How The Smear Machine Works...

TheyKeepOnPushingEnvelopes
ForAReasonVille


Because I haven't paying really close attention to goings on down south recently, I couldn't quite figure out where all the bile and vitriol that is constantly being directed at George Soros is coming from.

Eric Alterman, in his latest piece in the Nation, explains.

Here is his lede and a little bit more:

On August 31, convicted felon and right-wing provocateur Dinesh D’Souza tweeted that he thought it would be “interesting to see” the liberal financier and philanthropist George Soros “extradited to Israel & tried for his complicity in Nazi atrocities against Jews.”

As he hawks his most recent book, The Big Lie—ironically, a near-perfect description of its contents, which claim to reveal the Nazi roots of the American left—D’Souza has tweeted countless versions of this particular big lie. With childish faux cleverness, he refers to Soros as “Hitler’s collection boy” and claims that Soros “literally worked for Hitler.” Right-wing talk-radio shows, websites, and even a Republican gubernatorial candidate from Pennsylvania have parroted lines from his anti-Soros campaign.

D’Souza told a right-wing talk-show host that he was “delighted to uncover” Soros’s history. But, as with almost every alleged discovery made by pro-Trump partisans, it is not only factually false and morally reprehensible; it is also old news. The charge has already been made by such far-right luminaries as Glenn Beck, David Horowitz, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, and Tony Blankley (who retracted it after I asked him to back it up). Perhaps most shamefully of all, former New Republic owner and editor Marty Peretz smeared Soros, calling him “a young cog in the Hitlerite wheel.”...

{snip}

...D’Souza thinks that “former Nazi collaborator George Soros should be investigated as a sponsor of domestic terrorism” for his alleged sponsorship of antifa. Neither Soros nor his foundations support antifa in any way, but never mind that: At last count, more than 138,000 idiots had signed a petition at whitehouse.gov demanding that President Trump “declare George Soros a terrorist and seize all of his related organizations’ assets under RICO and NDAA law.”...


See how the rabid envelop pushing gives cover to ever more maintreamish folks such that soon, Poof!, a big lie starts to become conventional wisdom that can be used to catapault even bigger lies into the public consciousness?

All of which is a clear illustration why we here north of the 49th parallel should give no quarter (or attention, or media space/legitmacy) whatsoever to demonstrable liars and/or propagandists, no matter how rebellious, or otherwise, they might paint themselves to be.

OK?



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All of this is also why I think it is critical to sustain a 'no prop is good prop'  motto even if said prop is being flung by the side you identify with....


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