Propaganda institutions, and I include the MSM in that category, develop narratives that support and justify certain goals they seek to achieve. In the case of the left-leaning national media that narrative identifies conservatives as "haters" who, frightened by change, resort to rhetorical and actual violence. This narrative was developed in the mid-twentieth century as an offshoot of the now discredited Frankford School of psychology, but it still flourishes in the mainstream press. This tired old narrative was again trundled out to explain the recent attack on the Holocaust Museum, and once again it could not have been more wrong [for a particularly despicable example see this piece in the Huffington Post].
There is no question that James W. von Brunn is a hater. He hates Blacks and Jews. But that is just part of the story. He also loathes George W. Bush, John McCain, international corporations, Christians and "neo-cons", and thought 9/11 was an inside job. That puts him squarely in the camp of the rabid left that provided so much support to Obama's candidacy.
Noting this, Kathy Shaidel, writing for the Examiner, suggests that we abandon the conventional left/right narrative and, taking a cue from Jonah Goldberg's important book Liberal Fascism, recognize that the far left and the far right overlap to a considerable extent [here] and that both articulate expressions of anti-semitism.
I think she's right. The old narrative just doesn't fit the facts of today's world. It's time for some serious re-examination of our easy assumptions.
RELATED:
La Shawn Barber has a piece in Pajamas Media on the differential treatment by the government and in the press of two murders -- the killing of an abortionist by a religious nut and the murder of an army recruiter by a Black Muslim convert. Again facts that fit a liberal narrative are hyped while those that don't fit are buried. Read it here.
