There are few more base instincts among pundits than to make hollow gestures at an imagined “morality” when confronted with the inescapable reality of the American political project: White supremacists may do as they please, whenever, and wherever they want.
Among the corndogs that infest the talk show circuit on 24/7 news stations, there is none soggier than one Joe Scarborough, who hosts the bewilderingly popular Morning Joe, on MSNBC. In this morning’s cold open, instead of rational news commentary, Scarborough aired what can only be described as “MSNBC Patriot porn,” in which images of a violent and senseless mob were overlaid with Johnny Cash’s “Hurt.”
I haven’t recovered from the psychic damage, personally.
Why name white supremacy, or grapple with how what America “has become” is exactly what America has always been, when one can just play a Johnny Cash song on loop instead?
