Funny events in anti-woke world

CM156

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That is true, although I think only half the problem. It's also the case that many of the public have tasted low-quality, one-sided journalism and preferred it, because it's pleasing to be told what you already believe rather than challenged that you might be wrong.

(Or they just want cat videos.)
People enjoy being told that they're right and others are wrong. Especially people who say differently.
 

tstorm823

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Broadly, yes, because the demand for 24/7 news cycles, massively increased competition via the internet and reduced advertising/subscription revenues driving heavy cost reductions have led to drastic cutbacks in the time and research that goes into production of news articles.
You are describing a real phenomenon, but in the specific instance of that Time article, I'm going to push back again. This was a retrospective analysis, not a current event, and it was written by an "editor-at-large", not someone with harsh deadlines or quotas. There is genuinely no excuse.
Being responsible news consumers requires people to be aware of the limitations of the media. Pointless bitching and conspiracising about it is pretty useless, because it's achieving precisely nothing to fix the problem. In fact, it's often achieving the opposite by furthering distrust in and weakening the audience share of higher quality media, whose ex-customers have little alternative except accessing even lower quality media, thus driving standards even lower.
It's not a conspiracy for people to all independently pursue their own self-interest in the same way. Honestly, you say it pretty well:
It's also the case that many of the public have tasted low-quality, one-sided journalism and preferred it, because it's pleasing to be told what you already believe rather than challenged that you might be wrong.
This is what the anti-Trump articles are about. The authors know there is an enormous audience who believe Trump is terrible, and who consume content about how terrible Trump is, and they played to it. And the entertainers know there is an enormous audience for dumping on Trump, so they played to it. And in very short order the truth has been fully replaced by self-sustaining public opinion. Which is exactly why people remember "drink bleach".
Countless times you've defended far more egregious falsehoods and exaggerations that Trump has made as part of rambling speeches.
Count to one for me. Name one egregious falsehood I've defended.
 

Cicada 5

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Silvanus

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Count to one for me. Name one egregious falsehood I've defended.
...You've just spent a pretty large number of posts in this very thread deflecting and defending Trump for the suggestion of injecting disinfectant.

In this thread, you defended the multiple Republican congresspeople who promoted QAnon, on the (subsequently shown to be false) basis that the Dems bankrolled them more than the Republicans.

I also seem to recall you defending Trump's racist lies about Mexicans being killers and rapists, by stating that we should contextually understand he's only talking about a specific subset. Essentially that we should apply assumed, good-faith context to let him off the hook for a statement that's an egregious lie if you take it at face value-- essentially the opposite approach to the one you want to apply for Biden here.
 
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tstorm823

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...You've just spent a pretty large number of posts in this very thread deflecting and defending Trump for the suggestion of injecting disinfectant.
I have not defended him. He should not have said what he did. Part of my point is that you don't have to lie to condemn the comments.
In this thread, you defended the multiple Republican congresspeople who promoted QAnon, on the (subsequently shown to be false) basis that the Dems bankrolled them more than the Republicans.
I did not defend them, saying the Democrats advertise for them is not a defense. From my perspective, it is further condemnation.
I also seem to recall you defending Trump's racist lies about Mexicans being killers and rapists, by stating that we should contextually understand he's only talking about a specific subset. Essentially that we should apply assumed, good-faith context to let him off the hook for a statement that's an egregious lie if you take it at face value-- essentially the opposite approach to the one you want to apply for Biden here.
He literally says "and some, I assume, are good people" in that comment. You don't have to assume he meant that, he literally said it out loud. But I also don't defend what he said there, as even with the qualifier it's a terrible thing to say. I'm pretty sure you're misremembering this one.
 

Silvanus

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I have not defended him. He should not have said what he did. Part of my point is that you don't have to lie to condemn the comments.
You've been wholly focused on deflection, condemned the media for accurately reporting what he said, and even made demonstrably false statements about his critics. This is all defence.

I did not defend them, saying the Democrats advertise for them is not a defense. From my perspective, it is further condemnation.
Your sole interest there was letting the Republican Party off the hook for nominating them, bankrolling them (to a greater degree), voting for them.

He literally says "and some, I assume, are good people" in that comment. You don't have to assume he meant that, he literally said it out loud. But I also don't defend what he said there, as even with the qualifier it's a terrible thing to say. I'm pretty sure you're misremembering this one.
So, you focused on some other minor context in order to lessen the falsehood and hatefulness of what he said.

Whereas with Biden, no context matters (like how it's very obviously a fuzzy recollection, or how what Trump literally did say is equally dangerous)-- it must be 100% a malicious lie.

I really hope you can see the double standard. With Trump, you might begrudgingly say he was wrong-- but you'll always preface it with caveats, excuses, deflections, or reasons why those criticising him are the real villains, just like you've again done above. No way would you start off with the description of it as a "malicious lie".
 

Ag3ma

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And in very short order the truth has been fully replaced by self-sustaining public opinion. Which is exactly why people remember "drink bleach".
But the news media didn't report that Trump suggested people drink bleach, so I'm not sure what your point is here. What people are actually doing is conflating a sort of minor meme about drinking bleach (a weird thing some very misguided people are known to do) with what Trump suggested.

Secondly, as already stated, given how close "drink bleach" is to what Trump suggested, arguably the distinction just isn't that important.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Oh nooooooooooooooooooo!


Tbh keep instinctively interpreting his name as if it's one of those placeholders people use for not knowing someone's real name.
 

tstorm823

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You've been wholly focused on deflection, condemned the media for accurately reporting what he said, and even made demonstrably false statements about his critics. This is all defence.
I did none of that.
Whereas with Biden, no context matters (like how it's very obviously a fuzzy recollection, or how what Trump literally did say is equally dangerous)-- it must be 100% a malicious lie.
I never said that. I'm tracking the proliferation of falsehoods, starting at the news media. It would counter my claims if Biden had maliciously invented that.
I really hope you can see the double standard. With Trump, you might begrudgingly say he was wrong-- but you'll always preface it with caveats, excuses, deflections, or reasons why those criticising him are the real villains, just like you've again done above. No way would you start off with the description of it as a "malicious lie".
If you weren't always saying something markedly worse than the truth, I wouldn't be taking a softer position. You are a victim of only your own extremism.
But the news media didn't report that Trump suggested people drink bleach, so I'm not sure what your point is here. What people are actually doing is conflating a sort of minor meme about drinking bleach (a weird thing some very misguided people are known to do) with what Trump suggested.

Secondly, as already stated, given how close "drink bleach" is to what Trump suggested, arguably the distinction just isn't that important.
You know what the point is. You know the media deliberately spreads falsehoods. You were just talking about it yourself. And now you are shrugging off the desire for honest reporting in exactly the way you described. You have tasted one-sided journalism, and you prefer it.