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You are here: Home / Blame Taibbi

Blame Taibbi

by John Cole|  January 5, 20129:06 pm| 43 Comments

This post is in: Clown Shoes, Our Failed Media Experiment, Teabagger Stupidity

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One of the people I like to poke and prod on twitter is David Freddoso, a right winger who works for the Examiner and other various wingnut sites. I think his world view is crazy and all that, but I like the fact that I can pop in every now and then and basically call him a moron, he’ll respond in kind, and then we both go on our own way. That’s pretty rare- most right wingers will just lose their shit you say anything to them, and the next thing you know they’ve tweeted at you 100 times.

At any rate, last night he tweeted something to the effect that if Mitt Romney wins the nomination, he is going to have to “educate people about private equity.” I just giggled when I read it, and basically responded, wait a minute- you guys spent the last three years getting people to yell “get government out of medicare” and know you think you have a shot in hell at explaining something like private equity? To which he responded with this gem:

To back up his “point,” he then directed us to this Rolling Stones piece:

Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn’t a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — “Government’s not the solution! Government’s the problem!” — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains.

“The scooters are because of Medicare,” he whispers helpfully. “They have these commercials down here: ‘You won’t even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!’ Practically everyone in Kentucky has one.”

A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can’t imagine it.

After Palin wraps up, I race to the parking lot in search of departing Medicare-motor-scooter conservatives. I come upon an elderly couple, Janice and David Wheelock, who are fairly itching to share their views.

Matt Taibbi on the response to this article: “Rand’s Medical Group: Obama Hypnotized Voters”

“I’m anti-spending and anti-government,” crows David, as scooter-bound Janice looks on. “The welfare state is out of control.”

“OK,” I say. “And what do you do for a living?”

“Me?” he says proudly. “Oh, I’m a property appraiser. Have been my whole life.”

I frown. “Are either of you on Medicare?”

Silence: Then Janice, a nice enough woman, it seems, slowly raises her hand, offering a faint smile, as if to say, You got me!

“Let me get this straight,” I say to David. “You’ve been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?”

“Well,” he says, “there’s a lot of people on welfare who don’t deserve it. Too many people are living off the government.”

So in the wingnut hive mind, it wasn’t distributed right wing talking points, or colossal ignorance or anything like that that had legions of blue hairs in hoverrounds all over the country yelling “Get government out of Medicare.” Nosirree. It’s either because Taibbi started something at a rally or Rolling Stone’s circulation numbers in the 65 and older set are FUCKING PHENOMENAL. And even then, you have to ignore the fact that Taibbi wasn’t telling them to yell that, he was pointing out how stupid it was to tell government to get out of a… government program. You’d also have to ignore the fact that the media was reporting these sorts of things prior to Taibbi’s column.

So the next time you see one of these:

Come across one of those in the wild, and you know who to blame. Matt Taibbi.

Priceless.

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Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    Mildly AmusedRainbowPerson

    January 5, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    Clearly, this is all the fault of Glenn Greenwald. If he hadn’t forced himself on those nuns, big government would never have forced innocent white people into motor scooters.

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    January 5, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    Keep Matt Taibbi Out of Private Equity

    /brandishes sign

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    January 5, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    I’ve already invoked Gumby once today but dayumn, I gots to do it again. What a moran.

  4. 4.

    MikeJ

    January 5, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    or Rolling Stone’s circulation numbers in the 65 and older set are FUCKING PHENOMENAL.

    To be fair, who else reads it?

  5. 5.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 5, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    I blame Glenn Greenwald.

  6. 6.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    January 5, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    @MikeJ: 1/3 of GOS, I would think.

  7. 7.

    WereBear

    January 5, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    Aw, beautifully framed. Other people taking it might reduce his share.

    This is zero sum thinking; the only kind Republicans seem capable of.

  8. 8.

    Special Patrol Group

    January 5, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    “Well,” he says, “there’s a lot of people on welfare who don’t deserve it. Too many people are living off the government.”

    Indeed. Strapping Young Bucks and Welfare Queens.

  9. 9.

    pragmatism

    January 5, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    Causation, how in the fuck does it work?

  10. 10.

    Rafer Janders

    January 5, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    Every day I become more and more convinced of the view that it’s all just an elaborate piece of performance art. That the last 30 years have been one long punking, and that any minute now, they’re all going to yell “Psych! Ha-ha! We totally got you guys! You totally fell for it!”

  11. 11.

    Cacti

    January 5, 2012 at 9:17 pm

    “people on welfare who don’t deserve it”

    always =

    people who aren’t white and republican (redundant I know)

  12. 12.

    redshirt

    January 5, 2012 at 9:17 pm

    Best sign ever. I kinda miss those first crazy teabagger rallies. Gosh, what ever happened to them anyway? Gosh!

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 5, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    Does David Freddoso have a prompt that comes up on his twitter screen to remind him to take a breath?

    Because he seems that fucking stupid just from this little incident.

  14. 14.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    January 5, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    And you know that the very serious people in the media will report on this because both sides do it. Period. Interestingly the ad on the side of my screen is for an Acorn Stairlift, which you know “with your insurance and medicaid” will be free.

  15. 15.

    Anne Laurie

    January 5, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    @MikeJ:

    To be fair, who else reads it?

    Hipsters, eager to know which bands / singers / movies they need to start sneering at. And high schoolers too socially isolated to have neighborhood sources for their fake IDs and other weekend supplies.

    ETA: At least RS keeps them away from Ayn Rand.

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 5, 2012 at 9:22 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Yeah, I’m getting Hoveround and walker ads, too. Googleads…gotta love them!

  17. 17.

    cathyx

    January 5, 2012 at 9:22 pm

    What does he mean by private equity? Is that in place of social security?

  18. 18.

    jl

    January 5, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    How can we get this Fredosso to be Mitt’s campaign strategy adviser?

    I like his ideas, and think he would do a great job.

    After a long running campaign theme on private equity, Mitt can run a series of ads on carried interest, tax advantages for offshoring jobs, and accounting control fraud.

    Does Fredosso have a newsletter? I find his ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe. Come in handy when I go precinct walking for the Dems.

    Edit: I forgot to throw in the advantages of the GW Bush tax cuts for the rich, and how corporate shells work. I’m emailing the Mittser right now to tell him to hire Fredosso.

  19. 19.

    handy

    January 5, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    @MikeJ:

    I read it whenever I’m in the lobby of my dentist’s office because he always has a copy laying around.

  20. 20.

    Cacti

    January 5, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    Hipsters, eager to know which bands / singers / movies they need to start sneering at

    Please provide a physical address where you would like your internets sent.

  21. 21.

    amk

    January 5, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    You should consider it as a badge of honor whenever you’re attacked by wingnut numbnutz.

  22. 22.

    flounder

    January 5, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    Two years ago I went as a teabagger for Halloween: put some gray color in my hair, wore an American Flag bandana, made a t-shirt of McCain and Bush hugging, and carried around a sign that said “Keep government out of my Medicare”.
    It was a blast. I got into it with two real ‘baggers, and they were not pleased. Not at all.

  23. 23.

    ChrisNYC

    January 5, 2012 at 9:42 pm

    At Gingrich’s town hall tonight, a young person, early twenties said, “You and most of the people in this room are on your way out.” Meaning, near death. Hilarious.

  24. 24.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    January 5, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    @redshirt: I kinda miss those first crazy teabagger rallies. Gosh, what ever happened to them anyway?

    They were overrun with liberal infiltrators carrying racist and threatening signs and generally acting like jerks in order to discredit the glorious Tea Party.

  25. 25.

    El Cid

    January 5, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    @Xecky Gilchrist: Indeed. The reason that it’s so hard to find leftist and liberal volunteers for so many desperately needed organizational tasks is that they’re all out deployed as infiltrators to right wing activities.

  26. 26.

    gaz

    January 5, 2012 at 10:11 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Yeah, I’m getting Hoveround and walker ads, too. Googleads…gotta love them!

    Probably because JC posted a picture of Tunch earlier.

    =)

  27. 27.

    jonas

    January 5, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    @cathyx: I think he means explaining what Bain Capital did and why. In other words, trying to find a way to dress up “we bought out vulnerable companies, fired a bunch of their workers, sold the pared-down company and pocketed the profits.”

  28. 28.

    Schlemizel

    January 5, 2012 at 10:17 pm

    That’s pretty rare- most right wingers will just lose their shit you say anything to them, and the next thing you know they’ve tweeted at you 100 times.

    I think we just saw its not just the wingnuts that have this problem & also how incredibly stupid of an idea it is.

    The one thing I have seen again & again from the wingnuts & their media enablers missing on the left is the ability to completely rewrite recent history to make it match their delusions.

  29. 29.

    Brian R.

    January 5, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    This ain’t the way Freddoso wanted it! He can handle things! He’s smart! Not like everybody says … like dumb! He’s smart and he wants respect!

  30. 30.

    R. Porrofatto

    January 5, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    A lot prior to Taibbi.

  31. 31.

    fasteddie9318

    January 5, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    @Brian R.: Very nice

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    January 5, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    @Brian R.: He’s not a brother, he’s not a friend. I don’t want to know him or what he does. I don’t want to see him at the hotels, I don’t want him near my house. When he sees our mother, I want to know a day in advance, so I won’t be there. You understand?

  33. 33.

    Bridget

    January 6, 2012 at 12:03 am

    I enjoy reading your posts. In the meantime, more often than naught, you are first in the mix.

  34. 34.

    Monkey Business

    January 6, 2012 at 12:45 am

    See, the ultimate goal is the reduction of taxes in all forms on the wealthiest Americans to zero. Now, how on Earth are we going to keep the military industrial complex humming along, blowing up foreigners, if we’re zeroing out taxes on the wealthiest Americans? Considering you can’t raise taxes on the Hoveround Crowd without inviting the wrath of God, by which I mean faxes, letters to the editor, and lord knows what else, you have to cut, and cut deep. If white people are going to have any chance whatsoever of keeping their precious benefits, you’re gonna have to cut off the black and brown folks to do it.

    So you see, it is a zero sum game. Every tax dollar spent is a dollar taken out of the pocket of a hard working white American job creator and put in the pocked of a shiftless, lazy, possibly criminal minority, rather than a solid, hard working white person who’s fallen on hard times.

  35. 35.

    LosGatosCA

    January 6, 2012 at 12:47 am

    Basically, America jumped from the Empire State Building in 1994. At first the ride down was fun – WhiteWater, Vince Foster, Impeachment. And the dot.com rush. Then there was a little turbulence, the dot.com crash, Bush v Gore, etc.

    Then we hit the ground with 9/11, Afghanistan, Gitmo, Iraq, Abu Ghraib, domestic surveillance and indefinite detention.

    At first we thought we might survive – support the troops – go shopping.

    But the possibility that we might actually be dead zombies walking aimlessly started dawning on the more aware people with Swift boating Kerry and getting the Pentagon annual spend in the neighborhood of 3/4 of a trillion annually.

    The brain rot that has afflicted a very high percentage of the population can only be attributed to a few possible causes. One is that Bin ladin created lead chips in the form of french fries which white American men have now been munching on for 20 years. A second is that we all really died on 9/11 and we’re just haunting what was once a great country, like the Sixth Sense. Or we didn’t all die finally on 9/11 we were just badly injured and like Vanilla Sky we are just having a several hundred year night mare unintentionally inflicted on us while were are ll cryogenically sleeping.

    Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that there’s just a spontaneous out break of national stupidity for which there is no known cure. And the epidemiology traces it back to its source – Nerwt Gingrich’s Contract on America, which admittedly sounds smart to stupid people.

  36. 36.

    shoutingattherain

    January 6, 2012 at 1:39 am

    @LosGatosCA:

    A second is that we all really died on 9/11 and we’re just haunting what was once a great country, like the Sixth Sense.

    Funny. We were just talking about something like this over dinner tonight, trying to trace where and how America lost her way.

    We all died a little on 9-11. Some more than others. I haven’t had a real good laugh in years.

  37. 37.

    Chris

    January 6, 2012 at 3:10 am

    @LosGatosCA:

    I trace it back to 1980, personally. Electing Reagan = beginning of the downward slope.

  38. 38.

    reflectionephemeral

    January 6, 2012 at 7:06 am

    Real late, I know, but there’s a lot of overlap between what research shows about the Tea Party, and what it shows about “ethnocentric whites”. I know you’ll be surprised to learn that Matt Taibbi didn’t make it all up (this is a self-link, quoting & linking to other things for substantiation):

    So what do Tea Partiers have in common? They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do. … As discussed previously, earlier studies have found “among white voters being ethnocentric is associated—independent of self-described ideology and other factors—with decreased support for means-tested welfare”— even though “ethnocentrism helps to build support for social insurance programs among white Americans”. “Keep your government hands off my Medicare” is truly the apotheosis of teahadism.

  39. 39.

    BruinKid

    January 6, 2012 at 7:18 am

    Are we seeing the start of Matt Taibbi Derangement Syndrome?

  40. 40.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    January 6, 2012 at 8:25 am

    Take it back to 1968, when Dick Nixon used the Southern Strategy. Then bring it up to 1980, when Reagan used it to win the White House. The doctrine of white supremacy on which those campaigns banked was a slow acting poison.

    It’s not America that’s dying; it’s the Republican Party. The great task set before us is to make sure they don’t take America down with them.

    Face it, folks, this is ACW II– The Cold War Edition. And just like the first American Civil War, these Confederates will see it all burn in the defense of white supremacy.

  41. 41.

    El Cid

    January 6, 2012 at 8:55 am

    @LosGatosCA:

    Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that there’s just a spontaneous out break of national stupidity for which there is no known cure.

    I don’t see it so much as the creation of stupid (including willful ignorance) as it is the continual breaking down of the barriers which kept a lot of it isolated and farther away.

  42. 42.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2012 at 9:40 am

    @MikeJ: I read it, by crikey!

  43. 43.

    fuzed

    January 6, 2012 at 10:35 am

    Thank you! that’s new flavor of idiotic. Which is refreshing after all the Repub frontrunner idoitic was getting a little stale.

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