Anybody who uses the word “communist“ to describe liberal Democrats is completely off his rocker. It’s like calling Republicans “Nazis.” The Republicans are definitely not Nazis, even if their leader is a fascist dictator wanna-be.
When you say lost credibility you mean pointing out a fact contradicts what you’re trying to sell, so you will accuse them of losing credibility? Trump is a fascist wannabe. Is it like calling it a Russian hoax and you want us to not believe our lying eyes and him admitting to his family and campaign met with Russians at Trump Tower?
I think some people don’t know what the word credibility means, or they do and they’re just like Trump and just lying about it. Anybody eat your dog lately?
LOL!!!!!! You clowns just don’t get it. You and your ilk in the media along with the turd in the toilet bowl Hillary that won’t flush away have no INTELLIGENT arguments whatsoever so you resort to the Hitler comparison. That comparison is what is going to get him elected…again. Well, also, you have a cackling clown for a candidate that was so unlikeable in the 2020 campaign that she was the first one to drop out because she sucked that bad And when I say sucked that bad, I don’t mean with Willie Brown.
Terry you know you sound like Beavis or Butthead? And as far as Hitler, Trump’s vice president said he was Hitler before he whipped his head to talk out of the other side of his phony face, but that’s your problem not mine, your VP is a lying hack. And yes your political grounds for hating Harris, is her laugh… should we call you Beavis or Butthead?
Here in reality, Hillary conceded in 2016 and took a long walk in the woods. She wrote a book, and said some politically incorrect things about Donald Trump, but FREE SPEECH. Obama invited Trump to the White House the next day, and Obama was there to open the doors to the White House on Inaugration day. VP Biden presided over the electoral count without any rioting, violence, or smearing feces around. They all put Country OVER Party and attended Trump's Innaguraiton. They were all likely raised by good parents, hard working Americans. Clearly something happened to Trump and ilk like yourself along the way!
Terry. Oooh, mean, you are. After what you just "said," please don't take offense at Trump being called a "fascist dictator wanna-be" — key word: wanna-be. You will scream the loudest when your rights are taken away and see that Trump is not one of you — he is your enemy.
Calling names is the least effective way to win hearts & minds ever invented. But maybe you aren't trying to be persuasive, because in your heart you know that you might just be a teensy bit biased.
Put on your "gold" $400.00 sneakers with trump written on the side, grab a flag with trump
written on it, bring your "Matthew, Mark, Luke, trump bible. Look at yourself in the mirror and see what other people see.
A brainwashed member of a cult. A man who can't think for himself and puts a fat man in orange makeup, a horrific hairdo and puts him ahead of your country. He wouldn't give you the time of day. He only likes white rich men of which you are not
Millions were spent investigating Trump over the Democrat fabricated Russia collusion hoax, and some geniuses still believe that PROVEN garbage of a story. There is only one explanation:
Look at what Biden administration did to their enemies. It is so hilarious 😂 that the very thing liberals accuse Trump of wanting to do, they are actually doing themselves. It is scary 😨. I feel like we are re living MAO's cultural revolution with the radical liberals in office. I am a pure libertarian and hate both sides but the liberals are the true danger to democracy
I totally agree. But since the liberal left came after my own child, I am fully momma bear republican. No one is going to chop off her breasts which at 15 therapists advised we do for her anxiety. Thankfully she desisted with the help of detransitioners, gays against Groomers (who Wokepedia calls far right group), and books by Abigail Shrier and Miriam Grossman. The schools, states, medical 'professionals' choosing the harmful and irreversible and profitable 'affirming' route I no longer trust. Sick this is what the liberal left advocates so blindly and fervently.
I’m looking at what Biden administration did to our enemies, are you talking about to Russia and our other enemies or are you just lying about something domestically? But then Trump lied 30,000+ times in four years so we already know you have no use for the truth. Has anybody eaten your dog lately?
Gregory --- Correction: The Biden Admin does not view 'the other side" as an "enemy."
That may be the basic difference between Team Biden and the MAGA guys you apparently favor. I find it hard to believe that any American would draw a comparison between today's rancorous political climate and the F-ing Chinese F-ing Communist PArty's F-ing Cultural F-ing REVOLUTION. Have you lost your F-ing mind???
Dear Mr. Tucker, I recall from childhood when Alissa Rosenbaum was popularized as a modern philosopher of Objectivism, the school of thought she founded. She was an immigrant from Russia. Did you know that? She married actor and painter Charles Francis "Frank" O'Connor in 1929 and went on to fame and fortune by virtue of her widely popular novels and motion pictures based on her Objectivist philosophy. She subsequently died of heart failure in 1982 and was buried next to O'Connor who pre-deseaced her in 1979. Prior to her passing she declared that "irrationality is the root of all evil."
His "enemy within" comment is commonly based on a conflation of two comments from two separate interviews with different contexts he made. To understand the context, you would need to watch the entire interviews instead of relying on mainstream media, which has conflated the two comments into something they wanted it to be.
Unfortunately, it seems you might be busy and haven't had the time to review the full interviews, relying instead on the mainstream media's version, which is inaccurate.
For clarity, Tim waltz also put the The National Guard into Minnesota., which aligns with what Trump suggested doing in the event of riots to protect people, property, and prevent looting and arson. He has also mentioned the use of the army to combat cartels, a common tactic among governments. (Because cartel generally own military greed weapons themselves ) However, this approach neglects the root of the problem: the open border that facilitates cartel operations. But thankfully trump also wants to close the border!
BIDEN'S BORDER CRISIS: EXAMINING THE IMPACTS OF INTERNATIONAL CARTELS TARGETING INDIAN COUNTRY
Dear NC, Your points are reasonable. I respectfully suggest that drug cartels would not exist anywhere if the demand for addictive substances had not reached epidemic proportions in our country. As long as billions remain to be made in producing and trafficking in substances no military intervention will give us the desired result - a drug-free nation. As soon as one cartel is wiped out, another takes it's place. We need more effective treatment and recovery programs as well as interdictions.
LOL!!!! How many millions of people has he killed? How many countries has he invaded? You have actually got it backwards, you and the other mental disordered liberals, are disrespecting Holocaust survivors when you compare Trump or anyone to someone who was responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews and the millions of others.
He killed an estimated 400,000 Americans by lying about cures for Covid and saying it will "go away" soon. And news flash, the Nazi party was not the only fascist party in history.
You always start out with laughing and then babble nonsense that’s laughable.
We actually in one less war today than we did under Trump you remember he promised to get us out of Afghanistan and then failed Biden got us out. Even beyond that, it’s a complete joke when you all talk about Trump’s foreign policy:
Terry--I have to address your question regarding how many people Trump 'killed"---by my accounts, several hundred thousand Americans died of COVID before the vaccine was widely available--and I recall our former president told us not to worry; he spread information about bogus cures like drinking bleach, and told us it would all magically go away. He had enough information from Fauci and refused to be honest with the rest of us. He lied. Many Americans died as a result. The buck stops at the top--it happened on his watch.
Dear Terry, I am not accusing you of anything and I bear no anger towards you. But I am confused. Jokingly, perhaps it's because I'm one of the mentally disordered liberals to whom you referred. LOL Could you explain why comparisons of Trump to Hitler disrespect Holocaust survivors and victims? I've written about this assertion. After considerable research and thought I could not see the connection between the comparison and denigration of either victims or survivors of the Holocaust. This might sound cheesy but I encourage you to read my essay on this important and timely question.
Why would you say that? Trump's words and actions belie the fact that he is, in fact, a dictator wanna-be, and your denial of that fact will not change it. His connections to Putin and his constant whining about how fucked up the USA is is a real thing, like it or not. You are allowed to have your own opinions but not alternate facts-- otherwise known by intelligent people as lies.
There a lot of things that people don’t know about Trump because the media would never let that information out. Did you know that he and Juliani helped the FBI to take down the mafia in NYC years ago. He loved his city and could not stand what the mafia had done to it. He loves this country and that is why he is running again against some very powerful people who obviously don’t want to change the status quo of control. They have controlled us for years. There has not been any difference in who has been in the White House until Reagan and Trump came along b/c the others were all controlled by the same powerful people and they were just giving us the illusion that we were in control (uniparty) when we voted. Trump is a threat to them and they have tried everything in the book to get rid of him. I believe that our lives will get so much better and we will stay out of wars if we re-elect Trump. Just ask yourself has your life been better in the last 4 years.
In his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton refines his five-stage model and puts forward the following definition for fascism:
Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood (That's Trump!!) and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, (That's MAGA) in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, (Proud Boys, Fascists, Neo Nazis) working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, (The GOP) abandons democratic liberties (Check) and pursues with redemptive violence (check) and without ethical or legal restraints (absolute immunity) goals of internal ethnic cleansing (Mass Deportations) and external expansion - In 2021, Paxton wrote an op-ed for Newsweek in which he stated that he now believed Donald Trump was a fascist, after insisting for several years that he was instead a right-wing populist. Trump's incitement of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol was the deciding factor in him changing his view
More like it is an opinion piece but hey, lets go with it.
Obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood (That's Obama, Biden and Harris)
Cults of unity, energy, and purity (BLM, La Raza, DSA)
Committed nationalist militants (BLM, Black Panthers)
Traditional Elites LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Coastal liberal elites aka Democrats)
Abandons democratic liberties (Left wing attacks on free speech, religion, right to assemble, 2A)
Redemptive violence (Kavanaugh Hearings, Ferguson, George Floyd Riots aka Summer of Love or mostly peaceful riots)
Without ethical or legal restraints (Weaponizing the DOJ/Lawfare)
Ethnic Cleansing (LOL!!! No, deporting people who came here illegally is not ethnic cleansing, it is what all soverign nations do to protect their borders. Ethnic cleansing would mean removing all people of that particular ethnic designation. This is incredibly obtuse for you to conflate to not allow people to sneak into our country with the Holocaust, Bosnia etc).
Here’s the thing Terry, Hitler and Nazi comparisons are already at the ragged edge of having nothing useful to say. You can’t talk to these people because they’ve started off with words that tell you that they’re not willing to engage in civil discourse.
“Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition…”
Does this sound familiar to you? Does it actually sound appealing?
I don’t think it has anything to do with holocaust victims, “hey you can’t point out that this Nazi like guy is like Hitler because it demeans Holocaust victims…” Actually I think it would insult them if you didn’t point out someone was acting like a Hitler, but I agree, he’s not Hitler. He uses Hitler tactics and his VP pick actually agrees with me on that or maybe you’re forgetting that?
We can disagree when it comes to what ice cream is best, but when it comes to facts and morality, I will always err on the side of morality and facts. Something you know very little about since you seem to be lost in space.
Carol H - As you said "Trump is also not a Nazi." I agree with you - that is inaccurate. Fascism is a type of political philosophy; Trump's own words indicate that he is a fascist. He uses fascist means (the Big Lie, etc. ) to attain fascist ends (authoritarian "Strong Man Rule"). What Trump wants to do if he gets into power is fascistic. Doesn't mean he's a NAZI -- which is beside the point. He sure as hell is not in the American political mainstream.
Mussolini the godfather of fascism defined it as a totalitarian ideology that emphasized the absolute supremacy of the state over individual freedoms, rejecting democracy, liberalism, and socialism. It promoted nationalism, unity through corporatism, and the glorification of war, with the belief that strength and conflict were essential to the nation’s vitality.
Trump hates wars, is against corporatism, wants individual and states rights. He got the nomination in a democratic process where he won the votes. Unlike his opponent. Plus he has been more than willing to bring other strong voices into his coalition such as RFK, Tulsi. So he not a strong man.
Where exactly is he a fascist based on the creator of that ideology.
Not interested in teaching you how to parse Trump’s rhetoric — reading through his speeches is for me akin to unclogging a very messy toilet — so I’m going to respectfully decline to respond. Have a good day.
Jon M - What ever gave you the idea that Trump believes anything about principles, other than the one about Self above all else? He is a malignant narcissist. He doesn’t know anything about your theory of what fascism is — and probably never bothered to read about it — and his understanding of American history and government is rudimentary at best. He is a great talker. Yes, he did get nominated for a major political party. It used to be called the Gand Old Party, and was the favorite haunt of conservative WASPs, old men and “Old Money”. Now the WASPs are mostly liberals and the GOP is mostly old men and dirty money.
Dear Carol H, I want to sincerely thank you for inspiring me to look at your claim in detail. If you have a moment please read my essay. I'm not trying to argue or change anyone's views. I honestly believe you raised a very timely and important question. Does comparing Trump to Hitler denigrate victims and survivors of the Holocaust?
Yes, Jerry it does. And several Holocaust survivors have recently spoken out about this exact issue. For a person - mostly Jews - who actually lived through Nazi occupation in Europe and those who either survived the camps and/or had loved ones murdered in the camps, calling Trump (or probably any other American politician) a Nazi is insulting. They know firsthand what and who the Nazis were.
Democrats call anyone who doesn't agree with them a Nazi or a fascist, thereby making these words almost meaningless. But for people who actually suffered under the real Nazis, this is incredibly disrespectful and makes what they went through in their lives meaningless.
Gregory, why do you dislike Harris? What issues about Harris disturbs you to the point where you would consider voting for Trump? I would like to know because I've heard this line of reasoning before but have never been able to identify exactly what it is that makes Harris so odious.
Harris is disliked because she represents a continuation of the last four disastrous years, and she has repeatedly shown that she cannot respond to direct questions except with memorized banalities.
The last four years under Biden have been great. Jobs are booming, the stock market is breaking records, inflation is way down, Biden handled Putin’s bloody war against Ukraine ideally well, etc. Kamala Harris will be her own person and a great president. I already voted for her.
I'll take this one. As a key member of the current administration, Kamala Harris opened our borders and allowed 10 million plus unvetted illegals to enter the country. Harris/Biden has let in thousands of gang members and hundreds of people on terrorist watch lists. Women are bearing the brunt of the violence with Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray and many others raped and killed. Congress estimated to have spent at least $60 billion on a crisis created by this administration (compared to $2 billion on our veterans). Every dollar that is being spent could be going to improve the lives of poor Americans (Black, Native American, white, etc.) by improving education, transportation, housing, etc. We are seeing small towns and cities getting influxes of illegals and refugees that swell the population by up to 30 percent, straining housing, education and job opportunities, not to mention the impact it has on the police, fire and taxes.
What a load of nonsense. It’s frightening you believe that spew of garbage you posted here. Please kindly explain the bipartisan border bill that republicans killed in the house all so Trump could campaign on this issue? Charlatan hypocrites that MAGA is.
If you're worried about education, why would you vote for a candidate who literally wants to shut down the department of education? Last time he was president, he put Betsy DeVos in charge -- someone who is openly hostile to public education. He says he wants to drain the swamp, but everyone he promotes IS the swamp. Everyone. There are no honest changemakers amongst his ilk.
Kamala Harris is not in a position in the current administration to "open our borders" or affect policy in the way you're suggesting. Look it up.
Immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than those born in the U.S. This is all fear-mongering by the right. They choose one sob story of one bad guy while ignoring that a majority of violence is perpetuated by disturbed white men.
If you're concerned about violence against women, maybe you shouldn't vote for a literal rapist. F*ck.
So when you said you have this, you meant you had a list of lies already to go?
Trump did absolutely nothing to fix the problem with immigration he did executive orders and piled people up at the border he stopped funding the work in Central America to stop the problem there, his useless incompetence. The gluttonous pig didn’t pass one law to fix our immigration problem not one in four years even when he had the house in the Senate and the presidency not one law.
Now we had a bipartisan bill in the Senate that he blocked because the incompetent pig needs to mess things up to blame other people because he has no successes. Wine deported more people in four years that had been deported since 2010 our border is not open dimwit or go down to Tijuana and march back across without being stopped you’re a liar.
And one of our big problems is all of those coyotes bringing people up are using your lies to convince people to come, you’re literally making the problem worse at the border so you have something to complain about. What a cowardly pathetic group! You make it worse, than block a plan that would’ve helped fix it.
Now do you want to talk about all the riots that went on under Trump that he did nothing about? The riot he wanted, the riot he made worse by sending unmarked van to grab people? How many Maga went down there shot at police stations causing problems? All under Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris is going to win in a landslide because most American aren’t rapist supporting losers who simply want Trump because he’s the only person that’s ever flattered them. And there’s a reason for that.
What’s funny about your response is at the same time people say the exact opposite and that she can’t be trusted because of …look at her core values.
I guess what you’re suggesting is it when you start with raping a woman and you accept that then why worry about anything else? Like, I won’t play golf, I won’t have time… this tax cut, a dime won’t come to me… Mexico will pay for the wall… I’ll get us out of Afghanistan or I’ll balance the budget instead of doubling it before Covid… although I don’t know if causing tens of thousands of more people to die than any other nation at our level because of his incompetence of Covid… Isn’t that worse than rape or which one do you think is worse to set is your new bar?
Democrats have become a satanic death cult. They’ve made an idol of abortion up to and including after birth, they support body mutilation of minors, men allowed in girls bathrooms (Title 9), men competing in women’s sports, open borders to unvetted foreigners many who are repeat offenders, drag queen story hour in our public libraries, sexualizing our children, same sex marriage, mandatory lockdowns, censorship, law fare against political opponents (which will most likely include the average citizen), destruction of the constitution and removal of God from all aspects of society.
Debra - You are filled with misinformation, skewed towards demonizing your fellow citizens. Democrats will challenge every single one of your assertions. They are distortions.
Political arguments are one thing -- phantasmagorical ideations are psychotic. This comments section is becoming a toxic swamp of hatred, Debra, and you are making it worse. Good day to you all.
LOL! You know evangelicals, which has just become a place for bad people to hide in plain sight, try to tell us that lying for Jesus is cool, it’s not, they’re just liars they’re just damn liars.
Abortion after birth is murder you freaking weirdo.
So let's get one thing straight i am not voting for Trump. I am voting for Oliver Chase. With that said Harris was never a choice for me. She has no values or character. The fact she was Biden's VP after she called him a racist in 2020 debates says volumes of who she is. Harris is not intelligent and made her up top because the liberal used her as as their puppet. All her talk of getting rid of price gouging is problematic. The government should not interfere in a free market
You do realize Trump’s whole modus operandi is to interfere in the free market? The reason Bezos - and others - kowtowed to him is because he knew Trump will reward and punish companies not based on the quality of their services or products, but on which CEO’s please him. I know you’re not voting for Trump, but I assume you know that not voting for Harris amounts to a vote for Trump.
You don’t dislike Trump. There’s no in between with that man: you despise him or you’re ok with him. You are ok with Trump. That’s not dislike. Anyone with integrity, kindness, and empathy in their soul LOATHES him. You should loathe him, but you don’t. I’m going to guess because you agree with him in ways that decent people find abhorrent. So you just trot out the convenient phrase “I dislike Trump as much as anyone.” You don’t.
Why don’t you like Harris? Is it her laugh that really irks you?
Not really into the whole election thing? Americans are free to dislike Kamala Harris all you like, but if she is elected President, she'll be the head of State and running the government. Ditto with Trump in case he wins. The issue is not which one we like better, but which government will best serve the country's needs for leadership.
The Democrat Party has been captured by Frankfurt School ideology. The Frankfurt School professors self identified as Marxists. Communist is as good a word as any, except for maybe Marxist.
Marxism is a destructive ideology that thrives on conflict and seeks to dismantle the foundations of free societies. It views the world through the lens of oppressor versus oppressed, advocating for violent revolution, government control, and the suppression of individual liberties. It rejects the principles of individual achievement and merit, instead promoting the forced redistribution of wealth and power.
DEI and identity politics are modern manifestations of this Marxist ideology. They divide society into competing identity groups, fostering resentment and undermining social cohesion. They promote the idea of systemic oppression, demanding that power be redistributed based on group identity rather than individual qualifications. Their goal is to dismantle existing institutions and replace them with an authoritarian regime that controls every aspect of our lives. Don't be fooled by their talk of social justice – at its core, this is an ideology that seeks to destroy everything we hold dear.
And let's be clear: identity politics has never created a unified society. It is a weapon used to divide, conquer, and control. Regimes like those of Hitler, Mussolini, and Pol Pot weaponized identity to divide their populations, leading to genocide and unimaginable suffering. DEI and identity politics follow this same dangerous path, eroding the foundations of individual rights and replacing them with a system that prioritizes group identity above all else. This is a path that leads to tyranny, not justice
This isn’t the worst argument attempting to connect social progressives with Marxism that I’ve ever heard (I say as a non-scholar), but I think you take it way too far. Eg, “…this is an ideology that seeks to destroy everything we hold dear.” Like what? And who is this universal “we” you speak for? Likely not me. Likely not a lot of folks. I mean, whether you agree with their methods or not, most Black Americans very much probably don’t “hold dear” the same things you do.
I also don’t see Biden or Harris or Pelosi - ie top Democrats - calling for revolution. The people you obsess over are such a tiny though loud group, it seems a little loony to conclude they have such enormous power. From my vantage point, it’s the MAGA constituency that talks about taking up arms against their fellow Americans, just as the Bolsheviks did in 1917.
It seems to me the most “Marxist” thing Joe Biden has done is give a lot of money to made-in-America green energy projects. But this is what we’ve done with oil companies since forever (and weapons and pharmaceuticals and banks and automobile manufacturers, etc - cuz we have a national interest in promoting certain industries for the good of our economy and security).
Moreover, what you object to are policies. They’re not fundamental changes to government structure. Trump, on the other hand, has not only talked about fundamentally changing that structure - and deeply embedded norms - of our government but actually attempted to do it. Though we find his policies - such as they are - disturbing, it’s really this aspect of the man and his inner circle that frighten his opponents.
Google is your friend. These professors, primarily Horkheimer, Habermas, and Marcuse openly identified as Marxists. You should read up on them and their ideas. It’s never been a secret…
You don’t know how our electoral system works, do you, honey bunches of oats? And you accuse me of ignorance. Jesus fucking hell. Take a civics course. Or at least use “the Google.” 🙄
It’s not spelling I take issue with. Dick. Plenty of intelligent people don’t spell well and find grammar challenging. No judgement. It’s putrid ignorance I try to point out. You do you, pal. I believe in freedom. To be left the fuck alone. To live as I see fit in a civilized, mutually respectful society.
I’m not the one who’s voting for the fascist people who want to police women’s menstrual cycles and shove their religion down everyone’s throats.
To claim that anyone drawing parallels between liberal Democrats and communism is 'off his rocker' is a dangerous dismissal of legitimate concerns. The reality is that many core tenets of modern liberal Democrat ideology, particularly in areas like DEI and identity politics, align disturbingly well with Marxist theory. Both emphasize group identity over individual merit, promote the idea of inherent oppressor and oppressed classes, and advocate for equity of outcome instead of equality of opportunity. DEI initiatives often utilize "critical theory," a framework rooted in Marxist thought, to analyze and interpret social issues. This focus on systemic power structures and the demonization of certain groups based on their identity are hallmarks of Marxist ideology. While not all liberal Democrats may consciously embrace communism, the practical implications of their policies in these areas are indistinguishable from its core principles. And also these ideas go directly against the constitutional rights of all Americans to be treated equally based on their common humanity.
NC -- You give a nice exposition of the ideological framework underlying much of our political bickering. However I think you give too much credit to Marxist reductionist thought in relation to liberal ideology. Marxist "focus on systemic power structures" is an essential part of critical analysis is an analytical tool for examining historical development, and what good is analysis if it is not critical? "Demonization of certain groups based on their identity" is not just "a hallmark of Marxist ideology", it is tribalism, which is probably older than humanity itself. Christians demonized Pagans, Catholics demonized Protestants, (and - to quote the great Tom Lehrer speaking, or rather, singing ironically "...everybody hates the Jews. But now it's National Brotherhood Week, etc."). In the era of highly polarized American politics, the Far-Right demonizes everybody to the left of themselves.
"While not all liberal Democrats may consciously embrace communism" is disingenuous, as it clearly implies that most do - a specious assertion.
To sum up, your superficially objective application of Marxism to liberal political positions is an excuse for discounting them as extremist thought via guilt by association.
"However I think you give too much credit to Marxist thought in relation to liberal ideology." ...While you may disagree, the application of Marxist thought to analyze liberal political positions is a well-established practice in political science and critical theory. This approach stems largely from the influence of the Frankfurt School, Marxist intellectuals who, after fleeing Nazi Germany, became prominent figures in American academia. Their ideas, particularly critical theory, disseminated through their writings and teachings, profoundly shaping the worldview of generations of students. As these students entered various fields, including politics, they carried these collectivist ideas with them.
The consequences are evident in the rise of identity politics, the emphasis on systemic oppression, and the implementation of policies that prioritize group outcomes over individual rights. This Marxist-inspired framework, with its focus on group identity and power dynamics, can be a dangerous tool. Rather than fostering understanding and social unity, it often fuels division and conflict. Identity politics, rooted in Marxist ideas, has become a language of grievance and resentment, with a historical tendency to lead to upheaval and even genocide. Examples range from the Cultural Revolution in China to the Rwandan genocide.
Liberalism, once a champion of individual liberty and limited government, has become increasingly intertwined with marxist ideas, leading to the expansion of government control, This has led to an obsession with systemic oppression and policies that prioritize group outcomes over individual rights, eroding the individualistic foundations of liberalism. As a result, the very concept of liberalism has been distorted, becoming far less focused on individual freedoms and more about control.
"The Republicans are definitely not Nazis, even if their leader is a fascist dictator wanna-be."
Hey Greg...thanks for proving to everyone that your IQ is barely room temperature. So tell us exactly how Trump wants to be a dictator, lol?
Facts:
1) Democrats want to centralize power, not Trump. Trump tried to decrease the size of the Federal government by freezing hiring.
2) Democrats want to force people to take an experimental vaccine.
3) Democrats want great control over the people in the form of increased regulations, not Trump. Trump increased freedom by getting rid of many wasteful regs.
4) Democrats want to censor anyone they disagree with, while Trump supports the 1st Amendment.
5) Democrats want ever increasing taxation, while Trump wants to reduce taxes.
6) Democrats want to disarm the American people, while Trump supports the 2nd Amendment.
7) Democrats cheat to win elections by banning voter ID and other common-sense measures designed keep our elections fair and honest.
8) Democrats lied to Americans for years about Biden's mental competency....
9) Harris held a silent coup and overthrew Biden, who was the choice of their constituents for President when it became clear Biden was going to lose. Then someone appointed the puppet Harris, without a single Democrat getting to vote for her as their choice for President.
It's pretty clear that the fascists are Harris and her supporters.
You don't think Trump wants to centralized power under him? Wow you need to pay more attention. Although I wouldn't necessarily call it NAZIism. He is not that dsciplined. More like crony capitalism.
You lost credibility the leader of the Republicans is not a fascist wannabe. He's on as savage warrior to read America of the corrupt, greedy, globalist, who want to tramplethe middle class
The publication should not have an opinion. It's fine to publish the well-supported, well-written, clearly labelled opinions of others, but the platform itself should be agnostic. The one exception is commentary on journalistic integrity and standards of adherence to the facts.
I growl whenever I read the byline "the editors of the New York Times".
Agreed. I can make my own decisions. Increased depth and more useful information are better than someone's point of view substituting for the actual story.
The "Paper of Record" should be more than just straightforward reportage. The most valuable aspect of ny news outlet, in my not humble opinion, are the opinions expressed by experienced, professional editors and journalists who have a deeper knowledge of the subjects they cover than we "men & women on the street." Keep in mind that many people do not have the time or interest to familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of, say, the past decade of school board controversies, or the history of city and county efforts to "solve" homelessness, or any of the myriad situations that will come up in the course of a campaign cycle. It's like book reviews: we read them for guidance and as food for thought, not as a substitute for reading the book ourselves and forming our own opinions.
It would be nice if journalism was just straight reporting but leftist "journolists" mastered the art of biased writing and they are not going to stop.
Exhibit A: Guess That Party *)
---
*) Past reviews show that legacy media reports on politicians' wrongdoing regularly omit a (D) association or bury it deep in the text, while (R) would be plastered front and center. It can be fairly reliably guessed to which party an individual belongs.
I have to question that assertion. What reviews are we talking about? Are you speaking of TV news or print? In print, I always see the party affiliation indicated with a (D) or an (R) if I didn't already know.. Not sure about where in the text it is located, though. It might be harder to track on TV or radio -- party affiliation must be called out by name.
Yeah , we have to come up with a new name for people that allows bums to shit in the street, decriminalize crime, support the mutilation of children and on and on.
It's hilarious how these people label anyone they disagree with as a fascist but can't define the term, however the moment you mention communism they demand a dissertation on Marx.
fascist movements include: authoritarianism, nationalism (including racial nationalism and religious nationalism), hierarchy and elitism, and militarism.
What they include is not a definition. Fascists breathe air, but that doesn't mean breathing air makes you a fascist. Give us a definition of fascism. Gentile defined it quite clearly and succinctly. Just as Marx defined socialism as the "people own the means of production" there is also a clear and brief definition of fascism. But of course you wouldn't know that. Thanks for making my point.
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, ...
Picky-picky. Not everyone is going to write out a definition just for this comments section, Richard, especially as since we are obviously online we can all look it up in a bloody dictionary. And no, the omission does not really make your point - that's a cheap shot.
Yes it does indeed sound like a ridiculous overreach. Almost fantastical. Extreme to the point of nonsense. In fact it sounds so extreme that it's hard to believe. Did you get that from a science fiction novel?
Richard -- Again with the attitude?? With this internetwork thingie -- which as you know is a series of tubes -- you can look it up for yourself. Here is a source for you:
Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition. (Merriam-Webster). I would add that historically, fascism has been characterized by corporations and their leaders collaborating closely with the authoritarian state (e.g. Siemens). It’s a system that works fairly well for corporations as long as they toe the party line and aren’t owned by people designated as internal enemies by the Leader.
Communism:
1
a: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
b: a theory advocating elimination of private property
2
a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Soviet Union
b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably
d: communist systems collectively
(Merriam Webster)
In other words, it’s an economic system that does away with all private or non-state property (no private or quoted companies, no cooperatives, and no family-owned houses), and which uses a centralized system, usually the state, to enforce it.
Wanting to get rid of police is anarchism, not communism (communist regimes have many layers of police, including political police, etc.g. The Stasi in the old GDR; but so do fascist and other far-right regimes, like Franco’s Spain and Pinochet’s Chile). Historically anarchism never works for long or in large communities.
You should actually read Das Kapital. It is about mid-1800’s England, and terrible working conditions for Laborers. You actually have this book to thank for your 5 day work week and Christmas off.
We have competitive capitalism to thank for the 5-day work week and Christmas off. We have Das Kapital to thank for millions of destroyed lives and piles of corpses.
Communism definition - no private property and the means of production owned communal and run by the state.
Harris and her husband ar is a multi millionaires, I haven't read anywhere that she is planning to give up her wealth or any other Democrat for that matter so let's just get a grip.
You forget that the communal part of the wealth doesn’t apply to the people at the top, like Harris, other political whores and the likes of Bill Gates, Soros and Bloomberg.
No one ALLOWS bums to shit in the street. There are bums or rather desperately poor people or drug addicts. They are homeless and they shit. How do you plan on not allowing them to poop? Death or concentration camps for the crime of pooping on the street? And who is responsible for these people? There are homeless people and drug addicts in every city. Republican and Democrat.
Houston's strategy for reducing homelessness is called "Housing First". This strategy involves providing housing, subsidizing rent, and offering services to help people stabilize their lives. Not only does Houston have homeless people, but it's Alao a communist city giving people housing. Wow. Who knew.
Re Houston: How many millions of dollars have been spent and how much has the homeless population reduced? How many NGOs and non-profits are making the big bucks?
Communist is the right wing's word for Democrats who think the richest country in the world should be able provide basic health care and food to children living in poverty rather than letting them starve or die from chicken pox.
@ rlritt, Chicken pox? Really? Death rate is 1 in 60k cases, entirely in the malnourished countries of Central Africa and Central Asia.
Government is the lease efficient means of lifting people out of poverty.However, Democrats are the lease charitable portion of society, so it's all they know.
I think “Communist” is the currently fashionable word used by angry people who feel themselves pushed, badgered, and disrespected. Then there are some nuts in the mix. “Facist” is the current favorite of the left, along with “genocidal”, “ignorant”, “redneck”, and in your comment, fundamentally indecent.
Basic health care? Every hospital is required by law to provide emergency room services. Does “basic” include government paid trans drugs and surgeries, as one possible example? I think disagreeing on this and other such issues of scope renders no one despicable.
Food for children in poverty? School lunch programs,WICS, and other subsidies exist. Please explain what you propose?
Die from chicken pox? You propose?
Discussion, not anger and contempt, is the right path, to include openness to compromise.
Actions speak louder than words. You should read American Marxism too, you’ll find yourself. Can you point to anything in the constitution you agree with? Now, you’ll wave it around for some virtue signaling but to you and your comrades, it’s just a piece of paper.
I doubt anyone would consider me a communist. I own too much. I just think that children should get a fighting chance. They didn't ask to be born, but at least they should be well fed and healthy.
I personally think there are too many children being born to people who can't or won't take care them, in a society that thinks they're a burden.
I think, and you will probably call this communism, but I'd give birth control to people for free. They should have free dispensers on the street corners. Any girl of child bearing age should have unlimited free access to any birth control she wants. That would solve a lot if problems right off the bat.
The Federal government is spending money like a drunken sailor, and has pushed itself hopelessly into debt to the tune of $35 TRILLION spending on health care and food. Interest on this now exceeds the defense budget. Maybe it's time to retire that whole "richest country in the world" bit.
I have live in CA my whole life - when it was a Red state and when we started to see the radical commies take over - I.e. Newscum being the latest. Telling us that we can no longer buy gas powered cars as of 2030/2035 - locked down this state during the commie excuse of “covid” while newscum dined at the French Laundry with his cronies - obviously you are another DA lib who doesn’t have half a brain -
Clearly only communists and whack jobs would want to reduce Pollution and the upcoming climate catastrophe by mandating electric vehicles. And anybody that wanted to stop the Covid pandemic with vaccines and masks must’ve been a total idiot. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a tube stuck up his nose to keep him breathing?
Wow.These people are knuckle dragging, mouth breathing MORONS. I wouldn’t give AF but because of the tyrannical electoral college, we have to deal with their lunacy and stupidity. Trump would never win the presidency if not for that. It’s time to end the electoral college. My god, these people are dumb. My dog is smarter.
Probably evangelical fascist types, that have no clue about Communism or that Trump’s plane to purge government of skilled people and replace them with loyalists, is exactly what Joseph Stalin did, you know, the real Communist.
Wow I live in CA and no one came for my car. My neighbors have gas powered SUVs. The only EV is my down the street neighbor who has a Trump sign and wears a Trump tshirt. And he's my friend. He has a Tesla. I bet you're all confused now.
In any event, you should move to Texas if you don't like CA. Or AZ. My brother a right wing Evangelical Christian pain in the ass who hates everything and everybody lives in Phoenix. You'd like him.
I live in CA - Al my friends are liberal. I associate socially with Republicans because I’m a civilized person and o genuinely like these people. No one I know is a hardcore “MAGA” and we keep it civilized. I’m never the one to bring up politics; they are. It’s always the right wingers trying to “own the libs.” Every time. When they do, it’s hammer time. They get pummeled with facts from left and right they can’t dispute in any way that’s legitimate and I take em down like Muhammad Ali. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee…” For real though. To them, it’s all one big opinion. You just hear Laura Ingraham’s nasally voice coming through or Tucker Carlson’s high pitched rich boy voice as they talk. Not a single original thought or questioning what they’ve here told to think. Sad times really
I know. That's what's happening when a site has interesting intelligent people contributing. The knuckleheads can't stand reasonable difference of opinion and so childishly throw nonsensical comments at everyone.
I am an actual Marxian Economist, and he never used that term. Collectivism, ownership by the group for the benefit of the group forms the basis of Industrial Marxian theory. Think of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. There are no genuinely “communist” governments anywhere on earth - as Collectivism is fully DEMOCRATIC!!
I was born in Denmark, a fully Capitalist economy.
I hated being a corporate banker in Chicago so much, I quit after 22 years to become a Sommelier. I make about ⅓ the money - and now I worry about the climate.
I loved my 10 yrs in Napa - I miss it every day. I still think of CA as home ❤️
I'll assume you also follow Richard D. Wolff (also "an actual Marxian economist"). But if not, you might want to check him out...
Segment from Wiki...
""Richard David Wolff (born 1 April, 1942) is an American Marxian economist known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis. He is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs of the New School. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City.
In 1988, Wolff co-founded the journal Rethinking Marxism. In 2010 he published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, also released on DVD. In 2012 he released three new books: Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, with David Barsamian (San Francisco: City Lights Books), Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, with Stephen Resnick, and Democracy at Work (Chicago: Haymarket Books). In 2019 he released his book Understanding Marxism.[8]
Wolff hosts the weekly 30-minute-long program, Economic Update, which is produced by the non-profit Democracy at Work, which he co-founded. Economic Update is on YouTube, FreeSpeech TV, WBAI-FM in New York City (Pacifica Radio), CUNY TV (WNYE-DT3), and available as a podcast. Wolff is featured regularly in television, print, and internet media. The New York Times Magazine has named him "America's most prominent Marxist economist.""
They call themselves democrats today. I hade two democrats for parents, they wouldn’t recognize you today. It’s why the three children they raised, call themselves constitutionalists. You should pick up a copy of American Marxism, you might find yourself and your neighbors, on the pages. I think after reading the book, you’ll know many more communists. While they parade around waving that Constitution, they loathe and pretending we’re a democracy.
Yes, I do. It always starts with cultural brainwashing and is aimed at the malcontents. It then takes over the institutions of each country it wants to destroy.
The whole government are commumists pretending to be something else. Wealth redistribution is the California way now. By the way how is that awesome expensive high speed rail comming along?
Lol, Hollywood alone has been known to have been absorbed by communist since the 50's. I suppose you've never read or witnessed the leaders of BLM boost about their communist ideology. Communists infiltrated the US long ago and freed to run for office in the McCarthy era. Try googling cpusa.org. The elite globalists own the Central Banking system, a private corporation, and they have had the authority to create currencies out of thin air since 1913 and because of their own control over globalist politicans they have bought and paid for your own programming. They control everything including money. For years communists have been hiding their true ideology and only recently began coming out of the closet. You maybe correct about democrats, they aren't true communists because they often spew the idea that they can do communism better. Their envy is China. But, when you dig deeper you will find globalists aren't communist in the sense of the word because they are controlled by technocrats. Technoracy is a similar authoritarian ideology to communism but controlled by the elite technocrats whose goal is a world run by AI. Some think of it in the same way as Plutocracy with the difference being AI...
Um….yeah, effectively,i do, yeah. After a long and rewarding career in service to this country (well paid but hardly wealthy) I now work as a teacher, essentially for peanuts— and the satisfaction of teaching critical thinking to the next generation of students, voters, leaders, CITIZENS. And yes I firmly believe in the value and irreplaceability of a free, independent press with a commitment to unbiased reporting AND the ability to make and express informed opinions on the relative merits of presidential candidates.
Money is not evil. It is a marker of value in commerce and essential for our economic functioning. The love of money, however, displaces all other values and considerations in life, leading us to believe in very warped values.
Of course some do. 20,000 people pay $80 to watch LeBron James play basketball for 24 minutes. That’s $1.6M people pay. Not including TV revenue. Did he earn that? Yeah, he did earn his $300,000 for that game. He brought it in. If I were playing NO ONE would pay a dime. Taylor Swift earns a ton of money because people are willing to pay. If a grocery store clerk is willing to work five hours and take her pay for that five hours to watch TayTay it is her perogative. And TayTay gets her $250,000 for that hour.
There’s a difference between the qualities of money that is earned to support need and money earned for the sport of earning. One is characteristic of a sickness that is virtually incurable.
Elon Musk is not Bezos or Zuckerberg. Musk wants to actually improve life for humanity. Hard to believe there are people like that anymore in this cynical world.
I think you are mistaken. Musk has a son who thinks he is a female. Poor confused kid. However, I think it was his son who disowned him - not the other way around.
You can't be serious. The same Elon Musk that is being a big fat lying egotistical baby who has made very VERY bad leadership decisions...wants to improve humanity?
What? Did you just say, Musk wants to make a better world for people? Why not just say what that really means: Musk is pissed that the Dutch lost South Africa. After years of keeping his racist thoughts and actions secret Donald Trump has given him and all like him who only want WHITE people in America a platform to voice their racist thoughts. No stopping abortions, no making an incest victim birth that child will make the WHITE population out grown those that are black and all the shades of brown. 'We are never going back' So Musk and the other 2 South African billionaires just gave Donald Trump a lot of money. So good luck with that thinking.
Elon Musk is an odd mix of things. These days he acts like a guy who is totally dazzled by his own brilliance, to the extent that he often comes across as a whacko, imo. I do not think it would be healthy for Society for him to take a position in government; his space and Starlink businesses are major recipients of gov't contracts. since he seems to be a Libertarian he probably doesn't believe in government anyway.
Many, if not all, geniuses are a bit quirky. But you cannot deny that he is brilliant. He is doing things no one has done before him. If he was a Democrat many of you would be in love with him. But I agree, he should not be in a government position.
The desire to create a business that thrives and grows is what got them going. All of that involves rewards commensurate with success. Without driven people, this world would all be in a third world stage.
Shocker. People want FREEDOM TO THINK WHAT THEY WANT and SAY WHAT THEY WANT not be told what to say or to think, not be lectured and hectored and suppressed if they do not tow party lines... therefore if MSM is pushing a thought line that isn't in agreement with a majority, they will become 'irrelevant'. Unlike Mika B thinks, media does NOT tell us what to think or do.
So, what then? if the majority don't like facts, they should just ignore them and the media should publish un-facts? I'm not clear what you are saying, but be clear - news divisions have always been loss centers, while advertising and subscriptions have been profit centers. As newspapers have lost ad revenue, they have had to skinny down the news room and find other ways of selling their content (online subscriptions, etc.). Traditional, mainstream news sources are not irrelevant , just starved for revenue.
Dear Mr. Fraser, With all due respect to your opinion, what is it about Left-Wing advocates that you equate with communism? Is it possible to for an individual to believe in Left-Wing ideas without the demand that some national collective owns all businesses and runs all factories and farms? I consider myself Left-Wing. But I strongly oppose government ownership of all production.
When I think of “purge” I think of Joseph Stalin who purged people that didn’t agree with him from society and government and replace them with loyalist. One of the candidates has promised to do that to our government by the way. To me that’s the foundation of communism, although I realize government owning your personal property is the other side of it, but I don’t know any liberals that want to do that so for me right now the people that actually fit communist are people like you that want to purge anybody that doesn’t agree with you.
People don't trust the media because it's run by the American (and Australian i.e Rupert Murdoch) oligarchy. Their only objective is to manipulate the weak minded American public into never evaluating what they force feed us. Americans have been trained to tacitly accept everything they hear with no critical analysis. That's the real problem. People aren't trained to think.
There is a problem with media on both the sides so purging media off right or left wing fanatics won’t do any good until the consumer of such media not only can’t differentiate facts from propaganda, but don’t have any aptitude for facts, but really enjoy imbibing into ideological filth!
By introducing old-fashioned, twentieth century partisan terms that box definitions narrowly and thus limit discourse, the conditions which led to the present circumstances are just recreated. I take that this is the point of this article. I certainly concur with the notion of diversity in all its iterations. If we limit the discourse to terms such as "left wing communists" or "right wing extremists" or the misconstrued term, “socialism”, or “free enterprise”, we hobble the dialogue because each term carries its own weighty baggage.
“News” in the first half of the twentieth century was through a few major corporate organizations but the most relevant news was local, often through the thousands of small, local newspapers, union bulletins, pamphlets, distributed locally, as described in Alex Carey’s, “Taking the Risk Out of Democracy”, an excellent reference for these very relevant notions, (https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Risk-Out-Democracy-Communication/dp/0252066162) in which the history of propaganda and the role of the NAM, (National Association of Manufacturers) played in the early twentieth century in solidifying corporate foundations which created fertile ground, for one example, the passing of “Citizens United” legislation in 2010.
One path to redefining “news” and how to do it at least in terms of the honest brokering of information and the recognition of when (and how) something is, “propaganda” can be found in Alex Carey’s writing. The idea is not returning to “the good old times", because if we look carefully, they weren’t. The opportunity afforded by both Bezos and the significant, strong public pushback & reaction is a positive opportunity, an opening to redefining “news-gathering & dissemination”.
Perhaps such developments can even be defined by ordinary people who put down a few dollars each for subscriptions to worthy & trustworthy smaller news centres, and not those harboured and controlled by a few billionaires. When I cancelled subscriptions to both WaPo and the NYTimes last March because their editorial policies were by that time, self-evident, that is where my subscription funds went.
Woof, woof ‘ya lil trumpie FASCIST. Bezos IS an OLIGARCH!! You favor Putin, too, I’m guessing.. People such as yourself ARE NOW—OUR once fine Democracy in Donald’s gilded commode…
If today’s largest traditional media companies produce quality work, then why are they facing record low public trust and financial losses? Many MSM "journalists" will come to Substack after they get fired or quit and cry for censorship. I hope Substack preserves free speech for everyone and elevates true independent voices, whose work quality is much higher than those who are regurgitating the same copy-pasta word salad propaganda that they would be spewing for their former employers.
I don't think people who take this position with traditional media do their own position much of a service. It is definitely true that platforms like Substack have led to a flourishing of outstanding writing and media. And it's definitely true that traditional media has more than its fair share of whiffs, and some aspects of its coverage are significantly worse than the work produced by independents. And traditional media in recent years does not have a proud record when it comes to supporting and upholding free speech. But it's also true that on many subjects, in many areas, the reporters and editors who work in traditional media produce some of the best and most important coverage in existence—and that includes everything from deeply reported magazine features, conflict reporting from danger zones in far-flung fields, investigations into hostile regimes, brass tacks reporting on corruption in political and corporate bodies from small towns to large cities, deep dives into what's going on with municipal transit lines, and so on, many of which stories will never find their way to the Op-Ed pages or the shooting galleries of X.
When critics of traditional media overstep and say "All traditional media is bad, actually," they're making the same mistake that critics of Elon Musk make when they say, "Elon is an idiot who just got lucky." No. Effective critiques must acknowledge their subject's achievements and point the crosshairs at the right places. Otherwise it's hard to take them seriously.
Very true. Some really important stories have been covered by the MSM. Top quality reporting. The very best. The Las Vegas shootings for example. Or FEMA dropping the ball in North Carolina. The Lahaina stories showing people were trapped by local LEOs and died as a result. A big one! We are being chemically sprayed day after day. By what, we don’t know. By whom, we don’t know. How the latest would be assassin travels around the world freely on no money, coming and going to Ukraine. And why the FBI allowed Crooks to get 8 shots off. Then when given the order the counter sniper didn’t move his rifle an inch, that is he had him lined up already, and took him out. Incredible in depth reporting by the MSM. Like dogs with a bone they were. Not to mention amazing work they did on the COVID response fiasco and the even greater COVID vax genocide. Yes. The MSM does stellar work so often. That’s why we all support it as we do. (IE. We ignore it.)
sure media like that is important but the way it is used or not used is not honorable.
2 sundays ago i watched meet the press which purports to report the important things that week. I expected to see some mention of the Iranian missiles raining down because this attack was days earlier, remember the image? Not important enough, but whatever Trump did or said deserved 2/3 of their program bashing.
BoBo, I am with you on this one. Tired of hearing Trump stuff 24/7 (because not a fan, and.just.tired.). On the practical side, a) Trump stuff gets attention which helps spin ad dollars and b) there is only so much time in a TV news or discussion segment - they cannot cover every major happening as it happens. Editorial decisions.
Amen my Russian broski 🙏 im,a Ukrainian immigrant to America by the way!!! Hate this globalist created war in Ukraine against two brother countries. We need to annihilate all globalists.
Absolutely. And the use of algorithms needs to remain limited as well. Let a true network of people who connect and communicate pass on good discoveries or poor quality writers to avoid. I find more thinkers from reading the comments of those who I follow already but in some cases those new discoveries are out of left field. Algorithms trying to guess what I want is a Twitter thing. We don’t want that.
It looks like quite basic supply and demand, to me. There's a higher supply than ever of journalism (the vast majority of which can be accessed for free), meaning that organisations like WaPo can only extract money from the demand for high-quality journalism specifically, which is low-ish.
Just because there's not a market for something that makes it financially viable to provide a quality product doesn't mean the product wasn't of good quality. (I very much doubt the best painted portrait of me in the world would command a sufficiently high price to pay the artist above minimum wage, either, even if the artist was excellent.)
One of the harsh realities of the world is that it's not enough for something you offer to be *good* for it to work as a product. The entire business model has to be viable, not just the quality of the offering.
Nah. When all the Dailies shut down or get bought by private equity firms they will just run AI-generated pablum that informs but keeps the IQ needed down to maybe an average 6th grader's comprehension level.
These papers started bleeding money when they decided to vilify half of their readership. Those readers did the only rational thing they could, they took their dollars and left. When your the umpire, you don’t wear the uniform of one of the teams, you call balls and strikes. That’s the real underlying issue here. The rest is just a channel issue on how to deliver your product. If your product is crap, no channel or group of channels will save you.
Finally, somebody who understands what happened in J-world. WaPo, NYT, etc., damaged mid- and small town newspapers by telling the world “a free press means our product is free.” Thus, for years it prevented all other papers (except the Wall Street Journal) from being able to justify charging for an online subscription. The economic concept “Free is not a business model” was beyond their concept-processing ability.
You need to read up on the concept of materiality. Just because something happens, doesn’t make it the driving force behind a trend. Among other things I’m a Chartered Financial Analyst and the main driver on losing readers across all channels, and hence money, is the vilification of half of your readership. Classified ad revenue is easily replaced with online advertising and the subscription model is still the driving force with these publications. Their revenue is decreasing because subscriptions are decreasing. I actually pay for more content now than I did before the digitalization of these media. You’re talking a false narrative at face value.
Subscription revenue was always the smallest piece of the revenue pie. Classifieds were top, then ads, then subs. And online ads cost a lot less than print ads. Throw in the aforementioned giving away of content for free and the whole industry model imploded 25 years ago. You can argue, if you want, that subscriptions could be higher (although I attest not high enough to break even for most publications of this size). But the industry cratered long before we got to our current ideological divide.
How hard is it for you to understand this? Conservatives and libertarians are being vilified by these publications and have voted with their dollars. WaPo brought in an Englishman who point blank told these leftist retards that nobody is trading their garbage. You can’t attack 50%+ of your customer base and not expect to take a massive hit. They are bleeding out money over the last 10 years or so because they decided to insult and vilify their customers.
Bezos's op-ed correctly identified that many Americans perceive the WaPo to be biased. It left unspoken the fact that many Americans feel this way because the WaPo is, in fact, biased. It's hard to identify a business model that would work when there is a significant disconnect between the product as promised and the product as delivered.
I call bullshit newspapers, have declared endorsements for president for decades. It’s handled by a department completely separate from the journalists that’s how it’s always been handled. He did this because he’s a coward — because if Trump manages to weasel his criminal ass back into the White House, he thinks it will spare him and the Washington Post — That’s where he’s wrong. He also doesn’t want his space company to be left out of government contracts. Another billionaire Asshole.
It’s hard not to see the decision not to endorse Harris as anything but one of self-interest — Bezos’s own considerable other business interests aside, the only viable business model the Post has found in the past decade has been covering Trump.
I have a problem with the corporate ownership of the news media. The change in rules during GW Bush’s term by Powell is what messed it all up. Restore the media ownership regulations and the integrity of the news media will be restored.
The bias is evident to everyone. Why would anyone (except for the true believers), subscribe to something when the take is ideologically driven. There is not anything interesting when you know the content before you read it.
Ask those tuning into Fix News every evening. They settled out of court for close to $1B in the recent past over lies and conspiring emails to prove it. I didn’t hear a peep from the right over that.
Let's face it, news consumers prefer validation over facts. Critical thought is on life support.
This has nothing to do with my statement. Did I hit too close to home? Voting in the United States is stable. Sixty of the sixty-one court cases in ‘20-’21 proved that outright. Are you still watching Fox News?
Nearly all the cases were dropped and never had a chance to have evidence presented. If anyone thinks this nation would ever admit to election fraud be it red or blue team does not understand how politics and control over the people works. Think the government has ever investigated itself and found itself guilty? Think they would just say oh well we cheated now here is your new president regardless of whether red or blue was in office? That would prove we live in a banana republic and would risk a revolution. They will double and triple down regardless of what evidence is out there. Paper ballots and ID is definitely the way to go with both red and blue counting them together. An internet connected voting machine with software that has never been allowed to have the code audited does not pass the smell test. But I digress voting does not matter as we always select a zionist first America last traitor shill who advances the NWO agenda.
Baaahhhhh some more for us ok? Select your demociding sheep herder tax slave master and see how it works out for you. Both red and blue zionist sheep herders leads to the same slaughter house.
This is a cute rebellious rhetoric, however, unless you are willing to live like a Tibetan monk, you'll need to find viable alternatives for the products and services these companies offer. Unfortunately, more often than not there aren't many.
There is a universal boycott to Amazon stArting Nov 5 and going to Dec 5th , many say their boycotting until Jan 6 after holidays. . Get em where it hurts
I don't need to know you. I'm just replying to your statement which doesn't reflect the realty of the majority. Kudos to you for the lifestyle you chose and are able to maintain and enjoy it. It's not for everyone. There are too many people who are not in a position to take that path, whether due to their jobs, family or other personal or practical reasons. For many of them the boycotts you're calling for are simply not their reality.
Respectfully, when people say "boycott amazon", "boycott mcdonalds", "boycott cocoa cola" we are directing these calls of action to the middle class, ESPECIALLY upper middle class who LITERALLY have the time & money & ability to avoid these businesses and spend their money more local and more responsibly. No one in their right mind would yell at people living in poverty "hey stop buying crap from walmart and mcdonalds".
Its actually easy to make better decisions that help, and every little action helps, however insignificant or naive you may think it is.
You just have to decide to be a better person 🤷🏻♀️
Effective boycotts are not simply stopping buying stuff, they must have a stated purpose in mind: "Save the Hedgehogs or we will boycott your french fries" (feel free to substitute your own special interest causes). Boycotting the WaPo might be in protest of their non-endoresemnt policy, but it could be self-defeating if you rely in them for news. You probably know who you should vote for anyway, so what's the prob? Just saying.
Yeah dude the purpose is 86ing the concept of trillionaires or multi-billionaires; another concept- "boycott amazon to save _____ (insert a dozen different things- local book stores, your community. the literal Amazon rainforest, the USPS, etc)"; no one in the entire world ONLY has access to the washington post, thats absurd. If someone is priveleged enough to receive western media they likely have daily free or very affordable access to a handful of publications. Honestly your entire comment is so.....ick. But take care ✌️🫶🏼
Gigi - "We cannot keep lining billionaires pockets" is a nice thought, but changing our tax system to be more progressive -- with more tax brackets designed for those with household incomes over say 1 million a year -- would put more dollars into the Treasury (and help pay down debt) while achieving the socially useful goal of not enriching the already obscenely rich.
Currently, the top tax bracket is 37% on earned income on households making $731k/yr. That is pretty cushy but not billionaire-class money. To take an extreme example, Elon Musk's wealth grows by over $14 BILLION a year (not all is taxable as income, though). Jeff Bezos' wealth grows by a :measly" 9.6 BILLION a year. Boycotts might hurt these guys' feelings, but their bank accounts? Not so much.
I do agree that e-tailing has hurt small retailers -- and big ones, too (think Barnes & Noble) -- but rather than mobilizing for a boycott, just encourage consumers to buy locally or use their favorite store's online sales. (Yeah, I am well aware that many small shops market their goods through Amazon).
Disagree on "cannot keep lining billionaires' pockets" by means of boycotts. A fairer tax system would help - not that billionaires should be taxed out of existence -- without them (actually without Elon and Jeff we wouldn't have much of a space program.
Also fck anyone who wears a "colonize Mars" tshirt, they can catch these hands. I dont want or need space programs. Especially if their existence is contingent on exploitation.
Absolute nonsense. The Post continues to endorse down-ballot candidates so the whole self-serving twaddle about “bias” rings hollow. This was nothing more than Bezos acting in his own self interest and trying to split the baby.
Can't like this enough. This post by Mackenzie is exactly wrong pretty much every point. As those unemployed hack "journalists" migrate to Substack, which is just another subscription platform for writers (yknow, like a newspaper... but electronic), they'll just keep making...and pumping out their bilge as it too begins to sag below the waterline. It's the same thing as when California residents flee their increasingly unaffordable and dystopian cities and just continue to support the same policies that drove them to leave in all their new digs. Eventually, you're going to run out of places to flee. And the funds will dry up. And, unfortunately for the country, patience also eventually will run out, too. Americans have forgotten, because it's been 140 years or so, and our education system is infected by the same mendacity as journalism, that even politics are limited. But history itself is a teacher. And the lessons will be hard ones.
You totally missed addressing the problem. You could’ve kept that whole piece very short all you needed to say was that the timing was terrible. If he had done this a year ago, it would’ve been fine if he did it a week after the election that would’ve been fine.
The Opinion Editor and the Editorial Board did the work they were asked to do and then the owner interfered in their work. If you want to rethink the existence of the Opinion pages, I'd be all for it, honestly. I hate opinion writing. And I hate endorsements. But I hate owner interference in content even more. Post-election is a traditional time for beat reassignments and other coverage change decisions. It would have been great to sit down with the Opinion staff and Editorial Board and say, "let's rethink how we're doing this." I'd honestly have been so happy with that outcome.
Unfortunately for the owner they eat the costs and if a paper isn't selling because their staff are ideological dickheads instead of objective observers then said owner is personally obligated to act. Otherwise, the staff can pony up the $250M to buy the owner out of they feel their model reflects a winning strategy.
The owner of a paper is almost always going to eat the costs. The revenue stream dried up with the loss of classifieds and the lower cost of online ads.
Also, I'm not sure how your comment is at all responding to anything I said. Like I keep reading it and I think maybe you're responding to someone else? It's not germane.
Whoawhoawhoa, Elizabethetc -- I LOVE reading opinions and Op-Eds. Them (especially good editorial cartoons), crosswords and the Comix page make the oar worthwhile for me. Pleas don't pu his the suggestion box.
it would accomplish the long-term goal of getting the newspaper out of the endorsing business without having almost as much affect by not endorsing at this late stage. this non-endorsement at this late stage when it was very well expected that they would be endorsing. Harris is in fact a fainthearted endorsement of Trump to many people.
Our newsroom stopped endorsements a decade ago when we found it didn't inform readers; it only divided them and led to spiteful comments and voting. Instead, we used the editorial page to lay out major policies of each platform. That's the purpose of journalism: to inform.
In any event, I doubt that anyone (OK, maybe there are a few clueless saps) votes based on who a newspaper endorses. Which will always be the Democrat. Always. So, what's the point?
I don’t like the decision, don’t believe Bezos’ explanation. But, 1) the loss of 200,000 subs will hurt the post and reporters, won’t hurt Bezos. 2) What might get Bezos’ attention: the loss of 200,000 Amazon buyers. But everyone knows we can give up our news, can’t give up our stuff. So no talk of Amazon boycott.
Perhaps this is similar to when Netflix announced they were no longer mailing DVDs. People freaked out and customers bailed. Years later, they were the leaders in streaming content. I don’t read the WP and likely never will. That said, I can see the need to legacy media to make changes if there is any hope for a future. The other option is to continue to cater to a shrinking number of customers while losing out to new journalism, aka Substack and podcasts.
The problem is it appears more and more people want actual journalism instead of party line propaganda. It’s going to be difficult to change the mindset of an organization back to performing actual journalism.
I think the opposite is true. More and more people just want to read opinion pieces that support their existing worldview and nobody wants to read straight news anymore unless it's some kind of grisly crime story or a celebrity died.
Well, actually— many of us are also ditching Amazon Prime, and boycotting Whole Foods. And 200k cancelled subscriptions is not chump change, nor is it likely the end of subscribers abandoning ship.
lol...how many is "many of us." Is it like most of us, a lot of us, scores of us, plenty of us, my whole family and then some?
Well, actually -75% of US shoppers have a Prime membership. Well actually, Amazon has 200 million members. I wonder what the number was before "many" ditched Prime.
Amazon has 180 million Prime subscribers plus all the people who buy from them without a subscription. Good luck getting their attention. And Bezos only owns 9% of them so he really, really doesn't care. And 200k WaPo subscribers is less than 10%, and it's already bleeding money, so you're all just increasing his tax write off or getting more people laid off. So quit, but don't think anyone cares but you.
I for one am not comfortable with the idea that we should depend on the whims of billionaires to maintain vital institutions and determine the public good. Good for whom?
He and the country would be better off if he purged the paper of left wing communists from the paper.
The media needs diversity, ie diversity of opinions. Bezo’s is right, people don’t trust the media anymore.
All due respect, what journalism needs is less opinion.
Anybody who uses the word “communist“ to describe liberal Democrats is completely off his rocker. It’s like calling Republicans “Nazis.” The Republicans are definitely not Nazis, even if their leader is a fascist dictator wanna-be.
You lost all credibility when you said that Trump is a fascist dictator wanna-be.
When you say lost credibility you mean pointing out a fact contradicts what you’re trying to sell, so you will accuse them of losing credibility? Trump is a fascist wannabe. Is it like calling it a Russian hoax and you want us to not believe our lying eyes and him admitting to his family and campaign met with Russians at Trump Tower?
I think some people don’t know what the word credibility means, or they do and they’re just like Trump and just lying about it. Anybody eat your dog lately?
LOL!!!!!! You clowns just don’t get it. You and your ilk in the media along with the turd in the toilet bowl Hillary that won’t flush away have no INTELLIGENT arguments whatsoever so you resort to the Hitler comparison. That comparison is what is going to get him elected…again. Well, also, you have a cackling clown for a candidate that was so unlikeable in the 2020 campaign that she was the first one to drop out because she sucked that bad And when I say sucked that bad, I don’t mean with Willie Brown.
Terry you know you sound like Beavis or Butthead? And as far as Hitler, Trump’s vice president said he was Hitler before he whipped his head to talk out of the other side of his phony face, but that’s your problem not mine, your VP is a lying hack. And yes your political grounds for hating Harris, is her laugh… should we call you Beavis or Butthead?
Here in reality, Hillary conceded in 2016 and took a long walk in the woods. She wrote a book, and said some politically incorrect things about Donald Trump, but FREE SPEECH. Obama invited Trump to the White House the next day, and Obama was there to open the doors to the White House on Inaugration day. VP Biden presided over the electoral count without any rioting, violence, or smearing feces around. They all put Country OVER Party and attended Trump's Innaguraiton. They were all likely raised by good parents, hard working Americans. Clearly something happened to Trump and ilk like yourself along the way!
Terry. Oooh, mean, you are. After what you just "said," please don't take offense at Trump being called a "fascist dictator wanna-be" — key word: wanna-be. You will scream the loudest when your rights are taken away and see that Trump is not one of you — he is your enemy.
Calling names is the least effective way to win hearts & minds ever invented. But maybe you aren't trying to be persuasive, because in your heart you know that you might just be a teensy bit biased.
You just can't accept facts. Trump is a wanna be dictator. As plain as the turd in your toilet bowl
You are disgusting.
You're an utter fool. But we'll keep your secret.
You are smoking crack, correct?
Put on your "gold" $400.00 sneakers with trump written on the side, grab a flag with trump
written on it, bring your "Matthew, Mark, Luke, trump bible. Look at yourself in the mirror and see what other people see.
A brainwashed member of a cult. A man who can't think for himself and puts a fat man in orange makeup, a horrific hairdo and puts him ahead of your country. He wouldn't give you the time of day. He only likes white rich men of which you are not
Yet the cackling clown is set to thump would-be Hitler 2.0.
Millions were spent investigating Trump over the Democrat fabricated Russia collusion hoax, and some geniuses still believe that PROVEN garbage of a story. There is only one explanation:
Democrats have mental health issues: https://news.gallup.com/poll/102943/republicans-report-much-better-mental-health-than-others.aspx
Science says liberals, not conservatives, are psychotic
https://nypost.com/2016/06/09/science-says-liberal-beliefs-are-linked-to-pyschotic-traits/
Liberals more likely to have a mental health condition
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/22/white-liberals-more-likely-have-mental-health-cond/
Over 40% of left leaning Democrats report mental health issues:https://www.eutimes.net/2020/02/liberalism-is-a-mental-disorder-akin-to-schizophrenia-according-to-new-study/
Mental illness prevalent in the left: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339541044_Mental_illness_and_the_left
Democrats have more mental disorders: https://thinkamericana.com/scientific-evidence-study-proves-liberals-have-more-mental-disorders-than-others/
Most criminals identify as Democrats by a ratio of 5 to 1: https://www.mic.com/articles/78013/most-convicts-vote-democrat-study-shows
Fred, OK: that’s the THIRD time. We get it…
J/m'y
Don't feed the maggots.
Greg Luecke didn't lose credibility for me. Listen to what Trump is saying about the enemy within.
Look at what Biden administration did to their enemies. It is so hilarious 😂 that the very thing liberals accuse Trump of wanting to do, they are actually doing themselves. It is scary 😨. I feel like we are re living MAO's cultural revolution with the radical liberals in office. I am a pure libertarian and hate both sides but the liberals are the true danger to democracy
I totally agree. But since the liberal left came after my own child, I am fully momma bear republican. No one is going to chop off her breasts which at 15 therapists advised we do for her anxiety. Thankfully she desisted with the help of detransitioners, gays against Groomers (who Wokepedia calls far right group), and books by Abigail Shrier and Miriam Grossman. The schools, states, medical 'professionals' choosing the harmful and irreversible and profitable 'affirming' route I no longer trust. Sick this is what the liberal left advocates so blindly and fervently.
I’m looking at what Biden administration did to our enemies, are you talking about to Russia and our other enemies or are you just lying about something domestically? But then Trump lied 30,000+ times in four years so we already know you have no use for the truth. Has anybody eaten your dog lately?
Gregory --- Correction: The Biden Admin does not view 'the other side" as an "enemy."
That may be the basic difference between Team Biden and the MAGA guys you apparently favor. I find it hard to believe that any American would draw a comparison between today's rancorous political climate and the F-ing Chinese F-ing Communist PArty's F-ing Cultural F-ing REVOLUTION. Have you lost your F-ing mind???
Dear Mr. Tucker, I recall from childhood when Alissa Rosenbaum was popularized as a modern philosopher of Objectivism, the school of thought she founded. She was an immigrant from Russia. Did you know that? She married actor and painter Charles Francis "Frank" O'Connor in 1929 and went on to fame and fortune by virtue of her widely popular novels and motion pictures based on her Objectivist philosophy. She subsequently died of heart failure in 1982 and was buried next to O'Connor who pre-deseaced her in 1979. Prior to her passing she declared that "irrationality is the root of all evil."
His "enemy within" comment is commonly based on a conflation of two comments from two separate interviews with different contexts he made. To understand the context, you would need to watch the entire interviews instead of relying on mainstream media, which has conflated the two comments into something they wanted it to be.
Unfortunately, it seems you might be busy and haven't had the time to review the full interviews, relying instead on the mainstream media's version, which is inaccurate.
For clarity, Tim waltz also put the The National Guard into Minnesota., which aligns with what Trump suggested doing in the event of riots to protect people, property, and prevent looting and arson. He has also mentioned the use of the army to combat cartels, a common tactic among governments. (Because cartel generally own military greed weapons themselves ) However, this approach neglects the root of the problem: the open border that facilitates cartel operations. But thankfully trump also wants to close the border!
BIDEN'S BORDER CRISIS: EXAMINING THE IMPACTS OF INTERNATIONAL CARTELS TARGETING INDIAN COUNTRY
https://www.congress.gov/event/118th-congress/house-event/LC73142/text
Operation Lone Star Combats Increased Cartel Activity Along Border
https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/operation-lone-star-combats-increased-cartel-activity-along-border#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Mexican%20drug%20cartels%20pose,Olivarez.
Dear NC, Your points are reasonable. I respectfully suggest that drug cartels would not exist anywhere if the demand for addictive substances had not reached epidemic proportions in our country. As long as billions remain to be made in producing and trafficking in substances no military intervention will give us the desired result - a drug-free nation. As soon as one cartel is wiped out, another takes it's place. We need more effective treatment and recovery programs as well as interdictions.
I completely disagree with you.
LOL!!!! How many millions of people has he killed? How many countries has he invaded? You have actually got it backwards, you and the other mental disordered liberals, are disrespecting Holocaust survivors when you compare Trump or anyone to someone who was responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews and the millions of others.
You’re missing one word, there, Terry, and that word is “yet.”
The writing is on the wall. He’s SAID what he’ll do but you bury your head in the same like a loyal, ignorant little MAGAt.
Reprehensible and pathetic.
He killed an estimated 400,000 Americans by lying about cures for Covid and saying it will "go away" soon. And news flash, the Nazi party was not the only fascist party in history.
You always start out with laughing and then babble nonsense that’s laughable.
We actually in one less war today than we did under Trump you remember he promised to get us out of Afghanistan and then failed Biden got us out. Even beyond that, it’s a complete joke when you all talk about Trump’s foreign policy:
https://wapo.st/3Cd7LhI
Terry--I have to address your question regarding how many people Trump 'killed"---by my accounts, several hundred thousand Americans died of COVID before the vaccine was widely available--and I recall our former president told us not to worry; he spread information about bogus cures like drinking bleach, and told us it would all magically go away. He had enough information from Fauci and refused to be honest with the rest of us. He lied. Many Americans died as a result. The buck stops at the top--it happened on his watch.
Terry - take a step back from the keyboard, take a deep breath, maybe take a chill pill.
Dear Terry, I am not accusing you of anything and I bear no anger towards you. But I am confused. Jokingly, perhaps it's because I'm one of the mentally disordered liberals to whom you referred. LOL Could you explain why comparisons of Trump to Hitler disrespect Holocaust survivors and victims? I've written about this assertion. After considerable research and thought I could not see the connection between the comparison and denigration of either victims or survivors of the Holocaust. This might sound cheesy but I encourage you to read my essay on this important and timely question.
Why would you say that? Trump's words and actions belie the fact that he is, in fact, a dictator wanna-be, and your denial of that fact will not change it. His connections to Putin and his constant whining about how fucked up the USA is is a real thing, like it or not. You are allowed to have your own opinions but not alternate facts-- otherwise known by intelligent people as lies.
Oh, the irony of your post, believing your opinions are facts LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There a lot of things that people don’t know about Trump because the media would never let that information out. Did you know that he and Juliani helped the FBI to take down the mafia in NYC years ago. He loved his city and could not stand what the mafia had done to it. He loves this country and that is why he is running again against some very powerful people who obviously don’t want to change the status quo of control. They have controlled us for years. There has not been any difference in who has been in the White House until Reagan and Trump came along b/c the others were all controlled by the same powerful people and they were just giving us the illusion that we were in control (uniparty) when we voted. Trump is a threat to them and they have tried everything in the book to get rid of him. I believe that our lives will get so much better and we will stay out of wars if we re-elect Trump. Just ask yourself has your life been better in the last 4 years.
This is the most sensible comment yet.
Trump did business with the mob in NY. Maybe he had to, but it's a fact well documented by Wayne Barrett and others.
In his 2004 book The Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton refines his five-stage model and puts forward the following definition for fascism:
Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood (That's Trump!!) and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, (That's MAGA) in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, (Proud Boys, Fascists, Neo Nazis) working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, (The GOP) abandons democratic liberties (Check) and pursues with redemptive violence (check) and without ethical or legal restraints (absolute immunity) goals of internal ethnic cleansing (Mass Deportations) and external expansion - In 2021, Paxton wrote an op-ed for Newsweek in which he stated that he now believed Donald Trump was a fascist, after insisting for several years that he was instead a right-wing populist. Trump's incitement of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol was the deciding factor in him changing his view
More like it is an opinion piece but hey, lets go with it.
Obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood (That's Obama, Biden and Harris)
Cults of unity, energy, and purity (BLM, La Raza, DSA)
Committed nationalist militants (BLM, Black Panthers)
Traditional Elites LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Coastal liberal elites aka Democrats)
Abandons democratic liberties (Left wing attacks on free speech, religion, right to assemble, 2A)
Redemptive violence (Kavanaugh Hearings, Ferguson, George Floyd Riots aka Summer of Love or mostly peaceful riots)
Without ethical or legal restraints (Weaponizing the DOJ/Lawfare)
Ethnic Cleansing (LOL!!! No, deporting people who came here illegally is not ethnic cleansing, it is what all soverign nations do to protect their borders. Ethnic cleansing would mean removing all people of that particular ethnic designation. This is incredibly obtuse for you to conflate to not allow people to sneak into our country with the Holocaust, Bosnia etc).
I completely understand and agree with you.
Sorry Terry, that is exactly what Trump wants to be known as.
No, Terry, credibility was not lost. Don't exaggerate, which is the sin of which you have just accused Greg L.
Here’s the thing Terry, Hitler and Nazi comparisons are already at the ragged edge of having nothing useful to say. You can’t talk to these people because they’ve started off with words that tell you that they’re not willing to engage in civil discourse.
No he didn't. Check the FACTS!! Turn off Fox (fixed)news
Work it out for yourself.
Here’s a 14-point checklist: https://www.keene.edu/academics/cchgs/resources/presentation-materials/characteristics-and-appeal-of-fascism/download/
Let us know your findings.
“Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition…”
Does this sound familiar to you? Does it actually sound appealing?
Trump is also not a Nazi. Calling him one or "Orange Hitler", denigrates and disrespects Holocaust survivors and victims.
Those who do so are ignorant of history.
Trump is a Fascist. He admires Hitler. He’s a racist. I think it’s disrespectful of Holocaust survivors to make Trump out like he’s not so bad. He is.
Did the fat cows on The View tell you that, Ciderella?
The same people who loved Trump used to hug him and kiss him, now they call him Hitler? When they’ve known him for decades. It’s laughable.
It also denigrates and disrespects Hiter...but that's a whole other story.
I did Nazi that coming.
LOL!!!!! I needed that!
I don’t think it has anything to do with holocaust victims, “hey you can’t point out that this Nazi like guy is like Hitler because it demeans Holocaust victims…” Actually I think it would insult them if you didn’t point out someone was acting like a Hitler, but I agree, he’s not Hitler. He uses Hitler tactics and his VP pick actually agrees with me on that or maybe you’re forgetting that?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jd-vance-once-compared-trump-hitler-now-they-are-running-mates-2024-07-15/
We will have to agree to disagree.
We can disagree when it comes to what ice cream is best, but when it comes to facts and morality, I will always err on the side of morality and facts. Something you know very little about since you seem to be lost in space.
J.D Vance is the only person who ever called Trump Hitler. I guess he's ignorant.
Carol H - As you said "Trump is also not a Nazi." I agree with you - that is inaccurate. Fascism is a type of political philosophy; Trump's own words indicate that he is a fascist. He uses fascist means (the Big Lie, etc. ) to attain fascist ends (authoritarian "Strong Man Rule"). What Trump wants to do if he gets into power is fascistic. Doesn't mean he's a NAZI -- which is beside the point. He sure as hell is not in the American political mainstream.
Your observations/critique of Trump is not rooted in fact. I prefer facts because facts don't care about your feelings.
No I've heard a lot of people who know and worked with him saying it. They can't all be liars.
Mussolini the godfather of fascism defined it as a totalitarian ideology that emphasized the absolute supremacy of the state over individual freedoms, rejecting democracy, liberalism, and socialism. It promoted nationalism, unity through corporatism, and the glorification of war, with the belief that strength and conflict were essential to the nation’s vitality.
Trump hates wars, is against corporatism, wants individual and states rights. He got the nomination in a democratic process where he won the votes. Unlike his opponent. Plus he has been more than willing to bring other strong voices into his coalition such as RFK, Tulsi. So he not a strong man.
Where exactly is he a fascist based on the creator of that ideology.
Not interested in teaching you how to parse Trump’s rhetoric — reading through his speeches is for me akin to unclogging a very messy toilet — so I’m going to respectfully decline to respond. Have a good day.
Jon M - What ever gave you the idea that Trump believes anything about principles, other than the one about Self above all else? He is a malignant narcissist. He doesn’t know anything about your theory of what fascism is — and probably never bothered to read about it — and his understanding of American history and government is rudimentary at best. He is a great talker. Yes, he did get nominated for a major political party. It used to be called the Gand Old Party, and was the favorite haunt of conservative WASPs, old men and “Old Money”. Now the WASPs are mostly liberals and the GOP is mostly old men and dirty money.
Dear Carol H, I want to sincerely thank you for inspiring me to look at your claim in detail. If you have a moment please read my essay. I'm not trying to argue or change anyone's views. I honestly believe you raised a very timely and important question. Does comparing Trump to Hitler denigrate victims and survivors of the Holocaust?
Yes, Jerry it does. And several Holocaust survivors have recently spoken out about this exact issue. For a person - mostly Jews - who actually lived through Nazi occupation in Europe and those who either survived the camps and/or had loved ones murdered in the camps, calling Trump (or probably any other American politician) a Nazi is insulting. They know firsthand what and who the Nazis were.
Democrats call anyone who doesn't agree with them a Nazi or a fascist, thereby making these words almost meaningless. But for people who actually suffered under the real Nazis, this is incredibly disrespectful and makes what they went through in their lives meaningless.
As much as I dislike Trump, I dislike Harris more. Calling him a fascist is just more leftist bs. So tired of both sides
Gregory, why do you dislike Harris? What issues about Harris disturbs you to the point where you would consider voting for Trump? I would like to know because I've heard this line of reasoning before but have never been able to identify exactly what it is that makes Harris so odious.
Thanks.
Harris is disliked because she represents a continuation of the last four disastrous years, and she has repeatedly shown that she cannot respond to direct questions except with memorized banalities.
The last four years under Biden have been great. Jobs are booming, the stock market is breaking records, inflation is way down, Biden handled Putin’s bloody war against Ukraine ideally well, etc. Kamala Harris will be her own person and a great president. I already voted for her.
The last four disastrous years? Please explain what has been disastrous about the last four years. And try to use facts, if you can.
Yeah there you go, you didn’t answer the question… she’s a continuation of the last four horrible awful nondescript years.
Anthony, you wouldn’t know 4 good years if they bit you on the arse. Quit spewing your MAGATY bullshit around like you’re not a pathetic cult member.
Now take your crap down the road, pick up a big flat rock and feed it to your MAGAT neighbors living there, for I will not abide it.
Last 4 "disastrous"... erm, prosperous???...years.
I'll take this one. As a key member of the current administration, Kamala Harris opened our borders and allowed 10 million plus unvetted illegals to enter the country. Harris/Biden has let in thousands of gang members and hundreds of people on terrorist watch lists. Women are bearing the brunt of the violence with Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray and many others raped and killed. Congress estimated to have spent at least $60 billion on a crisis created by this administration (compared to $2 billion on our veterans). Every dollar that is being spent could be going to improve the lives of poor Americans (Black, Native American, white, etc.) by improving education, transportation, housing, etc. We are seeing small towns and cities getting influxes of illegals and refugees that swell the population by up to 30 percent, straining housing, education and job opportunities, not to mention the impact it has on the police, fire and taxes.
What a load of nonsense. It’s frightening you believe that spew of garbage you posted here. Please kindly explain the bipartisan border bill that republicans killed in the house all so Trump could campaign on this issue? Charlatan hypocrites that MAGA is.
If you're worried about education, why would you vote for a candidate who literally wants to shut down the department of education? Last time he was president, he put Betsy DeVos in charge -- someone who is openly hostile to public education. He says he wants to drain the swamp, but everyone he promotes IS the swamp. Everyone. There are no honest changemakers amongst his ilk.
Kamala Harris is not in a position in the current administration to "open our borders" or affect policy in the way you're suggesting. Look it up.
Immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than those born in the U.S. This is all fear-mongering by the right. They choose one sob story of one bad guy while ignoring that a majority of violence is perpetuated by disturbed white men.
If you're concerned about violence against women, maybe you shouldn't vote for a literal rapist. F*ck.
So when you said you have this, you meant you had a list of lies already to go?
Trump did absolutely nothing to fix the problem with immigration he did executive orders and piled people up at the border he stopped funding the work in Central America to stop the problem there, his useless incompetence. The gluttonous pig didn’t pass one law to fix our immigration problem not one in four years even when he had the house in the Senate and the presidency not one law.
Now we had a bipartisan bill in the Senate that he blocked because the incompetent pig needs to mess things up to blame other people because he has no successes. Wine deported more people in four years that had been deported since 2010 our border is not open dimwit or go down to Tijuana and march back across without being stopped you’re a liar.
And one of our big problems is all of those coyotes bringing people up are using your lies to convince people to come, you’re literally making the problem worse at the border so you have something to complain about. What a cowardly pathetic group! You make it worse, than block a plan that would’ve helped fix it.
Now do you want to talk about all the riots that went on under Trump that he did nothing about? The riot he wanted, the riot he made worse by sending unmarked van to grab people? How many Maga went down there shot at police stations causing problems? All under Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris is going to win in a landslide because most American aren’t rapist supporting losers who simply want Trump because he’s the only person that’s ever flattered them. And there’s a reason for that.
T247, Are you commenting while billing the taxpayer for your wages?
Her whole life is literally a matter of expediency. She has no core values other than the ends justifies the means.
You can't be serious. You've just described Donald Trump perfectly.
What’s funny about your response is at the same time people say the exact opposite and that she can’t be trusted because of …look at her core values.
I guess what you’re suggesting is it when you start with raping a woman and you accept that then why worry about anything else? Like, I won’t play golf, I won’t have time… this tax cut, a dime won’t come to me… Mexico will pay for the wall… I’ll get us out of Afghanistan or I’ll balance the budget instead of doubling it before Covid… although I don’t know if causing tens of thousands of more people to die than any other nation at our level because of his incompetence of Covid… Isn’t that worse than rape or which one do you think is worse to set is your new bar?
Democrats have become a satanic death cult. They’ve made an idol of abortion up to and including after birth, they support body mutilation of minors, men allowed in girls bathrooms (Title 9), men competing in women’s sports, open borders to unvetted foreigners many who are repeat offenders, drag queen story hour in our public libraries, sexualizing our children, same sex marriage, mandatory lockdowns, censorship, law fare against political opponents (which will most likely include the average citizen), destruction of the constitution and removal of God from all aspects of society.
Debra - You are filled with misinformation, skewed towards demonizing your fellow citizens. Democrats will challenge every single one of your assertions. They are distortions.
Political arguments are one thing -- phantasmagorical ideations are psychotic. This comments section is becoming a toxic swamp of hatred, Debra, and you are making it worse. Good day to you all.
LOL! You know evangelicals, which has just become a place for bad people to hide in plain sight, try to tell us that lying for Jesus is cool, it’s not, they’re just liars they’re just damn liars.
Abortion after birth is murder you freaking weirdo.
I feel very sad for your son and hope he eventually gets the care he needs and removes your toxic influence from his life.
No just government
Kámala is so fake, she makes Sylvester Stallone's face look real.
So let's get one thing straight i am not voting for Trump. I am voting for Oliver Chase. With that said Harris was never a choice for me. She has no values or character. The fact she was Biden's VP after she called him a racist in 2020 debates says volumes of who she is. Harris is not intelligent and made her up top because the liberal used her as as their puppet. All her talk of getting rid of price gouging is problematic. The government should not interfere in a free market
You do realize Trump’s whole modus operandi is to interfere in the free market? The reason Bezos - and others - kowtowed to him is because he knew Trump will reward and punish companies not based on the quality of their services or products, but on which CEO’s please him. I know you’re not voting for Trump, but I assume you know that not voting for Harris amounts to a vote for Trump.
You don’t dislike Trump. There’s no in between with that man: you despise him or you’re ok with him. You are ok with Trump. That’s not dislike. Anyone with integrity, kindness, and empathy in their soul LOATHES him. You should loathe him, but you don’t. I’m going to guess because you agree with him in ways that decent people find abhorrent. So you just trot out the convenient phrase “I dislike Trump as much as anyone.” You don’t.
Why don’t you like Harris? Is it her laugh that really irks you?
OMG she's an imbecile and a greater divider than Obama (if possible).
Not really into the whole election thing? Americans are free to dislike Kamala Harris all you like, but if she is elected President, she'll be the head of State and running the government. Ditto with Trump in case he wins. The issue is not which one we like better, but which government will best serve the country's needs for leadership.
Yet another fool weighs in... anyone who still supports Trump and is not a fascist/racist and ignorant fool is indeed as rare as a dinosaur.
Is that what you want people to think of you? I feel sorry for you.
The Democrat Party has been captured by Frankfurt School ideology. The Frankfurt School professors self identified as Marxists. Communist is as good a word as any, except for maybe Marxist.
Please define Marxism for the people in the cheap seats.
Marxism is a destructive ideology that thrives on conflict and seeks to dismantle the foundations of free societies. It views the world through the lens of oppressor versus oppressed, advocating for violent revolution, government control, and the suppression of individual liberties. It rejects the principles of individual achievement and merit, instead promoting the forced redistribution of wealth and power.
DEI and identity politics are modern manifestations of this Marxist ideology. They divide society into competing identity groups, fostering resentment and undermining social cohesion. They promote the idea of systemic oppression, demanding that power be redistributed based on group identity rather than individual qualifications. Their goal is to dismantle existing institutions and replace them with an authoritarian regime that controls every aspect of our lives. Don't be fooled by their talk of social justice – at its core, this is an ideology that seeks to destroy everything we hold dear.
And let's be clear: identity politics has never created a unified society. It is a weapon used to divide, conquer, and control. Regimes like those of Hitler, Mussolini, and Pol Pot weaponized identity to divide their populations, leading to genocide and unimaginable suffering. DEI and identity politics follow this same dangerous path, eroding the foundations of individual rights and replacing them with a system that prioritizes group identity above all else. This is a path that leads to tyranny, not justice
This isn’t the worst argument attempting to connect social progressives with Marxism that I’ve ever heard (I say as a non-scholar), but I think you take it way too far. Eg, “…this is an ideology that seeks to destroy everything we hold dear.” Like what? And who is this universal “we” you speak for? Likely not me. Likely not a lot of folks. I mean, whether you agree with their methods or not, most Black Americans very much probably don’t “hold dear” the same things you do.
I also don’t see Biden or Harris or Pelosi - ie top Democrats - calling for revolution. The people you obsess over are such a tiny though loud group, it seems a little loony to conclude they have such enormous power. From my vantage point, it’s the MAGA constituency that talks about taking up arms against their fellow Americans, just as the Bolsheviks did in 1917.
It seems to me the most “Marxist” thing Joe Biden has done is give a lot of money to made-in-America green energy projects. But this is what we’ve done with oil companies since forever (and weapons and pharmaceuticals and banks and automobile manufacturers, etc - cuz we have a national interest in promoting certain industries for the good of our economy and security).
Moreover, what you object to are policies. They’re not fundamental changes to government structure. Trump, on the other hand, has not only talked about fundamentally changing that structure - and deeply embedded norms - of our government but actually attempted to do it. Though we find his policies - such as they are - disturbing, it’s really this aspect of the man and his inner circle that frighten his opponents.
Google is your friend. These professors, primarily Horkheimer, Habermas, and Marcuse openly identified as Marxists. You should read up on them and their ideas. It’s never been a secret…
It’s the DEMOCRATIC Party, not the “Democrat” Party.
Well, it's not very democratic, Jessie. Look how the nominee was chosen. therefore, Richard is correct and you're wrong.
You don’t know how our electoral system works, do you, honey bunches of oats? And you accuse me of ignorance. Jesus fucking hell. Take a civics course. Or at least use “the Google.” 🙄
The spelling Nazis are out and about I see.
It’s not spelling I take issue with. Dick. Plenty of intelligent people don’t spell well and find grammar challenging. No judgement. It’s putrid ignorance I try to point out. You do you, pal. I believe in freedom. To be left the fuck alone. To live as I see fit in a civilized, mutually respectful society.
I’m not the one who’s voting for the fascist people who want to police women’s menstrual cycles and shove their religion down everyone’s throats.
"Buller" - hmm, seems apt.
BTW it's "The Democratic Party"
Down to scraping the ad hom barrel. I win!
Yeah, I've got a funny name, too, so I'm sorry that I made a bad pun out of your name, though I still disagree with your comment/s. C'est la vie.
To claim that anyone drawing parallels between liberal Democrats and communism is 'off his rocker' is a dangerous dismissal of legitimate concerns. The reality is that many core tenets of modern liberal Democrat ideology, particularly in areas like DEI and identity politics, align disturbingly well with Marxist theory. Both emphasize group identity over individual merit, promote the idea of inherent oppressor and oppressed classes, and advocate for equity of outcome instead of equality of opportunity. DEI initiatives often utilize "critical theory," a framework rooted in Marxist thought, to analyze and interpret social issues. This focus on systemic power structures and the demonization of certain groups based on their identity are hallmarks of Marxist ideology. While not all liberal Democrats may consciously embrace communism, the practical implications of their policies in these areas are indistinguishable from its core principles. And also these ideas go directly against the constitutional rights of all Americans to be treated equally based on their common humanity.
NC -- You give a nice exposition of the ideological framework underlying much of our political bickering. However I think you give too much credit to Marxist reductionist thought in relation to liberal ideology. Marxist "focus on systemic power structures" is an essential part of critical analysis is an analytical tool for examining historical development, and what good is analysis if it is not critical? "Demonization of certain groups based on their identity" is not just "a hallmark of Marxist ideology", it is tribalism, which is probably older than humanity itself. Christians demonized Pagans, Catholics demonized Protestants, (and - to quote the great Tom Lehrer speaking, or rather, singing ironically "...everybody hates the Jews. But now it's National Brotherhood Week, etc."). In the era of highly polarized American politics, the Far-Right demonizes everybody to the left of themselves.
"While not all liberal Democrats may consciously embrace communism" is disingenuous, as it clearly implies that most do - a specious assertion.
To sum up, your superficially objective application of Marxism to liberal political positions is an excuse for discounting them as extremist thought via guilt by association.
"However I think you give too much credit to Marxist thought in relation to liberal ideology." ...While you may disagree, the application of Marxist thought to analyze liberal political positions is a well-established practice in political science and critical theory. This approach stems largely from the influence of the Frankfurt School, Marxist intellectuals who, after fleeing Nazi Germany, became prominent figures in American academia. Their ideas, particularly critical theory, disseminated through their writings and teachings, profoundly shaping the worldview of generations of students. As these students entered various fields, including politics, they carried these collectivist ideas with them.
The consequences are evident in the rise of identity politics, the emphasis on systemic oppression, and the implementation of policies that prioritize group outcomes over individual rights. This Marxist-inspired framework, with its focus on group identity and power dynamics, can be a dangerous tool. Rather than fostering understanding and social unity, it often fuels division and conflict. Identity politics, rooted in Marxist ideas, has become a language of grievance and resentment, with a historical tendency to lead to upheaval and even genocide. Examples range from the Cultural Revolution in China to the Rwandan genocide.
Liberalism, once a champion of individual liberty and limited government, has become increasingly intertwined with marxist ideas, leading to the expansion of government control, This has led to an obsession with systemic oppression and policies that prioritize group outcomes over individual rights, eroding the individualistic foundations of liberalism. As a result, the very concept of liberalism has been distorted, becoming far less focused on individual freedoms and more about control.
Interesting history, isn’t it?
Hey Everybody
Just a quick note. THEY BOTH SUCK!
There, I said it.
Everyone just vote for the one that you think sucks less (and stop with the “grab them…” or the Willie Brown references. We get it!)
"The Republicans are definitely not Nazis, even if their leader is a fascist dictator wanna-be."
Hey Greg...thanks for proving to everyone that your IQ is barely room temperature. So tell us exactly how Trump wants to be a dictator, lol?
Facts:
1) Democrats want to centralize power, not Trump. Trump tried to decrease the size of the Federal government by freezing hiring.
2) Democrats want to force people to take an experimental vaccine.
3) Democrats want great control over the people in the form of increased regulations, not Trump. Trump increased freedom by getting rid of many wasteful regs.
4) Democrats want to censor anyone they disagree with, while Trump supports the 1st Amendment.
5) Democrats want ever increasing taxation, while Trump wants to reduce taxes.
6) Democrats want to disarm the American people, while Trump supports the 2nd Amendment.
7) Democrats cheat to win elections by banning voter ID and other common-sense measures designed keep our elections fair and honest.
8) Democrats lied to Americans for years about Biden's mental competency....
9) Harris held a silent coup and overthrew Biden, who was the choice of their constituents for President when it became clear Biden was going to lose. Then someone appointed the puppet Harris, without a single Democrat getting to vote for her as their choice for President.
It's pretty clear that the fascists are Harris and her supporters.
You don't think Trump wants to centralized power under him? Wow you need to pay more attention. Although I wouldn't necessarily call it NAZIism. He is not that dsciplined. More like crony capitalism.
Pregressive was the word used by President Widrow Wilson to rebrand Communism for America.
Bezos needs to shut down the WaPoo. Also dear author you didn't mention Town Hall Network. The Bulwark? That unread pos?
Sell WaPo to ex-wife MaKenzie or convert it to a nonprofit and take the tax loss.
Hmm, interesting idea.
Ha! Ha! We know where your ‘allegiances ’ lie!
Delusional. Using Nazi and Hitler and Fascist comparisons because you’re out of intelligent things to say.
Nothing in this post furthers any discourse.
You lost credibility the leader of the Republicans is not a fascist wannabe. He's on as savage warrior to read America of the corrupt, greedy, globalist, who want to tramplethe middle class
You were doing ok until you wrote that Trump wants to be a dictator. You're a Democrat harpies.
Agreed. The word is Socialist. Not communist.
Ñbr luo
D.ji uf u
Yyyuyyy y ,@ CB
A fascist technically is an anti-communist..... so which are you
Meanwhile over at NPR…
Leave the opinion to the opinion section
Endorsements are made on the opinion page.
The publication should not have an opinion. It's fine to publish the well-supported, well-written, clearly labelled opinions of others, but the platform itself should be agnostic. The one exception is commentary on journalistic integrity and standards of adherence to the facts.
I growl whenever I read the byline "the editors of the New York Times".
Bezos is absolutely right on this one.
Is there a rationale to your statement that the paper’s editorial board should be muzzled? Asking for everyone.
Did you read the original post?
Thank you for pointing this out, Lois.
FYI - Editorials are Opinion and Endorsements are Editorials.
Exactly! Thanks for speaking up.
Agreed. I can make my own decisions. Increased depth and more useful information are better than someone's point of view substituting for the actual story.
I agree. Less opinion and more facts, verified and source identified. I don't know about you but I've never met Anonymous.
Close personal friend.
Thanks for saying what I thought. And that’s not opinion, that’s fact!!
Some solid investigative reporting would do a lot to restore the public trust.
There is a lot of that available on Trump, less on Harris.
Paper of record used to mean objectively provable fact. When truth becomes relative to your subjective wotld view we all know what happens.
The "Paper of Record" should be more than just straightforward reportage. The most valuable aspect of ny news outlet, in my not humble opinion, are the opinions expressed by experienced, professional editors and journalists who have a deeper knowledge of the subjects they cover than we "men & women on the street." Keep in mind that many people do not have the time or interest to familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of, say, the past decade of school board controversies, or the history of city and county efforts to "solve" homelessness, or any of the myriad situations that will come up in the course of a campaign cycle. It's like book reviews: we read them for guidance and as food for thought, not as a substitute for reading the book ourselves and forming our own opinions.
It would be nice if journalism was just straight reporting but leftist "journolists" mastered the art of biased writing and they are not going to stop.
Exhibit A: Guess That Party *)
---
*) Past reviews show that legacy media reports on politicians' wrongdoing regularly omit a (D) association or bury it deep in the text, while (R) would be plastered front and center. It can be fairly reliably guessed to which party an individual belongs.
I have to question that assertion. What reviews are we talking about? Are you speaking of TV news or print? In print, I always see the party affiliation indicated with a (D) or an (R) if I didn't already know.. Not sure about where in the text it is located, though. It might be harder to track on TV or radio -- party affiliation must be called out by name.
The AP puts an (R) by the name if it's something derogatry. Otherwise you have to play the "find the party" game.
Perhaps you should point this oiut to the Associated Press instead of complaining about it here. We are all just a bunch pf nattering know-nothings.
That is just not true.
And more investigated journalism.
Agree. Just journalism, with verified facts, no bias
Has the pop plloppp
And more fact
Do you understand what communism is? Do you know any communist? I live in CA and have never met one.
Yeah , we have to come up with a new name for people that allows bums to shit in the street, decriminalize crime, support the mutilation of children and on and on.
Maybe whack jobs is a better term.
It's hilarious how these people label anyone they disagree with as a fascist but can't define the term, however the moment you mention communism they demand a dissertation on Marx.
fascist movements include: authoritarianism, nationalism (including racial nationalism and religious nationalism), hierarchy and elitism, and militarism.
What they include is not a definition. Fascists breathe air, but that doesn't mean breathing air makes you a fascist. Give us a definition of fascism. Gentile defined it quite clearly and succinctly. Just as Marx defined socialism as the "people own the means of production" there is also a clear and brief definition of fascism. But of course you wouldn't know that. Thanks for making my point.
Does this work. It's not even my words
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, ...
Wikipedia
If you don't think Trump is a fascist, you are not paying attention to what he's saying he's going to do.
Picky-picky. Not everyone is going to write out a definition just for this comments section, Richard, especially as since we are obviously online we can all look it up in a bloody dictionary. And no, the omission does not really make your point - that's a cheap shot.
Sounds like the modern day GOP. MAGA.
How about monitoring women's menstruation to make sure of no abortions, sounds like overreach to me what I think of as fascism .
Yes it does indeed sound like a ridiculous overreach. Almost fantastical. Extreme to the point of nonsense. In fact it sounds so extreme that it's hard to believe. Did you get that from a science fiction novel?
Richard -- Again with the attitude?? With this internetwork thingie -- which as you know is a series of tubes -- you can look it up for yourself. Here is a source for you:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/va-republicans-shelve-bill-protect-menstrual-data-search-warrants-rcna71167
Excellent reply.
Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition. (Merriam-Webster). I would add that historically, fascism has been characterized by corporations and their leaders collaborating closely with the authoritarian state (e.g. Siemens). It’s a system that works fairly well for corporations as long as they toe the party line and aren’t owned by people designated as internal enemies by the Leader.
Communism:
1
a: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
b: a theory advocating elimination of private property
2
a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Soviet Union
b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably
d: communist systems collectively
(Merriam Webster)
In other words, it’s an economic system that does away with all private or non-state property (no private or quoted companies, no cooperatives, and no family-owned houses), and which uses a centralized system, usually the state, to enforce it.
Wanting to get rid of police is anarchism, not communism (communist regimes have many layers of police, including political police, etc.g. The Stasi in the old GDR; but so do fascist and other far-right regimes, like Franco’s Spain and Pinochet’s Chile). Historically anarchism never works for long or in large communities.
I guess I must be one of "those people". (Sigh)
Clearly.
Spot on Bill. And yes there are Communists at most US media companies but they are so thick they don't even realise they are communists.
You should actually read Das Kapital. It is about mid-1800’s England, and terrible working conditions for Laborers. You actually have this book to thank for your 5 day work week and Christmas off.
We have competitive capitalism to thank for the 5-day work week and Christmas off. We have Das Kapital to thank for millions of destroyed lives and piles of corpses.
To Anthony Davidson - (Buzzer sound ) Wrong!! Geez man, did you cut your US History class when they did the chapter on the Labor Movement??
Actually it was the capitalist Henry Ford whom we have to thank for the 5 day work week.
Communism definition - no private property and the means of production owned communal and run by the state.
Harris and her husband ar is a multi millionaires, I haven't read anywhere that she is planning to give up her wealth or any other Democrat for that matter so let's just get a grip.
You forget that the communal part of the wealth doesn’t apply to the people at the top, like Harris, other political whores and the likes of Bill Gates, Soros and Bloomberg.
You forgot Bezos, Musk, Thiel, and Trump (if you believe a billionaire needs hawk gold sneakers and cheap watches from China).
rlritt, thank you for pointing out the lack of generosity of Democrats.
Yes, authoritarians is more correct than communists when referring to Leftists like Kámala.
Stalin never planned to give up his wealth and power either. This clearly makes him not a communist. According to your twisted logic.
No one ALLOWS bums to shit in the street. There are bums or rather desperately poor people or drug addicts. They are homeless and they shit. How do you plan on not allowing them to poop? Death or concentration camps for the crime of pooping on the street? And who is responsible for these people? There are homeless people and drug addicts in every city. Republican and Democrat.
Can you give us an example of a republican city?
Houston's strategy for reducing homelessness is called "Housing First". This strategy involves providing housing, subsidizing rent, and offering services to help people stabilize their lives. Not only does Houston have homeless people, but it's Alao a communist city giving people housing. Wow. Who knew.
Re Houston: How many millions of dollars have been spent and how much has the homeless population reduced? How many NGOs and non-profits are making the big bucks?
Are there any mid to large cities run by Republicans? I don’t think so.
William, you live in a small world. Miami, Dallas, Fort Worth, Mesa, Oklahoma City to name just a few.
Can they not go into an establishment to use the restroom like anyone else out in public?
Actually no. They are not allowed. They can get arrested.
Miami is a very conservative city and has many homeless. And some of them poop in the street.
Miami, until recently, was run by Dems. it's getting straightened out now under DeSantis and Suarez.
So what do they do? Kill them?
What's astonishing is that 40 readers of The Bulwark are liking his angry diatribes.
I think the term is "Progressives". They're the ones that defund the police, allow bums to shit on the street, etc.
Scrooge-"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prisons..."
Scrooge-"And the Union workhouses." . "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir..."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
Scrooge- "If they would rather die," "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Who is mutilating children?!
Communist is the right wing's word for Democrats who think the richest country in the world should be able provide basic health care and food to children living in poverty rather than letting them starve or die from chicken pox.
Socialism is Communism without violence. Free Market Capitalism has served us well
@ rlritt, Chicken pox? Really? Death rate is 1 in 60k cases, entirely in the malnourished countries of Central Africa and Central Asia.
Government is the lease efficient means of lifting people out of poverty.However, Democrats are the lease charitable portion of society, so it's all they know.
It was hyperbole to make a point. How about pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis
I think “Communist” is the currently fashionable word used by angry people who feel themselves pushed, badgered, and disrespected. Then there are some nuts in the mix. “Facist” is the current favorite of the left, along with “genocidal”, “ignorant”, “redneck”, and in your comment, fundamentally indecent.
Basic health care? Every hospital is required by law to provide emergency room services. Does “basic” include government paid trans drugs and surgeries, as one possible example? I think disagreeing on this and other such issues of scope renders no one despicable.
Food for children in poverty? School lunch programs,WICS, and other subsidies exist. Please explain what you propose?
Die from chicken pox? You propose?
Discussion, not anger and contempt, is the right path, to include openness to compromise.
Government paid trans drugs? Maybe you SHOULD read something other than X. This is a red herring but you have swallowed the fish!
Why would any get government paid trans surgery when you can't even get government paid appendectomy.
Actions speak louder than words. You should read American Marxism too, you’ll find yourself. Can you point to anything in the constitution you agree with? Now, you’ll wave it around for some virtue signaling but to you and your comrades, it’s just a piece of paper.
I doubt anyone would consider me a communist. I own too much. I just think that children should get a fighting chance. They didn't ask to be born, but at least they should be well fed and healthy.
I personally think there are too many children being born to people who can't or won't take care them, in a society that thinks they're a burden.
I think, and you will probably call this communism, but I'd give birth control to people for free. They should have free dispensers on the street corners. Any girl of child bearing age should have unlimited free access to any birth control she wants. That would solve a lot if problems right off the bat.
What anyone would consider you to be is not much of an argument. Instead, do you believe that communism is a good and just system?
Also, let's have this clarification: Were or are Mao Zedong, Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev or Xi Jinping Communists?
Ding-Ding-Ding (Lights flashing) "But vaccines kill people"
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯👏👏👏👏👏👏
The Federal government is spending money like a drunken sailor, and has pushed itself hopelessly into debt to the tune of $35 TRILLION spending on health care and food. Interest on this now exceeds the defense budget. Maybe it's time to retire that whole "richest country in the world" bit.
Die from chicken pox?
You need to get out more...
I have live in CA my whole life - when it was a Red state and when we started to see the radical commies take over - I.e. Newscum being the latest. Telling us that we can no longer buy gas powered cars as of 2030/2035 - locked down this state during the commie excuse of “covid” while newscum dined at the French Laundry with his cronies - obviously you are another DA lib who doesn’t have half a brain -
Clearly only communists and whack jobs would want to reduce Pollution and the upcoming climate catastrophe by mandating electric vehicles. And anybody that wanted to stop the Covid pandemic with vaccines and masks must’ve been a total idiot. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a tube stuck up his nose to keep him breathing?
Wow.These people are knuckle dragging, mouth breathing MORONS. I wouldn’t give AF but because of the tyrannical electoral college, we have to deal with their lunacy and stupidity. Trump would never win the presidency if not for that. It’s time to end the electoral college. My god, these people are dumb. My dog is smarter.
That is a lie, and you know it.
No you're a liar, and YOU (probably) don't even know it! Because you're deceived by the leftist Communisf agenda and by Satan.
Oh Jesus, you QAnon loonies are out of control. Seek help, dude. You are seriously deranged and unwell.
Why isn't there an LOL button on here. QAnon lol.
I'm not a Q guy at all. Thanks for playing
"Neener-neener-neener" (children having an argument).
Probably evangelical fascist types, that have no clue about Communism or that Trump’s plane to purge government of skilled people and replace them with loyalists, is exactly what Joseph Stalin did, you know, the real Communist.
Wow I live in CA and no one came for my car. My neighbors have gas powered SUVs. The only EV is my down the street neighbor who has a Trump sign and wears a Trump tshirt. And he's my friend. He has a Tesla. I bet you're all confused now.
In any event, you should move to Texas if you don't like CA. Or AZ. My brother a right wing Evangelical Christian pain in the ass who hates everything and everybody lives in Phoenix. You'd like him.
I live in CA - Al my friends are liberal. I associate socially with Republicans because I’m a civilized person and o genuinely like these people. No one I know is a hardcore “MAGA” and we keep it civilized. I’m never the one to bring up politics; they are. It’s always the right wingers trying to “own the libs.” Every time. When they do, it’s hammer time. They get pummeled with facts from left and right they can’t dispute in any way that’s legitimate and I take em down like Muhammad Ali. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee…” For real though. To them, it’s all one big opinion. You just hear Laura Ingraham’s nasally voice coming through or Tucker Carlson’s high pitched rich boy voice as they talk. Not a single original thought or questioning what they’ve here told to think. Sad times really
LOL. You socialize with Republicans but you hate them. Sure, Jan.
I socialize and I'm friends with conservatives and liberals because I'm not an asshole.
Trolls all over your platform. I’m so out of here.
I know. That's what's happening when a site has interesting intelligent people contributing. The knuckleheads can't stand reasonable difference of opinion and so childishly throw nonsensical comments at everyone.
So mature and erudite.
Omg radical commies. If you are going make ridiculous statements, you obviously not making a serious argument.
Aww, gee, life is so tough in Cali! Though I agree the price of gas is really high - just about the same as in every country in Europe.
Oh, stop using those stupid slurs. You sound like an idiot.
I am an actual Marxian Economist, and he never used that term. Collectivism, ownership by the group for the benefit of the group forms the basis of Industrial Marxian theory. Think of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. There are no genuinely “communist” governments anywhere on earth - as Collectivism is fully DEMOCRATIC!!
I was born in Denmark, a fully Capitalist economy.
I hated being a corporate banker in Chicago so much, I quit after 22 years to become a Sommelier. I make about ⅓ the money - and now I worry about the climate.
I loved my 10 yrs in Napa - I miss it every day. I still think of CA as home ❤️
Have you read all of Thomas Sowell's books? What an incredible life, and brilliant intellect.
I'll assume you also follow Richard D. Wolff (also "an actual Marxian economist"). But if not, you might want to check him out...
Segment from Wiki...
""Richard David Wolff (born 1 April, 1942) is an American Marxian economist known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis. He is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs of the New School. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City.
In 1988, Wolff co-founded the journal Rethinking Marxism. In 2010 he published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, also released on DVD. In 2012 he released three new books: Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, with David Barsamian (San Francisco: City Lights Books), Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, with Stephen Resnick, and Democracy at Work (Chicago: Haymarket Books). In 2019 he released his book Understanding Marxism.[8]
Wolff hosts the weekly 30-minute-long program, Economic Update, which is produced by the non-profit Democracy at Work, which he co-founded. Economic Update is on YouTube, FreeSpeech TV, WBAI-FM in New York City (Pacifica Radio), CUNY TV (WNYE-DT3), and available as a podcast. Wolff is featured regularly in television, print, and internet media. The New York Times Magazine has named him "America's most prominent Marxist economist.""
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_D._Wolff
https://substack.com/profile/151106127-richard-wolff
https://economicupdate.libsyn.com/
“I quit after 22 years”. Nuff said.
They call themselves democrats today. I hade two democrats for parents, they wouldn’t recognize you today. It’s why the three children they raised, call themselves constitutionalists. You should pick up a copy of American Marxism, you might find yourself and your neighbors, on the pages. I think after reading the book, you’ll know many more communists. While they parade around waving that Constitution, they loathe and pretending we’re a democracy.
You know nothing about that word.
Don't engage. These ignoramuses thrive on conflict , which is why they make nonsensical posts.
Well that’s it, it’s settled. 🤦🏻♀️ Tell the class Martha, which parts of the constitution you want to keep. It’ll be quicker.
Are you jealous of my education?
Yes they are. They want the conflict. They think in ethnic slurs and slogans.
By all means, please tell us all about your education.
Yes, I do. It always starts with cultural brainwashing and is aimed at the malcontents. It then takes over the institutions of each country it wants to destroy.
So you’re telling me that you haven’t met your governor yet.
Clearly he has no idea what communism is.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT
The whole government are commumists pretending to be something else. Wealth redistribution is the California way now. By the way how is that awesome expensive high speed rail comming along?
Lol, Hollywood alone has been known to have been absorbed by communist since the 50's. I suppose you've never read or witnessed the leaders of BLM boost about their communist ideology. Communists infiltrated the US long ago and freed to run for office in the McCarthy era. Try googling cpusa.org. The elite globalists own the Central Banking system, a private corporation, and they have had the authority to create currencies out of thin air since 1913 and because of their own control over globalist politicans they have bought and paid for your own programming. They control everything including money. For years communists have been hiding their true ideology and only recently began coming out of the closet. You maybe correct about democrats, they aren't true communists because they often spew the idea that they can do communism better. Their envy is China. But, when you dig deeper you will find globalists aren't communist in the sense of the word because they are controlled by technocrats. Technoracy is a similar authoritarian ideology to communism but controlled by the elite technocrats whose goal is a world run by AI. Some think of it in the same way as Plutocracy with the difference being AI...
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s.A.Duck.
Commies are "...like a box of chocolates"? I.e. all alike
- w/o shame and don't like freedom, truth, and the American way!
Señor Rivera, mira - https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/09/527586682/california-assembly-votes-to-allow-communists-to-hold-state-jobs
They don’t. They’re fucking morons.
Certainly don’t trust Besos. The bottom line is and always has been
MONEY. That is the ONLY LANGUAGE men like him, Zuckerberg, Musk etc speak and listen to.
What’s wrong with money? Do you work for free?
Um….yeah, effectively,i do, yeah. After a long and rewarding career in service to this country (well paid but hardly wealthy) I now work as a teacher, essentially for peanuts— and the satisfaction of teaching critical thinking to the next generation of students, voters, leaders, CITIZENS. And yes I firmly believe in the value and irreplaceability of a free, independent press with a commitment to unbiased reporting AND the ability to make and express informed opinions on the relative merits of presidential candidates.
James Doran - Thanks for choosing a second career in education.
Money is not evil. It is a marker of value in commerce and essential for our economic functioning. The love of money, however, displaces all other values and considerations in life, leading us to believe in very warped values.
No. But I don't believe ANYone "earns" $20,000 an hour.
Of course some do. 20,000 people pay $80 to watch LeBron James play basketball for 24 minutes. That’s $1.6M people pay. Not including TV revenue. Did he earn that? Yeah, he did earn his $300,000 for that game. He brought it in. If I were playing NO ONE would pay a dime. Taylor Swift earns a ton of money because people are willing to pay. If a grocery store clerk is willing to work five hours and take her pay for that five hours to watch TayTay it is her perogative. And TayTay gets her $250,000 for that hour.
There’s a difference between the qualities of money that is earned to support need and money earned for the sport of earning. One is characteristic of a sickness that is virtually incurable.
Which camp would you place the Obamas in? The couple with 3 mansions that peddle that same line.
Let me guess: angry old white man.
Why did you bring race into this? It is 2024. Time to get over racism.
Elon Musk is not Bezos or Zuckerberg. Musk wants to actually improve life for humanity. Hard to believe there are people like that anymore in this cynical world.
Boy, have you swallowed the kool . aid. He disowned his own daughter because she’s gay. Almost as bad as believing frump is a woman’s protector.
I think you are mistaken. Musk has a son who thinks he is a female. Poor confused kid. However, I think it was his son who disowned him - not the other way around.
BTW, I don't drink Kool aid.
It’s why I never waste my time arguing with idiots.
That’s classic Liberal lying.
"She" dosowned him. At least so far.
You can't be serious. The same Elon Musk that is being a big fat lying egotistical baby who has made very VERY bad leadership decisions...wants to improve humanity?
Ok.
Jealousy is so unbecoming.
Bootlicking is so unbecoming Carol. If that is your real name. Which it isn't Zionist Bot.
I am actually a Zionist - and we don't bootlick.
What? Did you just say, Musk wants to make a better world for people? Why not just say what that really means: Musk is pissed that the Dutch lost South Africa. After years of keeping his racist thoughts and actions secret Donald Trump has given him and all like him who only want WHITE people in America a platform to voice their racist thoughts. No stopping abortions, no making an incest victim birth that child will make the WHITE population out grown those that are black and all the shades of brown. 'We are never going back' So Musk and the other 2 South African billionaires just gave Donald Trump a lot of money. So good luck with that thinking.
Elon Musk is an odd mix of things. These days he acts like a guy who is totally dazzled by his own brilliance, to the extent that he often comes across as a whacko, imo. I do not think it would be healthy for Society for him to take a position in government; his space and Starlink businesses are major recipients of gov't contracts. since he seems to be a Libertarian he probably doesn't believe in government anyway.
Many, if not all, geniuses are a bit quirky. But you cannot deny that he is brilliant. He is doing things no one has done before him. If he was a Democrat many of you would be in love with him. But I agree, he should not be in a government position.
Agreed, though I can neither confirm nor deny his brilliance, as he says/does some pretty stupid stuff.
I think his brilliance is pretty clear: Starlink, Tesla, his flights and innovations in space exploration - outdoing NASA by the way - and buying X.
As for saying stupid things - that's apparently the price for genius.
That just make me laugh out loud 🤣
The desire to create a business that thrives and grows is what got them going. All of that involves rewards commensurate with success. Without driven people, this world would all be in a third world stage.
If Bezos only listened to money ($77 million lost at WAPO in 2023!) he’d shut down the faculty lounge known as the Post.
And the world would be poorer for it. Face it, the internet -- and Craig's List in particular -- killed the newspaper's business model.
100% agree here — Bezos was just trying to do what billionaires before him did. Unfortunately, technology isn’t in his favor: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/donating-to-a-good-cause-how-billionaires
People want alternative and diverse voices, not the corporate mouth pieces.
Shocker. People want FREEDOM TO THINK WHAT THEY WANT and SAY WHAT THEY WANT not be told what to say or to think, not be lectured and hectored and suppressed if they do not tow party lines... therefore if MSM is pushing a thought line that isn't in agreement with a majority, they will become 'irrelevant'. Unlike Mika B thinks, media does NOT tell us what to think or do.
So, what then? if the majority don't like facts, they should just ignore them and the media should publish un-facts? I'm not clear what you are saying, but be clear - news divisions have always been loss centers, while advertising and subscriptions have been profit centers. As newspapers have lost ad revenue, they have had to skinny down the news room and find other ways of selling their content (online subscriptions, etc.). Traditional, mainstream news sources are not irrelevant , just starved for revenue.
Dear Mr. Fraser, With all due respect to your opinion, what is it about Left-Wing advocates that you equate with communism? Is it possible to for an individual to believe in Left-Wing ideas without the demand that some national collective owns all businesses and runs all factories and farms? I consider myself Left-Wing. But I strongly oppose government ownership of all production.
When I think of “purge” I think of Joseph Stalin who purged people that didn’t agree with him from society and government and replace them with loyalist. One of the candidates has promised to do that to our government by the way. To me that’s the foundation of communism, although I realize government owning your personal property is the other side of it, but I don’t know any liberals that want to do that so for me right now the people that actually fit communist are people like you that want to purge anybody that doesn’t agree with you.
‘Communists’ - snort. You obviously have no idea what those are.
People don't trust the media because it's run by the American (and Australian i.e Rupert Murdoch) oligarchy. Their only objective is to manipulate the weak minded American public into never evaluating what they force feed us. Americans have been trained to tacitly accept everything they hear with no critical analysis. That's the real problem. People aren't trained to think.
Sounds like you’re going to see “communists” everywhere you look.
Yeah. Murduch broke professional journalism for profit.
Yes sir, that's how you create an echo chamber MAGAphone alright!
So you agree with Bezos’ decision.
Purge the Communists? Here in reality - our media is Corporate, it isn't 'Communist' #JFC
Most of us don't live in such safe spaces - we can handle a bit of heat, MAGA can't do that.
There is a problem with media on both the sides so purging media off right or left wing fanatics won’t do any good until the consumer of such media not only can’t differentiate facts from propaganda, but don’t have any aptitude for facts, but really enjoy imbibing into ideological filth!
By introducing old-fashioned, twentieth century partisan terms that box definitions narrowly and thus limit discourse, the conditions which led to the present circumstances are just recreated. I take that this is the point of this article. I certainly concur with the notion of diversity in all its iterations. If we limit the discourse to terms such as "left wing communists" or "right wing extremists" or the misconstrued term, “socialism”, or “free enterprise”, we hobble the dialogue because each term carries its own weighty baggage.
“News” in the first half of the twentieth century was through a few major corporate organizations but the most relevant news was local, often through the thousands of small, local newspapers, union bulletins, pamphlets, distributed locally, as described in Alex Carey’s, “Taking the Risk Out of Democracy”, an excellent reference for these very relevant notions, (https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Risk-Out-Democracy-Communication/dp/0252066162) in which the history of propaganda and the role of the NAM, (National Association of Manufacturers) played in the early twentieth century in solidifying corporate foundations which created fertile ground, for one example, the passing of “Citizens United” legislation in 2010.
One path to redefining “news” and how to do it at least in terms of the honest brokering of information and the recognition of when (and how) something is, “propaganda” can be found in Alex Carey’s writing. The idea is not returning to “the good old times", because if we look carefully, they weren’t. The opportunity afforded by both Bezos and the significant, strong public pushback & reaction is a positive opportunity, an opening to redefining “news-gathering & dissemination”.
Perhaps such developments can even be defined by ordinary people who put down a few dollars each for subscriptions to worthy & trustworthy smaller news centres, and not those harboured and controlled by a few billionaires. When I cancelled subscriptions to both WaPo and the NYTimes last March because their editorial policies were by that time, self-evident, that is where my subscription funds went.
If anyone's head is about to explode seeing a link to Amazon in this of all threads, here's a link to the publisher's page: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p066160
Communists? Do you even know what a communist is?
Woof, woof ‘ya lil trumpie FASCIST. Bezos IS an OLIGARCH!! You favor Putin, too, I’m guessing.. People such as yourself ARE NOW—OUR once fine Democracy in Donald’s gilded commode…
If today’s largest traditional media companies produce quality work, then why are they facing record low public trust and financial losses? Many MSM "journalists" will come to Substack after they get fired or quit and cry for censorship. I hope Substack preserves free speech for everyone and elevates true independent voices, whose work quality is much higher than those who are regurgitating the same copy-pasta word salad propaganda that they would be spewing for their former employers.
I don't think people who take this position with traditional media do their own position much of a service. It is definitely true that platforms like Substack have led to a flourishing of outstanding writing and media. And it's definitely true that traditional media has more than its fair share of whiffs, and some aspects of its coverage are significantly worse than the work produced by independents. And traditional media in recent years does not have a proud record when it comes to supporting and upholding free speech. But it's also true that on many subjects, in many areas, the reporters and editors who work in traditional media produce some of the best and most important coverage in existence—and that includes everything from deeply reported magazine features, conflict reporting from danger zones in far-flung fields, investigations into hostile regimes, brass tacks reporting on corruption in political and corporate bodies from small towns to large cities, deep dives into what's going on with municipal transit lines, and so on, many of which stories will never find their way to the Op-Ed pages or the shooting galleries of X.
When critics of traditional media overstep and say "All traditional media is bad, actually," they're making the same mistake that critics of Elon Musk make when they say, "Elon is an idiot who just got lucky." No. Effective critiques must acknowledge their subject's achievements and point the crosshairs at the right places. Otherwise it's hard to take them seriously.
Very true. Some really important stories have been covered by the MSM. Top quality reporting. The very best. The Las Vegas shootings for example. Or FEMA dropping the ball in North Carolina. The Lahaina stories showing people were trapped by local LEOs and died as a result. A big one! We are being chemically sprayed day after day. By what, we don’t know. By whom, we don’t know. How the latest would be assassin travels around the world freely on no money, coming and going to Ukraine. And why the FBI allowed Crooks to get 8 shots off. Then when given the order the counter sniper didn’t move his rifle an inch, that is he had him lined up already, and took him out. Incredible in depth reporting by the MSM. Like dogs with a bone they were. Not to mention amazing work they did on the COVID response fiasco and the even greater COVID vax genocide. Yes. The MSM does stellar work so often. That’s why we all support it as we do. (IE. We ignore it.)
I like your sarcastic mind. You had me until the "counter sniper" line.
sure media like that is important but the way it is used or not used is not honorable.
2 sundays ago i watched meet the press which purports to report the important things that week. I expected to see some mention of the Iranian missiles raining down because this attack was days earlier, remember the image? Not important enough, but whatever Trump did or said deserved 2/3 of their program bashing.
BoBo, I am with you on this one. Tired of hearing Trump stuff 24/7 (because not a fan, and.just.tired.). On the practical side, a) Trump stuff gets attention which helps spin ad dollars and b) there is only so much time in a TV news or discussion segment - they cannot cover every major happening as it happens. Editorial decisions.
Precisely!
Exactly.
“Today’s largest traditional media companies have the opposite problem. They produce quality work…”
Nah.
Quality work would be supported. If it isn’t don’t blame social media.
Amen my Russian broski 🙏 im,a Ukrainian immigrant to America by the way!!! Hate this globalist created war in Ukraine against two brother countries. We need to annihilate all globalists.
💯
Absolutely. And the use of algorithms needs to remain limited as well. Let a true network of people who connect and communicate pass on good discoveries or poor quality writers to avoid. I find more thinkers from reading the comments of those who I follow already but in some cases those new discoveries are out of left field. Algorithms trying to guess what I want is a Twitter thing. We don’t want that.
Algo: “We think you might like…”
Me: “You don’t know me!”
It starts in “journalism school” WTF that is. They are so covered in their own fecal matter the smell becomes like perfume to them.
It looks like quite basic supply and demand, to me. There's a higher supply than ever of journalism (the vast majority of which can be accessed for free), meaning that organisations like WaPo can only extract money from the demand for high-quality journalism specifically, which is low-ish.
Just because there's not a market for something that makes it financially viable to provide a quality product doesn't mean the product wasn't of good quality. (I very much doubt the best painted portrait of me in the world would command a sufficiently high price to pay the artist above minimum wage, either, even if the artist was excellent.)
One of the harsh realities of the world is that it's not enough for something you offer to be *good* for it to work as a product. The entire business model has to be viable, not just the quality of the offering.
Nah. When all the Dailies shut down or get bought by private equity firms they will just run AI-generated pablum that informs but keeps the IQ needed down to maybe an average 6th grader's comprehension level.
These papers started bleeding money when they decided to vilify half of their readership. Those readers did the only rational thing they could, they took their dollars and left. When your the umpire, you don’t wear the uniform of one of the teams, you call balls and strikes. That’s the real underlying issue here. The rest is just a channel issue on how to deliver your product. If your product is crap, no channel or group of channels will save you.
These papers started bleeding money when they 1) lost their classified sections and 2) trained readers that online content should be free.
Finally, somebody who understands what happened in J-world. WaPo, NYT, etc., damaged mid- and small town newspapers by telling the world “a free press means our product is free.” Thus, for years it prevented all other papers (except the Wall Street Journal) from being able to justify charging for an online subscription. The economic concept “Free is not a business model” was beyond their concept-processing ability.
Sure.
That's like a demonstrable fact. You can go look at subscription rates and revenues that dropped off a cliff in about 2002/2003.
You need to read up on the concept of materiality. Just because something happens, doesn’t make it the driving force behind a trend. Among other things I’m a Chartered Financial Analyst and the main driver on losing readers across all channels, and hence money, is the vilification of half of your readership. Classified ad revenue is easily replaced with online advertising and the subscription model is still the driving force with these publications. Their revenue is decreasing because subscriptions are decreasing. I actually pay for more content now than I did before the digitalization of these media. You’re talking a false narrative at face value.
Subscription revenue was always the smallest piece of the revenue pie. Classifieds were top, then ads, then subs. And online ads cost a lot less than print ads. Throw in the aforementioned giving away of content for free and the whole industry model imploded 25 years ago. You can argue, if you want, that subscriptions could be higher (although I attest not high enough to break even for most publications of this size). But the industry cratered long before we got to our current ideological divide.
How hard is it for you to understand this? Conservatives and libertarians are being vilified by these publications and have voted with their dollars. WaPo brought in an Englishman who point blank told these leftist retards that nobody is trading their garbage. You can’t attack 50%+ of your customer base and not expect to take a massive hit. They are bleeding out money over the last 10 years or so because they decided to insult and vilify their customers.
Bezos's op-ed correctly identified that many Americans perceive the WaPo to be biased. It left unspoken the fact that many Americans feel this way because the WaPo is, in fact, biased. It's hard to identify a business model that would work when there is a significant disconnect between the product as promised and the product as delivered.
I call bullshit newspapers, have declared endorsements for president for decades. It’s handled by a department completely separate from the journalists that’s how it’s always been handled. He did this because he’s a coward — because if Trump manages to weasel his criminal ass back into the White House, he thinks it will spare him and the Washington Post — That’s where he’s wrong. He also doesn’t want his space company to be left out of government contracts. Another billionaire Asshole.
Yup, doesn’t take a brilliant investigative journalist to figure this one out. Weasel gonna weasel.
What a pearl of wisdom
It’s hard not to see the decision not to endorse Harris as anything but one of self-interest — Bezos’s own considerable other business interests aside, the only viable business model the Post has found in the past decade has been covering Trump.
Yes. Jeff has a lot of overhead and he didn’t want to kill the golden goose.
I have a better solution to not appearing biased — *stop being biased*
Hey Geof Sawaya, everybody has a bias: we can correct for that by being self-aware and open minded. It's hard work, though, but good exercise.
I have a problem with the corporate ownership of the news media. The change in rules during GW Bush’s term by Powell is what messed it all up. Restore the media ownership regulations and the integrity of the news media will be restored.
Where the mess started was with the un-patriot act.
And then there is Citizens United. So much damage to undo.
The bias is evident to everyone. Why would anyone (except for the true believers), subscribe to something when the take is ideologically driven. There is not anything interesting when you know the content before you read it.
Ask those tuning into Fix News every evening. They settled out of court for close to $1B in the recent past over lies and conspiring emails to prove it. I didn’t hear a peep from the right over that.
Let's face it, news consumers prefer validation over facts. Critical thought is on life support.
Here is my peep. We need paper ballots and ID’s. If you can blow up a pager in Syria, you can create cheating with a computer.
This has nothing to do with my statement. Did I hit too close to home? Voting in the United States is stable. Sixty of the sixty-one court cases in ‘20-’21 proved that outright. Are you still watching Fox News?
Nearly all the cases were dropped and never had a chance to have evidence presented. If anyone thinks this nation would ever admit to election fraud be it red or blue team does not understand how politics and control over the people works. Think the government has ever investigated itself and found itself guilty? Think they would just say oh well we cheated now here is your new president regardless of whether red or blue was in office? That would prove we live in a banana republic and would risk a revolution. They will double and triple down regardless of what evidence is out there. Paper ballots and ID is definitely the way to go with both red and blue counting them together. An internet connected voting machine with software that has never been allowed to have the code audited does not pass the smell test. But I digress voting does not matter as we always select a zionist first America last traitor shill who advances the NWO agenda.
No facts.
All opinions.
Wow, RIghtsider - so many wrongs. in one long paragraph..maybe you should change your handle to wrongsider (just kidding, ok?).
Question: "NWO" - is that "New World Order"? What is that supposed to be? Asking for a friend.
Seriously though, voting does matter. We just don't get everything we want.
Baaahhhhh some more for us ok? Select your demociding sheep herder tax slave master and see how it works out for you. Both red and blue zionist sheep herders leads to the same slaughter house.
Even Jimmy Carter with his “STUDY” best election integrity is paper ballots and ID
Boycott the rich.
We can go without Amazon.
We can boycott WaPo and cancel subscriptions.
We can boycott Elon and Twitter X and those ugly cars of his.
We can.
We must vote with our wallets as well!
This is a cute rebellious rhetoric, however, unless you are willing to live like a Tibetan monk, you'll need to find viable alternatives for the products and services these companies offer. Unfortunately, more often than not there aren't many.
You don’t know me very well or at all. It is way more than cute rebellious rhetoric.
I have lived off grid for 10 years.
In an RV; 32 feet of bliss.
I didn’t say do not buy products. I said boycott Amazon.
I can still go to a local store and shop at the local mom and pop trading post.
Keep my money and barter local.
Pay cash.
Support local indie artists, bands, breweries and shops.
See their is a difference. It takes effort. It’s easy to tap tap tap and it shows up at your door.
It takes more effort to get off the couch and go drag you butt into a shop and talk with the shopkeeper.
We need more like me!
Yes. I have a day job.
Yes I put myself through college.
Life is hard.
It takes effort !
There is a universal boycott to Amazon stArting Nov 5 and going to Dec 5th , many say their boycotting until Jan 6 after holidays. . Get em where it hurts
I don't need to know you. I'm just replying to your statement which doesn't reflect the realty of the majority. Kudos to you for the lifestyle you chose and are able to maintain and enjoy it. It's not for everyone. There are too many people who are not in a position to take that path, whether due to their jobs, family or other personal or practical reasons. For many of them the boycotts you're calling for are simply not their reality.
Respectfully, when people say "boycott amazon", "boycott mcdonalds", "boycott cocoa cola" we are directing these calls of action to the middle class, ESPECIALLY upper middle class who LITERALLY have the time & money & ability to avoid these businesses and spend their money more local and more responsibly. No one in their right mind would yell at people living in poverty "hey stop buying crap from walmart and mcdonalds".
Its actually easy to make better decisions that help, and every little action helps, however insignificant or naive you may think it is.
You just have to decide to be a better person 🤷🏻♀️
And their all reading WaPo!
Good answers. Wouldn't trade my lifestyle for yours, but sounds like you are happy, spa go for it.
I quit Amazon in 2015. Nope, didn’t even use it during COVID-19 era.
Not a small feat, but since we're bragging, I quit TV 20 years ago and never looked back. The healthiest boycott ever.
Indeed!
I am boycotting Tesla by default, I can't afford those ugly cars . I do best to maintain what I have, kinda like what the Cubans were forced to do.
*don't know why this is in past tense, Cuba is still a mess for most Cubans
Effective boycotts are not simply stopping buying stuff, they must have a stated purpose in mind: "Save the Hedgehogs or we will boycott your french fries" (feel free to substitute your own special interest causes). Boycotting the WaPo might be in protest of their non-endoresemnt policy, but it could be self-defeating if you rely in them for news. You probably know who you should vote for anyway, so what's the prob? Just saying.
Yeah dude the purpose is 86ing the concept of trillionaires or multi-billionaires; another concept- "boycott amazon to save _____ (insert a dozen different things- local book stores, your community. the literal Amazon rainforest, the USPS, etc)"; no one in the entire world ONLY has access to the washington post, thats absurd. If someone is priveleged enough to receive western media they likely have daily free or very affordable access to a handful of publications. Honestly your entire comment is so.....ick. But take care ✌️🫶🏼
That's the ticket DJ! Put thousands of people out of work -- that'll show Bezos!
...... It will. We cannot keep lining billionaires pockets. Period. (Ps your whole vibe is rude. Be kind)
Gigi - "We cannot keep lining billionaires pockets" is a nice thought, but changing our tax system to be more progressive -- with more tax brackets designed for those with household incomes over say 1 million a year -- would put more dollars into the Treasury (and help pay down debt) while achieving the socially useful goal of not enriching the already obscenely rich.
Currently, the top tax bracket is 37% on earned income on households making $731k/yr. That is pretty cushy but not billionaire-class money. To take an extreme example, Elon Musk's wealth grows by over $14 BILLION a year (not all is taxable as income, though). Jeff Bezos' wealth grows by a :measly" 9.6 BILLION a year. Boycotts might hurt these guys' feelings, but their bank accounts? Not so much.
I do agree that e-tailing has hurt small retailers -- and big ones, too (think Barnes & Noble) -- but rather than mobilizing for a boycott, just encourage consumers to buy locally or use their favorite store's online sales. (Yeah, I am well aware that many small shops market their goods through Amazon).
Thats why i said it is not either or, it's BOTH. I think you misunderstood me (and none of what you just typed out is new information for me.)
We don't have to think in such binary terms. You can properly tax the uber-wealthy AND put dollars into small business and local economies.
✌️ gonna bow out of this conversation now, take care 🙏
Kudos for "Be kind".
Disagree on "cannot keep lining billionaires' pockets" by means of boycotts. A fairer tax system would help - not that billionaires should be taxed out of existence -- without them (actually without Elon and Jeff we wouldn't have much of a space program.
Also fck anyone who wears a "colonize Mars" tshirt, they can catch these hands. I dont want or need space programs. Especially if their existence is contingent on exploitation.
It👏🏼is👏🏼not👏🏼either👏🏼or👏🏼- it is both.
Thanks for the convo.
Absolute nonsense. The Post continues to endorse down-ballot candidates so the whole self-serving twaddle about “bias” rings hollow. This was nothing more than Bezos acting in his own self interest and trying to split the baby.
Twaddle indeed!
"Today’s largest traditional media companies have the opposite problem. They produce quality work, but ..."
No. They do not produce quality work.
Can't like this enough. This post by Mackenzie is exactly wrong pretty much every point. As those unemployed hack "journalists" migrate to Substack, which is just another subscription platform for writers (yknow, like a newspaper... but electronic), they'll just keep making...and pumping out their bilge as it too begins to sag below the waterline. It's the same thing as when California residents flee their increasingly unaffordable and dystopian cities and just continue to support the same policies that drove them to leave in all their new digs. Eventually, you're going to run out of places to flee. And the funds will dry up. And, unfortunately for the country, patience also eventually will run out, too. Americans have forgotten, because it's been 140 years or so, and our education system is infected by the same mendacity as journalism, that even politics are limited. But history itself is a teacher. And the lessons will be hard ones.
And everything is no good, bad and rotten in this best of all possible worlds, (or at least the best of all possible G7 economies)....
You totally missed addressing the problem. You could’ve kept that whole piece very short all you needed to say was that the timing was terrible. If he had done this a year ago, it would’ve been fine if he did it a week after the election that would’ve been fine.
I've seen this many times the last few days. Explain why waiting a week would be more acceptable? It would render taking such a position irrelevant.
The Opinion Editor and the Editorial Board did the work they were asked to do and then the owner interfered in their work. If you want to rethink the existence of the Opinion pages, I'd be all for it, honestly. I hate opinion writing. And I hate endorsements. But I hate owner interference in content even more. Post-election is a traditional time for beat reassignments and other coverage change decisions. It would have been great to sit down with the Opinion staff and Editorial Board and say, "let's rethink how we're doing this." I'd honestly have been so happy with that outcome.
Unfortunately for the owner they eat the costs and if a paper isn't selling because their staff are ideological dickheads instead of objective observers then said owner is personally obligated to act. Otherwise, the staff can pony up the $250M to buy the owner out of they feel their model reflects a winning strategy.
The owner of a paper is almost always going to eat the costs. The revenue stream dried up with the loss of classifieds and the lower cost of online ads.
Also, I'm not sure how your comment is at all responding to anything I said. Like I keep reading it and I think maybe you're responding to someone else? It's not germane.
I think perhaps you're too far up your perspective to comprehend what you are saying in both replies.
Huh? I don't understand what *I'm* saying? M'kay.
Whoawhoawhoa, Elizabethetc -- I LOVE reading opinions and Op-Eds. Them (especially good editorial cartoons), crosswords and the Comix page make the oar worthwhile for me. Pleas don't pu his the suggestion box.
No one is ever going to take my suggestion, don't worry. There are far more readers who share your tastes than mine.
Well, OK then. See ya.
it would accomplish the long-term goal of getting the newspaper out of the endorsing business without having almost as much affect by not endorsing at this late stage. this non-endorsement at this late stage when it was very well expected that they would be endorsing. Harris is in fact a fainthearted endorsement of Trump to many people.
LMAO
Clever!
Tim R - Good point.
Our newsroom stopped endorsements a decade ago when we found it didn't inform readers; it only divided them and led to spiteful comments and voting. Instead, we used the editorial page to lay out major policies of each platform. That's the purpose of journalism: to inform.
Which newsroom is that?
In any event, I doubt that anyone (OK, maybe there are a few clueless saps) votes based on who a newspaper endorses. Which will always be the Democrat. Always. So, what's the point?
That's not true. Plenty of newspapers endorsed Romney, McCain, and both Bushes.
I don’t like the decision, don’t believe Bezos’ explanation. But, 1) the loss of 200,000 subs will hurt the post and reporters, won’t hurt Bezos. 2) What might get Bezos’ attention: the loss of 200,000 Amazon buyers. But everyone knows we can give up our news, can’t give up our stuff. So no talk of Amazon boycott.
Perhaps this is similar to when Netflix announced they were no longer mailing DVDs. People freaked out and customers bailed. Years later, they were the leaders in streaming content. I don’t read the WP and likely never will. That said, I can see the need to legacy media to make changes if there is any hope for a future. The other option is to continue to cater to a shrinking number of customers while losing out to new journalism, aka Substack and podcasts.
The problem is it appears more and more people want actual journalism instead of party line propaganda. It’s going to be difficult to change the mindset of an organization back to performing actual journalism.
I think the opposite is true. More and more people just want to read opinion pieces that support their existing worldview and nobody wants to read straight news anymore unless it's some kind of grisly crime story or a celebrity died.
Well, actually— many of us are also ditching Amazon Prime, and boycotting Whole Foods. And 200k cancelled subscriptions is not chump change, nor is it likely the end of subscribers abandoning ship.
lol...how many is "many of us." Is it like most of us, a lot of us, scores of us, plenty of us, my whole family and then some?
Well, actually -75% of US shoppers have a Prime membership. Well actually, Amazon has 200 million members. I wonder what the number was before "many" ditched Prime.
The knee-jerk reactions of emoprogs never disappoint. They learn nothing and hurt us all presuming to know what they prove they don’t know.
Amazon has 180 million Prime subscribers plus all the people who buy from them without a subscription. Good luck getting their attention. And Bezos only owns 9% of them so he really, really doesn't care. And 200k WaPo subscribers is less than 10%, and it's already bleeding money, so you're all just increasing his tax write off or getting more people laid off. So quit, but don't think anyone cares but you.
I for one am not comfortable with the idea that we should depend on the whims of billionaires to maintain vital institutions and determine the public good. Good for whom?
Good thing you don't know about the Hearst or Murdoch familes, or Robert Maxwell, then.
Are you kidding? They are practically the type specimens for the problem. Let’s not forget the family behind Sinclair Broadcasting either.
Or Taylor, the founder of the Manchester Guardian.