There's some dumb stuff in this piece, but I'm glad SOMEONE in Washington with influence is speaking out against the emerging consensus. Hooray for Succdem Grampa

:bernie:

  • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    There’s a reason the big push for Medicare for All came from Bernie, not from some talking head at MSNBC: it’s easier to draw attention to issues outside of media orthodoxy if you have a position of state power.

    Again, historical record shows this to not be the case. Bernie Sanders isn't exempt from the propaganda landscape because he himself traffics in it. I don't know why this is so hard to understand. If your biggest example is M4A, I'd suggest you look up the history of M4A and how many politicians, including sitting presidents, advocated for it. To suggest that it's outside of "media orthodoxy" is ridiculous.

    • MarxMadness [comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      When Bernie started his 2016 run M4A was absolutely outside of media orthodoxy. It had been for most of a decade at that point, since Democrats abandoned the public option in the Obamacare negotiations circa 2008-09. Bernie ran in 2016 precisely because it wasn't part of the mainstream debate, and the media tried its best to treat him as a distracting sideshow, not someone making a serious policy demand. One big narrative about Bernie since then is "well this would be nice, but it's pie-in-the-sky stuff, not something realistic."

      But the larger point is that high-ranking politicians can get a media platform whenever they want, and the only constraint on what they can say is their future political prospects. Politicians are much less constrained by the media's ideological filter than almost anyone else.

      • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        When Bernie started his 2016 run M4A was absolutely outside of media orthodoxy. It had been for most of a decade at that point, since Democrats abandoned the public option in the Obamacare negotiations circa 2008-09. Bernie ran in 2016 precisely because it wasn’t part of the mainstream debate, and the media tried its best to treat him as a distracting sideshow, not someone making a serious policy demand. One big narrative about Bernie since then is “well this would be nice, but it’s pie-in-the-sky stuff, not something realistic.”

        But the larger point is that high-ranking politicians can get a media platform whenever they want, and the only constraint on what they can say is their future political prospects. Politicians are much less constrained by the media’s ideological filter than almost anyone else.

        So M4A was outside of "media orthodoxy" until it wasn't, then it was, until it wasn't again with Bernie. Alright chief. How Bernie was perceived is irrelevant to the Overton window. You keep repeatedly missing the point and refuse to contend with historical fact, and this idea that Bernie isn't beholden to the propaganda machine is both absurd and naive.

        • MarxMadness [comrade/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          lol did you just quote my entire post?

          M4A was outside of “media orthodoxy” until it wasn’t

          Yes, the window of acceptable discourse changes over time.

          • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Yes, the window of acceptable discourse changes over time.

            M4A has been part of the discourse dating back to at least FDR

            • MarxMadness [comrade/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              You keep asserting things out of thin air and ignoring any counterpoints.

              You asserted that something like M4A has long been part of mainstream media coverage of healthcare. I pointed out how M4A was shut out of the healthcare debate from maybe 2009-15, which was the whole reason Bernie ran in 2016 in the first place. Rather than responding to this, you just re-asserted what you said initially. You've done this a few times now -- I'm out.

              • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                You keep asserting things out of thin air and ignoring any counterpoints.

                Yeah I'm the one completely refusing to understand how the media apparatus only allows a specitic range of opinion and rhetoric so as not to shake any underlying foundations of neoliberal interests, something which has been historically apparent over the decades. M4A is included in that, and the fact that M4A has been in and out of media consciousness several times over the past century just further proves the point.

                I don't know if you're just being wilfully obtuse or what. If you want to defend a dead end like Bernie, that's fine, just don't try and rationalize it into some "hiding power levels" bullshit.