Part 1—Commenters can't seem to see it: Last Tuesday, we recommended Van Jones' hour-long CNN town hall special, The Messy Truth.
Over the weekend, we finally watched the program. In our view, it was a very weak effort.
For starters, the program suffered from the scattershot staging typical of such "town halls." Jones spent thirty seconds speaking with representatives of every imaginable group. Such drive-by conversations are pointless.
Even worse, he spent a lot of time talking to Rick Santorum, who had been chosen, for some reason, to represent the standard Republican viewpoint.
Jones' program was supposed to challenge the way we Americans now "speak past" one another. Unfortunately, Santorum was almost impossibly rigid in his reactions to the situations with which he was confronted. He simply couldn't depart from his established frameworks. This made his rather lengthy segment a monumental waste of time.
It must further be said that Jones was part of the problem himself. He opened the program by speaking with a family from Ohio which had supported Obama in both previous presidential elections, but voted for Trump this time.
Jones' interview with these blue collar blokes was perhaps the strongest part of the hour. We'll likely return to some of their comments during the rest of the week.
That said, the phoniness of the cable news town hall was put on brilliant display when Jones introduced two members of this five-voter family. After playing videotape of an interview he'd conducted in their home, he brought them out live, "all the way from Ohio."
Below, you see what Jones said as he introduced these guests. Questions:
Did anyone really believe the things Jones said? Also, if what Jones said was true, what would that say about him?
JONES (12/7/16): Please welcome Derinda and Scott Seitz right here, all the way from Ohio.The taped interview with the Seitzes was interesting; it was well worth discussing, at much greater length. That said, nothing about it could have been "life-changing" or a "total stereotype-shatterer" unless Jones has spent the past forty years on the back side of the moons
(APPLAUSE)
JONES: You know, that was a life-changing thing for me, and I just learned so much from you. It was a—it was a total stereotype shatterer.
What do you hope people who are watching, people who are in this room, can learn from you, from your family and your experience so far?
We were disappointed in Jones' performance. He'd always struck us as one of the sane ones, and one of the smart ones, when we watched CNN's ludicrous eight-pundit panels in action this fall.
Plainly, Jones is very bright—he always has been—but his town hall program was blatantly phony in all the standard ways. "Cable news" tends to eat the souls of even its best and brightest.
On balance, the program was bad. That said, Jones started in the revolutionary way to which we'd been attracted last week in some the preview segments we'd seen.
He started by making an appalling suggestion. Concerning our broken political culture, he weirdly said that part of the problem may perhaps lie with Us!
No, really. Check it out:
JONES (12/6/16): Good evening. I'm Van Jones. I want to welcome you to The Messy Truth."I'm a strong Democrat," Jones then said. He proceeded to explain what he thinks is wrong with Us.
Now, look, it's been one month, a whole month, since the election night and it still feels nearly impossible to have productive conversation with the other side.
You know who I'm talking about, OK?
We're still acting like one side is always right and the other side is always wrong. One side is grounded in truth and reason and, you know, good common sense, and the other side is insane and delusional, OK?
And now both sides have been guilty of doing this. I've been personally guilty of doing this. You have probably been guilty of doing this.
But look, this is America. At some point, we have got to do better, all right?
So we're here tonight and we're just going to try to get real. Neither side has all the answers. Nobody is perfect. And the real truth, when you get down to it, is almost always messy.
For instance, let's just get messy here for a second. I think both political parties need to take a good long look in the mirror, because right now, they both kind of suck. Let's just be honest.
(APPLAUSE)
Right now, both parties kind of suck.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, I'll start with us. Let's—I'll start with Us.
In our view, Jones fell well short of nailing the actual problem. That said, he was headed in a useful direction, as was Kevin Drum in this December 9 post.
Drum was responding to Paul Krugman's latest lament about a claim Krugman finds puzzling. Drum responded to this part of what Krugman had written that day:
KRUGMAN (12/9/16): Do the liberals sneer at the Joe Sixpacks? Actually, I’ve never heard it—the people I hang out with do understand that living the way they do takes a lot more money and time than hard-pressed Americans have, and aren’t especially judgmental about lifestyles. But it’s easy to see how the sense that liberals look down on regular folks might arise, and be fanned by right-wing media.Do liberals sneer at working-class whites? Krugman still seemed to think that those working-class whites are just imagining things, as he had explicitly said in an earlier column.
Do we liberals sneer at The Others? Beyond that, is it possible that part of the problem with our failing culture could somehow lie with Us?
Drum rolled his eyes at Krugman's naivete concerning this fairly obvious point. In turn, we rolled our eyes a tiny bit at Drum. He said we liberals do tend to sneer at The Others a bit. But we thought he ducked the real nature of the problem—and in comments, his readers seemed completely unable to come to terms with the way We roll.
Does part of our problem lie with Us? Have we liberals played a role in the disastrous failure of our broken political culture? We think the answer is blatantly yes. We also think that we the liberals have a very hard time bringing this state of affairs into focus.
We'll ponder this puzzle all week. But no, it isn't because we mock Those People for enjoying fast food!
Can we grasp what it actually is? In our view, it seemed that Drum's commenters couldn't.
Krugman thinks it's all a dream! Might our team have a long way to go?
Tomorrow: What the rustics said
Hi everyone, I'm so excited.
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And working class joes and their wives and girlfriends are taught to sneer at anyone who's educated, a liberal, or a Democrat by the vast right-wing hate machine.
ReplyDeleteThey don' need to be taught. Its the natural reaction self-righteous holier than thou liberal smugness. Ever dawn on you that calling people dumb, racist, etc isn't going to exactly result in favorable reactions? Of course not. You're la liberal, you're always right and the rest of the world should just shut up, sit down and just be thankful we have such as you to tell us what is best for us.
DeleteAnd you can't seem to see why people sneer at you.
And where exactly are they being taught? The media is overwhelmingly liberal. As are colleges and universities. So where is all this teaching going on?
DeleteThey sneer at people who declare themselves "educated" but are actually indoctrinated at pathetic universities that abandon history and other formerly essential subjects in favor of "feminist studies." The average graduate of a liberal university is the dumbest, most brainwashed, and least educated people in America.
DeleteWhat is an example of all this sneering? The "Deplorable" comment sticks out in large part because it is so unusual. Goju is weak tea; all their sneering is excused because we are so bad. But offers no evidence or examples of what he is talking about, it's hard to even imagine what he is talking about. Both sides culturally, anyway, have long since enjoyed the same bad popular art.
DeleteGoju and the Republicans are using a technique that Karl Rove favored. You take your own flaw and project it onto your opponent. Indeed it is Republicans that are smug, elitist, and self righteous. Their self righteousness is in part a reaction to their guilt. Red states are the ones with the most immoral behavior, additionally they're the states that take more funding than they give.
DeleteClinton gave a speech about coming together to deal with issues, near the end she said this:
Clinton: "I know there are only 60 days left to make our case — and don’t get complacent, don’t see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think well he’s done this time. We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?
The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now how 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America. But the other basket — and I know this because I see friends from all over America here — I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas — as well as, you know, New York and California — but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroine, feel like they’re in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."
She admitted she was being "grossly generalistic" and was talking about those that had the bad traits she listed. For evidence she said the deplorables were at least 11 million, clearly not half of Trump's supporters but also clearly a significant portion. Her point was that these people were not going to listen to reasonable debate and that the focus should instead be on trying to connect with those that support Trump because they feel let down. No sneering, no smugness, no self righteousness, no elitism, none of that.
So Goju is not aware of the vast array of right-wing hatemongering radio shows, TV shows, and websites? And I'm the one who's blind?
Delete"She admitted she was being "grossly generalistic"
DeleteDoesn't fly after 8 years of being called "RACIST" every time a policy of Obama's was opposed or SEXIST for preferring Bernie over Hillary or XENOPHOBIC every time you express concern about importing people who subscribe to radical Islam or support deporting violent criminal illegal immigrants or oppose "sanctuary cities."
You people just don't get it. Your stupidity in failing to distinguish between racism and reason, or your cynicism in purposely confusing the two, caused your electoral failure.
Of course liberals sneer at the Others. Sneer, insult, etc. That is not the problem. The problem is that liberals have started attacking their own. Anyone that doesn't a 100% believer is attacked. Just look at the environment on campus.
ReplyDeleteOn a campus, you are encouraged to be analytical, which necessarily entails a bit of criticism. Critical thinking is the name of the game. You leave that behind when you graduate because (1) any ideal is unattainable in the real world, (2) people react badly when you analyze or criticize them, (3) close enough is good enough. It is called growing up.
DeleteThe Left seems to have an additional, non-campus penchant for criticizing others on the left. It was reflected in the Sanders camp, but not so much among Hillary's people. Part of that was probably due to the average ages of supporters. But part of it came from people who should know better.
Somerby didn't support Clinton, even toward the end when he recognized that someone needed to stop Trump. I don't get why.
Lately he does seem to be buying into some of the criticism that comes from the Right. A lot of that was comingled among Left criticism by the Bernie camp. It isn't clear to me whether they realized they were adopting Right wing talking points, or whether these were fed to them.
This idea that the Left is elitist and lost the election because it didn't respect the Working Class voters, the average guys, is a Right wing talking point. It is not supported by polling and it is not particularly true.
I spent some time with voter registration and GOTV people in CA and I know that they were not treating anyone they encountered with snobbish disdain or elitism and they were not critical of differing opinions. It doesn't work to recruit people to your side and people were EXPLICITLY TRAINED not to approach people that way. This was in the Hillary camp. I think the Bernie people were different, being more amateurish and also depending on their elitism as a recruitment tool (part of their message).
When did Bernie's approach become the entire Left? It wasn't during the election and it isn't now and it didn't lose votes for Hillary.
Somerby needs to stop telling us that we cannot consider Trump and his supporters what they are -- incredibly stupid to the point of venality. The only recourse we will have to resist Trump's oppression will be maintaining our clear-headed view that he is an abnormal man occupying a job he does not deserve because a bunch of stupid people put him into office. End of story.
The brainwashed and braindead campus culture defines the Democratic party. It used to be a fringe that needed to be patted on the head and dismissed. They thrive on throwing RACIST bomb and making up lies about police shootings because they are emotionally unhinged and need an outlet for their hate. Hillary's deplorable speech was music to the ears of these idiots and cost her the election.
Delete“The brainwashed and braindead campus culture defines the Democratic party...they are emotionally unhinged...these idiots and cost her the election.”
DeleteHey Bob, check out all that major league Republican name calling and sneering. Plus they sneeringly told us if we voted for Hillary we were voting for a serial murderer who was running a child molestation ring! And they won doing it! Maybe the problem was we got out-sneered
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ReplyDeleteWhen I caught my Husband cheating with a familiar lady, I made a face of defeat and ignored his actions hoping he will change.
But I was shocked as he keep expanding his coast, using my weakness against me because I could easily forgive.
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Let me help you out here, Bob. The problem has a word. That word is not "sneer". The word is "money".
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.......
This comment has been removed by the author.
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My girlfriend just dumped me. weve ben dating for 2 years. i started seeing her when she got pregnant she was my first girlfriend to begin with and we had ben friends for 8 years. she left me when i cheated on her, And since them i never stopped loving her , we started dating again. now 6 days ago she left me and she never wants to see me again. im not allowed to text or anything. but she will allow 2 calls a month that i can meet “my” daughter since she looks to me like a father. i really want her back and i cant imagine living my life without any of them. how do i handle that situation? i have to seek for solution to bring her back, one day in my office going through the internet i saw a post of a lady giving testimony on how she got her husband back on a website love spell by Dr kelvin it was really amazing to see this so i copy his email id on kelvinspell@gmail.com i explain my situation to him and gave him all the details he requested from me, he give me 3 days assurance that my girlfriend will come back after the spell i was so overwal to hear that so i just keep calm and follow up his order coz i really love my girlfriend and want her back. on the third day after the spell as he promise me, my ex call me also show up in my office begging me to forgive her and accept her back with out no delay, i lift her up with a kiss and was so very happy to have her back all my happiness was from Dr kelvin he is indeed a true man a father and a god sent. plz contact Dr kelvin on his email id direct at kelvinspell@gmail.com or call his mobile number on +2348121907216
ReplyDeleteMy girlfriend just dumped me. weve ben dating for 2 years. i started seeing her when she got pregnant she was my first girlfriend to begin with and we had ben friends for 8 years. she left me when i cheated on her, And since them i never stopped loving her , we started dating again. now 6 days ago she left me and she never wants to see me again. im not allowed to text or anything. but she will allow 2 calls a month that i can meet “my” daughter since she looks to me like a father. i really want her back and i cant imagine living my life without any of them. how do i handle that situation? i have to seek for solution to bring her back, one day in my office going through the internet i saw a post of a lady giving testimony on how she got her husband back on a website love spell by Dr kelvin it was really amazing to see this so i copy his email id on kelvinspell@gmail.com i explain my situation to him and gave him all the details he requested from me, he give me 3 days assurance that my girlfriend will come back after the spell i was so overwal to hear that so i just keep calm and follow up his order coz i really love my girlfriend and want her back. on the third day after the spell as he promise me, my ex call me also show up in my office begging me to forgive her and accept her back with out no delay, i lift her up with a kiss and was so very happy to have her back all my happiness was from Dr kelvin he is indeed a true man a father and a god sent. plz contact Dr kelvin on his email id direct at kelvinspell@gmail.com or call his mobile number on +2348121907216
ReplyDelete