David Gergen Clutches Pearls Over Matt Taibbi Saying Tea Partiers Are 'Crazy'

[babylonsister]

:rofl: I didn't even know Taibbi was on cnn!
Video at link~

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/david-gergen-clutches-pearls-over-mat

David Gergen Clutches Pearls Over Matt Taibbi Saying Tea Partiers Are 'Crazy'
By Susie Madrak


This is a hoot. Every election year since 2004, Rolling Stone has David Gergen and Peter Hart dissecting the election results, and this year they add Matt Taibbi to the mix. Taibbi (shown in a recent video) says what he thinks about the teabaggers and Gergen is horrified:

Gergen: If it were not for the extra boost of enthusiasm the Tea Party provided, I imagine the Republicans would have won only 40 to 50 seats, instead of the 60-plus they gained. But the Tea Party also makes it harder in the future for Republicans to maintain a coherent party. Matt is right that they will have a large voice in the nomination process in 2012. But one cannot discount that someone could arise, as Reagan did in the past, who can bridge the differences within the party and keep people united.

Taibbi: To me, the main thing about the Tea Party is that they're just crazy. If somebody is able to bridge the gap with those voters, it seems to me they will have to be a little bit crazy too. That's part of the Tea Party's litmus test: "How far will you go?"

Gergen: I flatly reject the idea that Tea Partiers are crazy. They had some eccentric candidates, there's no question about that. But I think they represent a broad swath of the American electorate that elites dismiss to their peril.

Hart: I agree with David. When two out of five people who voted last night say they consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party, we make a huge mistake to suggest that they are some sort of small fringe group and do not represent anybody else.

Taibbi: I'm not saying that they're small or a fringe group.

Gergen: You just think they're all crazy.

Taibbi: I do.

Gergen: So you're arguing, Matt, that 40 percent of those who voted last night are crazy?

Taibbi: I interview these people. They're not basing their positions on the facts — they're completely uninterested in the facts. They're voting completely on what they see and hear on Fox News and afternoon talk radio, and that's enough for them.

more...

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/david-gergen-clutches-pearls-over-mat

[name not needed]

1. Taibbi is a national treasure.

If you haven't read his book, "The Great Derangement", I suggest you do so.

[donheld]

18. Gergen is a national pain in the ass

he should be put out to pasture in a distant land.

[cognoscere]

39. Or maybe put IN a pasture. N/T

[tblue37]

42. With an annoyed bull. nt

[EFerrari]

2. Matt is great.

:)

[Gabi Hayes]

3. awesome, matt! you are such a breath of fresh air. I predict you're not long for CNN.

anybody read his fabulous Wimblehack, in which he had a sixty-four 'journalist' (NCAA hoops-style) elimination bracket during the 04 election, I think, to see who was the most egregious hack covering that campaign?

wait a minute. I'll find it.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. wimblehack, bonus interview included

PART ONE:

It is hard to imagine anything more meaningless, underhanded, vapid, shameless, pointlessly vicious, embarrassing, uninspiring, degrading and even unentertaining than this billion-dollar daily exchange of sneering teenage accusations between the Bush and Kerry camps. And it is hard to imagine anything more galling than the unspoken media subtext of the electionthe idea that this slime-fest somehow represents an important moment, a landmark memory, in our own lives. The implication that we're such losers that we would actually want to watch this crap 24 hours a day for 15 or 16 months is almost more appalling than the behavior of the candidates themselves.

Though we're tempted to blame the politicians, it's time to dig deeper. It's time to blame the press corps that daily brings us this unrelenting symphony of horseshit and never comes within 1000 miles of an apology for any of it. And it's time to blame the press not only as a class of people, but as individuals. We must brand anyone who puts his name or his face on credulous campaign coverage an eternal Enemy of the State. Hopefully, over time, this will have a deterrent effect.



To begin this important process of collective healing, we must find that first person to mark with our scorn. That is why New York Press has launched the First Quadrennial Election Hack Invitationala tournament, to be held between now and the week after the election, which will answer the question: "Who is the worst campaign journalist in America?"



The rules are very simple. We have chosen 32 of the country's leading campaign reporters, mostly from the world of print, and bracketed them into pairs. Each week, the pairs will square off against one another. Whoever writes worse, advances. It's that simple.



The tournament progresses until the week after the election, when the writer of the worst and most slavish and dishonest election post-mortem among the two remaining contestants will receive an Illustrious Mystery Prize from the New York Press tournament committee. Anyone familiar with the history of these sorts of competitions is welcome to speculate as to what that might be.........

http://www.nypress.com/article-10258-wimblehack_.html


...................


interview
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christian-avard/rolling-stones-matt-taibb_b_72597.html

[nxylas]

33. Love Taibbi's work, not so keen on the web designer's

I found the piece somewhat hard on the eyes. It needed more space between each entry, for a start.

[Gabi Hayes]

47. try copy/pasting it into Word, then see if it reads easier that way. I have to do that

a lot, as my computer squeezes lots of things together, too.

they stretch out when I put them into something like Word

well worth the effort for this, especially if you loathe the creeps he skewers

[RainDog]

4. he's telling the truth n/t

[jberryhill]

6. "Crazy" and "not intelligent" are two different things

Tabibi's point is that their positions don't make sense.

He's right. They get a lot of help from FOX in being all over the map.

However, there are a lot of people who, God love them, are just not very bright.

50% of EVERYBODY has below average intelligence - that's what "average" MEANS!

If you can get everyone of below-average intelligence to vote for you, then you are practically home free.

Maybe they can't figure things out very well, but they SURE can tell when someone is calling them stupid or crazy. And they don't like it any better than anyone else.

That's what Gergen is saying by "elites dismiss to their peril".

Just one local example. We had that fruitbat Christine O'Donnell running here in Delaware. One of her casual lies was about getting a college degree. The point was about the lie, but it came across as "She doesn't have a college degree"!

Do you know how that comes across? MOST PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE. And while a college degree is, quite obviously, no guarantee of intelligence, and some of the brightest people I've known didn't bother with it, the reaction of a lot of people is:

"Well, I don't have a college degree either. Are you saying there is something wrong with me?"

Failure to grasp what I'm saying here is political doom.

[babylonsister]

7. Kind of like, 'government, stay out of my business' while saying at

the same time 'don't touch my medicare'?! :crazy:

[jberryhill]

9. Yes, exactly!

On a local wingnut blog, there is some guy going on about how new IRS rules are a "government intrusion" into medical flexible spending accounts.

I mean, it's staggering. The guy doesn't know that flexible spending accounts are entirely a creature of IRS regulations in the first place.

Shit is complicated, and a lot of folks don't quite understand all the linkages.

It doesn't make them crazy. They just aren't deep thinkers.

But it doesn't do any good to say, "Man, you really are one dumb piece of work, aren't you."

They are pretty good at remembering who said crap like that to them.

[Populist_Prole]

37. I have 2 friends who are exactly as described.

As is said, they're just not deep thinkers about much of anything. Not stupid as such: capable of seeing a salient point if pointed out or if they just think things through...basically mentally lazy. I'll hear them opine strongly about this political issue or that, but it's so blatantly obvious they're just quoting or paraphrasing the latest soundbites or talking points from cable news channels...and only what's "hot" right now. One of them admits, though not proudly, he knows or cares little of "civics". I get so frustrated I'm tempted to call them ignorant jackasses to their faces; but even if I'm willing to make enemies of them ( which of course I don't want to do ) I know this will only steel their resolve to think they're right.

[molly77]

36. babylonsister

That seems more like brain washed to me.

[Ken Burch]

41. Or "keep the government OUT of Medicare".

(That one STILL makes my head hurt...)

[Hannah Bell]

13. no, that's what "median" means.

85% of the adult population = high school grads, 27% college grads (BA or higher).

[jberryhill]

14. The point being....

That if you call someone without a college degree "stupid", you are putting down 73% of the population.

[Hannah Bell]

15. yes. i understood.

[jberryhill]

16. Well, I figured you weren't stupid /nt

[CLANG]

19. Jberry - great points!

[ArcticFox]

43. I read it differently

I think Taibbi was trying to say that since their opinions have no basis in reality, but are instead based on Fox News and afternoon talk radio, they are basically crazy. Isn't that what crazy is - when one's thoughts have no basis in reality?

[lonestarnot]

8. K & R!

[AndrewP]

10. Well....they are

[Cognitive_Resonance]

11. Taibbi speaks the truth. Gergen epitomizes media narrative. nt

[glitch]

17. Or put it another way: Gergen epitomizes Beltway Bobblehead.

And that's the kindest interpretation.

[spooky3]

12. I have to recommend this just for the great headline!

The rest is gravy.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

20. They ARE a SMALL and FRINGE group! Less than 20% IS small.

The Corporate Media has given them so much airtime and exposure that people THINK that the movement is larger than it really is!!

[Mosaic]

27. It started with Faux Noise

And their rethug propaganda, and ended up spreading like a virus to the other rethug lite corporate media. The truth is obscured by our lying propaganda machine, and the sheeple who don't use the internet don't know any better.

[gratuitous]

21. Gergen has made his career on crazy Tea Baggers

Low information, high dudgeon voters, easily manipulated by this week's demagoguery. Gergen wouldn't be farting through silk boxers if it wasn't for the Nitwit Brigade and all the hard work he and his cohort have done to make sure they're mad and dumb. He has to defend them (conceding that some of their candidates are "eccentric") or risk that nice fat sinecure he's so accustomed to.

[MsPithy]

31. Low information, high dudgeon voters...

gratuitous! Nicely done!

[TBF]

35. Gergen's pretty low information himself - can't stand that guy. nt

[renate]

51. I ditto that thumbs up on "Low information, high dudgeon voters"

Perfect! :applause:

It's not insulting--it's simply true--and it sums up their thinking perfectly.

[Major Hogwash]

22. Hahahahahaha I dare say, they're nucking futs. What ho, oh boy, that's not very cricket of you.

They're completely out of their minds, Gergen.

Wake up and go ask them if they know there was a war going on in Iraq and listen to what they say about how it got started, you nimrod!

[neverforget]

23. Tea Party: Shrink the Federal Gov't! Cut taxes! Tea Partiers: Don't touch my Medicare

or Social Security! Yeah they're crazy or at least stupid because they hold 2 ideas that contradict each other. The Tea Party should be name the Cognitive Dissonance Party.

[progressoid]

24. Good for Matt.

[disillusioned73]

25. Gergen seems to want to take the term "crazy" at face value...

most people understand what Taibbi was saying, these people don't deal in reality and/or facts. It's a combination of willful ignorance and spoon fed information/propaganda... unfortunately this country is getting the voting poplulace our education system was set up to produce and the informed are becoming ever more frustrated watching it unfold.

[Mosaic]

26. This Gergen Fossil

Needs to go where all useless, old timers go. Off the air.

[yellerpup]

28. Love your headline!

:rofl:

Edit for misspelling.

[goforit]

29. Welcome to Nazi-Germany Mr Gergen.

[BurtWorm]

30. If "crazy" is not the right word for baggers, Gergen, will "irrational" do?

:eyes:

"Thinking with their spleens"? Or does Gergen think baggers have reasonable views of the world and the facts?

[ProudDad]

32. K&R - But they aren't the only ones who are full of the "crazy"

I listened to an hour of Afghanistan war hawks on the Diane Rehm show this morning. These people live in an alternate Bizarro universe that sounds soooooooo much like Johnson and Nixon that it's spooky. When they were called on the similarity directly by a Human from Earth on the phone, they all echoed, "Oh, no this is nothing like Vietnam!" and then moved right back to their bullshit talking points about "turning the corner" and "light at the end of the tunnel" (in 2014 <maybe?> this time). For some reason, hawks like these believe that by exporting more war (Yemen and Somalia<again> next? Iran, maybe?) they'll bring about peace. Fucking Amazing!!!

I hear the Cat Fud Commission talk about killing a few seniors and poor people and further cutting taxes on the rich as a way to "solve the deficit problem". Cut the war budget??? Their answer is the less than 10% they think they can find by cutting "non essential programs and waste, fraud and abuse" (they sound just like the idiot republicans who say "Tort Reform" will solve the for-profit Sick Care mess). So, their major suggestion is to cut the deficit by cutting the ONE program that's making the deficit APPEAR SMALLER THAN IT REALLY IS?

Now I'm listening to another Rehm segment about a "bipartisan" Debt Reduction Task Force announces today (Cat Fud Committee II?), cut taxes to pay back the money they owe? Even if I cared if the mainly rich fucks who "loaned the money" to the Empire get paid back (which I DON'T except working people's pensions <if any>!), it doesn't even pass the sniff test. This is like saying to someone who's up to their ears in debt that they should change jobs to get a LOWER salary so they can pay back what they owe. They also suggest cutting taxes for the rich in exchange for regressive taxes like a VAT tax. The dismal science indeed. (big difference between plans - "better ratio of taxes to spending cuts" 'cause they're much more "realistic"... translation: more regressive taxes, less DEEP cuts in public services)... Crazy, crazy, crazy!

Matt's completely correct, these tea-baggers are COMPLETELY disconnected from any semblance of reality but the "greater society" and especially the "leaders" and "opinion makers" in the USAmerikan Empire (among others) is JUST as disconnected from the reality of the human condition circa 2010.

They're ALL fucking crazy...

And the fucking inmates are in charge of the asylum...

[Kolesar]

53. I have written to my local NPR affiliate

and they still won't drop Rehm. She is insidious.

[Jefferson23]

34. Say it like it is Matt. I can't stand Gergen, he was on CNN recently

peddling his most Americans reject Obama's health care policy and conveniently ignores that most Americans
wanted it to go MUCH FURTHER.

Fuck you Gergen.

[laughingliberal]

38. Go Matt! K&R. nm

[Kall]

40. The silver lining in all this is...

The silver lining in all this is that when the United States collapses into a third-world, dysfunctional, "not-crazy" Tea Party dystopia, useless media hacks like David Gergen will be among the first ones eaten.

[soryang]

44. Actually not "crazy" but psychopathic, this is a science

And most people in the media either don't realize it, or pretend not to realize it.

Modern propaganda techniques were first developed in America by Edward Bernay. Bernay understood that the psychology of a crowd or mass of people (or mob as I prefer to think of it) is akin to id of an individual mind as theorized by Freud. Hannah Arendt calls the same phenomenon the "mass mind" in the Origins of Totalitarianism. This mass mind is by its psychological nature responsive to the instinctive emotions and is totally irrational. Bernay worked with Woodrow Wilson's government to whip up public frenzy against the "hun" for WWI.

After WWI he went to work for corporate America and devised ingenous and successful marketing schemes in consumer marketing.

The essence of the mass mind is insecurity and the need to belong. Fear is a motivator, so is envy, jealousy, resentment, aggression, hatred, racism, anger, and all the evil emotions that we need to counter and control with our rational mind. Feelings are freely associated, there doesn't need to be any logical connection to articulated beliefs. When the anxiety or emotion of collective id is tapped any free association will fly. Those at the source of the projection of the code, symbol or imagery that taps this emotion and unleashes the id, can change their message at any time and move the mass mind in the desired direction.

Advertising and propaganda obviously need not include verbal or written messages, they can be visual, symbolic, imbedded in entertainment, video, art, virtually any medium. Any message or idea of an emotional nature can be projected. There are various sophisticated techniques, such as association, projection of influence, staging events, the big lie, the facil explanation, the allegory, the icon, the archetype, the god image, identity reflection, cult of personalty, etc.

Is is a science. It works. That is why corporations, leaders, governments, and parties pay billions upon billions of dollars each year for advertising and propaganda service.

People speculate about the tea baggers being "crazy" because they don't understand the phenomenon.

[Kolesar]

52. Nice take on linguistics

Did you write that just for DU? impressive

[katty]

45. thank you Matt...just the FACTS, please!

[NICO9000]

46. I loves me some Taibbi!

I didn't know this was a TV broadcast as the newest issue of Rolling Stone prints it as a roundtable discussion. Matt also says "Fuck the business community!" to Gergen's bogus assertion that somehow Obama and Dems are "hostile" to the business community (den of thieves is more like it). Gergen can't believe that somebody would say that to him as he knows full well who his paymasters are.

Fuck Gergen and the business community and hail Matt Taibbi, the most honest political writer in this country.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/232460

[Overseas]

48. K&R. Love Matt Taibbi !

He tells it like it is.

[ooglymoogly]

49. Gergen is the arch duke of "bipartisanship"in the punditocracy; as long as the middle

is decidedly to the right of what is comically called the center where he is most comfortable pontificating; hitching his skirts and clutching at pearls too closely strung and knotted, on strands of the beltway, getting more and more difficult to clutch with any believability.

Truths to baldly said, do thus eliminate the need for such talking heads; chopping the fat ladies aria to a haughty note, becoming more and more a screech with heavy baggage.

Gurgen prefers round about avenues to the the "truth" with many variables, where he can appear erudite; avenues that are not inscrutable like those of the Taibbis, Olbermanns, Maddows and Greenwalds of the world, who expose pomposity in the bright of neon.

[PufPuf23]

50. Thanks. Matt Taibbi has a great mind.

The Tea Party folks support policies and world views that are cognitively dissonant.

[Kolesar]

54. Gergan is paid about fifty time what I am paid. Who is the "elite" here?

Disclaimer: I made up the fifty. I probably have the order of magnitude correct, though. I never partied with Reagan or Clinton.