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I was immediately reminded of this clip I just saw:

https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1788541985516646564

MSNBC’s AnaCabrera : “More independents say they worry about Pres. Biden weakening democracy than Trump, 53% to 42%. What do you make of this?”

Susan Del Percio: “I find it shocking, honestly. I can’t — I can’t, you know, make sense of that number”

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Experts are baffled about why people think the president running on a platform of lawfare and censorship is considered a bigger danger to democracy than the Bad Orange Man. Don't they know the Bad Orange Man is Bad?!?!?!?

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May 9Liked by Chris Bray

It becomes eminently clear when one realizes what they mean by "democracy." It means simply this: "We rule and you don't. Our policy preferences prevail and yours don't. So shut up and be ruled, deplorable bigot."

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Progressives WANT to be ruled. They want simple yes/no questions. That allows them to memorize answers by rote, with no need to comprehend what the hell any of it means.

Trump disrupts their safe/secure belief system. That's why they hate him.

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I do think there is a lot to this. There is definitely a type of mind that wants clear, true/false answers to every question, moral, legal or social. There must be rules for everything, and everyone must follow them. They are more comfortable with rules that do not favor them than they are with no rules at all.

I think that is in large part why they comprise both those who wish to be ruled and those who wish to impose rules on others. They desperately want the clear, obvious structure, and others operating outside that structure means the structure isn't real. Without the extreme predictability of the rules they cannot comfortably live.

The confusing part, to me at least, is why they are fine with some rules being ignored. That makes me write down how likely that theory is true, at least for a large number of the type. It might be a question of which rules are proper, or which apply to which people, but it is hard to square their desire for endless rules with "eh, shoplifting and stealing cars is fine", outside of mere indifference to rules that do not affect them directly. The same reason most Americans don't know what the child tax exemptions in Germany look like. Still, bears some thought.

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I taught grade school for six years, many years ago. I taught earth science (including climate change, by the way). I wanted students to gain some comprehension of the intricate workings of nature. I wanted them to understand the scientific method of inquiry, which is the effort to apply man's rational nature to comprehending how nature works.

Some of my students instinctively understood what I was getting at. Others just wanted to memorize definitions. When I was a student, I had some teachers who just wanted me to memorize definitions.

I may be biased, but as I examine who is who among the populace, the definition memorizers are progressives. They memorize everything and get straight As, and they think that's the same as learning. As we've both observed, they feel uneasy at the thought that there can be more than one valid point of view on a subject. The concept of individuality is something they don't comprehend, and they feel threatened by it.

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Yes. They are content to just follow and regurgitate talking-point handouts from the Tides and the Gates Foundation. Makes things so much simpler and avoids the need to any analytical thinking. "Father Soros: what do we believe about this?"

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No, no, no! Progressives don’t want to BE ruled, THEY want to rule US!

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Honestly, I disagree. They want us to accept being ruled by the same people that they accept being ruled by. They presume that everyone wants to be ruled, and that the only question is, by who? It never crosses their mind that anyone would not want to be ruled.

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I think that the word “Progressives” like the words Communism, Communist, Socialism, Socialist, the Left and Leftists is now some scary, bad, scary, no good word instead of a word with an actual definition.

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I've often pointed out that the terms 'socialism', 'capitalism', 'social justice', 'fair share', etc are very poorly defined. We have people arguing about them, with little concern for what any of the terms really mean. I think it's a bit like supporting a team. A person can be a fan of and support the New England Patriots (football) while knowing very little about football. That's fine, because it has no effect on anyone else. But when people are 'fans' of political ideologies, they need to know what they're talking about, because it affects all of us.

So, yes, I plead guilty to using the term 'progressive' with inadequate definition of what makes a person a progressive. I call it a cult, meaning that its 'believers' are expected to take the word of their leaders and not question or evaluate. Certainly, progressivism is not the only cult. And while cults can exist along the sidelines, disturbing no one, progressivism insists on forcing its beliefs on everyone. We are expected to believe and follow the dictates of progressivism concerning education, healthcare, energy, and anything else they feel like forcing us into. I don't so much disagree with any of their beliefs as I am incensed that they feel they have the right to force them on us.

I read a book years ago, "Illiberal Reformers", by Thomas C Leonard that goes into detail about the history of progressivism. It ain't pretty.

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And the Bad Orange Man is on trial for Bad Bookkeeping! The Republic will crumble into Egyptian sand if he is not convicted.

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And to prove your bad bookkeeping, we’re going to get hookers to testify about sex. Perfectly normal.

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His choice not a good return on investment. He could have done much better.

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Bad bookkeeping, which is a misdemeanor, transformed into a felony by the magic of a hypothetical federal crime that has not been proved in any court, made viable by a lengthening of the statute of limitations with the express purpose of getting the Bad Orange Man. It's "Three Felonies a Day" amped up to 11.

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You see, without the vaunted gatekeepers known as corporate media spoon feeding us the approved ideas, us unwashed doofus’ just don’t make the correct decisions.

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May 9·edited May 9Liked by Chris Bray

Nothing is more indicative of our decay than the faculty run encampment at The New School in Manhattan. Conveniently set-up in a lobby, as opposed to even a quad, the professors told reporters - "We thank our students for showing us the way; for being our teachers.” Exactly. The grown-ups have long since left the building.

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Sounds like something from a Maoist struggle meeting. But what doesn’t these days.

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First they 'deconstructed' all trad things, now they're into Total Inversion. Rather luciferian, that.

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Life imitates the yield curve :)

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Plus the comforts of a roof, indoor plumbing, electricity and a reliable wifi signal. Oh, the sacrifice!

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I got accepted to that school decades ago. Kinda glad, today, that I couldn't afford the tuition.

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“I’ve spent my life in academia and this feels like…”

😂😈 👍🏻

Lady. No one cares about feelings.

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author

Everyone she spends all of her time with only cares about feelings, so it may be hard to land this message at her airport.

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God, the "feelings" thing pisses me off so bad.

People who clamor on about how they "feel" rather than what they "think" are essentially saying they evaluate the world in the same way an infant or an animal does.

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It is a superb giveaway. It is especially worrying when I see men doing it.

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No, animals don’t survive by feelings, so they’re much more advanced than these toddler progressives!

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She spent her life in academia because reality scared the hell out of her.

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and academia scares me.......

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Seriously up the scared game

These are not people to fear

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Consider the fruit of their labor, the product are these student demonstrators.

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These are weak bitches.

Do not express fear.

They feed on it, worse - serious people may be drawn to the scent.

Please with respect; Never show fear or disgust.

Especially around criminals or activists.

As for academia, finished.

Doomed, care not.

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These people are intellectually corrupted by academia not just the group of demonstrators. Have a look around, the country will suffer the results for a long time. I am disgusted by the lack of dignity and the insanity. No intentional. disrespect to you

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Just BE indifferent. That will pain them the most.

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And yet reality returns

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Hannah Arendt, "The Origins of Totalitarianism":

"The members of the elite did not object at all to paying a price, the destruction of civilization, for the fun of seeing how those who had been excluded unjustly in the past forced their way into it.

They had convinced themselves that traditional historiography was a forgery in any case, since it had excluded the underprivileged and oppressed from the memory of mankind....

...it was no accident that their revolutionaries also began to take on the typically Russian revolutionary fanaticism which looked forward, not to change in social or political conditions, but to the radical destruction of every existing creed, value, and institution.

Destruction without mitigation, chaos and ruin as such assumed the dignity of supreme values."

Our liberal class has failed and collapsed in cowardice and blind mob instincts. Professors, administrators, politicians and journalists fed an entire generation or 2 on hateful fantasies about 1) how evil this world and all its creations are; and 2) what a paradise of egalitarian utopianism will inevitably appear once the benighted past and anyone who supports it is cleared away.

The children of Leftist academia will destroy everything they get their hands on, unless some other force steps in and stops them.

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Shades of a perverted Christian apocalypticism, isn't it? https://mises.org/mises-daily/karl-marx-religious-eschatologist

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It really is amazing how deeply Christian all of modern Leftism is, from "the first shall be last" to "the brotherhood of man" from their reification of the Parable of the Good Samaritan to the sacred Victim(s) and the prophet(s) who will lead us to the "promised land" as long as we obey them and pray hard enough.

Christianity is so deeply embedded in the Western soul, speaks to so many deep emotional, social and psychological needs, that it ironically lives most strongly in the people who claim to despise it.

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Leftism is a mockery of Christianity. That's why Christian men are hated by the Regime.

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Leftism is a Christian heresy. It only wants to destroy the Church to replace it.

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The universalism and gyno-centrism of Leftism seem more occultic and Jacobin to me. Likewise the Gnostic rejection of the 'creator', i.e., the Christian God. . . also the Left's libertinism and belief in the 'fundamental goodness' of human beings. All this is non-Christian or anti-Christian.

The early Christian church certain had communal aspects, but those folks led independent, private lives and only shared in specific areas.

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There are so many ingredients that go into this stew called Social Justice.

Marxism first, the ultimate Christian heresy, led by a Jewish prophet wanting to lead his people to a new Promised Land, where the Brotherhood of Man would end the need for property and capital.

I think there's also a strong strain of the Protestant Reformation here, with various Thomas Muntzers rising up to denounce the powers-that-be and their greed, cruelty and hypocrisy to build a separate, purer egalitarian community that is never not policing itself for moral violations, and wants to hold itself up as a light and guide for all of lost and fallen humanity.

But really for me the deepest connection bw the modern Left and Christianity is the positing of a sacred Victim as the center of our moral universe, as the spotless servant who died for our sins and to teach us about Justice, about how when the Victim speaks we pray in silence and never contradict them.

Everyone from the Jacobins to the Marxists to the campus Infantada has been vilifiying and attempting to destroy Christianity in the same way every new faith feels the urgent need to erase all signs of the prior faith. They crave worship, communion, a church of the righteous etc, just under their new dispensation.

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Leftists like to claim that the earliest Christians were socialists. There were, in a way. But if you read the real story in Acts, you see that the Christians quickly ran headfirst into the reason why socialism always fails and abandoned collectivism.

I tell that story in https://michael796.substack.com/p/leftist-untruth-5-socialism-can-work

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nailed it. only there's no redemption or foregiveness in their version

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redemption and forgiveness imply higher values than the spiteful destruction that sits at the heart of the eternal revolt against reality we call the Left, and also posit a time where enemies can reconcile and where swords can be beaten into ploughshares.

the sickness of the Left is rooted in the brains of its most famous philosophers/theorists, mental cases like Rousseau, Marx, Marcuse—all were misanthropes of one kind or another, selling slavery in packages marked "Liberation", who wanted the world to burn because they felt it hadn't worshipped them properly.

The Left is all apocalypse and no savior.

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The force of starvation would be nice—or at least blocking any takeout from coming through the gate.

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In our weird age where adults have abdicated all authority and responsibility (they don't wanna seem mean!), it's important that none of these children suffer the consequences of any of their actions.

This is another way our liberal class privatizes virtue and socializes dysfunction (akin to opening the jails and opening the borders): they get to preen in public as gentle, wise and compassionate (at least when it comes to people and causes they approve of), the rest of us have to either avoid or clean up their messes, and the rot worsens.

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spot on again

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.

It Gives Them What They Want.

By Following The Herd

They Don’t Have To Take

Personal Responsibility.

.

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Progressive, DEI obsessed Leftist administrators are gong to war with authoritarian, antisemitic Leftist protestors.

This is a win-win scenario. As long as we do something stupid like throw them a lifeline (ala HR 6090) we can let them kill each other and pick up the pieces in November.

I realize it sucks for Jewish students, but most of those students' parents have been voting Democrat for 40 years, so I'm afraid my sympathy is limited. You chose your bedmates.

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And, unfortunately, most of these students will continue to vote Democrat. If 20% peel away, I will be surprised. Big D loyalty is part of their Tribal Culture.

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Sometimes you have to raze the village to save it from being what it wants to be. In the name of Democracy. “That village was strongly leaning Viet Cong. We knew that wasn’t right for them, nor what they really wanted. So we napalmed them. For Democracy and Western values.”

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"[N]or what they really wanted." Rousseau strikes again.

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May 9Liked by Chris Bray

I was at the UW encampment briefly on Sunday afternoon. It looked like a lot of white Antifa people trying to bring back the glory days of 2020, with just enough other ethnicities present to assuage demonstrators' guilt about co-opting the Palestinian cause.

One sticker compared this cause to slavery, civil rights, and the Holocaust (yes!), but the key difference now is that the Antifa people aren't putting themselves in danger, because they're not in proximity to what they say they oppose. If anything, they tend to put the people they oppose in danger.

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I am losing track of the number of professions who seem psychotic. Journalism obviously. Politics.

Surely psychosis is not too strong a word? They seem mentally unstable to me.

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Don’t forget academics.

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Some of it is plain evil, some is collusion with evil. Folks of all ages and places want to keep their jobs, their groceries, houses, and so forth. Go along get along, it's timeless.

Their behavior is not a psychological condition. It's a spiritual reality.

'It's a funny thing being taken under the wing of a dragon. It's warmer than you'd think.'

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The Mask. Forever the symbol of the intellectually lobotomised. Bloody hell. These idiots are "The FutureTM" of your nation.....weep. At least your government isn't imploding. Over here, one of the most right-wing MPs just defected to the socialist opposition party.....rats, sinking ship etc

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Man, that Jack Shafer really has his finger on the pulse.

I don’t know about you guys, but when I think about corporate journalists, words like “Swagger” and “Soul” are exactly what come to mind.

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And Integrity!

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Leather jackets and Lucky Strikes all around!

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May 9Liked by Chris Bray

Thank you Chris Bray! I turn to Substack for news and opinion pieces and I have to say YOU ROCK!

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“I’m seeing this description of “heavily militarized police” all over the discussion in academia, by the way, and I keep wondering what it means. The raids were preceded by artillery bombardment? They had close air support, and A-10s did gun runs? “You’re cleared hot on the latte cart.” “

Thank you for bringing out the absurdity of all this…humor, like sunlight, is a disinfectant. And that’s funny!

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May 9Liked by Chris Bray

Let me get this straight - the people wearing masks embody the culture of openness? I wonder what they would do if they were trying to be circumspect? This also makes me wonder if the COVID botherers planned to keep us in COVID masks for longer so that these "students" did not stand out at all. Everyone masked - re-breathing their own air as our brains struggle for oxygen. They fool only themselves. I expect it will be a long, hot summer as the "students" and their Marxist leaders assemble and make life miserable for anyone who lives, works or attends school nearby. They are showing everyone who they really are - intolerant, unwilling to listen to anyone else but who believe they know for certain how we should all think, and live. They are truly evil because they would, no doubt, rather burn our country down then let anyone else have the right to vote according to their own conscience.

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But, @jtb0819, they’re doing it to save democracy!

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Yes, and they are ginning up another couple of "pandemics" in order to reinstate the universal mask mandate. I doubt it will work a second time.

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May 9Liked by Chris Bray

It makes me happy to think of the death of big media: television, movies, newspapers, websites...all of them. Their mostly cohesive talking points and messages need to be blown apart.

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May 9Liked by Chris Bray

The Columbus Dispatch, several lefty Ohio news websites, and their X supporters called the police stationed on nearby building rooftops watching the Ohio State encampment "snipers". No kidding.

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Too bad they weren’t! (Ooops, did I say that out loud?!)

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