The Atlantic Cycle

The Atlantic Cycle, named after the publication, is a structural cycle of left-wing reporting. It generally follows the form:

Denial

"\(X\) isn't happening, it's a right-wing conspiracy."

Minimization

"\(X\) might be happening, but it's not as bad as you think."

Justification

"\(X\) is happening, but it's a good thing."

Vilification

"If you don’t support X, you are a fascist/racist/etc."

We see this play out regularly; consider the reporting by the mainstream on the Tren de Agua situation, or the C19 vaccines, or climate change, or insert some other things. It's a fairly well-documented phenomenon, which I'm don't think is terrible interesting or useful to rehash here. Instead, I want to write about why it happens.