Why do we seem to be constantly at each other’s throats when discussing politics in America today? Andrew Klavan contends that the media plays a large part in that, and all that rancor might be just the way they like it.
“I think the reason we can’t talk is because the media stands between Left and Right, and 8% of the people, the radical left, are running 85% of the media,” The Daily Wire podcast host explained on Monday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show.” “By the media, I don’t just mean however you’re getting your news, I’m talking about Hollywood, I’m talking about social media. It was amazing to watch social media this weekend; I think a lot of people just took the weekend off and weren’t on it, so the only people who were left were angry people, people who always say ‘I’m so outraged!’ It was endless, and I started to crack up after a while. It was kind of funny.”
Klavan also criticized New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd for calling President Donald Trump the “real American Psycho” and Republicans not supporting the White House “malefactors.”
“What she’s saying here is just because other Republicans attack Trump, doesn’t mean we should like other Republicans; they all stink,” he explained. “The point she is making is hate Trump, but don’t forget to hate all the other Republicans as well. At least that’s honest, they’re not saying, ‘Oh it started with Trump’ — they’re saying we’ve hated you all this time — it never occurs to her that maybe Trump is a reaction to all that hatred she was pouring on people.”
Video and transcript below:
I think the reason we can’t talk is because the media stands between Left and Right, and 8 percent of the people – the radical left – are running 85 percent of the media. By the media, I don’t just mean however you’re getting your news, I’m talking about Hollywood, I’m talking about social media. It was amazing to watch social media this weekend, I think a lot of people just took the weekend off and weren’t on it, so the only people who were left were angry people, people who always say “I’m so outraged!” It was endless, and I started to crack up after a while, it was kind of funny.
The University of Pennsylvania did a study where they came up with this: “using less social media than you normally do leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness.” These effects are particularly pronounced for folks who were more depressed when they came into this study. Now, I’m always a little leery of studies like this, and I’ll tell you why. Because in America, we don’t believe in limits. It never occurs to anybody saying “yeah, use social media, but don’t use it all the time, don’t use it every minute.” They do these studies of video games, and they’ll say “you know, 23 hours of video games a day makes you violent.” 23 hours of doing anything a day would make you violent after a while. It’s addiction that makes people crazy. Some of this stuff is addictive, it is built to be addictive, and one of the reasons it’s addictive is because it touches off outrage. Outrage feels good. I always tell you, “anger is the devil’s cocaine” – it feels good, it feels righteous. There is such a thing as righteous anger, but anger is never righteous itself, and that’s what it feels like. Even if you’re celebrating Veterans Day, you’ll hear people say “well we celebrate it, but they don’t, I’m outraged!”
All of this, of course, circles on Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is an obstreperous character. He is not the most polite person in the world. Why do I complain about this? I complain about it because I know there’ll be a price. There was a price to pay in this last election, it’s now being shown that we may lose 40 seats in Congress, which is not a blue wave, but it’s a bigger wave than it was. Why? Why when everything’s going well? It’s all about his impoliteness, it’s all about the way he appears to people. But as I keep saying, it didn’t start with Trump. That is an important thing for understanding.
Maureen Dowd, who I’ve always maintained some kind of vestigial respect for, because she stood up during the Clinton’s scandals, where Clinton was diddling his intern young enough to be his daughter – and she said “No! It’s not alright.” She actually stood up for her beliefs, which I respected. She got a lot of flak, I think she got death threats from the Left. So she writes this column in The New York Times, a former newspaper:
Maureen Dowd: “Who’s the real American Psycho? Donald Trump is such a menace, that it’s tempting to cheer any vituperative critic, and grab any handy truncheon, but villainizing Trump should not entail sanitizing other malefactors.”
What she’s saying here is just because other Republicans attack Trump, doesn’t mean we should like other Republicans, they all stink. The point she is making is hate Trump, but don’t forget to hate all the other Republicans as well. At least that’s honest, they’re not saying “oh it started with Trump” – they’re saying we’ve hated you all this time – it never occurs to her that maybe Trump is a reaction to all that hatred she was pouring on people. This is the way we get this stuff. When I say what’s the problem, why can’t we talk when conservatives and liberals need each other? We need liberals to tell us “oh this guy isn’t being served”, we need conservatives to say “alright let’s solve that problem, but let’s solve it in our traditional constitutional way.” We need that, that is the dance of progress. It entails argument, but it doesn’t have to entail hatred.
What’s getting in the way? It’s that day after day, speaking to their base, telling them “don’t forget, it’s not enough hate, it’s good that you hate Donald Trump, but you’re not hating enough, you’re not outraged enough, you’re not mean enough.” That’s how we get this stuff, like what’s happening to Tucker Carlson.