No Empathy, Only Anger - Those seeking to support Trump's party line need an excuse for their months

[Celerity]

of denial and deception—and they’ve found it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trumps-dangerous-party-line/608383/

On the evening of June 21, 1941, American Communists went to bed subject to one party line. At the sun set, Britain was fighting an imperialist war against Germany, about which the United States must remain neutral. American Communists awoke on June 22, 1941, to discover the party line abruptly changed. Hitler had invaded the Soviet Union. Now the war was a struggle between democracy and fascism, one the United States must immediately join.

The personalities on Fox News executed a similarly abrupt and total pivot on March 13, 2020. The Washington Post produced a stark before/after anthology of the same hosts saying precisely opposite things a few days apart. Yet the many weeks of denial have had their effect. An Economist poll released March 18 found that only 38 percent of Fox News viewers took the virus seriously, half as many as among MSNBC and CNN viewers. For Trump’s sake, Fox risked the lives of its own audience.

Like the old Moscow-line Communists, the upholders of the Trump party line now need an excuse for their long history of denial and deception. They insisted it was not Trump’s fault that he, and they, squandered precious weeks and that his administration is suddenly dithering and failing. No, no, Trump's failure was China’s fault! Did video evidence contradict the Trump party line? They accused anyone who recalled the truth of repeating Chinese propaganda. The Trump party line swaps new lies for old. Whereas once the ideological enforcers called concern over the virus a hoax, now they say that it’s a hoax to remember they said it was a hoax.

The Atlantic has been pulled into the crosshairs of the new lies that replaced the old lies in a retweet by the president himself. In response to an article that documented how China’s official lying had aggravated the crisis in that country, and lamented that Trump’s official lying had done the same here, the president’s Twitter feed repeated a slur that The Atlantic “spews communist China’s propaganda.” This from a man who as a private citizen condoned the Tiananmen Square massacre, and who as president praised the mass-murdering Kim Jong Un as “one in 10,000.”

Trump wants Americans to call the novel coronavirus “the Chinese virus.” Trump’s new slogan aims at two goals......

snip

[wishstar]

1. Great article- Two goals:

Two goals:
"The first goal is to shift blame away from Trump’s failures and onto China’s. This goal is very unlikely to succeed. We all saw Trump’s catastrophic misjudgments inflict their toll in real time. It was not the Chinese Communist Party that decided to host a cash-for-access party at Mar-a-Lago for Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend on the weekend of March 6–8, when a responsible president would have already begun modeling safe behavior. It was not the Chinese Communist Party that closed trans-Atlantic aviation and made no provision to receive throngs of returning Americans—exposing air travelers to hours of penned-in close contact with visibly sick people. It was not the Chinese Communist Party that urged Americans to buy stocks at the end of February, devastating the savings of anyone foolish enough to trust financial advice from Larry Kudlow, Eric Trump, or this president.

No, Trump won’t succeed in shifting blame.

It’s the second goal that could succeed. By revving up hate among their supporters against China, Trump and Fox can redirect those supporters’ rage from the dangerous target it might otherwise find: the trusted political and media figures who lied and lied and lied to them, exposing those supporters to disease and death for their own crass ends. Hate China, not me!"

[BigmanPigman]

2. "For Trump's sake, Fox risked the lives of its own audience."

That is a classic. So is this one....

Whereas once the ideological enforcers called concern over the virus a hoax, now they say that it’s a hoax to remember they said it was a hoax

[Celerity]

4. I deal with these mumpty American Fox/Trumperhumper types daily on some of my UK/EU non-political

chat boards (especially football, aka what you call soccer.) Many STILL cling to the 'it is all a Libtard Dem hoax' bullshit line. They are incredibly aggressive and impenetrable. Thank fuck one of my main boards has banned 2 of the worst, when they went on on a gay-bash rampage (because 'the gays' travel a lot (wtf?), they said that it was us (meaning LGBTQ, not me in particular as I do not even live in the US) who brought it to the US!, ffs.)

[Brainfodder]

3. Can Fox News be sued over this malarkey?

Asking for a few million friends?

Suing them dead; almost as good as toilet paper!

[Alacritous Crier]

5. There has never been anyone

more unfit to be President.

[Scarsdale]

7. True. However

Ivanka and Jenius Jr. are planning on running for the WH in the future. They have seen how much money daddy makes while doing the "job". Plus he never has to spend a penny of his own money. Everything goes on the taxpayer bill. Mnuchin is refusing to show how much it costs the treasury for the entire tRump family travels, etc.

[Wounded Bear]

6. "We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia"...

All the old news goes down the memory hole and makes room for the new news.