Share this page!

Michael Tracey Profile picture
Twitter logo
10 Sep, 8 tweets, 2 min read
Declare yourself "anti-fascist" and suddenly all things become justifiable, because the greater evil is always "fascism." The Trump era has been a goldmine for self-aggrandizing narcissists who use this binary as an excuse to rationalize insane behavior

unherd.com/2020/09/stop-c…
Maybe someday those who promote the "fascist" vs. "anti-fascist" analytical framework will realize that they were a godsend to Joe Biden. Because there's One Weird Thing that Biden and "antifa" #actually have in common. But you have to read the column to find out what it is
"Godsend" in the sense that "antifa" helped create the political conditions that allowed Biden to prevail in the primaries. There is a reason why Biden emphasized the Charlottesville episode so heavily. Just like "antifa" did. Worked out perfectly for Biden
👇
Once you accept that "fascism" accurately describes the current governmental status of the US, a whole host of moral imperatives become operative. Which is why more "leftists" are willing to support Biden 2020 than they were Hillary 2016. "Antifa" really is a huge gift to Ol' Joe
Collapsing all distinctions into a "fascism" vs. "anti-fascism" binary provides participants with a self-regarding sense of elevated historical status. So you now have people invoking "Popular Front" rhetoric as a reason to support Joe Biden. I mean, come on 😂
Doing a stream on this column momentarily:
In conclusion, you can't fully understand the pervasive stupidity and mania of the past four years unless you understand how the "fascism" versus "anti-fascism" binary inevitably drives everybody insane

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Michael Tracey

Michael Tracey Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @mtracey

Michael Tracey Profile picture
4 Sep
Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in The Atlantic on July 2016: “The Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump, has chosen this week to unmask himself as a de facto agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Goldberg is perhaps the LEAST reliable narrator in all of US journalism
That declaration from Goldberg is under-recognized as a catalyzing event for the wider Russiagate melodrama, which from that point on consumed elite media and Dems, after they’d been given license by the all-important, Smart, and Serious Atlantic
Josh Marshall’s infamous (and error-riddled) blog post from July 23, 2016, which drew on the themes set forth by Goldberg, was cited by FBI officials Strzok and Page in their infamous texts. “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation was formally launched on July 31
Read 4 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
27 Jul
We're approaching two months since the riots erupted, so I've done a roundup with photos and other observations. The basic takeaway: the enormity of what occurred here has not been CLOSE to adequately conveyed. It's a media scandal of epic proportions

medium.com/@mtracey/two-m…
I’d really like for all the media commentators who glorified these riots (before they knew the slightest thing about who was perpetrating them, or what the impact would be) to take a look at this. Or are we just going to memory-hole their pro-riot enthusiasm? (Of course we will)
Democrats and their media allies have a clear political motive to downplay what happened here. But you’re also not going to get an accurate narrative from Low IQ right-wing media who spin everything in their own dumbass fashion. So the people left out are the actual victims
Read 12 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
24 Jul
Portland activists snatched my phone out of my hands as I was livestreaming, and only would give it back to me if I recited the phrase “Black Lives Matter,” which I did. They then threatened a physical attack and chased me away; one whipped some kind of beverage at me. Fun times
Here's the part of the stream when the encounter took place

Start at around 36:00 if it doesn't go directly to the timestamp
Read 8 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
23 Jul
Portland mayor Ted Wheeler has made an appearance at tonight’s protests. He is greeted by chants of, “Fuck Ted Wheeler”

More:

“Ted Wheeler sucks fed tit”
“You fucking scum”
“Ted, I’ll fight you in the street right now”
“Ted shot us too”
“Ted Wheeler eats at chain restaurants”
Ted Wheeler is conducting some kind of “dialogue” about how he intends to address racism in Portland culture. It’s totally inaudible due to chants of “RESIGN. NOW.” and “SHAME.” They are shining a projector onto the area where he’s speaking with a demand for him to resign
Ted Wheeler tries to reason with protesters, 99% of whom loathe him. He assures an interlocutor that they are “aligned” on some issues
Read 17 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
16 Jul
Having spent the past month surveying the wreckage across the US, I can only conclude that journalists have intentionally obfuscated the after-effects of these historic riots because they are fearful of "helping Trump" -- a profane act of media malpractice
unherd.com/2020/07/the-ug…
In addition, journalists have overtly declared their deep personal investment in this “movement.” Reporting on things which may be perceived to undermine its moral legitimacy would be intolerable. Imagine the staff revolts. And so, they simply ignore this historic destruction
2016 was an epistemological earthquake which largely destroyed the capacity of the US media to accurately portray current events (see also Russiagate). Their entire framework for narrative-construction radically changed. "Riots are good" was NOT previously a mainstream view
Read 9 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
8 Jul
This column is really just straight-up reporting. And it's not even complicated reporting. All I've done is go around and talk to people affected by the riots. Yet for some reason this kind of very straightforward reporting has barely appeared in the media
We know why the left-leaning media has refrained from doing it. They believe (wrongly) that it would help Trump and/or discredit "the movement," and their coverage priorities are slanted accordingly. The even more interesting question is why conservative media has also refrained
There are a few possible reasons. One, media conservatives generally do a bad job depicting working class minority populations (just like left/liberals). And to the extent that they care, it's only to put forward an over-simplified "pro-Trump" narrative, which doesn't apply here
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get email notifications when new thread is out from this Author!

Check out other threads from this Author!

Read all threads by @mtracey