck University coming soon

By Hanlon, on July 2nd, 2010 at 02:34 PM

Give Glenn Beck credit, he knows damn well how to exploit and make money off of his followers. It’s almost frightening.

Offered exclusively to Insider Extreme subscribers, Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics. Through captivating lectures and interactive online discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.

Again, reflect on the fact that he believes in none of this shit. It is solely to perpetuate his brand and increase his celebrity.

Texas: home of the maniacs

By Hanlon, on March 12th, 2010 at 09:49 PM

I’m at a loss for words:

To avoid exposing students to “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else,” the Board struck the curriculum’s reference to “sex and gender as social constructs.”
The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”
The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”
The Board struck the word “democratic” from the description of the U.S. government, instead terming it a “constitutional republic.”

I’d like to point out that at no point during Bush’s tenure did any state educational board attempt anything of this calibre. Vermont wasn’t out there changing the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the word “republic”.

This is downright dangerous, folks. Imagine what the next generation of Texans will be like if they’re educated under this system.

Republicans’ losing battle with the right

By Hanlon, on November 9th, 2009 at 02:46 PM

gop As an equal opportunity armchair quarterback, I’m more than happy to explain why each party has a problem with its base. Lately, though, I dare say the Republican Party has a far, far more severe problem with its base than do the Democrats with theirs.

Most of you probably recall my October-fast, and so realize that it must be something pretty outrageous to have me turning my attention toward the rabid, frothing conservative Teabagger base. It is.

Elie Weisel is a Holocaust survivor turned Nobel laureate who committed the unpardonable sin of… criticizing the Teabaggers who held up a picture of the Holocaust in an attempt to exploit that pain and criticize Democrats’ health care plan. The response is downright horrifying. Head to the original Politico story for more comments.

Rothschilds nothing! Everyone knows that Obama is George Soros sock puppet. Wasn’t Soros Jewish once upon a time? May the Schwartz be with you.

The jews need to clam up and accept the fact that they are in a Chritian country.

This hollowcost thing is totally overblown by the jewish.

Elie Weisel is disgusting PR-seeking profiteering demagogue who has made a fortune off playing on the world’s guilt trips about the what happened to the Jews during WW2.

Weisel is getting too touchy in his old age. Too bad, I remember when he deserved respect, not pity.

This comment is pretty awesome.

Perhaps Weisel should take Obama’s advice. Lets wait for the facts. For all we know it was liberal democrat holding that sign.

I’d like to remind everyone that these people are defending the use of a picture of the stacked bodies at Dachau for a disagreement on health care reform, and turning their ire toward a man who was actually in a concentration camp. I’m almost expecting to see someone with a sign that says, “I’d rather die of cancer than live under socialism”, and after a man dying of cancer says that”s tasteless, the base tells him he should have his corpse buried in France. These are people who would correct Jesus Christ on what the Bible says.

These are your friends, GOP. Those are the Teabaggers, the “real Americans” who are supposedly giving voice to the “concerns” America has with liberal policies. We often talk about the spineless Democrats, but the Republicans have become far worse. While the Democrats are afraid to embrace the ideals of their base, the Republicans are downright terrified to rebuke theirs.

You’d think any decent human being would agree that using an actual photograph of corpses in the Holocaust would be beyond the pale, but the GOP is so scared of losing what little support they have that they won’t do it. Ironically, this is the very reason national support for the Republican party is collapsing. While the Democrats’ problem with their base is related to their seeming abandonment of the base, the Republicans have the opposite problem.

Of course, this all adds up to a Washington that’s sitting far to the right of the people they’re supposedly representing, but that’s another rant for another time.

Conservative tells people to get ready for “bloody battle” with Obama-nazis

By Hanlon, on September 28th, 2009 at 05:54 PM

My head a splode I’ve been avoiding doing any kind of post about “look who’s calling Obama a Nazi now” and whatnot, but this is so far beyond the pale I’m at a complete loss.

To be honest, I can’t even formulate a proper lead-in. Just take a look for yourself.

If we had our guns, we would have fought a bloody battle. So, keep your guns, and buy more guns, and buy ammunition. [...] Take back America. Don’t let them take the country into Socialism. And I refer again, Hitler’s party was National Socialism. [...] And that’s what we are having here right now, which is bordering on Marxism.

Call for violence? Check.

Conflation of Socialism with Germany’s National Socialism? Check.

Random talk about Marxism? Check.

Abject insanity? Check.

I’d also like to point out the oddness of this lunatic using the Equal Rights Amendment as proof that we’re on the road to Nazism. I admit I’m no history major, but I seem to remember the Nazis being kinda against equal rights for all. I don’t know. I might have to look into my books again.