02\/03\/17<\/p>\n
Re: Fake News: Postmodernism By Another Name<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0While I thought the article was well written and cited several good specific examples. I find is a bit disingenuous that only the progressive movement is called out. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning the \u201cSwift Boat\u201d stories that were promulgated against John Kerry. The concept of fake news is used by both sides of the political spectrum for the purpose of \u201cflash blinding\u201d the masses in the middle to move them to be more in line with the agenda of the author of the false narrative. A story is created to convince the general audience that there is an \u201coutrage\u201d that must be addressed. One of the more recent was of a Muslim Arab immigrant who had four wives and 24 children living on welfare that amounted to more than $300,000 in cash per year. Now we have shut down immigration. If that was the goal of the \u201cfake news\u201d, to confuse the issue by fostering \u201coutrage\u201d, it seems to have worked.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0I agree with the point that \u201cfake\u201d news is also just poor journalism in many cases. But, I find the right is up to their ass in the BS, too. The supposed candid \u201cvideo tape\u201d of Planned Parenthood that turned out to be \u201clie\u201d, because it was selectively edited to misrepresent the actual discussion, is an example. I don\u2019t accept that this behavior is right or ethical from either side. But, it appears you have adopted a \u201cwell our shit doesn\u2019t stink\u201d approach in the article so we won\u2019t talk about it. Sorry to say it, but in fact it does stink. My solution is to be skeptical of all news and especially anything that is intended to foment \u201coutrage\u201d in the readers\/viewers. I felt pretty certain that your article was treading close to that \u201crage against the progressive media\u201d and not really observant of the whole problem. The creators of this BS are seldom called on it from either side. With a wink they just go back and start working on the next false narrative. Back in the sixties they said \u201cDon\u2019t trust anyone over 30.\u201d Today we can update that to, \u201cDon\u2019t trust anyone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Fake news is designed to target a specific audience. Its goal is emotionalism and not about presenting objective facts. Your argument is that this is \u201cacceptable\u201d to the progressives. But, they hate it when is happens to them. So I don\u2019t believe that they actually swallow the whole postmodernist meme you have described. Just like the right, when it is to their advantage they play around with the facts to \u201cemotionalize\u201d the issue and try to bury any objective rational discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Stay the course, no compromise. \u2014 Karl Rove<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Rick Barrett<\/em><\/p>\n Dear Angry Reader Rick Barrett,<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think you really read the article.<\/p>\n I mentioned that all politicians spin and distort, as is the nature of politics since the Athenian ekkl\u00easia. But the media has a particular and partisan propensity to highlight \u201chands up, don\u2019t shoot\u201d-like fake news to advance the progressive media on the postmodern notion that the exalted ends justify any means necessary.<\/p>\n Your \u201cSwift Boat\u201d example I think makes my case; it is the bookend to the 2004 fake memos that Dan Rather peddled about George Bush\u2019s supposed AWOL episode. The media promulgated Rather\u2019s clearly false story; in contrast, it attacked the Swift Boaters, whose charges ranged from challenging Kerry\u2019s recollections of his war service, his congressional testimony, and charges of American atrocities. While both attacks on the two presidential candidates were clearly political, the media promulgated one, but not the other, although the Swift Boaters had at least offered a few legitimate queries in a way not true of the clearly forged Bush documents.<\/p>\n The Planned Parenthood stealth tape was selectively edited, but no one has denied the general charge of organ trafficking caught on tape.<\/p>\n Faking narratives is as old as the Greeks (read Demosthenes), but what is different is that the mostly liberal media, by and large, choose far more often to traffic in stories like the Duke rape case, the Tawana Brawley hoax, \u201cwhite Hispanic\u201d George Zimmerman and his edited 911 tape, \u201cmattress girl,\u201d or the Virginia fake rape charge\u2014on the notion that these mythologies are advancing social justice and therefore acquire a sort of truth regardless of facts, or lack of same.<\/p>\n And I further pointed out that the media\u2019s fake narratives are the natural dividend of 30 years of academic postmodernist thought that insisted facts were mere narratives and had to be deconstructed on the basis of race, class, and gender privilege to assess their validity.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think the Left \u201chates\u201d fake news at all or it would have cried foul about the Duke or Virginia cases; the mainstream media rarely concocts stories that advance conservative causes, so Leftists have little to be angry about other than an occasional outlier story that morphs into a crisis of \u201cfake news.\u201d In our world, Trump\u2019s versions of \u201cif you like your health plan, you can keep it\u201d distortions become \u201cfake news!\u201d; a Time<\/em> reporter\u2019s false story of a missing Martin Luther King bust from the Oval Office is picked up and spreads because it \u201cproves\u201d that Trump has a racist agenda and that \u201cfact\u201d is deemed a good thing.<\/p>\n To sum up:<\/p>\n 1) All politicians, as I wrote, spin and distort. So do all media outlets on occasion for political purposes.<\/p>\n 2) But the great majority of the most common fake news involves race, class, and gender issues and are passed off as true because they are felt by the media to advance a higher truth that is not predicated on facts or data.<\/p>\n 3) And such narratives gain traction because our universities have long taught that truth is a fiction and narratives are branded true or false depending on their currency of power\u2014and thus the Left needs to invest in stories that advance social justice, even if the facts, as ascertained by arbitrary and privileged methods, do not support such narratives.<\/p>\n Two final points: why does the Left always resort to profanity? Your talk of excrement (\u201csh*t\u201d) offers no enhancement to your argument.<\/p>\n And why do you (quis custodiet ipsos custodes?<\/em>) peddle in fake news with falsehoods like. \u201cNow we have shut down immigration\u201d? How does a temporary ban on arrivals from seven war-torn countries of the Middle East and environs, affecting less than 1% of all immigrants, constitute \u201cshutting down immigration.\u201d Is that really true or a fake narrative that becomes \u201ctrue\u201d because its ends are deemed noble: demonizing Trump and his supporters as xenophobes.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n VDH<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 02\/03\/17 From an Angry Reader: Re: Fake News: Postmodernism By Another Name \u00a0While I thought the article was well written and cited several good specific examples. I find is a bit disingenuous that only the progressive movement is called out. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning the \u201cSwift Boat\u201d stories that were promulgated against John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2y8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9776,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fake-news-postmodernism-by-another-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":9804,"position":0},"title":"Fake News: Postmodernism By Another Name","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/Defining Ideas After the election, Democrats could not explain the inexplicable defeat of Hillary Clinton, who would be, they thought, the shoo-in winner in November. Over the next three months until Inauguration Day, progressives floated a variety of explanations for the Trump win\u2014none of them, though, mentioned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Putin"","block_context":{"text":"Putin","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/putin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11643,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-02-04-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":9804,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader 02-04-2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Are your fake-right fellows at NRO going to issue a grovelling apology to the CHILDREN they attacked at Covington Catholic High School? They were so eager to attack white children that they didn't even bother watching the video before condemning them. This is why we hate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11555,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/11555-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9804,"position":2},"title":"Angry Reader 12-04-2018","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Since you never state that POTUS lies 80-85% of the time when he speaks publicly, what are some examples of his fake news. Who has discredited the main stream news other than POTUS? On a scale of 1 to 10 just how right wing is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11174,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/05-02-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":9804,"position":3},"title":"05-02-18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Fake Claims. WE HAVE A CONGENITAL LIAR AS A PRESIDENT. HE HAS SCAMMED THE US WITH TAXES AND BANKRUPTCY. HE IS A SERIAL ADULTERER AND SEXUAL PREDATOR. EVEN AS I TEXT HIS BUSINESSES ARE PROFITING FROM MY HARD EARNED AND MEAGER INCOME. HE IS A NARCISSIST\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11925,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-7-30-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":9804,"position":4},"title":"Angry Reader 7-30-2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Dont worry , no silly greetings for you. Ha ha ha , reading your opinion in Albuquerque Journal made me laugh out loud. Fortunately, I rarely read such Bull Shit. Such crap is beyond belief. Thanks for the Laugh , Darrell Little \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 Dear Angry Reader\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10968,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/02-12-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":9804,"position":5},"title":"02\/12\/18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: I was surprised this morning. Usually when I read your column I want to throw up. But today\u2019s column was absolutely brilliant Nice job Mike Benbrook Oakhurst CA \u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013 Dear Reforming Angry Reader Mike Benbrook, Vomiting is not healthy. If I were to do so each\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9804"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9815,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions\/9815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Reply from Victor Davis Hanson:<\/h3>\n