Pro-Trump ad on CNN targeting "Reason, thinking, and secular values"

ataraxia said:

I was watching CNN this morning, and a pro-Trump ad came up praising Trump and his judicial nominee picks, bragging about how Trump has already appointed a record number of judicial nominees, showing beautiful, smiling pictures of Neil Gorsuch being sworn in, and urging the viewer to call their congressmen and tell them to not hold up the other Trump nominees.

All of which is fine (but a little odd considering that the GOP completely blackballed the nomination of judge Garland almost a full year before Obama's term was over. But anyway, we all know this is not about playing fair). But I understand: this is what America wanted and voted for. So people get what they want.

But then, as they were showing picture after picture of how Trump's new nominees are all so wonderful, and everyone is all smiles, and the world is good, and all these judges are now going to allow "religious freedom" (ie, allow the cultural hegemony and domination of white Christian Evangelical males over the entire rest of American society with complete impunity), they turned to the dark side of what will happen if we don't allow these nominees to go through. You know how those political ads work when they want to show something in a bad light: instead of the smiling, beautiful, pictures of Neil Gorsuch and Donald Trump with the beautiful, rousing music in the background, all of a sudden the pictures become black and white, and the background music becomes dark and ominous, and you know what they showed? They showed a demonstrator holding up a placard that said "Reason, Thinking, and Secular Values."

OH, THE HORROR! MAKE IT STOP!:shock: NOT SECULAR VALUES! NOT THINKING!

I mean, seriously? It was quick, maybe lasting for a second or so on the screen. It was clear that they wanted to send a powerful subliminal signal to the base, but not long enough to allow people to think about it or ask too many questions. Appeal to visceral emotions, but not talk about it. I have tried to find the ad on Youtube, but it doesn't seem to be there. If anyone can find it, I would appreciate it. But I'm sure at least some of you have seen it.

But let's talk about it. Are "Reason, Thinking, and Secular Values" this scary now? Since when did these become anti-American values now that we should show in black and white with scary ominous music playing in the background? Where is this country heading, and are people really OK with such visceral, primitive, completely unmasked tribalism and anti-intellectualism taking over the country?

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ataraxia said:

But I understand: this is what America wanted and voted for. So people get what they want.

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MrWonka said:

This is most certainly not what America wanted or voted for. The Majority of Americans voted for Hillary, and out of those who didn't they did so out of protest because they were tricked into hating Hillary Clinton.

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NeverTrumpGOP said:

I saw this too. These ads are almost definitely from Mike Pence's Super Pac. Although, I don't think they disclosed who controlled it like most political ads do. If they did I missed it.
Also, Networks generally do not know what ads are being displayed on their networks. The ad buyers are completely separate business.

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ataraxia said:

I was watching CNN this morning, and a pro-Trump ad came up praising Trump and his judicial nominee picks, bragging about how Trump has already appointed a record number of judicial nominees, showing beautiful, smiling pictures of Neil Gorsuch being sworn in, and urging the viewer to call their congressmen and tell them to not hold up the other Trump nominees.

All of which is fine (but a little odd considering that the GOP completely blackballed the nomination of judge Garland almost a full year before Obama's term was over. But anyway, we all know this is not about playing fair). But I understand: this is what America wanted and voted for. So people get what they want.

But then, as they were showing picture after picture of how Trump's new nominees are all so wonderful, and everyone is all smiles, and the world is good, and all these judges are now going to allow "religious freedom" (ie, allow the cultural hegemony and domination of white Christian Evangelical males over the entire rest of American society with complete impunity), they turned to the dark side of what will happen if we don't allow these nominees to go through. You know how those political ads work when they want to show something in a bad light: instead of the smiling, beautiful, pictures of Neil Gorsuch and Donald Trump with the beautiful, rousing music in the background, all of a sudden the pictures become black and white, and the background music becomes dark and ominous, and you know what they showed? They showed a demonstrator holding up a placard that said "Reason, Thinking, and Secular Values."

OH, THE HORROR! MAKE IT STOP!:shock: NOT SECULAR VALUES! NOT THINKING!

I mean, seriously? It was quick, maybe lasting for a second or so on the screen. It was clear that they wanted to send a powerful subliminal signal to the base, but not long enough to allow people to think about it or ask too many questions. Appeal to visceral emotions, but not talk about it. I have tried to find the ad on Youtube, but it doesn't seem to be there. If anyone can find it, I would appreciate it. But I'm sure at least some of you have seen it.

But let's talk about it. Are "Reason, Thinking, and Secular Values" this scary now? Since when did these become anti-American values now that we should show in black and white with scary ominous music playing in the background? Where is this country heading, and are people really OK with such visceral, primitive, completely unmasked tribalism and anti-intellectualism taking over the country?

Click to expand...