If It Honks Like a Goose...
Mainstream Media Struggles to Call Out Blatant Fascism
You know, once upon a time, when I first started the HoosLeft project, I mostly wrote and sprinkled in podcasting. Now - and don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my audio, and now, video content - but I devote most of this space to that sort of thing and less to good, old-fashioned essays. I go where the wind carries me, so no regrets, but I should definitely just write more.
So, a little over a month ago, at nominal President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the real head of state - Trump’s sugar daddy Elon Musk - did this:
You like the title on that video? Elon Musk “appears” to give fascist salute, it says. Indeed - just as the sky “appears” blue, the grass “appears” green, and Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett routinely “appears” drunk in public.
Actually, it “appears” this is a bit of a fad these days. Former Breitbart executive, podcaster, strategist, and human grease stain Steve Bannon “appeared” to throw a similar “Roman” salute at CPAC last weekend, with Mexican actor and right-wing activist Eduardo Verástegui “appearing” to perform an identical gesture at the same event.
Media across the board have failed to call the painfully obvious nod to fascism what it is. Verástegui performed “what many interpreted as a Nazi” salute. Bannon “was accused of making a Nazi salute.” Musk “made a salute that many felt was fascist.”
SAY THE THING! This is exactly what it looks like. I don’t know if it’s fear - of violence, of lawsuits, of losing access - cowardice, or complicity, but something prevents from these outlets from stating what is plain to see. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, IT’S A FUCKING DUCK!!!
Mainstream journalism has walked into every trap set by the right - helping them spread misinformation, disinformation, and outright propaganda far and wide. In 2024, even in debunking the claim, the “lie of the year,” that legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were (in terrible Trump impression) eating the dogs, eating the cats, eating the pets of the people that live there, of butchering wild waterfowl from a local park. Of course, the claim was untrue, but it was so salacious and juicy and shiny that it made for great copy.
As with most disinfo, there was a small kernel of truth. It turns out there had been someone killing birds in the Ohio town. This, from The Independent:
“Brian Comer of Springfield was issued a citation last month for shooting two geese at a golf course, according to Clark County Municipal Court filings first reported by Texas-based investigative journalist Steven Monacelli. A witness told an officer ahead of Comer’s citation that he saw a “white male, in his late fifties or early sixties” riding a lawnmower before getting off and shooting two geese with a shotgun, the court filings reveal.
Comer was “cooperative” and admitted to shooting the two geese, according to the court filings. Comer told an officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources he believed he was entitled to shoot them because the golf course had a “nuisance permit.” An officer then issued him a citation.
A small kernel of truth. That’s all it takes to start an earth-moving rumor. Right wing propagandists like Bannon “flood the zone with shit” and legacy journalists, so many of them incompetent nepo babies, chase the recognizable kernels. Gross. I know.
But I think I know what’s really going on. Reactionary right-wingers were never concerned about the dogs, the cats, or the ducks. They were defending the geese. You see, fascists and geese are a lot alike - they’re loud, they’re mean, and they shit all over everything.
What’s the takeaway? If it looks like a goose, if it honks like a goose, if it steps like a goose, IT’S A FUCKING GOOSE!
