Right-Wing Noise Machine
In a recent piece for The Nation, Christopher Hayes took a look at the roles that email forwards and the internet play in 'the new right-wing smear machine'.
He discusses some old examples-- the now-infamous 'Al Gore said he invented the internet' nonsense-- but uses one recent example as an illustration... the now-debunked 'Obama attended a Muslim madrassa' smear. Hayes looks at the way the story went from a conservative magazine to websites like the Drudge Report to Fox News to repeated email forwards today. Conservatives may be bad at governing, but man are they are organized.
I'd add that a new Obama hit-job has cropped up since this piece was published. This one suggests that the Senator refused to say the pledge of allegiance at a recent Iowa event (this one was even embraced by the totally non-partisan Muslims Against Sharia). This'll make the rounds more if he wins the nomination.
To illustrate how these type of emails, etc, can influence conservatives and the political dialogue, I post this recent IM conservation between a friend and I. My friend's father is a diehard Republican, Glenn Beck fan, and get lots of emails from fellow travelers. Here, my friend and I discuss a recent conversation he had with his father-
Bill: My dad is inventing things that clinton did wrong
Bill: he claims that 240 marines were killed by al qaeda when bill was president
Bill: I looked it up, and he's thinking of REAGAN actually
Bill: al qaeda killed 240 marines in 1983
Jeremy: haha... Yep.
Jeremy: did you tell him?
Bill: yep. he said, "yeah, but clinton dropped the ball when saudi arabia arrested bin Laden and let him go"
Jeremy: wow!
Bill: I said, "uhm....that didn't happen like that"
Bill: he said, "yes, they called him and said that they had bin laden, and he said to let bin laden go"
Bill: I said, "not....really."
Jeremy: that was debunked years ago
Bill: he buys whatever the GOP tells him
Bill: he actually tried to argue that carter was a worse president than bush
Bill: I said, "the worst thing that carter did was not get some hostages out of iran"
Bill: he said, "yeah, that's a weak president!"
Bill: I said, "uhm, actually he avoided war with iran. bush started two failed wars and let 3,000 people die in ONE day."
Bill: He said, "I don't think he's worse than carter"
Jeremy: Ya know I've actually seen conservatives who argue JFK pussed off by not attacking the USSR during the missile crisis
Bill: I said, "well, then you have a pretty skewed idea of a good president"
Jeremy: BTW, heres something to put on your dads fridge (link)
Anyone else have conversations like these?
Finally, check out this great blog-- My Right-Wing Dad-- which collects this sort of thing.
posted by BlueDuck @ 7:50 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
"(this one was even embraced by the totally non-partisan Muslims Against Sharia)"
This is slightly misleading. The main point of the statement was to pressure Senator Obama to distance himself from his al-Qaeda-wannabe supporters.
We also criticized Congressman Paul for not distancing himself from his neonazi supporters. According to your logic, it must be a part of the new left-wing smear machine, correct?
Boy, for a group supposedly dedicated to ridding the world of sharia law and islamo-fascism (OMGZ!), you sure are concerned with what little ol' me has to say. I am flattered.
That post of yours was hardly an unbiased, principled stand against Sen. Obama, as the inclusion of this BS pledge of allegiance meme showed. No one believes that Sen. Obama has more than a small handful of extremists who may be sympathetic to him, or that it even remotely compares to the number of crazies Congressman Paul has cheering him on from their basements (just check any YouTube/blog topic about Paul... they are everywhere). Nor do I take seriously such concerns about extremism from people aligned with racist, pro-internment camp demagouges like Michelle Malkin.
And saying you've complained about Ron Paul hardly proves you're not a right-wing apologist. The right-wing today (particularly the neocon zealots you align yourself with) *hate* Ron Paul with a passion, because his foreign policy worldview is no closer to the modern right-wing's than is that of Dennis Kucinich.
Your response hardly disproved my point. Quite the contrary, in fact.
"That post of yours was hardly an unbiased, principled stand against Sen. Obama, as the inclusion of this BS pledge of allegiance meme showed."
You must be a real patriot to consider the Pledge of Allegiance or National Anthem bullshit. What made you hate your country so much?
"You must be a real patriot to consider the Pledge of Allegiance or National Anthem bullshit. What made you hate your country so much?"
Two things-
1) The 'why do you hate America?' tic (which is, like, sooo 2003) just again proves my point that your group is just a sham, a front for far-right Malkin-esque American demagouges.
It's especially telling that this is the case, because ignoring the crux of my lengthy response, abd instead offering that jingoistic, borderline self-parody reply is a favorite habit of that group. Thank for continuing to prove my points for me, I sincerely appreciate it.
2) It was quite clear that what I was calling "BS" there was the Obama meme, not the pledge of allegiance itself. But-- to perfectly honest-- the idea of a pledge/loyalty oath is kind of unamerican for my tastes. True patriots don't wear it on their sleeves.
"the idea of a pledge/loyalty oath is kind of unamerican for my tastes."
Of course not, because you don't like America the way it is.
"True patriots don't wear it on their sleeves."
Right. Because all these people are nothing but baby-killers.
Again, I have to say that your beyond-cliche 'why do you hate America?' tic continues to prove my point that your group is just a sham, a front for far-right Malkin-esque American demagouges.... As is your use of tired right-wing tropes like insisting that liberals think soldiers are 'baby killers' (the right-wing, of course, is perpetually stuck in 1972).
Afghani Muslims don't talk like that.
Of course, you seem to have dropped all pretense in this back-and-forth of being an actual Afghani Muslim and have settled for throwing your childish Hannity-isms at me.
An addition to things that prove that you are a) American, b) a right-winger, c) not a Muslim, I'll add your obsession with the most trivial, superficial aspects of my replies... ignoring the crux of my responses, which prove your assertions wrong. It's a standard conservative technique-- get off-topic, get the debate back on your terms, etc.
Finally, I would add (again) that for a group supposedly dedicated to ridding the world of sharia law and islamo-fascism, you sure are concerned with what little ol' me has to say. I remain flattered.
Afghani Muslims? Ever thought that Afghanistan could be a default setting, Sherlock?
Maybe you don't hate your country, but you are definitely not proud of it. Shouldn't every person live in the country that makes him/her proud? You must have never experienced elation hearing your national anthem or seeing your flag being raised, but take my word for it; it's a great feeling. No human should be deprived of it. That's why you might want to consider moving to a country you will be proud of, a country where you would want to wear patriotism on your sleeve.
"Afghani Muslims? Ever thought that Afghanistan could be a default setting, Sherlock?"
Ahhh, so you admit that the site is a front for right-wing Americans (such as yourself) to demagogue from? Thanks!
"You must have never experienced elation hearing your national anthem or seeing your flag being raised, but take my word for it; it's a great feeling."
I do enjoy those things yes, but I pity anyone who gets their greatest joy(s) in life from them. They're symbols-- inspiring symbols, yes-- but just symbols.
"No human should be deprived of it."
No human should be deprived of food, shelter, love, health care, etc. Seeing a flag raised? Yes, I think most people (the homeless, African refugees, victims of natural disasters, etc) could live without that and would much prefer the things I mentioned.
"That's why you might want to consider moving to a country you will be proud of, a country where you would want to wear patriotism on your sleeve."
Or maybe I should move to a country where they force people to obey their government and display their loyalty to it? Like the Soviet Union? No wait, they're gone... we outlasted them in the great war of ideas.
I live in America. It's a country based on basic freedoms and liberties! It's a great place. They don't force nationalism on its people, and let everyone live the way they see fit.
If someday you defeat the sharia rule in the muslim country you live in (woops, forgot about what you said before), you should come visit. It's an amazing, open, and tolerant place. :)
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