Obama spokesman comes clean on how he manipulates a willing media to shape the narrative

Much hay is being made today about how sanctimonious Obama administration "foreign policy advisor without any actual foreign policy experience" Ben Rhodes snookered Americans into supporting the disastrous Iran nuclear deal.

And this Rhodes fellow surely is a piece of work. He created a panoply of astroturf "experts" and fake Twitter feeds to disseminate a plethora of fabrications supporting his boss's policy. How did he get away with it?

Because the people he was feeding it to are a bunch of naive know-nothings.

"All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus," Rhodes said. "Now they don't. They call us to explain to them what's happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That's a sea change. They literally know nothing."

We literally have a media that doesn't know what it doesn't know.

And worse, an American public that by and large doesn't care.

These know-nothings are given the power to shape our policy discussions and sway public opinion because they're educated, having graduated from Ivy League bastions of liberal indoctrination.

Harvard and its academic siblings, American culture's spoiled institutional trust fund children, fully intend to safeguard their position as the conformity factories manufacturing America's leadership class. They are an assembly line of indoctrination that bolts together elitists out of socialism, amorality and entitlement, and then sets them loose on American society reeking of that new snob smell.

When I grew up in the 1970s the mantra was "question authority."

Today's kids are force-fed appeals to authority. From "climate change" to "tolerance" they are being told what to think and no one is teaching them how to think. Is it any wonder then that our politics are so polarized?

As traditionally conceived, liberal education would temper the all-too-common tendency to demonize those fellow citizens with whom we disagree. In no small measure, the value of a liberal education — to the individual and to the public — stems from the ability it cultivates to explore moral and political questions from a variety of viewpoints. This virtue entails putting oneself in another's shoes. It promotes toleration, civility, and mutual respect. In "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill called this the virtue of "many-sidedness."

Ben Rhodes and his ilk are the antithesis of John Stuart Mill.

However, as currently practiced at our leading colleges and universities — through which a disproportionate percentage of our elites pass — liberal education cultivates single-sidedness and reinforces the polarization of our politics. The campus assault on free speech, the abandonment of the fundamental requirements of due process in university disciplinary procedures regarding accusations of sexual misconduct, and the hollowing and politicizing of the curriculum have become distressingly entrenched features of academic life. Their toxic effects are harming the country.

Those who have failed to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

We now live in an age where all ideas are considered equally valid. Why? Because, feelings. "I feel" has replaced "I think."

I feel, therefore I am, uh, valid, or something, said Voltaire, in a Common Core history lesson detailing the French revolution's disparate impact on transgender people of color.

It's impossible to have a rational discussion if the other person equates disagreement with hurting their feelings.

So my opposition to Obama's policies is automatically racism. Investigating potential terrorists is de facto evidence of Islamophobia. My support for traditional marriage and living my Catholic faith must be due to my hatred of homosexuals. End of discussion. There can be no other reason, because, feelings.

Feelings begat Bernie Sanders. And coed bathrooms. The right to not be offended trumps the Constitution now. Give me liberty a Safe Space, or give me, well, certainly not death. Extra cookies perhaps.

Meanwhile the perpetually aggrieved willingly submit to authority, because authority pays lip service to all those things that make them feel good about themselves. Hard truths make people uncomfortable, and look!, it's Kim Kardashian!

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Bruce Jenner is a woman.

This image was recently posted to Facebook, seen as one of those "a friend of a friend liked this" things that oftentimes pop up, tagged "I'm proud of my political ignorance."

I didn't know whether to laugh, or cry.

This person votes.

And she is, of course, hardly unique.

She is also Ben Rhodes', and his media sycophants', target audience.

I'm sure all her friends consider her to be a Model Citizen too.

The problem with our nation isn't that either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will succeed Barack Obama as our next president.

The problem with our nation is an education system that produced a citizenry willing to elect Barack Obama and then accept Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as our next president.

They don't know what they don't know. Which is exactly how the pupppet masters like it.

Posted at 11:47 by Chris Wysocki   [/media]   Comments | Perm Link |
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