The Long Con (editorial, Nov 2012, on the topic of US conservative graft)

[scudsucker]

This is an illuminating long-form editorial on the topic of conservative graft. Well written.

The Long Con

Mitt Romney is a liar. Of course, in some sense, all politicians, even all human beings, are liars. Romney’s lying went so over-the-top extravagant by this summer, though, that the New York Times…

thebaffler.com

The Viguerie Company’s marketing genius was that as it continued metastasizing, it remained, in financial terms, a hermetic positive feedback loop. It brought the message of the New Right to the masses, but it kept nearly all the revenue streams locked down in Viguerie’s proprietary control. Here was a key to the hustle: typically, only 10 to 15 percent of the haul went to the intended beneficiaries. The rest went back to Viguerie’s company. In one too-perfect example, Viguerie raised $802,028 for a client seeking to distribute Bibles in Asia—who paid $889,255 for the service.

But tenders of a 23-Cent Heart Miracle seem to work just fine on the readers of the magazine where Ann Coulter began her journalistic ascent in the late nineties by pimping the notion that liberals are all gullible rubes. In an alternate universe where Coulter would be capable of rational self-reflection, it would be fascinating to ask her what she thinks about, say, the layout of HumanEvents.com on the day it featured an article headlined “Ideas Will Drive Conservatives’ Revival.” Two inches beneath that bold pronouncement, a box headed “Health News” included the headlines “Reverse Crippling Arthritis in 2 Days,” “Clear Clogged Arteries Safely & Easily—without drugs, without surgery, and without a radical diet,” and “High Blood Pressure Cured in 3 Minutes . . . Drop Measurement 60 Points.” It would be interesting, that is, to ask Coulter about the reflex of lying that’s now sutured into the modern conservative movement’s DNA—and to get her candid assessment of why conservative leaders treat their constituents like suckers.

...

 

[TwoPunnyFourWords]

@biometrics see, now this is exactly what I was talking about regarding a politics section. This isn't philosophy, nor is it news, nor is it current affairs, exactly. On other forums you'll see entire politics sections devoted to discussions exactly like this. I always thought that because MyBB never had a politics section, its N&CA section was way more vitriolic than it should have been because it became the only outlet for political discussion. /2c

 

[scudsucker]

/2c

Fuck off you stupid fucking troll.




Now we can move it to philosophy