Ep. 22: Trumpwashing -- How the Media Uses Trump to Launder Our Criminal Past
Added 2018-01-10 18:13:23 +0000 UTCThe unique threat and vileness of Donald Trump’s presidency can’t be overstated. Since he took office a year ago, he’s increased civilian deaths in Afghanistan by 50%, increased civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq (surpassing Obama’s death toll in just under 7 months), issued dozens of nuclear threats against North Korea, unraveled the Iran deal, bombed Hezbollah, Iranian and SAA positions in Syria, signed a smash and grab tax bill for billionaires, and issued order after order making life hell for immigrants and other vulnerable communities.
But with this unique threat comes a rhetorical habit of "Trumpwashing" that, while perhaps tempting in the short term, will - in the long term - have disastrous effects.
The desire to revamp the image of the pre-Trump Republican party and the United States in general – a concept Ali Abunimah coined “Trumpwashing” - is a favorite rhetorical tic of Russia-obsessed democrats and centrist extremists whose primary charge is treating the phenomenon of Donald Trump as anomalous from American history, rather than its most pure, and even logical, manifestation. This trope - in addition to denying the realities of the past hundred years of American politics and policy - carries with it pernicious long term effects.
We discuss this broader narrative with The Intercept's Jon Schwarz.
Guest
Jon Schwarz is a Senior Writer at The Intercept. He has contributed to many other publications, such as the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and Slate, as well as NPR and “Saturday Night Live.”
Show Notes
NYT Trumpwashes 70 Years of US Crimes
Adam Johnson | December 30, 2017 | FAIR
The Least Important #Resistance Figures of 2017
Libby Watson | December 27, 2017 | Splinter News
With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons
Glenn Greenwald | July 17, 2017 | The Intercept
Liberals Helped Create Trump’s New Bogeyman, the “Alt-Left”
Sarah Jones | August 16, 2017 | New Republic
Media Trumpwash Clinton’s Reckless Foreign Record
Adam Johnson | June 3, 2016 | FAIR
The left shouldn't make peace with neocons — even to defeat Trump
Robert Wright | December 11, 2017 | Vox
It Didn't Just Start Now: John Kelly Has Always Been a Hard-Right Bully
Jon Schwarz | October 21, 2017 | The Intercept
Media to Trump: Don’t Cozy Up to Dictators—Unless They’re the Right Dictators
Adam Johnson | May 17, 2017 | FAIR
Comments
"If you uploaded Fox News into a 3D printer, out would pop Trump." Too true!
Matthew Roesch
2018-01-13 17:35:13 +0000 UTC"It's like the bad guys in the Fast and Furious series. They are like the worst thing ever and then the next series they are throwing back Coronas with Vin Diesel." American politics in a nutshell. Angry Adam is my favorite Adam, and he has been pissed off these past few episodes.
2018-01-12 13:27:59 +0000 UTCThe only 'premium' episodes as such are news briefs (we always want to make episodes free, but in terms of patron-only) and the news briefs are usually reactive to the news if we have the bandwitdth to do them. We aim for at least once every two weeks but sometimes it's more frequent. Does this answer help?
Citations Needed
2018-01-11 03:46:19 +0000 UTC
