No One Has Ever Been Dumber Than This

An unimportant person, but an interesting illustration of a social type.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, so deeply an expert on authoritarianism that she advised a cartoon, warns today that Fox News “serves as the GOP's de facto propaganda arm,” amplifying the party’s false messages. No academic has ever said before that Fox News is bad, so you can already feel the fresh breeze of groundbreaking scholarship. The noted expert describes a kind of a pragmatic and ideological partnership: Fox marches behind the GOP, and the GOP marches behind Fox, and Tucker Carlson stands astride both like a colossus, tugging on the leash. “While Fox does not directly make policy,” Ben-Ghiat writes, helpfully clarifying an obscure point about a television network’s constitutional role, “it heavily influences GOP lawmakers, and Carlson styles himself as an enforcer of the party line.”

Another expert leaps in to hone the point:

Brian Rosenwald @brianros1

Small, but significant, disagreement with @ruthbenghiat: I wouldn't call Fox the propaganda arm of the GOP. Because it reverses the direction of the power relationship. Conservative media is the more powerful partner. They dictate to GOP politicians, not the other way around.

Richard Power @wordsofpower

New & essential from ⁦@ruthbenghiat⁩ - Fox is a Far-Right Disinformation Machine and the GOP's Propaganda Arm https://t.co/ReFh0Joc0w

Fox News dictates to Republican politicians. The TV speaks, and the party obeys. You can watch Fox News tonight to find out precisely what the GOP is going to do tomorrow. “Release the gimp,” Sean Hannity’s producers cry, opening Mitch McConnell’s box.

Let’s test that theory. Who did the political obergruppenführers at Fox News support as GOP chair this year? Let’s turn to Media Matters, a source on the left:

And then:

Note the dates on those two examples, by the way. Want fifty more examples, or would that just be tedious?¹ We’re talking about people who get paid to analyze orange trees, say for example, and who write essay after essay warning that orange trees produce veal cutlets. They don’t know anything. They don’t see anything. The experts have their narratives, and they type them up.

More importantly, as I said earlier today, the people warning you about domination are more or less fondling their riding crops and looking you over for the good areas of spanking flesh. Because in that piece I linked at the top, Ruth Ben-Ghiat doesn’t just see the threat — she also proposes the answer:

Every authoritarian takeover depends on enablers from business, religion, the law, industry, and the media. In return for profits and privileges, elites agree to tolerate and/or facilitate the rollback of rights, the spread of propaganda narratives, and the recourse to violence against state enemies. These participants in the destruction of democracy often go unpunished, even if the politicians at the center of that takeover are eventually prosecuted. This has been the case with Fox.

So to prevent authoritarianism, we need to make sure that more people in business, religion, the law, industry, and the media stop going “unpunished.” Just linger on that for a moment. (Then, if you feel like clicking on the link and reading it, she delves into the kinds of social and cultural shunning-and-banning punishment that she has in mind.) I’ve always been mildly irritated by Freudian pop psychology, but wrapping up your authoritarianism warning thing with a screed about inflicting punishment defeats me:

She’s projecting.

1. Bonus question: Sean Hannity furiously demanded that Lauren Boebert stop challenging Kevin McCarthy and fall in line on the Speaker vote. And then she _____________ (fill in blank).