Deconstructing the Right-Wing Alternate Reality (redux)

David Frum, via Kevin Drum:

....The thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics. Outside this alternative reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama—whatever his policy errors—is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he’s a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) "the only place in the world where it doesn’t matter who your parents were or where you came from."

Some might ask, who is David Frum? A typical leftie bashing the conservative right? Actually, no. He's a well-known conservative writer (for the Weekly Standard, National Review, Wall Street Journal, and others); former fellow of the ultra-conservative American Enterprise Institute; and a former special assistant to President George W. Bush--all of which will be evident if you take the time to read his very thoughtful article in the link below.

So, do you want to read more? Here's the link: When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

Also, here's a link to Kevin Drum's blog from which I stole this post's title and opening quote: Deconstructing the Right-Wing Alternate Reality

And ... here's one more quote from Frum: "We used to say 'You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.' Now we are all entitled to our own facts, and conservative media use this right to immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information."

Of course, there's an old word for this kind of activity. It's called "propaganda." We need to see through it.