Quotes and Links
A week in review
Note for new subscribers: On Fridays I send out a post with a list of various notable quotes from the past week, along with links to some of the best reading material I’ve come across.
“We are restricting freedom, but we’re doing it for the common good.” — Irish Green Party Senator Pauline O'Reilly. Ireland is preparing to pass a speech law that is arguably the most radical legislation of its kind we’ve seen in the West. It criminalizes the mere possession of materials that are “likely to incite violence or hatred”—books, videos, or even memes on your phone.
“They’re still mad that a black man is free in this country.” — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who blames “right-wing extremists” for the city’s problems.
“A cult of medicalized self-harm has convinced self-hating young people that hormonal and surgical mortification of their sexed bodies in pursuit of a fantasy that can never come true is a pathway to liberation and authentic selfhood.” — Wesley Yang.
“Here’s what happens if Donald Trump dies while running in the 2024 presidential election.” — A headline from Business Insider. Can’t help reading that as Democrats trying to normalize the assassination of Trump in hopes that an unhinged Biden voter will make an attempt on his life.
“What I care about is the reality of goodness — not the perception of it — and what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good, while doing evil. Fuck them.” — Elon Musk, during an interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit.
“Disney appears concerned that the ‘invisible hand’ of Adam Smith is effectively giving the ‘House of Mouse’ the middle finger.” — Legal analyst Jonathan Turley. In its annual SEC report, Disney acknowledged that it may have alienated consumers with its insistence on producing woke content, leading to terrible box office numbers over the past couple of years.
“Police in Dallas have issued an arrest warrant for Buffalo Bills linebacker Von Miller for allegedly assaulting a pregnant person.” — ABC News. “Pregnant person.”
“Progressivism is the view that the most compassionate thing you can do is be as gleefully ruthless and violent as possible towards those you perceive as lacking compassion.” — Tablet’s Noam Blum.
“So for those that believe that they have issues with President Biden, and I’m not saying that you don’t have issues, I’m just saying you should have a few more issues with the person that literally wants to ban Muslims in this country.” — Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, regarding Trump.
“100 Ways White People Can Make Life Less Frustrating For People of Color.” — A headline from Vice. My favorite is #16: “Don’t question someone’s Blackness if they’re light-skinned. It’s not your place. Other Black people can make sure that light-skinned Black people are cognizant of their privilege.”
“I’ve had the same conversations with all my Muslims friends and family members over Thanksgiving. Not a single one says they will vote for Biden again, having voted for him in 2020. Every single one says it’s because of Gaza. Dems need to understand that the anger is very real.” — MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan.
“For the first time in 27 years, more Arab Americans now identify as Republicans than Democrats. If this holds, it will stand as one of the more remarkable realignments on the part of any minority group in US politics.” — The Washington Post’s Shadi Hamid.
“We have new numbers and a new report from the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security majority—they say the price tag [of caring for illegal migrants] per year is $451 billion.” — Fox News’s Madison Alworth.
“The Biden admin’s strategy to keep asylum seekers from flocking to the United States is not working. Democrats might flinch at the proposition, but the Republican idea that it should be tougher for asylum seekers to enter the US makes some sense.” — The Washington Post editorial board.
“We’re not stupid. The brothers are not stupid. We understand when someone’s for us and when someone is not and it’s obvious that the Democratic party is not for us.” — Black Lives Matter Rhode Island co-founder Mark Fisher, who is supporting Trump in the 2024 election.
“The majority of people believe that the hands were the most frequently washed body part in the last three years. But in fact, it was the brain.” — Dr. Simon Goddek.
“Race is not a substitute for merit; identity is not a job qualification.” — City Journal’s Christopher Rufo.
“The problem is that hard drives can be manipulated by Rudy Giuliani, or Russia.” — Rep. Daniel Goldman, who still doesn’t believe that the Hunter Biden laptop is real (even after Hunter Biden himself admitted it is). When asked by Michael Shellenberger for evidence to back up his claim, Goldman said “there is actual evidence of it,” but failed to cite any.
“TikTok has convinced millions of gullible idiots that they’re ‘neurodivergent’ just because they have felt awkward at least once in their lives. Seems pretty influential.” — Independent journalist Ben Dreyfuss.
“Joe Biden choosing to run and keeping out all other major Democratic challengers at a time when three-quarters of the country didn’t want him to run will be seen as one of the most selfish acts in American history. He’s practically handing the country over to Trump.” — Cenk Uygur, host of the Young Turks.
“A cautionary tale about Wikipedia censorship and the Twitter Files,” from the Spectator.
A special report from Vanity Fair on how “Secret Warnings About Wuhan Research Predated the Pandemic.”
“To Shrink Learning Gap, This District Offers Classes Separated by Race,” from the Wall Street Journal.
Another Wall Street Journal story about the rise of “ghost newsrooms.”
A Washington Post piece that summarizes all best-evidence about Hamas atrocities so far.
A story from Outside magazine about Eric Rudolph, the serial bomber behind the Atlanta Olympics explosion who survived for five years in the North Carolina woods.
“To Catch a Turtle Thief: Blowing the Lid Off an International Smuggling Operation,” from the Walrus.
Elon Musk's fine quoted words really need to go out to each and every one of the millions of full-of-shit virtue-signallers who now populate our universities, government bureaucracies, MSM media pundits and luvvies and assorted other have-your-cake-and-eat-it merchants right across the Western world
“Here’s what happens if Donald Trump dies while running in the 2024 presidential election.” — A headline from Business Insider.
The Insider publications are owned by a German company with a WEF globalist agenda. It is a cesspool of globalist-favoring propaganda that favors Democrats because Democrat is the party that favors the WEF globalist agenda.
With respect to this argument about free speech, I am of the mind that foreign-owned media be held to a different standard for having access to platform media that delivers by push. I have been thinking about this conundrum of how to combat propaganda and I think the push vs pull differentiation is key. If you think about the old ways we accumulated our news, we had to purchase a newspaper or magazine. Later we had to turn on the TV and switch the channel and make time to watch the programming.
Today because the devices keep updating our feeds and "push" content into our devices that we carry around with us 24x7, we are passive captive targets of influence. So in effect, our free speech is being corrupted by this constant notification and interruption. We need these devices for life today. We need them for work. And those devices are exploited by those trying to manipulate us by pushing false, misleading and often dangerous information.
The TikTok push of Bin Laden's manifesto is an example. That was clearly a move by the CCP for geopolitical benefits. We need to put up a firewall for foreign-pushed content.