Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
Nov 8, 2020 11 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Joe Biden's first speech since his unofficial victory struck lots of the correct notes. We need unity and healing but it must be done correctly to work. Here's the link to the video and transcript if you missed it: npr.org/sections/live-…
The most important step in healing is to understand that the Trump/GOP coalition is not monolithic. And also, he should understand that the GOP elite does not act in good faith. Their goal is to do nothing.
Mitch McConnell figured out years ago that Americans don't support conservative economic or governmental views.

So instead of trying to pass laws to make that happen, his goal was to stop laws and use courts to push his agenda. I wrote about this in 2018 salon.com/2018/02/07/mit…
This is critical because even GOP voters don't support slashing the government the way that conservatives want. I know because I used to be a pollster.

Here's what I found: thehill.com/hilltv/what-am… Image
The key to national healing will be for Biden to separate Republican voters from Republican elites. This means that he MUST call out the Republicans for never presenting policies. This must be a DAILY exercise by his White House.
Republican voters don't know that the healthcare bill that Trump nearly signed in 2017 would have effectively removed pre-existing conditions protections from Obamacare.

They don't know that the GOP wants to take away Medicaid expansion from the millions who now have it.
Democrats were not paying attention as the GOP built a multi-billion-dollar parallel reality machine to ensnare religious people to manipulate them. This "Matrix" of media must be crushed through direct confrontation and accountability.
Even now, most mainstream media reporters and editors just don't know all-encompassing the conservative media panopticon really is.

RW media literally are claiming that Trump is going to win, even now:
One of the biggest things I am going to be doing in the months and years ahead will be to expose just how little conservative media figures know about politics.

When they're on cable news panels, their manipulative ignorance isn't called out.
Quite literally, US conservative politics has become an identity and a religion. The only way to free people from the delusion is outreach that fights the lies where they happen.

But I will need millions of people to help with this. Please spread the word! Thanks so much!
PS: One of the other things I want to do is expose how predatory the right-wing ecosystem is on its marks. They literally have no problem helping scam artists cheat elderly people out of their retirement savings: thebaffler.com/salvos/the-lon…

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More from @mattsheffield

Mar 29
🧵 Christian fascists have had a prominent place among Republicans since the rise of Barry Goldwater, but Donald Trump made them the senior partner in the party.

But instead of telling this truth, MSM execs elevated fictitious Republicans like Ronna McDaniel. This must stop.
This thread is a summary of my latest @DiscoverFlux essay. You can continue here or click through for the prose version. plus.flux.community/p/ronna-mcdani…
With the exception of ex-CNN president Jeff Zucker, America's largest news organizations didn't hire the congenital liars like Kellyanne Conway as commentators.

Instead, they hired fictitious Republicans, soulless shills like Hugh Hewitt w no constituency and nothing to say.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 11
🧵 Everyone's still talking about how weird Katie Britt sounded last week. It's even more interesting once you realize that she doesn't normally talk in that breathy and melodramatic voice.

That she chose to speak that way is an interesting story...
This thread is a summary of my latest @TheoryChange episode. I left the link out in the previous post since the doofus authoritarian who owns this site downranks posts with links to external sites.

You can continue here or click through: plus.flux.community/p/katie-britt-…
From the outside, the American right seems very unified, but as a former right-wing political activist, I can tell you that it really isn't.

Among other things, there is a huge divide between the highly educated operatives who run things in DC and the rabid fundamentalist voters
Read 15 tweets
Mar 5
🧵 Talking to Trump super fans about politics is often a surreal experience. And that's because they literally do not understand what you are talking about.

Why is that? Because Trump devotees actually believe that truth derives from authority rather than reality...
This thread is a summary of my latest @DiscoverFlux piece, which you can find here. I am not including the link because a certain authoritarian billionaire deliberately downranks links in posts.

You can continue here or click through: plus.flux.community/p/trump-suppor…
People generally use the word "authoritarian" as a synonym for jerk, but it has actual philosophical and historical meaning.

Authoritarian thinking is as old as humanity itself and was manifested in ancient societies in which politics and religion were unified.
Read 21 tweets
Feb 5
🧵 Disinformation is everywhere, especially because of right-wing politicians.

But all of the tactics at use in the internet age have a history, one that begins with Big Tobacco and continues straight through to climate change.

Can learning the history provide hope?
This thread is a summary of the latest @TheoryChange episode, a discussion with Salon climate change writer @MatthewRozsa.

You can get the full episode on YouTube:

Apple Podcasts:

Spotify:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tod…
open.spotify.com/episode/06pqah…
Our story begins during the JFK administration when the new surgeon general worked w/Congress to force tobacco companies to disclose that their products caused cancer and birth defects.

Needless to say, Big Tobacco didn't like this, so they started to manufacture doubt.
Read 16 tweets
Jan 23
🧵 I know everyone is thinking about New Hampshire right now, but can I get your attention on something that's going to be key in the 2024 general election?

Republicans have given up on winning over Gen Z and Gen Alpha and so instead they've decided to gaslight them to hell...
Younger people historically don't vote in high numbers, but due to the terrible political environment created by Boomers and Silents, Generation Z and Alpha are starting to vote in self-defense.

Right wing activists have responded by flooding the web with "post left" nihilism.
"Post left," as in wanting a leftish politics that is somehow not involved in any way with the Democratic Party.

The right wing is desperate to splinter the voting power of Gen Z and misdirect it toward hopeless third-party candidates or to just give up and stay home.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 5
🧵 A lot of people have been mystified by the sudden and incredible attacks Claudine Gay faced which led to her downfall.

As a former right-wing media entrepreneur who was part of the anti-Dan Rather blogger corps, there are a few things I think you should know...
Just for reference, the clip in the previous post is from the latest @STJH_pod episode. You can get the full version of it here:

(I have to structure the thread this way given a certain anti-free speech billionaire's unwritten rules.)plus.flux.community/p/the-attacks-…
The firestorm of criticism Claudine Gay faced from reactionaries like Elise Stefanik or Christopher Rufo has nothing to do with antisemitism or plagiarism.

We know this because Stefanik herself is a plagiarist. Hypocrisy is mandatory on the right now. huffpost.com/entry/elise-st…
Read 18 tweets

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