It doesn’t take a genius to do basic arithmetic. We have calculators on our phones if the numbers are too big. Unfortunately, we have progressive journalists on our phones bleating at us as well, and that may be the key to understanding why so many Americans embrace modern Democratic financial policies. The math is fuzzy and mainstream media isn’t helping.
Case-in-point: MSNBC host Brian Williams talking to NY Times editorial board member Mara Gay about a Tweet by Washington Post columnist Mekita Rivas. The Tweet, which lambasted billionaire Mike Bloomberg for wasting money on a presidential campaign when he could have helped every American to their share of the riches, had some mathematical challenges.
MSNBC 11th Hour just showed this tweet from @MekitaRivas on national television. I'm speechless. pic.twitter.com/eMLhhFDcFR
— PG Howie (@PGHowie2) March 6, 2020
According to the now-deleted Tweet: “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”
As anyone with a calculator or recollections of 3rd grade math class will tell you, Rivas was off. Twitter users were quick to point out her error, so she deleted the post. That should have been the end of it, but instead she decided to double-down on her error by making another.
Oh my gosh. Please keep tweeting about this. If only there were a calculator app on your phone. pic.twitter.com/qEZntlhQyA
— BarnRant (@BarnRant) March 4, 2020
Keep in mind, this isn’t a random person making a mental error. This is a blue-checkmark, nationally published journalist whose opinions hold sway over the radical progressive masses. It’s no wonder they seem to think Joe Biden’s outrageously expensive proposed policies don’t go far enough or that Bernie Sanders is right that billionaires can pay for everything, leaving the rest of us soaking up million-dollar checks every month. Unfortunately, the math was shared by MSNBC, but instead of debunking it, they allowed the NY Times editorial board member to push the “leftist math” further out to the unhinged folks who still watch the news channel.
MSNBC’s Brian Williams reads a tweet: "Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. U.S. Population, 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million"
NYT Editorial Board Member Mara Gay: “It’s an incredible way of putting it. It’s true. It’s disturbing”
It's $1.53 per person pic.twitter.com/dIiwCESgh8
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 6, 2020
To Williams’ credit, he may have recognized the error. To his shame, his only caveat was to say, “don’t tell us if you’re ahead of us on the math.” One can also argue that he justified the math by saying, “When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear.” Did he misunderstand the math like the other two progressive journalists or did he understand it and willfully mislead his viewers? Either way, he’s complicit in the dumbing down of the American left.
As I’ve said before, one of the reasons modern Democratic policies are so popular is because too many Americans lose the ability to comprehend large sums of money at a certain point. A million is a billion, a billion is a trillion… what difference does it really make to someone making $12 an hour? To those who don’t even try to wrap their heads around the differences, here’s a quick breakdown with healthcare as the basis.
Biden’s “modest” healthcare plan would cost every American taxpayer an additional $5323. That’s on top of what we’re spending on healthcare right now. But he specifically kept the total number under a trillion dollars to keep his distance from Sanders’ healthcare plan. Why? Because it makes him seem more moderate.
The world of politics isn’t about dealing with real numbers. It’s about dealing with numbers the people can grasp, which is why you’d never hear Biden say how much it would cost every individual taxpayer. We, as a nation, may have a hard time dealing with millions, billions, and trillions, but everyone understands that paying an additional $5k isn’t what we want.
When mainstream media—specifically MSNBC, Washington Post, and NY Times—is working together to mislead Americans into thinking billionaires can solve all of our problems, it’s no wonder leftist policies are popular to some. Math is too hard for them.
