Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/01/12/bilingual-guide-to-resisting-t.html
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Can we model ourselves after a group less… everything the Tea Party is, does and stands for?
I have a feeling this might be one of those things that doesn’t adapt for the other side well. Like when conservatives tried to make their own version of The Daily Show or when progressives tried to emulate angry AM talk radio.
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And win the war?
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And preferably 99% less astroturf.
It should pose little surprise that mainstream politics achieves success when fully backed by mainstream interests in the guise of populism.
Oh boy, that really went somewhere, didn’t it?
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to be honest, you don’t need angry am radio when you have The Daily Show, etc.
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Let’s just own up to our respective strengths and weaknesses: liberals are better at biting wit, conservatives are better at being really loud.
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What about this gem?
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Really the Tea Party got its tactics from groups like the VC which was able to undermine the Vietnamese government with simple acts that undermined public perceptions. It’s always easier to mobilize criticism to claim the current system doesn’t work if you don’t bother presenting an alternative that might itself be criticized. (Yes, I realize the ruling elite of Vietnam were assholes.)
As for the teabaggers not being centrally coordinated, I call bullshit. It wasn’t too tough to see that the use of certain “news” providers to announce the time and place of demonstrations, followed by selective editing to make small events look larger, was a form of national coordination.
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Thus began the chain of events that led to the landslide victory of President Woody Harrelson and the establishment of the Weed Party as a political force to be reckoned with.
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It’s an infomercial for cocaine.
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Oh man! I just really hurt the inner-workings of my nose stifling laughter in the workplace.
+1 to @LearnedCoward
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It also helps when the media treats fat old white guys dressed like slave owners like a legitimate movement, but writes off all of OWS as trustafarians.
For the most part, I liked the hosts of Air America, but progressives don’t listen to AM radio.
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So did they.
Yes, assuming The Daily Show and others do their job and stop normalizing fascism and dismissing progressives.
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2 for 2.
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We’re screwed then. Loud wins every time.
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Which, practically speaking, achieves results?
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I don’t disagree, but I just don’t see myself winning a screaming match with the Trumpists.
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Indeed. I think the TP succeeded for a lot of pathological reasons. They didn’t hesitate to be mean if needed. They didn’t hesitate to lie, or back non-workable solutions for complex problems. They refused to cooperate or compromise. And they had the backing of a lot of powerful groups. Wasn’t Koch & Co behind some of it? I don’t see liberals being able to adopt similar techniques.
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I tried listening for a little while before they went off the air but it just made me sad. The format just doesn’t lend itself to thoughtful discussion, so I just went back to FM public radio and podcasts.
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