Every television show you watch, every movie, every woman’s magazine, every comedian, and, yes, every news program tells you you suck. Your country sucks. Your culture sucks. Your religion and your morals suck. And you personally are one of those dumb-ass racists who clings to his Bible and talks funny.
If you believe your country should vet its immigrants, you’re racist. If you voted for Donald Trump, you’re racist. If you make a joke about Barack Obama on Facebook, you’re racist twice. If you think motherhood is a woman’s highest calling, you’re sexist. If you take it ill when Islamists blow you up in the name of their nasty little god, you’re Islamophobic. If you know that a man is a man even if he says he’s a woman, you’re transphobic. If you think it’s fair to debate whether homosexual actions are moral or not, you’re homophobic.
Every day. From every outlet. All the time. And now people are angry. Wonder why.
New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger says he told Trump his anti-press rhetoric could lead to violence. But the media’s anti-Trump rhetoric already has led to violence: public officials rat-packed and bullied, Trump supporters harassed, White House spokes-lady Sarah Sanders having to live under guard. And yet when Sanders pointed this out to Look-At-Me-I’m-Jim Acosta, Acosta stormed out of the room. Hell, if he doesn’t want to hear the truth, he could just stay home and watch CNN.
Trump didn’t create antipathy to the press. He just tapped into it. I’d have done the same thing, but less crudely. After all, it’s what bloggers have been doing for many years now.