Citations Bonus w/ Jon Schwarz: Why All This Stupid Shit Actually Matters

One important point you made was that people today seem to want to be lied to and that applies to liberal-minded people as well as conservatives. It is more comforting to believe that the system works, Donald Trump is "not who we are", the United States is a force for good in the world, etc. than to recognize the system is corrupt. Trump has given the lie to this for many people, but I think too many more wish to live in the Matrix which is a great metaphor. I recently had a conversation with one of those liberal-minded friends who is upset with the recent "incivility" and said she would even vote for Jeff Flake because of his statements in reaction to Trump's crudeness. Schwartz is right, we are all going to die

I got turned on toCitations Needed last month and have been gratefully soaking up your past work.

Thanks so much for listening!

Citations Needed

Great analysis as always guys. I am constantly recommending your show. Not sure if it’s an age thing (I turn 40 this year), but I feel like my left-leaning friends and colleagues put their trust in the so-called liberal MSM now more than ever. As you have pointed out these media institutions have had a highly beneficial symbiosis with the ever more grotesque caricature conservatism of the last two decades. Now everyone gets to feel like they are part of a resistance movement, without much self-reflection or meaningful criticism. So ya shit is bad but it means media/PR literacy is more important than ever, so thanks again for the great work you’re doing. Greetings from Vancouver, Canada.

Keith Grennan

Fantastic listen. The point by Schwarz near the end that the reason this all matters is because those in power read the Times and assume they've all thought hard about this or that policy decision (e.g. invading Iraq) so that must mean we should do it (/we're okay doing it) is really hitting on a crucial point that is so easy to overlook from the outside, and so necessary to consider. I so hope that someone at the Times/MSNBC/WSJ/Atlantic/National Review/Weekly Standard is listening to this, though I guess they'd have to be a patron, so...to quote Schwarz again, "We're all gonna die."

Chris Chaplin

The folks behind the divide and conquer strategy are tired of the diminishing returns they get from their "investments" inside government. The only thing left for them to do is to try to salvage their investment using their PR apparatus to take everyone's attention away from what I'm assuming is a crime so they can install her somewhere else later.

David Blobaum

Discussions such as this really highlight how limited the mindset of liberals worldwide are. Here in Britain we have had a conservative home secretary forced to resign for lying to parliament, trying to deport British citizens (after tearing up their proof of citizenship) and the liberal press still made it to be a tragedy about her, how she was one of the good tories, how sad it is there are now fewer women on the front bench - all because she is nominally anti-brexit. Would that we could all live in the liberal fantasy land eh