(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



The Professional Left Podcast - ReBoost 6.19.2024 - Ep 813: "Bill Buckley And The Power Of Myth" [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-19  

Good afternoon, folks. Thanks for dropping by.

Welcome to another ReBoost diary for The Professional Left Podcast. I’m hoping to add visibility and listenership to this wonderful cast and its hardworking proprietors. I’ve been listening for years, and have learned a lot from the dynamic duo (dodges pillows) of Driftglass and BlueGal. I hope you’ll have fun and learn stuff too.

Here’s a link to the YouTube episode, which allows playback acceleration (often useful).

Today’s episode, as implied by its title, addresses the persistent (and pernicious) myth that William F. Buckley aggressively confronted the John Birch Society and drove all the nasty people out of the conservative movement.

Except he didn’t. He didn’t do that at all, and the frequent recitation of this origin story doesn’t make it true, for all that its purveyors wish it did.

I’ll give a mild spoiler alert (of which many listeners are surely already aware) that, far from actually evicting the racists, conspiracy theorists, and rage-drunk assholes from the then-nascent “modern” conservative movement, what Buckley did was wall off the image of conservatism from the visibly horrific awfulness of the JBS — by writing a letter criticizing JBS and its leader, Robert Welch.

(Kind of reminds you of how Michael Steele “drove the racists out of the GOP” too, except… how Steele didn’t do that either. He lied his ass off, as conservatives do. And the media treated him as an honest actor — still does — as they do. More on that in a second.)

While much of the episode focuses on the myth... yeah no. Nope — sorry guys. It’s not a myth. It’s a fucking lie, and I’m going to call it a fucking lie. Ahem. While much of the episode focuses on the fucking lie that Buckley “heroically took on” the racists and rage-drunk rank/file of the JBS, DG and BG also provide windows into the unified, machinelike messaging discipline of the GOP’s Hate Wurlitzer; the (carefully forgotten) awfulness of Buckley himself (wait till you hear Buckley’s quotes from ‘57); and the absurdity of Bill Kristol (probably Buckley’s loudest cheerleader, not to mention the most media-visible promoter of the US invasion of Iraq), and of a media that has, somehow, continued to generally treat Kristol as some manner of honest broker and respectable actor even as all Kristol’s lies have come to light.

Kristol’s own spectacularly mendacious, disingenuous nature is also spotlighted, with quotes from Kristol himself. It’s fairly infuriating to hear — which makes it important.

The lies conservatives tell, and the insistence of legacy and mainstream media to only very rarely hold them to account, and to do it only as tepidly as possible on the occasion they do, has done and continues to do immeasurable damage to this country, its people, and the world to which we are interconnected. It’s important to call this out. That’s why the Professional Left podcast is so important, IMO.

The narration style of DG and BG tends to meander and offer perspectives and anecdotes as you go. I recommend listening several times (I almost always do), drawing out as many details as you can. It’s always worth it.

Thanks for reading and for listening. Stay safe, and good luck.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/19/2247490/-The-Professional-Left-Podcast-ReBoost-6-19-2024-Ep-813-Bill-Buckley-And-The-Power-Of-Myth?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/