Writers like Friedman and French appeal to the vanity of their readers need for moral preening. It's a vanity and a moral superiority based entirely on status and not having accomplished anything. If that side of the aisle abandoned this appeal, they'd have nothing to offer.
Friedman now strikes me as an anti-writer: the more words he ejaculates, the less he says. Which, now that I think about it, encompasses pretty much the entirety of "media" as we know it.
“You must have compassion. You must ache for the poor and disenfranchised. You must fear for the vulnerable. You must weep for the ill and infirm. You must pray for those who are without hope. You must be kind to the less fortunate.”
YOU MUST ache, YOU MUST fear, YOU MUST weep, YOU MUST pray, YOU MUST be kind...
Who wrote this, a general, a priest, a journalist or a televangelist?
First, how many people in all of recorded history have ever achieved anything like this? Second, who asked our politicians and journalists to be our moral shepherds? Third, does anyone inside the impenetrable bubble of our Imperial City ever notice that our supposed betters have unlimited love for the whole planet except for anyone who disagrees w them or disobeys any aspect of their agenda?
As the Hebrews said to Moses once they got sick of wandering in the desert: "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?"
The story of 21st-century America thus far is the elite class' campaign to hog not only ALL the assets but also ALL the virtue. Everything else is a footnote.
“…who asked our politicians & journalists to be our moral shepherds?” We’d get better morality from streetwalkers who are at least honest about what they are & what they do….
I think of the modern journalist as the town whore who imagines she's entitled to give the Sunday sermon. But, like you said, I have much more respect for someone who sells their body rather than somebody who sells their soul.
Dontcha know these mimes will say anything and dance to any song, expecting us to pay the time for their "crimes" just so they can make it to the next cool kids party on time? Who are we to question what songs they dance to? We'll get our RSVP when the hangovers due. I mean they can't help it, they like rock 'n roll CP! It's THEIR dance floor after all... now clean it up peasants or we'll make you put quarters in next time!
Only after they cut down the last "tree" and poison the last "river"....and only after they've eaten the last "fish" will they find you can't eat money...or buy a soul. In the meantime they'll continue to give their sermons, with god tucked under their arms, expecting us to follow THEIR rules until the last cocktail party in the Imperial City
They are clueless. These people couldn't even change out a door knob. To them,we are the "help" and it is for our own good the palace gates are locked. We should be thankful when we get the invite to change out the doors to the walls of The Palace. Pray tell, what would come of the peasants if we didn't keep the filth out.
They'll find out soon enough, that you can only ask the salt of the earth to salt their own fields, expecting a bounty, for the feast in the banquet halls and ballrooms for so long before the only "seasoning" the courtiers have left is salt in their tears.
They're getting nervous we're on to their moral preening about how noble it is for the serfs to sacrifice so the nobility can luxeriate in decadence. But their days coming.There are only so many chateaus that can be given out in feudal tenure before there's no more homesteads left to grant. And when that happens the serfs will turn on their masters.
Eventually The Palace will be revealed as just a carnival of mirrors. Gotta feeling they're about to have their hall of mirrors shattered!
Qhat do you mean that we will have to put the quarters in the machine next time? We've had to put the quarters in the machine ao that all can do their pedophile line dance at least since I was a mid teen and that's 35 years ago if not decades before.
I'm going to break with the general thought of the article and give an opinion which may not be popular for those on the right, but I could care less as the right needs to be raked over the coals just like the left.
The imagery of what a man is according to the right as sewn in the press is just as much a fantasy as the let's gentle nurturer male. Republican men aren't macho. Unless you consider The Village People macho. Republican men are quiet and effete. At least those who fall within the political class. They go along to get along and do nothing unless told to out of fear of optics making them look bad.
Take a good hard look at Mitch McDonnell. That is an alpha male republican. Their manly men are soft and sickly looking as they are the hen pecked beta male.
By contrast, democrat men are predatory bullies. Even their swishiest homo members are more manly looking.
Real men aren't macho nor do they have vagina envy. They don't need to be shown videos of what they need to look like or worse how to act. Especially by a navy squeal. Real men are civilizations protectors and all that encompasses being a protector. What do we protect? The creators. That is our sole job. To protect those who create. Everything else is not important.
But as far as the pews in concerned. The right being macho is what they wish they were. The left being compassionate and nurturing is because that is what they wish they were.
David French, it appears was a JAG officer. I have yet to meet a JAG officer who laughs out loud--which happens to be the most attractive trait I find in any person-male or female. Loud laughing, it seems to me, is synonymous with courage.
These morally preening--perfect description Chris--humorless, self-loathing, (and it seems always scheming) people who take themselves so seriously are the WORST. Tediously obnoxious--toxic to the testosterone fueled TOCs/JOCs/Team Rooms/battlefields of combat. These types are the ones Joe knows instinctively to avoid, but sadly many company grade officers are forced to interact with.
He's the kind of officer who gets taken from his tent and 100-mph taped (duct tape for the real world) to the main gun of a tank.
Hulk, Kid Rock, and Dana were having fun you fbomb idiot! Can't you see that? Oh, right...no you can't. You've never been comfortable in a locker room, a team room, anywhere when boys/men set the hierarchy by rat-tail towels, quick witted BS, teasing, and making fun of each other--how men actually test one another. David French fails these tests, so he despises the men who meet these rites of passage.
Brian, you hit the target center mass. This French phony is the kind of subservient beta-male that populates the Demo-Rat party currently. Spineless. Vapid. Venal.
A man’s worth is based on his last accomplishment. Therefore, the never ending honey-do list from the missus. Keep fixing things, building things, because this is what men do. If you can’t fix it, I’ll find someone else who can.
Feelings don’t help. Weeping doesn’t help. Thinking about the poor and downtrodden doesn’t fix my broken water pipe.
This is not to say men shouldn’t be compassionate or empathetic. However, these qualities should not be the primary driver.
This French moron is weak and mealy-mouthed. He has the luxury of, in his ivory tower, to hold his beliefs.
Chris, again I thank you for reading this drivel and presenting your analysis to save me my brain cells.
DUDE! In September, I begin carpentry/construction--depends upon which tech college I choose. Foundations, flooring, walls, windows, doors, ceilings, roofs, electrical, plumbing!!! AND, I am using my ridiculously generous Post 911 GI Bill (I have 17 months remaining) SO I WILL ACTUALLY DRAW A $2200/MONTH PAYCHECK to go learn how to be a functional adult male!!! I am giddy. So excited. I find myself daydreaming of fixing a few nagging items in the house, doubling our patio out back, making a deck, building a shed, building a sauna...what a blessing!
I was talking with the VA dude. Have to be in a certificate or degree program, but I was like-bro, I don't need another English or Math class...can I instead take welding?
I haven't been this excited to go to school, maybe ever!
Our oldest son realized his degree in psychology wasn't going to pay any bills and recently apprenticed himself to an electrician. He loves it. All the years growing up with an electrician dad and he never considered the trades, although he did love fixing cars for a while. He calls his dad almost every night to go over the regs for one or another installation. I'm really pleased.
Your wife is going to be excited too. I consider myself spoiled by having a husband who worked in a bunch of construction trades and who can fix or build just about anything. Even with his current autoimmune issues that impact his walking, he still manages to do amazing stuff.
I have often thought we've gotten it all wrong, especially with men. If our pre-frontal cortex doesn't fully develop until 25--why in the hell are we teaching stuff that requires a fully developed brain?
Why wouldn't we want to teach our boys/men to be useful with their hands in the material world--then get an undergraduate degree at night when you're 25-35ish? The humanities were boring...until they are not. Most of the friends I have and have had over the years--rarely, if ever thought about the truly deep questions of life until we've had enough experience to understand what those classics were trying to say.
There are likely exceptions, but most men would likely be happier, more successful, more grounded, more responsible, if we learned functional trades--learned to be of service--in our late teens/early twenties.
Because the people increasingly in charge of academia are largely unhappy, self-absorbed women (sorry, fellow normal women, it's true) who have thoroughly damaged the profession by twisting it to their own warped, ideological ends. They have worked hard to convince impressionable young people, and their equally impressionable parents, that college/university is the only correct path post-high school.
At a young age I was pulled out of class for additional 'specialized' education from 1st grade on...all leading towards an academic future. Never thought much about it, the 'system' told me I was smart, and accepted it.
The underlying, implied message was that working with your hands was for dumb people. Never said explicitly, but that was certainly the message.
It was also the message that joining the military was for those without a future. I am fortunate the military standards allowed me to join back then. AND that I finished my work in class before I pestered everyone around me or I would have had my mouth stuffed with Ritalin and never been able to join the Army.
The idea of a trade NEVER crossed my mind, nor the minds of any of my friends. NEVER. Such a tragedy for millions of young men and women. Get a mortgage at 18 for an education that qualifies you to squirt vanilla into a latte...
I would go a bit further to say that our entire culture has bent the knee to these same unhappy women who own HR and destroyed the culture of healthy businesses. I was chastised for asking an applicant if he played ball in school, if he was married, what music and radio stations he listened to.
I wanted to know if he'd fit on my team. The childless, obese HR director let me know that essentially every question I had I could not ask, and I could only ask questions I didn't care to know...
Right?! I have an outdoor faucet that leaks. Need to go underneath the house, cut off the pipe, and weld another piece in place. A plumber will charge me more than I want to spend, so I've been cheap and got a longer hose for backyard faucet to drag around when I want to pressure wash the porch/drive.
Learning how to do all of this...hard to describe how excited I am.
Yeah man, I'm super grateful. During the lockdowns, I almost, almost started a PhD program. It would have been interesting, but I likely would have fought with woke late 20-something/30-somethings about my papers.
I'm glad I held onto my GI Bill, now I know what I really want to learn. I'll be in class from 0800-noon, learning to craft/create/make/design...this is just one more example of how blessed to have stumbled into the military at a glassy-eyed 19 year old.
But French's strategic weeping gets him published in the NY Times, despite writing from his lowly ivory tower at Lipscomb University (original name Nashville Bible School). How many evangelicals can top that?
I think true evangelicals would likely see a publication in The NY Times as a sacrifice to BAAL or some other demon. Selling the soul for 30 pieces of gold.
"Strategic weeping..." Oh, I can't! The number of quote worthy stuff in this comment section is brilliant. Love to see a whiner take down! Journalism has been taken over by 'we have 100 days to save our country' trauma-porn from our vapid female crowd and wimps like French and other never-Trumpers (Jonah Goldberg comes to mind) who can't seem to criticise with substance. It's all so ridiculous.
When the locker room is properly led, we learn the difference between good-natured teasing and outright bullying. Who stops the bully? Optimally, his friends before the actual terrorizing begins. We learn to stand up to our own side who is acting like a boar--that is what being responsible is about.
The strong are supposed to protect the vulnerable, the weak--but there are other ways for men like French to become accepted--and often that is humor/quick wit. It seems to me he is resentful of his own God-given abilities and resents the men who were always stronger, more accepted than him.
Resentment. That is the poison that kills all of us if we are not careful.
I believe you are on to something if we were able to do research. I believe we would find Beta boy. French was the recipient of atomic wedges And swirlies all through elementary, junior and high school. He was that pathetic loser boy, that would run to the guidance counselor and cry in her office, and then the regular guys would get called in and yelled at for picking on the poor little Sissy boy. And the next day it would all start over. So being a pathetic little snowflake Beta is the only thing he's ever known.Of course he is scared of Masculine males , he does not understand What it means to be a man nor will he ever be one. He will always be a pathetic snowflake Sissy Beta.Useless little cry, baby.
He could have learned to use his wit to belong. The kid that runs to the guidance counselor or their mom or their boss--they often become directors of HR and ruin life for the employees of a company.
He never learned to fight back or be funny or belong in a way that doesn't require athleticism. In my tightest group of friends, two of us were athletes, two were HORRIBLE athletes but SOO FUNNY! SOO SMART! Such delights to be around. 35 years later, we text at least every couple of weeks and talk every 2-3 months.
I have absolutely zero interest in Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan or Dana White. I'm in a totally different space culturally and aesthetically. I really don't care if they spoke at the RNC. I just want Trump to kick Kamala's butt in November. I guess that was a macho way of putting it lol.
I've heard of Hogan and Kid Rock, sorta, but I had to ask my sons who Dana White is. These guys appeal to a certain demographic (not mine), but hey! big tent, people.
Compare Trump's rhetoric--the way he talks, the words he uses--to Biden's. It's too broad a topic to wrap up in a comment section.
But didn't French hear the various threats Biden has made in the past 3 1/2 years against conservatives, Republicans, the unvaccinated? What does French think of keeping millions of unvaccinated people out of public places in 2021 and 2022?
Ah yes, David French. Right up there with David Frum, another Neoconservative (and liberal globalist Canadian). I laughed out loud at the paragraph about showing compassion etc, as it is exactly what the bible teaches and was a great quote.
I did some digging and his Wiki says he is an Evangelical Christian. It also says: "In November 2022, French announced that he had "changed his mind" on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, although stating he was still morally opposed to the matter. He wrote that his "reasoning tracked my lifelong civil libertarian beliefs""
None, and I mean absolutely none, of the evangelical Christians believe that one. He literally put his morality aside to play politics. Well David, I'm sorry your Libertarian-lefty neocon-neoshitlib politics beat out your religion. Maybe you'll find it in a sock drawer someday.
If any of these guys from either side of the aisle had any real courage or real compassion they would be talking about the vaccine injured and what we can do to help them; and the crime that was committed that injured them in the first place. But alas, Democrats and Republicans alike are hiding from the conversation like a pathetic little bunch of cowards. I think they are all feckless wimps at this point. I am minding my manners with my language here. My true thoughts are more colorful.
I think it is also the 60+million people who want their own behavior during the lockdowns to be memory-holed. Remember how they wished death upon the unvaxed, how they cheered when conservatives died, how they gleefully wanted you to 'show me ze papers'...It is worse than you write, it is probably 85% of the Biden voters. Same people who wished the sniper hadn't missed. Lots of hate out there. Lots.
And still, I choose life. I choose joy and hope and laughter. I choose peace and faith and forbearance.
I hear you Brian, and I don't disagree. But I proactively choose to be well and to hold a sacred space for happiness rooted in traditional values and god-centered purpose.
And yet, we don’t hate back. We have better, bigger things to do. We recognize the reptile people and their useless corporate media, but we have richer, more satisfying lives to live.
And we know what we need to do to save our country. Unlike these lefty lizards, we don’t have to shout and mewl like children.
I am 100% behind the America of the first two and last one year of President Trump's MAGA America.
I say this. The reason the Presidential election was stolen in 2020 was because not enough Americans hated the lawfare waged against the President after 2015. Too many Americans thought they had 'bigger, better things to do' so they let the obama machine set the playbook that has destroyed the Republic.
Those richer, more satisfying lives are about to come crashing down and the lives you envisaged for your children are about to be erased by the illegal mercenaries you have allowed into your states, the governors and mayors you have idly allowed to set up the *safe zones* around your districts. I'd say that, unfortunately, you have no idea how to save the country from the obama/clinton/soros machine.
When people can only produce ad hominem attacks in a contest it usually means they have nothing substantive to use as a point of attack.
Trump has already shown us that he’s not a warmonger. Mattis on the other hand is famous for saying that when he meets someone for the first time, the thing he cogitates upon before anything else is developing a plan to kill them.
Navy SEALS are some of the most highly trained killers in the world. I could be wrong, but I gave reason to doubt that they are weeping as they pull the trigger on the target.
This is just distraction for the orcs. And David French is just another regime shill spouting whatever it is he spouts when they put a quarter in his slot. He’s a “conservative” so if you’re a “conservative” you better pay attention when he writes something. And if you’re not a conservative then his crazy must those MAGA people be if they won’t get onboard with a NY Times board certified “conservative”. (Now available in wimp flavor!)
As for Hulk Hogan, I think it’s pretty clear that the convention delegates knew when he was being serious and when he was playing the Hulk. Hell, he even took off his stage persona in the middle of his endorsement.
The Dems are sucking wind. Kamala and whoever else they put in this Hindenburg to ride it out are going down. They have nothing but more projection, distraction, dishonesty, and gloom to offer. Don’t vote for that. It’ll rot your teeth.
The weird thing about French is he always struck me as a genuinely good and sincere person, and I enjoy his Advisory Opinions podcast. But he’s SO mired in Trump Derangement Syndrome and it leads him down paths of such obvious stupidity. It’s a shame.
Trump/COVID broke many a brain. I used to enjoy Sam Harris--his meditation app was great. Then he completely lost his shit, made me think maybe mediation is harmful! That's what I emailed his team when they asked me to renew membership...tell Sam that he's kinda proven his brain is broken, so I'm not going to do anything he ever recommends again.
For a long time, I perceived TDS as a rhetorical flourish to describe a set of reflexive responses to DJT’s odd behavior and unorthodox manner.
I now see it as an actual mental illness; a terrible mind virus that has undone many previously interesting (or tolerable at least) commentators and pundits, left and right.
Your second paragraph says it all, and quite succinctly…they’re playing critic not because they have legitimate criticisms to offer, they criticize “because they’re supposed to.”
The price of being able rub shoulders with the rich and famous and tell their friends they’re “journalists” and write for the NYT is nothing less than their integrity.
These people are a sad lot who have destroyed a once honorable profession.
this country has become focused on industries based on manipulation with language like marketing, politics and law, and less and less about building, or producing...much to our detriment.
Looking back at French’s writing and his twitter declarations, none of it has aged particularly well.
He is a specialist at playing the role of the moral arbiter. Problem is he thinks he actually is a moral arbiter.
After his short departure from X when he declared it had little utility and was being filled with hate —code for he didn’t like it as a platform where he could be challenged—
he returned to post about his ill spouse. The irony was clearly unknown to him in his time of pain. self awareness escaped him even in that difficult moment.
Writers like Friedman and French appeal to the vanity of their readers need for moral preening. It's a vanity and a moral superiority based entirely on status and not having accomplished anything. If that side of the aisle abandoned this appeal, they'd have nothing to offer.
Yes, and well said.
Friedman now strikes me as an anti-writer: the more words he ejaculates, the less he says. Which, now that I think about it, encompasses pretty much the entirety of "media" as we know it.
Yes.
Therefore, to normal people, they have nothing to offer.
Mick,
I borrowed your 'moral preening' and falsely attributed that to Mr Bray. Well said. It is a perfect description.
bsn
Narcissism...
Correct and well-put
“You must have compassion. You must ache for the poor and disenfranchised. You must fear for the vulnerable. You must weep for the ill and infirm. You must pray for those who are without hope. You must be kind to the less fortunate.”
YOU MUST ache, YOU MUST fear, YOU MUST weep, YOU MUST pray, YOU MUST be kind...
Who wrote this, a general, a priest, a journalist or a televangelist?
First, how many people in all of recorded history have ever achieved anything like this? Second, who asked our politicians and journalists to be our moral shepherds? Third, does anyone inside the impenetrable bubble of our Imperial City ever notice that our supposed betters have unlimited love for the whole planet except for anyone who disagrees w them or disobeys any aspect of their agenda?
As the Hebrews said to Moses once they got sick of wandering in the desert: "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?"
The story of 21st-century America thus far is the elite class' campaign to hog not only ALL the assets but also ALL the virtue. Everything else is a footnote.
To paraphrase Sam Kinison the left presents the illusion that they care.
The only thing the left is liberal about is other peoples money and other peoples genitals.
“…who asked our politicians & journalists to be our moral shepherds?” We’d get better morality from streetwalkers who are at least honest about what they are & what they do….
I think of the modern journalist as the town whore who imagines she's entitled to give the Sunday sermon. But, like you said, I have much more respect for someone who sells their body rather than somebody who sells their soul.
Well put another dime in the jukebox, baby!
Dontcha know these mimes will say anything and dance to any song, expecting us to pay the time for their "crimes" just so they can make it to the next cool kids party on time? Who are we to question what songs they dance to? We'll get our RSVP when the hangovers due. I mean they can't help it, they like rock 'n roll CP! It's THEIR dance floor after all... now clean it up peasants or we'll make you put quarters in next time!
Only after they cut down the last "tree" and poison the last "river"....and only after they've eaten the last "fish" will they find you can't eat money...or buy a soul. In the meantime they'll continue to give their sermons, with god tucked under their arms, expecting us to follow THEIR rules until the last cocktail party in the Imperial City
They are clueless. These people couldn't even change out a door knob. To them,we are the "help" and it is for our own good the palace gates are locked. We should be thankful when we get the invite to change out the doors to the walls of The Palace. Pray tell, what would come of the peasants if we didn't keep the filth out.
They'll find out soon enough, that you can only ask the salt of the earth to salt their own fields, expecting a bounty, for the feast in the banquet halls and ballrooms for so long before the only "seasoning" the courtiers have left is salt in their tears.
They're getting nervous we're on to their moral preening about how noble it is for the serfs to sacrifice so the nobility can luxeriate in decadence. But their days coming.There are only so many chateaus that can be given out in feudal tenure before there's no more homesteads left to grant. And when that happens the serfs will turn on their masters.
Eventually The Palace will be revealed as just a carnival of mirrors. Gotta feeling they're about to have their hall of mirrors shattered!
Qhat do you mean that we will have to put the quarters in the machine next time? We've had to put the quarters in the machine ao that all can do their pedophile line dance at least since I was a mid teen and that's 35 years ago if not decades before.
I'm going to break with the general thought of the article and give an opinion which may not be popular for those on the right, but I could care less as the right needs to be raked over the coals just like the left.
The imagery of what a man is according to the right as sewn in the press is just as much a fantasy as the let's gentle nurturer male. Republican men aren't macho. Unless you consider The Village People macho. Republican men are quiet and effete. At least those who fall within the political class. They go along to get along and do nothing unless told to out of fear of optics making them look bad.
Take a good hard look at Mitch McDonnell. That is an alpha male republican. Their manly men are soft and sickly looking as they are the hen pecked beta male.
By contrast, democrat men are predatory bullies. Even their swishiest homo members are more manly looking.
Real men aren't macho nor do they have vagina envy. They don't need to be shown videos of what they need to look like or worse how to act. Especially by a navy squeal. Real men are civilizations protectors and all that encompasses being a protector. What do we protect? The creators. That is our sole job. To protect those who create. Everything else is not important.
But as far as the pews in concerned. The right being macho is what they wish they were. The left being compassionate and nurturing is because that is what they wish they were.
Can't disagree. Well said.
Well said as always CP....damn virtue hogs!
David French, it appears was a JAG officer. I have yet to meet a JAG officer who laughs out loud--which happens to be the most attractive trait I find in any person-male or female. Loud laughing, it seems to me, is synonymous with courage.
These morally preening--perfect description Chris--humorless, self-loathing, (and it seems always scheming) people who take themselves so seriously are the WORST. Tediously obnoxious--toxic to the testosterone fueled TOCs/JOCs/Team Rooms/battlefields of combat. These types are the ones Joe knows instinctively to avoid, but sadly many company grade officers are forced to interact with.
He's the kind of officer who gets taken from his tent and 100-mph taped (duct tape for the real world) to the main gun of a tank.
Hulk, Kid Rock, and Dana were having fun you fbomb idiot! Can't you see that? Oh, right...no you can't. You've never been comfortable in a locker room, a team room, anywhere when boys/men set the hierarchy by rat-tail towels, quick witted BS, teasing, and making fun of each other--how men actually test one another. David French fails these tests, so he despises the men who meet these rites of passage.
bsn
Brian, you hit the target center mass. This French phony is the kind of subservient beta-male that populates the Demo-Rat party currently. Spineless. Vapid. Venal.
A man’s worth is based on his last accomplishment. Therefore, the never ending honey-do list from the missus. Keep fixing things, building things, because this is what men do. If you can’t fix it, I’ll find someone else who can.
Feelings don’t help. Weeping doesn’t help. Thinking about the poor and downtrodden doesn’t fix my broken water pipe.
This is not to say men shouldn’t be compassionate or empathetic. However, these qualities should not be the primary driver.
This French moron is weak and mealy-mouthed. He has the luxury of, in his ivory tower, to hold his beliefs.
Chris, again I thank you for reading this drivel and presenting your analysis to save me my brain cells.
Thanks Brian! Speaking of honey-do's...
DUDE! In September, I begin carpentry/construction--depends upon which tech college I choose. Foundations, flooring, walls, windows, doors, ceilings, roofs, electrical, plumbing!!! AND, I am using my ridiculously generous Post 911 GI Bill (I have 17 months remaining) SO I WILL ACTUALLY DRAW A $2200/MONTH PAYCHECK to go learn how to be a functional adult male!!! I am giddy. So excited. I find myself daydreaming of fixing a few nagging items in the house, doubling our patio out back, making a deck, building a shed, building a sauna...what a blessing!
I was talking with the VA dude. Have to be in a certificate or degree program, but I was like-bro, I don't need another English or Math class...can I instead take welding?
I haven't been this excited to go to school, maybe ever!
bsn
Our oldest son realized his degree in psychology wasn't going to pay any bills and recently apprenticed himself to an electrician. He loves it. All the years growing up with an electrician dad and he never considered the trades, although he did love fixing cars for a while. He calls his dad almost every night to go over the regs for one or another installation. I'm really pleased.
Your wife is going to be excited too. I consider myself spoiled by having a husband who worked in a bunch of construction trades and who can fix or build just about anything. Even with his current autoimmune issues that impact his walking, he still manages to do amazing stuff.
I have often thought we've gotten it all wrong, especially with men. If our pre-frontal cortex doesn't fully develop until 25--why in the hell are we teaching stuff that requires a fully developed brain?
Why wouldn't we want to teach our boys/men to be useful with their hands in the material world--then get an undergraduate degree at night when you're 25-35ish? The humanities were boring...until they are not. Most of the friends I have and have had over the years--rarely, if ever thought about the truly deep questions of life until we've had enough experience to understand what those classics were trying to say.
There are likely exceptions, but most men would likely be happier, more successful, more grounded, more responsible, if we learned functional trades--learned to be of service--in our late teens/early twenties.
bsn
Because the people increasingly in charge of academia are largely unhappy, self-absorbed women (sorry, fellow normal women, it's true) who have thoroughly damaged the profession by twisting it to their own warped, ideological ends. They have worked hard to convince impressionable young people, and their equally impressionable parents, that college/university is the only correct path post-high school.
That's why.
At a young age I was pulled out of class for additional 'specialized' education from 1st grade on...all leading towards an academic future. Never thought much about it, the 'system' told me I was smart, and accepted it.
The underlying, implied message was that working with your hands was for dumb people. Never said explicitly, but that was certainly the message.
It was also the message that joining the military was for those without a future. I am fortunate the military standards allowed me to join back then. AND that I finished my work in class before I pestered everyone around me or I would have had my mouth stuffed with Ritalin and never been able to join the Army.
The idea of a trade NEVER crossed my mind, nor the minds of any of my friends. NEVER. Such a tragedy for millions of young men and women. Get a mortgage at 18 for an education that qualifies you to squirt vanilla into a latte...
I would go a bit further to say that our entire culture has bent the knee to these same unhappy women who own HR and destroyed the culture of healthy businesses. I was chastised for asking an applicant if he played ball in school, if he was married, what music and radio stations he listened to.
I wanted to know if he'd fit on my team. The childless, obese HR director let me know that essentially every question I had I could not ask, and I could only ask questions I didn't care to know...
bsn
Yes! Learn to weld! I was never very good at it, but I always loved the concept that I was melting steel.
Right?! I have an outdoor faucet that leaks. Need to go underneath the house, cut off the pipe, and weld another piece in place. A plumber will charge me more than I want to spend, so I've been cheap and got a longer hose for backyard faucet to drag around when I want to pressure wash the porch/drive.
Learning how to do all of this...hard to describe how excited I am.
bsn
This is way cool, Brian. Good for you. I've actually been thinking about doing something like this after my children are raised.
Sorta back to my roots. Full circle to the salt of the earth.
Ryan,
Yeah man, I'm super grateful. During the lockdowns, I almost, almost started a PhD program. It would have been interesting, but I likely would have fought with woke late 20-something/30-somethings about my papers.
I'm glad I held onto my GI Bill, now I know what I really want to learn. I'll be in class from 0800-noon, learning to craft/create/make/design...this is just one more example of how blessed to have stumbled into the military at a glassy-eyed 19 year old.
bsn
That’s outstanding! I’m inspired. I’m giving up my creative writing class and I’m going to take up carpentry!
One of these days.
Brian! Keep the writing! Writing is also an act of creation. Don't stop that! Just take the carpentry next.
bsn
Best of luck young man! I'm sure that you will be a great success.
Sir,
You gave me a good chuckle. I turn 55 tmrw, and haven’t been referred to as a young man in a minute. Thank you!
bsn
In my next lifetime I want a master welder’s certificate with “Nuclear” written on it.
But French's strategic weeping gets him published in the NY Times, despite writing from his lowly ivory tower at Lipscomb University (original name Nashville Bible School). How many evangelicals can top that?
I think true evangelicals would likely see a publication in The NY Times as a sacrifice to BAAL or some other demon. Selling the soul for 30 pieces of gold.
bsn
Agreed, as as David Attenborough might narrate, "This weasel has found his niche."
"Strategic weeping..." Oh, I can't! The number of quote worthy stuff in this comment section is brilliant. Love to see a whiner take down! Journalism has been taken over by 'we have 100 days to save our country' trauma-porn from our vapid female crowd and wimps like French and other never-Trumpers (Jonah Goldberg comes to mind) who can't seem to criticise with substance. It's all so ridiculous.
He was born in the wrong body. Have you no compassion. He should have been a worm.
Laughed out loud at your quip, Alan! Thanks.
Had the same response.
bsn
Thanks Brian. I have three sons and you are spot on. Boys will be boys, unless we don't let them. Parents, don't let your boys grow up to be sissies.
Nancy,
When the locker room is properly led, we learn the difference between good-natured teasing and outright bullying. Who stops the bully? Optimally, his friends before the actual terrorizing begins. We learn to stand up to our own side who is acting like a boar--that is what being responsible is about.
The strong are supposed to protect the vulnerable, the weak--but there are other ways for men like French to become accepted--and often that is humor/quick wit. It seems to me he is resentful of his own God-given abilities and resents the men who were always stronger, more accepted than him.
Resentment. That is the poison that kills all of us if we are not careful.
bsn
I believe you are on to something if we were able to do research. I believe we would find Beta boy. French was the recipient of atomic wedges And swirlies all through elementary, junior and high school. He was that pathetic loser boy, that would run to the guidance counselor and cry in her office, and then the regular guys would get called in and yelled at for picking on the poor little Sissy boy. And the next day it would all start over. So being a pathetic little snowflake Beta is the only thing he's ever known.Of course he is scared of Masculine males , he does not understand What it means to be a man nor will he ever be one. He will always be a pathetic snowflake Sissy Beta.Useless little cry, baby.
He could have learned to use his wit to belong. The kid that runs to the guidance counselor or their mom or their boss--they often become directors of HR and ruin life for the employees of a company.
He never learned to fight back or be funny or belong in a way that doesn't require athleticism. In my tightest group of friends, two of us were athletes, two were HORRIBLE athletes but SOO FUNNY! SOO SMART! Such delights to be around. 35 years later, we text at least every couple of weeks and talk every 2-3 months.
French learned the wrong lessons.
bsn
Estee Palti's YouTube channel. The woman is brilliant.
She's the Kamala impersonator right? Super funny!
bsn
Exactly!
I have absolutely zero interest in Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan or Dana White. I'm in a totally different space culturally and aesthetically. I really don't care if they spoke at the RNC. I just want Trump to kick Kamala's butt in November. I guess that was a macho way of putting it lol.
Same. The amount of attention I've given to the existence of Hulk Hogan can probably be measured in seconds.
Split seconds
I've heard of Hogan and Kid Rock, sorta, but I had to ask my sons who Dana White is. These guys appeal to a certain demographic (not mine), but hey! big tent, people.
If Democrats have a manhood night it would be nothing but Trans and drag queens...
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-2024-drag-queens-opening-ceremony-c635aa276be1147e4643231bdbe5478e
French's message is this: real men serve the regime.
Real men go gay or get transed, join a Toxic Male Reeducation group, serve the regime, and keep their mouths shut when women are talking.
Compare Trump's rhetoric--the way he talks, the words he uses--to Biden's. It's too broad a topic to wrap up in a comment section.
But didn't French hear the various threats Biden has made in the past 3 1/2 years against conservatives, Republicans, the unvaccinated? What does French think of keeping millions of unvaccinated people out of public places in 2021 and 2022?
The little simp probably agreed with it all. No competition if all the real people are locked away or murdered.
"Too broad a topic." think you nailed it right there )
Ah yes, David French. Right up there with David Frum, another Neoconservative (and liberal globalist Canadian). I laughed out loud at the paragraph about showing compassion etc, as it is exactly what the bible teaches and was a great quote.
I did some digging and his Wiki says he is an Evangelical Christian. It also says: "In November 2022, French announced that he had "changed his mind" on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, although stating he was still morally opposed to the matter. He wrote that his "reasoning tracked my lifelong civil libertarian beliefs""
None, and I mean absolutely none, of the evangelical Christians believe that one. He literally put his morality aside to play politics. Well David, I'm sorry your Libertarian-lefty neocon-neoshitlib politics beat out your religion. Maybe you'll find it in a sock drawer someday.
If any of these guys from either side of the aisle had any real courage or real compassion they would be talking about the vaccine injured and what we can do to help them; and the crime that was committed that injured them in the first place. But alas, Democrats and Republicans alike are hiding from the conversation like a pathetic little bunch of cowards. I think they are all feckless wimps at this point. I am minding my manners with my language here. My true thoughts are more colorful.
Diane,
I think it is also the 60+million people who want their own behavior during the lockdowns to be memory-holed. Remember how they wished death upon the unvaxed, how they cheered when conservatives died, how they gleefully wanted you to 'show me ze papers'...It is worse than you write, it is probably 85% of the Biden voters. Same people who wished the sniper hadn't missed. Lots of hate out there. Lots.
bsn
And still, I choose life. I choose joy and hope and laughter. I choose peace and faith and forbearance.
I hear you Brian, and I don't disagree. But I proactively choose to be well and to hold a sacred space for happiness rooted in traditional values and god-centered purpose.
“Lots of hate out there.”
And yet, we don’t hate back. We have better, bigger things to do. We recognize the reptile people and their useless corporate media, but we have richer, more satisfying lives to live.
And we know what we need to do to save our country. Unlike these lefty lizards, we don’t have to shout and mewl like children.
I am 100% behind the America of the first two and last one year of President Trump's MAGA America.
I say this. The reason the Presidential election was stolen in 2020 was because not enough Americans hated the lawfare waged against the President after 2015. Too many Americans thought they had 'bigger, better things to do' so they let the obama machine set the playbook that has destroyed the Republic.
Those richer, more satisfying lives are about to come crashing down and the lives you envisaged for your children are about to be erased by the illegal mercenaries you have allowed into your states, the governors and mayors you have idly allowed to set up the *safe zones* around your districts. I'd say that, unfortunately, you have no idea how to save the country from the obama/clinton/soros machine.
When people can only produce ad hominem attacks in a contest it usually means they have nothing substantive to use as a point of attack.
Trump has already shown us that he’s not a warmonger. Mattis on the other hand is famous for saying that when he meets someone for the first time, the thing he cogitates upon before anything else is developing a plan to kill them.
Navy SEALS are some of the most highly trained killers in the world. I could be wrong, but I gave reason to doubt that they are weeping as they pull the trigger on the target.
This is just distraction for the orcs. And David French is just another regime shill spouting whatever it is he spouts when they put a quarter in his slot. He’s a “conservative” so if you’re a “conservative” you better pay attention when he writes something. And if you’re not a conservative then his crazy must those MAGA people be if they won’t get onboard with a NY Times board certified “conservative”. (Now available in wimp flavor!)
As for Hulk Hogan, I think it’s pretty clear that the convention delegates knew when he was being serious and when he was playing the Hulk. Hell, he even took off his stage persona in the middle of his endorsement.
The Dems are sucking wind. Kamala and whoever else they put in this Hindenburg to ride it out are going down. They have nothing but more projection, distraction, dishonesty, and gloom to offer. Don’t vote for that. It’ll rot your teeth.
And your soul.
Autocorrect destroyed me once again…
David French is (and always was) an insufferable prick of a writer. His “holier than thou” attitude is foremost in all of his screeds.
I appreciate you reading this 4th grade material and summarizing here for us. It can’t be easy. And not my idea of fun.
The weird thing about French is he always struck me as a genuinely good and sincere person, and I enjoy his Advisory Opinions podcast. But he’s SO mired in Trump Derangement Syndrome and it leads him down paths of such obvious stupidity. It’s a shame.
Trump/COVID broke many a brain. I used to enjoy Sam Harris--his meditation app was great. Then he completely lost his shit, made me think maybe mediation is harmful! That's what I emailed his team when they asked me to renew membership...tell Sam that he's kinda proven his brain is broken, so I'm not going to do anything he ever recommends again.
bsn
For a long time, I perceived TDS as a rhetorical flourish to describe a set of reflexive responses to DJT’s odd behavior and unorthodox manner.
I now see it as an actual mental illness; a terrible mind virus that has undone many previously interesting (or tolerable at least) commentators and pundits, left and right.
„Wisconsin‘s Shame“ was indeed a long time ago.
Your second paragraph says it all, and quite succinctly…they’re playing critic not because they have legitimate criticisms to offer, they criticize “because they’re supposed to.”
The price of being able rub shoulders with the rich and famous and tell their friends they’re “journalists” and write for the NYT is nothing less than their integrity.
These people are a sad lot who have destroyed a once honorable profession.
this country has become focused on industries based on manipulation with language like marketing, politics and law, and less and less about building, or producing...much to our detriment.
You have summed up thoughts that have been gnawing at me recently. Thank you for putting it in one succinct sentence.
Looking back at French’s writing and his twitter declarations, none of it has aged particularly well.
He is a specialist at playing the role of the moral arbiter. Problem is he thinks he actually is a moral arbiter.
After his short departure from X when he declared it had little utility and was being filled with hate —code for he didn’t like it as a platform where he could be challenged—
he returned to post about his ill spouse. The irony was clearly unknown to him in his time of pain. self awareness escaped him even in that difficult moment.
Playing the role of the moral arbiter: so he's a pale male version of Hillary Clinton.