#Bothsiderism

[justinspoliticalcorner]

I am not usually one to offer diagnoses of people I’ve never met, but it does seem like the pundit class of the American media is suffering from severe memory loss. Because they’re doing exactly what they did in the 2016 presidential race – providing wildly asymmetrical and inflammatory coverage of the one candidate running against Donald J Trump. They have become a stampeding herd producing an avalanche of stories suggesting Biden is unfit, will lose and should go away, at a point in the campaign in which replacing him would likely be somewhere between extremely difficult and utterly catastrophic. They do this while ignoring something every scholar and critic of journalism knows well and every journalist should. As Nikole Hannah-Jones put it: “As media we consistently proclaim that we are just reporting the news when in fact we are driving it. What we cover, how we cover it, determines often what Americans think is important and how they perceive these issues yet we keep pretending it’s not so.” They are not reporting that he is a loser; they are making him one. According to one journalist’s tally, the New York Times has run 192 stories on the subject since the debate, including 50 editorials and 142 news stories. The Washington Post, which has also gone for saturation coverage, published a resignation speech they wrote for him. Not to be outdone, the New Yorker’s editor-in-chief declared that Biden not going away “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment” and had a staff writer suggest that Democrats should use the never-before-deployed 25th amendment. Since this would have to be led by Vice-President Kamala Harris, it would be a sort of insider coup. And so it goes with what appears to be a journalistic competition to outdo each other in the aggressiveness of the attacks and the unreality of the proposals. It’s a dogpile and a panic, and there is no one more unable to understand their own emotional life, biases and motives than people who are utterly convinced of their own ironclad rationality and objectivity, AKA most of these pundits. Speaking of coups, we’ve had a couple of late, which perhaps merit attention as we consider who is unfit to hold office. This time around, Trump is not just a celebrity with a lot of sexual assault allegations, bankruptcies and loopily malicious statements, as he was in 2016. He’s a convicted criminal who orchestrated a coup attempt to steal an election both through backroom corruption and public lies and through a violent attack on Congress. The extremist US supreme court justices he selected during his last presidential term themselves staged a coup this very Monday, overthrowing the US constitution itself and the principle that no one is above the law to make presidents into kings, just after legalizing bribery of officials, and dismantling the regulatory state by throwing out the Chevron deference. [...] Biden is old. He was one kind of appalling in the 27 June debate, listless and sometimes stumbling and muddling his words. But Trump was another kind of appalling, in that almost everything he said was an outrageous lie and some of it was a threat. I get that writing about the monstrosity that is Trump faces the problem that it’s not news; he’s been a monster spouting lurid nonsense all his life (but his political crimes are recent, and his free-associating public soliloquies on sharks, batteries, toilets, water flow and Hannibal Lector, among other topics, are genuinely demented). He’s a racist, a fascist and a rapist (according to a civil-court verdict). We are deciding whether this nation has a future as a more-or-less democratic republic this November, and on that rides the fate of the earth when it comes to acting on climate change. If the US falters at this decisive moment in the climate crisis, it will drag down everyone else’s efforts. Under Trump, it will. But the shocking supreme court decisions this summer and the looming threat of authoritarianism have gotten little ink and air, compared to the hue and cry about Biden’s competence.

Rebecca Solnit at The Guardian on why the pundit class is calling for Joe Biden to suspend his campaign but not Donald Trump to also do the same (07.06.2024).

Rebecca Solnit's opinion column at The Guardian regarding the pundit class's demands for Joe Biden to end his campaign over a bad debate performance but not for Donald Trump to do the same over his 34 felonies is a masterclass.

[porterdavis]

[tomorrowusa]

The thinking of tankies as well as Putinistas, bothsiderists, and Tucker Carlson fans is illustrated in that meme.

Those are the sort of people who would have sought "compromise" with Hitler.

Speaking of Schicklgruber, France and Britain attempted to compromise with Germany in 1938. The result was the infamous Munich Agreement of September 30th when Czechoslovakia was forced to give up the Sudetenland to Hitler's Germany.

Hitler observed his side of the agreement for just 166 days; on 15 March 1939 German troops occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia without warning. And 11 months and 1 day after Munich, Hitler invaded Poland and World War II began.

You can never sate an imperialist dictator's appetite for more land and power. Defeat of some sort is the only way to stop Putin once and for all.

[worldofwardcraft]

It's never good news for Joe.

June 27, 2024

To hear the mainstream media tell it, Joe Biden is universally disliked and a terrible president. Check out these headlines. From the National Review: "The only problem Joe Biden has is that people think he’s a bad president." New York Magazine: "Why do so many Americans think Biden is doing a bad job?" The Hill: "Biden’s worst-case economic scenario is unfolding at the worst possible time." And the ever-reliable Washington Post: "The 10 worst things President Biden did in 2023."

Maybe the reason many Americans think Biden is doing a bad job is because the media keep telling them that many Americans think Biden is doing a bad job. The reality, however, is quite a bit different.

From all-time highs in the stock market to record job growth (more people are working than at any time in American history) to the lowest inflation rate in years (around 3%) and the lowest unemployment rate (including for minorities) in half a century, America is stronger and more prosperous under Biden’s presidency.

And following the massive spike in crime under Donald Trump's maladministration, the data now show that, with crime rates near 50-year lows, President Biden has restored law and order. Here's a recent comment from MSNBC's Chris Hayes: "One of the most seismic stories of the past few years is the rise and fall of what you might call the 'Trump Crime Wave.'"

In addition, President Biden has made investments to rebuild our infrastructure, passed legislation to curb climate change, and brought about historic expansions of benefits for veterans. He's also repaired America's standing in the world after years of Trump snuggling up to dictators and destroying our alliances, while foreign leaders laughed at his fecklessness.

Still, the media continue to ignore these successes, insisting instead that Biden is old and unpopular. Plus, as Marvin Kalb of the Brookings Institute observes,

What we have all noticed is that as Biden’s poll numbers collapsed, negative coverage of him rose, leading in turn to still lower poll numbers, which have only further darkened his political prospects.

In a misguided compulsion to “balance” their justifiably negative coverage of Trump with unjustifiably negative stories about Biden, the media persistently paint anything Biden does in the worst possible light. When Biden made a slip-up in reading the teleprompter during a speech at a trade union conference, USA Today found this a "personally embarrassing incident" and proof that Americans should be concerned about his fitness for office. Why was it bad for Biden? Because everything always is.

[politicalantibody]

Wisdom from a guy who has seen it all. And who has not sold out.

[crackerdaddy]

‘Nuff said. #nofalseequivalencies #bothsiderism #truth #truthbomb #realtalk #forreal https://www.instagram.com/p/CmuXj0LvJsP/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cyarsk52-20]

Fuck anybody pushing bothsiderism right now. That’s how we got into this stupid shit but y’all stay hustling backwards. it’s not fuck her and him it’s fuck him and him only

I love seeing these fucking idiots backpedal. Fuck every single one of them.

thinking about Adding this black HEW to my block list for trashing Biden/Harris, and being Pro HAMAS! Add her to yours!!!!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

AJ McDougall at The Daily Beast:

Elon Musk, the billionaire king of bad takes, came up with a new one to cement his reign on Sunday night. Responding to a second potential assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, the X owner questioned why no one was trying to kill the Democratic president and vice president.

“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” he posted, adding a thinking-face emoji. A near-instantaneous firestorm of criticism predictably followed, with several people telling him to “delete your account” and others tagging the U.S. Secret Service’s X account. “This is literally incitement,” the grassroots action group DemsMight wrote, while others pointed out that the post was grounds for the revocation of Musk’s government contracts, including a pair of NASA contracts worth roughly $4 billion that his company SpaceX won in 2021. [...] The incident in question began Sunday afternoon when a gunman, named in reports as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, allegedly snuck onto the grounds near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, with an AK-47 style rifle.

Despicable right-wing assclown Elon Musk crassly responded to the 2nd assassination attempt against Donald Trump with “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”

Seems like he and other right-wing media agitators want to incite assassination attempts against President Joe Biden and Vice President/2024 Dem nominee Kamala Harris.

[tomorrowusa]

The news media notoriously engages in bothsiderism. Biden's verbal stumbles are bizarrely equated with Trump's unhinged racist and dictatorial rantings.

But even if you ignore the vile and incendiary stuff Trump says, he still beats any other president for incomprehension – including George W. Bush.

^^^ I will concede that this particular statement is at least accurate – unlike 30,000+ false assertions he made during his term. Of course Trump helped speed up those deaths by doing nothing for seven weeks from late January to early March of 2020 as the COVID-19 virus was insidiously spreading throughout the United States.

[gaelic-diary-holder-returns]

I’m sorry for all the political posts but I am so sick of all this bothsiderism crap on tumblr. I am a leftist so I am a Harris supporter by default.

Let’s forget for a moment that Trump wants to create a right wing Christian dictatorship. Kamala would make a great president.

She’s progressive on economic issues

She’s loudly feminist

She’s for the environment

So she made some questionable decisions when she worked in law enforcement but she never once defended any corrupt cops

And before you yell at me for ignoring Gaza, Harris has called for peace in Palestine, not only that she’s called for Palestinian independence in direct conflict with Israel. So if you’re problem with supporting her is Gaza then that’s fuckin solved.

Vote Democrat!

[tzifron]

First, is the legitimization of hatred. Hatred is a force that can be fuelled and used for any number of purposes. People will vote against their own interests if it means they can vilify some other group of people and feel superior. And let me be explicit: this is the hatred of white supremacy. I hadn’t fully comprehended just how potent such hatred still can be. It’s truly amazing, in the most frightening way.

Second, from my own little corner of the world, from something I know a little about, I see a failure of journalism. The failures go back further than that, but I remember how in 2016 CNN and other news media organizations played hours upon hours of Trump rallies live, without fact-checking him, without pointing out where that would all inevitably lead. It was like he was a circus act, ha-ha. It was good for ratings, I suppose.

Over the years since, the large commercial media (and public broadcasters like NPR and the CBC) played a game of bothsiderism, equating on the one side the villainous, corrupt, ignorant, and hateful with on the other side old fashioned tepid liberalism. We’ve all seen the headlines, or even lack of headlines, about Trump saying just the most terrible things in the world — he’s going to sic the military on dissidents and so on — next to headlines declaring Harris is having trouble articulating what section 24 of her trade policy will mean for Midwestern farmers.

A fascist movement arose and grew and until the very final days, the media failed to even name it. Over the course of years, the news media mostly failed to clearly explicate the movement. It was just some dumb game.

What to do?

[click on the link]

[tomorrowusa]

If DeSantis really wants to “move on” he’d resign as governor and move to Russia.  His homophobic, anti-democratic, fundamentalist, racist, book-banning, historical revisionist agenda aligns almost perfectly with that of Putin.

On a side note, I wonder if clueless tankies fully understand that their bothsiderism on the invasion of Ukraine gives aid and comfort to a Russian equivalent of DeSantis – Vladimir V. Putin.

How Ron DeSantis Is Emulating Vladimir Putin

^^^ "PLAGIARIST!"

[adrenaline-revolver]

don’t get me wrong I love them both but I gotta say it’s kinda hilarious that people used chappell roan to lash out at taylor swift only for Taylor to endorse a candidate after nearly being the victim of a right wing terrorist attack while Chappell has fallen victim to bothsiderism

[qqueenofhades]

How can I counter argue with my mom about Nikki Haley running for president? My mom told me that she's more likely to vote for a Republican woman than a Republican man (and she's said she's not entirely impressed with Biden right now). She voted Republican until 2016 (Hillary Clinton) and 2020 (Joe Biden), and other than her saying she'd be willing to vote Haley, she's offered no other reason other than "Republican woman". It's my opinion that for the foreseeable future it's not a good idea to vote for any Republican candidate.

My mom watches CNN every day, as well as (red state) local news. I don't know if this helps understand her but I'm throwing it out there.

Do I try to talk to her about this or should I just leave politics off the table?

Thank you for any advice you can give.

You are the only one who can decide how much you want to talk politics with your mom (since doing that with family often tends to suck) or which arguments might have the best chance of convincing her. I do think it's worthwhile to have that conversation, because every vote matters and I admire your initiative. As such:

No, it is not safe to vote for any Republican candidate, man or woman. I don't know where the idea comes from that Republican women are "safer" than Republican men, less extreme, more pro-choice, or whatever the rationale might be. They have the exact same ideology of (white, fascist) power at all costs, and as noted by the ultra-crazies like Lauren Boebert and MTG, being a woman doesn't make any difference in how dangerous they are.

Nikki Haley was a slavering Trump shill with the best of them for as long as she was in the administration, and will probably now try to revise or whitewash that. Besides, it's not like she has a shot in hell of actually winning the GOP primary. So when the Republicans inevitably end up with Trump, DeSantis, or some other monster, why would your mom be willing to vote for the party again?

If your mom just wants an excuse not to vote for Biden: why? Why is she "not impressed" with him? Does that result from actual policies/priorities that she thinks haven't been addressed, or just the endless and useless Bothsiderism from CNN/local red state cable news? Can you have a conversation with her about what he HAS done (which is substantial), and focus it on issues that she cares about in particular? I.e. abortion, the economy, the environment, women's rights, etc. etc.? There is certainly a way to gently but persistently correct misinformation or otherwise challenge this idea that "Biden hasn't done anything" or "Biden hasn't done anything about [insert issue here.]"

I don't know what your relationship with your mom is like, but if you want to have an honest conversation with her where you spell out your thoughts/concerns about the state of things, why you don't think it's safe to vote for ANY Republicans, etc., that might be useful. Is it that she just wants to vote "for a woman" and doesn't care what their policies and priorities are? Would your mom be willing to vote for Nikki Haley but not, say, Kamala Harris, if she ended up running as the 2024 candidate? Why or why not?

I know this is not the most fun conversation to have, and it can be frustrating to argue with our parents about this. So yes, I support you in trying to get out ahead of this idea.

Good luck!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kayla Gogarty at MMFA:

In their discussion after Vice President Kamala Harris’ October 23 CNN town hall, the network’s anchors admitted — but then dismissed — that mainstream media are holding Harris to a “different standard” than her Republican opponent Donald Trump.  Trump and Harris held one debate on September 11, after which Trump refused further debates. Due to this, CNN invited both Harris and Trump to participate in individual town hall events, an invitation Harris accepted but Trump declined. On October 23, Harris participated in a CNN town hall with undecided Pennsylvania voters. Following Harris' town hall, CNN anchors engaged in what journalist Aaron Rupar called “theater criticism” of Harris' performance without even acknowledging that Trump refused to even show up to take questions from voters until roughly 10 minutes into their post-event discussion. While a focus group CNN gathered overall had positive reactions, CNN immediately criticized Harris’ performance, even admitting — and dismissing — that they are holding Harris to a “different standard” and “it's inherently unfair.”

CNN’s post-Kamala Harris town hall coverage was the same old bothsiderism.

[tomorrowusa]

Apparently we’re experiencing another outburst of false equivalence with a heavy dose of bothsiderism.

Of course there’s no such thing as nuance in politics — so....  😑

But Trump Republicans and their cheerleaders at News Corp. should worry about when attention shifts back to Trump shipping nuclear secrets 992 miles from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago hideaway.