20 hrs ago·edited 20 hrs agoLiked by The Ivy Exile
"And so an administration already practiced in expansive executive power grabs settled into a rut of enacting by “pen and phone” what it couldn’t push through Congress, becoming more arrogant by the day. It was ultimately that brand of smug bullying, and the palpable contempt for voters outside of the blue tribe, that gave Donald Trump’s populist insurgency just enough oomph to power his shock upset in 2016."
Not to mention "self-serving". The assumption being that, we, as More Intelligent, Better Educated, More Virtuous and More Enlightened People with better taste and also totebags, we are entitled not only to run things, but we also are entitled to the lion's share of the goodies.
After all, we represent a sort of natural aristocracy, and if the little people get left behind, that is because they deserve it.
That's what I think DEI/CRT is. A luxury belief, but so stupid no one could come up with it on their own without knowing the secret phrases that would let the most meritless private school kid jump the line. Under what rational merit based system does the NYT tech union demand trigger warnings?
Structurally the shift of discourse from regional newspapers and hegemonic mass media to a fragmented system of algorithms delivering tailored partisan content was probably bound to polarize politics -- it really incentivizes being at each other's throats, unfortunately. But the heady exuberance of the Obama years probably accelerated the process by a bunch of years. The election of boring middle of the road Romney might have preserved the boring old establishmentarian center for another several cycles, and perhaps kept people from hating each other so much for a little while longer.
True progressivism must prevail if we are to avoid a pendulum swing toward a tyranny of conservatism. For that to happen though, post-modern progressive institutions will have to be razed culturally and financially. Reform must come from the virtuous and enlightened, not some Jacobin reaction. This is where we are at now: a hard and dangerous moment. Now is the time for measured thought and civic virtue. A time to think about 20 years from now and 50 years from now. The path has been cleared but its all uphill and steep. It’s a hard path from here.
Why describe a 4+ point Biden win with 300+ electoral votes as a “squeaker” while referring to (what will be) a 2 point Trump win with a similar number of electoral votes as a “landslide”? You condemn the Biden administration for their arrogance in treating their win as a mandate while cavalierly referring to Trump’s (in some ways) narrower win as a mandate yourself. If you want people to to have a good faith conversation about this, then you can’t just play fast and loose with the facts like this in service to your own narrative (and that is only one example).
"And so an administration already practiced in expansive executive power grabs settled into a rut of enacting by “pen and phone” what it couldn’t push through Congress, becoming more arrogant by the day. It was ultimately that brand of smug bullying, and the palpable contempt for voters outside of the blue tribe, that gave Donald Trump’s populist insurgency just enough oomph to power his shock upset in 2016."
Not to mention "self-serving". The assumption being that, we, as More Intelligent, Better Educated, More Virtuous and More Enlightened People with better taste and also totebags, we are entitled not only to run things, but we also are entitled to the lion's share of the goodies.
After all, we represent a sort of natural aristocracy, and if the little people get left behind, that is because they deserve it.
That's what I think DEI/CRT is. A luxury belief, but so stupid no one could come up with it on their own without knowing the secret phrases that would let the most meritless private school kid jump the line. Under what rational merit based system does the NYT tech union demand trigger warnings?
DEI is a textbook luxury belief, as well as an exceptionally performative means of virtue signaling.
Nicely done.
The employment of a large claque of professional Progressives is itself a serious structural problem.
Glad I’m not alone in occasionally wondering if the timeline went off the rails in 2012 with Romney.
Structurally the shift of discourse from regional newspapers and hegemonic mass media to a fragmented system of algorithms delivering tailored partisan content was probably bound to polarize politics -- it really incentivizes being at each other's throats, unfortunately. But the heady exuberance of the Obama years probably accelerated the process by a bunch of years. The election of boring middle of the road Romney might have preserved the boring old establishmentarian center for another several cycles, and perhaps kept people from hating each other so much for a little while longer.
True progressivism must prevail if we are to avoid a pendulum swing toward a tyranny of conservatism. For that to happen though, post-modern progressive institutions will have to be razed culturally and financially. Reform must come from the virtuous and enlightened, not some Jacobin reaction. This is where we are at now: a hard and dangerous moment. Now is the time for measured thought and civic virtue. A time to think about 20 years from now and 50 years from now. The path has been cleared but its all uphill and steep. It’s a hard path from here.
Cheating is not winning. Biden didn't "eke out" a win in 2020, he was installed through election fraud by traitors and seditionists.
Why describe a 4+ point Biden win with 300+ electoral votes as a “squeaker” while referring to (what will be) a 2 point Trump win with a similar number of electoral votes as a “landslide”? You condemn the Biden administration for their arrogance in treating their win as a mandate while cavalierly referring to Trump’s (in some ways) narrower win as a mandate yourself. If you want people to to have a good faith conversation about this, then you can’t just play fast and loose with the facts like this in service to your own narrative (and that is only one example).