culture war | Messaging Matters

Is this the best Reddit comment ever?

Fox “News” promoting GOP Culture War

One of the positives about the Reddit social media platform is that there are so many “subreddits,” each covering a specific topic, that anyone can either search or browse and then do a deep dive into a particular subject. For example, in the politics area, there are subreddits for folks of all political stripes, and even particular subreddits regarding certain political media outlets. It was in one such subreddit, r/TheMajorityReport (which covers The Majority Report, a progressive daily political talk radio show featuring host Sam Seder), where recently we found what may be the clearest and best comment describing how Republicans practice their cynical politics.

The particular Reddit background discussion leading to the comment concerned the appearance of Ana Kasparian of another political media outlet, The Young Turks, on Fox “News.” Ana is a former progressive who has moved towards the political right. Fox loves to feature such former lefties and use them as tools to bash the Democrats. Here’s the self-explanatory title of the Reddit discussion in question:

Fox News: Progressive journo Ana Kasparian unleashes on left’s obsession with ‘garbage’ identity politics: ‘I’m done’

After the jump, see the great comment that one Reddit user left:

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Tags: Ana Kasparian, culture war, Democrats, Disney, economy, Florida, LGBTQ, Reddit, Republicans, Ron DeSantis, Sam Seder, The Majority Report, The Young Turks, TYT

The story is COVID. Drive the story.

Written on July 28, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Republican Messaging

Everyone should be masking in public

If you subscribe to the right news services or social media accounts and look through the headlines, you will find out that right now, America and the world are facing a new COVID emergency. The problem, largely based on the “Delta variant,” is bad enough that organizations from the California State University System to the Washington Post are starting to require proof of COVID vaccination for those who show up in person, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) announced Monday that it would mandate coronavirus vaccines for its front-line workers. Likewise, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) just announced that all people, including those fully vaccinated, should wear masks indoors again in areas with “high” or “substantial” COVID transmission.

However, U.S. Republicans, whose anti-vaccine, anti-mask diatribes and protests are largely responsible for the new COVID emergency, don’t want to talk about the new COVID surge (except, cynically, to try to blame President Joe Biden, who has made extraordinary strides and numerous public calls for full vaccination). Rather, Republicans want to distract by cosplaying about immigration, attacking the imaginary “Critical Race Theory,” fretting about trans people and their bathroom use, or just about anything else that is part of their 24/7 Culture War.

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Tags: 2022 elections, 2024 elections, Ashley Moody, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Critical Race Theory, culture war, Delta Variant, Democrats, Florida, immigration, LBGTQ, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Ron DeSantis, Texas, vaccination, vaccine

President Biden becomes successful spokesman for his agenda

Written on March 19, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Good Government

When selling his agenda, President Biden has the gift of gab.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden announced from the White House that U.S. COVID vaccinations will reach 100 million today, more than six weeks ahead of Biden’s previously set goal of 100 million COVID doses in the first 100 days of his presidency. This remarkable achievement follows President Biden’s successful signing of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), with his full proposed $1.9 trillion in relief, into law. Biden’s signing of the ARP was followed by an extremely effective White House speech where he announced direct stimulus payments of up to $1,400 to many Americans (a large number of which have already been received), as well as strong steps to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, including increased purchasing and distribution of vaccines, and assistance to states and businesses.

Perhaps it should not be surprising that President Biden has been so good at touting his administration’s achievements. After all, Biden is the one who, as U.S. Vice President, came up with the bumper sticker of the year for the 2012 elections:

If you are looking for a bumper sticker to sum up how President Obama has handled what we inherited, it’s pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.

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Tags: 2022 elections, 2024 elections, Congress, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, culture war, Democrats, Dr. Seuss, Joe Biden, Mr. Potato Head, President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Senate, vaccine

The Great Republican Distraction is underway

Written on September 2, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Americans continue to die of COVID while Republicans distract

Anyone who tunes into the news or follows political discussions in the media today might think that the overarching issue in America is something to do with protests, riots, “thugs” and “law and order.” If so, then give credit to Donald Trump and leading Republicans for trying to create one of the greatest distractions in U.S. history, in order to avoid a historic election defeat just two months from now. If Trump has one skill, it is media manipulation and distraction. He knows that, rather than the mainstream American news media doing their jobs and investigating and reporting on the biggest stories which, in their professional editorial judgment, affect most people’s lives, Republicans can get the media to chase distracting Culture War shiny objects that then become the focus of most discussions, to the Republicans’ advantage.

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Tags: 2020 Elections, Afghanistan, Black Lives Matter, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, culture war, Donald Trump, Facebook, Kenosha, recession, Republicans, Russia, social media, Taliban, Twitter, Unemploymenet, Wisconsin

Watch what Trump and the Republicans do, not just what they say

Written on July 17, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch

Everyone is in a tizzy this week because Donald Trump wrote racist tweets. The story is all over every type of media, from TV news to Twitter to Facebook to news media websites, and more. However, this has to be one of the biggest non-news events of the year. Trump already has a well-known history of public racism dating back at least to the 1970s with housing discrimination, continuing through the 1980s and beyond with the Central Park Five case, and which was on full display in Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement speech, where he came out of the gate attacking immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

If you’re still wondering why Trump deliberately creates distractions with shiny objects regarding immigration and race, here are a few things that Trump has been distracting us from while the whole country obsesses over his racist tweets:

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Tags: abortion, ACLU, Alex Acosta, asylum, Central Park Five, culture war, Democrats, Donald Trump, Facebook, immigration, Jeffrey Epstein, Mexico, Mitch McConnell, news, Planned Parenthood, racism, Republicans, Statue of Liberty, Twitter

Conservatives set fire to their own Nike shoes, get burned

Written on September 5, 2018 by Messaging Matters in Fox "News" Watch, Republican Messaging

Nike Air Max

Nike has announced that former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be their new spokesman for Nike’s continuing “Just Do It” advertising campaign. Kaepernick is known for taking a knee before his NFL football games instead of standing during the National Anthem, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter group, to protest police killing of black civilians. Almost immediately upon Nike’s news, conservatives lashed out at Nike. However, their protest has taken some illogical, dangerous and even hilarious turns.

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Tags: Black Lives Matter, boycott, Burning Man, Colin Kaepernick, culture war, Disney, Fox News, Nike

Trump and Republicans fire up the Culture War

Written on June 6, 2018 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Fox "News" Watch, Republican Messaging

Philadelphia Eagles training camp, 2015 Military Appreciation Day

God, Guns and Gays. Illegal immigration. These are Culture War issues that Donald Trump and Republicans are pushing to stir up Republican voter interest as the 2018 midterm elections approach. The latest Culture War topic is Trump’s revocation of his White House invitation to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles football team, after Trump heard that some Eagles team members were planning to skip the event over political disagreements with Trump. Moreover, Fox News falsely ran photos of Eagles players kneeling to pray (approved behavior by the GOP) with captions about kneeling in protest (such as in support of Black Lives Matter, a protest against police violence which is disapproved behavior by Republicans). Fox had to apologize hours later for its misleading photos and captions.

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Tags: 2018 Elections, Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick, crime, culture war, Donald Trump, healthcare, NFL, Philadelphia Eagles, police violence, racism, Roseanne Barr, Russia, Samantha Bee, Super Bowl, White House

Instead of getting distracted, drive the narrative

Written on October 12, 2017 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch, Messaging Maxims, Republican Messaging

Puerto Rico devastation from Hurricane Maria

Back in February 2011, we published Messaging Maxim #1: Go On Offense. Perhaps some folks need a refresher course. In that post, we wrote, “If you’re fighting a political battle on the other side’s rhetorical turf, you’ve already lost.” At the time, such advice was referring to phony cultural issues like “Ground Zero Mosque” and “is President Obama a Muslim?” that Republicans had ginned up and repeated everywhere they could (see Messaging Maxim #2: Rinse and Repeat). With their herd mentality, the mainstream media then picked up these issues and focused their broadcasts, cablecasts and column space on them.

Fast forward to today. Donald Trump and the Republicans are doing the same thing again, and it’s working. Currently, the phony cultural issues are: “Kneeling NFL Players” and “Harvey Weinstein.” To those, you can add, “NBC and CNN Licenses.” By next week, expect different cultural issues.

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Tags: California fires, climate change, CNN, Colin Kaepernick, culture war, Donald Trump, election, Facebook, gun control, guns, Harvey Weinstein, healthcare, Hillary Clinton, Hurricane Maria, Instagram, jobs, Las Vegas, NBC, NFL, NRA, President Obama, Puerto Rico, Republican Party, Russia, social media, Twitter

In the Trump age, be your own news editor

Written on February 22, 2017 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch

Faux News, the original Fake News

In September 2015, we gave some recommendations on how to bypass the corporate mainstream media, which were doing an awful job reporting real news. We suggested that readers and viewers choose their own news sources, follow such sources on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and share important stories. This way, you can act as your own news editor and broadcaster. Given the mainstream media’s abysmal 2016 election coverage, and with Donald Trump now in the White House, these efforts are more important than ever.

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Tags: Affordable Care Act, Congress, culture war, Dmytro Firtash, Donald Trump, media, Medicare, Milo Yiannopoulos, Obamacare, Republican Party, Russia, RussiaGate, Social Security, Sweden

Republicans obsessed with fighting Culture War

Written on February 6, 2017 by Messaging Matters in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Fox "News" Watch, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Budweiser beer, latest target of Republican Culture War

Like a dog with a bone, many Republicans just won’t let go of their battles over culture in America, from LGBT rights to guns to infusing government with their religion — often referred to by the phrase “God, Guns and Gays” — to the media we consume. Led by Donald Trump himself, these conservatives seem to be spending an awful lot of time fretting over Super Bowl commercials and other corporate policies. The results vary from ill-fated boycotts to a further tearing of the fabric of America.

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Tags: Apple, Breitbart, culture war, Donald Trump, Facebook, Fake News, Google, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Jerry Falwell, LGBT, Microsoft, Muslim ban, Muslims, Steven Bannon, Teletubbies

Tag Archive: culture war