Propaganda, sure. But otherwise, you’re wrong on all counts. The Meiselas brothers are not “simply out to make money.” There’s an enormous difference between this and “all of the right-wing garbage.” For one, every citation in this ad and in Meidas Touch podcasts are truthful. Right-wing propaganda is suffused with lies and false citations. Yours is a ridiculous “both sides” argument.
Ads cost money. They are “out to make money” to produce the ads. Your statement that they are “simply out to make money” is factually incorrect. If you listened to even one MT podcast you would know this.
I’m not making a ‘both sides’ argument. I’m saying MeidasTouch is about making money, that’s WHY this “advert” exists. It’s not about telling the truth, or educating, or anything but making them $$$.
They aren’t making an argument, they are aiming at a demographic.
This is technically correct. Groups like Meidas Touch, Lincoln Project, and others are indeed often self-serving and their motives are worthy of questioning. However…,
Let’s ignore the messenger. Everything in this video is footage of actual things the featured people said – often as they are saying them. False equivalency is false, but your Concern is duly noted.
I am waiting for the march on October 2nd to see what the turn out is, but it’s my sincere belief that Texas can be thanked for absolutely tanking any chance the Republicans had of taking over the senate or the house in 2022, and may have put the Democratic party in the position of being able to ignore shitheads like Mancin. Attacking women’s reproductive rights is going to be the stake through the heart that dooms them. They better turn all their thoughts and prayers to cases swiftly going through the courts and SCotUS smacking them done… and none of that is likely to happen now.
Ignore the messenger? My point IS the messenger. The content is irrelevant. That’s why I say it’s no different than The Lincoln Project, as you mentioned.
Do you really think this video will have any impact what-so-ever on a women’s right to chose? Will any of the millions MeidasTouch rakes in go towards this worthy cause?
If your question is “why aren’t they sharing footage of prominent DEMOCRATS sharing absolutely abhorrent positions on rape?” then the answer is “because Democrats don’t do that kind of thing nearly as often as Republicans, and the ones who do are usually pushed out of the party instead of being lauded as heroes.”
So many thoughts - while I often enjoy the ads from Meidas Touch and the Lincoln Project, I do struggle to trust either of those organizations and wonder how much of their fundraising is self-dealing. I wish I had more info on whether their things were seen by more than just people who already hate what the Republican Party has become. I feel like on one level their work is sincere (in that they probably do hate Trumpism and how anti-reality the GQP has become), but on the other hand, it took a LONG time for “conservative thought” to sow enough distrust in public institutions, science, news organizations, and politicians that we’ve gotten to the point where people won’t get a freaking shot to stop a world-wide pandemic. And the people at the Lincoln Project, most certainly, were part of the mechanism that brought us here.
On the other hand, a lot of these ads are brilliant and I’d love to see them shown more widely during a time of year/in a venue where they might have more impact. Much as I love the sentiment of “when they go low, we go high,” I also think of Heinlein’s quote that said, “Certainly the game is rigged - but you can’t win if you never play.” Sadly, negative ads work on that part of our brain that is triggered by panic and fear, and the conservative sphere has really, really trained its people to respond to negativity. It might be useful for them to sometimes be fed some panic and fear against the GQP instead of just liberals.
Do you understand political ads? Like, as a concept?
The point of the ad is to motivate viewers to vote out the Republicans who are at this very moment trying to further restrict women’s reproductive rights. It makes a pretty persuasive case as far as that goes.
Also, trying to literally overthrow democracy, too… At the very least many Democrats are on board with limiting SuperPacs and taking on other political campaign reforms…
But we can’t criticize these Republicans for the things they said in public while acting as elected representatives in the US government unless we find some Democrats to criticize for the exact same thiiiing or else it’s not fair!
I dunno. I don’t see @theGhoulman 's point is defending the GOP in the least. I think the controversy is over the statement “There’s no difference between this and all of the right-wing online garbage in that it’s just another hit piece.” I think when he says “no difference”, he means that the goal of medias touch is to drum up donations, just like a lot of right wing media grifters. At least that is how I read it, as the line before that is "This is not an ad, it’s online propaganda from a singular company (two brothers) who are simply out to make $$$. "
Unless I missed something, I don’t think he is conflating the difference in the content - that this example is showing disgusting rhetoric by Republicans, and many right wing grifters are creating outrage with lies.
This is basically a comment seen every time a Lincoln Project is posted.
But this is loaded language and is leaves one assuming by “no difference” they mean “no difference” in substance as well.
YMMV
That said, for profit or not, political 3rd party ads do have a place in the political landscape. How effective these ads are is debatable. Typically they are more for exciting the base and those who share the same views to go vote. It rarely actually sways opinions.
This propaganda - grass roots or corporatized - is valuable. I still think the Lincoln Project ads are useful in this case too. But I am not donating to either. If one has extra cash and want to fuel the propaganda war, go for it.
If one wants to spend money on charities that hit closer to the actual issues, they should do that too.
Yep. Maxim 29: “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy- no more, no less.”
But with Karl’s corollary: “If they’re not friendly, I stand back and watch my enemies fight.”
I didn’t need to; I already know that a) the Midas Project does not have our best interests in mind, only to try and salvage what remains of the Republican Party that has not totally drunk the death cult Flavor-Aid; and b) that you really should stop posting, step away from the keyboard, and do something else and think about why you are making a mountain out of this molehill before the moderators break out the banhammers and force the issue.
How is this video misrepresenting anything? They quoted republicans because a lot more Republicans are against women’s right to have an abortion than Democrats. Your argument that the video is bad because the Meidas brothers make money from their videos is a side comment at best. What is your real beef here?
It’s not. I get the feeling a couple of people would like to have a completely different discussion about political ads, fundraising, and other things that have nothing to do with the misogynistic statements in the video or the groups enabling the pols who made them. The comment above that the content is irrelevant said it all - and is the reason why there are so many flags being thrown.
Literally NO ONE SAID THAT. And we’re ALL aware of the problems of SuperPacs, because, you know, we’re conscious and pay at least some attention to American politics. Most of us here would agree that the Citizens United decision was a very bad one.
Calling this ad disingenuous for telling the truth by letting the GQP tell us how they feel about women being raped the “same” as the authoritarians spreading actual LIES about the election is complete and utter bullshit. And you know that.
This line of questioning introduced by that poster just comes off as yet another attempt to derail the discussion from how women’s rights are under attack by the far right, which is the mainstream of the GQP right now.
This maybe a superpac with all the associated problems, but we can’t FIX THAT SHIT until we deal with the actual fascists in our political system.
