Manufactured consent: US Pravda is enabling a coup

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Jeff G @ Protein Wisdom:

Meanwhile, David Brooks identifies a dislike of Big Government as the problem with Republicans and conservatives, while the “conservative” National Review summit brings in John Podheretz and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to discuss how best to fix conservatism so that it can compromise with contemporary pragmatic (big) governance.  Which, from what I gather, involves re-labeling RINOs and moderates “conservative” and lopping off the “fringe-right” Hobbity Visigoth extremists altogether.

Like leftists, these people look for easy marks — after all, how brave is it to demonize conservatism and the TEA Party movement when the press and the Democrats have been doing so since it galvanized around what Brooks calls a dangerous and unwinning “encroachment” narrative favored by anti-intellectual wingnuts — and in exchange for taking pot shots and mirroring leftwing assumptions, they are praised as the true “thinkers” on the right.  Even though there’s hardly a conservative, classical liberal, constitutionalist, or libertarian anywhere in the bunch.

Just more government-worshipping statists who, as they become part of the media matrix, aid the leftwing agenda by giving ostensible cover to the idea that divergent viewpoints are being aired, when in fact all they are doing is helping the left redefine itself as moderate, claiming for themselves the mantle of conservatism, and pushing the founding principles out to the fringes in a way that is entirely cynical and self-serving.

But I digress.  Kind of.

Because what I really wanted to point out here is how two stories have been covered.  The first involves some tricky editing, and is being pushed by the mainstream press as part of its attempt to demonize the NRA and shame legal gun owners until they willingly disarm in exchange for a reversal of pariah status.

Stephen Gutowski:

In the wake of a gun control hearing involving the father of one of the victims of the tragic Sandy Hook shooting BuzzFeed,The Telegraph, and other liberal media outlets have resorted to using a deceptively edited video in order to smear Second Amendment supporters.

A video promoted by all of the aforementioned sites purportedly shows the “father of Newtown victim heckled by NRA supporters.” However, when the heavily edited video of Neil Heslin is compared to the raw video, available at Twitchy, it becomes apparent that important context has been removed from the interaction.

Clearly the gun owners in the crowd are reacting to Mr. Heslin’s repeated request that somebody in the room tell him why “assault weapons” shouldn’t be banned. In fact, the crowd reacts only after Mr. Heslin takes their silence as a form of agreeing with his point.

This is the only time that gun owners in the crowd appear to interject in the testimony – and it, in no way, constitutes heckling.

Furthermore, the fact that many media outlets were perfectly willing to forward one of the most deceptively edited videos I’ve ever seen in order to smear gun owners is disturbing. After all these are the same media outlets that tarred and feathered James O’Keefe and Andrew Breitbart for far less. Where is there outrage now?

Why did they forward such an obvious deception? Where have all the fact checkers gone? Why is this smear allowed to propagate?

I’m going to take Gutowski’s queries as earnest rather than rhetorical and say that obvious deception and the perpetuation of smears is part and parcel of any propaganda effort aimed at shaming and scapegoating.  And as the left and its media lapdogs have determined that onerous gun control is a necessary ingredient for the Greater Good of the society they wish to erect on the ruins of our own, the ends — weakening the 2nd Amendment, disarming law-abiding citizens, solidifying governmental power over subjects by claiming only for the State and its servants the right to weaponry that can be used to repel tyranny — justify the means.  Which in this case involves manufacturing false narratives, perpetuating them, and rationalizing the dishonesty as being a necessary evil in the service of a moral good, even as they know that it is nothing more than propaganda in the service of centralizing power and providing cover for the unconstitutional machinations of  their Marxist cult figure president.

Here’s the video, both edited and unedited, courtesy MRC:

The second bit of propaganda I want to point out comes in the form of an after-study about the make-up of the “Occupy” movement.

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Not all Americans are adults.
Not all American adults are registered voters.
Not all registered voters go to the polls on election day.
26.56% of Adult Americans voted for Obama.
That is NO ”mandate.”
FEWER that that number are those who agree with Obama on any one issue.
So, on gun control, Obama’s viewpoint is a minority viewpoint.
But it is true that Obama’s liberal media tries its best to manufacture that small segment into something much bigger than life.

It’s the demonization of Zimmerman all over again. And it underlines why we must continually expose and shame the MSM when they do it. Our silence is taken as condoning. When you are punched, punch back twice as hard.