Thread by @PnictogenHorses

when is it *acceptable* not to read something that's pushed in front of you? most of us (myself included) are mortal beings, bound by time and entropy like everyone; we've got a thousand daily concerns to balance, and we can't read everything that's recommended to us.

(cont'd)

now, if you're a propagandist like @mtaibbi or @charlesmurray, it's never acceptable not to read their junk—and that attitude, right there, is a key hint that their work *is* in fact junk. it's not _proof_ but it's a strong indication that they're pushing propaganda.

(cont'd)

for the point of propaganda is not to be persuasive in terms of logic and rational inference and sensible deductions from evidence. propaganda's appeal is *emotional* appeal; @mtaibbi's work, and other right-wing propaganda, is designed to be _maximally memetic_.

(cont'd)

that means the primary goal for @mtaibbi and @AbigailShrier and other propagandists in the @elonmusk / @GOP conspiracy is to shove their work in front of the maximum number of eyeballs, by hook or crook. remember how Shrier threw a fit about a @Target distribution deal?

(cont'd)

@AbigailShrier knew that the primary audience for her penis-policing ideology was bigoted parents who resented their children—i.e. just the sort of person likely to grab a lurid propaganda book at a supermarket, full of blather about "mutilation" and "sterilization".

(cont'd)

therefore @AbigailShrier thought that missing out on a @Target distribution deal would be "censorship", even though there were a million other channels for distributing her trash available to her: her work relied upon *memetic spread*, i.e. the widest possible audience.

(cont'd)

@mtaibbi's propaganda is similar in appeal. he's selling right-wing conspiracy rubbish to an audience of gamblers and grifters and @elonmusk cultists who are already used to believing propaganda—because that's what Musk's marketing empire has been all about: propaganda.

(cont'd)

#marketing is propaganda: the purpose of marketing is the same as the purpose of propaganda, i.e. emotional appeal and emotional manipulation. the fawning #business and #technology "journalism" about @elonmusk and @Tesla and @SpaceX over the years has been *propaganda*.

(cont'd)

planting @Tesla products and @elonmusk's repellent person into TV shows and movies was *propaganda*—we were being relentlessly sold the false idea that Elon Musk, who might very well be one of the most incompetent CEOs who's ever existed, was somehow uniquely brilliant.

(cont'd)

but people *want* to believe lies like that. we live in straitened, desperate times, amid the wreckage of a crumbling American hegemony, surrounded by a billion ghosts—the unquiet dead of genocidal Western imperialism. people need heroes in such times: enter @elonmusk.

(cont'd)

and also enter @mtaibbi and @ShellenbergerMD and @stillgray and @Timcast and all the other hacks and frauds who cling instinctively to fake heroes like @elonmusk; it's almost like they sense the falsity of him, and realize that Elon Musk is a man after their own spirit.

(cont'd)

@elonmusk is a howling void in the approximate shape of a human being, and yet he's managed to keep up some illusion that he's really the greatest genius of the age—smaller emptinesses, people like @mtaibbi and @APompliano, must think Musk has the secret to success.

(cont'd)

and @elonmusk's fanbase supplies @mtaibbi &c. with a *massive* audience of gullible bigots willing to believe any emotional appeal that makes them feel smart and like they're the Good Guys™. @jordanbpeterson has a similar appeal; he makes his audience *feel* "high-IQ".

(cont'd)

they all talk the same way about @mtaibbi's work—or @AbigailShrier's, or @jordanbpeterson's—"you gotta READ it. if you don't READ it you won't GET it. just READ it, NOW!"

this is how *cultists* talk. this is the behavior of Jehovah's Witnesses with a stack of leaflets.

(cont'd)

every time @mtaibbi emits another plaintive lament about how nobody's taking his "writing" seriously, I get less inclined to bother with even looking at it. I honestly don't feel that I _need_ to. as I've reminded Matt Taibbi, the real story here isn't his "journalism".

(cont'd)

the real story to @mtaibbi is his *friends*. he's an ally to @elonmusk and his gang of fascist admirers like @MrAndyNgo and @stillgray; he's aiding in the political ambitions of fascist @GOP politicians looking for some way to paste "fascist" onto @TheDemocrats instead.

(cont'd)

and yet @mtaibbi still thinks he's an "independent" who ought to be taken at his word!

you can see I hope, Mr. Taibbi, how this visible contradiction has excited the curiosity of the entire world—not just one weirdo in Seattle. will you ever explain yourself?

~Mona Drafter

@threadreaderapp unroll