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Glenn and Ben on the Train
Just in … two notorious talk radio hosts have jumped off the NeverTrump train because of the media, or so they say.
Glenn Beck has been railing against Trump for two years, including mashing his face in a bowl of orange air-snacks, and the motor-mouthed genius Ben Shapiro, who advocated a stay-home strategy for conservatives in the 2016 contest between the two horrific choices, have called it quits. Both men have been dissociating themselves from the immoral lout on a daily basis, but something happened. The media lied, distorted and just went too far this time.
Beck and Shapiro are angry at the media for making them choose sides with our magnificent-bastard President. Both have seen Trump break through their previous misconceptions and fears on policy, decorum and competence, and both have cited those things obliquely, but to save face (as it appears to me) they have chosen to blame media over-reach on their forced conversion. This way, they get to hold onto their outrage at Trump’s behavior, it’s just that they’ve found something to be even more outraged about. Welcome, comrades, to the new world of being a Trump supporter!
But for many of us, the outrage stage has long passed. We are jaded, our anger is cold. We expect them to lie. Now we calculate, we don’t try to persuade or reason with NBC, CNN et al, any more than Roosevelt should have tried to explain to the Japanese that attacking our naval base in the Pacific was bad form. We just want to defeat them.
The media has been doing this kind of thing ever since Trump declared, it just hasn’t been quite as blatant. They’ve gotten away with it so much they got cocky. Apparently in the minds of Beck and Shapiro, all the previous distortions, deliberate misinterpretations, hostile translations and transparent propaganda ploys were “just politics” — as Bush would say — and if only the classless boor would just speak clearly and avoid any ambiguous language, our movement could advance ideas and the pundits wouldn’t have to constantly clean up the mess.
However, Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck just got on the caboose of a very long train. The Trump train is so long that the cars closest to the locomotive are one station, or perhaps even two stations, ahead. Those of us in the front cars have been through these stations iteratively. (Competency Place, Stealth Democrat Overlook, Outrage Junction, Tweet Street, the Tunnel of Media Lies…)
It’s not the case that we supporters are believers or acolytes. We have, for the most part, had the same concerns and fears, we just get over them faster. Perhaps we’re less attached, more objective, and more aware of who the enemy is and how they operate. Maybe we are less moral and more forgiving of human frailty and sins. Maybe we are cynical and actually believe most of our politicians, thought-leaders and media stars are equally (or much more) despicable people who’ve as yet managed to avoid exposure. Certainly the revelations about Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, several NY District Attorneys, O.J. Simpson, Matt Lauer, Jimmy Swaggart, Denny Hastert, numerous priests, bishops, cardinals and so many more, haven’t primed us to suspect almost everyone or anyone. We shrug. A billionaire playboy had a one-night stand with a reckless gold digging floozy? Okay…and?
So, to Ben and Glenn and others who are beginning to see how absolutely outrageous the media is, great! Welcome aboard.
Important learning tool below from Scott Adams:
https://youtu.be/2aGV3lQvvqA
We are now stopped at Media Irrelevance and Exposé Square. Our illustrious engineer, Choo-Choo Charlie Trump, has been ambiguous quite deliberately in order to stoke media outrage and overreach. They focus on some mistake, something not accurate. That’s the delivery package for the content Trump wants everyone to see. This approach requires someone who is impervious to the near-term narrative they push, trusting the long-term effects. Trump didn’t care what they said about him and his motives. The package was delivered to the American people in the form of, did you hear what Donald Trump just said ?
Case in point, the media doesn’t report on MS-13 atrocities and how they are a network of illegals. Well, they do now. And how much does Trump (and conservatism or the Republican brand) really suffer? Did you consider that Trump is already every bad thing a person can possibly be? And he’s not alone. Have you ever heard the media call Republicans names like bigots, racists, xenophobes, crazies, blah, blah? Well, now Ben and Glenn actually support a guy who beds porn stars when his wife is with child. That must really sting. They’d rather go through life being portrayed as virtual Nazis than that! Until now. Welcome to the deplorables, guys.
In relationship terms, we Trumpists have already filed for divorce from the abusive husband (the media) We say, “What took you so long?”
“Well,” say Ben and Glenn, “he often slapped me around, but it was always with an open hand, never a punch, and really, a lot of times I did burn the dinner, and I had a tendency to put too much salt in the potatoes. But this time he punched me with a closed fist! And actually, the dinner I served was perfect! There was no salt in the potatoes at all, and still he complained! Now I have a real case for divorce”.
For Glenn, Ben, and Kanye:
Published in General
Exactly. I’m so sick and tired of this “Trump Train” nonsense.
Why can’t people just accept that Glenn and Ben (and Jonah, and Kevin, and David, and…) have been calling it as they see it all along, and maybe they really did honestly believe that Trump was doing more harm than good, but that the media went too far this time? Why does everything have to be so [redacted] black and white with you people?
I don’t think Ben or Glen on the Trump train. Glen just put on the hat to illustrate a point. Ben will never be on the Trump train, because he is an elitist at his core. Blue collar language and thoughts will never be acceptable to him. I find them both to have a platitude level of economics and rather than being open-minded, they are very quick to criticize any move made by Trump. I know it is big step to open-minded, but I don’t think either of them are there yet. I think Ben and Glen are happy to enjoy the leftist tears.
So if you didn’t like the Train analogy maybe you’ll like opthomology ….
They’ve been calling it as they’ve been “seeing “ it, and they are myopic. Mr. Magoo level. That’s, unfortunately, the point. They haven’t seen how completely absurd the media have been on so much, and now they’ve finally been shown the ‘E’ at the top of the chart.
They ( the media) have been deliberately misunderstanding Trump’s statements all along, but if there’s any wiggle-room whatsoever, they’ve been giving the media the benefit of the doubt. (Thanks allies!) These people are freaking blinded by their concerns for “vulgarity” ( and moreso the fear they can be associated with it) they can’t see the enemy.
Pundits are supposed to be lookouts, interpreters and visionaries. Giant failure on this and likely other fronts.
This is an overstatement. And sort of ironic in the sense that those who you appear to be defending are those who are seeing things in black and white. The predominant criticism of those not on the metaphorical “train” is, as I noted above, that they decline to get on and off the train at all. The defining characteristic of those whose shorthanded name dare not be spoken anymore is that they never appear to be supportive of Trump even when (to many of us) such support is justified. That’s your black and white.
Continuing on the subject of pundits being wrong, I’ve referred to Shapiro as a genius, unsarcasticly, a couple of times in this thread, and Glenn Beck – whatever else he may be psychologically- is no dummy. So how can they be so very wrong?
Noam Chomsky is a genius, but very wrong. Christopher Hitchens was so right about many things, but he tried to find God with his intellect and God wasn’t there, so God didn’t ‘exist’. The list is long. What they have in common is insufficient data or erroneous data which they put through their programs and present well-crafted, internally consistent output.
It’s easy to dislike Trump for many people right at first impression. I don’t fault them for that. However this was exploited by his enemies to fashion a cartoon of the man which was grossly unfair. This isn’t a new thing in politics. But when we don’t like a person or in this case loathe or abhor him, we don’t watch speeches or bother looking anywhere past the surface.
This is how the media is able to recontextualize Trump with abandon. Then confirmation bias kicks in and it becomes ‘fact’.
Another example of this is how celebrations of the Philadelphia Eagles SB victory was portrayed. Eagles fans are supposed to be deplorable ( throwing snowballs at Santa in the 1970’s – itself something of a myth) and some of them climbed some poles and there was some vandalism which was portrayed by the national media as virtual riots, when the facts were these were isolated incidents and millions of Philadelphians were happy and peacefully celebrating.
Anyone who doesn’t question the narrative and do their own research has no business being a pundit.
Boom, nailed it. A closed-minded political pundit or talk radio host is also know as a talking point. Talking points fill our airwaves and columns already, we certainly don’t need anymore. If there’s one thing I truly do deplore, it’s a closed mind. We see an elderly George Will committing possible career suicide and destroying his legacy in front of our very eyes, all due to an inflexible and utterly closed mind.
What a terrible way to end a long writing and punditry career. I used to think very highly of him, along with many others. But they are in the middle of demonstrating the intellectual damage a closed mind can really do to a person.
Can we acknowledge that unwavering support of Trump is just as closed minded as unwavering criticism?
Speaking only for myself, it’s more accurate to say “unwavering support for pushing back against the Left.” I see Trump the same way you do. I do realize he’s crass and all the rest of it. But right now in this moment in history, when the Left has made inroads into the culture at a level I wouldn’t have believed possible, I don’t care if the guy who’s doing all the things Trump’s been doing is Daffy Duck or Bozo the Clown. I support whoever it is 100% because right now, anything less helps the Left. I know that many NTers don’t seem to see that.
Right now is not the time to be displaying one’s high level of principle or discriminating tastes or impressive knowledge of the finer points of etiquette. And all those who say they praise him when he earns it and criticize him when he doesn’t? That’s all they’re doing. Virtue-signaling. “Well okay, I admit that was a good Supreme Court choice, but please notice how Principled I am and please approve of how well bred I am because it’s grudging support because I belong to the Country Club.” Not now please.
I was 100% against communism, but that doesn’t mean I was 100% in favor of Senator McCarthy’s actions on the HUAC.
I support much of what McCarthy did (there were actually spies in the state department), but he still crossed the line of decency.
My philosophy of life is a bell curve. A vanishing small number of people in the world approach pure evil or pure good. No one in American politics qualifies as either. Asking me to see everyone as pure black or pure white is not going be fruitful.
But the McCarthy thing isn’t an accurate comparison. Never mind, nobody is going to change their minds. We’re all just talking past each other. I just hope and pray the country survives the next five years no matter who is in charge.
But enough about Sean Hannity.
I’m not saying it is, but communism is one of the very few things I am 100% against.
There is still one third of the country that is independent and the GOP needs to win a majority of their votes to accomplish anything politically. I am not convinced that pretending that Trump is infallible is the best way to win over their votes.
In spite of the left dominating the commanding heights of culture, the Republican Party has a very impressive position in elected offices across the country at the federal and state level. I believe that is in large part because the indpendents see through the scorched earth tactics of the left. I don’t think our prospects going forward will be nearly as good if we abandon all principles and adopt the scorched earth tactics of the left with the left retaining control of the commanding heights of culture.
But the only thing I control is my actions and I recognize my opinion is like spitting in the ocean.
Shapiro donned a MAGA hat back when Gorsuch was nominated, and he’s been quick to praise Trump, or his team, when they do something good. (And that’s happened many times, thank God).
But his willingness to believe Stormy — well . . . just because (wink, wink) . . . is a bit of a black mark, and probably one reason why he relates to those his own age and younger. Sometimes “you know it happened” without more is enough at that age.
As Andrew Klavan has said – it would have been out of character of Trump to not have sexual relations with a porn star. Trump had rich NY playboy cred to keep up.
One thing that Shapiro said on his show: “The media thinks Republicans hate them because Trump hates the media. The truth is that Republicans like Trump because Trump attacks the media.”
I’m assuming that’s Klavan in his semi-wise guy persona. Vague comments tied to subjective assessments are pretty much all we ever get from anywhere on this issue. That’s pretty much where Shapiro is coming from as well.
I assume that’s an attempt at humor? I have no great loyalty to Sean Hannity, although he’s been doing some great stuff on exposing the deep state, his devotion to Trump has me turning channels quite often.
Republicans . . . well, the rank and file anyway . . . have hated the media for a long time. Long before Trump. Trump gives voice to everything the citizens are thinking about the media.
The media thinks hating them started with Trump. They have no idea how long we’ve hated them.
Yep, now is not the time for a class on manners and the “proper” way to go about things. The “proper” way of doing things has brought us all the edge of cultural ruin.
The HUAC was for house members. McCarthy was a senator.
And if you read M Stanton Evans on this subject you will find out you were duped about McCarthy.
Always remember that there were black lists against Nazis in WWII and nobody complained. It’s only when the pro Soviet faction got targeted that there were memes about decency and high dudgeon.
Evans’ book should be up there with Witness for conservative reading on that approximate time frame. The writings on Venona are also excellent (Klehr), and Coulter, going back to her lucid time period, has written some good stuff on McCarthy.
Yes, it was Coulter’s book, Treason, that got me interested in Evans and showed me how badly McCarthy was treated. As Buckley always maintained, McCarthy never treated people that badly and never as badly as he was treated by the commies and Democrats.
Stalin took personal interest in these hearings and suggested the use of the 5th amendment for all of the actual commies.
Heck, it’d be out of character for me not to have sex with a vivacious, busty blonde porn star. I mean, hypothetically. Given that I’m married and in love Deeply, Madly, and Forever.*
*The fact that the lovely and talented Mrs. Mongo is an open heart nurse who is a registered expert with a scalpel has nothing, nothing to do with my monogamy fetish.
I apologize for the conflating McCarthy and HUAC.
I do not think I’ve been duped. I have not read Evans, but I have read a fair amount about McCarthy and I did say that I supported much of what McCarthy did, all I said was I did not support everything he did.
Yet again, people are arguing that because someone did some good overall, they should not be criticized for the stupid things they do. Count me out.
Sure, no problem. Here are three gripes I have about him off the top:
1) Trump shouldn’t have signed the omnibus budget monstrosity, should have held the line.
2) Trump should have fired Sessions last year. As we see the insanity with Mueller drag on, along with fresh (almost daily) revelations about corruption at the highest levels of the DOJ, it’s hard to understand why in the world Jeff Sessions still has his job as AG.
3) Trump shouldn’t let his kids be involved in the federal government. I voted for Donald Trump, not Ivanka, not Don Jr, not Eric.
There, does that satisfy?
As for Melania she is doing traditional First Lady stuff, which is fine. In fact it’s nice to see a First Lady do First Lady stuff again.
Sure. I am sure we would all come up with different things that we think are stupid (well, at least among the ones that are willing to call anything stupid.).
I would argue the important thing is for Republicans to not adopt the left’s strategy regarding Obama. Remember when conservatives used to cringe that any criticism of Obama was immediately ascribed to racism. That was not a good look for them and doing something similar is not a good look for Republicans.
But obviously some disagree with me.
I can’t “like” this comment enough.
This is war and we expend our efforts against the clear and professed enemies only – the media, the Dems, the NTs, all the foreign enemies. Mistakes made by our guys get sorted out in memoirs and biographies after the war.