You should know when people are putting on a show for you. And you should understand that this is what they’re doing most of the time.
Especially political people. And that includes the political media. The ability to express outrage and indignation over the latest whatever-it-is represents a valued art form, highly respected in the hallowed halls of power and influence. If you can pull it off and get people to buy it, you can move the needle of public opinion in the moment and nothing impresses the political class and its media stenographers more than that.
And almost all of it is completely phony, for show, affected, scripted, insincere, obligatory. Almost all of it is nonsense.
You need to know this because it all happens for one of two purposes:
To manipulate you into feeling as outraged as they want you to think they are.
To give themselves cover in case you get outraged want to see that they are too.
This business with President Trump and his comments at the Helsinki press conference are a perfect example. American politicians are not seething with outrage that Russia “meddled” with our election. Russia has always tried to screw with our politics and they all know it. But in the current political climate, feigning outrage over this supposed abomination achieves the goal of putting Trump on the spot. Politicians go on television and vent their pseudo rage at Putin’s egregious sin and then demand that Trump express similar indignation. If he does not, they accuse him of “treason” or something similarly ridiculous.
This is all for show. They know Trump isn’t buying any of this, which is exactly why they’re play-acting their rage for you every day about it.
Republicans are even worse. They are not outraged about the “meddling” either. They know it’s nothing. But they’re terrified because the current narrative has Trump as a Russian stooge for not caring about it (or worse, being in on it), so they have to run to the nearest TV camera and pretend to be crestfallen over Trump’s refusal to punch Putin in the face over it.
All of this is fake.
And that’s not the only recent example.
During Tuesday’s All Star Game, a social media firestorm erupted while Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader was on the mound for the National League. Apparently seven years ago, when he was 17, he tweeted some dumb things about hating gay people and whatever else. The social justice warrior rage machine swung into action, to the point where MLB officials felt it was necessary to approach Hader’s family in the stands and offer them alternate clothing so they wouldn’t be attacked for wearing Hader jerseys.
Supposedly people all over America were upset that Hader had tweeted these things. They were not upset. No one gives a rip what some 17-year-old idiot said on Twitter. Hader’s ancient tweets were merely an opportunity for the play to commence a new act, with the latest target of pseudo-rage being fingered even as he was on the mound facing the likes of Mike Trout and Aaron Judge in the All Star Game.
We were told that Hader’s tweets were deeply hurtful of many people. They were not. No one burst into tears and wrung their hands because of these stupid tweets. People saw an opportunity to put on a show because of the tweets, and they took it.
Another example is the recent use of the dreaded n-word by Papa John’s founder John Schnatter. He did a radio interview a few days later in which the host asked him if he understood how much his use of the word had hurt people. BS. His use of the word had not hurt anyone. No one is upset because some guy on a private phone call uttered a word everyone knows. No one heard about this and cried out to the sky for God to take away his pain. This was all fake.
What happened with Papa John was that the SJW outrage industry bought itself a chance to demonstrate its cultural power by taking down a public figure. The rest of the Papa John’s board was scared to death of what would happen if the screaming SJW crowd was not given the blood it demanded. They got their blood.
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But they were never upset. Not for one second. When this happened, they got excited, exchanged high-fives and went to work.
Even the supposed sadness and shock you heard from the Today Show crew over Matt Lauer’s piggishness was fake. It was for show. These people knew perfectly well the sort of thing Lauer was doing. He was doing it all right in the office and they all knew about it. But they had to act upset for you so you would take their cue, and more importantly, not assign them guilt by association.
None of this is real. Democrats are not upset about the plight of the poor. Republicans are not upset about “the troops” being disrespected. These are boxes to check and lines to deliver so you will believe they care. They don’t care.
Throughout this country you will find real people who have real emotions and care about real things. When they seem mad, they’re really mad. When they seem sad, they’re really sad. When they appear to hurt, they really hurt, and you should help them. This is the real America.
But the politicians and media figures you see on TV have none of that sincerity. They are as fake as the day is long, because they’re trying to appear to be virtuous – to impress you – rather than being virtuous for real.
I just thought you’d like to know that. Have a good day.
You should know when people are putting on a show for you. And you should understand that this is what they’re doing most of the time.
Especially political people. And that includes the political media. The ability to express outrage and indignation over the latest whatever-it-is represents a valued art form, highly respected in the hallowed halls of power and influence. If you can pull it off and get people to buy it, you can move the needle of public opinion in the moment and nothing impresses the political class and its media stenographers more than that.
