What’s Behind The Fear of Fighting Back?

I just saw a great video from my old friend Cliff Schechter on his new YouTube channel, Cliff’s Edge.

Is It Time to Start FIGHTING Dirty Against Donald Trump?

After I watched it, I liked, subscribed and joined the channel as a paying member. I’d like folks to do the same. Then I called Cliff to talk about it.

I’ve known Cliff for years and we talked about “fighting” on camera on RW media, and the opportunity for a lefty billionaire to buy a media outlet like CNBC and MSNBC. I hope it happens. If it DOES happen, we need to understand the fear of funders on the left to fighting back and what to do about it.

One thing that I’ve seen is that people who consider themselves journalists in the mainstream media don’t see “fighting back” as their job. That’s the job of activists. That’s the job of Democrats. Many see their role as reporting the facts. (Or “documenting the atrocities” as Atrios would say.)

I’ve written about what happens to journalists when they do report the facts, do the “both sides” bit, and talk to experts. They get threatened. Accepting death threats IS NOT part of the job! @spockosbrain 

I’ve been a behind the scenes activist for almost 20 years. I’ve taught my techniques and methods to others. I see how when we win, the right adapts. I actively developed the Spocko Method to drive advertisers away from the violent rhetoric of RW talk radio. This method destroyed RW media’s, easy corporate revenue stream. Brands didn’t want to associate with hosts talking about blowing people’s brains out, and sexist attacks on women. Respectable corporate customer facing ads got pulled from RW radio hosts’ shows. The RW media lost 100s of millions of dollars in revenue.

The RW media adapted and started taking money from boner pill companies & supplements. They took money from dark money fronts & RW groups who just wanted the audience and didn’t need to sell goods or services.

I don’t want to get started about how this strategy failed with Elon Musk. When you can tell Advertisers to Go. F*ck. Yourself, that’s a game changer. I worked with the groups that contacted advertisers just to tell them “Hey your brand is being tainted you might want to do something” Musk SUED THOSE GROUPS. That is something Disney/ABC/ didn’t do when I alerted advertisers to the violent rhetoric coming from the KSFO hosts.

But just like the RW adapts, so do we. There are ways to fight back. There are people who are fighting back. And we need to support them. Financially.

One of my recent projects involves helping the people who have been harmed by the right. It involves suing those who have been harming others AND those who organized the harm. What I’m doing behind the scenes is learning WHY, when we win, we stop. I’m looking at the models of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Qui tam laws and class actions suits. I’m also looking at how these stories are covered in the media, how they are shared (or not shared) on social media. How can these stories penetrate the RW bubble or if they do, they are reframed in the RW bubble so that the person DOING the harm is seen as the victim.

One of the things I’m looking at is how regular people can help, without being subjecting themselves to massive attacks online, in the media and on social media. The thing is there are already people who have been harmed, and the bad people have gotten away with it. They PROFITED from organizing harm. They might say, that’s “Just good business” because in America making money often overrules EVERYTHING. But not always.

Some change does happen when causing and organizing harm ends up COSTS corporations and individuals money. And when reducing harm MAKES money for the people who were harmed, well, most people can get behind that.

Yes. I know the people causing harm adapt. We on the left feel better helping victims. We don’t like to be the aggressor, many want to forgive the bad people and move on. We need to understand this impulse, and prepare for it in our fights.

This is one of the reasons that the right screams “political prosecution” when they are held accountable for crimes where they have had due process, found guilty and ordered to pay restitution. They STILL want to appeal to people’s sympathy. We are seeing this right now with Rudy Giuliani’s failure to pay what he owes to Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

Rudy goes outside the courthouse, where he’s not under oath, and lies about the case. That’s the video I’ve seen used on TV and quoted in stories. What we DON’T see are the lawyers for Freeman & Moss calling out the lies following Rudy’s press conference outside.

The focus of the story becomes RUDY as the victim, not, Rudy failing to pay the REAL victims what he owes. RUDY IS NOT THE VICTIM! He’s the bully, the aggressor and the adjudicated LOSER in this case. If I was doing PR for the lawyers I would be out front of the courthouse every SINGLE TIME Rudy whines, and point out what a LIAR he is and remind people of the HARM he caused.

We can not forget what happened to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, remember the 100’s of death threats they got that drove them from their homes. Remember the big names who still haven’t been held accountable for their role in the case. We need to fight back on behalf of the people who have been harmed. And we keep fighting back after we win.