Do you, Mr. Jones?
"Newts?" I hear you ask. "WTF!" I hear you exclaim. OK, OK, let's begin at the beginning. Some time back, I subscribed to an online newsletter, which, when it arrives in my inbox is headed...
...and, unsurprisingly, is produced by The Nation magazine, founded in 1865, before there was email. Today's issue had the subject line "The New Right-Wing Smear Machine," and began...
Dear EmailNation Subscriber,
A web-savvy form of conservative propaganda, written anonymously and forwarded via email, is altering the political landscape, reports new Nation Washington editor Christopher Hayes in the current issue of the magazine. Read Hayes' investigation into the new right-wing smear machine.
So I went there and started reading. I was rather astounded to read this on the second page:
“...it's left to the conservative underground to get the truth out.”
Now, that is an odd sentiment to see being expressed in a supposedly liberal publication!
But not really. I'm tricking you by taking that remark totally out of context. However, my little trick is in keeping with the theme of the article, which is about scurrilous disinformation disseminated via email by conscienceless Republican brothers-in-law, etc. And no one with any brains at all reading that article would have any reason to misinterpret the publication's actual intent. Unless it was maybe this ad that appeared right smack in the middle of the same page...
And, if you do click there, as enjoined by the ad, you end up on a page hawking Newt's new book, which is I guess called Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America. I have to say I'd never heard of it. And probably never would have if it hadn't been for this article in The Nation warning me about the new right-wing smear machine. By this point, I was wondering a little who had taken out a contract on America. But, you know me, I drove on deeper, like Rommel into fucking Egypt.
To get to the next game level of Newt's "free offer," I had to subscribe to some right-wing smear machine. So I did. I don't care. What's a little more spam? And it was only there that I was able to read about the sorts of things Newt's new book is gonna clue me to...
- Why there is no attack on American culture more deadly and historically dishonest than the secular Left's unending war against God in America's public life
- How any serious look at the Founding Fathers reveals how much they believed in freedom of religion -- and how deeply they would have opposed government trying to create freedom from religion
- Immigration: why the problem is not the number or race of today's immigrants, but the breakdown of the will we need to control our borders and ensure that new immigrants learn to be American
- How we can end the teaching in public schools of politically correct, multicultural drivel that ignores or ridicules America's great history
So in conclusion, I'd like to thank The Nation for rising above crass partisanship and opting instead for the tried-and-true All-American principles of eyeballs and page impressions. Because if we aren't prepared to protect our core values, who will?
POST-POSTING ADDENDUM: And here's another ad I came across at The Nation -- though I'll be damned if I'm going to link it to her stupid newsletter-cum-book blipvert, as they do.
D O R K
