Dan Rather schools Stefanik with a zinger

[Generic Other]

Link to tweet

Not sure why the message is off-center, but here's a screenshot for the cubicle peeps!

[hlthe2b]

1. Before her Trumpster turn she'd been lauded as this incredilby erudite and infinitely reasonable

person--Harvard-educated...

So, was she always this ignorant, or is this a result of the Trump brain degenerative syndrome?

[TreasonousBastard]

2. No. She is merely descending to the level of her voters...

Should she run for Senate or White House, her erudition will magically reappear.

We really have very short memories.

[Generic Other]

4. Grade inflation hit Harvard hard this century

Only explanation I can come up with. Also, they aren't as selective since they dumped the SAT scores?

[Probatim]

9. There are a large number of Ivy-leaguers in the republican party who

just want to pour gasoline on America and burn it to the ground.

[PatSeg]

11. I was thinking the same thing

Apparently she has learned what so many republicans have - you can say anything and the base will believe it. What a waste of an Ivy League education, right?

[dianaredwing]

19. so that is what it is called

I was trying to think of a term similar to the Stockholm syndrome that could explain these people. Something obviously happened in the chemistry of their brains. I would think subliminal programming over right wing news, but I don't think they're smart enough to avoid detection so it had to be something that the brain does for self-protection and TBDS explains it perfectly.

Now, how do the professionals deal with helping Stockholm syndrome folks recover?

So the RWNJs all have TBDS.

[Cha]

35. Sounds like ES always had the

capacity for Stupid in her.. just waiting to burst out.

I read a tweet awhile ago by someone who knew her a Harvard and she never did trust the twit.

[Tadpole Raisin]

3. Is it possible to be more obtuse?

I’ve talked to people who don’t want no damn socialism or government messing with their Medicare.

It is hopeless. Neither Prevagen or Vinpocetine would improve their brain function.

[lastlib]

40. Her party has FOUGHT it tooth and claw.

This woman has the alpha-wave output of spinach.

[Bev54]

5. Seriously, one of the stupidest statements ever.

[markie]

6. seriously, wtf? nonsensical garbage

[Aristus]

7. Like that dolt who cheerfully signed up for the Affordable Care Act by saying:

"As long as it ain't no Obama-Care!..."

I can't even...

[Leith]

8. I'll tell her!

Please please pleeeeeeeze let me tell her. She will never forget it.

[malaise]

10. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The stupid burns

[world wide wally]

12. To quote a MAGAT luminary from a couple of eras ago:

"Keep your government hands off my Medicare"

[pazzyanne]

17. Actually that quote is from the Tea Party era, I think. nt

[regrestic]

13. The Cult will Believe

I remember when she used to speak at a yearly conference about the health of the St Lawrence River, but not since 2016. Her district is very red along with mine in western NY..We need to support Matt Putorti for Congress..

https://www.putortiforcongress.com/

[spanone]

14. Thank you Dan.

Recommended

Proudly Ignorant

[KS Toronado]

15. reQublicans have convinced their cult that "Socialism" is something really evil

and has to be avoided at all costs, since Socialists drink baby blood for an energy boost.
And they're too afraid to look up information about it on Wikipedia.

[comradebillyboy]

22. One really shouldn't confuse social services for socialism.

After all German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck set aside his conservative impulses in order to counter the socialists by creating Europe's first modern welfare state, establishing national healthcare (1883), accident insurance (1884) and old age pensions (1889).

But no one would say the German state was socialist back then. After all Kaisers Wilhelm I and II were the German emperors that Bismarck served.

[BadgerMom]

16. Harvard must be so proud.

[Rhiannon12866]

18. Twitter reply:

Link to tweet

[catbyte]

20. OMG. In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny...

[aggiesal]

25. I have only one thing to say about that ...

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. LMAO at the rampant stupidity.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. It's So Dumb, It Seems Fake

But, I'm sure she has a verified account, so Dan's reaction is justified.
It's just so nonsensical, it should be a bit.

[Caliman73]

31. It is fake. She knows better.

What she also knows is that it doesn't matter to her supporters. Her supporters will take the information without irony, without cognitive dissonance. They will not make the connection that those two programs are as close to socialism as policy goes in the United States. She is actually trying to divorce the programs from any idea of socialism knowing that her supporters are stupid enough to buy it.

[aggiesal]

24. Another one, who is Irony Deficient ...

and she graduated from Harvard.

Maybe Joe Pesci's character, in the movie "With Honors", was right.
"Colleges produce a lot of garbage and Harvard produces more than most".

If you haven't seen the movie "With Honors", here is my favorite scene in that movie.
It starts around 1 min 50 sec mark, when Joe Pesci schools the professor and the students
on the Constitution. Fantastic scene!

[lastlib]

26. I won't say she's a moron, but I think a leafy vegetable could take her....

...in a battle of smarts.

[StClone]

30. Forget the leafy part...

...she got the tater smarts

[PatrickforB]

27. Wow. Keep yur gummint hands off my social security! Geez.

[Warpy]

28. She's a pig ignorant opportunust

who has found her niche in life.

It's up to the people in her district to take it away from her. I hope they do so very soon.

[Caliman73]

29. Meh...

Yes, it was a very good zinger by Rather. Short, sweet, and to the point. It will do nothing in terms of the situation. Stefanik does not need to be schooled. Stefanik is intelligent. She knows that Medicare and Medicaid are social programs in the vein of "socialism" as defined by people in the United States.

She is deliberately lying to separate those programs from "real socialism" which is bad. She knows that her audience, anyone who follows her on Twitter because they like her, very likely doesn't know anything about Socialism other than, "it's bad". Her audience isn't going to see Rather's tweet and say, "Tell her what?" They are going to look at it and say, "There goes another leftist Radical elite trying to spread fake news about our Elise".

Instead of pithy comments, people should be asking Stefanik to define "Socialism". What is it?

Here is an example from the UK where the caller throws out "Marxist" to denigrate the government.

[malaise]

32. Good grief he is ignorant

WTF does Marxism have to de with race?

[Caliman73]

33. I like listening to James O'Brien.

He doesn't let people off the hook. He has the same approach with politicians. It is something that is sorely lacking in American media. The only people that I really see doing it are Brianna Keilar from CNN, and Joy Reid from MSNBC, oh and the guy from Axios, Swan, I believe is his name.

Most other reporters will maybe ask one tough question and then back off if the person evades.

Anyway, the point was that instead of making smart ass remarks, we really should just be asking Republicans to explain the words they are using and how they fit into their message.

I am sure if someone kept asking Stefanik or Boebert, or Greene, or Chip Roy, or Andy Biggs, etc... "Can you define socialist? No, really what do you mean when you say socialism?" and when they give their stupid made up answer, then you keep pressing. "I'm sorry but that isn't what that means. I am going to ask you again to define what Socialism is."

[maxsolomon]

42. Republicans know not to step in to that arena.

They talk to sympathetic media. That's the whole point of the RWNM - allow them to spread dog whistles and vile propaganda and never get pushback.

When someone like a GOP Senator does talk to CNN, their oily rhetorical skills allow them to talk without answering specifics.

Our Presidential "Debates" are hardly better; if they adhered to actual Debate Rules their lies would disintegrate.

[GoodRaisin]

46. Many Trumpers/other Republican voters won't understand Rather's tweet

and how stupid her tweet is on so many levels.

She's not stupid. She is shameless in how she has chosen to keep her seat in Congress by blatantly lying to stupid voters.

[RVN VET71]

47. Brilliant.

He places the burden on the caller to define his terms and the caller, unable to do so, pretends he is merely unwilling to do so. O’Brien refuses to back down and bravo to him. The caller goes on his ignorant way, frustrated and angry that O’Brien would not let him get away with his willful ignorance and obvious racial prejudice.

O’Brien is an anglo-Irish Socrates. May he flourish in Britain unlike Socrates, whose quest for the truth in Athens led to his death.

[Hortensis]

34. Except that NEITHER is "socialist," they're for-profit and the

means of production (hospitals, docs, labs, etc) are mostly privately owned businesses and individuals.

The VA IS socialized.

Stefanik's still stupid and dishonest, anyway, of course. MC should only provide as good, comprehensive care as economically as the VA, but it can't possibly.

[Generic Other]

36. Mostly, I see you all arguing how stupid she actually is

rather than whether she is. So we are agreed. Stefanik = stoooopid.

[Mike Nelson]

37. Well...

... she's not stupid. This is how Trumpsters think. They say, "Keep your government hands off my Social Security!" They think it's something Reagan gave them. In the future, they will probably think the Affordable Care Act was signed by Trump.

[kentuck]

38. And if you tell her...

....will she hear you?

[maxsolomon]

43. She DGAF what Rather says

You don't "school" someone who won't listen to you.

[sop]

39. Steve Schmidt had this to say about Stefanik:

She is a "titanic fraud, elected weasels who share a talent for shamelessness, built on a foundation of cynicism and stone cold belief that their supporters are marks, a type of feeble prey that are either too stupid to notice the contradictions and hypocrisy of literally every spoken word or are too lazy and slug like to care about being abused by constant gaslighting."

[colorado_ufo]

41. Shameless.

[2naSalit]

44. Doublespeak.

[Uncle Joe]

45. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread Generic Other

[OMGWTF]

48. IOW: Get a brian morans.

[Sneederbunk]

49. Am old enough to remember AMA radio ads in the 60s condemning Medicare as socialism.