screaming into the voidJan 6, 2023
david roberts

Back when Obama was president & lunatic MAGA types were mostly confined to obscure right-wing media outlets, I considered writing a piece titled, "Some day these wack jobs will be in charge." I wish I had gone through with it.

What's happening now was entirely predictable then.

Jan 5, 2023 at 9:36pmWeb
Show threaddavid robertsJan 5, 2023
Back then mainstream political coverage more or less ignored the crazies -- they treated guys like Paul Ryan as the "real" GOP. But I kept thinking: these kooks won't be confined to RW media for long. Some day Republicans will control gov't! What do people think will happen then?
Show threaddavid robertsJan 5, 2023
It's easy to roll your eyes & chuckle when shit like Jade Helm (remember that one?) is confined to obscure Facebook groups or whatever. But eventually the political worm turns & Congress is launching official investigations into Jade Helm-style shit & it's not funny any more.
Show threaddavid robertsJan 5, 2023
I guess what I'm saying is what I've said a zillion times before, which is that the right's trajectory has been clear for decades & US political media has failed spectacularly & repeatedly to acknowledge or reckon with it.
Show threaddavid robertsJan 5, 2023
However, the very same media did rise up with one voice to give blanket coverage to the dire threat of students at elite colleges calling out racism too vigorously. Great job.
Show threadrateexportpilotJan 5, 2023
@drvolts why would you cover one of America's major parties becoming completely unhinged when you can write another thinkpiece on "wokeness" and "cancel culture"
Show threadnadin brzezinskiJan 5, 2023
@drvolts @martinvermeer there is a reason I write at my own Medium instead the #WAPO. They would never allow this https://nadinbrzezinski.medium.com/mccarthy-and-the-speakership-529e61d9cb3d
McCarthy and the Speakership - Nadin Brzezinski - Medium

It has been 100 years since a Speaker of the House was not elected to the post on the first vote. We are so used to how procedural these are that some in the media seem surprised that Republicans are…

Medium
Show threadEn Buen Ora 🆗Jan 5, 2023
@drvolts also the US press doesn't care how bad the right is and always assumes it won't matter for their own institutions and lives, albeit perhaps wrongly
Show threadJohn Weeks Jan 6, 2023
@drvolts After another term of Biden/Harris, Repubs take presidency in 2028. And never leave.
Show threadBathsheba BlueJan 6, 2023
@drvolts
The media is right wing.
The ‘liberal media’ was (is) a lie, like everything else the GOP has peddled.
Show threadGregory HellerJan 6, 2023
@drvolts On the failure of political news media: how is it that George Santos and his bald faced lies went unchecked through not one, but TWO campaigns for congress, and only were exposed AFTER he won?
Show threadtripleman, a 🇨🇦 in 🇩🇪Jan 6, 2023

@drvolts I remember thinking that Michele Bachmann, in the Minnesota state senate at the time, had to be one of the more over-extended branches in the crazy tree and that it'd surely break.

I had no idea.

Never underestimate the right's predilection for batshit crazy.

Show threadalanbirchenoughJan 6, 2023
@drvolts An aspect of all this that I always have trouble getting past - to your point about Jade Helm - is the sheer bloody childishness and implausibility of nearly all the conspiracy theories. It may not be funny any more, but stuff like this remains super lame. Is this an essential or an accidental attribute, I sometimes wonder.
Show threadLoïc MJan 5, 2023
@drvolts Were you aware at the times of the Russian interference ? Financing all sorts of extremists over many countries (such as the US off course, but also in the UK -> Brexit, France's Front National etc) to use them as battering rams to sow discord & division in a broader plot to weaken NATO ?