The media is definitely showing a pro-insurrectionist bias: A must read, and I suggest retweet. https://t.co/8GNEG61QK4— Dan Rather (@DanRather) July 28, 2021
Anne Applebaum has made some interesting comments about why intellectuals do this, or even support extremism / authoritarian movements etc as has been seen in Poland, Hungary and now UK and US To some extent there is a feeling that democracy hasn't worked out, or a disappointment in their own careers which can lead to cynical behaviour (e.g. Ingraham) I think this has been pretty clear with the BBC coverage of Brexit, where everything is a power game and the media seldom goes to the helicopter view to say "wait this framing makes no sense" everything exists only within a bad faith narrative defined by what happened yesterday, and who is speaking today Republicans should be confronted with the fact that they are undermining an inquiry into a coup they instigated. That is actually the story.
I especially agree that the media needs to abandon the "doorstep" & photo op style coverage. Republicans appearing outside jails to spread a conspiracy theory is not a story. Boris Johnson driving a JCB through polystyrene Brexit bricks is not a story.
Also, even fewer got hospitalized or died: A better headline would be: Less than .08% of the 164.2 million-plus fully vaccinated Americans have tested positive for COVID. https://t.co/McnmP2mN4T— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) July 30, 2021
Did someone hack your account, @TheAtlantic? https://t.co/Noa7VBApCP— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 2, 2021
Friday night cat was sleeping on the sofa and left us mice heads in the morning. Not seen him since. Maybe the old lady has locked him up to stop him visiting
Dems asked people to get vaxxed, GQPs said not to and people died; no idea how to sort out who’s saying the truth: Our local hospital in North Florida (where we are surrounded by low-vaccinated counties) is at ventilator capacity, but good to see Politico still on the DeSantis won the pandemic bandwagon https://t.co/LpoAx9JrHM— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) August 3, 2021
My own take on this is that intellectuals are drawn to ideologies; and an ideology is always, to some degree, an explanation for how government & society are supposed to work. Ideological thinking sees politics as a means to an end. Democracy is not ideal as a means to an end--I would argue that democracy is an end in itself--and for ideologues, at some point, since getting the 'the end' is the important thing, they'll lose patience with slow, imperfect, inefficient means.
I think you would dig Applebaum's most recent book: She's an American, right-leaning journalist whose married to a conservative but not populist/nationalist Polish politician who, himself, is bit into Democracy... unlike the parties in ascendency in Poland right now. She can give a specific interpretation of events based on things going on in several nations.
I follow her on Twitter so I'm sure I'd dig it; I just need to make a point of reading it. Thanks for the tip!
If you ever get near a library, you might be able to get it there. They had it in my friendly local one.
After I replied to you, I checked the catalog, and sure enough the branch upstairs had a copy on the shelf. Already checked out. Paged through it a bit, and it seems I've already read some excerpts online. Should be a quick read. Thanks again for the recommendation.
Greemwald tries whitewashing Hungary, gets schooled: 1422562802963607553 is not a valid tweet id Madeleine Albright warned us of Orban 3 years ago in her book... what's it called? Oh yeah,"Fascism."— χ2 (@tucgoodman) August 4, 2021 Journalist reporting facts good. Tuckums giving Orban a bj bad.— Peter Michel (@PeterMi61228580) August 4, 2021
Screw the 40k deaths. What about his political future? This framing is an especially ghoulish example of how political reporters act like everything, including our lives and deaths, is just a game. https://t.co/Y63QuhWydI— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) August 7, 2021
Update: Finished it this morning. It's a quick read, but we had company from out of state from Thursday until today. Can confirm--it's very good.
If baffles me the extent to which the political press is concluding “A virus surge led by Republicans who refuse to get vaccinated and GOP state leaders who refuse to take basic precautions is hurting …. Democrats politically.” https://t.co/7Xzs0W2RnI— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) August 8, 2021
Conservative media for the win.... Dominion sues right-wing OAN and pair of Trump-loving reporters for spreading 'manufactured stories about election fraud' https://t.co/sObb5su28k— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 10, 2021