{"id":8978,"date":"2007-05-07T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=8978"},"modified":"2007-05-07T18:01:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-08T01:01:00","slug":"the-gatekeepers-gambit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=8978","title":{"rendered":"The Gatekeepers’ Gambit"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Ace<\/a>, citing the media embargo of a Rasmussen poll “finding that 61% of self-identifying Democrats either believe George Bush knew of the 9\/11 attacks in advance or are not sure if he did or not”:<\/p>\n

\n

[…] when 61% of Democrats state they believe that George Bush knew about the 9\/11 attacks in advance, or may have known of them—thus making George Bush a co-conspirator in the attacks—the media not only does no debunking whatseover, but fails to point out the left is engaging in some fairly serious myth-making itself.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

\nLong story short:\n<\/p>\n

\nThe media considers it crazy to believe that Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, had something to do with 9\/11, and fights this insanity with every tool at its disposal, including outright deception.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn the other hand, the media does not apparently consider it particularly hard to believe that George Bush, President of the United States<\/i>, had something to do with 9\/11. If they did consider such a notion beyond the pale, one would imagine they’d publicize (and implicity mock) those crazed liberals believing that our own President aided and abetted Osama bin Ladin.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut of course they don’t. Because it’s simply not possible<\/i> for a reasonble person to believe a sworn enemy of the US, known to have at least some ties with Al Qaeda, could have had a hand in the attacks, but a reasonable person could, according to the MSM, believe that a US President with no ties to Al Qaeda helped facillitate and perhaps even carry out the attacks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nFactor Ace’s observations into my argument earlier today<\/a> that the MSM is not so much credulous and blinded by its hatred of all things non-progressive<\/i> as it is cynically playing to the fact that we live in an cultural ethos wherein the philosophical substructures necessary for the progressive agenda to take root—among them a credulous and politically disengaged majority (which forces politicians to give more weight to those who are<\/i> engaged, who, on the left, tend to be the types who believe that short-term white lies or rhetorical dodges are a practical—indeed, a moral<\/i>—tool that in the end brings about the greater good, and so is justified) and an epistemology that privileges anti-foundationalism, identity politics, and linguistic totalitarianism, and it becomes clear that we’ve reached a similar ending point, but that we disagree on the nature of MSM and partisan complicity.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn general, I’m willing to give the media the benefit of the doubt—they tend to go for the sensational, and many of their drones aren’t exactly the sharpest stingers in the colony—but when it comes to memes that they continue to push even after they have been thoroughly and completely problematized or outright debunked, then we can safely say that their intent<\/i> has become something far more objectionable than merely selling newspapers.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the course of my proddings over the last few years, I’ve extracted, from the likes of Greenwald(s)<\/a> and Mona<\/a>, confessions that they, and many of their supporters in the ranks of “true conservatives” (read:  progressives who started out in the blogosphere as cutout conservatives in order to claim a convenient political epiphany), are willing to do anything and everything—including lying (which they would reframe as finessing the narrative)—to achieve their ends.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat is, they have stated in no uncertain terms that lying in the service of larger truths is not a political sin—and in fact, it is, in the perverse logic of arrogant, presumptuous, illiberal hacks, something of a badge of honor.  Muddying the narrative waters, obstructing progress, keeping their political opponents constantly on the defensive:  these are the tactics of “progressivism,” and are geared toward forcing their opponents to surrender the fight for wont of being able to elevate their own voices above the din.\n<\/p>\n

\nSo while I share Ace’s jaundiced view of the MSM, I’ve come to think of them as less gullible than opportunistic, and far more cynical than simply credulous or blinded by hatred alone.\n<\/p>\n

\nBecause to be sure, they are<\/i> blinded by ideological hatred; but they have taken to channeling that hatred into a willful attempt to control the electorate and shape public debate in a way that rises to the level of intentional advocacy.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut then, maybe both of us are wrong—and what we’re seeing instead is a mass hallucination happening on the right<\/i>, whereby we all went to bed on 910 and woke up on 911 as giant cockroaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Ace, citing the media embargo of a Rasmussen poll “finding that 61% of self-identifying Democrats either believe George Bush knew of the 9\/11 attacks in advance or are not sure if he did or not”: […] when 61% of Democrats state they believe that George Bush knew about the 9\/11 attacks in advance, or may have known of them—thus making George Bush a co-conspirator in the attacks—the media not<\/p>\n

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