“Why is everyone swallowing Biden’s lies?”
That’s the question the editors of Issues and Insights are asking here:
…[W]e know why the mainstream press parrots everything Biden says. They are nothing more than Democratic operatives with bylines, as Glenn Reynolds puts it on his Instapundit blog.
But why are corporate executives falling for it? Why are officials with sports leagues? Why are politicians in both parties bending to Biden’s reality distortion field?
How can someone who is barely lucid, who has trouble even reading his teleprompter, who — at best — eked out a presidential victory and — at worst — stole it, who has never had anything remotely like an enthusiastic following, suddenly hold such sway over so many people? How is he setting the national agenda?
Has the country truly gone this mad?
The answer to that last question is “yes,” but it rests on a lot more than whether or not people believe Biden’s lies.
Actually, I’m not sure whether a majority of the general public does believe his lies, because I no longer trust polls. But leaving that aside, it’s clear that a lot of people do fall right in line in believing what Biden is saying. However, I think that’s because of the following reasons:
(1) They aren’t paying much attention and accept it out of habit and because the people around them accept it, the MSM says it’s true for the most part, companies are acting as though it’s true, and all “nice” people say it’s true. Also, it’s certainly not just Biden saying it. In other words, there are a lot of forces telling them it’s true and they have no inclination to do their own research or spend a moment more than necessary to check it out.
(2) Biden is the un-Trump, and just as everything Trump said was a lie, so Biden tells the truth.
(3) And even when Biden does do or say something a bit sketchy, it’s just “good old Joe” stuttering or making a small and meaningless faux pas.
(4) Corporations and even some sports leagues have different agendas than the general public. For starters, many are run by the “woke” and many employ the woke, and many sports leagues have a lot of minority players who ascribe to wokeness. What’s more, the power of the far left to boycott and accuse and carry on if a corporation doesn’t toe the line is formidable, and more feared (so far) than the power of the right to do the same. Lastly, many of these companies are now multinational even if based here, and don’t want to annoy their other markets and/or investors (China-based, for example), markets and sources that can sometimes constitute a larger share of their support than those in the US.
(5) I’m not sure to whom the authors are referring when they write, “Why are politicians in both parties bending to Biden’s reality distortion field?” I haven’t seen many in the GOP agreeing with Biden on, for example, the “Jim Crow” nature of the new Georgia voting laws – or much of anything else. Yes, some have certainly referred to January 6th as an “insurrection,” especially at the outset. But in general and on most issues, I don’t see much or really any agreement with Biden’s reality distortion field coming from politicians on the right. Intensely NeverTrumper pundits, yes; politicians, no.
One more thing – the degree to which many people simply swallow whatever the MSM tells them was driven home to me most dramatically back in 2012. Romney was the candidate, and I figured he was probably moderate enough that some Democrats would vote for him or at least not hate him. But when I went to my book group in the fall of that election season, a while after Democrats and the MSM were harping on Romney’s “binders of women” statement in order to cast him as some sort of woman-hater, I discovered that virtually all the women in my book group had bought into it. They hated Romney, the woman-hater – it was a done deal.
That was quite something to behold, and the inanity of the charge against Romney did nothing to stop them from swallowing it whole. These are not unintelligent women. But they are Democrats, and they were willing and eager to buy whatever the MSM was selling if it reflected badly on a Republican.
Incredibly, incredibly depressing.
Romney was literally trying to promote women and they still turned it around and claimed he was against women. I suppose he was against the women whose husbands would have been denied promotions because Romney wanted to promote women, instead…..
Choose the simplest answer- they are all liars, too.
Maybe the non religious do not want to hear this, but a lot of the crazy is starting to sound a bit like the “… strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…” that is associated with the end times in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 . I am not saying that is what it is, for certain, just that it reminds me of that verse. A lot over the last few years.
I agree with Neo that the polls are not trustworthy, but I think she understates the degree and importance of this. The typical polling company is as skewed and biased as a typical big city newspaper or national network. They no longer see their role as reporting what people think. They see their role as supporting the blue side over the red side, only adjusting their results slightly toward reality as they get close to election day to preserve a shred of credibility. They hope to discourage us and make us just give up with maybe a whimper.
It will be a bang they won’t forget, one way or the other.
wrt last graf:
“willing and eager” and “democrat” Which comes first?
You come walking into politics land with your faculties intact, get a dem sticker and then you become stupid and gullible?
Or you’re stupid and gullible and so you naturally go dem?
How on earth could something so obvious as what Romney meant not be taken for what he meant? You need to be resistant to facts. As I say, presenting facts to these people results in what looks like brandishing a Crucifix in the face of werewolves.
And when one did present what he meant, the physical manifestations of the defensive mechanisms were obvious; squirming, defiant face, elevated voice. And this was an easy, logical, obvious, simple case….
Maybe it’s the Jen Psaki progressive “mother” card that insulates almost all from the trouble of critical thinking when approaching “feels” and politics. 🙂
I know this is an old theory, but I think the Covid craziness is still with us in terms of mass psychosis. I also think that is why Fauci et al are trying their best to keep this madness going forever. As long as the population is in disequilibrium in their mental state, they are much more easily manipulated. If we suddenly return to normalcy I suspect many of the “scales will fall from the eyes”. Keep ’em masked up, keep ’em afraid, then everything else follows.
“Sokar, his eyes open!” from Star Trek, Next Generation, Darmok episode.
The author at Issues and Insights demonstrates a lack of insight when they wonder how Biden has such influence… as he doesn’t. Apparently the author imagines Biden is in charge. A truly laughable proposition.
The craziness that the public is exhibiting is the result of the Left’s Long March through the Institutions. There are tens of
thousands of people working to promote the craziness.
In effect, tens of thousands of people engaged in the most blatant of treason. And they plan to prosecute hundreds of thousands of deplorables for thought crimes.
jon baker above: ‘a lot of the crazy is starting to sound a bit like the “… strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…’
I’ve always been very resistant to end-times talk, and still am. But whatever is going on, this very widespread acceptance of falsehoods that go way beyond the merely erroneous into the delusional is certainly not something that has been seen in the past 50-60 years (which is as far back as my memory goes).
Major league baseball hasn’t all that many black players. About 8% and declining.
I think Noam Chomsky was getting close to the explanation for this awhile ago:
I think he’s right that they’re part of the system, but I think it’s because they’ve been educated within the same system, not simply because they’re educated. Chomsky has more than his fair share of blind spots.
We know that the Left is constantly touting the fact that they’re more educated than the Right (I’m not sure that legions of academic bottom feeders from the humanities and education colleges is much to brag about, but hey…). When enough people with below average intelligence have degrees and credentials, you get educated people who lack the capacity to critically examine information. Sure they might read more, but do they think about what they read, or do they simply absorb it?
The culture they come from (or aspire to), their entire education, their professions, their social circles, their recreational habits, and even their conspicuous virtue are all tightly corralled in a gigantic, intellectually incestuous feedback loop. The system gave them their credentials. It told them they’re smart. Now it’s telling them how to live their lives virtuously by damning others. They owe every aspect of their lives to the system, it’s all they know, it has elevated them. Why on Earth shouldn’t they trust its press releases?
These are dangerous times.
gmmay. You’re right. The importance placed on accumulated classroom seat time as the only way to know anything important is pretty stout.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t KNOW if the media is/are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dem Party, or if it’s the other way round, but it’s OBVIOUS that they are in CAHOOTS.
}}} What’s more, the power of the far left to boycott and accuse and carry on if a corporation doesn’t toe the line is formidable, and more feared (so far) than the power of the right to do the same
Foo. This is vastly overrated.
Chik-Fil-A.
Goya.
Mypillow.
They can RIOT like the assholes they are, but they’re shit when it comes to “boycotts”.
There’s a meme:
“What lies behind us and what lies before us is unimportant compared to what lies right to our faces.”
OBloodyHell:
I was speaking of perceptions.
“That was quite something to behold, and the inanity of the charge against Romney did nothing to stop them from swallowing it whole.”
They swallowed it because Romney is a soulless weasel. This is a guy who tried to out-liberal Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts, and then proclaimed himself “severely conservative” when seeking the GOP Presidential nomination. Romney was also a truly awful politician who only succeeded in Republican primaries by outspending his opponents by a tremendous margin.
Mike
MBunge. You may be right about Romney but the connection to buying the lie is not obvious. It was used as an example of other silly lies which the dem/lib/prog swallow wholesale.
Art Deco:
Have you included Hispanic players?
They swallowed it because Romney was a Republican. Not great analysis required, any taint of “Republican” in a politician is grounds for calumny, see John McCain 2004. Romney doesn’t seem to have learned. Voters of Utah may decide that the minimal amounts of conservatism in Romney aren’t worth the professed piety but absence of principles.
MBunge:
I think that om is correct. It was nothing about Romney himself – I doubt they paid much attention to him or his history, except what the MSM and the Democrats told them.
om:
I doubt Romney will run for re-election. I think his purpose for being a senator was to stick it to Trump, and he certainly did that. He is 74 now, and isn’t up for re-election till 2024, when he would be 77. That didn’t stop Biden – but then again, he was running for president. Romney knows he’s probably toast in Utah in terms of ever being elected again, so why would he bother?
I had never heard of ‘Issues and Insights’ before, but their title question is inane.
No one is ‘believing’ Biden; or ‘disbelieving’ him either. He is a palpable figure-head, a sock puppet who, as I&I pointed out, is barely lucid and struggles reading his own teleprompter.
Everyone knows this. Some on the left feign denial and fall back on the ‘he just has a stutter!’ canard, but it rings hollow. Everyone knows he’s a semi-demented twit who reads what pops up, signs what’s in front of him and is trotted out for public appearances only as needed.
The left doesn’t care. The media doesn’t care. Indeed, it’s preferable to them.
The reason so many have ‘bought into’ his lies and absurdities is that the left now controls virtually every civic and cultural institution in America. The leftist narrative (of which Biden is merely a semi-lucid mouthpiece) is now the dominant paradigm. Anyone who disagrees with any of it (whether 1% or 99% of it) is a dissident, and a threat…to be punished.
Much easier and safer (in the short term, anyway) to lay low and go along.
Have you included Hispanic players?
I’m sympathetic to Steve Sailer’s conception that the dispositions of various subgroups of the hispanic population are quite varied, that most subsets are difficult to mobilize politically, and that affinity for black American chauvinism is a pro forma pose of hispanic elites that doesn’t have much of an analogue on the ground.
I think his purpose for being a senator was to stick it to Trump,
Given his age and all the other things he might be doing with his life, running for Congress made no sense. I’m cheesed at the voters of Utah for enabling him in this way, and cheesed at Republican sachems in Utah as well. The politicians and the moneybags there should have told him that no matter how capable an administrator you are, public offices in Utah are not allocated to people who have only spent four of their 71 years living here and have their wives parked thousands of miles away.
That he’d go to all this trouble out of spite causes me to despise him to a degree I couldn’t have imagined in 2012. (A Catholic blogger of my acquaintance turned the moniker ‘Windsock Romney’ at the time; too true).
Art+Deco wrote, “… the dispositions of various subgroups of the hispanic population are quite varied ….”
True too of African Americans, though they are sometimes portrayed as homogeneous. And, to really see diversity, look at Africa.
Neo, regarding the reactions of the women in your book group, I’m not surprised at all. I’ve been conservative for a long time. I learned at least thirty years ago not to discuss politics with women, especially my wife’s friends, since the discussion could go off the rails very quickly. I did it because I didn’t want to damage her relations with them, all of them ultra-libs. I could discuss politics with some, but not all of their husbands, so I just stay quiet when politics come up.
Ya never know what’s going to trigger someone. Last fall one of her very long time friends went off on me. I would call her now and then to give her an update on my wife’s health. For reasons unknown to me, she just started screaming at me that Trump was destroying America and finished it off with calling me a climate denier intent on destroying the planet. She was literally hysterical. I waited several days to see if she’d call back or email and apologize, but she never did. My sister-in-law laughed about it and said the woman probably didn’t even remember that she’d screamed at me. That was quite an insight into female psychology.
Paul in Boston:
In my experience, quite a few of the men I know have been even worse. Unprovoked screaming, name-calling. I haven’t noticed much difference between men and women on that score. Certain men I know (fortunately, not any I’m close to) have also been big on stating a desire for Trump to be killed, back when he was president.
Art Deco:
I think Romney told himself he was running for much more noble reasons, however, and I think he believed it. I think he thought he was running to preserve honor and decorum and integrity in the face of Trumpism. But I think it ended up being to stick it to Trump.
Art Deco:
Of course they’re not unitary, and I certainly don’t know the politics
(or even the names) of most Hispanic players, but my guess is that a lot of them are onboard with this. In the real world of voters, while Hispanic voters are nowhere near as monolithic in their support for Democrats as black voters are (few groups are), they are still strongly Democratic voters although various subgroups are not (Cubans in Florida, for example).
Here’s the breakdown for the 2020 election. I have no idea whether most of the Hispanic ballplayers are all Cubans from Florida and Nevada.
It would actually be interesting to know what percentage of professional major league ballplayers are happy about what was decided about Atlanta. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever know.
neo writes:
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Divide and conquer. The tactic long pre-dates American politics, but until it stops working we are fools to expect either party to drop the tactic.
neo,
Regarding the All-Star Game and the MLB’s decision; I would wager a lot of money the majority of players do not like the decision. Regardless of politics; most must find it an annoying diversion and distraction. I’m sure the majority only do press conferences because their contracts require them. It’s annoying enough to have to answer questions from sports reporters about the game one just played, now the MLB has ensured they will also be barraged by questions on politics? And if you don’t answer properly or accurately read that day’s tea leaves lucrative sponsorship deals may disappear, chances at earning after retirement may dry up. Sure, the pay is good, but they didn’t sign up for that.
neo @2:39pm,
It is nearly unbelievable how many people have been “broken” by Trump. I am not a Trump fan, and I think he tends to shoot from the hip while rarely having a thought out plan, but it is amazing how many people fall apart after taking him on.
In my comment @3:29pm I listed a bunch of people broken by Trump. The comment would not post. I finally took the list out and it did. I’ve tried to post the list independently and it will not post. There is something the filter does not like about the list; simply some famous people with no links. Hmmm…. Let’s see if we can figure it out…
… Rosie O’Donnel, Kimmel, Ellen, both Cuomo brothers, Trudeau… He has a bizarre, uncanny force field around himself.
… Michael Avenatti…
… Hillary, Romney, Biden, Obama…
Something about those 3 most recent comments did not get through the filter when combined as a single comment.
“Divide and conquer…”
More like “Slander, villify, demonize and conquer” (making sure, of course, that the corrupt media and crooked info-techs always have your back)…
P.S.FWIW: I suspect it’s “Avenatti” (AKA the logarithm buster)… Nobody likes him, well, except Avenatti…
Rufus T. Firefly:
Yes, a while back I wrote that that was Trump’s superpower.
I just read the post. I would claim that great minds think alike, but I have to confess; it was a re-reading. I now remember reading it when you posted it.)
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