I know I keep saying this but everything we're living through (especially things like this) are all products of our new Church/State ruling dispensation between the global corporate state and the Social Justice theocrats.
One thing new I think we're learning is that their shotgun marital agreement means that both partners have to accept and broadcast all the beliefs of each side, thus we have the bizarre spectacle of Budweiser, Adidas and Jack Daniels suddenly becoming acolytes of Judith Butler. We really all live on campus now!
With every passing day the addled and exhausted American frog slowly boils, as we move inevitably away from our Enlightenment-based liberal democracy to our post-Enlightenment managed technocracy, where our expert class is so wise and omniscient they even know if your kid was born in the wrong body!
Once again, CP, brilliant post. I find your reference to “social justice theocrats” to be particularly salient because I’ve long been convinced that the source of zealous progressive illiberalism is this veneer of theological sheen over almost all of their ever-changing language. They are the most ruthless, savage, non-empathetic people I’ve ever met, justifying their ever-increasing attacks on bedrock liberal principles with a religious crusade mentality. They are consequentialists par excellance, destroy anything and anyone, discarding any principle or moral framework in order to assert their purity of cause and bring all of us closer to their imagined utopia.
yes, in a bizarre and ironic twist the amoralists of the postmodern left who just wanted to dismantle our entire civilization to sell books, get tenure and make themselves feel edgy and radical (a la The Joker), cultivated and indoctrinated a generation of blue-haired lost souls who, like a cargo cult, picked up the tools left behind by their teachers (the mind-numbing jargon and moralistic Kafka traps) and crafted a punitive religion more or less modeled on Mao's Cultural Revolution. Now they just have to figure out how to dismantle capitalism while also making sure Mom and Dad's rent check arrives on time.
Excellent. I shared this to help my friends, all of us considered elderly, understand why this is happening. I blame the corporations for bowing down for this shit, but it appears they are being blackmailed. No better word to describe it. And the black rocks of the world benefit. And we just hate a little more.
Another great post, and I second the recommendation of Thomas Sowell’s Vision of the Anointed. It’s hard to believe that book was written more than 20 years ago; he was amazingly prescient about where we would end up.
If you have interest in the education system, his Education in America, also written 20 years ago, predicated the problems we currently see in education.
I'm constantly impressed by both Brad and eugyppius for their ingenuity in naming their protagonists, e.g. "trans minstrel" or "hyper-masking vaccinator." It takes some creativity to appropriately demean the villain without using profanity!
As Piers Morgan wrote in WAKE UP: WHY THE WORLD HAS GONE NUTS, the word "liberal" no longer means what John Locke and people throughout history have known. In the 21st Century, liberal now means illiberal and a miniscule minority of perverts and morons have taken control of language and history.
All too true. Today I'm tempted to rob a store so that when someone tries to stop me I can sue. The problem with that is I'm in a wheelchair, which complicates escape, and am always accompanied by my wife, who would call the police on me, Plus, I live in Nashville, TN.
The State Capital, Nashville is a blue city as are all state capitals. Easy access to government jobs. And, Democrats are the Party of Government. As a libertarian, I will vote for Trump or DeSantis before Biden. We replaced an alleged tyrant with a real one.
In my mind, it all comes down to whether the GOP candidate supports the war to destroy Russia. I was supporting RFK Jr because of his stand against bio-warfare; but last week he said we NEED to fight for Ukraine. F him and the train he rode in on.
As usual there is a confusion between capitalism and corporatism. Th two can co-exist but never for long. corporatist are always looking to undermine capitalism, after exploiting it benefits, by erecting barriers to entry and utilizing influence on regulators to maintain their advantage. This is something that has always happened, Adam Smith waned of it in Th Wealth of Nations.
The current iteration is the result of the Great Recession. Remember how terrible the banks and Wall Street were? A usual, they bought their way out of trouble. They signed on to the right causes, bribe the right activists, paid off the regulators buddies. They found this new partnership with administrative state was good for business. (And if the government is strangling your competitors in the crib, business does not have to be very strong to be good.) so now Blackstone, state street push this crap and they ae not only potected, they are cross invested so your boycotts simply have the effect of moving money from the left pocket to the right pocket.
The original is Budvar, which called itself the beer of kings. Brewed in what is today the Czech Republic, it is a travesty to call it "beer" because it stands in a category all its own.
Important to know that the US version just stole the name as an hommage to the imperial beer brewed in Bohemia. The original is still sold in Europe under the name Budweiser (the town is named "Budweis" in German, a lot of places in Bohemia have a Czech and a German name).
If Target decides to sell an item, any item, I presume it's because they think it will sell. I don't see the problem. People who don't want satanic-themed bathing suits don't have to buy them. Big whoop. Why not simply let capitalism prevail?
Conservatives often attack the left for being too easily offended and they're right. Progressives often position themselves as victims of this or that flavor of oppression and could stand to toughen up. In this case, however, I think conservatives should take a little of their own medicine. If the bathing suits are that offensive then take your business to Walmart or wherever and move on. Tuck-friendly or not, it's a frickin' bathing suit.
I'm inclined to agree with you and appreciate your opinion, which is more than reasonable, but I think it's important to understand that many people are very sensitive about all things kids and therefore react accordingly. I think it's pretty obvious that the Left is trying to sexualize children and normalize subtle attempts at indoctrination, and that people are right to get upset about it.
I also think this is in fact an example of capitalism prevailing. The market is responding, and companies are recalibrating. I support Target's right to sell pride products or items geared toward trans customers, but some of these campaigns appear more than efforts to reach new pockets of consumers. Putting aside those with clear prejudices against a given group, some consumers are reacting to campaigns that appear to push political or social agendas rather than products.
Thanks for your response. I do agree with your larger point that corporations should stick to what they're good at -- selling products -- rather than weighing in on social issues. As someone who has marched in more than one gay pride parade, I find the idea of being sponsored by Coca Cola (or whoever) more than a little creepy. Support is meaningful when it wells up from individual people who feel supportive. Gestures of support (ie wearing a rainbow flag jersey) are not meaningful when they are imposed on people by executives sitting around some boardroom. That's just weird.
Pride Products, at best, a loss leader. (Actually that does not quite apply because LL's actually sell.) so the question is where is the benefit? It is with the institutional investors. This is a corporate decision, not a capitalist decision.
Target is not offering tuck-friendly swimsuits because they presume they will sell. They would not sell any other product with such a small potential market. They offer them solely to score points in the virtue signal derby.
Parents are aware that sex toys are available for sale at adult shops, and most don’t have a problem with that. But they don’t want to see those items in the aisles of Toys R Us. It’s not just a matter of “well then don’t buy the sex toys”. They would understand that Toys R Us would be looking to send a message by stocking such items, not to make a profit.
Why not slap a barcode on every aspect of existence from a tree to a leaf to a grain of sand? Why not sell your kids to the highest bidder? Why not sell me a spare kidney right now?
Why not sell Fred Phelps' new line of "GOD HATES FAGS" evening wear? Why not have a Michael Jackson line of boys' underwear?
A society where there's no higher value than $ is the opposite of a society but a cross between a brothel where you're the whore and a slaughterhouse where you're the steer.
I find when people say that, they are really saying, "Why not let us shove this down your throat?" Becasue capitalism at its core is not about $$, it is about what we value
I think that a good example of the world they want to create is modern China:
a capitalist economy for creating wealth and a CCP/Party like structure for Government and controlling the population. The Federal Government will be filled with coastal elites and any pesky Red State that won't tow the line will be punished. if you keep yer head down and keep giving half yer paycheck to the Party, they might let U live...
Funny thing: it never dawned on anybody at Budweiser that the folks who might have been moved by transexual-inclusive marketing, progressives living in large coastal cities, also have good taste in beer.
It may surprise you, but so do a lot of the deplorables in flyover country. There must be thousands of small craft brewers all over the country at this point. People who willingly drink Bud (or Coors or Miller or PBR etc.) do so because it's cheap or because they don't actually like beer, and just want to wash down those Jamo and Jaeger shots with something
Yes, I wondered the same thing. Seems these geniuses did not understand the existing market, nor the apparent target market. Did they think that sending a can of Bud Light to Dylan Mulvaney would make progressive elites drink it??
Mega dittoes......"a decision apparently undertaken with the same level of whimsy with which the Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbor"....absolutely perfect!
I know I keep saying this but everything we're living through (especially things like this) are all products of our new Church/State ruling dispensation between the global corporate state and the Social Justice theocrats.
One thing new I think we're learning is that their shotgun marital agreement means that both partners have to accept and broadcast all the beliefs of each side, thus we have the bizarre spectacle of Budweiser, Adidas and Jack Daniels suddenly becoming acolytes of Judith Butler. We really all live on campus now!
With every passing day the addled and exhausted American frog slowly boils, as we move inevitably away from our Enlightenment-based liberal democracy to our post-Enlightenment managed technocracy, where our expert class is so wise and omniscient they even know if your kid was born in the wrong body!
Once again, CP, brilliant post. I find your reference to “social justice theocrats” to be particularly salient because I’ve long been convinced that the source of zealous progressive illiberalism is this veneer of theological sheen over almost all of their ever-changing language. They are the most ruthless, savage, non-empathetic people I’ve ever met, justifying their ever-increasing attacks on bedrock liberal principles with a religious crusade mentality. They are consequentialists par excellance, destroy anything and anyone, discarding any principle or moral framework in order to assert their purity of cause and bring all of us closer to their imagined utopia.
thx!
yes, in a bizarre and ironic twist the amoralists of the postmodern left who just wanted to dismantle our entire civilization to sell books, get tenure and make themselves feel edgy and radical (a la The Joker), cultivated and indoctrinated a generation of blue-haired lost souls who, like a cargo cult, picked up the tools left behind by their teachers (the mind-numbing jargon and moralistic Kafka traps) and crafted a punitive religion more or less modeled on Mao's Cultural Revolution. Now they just have to figure out how to dismantle capitalism while also making sure Mom and Dad's rent check arrives on time.
Aldous huxley dystopia on steroids
Excellent. I shared this to help my friends, all of us considered elderly, understand why this is happening. I blame the corporations for bowing down for this shit, but it appears they are being blackmailed. No better word to describe it. And the black rocks of the world benefit. And we just hate a little more.
Another great post, and I second the recommendation of Thomas Sowell’s Vision of the Anointed. It’s hard to believe that book was written more than 20 years ago; he was amazingly prescient about where we would end up.
If you have interest in the education system, his Education in America, also written 20 years ago, predicated the problems we currently see in education.
I'm constantly impressed by both Brad and eugyppius for their ingenuity in naming their protagonists, e.g. "trans minstrel" or "hyper-masking vaccinator." It takes some creativity to appropriately demean the villain without using profanity!
It is truly bizarre behavior to be glorified, but it's hilarious to joke about.
Lmao!:
"Trans Minstrel"
"(whom I would gladly pay good money to punch in the face)"
As Piers Morgan wrote in WAKE UP: WHY THE WORLD HAS GONE NUTS, the word "liberal" no longer means what John Locke and people throughout history have known. In the 21st Century, liberal now means illiberal and a miniscule minority of perverts and morons have taken control of language and history.
All too true. Today I'm tempted to rob a store so that when someone tries to stop me I can sue. The problem with that is I'm in a wheelchair, which complicates escape, and am always accompanied by my wife, who would call the police on me, Plus, I live in Nashville, TN.
The State Capital, Nashville is a blue city as are all state capitals. Easy access to government jobs. And, Democrats are the Party of Government. As a libertarian, I will vote for Trump or DeSantis before Biden. We replaced an alleged tyrant with a real one.
In my mind, it all comes down to whether the GOP candidate supports the war to destroy Russia. I was supporting RFK Jr because of his stand against bio-warfare; but last week he said we NEED to fight for Ukraine. F him and the train he rode in on.
As usual there is a confusion between capitalism and corporatism. Th two can co-exist but never for long. corporatist are always looking to undermine capitalism, after exploiting it benefits, by erecting barriers to entry and utilizing influence on regulators to maintain their advantage. This is something that has always happened, Adam Smith waned of it in Th Wealth of Nations.
The current iteration is the result of the Great Recession. Remember how terrible the banks and Wall Street were? A usual, they bought their way out of trouble. They signed on to the right causes, bribe the right activists, paid off the regulators buddies. They found this new partnership with administrative state was good for business. (And if the government is strangling your competitors in the crib, business does not have to be very strong to be good.) so now Blackstone, state street push this crap and they ae not only potected, they are cross invested so your boycotts simply have the effect of moving money from the left pocket to the right pocket.
How far the beer of kings has fallen.
The original is Budvar, which called itself the beer of kings. Brewed in what is today the Czech Republic, it is a travesty to call it "beer" because it stands in a category all its own.
Important to know that the US version just stole the name as an hommage to the imperial beer brewed in Bohemia. The original is still sold in Europe under the name Budweiser (the town is named "Budweis" in German, a lot of places in Bohemia have a Czech and a German name).
Outstanding analysis. I am going to share this with people who still don’t get what my issue is with woke-ism. Brilliantly well put: footnote 1.
If Target decides to sell an item, any item, I presume it's because they think it will sell. I don't see the problem. People who don't want satanic-themed bathing suits don't have to buy them. Big whoop. Why not simply let capitalism prevail?
Conservatives often attack the left for being too easily offended and they're right. Progressives often position themselves as victims of this or that flavor of oppression and could stand to toughen up. In this case, however, I think conservatives should take a little of their own medicine. If the bathing suits are that offensive then take your business to Walmart or wherever and move on. Tuck-friendly or not, it's a frickin' bathing suit.
I'm inclined to agree with you and appreciate your opinion, which is more than reasonable, but I think it's important to understand that many people are very sensitive about all things kids and therefore react accordingly. I think it's pretty obvious that the Left is trying to sexualize children and normalize subtle attempts at indoctrination, and that people are right to get upset about it.
I also think this is in fact an example of capitalism prevailing. The market is responding, and companies are recalibrating. I support Target's right to sell pride products or items geared toward trans customers, but some of these campaigns appear more than efforts to reach new pockets of consumers. Putting aside those with clear prejudices against a given group, some consumers are reacting to campaigns that appear to push political or social agendas rather than products.
"efforts to reach new pockets of consumers."
I see what you did there ...
Thanks for your response. I do agree with your larger point that corporations should stick to what they're good at -- selling products -- rather than weighing in on social issues. As someone who has marched in more than one gay pride parade, I find the idea of being sponsored by Coca Cola (or whoever) more than a little creepy. Support is meaningful when it wells up from individual people who feel supportive. Gestures of support (ie wearing a rainbow flag jersey) are not meaningful when they are imposed on people by executives sitting around some boardroom. That's just weird.
Pride Products, at best, a loss leader. (Actually that does not quite apply because LL's actually sell.) so the question is where is the benefit? It is with the institutional investors. This is a corporate decision, not a capitalist decision.
Target is not offering tuck-friendly swimsuits because they presume they will sell. They would not sell any other product with such a small potential market. They offer them solely to score points in the virtue signal derby.
Parents are aware that sex toys are available for sale at adult shops, and most don’t have a problem with that. But they don’t want to see those items in the aisles of Toys R Us. It’s not just a matter of “well then don’t buy the sex toys”. They would understand that Toys R Us would be looking to send a message by stocking such items, not to make a profit.
"Why not simply let capitalism prevail?"
Why not slap a barcode on every aspect of existence from a tree to a leaf to a grain of sand? Why not sell your kids to the highest bidder? Why not sell me a spare kidney right now?
Why not sell Fred Phelps' new line of "GOD HATES FAGS" evening wear? Why not have a Michael Jackson line of boys' underwear?
A society where there's no higher value than $ is the opposite of a society but a cross between a brothel where you're the whore and a slaughterhouse where you're the steer.
“a cross between a brothel where you're the whore and a slaughterhouse where you're the steer.” Pure gold, sir, pure gold.
lol thx!
I find when people say that, they are really saying, "Why not let us shove this down your throat?" Becasue capitalism at its core is not about $$, it is about what we value
haha, I think Chris Rock pointed this out some 20 years ago when explaining the "In God We Trust" on our currency.
it isn't Jehovah tho, it's Lord Benjamin Dollar...
do I really have to go to Walmart? Thats cruel.
If I were trans I would be so over this.
I wouldn't want to be "outsized glorified" or be a "corporate clown". Or being told men can have babies, etc.etc.
It is bizarre behavior to a "normal" persons "normal". They should be accepted as well as my statement.
And separate bathrooms are just common sense.
Let's move on.
I think that a good example of the world they want to create is modern China:
a capitalist economy for creating wealth and a CCP/Party like structure for Government and controlling the population. The Federal Government will be filled with coastal elites and any pesky Red State that won't tow the line will be punished. if you keep yer head down and keep giving half yer paycheck to the Party, they might let U live...
Funny thing: it never dawned on anybody at Budweiser that the folks who might have been moved by transexual-inclusive marketing, progressives living in large coastal cities, also have good taste in beer.
It may surprise you, but so do a lot of the deplorables in flyover country. There must be thousands of small craft brewers all over the country at this point. People who willingly drink Bud (or Coors or Miller or PBR etc.) do so because it's cheap or because they don't actually like beer, and just want to wash down those Jamo and Jaeger shots with something
Republican foodies? Ya don't say...
I didn't say. I was talking about beer.
Yes, I wondered the same thing. Seems these geniuses did not understand the existing market, nor the apparent target market. Did they think that sending a can of Bud Light to Dylan Mulvaney would make progressive elites drink it??
Looks like this lady lost some of her tennis balls... so sick to the core..
Mega dittoes......"a decision apparently undertaken with the same level of whimsy with which the Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbor"....absolutely perfect!
On that Gillette ad?
All else aside, NEVER SHAVE AGAINST THE GRAIN. Such idiocy.
Was any of that even real?
Also, Don't Drink Against the Grain ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_800V3iBW4
LOL TPB was shot in my hometown. I grew up with those types of characters. Trailer Park Boys is, in actual fact, a documentary.