Let’s talk about a genre of political punditry that appears genuine and reasonable but has more in common with conspiracy theory than well-intended debate in the interest of democracy, intellectual honesty and the common good. On closer inspection, in fact, it’s clear these writers are modeling ways of rationalizing political decisions that have already been made. They are, moreover, demonstrating a total lack of caring about whether their “arguments” are plausibly right or wrong. Opinion editors have incentive to balance views, obviously, but they have no incentive to sort good faith from bad. They themselves don’t care if opinion writers care about the truth, because the business of journalism doesn’t care. It encourages and rewards venomous bullshit.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The genre I’m talking about was in wide circulation when the Democratic Party was searching for a new standard-bearer. Everyone envisioned a nominee who could unite the party while appealing to disaffected white Republicans, the balance being critical to amassing the majority needed to defeat the president. Bernie Sanders seemed to be the frontrunner. Op-ed pages were filled with dire warnings, apparently in good-faith, against the party choosing “a socialist.” The perspectives varied, but the conclusions were the same. Picking Sanders would guarantee four more years of Donald Trump.
Opinion editors have incentive to balance views, obviously, but they have no incentive to sort good faith from bad.
These arguments had almost no effect, fortunately. Joe Biden’s nomination was rooted in the preferences of pragmatic Black voters, in the south and midwest, more than the preferences of disaffected white Republicans. (Black Democrats saw Biden as a shield against white supremacy and other bigotries more than white Democrats favoring a progressive candidate, and they were right.) That these arguments had almost no impact on party decision-making allowed them to stay in circulation. Writers who said they’d vote for Trump if the Democratic Party picked “a socialist” are now saying the same thing: they’ll vote for Trump if the Democrats keep “being socialist.” You get the feeling it doesn’t matter what Biden does. The goal isn’t genuine engagement in free speech. It’s exploiting free speech to sow confusion, cast doubt and otherwise discredit the Democratic nominee. Moving the bar is what serial abusers do. Opinion editors don’t seem aware of their complicity in the gaslighting of trusting readers.
More importantly, opinion editors do not seem aware that this genre of punditry, however much it might appeal to their need for balancing an array of political views, does not care whether it’s plausibly wrong or right. Caring about the rightness or wrongness of an argument means caring about the practical consequences of it, which means taking responsibility for the integrity of the social relationships that constitute a community. In other words, caring about rightness or wrongness means caring about trust. Writers of I-was-for-Biden-before-I-was-against-him don’t care whether you trust them. They care instead about poisoning public discourse, making it harder for voters to make good choices, and thus improving the president’s chances of winning. Making all this worse is these “arguments” are seen as respectable. They’re more like dangerous conspiracy theories, though, and opinion editors should see them as such.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Conspiracy theories are not just crazy cult conniptions. They are the rational result of people deciding to sever previous obligations to the democratic process and the common good, because the democratic process and the common good are getting in the way of their political goals. For many now welcomed into the GOP, it’s no longer possible to win by arguing the Democrats are right or wrong about this or that policy. Reasonable good-faith arguments are insufficient. (Reasonable good-faith arguments, moreover, demand sharing space with political opponents deserving annihilation, not respect.) Conspiracy theories not only create boogeymen that justify any means of destruction; they attack the ways by which the enemy maintains an advantage: the persuasive power of free speech. Undermine free speech. Undermine the enemy.
As I said before, QAnon “believers” don’t care whether their conspiracy theory is true. All they care about is bringing to mainstream attention the allegation that the Democrats, and by extension Joe Biden, are part of a secret cabal of pedophiles and cannibals conspiring to bring down the president from the inside of the federal government. The conspiracy theory, in other words, is merely a convenience that, among other goals, legitimizes political violence in a society that normally shuns political violence. In a very real sense, all Republican rhetoric is conspiratorial. Biden is a Trojan Horse for the radical left. The Democrats tried stealing the 2000 election. Jamie Harrison, Senate candidate, is hiding something in tax returns he won’t release. (He did.) Making the allegation is the point. Caring about whether it’s true isn’t.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
—John Stoehr
Which opinion piece of late is being referenced? Might it be this guest piece from AEI, right-wing shill Danielle Pletka. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-cant-stand-trump-but-democrats-may-force-me-to-vote-for-him/2020/09/14/1cf10518-f6c4-11ea-a275-1a2c2d36e1f1_story.html. Mind you, this is someone who supported the Iraq War (and never looked back) doesn't believe in climate change as Oregon burns, and advocates the use of torture (which, well, never works). She was senior staff for Jesse Helms. Seriously does anyone need to know more?
Leaving that aside, some distinction should be drawn between op ed writers and guest editorialists. As we know, there are many bad-faith regulars, from Ross Douthat, who continues to embarrass himself with counterfactual claims about the federal administration's COVID response (or lack thereof) , to Bret Stephens' at this point lifesaver-clinging climate change denials. The real question is what does it take to get thrown out the front door, as seemed to happen to Bill Kristol as he bumbled his way through opinion after opinion with a weekly fact check correction.
There's perhaps more to be said about bad-faith opinions, although these are challenging since it always possible for someone to draw truly stupid conclusions--bad inferences--from good (but usually selective) data. Many religious opinions from the truly pious operate in exactly this way. I'm not sure how much this kind of thing can be policed from the top since the criteria for what's in and out are not entirely stable. In the end, it may well be the case that the best way to kill a truly lousy opinion maker is to do something quite antithetical: don't respond, read, listen, or watch.
Nothing kills a column than lack of response/interest. Not sure if that is always the wisest measure, but it may well be. It is a lot like my thoughts about listening to Trump. I don't. I already know the content of his contribution--and there's nothing there. In fact, I go out of my way disregard it. For example, any public health announcement from him I immediately disregard because it it is uninformed or disingenuous. In other words, entirely useless (and possibly dangerous).
In that light, his press briefings should be the easiest thing not to attend since there's no there there. Sadly reporters still attend not to gather any news but to play gotcha--which as we now know is also pointless since Trump supporters rationalize all gotchas away and the rest of us don't need more gotchas.
Bad punditry should be met sometimes by cricket. Sort of like Trump in Tulsa.
We also have a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, which while it does not absolve the media or pundits of their blame for poisoning the discourse and placing their personal interests first and foremost ahead of the country's wellbeing: NYT subscriptions have increased and FB is booming. We have limited power as citizens, and yet, few people I know will even close their FB accounts. If enough of us did this small action, it would immediately strengthen our democracy, but we won't. If enough people canceled their NYT subscription as a rebuff to their idiotic headlines and both-sides political reporting, we would see changes, but we won't. Not everyone can protest or run for office, but everyone can make small choices that, in the aggregate, can effect positive change, but we don't. I'm very grateful for the hard work of many grassroots organizations and independent journalists, but I also think citizens need to ensure that they are doing everything that they can...even if it causes temporary inconveniences If everyone who expressed concern about the survival of our democracy closed their FB account, it would do more to rouse Zuckerberg to repress conspiracy theories than 10 Congressional hearings. Why aren't we doing this?