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Andrew Breitbart died 6 years ago

Andrew Breitbart died 6 years ago

Politics is still downstream of culture, and the culture has entered an ominous phase

Andrew Breitbart died 6 years ago today. We have remembered the anniversary of his death each year since then.

You can read our March 1, 2012, report, Andrew Breitbart dead:

Very sad news to report, just breaking.  Andrew Breitbart is dead.

Via Big Journalism:

Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.

Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.

… There are few people who are irreplaceable, but Andrew may have been one of those few.

I wrote A personal note on the death of Andrew Breitbart that day:

I only spoke once with Andrew Breitbart. He reached out to me, and we spoke by phone.  The topic is not important, but I was shocked that he even knew who I was; but as I’ve come to learn, Andrew seemed to know who everyone was in the conservative blogosphere.  He was just that way.

Since my wife called this morning to let me know of Andrew’s death, it has been hard to focus on anything else.  In her words, we don’t have that many bright media lights, and to lose him hurts.

It has been something of a mission for me to document and rebut the media lies spread about his video of Shirley Sherrod, yet those lies continue to be spread:

So this tweet of his responding to the false accusations about Sherrod was classic and became one of his most famous quotes: Apologize for What? It also was tweeted the day of this death, and was his second to last tweet:

https://twitter.com/AndrewBreitbart/status/175107970999386112

There’s another quote of his I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, “politics is downstream of culture.”

People can read into that what they want. On the day of Breitbart’s death, Byron York wrote:

Breitbart knew instinctively, as people in Washington and most other places did not, that movies, television programs, and popular music send out deeply political messages every hour of every day. They shape the culture, and then the culture shapes politics. Influence those films and TV shows and songs, and you’ll eventually influence politics.

The Left had known that for generations, but on the Right, so many people in politics thought only about politics. To Breitbart, that was folly. “The people who have money, every four years at the last possible second, are told, ‘You need to give millions of dollars, because these four counties in Ohio are going to determine the election,’” Breitbart told the National Policy Council in October 2009. “I am saying, why didn’t we invest 20 years ago in a movie studio in Hollywood, why didn’t we invest in creating television shows, why didn’t we create institutions that would reflect and affirm that which is good about America?”

I think Breitbart’s point was not about “culture wars.” It wasn’t about gay marriage or any of the other hot social issues. It was about a systematic tearing down of “that which is good about America” that started on the campuses and has migrated into the entertainment and media cultures while Breitbart was still alive.

Now it’s migrated again into the corporate, and particularly high tech, culture. Corporate capitulation to left-wing social media campaigns reflects that fear of negative publicity from the left is more important than the rights of those on the right.

I’ve heard the characterization, not sure who gets credit for it, that the culture war has been lost, and what’s happening now is that the winners are searching the countryside to finish off the survivors.

The concentration of power in a small number of left-leaning or outright leftist high tech companies poses an enormous threat to our freedom, more so than Hollywood ever did. Hollywood pushed out content, these tech companies control content others produce.

The very means by which people communicate is bottlenecked on social media platforms (Facebook, Google/YouTube, Twitter and a few others) that are hostile to speech liberals don’t like. It’s no surprise that the groups behind the anti-NRA campaign are focused on getting streaming services to shut down NRA-TV. It’s not about gun control or protecting students, but a totalitarian impulse to silence non-liberal opinions and content.

As we reflect on this totalitarian form of the culture, it’s worth wondering what Andrew Breitbart would have done.

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Comments

That was a rough week. Beloved milblogger Neptunus Lex died trying to land his out of fuel airplane at NAS Fallon, NV on the 6th.

It only took one dart.

Karate_Lauren | March 1, 2018 at 9:39 pm

I was so shocked by Breitbart’s death and still think it was a hit job. I also remember Lex’s death…God bless them both. Gaahhh sometimes life just sucks.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Karate_Lauren. | March 1, 2018 at 9:54 pm

    Things that make you go “Hmmmmm……”

    The good Professor has revealed an interesting cluster of conservative bloggers’ deaths………. All in the run-up primaries in the election year 2012…….

    “……when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” ― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

    “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
    ― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Boscombe Valley Mystery

    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sherlock-holmes

      notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital. | March 1, 2018 at 10:00 pm

      Speaking of Cultured Wars……

      “Sabo Strikes Again”

      “Hollywood celebrities consider themselves morally superior to those who dwell in the Heartland. This guy punches hard.

      With a nod to the Oscar-nominated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, conservative street artist Sabo has hijacked three billboards in Hollywood to attack the entertainment industry for allegedly shielding pedophiles.”

      “Hurray for Sabo! Hollywood has already revealed its hypocrisy regarding the Me Too movement by nominating a pro-pedophile film (“Call Me by Your Name”) as Best Picture (It’s certainly NAMBLA’s choice!).”

      http://www.gaypatriot.net/2018/03/01/sabo-strikes-again/#comments

I am glad people like Sabo are out there, but I miss Andrew Breitbart.

I still feel like I lost a friend, or a beloved nephew who always made me think and laugh at the same time.

DINORightMarie | March 1, 2018 at 11:29 pm

I know it was debunked, and a loony conspiracy theory, but it sure was some convenient for leftie-progressives, the timing of his death…….right before the 2012 elections, right after exposing Anthony Weiner, right after upstaging Weiner and the Dems and his press conference, right after writing his book and creating his movie to counter the left……

And, yes he had a heart known problem, but unfortunate (even deadly) “coincidences” are a little too common with this crowd….. Hope his widow and family are doing ok. We miss you Andrew!! #IamBreitbart #War

I always try to remember to be what Andrew referred to as a “Happy Warrior”. The world is a lesser place without him.

R.I.P. We will continue to fight.

“As we reflect on this totalitarian form of the culture, it’s worth wondering what Andrew Breitbart would have done.”

He would’ve taken the fight to them.

” the culture has entered an ominous phase…”

Imagine – just imagine – if hillary klinton had won the election.

We’re on the upswing. We’re just bringing the leftist cancer in this country to a head.

William A. Jacobson: It has been something of a mission for me to document and rebut the media lies spread about his video of Shirley Sherrod, yet those lies continue to be spread

The headline was “Video Proof: The NAACP Awards Racism-2010,” when the full video revealed just the opposite. It was a story of how Sherrod overcame her own prejudice.

    Gremlin1974 in reply to Zachriel. | March 2, 2018 at 12:12 pm

    No it was just a highlight of the prejudice she continues to show to this day. Actions mean more than words. Well at least to those of us with an IQ above room temp.

I’ll never forget when he commandeered Anthony Weiner’s “confessional” press conference at the NY Sheraton. He was totally one of a kind, very missed.

“It’s no surprise that the groups behind the anti-NRA campaign are focused on getting streaming services to shut down NRA-TV. It’s not about gun control or protecting students, but a totalitarian impulse to silence non-liberal opinions and content.”

Excellent analysis. All very well said (as usual) Continuing to share that wisdom is a great tribute to Andrew Breitbart!

If you read nothing else this year, read Breitbart’s Righteous Indignation. https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Indignation-Excuse-While-World/dp/0446572837/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520034842&sr=8-1&keywords=Andrew+Breitbart

The culture wars matter, and he explains why . . . and how to fight back.

LukeHandCool | March 2, 2018 at 7:03 pm

“I think Breitbart’s point was not about ‘culture wars.’ It wasn’t about gay marriage or any of the other hot social issues. It was about a systematic tearing down of ‘that which is good about America.'”

I totally agree. Andrew Breitbart and I grew up in the same neighborhood. I knew his father, who was a regular customer in one of my family’s stores. His father exuded an affable, live-and-let-live kind of conservatism, or, in a phrase, “that which is good about America.” If he was against gay marriage, for example, it would not have been in a scorched earth way–the way the left now makes every cultural disagreement.

“The concentration of power in a small number of left-leaning or outright leftist high tech companies poses an enormous threat to our freedom, more so than Hollywood ever did.”

Yep. Dennis Prager is suing Google.