Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[dps]

All the shit Trump and his supporters do and say have been made okay by this one crazy black guy's fake crime.

I don't think anyone is saying that here. 

[HVC]

All the shit Trump and his supporters do and say have been made okay by this one crazy black guy's fake crime.

Trump or no trump, it's just odd story. he's an actor on a popular tv show. it'd be like one of the kids from stranger things faked his own kidnapping.

[The Minsky Moment]

Ellen Page went on Colbert's show and blamed Pence (!) for the attack, to roaring applause.

Well obviously that's wrong.  Trump is to blame, not Pence.  Trump said he'd fix the mental illness problem in America and he didn't. 

[Zoupa]

derspiess desperately wants to talk about this fait divers 

I had to look that one up

I will admit to having been borderline-obsessed with this story. When it broke, it was so full of holes and the details were so far-fetched-- yet you had many people, particularly celebrities and politicians, seize upon it for political gain.  AOC lashed out at any news outlet that dared call it an alleged attack.  Kamala Harris & Cory Booker called it a lynching and used the incident to promote an anti-lynching bill.  Ellen Page went on Colbert's show and blamed Pence (!) for the attack, to roaring applause.  And so on and so on. 

People who dared question any of the details were branded homophobes, racists, or worse yet-- Trump Supporters.  Now unfortunately some of that group are now themselves overplaying their hand and spiking the football. 

And Smollett himself has sort of fascinated me throughout the whole thing.  He goes on tour right after the incident, eats up all this new attention, and proclaims himself Gay Tupac.  When things begin to unravel with the story, he goes on Good Morning America for a softball interview and doubles down on the lie.  He may not be particularly smart, but he's a good enough actor to fool people.

Anyway, Smollett has been arrested.  I'm sure there's more drama to unfold but my interest is now fading a little.  So I'm less desperate to discuss this than I was a few days ago

Plenty of politicos on the right also called the attack terrible when it first hit the news, including Trump.

Don't let that get in the way of your schadenfreude though. I'll let you enjoy that one, since I agree that my tribe went a little bit psycho on this story. 

[derspiess]

Plenty of politicos on the right also called the attack terrible when it first hit the news, including Trump.

Sure.  My own first thought upon hearing the first report was how terrible it was.  There's a difference between expressing this reaction and using as political fodder to go after your enemies.

Don't let that get in the way of your schadenfreude though. I'll let you enjoy that one, since I agree that my tribe went a little bit psycho on this story. 

[viper37]

There's a difference between expressing this reaction and using as political fodder to go after your enemies.

You mean doing just like Fox News, Breitbart, New Republic and other "conservative" media are doing and attacking Democrats?

It's so refreshing that there was other medias with good, strong values of honesty and integrity out there, unlike the Failing New York Times.

[11B4V]

Uhm, you are aware the he's gay, right?

Yip

[derspiess]

There's a difference between expressing this reaction and using as political fodder to go after your enemies.

You mean doing just like Fox News, Breitbart, New Republic and other "conservative" media are doing and attacking Democrats?

It's so refreshing that there was other medias with good, strong values of honesty and integrity out there, unlike the Failing New York Times.

Any time Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Breitbart, etc. does something like this they deserve to be called out. But we're losing focus here-- unless you're saying the overreactions in Jussie's favor were somehow justified.

[Valmy]

The point is that the propaganda machine of both partisan groups will eagerly scoop up whatever fits their narrative and move on and will never be held accountable when they are wrong. I think we all know the frustration of seeing some article about some outrageous thing that fits our preconceived notions only to be embarrassed when it turns out the whole thing was propaganda. You must always have a healthy and reasonable bit of skepticism at any news story, even (especially?) if it comes from your political camp.

[derspiess]

I agree.

[viper37]

There's a difference between expressing this reaction and using as political fodder to go after your enemies.

You mean doing just like Fox News, Breitbart, New Republic and other "conservative" media are doing and attacking Democrats?

It's so refreshing that there was other medias with good, strong values of honesty and integrity out there, unlike the Failing New York Times.

Any time Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Breitbart, etc. does something like this they deserve to be called out. But we're losing focus here-- unless you're saying the overreactions in Jussie's favor were somehow justified.

I just went and looked at Breitbart before posting this.  They were hysterical about the Smolett thing.  So was Fox News all week long.

I haven't seen any "overreaction" in Jussie's favour outside of Twitter.  I haven't read any editorial of column about it in the NYT, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Politico or the Washington Post.  The first time I heard about this moron was through local papers once the Chicago police were investigating him.

[Valmy]

I just went and looked at Breitbart before posting this.  They were hysterical about the Smolett thing.  So was Fox News all week long.

I haven't seen any "overreaction" in Jussie's favour outside of Twitter.  I haven't read any editorial of column about it in the NYT, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Politico or the Washington Post.  The first time I heard about this moron was through local papers once the Chicago police were investigating him.

Those publications are not really the equivalent of Breitbart and Fox News, the left equivalent of them would be the Gawkerverse previously mentioned. The right wing equivalent to the NYT has historically been the WSJ, I don't know if that is still true.

[Tamas]

I just went and looked at Breitbart before posting this.  They were hysterical about the Smolett thing.  So was Fox News all week long.

I haven't seen any "overreaction" in Jussie's favour outside of Twitter.  I haven't read any editorial of column about it in the NYT, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Politico or the Washington Post.  The first time I heard about this moron was through local papers once the Chicago police were investigating him.

Those publications are not really the equivalent of Breitbart and Fox News, the left equivalent of them would be the Gawkerverse previously mentioned. The right wing equivalent to the NYT has historically been the WSJ, I don't know if that is still true.

That on its own tells you a lot about the two sides though.


Like how in Hungary recently, a leader of the freshly created "foundation" media conglomerate (hosting all pro-government media companies) was swiftly fired. He said in an interview that he himself reads the left-leaning papers for information and leisure because the Right has just no talent. His point of course was that he'd now work on chaning that, but alas he sank his own career with a single sentence.

[viper37]

I just went and looked at Breitbart before posting this.  They were hysterical about the Smolett thing.  So was Fox News all week long.

I haven't seen any "overreaction" in Jussie's favour outside of Twitter.  I haven't read any editorial of column about it in the NYT, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Politico or the Washington Post.  The first time I heard about this moron was through local papers once the Chicago police were investigating him.

Those publications are not really the equivalent of Breitbart and Fox News, the left equivalent of them would be the Gawkerverse previously mentioned. The right wing equivalent to the NYT has historically been the WSJ, I don't know if that is still true.

still better than comparing with Twitter.

[Syt]