Jan 24, 2023·edited Jan 24, 2023Liked by Chris Bray
The Karenocracy could lock us all in cages and still weep about how evil and oppressive we are.
Of course they could never be the authoritarians, because they know how kind and good and loving they are deep in their hearts—and they went to all the right schools, live in the right places, and have all the proper opinions, so they cannot possibly be wrong.
It's like living in a dictatorship run by Kathy Bates in "Misery".
Jan 24, 2023·edited Jan 24, 2023Liked by Chris Bray
I invested the five minutes you suggested. Actually, it was closer to ten, but only because her writings are such a trainwreck of Trump Derangement Syndrome, it was hard to look away.
I don't know what derails people who clearly have the intelligence and sensory functions to see obvious truths. In her world, anything that doesn't align with her pre-existing political and media orientation is deemed a tyrannical conspiracy.
Hard to fathom how an expert on fascism has no working perception of government control of media (of which she is a full throated participant) and industry are classic pillars of fascism and tyranny. It's happening right in front of her. She's strapped in and helping steer it. She's got an uber-filter installed, scrubbing what she sees and hears, before it reaches the pathways of her brain.
Thankfully my day to day life does not involve twitter, or any of the ludicrous speed amplification of the clearly delusional pontification professionals.
But in real life, I do occasionally run into folks who are lost in their own digital world. And what strikes me is how difficult it is to have a rational, adult conversation. It's like they want to tap your forward with a thumbs down and move on to the next irrelevant topic by a swiping you away.
Part of me longs for a digital meltdown, ... but then we might have to return social skills back into society.
The "fascists are everywhere" crowd reminds me of a Monty Python bit lampooning the red scares of yesteryear, with Michael Palin's character complaining hysterically that he "can't even take a bath without 6 or 7 communists jumping in with me!" Only now, everything's been turned upside down, and the Left, which used to claim to be all about the "live and let live and just do your own thing, man" kind of values, is now the side manufacturing witch hunts and claiming everything they don't like is a warning sign of an imminent 4th Reich, requiring that they be given totalitarian authority immediately to save our democracy.
I was torn between 😂 and 🤬 reading this piece. Funny and simultaneously exasperating. The absurdity of these expert sanctimommy postmodern turbo-douches and their reality inversion seems to go unchecked and even rewarded, meanwhile innocent people get crushed by the criminals our self-appointed betters have enshrined. Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, poseur idiots of this stripe wouldn’t even merit a response. They would get the silent, compassionate, embarrassed, neglectful treatment that fruitcake people deserve. Now hyper-neurosis is a ticket to success, or at least some cocktail parties on the Upper West Side. Have DEFCON 1 TDS? If you were the tiniest speck of dust in the public eye before, now you’re everybody’s favorite celebritard, amirite Joy Behar? What say you Rob Reiner? Uggh, I’m gonna need more 🍷.
So . . . if going on TV in makeup means you're a fascist, what the hell am I to make of Nancy Pelosi, with her dyed hair, botoxed face, and fake eyebrows that could double as McDonald's arches?
As for the rest of it, all I can say is God these people are such children. Authoritarianism is . . . letting people be free and telling them to decide for themselves how much fear to have. I just . . . my head hurts. What do you even begin to do about this?
The truly worrying thing about this is how all the "experts" are fighting the last war (on the seldom occasions they are making any sort of logical sense at all).
She thinks the next totalitarian will look like the last one......male, full of "toxic" masculinity", paranoid, narcissistic, overtly violent, almost certainly with some sort of mustache.
But why would the next western dictator look like that when these days politicians are constructs, completely shaped by press secretaries, focus groups, social media feeds and polls?
It's far more likely they will appear to be "nice", "kind" and want to "listen and include everyone" (as long as they agree with them), perhaps displaying a sort of toxic femininity that isn't even part of the discussion.
In New Zealand the fascists came with hugs and kindness. They "cared" about the vulnerable (or their definition of the vulnerable; they didnt give two shits about kids or the poor). And they cared with force. They weaponised our basic human caring for one another and turned it against us.
This was so much more insidious than secret police and the stamping of boots on faces. It was so difficult to combat as they had already claimed the moral high ground. Arguing against them was like arguing against common decency and just "wanting granny to die".
Ardern didn't go all the way to ghettos or death camps but she crossed lines, obvious lines. We got the yellow vaccine stars out and if you didn't have one, no bars, restaurants, department stores or plane rides for you.
Will our next "caring" leader push things a bit further?
We know where this path always ends and where we are on the path is perhaps less significant than the fact that we are on it at all.
Ardern certainly showed how far you can go smothering people with "caring" and still have a majority believe you are a hero. Similar with that complete ass Trudeau. And the dems look to be all over "caring" and hugs in the US as well.
Trump was obviously not the next super fascist, too vain and too lazy too much or too little of too many things. But if you are fighting the last war (and not very bright) he looks the part (mustache aside).
Covid has showed (me at least) that in the next war against totalitarianism it's the hugs fascists we should be worrying about.
The Karenocracy could lock us all in cages and still weep about how evil and oppressive we are.
Of course they could never be the authoritarians, because they know how kind and good and loving they are deep in their hearts—and they went to all the right schools, live in the right places, and have all the proper opinions, so they cannot possibly be wrong.
It's like living in a dictatorship run by Kathy Bates in "Misery".
The reframing/rewriting of history here is....shit, it's impressive! I mean it really is. Dumb, wrong, but still, damn impressive.
I invested the five minutes you suggested. Actually, it was closer to ten, but only because her writings are such a trainwreck of Trump Derangement Syndrome, it was hard to look away.
I don't know what derails people who clearly have the intelligence and sensory functions to see obvious truths. In her world, anything that doesn't align with her pre-existing political and media orientation is deemed a tyrannical conspiracy.
Hard to fathom how an expert on fascism has no working perception of government control of media (of which she is a full throated participant) and industry are classic pillars of fascism and tyranny. It's happening right in front of her. She's strapped in and helping steer it. She's got an uber-filter installed, scrubbing what she sees and hears, before it reaches the pathways of her brain.
Thankfully my day to day life does not involve twitter, or any of the ludicrous speed amplification of the clearly delusional pontification professionals.
But in real life, I do occasionally run into folks who are lost in their own digital world. And what strikes me is how difficult it is to have a rational, adult conversation. It's like they want to tap your forward with a thumbs down and move on to the next irrelevant topic by a swiping you away.
Part of me longs for a digital meltdown, ... but then we might have to return social skills back into society.
As they say, REEeEEEeEeeEEEEEeee!
This is what the free fall collapse of ruling class legitimacy looks like.
The "fascists are everywhere" crowd reminds me of a Monty Python bit lampooning the red scares of yesteryear, with Michael Palin's character complaining hysterically that he "can't even take a bath without 6 or 7 communists jumping in with me!" Only now, everything's been turned upside down, and the Left, which used to claim to be all about the "live and let live and just do your own thing, man" kind of values, is now the side manufacturing witch hunts and claiming everything they don't like is a warning sign of an imminent 4th Reich, requiring that they be given totalitarian authority immediately to save our democracy.
I was torn between 😂 and 🤬 reading this piece. Funny and simultaneously exasperating. The absurdity of these expert sanctimommy postmodern turbo-douches and their reality inversion seems to go unchecked and even rewarded, meanwhile innocent people get crushed by the criminals our self-appointed betters have enshrined. Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, poseur idiots of this stripe wouldn’t even merit a response. They would get the silent, compassionate, embarrassed, neglectful treatment that fruitcake people deserve. Now hyper-neurosis is a ticket to success, or at least some cocktail parties on the Upper West Side. Have DEFCON 1 TDS? If you were the tiniest speck of dust in the public eye before, now you’re everybody’s favorite celebritard, amirite Joy Behar? What say you Rob Reiner? Uggh, I’m gonna need more 🍷.
Thanks Chris. I had already blocked Ron but you pointed out another idiot so I was able to block Beth.
It's official. 2023 is 1984.
Thank God you're following these absolute loons, so I don't have to.
enjoyed the interview with Trish Wood
This is just to highlight Ben-Ghiat's line about "peddled unproven cures." Lockdowns were an unproven cure.
I know longer use the word ‘expert’. It’s been ruined. I’m my own expert on my life and my decisions. Fuck them all.
Oh, come on Chris. Trump barely tolerating Fauci is undiluted Nazism.
I laughed out loud through this whole fascist-adjacent piece, so thanks.
So . . . if going on TV in makeup means you're a fascist, what the hell am I to make of Nancy Pelosi, with her dyed hair, botoxed face, and fake eyebrows that could double as McDonald's arches?
As for the rest of it, all I can say is God these people are such children. Authoritarianism is . . . letting people be free and telling them to decide for themselves how much fear to have. I just . . . my head hurts. What do you even begin to do about this?
The truly worrying thing about this is how all the "experts" are fighting the last war (on the seldom occasions they are making any sort of logical sense at all).
She thinks the next totalitarian will look like the last one......male, full of "toxic" masculinity", paranoid, narcissistic, overtly violent, almost certainly with some sort of mustache.
But why would the next western dictator look like that when these days politicians are constructs, completely shaped by press secretaries, focus groups, social media feeds and polls?
It's far more likely they will appear to be "nice", "kind" and want to "listen and include everyone" (as long as they agree with them), perhaps displaying a sort of toxic femininity that isn't even part of the discussion.
In New Zealand the fascists came with hugs and kindness. They "cared" about the vulnerable (or their definition of the vulnerable; they didnt give two shits about kids or the poor). And they cared with force. They weaponised our basic human caring for one another and turned it against us.
This was so much more insidious than secret police and the stamping of boots on faces. It was so difficult to combat as they had already claimed the moral high ground. Arguing against them was like arguing against common decency and just "wanting granny to die".
Ardern didn't go all the way to ghettos or death camps but she crossed lines, obvious lines. We got the yellow vaccine stars out and if you didn't have one, no bars, restaurants, department stores or plane rides for you.
Will our next "caring" leader push things a bit further?
We know where this path always ends and where we are on the path is perhaps less significant than the fact that we are on it at all.
Ardern certainly showed how far you can go smothering people with "caring" and still have a majority believe you are a hero. Similar with that complete ass Trudeau. And the dems look to be all over "caring" and hugs in the US as well.
Trump was obviously not the next super fascist, too vain and too lazy too much or too little of too many things. But if you are fighting the last war (and not very bright) he looks the part (mustache aside).
Covid has showed (me at least) that in the next war against totalitarianism it's the hugs fascists we should be worrying about.