Are you getting hung up on the term “grass roots”? Because we can remove that from my original posting if you’d like.
The conversation was something like:
Drain Bead: We’ve seen enough of these crazies making noise to believe this is the bulk of the Rep party, and there is no longer any reasoning among them.
You: Pish tosh, I’m not going to make any judgments about what Republicans/conservatives think because the TeeVee machine wants to focus on the small group of vocal nut jobs.
Me (butting in): Hey, do you watch Fox News? Because whenever someone points out that this is just a small minority of psychopaths, they tell me it’s not and that the shouting serves as evidence that this is how people really feel. The grass roots movement is real and Obamer is trying to silence it. Do you agree with Fox News, or is this actually a minority of insane people?
You: This may be grass roots, this may be orchestrated, this could be a combination of things. I think there are some people who legitimately disagree with the proposed health care changes, which includes normal people and crazies alike.
Me: Damn it, I don’t care about the grass roots of it all! Let’s ask the question again without the grass roots part. Hey, do you watch Fox News? Because whenever someone points out that this is just a small minority of psychopaths, they tell me it’s not and that the shouting serves as evidence that this is how people really feel. Do you agree with Fox News, or is this actually a minority of insane people?
You: Small minority of insane people.
Me: So then Fox News is making shit up?
Everybody else: Fox News is making shit up.
In any case, I’m glad you said it.
This is a case where perception overtakes reality, and then becomes reality. There was no “grass roots” movement, this was an entirely professional effort at astro-turfing.
Now, that is not to say that there were no people out there in the Real America that held similar views. Of course there were. But they are presented with the illusion that they are part of a majority of Americans, a la the Silent Majority. Then somebody else does all the professional organizing, hiring buses, lining up media outlets, preparing “editorials”, that sort of thing.
How do you tell the difference? For one thing, real grass-roots efforts take more time, astro-turfing can be packaged and shipped in a matter of days. Hell, hours!
That’s why it took so long for the anti-war movements to gain traction, both in Viet Nam and Iraq.
Upon preview: Yes, it probably would, they would find other mouthpieces. If Rushbo “The Orca of the Airwaves” wouldn’t jump on board, Hannity and Beck would leap at the chance to steal a march on him. Beck or Hannity would knife their grandmother to take Rush’s spot.
No, here’s what I think they are saying: While the number of people going batshit at town hall meetings may be small, the number of people who feel this way is not. This is how people really feel and the liberal media is trying to suppress it!
In other words, I reject the suggestion that Fox News is playing video of a woman yelling “Heil Hitler” and saying that many people feel like yelling “Heil Hitler” is the right thing to do.
What I think they ARE saying is, “Many people also feel highly suspicious of the health care plans the President is offering,” or “Many people also believe the President is lying…”
Have they actually played that video? Seems unlikely, given that it would present one of their pet lies in a bad light.
But that latter reflects a Fox Gnaws device: on a number of occassions when I am testing my brains resistance to psychosis, I’ve heard them use a nifty little device. They preface a breath-taking slander with the words “People are saying…(insert bald-face lie here)…”
And that is entirely true, and could be defended as such. People are saying, they just did.
I haven’t seen anyone on Fox News discuss this Hitler business (hadn’t seen it at all until just now), but that woman in particular is not the issue.
I have regularly seen their anchors express approval when these people scream in Arlen Specter’s face, and accuse the administration of taking away our rights and turning us into a group of Commies. When people dismiss them as a bunch of crazies, I’ve heard Steve Doocy furiously demand to know why. “Why? (I’m using quotes here, but I’m not directly quoting him) Because they’re exercising their constitutional rights?!” No, Douchey, because they have pictures of Obama with Hitler moustaches on them and they’re shrieking nonstop about death panels, that’s why. Or similarly, “Why does Nancy Pelosi think it’s un-American to exercise freedom?” I don’t know why, but I do know it’s pretty fucked up to harass the shit out of people and ask why this Kenyan is going all Nazi Germany on our asses by trying to expand health care with a government option. Can one of those idiots kindly explain to me how a government health care option is akin to Hitler exterminating Jews. The Fox News anchors routinely endorse this kind of psychotic behavior, and even if they’ve never explicitly (to my knowledge) likened Obama’s health care plan to Hitler’s Jew-killing plan, they seem to be on board with these whackos. They suggest repeatedly that even though there are *not *a lot of people yelling “Socialist! Hitler! Socialist Hitler!” until their throats are sore, there *are *a lot of people who agree and are that angry about it. And they have Fox News text messaging polls to prove it!
So are they likening Obama’s plan to Nazis or not? In one breath you seem to say they are, then you concede they may not have, then they are again. I don’t like to play the cite game with what is clearly a complaint about tone, not actual words… but I’m going to want to have something I can look at, some transcript of video clip, that shows the sort of thing you’re complaining about.
And I admit I’m not a 24x7 Fox News watcher, but is Steve Doocy an anchor? I thought he was one of the hosts on the commentary show “Fox and Friends.”
Is who calling Obama a Nazi? Fox News? No, I have never heard anyone on the FNC refer to Obama as a Nazi, but I never said that they have. I said town hall morons keep making with the Socialist Nazi claptrap (which is sheer lunacy), and Fox News keeps telling me on a daily basis that these people who “want their country back” from the Hitlers aren’t some fringe group. The number of people who clamor about death panels may be small, but it’s indicative of what Real America thinks, and their viewer polls prove it! I’ve also said that they’ve endorsed people “exercising their rights” by screaming at every liberal politician in sight.
Dude, don’t even go there with me. Watch Fox News tonight. Then watch Fox and Friends tomorrow morning. Someone will bring up the town hall meetings, and someone will claim that these people aren’t a bunch of psychos, and they’re tapping into what Real America actually thinks. Don’t make me laugh with the “When has Fox News ever done this?!?!” bit. But if you’re actually serious, since Fox News seems to have a strict policy of not transcribing their shows (Can you find a link to transcripts anywhere on their site? In all seriousness, argument aside, please let me know because I’ve been trying to find something for weeks. This parenthetical is too long now.) I will make a special note of what was said on Fox News next time I watch, and will attempt to transcribe as accurately as possible for your pleasure.
Anchor, commentator, who gives a shit? For every time I’ve used the word “anchor,” replace it with “person who talks in front of the camera.” There.