I nominate this NYT opinion piece for shittiest take of 2024!

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    0.0

    if

    Thompson “grew up in a working-class family in Jewell, Iowa,” a tiny farming community north of Des Moines, Amy Julia Harris and Ernesto Londoño report. “His mother was a beautician, according to family friends, and his father worked at a facility to store grain.” Thompson’s childhood was spent “going row by row through the fields to kill weeds with a knife, or working manual labor at turkey and hog farms.”

    is true… then he’s a class traitor; not a hero. he made his money fucking over the working class. that’s not heroic.

    • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      you really think someone would do that? just go on a once-respected publication and tell lies?

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        “Just”… ? no. There’s a certain vetting process that makes sure they tell the right lies.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            I’m aware of the arthur reference, but it’s really important to realize these aren’t off-the-cuff lies.

            This is a planned, coordinated effort that has been going on since before I was even alive; and the journalistspropagandists have been very carefully selected- and have indeed worked very hard to get the job of fucking over americans.

          • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
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            10 days ago

            There are two jobs where you can go on national TV, lie and not get fired. President and weather man.

        • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          the precipitous fall of print media over the past couple decades is something that would one day be written about in the history books if they weren’t also full of shit.

          • granolabar@kbin.melroy.org
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            10 days ago

            Decentralized media like fedi is the only hope of the working class.

            Owners either own or control everything else government, fake news, TV, Hollywood, publishing, corporate socials.

            Wikipedia will be deposed in time, they are already mawing at the foundation

      • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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        10 days ago

        But they’re not lying. It’s pretty reasonable to believe both that his parents were working class, and that him becoming a class traitor on such a level does make him a hero in capitalist eyes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          it is, though.

          The implication is that Brian Thompson should be/is a hero to working class people.

          he’s not.

          he’s an asshole who made millions fucking over people just trying to get medical care. many of whom have died as a result of his fucking them over, and that is especially true of those who actually work for a living- which he has not in a very long time.

        • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          i don’t think it’s lying, necessarily. i suspect that it’s embellishing, and it’s inarguably providing an incomplete, intentionally flattering picture.

    • makyo@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      The irony being here that a ‘working class hero’ to Bret is someone who is no longer working class

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      10 days ago

      he made his money fucking over the working class. that’s not heroic

      I mean, of course it isn’t, but nobody told the NYT or their opinion writers who are currently tripping over each other trying to normalize Trump, Thompson, and other monsters…

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      They love these stories. They reinforce their delusions of libertarianism and that anyone who is truly able will be found and given their rightful position.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      10 days ago

      Then he went on to get a job making it more difficult for everyone in his tiny farming community north of Des Moines to get health care.

      Weird how they forgot that part.

    • Bizzle@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      When I went to IA State, I used to drive through Jewell on the way to see this girl I was dating. The only notable thing about the town was the fact that it harbored a puppy mill.

    • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      Yeah, it’s super smart to make a class hero out of a prep school valedictorian and Ivy League grad, grandson of a wealthy real estate developer - definitely a class traitor himself but in a Good Way - and hey, he did suffer from back pain while doing his tech job remotely from Waikiki. So his struggle was real. Power to the people!