House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., blamed the right's "demonization of Nancy Pelosi" for the attack on Paul Pelosi in their San Francisco home, saying that this is what happens in a country that follows "Germany in the early '30s."
The man most responsible for putting Biden in the White House – the Democrat Kingmaker – called Republicans Nazis. Accusing Republican critics of Nancy Pelosi of inciting the attack on her husband.
We tend to think that attacks like this are so far out that nobody would believe them. We are wrong. When Biden says to a group of Black supporters: “They’re going to put you back in chains,” people on the Right use it as an example of rhetoric that’s so overheated that it is counterproductive. It’s not.
Normal people view this kind of rhetorical excesses through our Overton Window and don’t believe that others will not view them the same way. We’re wrong.
When Clyburn accuses us of being Nazis and Donald Trump of being Hitler, many people nod and agree. They see us the same way. They may be our neighbors and even nod as they pass us on the street, but they believe that if given power, we’ll bring back slavery, send our enemies to concentration camps and begin gassing Jews. If you think that’s an exaggeration that no one would believe, you’re wrong.
That’s the situation we find ourselves in. It’s partly our fault; we ignore these accusations at our peril because we know these are lies that anyone can see through. That’s wrong. It’s partly because, with very few exceptions, the mass media is on the other side, and acts are the megaphone to amplify and spread these smears. The press is an oligopoly controlled by the opposition.
It does not have to be this way. The first order of business is to create – or buy – our own press. Musk’s takeover of Twitter is a good start. But the press is financially precarious, and what Musk has done with Twitter can be done with local and regional organs, including local broadcast affiliates.
More thoughts on that anon.
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