Great one. I too am forced to spend a good bit of time way out outside of my NYC home with apolitical types, Republicans, independents, and/or Trump voters, and you're right: most of them don't care about any of this shit (although a few of them do certainly do, but they seem to have their own unique ideas about things that don't fit into a pre-fab box).
I will say that I find most of the people scattered around the proverbial flyover country of the US, politically obsessed or not, to be way nicer these days than the "MSNBC-radicalized" types on the coasts have become. That group, while always leaning a bit smug, have taken to being mean and unpleasant, unreasonable, stubborn, exclusionary, hypocritical and often outright stupid, and I say this as someone who shares their party (and ostensibly their politics). They're forever fighting the paranoid forces in their own heads and on their social media feeds. That Marianne Williamson-on-Fox-News-hot-mic-moment where she discouragingly admits how nasty "lefty" media is to her, and nice Fox is, despite politics, says it all. I'll take Walter Kirn's gregarious welcoming warmth, and "zany" ideas about the kindness of neighbors and strangers over all of them.
Pretty sure that Fox is nice to Williamson so she keeps coming back to show the Fox audience that the left is, at best, a bunch of crystal-rubbing hippie dipsh!ts, not because they like or respect her.
Of course they have ulterior motives on having lefties (and pseudo-lefties) on their shows! Tucker Carlson has a regular contingent of the old left — and likely the only actual left voices on the 24-news networks at all — on his show on a regular basis. Because they're all deeply critical — totally dismissive even — of the Democratic Party, a message MSNBC won't allow at all. (The censored-from-the-air RT America was also filled to the brim with lefties like Chris Hedges and Abby Martin who critique the entire US governmental apparatus, party be damned, which Russia was more than happy to fund. The network was shut down for being "Russian propaganda," and I'm sure there was some of that, but it was more muzzling a dissident voice.)
It's all spin and manipulation on all of the "news" networks. MSNBC won't allow any dissident thought at all, unless it's from the totally captured Nancy-Pelosi-junior-league "Squad" who are allowed to go on the air and pretend that weaponized identity politics, and nothing else, represents the left flank of acceptable politics, while ignoring — because they're a part of it — the crimes and manipulations of their party. Fox certainly created the "we're allowed to be assholes because we're always right" version of news, but MSNBC has taken the ball and somehow created an even worse breed of asshole.
I'm not crazy about Williamson as a political figure, but she seems like a nice person, and the fact that she can go on Fox and experience basic human kindness from their staff — even if they are presenting her as some "crystal earth mama" — while some of the most cruel, lying, dumb and mean personalities/fabulists in TV history like Joe Scarborough, Joy Reid and Mehdi Hasan, and their respective staffs, treat her like shit still means something.
I agree with all of this, though I feel like Hasan is a fairly credible journalist.
I'm constantly getting pounded on by nitwits because I criticism my own (grudgingly) party, rather than ignore its corruption and take potshots at the other side.
Look at the outrage I've received here because I keep pointing out that "Three Strikes" Joe wants to overrule the will of the people to prevent criminal justice reform, even though he has bailed his crackhead, influence pedalling crook of a son out of his repeated felonies, as if Trump being a crook means that no one else can be a crook.
What a radical idea - that crimes should be prosecuted, even if the criminal is rich and politically connected.
Sort of thought that was what America was supposed to be all about.
The post-Trump Democrat has become incredibly deluded, myopic and angry about our politic sphere. Your bog-standard NYC Democrat used to be very much in the "lesser of two evils, all politicians are crooks, but this is the best we have right now, and they don't suck as much as Republicans" mold, but has now moved into full-tilt cult behavior, unable to even listen to criticisms of Biden and Pelosi or the increasingly merged corporate/military/pharma/intelligence/media sphere. Two of the worst Democrats in ages are treated as if gods (RBG prayer candle anyone?), and their corrupt empire as some sort of heaven on earth.
There a million reasons for this, but the fabled "Trump Derangement Syndrome," is front and center (who cares if it's a "right wing talking point" when it's accurate). I think of an era, not even long ago, when New York had the alternative newsweeklies and underground papers like the Village Voice, the New York Press, the Aquarian, Al Goldstein's Screw and the rest. In grand New York City tradition, there were so many disparate viewpoints and opinions in NYC politics and media that creating a mindhive was impossible. Well, those voices are gone, and the mindhive is here, and it's controlled by some real bad intel.
(I feel like Hasan is one of the worst pure partisan advocates of "the one correct opinion" and an ass about it, but I don't spend enough, or any, time watching him to know better. I just see his lowlights on Twitter and in opinion pieces.)
Again, I agree in large part, though I do remember getting weird looks when I pointed out that Bill Clinton was giving glowing eulogies for Nixon (definitely a sign of times to come) and passing NAFTA.
People said I was crazy to call Clinton's presidency as Bush's second and third terms, since Clinton was able to pass the things Bush tried and failed to do.
Remember when the Cheney's were (correctly) viewed demon spawn? Now they are the toast of the town.
I am only familiar with Hasan's written stuff at The Intercept, TBH, and have not bothered to check out his MSNBC career. I may be giving him too much of the benefit of the doubt.
Bill Kristol, David Frum, Rick Wilson and the Lincoln Project, Max Boot, the Cheneys, the Bushes, et al., joining the Clintons, Bidens, Pelosis and Obamas in an unholy union of the neoconservatives and neoliberals in a "new look" Democratic Party that has all of the worst elements of both former movements (and the combined media manipulation) is the worst thing that could have happened to our politics.
British comedian and socialist (and now online sort of populist rabble rouser) Russell Brand went on Bill Maher this weekend and said to an MSNBC hack's face that he shouldn't pretend that his network didn't exhibit the exact same biases and problems as Fox News. It was all true. As if on cue, the New Republic today published a piece about how "we" have "lost" Russell Brand to the "right wing" because he pushes an anti-war, anti-big pharma, anti-monopolistic corporation, anti-censorship, pro-whistleblower, media-skeptical, and pro-unity stance.
Say what? Being skeptical of the government, industry, media, against censorship and being in favor of human togetherness is "right wing" now? And Bill Kristol and Hillary Clinton and Dick Cheney and Barack Obama all agree on this? And they're the "left wing"? Do people really buy this bullshit?
Very much appreciate the calm and clear-eyed viewpoint, Ross. I do think it reflects the majority of Americans, both left and right. Unfortunately, there is not much profit in peaceful observations and indifference doesn't attract clicks or views as much as incendiary quotes and predictions. For most of us who deal with what our job, family, and everything else life throws at us on a regular basis, we don't have time for this extreme left or right bullshit.
But Ross, my Montana piece WASN'T written to stir up liberal fears about anything. If it were, it wouldn't have been re-published in populist conservative newspapers, it wouldn't be shared on AR15.com or have occupied the top of Revolver.News.
It was written from a right wing perspective for right wing people—totally outside of your network of "very serious journalists"—yet was more resonant because it was true. If it were truly "designed to inflame liberal fears" it would've been written in the New York Mag or WaPo by someone like you, like a million articles that already exist (for e.g. this one cited in my piece washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/03/08/they-are-preparing-war-an-expert-civil-wars-discusses-where-political-extremists-are-taking-this-country/). These articles fail to impact a single member of the working class you so desperately claim to care about because they are full of tone deaf garbage. My piece didn't pander to the causes you wish it did, e.g. mass immigration, and it worked because it didn't.
Perhaps if people like you helped cultivate insightful right wing perspectives instead of blocking, cancelling, and de-platforming us, you might be able to understand the flyover states beyond "having shopped at Meijer before."
It's linked in the piece. It's the piece the Vanity Fair piece appears to be about that this piece is about. Good god, journalism has become most self-self-self-reflexive-and-referential activity ever
I don't know the answer, that was another detail that was reported versus imputed based on my preconceived notions of what was right and wrong. But my personal explanation: same reason the food quality everywhere else in Bozeman has plummeted----hollowed out on behalf of outside investors increasingly drinking Montana's milkshake + a liberal elite ruling class too blinded by identity to care.
I also was moved by the VF piece written by James Pogue. Indeed, it's a very long piece describing the rich, drug addled clowns, who think running away from the world they created will solve everything. In my opinion it’s a rich satire that skewers a Ponzi scheme organized around land ownership, willful ignorance, and the misappropriation of identity politics. In other words, these are racist dipshits planning to grift a civil war. Their “exit” signifies nothing more than a fervent self serving cultural superiority that is isolated and out of touch by design. It's too bad Pogue didn't profile the underclass supporting these folks but the self absorption and lack of concern for others is clearly evident.
Amen to this, particularly those last two grafs. Having worked in the media for a long time, but also come from a very working class background where most of my friends and family simply didn't care about many of the headlines we liked to run with, I couldn't agree more.
Now that journalism has become entirely professionalized and bourgeois-ified one wonders if many journalists are simply uncomfortable talking to anyone who didn’t go to college. If I were feeling glib I might call it paralysis by positionality, or maybe stultification by standpoint theory.
Pretty sure that the ruling class is seeing us natives getting angry, and are instinctively doing their best to turn the proletariat against itself.
If there is a civil war, it's going to involve more guillotines than AR15s if you catch my drift.
But as my wife said to me the other day, for most people just surviving this predatory system is as much as most can handle. They are left with little energy left to contemplate a better future.
Great one. I too am forced to spend a good bit of time way out outside of my NYC home with apolitical types, Republicans, independents, and/or Trump voters, and you're right: most of them don't care about any of this shit (although a few of them do certainly do, but they seem to have their own unique ideas about things that don't fit into a pre-fab box).
I will say that I find most of the people scattered around the proverbial flyover country of the US, politically obsessed or not, to be way nicer these days than the "MSNBC-radicalized" types on the coasts have become. That group, while always leaning a bit smug, have taken to being mean and unpleasant, unreasonable, stubborn, exclusionary, hypocritical and often outright stupid, and I say this as someone who shares their party (and ostensibly their politics). They're forever fighting the paranoid forces in their own heads and on their social media feeds. That Marianne Williamson-on-Fox-News-hot-mic-moment where she discouragingly admits how nasty "lefty" media is to her, and nice Fox is, despite politics, says it all. I'll take Walter Kirn's gregarious welcoming warmth, and "zany" ideas about the kindness of neighbors and strangers over all of them.
Pretty sure that Fox is nice to Williamson so she keeps coming back to show the Fox audience that the left is, at best, a bunch of crystal-rubbing hippie dipsh!ts, not because they like or respect her.
Of course they have ulterior motives on having lefties (and pseudo-lefties) on their shows! Tucker Carlson has a regular contingent of the old left — and likely the only actual left voices on the 24-news networks at all — on his show on a regular basis. Because they're all deeply critical — totally dismissive even — of the Democratic Party, a message MSNBC won't allow at all. (The censored-from-the-air RT America was also filled to the brim with lefties like Chris Hedges and Abby Martin who critique the entire US governmental apparatus, party be damned, which Russia was more than happy to fund. The network was shut down for being "Russian propaganda," and I'm sure there was some of that, but it was more muzzling a dissident voice.)
It's all spin and manipulation on all of the "news" networks. MSNBC won't allow any dissident thought at all, unless it's from the totally captured Nancy-Pelosi-junior-league "Squad" who are allowed to go on the air and pretend that weaponized identity politics, and nothing else, represents the left flank of acceptable politics, while ignoring — because they're a part of it — the crimes and manipulations of their party. Fox certainly created the "we're allowed to be assholes because we're always right" version of news, but MSNBC has taken the ball and somehow created an even worse breed of asshole.
I'm not crazy about Williamson as a political figure, but she seems like a nice person, and the fact that she can go on Fox and experience basic human kindness from their staff — even if they are presenting her as some "crystal earth mama" — while some of the most cruel, lying, dumb and mean personalities/fabulists in TV history like Joe Scarborough, Joy Reid and Mehdi Hasan, and their respective staffs, treat her like shit still means something.
I agree with all of this, though I feel like Hasan is a fairly credible journalist.
I'm constantly getting pounded on by nitwits because I criticism my own (grudgingly) party, rather than ignore its corruption and take potshots at the other side.
Look at the outrage I've received here because I keep pointing out that "Three Strikes" Joe wants to overrule the will of the people to prevent criminal justice reform, even though he has bailed his crackhead, influence pedalling crook of a son out of his repeated felonies, as if Trump being a crook means that no one else can be a crook.
What a radical idea - that crimes should be prosecuted, even if the criminal is rich and politically connected.
Sort of thought that was what America was supposed to be all about.
The post-Trump Democrat has become incredibly deluded, myopic and angry about our politic sphere. Your bog-standard NYC Democrat used to be very much in the "lesser of two evils, all politicians are crooks, but this is the best we have right now, and they don't suck as much as Republicans" mold, but has now moved into full-tilt cult behavior, unable to even listen to criticisms of Biden and Pelosi or the increasingly merged corporate/military/pharma/intelligence/media sphere. Two of the worst Democrats in ages are treated as if gods (RBG prayer candle anyone?), and their corrupt empire as some sort of heaven on earth.
There a million reasons for this, but the fabled "Trump Derangement Syndrome," is front and center (who cares if it's a "right wing talking point" when it's accurate). I think of an era, not even long ago, when New York had the alternative newsweeklies and underground papers like the Village Voice, the New York Press, the Aquarian, Al Goldstein's Screw and the rest. In grand New York City tradition, there were so many disparate viewpoints and opinions in NYC politics and media that creating a mindhive was impossible. Well, those voices are gone, and the mindhive is here, and it's controlled by some real bad intel.
(I feel like Hasan is one of the worst pure partisan advocates of "the one correct opinion" and an ass about it, but I don't spend enough, or any, time watching him to know better. I just see his lowlights on Twitter and in opinion pieces.)
Again, I agree in large part, though I do remember getting weird looks when I pointed out that Bill Clinton was giving glowing eulogies for Nixon (definitely a sign of times to come) and passing NAFTA.
People said I was crazy to call Clinton's presidency as Bush's second and third terms, since Clinton was able to pass the things Bush tried and failed to do.
Remember when the Cheney's were (correctly) viewed demon spawn? Now they are the toast of the town.
I am only familiar with Hasan's written stuff at The Intercept, TBH, and have not bothered to check out his MSNBC career. I may be giving him too much of the benefit of the doubt.
Bill Kristol, David Frum, Rick Wilson and the Lincoln Project, Max Boot, the Cheneys, the Bushes, et al., joining the Clintons, Bidens, Pelosis and Obamas in an unholy union of the neoconservatives and neoliberals in a "new look" Democratic Party that has all of the worst elements of both former movements (and the combined media manipulation) is the worst thing that could have happened to our politics.
British comedian and socialist (and now online sort of populist rabble rouser) Russell Brand went on Bill Maher this weekend and said to an MSNBC hack's face that he shouldn't pretend that his network didn't exhibit the exact same biases and problems as Fox News. It was all true. As if on cue, the New Republic today published a piece about how "we" have "lost" Russell Brand to the "right wing" because he pushes an anti-war, anti-big pharma, anti-monopolistic corporation, anti-censorship, pro-whistleblower, media-skeptical, and pro-unity stance.
Say what? Being skeptical of the government, industry, media, against censorship and being in favor of human togetherness is "right wing" now? And Bill Kristol and Hillary Clinton and Dick Cheney and Barack Obama all agree on this? And they're the "left wing"? Do people really buy this bullshit?
Very much appreciate the calm and clear-eyed viewpoint, Ross. I do think it reflects the majority of Americans, both left and right. Unfortunately, there is not much profit in peaceful observations and indifference doesn't attract clicks or views as much as incendiary quotes and predictions. For most of us who deal with what our job, family, and everything else life throws at us on a regular basis, we don't have time for this extreme left or right bullshit.
But Ross, my Montana piece WASN'T written to stir up liberal fears about anything. If it were, it wouldn't have been re-published in populist conservative newspapers, it wouldn't be shared on AR15.com or have occupied the top of Revolver.News.
It was written from a right wing perspective for right wing people—totally outside of your network of "very serious journalists"—yet was more resonant because it was true. If it were truly "designed to inflame liberal fears" it would've been written in the New York Mag or WaPo by someone like you, like a million articles that already exist (for e.g. this one cited in my piece washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/03/08/they-are-preparing-war-an-expert-civil-wars-discusses-where-political-extremists-are-taking-this-country/). These articles fail to impact a single member of the working class you so desperately claim to care about because they are full of tone deaf garbage. My piece didn't pander to the causes you wish it did, e.g. mass immigration, and it worked because it didn't.
Perhaps if people like you helped cultivate insightful right wing perspectives instead of blocking, cancelling, and de-platforming us, you might be able to understand the flyover states beyond "having shopped at Meijer before."
You're not the vanity fair columnist haha so he's not talking about your piece. Why not link to it here and we'll check it out :)
It's linked in the piece. It's the piece the Vanity Fair piece appears to be about that this piece is about. Good god, journalism has become most self-self-self-reflexive-and-referential activity ever
His piece is linked to in Ross’s article above. You can click on it there.
Question. Why did the ranch get so much crappier in terms of food and service? I would have thought bougie liberals like gourmet local food?
Good Q, first time I've gotten this.
I don't know the answer, that was another detail that was reported versus imputed based on my preconceived notions of what was right and wrong. But my personal explanation: same reason the food quality everywhere else in Bozeman has plummeted----hollowed out on behalf of outside investors increasingly drinking Montana's milkshake + a liberal elite ruling class too blinded by identity to care.
Liberal elite ruling class too blinded by identity to... care about how food tastes? What?
Yes, he imputed it, don’t you see
Huh, weird. Thanks for the answer.
Comrade Matt - I think you'd enjoy me and Isaac's podcast, which touches upon many of the themes in this post: https://thecarousel.substack.com/p/37-yuri-bezmenov#details
Ross,
I also was moved by the VF piece written by James Pogue. Indeed, it's a very long piece describing the rich, drug addled clowns, who think running away from the world they created will solve everything. In my opinion it’s a rich satire that skewers a Ponzi scheme organized around land ownership, willful ignorance, and the misappropriation of identity politics. In other words, these are racist dipshits planning to grift a civil war. Their “exit” signifies nothing more than a fervent self serving cultural superiority that is isolated and out of touch by design. It's too bad Pogue didn't profile the underclass supporting these folks but the self absorption and lack of concern for others is clearly evident.
Amen to this, particularly those last two grafs. Having worked in the media for a long time, but also come from a very working class background where most of my friends and family simply didn't care about many of the headlines we liked to run with, I couldn't agree more.
Thank you! I really appreciate it. Looking forward to your next Substack
Now that journalism has become entirely professionalized and bourgeois-ified one wonders if many journalists are simply uncomfortable talking to anyone who didn’t go to college. If I were feeling glib I might call it paralysis by positionality, or maybe stultification by standpoint theory.
Pretty sure that the ruling class is seeing us natives getting angry, and are instinctively doing their best to turn the proletariat against itself.
If there is a civil war, it's going to involve more guillotines than AR15s if you catch my drift.
But as my wife said to me the other day, for most people just surviving this predatory system is as much as most can handle. They are left with little energy left to contemplate a better future.
I would not trust Vanity Fair’s take on anything west of Broadway. Reality? They are never there.
"What much of the media often misses, even now, is that most people simply do not care about politics."
Well, that's a pity. Politics has impact on their lives. Do they prefer to ignore that?
But, obviously, some do care about politics:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/us/politics/north-idaho-college-republicans.html?searchResultPosition=1