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This is a tough column to write, because I don’t want to demean or insult those who write me in good faith. I’ve started it a half dozen times since November but turned to other topics each time because this needle hard to thread. No matter how I present it, I’ll offend some thoughtful, decent people.
The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.
The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.
This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.
The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.
As for those who equate Trump and Joe Biden, that’s false equivalency. Biden has done nothing remotely close to the egregious, anti-American acts of Trump. We can debate the success and mindset of our current president, as we have about most presidents in our lifetimes, but Biden was never a threat to our democracy. Trump is. He is unique among all American presidents for his efforts to keep power at any cost.
Much as it offends some who read us, we will continue to tell the truth about Trump.
To quote Ben Shapiro if I may… “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” Trump’s a traitor who incited a violent insurrection and continuing to support him after what happened on 1/6 makes you one too.
Don’t quote Ben Shapir, he’s an ass who thinks he debates people very well because he can yell louder. He’s not the type of person you’d want to quote
It’s apt in this case, because old Benchy is a massive right wing hypocrite who cares infinitely more about feelings than facts. Using his stupid words against him and his ilk when they do the very thing they bitch about is ok in my book.
but it’s funny to use his quote when the facts argue against Ben Shapiro’s beliefs
Being British but having to talk american politics ive started looking to Wikipedia for somewhat non bias information, or more so I am able to easily follow the source which often leads to first hand testimonials, court documents and some such information.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack
I find doing so gives me an advantage when combatting misinformation.
My uncle who seems to get all his insight from Ben Shapiro or as I say dry muff man, and Russell brand/Howard which ever is doing a pod cast theses days.
Anyway a lot of the right wing ideologs tend to side on conspiracy, hearsay. So be well informed and hopefully we can pull the working class away from these grifters.
Ben Shapiro is an idiot and not a model American. He says shocking things for ratings and then acts like he’s a victim. He is no different than Howard Stern but on the opposite end of the spectrum.
is Howard Stern considered left???
He was back before Serious XM. People were flipping out for how progressive he was. How he is now? I don’t know. I was picking a known entity that was a shock jock.
Bunch of snow flakes ❄️❄️❄️
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter. The people equating the two will loudly proclaim to be leftists while simultaneously saying that Trump wasn’t actually trying to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden, and that Trump actually was trying to STOP the ‘unruly protest’. No amount of arguing can get through to people who have no interests other than smug contrarianism.
Learn to tell the difference between leftists and right wing trolls. Anyone can call themselves a leftist. There is no leadership in the leftist movements that have come within a thousand miles of equating Trump and Biden. Biden is an old school right wing corporate Democrat, not fascist Trumpian garbage.
right wing corporatocracy is fascism.
Are you saying that Biden is fascist, or that he isn’t a right wing corporatist? If Biden is fascist, what is Trump? Neoliberalism is on the far left (or centrist) side of right wing corporatism, and fascism is the far right side.
Neoliberalism thinks power comes from meritocracy, and Fascism thinks it comes from moral superiority. The first is rooted in the merchant class, and the other with the divine right of kings. That’s why fascists turn on Jews so often, because they associate Jews with wealth and Christians with royalty or ecclesiastical power.
Mussolini made no such distinction. mechanized military states meet all the hallmarks of fascism: primacy of the state, and alignment of institutions with the interest of the state.
Neoliberalism is better described as alignment of the state with the interests of institutions. It’s almost worse, except that the interests of different institutions aren’t all aligned.
the state still has primacy, and the corporations are both chartered by the state and are subject to capricious prosecution for a myriad of laws if they threaten the power of the state.
no one is equating them.
I think people have a hard time encountering criticism of Biden without reading into it some sort of comparative statement that is not usually intended. I have personally encountered this many times. I can even go out of my way to say things like “of course Trump is much worse” in various levels of detail and yet, without fail, someone will come along and say that by not offering unquestioning support to Biden I’m a secret Trump supporter trying to undermine Biden or some other wild accusation. I believe this type of interaction is most responsible for perpetuating the idea that people believe the two men are similar. By contrast I rarely see that opinion offered directly.
Anyone who claims to be leftist and doesn’t think trump committed insurrection is trolling you. Believing Biden is just as bad is another matter entirely.
Well done, whoever you are. Thoughtful and poignant.
By Chris Quinn, Editor, cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer
If only we knew who this masked hero is!
Whoever you are…
Thank you, anonymous person. Whoever you are!
Trump is the best thing to ever happen for the mainstream media. They don’t have to report on much else but his shenanigans.
Less news stories about building housing
Less news stories about the abysmal Healthcare scamcare system.
Less news stories about a digital bill of rights
Less news stories about empowering worker co-ops and other labor movements.
Trump spam all day.
To be fair, the things that have happened around him are completely unprecedented for a president.
But the underlying problem is, you could literally elect a can of beans into the oval office, and it would do a better job than donald “dictator on day one only” trump. So there is no pressure on biden to even move… The lines are drawn between a fascist and a corporate shill. Choose your poison, Americans
For a corporate shill he is really helping out the union movement. I would say that here’s more for workers rights then Obama is. And with less of the drone strikes. I think he could do more sure, but I don’t see this guy going full corporate stooge and I feel like it’s a knee-jerk reaction to claim he is.
Now if only he could stop bending over for Israel
