Bold Criticism of a Sociopath—but Serious Alternatives? Let's Not Get Carried Away

Janine Jackson

CNN (4/14/20): "Propaganda on Full Display"—and carried live on CNN!

You may have heard CNN and others using terms like "propaganda," "meltdown" and "rant" to describe Donald Trump's propagandistic ranting meltdowns, also known as press briefings. That's a welcome development. It took them long enough to get there, and seemed to require direct attacks on them personally, but we'll take it.

What we should not take, though, is a press corps prepared to issue bold and incisive criticism of a raging sociopath, but when it comes to serious alternatives—actual, systemic change—well, let's not get carried away.  Workers devastated by the loss of their job and their healthcare at once? That's just terrible. Medicare for all? Mmm, you know, that's pretty radical, maybe an op-ed. Nurses, farmworkers and meatpackers on the front line? Deeply deserving of attention and sympathy. A livable, enforceable minimum wage that keeps pace with productivity? Well, you know, there are some very smart people who think that's a bad idea. Restructuring the economy so disasters like Covid-19 don't further immiserate those already struggling while scoring billionaires still more billions? What are you, a socialist?

Criticism of Trump, no matter how smart or funny, is no substitute for the radical undoing of the systems that made his presidency possible, the levers he was and is able to pull. That work involves listening to the people who are virtually never on the guestlist, and exploring the ideas corporate media find unfit to print.