Remembering The Great American Andrew Breitbart and the Practice of the Philosophy of "So?"
How Andrew Breitbart, "the most innovative pioneer in conservative activist social media in America", kept himself focused and grounded.
The idea that "politics is downstream from culture" and that to change politics one must first change culture. - The Breitbart Doctrine
Andrew Breitbart died at the too young age of 43 on March 1, 2012. By his own account, he was a Los Angeles liberal. He watched the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing, waiting for the shoe to drop how he sexually assaulted Anita Hill and was unfit for the Supreme Court. The BIG evidence was Clarence Thomas allegedly made a comment about a pubic hair on a Coke can! This alleged sexual harassment occurred after years of Hill following Thomas from one job to the next and being promoted several times along the way! Andrew realized the whole thing was a concoction by Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden to figuratively lynch a black Conservative eminently qualified to be on the Supreme Court and had an epiphany. Andrew saw and realized all the lies and deception that the left politicians and mainstream media spew out to the American people as truth and he resolved to do something about it. At the invitation of his father-in-law, Orson Bean, he began listening to Rush Limbaugh, perfecting and developing his ideas about Conservatism.
Andrew Breitbart:
Of course, created “Breitbart.com”. Also “the Huffington Post”, for friend Ariana Huffington, a left leaning organization, because he felt all viewpoints are important.
Was bigger than life, a presence wherever he went.
Believed in engaging in discussion with people with different ideas and philosophies than your own. That is the embodiment of the 1st Amendment, the Freedom of Speech and the free exchange of ideas!
Pioneered and perfected the idea of cell phone and internet journalism. That big media needed competition because it has become so bias yet adamantly declares itself objective!
Vehemently defended the Tea Party Movement as grass roots Americans tired of the status quo, not the extremist, racist, “gun-toting, Bible-thumping”- (thank you Barak Obama), extremist they were painted to be.
Was honest and unwavering.
Practiced the philosophy of “So?”
A friend, Craig Biddle, wrote in “The Objective Standard” how the word, “so”, defined Breitbart to him more than any other:
“So?” is a beautiful question. It calls for people to ground their assertions in something that rationally matters—and, ultimately, things rationally matter only insofar as they can be shown to impact human life or the requirements thereof, such as thinking, pursuing values, producing wealth, and protecting individuals’ rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.
The question “So?” directs a given discussion to the underlying and relevant facts of the matter, the facts by reference to which any important issue should be evaluated. It makes people check their premises.
Personal observations of Breitbart by Biddle:
Tirelessly exposed underhanded programs and tactics of the left.
Dramatically changed media and journalism for the better.
He feared nothing.
Was an unabashed lover of life.
Some notable exploits:
Inserted himself in the controversy that on March 20, 2010, during a rally at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., Tea Party members hurled racial and homophobic slurs at black Congressmen by asserting that slurs were never used, and that "it was a set-up" by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party. Breitbart offered to donate $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund "for any audio/video footage of the N-word being hurled," claiming that the several Congressmen made it up. Breitbart insisted Congressman John Lewis and several other witnesses were forced to lie, concluding that "Nancy Pelosi did a great disservice to a great civil rights icon by thrusting him out there to perform this mischievous task. His reputation is now on the line as a result of her desperation to take down the Tea Party movement.”
“Exposed”, (yes pun intended), Congressman Anthony Weiner, for sending a picture of his weiner, (pun intended again), to a minor in Seattle. Cannot make this one up.
Andrew Breitbart Talked Politics in L.A. Bar an Hour Before Dying:
From the The Hollywood Reporter by Matthew Belloni:
MARCH 1, 2012, 2:33PM
Marketing executive Arthur Sando tells THR about his lengthy debate with the conservative activist at The Brentwood; they said goodbye around 11:30 p.m., 50 minutes before Breitbart was pronounced dead.
Breibart, the 43-year-old conservative pundit and provocateur who died suddenly early Thursday while walking near his Los Angeles home, had stopped into The Brentwood, a nearby bar and restaurant. There, he struck up a conversation with Arthur Sando, a marketing executive who didn’t know Breitbart but likely was the last person to talk extensively with him before he died.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sando says he arrived at the bar in the tony Brentwood section of L.A. around 10 p.m. and soon the empty seat next to his was filled by a man with a familiar face.
“I tried to figure out how I knew him,” says Sando, a veteran publicity and marketing executive who works for dietary supplement company MonaVie and has worked at CBS, King World Prods and Turner Broadcasting. “He was on his BlackBerry. And I said ‘Andrew?’ I told him I had seen his work.”
Sando says the duo quickly struck up a conversation that would last a little less than two hours.
“He was friendly and engaging,” Sando recalls. “I said, ‘You can’t be very happy with the slate of Republican candidates’ and he said, ‘Why would you say that?’ I said, ‘Well, they’re talking about contraception,’ and he said, ‘The conversation is being framed by the liberal media.’ I said, ‘Well, the media isn’t writing Rick Santorum’s speeches for him.’ We had a back-and-forth for a while until we said we weren’t going to agree on some things.”
The friendly debate continued in the bar as Breitbart sipped red wine, says Sando. “We just hit it off, he was delightful. There were other people who sat down and joined the conversation.”
Sando also mentioned that he hadn’t seen Breitbart as a guest on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher recently; Breitbart told Sando he enjoyed going on Maher’s show because it taught him how to deal with a hostile audience and how to react when getting booed.
Breitbart had stopped in for a drink but wasn’t there to meet anyone in particular, Sando says. Nor were there any signs of health or other problems.
“He wasn’t drinking excessively,” Sando recalls. “He was on his BlackBerry a lot.”
After the two hours, Breitbart said he was leaving. “We exchanged contact information,” Sando says. “We were going to get together.”
Sando says he was “shocked” to read Thursday morning that Breitbart, who had a history of heart problems, had collapsed while on a walk near his home in the same neighborhood as the bar. Breitbart was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead at 12:19 a.m., according to Reuters, less than an hour after leaving The Brentwood.
“There were no signs that anything was wrong,” says Sando. “It’s very sad.”
Andrew was 43 years old. An autopsy by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office showed that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with focal coronary atherosclerosis and died from heart failure, which he had been diagnosed with the year prior. His burial was in the Jewish cemetery Hillside Memorial Park.
To name only a few, I wonder what Breitbart would have had to say about:
The Trump/Russian Collusion hoax was actually an Obama/Hillary Ukraine Collusion to remove Trump before the election. It continued once he was elected as a treasonous silent coup by the Deep State.
The Covid hoax which played into:
The 2020 Presidential election manipulation including the FBI interference by saying the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian Disinformation” and instructing social media to carry the water and censor anyone who said otherwise.
Jan. 6, the event “to destroy our sacred democracy”! Worse than the Civil War, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined! It sealed the deal of the stolen election and characterized anyone questioning the results as an “insurrectionist” or jailed them in Gulag prisons as an example to the rest.
Parents being labeled “domestic terrorists” by the Justice Department for questioning how and what their children are being taught in school.
That the Justice Department had spies within the Catholic Church watching people!
That simply believing your rights as a human come from God makes you a “Christian Nationalist” wanting to overthrow the country.
That “rural Americans” are “Trump supporting racist xenophobes who hate gay people and are a threat to democracy.”
The banana republic tactics by the Obama/Biden machine to keep Trump out of the 2024 Presidential race denying “We the People” a choice.
When someone as a last resort calls you a racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc., when they have no comeback or response, remember Andrew’s pat response that drove them crazy,
So? - Andrew Breitbart
He's a giant that's missed. Even though he wasn't a "leader" per se, I somehow think the TEA Party wouldn't have gone off on some of its tangents if he were still around.
Great post!