204 Comments
Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

This isn't hard.

Folks on the left see folks on the right as benighted, dishonest, boorish, morally inferior or some combination of these. They must do this to avoid engaging on the merits of a given argument. They love to borrow high sounding terms (epistemic closure) to add a pseudo-intellectual veneer to their statements. Ever heard of "stochastic terrorism"?

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I have heard of stochastic terrorism, and I've laughed out loud at it.

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The left doth project too much.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

"Folks on the left, folks on the right..." is a useful way to describe the situation IF one is interested in continuing to confuse people. Left/right - and I can speak as a long term classical leftie liberal - has been taken over as a weapon designed to destroy discourse and thinking itself. I'm not sure if I'm left or right now - but I'm damn sure I get labelled as wrongthink. This is a deliberate program - redefining "vaccine" is a perfect example - meant to destroy thought itself and to exert control of us idiots. Beautiful article on this recently here:

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/08/16/the-shadowbanning-of-the-united-states-internet/

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Holy crap!

(That link).

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Good point. The left-right dichotomy is dated and can be inaccurate but somehow it saves time.

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Aug 18, 2023·edited Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

💬 a handful of figures have built a media machine to advance a wholly constructed viral creation, is the explanation.[...] There are no authentic moments [...]. Somebody did that to your brain. They pulled your strings and made you helplessly seem to feel something that they told you to feel.

'Tis for a reason the fabled Iron Law of Leftist Projection has iron for a qualifier. One can't comprehend what zir doesn't have/do in/by oneself, at least in embryonic latency ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

PS The said Law must be tired af of all the never-ending Ws spanning long decades (centuries?).

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Their “everyone is stupid but me” approach can only work for so long and it will be their downfall in the future.

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Folks on the *thbbbb* see folks on the *thbbb* as benighted, dishonest, boorish, morally inferior or some combination of these. They must do this to avoid engaging on the merits of a given argument.

It really doesn't matter what labels you substitute for those nouns. I hear my liberal friends say that of conservatives, and my conservate friends say the exact same thing, in practically the same language, of liberals.

Few of us are benighted, dishonest, boorish, or morally inferior. We *have* stopped listening to each other, though, and those are the excuses we make for why we don't have to anymore.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

"They’re losing a country they’ve never met". Succinctly tells it all. Oliver Anthony sings a Dylan-esque ballad, and these people react like this?

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Aug 18, 2023·edited Aug 18, 2023

Bcuz they eagerly profess 'feeling something that they were told to feel'! 😂 One-eighty turn always works with leftist folks, reliably as sun rises 😊

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We have a habit of getting second and third-level reactions to things. You don't just listen to Anthony's song and talk about it: you talk about what it represents, about attempts by politicians to exploit the song, about the symbolism of the video, about the reaction to the reaction to Anthony's song. It never ends.

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And I'd bet that it's many of the same people who loved Dylan back in the day, or whose parents did.

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They never loved Dylan. They never understood a word. We know this now.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

The left thinks all politics on the right is seeded talking points and astroturfed popular movements because all politics on the left *is* seeded talking points and astroturfed popular movements.

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A doom loop straight out of 1984. Big Brother has told you what to think for so long that you now accept the thoughts of the state as genuinely your own. And anything that deviates is obviously from people who hate big brother and you must hate people like that.

Scary stuff.

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They still have to see themselves as the grassroots movement of the people even though they are the complete opposite of that.

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Yes, pure projection.

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Yes. Antonio Gramsci wrote about it in 1929.

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I never read Gramsci, until you mentioned his name.

A very brief skim yielded this: “To ensure “organic” discipline, Gramsci endorsed the principle of “democratic centralism” whereby decisions would be open to discussion by rank-and-file members. But, once taken, those decisions would be unquestioningly obeyed. That way “bureaucratic” rigidity would be avoided and

there would be a continual adaptation of the organisation to the real movement; a matching of thrusts from below with orders from above.”

Is this what you were referring to?

This writer is very deep into the minutia of his particular brand of Marxist communism, a lot over my head. Interesting that even today, his work is being studied even if it is not in the same context as when it was written.

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He was to a great degree a bore. But I have saved this Gramsci quote for 20 years or so. Here are his key lines describing what has happened in our country and the West: "What comes to pass does so not so much because a few people want it to happen, as because the mass of citizens abdicate their responsibility and let things be ... In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media ..."

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Wow!

Eerie.

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Gee! He was spot on!

That’s almost creepy, as if it was either an insightful prediction, or the template used by our current handlers to upset our lifestyle/society.

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It was his directions for "young communists" to follow. The Left in this country has followed it to the letter. So: template for our current Overlords. Obama to a tee.

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It so sad that we have among us Americans who take all the bounty this country gives, yet undermine it’s very existence. It’s unnatural. (But seeing all the other things going on, this “unnatural“ attitude fits right in.)

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🙄 I wish these people would piss off and stop trying to tell me what I think and feel.

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Spoiler alert: they will not

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I no longer bother with hoping they’ll piss off. I now just ignore them. I have a fantasy that everyone would instantly stop using social media such as Twitter, Instagram, FB, and all the rest. It is NOT real life. It is completely meaningless (other than feeding the divisiveness). People need to go back to interacting FACE TO FACE, IN PERSON. Or at least do a REAL PHONE CALL, where they can hear each others voice. I’m telling you, folks - people cannot have real relationships or actually live a real life online. Look at this post, and all the comments..everyone hating on each other. Left, right, left, right…endlessly. What is it accomplishing, really?

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The social media aspect aside (which I do not disagree with), I am heartily tired of left, right, conservative, liberal, you name it—all kinds of labels. It makes it too easy to pigeonhole and then dismiss someone you don't like, or even to decide you don't like them even though you know nothing about them.

For example, how many people who dismiss RFK Junior as an anti-VAX wingnut have actually listened to him explain his thoughts? Invest a couple hours listening to his in-depth interview with somebody like Joe Rogan or Bret Weinstein before you judge. You might be surprised.

For example, a Matt Taibbi article I posted it on Facebook was commented on by a friend who dismissively said he's just a Russian bot/operative/plant. Want to bet he only read the Wikipedia article on Taibbi far enough to learn that he spent some years in Russia, decades ago?

We are too quick to judge.

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Lonely people, with not a lot of “real life” going on, seem unable to leave the socmed universe. Everyone wants recognition. Even negative recognition is better than being lonely.

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For people always banging on about "tolerance," they never seem to exhibit any.

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When one accounts for the insularity and arrogance of the managerial class one can simply work backwards from the theories advanced in their media to their actual method of operation. They believe in nothing as such; expressions of beliefs are signals sent to those more powerful (“I agree with you!”) and less powerful (“here is the new party line.”). All beliefs are fashions and all fashions are top-down manufactured phenomena that serve the interest of the powerful. “Rich Men North of Richmond” for them must be the right wing version of an astroturfed, autotuned, pop song because what else could it be? For our managerial class, there are no accidents, no organic movements, no culture apart from mass culture, which they control. Any threats to that order must necessarily mirror it. Matt Walsh is Kathleen Kennedy and Oliver Anthony is Greta Thunberg in the same way Iraq was Texas.

Projection is the opposite of imagination.

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Aug 18, 2023·edited Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

Re: "They believe in nothing as such; expressions of beliefs are signals sent to those more powerful (“I agree with you!”) and less powerful (“here is the new party line.”). "

Yep. And this is why I think RFK may take the Democratic Party nomination. He just has to achieve a tipping point-- and then, when they see which way things are going, this large group will flip to support him-- never mind if to do so totally condradicts everything many of these people have been parroting for the past 3 years. I'm not so cynical as I might sound. Just been around for some decades and studied history.

Re: "Projection is the opposite of imagination."

Indeed. I would call it an amalgam of pride and sloth.

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I hope you are right. A Trump v. RFK debate would be glorious.

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RFKjr is probably the only guy who can not only not let Trump get under his skin but get under Trumps.

Oh

I know, let's have a debate just between them. Put it on pay per view.

Both would make millions.

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One can dream.

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Except..I don’t think American citizens should have to pay in order to watch a debate between presidential candidates.

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As a cynical Bernie supporter, I figure the DNC will do the same thing to RFK Junior. I'm hoping he will run as an independent once he raises awareness about his ideas enough.

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Yeah, I kinda doubt that Dem elitists will allow RFK Jr to win their nomination.

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Isn’t there a new-ish third party movement? Not “Forward”, the “No Labels” one. I wonder if that will gain traction.

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I listened to Bret Weinstein's two-hour interview with Vivek Ramaswamy yesterday. My heart warmed near the end when he advocated for the entire country going label-free until things settle out again.

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Well for sure the DNC isn't exactly packed with Mother Teresa clones. It will be interesting to see what happens!

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It’s all political semiotics for them. It’s how they control the narrative and send out marching orders.

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Nice word.

Learn something new everyday

Like your usage

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To state the obvious, Chris, Anthony's anthem was neither blue nor red. It was for the working classes of all colors. I wrote about that here:

https://bracingviews.substack.com/p/the-rich-have-no-sympathy-or-use

My dad, underpaid and overworked in the factory in 1940, knew exactly what Anthony is singing about in 2023.

But the MSM sells it as a "conservative" anthem that only Trump followers can love. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

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Heaven forbid we plebs find ANY commonality between the political divide! George Washington warned us of the dangers of a 2-party system--especially once THEY found their commonalities: like that Uniparty penchant for insider trading, taking bribes & grifting taxpayers. Good, "upper crust" ways to eek out a living, ya know...

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Well, the Democrats haven’t cared for the working class since Clinton. The Republicans don’t either, except for Trump and MAYBE DeSantis.

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Vivek seems to care about the working class.

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I just don't know about Trump. His signature line as "the big cheese" was "You're fired." I don't see him as having much sympathy for workers.

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Practically everything these days is twisted/used to divide people.

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Men need to be men and stand up for themselves.

Men with money will pay to have the shit work done, men without money will do those jobs. The men without money should be glad there are rich men that don't want to do the work. When outside forces get involved the men without money lose their power.

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Aug 18, 2023·edited Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

Re: "They’re losing a country they’ve never met, sitting in a mental basement and constructing their own shadows into something they feel pretty sure is a picture of the world."

Well said. That's exactly what I see around me. Many old friends and colleagues are still reading the NYT assuming it's the Oracle of Truth. And these are the same people who happily took their Pfizer and/or Moderna jabs, and they're going to get more. This chunk of society is crumbling. It's just taking time, and it's heartbreaking to watch.

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Aug 18, 2023·edited Aug 20, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

Around these parts we recognize the sheep and the goats by who listens to VPR, the righteous local arm of National Propaganda Radio. It's actually a pretty accurate determinant of a person's worldview.

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Yes, I too find that it is.

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The funny thing is, that many of those who listen to NPR like to brag about being open-minded while encouraging the rest of us to listen to NPR. No self-awareness, whatsoever.

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It is really sad when you have loved ones like that. There is no talking to them because old habits die hard. The minute they open their mouths I bite my tongue.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

She was badly underrated as an actress by people who associated her only with *Murder, She Wrote.* Anyone who saw her work in *The Manchurian Candidate* and *Gaslight* (interesting coincidence) marvels at her ability to be so utterly convincing as someone she (I hope) was not.

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In a retrospective on “Beauty and the Beast,” she said she loved it when kids recognized her voice in public and whispered to their parents “It’s Mrs. Potts!” She was glad that she was being recognized for that role instead of some of the “pretty despicable” (her words) characters she played earlier in her career.

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I'm glad you posted that. As someone who babysat my way through countless watchings of that movie, I found the song "Be Our Guest" (with Lenny Briscoe, to boot!) one of the few bright spots. And I don't want to be too harsh on *MSW,* because I've probably seen every episode of that show. All your favorite actors from the 1960s, plus justice prevails in the end. (Am I crazy, or do I recall an episode with Bruce Jenner as a guest star?)

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Angela Lansbury was awesome, and I believe she got her start as a music-hall performer in London?

I still enjoyed Murder She Wrote, which in our household was referred to as "Murder She Was Constantly Adjacent To". If I saw that woman coming I would run like hell.

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I believe you are right about the music hall thing. Somewhere, I have a copy of a literary magazine that published photos and stories of people who had had brushes with fame. One was from the son of a British serviceman who met Lansbury when he was on leave. I believe she was performing on stage at that time. Back when I was a regular watcher of *MSW,* I appreciated that they moved her to NYC for a year (or more?) so Cabot Cove could repopulate itself. Man... I have to alert my family that I would welcome a boxed set of that show on DVD as a Christmas gift.

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So true! She was so menacing because she looked so nice. Evil in a mask.

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Wow, that last sentence says it all. Great summation of the insularity of these people.

When the "news" started filling up with reporting on things happening on Twitter - what people were saying about events rather than the events, themselves - I knew we were in trouble. But Twitter has exposed for all to see how people with power operate - through tribalism, gossip, hearsay, and with maniacal control - in real time. And while it feels crazy to be in a world where this insanity is becoming obvious, I think it will ultimately be for the good. Now that we see it plainly, we can change course.

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Will be a very hard course correction, with tectonic grinding and the sound of things breaking, but it has to come.

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Has to. Inevitable, really (hopefully.) This crazy is unsustainable.

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The giant blind spot derives from the Left’s overwhelming brilliance, which subsumes the lesser light of mere mortal deplorables. In other words at a certain point everything is self referential. If they didn’t think of it, and they don’t agree with it, it can’t be. I think, therefore you aren’t.

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And ironically they think their beliefs are the very definition of "Rational". Hence other beliefs cannot be and must be shunned.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

The bien pensant cruise liberalism of today and the crackpot neoconservative messianism of the Bush years share so much. The liberals have turned the permanent war inward, domestically, to a greater extent than the neocons managed, but it's the same basic mentality.

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Two sides of the same coin. It’s a patrician position. Same power class. Biff and Muffy may disagree about the temperature at which the Pouilly Fuisse is to be served. But Gladys, the maid, has no say in the matter.

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That analogy is perfect.

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. . . and she had dang sure better have that mask on during the next pandemic.

I loved all the photos of unmasked elites being waited on by masked servers during the COVID nonsense.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

They share so much. Including people. I know Bush Rs who've become Biden Ds. Really weird to me.

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What a bizarre transition that must be.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

i dont understand how we ended up here again after the iraq and afgan wars. go to a meme or video site and its nothing but war propaganda. its like the younger generation learned nothing from our failures

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You're assuming that those young people can set down their phones long enough to notice what's going on. That's the first step in learning from past mistakes.

It's not entirely their fault, of course; the purple-haired teachers with "pride" flags and "Genderbread" man posters in the classroom are not exactly encouraging deep, wide-ranging thought or self-reflection.

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they do have a deeper level of propaganda than we did. we fought that war for two generations and i thought that might teach them something. no, i had a kid calling me a tool of big oil and now he wants to nuke russia from outerspace. wtf

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Holy cow! Where did the 'nuke Russia from outer space' come from? Is that a new trend on TikTok? And of course you're a tool of Big Oil, you drive a car, don't you? ;)

When I was in junior high/high school the Cold War was in play so we read 'Darkness at Noon', '1984', 'Animal Farm', and 'Brave New World' along with lesser known works of anti-communism. I'd say we were the target of a particular kind of propaganda, but aside from cheering on the American Empire, which was surely a goal, we were also being taught to champion some kind of societal normalcy, not destroy it. Am I suddenly old or does it seem that everything has gone sideways lately?

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Yes, everything is wonky, like in that poem by Yeats. (Second Coming).

Also, I read all those books you listed in school, as well. The message I got from them was only partially anti-commie propaganda; the main thing I learned from those and much of the Golden Age of SF stuff, was a healthy distrust of government.

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Don't forget the lockstep media.

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The Marxist don't want history taught.

They plan on repeating it.

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Right on !! Another brilliant analysis of he multiple dimensioned world we live in - where decency and yearning become Putenesque brainwashing; where putting your neighbors legitemaate needs before that of (the strategically-unimportant-to-North America) Ukraine; where mutilation of children becomes the interest of the state and the medical professionals that swore to-do-no-harm etc etc.

Thank you Chris for exposing this insanity - again!

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I would argue that Ukr is strategically important to powerful political figures, money launderers, human traffickers, and the biolabs mafia. Who's more important? Hundreds of millions of US, or a few thousand of THEM?

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Yes, you are absolutely right! Why else would $100 billion go to Ukraine without accounting - That's $100,000,000,000 !!!

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

It’s just the old Marxist idea of “false consciousness” with a new coat of paint. If a significant number of people disagree with you, it’s never because your ideas are bad or because you’ve done a bad job presenting them. They’re just brainwashed, poor things. (Never mind who brainwashed them, or how.)

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These techniques are as much to comfort themselves as to convince others, or perhaps more so at this point.

The ORF video made me cry a little bit. It wasn't the song. It was people's reactions. You have recently suggested that all of this wears you down (and your readers as well), but that video gives me hope that sane people, like you, are making headway and we're not quite as far gone as we think. Keep it up. People like you (and ORF) are anchors in the storm.

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It does wear me down. Very much so.

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Oh, there are a lot more videos on YT that will raise your spirits. Lots of reaction shows by "persons of color" & LGBT folks who are just as appalled as the rest of us at this nonsense.

I do think the woke brigades are actually much smaller than they seem to be.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

I read a survey somewhere that said that liberal-leaning people displayed a high level of trust in certain media (NPR/NYT etc.) while generally distrusting completely "conservative media" like Fox News, (of course.) Conservatives basically thought all the news was pretty untrustworthy, but trusted some more than others. Liberals believing that "only THOSE people OVER THERE would lie to me" has got to lead to a life of being endlessly ripped off.

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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Chris Bray

It was one of the key components in Sam Bankman-Fried’s embezzlement scam because it works.

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