Life Imitates: But I wouldn’t call it art


Comedy and tragedy would be more apt.

In January, the Daily Show with Trevor Noah posted this fake image of Hannity and Fox Nuisance, inferring that they were capable of such crass opportunism and rewriting of the past year’s events:

As it turns out, it wasn’t Fox Nuisance that did it.  It was Breitbart.

Nearly 100,000 in U.S. Died from Coronavirus in Biden’s First Month in Office

An estimated 99,763 people in the U.S. have died due to complications from the coronavirus during Biden’s first month in the White House, according to statistics provided by Johns Hopkins University.

When Biden first took office, the nationwide coronavirus death toll was 397,611. Just one month later, that number is on the cusp of 500,000, as  total numbers of coronavirus-related deaths in the United States reached 497,374 on Saturday.

I know I shouldn’t be surprised that rightwing liars and propagandists would be capable of it.  But this soon?

 

Comments

  1. Pierce R. Butler says

    Expect more and worse: the rbillionaire Mercer family, patrons of Breitbart, have taken over and revived the Parler parafascist social media network, and brought in a longtime Tea Party/Trumpista propaganda pusher to kick it into high gear.

  2. StonedRanger says

    OMG, Biden has been president for a little over a month and Im still a diabetic. Why is he letting this happen? /s
    Im trying to find some humor in this, but its so stupid.

    • says

      You can be sure the fake news networks will find another way to blame Biden and the democrats for what happened in Texas, not just the wind turbine and green deal nonsense. They’ll likely ask why democrats didn’t protect the power grid and ignore George Bush (then governor) cutting off Texas from the other systems.

      This reminds me of the Tennessee fire department in 2010 that watched a house burn because the homeowner didn’t pay the annual fee. I don’t wish ill upon people in Texas, but the Texas energy companies should be forced to pony up a billion dollars towards relief before any federal money goes in. Seize their assets and take without asking.

  3. says

    @Pierce R. Butler 2
    Yeah but they have obstacles that can be taken advantage of.

    Bigotry is an aggressive social posture and the focus of their bigotry will likely be outside the network. They have to go to the focus of their negative feelings. They won’t be content being aggressive about things instead of at things.

    Related to the first I try to think about this like concentrating bad behavior. A general category of different things that I hope they will aim at one another as well as people outside the network.

    I’m sure there are other things about the situation that might be informative.

    • Pierce R. Butler says

      Not sure I follow you here – wouldn’t all those points apply just as well to False Noise, the late unlamented Limbaugh, et alia?

      How does any of that mitigate or make more vulnerable the incitements to nastiness of same?

  4. says

    @Pierce R. Butler
    I had to think for a while to try to express what I am getting at.

    It’s about predictable elements becoming strategic information. I need to think about it to make it more useful but even 4chan had to ban “brigading”, the planning of harassment campaigns. I guess I’m making a space in my head for how to call it out.

    I had someone recently try to interrogate me with respect to there being more than 2 genders and I had not yet taken a position on anything. It’s like my vaguely being on the left led them to using the issue as bait. I pointed out that they were so sensitive to the issue that something someone else said motivated them to come at me. There are lots of little places where they have to come to you for their political behavior and to me that has some power. I want to find ways to make that useful.