Political Blogs: Myth of the Conspiracy of the Political Left
If you read many political blogs, watch much news (especially if you watch FOX for more than five minutes), one theme you’ll pick up on very quickly is that the ‘political left’ is organized and presently orchestrating a scheme to turn the USA into a commie paradise. Conservative darling Ann Coulter delights in expounding upon the nefarious activities of this mustache-twisting villainous group, much to the delight of her conservative readers.
Never mind the fact that this grand conspiracy of the political left has no members that anyone can actually name, nor is there any hard evidence that such a Cabal exists…those are nettlesome details that always manage to get brushed aside when discussing such things.
Nor is there ever any discussion about why the political left would want such a thing, given that communism has utterly and spectacularly failed every time it has been tried. It seems to fly in the face of logic, especially given that these leftists are almost universally described as being intellectual elites. Now, I know I’m not the brightest of bulbs, but it seems to me that intellectual elites would be…you know…educated. And part of that education would no doubt include stuff like…history. So the members of the hoity toity political left should know all this, right?
But, this is their supposed aim, as explained exhaustively by Coulter, Limbaugh, Beck, and others.
At the heart of this mighty Cabal are the liberal news media (which includes any and all news outlets, save for FOX News, which is a paragon of truth, honesty, and the “real American” way (read: the conservative way).
What’s interesting here, is this: Conservatives and Republicans are largely synonymous these days (Ann Coulter herself has said in various interviews that there is no such thing as a “Conservative Democrat” so she too seems to be subscribing to the notion that the Republicans have a monopoly on Conservatism…kinda like they have a monopoly on Jesus…God is a Republican, you know?).
So…Conservative = Republican.
And the Republican base is composed of two groups. Religious fundies and….Big Business and their supporters.
Right. So Republican Base = Big Business.
But, the news companies ARE big business, so…let me see if I follow the logic here….the Republican Base = the Conspiracy of the Political Left?
That’s fairly typical of Conservative logic in my experience, and certainly makes about as much sense as some of their other positions.
Yes, I know…the first reply will be that not all big businesses are republican supporters, and that’s true. Just look at Ben and Jerry’s. But on balance, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find large cap corporations that support greater corporate oversight and regulation, higher taxes and laws designed to make companies be good corporate citizens and hold them fully responsible for the messes they make.
That’s very anti-corporation, and anti-republican.
Further, if you look at the owners of these big companies, most (not all, granted, but most) ARE conservative. And the companies they run tend to follow suit, and are likewise conservative in their overall bent. I think where the confusion lies is in the fact that reporters TEND TO BE of a more liberal stripe…that is to say, if you do a survey of reporters across the nation, I think you’d find a majority of them to be more liberally minded than conservative, thus the conservative pundits’ conclusions about the “liberal media,” but here’s the thing: reporters don’t get to decide what gets reported.
Let me repeat that for those conservatives who are hard of reading: REPORTERS DO NOT GET TO DECIDE WHAT GETS REPORTED!
Those decisions are universally made by at the Director level and higher, and among that population you find more conservatives than liberals.
Now, you can draw all sorts of catty conclusions about the fact that conservatives tend to hold more positions of authority, tend to make more money, etc., etc., but you can’t have it both ways, and thus, the hypocrisy of the pundits on the right is (once again) revealed.
Not that this is any great surprise.
This is an inherently political blog, and I am certain that the piece above will rankle some conservatives, but the fact is that where there is a “political left,” they tend to be far less organized than their brethren on the right, and to think that this disorganized rabble could ever head up such a vast conspiracy as they are credited with is even more ludicrous than the one that the moon-landing-hoax folks managed to dream up, and that’s really saying something.
Further, such a conclusion is an insult to the intelligence that the right (grudgingly) credits to the left, but…there you go.
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