I’m just reading this now, having clicked through from your recent message. I found it very notable at the time that, when Trump contracted COVID, his response was to speculate that he caught it from the “Gold Star families” who attended a reception with him at the White House. He talked about them in terms that reflected his view of them as being categorized as diers (by dint of them being related to literal diers), and talked about them as supplicants who insisted on kissing and hugging him. He singled out those families and that event as the cause of contagion, despite also having attended a reception the previous day, to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett's nomination. The attendees of that event, though, were, of course, the livers. Also notable that the eventual timeline that came out, at least according to Mark Meadows’ memoir, was that Trump tested positive the day before the gold star reception - that is, on the day of the Barrett nomination reception, after the event was over. (According to Meadows he had a positive test immediately by a negative test and I guess decided to believe the negative test). But regardless of the exact dates and timeline, I’ve never forgotten the rhetoric of contagion Trump used to describe those families whom he clearly looked down upon as “normie” “diers”.
Thanks for all your posts, except the Lost stuff, which I don’t understand because I never watched it :-). I’m about halfway through the Revisionaries and loving it.
This outstanding and I thank you for putting it out here for us. Jesus, Kant, Buber, Buddha…you are in good company reminding us to check our tendency to dehumanize others in order to absolve ourselves of accountability to our fellow humans (our own humanity).
Thank you for yet another great piece. I hadn’t ever thought of the “conservatism, to wit” line in exactly that way, but you’re 100% right. What else are they conserving? They can’t even say “incremental change” at this point because they are uprooting sometimes centuries of precedent if it helps them to get their goals met.
-- that Trumpistas actually ARE victims, and flock to him because he helps them feel better, by stoking their wounded sense of superiority, misdirecting, etc.
-- how BigGovt/CronyCapitalism generates victims & erodes civil society.
Fundamentalism everywhere is a product of the assault by states/elites on traditional society.
So too white nativists/Trumpistas who feel victimized by change and are undermined by #CorporateSocialism
By focusing on 'conservative dipshits' you feed into partisan, black-white scaremongering and fingerpointing; this is a divide-and-conquer dynamic that makes it even less likely that we can build the bridges to others who are also suffering and whose cooperation we need to rein in the paramount bullies who are least accountable.
Buddy, I don't disagree with you on most of this, but I made many of these points in the piece while others I chose not to focus on because they weren't the focus of the piece. Sorry I didn't make your points in the way you wanted, but your obnoxious spamming approach here and on other platforms is unwelcome, so I'd like to invite you to modify it in the future.
I noticed that line as well. When being murdered is accepted as a norm, there can be only victims and survivors. Humans are incredibly binary in their mental processes.
Putin's Tool, in rejecting a visit to the graves of American soldiers who feel at the Battle of Belleau-Wood in WWI:
"In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed."
Survivors survive because of their bulging muscles, throbbing and enormous pre-frontal cortex, and of course, shiny brass DNA.
"I think supremacists really believe this: that, should they find themselves in a shooting, they would not be something so shameful as a victim."
It's not merely the elongated ballistic devices they're packing everywhere they go, it's their apex predator sensory apparatus and instincts, and of course, their bullet-proof skin.
How is it that you don't remember last chapter of Revelations, The Gospel of He-Man?
"...the exclusive right to defense bestows an irrevocable license to commit any act of violence against any perceived threat, however slight or hypothetical that threat might be"
Been tryin' to sway you, and I'm a persistent cuss, so we'll give it another go.
Ain't no ideology referred to as 'Conservatism'.
It is, and ever was, a sham.
Polite gibberish, enough winks and nods and Federalist Society varnish to pass muster with the NYT and WaPo editorial staff.
What there is, however, is a worldview.
It's called fascism.
This worldview is in the service of a specific cohort (White enough, hetero enough, Christian enough).
There's one purpose, and one instrument in it's employ, above all others- impunity.
A cohort that grants itself license, and licentiousness, depravity and cruelty, and glorifies the ritual perfomance of brutality and mass murder. Because it feels good to them.
If you haven't yet, please read Umberto Eco's Ur-fascism:
"Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist. Take away imperialism from fascism and you still have Franco and Salazar. Take away colonialism and you still have the Balkan fascism of the Ustashes. Add to the Italian fascism a radical anti-capitalism (which never much fascinated Mussolini) and you have Ezra Pound. Add a cult of Celtic mythology and the Grail mysticism (completely alien to official fascism) and you have one of the most respected fascist gurus, Julius Evola.
But in spite of this fuzziness, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it."
I’m just reading this now, having clicked through from your recent message. I found it very notable at the time that, when Trump contracted COVID, his response was to speculate that he caught it from the “Gold Star families” who attended a reception with him at the White House. He talked about them in terms that reflected his view of them as being categorized as diers (by dint of them being related to literal diers), and talked about them as supplicants who insisted on kissing and hugging him. He singled out those families and that event as the cause of contagion, despite also having attended a reception the previous day, to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett's nomination. The attendees of that event, though, were, of course, the livers. Also notable that the eventual timeline that came out, at least according to Mark Meadows’ memoir, was that Trump tested positive the day before the gold star reception - that is, on the day of the Barrett nomination reception, after the event was over. (According to Meadows he had a positive test immediately by a negative test and I guess decided to believe the negative test). But regardless of the exact dates and timeline, I’ve never forgotten the rhetoric of contagion Trump used to describe those families whom he clearly looked down upon as “normie” “diers”.
Thanks for all your posts, except the Lost stuff, which I don’t understand because I never watched it :-). I’m about halfway through the Revisionaries and loving it.
Wanted to make sure you saw this Slate piece on who the Frank Wilhoit is behind the great quote you use. https://slate.com/business/2022/06/wilhoits-law-conservatives-frank-wilhoit.html
This outstanding and I thank you for putting it out here for us. Jesus, Kant, Buber, Buddha…you are in good company reminding us to check our tendency to dehumanize others in order to absolve ourselves of accountability to our fellow humans (our own humanity).
Thank you for yet another great piece. I hadn’t ever thought of the “conservatism, to wit” line in exactly that way, but you’re 100% right. What else are they conserving? They can’t even say “incremental change” at this point because they are uprooting sometimes centuries of precedent if it helps them to get their goals met.
Very perceptive, but you leave out:
-- that Trumpistas actually ARE victims, and flock to him because he helps them feel better, by stoking their wounded sense of superiority, misdirecting, etc.
-- how BigGovt/CronyCapitalism generates victims & erodes civil society.
Fundamentalism everywhere is a product of the assault by states/elites on traditional society.
So too white nativists/Trumpistas who feel victimized by change and are undermined by #CorporateSocialism
See former nun K. Armstrong:
1 https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jul/31/comment.usa
2 https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/a/armstrong-battle.html?_r=1
Former Republican Mike Lofgren also captures some of these dynamics: https://www.salon.com/2023/05/20/the-gops-heart-of-darkness-why-ron-desantis-can-never-beat-donald/
By focusing on 'conservative dipshits' you feed into partisan, black-white scaremongering and fingerpointing; this is a divide-and-conquer dynamic that makes it even less likely that we can build the bridges to others who are also suffering and whose cooperation we need to rein in the paramount bullies who are least accountable.
Buddy, I don't disagree with you on most of this, but I made many of these points in the piece while others I chose not to focus on because they weren't the focus of the piece. Sorry I didn't make your points in the way you wanted, but your obnoxious spamming approach here and on other platforms is unwelcome, so I'd like to invite you to modify it in the future.
It’s an important topic, and I’m visiting here at your specific invitation.
Glad you don’t disagree with me on most of this.
I noticed that line as well. When being murdered is accepted as a norm, there can be only victims and survivors. Humans are incredibly binary in their mental processes.
The Diers, you say?
Putin's Tool, in rejecting a visit to the graves of American soldiers who feel at the Battle of Belleau-Wood in WWI:
"In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed."
(q.v. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/)
Those who are dumb and weak die.
Survivors survive because of their bulging muscles, throbbing and enormous pre-frontal cortex, and of course, shiny brass DNA.
"I think supremacists really believe this: that, should they find themselves in a shooting, they would not be something so shameful as a victim."
It's not merely the elongated ballistic devices they're packing everywhere they go, it's their apex predator sensory apparatus and instincts, and of course, their bullet-proof skin.
How is it that you don't remember last chapter of Revelations, The Gospel of He-Man?
"...the exclusive right to defense bestows an irrevocable license to commit any act of violence against any perceived threat, however slight or hypothetical that threat might be"
Been tryin' to sway you, and I'm a persistent cuss, so we'll give it another go.
Ain't no ideology referred to as 'Conservatism'.
It is, and ever was, a sham.
Polite gibberish, enough winks and nods and Federalist Society varnish to pass muster with the NYT and WaPo editorial staff.
What there is, however, is a worldview.
It's called fascism.
This worldview is in the service of a specific cohort (White enough, hetero enough, Christian enough).
There's one purpose, and one instrument in it's employ, above all others- impunity.
A cohort that grants itself license, and licentiousness, depravity and cruelty, and glorifies the ritual perfomance of brutality and mass murder. Because it feels good to them.
If you haven't yet, please read Umberto Eco's Ur-fascism:
(https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism)
"Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist. Take away imperialism from fascism and you still have Franco and Salazar. Take away colonialism and you still have the Balkan fascism of the Ustashes. Add to the Italian fascism a radical anti-capitalism (which never much fascinated Mussolini) and you have Ezra Pound. Add a cult of Celtic mythology and the Grail mysticism (completely alien to official fascism) and you have one of the most respected fascist gurus, Julius Evola.
But in spite of this fuzziness, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it."