June 18, 2017

"The media climate now, in both news and entertainment, is too often of a goading, insinuating resentment, a grinding, agitating antipathy."

Writes Peggy Noonan in "Rage Is All the Rage, and It’s Dangerous/A generation of media figures are cratering under the historical pressure of Donald Trump" (WSJ).
A comic posed with a gruesome bloody facsimile of President Trump's head... In a tearful news conference [Kathy Griffin] said of the president, "He broke me." She was roundly mocked for this. Oh, the big bad president's supporters were mean to you after you held up his bloody effigy. But she was exactly right. He did break her. He robbed her of her sense of restraint and limits, of her judgment. He broke her, but not in the way she thinks, and he is breaking more than her.

We have been seeing a generation of media figures cratering under the historical pressure of Donald Trump. He really is powerful. They're losing their heads. Now would be a good time to regain them. They have been making the whole political scene lower, grubbier. They are showing the young what otherwise estimable adults do under pressure, which is lose their equilibrium, their knowledge of themselves as public figures, as therefore examples -- tone setters. They're paid a lot of money and have famous faces and get the best seat, and the big thing they're supposed to do in return is not be a slob. Not make it worse....
Of course, this kind of lecturing is not going to work, but I found the florid prose interesting, especially the metaphor of dirtiness: These things are low and grubby, and people are slobs. She sounds snobby: The good people, the tone setters, are not showing the little people the right way to act.

And then you get lowly slobs like Hodgkinson idiotically acting on the grubby ideas he's been hearing from the elite. But it would be "fatuous," Noonan instructs us, to think that anyone but the shooter is responsible for the shooting. 

226 comments:

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Kevin said...

I agree Achilles. I'm just pointing out he considered them "on the wrong side of history" rather than seeing them as legitimate political alternatives.

How else can he say without a hint of remorse that there wasn't a smidgeon of corruption? He views the things you outlined above as the legitimate use of power within his worldview.

He has an Ivy League education. Isn't that what he was taught?

Kevin said...

You have helped me convince myself he has no remorse and is incapable of self-reflection in this regard.

So, thanks for that.

Sebastian said...

@Balfegor: "They're like the Japanese at Midway, assuming their enemy lacks the will to counterattack forcefully." They are assuming the right is not the US Navy, and they are right. True, they haven't thought everything through. For the moment there are a lot of nice Althouses and Noonans and soccer moms who will tsk tsk and put up some electoral road blocks, but the prog gamble is not irrational. They are willing to blow up the system while AA asks why in the world they would do that and Noonan laments their bad manners. The Hodgkinson stormtroopers want to Terminate the Republican Party, and they mean it.

Bob Ellison said...

I think the USA powerful assume, based on advice they've been given, that America has vast, untapped, unmeasured wealth in its land and resources, so everything's gonna be OK in the end.

The last four decades don't make much sense otherwise. Reagan ran up a huge budget deficit; Bush I didn't stop it; Clinton got rail-roaded into bringing it down but mostly was lucky the economy went gang-busters; Bush II assumed we'll be fine; Obama said the hell with it, let's just be drunken sailors.

I think the first thing a President-elect gets is a dossier from the CIA and the OMB saying "it's gonna be OK, because we've got butt-loads more wealth than you can imagine".

Mark Jones said...

Bob Boyd: "What has Trump actually done that is so outrageous...besides defeating Hillary, I mean."

Rhetorical question, I assume? But if not--he refuses to cede the moral high ground to the leftists. THAT is his real crime. The GOPe surrendered that long ago. Even when they disagree with the left, they do it in the most servile way possible, cringing at the hatred and contempt they know the left feels--and will express--toward them. They offer half measures, and a slightly slower descent into misery and poverty.

Donald Trump had--and has--the temerity to look the left in the eyes and proclaim that his ideas are better than theirs, his policies superior. And to mean it. He doesn't grovel and cringe and make it clear that, in his heart of hearts, he knows they're right...unlike the spineless Republicans in DC. And the left HATES that. He doesn't know his PLACE. He's a house slave who has the audacity to pull out a chair and sit at the dinner table of the plantation house like he belong there among his betters. And, like all slave owners, the leftists intend to make an example of him the likes of which we've never seen, lest his fellow serfs get IDEAS.

Michael K said...

Reagan's deficits were due to his bargain with the Democrats who let him win the Cold War if he let them spend.

The economy "went gang busters" because a GOP Congress was elected in 1994.

Sadly, Gingrich took his eye off the ball and left us with Hastert who was a standard Illinois crook.

mockturtle said...

"it's gonna be OK, because we've got butt-loads more wealth than you can imagine".

Could be but it's all in Swiss banks and only a select few have access to it.

mockturtle said...

Mark Jones analyzes the situation very accurately. You could even replace 'left' with 'MSM' but then, they are interchangeable. What I liked best about Trump during the campaign is that he played his own game. When every other candidate was sporting the obligatory plaid shirts and jeans in Iowa, Trump flew in with aplomb in suit and tie. He never retracted statements regardless of how loudly the press howled in faux outrage. You've got to admire a guy like that. And I do.

Bad Lieutenant said...


Michael K said...
"How much longer do we have to wait until you admit you were wrong?"

Hey, if you live there, you don't have to wait. I don't live there. I don't care.

...

FF is not from around here, does not live here, knows less than Jon Snow about NY. Bank on it.

Fen said...

"Moral of story, engage brain"

The blue city states are like Sparta, held captive by their slaves. A simple DOS attack shutting down the EBT system would leave every blue city in flames in 2 weeks. Food riots that would make the LA riots look quaint in comparison.

Fen said...

Balfegor, Ace makes a good point that our "manners" tactics have backfired, encouraging the Bully Left to take more because the misinterpret our "gentlemanly tone" as weakness and an admission of inferiority.

I think Noonan's philosophy of "manners" is in part responsible for the current climate of hate from the Left.

I forget the exact founders quote, something about the Constitution only working for a moral and honorable society.

You can't have a fair gentlemanly game with Marxists involved. While you are calling your own fouls, he's poisoning your Gatorade.

Known Unknown said...

"Bring back LOL for "lots of love."

Sorry about your father LOL"

Thread. Won.

Known Unknown said...

It's been all downhill for Noonan since she stole "Slip the surly bonds of earth ..." ; )

Achilles said...

Bob Ellison said...
I think the USA powerful assume, based on advice they've been given, that America has vast, untapped, unmeasured wealth in its land and resources, so everything's gonna be OK in the end.

There are 2 or 3 counties in every state we could auction off to pay for the entire debt and most of our unfunded liabilities. We just need to pick one of them.

Preferably the one with DC in it. Maybe a couple surrounding counties. We could probably get a pretty penny for the congress building if we clean the smell out afterwards.

Achilles said...

Michael K said...
Reagan's deficits were due to his bargain with the Democrats who let him win the Cold War if he let them spend.

Reagan temporarily removed the government as a barrier to middle class prosperity is all.

The economy "went gang busters" because a GOP Congress was elected in 1994.

Neither democrats nor republicans had anything to do with the prosperity of the 90's. The private sector created a new industry and it took the government 10 years to figure out how to start sucking the life out of it.

It is still a profitable industry because it moves faster than the government. If you regulated the energy sector or the industrial sector as lightly as the tech sector they would be exploding too.

Sadly, Gingrich took his eye off the ball and left us with Hastert who was a standard Illinois crook.

The GOPe took Gingrich out because he was trying to do what Reagan did. The Oligarchs despise the middle/upper class and government is all about them retaining power and control.

JamesB.BKK said...

Warren's drumbeat is that the "rigged" system - among people - requires that she take property from people that don't vote for her for delivery to people that do vote for her. She revolts against Nature with her inhuman demands for equality and preys on both the productive, the dependency class, for the benefit of her clients', the government and "non-profit" workers that live well on ever more of her solutions to every perceived human problem.

Trump's drumbeat is that the "rigged" system - among polling options and governance - means that the people's say is disregarded in what is nominally a free republic. He revolts against a system that disregards the wishes of minorities to allow such people as Warren to gain office. The minorities mentioned here are free individuals, each with a count of 1 standing against the tyranny of progressive majorities (or loud pluralities).

See the difference?

Fen said...

"What has Trump really done that is so outrageous?"

Someone over at Ace summed it up brilliantly:

[b]"The Left is not outraged because they fear Trump will take their rights, they are outraged because Trump is giving rights back to the rest of us"[/b]

The Left has been sub-humanizing us for the labor camps for decades. They meant for us Deplorables to be the broken eggs for their omelette. Trump is derailing the cattle cars the Left intended to herd us on towards Auswitch. That's why they hate him.

...Oh I just got yellow-carded for mixing metaphors. 5 minutes in the penalty bix. Brb...

Fen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fen said...

Balfegor, you got me thinking...

Do you think there is a contingent of conservatives that would rather surrender the Republic than violate the principles of conservatism?

And isn't that putting party before country, or maybe philosophy before country, to be more precise.

Fen said...

Hey Peggy... remember

Speak for England, Arthur!

Baby, you got to get out of NYC. Your trading your soul for culture.

Fen said...

And how ironic is it that Peggy Noonan is addressing the "unprotected" from behind a paywall at the WSJ? Such elitism.

You were my first muse,bPeggy. And I can't even read your words anymore. Sure, I can hack around it, but that's not the point, it's the principle.

You're a great writer, but I can read 50 other great writers for free. Has it ever occured to you that your people really can't afford the luxury of a subscription to the WSJ?

Achilles said...

Blogger Fen said...
Balfegor, you got me thinking...

Do you think there is a contingent of conservatives that would rather surrender the Republic than violate the principles of conservatism?

And isn't that putting party before country, or maybe philosophy before country, to be more precise.


Maybe 1 or 2.

I think the larger group are a false flag operation who pretend to be conservative and do what the wealthy people who donate all the money want. *cough* Rubio McCain Graham Collins Murkowski Romney...*cough*

Sorry I can only name so many right now I need to go get a drink of water for this cough.

Fen said...

People should review Noonan's "The Greenwood Position" from the Florida 2000 recount.

Some great gems that reveal this is all just the 3rd stanza from the same song, such as:

Liberal newspapers claiming conservatives draw their strength from sadists, rapists, racists etc.

While the Right is pointing out that the Left is cheating to overturn the election, the media narrative is "why on earth is the Right so angry?"

People asked how far back should we go to identify the harbinger of all this. You can go back to Cain and Abel if you want. But the point this train went of the rails was the temper tantrum the Left threw when we refused to let them cheat to overturn the results of the election. I'm 2000 not 2016.

The more things change...

mockturtle said...

Achilles contends: I think the larger group are a false flag operation who pretend to be conservative and do what the wealthy people who donate all the money want. *cough* Rubio McCain Graham Collins Murkowski Romney...*cough*

You're right, Achilles. Principle has nothing to do with it. It's all about the $$$ and re-election.

Michael K said...

" Principle has nothing to do with it. It's all about the $$$ and re-election."

I learned a new term todsy.

"Fredocon." I love it.

JamesB.BKK said...

". . . is a racist (irredeemable sub-human whose views can be ignored for the good of society)."

It remains unclear just what is a racist. The shunning starts before any discussions occur about some obvious and some non-obvious differences in humans and human groups and their difficulties in getting along, or about what person or group should be in charge of the gates of the community, or about whether the gates should be thrown open altogether. It's a crappy word anyway, and your parenthetical supplies a poor definition if it seeks to supply one at all.

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