Victim Blaming

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I feel like in the age of the #MeToo movement, one thing you’re kind of forced to become sensitive to, just based on it’s sheer prevalence, is when a victim is being blamed for being victimized.  The idea that someone is responsible for their own harassment or assault because they didn’t act the right way, or in general be the right way is infuriating.  If someone get’s attacked, the person responsible is the person who attacked them.  So when Trump rails against the media, decries CNN as the “enemy of the people”, and continues to do so after his supporter send them a bomb, the idea that CNN is somehow responsible for their own misfortune is blatantly obscene.  You don’t have to agree with or even like CNN, but if you can somehow decide that they brought a bomb upon themselves, and it wasn’t in any way the result of Trump being unable to take unfavorable opinions, then you and I don’t have much to talk about, because your moral compass is severely misaligned.

 

A Liar’s Paradox

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Lesley Stahl is a veteran correspondent for the stalwart and dependable news hour “60 Minutes”.  It’s hard to argue the trustworthiness of 60 Minutes and their retinue, because they’ve been so reliable in their integrity for like half a century. So when Ms. Stahl told people at a press awards dinner that Trump personally told her that he bashes the Press for the sole purpose of keeping people from believing the bad press about him, I’m pretty inclined to believe her.  But she finds herself in a bit of a catch-22 with this story.  If you believe Trump, she’s just another lying journalist lying about making them seem like liars.  It’s paradoxical at it’s best, and it’s emblematic of the state of the first estate.  Is this what the “post-truth” era looks like?