Okay, so just check out Memeorandum today. I think my thesis still holds.
Erik Kain
Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.
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Andrew Sullivan was busted for possession? Is that what you intended to link to?Report
I scrolled up and saw a couple of items devoted to Obama’s speech and Healthcare… and scrolled up a little bit more and saw a metric buttload of items devoted to (no, the other) Joe Wilson.Report
Linked to the wrong section of memeorandum – sort of fixed it now. The top is devoted to Joe Wilson, Joe Wilson, Joe Wilson. How do you link to specific items at memeorandum? I don’t get it.Report
What does whatever Memeorandum have up prove?Report
First – what is your point of disagreement?
Second – memeorandum reflects what is being discussed most across the web at any given moment. Joe Wilson is currently being discussed more than the speech. That is the point of my initial post and this follow up.Report
From their about language:
It doesn’t claim to be a quantitative reflection on what is being most discussed, but maybe you know something I don’t.
In any case, the mere fact that it is being discussed more doesn’t show that it is distracting from or having a greater impact than the speech. (To be clear, I have said I thought the potential impact of the speech on public opinion was minimal even in theory.) But the outburst being much discussed could equally be having the effect of keeping the speech fresh in peoples’ mind longer, allowing generally unexamined positive feelings about the speech (as contrasted to the outburst) to have a more extended, and thus larger impact on feelings about the health plans, Obama or both. I can’t prove that theory; I’m not even sure I think it’s likely, but it’s equally plausible and equally likely as yours.
Hm. The more I think about this new theory, though, the more I dig it. Better to have the speech stay with people longer, sane and reasoned by contrast to the opposition’s incivility, than simply to be forgotten. Also, and I say this with a wry smile, the memorableness of the outburst allows those positive contrasted impressions of Obama to remain the primary memory of the speech, rather than the many good questions reasonable people would have had about his arguments that he largely left unanswered Weds.Report
Allowing myself a slight emendation:
“…the memorableness of the outburst allows those positive contrasted impressions of Obama to remain the primary *non-outburst* memory of the speech…”
You probably understood what I meant.Report
E.D. Joe Wilson’s a hero in these parts! Shouting liar at a democrat is kind of a redundancy but Big Jim Trafficant is out and though he’s a bit of a wacko I believe he smacked down the IRS in such a way as to benefit all Americans!
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You don’t even have the foggiest idea what Marxism is, do you? It actually isn’t simply defined as “economic policies Bob Cheeks doesn’t like”.Report