A Deeply Fractured US

[brihard]

I used to watch him on "The Man Show." MAGA would have loved it.

Oh hell, I forgot he was on that. It was unapologetically schlock, but entertaining schlock nonetheless. Probably didn’t age well.

 

[Genetk44]

But I don't think crusty conservatives have been much in favour in the Vatican the past few years.


Vance's Catholicism is fairly well established but I've never been convinced that Trump's profession of faith is anything other then political pandering to his base.



Of they got a little spooked that Disney stock went down about 7% since he was suspended.

Trump is totally pandering to his base.

 

[mariomike]

Some highlights from the memorial for those us who may have missed it,

People Are Calling Out These 13 Moments From Charlie Kirk's Memorial Service

"Ya'll been losing your minds about how the left has 'disrespected Charlie Kirk,' but your guy has been on stage at his memorial service talking about himself for half an hour straight," one person reacted.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Brad Sallows]

Doesn't matter what losses ABC takes.

Is Disney was the collateral damage here, that's the kicker.

Star wars, Marvel, Disney proper, that's a loss they cannot stomach. A boycott there costs the parent company hundreds of millions.

Sure they can. They must know there will be counter-boycotts from the other side now - the side that culturally is more in tune with their traditional brand.

 

[Genetk44]

Some highlights from the memorial for those us who missed it,

People Are Calling Out These 13 Moments From Charlie Kirk's Memorial Service

"Ya'll been losing your minds about how the left has 'disrespected Charlie Kirk,' but your guy has been on stage at his memorial service talking about himself for half an hour straight," one person reacted.

www.yahoo.com

I actually watched, out of the corner of my eye and with both ears about 5-10 minutes of Erika Kirks speech. She is sort of good at the whole crocodile-tears but generally the whole performance was nauseatingly transparent. The girl is milking his death for all he is worth.

 

[Altair]

Sure they can. They must know there will be counter-boycotts from the other side now - the side that culturally is more in tune with their traditional brand.

The question is who has the bigger slice of the pie. Boycott ABC, sure. How much of the financial pie does ABC hold in comparison to star wars,marvel, Disney animation?

I don't know exactly, but I do know avengers movies are good for 1-1.5b in revenue, and any boycott into those would start to bite and bite hard.

Disney is stuck in a now win scenario, but they have the choice to loss a little or lose a lot and I know which side corporate boardrooms will side with when faced with that binary choice. Hell, Kimmel is back tonight, we saw in real time where they decided to go when faced with that choice.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Disney is stuck in a now win scenario, but they have the choice to loss a little or lose a lot and I know which side corporate boardrooms will side with when faced with that binary choice.

The outcome is uncertain. They're at the "reacting to left-leaning activists" pressure step. A handful of other companies have done that, lost (predictably) market share (presumably from the other side), and realized that the people making the demands never had any intention of buying the product - they just wanted to impose their will.

It's possible that Disney will gain little to nothing from the left except words, suffer another increment of loss of market share on the right, and revisit its choice when the current political event expires. It's too early to mark the drama as concluded.

 

[QV]

The outcome is uncertain. They're at the "reacting to left-leaning activists" pressure step. A handful of other companies have done that, lost (predictably) market share (presumably from the other side), and realized that the people making the demands never had any intention of buying the product - they just wanted to impose their will.

It's possible that Disney will gain little to nothing from the left except words, suffer another increment of loss of market share on the right, and revisit its choice when the current political event expires. It's too early to mark the drama as concluded.

The silent majority, I think, tend to be more conservative/libertarian leaning. I think you're right to state it's too early to declare it's done.

 

[Altair]

The outcome is uncertain. They're at the "reacting to left-leaning activists" pressure step. A handful of other companies have done that, lost (predictably) market share (presumably from the other side), and realized that the people making the demands never had any intention of buying the product - they just wanted to impose their will.

It's possible that Disney will gain little to nothing from the left except words, suffer another increment of loss of market share on the right, and revisit its choice when the current political event expires. It's too early to mark the drama as concluded.

Disney is in the entertainment business.

Disney, in the entertainment business, has two groups it needs to work with in order to be successful.

Most importantly, their audience. Disney, if reports are to be believed, saw a lot of people cutting Disney plus like Freeland during inflation. Nobody knows for certain how many but if they took those metrics and applied it to their movies, they probably didn't like what they saw.

Secondingly, entertainers. Actors, script writers, set people, a lot of moving parts. They were flat out telling people to boycott Disney. What happens when you start losing your stars? The people you need to work in your properties? Star wars? Marvel? That's a headache. Recast people? Throw out scripts? Delay movies? That's a significant problem to have to deal with.

Disney got dragged into this, via ABC and the FCC, and probably wanted nothing to do with it, especially as it effects their other, far more important properties.

If the price for peace for them was Kimmel and whatever he ends up losing over at ABC, they would happily pay that price to avoid taking hits on their actual money making properties.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

The silent majority, I think, tend to be more conservative/libertarian leaning. I think you're right to state it's too early to declare it's done.

I think you may be right for some countries.

As to Canada, my adopted country, I have always understood that the silent majority is fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I actually watched, out of the corner of my eye and with both ears about 5-10 minutes of Erika Kirks speech. She is sort of good at the whole crocodile-tears but generally the whole performance was nauseatingly transparent. The girl is milking his death for all he is worth.

What a crass, ignorant and partisan thing to say. You're talking about a wife and family who just had their husband and father executed on national TV. You have zero insight into what she is feeling or how she should react. This is the kind of divisive bullshit that got the whole ball rolling in the first place. Blaming her of play acting her pain and loss, shows the depth of your humanity and understanding.

 

[Halifax Tar]

As to Canada, my adopted country, I have always understood that the silent majority is fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

I think its more Libertarian light. We want to be left alone to our own devices, but we also like socialized medicine and a functioning Fire Department.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I actually watched, out of the corner of my eye and with both ears about 5-10 minutes of Erika Kirks speech. She is sort of good at the whole crocodile-tears but generally the whole performance was nauseatingly transparent. The girl is milking his death for all he is worth.

Your comments about antifa are starting to make sence now.

 

[Halifax Tar]

What a crass, ignorant and partisan thing to say. You're talking about a wife and family who just had their husband and father executed on national TV. You have zero insight into what she is feeling or how she should react. This is the kind of divisive bullshit that got the whole ball rolling in the first place. Blaming her of play acting her pain and loss, shows the depth of your humanity and understanding.

Class is a character trait many are short in these days. You might call it a societal level problem.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I think you may be right for some countries.

As to Canada, my adopted country, I have always understood that the silent majority is fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

If that were true, it's not too far from the general libertarian position. There's another leg on our stool: social program spending and all sorts of niche spending for loud minority interests. And we are just as hypocritical as pretty much every other nation when the sum of the results of elections amounts to approving more spending and lower taxes at the same time. A cornerstone of fiscal conservativism is balanced budgets, which we emphatically do not have. I doubt there is a fiscally conservative silent majority; at best it's a minority.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I think its more Libertarian light. We want to be left alone to our own devices, but we also like socialized medicine and a functioning Fire Department.

Canada is decidedly not libertarian, even "light". Libertarianism heavily favours individual rights over collective interests and Canada sits at the opposite position, flinging gravy at every group with a grievance.

 

[Brad Sallows]

At reason.com, a bit about "public interest" in broadcasting.

Closing paragraph: "As Reason's Robby Soave noted, one person who understood this was Ayn Rand, who wrote in 1962 that a government-enforced public interest standard was simply a more sophisticated form of censorship, "for stifling the freedom of men's minds.""

So it turns out the provision exists and is suitably vague to be fit to government strong-arming - an example of a weaselly clause like our "notwithstanding" and "reasonable" constitutional language. People should learn from these things and fix them.

As Carr himself noted, it's Congress's problem to fix.

 

[Genetk44]

What a crass, ignorant and partisan thing to say. You're talking about a wife and family who just had their husband and father executed on national TV. You have zero insight into what she is feeling or how she should react. This is the kind of divisive bullshit that got the whole ball rolling in the first place. Blaming her of play acting her pain and loss, shows the depth of your

My comments were no more crass, partisan or divisive than the things Trump and his various Maga talking heads have said after attacks/ assassinations on Democrat/Liberals over the years, including at this event. I know what I saw and have been seeing from her since he was shot. The whole thing was nothing more than a GOP/MAGA political rally and merchandizing event dressed up as a “ Memorial Service”.

 

[The Bread Guy]

... So it turns out the provision exists and is suitably vague to be fit to government strong-arming ...

Meanwhile, the FCC itself has this to say here (highlights all mine) ....

... According to an FCC opinion on this subject, “the public interest isbest served by permitting free expression of views.” This principle ensures that the most diverse andopposing opinions will be expressed, even though some may be highly offensive ...

... and here ...

... the FCC has long held that "the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views." Rather than suppress speech, communications law and policy seeks to encourage responsive "counter-speech" from others. Following this principle ensures that the most diverse and opposing opinions will be expressed, even though some views or expressions may be highly offensive ...

... and here, in response to Democrat shenanigans ....

... “Debate on matters of public interest should be robust, uninhibited, and wide open. More speech is better than less. Yet the concerted effort by Democrats to drive political dissent from the public square represents a marked departure from these First Amendment norms. A newsroom’s decision about what stories to cover and how to frame them should be beyond the reach of any government official, not targeted by them. “To the House Democrats that used their official letterhead to launch this inquiry, I would say this: Your demand to know the ‘moral principles’ that guide a private entity’s decision about what news to carry cannot be reconciled with bedrock principles of free speech and journalistic freedom ...

... so I guess I must be misunderstanding.

As Carr himself noted, it's Congress's problem to fix.

Based on recent precedent, I'm sure Congress, the Senate and the Courts will be eager to push back POTUS47 on this, as they have on so much else lately.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Trump is totally pandering to his base.

Name a politician that doesn’t. It's how they get and stay elected.