I'm a lawyer, so I'm usually analytical as hell when it comes to this stuff, but I think there's a pretty good argument for fighting dirty versus not fighting at all....
The single biggest problem the conservative movement has is that the primary schools, the colleges, the media, and the entertainment elites are all lined up against us. Because of that, it is extremely difficult to get our message out without having it overwhelmed by the above-mentioned opinion-shapers. That's particularly true when it comes to the young. So we gradually see our vision of the country eroded. The messaging from the left is inexorable, and we tend to lose the public on issue after issue because they get them young, and keep most of them.
What the conservative movement -- and the country as a whole -- needs is a return of the skeptical, mistrustful voter/consumer of information. We need more people -- especially young people - to quit relying on what they are told by those elites. We're not going to have a shot at persuading anyone if that dynamic does not change.
Trump is an embarrassing doofus in many respects. But I don't think there is any doubt that he has been successful at raising mistrust of the media to historic highs. The almost embarrassingly simplistic-sounding "fake news" label has actually caught on, to the point where I think a lot more people are being much more skeptical when they hear/see things in the media. Even if they ultimately don't agree with Trump, that burst of independent-thinking is absolutely invaluable. I don't think we as conservatives can survive without it.
If we burn down the house of trusting the press, the soil that remains will be fertile for conservatives because we are right. But our message is never going to get a fair airing is someone doesn't kneecap those opinion-shaping leftist elites. And Trump -- for all his many flaws -- is the first party leader we've had who has actually done that to this extent.
I have no problems with your assessment of the media, and the universal knowledge that it is an enemy to conservatism. On that we agree.
Where I disagree is that the only two alternatives are acting like a spoiled, irresponsible, over-sensitive pre-adolescent, or doing nothing at all.
Why not discuss what an adult might do or say to fight the media without acting the buffoon?
While we may be getting our jollies right now with what Trump is "doing" to the media, we are mistaken if we believe it to be anything but temporarily satisfying. They are not, in reality, being destroyed by his words, but may, in fact, become stronger through his childish behavior.
In the end, his immaturity and his being an "embarrassing doofus" (plus his not actually believing in conservatism, but behaving as the negative media stereotype of conservatives) is going to sully conservatism for a generation.
I have very little doubt that conservative values are going to suffer for the rest of my life on earth because of the damage Trump is doing.
All of this is my opinion, of course.......... but it hasn't changed since the election.
