The Secret Of The Left’s Success: Ignore Inconvenient Facts

Posted on | September 8, 2011 | 37 Comments

by Smitty

Greg Sargent cries out from the ComPost: “The secret to the right wing noise machine’s success”

It’s simple: Keep making noise, regardless of the facts, and hopefully with a big assist from the major news orgs, until the other side caves from sheer exhaustion, in order to make the noise go away.

Conservatives and Tea Partyers have managed to generate a third straight day of outrage about Jimmy Hoffa’s non-call for violence on Labor day. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is now raising money off of Hoffa’s speech, circulating an email with a subject line that says: “Take us out?” It calls on Obama to “condemn this call to violence against Republicans.”

The Tea Party group Americans for Prosperity is also citing Hoffa’s “take these sons of bitches out” line as proof of “hate” from “left wing labor bosses.”

Of course, these folks know that Hoffa didn’t call for violence at all. His quote was actually a call for people to go out and vote.

Thanks a ton, Greg, for that narrowing of the focus to the present tense, at the expense of the context.

For those paying attention, no one has much difficulty with Hoffa engaging in loutish speech. Hoffa is only memorable in the light of calls from the likes of Senator Durbin, in January:

Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democratic leader in the Senate, today cited imagery of crosshairs on political opponents and Sarah Palin’s combative rallying cry, “Don’t retreat; reload.”

“These sorts of things, I think, invite the kind of toxic rhetoric that can lead unstable people to believe this is an acceptable response,” Durbin said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

So, Greg, if you have shred #1 of intellectual integrity, maybe you can help the rest of us not in the media priesthood understand the underlying rules whereby some people are allowed to use arguably aggressive language, and others are in some kind of hot water over using simple graphics.

Is a request for a simple, fair, evenly applied ruling on the tone of public discourse such a troublesome matter, Greg? I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt, and not conclude that you’re a propaganda-peddling crapflooder.

But let’s be clear what the real goal is here. It’s to get the other side — Hoffa, the White House, whoever — to cave and issue an apology out of sheer desperation to make the noise go away. An apology would reveal Dem weakness and validate the right’s outrage and its ongoing storyline about labor thuggery. And heck, even if they don’t get an apology (which has not yet been forthcoming from Hoffa or the White House), the right’s undeniable skill at keeping the noise going at full blast has other benefits. It keeps the base stoked. These folks are very good at this game.

Hoffa is irrelevant. As are you, Greg. But the commitment to reality avoidance and fact distortion that you represent, now: that is a troublesome matter.

Comments

37 Responses to “The Secret Of The Left’s Success: Ignore Inconvenient Facts”

Matt Lewis
September 8th, 2011 @ 12:36 pm

It’s simple: Keep making noise, regardless of the facts, and hopefully with a big assist from the major news orgs, until the other side caves from sheer exhaustion, in order to make the noise go away.

Yeah, right on, Greg!

Oh, wait…he wasn’t talking about lefties? The lack of self-awareness is what gets me the most. I mean, I get wishcasting the economy, or ignoring inconvenient history about other people, but what sort of steel trap mind can continually forget what it was just saying?
Anonymous
September 8th, 2011 @ 12:40 pm

“whereby some people (whose organization has a far longer track record of ACTUAL violence) are allowed to use arguably aggressive language, and
others are in some kind of hot water over using simple graphics.”

FTFY.

Greg Sargent is a lying hypocritical hack… which is to say, he’s a Copperhead.
Oliver Willis
September 8th, 2011 @ 12:45 pm

Sargent is clearly irrelevant, that’s why you wrote a whole blog post on him.
Anamika
September 8th, 2011 @ 12:48 pm

The Secret Of The Left’s Success: Ignore Inconvenient Facts

That’s exatcly what the right does too. In a more successful manner.

It is amusing to see Smitty trivialize Palin’s own hypocrisy as “simple graphic”, though.
Anamika
September 8th, 2011 @ 12:55 pm

Smitty is probably deluding himself that his opinions on this matter are “as irrelevant” as Sargent’s.
Bob Belvedere
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:00 pm

So Greg Sargent is accusing the Right of practicing The Big Lie – that’s funny right there, I don’t care who you are.

PS: Thanks for the link, Admiral.
Anamika
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:04 pm

Smitty is not an Admiral. Stop lying.
Fred Beloit
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:13 pm

Gregie writes: “Of course, these folks know that Hoffa didn’t call for violence at all. His quote was actually a call for people to go out and vote.”

Gosh, Gregie, why didn’t Hoffa just say so?
JeffS
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:30 pm

Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!

Assertions are hardly a way to argue about “ignoring facts”.

Tsk tsk, Anamika! Such sloppy thinking. Tsk tsk!
JeffS
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:30 pm

Tsk tsk, Anamika! Your sense of humor has gone the way of your logic. Tsk tsk!
JeffS
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:36 pm

Of course Sargeant is irrelevant……in the context that he decries the “right wing noise machine” when he has zero intellectual integrity. He’s pushing an idea that is demonstratively false.

Lying, you see, destroys credibility amongst people with integrity. Unless, of course, one accepts those lies at face value and, in effect, maintains that people like Greg Sargeant remain relevant.

And my having to spell this out speaks ill of your intellectual integrity, Oliver.
JeffS
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:39 pm

Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!

Disgust disguised as analysis is hardly a way of logically refuting Smitty’s post. Instead, it merely demonstrates your lack of argument against it.

Tsk tsk, Anamika! Pseudo-intellectualism is easy to detect. Tsk tsk!
JeffS
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:42 pm

The fact that the lefties are spinning Hoffa’s comments as “non-violent” after LOUDLY complaining about “violent” comments from Palin and other conservative politicians tells me that the left are a bunch of hypocrites (which we already knew), and that they have nothing else to offer.

Given how badly socialism has failed (is failing), that’s hardly a surprise as well.
ThePaganTemple
September 8th, 2011 @ 1:55 pm

@Oliver Willis What’s irrelevant is you lefties in general, for decrying conservatives over their “violent rhetoric” while giving your assorted goons, thugs, and other fellow travelers a pass on such imagery. Now run along like a good little boy. We’ve got Democrat Senators and House members to target for elimination for the next election. You know you don’t really want to hang around here. Do you?
Anamika
September 8th, 2011 @ 2:28 pm

He did say that, you fracking moron.

Hoffa:
Everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America
back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!
Anamika
September 8th, 2011 @ 2:30 pm

I never had a sense of humor. Can I borrow some from you?
JeffS
September 8th, 2011 @ 2:33 pm

Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!

Obtuse, humorless, and clueless is no way to go through life.

Tsk tsk, Anamika, tsk tsk!
ThePaganTemple
September 8th, 2011 @ 3:12 pm

Fine. So let’s look carefully at what he said. First they’re going to vote, and then after they win, or maybe even if they don’t, they are going to “take these son of a bitches out”. That sounds chillingly similar to Caligula saying if the Roman people all had one neck he’d hack it.

Then they will “give America back to America”, where evidently Hoffa feels Republicans do not belong. I’m just glad I don’t eat out much.
Anonymous
September 8th, 2011 @ 3:52 pm

There is no evidence you have any “sense” at all.
Anonymous
September 8th, 2011 @ 3:54 pm

As I pointed out previously for unions violence is part of the electoral process.
Daily Pundit » If They Could Kill Us All, You Know They Would
September 8th, 2011 @ 12:00 pm

[…] The Secret Of The Left’s Success: Ignore Inconvenient Facts : The Other McCain For those paying attention, no one has much difficulty with Hoffa engaging in loutish speech. Hoffa is only memorable in the light of calls from the likes of Senator Durbin, in January: […]
Anonymous
September 8th, 2011 @ 4:02 pm

The correct way to argue is to present actual facts. (Make sure you save this, I don’t want to have to explain this again).
I make an assertion, when Sarah Palin makes a statement such as “don’t retreat reload” sentient life recognizes this as a “metaphor” common to political speech from both parties. When a union leader uses an expression such as “we need to take them out” he’s celebrating a rich tradition of union violence as well as a tried and true game plan. Mr. Hoffa’s father could expand on this were he available for comment.
There you see what I did there I made two assertions, so now I should give you the enthralled reader “evidence” to back up my assertions.
So when one googles “Sarah Palin Arrest Record” one is offered links to such Journalistic Giants such as “Hollywood Life” “your celebrity news gossip and style BFF” by Bonnie Fuller, where it is revealed that Merecede Johnson posed in Playboy. Surprisingly the reporter’s Pulitzer isn’t mentioned on the Masthead. I found no evidence that Sarah Palin engages in “actual” violence or that if she did, she would need to reload.
However when one googles “History of teamster members union “convictions” one can find “A History of Union Murder and Sabotage” Written by Daniel Sayani
This article in part reads “According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, there have been over 9,000 documented cases of union violence since 1975″
http://thenewamerican.com/history/american/6487-labor-unions-a-history-of-murder-and-sabotage
See evidence
Bob Belvedere is right… « The Rio Norte Line
September 8th, 2011 @ 12:42 pm

[…] Read more at The Other McCain. […]
DaveO
September 8th, 2011 @ 5:21 pm

I can’t recall how many campaign cycles have featured the ‘vast right-wing noise machine.’ At least since Mondale’s talley-ho, only he came up bingo.

Sargent’s post proves one thing: he keeps an archive. He just changes the dates, people’s names, and any specific sin he wishes to un-address.

And folks, he’s making good money doing it!
DaveO
September 8th, 2011 @ 5:25 pm

Just by the purest of coincidences: “Longshoremen storm Wash. state port, damage RR”

http://news.yahoo.com/longshoremen-storm-wash-state-port-damage-rr-144921214.html

No violence to be seen folks, just the reich-wing noise machine…
Chuck Coffer
September 8th, 2011 @ 5:56 pm

Jimmy Hoffa needs to be taken out. His mother is a dog.
The Hairy Beast
September 8th, 2011 @ 6:08 pm

Maybe it’s my browser, but I don’t see any comments on Sargent’s post over at WaPo. Wonder why…?
Rob Crawford
September 8th, 2011 @ 6:11 pm

Shut up, “Anamika”.
Rob Crawford
September 8th, 2011 @ 6:11 pm

Shut up, “Anamika”.
Rob Crawford
September 8th, 2011 @ 6:13 pm

O-Dub! On assignment again?
Rob Crawford
September 8th, 2011 @ 6:14 pm

Coming from a mobbed up thug, the part about voting is small comfort.
Rob Crawford
September 8th, 2011 @ 6:15 pm

Unions need to have both anti-trust laws and RICO applied to them.
JeffS
September 8th, 2011 @ 6:27 pm

Jimmy Hoffa, Greg Sergeant, Oliver Willis, and Anamika will be denouncing this
violent union behavior in 5, 4, 3, …..
Adjoran
September 8th, 2011 @ 7:27 pm

Anyone who wastes time reading Greg Sargent deserves every bit of angst his drivel creates in them. No sympathy from me.

Someone tell Oliver Willis he can go home now – they got his cage all cleaned out and hosed down now.
ThePaganTemple
September 8th, 2011 @ 7:37 pm

I don’t think they put hippos in cages.
Anonymous
September 8th, 2011 @ 9:13 pm

That ain’t gonna happen.
At The Turn Of The Tide « The Camp Of The Saints
September 8th, 2011 @ 5:13 pm

[…] The Rio Norte Line linked and had some kind words, as did Admiral Smitty — thanks to both of […]