Discussion: George Will Bashes #BringBackOurGirls As 'An Exercise In Self-Esteem' (VIDEO)

Discussion for article #222631

"Power is the ability to achieve intended effects. This is not intended to have any effect on the real world," he continued.

I think that every time I hear you speak, George.

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GW— pissant among pissants.

Who are mortally afraid of strong, educated, articulate women…

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“Barbarians in the wild” sort of sums up how he sees the girls, too. It’s like he can’t even hide his disdain for them. If there were two hundred missing white girls being held by terrorists, how would Fox react?

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George Will would certainly know about masturbatory exercises in self-esteem.

I don’t see how the knee-jerk conservative bashing of this hashtag plays out in their favor. Sure, they’re using this mockery to play to the angry base–but don’t Will and the conservative bloggers realize how MoveOn, DCCC, and WH will use this kind of monstrously callous statement against GOP?

I just don’t get how they strategize this.

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Although George Will doesn’t frame his argument in very compassionate terms, peer-reviewed empirical/social science research suggests that he might actually be right. Social movement scholars and practitioners have a long way to go before we can effectively translate social media posts to meaningful support of causes.

See, for example, The Structure of Online Activism by Lewis, Gray, and Meierhenrich in Sociological Science (2014) and The Nature of Slacktivism: How the Social Observability of an Initial Act of Token Support Affects Subsequent Prosocial Action by Kristofferson, White, and Peloza in the Journal of Consumer Research (2014).

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Please shut up, you constipated bag of wind. Your day (if it ever came) is long gone.

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Agreed. Hashtag activism is (at least often) an “exercise in self-esteem”, but further to my comment above: how does Will think this kind of callousness possibly plays in GOP’s favor? And how monstrous are these a-holes going to look if the attempt to rescue these girls is successful? I picture one or more of the young women, with NGO representatives, on MSNBC or Jon Stewart–or Mahar–and Will et al having to face them.

It’s just stupid politically. I don’t get it.

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I can’t stand his arguments and saying ‘barbarians in the wild’ is beyond the pale. I don’t think the twitter campaign is an exercise in self esteem. That said, I don’t think his general hypothesis is wrong. The twitter campaign will raise awareness, but what’s that going to do for these poor girls?

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This guy went from a respected "This Week "participant to a fox news clown in just a matter of weeks.

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Naw he’s been this way as long as I can remember. Sometimes he has good points and good rhetorical arguments, but generally he argues to come to a predisposed conservative conclusion.

The strategy is to pander to the three million drooling idiots that tune into Fox News .

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Fox News(?) : Why are they doing #BringBackOurGirls instead of something “NOT to make you feel better about themselves” like 50+ ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare votes – I mean (h)ello #BENGHAZIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiii.

And F*CK U Juan Williams – what was there to chuckle about?

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It sounds accurate to me. If you think these terrorists who murder men, women and children are going to pay the least attention to this, you are a bigger fool than I think you are.

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Look, and George Will knows this; The first lady is drawing attention to a dire situation that the more the world pays attention, the more pressure will be applied, and the more likely we can find a way to resolve this.

George Will has turned himself into nothing more than one more conservative babbler, and I recall when he was better than that.

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Mark Steyn put it all in perspective with his hashtag of #BringBackOurBalls.

What a jealous old crone George Will has become. His rancid jealousy for Michelle Obama is only superseded by his ignorance of the medium. Time for this journalistic sway-back to be put to pasture.

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Much like any shit that spews from Will’s mouth or pen has any effect on the “real world.” As if there’s any other world but.

By God…George Will has no human compassion at all. I’m on the verge of using language I almost never use in a public forum. Well screw it:
FUCK YOU, MR WILL AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON.

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I think the point is for the world to have awareness and want to find ways to stop this or have action taken from a third party…not that these assholes are going to stop kidnapping these girls.

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