By Steve Hynd
Here's the headlining item at news aggregator Memeorandum right now:
You know what? I don't care whether Weiner showed his weiner. No-one involved is a minor so even if he did send pictures no crime has been committed and otherwise, it's not as if it's the most disgusting thing our corrupt and privileged elite have done. If he was hacked, either as personal maliciousness or part of a politically-motivated smear, I still don't care. It's not as if Rep. Weiner is irreplaceable from the large stock of corrupt and venal wannabe-elites.
Other stories prominent at Memeorandum today include: whether Sarah palin had it right about Paul Revere; whether Dominique Strauss-Kahn's defense team will try to cast doubt on the motives of his accuser ; the GOP's obstructionism over Obama's choice of a board member for the Fed; the worst things Rick Santorum, newly announced GOP presidential runner, has ever said and even the French TV authorities enforcing a ban on commercial company names unless they're part of the story - as seen through the UK Dully Male's xenophobic French-hating. In order: I don't fucking care, it was a long time ago; no duh!; what else is new?; I really, really don't fucking care. He's already toast - either at the primary stage or in the general - and the worst thing to do is give him free P.R.; I cannot begin to say how much i truly couldn't give a fuck.
It may just be the silly season, but I don't think so. One of the first things you notice scanning Memeorandum is the preponderance of conservative punditry platforms and blogs. The right long ago realized the Memeorandum spiders can be conned by their message discipline and rabid intra-linking into thinking that only conservative views matter. Over time, that has meant memeorandum itself has gained a reputation as a conservative-biased aggregator and Lefties generally stopped linking or even reading it. Poor Gabe, the guy in charge there. I know from emails we've exchanged that's not ever what he intended to happen.
Still, there's enough liberal and left-wing concentration on meaningless minutae over at Memeorandum to convince me that it's not just conservative shallowness that's at fault here. Apparently, our political conversation is a bi-partisanly dumb and stupid one right now. Big issues are largely being roundly ignored so everyone can play Gotcha, the game for every pundit aged 5 and up. That is, unless you count the several ultra-right U.S. pundits playing concern troll and treating the obviously snarkily joking column by an Aussie journalist suggesting climate change denialists should be tattooed with their deniuals for future generation's sakes as if it were a serious proposal.
Meanhile if you should accidentally write about healthcare, the economy, the various American wars, climate change or a whole slew of other issues in serious terms then you can probably count on being roundly ignored by pundits and ADS public alike. Dumb news is all we want, so it's all we'll get.
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