Outrage over Pelosi ripping the speech up isn’t real. They understand that faux disgust is a powerful weapon because it feeds their base and preys on the media’s obsession with symbolic objectivity. You don’t have to point out their hypocrisy. They know what they’re doing.
The American Right has followed a pretty concrete strategy for years. Push the boundaries of good taste and civility. When they’re called on it they degrade it as sensitivity or weakness. When they’re met with anything in kind they feign outrage and hack the power for themselves.
The problem is we have a media incapable of covering this moment. They’ve been overmatched since Reagan took office and run roughshod by pumping symbols into the mass consciousness. None of it’s real. And until it becomes real again we’re doomed to repeat this awful cycle.
