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Where does this myth that Bezos is giant Democratic Party supporter come from? Amazon and it’s subsidiaries donate to both major political parties and many memb

Where does this myth that Bezos is giant Democratic Party supporter come from? Amazon and it’s subsidiaries donate to both major political parties and many members of the Democratic Party are very vocally against Bezos.

jaywalk 5y ago
It comes from the fact that his newspaper is far-left. But you are correct in that it doesn't appear to reflect his personal political ideology.
- NikolaNovak 5y ago
  I think it takes a fairly narrow, USA_centric, unaware of actual variety and detail of the world outside perspective, to think Washington Post is either "Far Left" (hint: it goes a lot further than WaPo;) or like Pravda. While I think it does have somewhat progressive slant, especially in more opinion pieces; you only have to go to our mainstream Canadian party to go WAAAAY further left than WaPo - and that's nothing to say of other continents, countries, parties and newspapers. Similar to Pravda comparison.
  - jaywalk 5y ago
    Why do non-US people feel the need to whine about this all the time? "They wouldn't be far-left in my country!" is completely irrelevant and contributes nothing to the conversation. In the US, which is where both I and WaPo reside, they are far-left.
    - williamscales 5y ago
      I'm a US person and I have to say I agree that Washington Post is not far-left. While it's true that the relevant question is "what are the conditions in my country?", it's important to remember that part of the GOP's identity politics has been to paint even moderately left and centrist positions as "far-left". That said, within the US political climate, WaPo is definitely left of center. Just not far-left.
    - skinnymuch 5y ago
      Maybe because people like you bring up a weird stance that isn’t objectively true snd likely not true to the majority of Americans. WaPo is centerist neoliberal in reality, but Americans likely view it as to the left and liberal. But nothing wild. They aren’t going crazy for Bernie or Ilhan Omar. They certainly are not talking about people to the left of them. Who would be far left. Your point really breaks down when you would have no way to classify thoughts and media one or two or three steps more to The left of WaPo. Even if you add “radical left” for one spot further to the left. There’s nothing else after that. Or you’re taking the stance of Fox News and co. who will dishonestly wonder if Biden is a socialist.
    - NikolaNovak 5y ago
      Fair enough, let's leave the rest of the world aside: I am disputing the notion that in USA, Washington Post is "far left". I can understand that for any given person any given media outlet may feel central, a little, or far to the left or right of their position. But if we are to create any kind of external scale, with whatever measurement (relative based on how far axis go, or by some thresholds of specific criteria), I would doubt Washington Post fits on the "far left" of that scale. (in for a penny, in for a pound addendum: I understand that in USA there's also an effort/inclination to label ANYthing "left" as extreme, far left, antifa, socialist, pinkie, commie, fake news, etc; terms that are implicitly meant to be derogatory; but that effort does not need to be engaged with in a rational discourse. To rephrase: Just because Glen Beck or Bill O'Reilly et cetera may call Washington Post "Far Left", doesn't make it so - in those cases it's a label meant to paint & incite and cater to an "in crowd", not be a part of meaningful engagement and honest wide-ranging discussion) [Addendum to addendum: there was nothing in original post that said "Washington Post is Far Left in USA term "; it was a open claim posted to an international site, many of whom read or access Washington Post as a globally-relevant newspaper, so I don't feel assuming a global perspective is "whining". Or to put it in your preferred terms: Why do some USA people whine where perspective is brought in :-]
      - alistairSH 5y ago
        The conservative movement in the US has been playing this game for decades. Growing up during the Reagan era, "liberal" was a dirty word. In a fit of rage, my center-right sibling once called me a socialist, as if that would hurt my feelings.
- alistairSH 5y ago
  If you consider the Washington Post to be far-left, you might need to recalibrate your Overton window. The paper leans slightly left. It's far from the Daily Kos.
- rswail 5y ago
  Upvoted because unnecessary to downvote this comment, but calling the WaPo "far left" is ridiculous. They are center-right editorially (in my opinion) and relatively neutral in terms of the two parties. Both Democrats and Republicans bitch relatively equally about the "bias". Same applies to NYT and others. "Left" publications would be ones such as Mother Jones. "Right" would be National Review. There are academic attempts to classify media on the left/right partisan measure such as https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=637508&p=4462444 https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=637508&p=4462444 and even a "patented" bias measurement at: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings which is vastly amusing to review outside of the US bubble. Calling the Economist "left" is just plain wrong. They are the original "liberal" (as in regarding economics, trade etc) newspaper.
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> Where does this myth that Bezos is giant Democratic Party supporter come from? Believe it started with Trump. The Post is a beltway paper. It’s a chronicle for Washington insiders, and they never liked Trump. So the Post had a critical stance towards him, which in turn lead to him branding it as leftist. (Which is false. Its bias is best described as institutionalist and statist, which finds alignment across the political spectrum and parties.)
Spooky23 5y ago
It aligns with the weird conservative attachment to conspiracy theorists. George Soros is 90 and nobody really remembers why he was so “bad”, Bezos is a great replacement.
- patentatt 5y ago
  No, they’ll need a new target to paint as a ‘globalist,’ Bezos doesn’t inspire the same amount of irrational hatred in this crowd for some completely unknown reason.
  - xenophonf 5y ago
    The reason Soros gets such hate is straight up antisemitism. The dude's Jewish. The "globalist" epithet is a modern reworking of the old "international Jewish banker" stereotype. That particular dogwhistle doesn't apply to Bezos.
    - patentatt 5y ago
      That’s what I was tongue-in-cheek referring to
rswail 5y ago
He owns the Washington Post and they wrote articles critical of Trump. Trump is a manbaby that can't handle criticism, so he attacked the owner. All part of the hurr-durr-main-stream-media-is-left-wing-antifa-deep-state bullshit that has infected the US (and to a lesser extent, UK/CA/AU/NZ etc).

jaywalk 5y ago

It comes from the fact that his newspaper is far-left. But you are correct in that it doesn't appear to reflect his personal political ideology.

NikolaNovak 5y ago
I think it takes a fairly narrow, USA_centric, unaware of actual variety and detail of the world outside perspective, to think Washington Post is either "Far Left" (hint: it goes a lot further than WaPo;) or like Pravda. While I think it does have somewhat progressive slant, especially in more opinion pieces; you only have to go to our mainstream Canadian party to go WAAAAY further left than WaPo - and that's nothing to say of other continents, countries, parties and newspapers. Similar to Pravda comparison.
- jaywalk 5y ago
  Why do non-US people feel the need to whine about this all the time? "They wouldn't be far-left in my country!" is completely irrelevant and contributes nothing to the conversation. In the US, which is where both I and WaPo reside, they are far-left.
  - williamscales 5y ago
    I'm a US person and I have to say I agree that Washington Post is not far-left. While it's true that the relevant question is "what are the conditions in my country?", it's important to remember that part of the GOP's identity politics has been to paint even moderately left and centrist positions as "far-left". That said, within the US political climate, WaPo is definitely left of center. Just not far-left.
  - skinnymuch 5y ago
    Maybe because people like you bring up a weird stance that isn’t objectively true snd likely not true to the majority of Americans. WaPo is centerist neoliberal in reality, but Americans likely view it as to the left and liberal. But nothing wild. They aren’t going crazy for Bernie or Ilhan Omar. They certainly are not talking about people to the left of them. Who would be far left. Your point really breaks down when you would have no way to classify thoughts and media one or two or three steps more to The left of WaPo. Even if you add “radical left” for one spot further to the left. There’s nothing else after that. Or you’re taking the stance of Fox News and co. who will dishonestly wonder if Biden is a socialist.
  - NikolaNovak 5y ago
    Fair enough, let's leave the rest of the world aside: I am disputing the notion that in USA, Washington Post is "far left". I can understand that for any given person any given media outlet may feel central, a little, or far to the left or right of their position. But if we are to create any kind of external scale, with whatever measurement (relative based on how far axis go, or by some thresholds of specific criteria), I would doubt Washington Post fits on the "far left" of that scale. (in for a penny, in for a pound addendum: I understand that in USA there's also an effort/inclination to label ANYthing "left" as extreme, far left, antifa, socialist, pinkie, commie, fake news, etc; terms that are implicitly meant to be derogatory; but that effort does not need to be engaged with in a rational discourse. To rephrase: Just because Glen Beck or Bill O'Reilly et cetera may call Washington Post "Far Left", doesn't make it so - in those cases it's a label meant to paint & incite and cater to an "in crowd", not be a part of meaningful engagement and honest wide-ranging discussion) [Addendum to addendum: there was nothing in original post that said "Washington Post is Far Left in USA term "; it was a open claim posted to an international site, many of whom read or access Washington Post as a globally-relevant newspaper, so I don't feel assuming a global perspective is "whining". Or to put it in your preferred terms: Why do some USA people whine where perspective is brought in :-]
    - alistairSH 5y ago
      The conservative movement in the US has been playing this game for decades. Growing up during the Reagan era, "liberal" was a dirty word. In a fit of rage, my center-right sibling once called me a socialist, as if that would hurt my feelings.
alistairSH 5y ago
If you consider the Washington Post to be far-left, you might need to recalibrate your Overton window. The paper leans slightly left. It's far from the Daily Kos.
rswail 5y ago
Upvoted because unnecessary to downvote this comment, but calling the WaPo "far left" is ridiculous. They are center-right editorially (in my opinion) and relatively neutral in terms of the two parties. Both Democrats and Republicans bitch relatively equally about the "bias". Same applies to NYT and others. "Left" publications would be ones such as Mother Jones. "Right" would be National Review. There are academic attempts to classify media on the left/right partisan measure such as https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=637508&p=4462444 https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=637508&p=4462444 and even a "patented" bias measurement at: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings which is vastly amusing to review outside of the US bubble. Calling the Economist "left" is just plain wrong. They are the original "liberal" (as in regarding economics, trade etc) newspaper.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago

> Where does this myth that Bezos is giant Democratic Party supporter come from? Believe it started with Trump. The Post is a beltway paper. It’s a chronicle for Washington insiders, and they never liked Trump. So the Post had a critical stance towards him, which in turn lead to him branding it as leftist. (Which is false. Its bias is best described as institutionalist and statist, which finds alignment across the political spectrum and parties.)

Spooky23 5y ago

It aligns with the weird conservative attachment to conspiracy theorists. George Soros is 90 and nobody really remembers why he was so “bad”, Bezos is a great replacement.

patentatt 5y ago
No, they’ll need a new target to paint as a ‘globalist,’ Bezos doesn’t inspire the same amount of irrational hatred in this crowd for some completely unknown reason.
- xenophonf 5y ago
  The reason Soros gets such hate is straight up antisemitism. The dude's Jewish. The "globalist" epithet is a modern reworking of the old "international Jewish banker" stereotype. That particular dogwhistle doesn't apply to Bezos.
  - patentatt 5y ago
    That’s what I was tongue-in-cheek referring to

rswail 5y ago

He owns the Washington Post and they wrote articles critical of Trump. Trump is a manbaby that can't handle criticism, so he attacked the owner. All part of the hurr-durr-main-stream-media-is-left-wing-antifa-deep-state bullshit that has infected the US (and to a lesser extent, UK/CA/AU/NZ etc).