Thread by @tzimmer_history

Let’s be very clear what this is: Far-right propaganda, entirely indistinguishable from what you’ll read on white supremacist blogs and on rightwing extremist websites. That it was published by the @washingtonpost is outrageous - but, unfortunately, not an accident.

There is absolutely no journalistic justification for publishing what @lionel_trolling rightfully calls “illiterate nonsense.” It’s becoming very hard not to conclude that a significant portion of the mainstream media is deliberately pushing the reactionary counter-mobilization.

https://twitter.com/lionel_trolling/status/1459144067632316416

If you’re wondering whether @lionel_trolling’s verdict was too harsh: “Illiterate nonsense” is the most generous reading for the reactionary toxic waste the WaPo decided to present to its audience as serious analysis, “right wing big brain word salad,” as @SethCotlar calls it.

https://twitter.com/sethcotlar/status/1459163864516333573

The WaPo’s decision to publish this is a disaster not just because it’s such utter nonsense, but because - as @RottenInDenmark outlines - it’s dangerous: It’s lending legitimacy to the intellectual (using the term very loosely) justification for cracking down on the “enemy.”

https://twitter.com/rottenindenmark/status/1459188007559438339

We need to read this in conjunction with how the Right sees Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero: If this totalitarian ideology is spreading rapidly, threatening everything we hold dear about America, is it not every patriot’s duty to rise and fight back against those dangerous enemies?

And how does America’s preeminent newspaper react? With a level of normalization of white nationalist militancy, a maximally generous framing of extremist violence: Shouldn’t we at least be sympathetic to a young idealist who thought he was answering the call?

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1458469521514184708

Both of these pieces are well outside the boundaries of what @washingtonpost and @nytimes should even consider publishing, well below what anybody should be willing to accept as the minimum standard for serious news and opinion journalism.

I know that both the NYT and the WaPo are complex ecosystems, and I greatly admire the reporting and analysis of many people who work there. But on the institutional level, this is a remarkable failure, at best, and a decision to further the reactionary cause at worst.

History doesn’t offer easy lessons. But as an empirical observation, it is fair to say that unless the Center was willing to make common cause with them, far-right extremists have not been able to rise to power. Unfortunately, in America today, the Center is not holding the line.

Far-right extremists are unlikely to bring democracy down unless the Center is helping them. Unfortunately, America is the latest example for the fact that the reverse is also true: If the Center goes along with them, it is very hard to stop the rise of radical reactionaries.