re: #204 BlueGrl21

What James Comey never understood was no matter what he did, no matter how he twisted norms to do “the right thing,” he could not protect the reputation of the FBI and the men and women that work there. Because once the right-wing media latches into a narrative they are going to eviscerate the “bad guy.” There are no words or actions that will change that. And they had latched into the stupid email server and there was no way to placate them. There was no way to protect the reputation of the FBI. If they and their followers decide something is true, nothing can swerve them.

I wish I could bold and highlight this: We cannot, cannot make decisions anywhere, ever, based on what the right wing media and their minions might think or do. Ever. Full stop.

So, I see Comey getting caught up in the court of public opinion. He still doesn’t understand he was never going to win.

Let me do it for you.

The default mindset for all of the powers that be in America - political, corporate, media - is that the opinions of middle and working class white people are always the most important. Even if they are wrong, they are right enough that they must be a major factor in all public statements and decisions. Political campaigns, media coverage, financial decisions, all operate from this basic tenet - middle class white people must be okay with what we are doing. If not, we must change it.

Comey felt the same way - millions of ‘Americans’ (ie. middle class white people like me) are going to be angry if Hillary Clinton wins, and then they’ll accuse the FBI of being complicit if we don’t publicly pander to their biases by making it look like we’re investigating her as hard as possible, whether there’s anything there or not. It didn’t hurt that he also had similar biases.

Unfortunately, in 2018, middle class white people in America have become evil monsters. They have become a cult, corrupted by their saturated media environment. But all of the powers that be in America continue to operate from the basic assumption that these people are always right, even when they are wrong.