You watch the video montages, you read the articles from MSM outlets -- including the AP and CNN -- that are straight-up propaganda, and you wonder: "How the did we get here?"
How is it that some of the most incurious, partisan, credulous, and hypocritical people rose to be the ones whose responsibility it is to keep us informed -- to be, as Brad aptly notes, a "sense-making tool," and instead betray that by indulging in a kind of catastrophizing so relentless, so divorced from reality, so obviously tethered to partisan politics, that you wonder how this happened?
Because I'm not sure the possible timelines include a moment where the pundits and hosts and reporters admit it was all an elaborate psyop on the American people coordinated by media power brokers and agents of the Deep State. I think they really believe this stuff. They really are that dumb, that close-minded, that much in the thrall of shallow iconography and vibes.
And yet it's these people who dominate our media. It's these people who shape the discourse and our reality. And you wonder "How did this happen?"
How did we get here? Through the complete takeover of the education system that started long ago. The schools have been nothing more than progressive madrasas for decades. Every one of these people got exposed to insane ideas in a school.
I agree, though I believe that's only one component of it. I've given this subject- how we got to an upside down world so quickly- much thought. Obama, just a decand a half ago, ran on a traditional marriage platform. Now, his constuanats call you every "ism" that exists if you say that a man can't magically change into a woman by simple declaration - a biological fact shared by humanity for thousands of years. That happened in an unprecedented whisker of time
Dozens such issues exist, including approach to education, gay students advocating for terrorists, drag queens in kindergarten, climate, etc. They share a theme- rapid, radical societal change driven by public opinion centered on false virtue, advanced by elitists. Judeo Christian values formed the virtues that built Western culture. Public virtue has no foundation. Societies trading traditional virtue in favor of public virtue risk sinking into instability very quickly
Influencing public opinion rather than encouraging virtuous actions becomes the control mechanism. Control requires currency. Enter social media, the ultimate social credit scorecard. Social media essentially replaces the Ten Commandments, strange as that seems
I've written a lot about it, only to myself. I'm considering publishing on substack, because I believe understanding how we got to this bizarre place, unrecognizable from 20 years ago in many ways, ranks among the most important we face
Brad, this is a serious article which I appreciate, but your comment “whom I detest with the intensity of a thousand burning suns” made me shout with laughter. Thank you for a terrific start to my day.
And those thousand suns' intensity wouldn't nearly have enough punch to properly meet Cohens imminently punchable gob, nor fry Reids potato brain. Insufferable is just the tip....
Kamala Harris is an existential (of or pertaining to existence) threat to democracy. Harris’s existence is a threat to democracy and the rule of law. W. Manion, MDPhDJDMBA
Kamala Harris and the Democrat Party are an existential threat (defined as a threat to our existence) to our United States and to the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law states that all laws are applied equally to all parties. Donald Trump has been charged with document possession that Josef Biden, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton have never been charged with even though they possessed classified documents. This is a violation of the Rule of Law. W Manion, MDPhDJDMBA , Attorney.
Sometimes, to get a reality check, I wander into a progressive substack or comments section to an article written by a lefty. It works like a ice cold shower. We are cozy in our comfortable bubbles where we affirm each other’s thoughts and feelings. OMG, what is outside of our niche is scary. I do not come back to the enemy territory for a long time after my excursion. The comments are vicious, the hatred is immeasurable. The abyss between people belonging to different parties and ideologies is bottomless.
It is good to hear opposing views. I try to avoid confirmation bias. I even watched the Oprah interview but even Oprah looked dumbfounded. I wrote about it here...sabrinalabow.substack.com
Gawd, it is painful to even scroll through this, looking at these vile talking heads, let alone to listen....but I have sinned, this is atonement I suppose....
I also fear a descent into 3rd world anarchy. Trump populism as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis and the over-reaction to Trump in both 2020 and 2024 campaigns put us in a place where 50% of Republicans and 25% of Democrats will not accept an election result where their candidate loses.
Look, I do not want Trump as president in 2024, as I fear his lack of competence. I see Harris as the lesser evil. But something needs to happen to restore our common heritage as American citizens or we'll slide further into a death spiral as a country.
The idiocy of the "winner take all" approach that both parties have about a 50/50 election is stunning. And the reality is that a significant amount of us are basing our votes on who we want to lose and are not enthusiastic if the side we vote for wins.
The two parties function as a cartel, restricting the choice to a binary through closed primaries, legal challenges to third parties, and a host of other methods. The media reinforces the binary because it’s easier to report on a simple horse race, and a good/evil dichotomy is great for ratings and clicks.
If you want the system to change, you have to refuse to participate. Register as an independent, vote for 3rd parties, advocate for ranked choice voting, whatever it takes. The EC vote in the presidential race is a forgone conclusion in 45 states anyways, so “throwing your vote away” by refusing to legitimize this idiotic binary is one of the best things you can do in November.
To some extent Democracy also requires that the losers consent to being governed by those who won the election. I don't see how that is possible when everything is so polarized that either side feels threatened by the other and there is such a huge cultural divide. What's the solution? National divorce? Or pare back the federal government so that it doesn't matter as much who is running it?
I prefer paring back the government over a national divorce. If the stakes weren't so high (because the President can do almost anything today by executive order), then perhaps we'd return to a more sanguine perspective. Limited government should result in greater individual responsibility.
The quote”Victimhood is a major tactic of fascism.” seemed so… hard to put into words, ironic, hypocritical, idiotic & the vast banshee keen of some night monster from the FascistDemocractic hysteria. 2 + 2 = 5, right?
"Democracy dies in Darkness" say the people pushing down the pillow on its head slowly suffocating it.
Ironically this sort of propaganda is pretty much directly from the Nazi playbook. If these people actually believed what they write they probably would try to escape, why take a 50/50 risk you'll live in a dystopian dictatorship after the election? It's the classic line, they don't believe it but they want you to.
Another thought: If Routh is convicted that probably means the working class vote for the Democrats goes from 1 to 0?
Finally, why is Trump so reluctant to make this a bigger deal? It seems to me the media is doing a pretty good job for him already, reasonable people probably find this sort of thing off-putting. It still feels like Trump has lost his edge.
" If these people actually believed what they write they probably would try to escape, why take a 50/50 risk you'll live in a dystopian dictatorship after the election? It's the classic line, they don't believe it but they want you to."
We know they don't believe it because the democrats literally boosted MAGA candidates in the 2022 midterms, thinking they'd be easier to beat in November.
I just wonder how many of them actually believe what they are saying. Perhaps they have just convinced themselves. Either way they need to be called out and you did it brilliantly! Sabrinalabow.substack.com
"We seem to be on a course toward disaster, but those at the helm have no desire to navigate away from the shoals."
To alter my usual analogy slightly to make it fit -- not only are they unconcerned about the current course, they're actively cheering the upcoming collision. "SHOALS! SHOALS! SHOALS!"
You watch the video montages, you read the articles from MSM outlets -- including the AP and CNN -- that are straight-up propaganda, and you wonder: "How the did we get here?"
How is it that some of the most incurious, partisan, credulous, and hypocritical people rose to be the ones whose responsibility it is to keep us informed -- to be, as Brad aptly notes, a "sense-making tool," and instead betray that by indulging in a kind of catastrophizing so relentless, so divorced from reality, so obviously tethered to partisan politics, that you wonder how this happened?
Because I'm not sure the possible timelines include a moment where the pundits and hosts and reporters admit it was all an elaborate psyop on the American people coordinated by media power brokers and agents of the Deep State. I think they really believe this stuff. They really are that dumb, that close-minded, that much in the thrall of shallow iconography and vibes.
And yet it's these people who dominate our media. It's these people who shape the discourse and our reality. And you wonder "How did this happen?"
How did we get here? Through the complete takeover of the education system that started long ago. The schools have been nothing more than progressive madrasas for decades. Every one of these people got exposed to insane ideas in a school.
I agree, though I believe that's only one component of it. I've given this subject- how we got to an upside down world so quickly- much thought. Obama, just a decand a half ago, ran on a traditional marriage platform. Now, his constuanats call you every "ism" that exists if you say that a man can't magically change into a woman by simple declaration - a biological fact shared by humanity for thousands of years. That happened in an unprecedented whisker of time
Dozens such issues exist, including approach to education, gay students advocating for terrorists, drag queens in kindergarten, climate, etc. They share a theme- rapid, radical societal change driven by public opinion centered on false virtue, advanced by elitists. Judeo Christian values formed the virtues that built Western culture. Public virtue has no foundation. Societies trading traditional virtue in favor of public virtue risk sinking into instability very quickly
Influencing public opinion rather than encouraging virtuous actions becomes the control mechanism. Control requires currency. Enter social media, the ultimate social credit scorecard. Social media essentially replaces the Ten Commandments, strange as that seems
I've written a lot about it, only to myself. I'm considering publishing on substack, because I believe understanding how we got to this bizarre place, unrecognizable from 20 years ago in many ways, ranks among the most important we face
Cheers Jude!
Smith-Mundt "modernization".
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/full-court-press
Brad, this is a serious article which I appreciate, but your comment “whom I detest with the intensity of a thousand burning suns” made me shout with laughter. Thank you for a terrific start to my day.
Yeah that one woke me up
And those thousand suns' intensity wouldn't nearly have enough punch to properly meet Cohens imminently punchable gob, nor fry Reids potato brain. Insufferable is just the tip....
That IS an awesome line, which I agree with totally.
The fact that the media can say that ‘Trump is a populist who only cares about himself’ with a straight face, not seeing any irony, is laughable.
Kamala Harris is an existential (of or pertaining to existence) threat to democracy. Harris’s existence is a threat to democracy and the rule of law. W. Manion, MDPhDJDMBA
It’s not just Comrade Kamala, the entire Democratic Party apparatus is an existential threat to the country…..
🙌
Kamala Harris and the Democrat Party are an existential threat (defined as a threat to our existence) to our United States and to the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law states that all laws are applied equally to all parties. Donald Trump has been charged with document possession that Josef Biden, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton have never been charged with even though they possessed classified documents. This is a violation of the Rule of Law. W Manion, MDPhDJDMBA , Attorney.
Sometimes, to get a reality check, I wander into a progressive substack or comments section to an article written by a lefty. It works like a ice cold shower. We are cozy in our comfortable bubbles where we affirm each other’s thoughts and feelings. OMG, what is outside of our niche is scary. I do not come back to the enemy territory for a long time after my excursion. The comments are vicious, the hatred is immeasurable. The abyss between people belonging to different parties and ideologies is bottomless.
It is good to hear opposing views. I try to avoid confirmation bias. I even watched the Oprah interview but even Oprah looked dumbfounded. I wrote about it here...sabrinalabow.substack.com
Leftists do not care if you call out their hypocrisy and blatant lies. All they care about is power. At what point does this boil over?
Even if trump does win the election, he will still face the MSM rabble and will be smeared and stonewalled at every turn.
Gawd, it is painful to even scroll through this, looking at these vile talking heads, let alone to listen....but I have sinned, this is atonement I suppose....
I also fear a descent into 3rd world anarchy. Trump populism as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis and the over-reaction to Trump in both 2020 and 2024 campaigns put us in a place where 50% of Republicans and 25% of Democrats will not accept an election result where their candidate loses.
Look, I do not want Trump as president in 2024, as I fear his lack of competence. I see Harris as the lesser evil. But something needs to happen to restore our common heritage as American citizens or we'll slide further into a death spiral as a country.
The idiocy of the "winner take all" approach that both parties have about a 50/50 election is stunning. And the reality is that a significant amount of us are basing our votes on who we want to lose and are not enthusiastic if the side we vote for wins.
The two parties function as a cartel, restricting the choice to a binary through closed primaries, legal challenges to third parties, and a host of other methods. The media reinforces the binary because it’s easier to report on a simple horse race, and a good/evil dichotomy is great for ratings and clicks.
If you want the system to change, you have to refuse to participate. Register as an independent, vote for 3rd parties, advocate for ranked choice voting, whatever it takes. The EC vote in the presidential race is a forgone conclusion in 45 states anyways, so “throwing your vote away” by refusing to legitimize this idiotic binary is one of the best things you can do in November.
To some extent Democracy also requires that the losers consent to being governed by those who won the election. I don't see how that is possible when everything is so polarized that either side feels threatened by the other and there is such a huge cultural divide. What's the solution? National divorce? Or pare back the federal government so that it doesn't matter as much who is running it?
I prefer paring back the government over a national divorce. If the stakes weren't so high (because the President can do almost anything today by executive order), then perhaps we'd return to a more sanguine perspective. Limited government should result in greater individual responsibility.
"regardless of what congenital morons like Dash Dobrofsky, whom I detest with the burning intensity of a thousand suns"
Don't sugar coat, Brad, What do you think of Dobrofsky?
By the way, who is this guy? Never heard of him. Just another Tweeter douchebag?
Gen Z/blue-no-matter-who attention whore
So, like I said, just another tweeter douchebag.
The quote”Victimhood is a major tactic of fascism.” seemed so… hard to put into words, ironic, hypocritical, idiotic & the vast banshee keen of some night monster from the FascistDemocractic hysteria. 2 + 2 = 5, right?
"Democracy dies in Darkness" say the people pushing down the pillow on its head slowly suffocating it.
Ironically this sort of propaganda is pretty much directly from the Nazi playbook. If these people actually believed what they write they probably would try to escape, why take a 50/50 risk you'll live in a dystopian dictatorship after the election? It's the classic line, they don't believe it but they want you to.
Another thought: If Routh is convicted that probably means the working class vote for the Democrats goes from 1 to 0?
Finally, why is Trump so reluctant to make this a bigger deal? It seems to me the media is doing a pretty good job for him already, reasonable people probably find this sort of thing off-putting. It still feels like Trump has lost his edge.
" If these people actually believed what they write they probably would try to escape, why take a 50/50 risk you'll live in a dystopian dictatorship after the election? It's the classic line, they don't believe it but they want you to."
We know they don't believe it because the democrats literally boosted MAGA candidates in the 2022 midterms, thinking they'd be easier to beat in November.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/democrats-strategy-boost-maga-republicans-vindicated-n1299116
Democrats' strategy to boost MAGA Republicans is vindicated
I just wonder how many of them actually believe what they are saying. Perhaps they have just convinced themselves. Either way they need to be called out and you did it brilliantly! Sabrinalabow.substack.com
"addictive disgust"
Perfect.
Check this out:
The Next Wokety Woke Madness - US Navy Gender Neutral Submarine https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/the-next-wokety-woke-madness-us-navy
"We seem to be on a course toward disaster, but those at the helm have no desire to navigate away from the shoals."
To alter my usual analogy slightly to make it fit -- not only are they unconcerned about the current course, they're actively cheering the upcoming collision. "SHOALS! SHOALS! SHOALS!"