- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
The purchase of The Baltimore Sun is further proof that conservative billionaires understand the power of media control. Why don’t their liberal counterparts get it?
You have no doubt seen the incredibly depressing news about the incredibly depressing purchase of The Baltimore Sun by the incredibly depressing David Smith, chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the right-wing media empire best known for gobbling up local television news operations and forcing local anchors to spout toxic Big Brother gibberish like this.
The Sun was once a great newspaper. I remember reading, once upon a time, that it had sprung more foreign correspondents into action across the planet than any American newspaper save The New York Times and The Washington Post. It had eight foreign bureaus at one point, all of which were shuttered by the Tribune Company by 2006. But the Sun’s real triumphs came in covering its gritty, organic city. And even well after its glory days, it still won Pulitzers—as recently as 2020, for taking down corrupt Mayor Catherine Pugh, who served a stretch in prison thanks to the paper.
There are no liberal counterparts. The billionaires are all capitalists. That’s all there is to it. Any other political theater they perform for you playing left and right is just theater.
Dems and Republicans are identical parties on economic policy (note I said economic, not all policies).
Patently untrue.
I mean, I get what you’re trying to say. That both parties serve the interests of the rich few over the majority. But it’s just false that they are identical parties on economic policy.
I mean, even economically they aren’t the same. Biden’s advancing a wealth tax, can you imagine Trump or McConnell doing that?
Biden is performing theater about doing that. When was the last time dems actually managed a significant wealth tax? LOL
It is pure theater. If anything like that ever got close to passing, and the paid actors Sinema snd Mansion weren’t enough, then they’d just pick another actor or two so the dems could pretend they really wanted to but no matter how much power they have its not possible to actually DO something.
The fact that it’s nearly impossible to get liberal policies past a Senate where representation is heavily skewed in favor of Republicans does not equate to a conspiracy that the tiny margins Democrats are still sometimes able to eek out are then intentionally sabotaged. That’s some conspiratorial BS. The simple fact is that Dems are playing a rigged game and always have been. Both-sidesing the parties when one of those parties is full of literal Nazis is simply ignorant and requires a lot of mental gymnastics and outright ignorance to get onboard with.
The helpless dems excuse has been used by apologists for the past 50+ years of failure to do anything!
I don’t think they’re the same on economics, neoliberals push for advantages to entrenched entities and the status quo, while post-neoconservatives push for rapid moves and sabotaging existing systems
The combination of the two is crippling, and they have a lot in common (like cutting welfare programs and shaping the landscape to put up barriers of entry to reduce competition), but their styles are very different
An important thing to note - it’s not a single dichotomy, there’s 3-6 axises, minimum.
The worst crackdown in recent memory on welfare happened under Clinton and the neolibs. I think both of these groups have examples of doing the things you’ve listed.
I appreciate your insights but respectfully disagree as there are examples of your listed priorities across party lines.
The end part is right. The same billionaires and companies pay both sides campaign bills. Which is why they’re basically the same economically.
You’re correct about Clinton, but that’s not the norm. Normally, they go one step forward one step back, but they’re happy to cut welfare quietly
But today, Republicans don’t really go after welfare anymore - they try to pass corporate welfare and slash regulation instead
“They’re the same” is a shortcut our minds take to make thinking simpler. It skips thinking about a bunch of details.
They’re similar, but not the same - the subtleties matter. Even if you want to replace them all, it’s important to understand them at a level deeper than “they’re all corporate shills”.
You have to be able to communicate about them clearly and be able to evaluate fresh faces, otherwise you’re just generally complaining about how things suck