Monday, November 05, 2018

How NYT's Democratic Bias Manifests Itself: The Birth And Growth Of The "Jobs Not Mobs" Slogan

I think you could see this as a bit of mostly-objective memeology: here's how it started, here's how it developed, blah, blah, blah. OTOH, to treat something in this way tends to suggest a kind of quasi-scientific, deflationary intent: focusing on the etiology is often a way of suggesting that external forces, rather than the intrinsic allure of the message, is responsible for its acceptance and development. (Ew, this thing is weird...let's dissect it...) Also, of course, we're told that it originated on "the internet's fringe"...and the history only goes back to a compilation video of leftist mobs...despite the fact that we'd all been commenting on the mobs...and despite the fact that there were mobs... But the Times doesn't trace the idea back to, y'know, the mobs...nor to the mainstream chatter about mobs...but...somehow...just to a "fringe"compilation.
   The left has a tendency to externalize/pathologize ideas anyway. And it's got The New York Times, The Atlantic, Google et al. on its side. It's become addicted to trying to deflate legitimate objections by treating them as you'd treat a disease--represent them as pathological, view them externally, as some sort of nuttiness or tactic of the right, give a causal history of them and tell an external story about how they appeal to people who have problems because they have problems. (That's part of the idea of using '-phobia' as a suffix in terms like 'transphobia'; you don't have a legitimate objection to confused ideas, you see...you have a medical condition...)
   Ya know how this slogan got started? It started with shrieking left wing mobs beating people up even before the election. Then Antifa mobs breaking things, attacking people and shutting down speakers. Then the shrieking campus mob that surrounded Christakis, the mob that attacked Murray, and the anti-Kavanaugh mobs...some partially naked, some dressed up as Handmaid's Tale Characters, some waling and beating on the doors of the Supreme Court... It started with actual blue-team crazy. It also started with a strong economy and solid employment numbers. "Mobs" is grounded in the facts. "Jobs" is grounded in the facts. "Jobs Not Mobs" rhymes, and it contrasts one objectively good thing for the red team with one objectively bad thing about the blue team.
   But the NPC...oh...sorry...I mean the NYT...isn't interested in objectivity anymore. So, instead, we get the crap we get.
   Of course I've lost my objectivity about this stuff, too. So perhaps I'm making a mountain out of a molehill.
   

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