Why Our Discourse Is Stupid

Note: I’ll still post here from time to time while I get my new “house” ready.

(Atrios usually weighs in with this stuff but I’m going to take a shot; I’m groveling in homage as I type this – snark.)

The conservative mediocracy generates narratives in concert with Republican talking points to emphasize fictions such as John W. McBush’s “maverickyness” and foreign policy expertise, the opposition of “Governor Hottie” to the “Bridge To Nowhere” in Alaska here, the supposed controversy about Barack Obama’s patriotism, etc. (on these points, Drudge, Flush Limbore, Savage et al are frequently indistinguishable from CNN, the Washington Post, the AP, etc.).

Individuals such as your humble narrator work tirelessly to disprove this nonsense (though I don’t put myself in the same league as Greenwald, I should emphasize), with barely an acknowledgment from the so-called “respectable” media sources; if anything, these sources deride our efforts, dismissing us as “the left,” the generic “liberals,” the “nutroots,” or whatever category is acceptable this week (as noted, CNN, WaPo, AP, etc.).

On the incredibly rare occasion when either the lies are identified within the mediocracy or even the appearance of a point of view that runs contrary to those lies makes itself known or is identified, those responsible are swiftly punished (criticized as being too opinionated, when in fact the narratives they are supposed to reinforce are nothing but opinion, albeit a contrary one) so that the approved lie or point of view is allowed to propagate (of course, the other side can lie and/or obfuscate into infinity).

The fictions continue because the media outlets I noted above have a much more sophisticated and powerful means of communication that I ever will, so what they foist on us enters the stream of media consciousness more quickly or more thoroughly than the truth that refutes it, again, from people such as your humble narrator.

As this cycle repeats itself, individuals such as yours truly become frustrated with the fact that the media “consumers” in this country are, over time, more educated concerning the fictions than the truth. Some of us express frustration over that, and then the mediocracy is quick to pounce, claiming we are “effete liberals” who think we’re “better” than other people because we claim to know more than they do (and sometimes, we really do know more than they do - in this case, the person fed up with the whole racket is Jacob Weisberg of Slate.com). For this reason, the many times that Christine Flowers, for example, gets proven wrong are forgotten while the one time she happens to stumble upon an instance where we express our frustration is trumpeted in an effort to prove that those questioning the mediocracy are just a bunch of crazy liberals, or something.

The game itself is a cheat; I didn’t make up the rules, and neither did you.

And by the way, everybody loses.

Update 1: As Atrios sez (h/t for this), "and there you are."

Update 2: Thanks, Anon (sorry I can't reply with a comment of my own; Blogger continues to give me the symbolic middle digit for reasons I don't know).

Update 9/11/08: Once more, what Atrios sez...