AlterNet

Lefty Writer Claims Trump, Conservative Evangelicals Have One Big Thing In Common: ‘Narcissism’
By Tom Johnson | December 30, 2015 | 9:14 PM EST

If you’re looking for the ultimate contradiction in terms, it’d be hard to top “Christian narcissist.” Nonetheless, David Masciotra alleged in a Tuesday Salon piece (originally published on the left-wing site AlterNet) that “conservative evangelical Christianity” somehow “encourages narcissism,” and that this unholy communion explains Donald Trump’s relatively high level of popularity on the religious right.

“In order to appeal to evangelical voters, candidates…have to project narcissism and selfishness,” asserted Masciotra. “Having perfected his personality through years of reality television performance, Trump is able to successfully sway evangelicals to his side, despite his lack of Christian credentials, because narcissists take comfort in each other.”

AlterNet: Cruz Courts ‘Pro-Israel Extremists,’ But Radical Liberal Donors No Problem
By Joseph Rossell | December 2, 2014 | 4:40 PM EST

Liberal politicians often get a free pass from the media when they receive millions in support from billionaire activists like Tom Steyer. But when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, associates with pro-Israel donors and activists, liberal bloggers call this a "political nightmare."

AlterNet criticized Cruz in an article December 1 for being overly pro-Israel. Cruz was reportedly "courting" conservative billionaire Sheldon Adelson and "a wide set of pro-Israel extremists in New York City."

AlterNet: Pets 'Public Enemy Number Two' Due to 'Negative Impact' on Climate
By Joseph Rossell | November 20, 2014 | 12:33 PM EST

Left-wing website AlterNet declared pets “Public Enemy Number Two,” just days after one of its writers shamed moms as “environmental villains” for having children.

AlterNet, which is known for its kooky posts, has stirred liberal guilt and promoted climate alarmism many times. But many animals lovers would be outraged by the article that went after pets because of their “surprising negative impact” on temperatures and for pushing the world toward “climate catastrophe.”

AlterNet Midterm Freakout: Bruised, Bloodied by GOP Bully Brigade
By Matt Philbin | November 6, 2014 | 2:33 PM EST

Politics is a sinister playground and conservatives want to take away liberal candy.

Salon Columnist Twists Ray Rice Beating Scandal to Blast Hobby Lobby
By Matthew Balan | September 8, 2014 | 6:56 PM EDT

Left-wing columnist CJ Werleman couldn't resist using athlete Ray Rice's suspension from the NFL on Monday as a means to attack social conservatives. Werleman took to Twitter and snarked, "If Ray Rice continues to treat women like that, he'll end up running the Hobby Lobby."

AlterNet Writer: Fox News Audience’s Fear of Atheists Is Just Part of Its Fear of ‘Everything’
By Tom Johnson | August 15, 2014 | 5:34 PM EDT

When last seen in these parts about a month ago, writer CJ Werleman asserted that Jesus was a proto-Marxist. On Thursday, staunch atheist Werleman, author of books including God Hates You. Hate Him Back, charged in an AlterNet piece that Fox News has in recent years “waged a relentless war on atheism” because the channel’s viewership is “afraid of an America they no longer understand…afraid of the rapid deceleration of church attendance, the increasing secularization of millennials, [and] the acceptance of same-sex marriage.”

Werleman opined that Fox wildly exaggerates the “power and influence” of atheists and claimed that its coverage of non-believers dovetails with its modus operandi of fearmongering: “On Fox News, Obama is coming for your guns; Madonna is coming for your straight kids; immigrants are coming for your jobs; liberals are coming for your way of life; and atheists are coming for your Bibles.”

Is ‘Weird Al’ the ‘Court Jester’ for ‘America’s Twisted Brand of Capitalism’?
By Tom Johnson | August 9, 2014 | 1:00 PM EDT

Imagine a movie that 1) sympathetically portrays Occupy Wall Street and 2) features songs by “Weird Al” Yankovic. If you think 1) and 2) seem incongruous, you might get an argument from writer Lynn Stuart Parramore.

In a piece that ran Wednesday on Salon and originally appeared on AlterNet, Parramore claimed that Yankovic’s recent chart-topping album, Mandatory Fun, contains a “deeply moral theme…about how capitalism’s servants — narcissism, greed, vulgarity, and all-around douchiness — have to carry out its orders to beat us into a pulverized pulp of compliance.” She also exulted that in one of her favorite tracks, “Al skewers the corporate capitalism which promised us all the wonders of efficiency, harmony and prosperity, only to deliver us to Dilbert’s cubicle of despair.” From Parramore’s story (emphasis added):

Amanda Marcotte: Right-Wingers Are Promoting Revenge Against the Nerds
By Tom Johnson | August 3, 2014 | 10:38 PM EDT

A specter is haunting conservatives, suggests Amanda Marcotte –- the specter of nerdiness. In a Wednesday article for AlterNet, Marcotte blasted the right’s supposed resentment of "things like evidence, rationality, and empiricism," as expressed in forums such as a recent National Review cover story critical of what its writer called America’s "extraordinarily puffed-up 'nerd' culture." In other words, black males whom conservatives dislike apparently include not just Barack Obama but also Steve Urkel.

Marcotte believes that the right has targeted nerds because their ideas "are a direct threat to the corporate and religious authorities who rightfully fear that evidence and reason could hurt [right-wingers’] profits and their hold on power." From Marcotte’s piece (emphasis added):

Lefty Paranoia: Former Reporter Calls Supreme Court Justices ‘Neo-Confederates’
By Kristine Marsh | March 1, 2013 | 4:59 PM EST

Supreme Court justices traditionally wear black robes to hear arguments. Unless they’re hearing – and potentially agreeing with – arguments lefties don’t like. Then they’re decked out in white sheets.

That’s how conservative justices were painted in former Newsweek reporter Robert Parry’s hysterical February 28 article at unhinged liberal website Alternet. In “The Neo-Confederate Supreme Court Gearing Up to Restore White Rule Over America,” race-obsessed “journalist” sputtered that “The Court’s striking down Section Five of the Voting Rights Act will mean that jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting – mostly in the Old Confederacy – will be free to impose new obstacles to voting by African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities without first having to submit the changes to a federal court.”

AlterNet on Valentine’s Day: Pope Ruins Love, Sex, and Marriage
By Katie Yoder | February 15, 2013 | 2:44 PM EST

If your Valentine’s Day was a complete fail this year, it’s probably because you listen to Pope Benedict XVI’s advice, according to AlterNet’s Geri Silver. Because those Hallmark cards just don’t do the holiday justice, AlterNet’s Geri Silver felt obliged to wish her readers a Happy Valentine’s Day via “Pope Benedict XVI's Most Unromantic Quotes on Love, Sex and Marriage.” 

Silver plucked short controversial Pope Benedict XVI quotes from their vital context to attack them one by one in her latest article. She wasted no time explaining her perspective – or rather her brimming hatred – of the Church: “Whenever you need a reminder that absolutely nothing about your love life is acceptable, you can always rely on the good old Catholic Church for a solid unreality check” or, in other words, Pope Benedict XVI’s “backward rhetoric.”  

Author Advocates Letting ‘Mouth-breathing, Racist’ South Secede
By Ryan Robertson | August 13, 2012 | 10:59 AM EDT

Liberals really should decide how they feel about the idea of southern states seceding from the union. The MSNBC crowd suddenly wraps itself in Old Glory and rediscovers the meaning of “treason” at the mention of it.

Others, like travel writer Chuck Thompson, wish they’d go. He honestly believes Southern conservatives are standing in the way of progress and solely responsible for political gridlock. The only ‘logical’ way of dealing with it in his mind is secession. Only then can the Northern states have the utopian society they’re apparently on the verge of attaining.