The "Epistemic Closing" of the Conservative Mind

Community

Monday April 19, 2010 · 7:00 PM PDT

2010/04/19 · 19:00

One of the more striking features of the contemporary conservative movement is the extent to which it has been moving toward epistemic closure. Reality is defined by a multimedia array of interconnected and cross promoting conservative blogs, radio programs, magazines, and of course, Fox News. Whatever conflicts with that reality can be dismissed out of hand because it comes from the liberal media, and is therefore ipso facto not to be trusted. (How do you know they’re liberal? Well, they disagree with the conservative media!) This epistemic closure can be a source of solidarity and energy, but it also renders the conservative media ecosystem fragile.

Julian Sanchez
Frum, Cocktail Parties, and the Threat of Doubt
March 26, 2010

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 14, 2010 · 6:50 PM PDT

2010/04/14 · 18:50

Proving once again that no power on earth can force the "newspaper of record" to recognize what it is determined to ignore, the New York Times tonight released the results of a major survey of the teabagger movement. The paper's considered judgement:

Their fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 02, 2010 · 2:02 PM PDT

2010/04/02 · 14:02

A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere"...The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama ... seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

Doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere for health care
Orlando Sentinel
April 2, 2010

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday March 29, 2010 · 1:01 PM PDT

2010/03/29 · 13:01

The Republican National Committee gave nearly $2,000 to a Southern California GOP contributor for meal expenses at Voyeur West Hollywood, a lesbian-themed California nightclub that features topless dancers wearing horse-bits and other bondage gear, according to newly filed disclosure records.

FEC report details lavish Republican spending
Washington Post
March 29, 2010

At one point I walked to the bathroom and pretty much just stopped dead in my tracks to watch two girls simulating oral sex in a glass case. Really understated elegance here.

Customer review of Voyeur West Hollywood
Yelp
March 22, 2010

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 25, 2010 · 3:07 PM PDT

2010/03/25 · 15:07

For some years now, I’ve been morbidly fascinated by the political dark arts -- especially the very dark art of disinformation: the systematic creation and dissemination of false narratives designed to discredit your opponents and/or drive undecided audiences away from their cause.

The difference between disinformation and just plain lying is in the scope of the enterprise: A lie is intended to conceal a specific truth (e.g. "I did not have sex with that woman"). Disinformation, on the other hand, is aimed at constructing an entire alternative reality -- one in which the truth can find no foothold because it conflicts just not with a specific falsehood, but with the entire fabric of the false reality that has been created. It puts the "big" in big lie, in other words.

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday December 22, 2009 · 8:52 PM PST

2009/12/22 · 20:52

Via Meteor Blades

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 07, 2009 · 7:49 AM PDT

2009/10/07 · 07:49

Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations . . . The committee in charge of updating the bestselling version, the NIV, is dominated by professors and higher-educated participants who can be expected to be liberal and feminist in outlook. As a result, the revision and replacement of the NIV will be influenced more by political correctness and other liberal distortions than by genuine examination of the oldest manuscripts. As a result of these political influences, it becomes desirable to develop a conservative translation that can serve, at a minimum, as a bulwark against the liberal manipulation of meaning in future versions.

Conservative Bible Project
Conservapedia
October 2009

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday September 11, 2009 · 4:01 PM PDT

2009/09/11 · 16:01

CLARIFICATION: An early version of this story referred to town hall protesters waving photographs of Barack Obama adorned with a Hitler moustache. While Republicans have used Nazi references to describe Obama’s policies, the Hitler moustache signs are favored by some supporters of Lyndon LaRouche.

GOP 'cranks' dominating debate
Politico
September 10, 2009

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday August 25, 2009 · 4:17 PM PDT

2009/08/25 · 16:17

The Inspector General’s review was launched by complaints coming from valued senior employees who felt that the Bush Program (as John Yoo has dubbed it) was wrong. One of them actually expresses his worry that those involved will be hauled before the World Court at some point because of [and that’s redacted!]

Scott Horton
Harper's Magazine
August 25, 2009

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 14, 2009 · 5:33 PM PDT

2009/07/14 · 17:33

This takes the Stockholm Syndrome to a whole new level:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats and Republicans alike lauded Goldman Sachs on Tuesday after the company, which received taxpayer assistance last year, said its quarterly profit rose and that it was setting aside billions for employees.

"Is there a law in the United States that you can't make profits?" Representative Paul Kanjorski, a senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, asked reporters . . .

Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said, "I'm not surprised. Goldman Sachs has a history of being well run and sometimes ahead of the others."

Goldman Sachs profits hailed by lawmakers
Reuters
July 14, 2009

"They can rape my ass any time -- or my children's asses, for that matter," another lawmaker added with a chuckle. "After all, that's what we're here for."

Matt Taibbi's head must be exploding.

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday July 13, 2009 · 7:46 PM PDT

2009/07/13 · 19:46

SEN. McCAIN: We all know that bad things were done. We all know that the operatives who did it most likely were under orders to do so. For us to continue this and harm our image throughout the world--I agree with the president of the United States, it's time to move forward and not go back.

MR. GREGORY: But where's the accountability?

SEN. McCAIN: Well, the accountability, obviously, is that people's reputations have been harmed very badly. The question is, is do we want America's image harmed more by dragging this out further and further?

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Meet the Press
July 12, 2009

billmon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday July 12, 2009 · 11:24 AM PDT

2009/07/12 · 11:24

A report released on Friday by the inspectors general of five agencies about the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program makes clear that Mr. Cheney’s legal adviser, David S. Addington, had to approve personally every government official who was told about the program.

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project
New York Times
July 11, 2009

Newer
Older

RSS

The "Epistemic Closing" of the Conservative Mind

New York Times: "Race" Means "Class"

The Conservative Hippocratic Oath

What a Friend We Have in Lesbian Bondage

Spock with a Beard: The Sequel

The Bosses of the Senate

Godwin Takes the Day Off

Tells You Everything You Need to Know

The [Redacted], the Whole [Redacted] and Nothing But the [Redacted]

Fool's Goldman

A Tortured Excuse

I guess I should have called it the "Addington Administration"