I have attempted, when I think it is appropriate, to start some of these conversations. Especially during the Afghanistan debacle. Unfortunately, I am surrounded by liberals, and even the moderate and conservative leaning people I know are not interested in the conversation. The liberals I deal with in my work life and interact with in my community are quick with comebacks about how "Trump spent a lot of money too!"
Try engaging in a political conversation on Reddit and see how many hardcore liberal women and the men that support them attack you. It isn't an easy topic and there are no clear solutions (except not deficit spending, duh) but the liberal side of the aisle uses "zingers" and ridiculous arguments to shut down any interaction. I pray there are people like me that see the problem and just choose to be quiet to prevent ugly confrontations. Most of the people I interact with that are so closed minded to discussing the problems latch on to a handful of liberal talking points, but don't actually know much about the issues.
I live in a small community in Central Oregon, and used to live in the Intermountain West in Idaho. Oregon is becoming more liberal in the high desert, and I have looked into moving back to the Intermountain West. Unfortunately, since the pandemic debacle, the wealthy work-from-home crowd have infiltrated mountain towns and recreationally focused areas of the Intermountain West, and prices have skyrocketed. Idaho, Montana, and where I live in Oregon are very beautiful, and day-to-day feel similar to years past. But, when you look at the development trends and patterns, and see how politically these areas are moving from red to purple and approaching blue in the voting patterns, it is sad and concerning. Not only are people not talking about our $34T in debt, they are changing the last bastions of conservative living by increasing the cost of living with their votes in favor of more local government spending. We all know the large west coast cities are hopelessly liberal and their policies have created a mess. But, now that many of those liberals can work from home, and they have money, they are outsourcing those beliefs to the rest of the country. How many towns in the Intermountain West plead with new comers not to "bring your failed policies here," only to have it fall on deaf ears?
If you believe the last presidential election, and midterm elections were stolen (I do) and see the shenanigans the left is pulling trying to keep Trump and now other republicans off of ballots, one can only wonder the depths the left will go to trying to "win" another election. It won't take much longer at this pace before elections are a lock for the lefties, and these policies are pushed through with increasing ease.
As a self employed person, I pay for my own health insurance, and even though it wasn't cheap, I used to be able to purchase plans based on my needs, at a price that fit my budget. I also used to be an insurance agent and sold health insurance. When the Affordable Care Act was passed, I was very disappointed in the policies available to me, and the prices I had to pay. Fast forward a decade and health insurance is unrecognizable, astronomically expensive, and if you like you doctor, tough shit. There are no private practice primary care physicians. Many are nurse practitioners more skilled at deciphering medical insurance coding, paperwork, and prescribing statins than improving health. I have changed doctors a couple of times in the past few years in an attempt to find someone competent that can treat me as an individual, but have given up. It is all the same bullshit, quoting from the higher ups and asking if you are interested in getting caught up on all the latest vaccines. The mess of health care was planned, and is a direct result of the ACA, and the plan of the left all along. Most of the RINO CONgress happily supports these policies. Or maybe they will have subcommittee meetings ranting at someone like Fauci to get soundbites but never do a damn thing about it.
Considering how far left the millennials and Gen Z lean, I suspect things will continue to degrade. I would love to be wildly wrong, but the trends of the last decade, and the polarization since Trump and the plandemic don't leave me much hope. Chris, I agree the lack of conversations about our debt and other issues is concerning. But, it seems most don't care and are more concerned with the liberal narrative than looking at the issues honestly.
I first moved to a mountain town in 1988, and have been in one or another ever since except for a few years on the San Francisco peninsula. Back then, the lefties came to visit during the holidays, then went home. Now they stay like locusts. It has been sad to witness first hand.
This is why I unsubbed to you and will again. If all I get is "we are fucked and this is why" then seriously why live? I get seriously suicidal with this shit. We are doomed and there is no hope. Just die already. I'm done. We need solutions and not just doomsday crap.
I'm not trying to tell you you're doomed and there's no hope. I'm trying to tell you that there's a calculated rhetorical effort underway to pound doom and distraction into your head, to induce helplessness. The point is to be armed against it with an awareness of how it works.
The President of the United States keeps giving ranty, angry speeches in which he says that the country is trembling on the edge of destruction: "We almost lost America!" I'm not echoing that message. I'm shining light on it to warn you against it. There's no doomsday crap here -- there's a realistic assessment of politics and media. Don't ever look for hope in politics and media. Look for hope in family, friends, community, and purpose.
You have the misfortune of wanting to live in an area that’s become “fashionable.” My wife and I, OTOH, live in the Smoky Mtns in East Tennessee (specifically in Blount County, the most reliably Republican county in the country since the Party’s founding in 1854), an area in which liberals do not deign to tread for fear of contamination by deplorables. We see liberals twice a year: in June for viewing the synchronous firefly phenomenon, and in October for peak leaf color change. A very positive recent economic and sociological development is that Smith & Wesson moved its world HQ & manufacturing from Mass. to our county seat, Maryville.
Appalachia is so derided by liberals that life continues here largely undisturbed by their insanity. They think of us as the banjo player in “Deliverance.” Our chief sin appears to be that we do not crave things that leave liberals themselves emotionally empty.
I grew up in Washington State and have spent my entire 55 years on the West Coast or Intermountain West. It isn't a matter of "having the misfortune of wanting to live in an area that has become fashionable", it is where I have lived for my whole life, and where I have built my business. Nothing about my life is about wanting to be fashionable, but rather about access to the outdoors to partake in the activities I have engaged in my entire life. I am sure the Smoky Mountains have access to some of those activities.
I have not been to the east coast, and don't have the time or money to travel around looking for a republican stronghold. While I have no doubt I may appreciate the values of Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains, there are no guarantees I will fit in and enjoy the community. Not to mention trying to earn a living. And no, I am not interested in working for Smith & Wesson. If I were to move to a more conservative area it would be Northern Idaho, not Tennessee.
I know and like many liberals, even if I disagree with their ideas about how the country should be run. Sometimes it is frustrating, and I certainly do not like the trend line, but running away from an area that largely works for me to surround myself with a myopic populace does not feel like a great option. If I were retired with money, I would likely travel to find a place that worked better. But, since I will likely never be able to retire, living someplace that is growing so I can make a living is more of a priority.
My life consists of work, eating healthy, and being immersed in outdoor activities I love like mountain biking, skiing, and trail running. Not exactly activities that leave me "emotionally empty." Portland gives Oregon a bad reputation, but East of the Cascade Mountains is a very different scene.
I apologize for unintentionally offending you. I didn’t mean that YOU found the area fashionable, but that the coastal interlopers do, thus driving taxes and regulation.
I don’t know how you interpreted my final sentence as applying to you, but it was not intended that way at all.
Lastly, East Tennessee is not “myopic.” The state is constitutionally divided into three regions (East, Middle & West). West Tenn voted overwhelmingly to secede in 1861. Middle Tenn voted to secede by a much closer tally. East Tenn rejected secession by an overwhelming %. The formerly racist portions of the state remain solidly Democratic and East Tenn remains true to its classic liberal heritage.
I was not offended, but I appreciate you clarifying your stance. Using myopic to describe a place I've never visited was a mistake. In the past I have considered some of the smaller communities in your area, but it has always been too far, with too much uncertainty. I will spend my remaining years West of the Mississippi.
I have moved constantly my whole life due to father’s corporate moves, my time in the Army, college, MY corporate moves & then retirement: NJ, OH, CO, MO, GA, KY, GA, PA, TX, CA, TX, TN. I’m considerably less amenable to moving now than at 30… 😂
I understand! Even a few years ago I was more open to a move, but now as I pass my middle 50s the idea is far less palatable. It feels like sticking it out will be better financially, and socially. And this is coming from someone with an almost non-existent social network! It takes so long to meet people and find some semblance of community as you get older (at least for me) that moving carries a risk of being even more isolated than I already am.
How many of the young products of elite universities on the journalism/activism/social justice track even possess the analytical tools to consider such questions?
If you look at the longer interview video at the Des Moines Register web site, the other reporter asks Vivek some coherent questions, refrains from "woke" rant.
Probably pretty close to zero. They only ask questions previously approved by their handlers, so in that way it is not substantially different than training an animal.
Even if they possess the analytical capacity, they are bred to kowtow. Nearly 100% of the young people I work with (retail mostly) are intelligent, unambitious, uninterested in anything beyond their own bodies unless it is clothing with which to adorn themselves, tattoos, more tattoos, and kowtowing to authority. I felt as if I needed to set the example for hard work, ambition, and telling the authority figure to FO.
You know the answer. (A) They do not possess the analytical tools/skills. (B) They do not believe they need said tools. Their take on observation and interpretation is, and I’m only exaggerating a little here, skim X and their favorite news sources, then regurgitate with a dose of outrage.
The latest reporting, yesterday, is that Claudine Gay AND her mentor (also a "leftist" "woke" Harvard cargo cult zombie), plagiarized and used bad data pretty systematically.
In other words, they are grossly incompetent at everything EXCEPT character assassination (the Roland Fryer case for instance) and stealing ideas from smarter, more honest people.
re: the bureaucratic cult of sociopaths, narcissists and conformists
Yep, and how many of them are interested in, or motivated to, do so?
Most are psychologically hostage to the "woke" cargo cult.
One escapee: Musa Al-Gharbi, PhD sociologist, black, heterodox-liberal. Al-Gharbi converted to Islam, so he can't be accused of being part of Christian-white-supremacist hegemony.
He willingness to not only *refuse to participate* in these Moaist struggle sessions is great, but it's also excellent that he uses James Lindsay's technique of "name the dynamic".
He says clearly "I'm not doing this with you, and it's *because* you're running a play that looks like X, Y, Z, and your question is not sincere" ...and then he goes on to reframe, and deliver the answer to the question he thinks should have been asked.
This is the correct blueprint for dealing with authoritarian wokesters, and all the other Cluster B types screaming and tantrumming around us.
> DECLINE to participate in their narcissistic performance art
> NAME the dynamic — disempower the tactic by stating what it is
> REFRAME the issue on your own terms, and state your position
He is an excellent communicator, and I hope he keeps this up. It shows others what needs to be done, and how to go about it. Good job Vivek.
Somebody, somewhere in a comment to an article I read suggested that if a Republican wins the White House, Vivek ought to be press secretary. Brilliant idea! I'd actually watch those White House briefings for once, just to see the bloodshed.
He would smack that out of the park, but it would be a waste of his talent.
He actually has a lot of great policy ideas (I recommend his book, Woke Inc), and I'd like to see him implement some of that policy. On this front, he is head and shoulders above anyone else in the race. He also has a JD from Yale, and understands the constitutional issues with taking X or Y course, and how to get things done without getting bogged down by legal challenges (something that hindered Trump).
I would like to see Vivek as Pres, but that is unlikely to be possible. Next best thing, put him in charge of something really meaty, where he can start pushing policy thru. He once joked / riffed that it might be a good idea for an incoming President to set up a "Department for Abolishing Other Departments". Of course he is jesting about the name, but the actual idea is smart. Exec could set up a new Dept dedicated to dismantling the swamp, eliminating unnecessary laws and regulation, and shrinking the size of govt. Someone like Vivek would be great in such a role.
And bring Kayleigh back as PressSec. She was fire! 🔥
Never, EVER name a subversive group (“Dept of Reducing Government”). A name makes opposition messaging MUCH easier (“The Republicans’ DRG is the ‘Dept of Throwing Orphans in the Snow’.”) Being unnamed forces the opposition to describe the effort which readers/viewers can then agree with.
Agree on Vivek’s amazing talents, but most of the needed reductions in government mission & departments will require Congressional approval, and those negotiations will be painful because they involve “taking the bacon away” from Congressional districts, and Vivek has no track record as a negotiator in a zero sum game.
BTW, what fucked over much of Trump’s policy efforts was that his idea men, Bannon and Stephen Miller both detested the 1946 “Administrative Procedure Act” which sets the rules for Executive Branch rule making. Almost every court injunction was based on failure to follow the APA. Those repeated failures were just stupid, e.g., the so-called “Muslim ban.” Banning people with visas who were IN THE AIR?!? The final version of the restrictions were coherent, fair and responsive to the very real threat, and should have been what was issued initially.
He goes into some of his policy ideas, and discusses why certain actions or policies are more plausible / implausible, based on the legal and constitutional frameworks that must be adhered to.
He seems to think that a move to zero-dollar based budgeting is legally doable, and in that respect a lot of the departments are forced to become self-shrinking. And he has floated interesting ideas for how to make massive layoffs without falling afoul of legal activism, or
stepping on congressional authority.
I chortled at your point about naming. Very true!
...I wonder if we should go a step further and call it something very difficult to oppose (the way leftists do). How about: "The Department for Improving Lives and Saving Puppies! 🐶"
...I would love to see the rhetorical hilarity that would ensue when they try to campaign *against* improving lives and saving puppies. I would pay for tickets to that show, especially if Vivek was the one playing defense. Or Kayleigh, for that matter. Fun times!
Yes, I did read Woke, Inc. Admittedly, I was much more interested in the explanation of how it imbedded in corporate managements.
I have no issue at all with his agenda. My concern is his effectiveness in negotiating with congressmen whose ox is being gored. I have the same concern about Trump. Corporate senior executives are used to rule-by-decree (e.g., Trump, Vivek, Tillerson) and sometimes do not do well with others in the sandbox.
Trump / Bannon was a great team for this reason (imo), but Bannon got frustrated and bailed out of the ship, which is a real shame. He is an effective operator, negotiator and horse trader.
Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Party of Canada leader, and Leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, has also demonstrated ample skill in this regard as he dismantles so many biased, agenda-driven questions emanating from the MSM.
I think you've zeroed in here Chris on one of THE great delusions of modern times. 'The News' has always been a fraud on account of the inevitable Editorial Selectivity (whereby for instance, some murders warrant months of agonising and outrage whereas others don't even get a mention). Hence the very CONCEPT is a fraud........the illusion that you can know what the most important thing going on in the world is (without any effort on your part) just by checking 'The News'. And then came the great MSM invention of 24/7 'current affairs' which is really mostly about keeping the great army of MSM 'news' grifters in a job. Plus of course 'The News' has long handed the Lefty intelligentsia a huge power over what ordinary folks get to hear about.... and what they don't.
I think I learned the term 'yellow journalism' in the 6th grade--somewhere between 5th-8th grades, but young. So young that I didn't have the faintest clue about partisanship or politics--but that rich media people lied to the populace to influence national decisions. Crazy, huh?!?
Only then I completely flushed that sense of cynicism & skepticism as I got older..then became part of the 'educated intelligence community'--and not only dropped my skepticism--honestly had a bit of an arrogant chip on my shoulder about being 'well informed'.
The non-left needs to learn the lesson of Target & Bud Light. All cable, all news, all legacy media needs to be dropped immediately. It is not only untrustworthy, it is contaminating our thoughts, our souls.
Chris, so much meat on this bone I just don’t know where to start. The referenced interview with Vivek goes so far beyond parody. The white liberal woman advocating for her beliefs and arguing with him loses any basis of credibility I may have been willing to concede to her with the obvious PMS episode she is experiencing. And what is with the mannequin sitting beside her? Is that a real person or did an AI generator drop her in the scene for some reason?
On our national debt situation- I have commented before that it is unsustainable and our “leaders” don’t have the ability (willingness, interest?) to self correct or change course. The best solution at this point is for the system to collapse, go through what will be a very painful time for people who aren’t prepared and hopefully come out the other side stronger and better prepared to manage our fiscal affairs more responsibly. The first step in that plan would be to get rid of the Federal Reserve and tie the value of our fiat currency to something that has real, sustainable and recognizable value (hmmm....wonder what that could be? Bueller, Bueller....)
On institutional failure- I believe this is a symptom of our national willingness to absolve anyone of any personal responsibility for anything. Between 1861 and early 1864 Lincoln went through three generals of the Army (not counting the period when Lincoln himself held that position) before finding Grant (who was not the logical or popular choice). Based on Lincoln’s demonstrated history I believe Grant’s tenure in the position would have been short lived if his performance was like that of his predecessors.
Don’t forget that they have NO intention to fix the economic situation! As many of “them” as possible are sucking up $$$$$$$$$ and cashinging out before the break happens. The break is a goal not a feature.
Obama would have forced Marshall to retire while still a 1-star due to lack of enthusiasm for DEI. Truth. Obama military purge started in 2011.
Re: the Fed – You OBVIOUSLY (😂) don’t understand how the game works. You print a Brobdingnagian amount of money which flows through Pharma and defense contractors, etc. to the upper crust stockholders, and then you raise interest rates through the roof to quell the inevitable inflation, which yields tankers full of cash to whom? The upper crust who lent you back the cash you just gave them indirectly. Who gets fucked? The average American and real estate owners who face bankruptcy.
On a less farcical note, there are only 2 ways out of $34T of national debt: default or inflation. That’s it. The prospect of paying it off over time ON TOP OF balancing future budgets is nonexistent. The required tax rates would be extraordinary. And switching to a hard asset backed currency while $34T in debt will impoverish our descendants to the end of time. I retired early at 62 (involuntarily) and started drawing a reduced SS benefit then. In the last 7 yrs I’ve received back several times my lifetime contributions. Such a system cannot (and eventually will not) continue. Medicare is even worse economically. Of course, benefit reductions are merely focusing the above tax increase on the elderly recipients of benefits for which they’ve paid only a fraction.
That MF dumped sand into our government and society by the supertanker load. And worse, 74 of Obama’s senior staff currently populates the West Wing.
From a June 2021 USA Today article:
“Among the top 100 positions filled in the first 100 days:
78 have an advanced degree.
77 worked in a previous administration and 74 worked in the Obama administration.
62 worked on the Biden campaign or the transition.
61 are white; 15 are black; 12 are Asian and 11 are Hispanic.
57 are women; 43 are men.”
So we have white, female, liberals who spent extra years on campuses being indoctrinated, who spent 8 yrs at the feet of a virulent anti-colonialist zealot & citizen-of-the-world. What could go wrong?
I was feeling pretty optimistic after our run--had a kid join us who runs cross country at college--so even though it was super slow for him, we ran almost a minute faster per mile than usual.
Then I read John's last couple of posts and I'm back to "DOOOOOOOOMED!"
Our discussion after the run today was what is the Black Swan event in 2024? China/Taiwan? Sinking of US ship in Med? Red/Blue states keep Biden/Trump off ballets? Dollar turns to Papiermark? Venezuela invades their neighbor?
Nomadic hunting/gathering culture was "doomed" when pastoralism and then later, settled agrarian city-states evolved.
Agrarian culture was "doomed" when industrialization evolved and slaves were replaced by steam engines.
The modern nation state system and scientific rationalism are "doomed" because they are being displaced by more "evolved", but currently unstable, postrmodern-planetary-pluralistic values and digital capitalism.
If the previous examples of large-scale paradigm shifts hold, postmodernism will stabilize (arguably after becoming post-postmodern).
Very optimistic, and the view is correct from a century to millennium perspective. How many people are going to die when a cyber attack kills the internet for 30 days? How many pensioners will freeze or starve here in the US?
I did not say humanity is doomed--maybe I should have been more specific. The West as we know it. Globalism. Have you read Jason Zeihan's "The End of the World I Just the Beginning"?
He's an arrogant ass, but he makes some great points.
Those who suffered 40 days and 40 nights might have thought they were doomed, but hey--Noah's family survived.
At best the creature comforts we've become so accustomed will become scarce (auto parts for an example), at worst a pretty scary dystopian nightmare for 3-10 years while things sort out. Strauss/Howe call it the 4th Turning.
On the SS evaluation are you including what the money you paid in hypothetically earned on a compounded basis over the 40 plus years you invested into the mandatory scheme?
No. Since the cash was immediately lent to the Treasury, a better measure is the reduction in interest expense enjoyed by the Treasury by virtue of having access to my enormous cash(😂). That’s a complicated exercise because of the frequency of maturities, Treasury auctions, and changing rates.
An alternative data source is the “restricted” debt issuances from the Treasury to the “Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund.” I’ve not looked to see if that data is even publicly available.
I suggest listening to a recent podcast between Jordan Peterson and Niall Ferguson about the failures of the West to respond to emergencies and the shallowness of modern "experts". Gets to this point as well. Great piece by Chris...
Not one American is truly concerned whatsoever about “white supremacy“, and that includes the left - Because it is essentially nonexistent. It is as stated here, a fake distraction. A false sensationalized argument of no true origin or merit.
Arbery's family? Didn't they get a $million settlement? More than the average dozen black people, including children, shot by gangs in Chicago on a weekend?
I was responding to another commenter’s sweeping statement that “Not one American is truly concerned whatsoever about ‘white supremacy…’”.
The Arbery family sued, but I can find nothing about a settlement. Since his death was not at the governments hands, I don’t see a George Floyd type “lottery win.” I’m sure the twice convicted defendants have no remaining assets.
Not sure about the settlement, maybe the "white supermacists" sold their suburban property/houses to pay for defense lawyers?
The "white supremacists", who claimed Arbery was a thief (a partially credible claim), were thrown under the bus by a politicized prosecution, just like Chauvin.
Breads and circuses. I see it every day. Football 5 days a week, the boys addicted to the game.
However, what I want is the followng.
1) A return to pre-9-11
2) I want the FBI to go back to investigating crimes, not manufacturing them.
3) I want the ATF to know what they are talking about.
4) I want us out of all the forever wars
5) I want my country back, as it was in the 80's and 90's. When we all got along and worked together.
6) I want the government to focus on what's important and purge the communists and marxists from the universities, academia, and from the public schools.
“80's and 90's. When we all got along and worked together.”
Are you being sarcastic? The Left vilified Reagan as a moron despite numerous nuclear arms reduction agreements and an economic boom, and the Right impeached Clinton because they couldn’t stand his political effectiveness. Do you think they actually gave a shit about a hokey land deal or a $100K profit in cattle futures, or least of all, a blow job?
The 1960s/70s were also shitty, in somewhat different ways.
The 50s were a mixed bag, but were pretty sucky in some big ways (military-industrial-complex, national security apparatus and the deep state form, bizarre foreign policy blunders and meddling such as the Mosaddegh coup in Iran).
The 40s sucked because of WW2.
The 30s sucked because of the Great Depression and the left began to institutionalize the infrastructure (expansion of the administrative state) of the future "woke" cultural revolution.
The 20s sucked because of Prohibition and the mutation of the original USA into the British Empire II (following the pattern of the Spanish-American war of 1898-99) with Woodrow Wilson expanding anti-German xenophobia and psychotic levels of war mongering, racism and various moral panics and missionary internationalist projects.
Managerial capitalism started to become entrenched (eventually giving rise to the "woke" professional-managerial class, PMC).
The Prussian/German model of public education got entrenched.
The 10s sucked because of WW1. And Jim Crow kept going and expanding after at least 40 years.
There was a "secret" labor-vs-oligarch/plutocrat civil war for 25 years from about 1890 to 1915, which Teddy Roosevelt (another psychotic war monger) ended by incorporating radical labor politics into the establishment by cartelizing labor (FDR finished that process later).
Something you left out of the ‘10s: Congress passed the 17th Amendment (direct election of Senators), which has led to State governments (and the People) being steamrolled by the Federal government as it expands infinitely.
True, but the effects of the 17A have been so tectonic, unrelenting and widespread, like the downhill snowball, that it’s driven much of the social disruption,
e.g. unlimited student loans for pointless degrees and Fed education oversight generally. There’s absolutely no way a Senate composed of members chosen by their State’s legislatures would have voted for that. The same is true for statutes authorizing Federal rules on toilets, shower heads and in our infamous VP’s case, gas stoves. Not to mention borrowing $34T. As you say, the details are endless.
Well, you open the door to the question of the basic legitimacy of "democracy", including of democratic republics.
As de Tocqueville observed, as a mad frenzy of moneymaking everywhere at all levels, the USA has no cultural center, no common culture, religion or language, EXCEPT the government, which everyone (historically) loathed and/or attempted to corrupt and exploit. (The Crédit Mobilier scandal is a well known example of how the financial elites vaporized middle class wealth in scams.)
The "left" attempted to fill that cultural vacuum (lack of center) with a fake religion (postmodernism/wokeism) via what Joel Kotkin calls the "New Clerisy".
A fellow commenter on Chris’ stack who recently said that he’d been feeling great until reading 2 of my recent posts and had reverted to “DOOOOOOOM!” 🤣
Chris, you are on fire this week. Referencing Lorenzo Warby's comment above, J-School 20 years ago was a wasteland outside of a few highly regarded schools that were probably rather full of semi-marxists even then. One can only conclude how much worse it has gotten given the present obvious failures in the profession.
All I can envision when reading this is some 1980's SNL sketch merged with "Idiocracy."
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho strides before the cameras and begins his speech with, " I denounce white supremacy.. " only to be cut off by a reporter asking if he still denounces white supremacy. He responds that he still denounces white supremacy, but has to answer the same question three more times.
His opponents look at the video and claim, "He doesn't really mean it. He never denied white supremacy at the 5:02 or the 7:19 marks on the video!"
One wonders if this dunciation business is just a tactic, or if they *truly believe* that the most vital thing a presidential candidate absolutely must do, is dunciate. Like, do they think that's all being a president is? Going on TV three times a week to say racism is bad, then spending the rest of the day drinking Bud Light?
They don't seriously believe that Vivek may be a closet white supremacist, nor are they unclear on this (brown man's) position.
What they are trying to do is "struggle session" him. Using Maoist tactics to get him to submit to conversing on their terms, and falling in line with their world view.
They use these Maoist / Marxist tactics because they work. Most people get bamboozled, frustrated, insulted or angry. And then lose their footing. Which is the whole point.
Vivek handles this correctly:
Refuse to participate > Name the dynamic / tactic > Reframe and give an answer on your own terms
I learned that from James Lindsay - never accept their [dishonest] framing, or you've already lost the argument. We are NOT actually obligated to pander to other people's mental illness, or to participate in whatever Maoist struggle session they are conducting. We can simply say "No, thank you." — the power of No.
But it's better if you say 'No', and then name the tactic / dishonest frame they are trying to deploy, because each time you do it that dissolves the power of that tactic for everyone who witnesses the interaction. So if you can refuse to play the game, then *name what that game is* ...you can show everyone else listening what this scam is, and that robs it of it's power.
I think that's very true. Break the magic spells by showing how the trick works. It totally disempowers the magician. Once people know how a trick is done, the magic is gone forever.
I like it. Can you point me to a particular James Lindsay podcast/writing where he explains this strategy in detail? I need to become much more familiar with the enemy tactics before I could name them/or the dishonest framing.
One of my problems is that when I begin to dig into this stuff--it deeply affects my mood and view on the world. I need to find the right battle rhythm to come up for air and find inspiration somewhere else to push the diabolical wretchedness from my mind/soul.
I know what you mean, it can be taxing to have to engage with this stuff. Perhaps that's why it's gotten so out of control; most of us DO NOT enjoy arguing with others, and try to avoid conflict wherever possible. That gave the authoritarian social-justice loons free reign to rampage their way through every possible institution. So I suppose if we want to reverse the car back out of this toxic cul de sac, we will have to confront these angry toddlers left and right.
It definitely is exhausting, but knowing the games they're playing helps. The one *good* thing about these people is that they're not agile thinkers. They run the same plays over and over again.
One of those plays is, as James says: "To call everything you want to control racist, until you control it".
That's one of the most common ones, so when that R word gets thrown at you to try to extract your submission, you have a better shot at taking the upper hand if you can name the play.
Thanks. Listened to it. James is a genius. One of the very few upsides to COVID is the number of brave, brilliant folks coming forward to fight. Lindsay is one of them. McCullough, Taibbi, Greenwald (two dudes I was previously 'at war' with), etc.
Thank you. This is helpful. I think having a game plan might stop the sense of despair/anger I feel at times. Also, it sucks the emotional energy I have around a topic and keeps it in the cognitive arena. You're correct they are not agile thinkers--truly no need for the adjective 'agile'--and are spoiled, angry toddlers..but I repeat myself.
I'll check it out. Have a great day. Off to the 'fat old field grade run group (FOFGRG). Handful of us meet every Sat to run and then drink coffee/have breakfast. I finally understand what all those old dudes at Denny's were doing 30 years ago...
Spot on again Chris. I watch my local news for weather and sports. I turn off the national news when it comes on. Read Substack for relevant topics. The lamestream media is a joke.
The picture of those two women interviewing Ramaswamy is perfect. Two dimwitted, self-important, purse-lipped apparatchiks dutifully serving the regime.
This follows the pattern. Ramaswamy must denounce white supremacy for the same reasons that Substack must admit and denounce its “Nazi problem.” It is irrelevant whether there is any actual evidence to support the wild claims of “white supremacy” or “Nazi infiltration.” The point is to bring the target to heel, or at least muddy the waters enough so that the mind-numbed masses have been properly educated to equate the target (Ramaswamy, Substack, etc) with “white supremacist Nazis.”
Members of the media industrial complex have two primary functions these days: (1) parrot (loud and often) regime propaganda without asking serious questions, and (2) assist the regime in undermining any person who counters the approved narrative, and any platform where free speech and free thought flourish.
These HR Karens believe it is their solemn duty to demand that Ramaswamy denounce white supremacy over and over because the regime says that white supremacy is the greatest threat to the world, and anyone who supports the Orange Man or his policies is presumed to be a white supremacist unless they convincingly denounce and recite the regime-approved incantation (duh!). Likewise, because Substack is a platform where people can read and discuss information that has not been sanitized or approved by the regime, it is obviously a haven for Nazis/white supremacists and therefore the HR Karens must demand that Substack be denounced and burned to the ground.
White people are so fearful of being labeled racists they can’t even acknowledge our achievements. Not me. we were the first to sail around the world and the first to fly to the moon and back. The British stopped the worldwide slave trade. Lots of white people died in America to free the blacks. Name me one time that has ever happened. We rebuilt Germany and Japan after the war. And don’t forget Beethoven, Shakespeare, Issac Newton, Pythagoras, Edison, Socrates, Luther, Aquinas, all the rest of our artists, scientist, political leaders, religious thinkers, etc.
Another five star post that says hey, look, here this is the flag ship metric of our crumbling American culture. Our leaders promote bankruptcy while sending the bravest, most selfless among us to their pointless deaths or dismemberment. Let's look the other way and notice only the non-existent or the trivial. Only honest elections will save our beloved America from termination via violent self-destruction. How are we doing on the honest election front? Anybody?
Do not let the American ppl off the hook for their role – ≈80M Americans actually DID vote for the Drooler-in-Chief. All the (legitimate) controversy is about a few hundred thousand votes spread amongst a few states. But a 💩-load of morons actually wanted him in office despite the overwhelming evidence of his incompetence.
Chances are you are or consider yourself to be a rational, thinking person yet you believe 80 million Americans ( more than, it was reported, legally voted for Obama ) legally voted for a man that during the campaign had a hard time filling up a high school auditorium with supporters to hear him talk. The voter fraud was massive and multi-faceted. Let's blame the victim instead. This delusion is shared by many otherwise well spoken, outspoken commentators and otherwise conservative political leaders who address the state of and prospects for our nation. All look the other way when it comes to voter fraud. The only conclusion I can draw is that the truth overwhelms their courage to face up to and campaign against the thieves that have stolen our sovereignty in self-government.
The larger the conspiracy, the more difficult it is to keep hidden. I’m interested in how tens of millions of ballots were substituted mechanically across thousands of counting facilities. And if that massive national effort was undertaken, why then the Keystone Cops routine from 3:00-6:00AM on Election Night in numerous swing states?
Aside from all that, WTF difference does it make if the Biden vote was 50M, 70M , or 80M? A 💩-load of morons voted for him. Or do you think his actual vote was 0? That 100% of Biden ballots were fraudulent?
I take it you are angry at Biden voters, have nothing but contempt for Biden voters. Yours is well placed anger and contempt. My contention is their legal votes didn't win the election in 2020 and they won't win the election for him this year. So let's focus on what did "win" the election for him last time and the only cohort which will "win" it for him this time: the election administration criminals and their criminal accomplices who are members of or supportive of the Democrat Party. Conspiracy is not the correct descriptor of what transpired. Like minded traitors to the American way of self-government used their own unique talents and wealth to collaborate to satisfy a common passion: defeat of President Trump and all his misguided supporters; misguided in their belief that ultimately the voters govern themselves. As to the "Keystone Cops routine" that was just one facet of the fraud. It was born of desperation once it was realized all their other methods of theft were likely to come up short. Keep in mind the Republican Party leadership never expressed outrage or even displeasure at the results produced or the methods used. We as sovereign citizens have a lot of battles to win to return our sovereignty.
Your inability to produce actual facts and to fall back on your own delusions is proof of the failed (irrational and lazy thinking) strategy of Trumpism.
The problem is that Trumpism won in 2016 because it exploited disruption in the information ecosystem by using Druid magic (Trump's base was the Appalachian-Celt gene pool). It was like Colin Kaepernick, it won a lot of football games because no one could understand it for a while.
Again: FACTS*
Biden won because of a very rational, scientific analysis by a Democrat political science professor of how to exploit the voting system, the ACTUAL WAY REAL PEOPLE VOTE by drumming up intense hate of Republicans.
The suburban republican (women, college educated men) that voted for Trump in 2016 in swing states faded.
Democrats worked harder and won more votes. They did it in a corrupt way, but you refuse to think rationally and actually understand why it was *legally* legitimate to use propaganda to increase votes for Democrats.
To put it in simple terms, you are stupid and you are whiny and almost as out of touch with reality as the "woke" "left".
* DEMOCRATS OVERWHELM THE VOTING PROCESS WITH INTENSE HATE IDEOLOGY.
I think Biden voters (along with all ardent liberals) believe that when they pull the plug in a bathtub, only the front half will drain because that was their “good intention.” Further, that the failure to achieve their objective was the fault of the water, and not their asinine plan.
No question their ideology is born of hate but the "voting process" was subjected to criminal and fraudulent actions, actions, that among other things switched votes, manufactured votes, destroyed ballots, counted the same ballots multiple times and on and on. Even with all that they were struck with panic election night when it looked like Trump was going to carry the five swing states. Their panic lead to simultaneously stopping counting in those states. Why did they do that? So they could see how many fraudulent votes would be needed to deny him victory. The above and much more has been exhaustively documented since the theft. It is an act of fatal cowardice to ignore what happened. Nothing insane about facing the truth.
Anna you are correct. Overwhelming it is. What is not overwhelming or even noticeable are efforts by the Republican Party leadership to make sure the election criminals, direct and indirect, are removed from the electoral process. As to e.pierce, our energies are best spent responding to others.
Hate was used by both sides to increase the number of voters. Democrats were more successful at pushing their numbers up because they removed Hillary. White suburban men that had voted for Trump in swing states switched to Biden (stupidly).
Democrats used propaganda and censorship to convince voters to vote against Trump is legitimate ways.
The propaganda and censorship is what is illegitimate, not the actual votes of the brainwashed Democrats.
You can't fix problems unless you can rationally and systematically explain them on the basis of objective facts and evidence, which you don't have.
You are a cultist, just like the lunatics on the left.
I have attempted, when I think it is appropriate, to start some of these conversations. Especially during the Afghanistan debacle. Unfortunately, I am surrounded by liberals, and even the moderate and conservative leaning people I know are not interested in the conversation. The liberals I deal with in my work life and interact with in my community are quick with comebacks about how "Trump spent a lot of money too!"
Try engaging in a political conversation on Reddit and see how many hardcore liberal women and the men that support them attack you. It isn't an easy topic and there are no clear solutions (except not deficit spending, duh) but the liberal side of the aisle uses "zingers" and ridiculous arguments to shut down any interaction. I pray there are people like me that see the problem and just choose to be quiet to prevent ugly confrontations. Most of the people I interact with that are so closed minded to discussing the problems latch on to a handful of liberal talking points, but don't actually know much about the issues.
I live in a small community in Central Oregon, and used to live in the Intermountain West in Idaho. Oregon is becoming more liberal in the high desert, and I have looked into moving back to the Intermountain West. Unfortunately, since the pandemic debacle, the wealthy work-from-home crowd have infiltrated mountain towns and recreationally focused areas of the Intermountain West, and prices have skyrocketed. Idaho, Montana, and where I live in Oregon are very beautiful, and day-to-day feel similar to years past. But, when you look at the development trends and patterns, and see how politically these areas are moving from red to purple and approaching blue in the voting patterns, it is sad and concerning. Not only are people not talking about our $34T in debt, they are changing the last bastions of conservative living by increasing the cost of living with their votes in favor of more local government spending. We all know the large west coast cities are hopelessly liberal and their policies have created a mess. But, now that many of those liberals can work from home, and they have money, they are outsourcing those beliefs to the rest of the country. How many towns in the Intermountain West plead with new comers not to "bring your failed policies here," only to have it fall on deaf ears?
If you believe the last presidential election, and midterm elections were stolen (I do) and see the shenanigans the left is pulling trying to keep Trump and now other republicans off of ballots, one can only wonder the depths the left will go to trying to "win" another election. It won't take much longer at this pace before elections are a lock for the lefties, and these policies are pushed through with increasing ease.
As a self employed person, I pay for my own health insurance, and even though it wasn't cheap, I used to be able to purchase plans based on my needs, at a price that fit my budget. I also used to be an insurance agent and sold health insurance. When the Affordable Care Act was passed, I was very disappointed in the policies available to me, and the prices I had to pay. Fast forward a decade and health insurance is unrecognizable, astronomically expensive, and if you like you doctor, tough shit. There are no private practice primary care physicians. Many are nurse practitioners more skilled at deciphering medical insurance coding, paperwork, and prescribing statins than improving health. I have changed doctors a couple of times in the past few years in an attempt to find someone competent that can treat me as an individual, but have given up. It is all the same bullshit, quoting from the higher ups and asking if you are interested in getting caught up on all the latest vaccines. The mess of health care was planned, and is a direct result of the ACA, and the plan of the left all along. Most of the RINO CONgress happily supports these policies. Or maybe they will have subcommittee meetings ranting at someone like Fauci to get soundbites but never do a damn thing about it.
Considering how far left the millennials and Gen Z lean, I suspect things will continue to degrade. I would love to be wildly wrong, but the trends of the last decade, and the polarization since Trump and the plandemic don't leave me much hope. Chris, I agree the lack of conversations about our debt and other issues is concerning. But, it seems most don't care and are more concerned with the liberal narrative than looking at the issues honestly.
A great summary of our condition, and I share your sadness about the decline of the mountain towns as a place of refuge.
I first moved to a mountain town in 1988, and have been in one or another ever since except for a few years on the San Francisco peninsula. Back then, the lefties came to visit during the holidays, then went home. Now they stay like locusts. It has been sad to witness first hand.
This is why I unsubbed to you and will again. If all I get is "we are fucked and this is why" then seriously why live? I get seriously suicidal with this shit. We are doomed and there is no hope. Just die already. I'm done. We need solutions and not just doomsday crap.
I'm not trying to tell you you're doomed and there's no hope. I'm trying to tell you that there's a calculated rhetorical effort underway to pound doom and distraction into your head, to induce helplessness. The point is to be armed against it with an awareness of how it works.
The President of the United States keeps giving ranty, angry speeches in which he says that the country is trembling on the edge of destruction: "We almost lost America!" I'm not echoing that message. I'm shining light on it to warn you against it. There's no doomsday crap here -- there's a realistic assessment of politics and media. Don't ever look for hope in politics and media. Look for hope in family, friends, community, and purpose.
You have the misfortune of wanting to live in an area that’s become “fashionable.” My wife and I, OTOH, live in the Smoky Mtns in East Tennessee (specifically in Blount County, the most reliably Republican county in the country since the Party’s founding in 1854), an area in which liberals do not deign to tread for fear of contamination by deplorables. We see liberals twice a year: in June for viewing the synchronous firefly phenomenon, and in October for peak leaf color change. A very positive recent economic and sociological development is that Smith & Wesson moved its world HQ & manufacturing from Mass. to our county seat, Maryville.
Appalachia is so derided by liberals that life continues here largely undisturbed by their insanity. They think of us as the banjo player in “Deliverance.” Our chief sin appears to be that we do not crave things that leave liberals themselves emotionally empty.
I grew up in Washington State and have spent my entire 55 years on the West Coast or Intermountain West. It isn't a matter of "having the misfortune of wanting to live in an area that has become fashionable", it is where I have lived for my whole life, and where I have built my business. Nothing about my life is about wanting to be fashionable, but rather about access to the outdoors to partake in the activities I have engaged in my entire life. I am sure the Smoky Mountains have access to some of those activities.
I have not been to the east coast, and don't have the time or money to travel around looking for a republican stronghold. While I have no doubt I may appreciate the values of Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains, there are no guarantees I will fit in and enjoy the community. Not to mention trying to earn a living. And no, I am not interested in working for Smith & Wesson. If I were to move to a more conservative area it would be Northern Idaho, not Tennessee.
I know and like many liberals, even if I disagree with their ideas about how the country should be run. Sometimes it is frustrating, and I certainly do not like the trend line, but running away from an area that largely works for me to surround myself with a myopic populace does not feel like a great option. If I were retired with money, I would likely travel to find a place that worked better. But, since I will likely never be able to retire, living someplace that is growing so I can make a living is more of a priority.
My life consists of work, eating healthy, and being immersed in outdoor activities I love like mountain biking, skiing, and trail running. Not exactly activities that leave me "emotionally empty." Portland gives Oregon a bad reputation, but East of the Cascade Mountains is a very different scene.
*I know and like many liberals*
*running away from an area that largely works for me to surround myself with a myopic populace does not feel like a great option*
Well, despite your complaints it sounds like you're exactly where you want to be. Enjoying the prosperity and macro view. Good on you.
I've lived in enough places to know that no place is perfect.
I apologize for unintentionally offending you. I didn’t mean that YOU found the area fashionable, but that the coastal interlopers do, thus driving taxes and regulation.
I don’t know how you interpreted my final sentence as applying to you, but it was not intended that way at all.
Lastly, East Tennessee is not “myopic.” The state is constitutionally divided into three regions (East, Middle & West). West Tenn voted overwhelmingly to secede in 1861. Middle Tenn voted to secede by a much closer tally. East Tenn rejected secession by an overwhelming %. The formerly racist portions of the state remain solidly Democratic and East Tenn remains true to its classic liberal heritage.
I was not offended, but I appreciate you clarifying your stance. Using myopic to describe a place I've never visited was a mistake. In the past I have considered some of the smaller communities in your area, but it has always been too far, with too much uncertainty. I will spend my remaining years West of the Mississippi.
I have moved constantly my whole life due to father’s corporate moves, my time in the Army, college, MY corporate moves & then retirement: NJ, OH, CO, MO, GA, KY, GA, PA, TX, CA, TX, TN. I’m considerably less amenable to moving now than at 30… 😂
I understand! Even a few years ago I was more open to a move, but now as I pass my middle 50s the idea is far less palatable. It feels like sticking it out will be better financially, and socially. And this is coming from someone with an almost non-existent social network! It takes so long to meet people and find some semblance of community as you get older (at least for me) that moving carries a risk of being even more isolated than I already am.
Ironically, Republicans were the "liberals" of that time (civil war, 1800s).
How many of the young products of elite universities on the journalism/activism/social justice track even possess the analytical tools to consider such questions?
Good question.
Dasha bringing an emotional support animal to her interview, that kinda underscores how fragile they are, no?
😂
Hilarious! I was wondering what the purpose of that other person was sitting there like a garden statue.
I thought it was just an AI image so she didn’t feel out numbered by Vivek.
crying 😂
If you look at the longer interview video at the Des Moines Register web site, the other reporter asks Vivek some coherent questions, refrains from "woke" rant.
Probably pretty close to zero. They only ask questions previously approved by their handlers, so in that way it is not substantially different than training an animal.
Even if they possess the analytical capacity, they are bred to kowtow. Nearly 100% of the young people I work with (retail mostly) are intelligent, unambitious, uninterested in anything beyond their own bodies unless it is clothing with which to adorn themselves, tattoos, more tattoos, and kowtowing to authority. I felt as if I needed to set the example for hard work, ambition, and telling the authority figure to FO.
You know the answer. (A) They do not possess the analytical tools/skills. (B) They do not believe they need said tools. Their take on observation and interpretation is, and I’m only exaggerating a little here, skim X and their favorite news sources, then regurgitate with a dose of outrage.
The latest reporting, yesterday, is that Claudine Gay AND her mentor (also a "leftist" "woke" Harvard cargo cult zombie), plagiarized and used bad data pretty systematically.
In other words, they are grossly incompetent at everything EXCEPT character assassination (the Roland Fryer case for instance) and stealing ideas from smarter, more honest people.
Depressingly true.
re: the bureaucratic cult of sociopaths, narcissists and conformists
Yep, and how many of them are interested in, or motivated to, do so?
Most are psychologically hostage to the "woke" cargo cult.
One escapee: Musa Al-Gharbi, PhD sociologist, black, heterodox-liberal. Al-Gharbi converted to Islam, so he can't be accused of being part of Christian-white-supremacist hegemony.
I really like Vivek.
He willingness to not only *refuse to participate* in these Moaist struggle sessions is great, but it's also excellent that he uses James Lindsay's technique of "name the dynamic".
He says clearly "I'm not doing this with you, and it's *because* you're running a play that looks like X, Y, Z, and your question is not sincere" ...and then he goes on to reframe, and deliver the answer to the question he thinks should have been asked.
This is the correct blueprint for dealing with authoritarian wokesters, and all the other Cluster B types screaming and tantrumming around us.
> DECLINE to participate in their narcissistic performance art
> NAME the dynamic — disempower the tactic by stating what it is
> REFRAME the issue on your own terms, and state your position
He is an excellent communicator, and I hope he keeps this up. It shows others what needs to be done, and how to go about it. Good job Vivek.
Somebody, somewhere in a comment to an article I read suggested that if a Republican wins the White House, Vivek ought to be press secretary. Brilliant idea! I'd actually watch those White House briefings for once, just to see the bloodshed.
He would smack that out of the park, but it would be a waste of his talent.
He actually has a lot of great policy ideas (I recommend his book, Woke Inc), and I'd like to see him implement some of that policy. On this front, he is head and shoulders above anyone else in the race. He also has a JD from Yale, and understands the constitutional issues with taking X or Y course, and how to get things done without getting bogged down by legal challenges (something that hindered Trump).
I would like to see Vivek as Pres, but that is unlikely to be possible. Next best thing, put him in charge of something really meaty, where he can start pushing policy thru. He once joked / riffed that it might be a good idea for an incoming President to set up a "Department for Abolishing Other Departments". Of course he is jesting about the name, but the actual idea is smart. Exec could set up a new Dept dedicated to dismantling the swamp, eliminating unnecessary laws and regulation, and shrinking the size of govt. Someone like Vivek would be great in such a role.
And bring Kayleigh back as PressSec. She was fire! 🔥
Never, EVER name a subversive group (“Dept of Reducing Government”). A name makes opposition messaging MUCH easier (“The Republicans’ DRG is the ‘Dept of Throwing Orphans in the Snow’.”) Being unnamed forces the opposition to describe the effort which readers/viewers can then agree with.
Agree on Vivek’s amazing talents, but most of the needed reductions in government mission & departments will require Congressional approval, and those negotiations will be painful because they involve “taking the bacon away” from Congressional districts, and Vivek has no track record as a negotiator in a zero sum game.
BTW, what fucked over much of Trump’s policy efforts was that his idea men, Bannon and Stephen Miller both detested the 1946 “Administrative Procedure Act” which sets the rules for Executive Branch rule making. Almost every court injunction was based on failure to follow the APA. Those repeated failures were just stupid, e.g., the so-called “Muslim ban.” Banning people with visas who were IN THE AIR?!? The final version of the restrictions were coherent, fair and responsive to the very real threat, and should have been what was issued initially.
Agree 110% on Kayleigh!
Have you read his book? [Woke Inc]
He goes into some of his policy ideas, and discusses why certain actions or policies are more plausible / implausible, based on the legal and constitutional frameworks that must be adhered to.
He seems to think that a move to zero-dollar based budgeting is legally doable, and in that respect a lot of the departments are forced to become self-shrinking. And he has floated interesting ideas for how to make massive layoffs without falling afoul of legal activism, or
stepping on congressional authority.
I chortled at your point about naming. Very true!
...I wonder if we should go a step further and call it something very difficult to oppose (the way leftists do). How about: "The Department for Improving Lives and Saving Puppies! 🐶"
...I would love to see the rhetorical hilarity that would ensue when they try to campaign *against* improving lives and saving puppies. I would pay for tickets to that show, especially if Vivek was the one playing defense. Or Kayleigh, for that matter. Fun times!
Yes, I did read Woke, Inc. Admittedly, I was much more interested in the explanation of how it imbedded in corporate managements.
I have no issue at all with his agenda. My concern is his effectiveness in negotiating with congressmen whose ox is being gored. I have the same concern about Trump. Corporate senior executives are used to rule-by-decree (e.g., Trump, Vivek, Tillerson) and sometimes do not do well with others in the sandbox.
Yes, I'd agree with that.
Trump / Bannon was a great team for this reason (imo), but Bannon got frustrated and bailed out of the ship, which is a real shame. He is an effective operator, negotiator and horse trader.
Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Party of Canada leader, and Leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, has also demonstrated ample skill in this regard as he dismantles so many biased, agenda-driven questions emanating from the MSM.
I think you've zeroed in here Chris on one of THE great delusions of modern times. 'The News' has always been a fraud on account of the inevitable Editorial Selectivity (whereby for instance, some murders warrant months of agonising and outrage whereas others don't even get a mention). Hence the very CONCEPT is a fraud........the illusion that you can know what the most important thing going on in the world is (without any effort on your part) just by checking 'The News'. And then came the great MSM invention of 24/7 'current affairs' which is really mostly about keeping the great army of MSM 'news' grifters in a job. Plus of course 'The News' has long handed the Lefty intelligentsia a huge power over what ordinary folks get to hear about.... and what they don't.
Great post by the way.
'Remember the Maine!'
I think I learned the term 'yellow journalism' in the 6th grade--somewhere between 5th-8th grades, but young. So young that I didn't have the faintest clue about partisanship or politics--but that rich media people lied to the populace to influence national decisions. Crazy, huh?!?
Only then I completely flushed that sense of cynicism & skepticism as I got older..then became part of the 'educated intelligence community'--and not only dropped my skepticism--honestly had a bit of an arrogant chip on my shoulder about being 'well informed'.
The non-left needs to learn the lesson of Target & Bud Light. All cable, all news, all legacy media needs to be dropped immediately. It is not only untrustworthy, it is contaminating our thoughts, our souls.
bsn
Lies by omission. My favorite kind.
Chris, so much meat on this bone I just don’t know where to start. The referenced interview with Vivek goes so far beyond parody. The white liberal woman advocating for her beliefs and arguing with him loses any basis of credibility I may have been willing to concede to her with the obvious PMS episode she is experiencing. And what is with the mannequin sitting beside her? Is that a real person or did an AI generator drop her in the scene for some reason?
On our national debt situation- I have commented before that it is unsustainable and our “leaders” don’t have the ability (willingness, interest?) to self correct or change course. The best solution at this point is for the system to collapse, go through what will be a very painful time for people who aren’t prepared and hopefully come out the other side stronger and better prepared to manage our fiscal affairs more responsibly. The first step in that plan would be to get rid of the Federal Reserve and tie the value of our fiat currency to something that has real, sustainable and recognizable value (hmmm....wonder what that could be? Bueller, Bueller....)
On institutional failure- I believe this is a symptom of our national willingness to absolve anyone of any personal responsibility for anything. Between 1861 and early 1864 Lincoln went through three generals of the Army (not counting the period when Lincoln himself held that position) before finding Grant (who was not the logical or popular choice). Based on Lincoln’s demonstrated history I believe Grant’s tenure in the position would have been short lived if his performance was like that of his predecessors.
Our military today could use a George Marshall. https://www.historynet.com/failure-not-option/
Don’t forget that they have NO intention to fix the economic situation! As many of “them” as possible are sucking up $$$$$$$$$ and cashinging out before the break happens. The break is a goal not a feature.
Obama would have forced Marshall to retire while still a 1-star due to lack of enthusiasm for DEI. Truth. Obama military purge started in 2011.
Re: the Fed – You OBVIOUSLY (😂) don’t understand how the game works. You print a Brobdingnagian amount of money which flows through Pharma and defense contractors, etc. to the upper crust stockholders, and then you raise interest rates through the roof to quell the inevitable inflation, which yields tankers full of cash to whom? The upper crust who lent you back the cash you just gave them indirectly. Who gets fucked? The average American and real estate owners who face bankruptcy.
On a less farcical note, there are only 2 ways out of $34T of national debt: default or inflation. That’s it. The prospect of paying it off over time ON TOP OF balancing future budgets is nonexistent. The required tax rates would be extraordinary. And switching to a hard asset backed currency while $34T in debt will impoverish our descendants to the end of time. I retired early at 62 (involuntarily) and started drawing a reduced SS benefit then. In the last 7 yrs I’ve received back several times my lifetime contributions. Such a system cannot (and eventually will not) continue. Medicare is even worse economically. Of course, benefit reductions are merely focusing the above tax increase on the elderly recipients of benefits for which they’ve paid only a fraction.
No easy choices.
Re: Marshall, sadly you are right. A lot of todays roads lead back to Obama don’t they?
That MF dumped sand into our government and society by the supertanker load. And worse, 74 of Obama’s senior staff currently populates the West Wing.
From a June 2021 USA Today article:
“Among the top 100 positions filled in the first 100 days:
78 have an advanced degree.
77 worked in a previous administration and 74 worked in the Obama administration.
62 worked on the Biden campaign or the transition.
61 are white; 15 are black; 12 are Asian and 11 are Hispanic.
57 are women; 43 are men.”
So we have white, female, liberals who spent extra years on campuses being indoctrinated, who spent 8 yrs at the feet of a virulent anti-colonialist zealot & citizen-of-the-world. What could go wrong?
I was feeling pretty optimistic after our run--had a kid join us who runs cross country at college--so even though it was super slow for him, we ran almost a minute faster per mile than usual.
Then I read John's last couple of posts and I'm back to "DOOOOOOOOMED!"
Our discussion after the run today was what is the Black Swan event in 2024? China/Taiwan? Sinking of US ship in Med? Red/Blue states keep Biden/Trump off ballets? Dollar turns to Papiermark? Venezuela invades their neighbor?
Violence post election?
So many choices...
bsn
So sorry… 👍
Nomadic hunting/gathering culture was "doomed" when pastoralism and then later, settled agrarian city-states evolved.
Agrarian culture was "doomed" when industrialization evolved and slaves were replaced by steam engines.
The modern nation state system and scientific rationalism are "doomed" because they are being displaced by more "evolved", but currently unstable, postrmodern-planetary-pluralistic values and digital capitalism.
If the previous examples of large-scale paradigm shifts hold, postmodernism will stabilize (arguably after becoming post-postmodern).
Very optimistic, and the view is correct from a century to millennium perspective. How many people are going to die when a cyber attack kills the internet for 30 days? How many pensioners will freeze or starve here in the US?
I did not say humanity is doomed--maybe I should have been more specific. The West as we know it. Globalism. Have you read Jason Zeihan's "The End of the World I Just the Beginning"?
He's an arrogant ass, but he makes some great points.
Those who suffered 40 days and 40 nights might have thought they were doomed, but hey--Noah's family survived.
At best the creature comforts we've become so accustomed will become scarce (auto parts for an example), at worst a pretty scary dystopian nightmare for 3-10 years while things sort out. Strauss/Howe call it the 4th Turning.
bsn
On the SS evaluation are you including what the money you paid in hypothetically earned on a compounded basis over the 40 plus years you invested into the mandatory scheme?
After the 1930s, the Great Depression, people were less trustful of the excesses of finance capitalism.
That made it a lot easier for FDR to fuse corporations to the state and elevate managerialism.
No. Since the cash was immediately lent to the Treasury, a better measure is the reduction in interest expense enjoyed by the Treasury by virtue of having access to my enormous cash(😂). That’s a complicated exercise because of the frequency of maturities, Treasury auctions, and changing rates.
An alternative data source is the “restricted” debt issuances from the Treasury to the “Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund.” I’ve not looked to see if that data is even publicly available.
I’m safe because all my SS money went into a lockbox reserved specifically for me! 😁
Guaranteed by Al Gore’s personal investment in Al Jazeera!
I suggest listening to a recent podcast between Jordan Peterson and Niall Ferguson about the failures of the West to respond to emergencies and the shallowness of modern "experts". Gets to this point as well. Great piece by Chris...
Do you have a link or more specific information on that broadcast? I can’t seem to find it.
Sorry, it was with Niall Ferguson. I was thinking about Meade but meant Ferguson. My bad. It was on Peterson's podcast from December 11.
It’s from a year ago: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/326-israel-russia-china-iran-the-world-in-conflict/id1184022695?i=1000596779723
Not one American is truly concerned whatsoever about “white supremacy“, and that includes the left - Because it is essentially nonexistent. It is as stated here, a fake distraction. A false sensationalized argument of no true origin or merit.
I think you’re largely right, but I don’t think the survivors of Ahmaud Arbery would agree with you.
Arbery's family? Didn't they get a $million settlement? More than the average dozen black people, including children, shot by gangs in Chicago on a weekend?
I was responding to another commenter’s sweeping statement that “Not one American is truly concerned whatsoever about ‘white supremacy…’”.
The Arbery family sued, but I can find nothing about a settlement. Since his death was not at the governments hands, I don’t see a George Floyd type “lottery win.” I’m sure the twice convicted defendants have no remaining assets.
re: Bonfire of the Vanities
Not sure about the settlement, maybe the "white supermacists" sold their suburban property/houses to pay for defense lawyers?
The "white supremacists", who claimed Arbery was a thief (a partially credible claim), were thrown under the bus by a politicized prosecution, just like Chauvin.
My comment is in context of voters , candidates , issues that really matter to them ..
Breads and circuses. I see it every day. Football 5 days a week, the boys addicted to the game.
However, what I want is the followng.
1) A return to pre-9-11
2) I want the FBI to go back to investigating crimes, not manufacturing them.
3) I want the ATF to know what they are talking about.
4) I want us out of all the forever wars
5) I want my country back, as it was in the 80's and 90's. When we all got along and worked together.
6) I want the government to focus on what's important and purge the communists and marxists from the universities, academia, and from the public schools.
That would be a very large purge.
Your terms are acceptable.
Narrow it down.
Debt.
Border.
Forever wars.
Surely the American population can concentrate on just 3 items.
Ha
Not sure which one to replace, but “Job-killing regulations” most directly affects quality of life.
“80's and 90's. When we all got along and worked together.”
Are you being sarcastic? The Left vilified Reagan as a moron despite numerous nuclear arms reduction agreements and an economic boom, and the Right impeached Clinton because they couldn’t stand his political effectiveness. Do you think they actually gave a shit about a hokey land deal or a $100K profit in cattle futures, or least of all, a blow job?
The 80s & 90s were politically unpleasant.
The 1960s/70s were also shitty, in somewhat different ways.
The 50s were a mixed bag, but were pretty sucky in some big ways (military-industrial-complex, national security apparatus and the deep state form, bizarre foreign policy blunders and meddling such as the Mosaddegh coup in Iran).
The 40s sucked because of WW2.
The 30s sucked because of the Great Depression and the left began to institutionalize the infrastructure (expansion of the administrative state) of the future "woke" cultural revolution.
The 20s sucked because of Prohibition and the mutation of the original USA into the British Empire II (following the pattern of the Spanish-American war of 1898-99) with Woodrow Wilson expanding anti-German xenophobia and psychotic levels of war mongering, racism and various moral panics and missionary internationalist projects.
Managerial capitalism started to become entrenched (eventually giving rise to the "woke" professional-managerial class, PMC).
The Prussian/German model of public education got entrenched.
The 10s sucked because of WW1. And Jim Crow kept going and expanding after at least 40 years.
There was a "secret" labor-vs-oligarch/plutocrat civil war for 25 years from about 1890 to 1915, which Teddy Roosevelt (another psychotic war monger) ended by incorporating radical labor politics into the establishment by cartelizing labor (FDR finished that process later).
1870s: Reconstruction failed, Jim Crow started.
1860s: Civil War
Something you left out of the ‘10s: Congress passed the 17th Amendment (direct election of Senators), which has led to State governments (and the People) being steamrolled by the Federal government as it expands infinitely.
the details are endless. my point is that social systems evolve and go through paradigm shifts as a result of disruption.
the "woke" cultural-left is addicted to endless outrage and moral panics (egregores)
any legitimate opposition to "wokeism" should avoid moral panics.
True, but the effects of the 17A have been so tectonic, unrelenting and widespread, like the downhill snowball, that it’s driven much of the social disruption,
e.g. unlimited student loans for pointless degrees and Fed education oversight generally. There’s absolutely no way a Senate composed of members chosen by their State’s legislatures would have voted for that. The same is true for statutes authorizing Federal rules on toilets, shower heads and in our infamous VP’s case, gas stoves. Not to mention borrowing $34T. As you say, the details are endless.
Well, you open the door to the question of the basic legitimacy of "democracy", including of democratic republics.
As de Tocqueville observed, as a mad frenzy of moneymaking everywhere at all levels, the USA has no cultural center, no common culture, religion or language, EXCEPT the government, which everyone (historically) loathed and/or attempted to corrupt and exploit. (The Crédit Mobilier scandal is a well known example of how the financial elites vaporized middle class wealth in scams.)
The "left" attempted to fill that cultural vacuum (lack of center) with a fake religion (postmodernism/wokeism) via what Joel Kotkin calls the "New Clerisy".
Careful – you’ll put Brian Nelson on DOOM alert. 😂
who?
A fellow commenter on Chris’ stack who recently said that he’d been feeling great until reading 2 of my recent posts and had reverted to “DOOOOOOOM!” 🤣
Spot on. Exactly how I feel
Chris, you are on fire this week. Referencing Lorenzo Warby's comment above, J-School 20 years ago was a wasteland outside of a few highly regarded schools that were probably rather full of semi-marxists even then. One can only conclude how much worse it has gotten given the present obvious failures in the profession.
An old-timer surgically dissects the failures of the present form of "journalism" (which is mostly just propaganda).
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-1.php
Note that Aaron Mate, a leftist and a real investigative journalist, was censored by the FBI, at the request of Ukraine.
#twitterfiles exposed some of the details of the connection between corrupt, govt funded censorship schemes and corrupt govt funded propaganda schemes
All I can envision when reading this is some 1980's SNL sketch merged with "Idiocracy."
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho strides before the cameras and begins his speech with, " I denounce white supremacy.. " only to be cut off by a reporter asking if he still denounces white supremacy. He responds that he still denounces white supremacy, but has to answer the same question three more times.
His opponents look at the video and claim, "He doesn't really mean it. He never denied white supremacy at the 5:02 or the 7:19 marks on the video!"
This is both awesome in its humor and horrific in its reality.
Nicely detailed description of the features of the IC psyop that seeks to create a color revolution here in the USA.
America watches cat videos while southern border is invaded (peacefully).
But in fairness, the Texas Minute Men were suppressed.
One wonders if this dunciation business is just a tactic, or if they *truly believe* that the most vital thing a presidential candidate absolutely must do, is dunciate. Like, do they think that's all being a president is? Going on TV three times a week to say racism is bad, then spending the rest of the day drinking Bud Light?
They don't seriously believe that Vivek may be a closet white supremacist, nor are they unclear on this (brown man's) position.
What they are trying to do is "struggle session" him. Using Maoist tactics to get him to submit to conversing on their terms, and falling in line with their world view.
They use these Maoist / Marxist tactics because they work. Most people get bamboozled, frustrated, insulted or angry. And then lose their footing. Which is the whole point.
Vivek handles this correctly:
Refuse to participate > Name the dynamic / tactic > Reframe and give an answer on your own terms
Great point. As soon as you buy into it you're tacitly admitting that they have a point.
Yeah, exactly this.
I learned that from James Lindsay - never accept their [dishonest] framing, or you've already lost the argument. We are NOT actually obligated to pander to other people's mental illness, or to participate in whatever Maoist struggle session they are conducting. We can simply say "No, thank you." — the power of No.
But it's better if you say 'No', and then name the tactic / dishonest frame they are trying to deploy, because each time you do it that dissolves the power of that tactic for everyone who witnesses the interaction. So if you can refuse to play the game, then *name what that game is* ...you can show everyone else listening what this scam is, and that robs it of it's power.
I think that's very true. Break the magic spells by showing how the trick works. It totally disempowers the magician. Once people know how a trick is done, the magic is gone forever.
JJIN,
I like it. Can you point me to a particular James Lindsay podcast/writing where he explains this strategy in detail? I need to become much more familiar with the enemy tactics before I could name them/or the dishonest framing.
One of my problems is that when I begin to dig into this stuff--it deeply affects my mood and view on the world. I need to find the right battle rhythm to come up for air and find inspiration somewhere else to push the diabolical wretchedness from my mind/soul.
bsn
Yes, for sure — he has one of his 'bullets' (short podcasts, on just one topic) where he covers this: https://newdiscourses.com/2023/06/name-the-dynamic/
I know what you mean, it can be taxing to have to engage with this stuff. Perhaps that's why it's gotten so out of control; most of us DO NOT enjoy arguing with others, and try to avoid conflict wherever possible. That gave the authoritarian social-justice loons free reign to rampage their way through every possible institution. So I suppose if we want to reverse the car back out of this toxic cul de sac, we will have to confront these angry toddlers left and right.
It definitely is exhausting, but knowing the games they're playing helps. The one *good* thing about these people is that they're not agile thinkers. They run the same plays over and over again.
One of those plays is, as James says: "To call everything you want to control racist, until you control it".
That's one of the most common ones, so when that R word gets thrown at you to try to extract your submission, you have a better shot at taking the upper hand if you can name the play.
Thanks. Listened to it. James is a genius. One of the very few upsides to COVID is the number of brave, brilliant folks coming forward to fight. Lindsay is one of them. McCullough, Taibbi, Greenwald (two dudes I was previously 'at war' with), etc.
bsn
Thank you. This is helpful. I think having a game plan might stop the sense of despair/anger I feel at times. Also, it sucks the emotional energy I have around a topic and keeps it in the cognitive arena. You're correct they are not agile thinkers--truly no need for the adjective 'agile'--and are spoiled, angry toddlers..but I repeat myself.
I'll check it out. Have a great day. Off to the 'fat old field grade run group (FOFGRG). Handful of us meet every Sat to run and then drink coffee/have breakfast. I finally understand what all those old dudes at Denny's were doing 30 years ago...
bsn
yep, "woke" is a dogmatic, intolerant cult, an offshoot of elements of the marxist "left" that were/are a Christian heresy.
And going to the beach
Pretty much, yeah.
Worked for Obama.
Spot on again Chris. I watch my local news for weather and sports. I turn off the national news when it comes on. Read Substack for relevant topics. The lamestream media is a joke.
NewsNation [NN] is less bad. They are at least superficially claiming to be balanced and "independent".
Have been down with food poisoning, so I'm way behind on messages. Back at it today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbHxwsE2ZAI
The picture of those two women interviewing Ramaswamy is perfect. Two dimwitted, self-important, purse-lipped apparatchiks dutifully serving the regime.
This follows the pattern. Ramaswamy must denounce white supremacy for the same reasons that Substack must admit and denounce its “Nazi problem.” It is irrelevant whether there is any actual evidence to support the wild claims of “white supremacy” or “Nazi infiltration.” The point is to bring the target to heel, or at least muddy the waters enough so that the mind-numbed masses have been properly educated to equate the target (Ramaswamy, Substack, etc) with “white supremacist Nazis.”
Members of the media industrial complex have two primary functions these days: (1) parrot (loud and often) regime propaganda without asking serious questions, and (2) assist the regime in undermining any person who counters the approved narrative, and any platform where free speech and free thought flourish.
These HR Karens believe it is their solemn duty to demand that Ramaswamy denounce white supremacy over and over because the regime says that white supremacy is the greatest threat to the world, and anyone who supports the Orange Man or his policies is presumed to be a white supremacist unless they convincingly denounce and recite the regime-approved incantation (duh!). Likewise, because Substack is a platform where people can read and discuss information that has not been sanitized or approved by the regime, it is obviously a haven for Nazis/white supremacists and therefore the HR Karens must demand that Substack be denounced and burned to the ground.
"...dimwitted, self-important, purse-lipped apparatchiks."
Right? I can feel that image in my bones.
White people are so fearful of being labeled racists they can’t even acknowledge our achievements. Not me. we were the first to sail around the world and the first to fly to the moon and back. The British stopped the worldwide slave trade. Lots of white people died in America to free the blacks. Name me one time that has ever happened. We rebuilt Germany and Japan after the war. And don’t forget Beethoven, Shakespeare, Issac Newton, Pythagoras, Edison, Socrates, Luther, Aquinas, all the rest of our artists, scientist, political leaders, religious thinkers, etc.
Another five star post that says hey, look, here this is the flag ship metric of our crumbling American culture. Our leaders promote bankruptcy while sending the bravest, most selfless among us to their pointless deaths or dismemberment. Let's look the other way and notice only the non-existent or the trivial. Only honest elections will save our beloved America from termination via violent self-destruction. How are we doing on the honest election front? Anybody?
Do not let the American ppl off the hook for their role – ≈80M Americans actually DID vote for the Drooler-in-Chief. All the (legitimate) controversy is about a few hundred thousand votes spread amongst a few states. But a 💩-load of morons actually wanted him in office despite the overwhelming evidence of his incompetence.
Chances are you are or consider yourself to be a rational, thinking person yet you believe 80 million Americans ( more than, it was reported, legally voted for Obama ) legally voted for a man that during the campaign had a hard time filling up a high school auditorium with supporters to hear him talk. The voter fraud was massive and multi-faceted. Let's blame the victim instead. This delusion is shared by many otherwise well spoken, outspoken commentators and otherwise conservative political leaders who address the state of and prospects for our nation. All look the other way when it comes to voter fraud. The only conclusion I can draw is that the truth overwhelms their courage to face up to and campaign against the thieves that have stolen our sovereignty in self-government.
BTW:
Trump 2020: 74,223,975
Obama 2012: 65,915,795
Do you think Trump’s number was 🐄💩 too?
The larger the conspiracy, the more difficult it is to keep hidden. I’m interested in how tens of millions of ballots were substituted mechanically across thousands of counting facilities. And if that massive national effort was undertaken, why then the Keystone Cops routine from 3:00-6:00AM on Election Night in numerous swing states?
Aside from all that, WTF difference does it make if the Biden vote was 50M, 70M , or 80M? A 💩-load of morons voted for him. Or do you think his actual vote was 0? That 100% of Biden ballots were fraudulent?
I take it you are angry at Biden voters, have nothing but contempt for Biden voters. Yours is well placed anger and contempt. My contention is their legal votes didn't win the election in 2020 and they won't win the election for him this year. So let's focus on what did "win" the election for him last time and the only cohort which will "win" it for him this time: the election administration criminals and their criminal accomplices who are members of or supportive of the Democrat Party. Conspiracy is not the correct descriptor of what transpired. Like minded traitors to the American way of self-government used their own unique talents and wealth to collaborate to satisfy a common passion: defeat of President Trump and all his misguided supporters; misguided in their belief that ultimately the voters govern themselves. As to the "Keystone Cops routine" that was just one facet of the fraud. It was born of desperation once it was realized all their other methods of theft were likely to come up short. Keep in mind the Republican Party leadership never expressed outrage or even displeasure at the results produced or the methods used. We as sovereign citizens have a lot of battles to win to return our sovereignty.
Your inability to produce actual facts and to fall back on your own delusions is proof of the failed (irrational and lazy thinking) strategy of Trumpism.
The problem is that Trumpism won in 2016 because it exploited disruption in the information ecosystem by using Druid magic (Trump's base was the Appalachian-Celt gene pool). It was like Colin Kaepernick, it won a lot of football games because no one could understand it for a while.
Again: FACTS*
Biden won because of a very rational, scientific analysis by a Democrat political science professor of how to exploit the voting system, the ACTUAL WAY REAL PEOPLE VOTE by drumming up intense hate of Republicans.
The suburban republican (women, college educated men) that voted for Trump in 2016 in swing states faded.
Democrats worked harder and won more votes. They did it in a corrupt way, but you refuse to think rationally and actually understand why it was *legally* legitimate to use propaganda to increase votes for Democrats.
To put it in simple terms, you are stupid and you are whiny and almost as out of touch with reality as the "woke" "left".
* DEMOCRATS OVERWHELM THE VOTING PROCESS WITH INTENSE HATE IDEOLOGY.
https://newrepublic.com/article/156402/hate-ballot
newrepublic. com /article/156402/hate-ballot
lol, Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
"To put it in simple terms, you are stupid and you are whiny and almost as out of touch with reality as the "woke" "left"." Ad hom is not an argument.
I think Biden voters (along with all ardent liberals) believe that when they pull the plug in a bathtub, only the front half will drain because that was their “good intention.” Further, that the failure to achieve their objective was the fault of the water, and not their asinine plan.
You apparently haven't bothered to look for sane explanations (of political insanity). Here is one:
DEMOCRATS OVERWHELM THE VOTING PROCESS WITH INTENSE HATE IDEOLOGY.
https://newrepublic.com/article/156402/hate-ballot
newrepublic. com /article/156402/hate-ballot
No question their ideology is born of hate but the "voting process" was subjected to criminal and fraudulent actions, actions, that among other things switched votes, manufactured votes, destroyed ballots, counted the same ballots multiple times and on and on. Even with all that they were struck with panic election night when it looked like Trump was going to carry the five swing states. Their panic lead to simultaneously stopping counting in those states. Why did they do that? So they could see how many fraudulent votes would be needed to deny him victory. The above and much more has been exhaustively documented since the theft. It is an act of fatal cowardice to ignore what happened. Nothing insane about facing the truth.
e.pierce has appointed himself master of the playground. Anyone who doesn't kowtow to his opinions gets insults.
Seriously the fraud was so rampant, varied and pervasive you'd have to blind or in serious denial to not see it. The evidence is OVERWHELMING.
Anna you are correct. Overwhelming it is. What is not overwhelming or even noticeable are efforts by the Republican Party leadership to make sure the election criminals, direct and indirect, are removed from the electoral process. As to e.pierce, our energies are best spent responding to others.
*** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL *** TROLL ***
Your mental dysfunction is OVERWHELMING. And stupid.
Your rhetoric is repulsively mindless and devoid of actual evidence.
SO, THANK YOU FOR PROVING MY POINT:
You are an insane, delusional ideological tribalist that constantly PROJECTS your mental dysfunction. Your groupthink is absurd.
You are lying.
Hate was used by both sides to increase the number of voters. Democrats were more successful at pushing their numbers up because they removed Hillary. White suburban men that had voted for Trump in swing states switched to Biden (stupidly).
Democrats used propaganda and censorship to convince voters to vote against Trump is legitimate ways.
The propaganda and censorship is what is illegitimate, not the actual votes of the brainwashed Democrats.
You can't fix problems unless you can rationally and systematically explain them on the basis of objective facts and evidence, which you don't have.
You are a cultist, just like the lunatics on the left.
Thank you for your interest in my comments.
lol