Thread by @citizenstewart

Wherever your political leanings, I hope there are moments where you rationally consider "what is true" to be more important than what you wish is true for political purposes.

This @Salon about @BetsyDeVosED is a test case - for progressives.

h/t to @NealMcCluskey

First, progressive politics usually make a nod toward the proletariat, working people, the little guy.

But that's not Salon's audience. By their own admission: "Salon readers are affluent, well-educated and highly influential."

I suspect they're leaving out a racial descriptor.

Let's be real. Salon designer lifestyle media entity... a business. When they push narratives about money, influence, and accountability, you have to consider the fact they undisclosed space for "custom content."

You can never know who's behind one of their stories.

And, with that designer "news" for "affluent" liberal audiences that have expendable money and qualifying levels of education, comes Salon's ability to sell Mercedes Benz SUVs.

Literally.

Back to the "report "Salon mentions in their DeVoss piece. It comes from an "independent non-partisan organization" - Allied Progress.

Who is this group citing DeVos' support for organizations that produce "propaganda"?

The writer, @IgorDerysh, doesn't tell us. Why?

I'm not the "journalist" here, so I'm not going to do the deep forensics, but Googling isn't hard.

First, Allied Progress is a "project" of Accountable.us*

*accountable.us/about/

That group is lead by Kyle Herrig, who developed AP while at New Venture Fund.

See:

As the people say: "follow the money." I doubt they mean follow *their* money, and I doubt their "journalists" will ever have enough integrity to do it. So. A blogger on Twitter does.

Anyhoo, New Venture Fund is managed by Arabella Advisors.

Who are they?

See:

Here's the kicker for me:

According to Capital Research, Arabella Advisors is a privately held for-profit consultancy. Their network of groups like Allied Progress took in $1.6 Billion between 2013 and 2017.

Really zoom in on this part:

Finally, let me say this. As an independent, partisans on all sides get on my last damn nerve. The ability to write dissertations on the eternal wrongness of opponents while excusing your own team of the crimes you accuse others of committing is corrosive.

Thinking people....

...you're losing the battle with the partisans and the designer media is making the public around you dumber.

In this case, progressives can't have it both ways. They can't constantly decry "dark money" against the Right while flooding the political marketplace with dark money.