I appreciate your writing and efforts to try and make sense of all that has happened. It’s been rough being a Trump supporter. It’s been nice being called a racist, an asshole and stupid by family members in a public forum of which I fought back finally and that has caused more tension. I voted for him(twice) because I thought he would be the person to finally buck the system. What I didn’t realize was how dirty the system was and still is. I hope I’m not still being naive but I feel like the whole process opened more eyes and maybe we are more ready to unify and find that person that really can change some things. I just wonder what tricks they have up their sleeve. Already used racism(George Floyd) and COvID both of which knocked us all flat on our heals temporarily anyhow. Let’s hope this time around nothing will cause us to pause and let them gain anymore control. I agree definitely that the powers that be are relying on corporations to do their bidding. Most want to save face and not be cancelled so they go all in. My husband fought flying the LGBT...flag out front of his hospital. He wanted only the American flag. He won temporality but new leadership gained some confidence and squashed it. So he said he’s going to find the smallest flag possible and put it in the window. Also will be more open to other groups that want to fly their flags. It’s so great having politics in everything...
Sasha, as someone who admittedly has spent most of their life firmly on the Left, your ability to fairly and accurately describe Trump and his followers is remarkable, particularly when so many others have lost all perspective. Speaks to your largeness of mind, and to your courage.
I grew up on Mad in the 60s and NatLamp in the 70s. I've always loved humor, wit and satire, the edgier the better.
Animal House, Porky's, Caddy Shack created new genres of comedy. SNL pushed the boundaries even further.
The Onion was a brilliant publication, and their original 9/11 issue was one of the funniest ever written. But alas, they went the way of SNL. How did an entire generation of artists turn away from humor?
It all stopped this millennia. PC slowed it down, and Woke killed it.
"The idea is that, in order to take the heat off of themselves they began pivoting toward the identity-focused politics of the Left. Now, all they have to do is virtue signal and that gives them unlimited power."
This wasn't accidental. This is the legacy of Barack Obama and the modern political left. They taught corporations well. Identity and virtue signaling are the very best way to escape accountability. I saw this morning that KJP was going on ad nauseum about how diverse this administration is. I thought, running through a list of current crises here and abroad, that people might come to conclude that is the problem and maybe we should just go back to letting straight white cis men run things (not really what I think but I understand how someone would arrive at that conclusion).
There's one thing I would add to your mix of who's pulling the strings: the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP wants to neutralize the US as an enemy and has been willing to invest decades of slow, quiet effort in coopting our "leader" class and undermining our coherence as a society. Between the amount of US debt China holds and its strategic financial "aid" to Western politicians and institutions, we are practically owned by the CCP. I think that's one reason why extreme pro-trans policies (biological men in women's shelters and prisons? seriously?) keep being pushed despite the tiny number of true trans people and the majority opposition to such policies.
Granted, Big Pharma is also a culprit, seeking a captive audience for sexual-phenotype-changing drugs. And I also think Glenn Greenwald makes a good point that when same-sex marriage became a constitutional right, the professional LGB-rights advocates needed to find a new cause on which to fund-raise.
Class war doesn't work here, as Alinsky and the Bolsheviks found out. But race does. It was hard at first, as the Klan dominated the Democratic party from the late 1860's to the late 1950's. But the Klan does not exist any more, but antifa and BLM do and they're anarchist and communist, respectively. What people call "woke" is nothing more than Maxist polemics but updated to Maoist speech and arguments. Mao's campaign to eliminate the "Four Olds" during the Cultural Revolution is the same as what the left is doing here now, with the destruction of all institutions, ideas, traditions, laws, the Constitutions, federal and state, the Bill of Rights, stare desisis, and the rest of 2000 plus years of Western thought, culture, and jurisprudence. Our left is just as humorless as the Maoists, just not as violent.
The left struck out trying to use class as a lever to get their utopia so they are giving identity politics a go.
If you believe privilege and oppression are the main determinants of your lot in life, then success and failure is nothing but an accident of birth. It isn't your fault you are poor. And any wealth you have was due to your privilege, connections or generational wealth. So, if wealth and success are determined by nothing more than pure randomness, then why not redistribute it all?
You don't need to nationalize the corporate sector. Just co-opt it and guide it with ESG. Same result.
And that all the modern left's philosophy boils down to. The old collectivist rotgut in a shiny new bottle. Instead of cabernet or merlot, you get a blend of socialism and fascism. Unfortunately, we have an army of useful idiots who are oblivious and just think their philosophy is about being nice.
Let's say you wanted to read a physical copy of Mein Kampf because you were doing research on the origins of Nazism or some other such reasonable purpose. What would you do with the book? You probably wouldn't want to put it on your bookshelf because you wouldn't want people to think you were a Nazi. So you would probably try to hide it somewhere so that visitors wouldn't see it. But if somebody found it and knew you were hiding it, it would be much worse because then they would really think you were a closet Nazi.
You would then have to try to explain yourself. I can imagine this happening to Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm
Consider that the answer to what is going on with the left is based on the existence of evil and that Satan exists. The human condition makes us all vulnerable to evil especially when Satan convinces some of us that evil does not exist. If we can be convinced that evil does not exist, is when we become most vulnerable to embrace it as an illusion of some ideology that becomes our idol.
Explore a relationship with God and he will give you the wisdom you seek.
Corporations attach themselves to the source of power. In the U.S. the people with the real power are leftist politicians. And the category "leftists politicians" includes the Republicans.
The UniParty are our rulers. They are the ones handing out the $trillions in Cantillon money. The corporations have figured this out.
How about we all start making woke jokes. Many blonde jokes could be repurposed for this. Example, three woke guys walked into a building., you would think that one of them would have noticed. Jokes might slowly move the culture towards normalcy.
Those who are clingers. . . to reality and fact (which still exist) will always be smarter than the pliable, pathetic woke. We respect reality and adapt to it; they deny it and instead impose a childishly-wishful phantasmagoria of ten impossible things before lunch. If reality is so painful as to cause one that reaction, the problem is not external circumstances, it is the the internal stew, over-boiled and carbonizing to the cast iron pot wall. Therapy might provide insight on turning down the heat.
I appreciate your writing and efforts to try and make sense of all that has happened. It’s been rough being a Trump supporter. It’s been nice being called a racist, an asshole and stupid by family members in a public forum of which I fought back finally and that has caused more tension. I voted for him(twice) because I thought he would be the person to finally buck the system. What I didn’t realize was how dirty the system was and still is. I hope I’m not still being naive but I feel like the whole process opened more eyes and maybe we are more ready to unify and find that person that really can change some things. I just wonder what tricks they have up their sleeve. Already used racism(George Floyd) and COvID both of which knocked us all flat on our heals temporarily anyhow. Let’s hope this time around nothing will cause us to pause and let them gain anymore control. I agree definitely that the powers that be are relying on corporations to do their bidding. Most want to save face and not be cancelled so they go all in. My husband fought flying the LGBT...flag out front of his hospital. He wanted only the American flag. He won temporality but new leadership gained some confidence and squashed it. So he said he’s going to find the smallest flag possible and put it in the window. Also will be more open to other groups that want to fly their flags. It’s so great having politics in everything...
Sasha, as someone who admittedly has spent most of their life firmly on the Left, your ability to fairly and accurately describe Trump and his followers is remarkable, particularly when so many others have lost all perspective. Speaks to your largeness of mind, and to your courage.
I grew up on Mad in the 60s and NatLamp in the 70s. I've always loved humor, wit and satire, the edgier the better.
Animal House, Porky's, Caddy Shack created new genres of comedy. SNL pushed the boundaries even further.
The Onion was a brilliant publication, and their original 9/11 issue was one of the funniest ever written. But alas, they went the way of SNL. How did an entire generation of artists turn away from humor?
It all stopped this millennia. PC slowed it down, and Woke killed it.
"The idea is that, in order to take the heat off of themselves they began pivoting toward the identity-focused politics of the Left. Now, all they have to do is virtue signal and that gives them unlimited power."
This wasn't accidental. This is the legacy of Barack Obama and the modern political left. They taught corporations well. Identity and virtue signaling are the very best way to escape accountability. I saw this morning that KJP was going on ad nauseum about how diverse this administration is. I thought, running through a list of current crises here and abroad, that people might come to conclude that is the problem and maybe we should just go back to letting straight white cis men run things (not really what I think but I understand how someone would arrive at that conclusion).
There's one thing I would add to your mix of who's pulling the strings: the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP wants to neutralize the US as an enemy and has been willing to invest decades of slow, quiet effort in coopting our "leader" class and undermining our coherence as a society. Between the amount of US debt China holds and its strategic financial "aid" to Western politicians and institutions, we are practically owned by the CCP. I think that's one reason why extreme pro-trans policies (biological men in women's shelters and prisons? seriously?) keep being pushed despite the tiny number of true trans people and the majority opposition to such policies.
Granted, Big Pharma is also a culprit, seeking a captive audience for sexual-phenotype-changing drugs. And I also think Glenn Greenwald makes a good point that when same-sex marriage became a constitutional right, the professional LGB-rights advocates needed to find a new cause on which to fund-raise.
Class war doesn't work here, as Alinsky and the Bolsheviks found out. But race does. It was hard at first, as the Klan dominated the Democratic party from the late 1860's to the late 1950's. But the Klan does not exist any more, but antifa and BLM do and they're anarchist and communist, respectively. What people call "woke" is nothing more than Maxist polemics but updated to Maoist speech and arguments. Mao's campaign to eliminate the "Four Olds" during the Cultural Revolution is the same as what the left is doing here now, with the destruction of all institutions, ideas, traditions, laws, the Constitutions, federal and state, the Bill of Rights, stare desisis, and the rest of 2000 plus years of Western thought, culture, and jurisprudence. Our left is just as humorless as the Maoists, just not as violent.
Danny Huckabee
The left struck out trying to use class as a lever to get their utopia so they are giving identity politics a go.
If you believe privilege and oppression are the main determinants of your lot in life, then success and failure is nothing but an accident of birth. It isn't your fault you are poor. And any wealth you have was due to your privilege, connections or generational wealth. So, if wealth and success are determined by nothing more than pure randomness, then why not redistribute it all?
You don't need to nationalize the corporate sector. Just co-opt it and guide it with ESG. Same result.
And that all the modern left's philosophy boils down to. The old collectivist rotgut in a shiny new bottle. Instead of cabernet or merlot, you get a blend of socialism and fascism. Unfortunately, we have an army of useful idiots who are oblivious and just think their philosophy is about being nice.
Let's say you wanted to read a physical copy of Mein Kampf because you were doing research on the origins of Nazism or some other such reasonable purpose. What would you do with the book? You probably wouldn't want to put it on your bookshelf because you wouldn't want people to think you were a Nazi. So you would probably try to hide it somewhere so that visitors wouldn't see it. But if somebody found it and knew you were hiding it, it would be much worse because then they would really think you were a closet Nazi.
You would then have to try to explain yourself. I can imagine this happening to Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm
Consider that the answer to what is going on with the left is based on the existence of evil and that Satan exists. The human condition makes us all vulnerable to evil especially when Satan convinces some of us that evil does not exist. If we can be convinced that evil does not exist, is when we become most vulnerable to embrace it as an illusion of some ideology that becomes our idol.
Explore a relationship with God and he will give you the wisdom you seek.
Ted McCormac
Corporations attach themselves to the source of power. In the U.S. the people with the real power are leftist politicians. And the category "leftists politicians" includes the Republicans.
The UniParty are our rulers. They are the ones handing out the $trillions in Cantillon money. The corporations have figured this out.
How about we all start making woke jokes. Many blonde jokes could be repurposed for this. Example, three woke guys walked into a building., you would think that one of them would have noticed. Jokes might slowly move the culture towards normalcy.
You're becoming one of my favorite substackers to listen to. Your green eyes just knock me out!🤣
"To the new Left, class isn’t an issue anymore"
It can't be, too many wealthy liberals on the Left.
As always, champagne socialist was a term from the 1960s
excellent. ty.
Those who are clingers. . . to reality and fact (which still exist) will always be smarter than the pliable, pathetic woke. We respect reality and adapt to it; they deny it and instead impose a childishly-wishful phantasmagoria of ten impossible things before lunch. If reality is so painful as to cause one that reaction, the problem is not external circumstances, it is the the internal stew, over-boiled and carbonizing to the cast iron pot wall. Therapy might provide insight on turning down the heat.
Brilliant writer. Thank you for your thoughtful work.