Live transmission
Archy discusses the way bad rightwing ideas become mainstream:
The flirtation with the extreme right conducted by the Republican Party and right wing media creates a mechanism for extremist ideas to become legitimized and transported into the mainstream public consciousness. Repetition and familiarity make the ideas sound less extreme. It’s actually a two way transmission.
Radical ideas and positions are moved into the “center” during their adoption by progressively more mainstream figures while those same mainstream figures are progressively radicalized. In time the whole political spectrum moves right. When the inarticulate guy in fatigues outside his bunker says it, it’s crazy. When the angry guy on the radio says it, it’s wild, but not completely over the edge. When the glib white men with good haircuts say it while sitting around their table on TV, it’s an idea whose time may have finally come.
But it?s still a bad idea.