Outrage Du Jour
God; Guns; Gays; Prayer in Schools; War on Christmas; Politically Correct; Death Tax; Illegals; National Anthem; ACORN; Benghazi; Massive Voter Fraud; Stop the Steal; White Genocide. These, and dozens of other bumper sticker talking points are all fodder to whip up fake outrage in the base to keep them wound up and angry over non-issues. The latest is Critical Race Theory. Virtually unheard of before March of this year, it is now the key topic on Fox Noise, OAN, social media, and Hate Radio all over the country.
What’s going on? What’s going on is what always goes on…whip up an issue to piss off the base, flog it until it becomes ingrained in conservative DNA, then find another fake issue to piss off the base, flog it until it becomes ingrained in conservative DNA, rinse, repeat. They use the tactic to drive the base to the polls and for fundraising.
Media Matters has been following these tactics for years and have publish a new review to the Critical Race Theory outrage. Now, to be clear, Critical Race Theory has been in academia for over 40 years. It was developed back then, primarily in law schools, including Harvard, to frame the approach to legislation in an effort to understand how racist policies from centuries ago have become ingrained in our laws. It’s not political and has not been taught in schools to children. This issue was dredged up as Trump started flogging the fake issue by banning discussions of race in the military and in government agencies call it “sensitivity training” and other pejoratives as part of his campaign in the 2020 election.
To show how these issues are flogged, Media Matters tracks the number of mentions of certain key words. Here’s their recent tracking of Critical Race Theory on Fox Noise.
Media Matters did a great exposé a couple of years ago about how Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs whipped up the War on Christmas in 2004 which is now resurrected and marched down Bullshit Street every holiday season. Bullshit is the proper descriptor for all of this, but it’s worse than that. It’s corrosive and undermines people’s confidence in government, has destroyed all decorum between political ideologies and is a common tactic in totalitarian governments like Russia. The proliferation of this bullshit makes truth unknowable. Normally rational people spout said bullshit on social media in a continuous stream, destroying civility between digital and even actual friends. This is how you get a HUGE proportion of Republicans actually believing Trump is still president and how whites are being systematically eliminated from society. It’s all bullshit, but it’s also ingrained in the belief systems of millions of Americans. Even in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary, people still believe this bullshit.
It’s tragic and seriously threatens our democracy.
Republicans are starting to make me believe in a Q. How else do we explain the lockstep of this mindless colony of drones. These people, from the pols, to the base, have so few basic beliefs that they believe anything and then they are told how to react – and predictably do so.
1I can’t imagine what it does to one’s self esteem to always see yourself as a victim. Every day a new demon pops up and deprives you of some imaginary right. sad
2Just wait until enough liberal churches display historically accurate Nativity scenes. Jesus Mary & Joseph of Middle Eastern descent!? Don’t you dare tell Evangelicals what their Lord looks like. They’ve got pictures.
3As always with the GOP, it boils down to greed and intolerance.
4And it goes back to Congress giving a special PASS to citizenship to Rupert Murdoch so he could buy american broadcast stations. Ergo Fox Noise. Ergo the origins of Fake News. (Grocery Tabloids don’t count. Not enough clout.)
The foundation for the demise of our Democracy was laid decades ago.
5Rick, I wouldn’t bring it up.
6They’re still a might prickly about Jesus posing for the Zig-Zag rolling papers logo.
My granddaughter loves her kindergarten class. She says that finger painting is fun and that she is very good at drawing trees and birds. She enjoys recess if it isn’t too hot outside. But her absolute favorite is the two hours of Critical Race Theory they do every day, just before snack time.
7Agree with everything said above. As critical race theory is simply stating the awful truth, we of course know that is the opposite of repugnantican beliefs- calling out racism and the truth.
8Here’s another truth that is denied in repugnantican beliefs- that climate change is real, true, manmade and widespread. I wonder how many Oregon repugnanticans are reconsidering what is happening. There’s plenty of world wide examples, but this weekend through Monday, 75 Oregonians died from heat exposure which reached 117 degrees (116 at my house), and all time records 3 days in a row. And it was only June. This is what can happen in the future in even the most cool (temperature wise) places. Oh, and the wild fires are starting. But deny, deny, deny.
The DNA analogy is a good one. The constant avalanche of new bullshit does so much more than numb folks (me included) to how repugnantly common this shit is.
9Almost any one of those things woulda been inconceivable as anything more than a sick joke 14 years ago.
Now they come so fast and continuous that they’re barely surprising. To the extent that I have to be reminded of most of it more than a few months old. Seriously, look in the archives here from a couple years ago, and I’ll bet you’ll find all kinds of batshit crazy ideas that repugnantcans were pushing that you’ve forgotten about until reminded of them. Things that were so ridiculous that you couldn’t imagine how anything could rival them.
And that’s the point.
I see that crap and think, “how the hell did I forget about THAT SHIT?”
One of the pissed off sheep hears about the same thing and thinks about it like they had to take a pop quiz about in 7th grade history class.
Or like it’s some kinda genetic memory.
Like it’s somehow in their DNA.
Rick @4 and other religious commentary,
I was reading some political thing on the topic of religion and there was an image of a page of the King James bible [KJV]. Reading the first sentence my jaw hit the floor.
This KJV passage was written about a group of biblical-era people, farmers, cultivating their CORN fields!
JFC, corn/maize was first cultivated in southern Mexico ca. 7000BCE, 9000 years ago.
But corn was NOT known of by –any– Middle Eastern, European, or ‘Holy Landers’ until AFTER Columbus arrived in the Western Hemisphere in 1492! Eons –after– biblical times.
I suspect that the KJV bible [and others] are just riddled throughout with other such utter bullshit [never read from that version].
How the hell can people just disconnect their supposedly rational human thinking brains from known facts and reality itself?
[I turned agnostic around fifteen, and have stayed one since, because of pondering things just like that.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize
10So as an armchair student of Tudor history this thing about corn has come up many times. Seems the English used the word corn as a catch all term for crops grown for animal feed.
11When the English came to the Americas maize was considered corn, ie animal feed.
Many people in England (my daughter’s in laws) will not eat corn, it is for animals. Which lends credence to the catchall term.
I agree the Bible is full of bull—-.
Calm down there, Sandridge.
The King James Version translators used English as it was spoken by the upper class in England in the 1600s. They used the word “corn” for any type of rounded grain, including wheat. 94 uses of the word “corn” in the KJV. One example:
For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. 1 Timothy 5:18
The original was written in Greek, and says (in part):
bοῦν ἀλοῶντα οὐ φιμώσεις
Roughly translated:
ox treading out not you shall muzzle
What was the ox treading out? The Greek does not say. The translators put in “corn” where you or I might put in “grain” or “wheat.” That’s what oxen tread out on threshing floors.
Languages change over time. In 1600s England, “corn” meant any rounded grain, or even “salt” — as in “corned beef” which is simply beef preserved in coarse salt. In 1900s United States, “corn” is more specific, referring to one grain only.
12There was also corned gunpowder for use in cannons.
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