Asha Rangappa: Framing Hunter Biden

[Nevilledog]

https://asharangappa.substack.com/p/framing-hunter-biden?utm_medium=ios


If you’re like me, the phrase “Hunter Biden’s Laptop” provokes a peculiar physiological response: My eyes glaze over, I get sort of sleepy, and my mind starts looking for something practical to think about, like my week’s grocery list. The phrase has come to mean everything and nothing — the person uttering it probably can’t tell you exactly what they are alleging, only that it is very, very illegal. It kind of reminds me of “Whitewater” back in the 90s. Be honest Gen Xers, if someone were to ask you, right now, to explain Whitewater in three sentences, could you do it? I think most people couldn’t; I know for me the phrase is really just a lot of random word association. e.g., Whitewater/Clintons/land deal/suicide (remember Vince Foster??) that is shorthand for some vague criminality no one can articulate. And that’s the point.

Unfortunately, with the Republicans in control of the House — and in particular the capitulation of power to the extreme MAGA contingent — we can expect there to be endless hearings centered around Hunter Biden’s Laptop. Which means it behooves us to understand what, exactly, it is really about. I’ll be diving into conspiracy theories later in my online course, but for now, the question is: Is Hunter Biden’s Laptop a conspiracy theory, or evidence of a real conspiracy? To unpack this, I use a basic three-part formula that psychologists who study conspiracy theories suggest for disentangling truth from fiction, one that activates the rational, analytical side, rather than the lizard, fight-or-flight side, of the brain:

1. What is the evidence for your claim?

2. What is the source of evidence for this claim?

3. What is the reasoning that links your evidence back to the claim?

Of course, before we can answer these three questions we need to articulate what the claim(s) actually is (are) — which is one of the main challenges. (As with the Whitewater example, the purpose is to keep this part a little hazy and obscure.) I found the best deep dive for getting to the bottom of this question a New York magazine Intelligencer piece by Andrew Rice and Olivia Nuzzi, which is worth the read. (Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of Nuzzi’s work, including her unparalleled coverage of the most important political event of 2020, the Four Seasons Total Landscaping Press Conference.) It’s a long piece, and one that starts off pretty straightforwardly but ends up going down some crazy rabbit holes. It’s best read with a drink.

In any event, onwards. Let’s get to our analysis.

*snip*

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Sooo true...

Be honest Gen Xers, if someone were to ask you, right now, to explain Whitewater in three sentences, could you do it? I think most people couldn’t; I know for me the phrase is really just a lot of random word association. e.g., Whitewater/Clintons/land deal/suicide (remember Vince Foster??)

That's me for sure...lol

[Bev54]

2. One more question to me is Who is making the claim

The man behind Santos was the "IT" guy working for Bannon that made copies of "the hard drive". It is always the same people who show up, like bad pennies, in many of the deceit and lies that are put forth.

[niyad]

3. KNR and bookmarking. For later. It is a bit early to start drinking if I want to get

anything else done today.

[Mr.Bill]

4. Let's see. What if I owned a computer repair business

and a relative of a prominent politician brought in their laptop, and on that laptop I found child porn, or other illegal things, would the first person I called be Rudy Giuliani?

[certainot]

6. one way to deal with their shit is to digitize rw radio present and past then count repetition for

shit like "hunter biden's laptop" and then bring it up in the hearings. same can be done for every subject of their witch hunts. that analysis can be done for everything republicans do.

that digitization has been prototyped by MIT media lab - RADIO TALK - they used AI to automatically record, transcribe, and analyze 2.8 BILLON words of talk radio from about 300 stations (non political)

their 'evidence' largely flew out of the collective assmouth of a few hundred radio liars and fox bozos. bring up limbaugh and talk radio for all these hearings.

and media can be encouraged to expose the putin/kremlin use of it

dems really also need to read from limbaugh july 2011 when he repeatedly claimed all month leading up to the aug 2 debt ceiling deadline that the US could not possibly default and if we did it would be obamas fault and would force dems to make cuts. there are pages of those quotes. blame limbaugh on the floor of congress, wave him like a turd under their noses and point out to the country that these dittohead/teabag/trumpers are still getting econ advice from a guy who told them global warming was a hoax, there is no racism, and smoking doesn't cause cancer (that would get some howls of outrage!)

that can be done on local level too, for instance for rw radio stations in gym jordan's ohio, as well as the 6 or more stations that piggyback the ohio state football team

dems need offense and nothing would be more offensive than to expose and destroy their only unique advantage. otherwise they're going to blanket the country with daily talking points, accusations, lies, and exaggerations from those hearings - all to get more fascists elected

[Duppers]

8. Indeed! 👍

Would they even attempt doing this? 🥱

[certainot]

9. imo it as to be done or the analysts might as well keep studying fish without water

[ancianita]

7. Day one, the first question I'd ask House hearing members: What is your claim? Then I'd ask

each separate member of the committee to answer "what is your claim"? so that the public would know whether they are all focused on one "problem" or on a number of problems.

The hardest thing for these members will be to produce evidentiary proof of intent -- through witnesses, documents, etc. -- no matter what other material "evidence" they think they have.

Day one, the second question I'd ask the committee hearing members: For each claim please cite the law that is violated.