Episode 47: American Magnanimity - Spinning Crimes Against Humanity as Benevolence

Citations Needed

News, Society & Culture

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2018

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since there's been America, there have been American war crimes, and since there have been American war crimes, there's been a parallel cottage industry of hacks, shills and propagandists willing to not only apologize for, deny and downplay these crimes, but actually spin them as benevolent charity.

While Karl Rove mastered the art of taking a politician's weakness and projecting it onto one's opponent, the American political and media class has mastered the art of taking the most blatant crimes and injustices and spinning them as something actually good for the subject being oppressed, cleansed or killed. From family separation to slavery to cutting people off welfare to endless war abroad, step into the Citations Needed Hall of Funhouse Mirrors to see how the most egregious offenses to human decency get turned into evidence of innate American humanitarianism.

We are joined by friend of the show, The Intercept's Jon Schwarz.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Citations Needed with Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson.
0:09.2	Welcome to Citations Needed, a podcast on the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit.
0:15.2	I am Nima Shirazi.
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	...

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