Monday, July 10, 2017

That it's all a fake news fantasy is the fantasy

Hey Jason, I see that you're retweeting apologetics for Donald Trump again.   This is a worry.

It's a very stupid post, containing one element of truth (that at one time Trump could've been thought to be a wannabe Democrat, not Republican, candidate) but overwhelmingly, it's a very stupid argument made.  This part, in particular, saying that until relatively recently:
 No one would have doubted for a second that he was an American patriot, the least likely stooge for Russia or the USSR. I say all this to remind people that the image of Trump promulgated by the media and his other political enemies since he decided to run for President is entirely a creation of the last year or two.

If you consider yourself a smart person, a rational person, an evidence-driven person, you should reconsider whether 30+ years of reporting on Trump is more likely to be accurate (during this time he was a public figure, major celebrity, and tabloid fodder: subject to intense scrutiny), or 1-2 years of heavily motivated fake news.
Hsu even says "There were no accusations of racism", which is rather remarkable claim for a man who actually faced court for having racist policies in the business he ran for his Dad in the 1970's.

I'm not entirely sure of the intention of Hsu's argument here - surely he can't be suggesting that Trump didn't have much negative publicity over the years - he had plenty of that with his business and marriage failures.   Success as a reality TV host hardly wiped that away: some viewers may well have been watching to laugh at Trump's swaggering act, not admire it.

Or is it just that Hsu is taking offence at the idea that Trump could be a Russian stooge, and saying that this argument has only just arisen because of "fake news".  Well, might not the unprecedented (in modern times) refusal of a Presidential candidate to do a proper financial disclosure, and having a son making statements about how much funding his Dad got from Russia raise any question?   As well as Trump's frequently stated admiration for a Russian leader widely believed to have direct involvement in authorising political murders?   And people on his campaign (including, we know now, his son) having meetings with Russians offering dirt on Hilary.  Not to mention the actual intelligence agencies believing that the hacking was authorised from the top.

This is all meant to be "fake news"?   Yeah, sure.

As for the supposed outrageousness of the idea of Trump as Russian stooge - I strongly suspect that few people actually think Trump is an intentional Putin stooge, in the sense of actually planning to deliberately do Putin's direct bidding at the cost of America.  But since when has being a stooge required such intent?   Being dumb and able to be manipulated because you're an ill educated, vain  and psychologically needy man who has shown few business or relationship scruples and who seemingly only ran for the Presidency because it would be good for business, win or lose - perfect stooge material.

That anyone has to point that to someone like Hsu is pretty ridiculous.


8 comments:

not trampis said...

A great shame, I knew him Horatio when he had an intellect!

Anonymous said...

Hsu even says "There were no accusations of racism", which is rather remarkable claim for a man who actually faced court for having racist policies in the business he ran for his Dad in the 1970's.

It was a violation of mirage laws. The father had very few to no black tenants in his buildings, which therefore made him a racist. Like the banks getting caught out for red lining in the 90s, which then led to looser lending practices and the GFC.

Jason Soon said...

yep, the 'racism' charges are essentially some PC mongering. the broader point is that, and this has been tracked by other journos of integrity, the Democrats position on illegal immigration used to be more 'hawkish' and closer to Trump's than it currently is.

Plus the argument is made implicitly by Politico, not just Hsu.

By the way Homer, Hsu is a theoretical physicist and involved in that initiative by the Chinese government to isolate high IQ genes. he's got more brain matter in his little finger than you have in your head.

Steve said...

PC mongering? This is how evidence was collected:

"When a black woman asked to rent an apartment in a Brooklyn complex managed by Donald Trump’s real estate company, she said she was told that nothing was available. A short time later, a white woman who made the same request was invited to choose between two available apartments.

The two would-be renters on that July 1972 day were actually undercover “testers” for a ­government-sanctioned investigation to determine whether Trump Management Inc. discriminated against minorities seeking housing at properties across Brooklyn and Queens.

Federal investigators also gathered evidence. Trump employees had secretly marked the applications of minorities with codes, such as “No. 9” and “C” for “colored,” according to government interview accounts filed in federal court. The employees allegedly directed blacks and Puerto Ricans away from buildings with mostly white tenants, and steered them toward properties that had many minorities, the government filings alleged."

Trump settled, having to supply information about minority lettings in his buildings for the next couple of years. His counterclaim failed completely.

The "best" you can say about it is that Trump was following orders from his Dad.

In libertarian land, discriminatory renting based on colour might be fine.

In the real world, legislative action against it happened in the 1960's and the case against Trump was seen as major win.

Steve said...

The quotes were from a Washington Post article about the case, by the way, but the link is very long. There are lots of other sources, of course.

John said...

What has Trump achieved?

Hasn't dissolved NAFTA
Kowtowed to Saudi Arabia, big financier of terrorism.
Did nothing re Palestine yet claims to be a master negotiator.
Can't get the Health Care bill passed.
Can't even negotiate peace with the GOP.
Hasn't built a wall.
Hasn't commissioned a special prosecutor of HRC.
Hasn't passed the tax cuts.
Done nothing about China in the South China Sea.
Done nothing about North Korea.
Hasn't introduced tariffs on China steel.


And there is not a shred of evidence he is anywhere close to achieving any of the above.

not trampis said...

Then mores the pity that he like you fails to show it.

you are getting more catallaxied each day.

bombast is never evidence

Steve said...

Jason, I just watched the two Youtubes of Clinton and Obama and would have to say:

a. Yes, Clinton definitely sounded more hawkish on illegal immigration that today's Democrats;
b. Obama sounded entirely reasonable and I wouldn't say "hawkish" at all;
c. neither of them ran a deliberate campaign of vilifying illegal immigrants as dangerous criminals coming to murder and rape Americans - a disgusting tactic of Trump during his election campaign and continuing now with his office to track and publicise crimes by illegal immigrants - one of the most Hitler-ian style PR things he has envisaged.

I didn't need a "journalist of integrity" to tell me that Trump bringing up relatives of people murdered by an illegal immigrant was shameful politics playing up to fears that aren't actually justified by the figures - I saw it directly.

Your comparison of him on immigration conveniently overlooks this.