There Will Always Be a Stupid Tweet
Just want to make a quick observation about this series of tweets:
The background here is that the Trump administration is getting rid of a ban on selling disposable plastic water bottles in national parks, and there have been some allegations that this is because a Trump appointee lobbied for one of the biggest sellers of bottled water.
Anyway my observation is that Barro's umbrage here bears striking similarity to what you might call the "Fox News strategy." No matter how dire the news is for Trump or conservatives generally, it is always—always—possible to dredge up some idiotic college professor or liberal activist to say something ridiculous. So Fox News will never lack for content that is embarrassing to liberals and that drives people to vote Republican. To me it seems crazy to pin this on "the Democrats" when really it simply reflects that in a nation of 320,000,000 people, it is not that hard to find someone to say something ridiculous.
And similarly, stupid tweets are an inexhaustible resource. To take the particularly stupid ones and use them as a cudgel against the Democrats is a strange thing to do. (I am not talking here about harassment or truly over-the-line tweets. When liberals engage in that kind of behavior, they deserve to be criticized and driven away from the movement and the party.)
All of that said... you can't deny that Fox is effective at what it does, and people like Barro (who is by no means a conservative provocateur) seem to resonate to the same frequency. So broadly speaking, we may have a problem, though I don't think it's the one Barro has identified.
UPDATE: It appears a succinct version of this argument played out on Twitter.
I bought water in a metal can at Yellowstone. The cap didn't go back on the can well, so water spilled all over the inside of my backpack. https://t.co/aUWiQQWK1N— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 24, 2017
Which is to say, sometimes products are made out of plastic for a reason and you should let consumers buy them if they want them.— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 24, 2017
This is why liberals lose elections -- telling people their choice to drink bottled water is against "the future of all humanity" https://t.co/71ZxXQSAnK— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 24, 2017
How does a movement that would abrogate broadly accepted behavior norms win? When its opposition seeks to perfect everyone's behavior.— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 24, 2017
Barro is a smart enough guy that he understands why a ban on plastic water bottles might be a good thing. He's just irritated that someone used over-the-top rhetoric to criticize his original complaint. (Over-the-top because plastic water bottles create unsightly litter but aren't otherwise destroying the planet.)Trump says Democrats are coming for whatever it is you like next. In some cases, he's right.— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 24, 2017
The background here is that the Trump administration is getting rid of a ban on selling disposable plastic water bottles in national parks, and there have been some allegations that this is because a Trump appointee lobbied for one of the biggest sellers of bottled water.
Anyway my observation is that Barro's umbrage here bears striking similarity to what you might call the "Fox News strategy." No matter how dire the news is for Trump or conservatives generally, it is always—always—possible to dredge up some idiotic college professor or liberal activist to say something ridiculous. So Fox News will never lack for content that is embarrassing to liberals and that drives people to vote Republican. To me it seems crazy to pin this on "the Democrats" when really it simply reflects that in a nation of 320,000,000 people, it is not that hard to find someone to say something ridiculous.
And similarly, stupid tweets are an inexhaustible resource. To take the particularly stupid ones and use them as a cudgel against the Democrats is a strange thing to do. (I am not talking here about harassment or truly over-the-line tweets. When liberals engage in that kind of behavior, they deserve to be criticized and driven away from the movement and the party.)
All of that said... you can't deny that Fox is effective at what it does, and people like Barro (who is by no means a conservative provocateur) seem to resonate to the same frequency. So broadly speaking, we may have a problem, though I don't think it's the one Barro has identified.
UPDATE: It appears a succinct version of this argument played out on Twitter.
I realize the entire staff of Vox is personally invested in the idea that busybody liberalism is not a problem.— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 24, 2017
posted by James | 5:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home