The Naive Mr. Yglesias
Mr. Yglesias writes:
Gas prices are on the rise. Consumers are feeling pain, harm is being done to the economy. Oil companies begin posting record profits. John McCain and the GOP propose a series of giveaways to oil companies that economists doubt will do anything to reduce gasoline prices in the short run. These measures will, however, starve the government of revenue for infrastructure, harm the environment, and devastate coastal economies. Barack Obama counters with a tip that will do no harm to the economy or the public purse but will allow people to save money in the short, medium, and long runs. Obama’s proposal is endorsed by the auto industry as sound (similarly, fully inflated bike tires make you go faster), and has been embraced by the most successful politicians in the Republican Party today. But Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity mock it along with the rest of the “Republican echo chamber.”
The upshot is deemed to be . . . success for the echo chamber, “an effective GOP shot.” But why? Maybe the attack will be reported in a way that’s helpful to Republicans. But why should it be reported that way? Why should slamming Obama for offering sound, bipartisan, industry-endorsed advice by an effective attack?
“Hey Beavis, Obama wants you to, like, fill up your tires,
huh-huh, huh-huh.”
“Fill up my tires? That’s, like, the gayest thing I’ve ever
heard Heh-heh-heh-heh, yeah! TIRE!! TIRE!!!”
The short answer is because PEOPLE ARE STUPID.
The slightly-less-short answer is that the Republicans are now in the stage of their campaign where they will do absolutely ANYthing to make their opponent look like a lactating-homo-vajayjay-wimpazoid. It doesn’t matter if the attacks make sense on any level, only that there be several of them and that they be repeated over and over and over again until Obama makes the crucial mistake of wind-surfing, or appearing on a tank, or sighing too loudly at a debate. At which point: game, set, match.
Although recommending that people inflate their tires makes sense, it also sounds sorta… wimpy. As if President Hussein Obama X is already a-warmin’ us up to surrender to the Ay-Rabs by a-tellin’ us to git used to them high gas prices. “Oh, there ain’t nothin’ we can do ’bout them Ay-Rabs a-chargin’ us our first-born child fer gas,” Hussein X seems ta be a-sayin’. “Best bend over and take it up the poopshaft git used t’it by a-fillin’ up them tires!” And what would McCain do about gas prices, by contrast? Why, he’d do the manly, All-American thing: he’d drill for more oil (them drills sure do look, er, penis-y, after all) and invade another Islamic country to show them li’l peckers that Uncle Sam is bossa this here town.
Again, this sort of thing wouldn’t have such an impact if so many people weren’t economically illiterate. But remember, we do live in a country where presidential candidates are roundly criticized for suggesting that our children learn foreign languages, so you’ve gotta expect it.
Honestly, why aren’t people pointing out that McCain used to support the moratorium on offshore drilling and the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. He only changed his positions when he realized he had nothing left to run on. A real desperation move. No principles at all.
I remember that Bush’s dad was hassled into having some sort of energy policy back in the old days, and the entire policy ended up being running an ad that advised people to inflate their tires fully. Anyone else remember that?
This only re-enforces the fact that McCain is a principled flip-flopper unlike (insert Democrat name here.) Clearly, this is good news for McCain.
FWIW, George Fuckin’ Will has recommended this too. So you’d think that they wouldn’t snare Obama with this.
Then again, remember, heh indeedily, Obama’s a Gaffe-O-Matic!!!!!!!!!!!! (ho hum, disregards Bush)
Well, Michael Moore is fat, Bill Clinton got a blowjob, and Obama is a gay black celebrity Muslim. The media has done used up all its investigative powers, so that’s all you’re getting.
Until Obama gets sworn in. Then the investigative reporters get re-hired so they can start kerning everything he says.
Between this and the Obama’s too buff bullshit, I may have to lock myself in the closet for the next 3 months.
Between this and the Obama’s too buff bullshit, I may have to lock myself in the closet for the next 3 months.
I felt that way yesterday, but now I’m getting the fight back in me. My motivation isn’t getting Obama elected so much as making the other side lose. I’ve become a spite voter in my own rite.
Looks like Mr. Pissy Pants ate one too many Negativity Granola Bars this morning.
It’s not that people are stupid, they are simply ignorant. Big Diff. I was once a MSM guy. I was once ignorant.
That we have to fight the dominant media culture and the richest corporations under God’s Green-to-Grey earth, I’d say we’re doing pretty damn good.
Basically we have a bunch of cheeto-eating, underwear wearing dweebs as our information-givers sending messages over the internet tubes in a bunch of trucks.
The enemy has all the major networks and Rush! Add in the hundreds of millions of green-backed semioly-olies and it just ain’t a fair fight.
But Brad, keep up your sly reverse-psychology going. Some natives stll fall for the banana in the tailpipe trick.
Know what we need to cheer us all up?
SIX RENEW AMERICA SHORTERS IN A ROW.
Let’s make that happen.
It doesn’t matter if the attacks make sense on any level, only that there be several of them and that they be repeated over and over and over again until Obama makes the crucial mistake of wind-surfing, or appearing on a tank, or sighing too loudly at a debate. At which point: game, set, match.
This overstates the importance of media narratives. Take the sighing. 1.) Al Gore WON that election. The Sighing became his Waterloo only after Republican Supreme Court appointees swung the election the other way. 2.) The average voter would have no idea what you were talking about if you said “sighing at the debates.” This is because the average voter is not parsing and obsessing over (or even watching) Sunday talk shows and cable news channels.
I’m not saying media frames never matter, but it’s easy to pick an embarrassing moment from a losing campaign after the fact and claim that that’s what did him in. Bill Clinton was a fat pot-smoking hippie redneck whoremonger who…never lost an election.
The fact is (oops) that the larger context tends to be much more important in these elections than whether or not Chris Matthews thinks you look like you smell good. Michael Dukakis was running against a strong economy and the resurgence of positive feelings towards Reagan at the end of his presidency, Al Gore was in the reverse situation where people were just sick of Clinton and two years of impeachment hoo-ha (AND HE STILL WON THE ELECTION I might add), and John Kerry was running against a fairly strong incumbent war President at a time before the public had really gone sour on Iraq, and, importantly, before Bush had made dismantling Social Security his central policy goal (this was the first huge political misstep of his Presidency).
That damn Muslim black guy is not gonna tell me to do with my own damn ta-ars. He can damn go to hell. I’ll let all the air out of ’em if I want, and he can damn try to make me put air back in ’em. I had a damn ’nuff a Hussein!
I dunno. I guess the real question isn’t whether the media is going to run with all this incredibly stupid, meaningless shit, but rather if it’s gonna resonate with people this time, cause them to actually reconsider their vote.
And I just don’t see it. The whole “Gore is Fat” and “$400 haircut” schtick really only worked when there wasn’t anything the people were real worked up about. Now people WANT the candidates to talk about the economy and health care and education and jobs and infrastructure and war and peace.
And if McCain won’t do it, the fact that the media just keeps parrotting his lines because, well, it is their nature, will simply keep reinforcing to the electorate that only one candidate is talking about their problems and offering solutions.
It’s almost as if people will notice it’s all empty rhetoric and meaningless personality based attacks this time. Imagine that…
mikey
Funny thing,
A barrel of oil makes about 20 gallons or 80 liters of gasoline. Proper tire inflation would save a hundred million barrels of oil per year. Barack’s talking about off-shore drilling, which I can’t find numbers for right now – so let’s cf with ANWR. Drilling ANWR is projected to pull something like six billion barrels out by 2030. In the same time frame, properly inflated tires save a little over two billion barrels.
Also, inflating your tires will only kill an additional sixteen hundred caribou as opposed to PENIS
Is anyone in the “left” blogosphere more overrated than Matt Yglesias?
There are certainly many worse–much worse–“left” bloggers out there: Kevin Drum and Big Tent Democrat/Armando slither immediately to mind. But I’m always amazed at how many otherwise intelligent people seem to think that Yglesias is brilliant. Of course, he’s a lot better than most of his fellow Atlantic bloggers, but McMegan is not providing a lot of competition.
But Dragon-King, eskimos are total fags and did you know that there are ABSOLUTELY NO BEACHES OR CASINOS IN ANWR??? Why is that worth saving?
Gore and Kerry both lost (even though Gore actually won) during times of relative prosperity. That’s not the case this time.
I will be truly surprised (though not amazed) if Obama loses. The media will do their darndest to make it a horserace, of course, but as someone pointed out above, you overestimate the influence of the media on the average voter.
as someone pointed out above, you overestimate the influence of the media on the average voter.
I hope that’s true. We’ll see.
According to Glen, that would be the same media who got people to believe various things:
There are certainly many worse–much worse–”left” bloggers out there: Kevin Drum and Big Tent Democrat/Armando slither immediately to mind. But I’m always amazed at how many otherwise intelligent people seem to think that Yglesias is brilliant. Of course, he’s a lot better than most of his fellow Atlantic bloggers, but McMegan is not providing a lot of competition.
I’m glad you brought this up! I’ve had an Yglesias rant brewing for a while.
Here’s the thing: I read Matt. Every day. Blogs are a weird thing for me–I’ll click links and read whatever, but only a select few (including this one) go in my bookmarks for me to check unprompted. Somehow, someway, Matt made that rotation, and I’m not taking him off. He posts a LOT and about 51% of the time, I feel like he’s a smart guy with interesting things to say.
But being a regular Yglesias reader is such a weird experience. He has so many posts where the central thrust seems to be “Hey, it would probably be a good thing if X.” Sometimes X is a stupid idea, sometimes not, but he just projects this aura of smug douchebaggery and entitlement, like he gets to make policy decisions on a whim without thinking about them. Did I mention that he has a trust fund and went to Harvard, but has the writing and editing skills of a third grader?
Which brings us to the comments. Matt’s commenters HATE him. It’s one of the most negative and depressing places on the internet. About half of them are more serious and thoughtful lefties than him who can’t stand the aforementioned bullcrap and generally think he should have his hands cut off so he can never type again. The other half are all Bell Curve racists and pro-genocide neocons.
I don’t know what my point is. I’m just angst-ridden about the whole thing and I can’t stop reading his fucking blog. If I were Lester Bangs I would drink a ton of cough syrup and write about 10,000 more words about how much I hate it, then six months later I would write 20,000 words about how it’s the greatest blog ever. It drives me nuts.
“Honestly, why aren’t people pointing out that McCain used to support the moratorium on offshore drilling and the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. He only changed his positions when he realized he had nothing left to run on. A real desperation move. No principles at all.”
Because everyone knows that St. BBQ is a hero, and anyone who questions him while he’s bumping around blindly in the dark, necessarily hates the military. He’s a Maverick, don’t ya know?
stryx makes a great point–since the media is the only way people find out about events, it can have a HUGE impact on the political situation if it reports wrong or misleading information about actual events.
But that’s not the same thing as the Sunday talk show doorknobs babbling about ordering orange juice instead of coffee. That’s just them projecting all their warped petty insecurities onto the American electorate. Perhaps I should have said something like “campaign media narratives.”
OT, but this movie looks awsome: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11959.html
So, the reverse position would be:
John McCain thinks you have money to waste on gasoline. Don’t worry about tune ups, air filters or tire inflation. Just keep dumping gas into your car. It’s the American way.
The same tack could be used for health care, air pollution, whatever. “Get sick, breathe dirty air, die already, would ya?!?” The point is to make McCain look like the “Fuck you, Joe Citizen! I got mine…” candidate.
“John McCain – he doesn’t care if you succeed. But at least he’s not black!”
Wow, disappointing to see that Zucker is such a moron (I know, I know, 9 Scary Movies should have clued me in…). But at least he’s making his own fucking movie instead of just bitching about it.
I’m sure I just saw a clip of McOldGuy telling everyone to wear sunscreen (Daily Show?). I know it’s not a high minded rebuttle using flip flopping support for some oil drilling moratorium -but this is SadlyNo is it not? – where’s my clip of McNutty telling our nations’ dumb(fat)asses to slather that shit on?
“Saving” gas is for losers.
Using cheaper gas is manly and therefore better.
I’ve put up with bullshit like this for three years. Because I own a Prius I’m supposed to be some kind of fucking cartoon. Can you imagine anything dumber than a backlash against a car that uses less fuel and is, admittedly subjectively, pleasant to drive? I run a Prius site and see this shit over and over again (www.priusownersgroup.com).
It can’t be repeated too much. People are stupid. Most of them anyway. They love to be led around. They love to wallow in their prejudices and tribal fears. They love to hate. I could better, it could be easier, but it’s not.
Oh well.
Sorry, Brad. I’d read your post, but the man-energy boost from this bottle of Brawndo requires me to go out and kick a vending machine until it gives me cheese doodles.
Why does the” average, white, working class, NASCAR fan” believe this drilling solution crap?
The answer might be found in the latest Cornell University research study that found that prolonged inhalation of formula #1 fumes, does indeed, make you stupid.
The naive Mr. Yglesias
speaking of Yglesias, didn’t he support the invasion of Iraq? talk about naive
what exactly is he an expert at again?
how do you get to be in the yglesias position at his magazine – do you just declare yourself a foreign policy expert pundit and then a magazine gives you a salary?
for people like yglesias – do you have to right about things you advocate? are there consequences when one is wrong?
thanks in advance for an explanation
You know, Big Media Matt has over a dozen posts so far today. Every last one of them at least an order of magnitude better than Amy Chozick’s skinny Obama masterpiece – two weeks in the making.
Does he miss sometimes? Absolutely. But sometimes he doesn’t. And he does what he does in such a way that Villagers can understand. You might not think of him as “one of the good guys” and I certainly have a problem with his not having spit in McArdle’s face yet, but the reality of it is he rates pretty high in both not being a total cobag and being inside the machine.
The short answer is because PEOPLE ARE STUPID.
The slightly-less-short answer is that the Republicans are now in the stage of their campaign where they will do absolutely ANYthing to make their opponent look like a lactating-homo-vajayjay-wimpazoid.
The third answer is that the Republicans can get away with ridiculous BS because they know the corporate media will not call them on it.
Remember the hissy fit over John Kerry insulting the troops in Iraq? The corporate media KNEW it was a botched joke meant to be at shrub’s expense, BECAUSE they were given fucking transcripts ahead of the event. But they went ahead and catapulted the BS propaganda anyways.
And now, I’d like to tie this behavior to the gasbags on TV.
Jake H. said,
August 1, 2008 at 17:34
stryx makes a great point–since the media is the only way people find out about events, it can have a HUGE impact on the political situation if it reports wrong or misleading information about actual events.
But that’s not the same thing as the Sunday talk show doorknobs babbling about ordering orange juice instead of coffee. That’s just them projecting all their warped petty insecurities onto the American electorate. Perhaps I should have said something like “campaign media narratives.”
Jake, those Sunday talk show doorknobs make WAY MORE money than the typical reporter at the NYT or WaPo. This is why those reporters crave that link from Dudge, or Drudge 2.0 that might get them booked on the telebision. And this is why the corporate media has become what it is.
Speaking of really awful right-wing filmmaking, I saw “Big Jim McClain” last night. I watched the whole thing. It stopped being funny after about 20 minutes.
If I had been around in 1952, I would have been rooting for Stalin after seeing “Big Jim McClain.”
I swear, if he didn’t spit in McArdle’s face before he left the office then I’m renouncing my earlier (19:19) defense of him.
[…] do the tires fit in, you ask? I outlined it thusly on Friday: The GOP’s echo chamber:“Hey Beavis, Obama wants you to, like, […]
Which brings us to the comments. Matt’s commenters HATE him. It’s one of the most negative and depressing places on the internet. About half of them are more serious and thoughtful lefties than him who can’t stand the aforementioned bullcrap and generally think he should have his hands cut off so he can never type again. The other half are all Bell Curve racists and pro-genocide neocons.