Some news days remind me of that Yogi Berra line about the restaurant where “nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”
The Twitterverse’s biggest topic today involves truly obnoxious and idiotic comments that TV news personality Tucker Carlson made 10 or 20 or a gazillion years ago when talking to shock jocks and trying to be funny. My colleague Erin Dunne had the best take on that teapot tempest this morning, which was basically that conservatives shouldn’t defend Carlson’s remarks — not that Carlson really defended them — but it’s also reasonable to object to the “social justice outrage mob” that is pointlessly digging up old sludge.
It’s not real news.
What would ordinarily be news is the budget proposal released by President Trump today. Unfortunately, this is also a yawner. In 2017, Trump proposed a plan similarly dedicated to fiscal rectitude, but then spent no more than about 17 nanoseconds working to push it through Congress. Instead, even with two years of Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate, the Trumpublicans pushed through the single largest expansion of federal spending in nonwar, low-unemployment U.S. history.
Nobody should pretend that budget was the fault of congressional leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Trump had multiple Cabinet members and White House staff who could have called members of Congress to twist their arms to vote for it.
Because there’s no reason to believe the president really means it, Trump’s showy, shammy budget proposal is not real news.
The White House held its first “daily” press briefing in about six weeks: press secretary Sarah Sanders dodged questions and CNN’s Jim Acosta blatantly editorialized (starting at 2:03 here) rather than ask a question. Again, yawn. We’ve seen that whole scenario more times than the average “Friends” or “Seinfeld” episode. If it’s not new, it’s not news.
Somebody else on Fox News said something to which the Left objects. The ever-ignorant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said something to which the Right objects. Another person proved that climbing inside a zoo enclosure is dangerous. And for about the 93rd week in a row, special counsel Robert Mueller’s report might be released this week, proving either that President Trump is a conscious agent of the Kremlin or more innocent than Snow White — or maybe more innocent than the Kremlin and a conscious agent of Snow White, or something like that. Either way, it’s Armageddon or Twittergeddon, for sure.
The banality of American news cycles is becoming oppressive. The level of public debate — Swamp Creature! Racist! Cuck! One-percenter! — is as elevated as Death Valley National Park. Each side hates the other more passionately than Red Sox and Yankees fans. And Lord forbid that anyone try to slow down the official Cycle of Outrage.
More than 70 years ago, even before Facebook and cyber-clouds, conservative philosopher Richard Weaver lamented “the great stereopticon,” concisely described by one reviewer as “the technologically enhanced thought control to which we are subjected by newspapers, film, radio, and television.” Obviously, modern technology and social media has made the stereopticon more pervasive, intrusive, and mind-numbing than ever.
Please, America, can’t we do better than this?
If and when we actually do better, I hope somebody texts me to let me know.
