A lady wearing a hijab was in front of me in line at the grocery store yesterday, unloading her cart with the help of her two tween girls. While waiting my turn, I scanned the racks of magazines, puzzle books, comics and scandal sheets and saw this:
It occurred to me that we’re entering the Tabloid Era. Trump himself or one of his associates could very well be the source for that story. Some of Trump’s minions have advanced the theory that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the US government and that Huma Abedin was an agent of the Brotherhood somehow.
If I recall correctly, the shitgibbon cited the National Enquirer as a credible news source at some point during the campaign. The Enquirer’s publisher, the aptly named David Pecker, claims Trump as a friend and supposedly axed stories that might have reflected negatively on the shitgibbon, while publishing lurid tales claiming that Hillary Clinton was on death’s doorstep throughout the campaign.
Oh well, I was thinking, standing in that line. We’re a cheap, tacky joke of a country now, mirroring the character of our soon-to-be leader, so why not make the National Enquirer the “paper of record”? It’s not like The New York Times has been using that role to any good purpose anyway.
But my heart ached for the mother and two daughters who unloaded their cart while I waited in line behind them. I was hoping maybe they wouldn’t see the headline. But of course, they see it more clearly than I do. Every single day.
Villago Delenda Est
Disinformation. It’s the new thing. Minitru is in control.
debbie
We never left it.
Botsplainer
We’re well and truly fucked, Betty. The firehose of Trump propaganda is only just now beginning.
Wait until he has the ability to sent 90 character unblockable alerts directly to our cellphones, conveniently a capacity right at the time of his inauguration.
For me, the only solution is going to be to retreat into self and such pleasures I enjoy while I figure out how to (at minimum) expatriate myself from a blue city I love which is about to be punished by this shithole state in such a way that life will be untenable. Trying to figure how far away I can get, and whether something like the middle or lower Keys or even California will be far enough from the miseries that are coming.
Grung_e_Gene
Trumpism has distilled conservative thought into it’s base form; pure propaganda.
There are no such thing as facts, there is only the ever evolving right-wing beliefs (updated daily) which provide the neo-nazis the ammo they need to troll liberals and allow the RepublicaNazi Party to enact their Neo-Feudal agenda of oppression and intolerance.
Corner Stone
We’ve been in The Tabloid Era since at least Reagan. When the Z grade movie star was elected our society was forever cheapened but it at least had the veneer of plausible deniability because he had been elected gov of a big state twice.
That CNN clip going around where the interviewer asks about millions of illegals voting, and they all believe it is true, but none of them can exactly tell you where the source is. Breitbart and Drudge digitized the tabloid medium, but the tabloid mentality itself is one of the main reasons we are here now.
And yes. The fact that we are just another cheap tacky autocracy is still not settling in quite yet.
debbie
We’ll see if he follows the designed protocol which limits the unblockable alerts to:
It will also be interesting to see which, if any, carriers object to this as much as they did to unencryption.
Starfish
Were the daughters wearing hijabs too or had they assimilated?
Muslims put up with nonsense from the media every single day, but there are some interesting acts of support going on as well. Put the words “support Muslim” into your Google news search or even “support Muslim student.” People are out there doing nice things that do not involve donning hijabs.
Brachiator
Fake news, lies and distortions have been around for a long time. While at the doctor’s office, I listened to the following exchange between two talk radio hosts, one of whom has always been hot to limit immigration.
I’m not a population scientist, but I new the story was likely bullshit, so I looked online and found a reference in the UK rag, The Sun, which was still overblown, but had all kinds of qualifiers in the headlines before you even got to the main story.
Still a bunch of lies and exaggerations that probably got twisted by some right wing news site before it ended up on some fool’s Facebook page.
I imagined that Trump would use the Enquirer as his propaganda organ; other news outlets will be forced to quote them, even if they try to debunk what they say.
But really, is it any worse than having Trump surrogates appear on pundit shows and lie harder than Baghdad Bob?
And then we have Trump himself and his Amazing Twitter Machine.
We are doomed.
Botsplainer
@debbie:
“Alerts Issued by the President” to include:
Amir Khalid
@Starfish:
I take strong exception to what you imply in your question. One by no means precludes the other. And what would the question even mean, if you happened to be talking about an American-born Muslim woman?
Baud
I wish we could start focusing on our strengths instead of wallowing in theirs.
Corner Stone
And James Comey gets to wake up every day, go to work and cash his paycheck with a smile on his face.
Iowa Old Lady
Mr IOL has Fox’s Sunday show on the TV, and Chris Wallace is interviewing Jill Stein. I could almost feel sorry for Wallace except if you invite Stein on your show, you deserve what you get. Plus, he’s Chris Wallace, so who cares.
Corner Stone
@Baud:
One has to admit, we’re more than a little fucked.
FlyingToaster
I saw this yesterday at the grocery as well, and noticed something else.
Mind you, I’m in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (God save it!) and fairly-blue Watertown, but at the two Stop-n-Shops here:
The Tabloids are ALWAYS in stock. TVGuide is almost always in stock (except if there’s a Star Trek cover). The Cooking mags (Better Homes & Gardens, for instance) are nearly always gone, displaying the “We’re sorry, this item is out of stock; we’ll replace it as soon as possible” placard.
I want to ask their management why they stock so many tabloids when they don’t seem to sell them. Is Ahold associated with the ownership of the Enquirer?
Matt McIrvin
@Corner Stone: My impression is that part of what was going on in the FBI was a long-running pissing match with State over the control of classified information.
If that’s so, Comey is NOT going to have fun in Trumpworld. If it’s any small comfort.
Baud
@Corner Stone: I don’t have to admit that. Because, sad to say, when you tell people we’re fucked, people believe it’s because we should be fucked. I want people to believe that we deserve better.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
Horse puckey. That’s as wrong as saying that the Senate was cheapened by the election of Al Franken, just because he was a comedian.
The Enquirer has been around since 1926, and hit its stride in the 1950s through 1960s.
As a Californian, I have had a low regard for Reagan for a long time, but the Tabloid Era pre dated his rise.
Glidwrith
@FlyingToaster: I saw that crap in my grocery store as well. It occurs to me, I have never once seen anyone buy the things.
I have long since taught my kids that the tabloids are POS.
Botsplainer
@Corner Stone:
I think we’re structurally ruined, absent a major disaster of a terror attack or a war which so exposes mendacity and incompetence that only 27% hold on to some faith in the GOP. They learned last time that their gains are fleeting, and will take harder positions this time.
Starfish
@Amir Khalid: Both of my parents are Muslims who were born in one of the current theocracies. I grew up in one of the southern states in the US. The closest mosque or Islamic center was over an hour from our house. I grew up without a religious community due to this. I imagine that Florida to be similar in having a limited number of places for Muslims to worship. This is why I wonder about the daughters!
Woodrowfan
@Amir Khalid: i agree with you, but to be fair dress styles ESP for young women has always been a source of generational tension. One of the most common complaints in new communities in the US has been from parents that their children wanted to dress “like Americans” which meant like their peers without any clothing that identified them as members of a particular community. My campus is 10% Muslim and a majority of them are young women. I see this debate on campus.
bago
I saw that and thought: “Do you understand how spies work?”
If the CIA doesn’t have muslim spies, they’re kind of crap at their job.
bago
And for some reason I don’t think ISIS needs a mole in the CIA to figure out what’s going on in Aleppo. They can just look out the window.
aimai
@Starfish: Yeah, people do assimilate/take off their hijabs all the time. I worked with a young bangladeshi student who wore her hijab for a couple of years after immigrating here, and then suddenly decided to take it off “for the summer” and never went back to wearing it. The position of women and choice in anykind of religiously orthodox community, in a wider heterodox culture, is very complicated and natural processes of adolescence and individualization, of maturity and creation of an adult self, may often lead girls (especially, because of the repressive/controlling aspects of fundamentalist religions and cultures) to choose to reject dress codes.
It really pisses me off that female muslims are encouraged to maintain a distinctive style of dress while male muslims are not and then the task of respresenting/suffering for the faith is basically loaded entirely onto the shoulders of women and girls. While the men can “pass” if they want. I realize that they may not see it that way–but they are passing and leaving their wives and daughters to represent the faith in a potentially hostile public.
However, this story about NY reminds me that I actually see a ton of young women and mothers with hijabs all the time, and I should make a bigger effort to be situationally aware and step in when I see a micro-aggression, let alone a major aggression.
Kathleen
Somewhat OT from this discussion but relevant to Trump effect (this happened in my neighborhood):
http://nbc4i.com/2016/12/03/couples-house-trashed-tagged-with-swastikas/
Good news is there has been outpouring of support on GoFundMe page, which as of yesterday raised close to $10,000, plus offers from support.
bago
@debbie: Amber alerts screw up device labs ffor doing mobile testing. An amber alert pops up and all of the tests for the next few hours are trashed until you can reset the device.
Corner Stone
@Brachiator: We have had many clowns in statehouses, the Senate and House. Not quite equivalent.
And the reason I said “since at least”.
Starfish
@aimai: The Muslims that I am related to in ways that I may or may not understand immigrated to the US 40 or so years ago. Most of them have taken off their hijabs. There are a couple of people that I see regularly in my current community that wear the hijab, and I am not exactly sure how to be supportive of them because I don’t know them well yet.
Corner Stone
@Baud: I didn’t say that you did. But it is undeniable, from actions and statements during the campaign, to the staffing choices thus far, to actual actions and statements now since the elections.
There was at least some check, however effective/ineffective, during Reagan’s term(s). Absolute radio silence from any elected R leader indicates there may not be any of the same this time around.
Corner Stone
@Botsplainer:
I enjoyed the brief time I spent in the Keys this last summer. But i was doing touristy things and stayed active the whole time, no idea what kind of infrastructure there is in the area. Looked fairly desolate if you weren’t in the water or eating.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@bago:
Darn it, buddy, you can’t go expecting folks in Wingnuttia to go packing critical thinking skills and knowledge. They fly by the seat it their britches there and value feelings and “just knowing” stuff.
Amir Khalid
@Starfish:
@Woodrowfan:
I came of age around the time that hijab became more of a mainstream thing among Muslim women in Malaysia. So I remember that debate quite well. The people debating it weren’t immigrants from anywhere; there was just a generational change at the turn of the 1980s about what people here — and women in particular — considered modest. I myself have no opinion on it, since I’m aware how little correlation there can be between outward display of devotion and internal feelings.
What bothered me about Starfish’s question was the apparent implication at for an American Muslim woman, wearing hijab and “assimilation” into the American way of life are somehow opposing binary choices. I don’t believe this to be true at all.
Elizabelle
@aimai: Fascinating about the women and girls representing the faith. I’d noticed that too, but never thought about the implications.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
Of course, Franken is an intelligent and diligent senator, and it is lazy to rip Reagan just for being a former actor. And no matter how you slice it, the Tabloid Era began long before Reagan.
That said, the idea that our current president-elect has a mind that naturally gravitates towards trash news and idiotic conspiracy theories is scary enough. Add to that the idea that Trump’s buddy owns the rag and is willing to use it to provide aid and support and you have a new national nightmare.
mkro
The Enquirer is published by David Pecker (pun intended) who bought & buried the story of Playboy playmate Karen McDougal having sex with Trump while he was already married to Melania: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/national-enquirer-paid-to-kill-trump-affair-story-report.html.
So, yes, look for these sorts of “stories” attributed to Trump insiders for the next 4-8 years +.
mkro
From the collapse of American media perspective, when aliens discover the ruins of our great society, they can use National Enquirer artifacts to trace back the origins of Fake News.
Baud
@Corner Stone: I agree that a Republican-led government is worse for Americans than a Democratic-led government. Beyond that, I’m not making any predictions about the future.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Thank you for not surrendering to despair, and for being a grace note here. I can’t wallow in pessimism either. Which is not to say this isn’t the most bizarre political climate of any of our lives.
Post-truth is not going to work. In the long term.
Starfish
@Amir Khalid: Continuing to wear a hijab in a country that does not recognize the divide between external display and internal feelings means something. It could mean that we have not been here long. It could mean that we are very devout. It could mean that we are fervent converts. It could mean “my spouse does not want me to fit into the place we moved to.”
HRA
A conversation I had a few days ago with a relative: “They should all go back where they came from.” and I “Where they came from no longer exists.”
“It doesn’t matter” and I “It matters to me.”
This person knows about my background and how I was raised for many years now Sadly he bought the DT furor along with Fox news.
As a child Sunday dinner meant my Uncle, Aunt, their children and Uncle Shefik would come over from Dearborn, MI. Uncle Shefik was my Dad’s boyhood friend. Later on I learned it began when my Dad decided to go to the segregated part of his village to find playmates as a child. It took some time with the help of my grandmother and the head of the Muslim (Albanian) village to have the village integrated.
There are many other examples I could cite from my upbringing. I was taught and shown examples of non-discrimination. I am very grateful for it and I passed it on to my own children.
Stately Plump Buck
Did you try to slip another magazine in front of it at the rack? Cover it up discretely, and make store management responsible for sorting it out later. At least it could have been a kind of signal to the woman and her family that you are not down with that garbage.
Citizen_X
@mkro:
“On the other hand, the humans at the National Enquirer had us pegged long ago.”
Amir Khalid
@aimai:
Long beards, sometimes at ZZ Top length. Skull caps. Henna highlights to make grey hair less conspicuous. Kohl around the eyes, sometimes. Arab-style dress, often with those long robes that look like 19th century nightshirts to Western eyes. Sandals, usually without socks. (But seldom turbans, which are traditionally worn by clergymen and community leaders of some eminence.) You may have seen some Muslim men dressed like this; but as you say, it’s not as common as hijab for women.
PIGL
@Corner Stone: maybe future Democratic administrations will take a useful lesson from this…..Don’t Appoint Republicans.
Ksmiami
@Botsplainer: the keys will be underwater within 15 years so I’d head west
Nelle
@aimai: In 1970, I did a summer term of voluntary service with the Mennonite Central Committee (an umbrella organization for various kinds of Mennonites and Church of the Brethren branches). No one could tell that I was a Mennonite from my appearance, as my branch was well blended as far as appearance. But another woman who worked with us had never cut her hair, always wore a prayer covering (sort of a white net cap that covered her hair that was in a bun) and wore distinctive cape dresses. About two years later, when I saw “D,” she wasn’t wearing the cape dress and she had cut her hair, though she still wore the prayer covering. Two years after that, the prayer covering was gone, she was wearing jeans, and driving a sporty orange Camaro. The changes aren’t exclusive to any one group.
Schlemazel
I am late to the party I know and to lazy to read all the previous comments so it has already been said but I want to repeat it just in case:
Just about this time in 1949
fuckwit
@Corner Stone: This.
Hurling Dervish
Ed Anger is now our president.
Ohio Mom
@aimai: There are a lot of Chabad in my neighborhood, and my local supermarket has one of the two largest kosher foods sections in Cincinnati. Of course it is very easy to spot both male and female Orthodox Jews. I am apt to roll my eyes when I see them. They vote against my school levies, they voted for Trump, and all together in my view, they make a mockery of my religious and ethnic heritage with their entire approach to Judaism.
I used to roll my eyes when I passed the anti-choice protestors near the local abortion clinic. Ohio passed new restrictive laws and the clinic is now closed and sporting a For Sale sign, so those grizzled old men are gone. But I still see them in my mind’s eye when I drive past.
And I used to roll my eyes at women in hajibs, did they have to promote a completely unegalitarian aspect of an otherwise perfectly good religion? Can we just cut the symbolic misogyny already?
Today if I saw someone on a hajib, I’d smile at her. This 180 is an interesting feeling to experience.
Another Scott
@Corner Stone: We had a wonderful stay in a B&B in Victoria, BC a few years ago. The owner there said they had a B&B in Key West that they loved, but were (broken into?) and the police there basically treated them as criminals. They immediately began the process of finding a buyer and getting out, and ended up in BC.
Anecdote =/= data, but it startled me.
The sea-level-rise issues pointed out above are another strike against the place…
Cheers,
Scott.
Alex
@Schlemazel: Yeah, expect the number to go up each time it’s told. DT: I have here a list of 205–
Bannon: It’s 55.
DT: What, Joe McCarthy got 205 and I only get 55? My number should be huge! I wish Roy Cohn had lived so I could have him as my chief strategist instead of you. Roy wouldn’t have settled for 55.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Even here in WV, a very rural place, I often see many young women wearing hijab of one style or another. I have never seen any male wearing anything like your description. Never. Not even driving past the Mosque on my way into town.
Which Mosque, by the way, has been doubled in size this past year, in a very expensive project involving removing part of a mountain behind the original building. That kind of rock excavation in town is difficult, slow and expensive.
Amir Khalid
@J R in WV:
I was describing a somewhat over-the-top style sometimes adopted by the (very) ostentatiously devout. We do see a few of them around KL, although the tendency is for Muslim men to dress in, um, let’s call it a secular style. But I can understand that it might not be wise to dress like that around West Virginia.