As IF Times

Source: Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy – The Washington Post

Now that The Donald has secured the GOP nomination for President,  the onslaught from the mainstream media outlets begins. They’ve clearly put as much thought into their attacks as Trump puts into any given speech.  While Trump just riffs off his original main theme of Make America Great Again, the media seems to subscribe to a central talking point source for their material. Observe the following headlines from the ‘major’ news outlets:

We know that the news business is not exactly robust these days, especially among the liberal outlets and now we know why.  As these headlines from the different sources show, there’s no need to read all of them.  If you’ve read one, you’ve read them all.  This could in fact be a cost saving measure as it’s possible that only one poli-sci college student is responsible for writing the story and the news outlets just syndicate it.

In this respect, the media has adopted the Russian Pravda news model; one central source for news, no thinking needed. Instead of news collection, it’s the news collective. One of the most effective techniques of creating a reality from nothing is to flood the news space with the same repeated message until it becomes so familiar to people that over time, the narrative becomes the truth.  Good is bad, Whites are evil, hands up don’t shoot, global warming; the whole George Orwell thing.

Amusingly enough, the liberal left seems to have run up against an opponent in Donald Trump who is as adept at manipulating the message as they are accustomed to.  So, Lyin’ Ted, Little Marco and now Crooked Hilary will be part of the public discourse.  How soon before Crazy Trump is trotted out by the left?  That should be easy since all of his stated platforms are way out there; build a wall, restrict access to unknown immigrants, bring jobs to America,  America first; all crazy objectives.   The previous guy claimed to halt the oceans’ rise and lower global temperatures… yeah, that was sane stuff.  If anything, the knock on Trump may be for his lack of ambition by comparison.

Source: Police look for victim in body-shaming photo taken by Playboy model at L.A. gym – LA Times

It’s as if an entire bloc of people are living in a protected bubble with nary a link to the outside world.  These are people for whom life is lived virtually, where the things that are truly meaningful are linked to what is portrayed of them on the six inch screen.

The proliferation of smart phones, apps and social media platforms has transmogrified western culture into a self indulgent, narcissistic generation of Peter Pans.  If we could only get the ISIS tribe on board this faux world of false praise and paper thin sensibilities, we wouldn’t have to go after them with bullets.  A few well placed insults or provocative selfies and they’d all come undone just like the snowflakes and sensitive flowers that now populate the west.

It may be welcome respite for the police to chase down the sinister crimes of name calling rather than worry about hate groups threatening their lives on a daily basis, but there are some who think this may be a waste of resources.  It parallels worrying about how to get the caramel in a caramilk bar while engaged in a gun battle with thugs. And yet, a segment of the populace thinks that this is a good use of police resources.

It may be worthwhile for the US military to consider using a new tack when dealing with terrorists of all stripes.  Give them cell phones complete with twitter  and facebook accounts.  Then start calling them names and bodyshaming them and display it all as publicly as possible.   In very short order, they’ll abandon the notion of real violence for the more important world of virtual violence.  Mass killings are so impersonal; far better to inflict biting insults and micro-aggressions on your enemies.