“February 2017 is when the President called us the enemy of the people. A few days later my son asked me, ‘Is Donald Trump going to put you in prison?’”
—Olivier Knox at last week’s White House Correspondents Dinner.
At the same dinner, “entertainment” Ron Chernow—will he trade in his historian gig for stand-up? I can see it now—Laugh with the Hysterical Hystorian!—said in one of his funnier lines,
“H.L. Mencken once warned of a political system that would ‘keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.’ We simply cannot allow the press to become an imaginary hobgoblin exploited for political gain.”
Great irony, Ron! The press has just completed nearly three years of trying to frighten the public by claiming that the President stole the election and is a Russian agent, but it’s the President who is alarming the public with “an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.'” HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one!
Well, as someone who has written some comedy routines, I agree that it’s important to know your audience. In this case, that means knowing your audience is smug, arrogant, lacks self-awareness, and afflicted with permanent delusions of virtue.
But back to Knox. The device he stooped to use is known (here)as the Amy Carter Maneuver, when an adult places words in his child’s mouth for dramatic effect. Surely you recall Jimmy Carter’s infamous gaffe in his debate with Ronald Regan, when he said, “I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry — and the control of nuclear arms.” Amy was 13, and most viewers found the device nauseating.
I can’t find the age of Knox’s son. If he’s older than 12, and really said this, then his father has succeeded in indoctrinating him into the crazy “resistance” narrative that the President is a fascist just waiting for his chance to shut down the Bill of Rights. I’m sure his teachers have helped out too. If he’s younger than 12, and Knox isn’t making the exchange up, then we know that he is raising his child to hate and fear the elected leader of his homeland, an attitude calculated to make him miserable and distrustful, and perhaps one more enthusiastic totalitarian.
If that isn’t child abuse as vile as teaching your offspring to hate other races, faiths and ethnicities, it’s too close for me.
Ethics Alarms 
Roger Staubach on the perspicacity of Amy Carter:
NIce catch 77Z. Thanks for that. Really funny. Not much new in the world.
While the press’ attitudes toward the President are well known, the revelation that General Mattis was disregarding orders he did not like is far more serious.
We are quickly approaching the brink of social and political collapse.
Perhaps the progressive new media will come up with something resembling the Hitler Youth. Get them while they’re young so they will Sieg Heil to to progressive ideology.
I think that’s just public education.
We already have that, it is called Antifa. They should reintroduce the ‘Blue Eagle’ program, too. It would go well with the green ‘New Deal’.
“H.L. Mencken once warned of a political system that would ‘keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.’
You mean like:
-There’s an epidemic of hate crimes! Nazis are taking over the country! Quick, vote Democrat!
-Women earn less than men for the same work! Quick, vote Democrat!
-Everyone is getting raped in college! Quick, vote Democrat!
-Republicans want to make ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ real, because argle bargle just believe us! Quick, vote Democrat!
-Trump is a Russian agent! The proof is that we said so! Quick, vote Democrat!
-Trump isn’t really a Russian agent, but he was angry about being accused of being one so he clearly doesn’t respect the laws that you and I hold so dear! Quick, vote Democrat!
-The world is going to end in 12 years! Quick, vote Democrat!
I wonder if he anticipated 90% of major media and news outlets willingly becoming town criers for said political system.
Issac
I was thinking the same thing. The Mencken quote is far more appropriately applied to Democrats when we evaluate who is pushing the hobgoblin narratives
You left out “Guns are killing kids, and we’ve got to ban them. Quick, vote Democrat!”
Ban kids?? Really? 🙂
Only way to keep from killing them…
Heh. Nice.
Well, actually, yes. Wouldn’t that be why we need so many abortions and need the acceptable time limit extended to after birth?
Yup
The lack of self-awareness in this man, like his peers, is truly stunning to see. They actually think they are doing God’s work by trying to rid the country of Trump, and are actually surprised that he is fighting back by, in the words of some other president who’s name I can’t quite remember, “Punch[ing] back twice as hard.”
It’s frighteningly like they’ve been attending re-education camps for the last two and one half years, and are parroting the indoctrination chapter and verse.