Quo Vadis GOP?

[The Brain]

JFK has more brains than Trump.

[Barrister]

JFK has more brains than Trump.

Pretty sure they were picking pieces of JFK's brains off of Governor Connally...

[Barrister]

Dozens? Dozens and dozens? Or just a single set of dozens?

https://www.earthcam.com/usa/texas/dallas/dealeyplaza/?cam=dealeyplaza

Multiple dozens.

Looks like they're gone now.

[Eddie Teach]

But did JFK show? 

[Berkut]

If only there was a source of unbiased information people could use instead of crazy nutjob websites. Sadly there is no such thing in existence.

You just can't help yourself can you Berkut.

Noting that every news site has some level of bias you should be aware of does not mean "media is nothing but fake news!".

Take here - I linked to Vice.  Vice has a very definite bias - much more so than the Times or CNN.  But the reporting seemed solid so I linked to it anyways.

You just can't help yourself, can you?

Pretending that "The mainstream media is all biased towards liberals" is the same statement as "every news site has some level of bias you should be aware" is not at all the same statements.

But keep bringing it up over and over again. Once again, I didn't even mention you, yet here you are trotting out your defense. I think you know perfectly well what I am saying, and you know I am right. Which is why you are so incredibly defensive about it.

[The Brain]

JFK has more brains than Trump.

Pretty sure they were picking pieces of JFK's brains off of Governor Connally...

That's... that's the joke. Trump being very stupid.

[Berkut]

And yes, I am going to keep on bringing this up.

"The mainstream media is biased against us!" is at the very core of the modern GOP narrative that has tainted our ability to have a rational conversation about nearly every single significant problem that faces us today. It is bullshit when held up to any meaningful critique, it has directly led to the erosion of trust in the media, and the rise of Fox News as the "alternative", which then led to more and more polarization of the political conversation, and the modern reality of a huge chunk of the population simple dismissing the "mainstream media" as unreliable sources of information, and instead relying on OAN and Breitbart and now at the most extremes - QANON.

Trump could never had happened if the groundwork had not been laid by a generation of pundits telling everyone over and over and over again that the liberal media cannot be trusted.

[Admiral Yi]

Stalkers are fun.  Everyone should have one.

[Habbaku]

I'm my own stalker. I don't know how I do it.

[Berkut]

Stalkers are fun.  Everyone should have one.

He is harmless.

[Barrister]

And yes, I am going to keep on bringing this up.

"The mainstream media is biased against us!" is at the very core of the modern GOP narrative that has tainted our ability to have a rational conversation about nearly every single significant problem that faces us today. It is bullshit when held up to any meaningful critique, it has directly led to the erosion of trust in the media, and the rise of Fox News as the "alternative", which then led to more and more polarization of the political conversation, and the modern reality of a huge chunk of the population simple dismissing the "mainstream media" as unreliable sources of information, and instead relying on OAN and Breitbart and now at the most extremes - QANON.

Trump could never had happened if the groundwork had not been laid by a generation of pundits telling everyone over and over and over again that the liberal media cannot be trusted.

SO apparently I have to say something I think is untrue (there is no bias in the mainstream media) or else I'm helping Trump.

[Berkut]

And yes, I am going to keep on bringing this up.

"The mainstream media is biased against us!" is at the very core of the modern GOP narrative that has tainted our ability to have a rational conversation about nearly every single significant problem that faces us today. It is bullshit when held up to any meaningful critique, it has directly led to the erosion of trust in the media, and the rise of Fox News as the "alternative", which then led to more and more polarization of the political conversation, and the modern reality of a huge chunk of the population simple dismissing the "mainstream media" as unreliable sources of information, and instead relying on OAN and Breitbart and now at the most extremes - QANON.

Trump could never had happened if the groundwork had not been laid by a generation of pundits telling everyone over and over and over again that the liberal media cannot be trusted.

SO apparently I have to say something I think is untrue (there is no bias in the mainstream media) or else I'm helping Trump.

You do love your strawmen.

What you ought to do if you care about what is true is stopping repeating something you know is not true - that the mainstream media is biased against conservatives/for liberals.

Note how different that is from saying that the media has no bias. You might also consider, if you care about the truth, being a but more nuanced in your statements. "The media" is not some singular thing. It is a category error to say "the media is...." much of anything, because the reality is that the variation with the set is radically greater then the variation of the group. Which again, is obviously true. You might as well say "humans are all liberals!". It makes no sense. Some of them are, but clearly some of them are not.

And even if you keep chanting about mainstream liberal media bias, that doesn't mean you like Trump. It does mean you are helping him though - that is just obviously true. He makes that same chant all the time, because he knows it does in fact help him.

Although Trump is just a symptom of the problem, he isn't the problem itself.

But more broadly, to answer the implied question, yes. The narrative of a mainstream liberal media bias that is meaningful (ie, that that overall media's coverage is actually influenced in a meaningful way by their bias against conservatives/for liberals that means people should not trust them or trust them less) does in fact have consequences.

I don't understand why anyone would find that surprising. Of course it has consequences! That is the entire point of crafting and pounding that narrative incessantly for the last three decades in right wing radical media! Rush and Sean and now Tucker and Trump and all of them haven't been chanting that incessantly for the last 30 years because they are so worried about honestly informing the public.

[Berkut]

https://www.prri.org/research/competing-visions-of-america-an-evolving-identity-or-a-culture-under-attack/

More than two-thirds of Republicans (68%), compared to 26% of independents and 6% of Democrats, believe that the election was stolen from Trump. These shares are even greater among Republicans who most trust Fox News (82%) and essentially universal among those who most trust far-right news (97%). Less than half of Republicans who most trust mainstream news agree (44%).

This is what I am talking about.

82% of Republicans who trust Fox say the election was stolen.
97% of Republicans who trust even more far right news say it was stolen.
For those Republicans who have NOT bought the narrative that they should not trust the mainstream media because it is biased against them, it is half those rates (44%), and not much higher then the general public (31%).

"The mainstream media is biased against conservatives/for liberals". That statement is the rallying cry for Fox News - it is the very essence of their claim to relevance. And it has a direct path line to a bunch of people taking over the capital on January 6th. You cannot possibly claim that the fact that the more people trust right wing information sources they more fucked up they get cannot possibly have anything to do with a narrative that pushes the idea that they CANNOT trust mainstream information sources!

Those kinds of narratives are bullshit. It is like saying there isn't any consensus among climate scientists about global warming. It is strictly "true" in some very narrow sense of "true", but is actually not at all true in how it is used routinely by those with an agenda. And parroting it is owning the practical effects of the narrative, and retreating to pretending you only mean the most narrow (and meaningless) sense is just....well, cowardice. Words have consequences, ideas have power, and they result in actual things actually happening.

Republicans who most trust Fox News (30%) or far-right news outlets (44%) are more likely than those who most trust mainstream news (16%) to be QAnon believers. Just 8% of Republicans who trust Fox News and 12% of Republicans who trust far-right news, compared to 28% of Republicans who trust mainstream news, are QAnon rejecters.

Yes, I think bringing up the lack of trust in the mainstream media as a response to someone marvelling at how dumb people are to believe QAnon is pretty god damned relevant. There is a clear correlation between lack of trust of mainstream media, willingness to trust the alternatives to mainstream media, and trust of QAnon.

[Berkut]

"Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."

Republicans (30%) are more likely to agree with this than independents (17%) and Democrats (11%).

Among Republicans who most trust far-right news sources, agreement increases to 40%, compared to 32% among those who most trust Fox News and 22% among those who most trust mainstream news sources.

When violence does break out, again, and it is reported in the mainstream media, and the response is "OMG That is terrible! Who could have predicted such a thing!" and then in the same breath casually chatting about how biased the mainstream media is against liberals, I will point right back at this.

It really is pretty telling. The fact that Republicans overall are more tolerant of using violence comes as no surprise of course. But if you limit to just Republicans who have NOT bought into the narrative that the mainstream media cannot be trusted because it is biased against them, again, you cut that support rate in half. When compared to the general public at 18% in fact, the delta between Republicans overall and the general population is MOSTLY explained by the lack of trust in the mainstream media.

[Barrister]

SO apparently I have to say something I think is untrue (there is no bias in the mainstream media) or else I'm helping Trump.

You do love your strawmen.

What you ought to do if you care about what is true is stopping repeating something you know is not true - that the mainstream media is biased against conservatives/for liberals.

But I don't know that that is not true.