Lessons Learned from the Right Wing Blogosphere

I've been trying to keep up with the hysterics and reality deniers that comprise most of the right wing blogosphere for the past several months. Believe me at times it really is rather difficult for many of them to sustain a coherent and reasonable argument. Permit me to offer my quick and dirty analysis of their stylistic approaches.

1. Yesterday's news cycle is yesterday's news cycle. If new information emerges through actual reporting that doesn't support a particular argument, ignore it and move on to another argument. When factual information contradicts a particular point of view, the only reasonable approach is to find another topic to write about. Apparently it isn't necessary to defend a particular position when facts may refute it. Just move on to another topic that pushes the visceral buttons of your readership. As a blogger, your job is only to validate particular prejudices and beliefs.

2. Conspiracies abound everywhere! Your job as a right wing blogger is to repeat them over and over again. Global warming? An Al Gore led attempt to corral and stop free enterprise. The lack of progress in Iraq? Individual disenfranchised soldiers make up stories. The left wing media ignores all the good news. Health care crisis? Democrats are socialists in disguise and want to us to go to the doctor in Havana. Corruption and ethical challenges in the Congress? George Soros used his "dirty money" to help the Democrats win in majorities in the last congressional elections. Clinton and his minions had Vincent Foster murdered so what is the big deal about a little pedophilia and trading congressional votes for cash?

3. Play the martyrdom card. There continues to be this subtext among most right wing zealots on the internet that they are the beleaguered and marginalized. Liberal forces in the mainstream culture are overwhelming this country with secular, socialistic and sinful ideas. Ironically in a recent Gallup poll, only 21% of Americans label themselves as liberals compared to 41% who considered themselves conservative. Corporations with a quarterly profits mentality own all the major media sources in this country. News and how it is packaged and communicated is increasingly done by fewer and fewer people beholden to larger corporate interests.

I am constantly amazed how the right wing frame all their arguments from a perspective that they are the persecuted and put upon group. Nefarious forces are in control and are out to get them. What a bunch of b-shit! Conservative voices abound in this country!

4. Blame the Clintons. Whenever the news tends to refute particular right wing talking points, the only reasonable approach is find some way to blame the Clintons. Hillary and Bill can always be dragged out as the culprits for whatever mess that is the topic of the day. Corruption in congress? They started it with the pardon of Marc Rich and firing of the employees in the White House Travel Office. The mess in Iraq? Clinton's weak kneed no flight zone over Iraq empowered Saddam. They can always find a way to blame Bill and Hillary for almost anything-even fluoride in the water! How pathetic.

5. Repeat over and over again that liberals have no original ideas. This canard is repeated more times than Rush Limbaugh blamed the residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans for the levees breaking. Institute tax cuts for wealthiest Americans during a time of war. Privatize Social Security. Invade Iraq to create democracy in the Middle East. Endorse torture as a means to interrogate alleged terrorists. Encourage state laws forbidding same sex marriage. These are so-called big ideas of conservatives.

6. Never present an complete argument to counter another argument. The best way to attack a liberal perspective is either by disparaging the individual's character or finding some arcane fact that that may be unverifiable or open to doubt. Drill down on that obscure factoid in an effort to refute the entire argument. These tend to be the tactics of the evolution and global warming deniers. Even though there is a growing consensus of the experts, the right wing blogosphere looks for that one disputable element in the argument thereby rejecting all the other compelling evidence that may be fully substantiated.

7. Any news source that attempts to deliver an objective story is biased. Unless the so-called news or the interpretation of the news is not presented and packaged by particular conservative sources, the right wing blogosphere dismisses it outright. This tendency to label any news other Faux News as biased has worked very well for the right wing. This right wing distrust has forced the major networks and cable outlets to overcompensate to court those conservative viewers. They scramble to find conservative hired guns to offer analysis and perspective.

The problem with this approach is very simple. In the minds of the right wing blogosphere, a news outlet striving to do objective reporting is always biased. You can never hire enough right wing talking heads to reshape reality. It continues to be a losing game. When the Washington Post or CNN hires conservative blow hards, it is just another example of a left wing organization admitting its liberal slant.

There are those liberal bloggers that also use some of these tactics. On balance if one really carefully examines the quality of the right wing vs. liberal perspectives emanating from the blogosphere, it's like comparing adolescent text messaging to a New Yorker short story. Oh yeah that's right, The New Yorker is a "liberal" publication, therefore anything in it must be viewed with suspicion.