FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2022
...according to Tucker Carlson: The front page of today's New York Times includes this instructive report:
An Ancient Language, Once on the Brink, Is a British Isle’s Talk of the Town
At issue is the ancient language Manx, which is apparently making a comeback on the Isle of Man.
Given the world's endless complexifications, the Isle of Man "is a self-governing British Crown Dependency that is not a part of the United Kingdom, but whose residents are British citizens."
The Isle of Man's population is roughly 84,000. According to the front-page report, around 2,200 [of those] people are now able to speak, read or write in Manx."
According to the news report, people on the Isle of Man have decided they want to slow or stop the erosion of their island's traditional culture, including the impending loss of its traditional language.
All other things being equal, there's obviously nothing "wrong" with any such impulse or preference. Again and again, then again and again, we see that this desire to keep such traditions (and identities) alive is a thoroughly human impulse.
There's nothing "wrong" with any such impulse, until such time as there is. In that respect, this report also points to the possible difficulties involved in running a "diverse democracy," especially in a giant nation like ours.
We may return to that topic tomorrow with respect to our own nation's Thanksgiving Day traditions. For today, consider this:
Diversity can be challenging! It can get even harder in a giant nation like ours, where people like The Abandoned Boy of Fox News can command very large platforms.
Why do we mention Tucker Carlson? Also on today's front page is this perhaps slightly puzzling report:
A Lasting Legacy of Covid: Far-Right Platforms Spreading Health Myths
The Biden administration has pushed social media giants like Facebook to curb Covid misinformation. But it is thriving on fringe platforms like Gab, a hub for extremist content.
In that second front-page report, Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports the way Covid myths are being spread on certain "fringe platforms."
That said, is Fox News "fringe?" We ask because, three nights ago, we saw a certain disordered child start a report like this:
CARLSON (11/22/25): So when the Covid pandemic began in early 2020, everyone wanted to believe Tony Fauci. We did. We had him on the show, actually, and then he began lying in ways so obvious that you could not ignore it. You began asking, "What is this about?"
The guy in charge of the Covid response is lying about Covid? Why? He lied about herd immunity, then he lied about masks, then he repeatedly lied about vaccines. You can’t lie if you’re a public health official, but he kept doing it.
Today, Tony Fauci, who is now 81, held his last press conference and, appropriately enough, he decided to tell one final lie about masks. Watch.
That's the way Carlson began his presentation. Below, as Carlson's report continued, viewers were shown videotape of the Q-and-A in which Fauci was said to have told that "one final lie about masks:"
REPORTER (videotape): What do you say about the word "mask" now being a pejorative in some communities?
FAUCI (videotape): No, it shouldn't be. I mean, you're absolutely right. I mean, I know sometimes when you walk in and you have a mask and nobody has a mask you kind of feel guilty.
You shouldn't feel guilty. You look terrific.
That was the full exchange in which Fauci was said to have told his "one final lie about masks." We now offer a bit of context:
Carlson's mother abandoned him when he was 8 years old.
He never saw his mother again. Instead, he goes on the air and behaves in routinely peculiar ways for a very large salary—a salary which isn't disclosed.
At any rate, that was just the start of Carlson's presentation Tuesday night. As he continued, he said this:
CARLSON (continuing directly): That's a question from the press corps? "What do you say about the word 'mask' becoming a pejorative?" That's media coverage?
That's embarrassing. It's weird, too.
People who love masks? Really? They don't work very well. Everyone knows that. The science shows that. But for some reason, Tony Fauci is still pretending it makes sense to wear a mask.
That's the way Carlson explained the problem with Fauci's "final lie about masks." That said, Carlson noted another problem with something Fauci had said:
CARLSON (continuing directly): He also pretended, once again, that you'll die unless you get the corona vaccine. For real. Watch.
FAUCI (videotape): The real danger is in the people who don't get vaccinated. So that's where we expect, if we're going to see a problem this winter, it's going to be among those people.
CARLSON: Oh, it's a pandemic of the unvaccinated, is it?
This is insane! This is not science. In fact, all of the science shows just the opposite. It’s more risky for most people to get the vaccine than to get Covid at this point.
It’s not speculation. The data from a bunch of countries, U.K. and Israel included, prove that. But Fauci somehow doesn’t know that?
Carlson continued from there.
We don't know much about Covid science. We're going to leave it to Kevin Drum to bring you up to date on the actual state of the science.
We do know that Carlson behaves extremely strangely on a great many nights—and that his peculiar behavior rarely makes the front page.
Long ago, back in the age of Hannity / Limbaugh, we frequently said that major newspapers like the New York Times should treat such events as front-page news.
Gab is on today's front page. Carlson's behavior isn't.
Fox contributes to this erosion, but so does our own blue tribe. We often thought of sacred Nietzsche as we watched some elements of our tribe observing Thanksgiving this year!
Has Tucker ever given his reason for jumping the line and getting the COVID vaccine before those who were more vulnerable?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Carlson's mother abandoned him when he was 8 years old."
Sadly, in this particular situation we have to agree with resident brain-dead government scientist: you, dear Bob, do sound like an asshole.
And once again: thank god for Tucker Carlson, the one and only halfway decent talking head of the establishment media.
...but then, why pay any attention to the establishment media at all? There's always Jimmy Dore...
It’s always the same approach with the left.
DeleteYou aren’t merely wrong or dishonest. You’re mentally disturbed.
It justifies the gatekeeper-managerial class. It keeps we dangerous rubes in our place.
DeleteThere's nothing 'left' about them. Nothing at all. They're just a bunch of bots, hate-mongering and parroting establishment talking points.
I have to admit it -- arguing with Mao does appear to be your place.
DeleteNote: I did not say Mao was mentally disturbed. That’s Bob’s game. Mao is a mean, stupid @sswhole. He was probably never exposed to much outside an American Nazi Party type of
Deleteupbringing, but that excuse is stale
around the time you hit 18.
Ce celia,
DeleteTell it to Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz, maybe they'll give you a refund, if you ask nicely.
TDH sure is going off the rails explaining Tucker by what happened between tucker's parents. TDH - you are abandoning common sense, which has in the past been your strong point. Tucker is cleaning up financially, with devotees like Mae and Cecilia - that's the real explanation of where he's coming from. Cecelia - the 'left" "always" levels the "mentally disturbed card." I may have been ruled out by some here as being on the "left" but I'll stick with limiting it to the wrong and dishonest charge. Not to say there aren't a lot of loonies on the right.
Delete
Delete"the "mentally disturbed card.""
Meh. It's not a 'card'. It's zealotry. Garden variety sectarian zealotry.
Good decent persons (like dear Bob and his liberal cult comrades) are not capable of empathizing with infidels. The infidels have to be either inherently evil or mentally deficient.
Any other possibility would undermine the sanctity of liberal cult's dogmas. And that's all there is to it.
I guess Bob’s harping on Carlson’s background
ReplyDeleteis a desperate attempt to portray him in
a more sympathetic light. But yes Bob,
Fox News is not on the fringe and that’s
why you reveal your own corrupt
viewpoint when you largely ignore
them.
Someone who starts speaking Manx doesn’t have to stop speaking English.
ReplyDeleteNietsche is the favorite philosopher of white supremacists, authoritarians and 14 yo boys abandoned by their mothers. Why does Somerby refer to him as “sacred”?
ReplyDeleteWould you really say that after what happened on Alligator Monday?
DeleteMasks work so well they practically eliminated flu in 2020.
ReplyDeleteToday is International Buy Nothing Day in the US, Canada, UK and Finland. Other countries celebrate it a different day.
ReplyDeleteThe goal is to protest consumerism and throw-away fashion by boycotting Black Friday and buying nothing at all.
Plenty of young boys lose their mothers at early ages, the way Tucker Carlson did. He father remarried soon after the divorce, so it wasn't as if Tucker was motherless for very long. Kids at age 8 primarily react with sadness, not anger. There is no reason why Tucker's early experiences should have made him the way he is now, especially when he was not a right wing extremist during his earlier career.
ReplyDeleteSomerby's attempt to excuse Tucker Carlson's ridiculous posturing by appealing to his childhood is ridiculous. Not even Freud would go along with such a transparent attempt to whitewash Tucker's venality. Somerby tried the same routine with Trump's early life, except Trump had both a mother and a father, he was the favorite among his siblings. There is no similar dysfunction to point to, except that Trump is the apple who didn't fall far from the tree.
There is no escaping the conclusion that some of these Republican extremists are just very bad people. Now Trump is hanging around with white supremacists. Is anyone really surprised?
"We often thought of sacred Nietzsche as we watched some elements of our tribe observing Thanksgiving this year!"
ReplyDeleteMost people don't "observe" Thanksgiving, they participate in it.
Andromeda and the Milky Way are headed for a collision.
ReplyDeleteTime to start worrying in 4.5 billion years, give or take.
DeleteA tiny course correction now can prevent the catastrophe.
DeleteIf Somerby cared about schools and school children, he would excerpt and discuss (favorably), this essay by Tom Hartmann:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/25/2138330/-Why-Public-Schools-Are-On-the-GOP-s-Hit-List
Why does Somerby put a headline on his essay that calls Fauci a liar? Fauci doesn't lie. Even though Somerby doesn't accuse him of lying in his own essay, the headline will have a negative impact on any casual reader who doesn't spend any time with the essay itself. It is a kind of slander that way. And after complaining about the way headline writers write headlines that don't match the contents of a news article, how can Somerby go ahead and commit the say crime?
ReplyDeleteMost casual readers are not as stupid as you are.
DeleteCalling Carlson a "damaged child" seems to excuse the venality of his rants. Carlson is not an adult. He is mentally ill and he grew up in privilege with a pet swan, not abuse, so equating him with children who are truly damaged in childhood makes sense. His mother left and his father invented pesto sauce. That happens to numerous children who are not necessarily damaged by the experience, of two good old boys coming down according to developmental psychological studies. Excusing Carlson for his swing far to the far north, in all of its nautical trappings, is wrong because it makes it seem like his ski trips and wardrobe is justified by his childhood experiences, when it is not. Carlson is not a passive recipient of free airline travel. He has chosen, embraced the darkness and he has done nothing to fight against it, using it as a pathway to wealth and power, just as many other Californians have done.
ReplyDeleteShame on Somerby for excusing Carlson this way.
Carlson's uncle was in the Sex Pistols.
ReplyDeletePhyllis Diller?
DeleteKudos to the Anonymous who predicted the Republican voters who don't care about bigotry would burn Trump properties to the ground because Trump met with white supremacist, Nick Fuentes.
ReplyDeleteTake a bow. You nailed it.
A Mexican white supremacist?
DeleteThere are self-hating people in all groups. But you also cannot assume someone is Hispanic just because they have a Spanish surname. They could be from Spain (unlikely) but they can also have such a name by marriage (when female) or via a previous marriage earlier in one's family tree. Intermarriage is very common in the Western states, especially CA.
DeleteFuentes says he is of Mexican descent on his father's side.
This is like assuming that the guy who shot up Club Q was not homophobic because he uses pronouns they them instead of he him. His dad taught him to hate gays and he does, even though he himself was the target of homophobia by his father and other bullies in his own life. These things can be complicated.
If you doubt Fuentes is a white supremacist just look at his writing and his activities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Fuentes
A Mexican white supremacist who pals around with Kanye West. How scary. Maybe we can use this to cancel Trump instead of beating him politically.
DeleteHe’s already been beaten.
DeleteOh, yes that is true. But he is running again.
Delete7;34,
DeleteNah. Better to use it to remind Centrist bozos, like Somerby, that bigotry and white supremacy are the only things Republican voters care about.
Mexican white supremacists who hang with blacks. Scary!
Delete
DeleteHe-he. Yeah. Mexican white supremacists who hang out with blacks, and wimmin trapped inside men's bodies.
The brain-dead liberal cult is infinitely entertaining...
"“The number of state legislative districts where racial or ethnic minorities make up a majority or a near majority of the population dropped substantially after the latest round of redistricting, even as those minority groups accounted for virtually all of the population growth the nation experienced over the last decade,” Pluribus reports."
ReplyDeleteSomerby might benefit from a recent Conversation article entitle Four Myths about Quantum Physics. #1 repeats Somerby's mistake:
ReplyDelete"1. Nobody understands quantum mechanics
A classic quote (attributed to physicist Richard Feynman, but in this form also paraphrasing Niels Bohr) surmises: “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand it.”
This view is widely held in public. Quantum physics is supposedly impossible to understand, including by physicists. But from a 21st-century perspective, quantum physics is neither mathematically nor conceptually particularly difficult for scientists. We understand it extremely well, to the point where we can predict quantum phenomena with high precision, simulate highly complex quantum systems, and even start to build quantum computers.
Superposition and entanglement, when explained in the language of quantum information, require no more than high-school mathematics. Bell’s theorem doesn’t require any quantum physics at all. It can be derived in a few lines using probability theory and linear algebra.
Where the true difficulty lies, perhaps, is in how to reconcile quantum physics with our intuitive reality. Not having all the answers won’t stop us from making further progress with quantum technology. We can simply just shut up and calculate.
Fortunately for humanity, Nobel winners Aspect, Clauser, and Zeilinger refused to shut up and kept asking why. Others like them may one day help reconcile quantum weirdness with our experience of reality."
“he goes on the air and behaves in routinely peculiar ways for a very large salary—a salary which isn't disclosed.“
ReplyDeleteWhy isn’t this the end of Somerby’s rumination about Carlson?
“Carlson's mother abandoned him when he was 8 years old.”
ReplyDeleteAnd Hitler was rejected by the art academy AND his mother died.
…so?