No Bruce Springsteen, We Should Not Meet Republican Conspiracists in "the Middle"

[Celerity]

The solution is a deranged and dangerous remedy for what ails the country, which is an astounding capacity for baseless claims of great consequence.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/no-bruce-springsteen-we-should-not



Three in four Republicans think Joe Biden is president because of widespread election fraud because that’s what prominent conservatives, beginning with former President Donald Trump, have told them. Unsurprisingly, some Trump supporters were so incensed at the fraud that didn’t happen, they stormed the Capitol at his behest in a failed insurrection that killed five people. Enter Bruce Springsteen and Jeep with their gross Super Bowl commercial last Sunday. And please note, the ad was filmed after the insurrection. “It’s no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately,” says The Boss, “Between red and blue, between servant and citizen, between our freedom and our fear.” Ah yes, the vaunted "middle." He mournfully implores viewers, “We need the middle. We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground, so we can get there. We can make it to the mountaintop through the desert, and we will cross this divide. Our light has always found its way through the darkness. And there’s hope. On the road. Up ahead.” In disputes between individuals or groups, “the middle” is often considered the Shangri-La of outcomes, whereby no one gets everything they want, but everyone gets enough to be content and live harmoniously.

If you had no idea the Capitol riot happened or why, you could be forgiven for thinking Springsteen was making a sensible plea for unity and coming together in “the middle.” But if you understand the context in which the deadly riot happened and the Big Lie that was pumped into and accepted by the Republican mainstream, Springsteen's call for reaching “the middle” is tone-deaf maudlin horseshit. In effect, Springsteen and Jeep want us all to agree we live in the early 1870s. Let me explain. There’s an obscure conspiracy theory called the Phantom Time Hypothesis which posits that in the early Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope manipulated the dating system in order to add to the historic record 297 years that didn’t actually happen. The purpose of this fabrication, so the claim goes, was to place the two leaders in the year 1000 A.D., which was supposedly a very significant year in Christendom. If this hypothesis is true, the current year isn’t 2021, but 1724. The amount of evidence for this claim is the same as the amount of evidence supporting Republicans’ widespread voter fraud hypothesis: zero.

Nevertheless, imagine a prominent political figure suddenly insists the Phantom Time Hypothesis is real. "The year is actually 1724," he bellows to the country in speeches and on social media. You laugh at the claim and think no one could possibly believe it, but soon the lie gains traction. This person manically outlines all sorts of fantastical explanations about why it’s definitely 1724 because three centuries of history have been invented from whole cloth. He’s convinced millions of his followers he's right. Others don’t entirely believe the claim, but they’re nonetheless now sceptical as to whether it’s really 2021. Before you know it, nearly half the country harbours doubts about what year it really is. Americans are bitterly divided: Is it 1724 or 2021? TV pundits debate it fiercely as bad faith talking heads realize a large chunk of the country wants the lie to be true, and will tune in to anyone who validates their delusion. Your aunt is forwarding you “2021 truther” chain emails. Thanksgiving dinners are marred by arguments about whether the Pilgrims hit Plymouth Rock in 1620 or 1323. What had been strong interpersonal relationships with family and friends are deteriorating into mutual hostility.

Finally, a famous musician has enough of all the fighting. “We need the middle,” begs Springsteen, who's being paid by a major corporation to do so. “We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground, so we can get there. We can make it to the mountaintop through the desert, and we will cross this divide.” If we take “the middle” request to heart in this context, the best way to proceed would be for all of us to agree that we are living in the year 1872 or 1873, the middle point between 1724 and 2021. Does this sound like a sensible remedy? I would argue that no, pretending that conspiracy theorists' phantasmagoric fever dreams might have some merit in order to placate them to reach some "middle" is not sensible. Besides, the conspiracists in this case would likely accept nothing short of total capitulation. It's 1724 and there can be no debate. The solution is a deranged and dangerous remedy for what ails the country, which is an astounding capacity for baseless claims of great consequence. One could argue that Springsteen and Jeep did not mean that “the middle” should be construed to mean a place where reality is denied entirely or even in part. However, this would be ignoring the very immediate context of what’s going on in the United States right now, where so many Americans believe total bullshit about important things. The year isn’t 1724 and the election wasn’t stolen. If reality and truth mean anything, a call to come to “the middle” in the current political and cultural climate is a call to entertain the ideas of crackpots and authoritarians.

snip

[EarlG]

1. matthewf posted an amusing spoof of this yesterday

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017640107

[Celerity]

3. lol, that was great

[Mike 03]

5. Ha. That is a great meme.

[Solly Mack]

17. That was beautiful.

I kicked the other thread too.

[PirateRo]

2. He da boss...maybe he's suggesting where to aim?

Double-tap the chest, one to the head, right?

[dalton99a]

4. How to compromise with assholes who want you dead

Don't.

[Celerity]

7. +1

yes, that is the crux of the matter right there

[Mike 03]

6. Disappointing. He took a much harder line in those ads he ran before the election.

Doesn't sound like the same guy who wrote "Further on up The Road"

[Celerity]

9. Jeep was trying to have it both ways, to sell more Jeeps nt

[bigtree]

8. it's wasn't a manifesto, it's was his desire

...not specific to anything abhorrent or even objectionable.

Fuck this push to deride Bruce Springsteen, who's been a Democratic organizing stalwart for decades. It's orchestrated and obvious.

...and this article waxing on and on about their invented bullshit. Fuck this.

[Celerity]

10. your concern is duly noted

[bigtree]

12. yours too.

[Celerity]

13. I did not take a shot and imply some nefarious hidden motive like you did

[bigtree]

15. the string of hits on Springsteen aren't an accident

...it's a bullshit whispering campaign, and this article you posted is invented tripe, and your title is false, never stated or even implied by the man.

I didn't post it, you did, I guess expecting a chorus of hurrahs. Not from this corner.

[Celerity]

16. I didn't post it looking for 'a chorus of hurrahs', I guess that's where we differ if that is your

motivation for posting on here. Perhaps you could look at the video EarlG posted (from another DU OP yesterday) that expresses the same thing, just expressed in a different fashion.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215097526#post1

[bigtree]

19. who benefits from this hyperbolic take on this aspirational expression from this Democratic stalwart

...I understand that effort has been joined on the left, but there's zero daylight between Springsteen and the party. So, what's all of this invented nonsense all about?

The title of the hit piece you posted is bullshit. Springsteen never said he wanted to 'meet republican conspiracists in the middle,' but that didn't stop the author, or respondents from going on and on, putting the worst interpretation possible on a musician's aspirations for Americans unifying.

This opportunity taken at a time when our own president is calling for unity, to pull this Democratic, working-class supporting icon down should give you pause, but...

Amazing thing in this is how unaware critics are of the way they play right into the divisiveness, looking to separate this Democrat from the people and causes he's advocated for decades. ...it's clear. It's also clear that the author really doesn't know the man at all.

[Celerity]

20. I disagree with you framing of multiple points

we obviously are not going to agree

cheers

[bigtree]

21. that's what we do here

...glad you didn't take my dissent personally.

[Celerity]

22. thanks, I know you are a passionate Democrat, same as I am, and this, I do believe, is the

first disagreement we have had. I never doubt your sincerity. I do admit I did get a little argy bargy as it seemed like you were calling my integrity/motives into question, but I no longer feel that way.

[bigtree]

23. I should have used more care responding

...I posted thoughtlessly (political dissent among friends is hard, right off), and I'm sorry for that.

You get my last heart.

[Celerity]

24. so okay!

[Initech]

11. Sorry, Bruce, but you can't play nice with people who think that you eat babies.

[dlk]

14. There's no middle ground with terrorists

Seriously, Springsteen can’t be that naive.

[Solly Mack]

18. K&R