This is a brief excerpt from a much larger essay by a liberal woman whose 13-year-old son had drifted into the alt-right after being targeted by sexist administrators in his public school. It doesn’t have much to do with the overall essay, but perfectly captures the phenomenon of the relationship between the media and the radicals they are obsessed with promoting.
All of a sudden, a dozen or so reporters and camera operators noticed a man marching around with a huge Nazi flag that trailed behind him, aloft, like a cape. They started running—actually running—after him. The guy with the Nazi flag kept walking but slowed his pace to let them catch up, then turned around to face the cameras at exactly the moment they were upon him. The choreography was as precise as a ballet.
For the next ten minutes or so, the reporters filmed the Nazi. When they finally turned away from each other, each side seemed happy, shaking hands, nodding enthusiastically, and smiling their thanks. It was the most nakedly symbiotic transaction I’d ever witnessed. The reporters and the Nazi needed each other. There was no meaning—no job—for one without the other.
The reality behind the camera has always been very different than the photos and videos you see. The occasional photos of a media scrum say it all.
And here’s the perfect symbiotic relationship between Nazis and the media.
They really do need each other.
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