After the Wall Street Journal and New York Times both reported yesterday that Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, is advising the Trump transition team, Gaffney denied it this afternoon.
Gaffney told Politico that “I had not been contacted by anyone from the team,” adding “I look forward to helping the President-elect and the national security-minded team he is assembling in whatever way I can.”
Trump spokesman Jason Miller also denied that Gaffney was advising the transition team in any way in an appearance today on MSNBC. Politico pointed out that Miller did not respond directly to questions about whether Gaffney has recently met with Trump.
Neither the Wall Street Journal nor the New York Times have corrected their stories. Seemingly in response to the Miller’s denial, Maggie Haberman, one of authors of the New York Times article, tweeted:
One question – after Trump aides insisted Ailes wasn't doing debate Lee and he was, how many more times will we do a version of this?
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 16, 2016
If Gaffney is a Trump advisor, it’s an extremely bad sign. Every society has people like Gaffney, but in healthy, functioning democracies they live quietly in their parents’ basements, free to play with action figures and construct intricate fantasy worlds without hurting anyone else.
Here are some highlights from Gaffney’s bizarre, hateful career, in chronological order. You will see a pattern emerging:
• Gaffney, now 63, was a deputy assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration until he was forced out. He then immediately founded the Center for Security Policy, funded by right-wing foundations and some defense corporations, to noisily oppose arms control agreements and agitate for more money for the Pentagon. For many years the “center” consisted mostly of Gaffney and his fax machine.
Board members and advisors of the Center for Security Policy would eventually include people like Charles Kupperman, vice president of space and strategic missiles sector at Boeing and Terry Elkes, former CEO and president of Viacom. The center gives out an annual award called “Keeper of the Flame”; its recipients have included Joe Lieberman and Donald Rumsfeld.
• The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were a godsend for Gaffney, allowing him to repurpose Cold War conspiracy theories about the U.S. government being infiltrated by communists into conspiracy theories about the U.S. government being infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Soon he was warning of “an Islamist Fifth Column operating inside our own country with the inherent capability to exploit the vulnerabilities, and the civil liberties, of our society.”
• Gaffney was predictably a vociferous supporter of the Iraq War. But for extra credit he adopted various loopy theories about Saddam Hussein being behind the 1993 World Trade Center attack and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
• Defending the Iraq War in February 2007, Gaffney approvingly quoted Abraham Lincoln as declaring that “Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.” Lincoln never said this, although that didn’t stop Gaffney fan Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, from repeating the imaginary quote on the floor of the House of Representatives.
• The same month Gaffney excitedly proclaimed that the CIA had found that “there was a hot production line for chemical and biological agents in Iraq, that there were plans to ramp it up when sanctions were lifted, which was imminent, and to place the products of those lines into aerosol cans and perfume sprayers for shipment to the United States and Europe. That’s documented fact!”
• In 2009, Gaffney suggested that Barack Obama was “still” a Muslim and by concealing this had “engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain.” In this analogy, of course, Obama was playing the role of Hitler.
• In 2010, writing for Breitbart, Gaffney discovered that the logo of the Missile Defense Agency had been redesigned to be “a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo.” Gaffney’s article ended: “Watch this space as we identify and consider various, ominous and far more clear-cut acts of submission to Shariah by President Obama.”
• Gaffney was banned for several years from speaking at the popular right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference because he had begun claiming that it too had been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
• In 2011, Gaffney claimed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had committed “misprision of treason” by appointing a Muslim lawyer to a state court.
• In 2013, Gaffney said that top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had “longstanding ties” to the Muslim Brotherhood and “was brilliantly placed to run Islamist influence operations.”
• In September 2015, Gaffney invited infamous white nationalist Jared Taylor to appear on his radio show. Gaffney told Taylor he “appreciated tremendously” his “wonderful” work.
• Trump may now be considering Clare Lopez, vice president of the Center for Security Policy, as his deputy national security adviser. Lopez believes that “infiltration [of the U.S. government by the Muslim Brotherhood] is obviously very deep and very broad within the bureaucracy, not just the top level, but throughout the federal system, including the intelligence community.”
If you want more of the evidence Gaffney’s uncovered about the ways Islam has tainted our precious bodily fluids, it’s just a click away.
Update: November 16, 2016
This article has been updated to include the denials of both Gaffney and Trump spokesman Jason Miller. The headline has also been updated to reflect this.
Top photo: Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney Jr. makes his way to the witness stand to testify about the threat of Shariah law during a motion hearing in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Sept. 27, 2010.
Gaffney is well informed on Islamic terrorism and the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood. More power to Gaffney and his team at CSP. He doesn’t live in his “mothers basement”. He is a millionaire with his own house.
I’m not well-read on Gaffney, but this article comes across as one-sided. It’s worth noting that the founding editor of this website, Glenn Greenwald, has been a speaker for the Council on American–Islamic Relations and seems only to defend, never criticize, Islam (despite being a gay Jewish man). I am gay as well and thus treat Islamic doctrine, and Abrahamic doctrine generally, with skepticism. To the substance of this article, many people including at the Washington Post and New York Post have raised questions about Huma Abedin’s Islamist ties; Gaffney is not alone in that. Similarly, the subversive activities of Muslim Brotherhood agents in the United States have been reported on by outlets such as the New York Times, especially with regard to the Holy Land Foundation Trial, which this article does not mention. Gaffney may indeed be a crackpot, but you are dismissing legitimate questions and events by lumping them in with other far-fetched claims which I find unbalanced if not agenda-driven.
Well prepare to have your gay rights taken away by a CHRISTIAN EXTREMIST VICE-PRESIDENT.
First Jon Bolton and now Frank Gaffney.
Oh PLEASE GOD let Daniel Pipes be next to pop up, and I’ll have the “scat-eating, bottom dweller” bingo!
If the clueless racist writers at this site don’t like somebody that serves as an endorsement
What’s the matter Joe? Too dumb to read? The writer of the article literally provided a dozen or so examples of Gaffney’s documented lunacy.
I understand, it’s painful for you clowns when someone points out your filth to you. But stomping your feet and frothing at the mouth is not the constructive way to go young man.
odd choice…he probably could have got bill maher for half the price.
Why would Maher leave HBO? His scam is raking in millions for him over there.
This is but another bottom feeder of a corrupt media. His creds (and he has the nerve to list this) is that he previously worked for Michael Moore. Personally, that is all I need to read about his “professionalism.” Since our legally voted President-elect was voted into office, the media (bought and paid for by the filthy and corrupt George Soros) has done nothing but degrade and slaughter Mr. Trump. I have learned one thing about the raging liberals that have destroyed our country, our morals, our economy, and tried hard to stomp the Constitution…….they are the dirtiest, sorriest losers I’ve ever seen. Their behavior is off the charts. Everything they now do, holds NO CREDIBILITY b/c of their spoiled, ridiculous, tantrum like behavior. Personally I think we all need to just delete everything they say and do. I remember well that when Bill Clinton was elected, before it was his time to move into the White House, he’d already been busted by one of his lovers (Paula Jones) and Penthouse had a huge article in there interviewing another of his current lovers (Jennifer Flowers) and the press never said word one about any of them…….until Monica was caught underneath the desk in the Oval Office while he was on an official call with a dignitary from another country. And imagine!! The press had the NERVE to cover his impeachment hearing!!! They actually did something punitive to a president who did something wrong. We’ve “evolved” so much now, that a president can be a dictator, can sidestep the U.S. Constitution, RULE his land with “a phone and a pen” , men can wear a skirt and use the ladies restroom, people of the same sex can marry, scandals involving key figures in the IRS can throw parties and use taxpayer dollars to pay for prostitutes and booze and drugs, and no penalty given, the IRS was allowed to target conservatives by harassing them with audits (still no punitive actions taken against them), Hillary Clinton sold American policy as Secretary of State for billions of dollars that went into the biggest scam since time began “THE CLINTON FOUNDATION” she committed obstruction of justice by deleting 52,000 emails, had an illegal personal server that she kept in her basement and when caught, NOTHING punitive happened to her…….I could go on and on and on. Isn’t it a rather LARGE coincidence, that the slimy, skanky George Soros “owns” the press/media, his nephew is married to Chelsea Clinton………..and for 8 long, miserable, declining years, the drive by media hasn’t covered any of this. While Hillary Clinton was 1 yr into her faux paux with the illegal server, the classified emails, the president lying about “not finding out until he saw it on TV just like the rest of us” and then was found out to be contacting her on it via a pseudo-name………Bill Clintons plane was preparing to take off when he was told Lynch’s plane was about to land in the same airport. He instructed his pilot to go back and out he came meeting Lynch on the tarmac. That was probably not the smartest thing (no one ever accused her of being “smart”) to stand and “chit-chat” with Bill Clinton knowing Hillary was being questioned by the FBI about her involvement in the entire, illegal, affair. Bill Clinton was sending a message to Comey, and intimidated Lynch. Consequences? Of course not. Total impropriety? Certainly. I could write a book about the IRONY of the liberals during the past 8 years, and their now tantrum, embarrassing, juvenile behavior. Keep running your big mouths about everything Trump does and says. You have A LOT to account for, people. Eight years worth.
“the media (bought and paid for by the filthy and corrupt George Soros) ”
Debbee Dull hunnee u ned too kep u millyunaires strayt.
az mennee azzhoels heer weel bee happee too tell u tihs sight iz run by Peeair Oomidyar knot Gorge Soreass.
I’m impressed. An entire wall of text and absolutely NOTHING to say.
The article is about that bottom feeder Frank Gaffney, and Debbie here literally wasted 617 words without saying anything worth reading.
It’s like handing a typewriter to a lunatic in a padded room and just kicking back to watch the word storm that forms.
Entertaining, but empty and non-sensical in the end.
Thanks Deb, I needed a good laugh.
rofl agreed Sam. I especially enjoy the “degrade and slaughter” phrase. It’s hardly that when Trump is mostly getting slaughtered by his own words and actions, whether caught on audio or video. Difficult to deny tangible proof like that. As for this article, again, the author listed just the fact in the last half, and I did check on them, to make sure I am getting all sides of the story. The author is right on all counts. Can’t “degrade and slaughter” anyone when they have proven to have done it themselves.
Good. The Muslim brotherhood is a terrorist front and shouldn’t be allowed in the United States in the first place.
Like most religions, Islam causes problems wherever it goes, the less of it the better.
It is actually white Christian countries (USA, UK, France etc.) who cause problems wherever they have bombed the countries and murdered people.
DEM MUZZLAMZ BAAAAD!!!
DEY MADE MA PA AND MA AUNTIE GIT TOO TOUCHY, NOW MEEZ GOTS KROMOSOMS TO FIND.
MUZZLAMS BAAAAD!!!
Who ever started this bull stupid much? This was debunked
Do people know what truth is or integrity? Nothing but lies for a year. Don’t think there is an honest writer left psh
Go ahead, we’re waiting.
What? Are you serious? That nonsense was all you had to contribute to this article?
No, Bobbi, seriously. Please tell me that the crap you just posted isn’t all you have.
I’ve got high hopes for this website, but this article is garbage. Clean up your journalism or lose a reader. See below:
“Either way, this is an extremely bad sign. Every society has people like Gaffney, but in healthy, functioning democracies they live quietly in their parents’ basements, free to play with action figures and construct intricate fantasy worlds without hurting anyone else.”
What is even the point of this? If you want to discuss why this man is bad, do so, but please don’t take me on some tumblr-esque tirade along the way. The internet has enough of that.
I like it. It paints Gaffney as the bottom feeding scum that he is. I actually think that the writer was being too kind to the filth in that sentence.
Trump said he’d “drain the swamp,” but forgot to mention that he’d be refilling it with his own flavor of slime and filth.
If Frank Gaffney is indeed advising Trump, in any capacity (Gaffney was one of Ted Cruz’s national security advisers) it is not the least bit surprising but a continuation of Trump’s willingness to associate himself with reprehensible characters. Trump has no perception of credibility. Furthermore, Gaffney is a regular contributor to Breitbart, which Stephen Bannon (Trump’s new Chief Strategist) chaired.
This is what happens when you drain the swamp.
First there was the crocodiles and snakes which could easily be seen on the surface… NEO-CONS.
Once the draining started and the water level decreased we got to see the water parasites and bottom feeding crustaceans which dwell in the much… TEA PARTY.
And now that the swamp is drained and the muck has dried, we get to experience the viruses and bacteria, which were dormant in the soup previously, come to life and begin their carnage… FRANK GAFFNEY, BREITBART, et al.
Good.
lamp.
Okay, your turn again.
Once again we read an untrue and biased article from the intercept. There has been an update at the bottom of the article that states the Trump campaign has not hired him. You lefties truly seem to be losing it!
Hill,
See those bullet points on the article? Those are called direct quotes and citations.
Which means there is EVIDENCE that Gaffney actually said and did all of those things.
Now, I know that for your chromosome impaired type it’s a little tough to process accurate information, but trust me, the article is on point.
Peace On Earth!
Purity Of Essence!
You can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!
Do not underestimate Gaffney, Mr Schwarz. However poor his (or someone else’s) ideas might be , if we continue to pretend his positions or those of Trump are so inane even the thought of a response is not worth merit; we’re going to keeping seeing the slaughter of the left. The way to stop the momentum on the right is to make clear we care about everyone having a decent shot at life-by not having to worry about living check to check, or crappy/nonexistent healthcare, and ensuring everyone their retirement pensions won’t just be swiped away etc. Now is actually the best chance to reform and correct the failings of the Democrats. I’d to have to find it wasted because of some convenient excuse like racism or sexism.
That last sentence should be, “I’d hate to have to find it wasted of some convenient excuse like racism or sexism.”
My mistake.
Another trusted adviser cannot hurt. After all, already advised by such strong and loyal men like Roger Stone, Rover Ailes, and Vladmir Putin, Trump is only trying to avoid the advice of experts who don’t know what they’re doing anyway. Look what they did to Hellery.
Plus, when you’re as misunderstood as poor Donald Trump, it helps bigly to have people around you who support you — who will tell you what you need to do no matter what others say.
With clever, loyal and trusted advisers supporting him, surely Trump will conquer all the devilish details that restrain lesser men and women.
Oh bright future, with such clever men as these, we — with the Will of citizens united for prosperity — boldly dare to engreaten America in ways unimaginable to our cherished founders!
May God help us one and all!
Can one hope that thoroughly corrupted, dishonest DNC and the “PSEUDO liberals” who opted for “lesser of the two evil ” realise what they have wrought??? Is it possible they can stop screaming and shouting and find a way to work with ordinary Americans who supported Mr Trump because they were totally ignored by both elitist establishments??? Can they think about the “country” and their fellow citizens instead of just “I” and “me”??
ps this is no criticism of individuals who genuinely believed their chosen candidate was better for the country.
That’s actually what most left leaning groups in the country are doing.
On a daily basis groups like The Young Turks have been pushing an agenda to end corporate lobbying in Washington and to revitalize the middle class, especially those communities in the mid- west and lake regions which have been annihilated by neo-liberal economic policies of the past 40 years.
A little bit of a positive response from the other side wouldn’t hurt.
“On a daily basis groups like The Young Turks have been pushing an agenda to end corporate lobbying in Washington and to revitalize the middle class, especially those communities in the mid- west and lake regions which have been annihilated by neo-liberal economic policies of the past 40 years.” …and you know what Sam.A? THEY DIDN’T LISTEN! Why? “Becuz dey r lieberals kuntrol bie Goerg Zoros.”
While the media focuses on Donald Trump, they seem to be forgetting about his Vice President. Here is a look at how Mike Pence voted on key issues while he was in Congress:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2016/07/mike-pences-past_15.html
His past views and Congressional voting record on many key issues put him further into the far right side of the political spectrum than Donald Trump.
I like Jon Oliver’s description of Pence…
“He looks like a guy from the 1950s, who thinks like a guy from the 1650s.”
Could we start at the beginning, please? It’s not that I doubt that Gaffney is, in some way, advising the Trump transition team, but. . . where is the evidence?
The WSJ story is behind a paywall and has been denied by the Trumpers. The NYT piece contains only an unsourced and unsupported (and rather vague) assertion. There is a related Chicago Trib piece but, except in the headline, it mentions a relationship to Trump not at all.
All the other stories I could find in a quick Google News search were on vaguely-leftish, kinda-sorta-alternative media that appear to be running with more or less the same content.
So, fundamentals first: how do we know this cretin is actually advising Trump?
From WSJ…… posted on Twitter….one can read the whole article…
Mr. Rogers was told he was being replaced because everyone who was brought in by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the transition team’s original chairman, was being ousted, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Frank Gaffney, a Reagan administration veteran, was brought in to assist on national security issues, as has GOP U.S. Reps. Pete Hoekstra and Devin Nunes.
Blake Hounshell on Twitter: “According to the Wall Street Journal…
twitter.com/blakehounshell/status/798702307441541120…
14 hours ago … … Verified account @blakehounshell 2h2 hours ago. According to the Wall Street Journal, Frank Gaffney is now on the Trump transition …
And, new sentence:
According to whom? The same unnamed person “familiar with the conversation” (because s/he was present, was told about it, or. . .?) or some other unnamed and otherwise unidentified person?
Sloppy. Unsupported claims like this would have been unacceptable on a decent high school debate team.
Reading the whole article gives a sense that this is true….. of course, only Mr Trump’s spokes person or Mr Gaffney can give you 100% proof.
“[A] sense” that something is true is not evidence. And statements from Gaffney and/or the Trump team would not amount to 100% proof.
It’s an indictment of our education system that this so often needs to be explained, but here goes (again): to be credible, statements and assertions need to be supported by evidence. In this case, such evidence might include clear, on-the-record statements by individuals in positions to know the truth or with supported claims to have been privy to the information for specific reasons; or verifiable documents or communications demonstrating the validity of the claims or assertions; or official press releases by the Trump transition team.
Absent credible evidence, this has the distinct odor of clickbait.
“MY” educational system may be lacking but I do not take everything as the TRUTH nor do I discard everything out of hand….
In any case,I will end here.
I agree. Just like WMDs in Iraq and aluminum tube lies pimped by the media in the run up to war…the MSM have clearly demonstrated that they are not adverse to making up the news instead of reporting it. I believe the Gaffney story and the “Trump transition team is in turmoil” talking point is a case in point. The Establishment is in a panic and it really shows.
you fucking conspiracy clowns can’t think for shit because you probably don’t read actual literature, too hard, and instead your idea of a credible narrative is a superhero movie.
nobody cared who Gaffney was before the story (and many will not care after), so it would be kind of a strange choice for a whole cloth invention, would it not? Yeah, it’s **just like** the WMD story.
Now all the Putin bullshit, that’s a different story. It makes perfect sense to make up stupid Putin tales because people have already heard of him, and that country called Russia.
Look there is one path and one path only going forward. And the sooner we start going down it the better.
Not sure leftists and progressives should leave the “Dem Party behind”. This is the perfect opportunity to take it over, and force out those who would work against the following (now for the umpteenth time–it is not mutually exclusive to stand against racism/misogyny et al, and try and forge alliances for all “working class” including members of the white working class who can be reached and who aren’t hardcore racists/misogynists (and yes there are many and you only need a few percent everywhere to clean GOPs clock consistently)).
Again, while there is no hard and fast blueprint for doing this, it has been done in the past and can be done in the future, but we’re going to have to abandon the silly elitist rhetoric and mealy mouth triangulating appeals to various groups and go for the “class jugular” together with anti-racism/misogyny if we’re ever going to stand a chance again in the future. That’s the only viable way forward, and that means for lack of a better word–a purge of corporatists Dems and find a way fund campaigns all over the country like Bernie Sanders largely did (small dollar donations and union donations–you can’t take an “ultra-capitalists” corporate money and have any credibility claiming your the party of the working class, just ain’t gonna happen IMHO):
http://samadlerbell.com/trump-and-the-working-class/
I am in agreement about take it over; I think one way to take it over is to also build a credible off-site 3rd party leftism too (perhaps the groundswell of interest in the Democratic Socialists is an opportunity; I’ve had it with Green cluelessness). I happen to have joined the Democratic Party to vote for Bernie in the primary after decades of independent status, and now I’m glad I didn’t symbolically quite, because I get to vote in their next primaries too. But no reason we can’t “join” other parties too. Going to be harder for them to claim they can grab enough Republican crossover votes next time, maybe we can make it real that they need us AND convince them too.
As someone who has come to loathe the democratic party, I will be feeling a very strange kinship with my Trump-voting family members during the holidays. Is that a place to start?
The ONLY reason I think leftists should try to take over the D party is that control of it, like control of the Repub party, obviously comes with loads of hostages. Including all kinds of allegedly “independent” voters. Look at those results — two candidates everybody thinks suck, and still 95% of the vote goes to them?
Thank you, rrheard, for such a lucid, on-point comment. It’s refreshing to see on ‘the bottom half of the internet’. I hope people take your suggestions to heart.
Like Vic Perry, I too joined the Dems this year solely to vote for someone I saw as a true progressive in the primaries. I’ve been a registered Green, but I too am fed up with their “cluelessness”; they possess a laudable idealism, but as a political force, they’re late to the game as far as ‘modern society’ (tech, social media) goes and, alas, far too flighty for their own good—and I direct this allegation at myself as well; left to my own devices, I’m much more a thinker than a doer, imagining how things might be better but with no clear plan on how these goals might be accomplished. Redirecting the Democratic Party farther to the left, to democratic socialism and ground-level progressivism, might be the only hope we have to get our society back on track in the present and secure a bright, clean, peaceful future.
To be fair, the logo does look kinda like one of those astronomically incorrect Islamic crescents…
Seriously though, the skill that this man brings to the table is the ability to make up stories. There are only so many factual narratives a politician can use — and that number is very, very small when you are a Republican. So it should be understandable that they cherish their storytellers, their creative shamans who can rally the troops about an intangible speck of hallucinatory matter. That is indeed a Cabinet-level skill in an administration that has offered up its Declaration of Independence from science and reason.
Yes, and again the DISHONESTY like the false Linciln line is what has to be watched.
CrookdClinton Democrats make DISHONESTY current pocket change andtotally acceptable in the USA.
This has to change.
Neocons = American Taliban
Even The Establishment snakes want a piece of the pie. Duh!
Unless he’s appointed to the Cabinet, I wouldn’t concern myself with it. Just like Blackwater’s Erik Prince — who is and always will be a mercenary. Just like a whore.
No one should be surprised Trump would select another RWNJ for his advice. A birther, conspiracy theorist, a reactionary racist and bigot, and a know-nothing certainly fits the Trumpster.
Bill Maher’s silver lining in all this…
The problem with this statement is that there no longer seems to be anything approaching healthy functioning democracies as almost every country that has elections has had a faction like this take a significant chunk of power.
I don’t think it helps the factual case you make further down in the article to use a tactic like this, where you essentially call Gaffney a Cheeto eater, at the very beginning of your piece. It allows people to dismiss you as unserious and completely discount everything that follows, which is serious and should be considered.
Couldn’t agree more, this “Mackeyization” of The Intercept (including even Jeremy Scahill’s most recent piece) is seriously disturbing to me.
Put the facts out there, and argue why it is disturbing and must be pushed back against.
But please for fuck’s sake stop with the ridiculous over the top hyperbole and apocalyptic language. It only gives the other side strength and legitimacy.
These are not serious people. It is like legitimizing ISIS or Al Quaeda as a bigger “existential threat” than it is in reality. In fact it is exactly like that, and when we talk about those threats we give them power by not talking about them in a reasoned way.
It’s one thing to do better and appeal to the best in human nature, but when we run around with our hair on fire it just emboldens those loopy fuckers.
Smells like teen clickbait.
Whether this is merely a mocking attack on Gaffney or meant to be a reflection on President elect Trump’s lack of good judgement, it comes across as extremely arrogant and condescending. The fact that it also closely reflects an article written years ago by Greenwald that used the same derisive device (i.e. Cheeto eating man sitting at his computer in his mother’s basement), it comes off as both lazy and hackneyed. Lastly, the article speaks to a larger pattern of hubris wherein self-professed progressives chronically vilify their opposition in a way that causes them to be grossly underestimated – Trump is the perfect case in point. If Mr Swartz wants to be taken seriously as a journalist then he should practice being original, relevant, informative, and genuinely incisive; unless, of course, he has being tasked by the Intercept to be the churlish comic relief.
Mr. Schwarz,
Let me first identify myself as leaning toward the left, lest I be charged with political motives for this comment; let me then state that I agree with Karl. In fact, I scrolled down here specifically to comment about the very excerpt that Pedinska quoted in boldface above.
Journalism—even supposedly risk-taking, hard-hitting, independent journalism—is very often little more than a joke these days, and I see The Intercept may be no exception. I’m a newcomer to this site, one who stumbled upon it fairly randomly, and I thought I might have found at least a semi-credible, somewhat interesting place for keeping myself attuned to current affairs. It appears I may have been wrong. The image of a person living “quietly in their parents’ basement” is a stereotype that is not only “arrogant and condescending” but downright mean, drawing upon a pop-culture trope that, while quite possibly correct in some instances, downplays the necessity of multi-generational households in an increasingly impoverished nation and/or the unfortunate realities of those living with severe social anxiety or other mood disorders—both situations that are probably more realistically applied to persons “quietly living in their parents’ basements” than any extremist right-wing ideology.
Such reactionary tropism really is a discredit to this publication and a further disservice to the practically nonexistent field of journalism. It’s my firm belief that those who truly want this nation and this world to become a better place must hold themselves accountable for their own words and actions as well—not to condescend to those they see as beneath them, but to rise to a place of esteem, both of self and of others, and to nurture in those around them that same ability to rise up and be the best human beings they can be, so that together we can all create the best society possible for ourselves and for future generations. Based on my (admittedly limited) understanding of the goals of The Intercept, I would expect that the publication’s staff do indeed want to help create a better society.
I urge you, then, Mr. Schwarz, to please reconsider your words and the outlook that led to their use.
In peace,
Ash