Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Monday, August 8, 2011

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

How the media sees Michele Bachmann:

Michele Malkin feels victimized:

Rep. Bachmann is unabashedly conservative, willing to take both parties’ leaders to task, passionate about her work, popular with grass-roots activists on the Right, committed to reining in the size, scope, and power of government, and yes, expressive. For all this, she must be destroyed.

No doubt the editors and photog will deny doing anything to make Bachmann look bad.

But here’s what GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann looks like in a straight photo.



But that's not how the tea baggers see Michele Bachmann. This is how the tea baggers see Michele Bachmann:


They see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear. Reason and logic are useless.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

you need to spend more time being condescending. your clear superiority isn't quite established yet.

more time spent denigrating others should do the trick.

Susan of Texas said...

And where are my claims of superiority? These are simple facts; if you prefer to see them as proclamations of superiority that is your problem.

We see what we want to see. I state my job is being a mother, an action that will immediately make most people dismiss me as a thinker. I have never claimed to be anything but a housewife whose thinking is not obscured by obedience to authority, which affect me as well as most other people but which I was forced to overcome by necessity.

You spend a lot of time accusing others of moral fault, implicitly claiming superiority to them. I did not like it when you guys trashed TBogg to an undeserved degree but I said nothing because your criticism was of little importance. All of us must make this journey in our own time and you take an inordinate pleasure in lording over others who have not yet traveled as far as you.

Dillon said...

The picture of Michele is not particularly flattering (given how photogenic she normally is), and calling her the Queen of Rage doesn't fit with her character. Queen of Batshit Crazy, sure, but Bachmann is not bitter and full of rage the way someone like Malkin is, or even vicious in a passive aggressive manner like Palin.

Why would Newsweek portray Bachmann like this, when wingers like her usually get more favorable coverage from the media than they deserve? I think the rank and file Republican Villagers are beginning to get a little uncomfortable with the teabagging monsters they helped to create.

Susan of Texas said...

Yes, the tea baggers' stubbornness was very inconvenient for their leaders.

Brad said...

Weren't there similar complaints a while back about a Newsweek cover featuring Sarah Palin? They seem to be the designated hitmen when the beltway decides to send a teabagger back to the kitchen.

Susan of Texas said...

Isn't it funny? And it works like a charm--they are so busy defending their tea party princess that they forget what they were fighting about.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Brad beat me to the Sarah Palin parallel.

As for Karl, it's funny when he pulls out the condescending card.

He's sure he is much smarter and holier than liberals and "pwoggies".
~

Anonymous said...

Where's the halo?

Susan of Texas said...

It's the only thing missing. I especially like the my-eyes-are-on-God head pose.

Substance McGravitas said...

Bachmann looks bananas. It can't be hidden except with shit paintings.

Kathy said...

She must have had several face-lifts. Those starey-bug eyes are weird.

Susan of Texas said...

If there was a group of crazies within 100 miles of her, she joined it.

BDR said...

Perhaps I'm giving our Washington Post overlords too much credit, but that photo is perfect for reinforcing the opinions of those who hate and fear the prospect of a Bachmann presidency in particular and a tea-partier in general *and* the opinions of those tea-partiers who hate and fear people who hate and fear tea-partiers. I mean, the editors must have had hundreds of photos to choose from, and chose that?

This is not to say to express sympathy for her, just to say I wish the Villagers spent as much time attacking her batshit crazy ideas instead of attacking her as batshit crazy, but not her ideas.

Andrew said...

I mean, the editors must have had hundreds of photos to choose from, and chose that?

Have you googled?

I can't see any difference between the "bad" and "good" photos except that in the "good" version she is bright pink and looks like a Barbie doll.

There are two problems with a Bachmann candidacy.

1. Michele is bonkers.

2. Michele looks bonkers. She just does.

Problems (1) and (2) cannot be solved by carefully editing the video for broadcast, as was done to hide Bush's flounderings. It won't work. This is why the more pragmatic conservatives are discreetly taking steps to undermine her.

Susan of Texas said...

Yes, that photo pick looks very deliberate. It is almost but not quite insulting, a delicate balance that I thought was beyond the WP.

I agree that the media is undermining her when they see fit to do so. The tea party is a tool that is part propaganda machine and part Sorcerer's Apprentice. When the Mickey Mouse tea partiers get out of hand the establishment cleans up the mess and scolds them.

So the media will indulge the tea partiers when they are doing what they are supposed to be doing--providing public cover for harmful financial manipulations--and slap them down when they refuse to go along with their betters, often by insulting Palin or Bachmann.

Plus the media will reflexively court controversy over reporting, which is much more tedious than opinionating.

Susan of Texas said...

The internet is a bad place to blow off anger. Its very nature dissipates strong emotions, forcing people to escalate unwisely.

Do yourself a favor and find a different way. Calling me an asshole just demonstrates your lack of control, not my assholery.

Besides, I prefer to believe I use my evil powers for good. You could not possibly have put more thought into my approach or work than I, so I will stick with my own assessment, pat yours on the head, and send it home to Mother.

Kathy said...

Karl sounds like a pal of ArgleBargles. Guess Myles got bored with posting endless streams of dreck.

satch said...

The Dean of the Austrian School of Economics? THAT Karl Franz Ochstradt?

Anonymous said...

Two, nay, three things:
1. Newsweek is no longer owned by the Washington Post.

2. "But here’s what GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann looks like in a straight photo."

I'm calling bullshit. There is no way that photo is unretouched. People don't glow like that in real life.

3. Tina Brown, editor of the NW/Daily Beast, is a product of the English tabloid culture. She has no interest in making politicians look good if it sells her product and hits with her cocktail party set.

oh, and a fourth, just for kicks - this is such standard issue conservative victimization schtick. Oh, the lamestream media's hurting me! Quick, call the waaahmbulance.

AWS

Anonymous said...

oh my the pearl clutching!!!!

Susan of Texas said...

What is it with people lately?

I do not want to be around during the election. It will be nasty

Anonymous said...

the contradiction of being a tough conservative who plays the victim doesn't even register with these people. neither does the instant expectation of civility on the intertubes when the conservative/glibertarian is not willing to act civil. let's look at kunty karl's post. slams you for being condescending when the post itself is condescending. classic.

Susan of Texas said...

I thought that lying was bad, but it turns out that pointing out others' lies was the real bad act.