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Karl Rove’s Factually Challenged Housing Revisionism | The Big Picture
by Decius at 1:08 pm EST, Jan 8, 2009 |
As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. The instant historical revisionism by Karl Rove in today’s WSJ — mythmaking writ large — contains an egregious combination of false statements, crucial omissions and misleading assertions.
As recently as 6 months ago this sort of self-delusion that has been the hallmark of Conservative thinking in the past years was extremely frustrating, because they were in power. Its been a constant pattern: telling themselves that Iraq had WMDs or that FISA doesn't constrain the power of the President or that the EFF is "in it for the money" or that the UN and the Geneva conventions are irrelevant or that Brown was doing a good job running FEMA... They do it by lying to themselves, over and over and over again until their believe their own bullshit and are comfortable with what they've done. Believing your own bullshit has consequences. It had consequences in Iraq, it had consequences in New Orleans, it had consequences for our economy, and it will have consequences domestically and internationally when the civil liberties and Geneva conventions chickens come home to roost. Each step of the way people have been calling Conservatives out on their bullshit, and finally after 8 years enough people have finally caught on that the Republican party is no longer in control of the government. But they still haven't learned their lesson. They still haven't figured it out. They are still lying to themselves. They still don't take what they're doing seriously enough to face it honestly. And what scares me is that they are down, but they are not out. These people cannot be allowed back into power until they realize what was actually at the heart of their demise, and it sure as hell wasn't that they "weren't conservative enough" - another line of bullshit their pundits tell them. We simply haven't seen enough of the Democrats in recent years to know to what extent they suffer from the same problem. The claim that there is no problem with social security was certainly troubling, as was their unwillingness to give the surge time to work before calling it a failure. What this country needs more than anything is leaders who are not full of shit. Is that too much to ask? |
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RE: Karl Rove’s Factually Challenged Housing Revisionism | The Big Picture
by noteworthy at 6:39 pm EST, Jan 8, 2009 |
Decius wrote: As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. Believing your own bullshit has consequences. ... They still haven't learned their lesson. They still haven't figured it out. They are still lying to themselves. They still don't take what they're doing seriously enough to face it honestly. And what scares me is that they are down, but they are not out. The [Democrats'] claim that there is no problem with social security was certainly troubling ... What this country needs more than anything is leaders who are not full of shit. Is that too much to ask?
A few thoughts. First, from the archive: The problem is not the ignorance. The problem is the bliss.
In today's NYT, Obama says: “We expect that discussion around entitlements will be a part, a central part” of efforts to curb federal spending, Mr. Obama said at a news conference. By February, he said, “we will have more to say about how we’re going to approach entitlement spending.”
Tom Friedman, from 2005: Are Americans suffering from an undue sense of entitlement? Somebody said to me the other day that the entitlement we need to get rid of is our sense of entitlement.
Regarding Obama's quote, Tyler Cowen commented: I am no expert at reading the political tea leaves, but given the political costs involved, it is unlikely he said this as a mere feint.
Finally, another from the archive: Lisa: "Can't you see the difference between earning something honestly and getting it by fraud?" Bart: Hmm, I suppose, maybe, if, uh ... no. No, sorry, I thought I had it there for a second."
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