Tag Archives: orwellian

Orwell 101: the GOP tries out some new words to adjust for ‘language errors’

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#1: Ix-nay on ape-ray abies-bay comments

Think Progress: “On Tuesday afternoon, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) delivered a speech that sought to “rebrand” the GOP as a party that can advance legislation that would improve the lives of the “most vulnerable” Americans…. But a closer look behind Cantor’s policy proposals reveals that House Republicans are still more interested in sounding compassionate than ensuring economic advancement for middle and lower income voters.”

Here are 8 reasons why the new rebranded GOP is just the old GOP (but with new words!):

1. SCHOOL FUNDING
2. HIGHER EDUCATION
3. WORKING MOTHERS
4. TAX REFORM
5. IMMIGRATION
6. OBAMACARE
7. MEDICARE
8. MEDICAID 

Read Cantor’s spiffy, new ‘rebranded’ version of GOP policy on the issues above, vs. the same, old, unchanging reality of their policy here.

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Charlie Pierce hilariously takes apart Cantor’s psyops, comparing it to “Let me tell you about the benefits to your family of fine vinyl siding.” or “Has anyone spoken to you recently about a reverse mortgage?”

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Frank Rich: “The party is what it is. This idea that it’s something else is a fantasy and they’re going to have to get real about it and face the party they have and change it from within, not with stunts involving spending money on advertising.”

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WATCH JON STEWART discuss the rebranding effort currently underway on Fox ‘news.’

Raw Story:  Conservative strategist Frank Luntz, for instance, has called on Republican candidates to “adjust” their “language errors.” [...]  

Luntz said Republicans should stop using the phrase “smaller government” and instead advocate “more effective and efficient government” because voters don’t care about the size of government.

“If you say you want smaller government, the electorate rejects it,” Stewart elaborated. “But if you say you want the government to function more efficiently, the electorate likes it, even though that’s clearly not what you believe.”

Luntz even suggested that instead of talking about controlling or cutting Social Security and Medicare, Republican should talk about saving and strengthening the popular government programs. Though Stewart, amazed at Luntz’s audacity, noted that strengthening Social Security and Medicare was the opposite of what Republicans were proposing.

“Save and strengthen does sound better than the Republican’s actual plan for entitlements, which would cut them, which sounds shitty,” he remarked.

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Click for larger:

via huffpostpolitics

Shield your mind, right wing citizen!

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It’s not Orwellian (or self-serving) at all for conservative media to urge supporters to only listen to conservative media.

David Frum: “This is pretty funny. The conservative Media Research Center has posted a public letter urging supporters not to listen to non-conservative media.

“Exposure to diverging views: no telling where that might lead. The risk is high and real that listeners may well find the New York Times more credible than Fox News.

“But that’s not the funny part. The funny part is that MRC is announcing with pride that their letter urging conservatives to forswear non-conservative sources of information has been signed by Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. Of course it has! If you’re selling high-fructose soda, you hate to see your customers wasting stomach space on milk and orange juice.“

It’s no wonder that some people in America are completely insane: a steady diet from the “fever swamp of crazed conspiracy theories and shockingly offensive rhetoric…[of] obscure right-wing websites and viral e-mail chains,” supplemented daily with Fox “news” and AM hate-radio. And now self-censorship.

The base rubes on the far right are living in a kind of Twilight Zone state of pleasurable self-hypnosis. Instead of becoming even a little bit alarmed when their preferred media (propaganda outlet) tells them to censor the information they receive, they just lean back and slowly nod their heads… listening with half-closed eyes.

The Univision forum: Romney bused in activists, threw a tantrum over his introduction

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How different were the Univision forum experiences for Mitt Romney and President Obama?  First of all Romney agreed to only 35 minutes on stage, while the President gave them a full hour. That the Univision hosts mentioned this fact while introducing Romney caused him to throw a tantrum and demand a re-taped introduction before he’d appear onstage. Finally the two audiences were completely different as well: Obama’s campaign went along with Univision’s “parameters” for ticket distribution, while Romney threatened to reschedule if he wasn’t allowed to deviate. Coincidentally, the university official who coordinated both forums, Rudy Fernandez, is also a member of Romney’s Hispanic steering committee.

According to Buzzfeed, Romney was allowed to “bus in rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill extra seats,” because not enough “sympathetic” students took tickets. And, naturally, “Romney’s non-student activists ignored instructions to hold their applause,” which explains the weird, rally-like cheering after every one of his responses. Thanks, Rudy Fernandez!

Meanwhile Obama’s campaign went along with Univsion’s requests and “allowed a large chunk of the tickets to be distributed to interested students on campus. The result was a quiet, well-behaved crowd — and a lot of no-shows. Minutes before Obama’s forum was to begin, producers began frantically directing university staff and volunteers to sit in the empty seats.”

But it gets better. Mitt actually threw a tantrum before he came on stage:

While introducing Romney at the top of the broadcast, Salinas’s co-anchor, Jorge Ramos, noted that the Republican candidate had agreed to give the network 35 minutes, and that Obama had agreed to a full hour the next night. Ramos then invited the audience to welcome Romney to the stage — but the candidate didn’t materialize. Apparently, Romney took issue with the anchors beginning the broadcast that way, said Salinas, and he refused to go on stage until they re-taped the introduction. (One Republican present at the taping said Romney “threw a tantrum.”)

They’re also explaining Mitt’s stunning ‘brown face’ look that night as a “sunburn” and not a special makeup request. I think we all know what a sunburn looks like, Mittens. That was no sunburn.

This is yet another example of the impressive “leadership” qualities Romney would bring to the White House — if by impressive you mean Orwellian.

Romney pollster: We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”

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If you appreciated the ideas in Orwell’s 1984, you’re going to love the Romney campaign. Facts are merely historical items to be rewritten by the Mitt-istry of Truth, to send through the pneumatic tubes of conservative propaganda, for immediate and repetitive distribution by Fox News and other rightwing media outlets. That’s what works for Romney.

Robert Reich: “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” says Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster.

A half dozen fact-checking organizations and websites have refuted Romney’s claims that Obama removed the work requirement from the welfare law and will cut Medicare benefits by $216 billion.

Last Sunday’s New York Times even reported on its front page that Romney has been “falsely charging” President Obama with removing the work requirement. Those are strong words from the venerable Times. Yet Romney is still making the false charge. Ads containing it continue to be aired.

Presumably the Romney campaign continues its false claims because they’re effective. But this raises a more basic question: How can they remain effective when they’ve been so overwhelmingly discredited by the media?

The answer is the Republican Party has developed three means of bypassing the mainstream media and its fact-checkers…

The Obama-Welfare ads are complete fabrications? Outright lies? Doesn’t matter — the Romney campaign admits those are their “most effective” ads. Romney will lie to win because it’s effective: 

Mitt Romney’s aides explained with unusual political bluntness today why they are spending heavily — and ignoring media criticism — to air an add accusing President Barack Obama of “gutting” the work requirement for welfare, a marginal political issue since the mid-1990s that Romney pushed back to center stage. ”Our most effective ad is our welfare ad,” a top television advertising strategist for Romney.

Tennessee Tea Party goes Full Metal Orwell

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Rewriting history to suit your personal comfort level is doubleplusgood.

Charles Johnson reports that Teabaggers in Tennessee are demanding that school textbooks leave out America’s history of slavery:

“…a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country’s founders being slave owners.

“According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.

“[...] The group called for textbook selection criteria to include: “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”“

President Obama didn’t have a SINGLE WEEK when positive coverage exceeded negative coverage in 2012

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According to the report, President Barack Obama “did not have a single week in 2012 when positive coverage exceeded negative coverage.” The media’s overwhelming focus on “strategy” and Obama’s consistently negative coverage indicate that a preoccupation with public policy and an unwillingness to criticize the president are two afflictions the mainstream press is not suffering from. – Mother Jones

via: think-progress

inothernews: THE LIBERAL MEDIA. Another fun/sad fact from this: Trivial news on campaign “strategy” has dominated the media coverage over actual policies by 6:1.

If only ‘the media’ reported actual facts instead of trying to be ‘fair,’ maybe they wouldn’t have to try to overcompensate for what the Republican Party really stands for: the greed of the plutocracy and their desire to eventually herd us all into corporate-sponsored work camps where we’ll exist on Soylent Green — and like it.