Vast Right Wing Noise Machine of the Creationist Wingnut Zombies Under Our Beds Who Want To Steal Our Freedoms

To A Jewish plot! Stephen comments,

I'm not sure that any reporting of this is liberal hysteria. But I'm a little jaded by the whole Glenn Greenwald-ish fear of the Vast Right Wing Noise Machine of the Creationist Wingnut Zombies Under Our Beds Who Want To Steal Our Freedoms.

And They are going to get you, too.

I think this comment deserves a front-page response.

You're entitled I suppose (in a legal sense) to simply dismiss an idea which you don't like with a facile caricature.

If you read Greenwald carefully, as well as Arthur Silber, Bob Somerby and a considerable number of others, you'll see that the right-wing noise machine--although real and pernicious--is only part of the problem. The larger problem is the almost total abandonment of even prosaic notions of the truth and basic journalistic standards by much of our supposedly neutral (or even "liberal") media.

It is said of the devil that his most powerful weapon is the ability to persuade us that he doesn't exist. I'm astounded that so many otherwise sensible people, small-ell libertarian conservatives as well as small-ell liberals and progressives, seem either blind or passively tolerant of both the vicious authoritarian propaganda and truth-free reporting which has infected our national discourse.

As I've mentioned earlier, one always sees his own times most vividly; it may well be that our discourse now is not substantially worse than in earlier days. But "no worse than it used to be" is no excuse, and now is the time that you and I are shaping.

If you're tired of hearing us complain about vicious propaganda, you have two choices. You can stick your fingers in your ears and shout "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Or you can critically and rationally investigate the situation. Read Malkin, Coulter. Count how many times they coyly come right up to the edge of actually explicitly advocating killing people. And then count how many books they've sold.

Read Reynolds, Johnson, Taranto, D'Souza, Donohue. Take a trip over to the freepers.

Watch a bit of Fox News and listen to some Rush Limbaugh, until your eyes bleed and you retch at the rancid stench of bullshit.

Pay attention to Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ted Haggard, etc. ad nauseam (literally) and realize these insane apocalyptic bigots command millions of followers and have bent presidential candidates such as John McCain to their will.

And then read The New York Times, your local TV News, whatever bland "mainstream" commercial media you prefer. See how infrequently (if ever) they call their "colleagues" on their egregious lies. See how often they passively parrot politicians' statements, statements of those whom we all know lie by profession.

Ask yourself, "Is this what I, as a citizen of a democracy, actually deserve?"

And then come talk to me about what you're "jaded" about.