Thanks for giving the Aspen Institute story some lift. I fear a lot of the gems from the Twitter File reporting has been lost in the noise lately, and this one is truly a gem. It contains all of the arrogance and wickedness that has infected the journalism trade, making it not only untrustworthy, but perfidious. Not just since Trump, but for a time before that.
Your titling of the piece reminded me of my first experience with the "fasci" during the 2008 election cycle when I was chatting with other writers on a Harvard Alumni online writers' group. For several days, all of the posts going back and forth were about Barack Obama and the coming of a new, wonderful age (or adulatory stuff like that), and some of us were getting frustrated that no one was talking about writing. When someone finally piped up and said, "Can we keep politics out of this group? We're here to talk about writing," she was immediately trashed with rude and profane insults. When I and others came to her defense, we were suddenly removed from the group; our sessions ended.
We had each others' emails and started emailing each other and joined our own group chat, like teenagers chatting in the hallway after being tossed out of the classroom.
"What a happy bunch of Stalinists they are," said the woman who initiated the complaint.
"I can say with 100% certainty that it’s true that each side sells hatred of the other side."
I disagree with this statement Sasha. There may be fringe elements on the right that Hate, but the vast majority of conservatives are not haters, they are the common good man. Calling out the extremes of the left is not hatred, it is telling truth. A key component of hate is blindness. Conservatives are not blind, they plainly see and understand what is unfolding in this country. Pointing it out and objecting is not hatred. On the other hand, being clueless and blind to obvious realities is a biproduct of true hatred, which begins to explain the inexplicable left.
The desire to censor and control what people say and think has always been with us, but now technology has provided incredibly powerful tools to control the masses in ways that weren't possible before. Civilizations go through cycles of growth, prosperity, decay, and collapse but I worry that we might not recover from the next collapse given the means we now have at our disposal to destroy life on this planet as we know it. I am so thankful that I was able to live my life in a sort of golden era of relative freedom. I'm afraid my children and grandchildren will not be so lucky.
Another great article and the translations were spot on. Biden’s empty words say the exact opposite of the truth. The Dem party accuses the right of everything they are actually doing. Radical lefts have taken over the Dem party, with Biden as their spokesperson. People who remain with the Dem party will be to blame for the worse administration and history will not be kind to their actions, abuse, and corruption of our Constitutional Republic. We are not a democracy that they love to scream about ‘a threat to our democracy’ 🤬
For my own part, I don't detect any hate here at all. What my antenna pick up on are equal parts disappointment, anger, distress & fear. Now I know that none of us like to think of ourselves as fearful, but what is happening in our country and among so-called progressives makes me feel fear (and that is hardly a typical emotion for me). But with the majority subscribing to extreme rationalist reductionism, all sense of the marvelous is lost, and what is a world without wonders? Without the mysteries of the firmament? Without profound complexity? And then there is our utter enframement by technology & the power on the part of the progressive corporate-governmental-tech structure to fabricate reality & silence anyone. I wonder—maybe part of the vibration here is of horror & fear? I don't know about you, but arrogant ignorance scares me; an intimate embrace of war, as if it's a brand you love, scares me; the willingness to deny that the worst ideas of adults are always visited on children first (Nazi youth, Communist youth, etc.) scares me. Anyway, for me this substack is about disappointment, humanity, and generosity, and à la Abraham Joshua Heschel, about not accommodating to what is far too wrong to ever be agreed to as ok.
It’s funny, when AOC first came on the scene and actually got elected to Congress I was a big fan. She was a refreshing voice and said things I’d been wanting to hear from politicians for a long time. But something happened to her once elected and especially the last 2-3 years. Her voice is now to big and she’s been inducted into the cult that is the woke Democratic Party. Her stance on J-6 is flat out wrong and cringe worthy. At this point I find her completely annoying and hope she doesn’t get re-elected.
This one line summarizes for me what makes Sasha so compelling and effective: “It is a daily battle for me to remember to humanize those I disagree with.”
Finally, someone who actually has an understanding of what fascism is, and it was never a "right wing" idea. It was the left's answer to Marxism (or state ownership of business). Instead, business owned the government.
"The good news is that cable news is all but dead anyway. We can be hopeful that Carlson will remain a powerful voice of dissent once again the moment someone hands him a microphone." Carlson's audience (and Fox News's audience) is older, growing up in the satellite and cable era and they have a hard time thinking outside that paradigm. Carlson could very easily teach them to "cut the cord" as it were, especially if he goes to a streaming service. If that generation (Boomers and Gen Xers) officially cut the cord, not only is cable news dead, but cable is dead. Fingers crossed, that's what happens.
This was brilliant, but tough to absorb, first thing in the morning… these happy fascists are the direct opposite of what our founders intended. Listening to all your excerpts together, I can’t help suspecting that it’s orchestrated. If so, who is doing and paying for this script?
"I was taught to hate the Left by the media on the Right."
Who might that be, though? What outlets might fit such a description? I suppose perhaps FoxNews when Roger Ailes was in charge, might be a match, but I submit it only exposed the media on the left for what it was (much in the same way Trump merely exposed those on the left for what THEY were) , there was no editorial policy promoting hate or hatred toward those of that ideological bent.
"It is a daily battle for me to remember to humanize those I disagree with."
It is thus for me, as well.
"But these are not two equal sides."
Indeed they are not - the day when there is parity between the two, and Democrat members of congress and a Democrat administration is as much on the defensive with the D.C. press corps as has been any other Republican administration, I will happily call out that media outlet on the right as I had for that on the left.
Re: Ramaswamy - how refreshing it is for there to be at least, one other candidate who refuses to be apologetic for being republican. That kind of pushback on Chucky would never come from HW, W, or any other candidate of the congressional equivalent of the Washington Generals who so badly want the love and approval of those who hate them.
The translation of just that one paragraph is utterly magnificent.
Another excellent piece, Sasha. Please continue to spoil us with the truth, and your candor.
It should chill everyone to the bone that Ashli Babbitt was murdered while she was punching 'protesters' who were breaking windows and then tried to escape after the word GUN was shouted. Michael Byrd committed murder and was rewarded for it.
Loved this, love listening with the tweets and videos worked in. It’s really great stuff. The “translation” of Biden’s words and phrases was particularly great in this one.
Once again you have written a great article. I admire people like you than can put their thoughts to paper so succinctly. Thank you.
Sasha:
Thanks for giving the Aspen Institute story some lift. I fear a lot of the gems from the Twitter File reporting has been lost in the noise lately, and this one is truly a gem. It contains all of the arrogance and wickedness that has infected the journalism trade, making it not only untrustworthy, but perfidious. Not just since Trump, but for a time before that.
Your titling of the piece reminded me of my first experience with the "fasci" during the 2008 election cycle when I was chatting with other writers on a Harvard Alumni online writers' group. For several days, all of the posts going back and forth were about Barack Obama and the coming of a new, wonderful age (or adulatory stuff like that), and some of us were getting frustrated that no one was talking about writing. When someone finally piped up and said, "Can we keep politics out of this group? We're here to talk about writing," she was immediately trashed with rude and profane insults. When I and others came to her defense, we were suddenly removed from the group; our sessions ended.
We had each others' emails and started emailing each other and joined our own group chat, like teenagers chatting in the hallway after being tossed out of the classroom.
"What a happy bunch of Stalinists they are," said the woman who initiated the complaint.
It's been like that ever since.
"I can say with 100% certainty that it’s true that each side sells hatred of the other side."
I disagree with this statement Sasha. There may be fringe elements on the right that Hate, but the vast majority of conservatives are not haters, they are the common good man. Calling out the extremes of the left is not hatred, it is telling truth. A key component of hate is blindness. Conservatives are not blind, they plainly see and understand what is unfolding in this country. Pointing it out and objecting is not hatred. On the other hand, being clueless and blind to obvious realities is a biproduct of true hatred, which begins to explain the inexplicable left.
The desire to censor and control what people say and think has always been with us, but now technology has provided incredibly powerful tools to control the masses in ways that weren't possible before. Civilizations go through cycles of growth, prosperity, decay, and collapse but I worry that we might not recover from the next collapse given the means we now have at our disposal to destroy life on this planet as we know it. I am so thankful that I was able to live my life in a sort of golden era of relative freedom. I'm afraid my children and grandchildren will not be so lucky.
I don’t know how you do it Sasha. I agree with everything you said, and every point you made.
Don’t let some hate/race troll try to bog you down. You don’t have to defend yourself, you’re good.
Another great article and the translations were spot on. Biden’s empty words say the exact opposite of the truth. The Dem party accuses the right of everything they are actually doing. Radical lefts have taken over the Dem party, with Biden as their spokesperson. People who remain with the Dem party will be to blame for the worse administration and history will not be kind to their actions, abuse, and corruption of our Constitutional Republic. We are not a democracy that they love to scream about ‘a threat to our democracy’ 🤬
For my own part, I don't detect any hate here at all. What my antenna pick up on are equal parts disappointment, anger, distress & fear. Now I know that none of us like to think of ourselves as fearful, but what is happening in our country and among so-called progressives makes me feel fear (and that is hardly a typical emotion for me). But with the majority subscribing to extreme rationalist reductionism, all sense of the marvelous is lost, and what is a world without wonders? Without the mysteries of the firmament? Without profound complexity? And then there is our utter enframement by technology & the power on the part of the progressive corporate-governmental-tech structure to fabricate reality & silence anyone. I wonder—maybe part of the vibration here is of horror & fear? I don't know about you, but arrogant ignorance scares me; an intimate embrace of war, as if it's a brand you love, scares me; the willingness to deny that the worst ideas of adults are always visited on children first (Nazi youth, Communist youth, etc.) scares me. Anyway, for me this substack is about disappointment, humanity, and generosity, and à la Abraham Joshua Heschel, about not accommodating to what is far too wrong to ever be agreed to as ok.
It’s funny, when AOC first came on the scene and actually got elected to Congress I was a big fan. She was a refreshing voice and said things I’d been wanting to hear from politicians for a long time. But something happened to her once elected and especially the last 2-3 years. Her voice is now to big and she’s been inducted into the cult that is the woke Democratic Party. Her stance on J-6 is flat out wrong and cringe worthy. At this point I find her completely annoying and hope she doesn’t get re-elected.
This one line summarizes for me what makes Sasha so compelling and effective: “It is a daily battle for me to remember to humanize those I disagree with.”
Finally, someone who actually has an understanding of what fascism is, and it was never a "right wing" idea. It was the left's answer to Marxism (or state ownership of business). Instead, business owned the government.
"The good news is that cable news is all but dead anyway. We can be hopeful that Carlson will remain a powerful voice of dissent once again the moment someone hands him a microphone." Carlson's audience (and Fox News's audience) is older, growing up in the satellite and cable era and they have a hard time thinking outside that paradigm. Carlson could very easily teach them to "cut the cord" as it were, especially if he goes to a streaming service. If that generation (Boomers and Gen Xers) officially cut the cord, not only is cable news dead, but cable is dead. Fingers crossed, that's what happens.
This was brilliant, but tough to absorb, first thing in the morning… these happy fascists are the direct opposite of what our founders intended. Listening to all your excerpts together, I can’t help suspecting that it’s orchestrated. If so, who is doing and paying for this script?
"I was taught to hate the Left by the media on the Right."
Who might that be, though? What outlets might fit such a description? I suppose perhaps FoxNews when Roger Ailes was in charge, might be a match, but I submit it only exposed the media on the left for what it was (much in the same way Trump merely exposed those on the left for what THEY were) , there was no editorial policy promoting hate or hatred toward those of that ideological bent.
"It is a daily battle for me to remember to humanize those I disagree with."
It is thus for me, as well.
"But these are not two equal sides."
Indeed they are not - the day when there is parity between the two, and Democrat members of congress and a Democrat administration is as much on the defensive with the D.C. press corps as has been any other Republican administration, I will happily call out that media outlet on the right as I had for that on the left.
Re: Ramaswamy - how refreshing it is for there to be at least, one other candidate who refuses to be apologetic for being republican. That kind of pushback on Chucky would never come from HW, W, or any other candidate of the congressional equivalent of the Washington Generals who so badly want the love and approval of those who hate them.
The translation of just that one paragraph is utterly magnificent.
Another excellent piece, Sasha. Please continue to spoil us with the truth, and your candor.
Note to AOC, the problem with saying stupid things is that people will start to think you are stupid.
They control every aspect of our society but are frighten by a few men like President Trump and Tucker Carlson.
So what does that say?
We should have no fear, Victory is assured to our side because GOD and over 150 million Americans are on our side.
Great piece like usual, Great Lady!
It should chill everyone to the bone that Ashli Babbitt was murdered while she was punching 'protesters' who were breaking windows and then tried to escape after the word GUN was shouted. Michael Byrd committed murder and was rewarded for it.
Loved this, love listening with the tweets and videos worked in. It’s really great stuff. The “translation” of Biden’s words and phrases was particularly great in this one.