There Is No “Both Sides” to Donald Trump’s Threat to Democracy
www.vanityfair.com
Just because Republicans choose unreality doesn’t mean the media should ignore the facts of January 6.

Just because Republicans choose unreality doesn’t mean the media should ignore the facts of January 6.

On January 6, 2021, I watched CNN as thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. As someone well-versed in watching tragedy on television, I was struck by just how indisputable the facts were at the time: violent, red-hat-clad MAGA rioters, followed by Republicans in Congress, tried to stop democracy in its tracks. Trump had told his followers that the protest in Washington, DC, “will be wild,” and in the assault that followed his speech, some rioters smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol. Hundreds of them have since been convicted on charges ranging from assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy. These are stubborn facts, the kind that do not care about your feelings. These facts include the inalienable truth that Trump is the first president in American history to reject the peaceful transfer of power.

It never occurred to me that these facts could somehow be perverted by partisanship. But three years later, we are seeing just that, as Republicans cling to the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Joe Biden and are poised to make Trump their 2024 nominee. And perhaps even more dangerous than the GOP ditching reality is the news media’s inability to cover Trumpism as the threat to democracy that it very much is.

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But the problem is, when all you have is conventional political framing, everything looks like politics as usual. One candidate makes a claim; the other disputes it. Two sides are divided, etc. This framing only works if both parties operate within the frameworks of a shared reality. But Trumpism doesn’t allow for the reality the rest of us inhabit. Trump’s supporters believe their leader’s reality and not, say, the reality the rest of us see with our eyes. As Trump once told a crowd: “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

Journalists may be well-intentioned in trying to be “objective,” or they’re simply afraid of being labeled partisan. Either way, coverage of January 6 that gives equal weight to both sides—one based in reality, one not—is helping pave the road for authoritarianism.

  • i3c8XHV@aussie.zone
    11·
    10 months ago

    There is no genocide. Speaking of it as if it was a proven fact is a mean rhetoric trick.

    With the current situation in Israel we might see ethnic cleansing in a few years but we’re not there yet.

    Do you know what will prevent a future genocide? Finding a better way for Israel to protect itself against Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists. That will also be the only way to get Israel to exit the west bank.

    • Count042@lemmy.ml
      1·
      10 months ago

      Holy shit, don’t fucking ever smoke your own supply.

      Any country that tries to deal with a population it views as undesirable by completely blocking access to requisite food, potable water, and medicine is committing genocide, and doing so intentionally with malice aforethought.

      Anyone with any amount of knowledge of history or warfare is perfectly aware of what the consequences of those actions are.

      You know what would protect Israel? Recognizing the validity of Palestinian complaints whether they be due to stolen lands, or their desire to be treated not as second class citizens in an apartheid state. You don’t make peace by destroying people, except through genocide or ethnic cleansing.

      Also, fucking mentioning the West Bank in this context is so despicable as to be disgusting. There is no Hamas in West Bank. And, the Israeli Settlers/terrorists have been using this war to try and steal as much land in the West Bank as possible as well as drive out as many Palestinians as they can. All while under the protection of the IDF who don’t lift a finger to violence initiated by the Settler terrorists, but immediately arrest anyone trying to defend themselves.

      Don’t bother replying. Your racist lies won’t do a goddamn thing.

      • i3c8XHV@aussie.zone
        1·
        10 months ago

        You don’t seem to know much about this conflict and about the area. There is a lot of Hamas in the west bank. Look at the pictures of the killed militants from the past weeks in the west bank, a majority of them are draped in Hamas funeral flags, only a minority are PLO militants.

        Secondly, Israel already accepted the validity of the Palestinian claims for the west bank and Gaza in multiple peace offers. They were not accepted by the Palestinians because they are not willing to accept Israel’s right to exist.

        If you have any other way of removing Hamas, let’s hear it. If not, would you prefer the civilians were not evacuated?

        Israel has many many Arabs in it, with equal rights. Hamas is the one that has in its charter the “cleansing of Palestine of the Jewish filth”.