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i wish that this article made its way like wildfire through the conservative blogosphere, but of course that will never happen. the problem is that there's now a sizable chunk of the american population that lives in a totally separate reality with a totally separate history that explains the current crisis. let me just indulge in one example... my boss considers himself a moderate conservative and is in every way a functioning adult (as in not a total knuckledragger wingnut with rapture fantasies) but he recently told me with conviction that if only the government hadn't forced the mortgage companies to make loans to people who couldn't afford mortgages we wouldn't be in this mess. he also recently told me that the iraq war wasn't reflecting poorly on the US because it was a coalition of nations that went in there (i hadn't heard anyone else say that in at least 5 years...). i actually kind of smiled when he said that cuz i thought he was joking but he was being dead serious. i'm not sure what tv he watches but i am positive that he reads michelle malkin because he's relayed to me (with outrage!) some of her totally insane "news items" that you just don't see anywhere else.
i think the real question now is, when we have our separate tv networks, our separate newspapers (i know many conservatives who just don't read the nyt due to its commie leanings), our separate blogospheres, our separate pet economists and talking heads, how can anyone convince anyone else of the validity of their own narrative of history or causality?
(mind you i'm not one of those "media should be objective and consider both sides of the story" types. i firmly believe in politically committed journalism but am seriously having trouble coming up with a way to convince anyone of much of anything...aside from concern trolling of course ;))
