Duh. One glance at Lady Lara de Bourgh (about whom we have had WHAT to say on this blog) instantly brings to mind Mr Collins’ praise of her precursor in Pride and Prejudice: “What affability! What condescension!”

But if you’re a little slow on the uptake, Tom Nichols at The Atlantic will help focus your attention on this notorious aspect of High Trumpworld, composed of vulgarians like Catherine de Bourgh who look down on vulgarians like Mr Collins.

That Foxworld and Trumpworld have a special horror of the yahoos who gather ’round them/vote for them is hardly surprising: Anxious about their own social standing, they can’t help but watch in dismay/cynicism as an embarrassing rabble tries to touch their hems. A dude like Jared Kushner, who affects aristocracy but in fact hails from the basest money mafias, can’t help but lose his latte when hopeless schlumps sidle up. He’s counting on his new fifty million dollar house on a heavily policed island to keep them out.

Anyhoo we’re focused on this matter again because of new revelations around UD‘s favorite ongoing billion dollar lawsuit, in which Dominion, a voting machine company, seeks damages for having been slandered by Fox broadcasters, who as one denounced Dominion as a malicious part of the Soros-engineered conspiracy to keep DJT from his second presidency. Dominion says all the Fox broadcasters knew they were lying when they assured the rabble the election, with important help from Dominion, had really scout’s honor been stolen. But now that Fox emails from the time have been released, it turns out… Dominion’s right!

Hyping false claims about election fraud was a way for Fox to win its audience back…

The network knew, of course, that Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell, a chief promoter of Dominion conspiracy theories, was a delusional fantasist. The legal brief reveals that some of her claims about Dominion were based on an email Powell had received from someone who claimed to be capable of “time travel in a semiconscious state.” On Nov. 18, 2020, Carlson told Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. Caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham wrote back that Powell was a “complete nut.”

… “Respecting this audience whether we agree or not is critical,” Hannity texted on Nov. 24. It’s a version of respect indistinguishable from contempt.