Saturday, February 16, 2019

two good links from the recent past

Many thanks to Bill Keezer for sending over the links to these late-January articles.

Here's Don Surber, taking on the worthlessness of the press:

Trump Exposed How Worthless the Press Is

"The pattern is now drearily familiar. First, a poorly attributed story will break — say, 'Source: Donald Trump Killed Leon Trotsky Back in 1940.' Next, thousands of blue-check journalists, with hundreds of millions of followers between them, will send it around Twitter before they have read beyond the headline. In response to this, the cable networks will start chattering, with the excuse that, 'true or not, this is going to be a big story today,' while the major newspapers will run stories that confirm the existence of the original claim but not its veracity — and, if Representative Schiff is awake, they will note that 'Democrats say this must be investigated.' These signal-boosting measures will be quickly followed by 'Perspective' pieces that assume the original story is true and, worse, seek to draw 'broader lessons' from it. In the New York Times this might be 'The Long History of Queens Residents’ Assassinating Socialist Intellectuals;' in the Washington Post, 'Toxic Capitalism: How America’s Red Hatred Explains Our Politics Today;' in The New Yorker, 'I’ve Been to Mexico and Was Killed by a Pickaxe to the Head;' in Cosmopolitan, 'The Specifics Don’t Matter, Men Are Guilty of Genocide.'"

Here's "the Diplomad" on Europe's nutty intellectuals, thirty of whom signed an open letter by "philosopher" Bernard Henry-Lévy, decrying the coming destruction of Europe by the Trump-style populist movement, which might arrive in a wave come May:

It's Official: Europe's "Intellectuals" are Bonkers

In my view, the Levy letter sums up everything wrong with the bulk of European (and American) "intellectuals." It positively drips with contempt and condescension for those European hillbillies and rednecks who voted for Brexit and have taken to the streets in Paris and elsewhere to protest what decades of progressive rule have done to them and their countries. It derides the sense of nationalism and bemoans-oh does it!--the "xenophobia" sweeping Europe and undermining the concept of Europe. Well, that is, undermining the concept of Europe put forth by the elites and the well-paid EU bureaucrats.

The letter is unmoored from the reality lived by average people. Nowhere does it mention the hollowing out or abandonment of traditional industries in the name of globalism and Gaia worship. It ignores the vast swathe of European people left behind and ignored by the new economy and the new politics of a borderless world. It decries the rise of antisemitism without ever mentioning from whence it largely comes, to wit, massive Muslim immigration, and leftist hostility towards Israel which quickly morphs into antisemitism. The letter, amazingly, completely ignores Islamic terror in Europe and around the world: no mention of the massacres in Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Brussels, etc. None. The word "Islam" appears nowhere, so, naturally, nowhere is there a hint as to why "xenophobia" might be on the rise.



No comments: