And you wonder—why? Why are all these people in mainstream media who are paid handsomely to know what's going on literally years behind understanding the dangers we're facing? And the answer is simple: in the halls of respectability politics, you can't get ahead without being acceptably milquetoast.
If people think you're hyperbolic or over your skis or don't have the favor of big institutions or aren't being lauded by top critics and famous pols, you must be someone to ignore. Even if what you say is sourced and predictive. Corporate media has turned political writing into mere gamesmanship.
Bothsiderism ruined us. After 2006 no one should have taken Republicans seriously again. Especially after 2008. The media should have laughed them off every Sunday show for not being serious. After 2020 these clowns should have been mocked anytime they opened their mouths.
I've been in political journalism for 30 years now, and I can tell you that each year it becomes less and less about urgently informing the public and more and more about individual personalities with no particular journalistic ethos or sense of scope, courage or patriotism trying to make their bag.
This country is going to collapse, from sea to sea, and it'll collapse because Ezra Klein was the best our major media could do. Warm skim milk and a stale sugar cookie. And however angry you are about that, it's not angry enough. We let a monster devour our country like it was nothing. *Nothing*.
All these mod-Dem analysts writing soggy little op-eds from their velvet fainting couches are dreaming of Pulitzer Prizes and trade-press advances. Good for them. Maybe in 2027 those committees and presses can airlift these jerkoffs to a safe country to receive their precious awards and accolades.
Fuck them, fuck their books.
If you're not a radical by now, nothing could ever make you one. (And to be clear, I mean here "radical" by the standards of mainstream corporate media—whose blithe, cowardly, and capitulating normopathy is stifling, crippling, unyielding, and at this point extremely dangerous to the United States.)
Fucking right, Seth.
I've been calling the Republican party a domestic terrorist organization for a decade now. I'm constantly infuriated by the lack urgency or worse calls for bipartisanship. You don't work with Nazi's you defeat them utterly.
It's not the media's job to be the oppo party. That responsibility belongs to Dem leadership. If they were hair on fire screaming about fascism & major media was ignoring them,that'd be 1 thing. But that's not happening. You have to do something newsworthy to get ink. They seem unaware of that fact.
So what's left? Nothing? Cheer on the blod clots knowing Hedge Fund Vance is waiting in the wings? Is there no out at all?
What did people think "mass deportation now" meant? Stephen Miller detailed his plan for deportation flights taking off every 20 minutes and massive detainment facilities. Why the media accept "Donald Trump has absolutely no idea who the title sponsor of his convention is".
Was the Bund rally in Madison Square Garden even covered?
I don't think I ever saw coverage of that.
mostly whatever coverage there was focused on the comedian calling Puerto Rico garbage as I recall. Then Trump somehow turned it around so it was MAGA being called garbage that’s why he did his garbage truck stunt.
Feels like that was 80 years ago. 🥴
Wow. Thx for the update.
? ABC/PBS had full coverage. Is this what you mean? www.youtube.com/watch?v=HysD...
I think so. For some reason I missed that. Thanks.
"MASS DEPORTATION NOW!" signs at the 2024 RNC. It could not have been clearer where this was all headed.
As my lifelong republican mother said, at 87, when she flipped to become a Warren democrat: “WE’RE ALL ANTIFA NOW!”
"More strongly worded letters on their way!" - Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer How do the two of these guys even go to work knowing, KNOWING that their "colleagues" are literally trying to eliminate the Democratic party entirely?
That’s a great question. They’re failing us. They’re failing America.
No they aren't failing, they HAVE FAILED. Same goes for every Senator that voted to confirm ANY of trump's picks.
So far yes. You’re 💯 right about that. But they’re the only ones who can do anything about it because if they don’t, there will never be a legit election again so there will never be another chance for them to fix their failures.
they aren't the only ones who can do anything. WE are the people.
1/ an excellent analysis with one glaring flaw.... in assigning blame for the complacency toward Trump since Jan 6, you keep saying "the Democrats". But during that period, "the Democrats" were taking their marching orders from one person -- Joe Biden. And it was Biden who utterly and completely
2/ failed to meet the moment -- who instructed all of his subordinates in both the White House and DNC to treat Trump as a non-factor. And despite Trump violating all the norms for ex-Presidential behavior, it was Biden who insisted upon treating Trump as if Trump was acting with the same
3/ restraint that virtually all other former PResidents had acted. It was Biden, aided and abetted by Pelosi, Schumer, and Clyburn (acting through Jamie Harrison at the DNC) who literally handed the Presidency to Trump by annointing the demonstrably incompetent Kamala Harris to be his
4/ successor as nominee (despite her disastrous 2020 campaign where she demonstrated an inability to connect with anyone other than her most dedicated supporters.) So lets stop tip=toeing around the real problem -- it was Joe Biden who got us here. Sure, 90% of Dems followed along mindlessly with
5/ Biden's agenda (including the vast majority of 'progressives' here on BlueSky), but we need to make it clear that our LEADERS failed us, because only new leadership is going to get us out of this mess -- and most Dems still cling to the old leadership.
Well, I'm totally defeated after reading that, I thought there may be some hope if we took the house and senate in 2026, anyone have any advice on how to prepare for the near and distant future other than move to a new country?
HEY.. DEMOCRATS, HAVE PURRTY MAKEUP. Go on TV
It's not too late... ...probably...
Basically the same vibes of insanity here, just active, not passive: bsky.app/profile/fell... #1/2
#2/2 bsky.app/profile/wilh...
Maybe they’ll get nasty once the margins for fxxckery are used up.
So what do we do about it?
Klein sends me into a blind rage too, so I feel ya on this
I can name 30 journalists writing from a politically antifascist perspective that worked under corporate media orgs before the layoffs and mass firings occurred. Why can’t you? Just choose not to? Or get rewarded not to?
What are you saying? He should work at a corporation so he can get laid off by fascists?
The underlying problem with Seth’s thread and personal journalistic philosophy is that when he says the words “corporate media” he actually means the New York Times specifically and not the corporate media system itself. His personal vendetta is with one single paper.
And when you understand that detail, his critique of corporate media continuously falls flat because he is in fact a media journalist inside and benefiting from the corporate sphere. He could potentially ally with other journalists to shift the paradigm. Bitter and jealous he remains ostracized.
It jarring how easy it was for the collective entities to just take America without any real resistance.
And as the cherry on top: it.was.all.so.fucking.foreseeable!!!!!
I think this is a misread of the podcast and while it seems you're willing to be the yelly hair on fire guy, I find it helpful to occasionally calmly think through with someone. It takes a village to raise a resistance. I'll get my megaphone for many targets, but disagree on this one.
Ask Ezra what he was doing at the comically over-priced over-hyped Wildflower Farms in Gardiner schmoozing with Schumer and the other mothballs.
I can’t believe that everything you wrote about on twitter six years or so ago was completely true and yet still this :( fucking shit
Seth is 💯💯🎯🎯🔥🔥🔥. The Dems never believed he could become prez again. I never did either. And I would not be at all surprised that he cheated. The complete failure to arrest and immediately prosecute is on Garland. We are headed for a complete breakdown of American society as we have known it.
Dems didn't think Trump could get back to the White House because they assumed he'd be in jail. But when it became obvious that the Biden/Garland DoJ was doing everything it could to NOT prosecute Trump's crimes, a lot of us saw the danger.
💯🎯 I am 😡🤮😔 every day.
Anyone who blames the media is a cop-out. Trump stated what he was going to do, and Americans voted for him. It's not the media; it's the American voter.
It is both
Not for people who voted for Harris. They took their responsibility seriously, & weren't lazy & did their due diligence using critical thinking skills to find the facts. 34 felony convictions history of housing discrimination grabbing women by the pussy told us what he would do dictator on day 1
C'mon. What more does the American voter need? You know what negates all of the above? RACISM The racism is what sealed the deal for Trump because America is racist. Some people are not, but not enough. imo
Many in the left think tank vanguard, including Klein, were focused on removing Biden from the race. Say what you will about Biden, but his cognitive impairment was nowhere near Trump’s and he had a competent VP to take over. I don’t think these genius pundits really understood what we were in for.
Can’t even express how much I appreciate this Seth, thank you !!!
When I was a senior in high school, back in 1983, I interned at the NPR station in Detroit, in the historic Fisher Building. I learned so much from the team there - from the news folks to the sports crew. There was support & laughter amidst constant hard work & a dedication to bringing
Informative and interesting news to their listeners. I ultimately chose not to pursue journalism, but the experience was impactful. I try to follow and uplift the work of credible journalists, & encourage others to please do the same.
Sycophancy and stupidity is pandemic in America
Yep, not sure that people want to be informed as much as they want to be entertained.
Late night comedians do a better job of getting the news out. They know this and it’s why Steven Colbert was silenced. Lawrence O’Donnell is an excellent mouthpiece, but he’s on a perpetual vacation. I’d be working every single day of the week until that SOB dies.
We are so F***ed
White Americans due asswhippin. Makes Tougher grandchildren
it also doesn't help that, if you push against the system in any meaningful way, you're at serious risk of having your funding support disappear (because capitalism doesn't actually want a free and independent press).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If all the US dem does is hang on Obama's lips, you're lost
The mainstream journalists have editors that answer to corporate bosses. These journalists would need to quit to do journalism.
@threadreaderapp.bsky.social please unroll