centrism objectivity

<div>aha hmmn</div><div>
</div><div>often a scam/grift or simply self-delusion</div><div>
</div><div>sparked by edit bd on false bias /jrnl fail, but also Sinema declares self indep</div><div>
</div><div><div>=</div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">==</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">an 1 23</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2659320356"><div class="body-description">Twitter CEO Elon Musk forced staffers to suspend the account of a "left-wing activist," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-leaked-internal-message-suggests-musk-ordered-leftwing-account-freeze-2023-1" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">as revealed in</a> a "leaked internal Twitter message," Insider reports.A screenshot of the message, Bloomberg reports, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-27/elon-musk-s-twitter-trust-safety-head-ella-irwin-breaks-rules-for-him" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">included the</a> Twitter account for Chad Lodor along with an email that read: "Suspension: direct request from Elon Musk."
According to Lodor’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/@chadloder" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">Mastadon profile</a>,

they identify as a "community activist, cybersecurity expert, and

citizen journalist.” Their Twitter account was one of the politically

left-leaning accounts that Musk suspended in November. READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/dr-anthony-fauci-2659215091/" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">Dr. Anthony Fauci weighs in on Elon Musk's call for him to be prosecuted</a>The

activist told Insider they assume their profile was suspended as a

result of "an organized mass-reporting campaign," by which a

conservative group shared a Substack blog post <a href="https://app.slack.com/client/T736HN81M/D04DMSGBCDU/help/201355156" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">that included</a>

"instructions on how to falsely report breaches of Twitter's rules by

particular accounts" — which included Loder’s profile “at the top of the

list.”Although the billionaire CEO has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-leaked-internal-message-suggests-musk-ordered-leftwing-account-freeze-2023-1" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">referred to himself</a> as "somewhere in the middle" when it comes to politics, social media extremism expert J.M. Berger <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-right-wing-extremism-twitter-mythology-of-the-center-2022-12" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked"> told Insider</a> he believes Musk is "intentionally empowering right-wing extremists."This comes after Musk <a href="https://www.alternet.org/musk-twitter-reinstates-nick-fuentes/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">reinstated the Twitter account</a> of right-wing extremist Nick Fuentes this week, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/twitter-suspends-account-white-supremacist-nick-fuentes-day-after-restoration-2023-01-25/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">which only lasted</a> for a day.Contrary to Musk's claim that he falls "in the middle" of the political spectrum, Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tells-twitter-followers-to-vote-for-republican-congress-2022-11" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">reported in November</a> that he urged his followers "to vote Republican the day before November's midterm elections."READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/elon-musk-did-not-vote/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">Elon Musk did not vote in the midterms: report</a></div>

    </div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">====</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">====<br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1 23</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">why do this country’s most lucrative media properties spend so much

time and so many resources covering the “dangers” of political

extremism?

It’s not because of the fear of Donald Trump and his redhat fascism.

It’s not because of the fear of Bernie Sanders and his cosplay socialism. READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/donald-trump-griping-evangelical-disloyalty/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self" title="view post: Donald Trump's griping about evangelical 'disloyalty' was an order to get in line" class="rm-stats-tracked">Donald Trump's griping about evangelical 'disloyalty' was an order to get in line</a>

It’s because political extremes reveal something about this country’s

most lucrative media properties that they would rather not have

revealed.

Their own political extremism.

None the wiserBullsh*t? Not when you think about it. READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/january-6th-social-media-platforms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self" title="view post: Unpublished January 6th report exposes social media platforms allowing right-wing exploitation" class="rm-stats-tracked">Unpublished January 6th report exposes social media platforms allowing right-wing exploitation</a>

The difference between the country’s two major political parties is

cavernous, deeper and wider than it has ever been in our lifetimes.

The Democrats, <a href="https://www.editorialboard.com/the-republican-partys-dangerous-bankruptcy-of-ideas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">as I said last week</a>, have grown to become under Joe Biden the party of statecraft. The Republicans have grown to become under Trump the party of stagecraft. The Democrats have ideas. The GOP has Fox.

Yet this country’s most lucrative media properties, in their coverage

of the parties and in their choices in determining what’s news, treat

the parties, which they take to represent one-half each of this country,

as if they were equal in nature, theory and practice, though the

differences are obvious.

Taking two things that are not the same in nature, theory and

practice and making them appear the same is an act of democratic

politics, a way of persuading an audience to believe that a particular

worldview (“centrism”) is normal by comparison to parties equal in

nature, theory and practice.

Taking two things that are not the same and making them appear the

same is an act of political extremism, too. There is no other credible

way to describe taking two things that are not the same and making them

appear the same for the purpose of manufacturing, by comparison, an

imaginary “center”?

How else can we describe this country’s most lucrative media

properties presenting themselves as impartial arbiters of the status quo

despite the fact that they go to extreme lengths to persuade their

audiences that a particular worldview (theirs) is normal, moderate and

“centrist.”

That’s what an act of politics looks like.

That’s what a warped reality, and our understanding of it, looks like.

This country’s most lucrative media properties do not want to appear

to be political entities, but nevertheless, they are. They are invested

in defining, controlling, protecting, defending and maintaining a

political status quo that has made them this country’s most lucrative

media properties.

So they focus on the far right.

They focus on the far left

You’re none the wiser.

“The way things are” is never naturalMy point

here is that “centrism” is actually a radical political ideology that

often turns observable reality upside down, backward and prolapsed.

It does that by making unequal things seem equal for the purpose of

appearing to be normal, moderate and “centrist.” One consequence is that

the “political center” overlaps with their particular kind of extreme

politics.

And “natural.”

The people who benefit most from the maintenance and advancement of

“centrism” – the beneficiaries of hierarchies of political and social

power that constitute a status quo – want us to believe that their

radical political ideology is a product of nature. It’s the politics of “the way things are.”

“The way things are” is never natural.

“The way things are” is the product of history, contingency and

choice. It’s the progressive accretion of decisions made for a

particular time, for a particular place for reasons particular to those

times and places.

The people who benefit most from the maintenance and advancement of

“centrism” want us to believe “the ways things are” is natural and

therefore politically neutral, as a consequence of being just “the way

things are.”

But “the way things are” is never politically neutral. The proof is

the insistence by the beneficiaries of a radical political ideology

called “centrism” that the way things are is just “the way things are.”

Beneficial incoherenceMy second point here is

that an observable reality that’s been turned upside down, backward and

prolapsed is beneficial to those who maintain and advance a radical

political ideology that they call “the way things are.”

An incoherent status quo is a good thing.

As I said last week, in a separate context, false equivalence

is the art of forcing unequal things to seem equal and making the

morally better of the two seem not so good, the morally worse of the two

seem not so bad.

Those people who benefit most from the status quo are most likely to

insist that politics has nothing to do with their being the people who

benefit most from the status quo. That, again, is a political act, a

choice made among other choices that together constitute what most say

is the way things are.

Apply this to Joe Biden’s documents “scandal.”

It is not equal to Donald Trump’s documents scandal.

The former lost some government secrets, found them, returned them

and conceded to an official investigation to ensure everything’s above

board.

The latter stole government secrets, lied about stealing them,

refused to give them back after his theft was revealed, gave back a few,

lied about giving back all, had to be forced to give back all, and then

cried about the injustice of an official investigation to ensure

everything’s above board.

Apply this to shooting massacres.

At least 10 people <a href="https://click.email.latimes.com/?qs=c5f6ae0fff2ae02e85e38ac1d365e19c2965727576f989f38fa506598d6822fbde019a653d4799d0f88276b2eb693b6fa62299e985e35b10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">were shot to pieces</a>

during the Chinese Lunar holiday in a Chinese-American neighborhood in

Los Angeles County. It is among many shooting massacres targeting

minorities. In Charleston, it was Black people. In El Paso, it was

Hispanics. In Pittsburgh, it was Jews. In Colorado, it was LGBT-plus

people. The pattern is clear to anyone who’s willing to see it.

But this country’s most lucrative media properties don’t want to.

They regularly find ways to balance mass death with constitutional

rights, as if one is related to the other, as if one is as important as

the other, as if one balances out the other, as if this country’s most

lucrative media properties are politically neutral arbiters of a status

quo that is also ideally suited to rationalizing this country’s most

lucrative media properties.

Mass death is not equal to constitutional rights. Only an adherent of

a radical political ideology would say two unequal things are “in fact”

equal.

And here we are.

Apply this to any “issue” with “two sides.”

<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/01/12/bidens-classified-documents-debacle-could-become-political-liability/11039170002/?utm_source=usatoday-NewsAlert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alerts&utm_term=news_alert&utm_content=USAT-8872UT-E-NLETTER01" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">USA Today’s Michael Collins</a>: “Biden said he was ‘surprised’ to learn of the discovery of the records. He had branded his predecessor … ‘irresponsible’ for storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.”

The stress is mine.

The radical political ideology, however, is theirs.READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/asinine-conservative-lawyer-republicans-documents/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self" title="view post: 'Asinine': Conservative lawyer shreds Republicans for equating Donald Trump and Joe Biden document cases" class="rm-stats-tracked">'Asinine': Conservative lawyer shreds Republicans for equating Donald Trump and Joe Biden document cases</a>===</div>