Out From the Underground with Artificial Love

I just read the Jon Chait article about the "netroots." It's not as bad as I'd feared. But it does have its blind spots.

The one that fascinated me the most was that Chait consistently downplays Iraq in his account of the etiology of the Liberal Blogosphere Netroots Thing (LBNT). Chait seems to view Iraq as just another issue, like the Estate Tax, upon which we ought to agree to disagree, etc.

Not quite. The 2000 recount misery was foundational, sure, but what really made the liberal internets explode was this misbegotten, dishonest, squalid war. This may come as a shock to Chait, but while the LBNT disagrees about a lot of things, we're all clear that the fact that such an insane misadventure was ever allowed to occur indicates a deep-seated rot in the American polity.

The war is the central moral issue of our time. A decent respect for the principles of genuine "intellectual inquiry" demands that the fools and perpetrators and enablers of this obscenity be held to account. By any means necessary.   

And the list of enablers includes pompous liberal hawks who mistake "propaganda" for savage indignation.

Comments

[Raenelle]

I have a writing question. When you write perfect descriptions such as "pompous liberal hawks who mistake 'propaganda" for savage indignation," are you aware that you've just nailed the essence of the thing, or is perceiving clearly and precise description only in the eyes of the reader?

[flory]

And the list of enablers includes pompous liberal hawks who mistake "propaganda" for savage indignation.

And who squawk that a demand for truth is some nefarious form of 'activism'.

[mrs. ibrahim al-jafaari]

in a just world, propagandists like Chait and Beinart would be given a proper trial, follwed by a decent hanging. There is not enough rope to adequately deal with these monsters.

[LJ/Aquaria]

I read that drivel and wondered what bizarro world Chait lived in.

From his article:

Liberals made several attempts to recreate the conservative message machine--Jim Hightower, Mario Cuomo, and countless others attempted and failed to create talk-radio programs.

Hightower's show actually did very well, expanding to 150 stations in 16 months, but, in an eerie precursor to MSNBC v. Donohue, that hardly mattered.

From a 1995 FAIR Media Beat article:

While he's attracted uncommon sponsors like labor unions and Mother Jones magazine, his show has been hobbled by a lack of marketing from the ABC network and undermined by right-wing management at ABC mega-stations in New York and Los Angeles.

"Listeners like the Hightower show," says respected radio consultant Jon Sinton, who helped launch the program. "But it makes big companies nervous."

Emphases mine.

And that's just one small sample of what's wrong with Chait's little hit piece (and hit piece it is). His command of reality and truth is frail, at best.

[LJ/Aquaria]

And this little gem:

At the narrow level, the netroots take part in a great deal of demagoguery, name-calling, and dishonesty. Seen through a wider lens, however, they bring into closer balance the ideological vectors of propaganda in our public life.

That's rich, coming from a magazine that actively promoted propaganda to get its war on, that has never seen a Joe Lieberman lie or slander it wouldn't hurl at Democrats on his behalf.

This Chait fucker makes me sick.

Guillotines for the whole lot of them.

[Righteous Bubba]

OT: Accreditation for nutballs

PDF of the CHEA telling the feds to get their noses out. At least, that's how it reads to me.

[Kathleen]

Chait seems to view Iraq as just another issue, like the Estate Tax, upon which we ought to agree to disagree, etc.

amen. Exactly what I was thinking. And the fact that "the Iraq War" also encompasses the administration's misbegotten "War on Terror". Literally, *the* issue of the day.