Upworthy and BuzzFeed are part of a progressive campaign to indoctrinate so-called millennials with the message of big government, or so says former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma.
“What you see is Upworthy and BuzzFeed — all them are promoting the hard left progressive line to the millennial generation,” he said Thursday during a radio interview with conservative host Andrew Wilkow.
It will be difficult for lawmakers in the nation’s capital to honor longstanding financial commitments to America’s seniors without also burying the millennial generation under a mountain of debt, he said.
“The millennial generation voted for Barack Obama twice,” Wilkow noted. “Not realizing that they were voting themselves into debt slavery.”
Coburn agreed.
The former senator added that for things to be reversed, someone is going to have to “force founding principles on government.” He added that there also needs to be a convention of states to limit size and scope of government.
“You have to start communicating with this generation, which comes out of college leaning hard left,” he said. “Nobody has ever taught them about the about the realities of the financial picture that they’re getting ready to face.”
Wilkow added that millennials have only been taught to believe that government will solve all problems and crises.
“Where is our answer as fiscal conservatives?” Coburn asked. “Where is the answer to them, to educate them otherwise? It’s not out there. What you see is Upworthy and BuzzFeed — all them are promoting the hard left progressive line to the millennial generation.”
“If there’s not a message from our particular viewpoint on this issue — and there is not right now to the millennial generation — then they’re not ever going to learn what the truth is about where we are,” he said, bemoaning the right’s lack of effective messaging on issues regarding the national debt.
Upworthy is known mostly for aggregating “viral” content on the Internet and republishing it with the promise that readers, “won’t believe what happens next.”
BuzzFeed at its founding in 2006 also specialized in “viral” content, which consisted mostly of cat photos, “listicles,” ’90s nostalgia and quizzes about Disney princesses.
However, under the direction of its current editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, BuzzFeed has since branched out into serious journalism, establishing its reputation as a real deal news organization in 2012 with its coverage of the presidential election.
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This post has been updated to clarify that Coburn served Oklahoma, not Arkansas.
