Journalism unable to recognize extremism is no virtue (Sorry, Barry)

By Meta-Content Generator A.J. Liebling

Like the White House itself, American democracy has been destroyed in part by a wrecking ball wielding by a corrupt demented Mad King bent on replacing it with something more to his liking, like a depraved tyranny that might give pause to Mussolini if not Caligula. 

No wonder that what's left of an independent American media has gotten so exercised about the real problem: extremist Democrats.

Examples abound but here's a representative sample offered by long-time conventional wisdom dispenser and David Broder wannabe, New York Times reporter Carl Hulse:

And the rise of far-left socialist candidates has Republicans seeing an opening to try to brand Democratic contenders across the country as part of a movement out of step with typical Americans. 

Examples of far-left socialist positions include advocating for extending Medicare to all Americans, ending a useless bloody war started for no reason by a demented bully, limiting U.S. aid and support for a country conducting a brutal campaign of persecution and ethnic cleansing against five million people it wishes to expel, and abolishing an unaccountable violent secret immigration police force that has spread fear and terror across America. Pretty far-out stuff, at least according to this hack.  

Hulse's thumbsucker followed endless New York Times coverage of Democratic primaries, which were invariably described as “divisive,” although as even their subhed admits, such divisions disappeared once the votes were counted and party unity prevailed:

So in fact the Michigan primary turned out not to be divisive, which also could be said of every f***in' Democratic primary in 2026, each of which ended with the losing side promising to support loyally the winner in the fight to save American democracy.

But that hasn't stopped the Times from referring to candidates it doesn't like – invariably the progressive ones – as either divisive or extreme or both.

When a progressive candidate seemed to be making a strong run for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Wisconsin, the Times lost no time branding her as socialist and extreme:

Her policy goals and social media rhetoric have raised eyebrows among some Democratic voters, who are questioning whether her views are too extreme to represent Wisconsin’s many moderates and independents. 

These positions, lovingly described by the Times as if it were reviewing an edgy new fusion place in Williamsburg, included views she no longer held, as well as policies like higher taxes on the rich (a category that includes newspaper publishers).

By the way, when she lost to a more moderate candidate, she immediately endorsed him.  So much for another divisive primary battle. 

And what about Republican candidates who might plausibly be considered extreme and divisive, like this clown in Texas:

A self-described gun-rights absolutist and YouTuber known for his inflammatory humor, Mr. Herrera, 30, was initially opposed this year by both Mr. Johnson and President Trump as he challenged the district’s Republican incumbent, Tony Gonzales, for a second straight time. Mr. Gonzales and his allies spent millions painting Mr. Herrera as extreme, highlighting old videos in which he made wildly offensive jokes like saying that a Nazi-era submachine gun was “the original ghetto blaster” and “Hitler’s street sweeper.”...

In the days before Mr. Johnson rallied for Mr. Herrera and held a fund-raiser for him, a video resurfaced of the YouTuber using crude, sexualized insults against a female gun-control activist in 2022. 

Answer: he's not extreme; he's just edgy:  

That's totally different. 

Speaking of extreme and divisive, how about the Texas Republican Party trying to cling to power by fomenting bigotry against Muslims, who represent maybe 2% of Texas's population?

For many conservative voters in Texas, Islam has replaced the border as a major concern since early last year, Republican consultants have said. Anti-Muslim activists and hard-right candidates have increasingly described Islam as incompatible with American values. They warn that the United States could soon look like Europe, where Muslim populations are larger.

“I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone,” one statewide Republican candidate, Bo French, wrote on social media this summer. 

Sounds divisive to us but then we don't have the Olympian perspective of the New York Times. 

Is it divisive and extreme when ill-trained violent masked secret immigration police rampage through American communities to please Geheimespolizeileiter Stephen Miller? Could you characterize views like these as extreme and divisive?

What's the white answer?   Anyway, we couldn't find any news media calling him extreme.

How about the destruction of America's system of public health, which endangers children every day by spreading lunatic vaccine and other health disinformation, largely at the instigation of batshit cracy junkie Brainworm Bobby Kennedy?

None dare call him extreme, either.  Even after unvaccinated children and babies dropped dead from measles.  Even after he appointed a nutcase who compared vaccines to experiments on concentration camp victims, the Times could not bring itself to utter the e-word or the d-word.

Finally, let's turn to the greatest single financial benefactor of the Republican Party, whose endless bags of money are considered vital to the survival of endangered Republicans like Sen. Susan “Distressed” Collins.  What are his views on the issues of the day?

We know that he cheered the victory of the bigoted Russian stooge neo-Nazi AfD party in recent German elections:

“And you don't think that's extreme?” – B. Fleckman

On Sunday, Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (Alternativ für Deutschland, or AfD) party won 43.8% of the vote in a legislative election in the small state of Saxony-Anhalt, formerly part of Soviet-dominated East Germany. The AfD is anti-immigrant and pro-Russia and has won the support of both Vice President J.D. Vance and billionaire Elon Musk. When Musk posted “Well done!” in German to the co-founder of AfD, Alice Weidel, another AfD leader responded with thanks.  

When not endorsing neo-Nazis or giving the Schickelgruber salute himself, the ketamine-demented supervillain has illegally dismantled Congressionally-mandated foreign aid program leading to the preventable deaths of hundreds of thousands of poor and sick people, none of whom were white billionaires from Silicon Valley.

He also stole the Government's Social Security personal data files, to put to whatever he use he chooses in between efforts to propagate a race of superior beings, all short and pasty and with receding hairlines, like their superior dad. He is now attempting the same data-harvesting stunt by paying for a fake website supposedly devoted to protecting the right to vote but in fact stealing as much personal data as he can get his grubby mitts on.

You'd expect our fearless mainstream media to grill every Republican about their links to this extreme and divisive madman.  

You'd be wrong.  Only Democrats are extreme and divisive.  To the New York Times, the nefarious Nazi-lovin' white racist is just a good ol' tech billionaire. 

And the shills for the Party he supports (and which returns the favor with billions in government contracts and immunity from any regulatory oversight)?  According to just one day's Times, they're only meandering, delivering dark speeches, appealing to moderates, displaying Texas flair, and unwilling to rest until every Muslim is gone.

Nothing extreme or divisive to see here, people.  Move along.