Shadow of the
Hegemon hammers in a vital point:
It remains important, however, to avoid mixing up forests and trees. This individual salvo at Prof.
Krugman, and even the attacks on Prof. Krugman himself, are merely a part of the larger whole. If this
attack were aimed at a supporter of the Bush administration, it would have been quickly rebutted by a whole
bevy of sources, and there are countless outlets by which the rebuttal can be spread and repeated, to the
point that the rebuttal becomes better known than the original charge. That this has a lot to do with the
power of the Presidency is important, but as “Issuesguy” has
been pointing out, it is vitally important to look beyond the words, and start looking at the broader
patterns of behavior, because politics nowadays is as much about how, where, and how often words are used
as it is about the words used themselves. When employing the Big Lie, after all, it’s almost unimportant as
to what the substance of it really is, as long as its consistent and serves some political aim.