That's What She Said

jayrosen:

Fake symmetry carries instructions for its own perpetuation.
Obama spoke to the American Society of Newspaper editors this week. Here’s what he said about fake symmetry in political journalism, after being asked this question: ”What can you say to the Americans who just want both sides to stop fighting and get some work done on their behalf?”

I think that there is oftentimes the impulse to suggest that if the two parties are disagreeing, then they’re equally at fault and the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and an equivalence is presented — which reinforces I think people’s cynicism about Washington generally. [The debate over deficit reduction] is not one of those situations where there’s an equivalence. I’ve got some of the most liberal Democrats in Congress who were prepared to make significant changes to entitlements that go against their political interests, and who said they were willing to do it. And we couldn’t get a Republican to stand up and say, we’ll raise some revenue, or even to suggest that we won’t give more tax cuts to people who don’t need them.

About the part in bold he is absolutely right. And I have seen no recognition by anyone in political journalism that Obama had a point.
But appreciate how well-defended the system is. For journalists, the whole point of “they’re equally at fault and the truth lies somewhere in the middle” is to advertise how unswayed you are by either side. If one of those sides, Mr. Obama, tries to persuade you that you’ve entered into a destructive pattern—like, say, fake symmetry—and you listen to him, conceding that he might have a fair point, then… you’ve been swayed!
But remember the reason you got into the fake symmetry biz in the first place. To show that you cannot be swayed. Therefore the pattern teaches you how to discount criticism of the pattern. It’s kind of the obverse of “the system contains the seeds of its own destruction.” Fake symmetry is a system that comes with instructions for its own perpetuation.
_______
Bonus link: Gloria Borger of CNN makes Obama’s point for him. Perfectly, I mean.
(Photo of Obama speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors by Steve Buttry. Used by permission.)

Fake symmetry carries instructions for its own perpetuation.

Obama spoke to the American Society of Newspaper editors this week. Here’s what he said about fake symmetry in political journalism, after being asked this question: ”What can you say to the Americans who just want both sides to stop fighting and get some work done on their behalf?”

I think that there is oftentimes the impulse to suggest that if the two parties are disagreeing, then they’re equally at fault and the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and an equivalence is presented — which reinforces I think people’s cynicism about Washington generally. [The debate over deficit reduction] is not one of those situations where there’s an equivalence. I’ve got some of the most liberal Democrats in Congress who were prepared to make significant changes to entitlements that go against their political interests, and who said they were willing to do it. And we couldn’t get a Republican to stand up and say, we’ll raise some revenue, or even to suggest that we won’t give more tax cuts to people who don’t need them.

About the part in bold he is absolutely right. And I have seen no recognition by anyone in political journalism that Obama had a point.

But appreciate how well-defended the system is. For journalists, the whole point of “they’re equally at fault and the truth lies somewhere in the middle” is to advertise how unswayed you are by either side. If one of those sides, Mr. Obama, tries to persuade you that you’ve entered into a destructive pattern—like, say, fake symmetry—and you listen to him, conceding that he might have a fair point, then… you’ve been swayed!

But remember the reason you got into the fake symmetry biz in the first place. To show that you cannot be swayed. Therefore the pattern teaches you how to discount criticism of the pattern. It’s kind of the obverse of “the system contains the seeds of its own destruction.” Fake symmetry is a system that comes with instructions for its own perpetuation.

_______

Bonus link: Gloria Borger of CNN makes Obama’s point for him. Perfectly, I mean.

(Photo of Obama speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors by Steve Buttry. Used by permission.)

Some scientists have contended that figures of speech like “a rough day” are so familiar that they are treated [by the brain] simply as words and no more.

“

—	Annie Murphy Paul in a New York Times op-ed, “Your Brain on Fiction”. This is why, as Martin Amis puts it, literature is a “war on cliche”; a war on heard words.

vicemag:

When I die, I hope people make off-color jokes about me on Twitter, and I hope some of those jokes (a lot of those jokes) are offensive. Because that’s what I did to people when they were alive. If you’re not comfortable with people saying shitty things about you when you die, then try not to be a despicable human being when you are alive. Like Andrew Breitbart was.

–- Michael Ian Black

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

“

—	Banksy channels Fugazi. (via sirmitchell)

Life is unfair. Republican venality unintentionally reinforces the conservative argument that government is corrupt. Democratic venality undermines the Democratic argument that Washington can be trusted to do good.

“

—

Unintentionally? Unintentionally? David Brooks should know better. He might start with this mea culpa by a congressional staffer who left the GOP after thirty years of service last year:

A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

Also note how Brooks is characteristically guilty of the “centrist cop-out”. Attempting to avoid charges of partisan bias, he suggests that both sides are equally culpable for the problem he diagnoses, Americans’ lack of trust in government.

Update: One more thing. David Brooks is also guilty of what I’d like to provisionally name the fallacy of innocence. But of course our good congresspeople are acting with only the best of intentions. Politicians might act in bad faith in those other loser countries, those other ones way over there, but not our good congresspeople here in America. Any side benefit to Republican intransigence is purely coincidental and entirely unintentional.

scribnerbooks:

guardian:

Christopher Hitchen: 1949 - 2011

His life in quotes

“I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn’t ever have to rely on the press for my information.” – Hitch-22, 2010

A great loss.

He’s been consistent since he changed his mind.

“

—	Christine O’Donnell, on why she endorsed Mitt Romney. (via think-progress)

A banking system is supposed to serve society, not the other way around.

“

—	Economist Joseph Stiglitz, discussing a Great Depression reprisal. (via vanityfair)

vanityfair:

“Rick is not dumb,” says a college classmate. “He’s just not educated.”

Rick Perry. Illustration by Andre Carrilho.

A fine distinction.

I don’t say this lightly, but the consumer is simply an income stream and exploiting that is the purpose of the banking organization.

“

—	Former JPMorgan executive David Mooney. This is the kind of thing George Bailey would disagree with. (via occupywallstreet)