Word of the year

I’m surprised Trump hasn’t trademarked “fake news” yet.

LOL. The term "Fake News" was originally applied to articles pedaled by news-bots that actually *supported* Trump. But in classic Trump fashion, he took this slang term, which was little-known and seldom-used, and applied it to CNN at a press conference. The term then became wide-spread, and his supporters (esp Sean Hannity) began using it to their advantage to describe any "mainstream" outlets that did not support Trump (basically all of them). He's a master showman.

And I can't really disagree with him about CNN. Historically, MSNBC will give you the story from the left-wing point of view, Fox News will give you the story from the right-wing point of view... and CNN will have stories about a kidnapped white girl and a plane crash. They're new at this "serious journalism" stuff.

Other than the Wall Street Journal the rest are all fake news, delivering editorials masquerading as news stories. Huffpo makes the old national enquirer seem like a journalistic masterpiece.

I wouldn't say with Trump it's so much that he is a master showman, but that he is a master of voicing what people are thinking in cases where it's not PC to speak truth to power. From what I have seen among the people the "fake news" talk resonates with, they don't buy it when he tries to sell them something they don't want. E.g., millions of dollars and a Trump rally and endorsement didn't result in a Luther Strange win.

The irony of the term is that it was the oligarchs who coined it trying to stifle a free press by suppressing anything on social media that didn't follow the official line. Of course, now they are complaining that it never stuck to independent media but it has stuck to the originators like glue.

Anyway, I think it's an astute choice for the year.

LOL!

@SkiBirther, our favorite conspiracy theorist, lecturing us on where to find legitimate news!

@ppwh, I don't know about the PC thing anymore. The perception is that liberals have won the culture wars (and it's true, they basically have). They took over the education system, the campuses, the media, the big cities, even most corporate boardrooms. Their values are now the dominant values in the culture, for better or worse. And if you say anything that upsets them, you risk being cast out and shunned. They have their idols and false gods and sacred cows, and you can't criticize these things or else the PC Police will come and get you. But the thing is, the Right has their sacred cows and idols, too. You can't say anything even remotely critical of the police, the first responders, firemen, the military, the Founding Fathers, etc., or you will be likewise shunned by the Right and the Trumpists. People just seem to love having sacred cows, regardless of their political persuasion, and that's where PC comes from. It's infected both sides. Besides, think about this: lots and lots of Trump voters previously voted for Obama... twice! And Obama was one of the most PC candidates ever. If it were really about being anti-PC, they wouldn't have voted for Obama, right?

I think Trump's genius is more that he is able to simplify things so that even people who don't know or care much about politics can understand it. Like I've said before, people don't know anything about strategic arms limitation treaties, or "bending the cost curve," or export-import banks, or any of the other shit that Washington preoccupies itself with. They don't understand this stuff and they don't care. (I don't even know if Trump understands this stuff either.) But the people do understand feuds and fights and grievances and my-side-vs-your-side, and flame wars. So that's what Trump gave to them. It's pretty brilliant, if you think about it. You'll never get anywhere by overestimating peoples' intelligence, competence, or memory. Trump knows this.

> But the thing is, the Right has their sacred cows and idols, too. You can't say anything even remotely critical of the police, the first responders, firemen, the military, the Founding Fathers, etc., or you will be likewise shunned by the Right and the Trumpists.

I haven't seen it play out to anywhere near the same degree. When cops have been rightfully convicted after having murdered someone, I have never seen riots amongst those with a pro-cop bias.

> Besides, think about this: lots and lots of Trump voters previously voted for Obama... twice! And Obama was one of the most PC candidates ever. If it were really about being anti-PC, they wouldn't have voted for Obama, right?

In 2008, about everyone I knew supporting Obama was talking in awed tones about living in a post-racial society. I took that to mean PC would have been obsolete. By the time 2012 rolled around, PC had such a firm grip that anyone with a policy disagreement was deemed racist for it. That was before everyone realized that any non-Democrat was going to be called racist no matter who they were or what they had or hadn't done.

> I think Trump's genius is more that he is able to simplify things so that even people who don't know or care much about politics can understand it.

You might be thinking of Bernie Sanders.

@ppwh said "When cops have been rightfully convicted after having murdered someone, I have never seen riots amongst those with a pro-cop bias."

Conservatives tend to be older than liberals. Older folks don't riot. Unless you threaten to take away their entitlements LOL.

"By the time 2012 rolled around, PC had such a firm grip that anyone with a policy disagreement was deemed racist for it. "

I'm thinking of all the so-called pivot counties that voted for Obama twice and then for Trump. There were hundreds of these counties throughout the country. People must have known what Obama was about by 2012, but they voted to reelect him anyway, and then they went on to vote for Trump four years later.

"You might be thinking of Bernie Sanders."

I don't know what you mean by this. Sanders doesn't strike me as particularly intelligent, but he knows what he knows. He's into policy. He uses words like "oligarchy." He makes nuanced arguments about whether you should be able to sue gun manufacturers. He's into policy. It's his thing. By contrast, Trump talks about his enemies, makes vague promises, uses simple baby-talk, tweets insulting things, etc. He sounds more like he's conducting a rap-battle then campaigning. I'd rather have Trump as president than Sanders, but Trump is clearly playing to the lowest common denominator. It doesn't bother me. Actually, I think it's refreshing. I'm tired of all the "My distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Tennessee" bullshit. I prefer the tweets and the profanity and calling people out by name.

> Conservatives tend to be older than liberals. Older folks don't riot. Unless you threaten to take away their entitlements LOL.

You should see Yvette Felarca, man! She will fuck you right up if you let on that you think the Bill of Rights was a good idea.

> Actually, I think it's refreshing. I'm tired of all the "My distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Tennessee

It would appear that you're not alone ;) I would prefer not to listen to any of them, including Trump. I'll go with the tree is judged by its fruit thing, though, and hope for the best.

"You should see Yvette Felarca, man! She will fuck you right up if you let on that you think the Bill of Rights was a good idea."

I confess I had to look this up, but yes, I see what you mean. She doesn't seem particularly old, but she's clearly an adult. Perhaps leftists just remain feisty well into their grown-up years, IDK.

"I'll go with the tree is judged by its fruit thing, though, and hope for the best."

Me, too. Fingers crossed.