THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2023
Dowd heard a pair of old bigots: Does Tucker Carlson believe the things he says on his nightly TV show?
We would assume that he doesn't. Among other astounding stupidities, the contradictions come thick and fast as he offers his novelized claims.
We don't know who writes the monologues which Carlson delivers each night. But we find it very hard to believe that Carlson isn't able to hear the sheer inanity of so much of what he says on his astonishing program.
That said, it seems to us that his vast, wide-ranging intellectual illness should be addressed, within the journalistic context, by (carefully selected) medical specialists. It seems to us that the depth of Carlson's nightly inanity is a matter for some type of psychiatric / medical analysis.
Does Carlson believe the things he says? We would assume that he doesn't. We wouldn't make the same assumption about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, concerning whom we'd start by saying this:
When it comes to the work of Rep. Greene, there are Few Dumb Ideas Left Behind.
As you may know, Rep. Greene has a new dumb idea this week. Back on Monday, February 20, she tweeted an earlier thought.
In fairness, a lot of Americans say they agree with the dumb idea Greene was promoting that say. As we showed you yesterday, this is what she tweeted:
GREENE (2/20/23): We need a national divorce.
We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.
Everyone I talk to says this.
From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.
"We need a national divorce," Greene said. She also said that everyone she'd been talking to was saying the same thing.
That last statement may have been basically accurate. As we noted yesterday, 47 percent of Democrats in the five Pacific states recently said that they agree with one version of that dumb idea—with the idea that we should seek a red state / blue state divorce.
A lot of people endorse that idea, at least when they're asked in some survey.
At any rate, Greene was tweeting a dumb idea on the morning in question. Simply put, there's no way that divorce is going to happen.
Greene had tweeted the dumb idea anyway. Then, a leading tribune of our own blue tribe struck back against her proposal.
We'd be inclined to say that the tribune's behavior went beyond the merely dumb. We'd be inclined to say that it went all the way over to ugly and self-defeating.
Maureen Dowd had seen Greene's tweet—and she hadn't been pleased.
Dowd began her column in the Sunday New York Times with an encomium to Jimmy Carter's moral decency. After that, she turned to Greene, and to Greene's dumb idea. When she did, Dowd used some pleasing language:
DOWD (2/26/23): Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene followed up her furry catcalls to President Biden during the State of the Union by proposing secession.
“We need a national divorce,” she tweeted on Presidents’ Day. “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”
Georgia is purplish now, with two Democratic senators, as well as a governor and secretary of state willing to stand up to the Trump election lies that Greene helps spread. So it’s not clear if some states would have to be—what’s that word again?—segregated into blue and red bastions.
Question! When Greene gave voice to her dumb idea, had she proposed "secession?"
Greene had chosen a softer term, but Dowd quickly turned to that S-bomb. Later, Dowd played this particular card in a more aggressive way, offering this assessment of Greene's dumb proposal:
"It’s not clear if some states would have to be—what’s that word again?—segregated into blue and red bastions."
"What's that word again?" Dowd asked. She then employed an inflammatory term from the brutal American past.
Rep. Greene hadn't used the term, but so what? Employing a logic she didn't explain, Dowd chose to use it "again."
Shortly thereafter, she dropped her most aggressive bomb. She quoted a statement by an old Carter hand—an untraceable statement whose context she didn't describe or explain:
DOWD: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is following in the footsteps of racist old bigots like Lester Maddox and George Wallace,” [Gerald] Rafshoon said.
Greene is the apotheosis of those who love hating so much, they no longer have any interest in collaborating for the good of the country and the world. Carter is the apotheosis of the mantra “We’re better than this.”
Greene is "the apotheosis of those who love hating," Dowd said. She said that immediately after she herself had compared Greene to an iconic pair of "racist old bigots" from the Civil Rights era!
Was Greene proposing segregation, as Maddox and Wallace once did? Is she really a "racist old bigot" in the way Maddox pretty much was, or in the way the once semi-liberal Wallace decided he had to become?
Especially when viewed from the liberal / progressive / Democratic perspective, Rep. Greene is a fount of dumb ideas. In this instance, she had complained about "woke cultural issues."
One major tribune replied with a bomb. It was dropped from a very high platform.
For the record, there isn't going to be a national divorce of the type Greene proposed. For better or worse, we aren't going to divide into two separate red and blue nations.
In the face of that obvious bit of reality, how might this New York Times column seem, if we're actually trying to look at life From Their Side Now?
Our own frequently very dumb tribe rarely asks such questions. Instead, our tribunes turn to familiar old cards.
Tomorrow, we'll start right there.
Tomorrow: No Bombs Left Behind
ReplyDeletetl;dr
"Does Tucker Carlson believe the things he says on his nightly TV show?"
Wtf does it even mean, dear Bob? What "things"?
Incomparable Tucker Carlson is not a priest to believe things. He is a journo, dear Bob. He reports things.
"At any rate, Greene was tweeting a dumb idea on the morning in question."
You know, dear Bob, every normal ordinary person in the world knows that nations do split. India-Pakistan, North-South Koreas, Cyprus recently. The Soviet Union split into 15 nations, 30 years ago.
Every normal ordinary humyn being knows that these things happen. And only you, brain-dead liberals, perceive any idea you don't like as "dumb" and "crazy".
...but then, of course, the idea of wimmin trapped inside men's bodies is perfectly normal to you, eh? Are you a womyn trapped into man's body, dear Bob?
One thing is for sure dear creepy one: all would rejoice if you left.
DeleteThe word journalist, when applied to Tucker Carlson, is so ludicrous, that you could not bring yourself to spelling it out. He's a journo who reports things? Such as? Oh yeah, like the thing about how the Russian army being unwoke and all is superior a fighting force to that of the feminized U.S. If only they would sun bathe their scrotums. The journo reported that. Of course that had you running off to Wal-Mart for the tiniest little sunlamp.With second degree burns you were all ready to enlist. Not. You're about as patriotic as the Murdoch shill whose words you hang on; you know, the journo who reports things. Hilariously pathetic.
Delete
DeleteAlas, indeed we aren't as patriotic as we should be, dear dembot. But your dick-sucking momma definitely is...
Mao,
DeleteWhere are your manners?
Didn't your Momma teach you to take the Establishment's dick out of your mouth, before you speak?
Your first sentence is pure honesty, and your second sentence? Well, it's satisfying to see how easily you are triggered to degrade yourself. Nice work.
Delete"it's satisfying"
DeleteThat's what she said. Your your dick-sucking momma.
Why does Somerby always insist on “carefully selected” medical specialists? It sounds like he wants to screen for opinions.
ReplyDeleteBob, forever touchy about slights to the South, faults Dowd for pointing out something painfully obvious: yes, Greene’s dream is consistent with
ReplyDeleteA tradition on the crybaby Right of wanting to take OUR bat and go home. Yes, it is consistent with the Confederacy. If not secession, what IS Greene calling for?
Leave it to Bob to wait around forever until Dowd says something perfectly reasonable and then jump on her. He might have a least pointed out that Dowd, with her early friendly coverage of Trump, helped create the likes of MTG.
What do Trump supporters do, now that Tucker has come out as anti Trump?
ReplyDeleteThey leave Fox News, throwing Rupert Murdoch into a panic.
DeleteSomerby asks how might this column seen to right wingers.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a bizarre question.
Right wingers almost exclusively get their narratives from right wing sources like Fox. Rank and file right wingers simply don’t read Dowd or The NY Times.
Duh Somerby, with left leaning CA now as THE powerhouse in the country (5th largest economy in the world), states’ rights don’t look quite so good anymore to many on the right; MTG is just being real (sure real bigotry and fascism), more power to her.