177 Comments
author

Have work that I need to finish today, and am sincerely hoping to mostly be offline. Hundreds of emails behind, and it'll get worse before it gets better. I'll catch up later this week.

Expand full comment

the panic continues as they lose their monopoly that they’ve had for so long. check this quote from his latest book “Our Own Worst Enemies”…

"Tom Nichols challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and anti-democratic movements in the United States and elsewhere as the result of the deprivations of globalization or the malign decisions of elites. Rather, he places the blame for the rise of illiberalism on the people themselves.”

that’s right folks, it’s our fault.

y’know, he does have a few points about the dumbing down of the American electorate. the irony though, is that the only solution to the problem of stupid people voting is to take that power away from them...and to become an autocracy of elites! is he so blinded by contempt that he can’t see this? wait, don’t answer...

Expand full comment
author

Cruel. Cruel to make me aware of this existence of this book. I went and read the Amazon preview, and now I'll be struggling with waves of nausea all day.

Expand full comment

hey, you started it.

Expand full comment
May 8·edited May 8Liked by Chris Bray

Power is like money in that it’s not so much that you want to take it away from other people, but that you want to have it for yourself - because you are so much better, more deserving, wiser, . . . Special.

Expand full comment
May 7Liked by Chris Bray

(Tom Nichols) Narcissist much? Always blame the victim(s).

Expand full comment
author

In the introduction to "Our Own Worst Enemy," he says that society is in trouble because people aren't granting their obedient submission to – this is a real phrase that he actually uses – "intellectuals like me."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdH3BZVaOPU

Expand full comment
May 8Liked by Chris Bray

This is the endgame of progressivism, which started around 1890. They've always been this way.

Expand full comment
May 8Liked by Chris Bray

SMH

I must say, I'm getting good at picking them out. Married to one for 38 years, I ought'a be gettin' good at it. 😉

Expand full comment
May 7Liked by Chris Bray

Our democracy is in grave danger- we must immediately suspend elections!

Expand full comment
author

Your participation in self-governance is extremely important, so shut up!

Expand full comment

Orwell's 1984 was, in fact, a model, not the warning that we stupid people thought it was.

War in fact is Peace. Ignorance in fact is Strength. And Freedom in fact is Slavery. If we allow Newspeak to control language, thereby controlling idea and thought.

It must be mocked incessantly, as Chris mocks the Atlantic. And rejected. Live not by lies. The lies of cunning linguists be damned.

Expand full comment

Didn’t Zelensky do that?

Expand full comment

Yep. I think he told Nancy Pelosi that he was trying to "save democracy." 🤪

Expand full comment

And who do you think gave him that idea? His financiers!

Expand full comment

Be pragmatic; if the there are no elections, they can't be rigged!

Expand full comment

Well, at least the situation would be more honest…

Expand full comment

True, but the powers in control now would remain in power …

Expand full comment

It’s coming, folks, it’s coming! If they can’t cheat their way to victory, or assassinate their way to victory, what’s left? They sure as hell are going to do anything and everything to make sure they stay in power!

Expand full comment
May 7Liked by Chris Bray

That magazine has become the National Lampoon of empty status-driven credentialism: Save democracy from Trump or we'll shoot this dog!

Expand full comment

Gonna call Kristi Noem?

Expand full comment

Or, more likely, her ghost writer.

Expand full comment

Ah Kristi, you should have someone read it before it was printed in your name. She is Toast.

Expand full comment

She shot her writer too?

Expand full comment

The Applebaums and the Nichols, along with the Joy Reids and Maddows, and the harpies on The View, they all say this same stuff over and over. OK, we've heard you, you think we're stupid and deplorable, now move on, for God's sake. Are you all just one-trick ponies? Isn't there something else you think about? Maybe something else going on in the world you might want to discuss? Don't you people ever get tired talking about this same thing forever?

I've noticed this about Bill Maher lately; he's been coming down hard on the stupidity of the Leftists recently (yay!), but he always, every time, has to add a dig about Trump, even if he has to torture his monologue to fit it in. He just can't let it go.

Expand full comment

It is not enough that the objects of the propaganda repeat the holy words; they must BELIEVE them. – “1984”

Expand full comment

It's a requirement for his continued employment.

Expand full comment

The dim recesses of his brain understand the truth, but it's more than his consciousness can handle. And it would ruin his brand, so...

Expand full comment
May 7Liked by Chris Bray

Actually, smart (as in sophistry) whores are available for hire in EVERY profession.

Expand full comment

fitting description for experts.

Expand full comment

It is Steve Jobs' widow who is writing the checks at The Atlantic.

Lots of checks with lots of zeroes.

Expand full comment

The Atlantic is Laurene Powell Jobs’ menstrual rag

Expand full comment

Nah born in '63. Those viper eggs have all rotted years ago. She does this rather as a sort of substitute reproduction. And everytime we read it and get stupider and more miserable we become a bit more like her so it sorta works. It just seems like a bloody tampon.

Expand full comment

Zeroes for zeroes.

Expand full comment
founding

Remember when conspiracy theories required patience?

This is a mind fuck. They're outflanking with so many conspiracies that there's nothing but the truth left:

Whatever the opposite of what they're saying.

They've taken all the fun out if it. It's like betting on games when you already know the outcome.

Expand full comment

yeah, I just look at my watch and say to myself: cue moral outrage bg actors stage left. focus spotlight on masked stage fight center stage. cue tanks ... and cut. "Over to you, Bob."

Expand full comment
founding

lololol! you're good Suzanne!

Expand full comment

lol thanks. this is how I saw J6 by the way. the cabal pulled the plug on Tucker because he was gonna show all the behind the scenes camera roll that showed the actors coming out of their makeup trailers, imo. (though Tucker is still a limited hangout.)

Expand full comment

Would that be Bob from the NSA?

Expand full comment

Aren’t they all named Bob? 😉

Expand full comment

I guess "Bob" is the job title.

Expand full comment
founding

You two are cracking me up!

Expand full comment

Maybe they all belong to the Church of the Sub-Genius?

Expand full comment

Like that Twilight Zone episode where Hell is always winning the bets. Where's the fun, the hunger for the next bet?

Expand full comment
founding

Good call. I forgot that one!

Expand full comment

Or kissing your sister- what an arrogant pissant.

Expand full comment

“Name someone who has more obvious contempt for democratic pluralism and the character of his fellow citizens.”

Barack Obama

Hilary Clinton

Chuck Schumer

Meathead

Paul Ryan

Expand full comment

Meathead is the de facto governor of California. Oh, how we have sunk.

Expand full comment

When I read brain droppings like that, it makes me realize how much I miss PJ O'Rourke.

Expand full comment
May 7Liked by Chris Bray

Great piece Chris ! Thank you !

Expand full comment

Nichols would benefit from a hitch in the Marine Corps. Do you suppose he's smart enough to be a farmer? Also, anyone who doesn't believe that the powerful would conspire with each other for their own benefit is a little slow.

These five rules of propaganda have been known for a long time, and they are certainly not original with myself. They can be found on the internet through searches, but I don't think that the powerful really like them being known. Please send them around so that more people will be aware of them. Ideally get them posted in school classrooms. Thank You.

The Five Rules of Propaganda

1. The rule of simplification - reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.

2. The rule of disfiguration - discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.

3. The rule of transfusion - manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.

4. The rule of unanimity - presenting one's viewpoint as if it were unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure , and by 'psychological contagion'.

5. The rule of orchestration - endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.

https://drp314.substack.com/p/propaganda-thoughts

https://drp314.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-conspiracy-theories

Expand full comment

So for my hate to be truly laser, focused, I need an image in my head.

I looked up Tom Nichols, read his bio on Wikipedia.

Over educated clown, who’s never had to wear a flack vest. Taught at the Naval College,

I have a special flavor of vile and contempt I keep just for people like this.

In my former line of work, competence, and leadership are the two things that matter.

One of the greatest insults, and one that still makes me laugh to this day, “that dude is so bad he could not lead a group of fat women to a box of chicken.”

Whoever first said those words had Tom Nichols in mind.

bsn

Expand full comment

I have no dislike of those who haven’t served, unless they display disdain or worse for those who have. And then there’s John Kerry and his “joke” about “getting stuck in Iraq.”

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=john+kerry+stuck+iraq&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.snopes.com%2Ftachyon%2Fimages%2Fphotos%2Fpolitics%2Fgraphics%2Fkerrysign_small.jpg%3Fresize%3D480%2C229

Expand full comment

As a rule, neither do I...but I do have issue with those 'leeches' whose entire livelihoods are dependent upon the DOD, but have zero experience and high contempt for those who do wear the uniform. This dude strikes me as one of those guys--but well hidden. He may love to be around Navy Captains & Commanders, but would crawl out of his skin to be stuck in the general mess...

bsn

Expand full comment

Many people teach at the Naval College who have never been in the military,

Expand full comment

I know. In all of my military training--I always preferred the uniformed instructors. I was just looking for more reasons to despise this character--and I have run across some of these chaps before. Marshal Center types, but with little to no skin in the game. They have always irritated me.

bsn

Expand full comment

"Viewed 2.5 million times!" Two assumptions he makes: 1) that all those viewers were in the U.S. or Europe. It's a big world ya know. 2) that viewing means agreement. Maybe they viewed the tweet and just rolled their eyes at it. "Whatever."

Expand full comment

If he had the courage of his convictions he wouldn’t care that only 2.5 million people looked at it. Then again if he had the courage of his convictions he wouldn’t have the need to block people from seeing his pearls of wisdom.

These people think intellectual rigor is beneath them.

Expand full comment

They're quite opportunistic about deploying the appeal to popularity. Citing views in the first place is odd too, since this same type as Nichols will ramble like a derelict about "Russian bot farms" out of the other side of its mouth. So it's a detail at front of mind for them. They are like unironic cosplayers of Larry Sanders Show characters

Expand full comment
May 7Liked by Chris Bray

Sir, congratulations on being blocked by a rogues gallery of dimwit propagandists

Expand full comment
May 15Liked by Chris Bray

(“3.6 Roentgen? Not great, not terrible.”)

I am re-watching Chernobyl for the umpteenth time this week!

Expand full comment
May 11·edited May 11Liked by Chris Bray

I for one feel very secure and content that we have gatekeepers protecting our democracy like Tom. Could you imagine a world without Anne and Tom tag teaming to democracysplain to us little folk? Why, I just can't.

What we need is more Tom & Anne. They oughta have a show. Democracy needs more devastating take downs of antidemocratic clowns who believe everything they hear and read in the nether-regions of the Internet. It's actually critical that they do now that I think of it.

Can't have people going around believing in conspiracy theories about COVID and climate change. It's just too dangerous to our democracy. And if you don't agree, why, you're just a big meanie bigot who wants to erase our grand democracy led by great minds What will it take for people to understand 'The Experts (tm)' know what's best. Where's YOUR degree in Disinformational Tech? Exactly.

We must defer all critical thought to Tim & Ann. Or was it Tom & Anne?

I forget. Whatever.

More please.

Expand full comment