Former President Barack Obama visited Stanford University on Friday to deliver a profound and timely address on the dangers of disinformation. He warned that “Once [people] lose trust in their leaders, the mainstream media, in political institutions, in each other, in the possibility of truth, the game is won.” It was a compelling discourse on the precarious state of modern communications and propaganda.
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Naturally, whenever Obama appears in public to remind everyone what an intelligent and articulate leader sounds like, Fox News needs to start flinging feces at him in a desperate effort to deflect from his pertinent and persuasive message. And on Friday that assignment was given to Fox’s Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson. Carlson began his harangue by flagrantly misrepresenting Obama’s words. Carlson said that…
“Obama argued that only his political opponents lie, and they must be stopped immediately.”
Of course, Obama didn’t say either of those things. Carlson is simply making stuff up so that he can subsequently condemn it in his typically pretentious and whiny voice. This is, after all, the same cretinous cream puff who recently declared that “The End of Men” was imminent and that the only salvation was a program of therapeutic testicle tanning.
RELATED: Macho Poser Tucker Carlson’s Journey from ‘Dancing With the Stars’ to ‘The End of Men’
Carlson followed his opening lie with a video of Obama that actually proved that Carlson was lying. In the video Obama said that…
“People like Putin, and Steve Bannon for that matter, understand it’s not necessary for people to believe this information in order to weaken democratic institutions. You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plant enough conspiracy theorizing, that citizens no longer know what to believe.”
“People like Putin, and Steve Bannon for that matter, understand it’s not necessary for people to believe disinformation … You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage.”
— President Obama on how disinformation leads to people losing faith in democracy pic.twitter.com/mZvidysEB9
— The Recount (@therecount) April 21, 2022
Whereupon Carlson proceeded to excrete some more misrepresentations of what Obama had said. Carlson raged…
“Oh. So people who disagree with Barack Obama aren’t just saying things that are wrong, They’re flooding raw sewage into our country.”
Once again, not only did Obama never say that people who disagree with him are wrong, his reference to “flooding raw sewage into our country” was taken directly from remarks made by Steve Bannon, who stirred up his seditionist audience by saying that “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” Carlson not only neglects to mention that, but he has clearly taken it to heart, as evidenced by his body of work.
Carlson continued…
“So this guy is not just liberal. In fact, he’s not liberal at all. He’s a full-blown fascist who hates you and wants to keep you from talking, or else. He wants censorship of anyone who disagrees with him, and now he just comes out and says it.”
Really? Where Carlson gets that “fascist” business from is a mystery. It certainly isn’t from anything that Obama said. It’s most likely projection, wherein Carlson is just observing what he sees in himself and projecting it onto his foe. Carlson then plays another video that proves, again, that he’s lying.
“While content moderation can limit the distribution of clearly dangerous content, it doesn’t go far enough. Users who want to spread disinformation have become experts at pushing right up to the line of what, at least, published company policies allow. And at those margins social media platforms tend not to want to do anything. Not just because they don’t want to be accused of censorship, but because they still have a financial incentive to keep as many users engaged as possible.”
Exactly! Ultra-rightist Republicans like Carlson repeatedly misconstrue the Constitution’s First Amendment. As Obama noted, it is a check on government overreach, and does not apply to private companies. It is not a violation of anyone’s rights if CNN or Fox News or the New York Times or Twitter declines to disseminate commentaries that are false, abusive, or otherwise harmful or unlawful or merely violate the company’s terms of service. It’s called free speech. Nevertheless, Carlson persists in his ignorance to say…
“So me and my friends at the Aspen Institute need to be in complete control of every word uttered or else it’s not democracy. That’s the case he’s making. That’s the case their all making.”
No, Tucker. That’s not the case that Obama, or anyone else, is making. It’s just the mischaracterization that you’re making to deliberately deceive your already dimwitted viewers. Which you are doing quite well. And it’s why President Biden observed accurately that Fox News is “one of the most destructive forces in the United States.”
RELATED: WTF? Tucker Carlson Mocks Biden for Believing that He Won in 2020, Which, of Course, He Did
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I was just saying today that if you compare Obama or Biden to that disgraceful mentally ill Trump you won’t find a bigger contrast in human decency vs human depravity! When will the American people wise up and stop listening to these morally bankrupt charlatans? I’m beyond tired of it!
You & me both!! You’d think that after 4yrs of seeing the damage, the LIES, the bullying & total disregard for our laws & rules, the laziness & incompetence, the greed & selfishness, criminal behavior ..(.you get the idea)… & GOP + Trump’s actions after 2020 election…you’d think that Trump, GOP in general & FauxSpews would be shown to be what they truly are & no one would want to have anything to do with ’em anymore!
But, that’s because you DO think, as do I. But we have a minority Party of voters in U.S. who no longer KNOW HOW to think at all! They only know what FauxNoNews tells them, what they’re told to think & how to feel about things. Their brains have atrophied from lack of use.
Someone should check FauxSpews & see if they’re using subliminal messaging or something between frames. Whatever it is, it’s made 1 group of Americans too stupid to even know just how stupid they are!!
On the other side, seems Dem Party is too busy, or too overwhelmed, to be forceful & fight back against what Rethugs are doing ~ a coup right out in the open, thru election fraud that they call election “integrity”! All I can hope is that all others learn from us just how quickly & easily democracy can be killed, while folks watch, yet do not see it.
At the core are 2 big, major malfunctions that stand out to me:
~ Need MORE than just 2 political parties for democracy not to stagnate, “yes vs no” party line votes make governing just a competition berween 2 teams & too cozy to get the hard work done. Rivalry — can’t do it when focua us mit on country & its people, but is on “beating other side”!
~ NO private funding of political campaigns! Public funding prevents the greed factor & wealthy “buying” politicians. It also keeps cost of campaigning DOWN to reasonable levels. Less time fundraising also means more time working for the people & nation. Lobbyists should prob’ly be illegal too ($$ money-wise). Too much sneaky shit goes on behind closed doors!
Full funding for enforcement of rules & laws is a “must have”! Rules not enforced with consequences high enuff to deter others, are useless & non-existent…false security.
What gets MY goat is the Rethug’s constant use of the word PATRIOT”. I get emails again and again. “We have notified you 23 times and you don’t answer. Be a PATRIOT. Sign up for Trump’s truth social. , donate donate donate. PATRIOT PATRIOT PATRIOT. It gets to the point that these RNC’s keep me in a constant state of uproar and nausea. Maybe that’s a good thing. They are NOT Patriots. And Jo, here’s hoping that Greene Marjarine gets everything coming to her through a court of law!!