I subscribe to Robert Reich's substack just to see how older leftist/democrat's think. I try listen to views from people that I don't agree with so I don't end up in an echo chamber. He is a chore to read. I understand he is/was a respected economist/lawyer/author but I can't for the life of me understand why. Maybe his books are good.
What I love about substack is an unknown author can beat an established figure like Robert Reich. Substack may be the best version of a meritocracy so far. I write a substack under a different name that has more subscribers and engagement than Taylor Lorenz's substack. Without the Washinton Post to back her we are the same size.
I think this what men like Robert Reich hate about a free speech driven twitter. Without censorship we are all the same size. Only our ideas matter when their are no guard rails.
He's not a person in the conventional sense. He's a party instrument in human form, believing whatever he's required to believe from day to day. "I am for X. And that is why I am against X." I doubt he even notices.
Are any of his books any good? Is he just another person with a broken brain? The Last Psychiatrist writes extensively about this sort of stuff. A few of his articles are taken down so you might have to click around a bit or hunt for them on way back machine.
If John Maynard Keynes was a fraud, what does that make the rest of this lot of liberal economists? They are all frauds. There are no improvements on Adam Smith's economics. He nailed economics down. Everything since is a lie.
Economics, except in the broadest sense, isn't my field much at all... But I'm trying to learn so much during all this fricken mess... To me, money should be re-invented, or done away with. Not sure what I'd do after that exactly, tho, lol.
He made some fresh centrist points on economic matters in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Steered some then-lefties like yours truly toward saner economic thinking. He probably advised the Clinton team on some of its better economic decisions, which were "good" in a "could have been so much worse" way.
And that's it.
Since about the late aughts, his embrace of hatred has been striking. He positively blurbed one of the most shameful books ever, called The Little Blue Book in 2012, which I wrote about at the time https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2012/07/liberal-thou-shalt-not So of course this open traitor to Golden Rule decency and the 1st amendment hates Musk.
Checkout the podcast “Kontra Krugman”. They tore his positions apart for a couple of years. Even showing as Chris points out krugman countering his previous strongly held positions, and sometimes back again, all based on the popular position held by the DNC that day.
He is auctioning off items from Twitter headquarters! Only white supremacists would do something so hatefull! He fired people! People shouldn't be allowed to be fired under any circumstance especially not right before Christmas which is a holiday we hate because it is for white people and everybody who celebrates it needs to die! He probably wants voter ID which is so racist because everybody knows black people are too stupid to find the DMV which wouldn't give them one because of institutional racism. I'm literally dying right now! My boss at Starbucks wants me to work over 10 hrs this week and I might have to kill myself! Is Ukraine still something we support? Someone needs to tell me what to think unless you are my dad then you just need to pay the tuition for my 10th year of gender studies and shut the hell up!
Everyone blathers on about Love, Love your enemies, Love your neighbor, All You Need is Love, Love Wins! etc etc, but the truth is that Hate is just as strong if not stronger, Hate is the strongest social glue ever invented, Hate is energizing and gives us a reason to live.
And since we're here hiding out from Left authoritarianism, let's be clear about the role Hate plays in their ideology (despite their slogans about Tolerance and their claims to censor based on fighting "Hate"): Leftists absolutely hate anyone who dissents from their program; anyone who is healthy, happy and well-adjusted; they absolutely hate any successful tradition or institution (at least before they capture them); they hate America at least as it exists instead of their dreams of how to change it; they hate White people and men and Christians; and they often seem to deeply hate themselves and their parents/families and even their bodies.
And now thanks to the deadly combo of Twitter and Social Justice, they've become a cult of fanatics deeply addicted to hatred, which is why they've created their Emmanuel Goldstein of the Month Club.
if Elon wanted to be a true benefactor of humanity, he'd strap Twitter to one of his rockets, trick Taylor Lorenz into riding shotgun, then launch it into the deepest depths of outer space.
I maintain this isn't just about Musk or JK Rowling or whoever else falls 'out of line' with the left -- it's a powerful reminder that the mob will also turn on YOU if you fall out of line. People like Chapelle have "screw you" money so they don't care, but when your ENTIRE LIFE is wrapped up in your politics, you're forced to toe the line or lose everything.
I don't understand how nobody seems to be suspicious of Musk... The guy buys an entire platform and tells the bunnies what they want to hear... And the bunnies TRUST him? I don't get it.
Yes. That's why the music industry people treated Morrison and Morrissey with such contempt, making the latter go through a year and half ordeal of not knowing if his latest album would be released by any label (it just has been). The point wasn't to hurt those guys, but to warn the up-and-comers to conform. As most are.
Remember October, when Emily Oster called for a covid amnesty? Clearly "the mob" does not remember, or maybe better to say, it has rejected an amnesty.
Because she also said we should all forgive "each other." AS IF those of us who did NOT fall for the BS were saying the others should die, or be thrown into concentration camps, lol.
I am trying to remember the last time I witnessed hate, in person. I can’t recall, but I can say that any clip I’ve seen of Steven Colbert is hateful. He’s a very unpleasant person who is not very smart - must be where all his hate comes from (self loathing). All of the stupidity and hatred is exhausting, is it ever going to end? Or, is it going to take famine or world war to get everything back in line? This is so frightening. I think I may move to El Salvador - and who would have thought that just 5 years ago?
100%. That's part of the reason they take care to join the mob. "Look, I'm destroying what we've been told to destroy, don't turn on me!" It's a self-constructing cycle.
Ukraine is the lowest vaccinated country in Europe, I hope they all die!
1 week later
Zelenskyy (a person I had never heard of before for a country I know nothing about) is the greatest person ever! let me get one of the these flags ( I had never seen before) ! I am all for having your kids fight it!
I’ve been commenting to my husband for a long time now about the loss of volunteer civic organizations. When I was a kid every little league team in our town was sponsored by a different organization; the Lions, the Kiwana’s, Rotary, JC, etc. They were active in the community and brought people of all kinds together to help each other. Even the kids had groups to belong to. This was a sad loss for our country that went unnoticed. I’m glad you mentioned it. (And PS I’m Gen X so I’m not *that* old; this wasn’t so long ago)
Well look at the living arrangements graph in the article above for the answer to that question. If you’re living in Mom’s basement you’re not having children. Children almost force you to participate in SOMETHING.
I love the two pictures, the original with Stalin with one of his lackey running dogs, then the second, where the lackey had fallen out of favor and had been shot or gulagged. Totalitarian states have to a lot of airbrushing or re-writing of history books, taking those who were heroes, then them falling out of favor and ending up in re-education camps, or worse, and removing them. What's happening to Musk was quite predictable. Senator Synema is going through that, as well, just not as viciously, yet.
So true, Chris. This has been going on in subtler ways forever. Now that the internet and social media, history’s largest megaphone, have arrived, it’s way easier to sway naive or dumb people overnight, and that’s a lot of people. But the curtain is getting peeled back. That was one of Trump’s greatest contributions. He exposed the machine. Musk is doing the same thing. The Twitter thing is huge because he bought one of the regime’s main levers of opinion control right out from under them. This amazes me. The bad guys took their eye off the ball. The problem with running a scam is that eventually you get caught. The percentage of people who believe the big lies is dramatically shrinking. What we have now is a race: between freedom and the corrupt power class consolidating control. The regime is vicious, but it’s brittle. Let’s put a few more cracks in it, shall we?
Talked to a potential school for my young kid today. They told me about how they want students to become "justice warriors.". I'm not so quick with retorts, but should have asked if they are really recruiting child soldiers for the culture war? Shouldn't they be paying me in that case? Oh well.
The current school is manageable and we joke about the propaganda.
This is the scariest part of Communism. Families and friends choose complying with what they have been told over love and friendship. Eagerly. Without remorse.
And a transhumanist who wants to put chips in brains. It's just fine to be skeptical, and just fine to be skeptical but to find what he's doing at Twitter interesting. It's a mixed picture.
Yeah, I can see being "interested." I don't care about Twitter, so it doesn't really bother me that he's bought it... He's BOUGHT Twitter. That right there makes my nose twitch.
Why not judge his actions individually instead of trying to fit them into a masterplan? He is a person not an algorithm, unless he gets neuralink to work anyway.
Opening the books at twitter-good
Making billions off enviro/electro car subsidies grift-wasteful but he didn't setup the grift he just rode the gravy train
Hacking peoples brains-bad it'll hurt anybody dumb enough to do it but it'll never work still BAD
Satellite internet for the world-mixed bag isn't it. Let's assume we are already at peak satellite surveillance of our lives so internet access anytime anyplace has good and bad elements
Pissing off woketards-good he's almost as good at it as Trump. He's funny, and frequently gets them with truth.
So I cheer him for doing good things and boo him for bad. Just not convinced that people fit into neat patterns
The heel-turn on Musk by the Left has been remarkable. After years of phenomenal success and huge body of public statements only now does the big glowing target appear on his back. Elon hasn't changed at all.
I subscribe to Robert Reich's substack just to see how older leftist/democrat's think. I try listen to views from people that I don't agree with so I don't end up in an echo chamber. He is a chore to read. I understand he is/was a respected economist/lawyer/author but I can't for the life of me understand why. Maybe his books are good.
What I love about substack is an unknown author can beat an established figure like Robert Reich. Substack may be the best version of a meritocracy so far. I write a substack under a different name that has more subscribers and engagement than Taylor Lorenz's substack. Without the Washinton Post to back her we are the same size.
I think this what men like Robert Reich hate about a free speech driven twitter. Without censorship we are all the same size. Only our ideas matter when their are no guard rails.
There's a cottage industry online centered on Robert Reich's ideological pivots, e.g.:
https://twitter.com/defiantls/status/1429563631306424328
https://twitter.com/defiantls/status/1511334939823902720
He's not a person in the conventional sense. He's a party instrument in human form, believing whatever he's required to believe from day to day. "I am for X. And that is why I am against X." I doubt he even notices.
Very funny. Those are some big pivots.
Are any of his books any good? Is he just another person with a broken brain? The Last Psychiatrist writes extensively about this sort of stuff. A few of his articles are taken down so you might have to click around a bit or hunt for them on way back machine.
https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/
You're right. That was uncalled for - I'll edit it.
robert reich and paul krugman used to be economists. i don't know what they are these days
Shills for the Evil Ones.
bots
If John Maynard Keynes was a fraud, what does that make the rest of this lot of liberal economists? They are all frauds. There are no improvements on Adam Smith's economics. He nailed economics down. Everything since is a lie.
Economics, except in the broadest sense, isn't my field much at all... But I'm trying to learn so much during all this fricken mess... To me, money should be re-invented, or done away with. Not sure what I'd do after that exactly, tho, lol.
Reich was a tedious bore even back when the Dem's were sort of reasonable... He's a Hillary satellite, after all...
He made some fresh centrist points on economic matters in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Steered some then-lefties like yours truly toward saner economic thinking. He probably advised the Clinton team on some of its better economic decisions, which were "good" in a "could have been so much worse" way.
And that's it.
Since about the late aughts, his embrace of hatred has been striking. He positively blurbed one of the most shameful books ever, called The Little Blue Book in 2012, which I wrote about at the time https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2012/07/liberal-thou-shalt-not So of course this open traitor to Golden Rule decency and the 1st amendment hates Musk.
Checkout the podcast “Kontra Krugman”. They tore his positions apart for a couple of years. Even showing as Chris points out krugman countering his previous strongly held positions, and sometimes back again, all based on the popular position held by the DNC that day.
It would not take much to be the same size as Robert Reich in any realm.
Sorry, it was right there, I had no choice but to take it.
You are correct.
"He is a chore to read. I understand he is/was a respected economist/lawyer/author but I can't for the life of me understand why. "
For the same thing Chris pointed out in his article, people were told he was a "respected economist/lawyer/author".
“Same size” there’s a joke in there somewhere when referring to Robert (4th) Reich.
Musk is the new Trump. Nobody hated him until they were told to. These people are idiots.
Neither Trump nor Musk is literally Hitler nor Jesus.
I've met people that have been loved by no one.
Elon isn't one of them.
I suspect many of the empty vessels blankly awaiting orders are.
Nope...as long as I'm here, he won't be one of them.
Elon committed the same crime that Trump did...he laughed at them, and for that, they'll never forgive him!
He is auctioning off items from Twitter headquarters! Only white supremacists would do something so hatefull! He fired people! People shouldn't be allowed to be fired under any circumstance especially not right before Christmas which is a holiday we hate because it is for white people and everybody who celebrates it needs to die! He probably wants voter ID which is so racist because everybody knows black people are too stupid to find the DMV which wouldn't give them one because of institutional racism. I'm literally dying right now! My boss at Starbucks wants me to work over 10 hrs this week and I might have to kill myself! Is Ukraine still something we support? Someone needs to tell me what to think unless you are my dad then you just need to pay the tuition for my 10th year of gender studies and shut the hell up!
Everyone blathers on about Love, Love your enemies, Love your neighbor, All You Need is Love, Love Wins! etc etc, but the truth is that Hate is just as strong if not stronger, Hate is the strongest social glue ever invented, Hate is energizing and gives us a reason to live.
And since we're here hiding out from Left authoritarianism, let's be clear about the role Hate plays in their ideology (despite their slogans about Tolerance and their claims to censor based on fighting "Hate"): Leftists absolutely hate anyone who dissents from their program; anyone who is healthy, happy and well-adjusted; they absolutely hate any successful tradition or institution (at least before they capture them); they hate America at least as it exists instead of their dreams of how to change it; they hate White people and men and Christians; and they often seem to deeply hate themselves and their parents/families and even their bodies.
And now thanks to the deadly combo of Twitter and Social Justice, they've become a cult of fanatics deeply addicted to hatred, which is why they've created their Emmanuel Goldstein of the Month Club.
All that hatred needs an outlet!
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth:
"Rip down all hate, " I screamed.
Lies that life is black and white,
spoke from my skull, I dreamed. Dylan, "I Was So Much Younger Then" 1964.
What those in power do to you,
reminds us at a glance,
how humans hate each others guts,
and show it given a chance. Morrissey, "Mountjoy" 2014.
If Twitter was California and an earthquake dumped it into the Pacific Ocean would anyone mourn for long?
if Elon wanted to be a true benefactor of humanity, he'd strap Twitter to one of his rockets, trick Taylor Lorenz into riding shotgun, then launch it into the deepest depths of outer space.
Endorsed
i knew you'd understand! ;)
I would mourn, 'cause I'd die.
I maintain this isn't just about Musk or JK Rowling or whoever else falls 'out of line' with the left -- it's a powerful reminder that the mob will also turn on YOU if you fall out of line. People like Chapelle have "screw you" money so they don't care, but when your ENTIRE LIFE is wrapped up in your politics, you're forced to toe the line or lose everything.
"a powerful reminder that the mob will also turn on YOU if you fall out of line."
absolutely yes.
Emmanuel Goldsteins are scapegoats but they're also bright flashing warnings: blaspheme at your own peril.
I don't understand how nobody seems to be suspicious of Musk... The guy buys an entire platform and tells the bunnies what they want to hear... And the bunnies TRUST him? I don't get it.
I don't trust anybody, and Musk might be a terrible person. But this one specific thing he did is wonderful.
Culture war is like sports, if the guy you're booing today gets traded to your team in the morning, you buy his jersey and chant his name.
Homey don't play dat. Seems like Homey is the only dawg not playing Muskrat Love...
Yes. That's why the music industry people treated Morrison and Morrissey with such contempt, making the latter go through a year and half ordeal of not knowing if his latest album would be released by any label (it just has been). The point wasn't to hurt those guys, but to warn the up-and-comers to conform. As most are.
Remember October, when Emily Oster called for a covid amnesty? Clearly "the mob" does not remember, or maybe better to say, it has rejected an amnesty.
Or maybe nobody gave a crap what she said.
Are we going to turn into the monsters we fear? Seems a fair chance of it.
Because she also said we should all forgive "each other." AS IF those of us who did NOT fall for the BS were saying the others should die, or be thrown into concentration camps, lol.
I am trying to remember the last time I witnessed hate, in person. I can’t recall, but I can say that any clip I’ve seen of Steven Colbert is hateful. He’s a very unpleasant person who is not very smart - must be where all his hate comes from (self loathing). All of the stupidity and hatred is exhausting, is it ever going to end? Or, is it going to take famine or world war to get everything back in line? This is so frightening. I think I may move to El Salvador - and who would have thought that just 5 years ago?
Self hating whites.
Colbert was hilarious 20 years ago. His brain has rotted though. Comedy takes brains, siccing the dogs on somebody is easy. Sad.
Famine
The idiots crying about Elon today will be the target of the mob tomorrow.
100%. That's part of the reason they take care to join the mob. "Look, I'm destroying what we've been told to destroy, don't turn on me!" It's a self-constructing cycle.
Chris, maybe that should read, "It's a self-destructing cycle".
Or a balloon, that flies whichever way the wind blows, and eventually either deflates itself or gets popped.
Perhaps that’s our best weapon? Let them destroy themselves from within.
I am not getting that Trump vaccine! (obligatory Social media post)
1 week later
I have been assigned group 1B, and will get it at 10:05 next Tuesday, I can't wait! (obligatory Social media post)
How many more examples can we name?
There's not enough time in one lifetime to list them all.
Ukraine is the lowest vaccinated country in Europe, I hope they all die!
1 week later
Zelenskyy (a person I had never heard of before for a country I know nothing about) is the greatest person ever! let me get one of the these flags ( I had never seen before) ! I am all for having your kids fight it!
Saint Fauci will spin the big wheel of science tonight and tell us how many masks we need to wear. Because Science!
I’ve been commenting to my husband for a long time now about the loss of volunteer civic organizations. When I was a kid every little league team in our town was sponsored by a different organization; the Lions, the Kiwana’s, Rotary, JC, etc. They were active in the community and brought people of all kinds together to help each other. Even the kids had groups to belong to. This was a sad loss for our country that went unnoticed. I’m glad you mentioned it. (And PS I’m Gen X so I’m not *that* old; this wasn’t so long ago)
Well look at the living arrangements graph in the article above for the answer to that question. If you’re living in Mom’s basement you’re not having children. Children almost force you to participate in SOMETHING.
I love the two pictures, the original with Stalin with one of his lackey running dogs, then the second, where the lackey had fallen out of favor and had been shot or gulagged. Totalitarian states have to a lot of airbrushing or re-writing of history books, taking those who were heroes, then them falling out of favor and ending up in re-education camps, or worse, and removing them. What's happening to Musk was quite predictable. Senator Synema is going through that, as well, just not as viciously, yet.
Danny Huckabee
So very many airbrushed and altered old pictures.
And now the Goolag phone ads showing off their "AI" "magic eraser".
Yeah Goog. Uh huh. We get it.
So true, Chris. This has been going on in subtler ways forever. Now that the internet and social media, history’s largest megaphone, have arrived, it’s way easier to sway naive or dumb people overnight, and that’s a lot of people. But the curtain is getting peeled back. That was one of Trump’s greatest contributions. He exposed the machine. Musk is doing the same thing. The Twitter thing is huge because he bought one of the regime’s main levers of opinion control right out from under them. This amazes me. The bad guys took their eye off the ball. The problem with running a scam is that eventually you get caught. The percentage of people who believe the big lies is dramatically shrinking. What we have now is a race: between freedom and the corrupt power class consolidating control. The regime is vicious, but it’s brittle. Let’s put a few more cracks in it, shall we?
Talked to a potential school for my young kid today. They told me about how they want students to become "justice warriors.". I'm not so quick with retorts, but should have asked if they are really recruiting child soldiers for the culture war? Shouldn't they be paying me in that case? Oh well.
The current school is manageable and we joke about the propaganda.
This is the scariest part of Communism. Families and friends choose complying with what they have been told over love and friendship. Eagerly. Without remorse.
Okay.
But... A billionaire who puts shitloads of surveillance devices in space? Really?
Somehow, I don't trust him at all. It sorta feels like a lot of people who are "supposed" to be skeptical-- aren't. Okay, come at me.
And a transhumanist who wants to put chips in brains. It's just fine to be skeptical, and just fine to be skeptical but to find what he's doing at Twitter interesting. It's a mixed picture.
Yeah, I can see being "interested." I don't care about Twitter, so it doesn't really bother me that he's bought it... He's BOUGHT Twitter. That right there makes my nose twitch.
Why not judge his actions individually instead of trying to fit them into a masterplan? He is a person not an algorithm, unless he gets neuralink to work anyway.
Opening the books at twitter-good
Making billions off enviro/electro car subsidies grift-wasteful but he didn't setup the grift he just rode the gravy train
Hacking peoples brains-bad it'll hurt anybody dumb enough to do it but it'll never work still BAD
Satellite internet for the world-mixed bag isn't it. Let's assume we are already at peak satellite surveillance of our lives so internet access anytime anyplace has good and bad elements
Pissing off woketards-good he's almost as good at it as Trump. He's funny, and frequently gets them with truth.
So I cheer him for doing good things and boo him for bad. Just not convinced that people fit into neat patterns
I'll think what I want, you can do whatever.
The heel-turn on Musk by the Left has been remarkable. After years of phenomenal success and huge body of public statements only now does the big glowing target appear on his back. Elon hasn't changed at all.