The flashes of lightning in the thunderstorms were cool. The whole thing was pretty cool actually.
Apparently not much nightlife in Chad. Pretty unsurprising as it consistently ranks high in the various lists of states declared officially failed.
Although I do not believe Chad was one of the places DJT described as a “sh-thole country”, had he done so you would not hear any dissension from me.
And the vast majority of that electricity is generated by coal, natgas and nuke. The Left’s fantasy to move the US to wind and solar will create regular blackouts and increase energy prices by 3x-5x. And it is all virtue signaling. Stopping the Green New Deal – and getting China to pay us the $10T it owes us – are the two main economic issues of today. Stopping CRT is the main cultural issue. And, of course, Joe Biden is on the wrong side.
Another effort to point out how, from space, “there are no borders”.
Not new. Yes, borders are man-made. This does not make them any less valid or more unreasonable than the boundary between my property line and yours, however.
Even small animals understand the idea of “my territory” vs. “your territory”. Go watch some birds chase each other out of a given space to grasp how small a brain it takes to get that idea — the size of an almond, maybe?
Do bird-defined boundaries show if you’re flying over the area at 10,000 feet? No? And yet birds will fight over them, won’t they?
(Not kvetching at you, Neo, just noting the flawed likely genesis of the idea behind this film)
The pixilated thunderstorms were interesting, though.
A dramatic illustration of a western oriented Israel amidst a sea of a somewhat primitive Mideast surrounding it.
Interesting. Surprising to see how “empty” a supposedly developed country like Egypt is when you leave the banks of the Nile.
O Bloody Hell, I did not see that. The political take away for me is that so many countries have made so little progress toward achieving what we would consider modern development. You wonder how many people are living in the great unlighted expanses, and under what condition.
I think that video could serve as the cornerstone of a college lecture on how specific political systems promote or deter development of basic infrastructure. If someone tried it, I am sure they would be “canceled” as racist. Alas.
I’ve seen several of these videos. South Korea is always lit up and North Korea is dark as the far side of the moon. There are times I think the powers that be would like that for the USA too.
The omissions are interesting too: no mention of Germany, Scandinavia, Russia (although you could say the Caspian Sea is a stand-in), Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, India . . . . and China.
PACat…Yeah…and I was out there waving up the whole time!
Harris during her speech said she visited El Paso, rather than the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, which has seen the most encounters of migrants coming to the border because many of Trump’s hardline immigration policies originated in El Paso. She noted that a pilot program for the former president’s “zero-tolerance policy” that led to children and parents being separated at the border began in El Paso.
Neo has hit this point before, and I think I was a little silently dismissive of it: It is all about being the anti-Trump. Still. Orange Man Bad. Still. It is just fine to implement genuinely bad federal policy as long as it reverses a Trump policy.
Scott @ 9:56am
I recently spent two years in Chad serving in our Uncle Sam’s diplomatic service, and can assure you that, yes, it qualifies as one of President Trump’s sh@tholes. Poverty like nothing the US knows, or even has known for decades, if ever, and the elite live behind walls of every nature, both physical and political, and look past it.
But, the people are warm and friendly, kind, once you get to know them. And the stars at night are like a cliché – diamonds so bright and just above your head that it makes you wonder if you really can reach up and touch them.
20 Years of Forever War In Afghanistan so that Afghan Girls could learn how to insert IUDs and what does the American People get in return?
“The United States will relocate thousands of Afghan citizens who worked for the American government before U.S. troops exit the country in the next few months.
The plan is to relocate between 20,000 and 100,000 Afghan citizens, a senior White House official tells NPR. The White House is in the process of informing both the U.S. Congress and the Afghan government, the official said.”
We take care of our own… We pay our debts… yadda yadda… Everyone reading this blog knows damn well what these ‘Refugees’ will become and just how much they will NOT contribute to quality of life in the USA.
But a lot of generals got combat badges which helped their promotions. A lot of contractors did very nicely. And obviously there was bigger graft than that. Don’t want be called a cynic so won’t try to enumerate.
Invade the World / Invite the World — Brilliant Model.
New Netflix Revenge Porn ‘Western’ being released soon.
Get the feeling there’s something brewing? Anyone?
Guess who are the Bad Guys? Take Three Guesses, White Boy.
If need any more hints, could always ask co-director Boaz Yakin.”
You never saw “Django Unchained”? LOL
[Nothing to do with the Belgian guitarist, obviously]
As a sometimes unintentional comedy it’s not too bad, though I think that it is pretty much Quentin Tarantino’s masochistic fantasy projected onto the big screen in the form of what you described as “revenge porn”.
In Quentin’s dreams, he, or his alter egos, can always think faster, draw quicker and shoot straighter than everyone else. It’s some compensation no doubt for his cretinous looks … imagining himself perpetrator, splayed victim, and avenger, all at once.
@DNW:
I watched Pulp Fiction twice in cinemas when it first came out and enjoyed it. First time was rather inebriated, so all the disparate bits came together very nicely second time around.
Then looked into his earlier efforts and was utterly repulsed. He’s done nothing since to change that view, but have not watched any — although cannot help reading and hearing about what’s coming down the Tubes.
“A dramatic illustration of a western oriented Israel amidst a sea of a somewhat primitive Mideast surrounding it.”
You mean like those Western-oriented Taiwanese and Japanese and (video did not show it, but lit up like a Christmas Tree) Mainland Chinese?
It’s an IQ Proxy Map convolved with a Pop. Density Map.
Jews smarter and more crammed together (on the whole) than Arabs? Say it ain’t so!
@Telemachus:
You make a good point about the night sky in really remote places. Perhaps we could all do with more of those skies.
There’s something, too, about Third World Shit Holes By Night. The pools of dim light and snatches of life one sees as one drives past them. It’s just different. I kind of like it but happy to be seeing it as a ‘Space Man’ rather than living it.
Zaphod on June 25, 2021 at 10:20 pm said:
I dunno… Guess it’s Just a Movie. Maybe I’m overreacting.
God Almighty, Zaphod. Where the hell did you come up with that “Forbes” site?
Why? In aid of what? Did you click on the “channel”?
I hope to God you didn’t.
@DNW:
Obviously Googled for the notorious movie in question and got a few viable search results — most of which were on crap sites like archive.org which don’t stream well. Posted the YouTube link because it’s the one which I know won’t fail to load and stream.
Frankly I’m surprised that this YouTube channel hasn’t been disappeared. Far milder folks have gone down the memory hole.
Didn’t bother looking at his other stuff. I think we’re advanced enough folks here to grasp that posting a link to illustrate a point about propaganda and vilification of groups doesn’t imply that one subscribes to a channel owner’s credo.
The relationship between what happened last time and the way things are going with the ever-increasing tide of Anti-White Bias in movies, dramas, documentaries, etc.. shouldn’t need diagrams and flowcharts…
Gentle suggestion though: Reflexive Pavlovian Pearl Clutching and Attacks of the Vapors, and so on get to be a bit of a bore and a distraction from current issues in this Year of Our Lord 2021, no? Generals fighting the Last War, and all that…
Whatever. TLDR
More trolling by Can Do!
Thank you for your usual maximal entropy input, Om.
Another thought:
The average German in the 1930s probably got to watch one movie and newsreel per week… if that. Plus not a while lot of choice in Radio listening. Don’t know about you guys, but 25 years ago my diet was daily newspaper + quick perv at cute TV weather girl + weekly Economist + some periodicals. Compare that to today.
What bugs me is the orders of magnitude greater universally pervasive deluge of anti-White (Call it anti-Deplorable if you’re terminally squeamish) Male propaganda. The fact that no one item in this deluge is as blatantly over the top as Jud Süß, I think misses the point. Goebbels didn’t have The Algorithms. To think that this isn’t leading somewhere is ‘Optimistic’.
“article might be of general interest to some of us.” – Zaphod
Cook’s post was indeed interesting, and he makes some good points.
However, I’m not part of that reading community, and so I am somewhat unsure what he means by “the left” and “liberals,” since it seems to me that he puts them in distinct factions when considering responses to Greenwald’s criticisms of the Democrats.
Any clarification is welcome.
(There is a commenter on Greenwald’s blog who keeps insisting, somewhat maniacally, that people are slamming the liberals when they actually mean the left, but he seems to be arguing that there is no leftist tinge to any contemporary self-labeled liberal, and I don’t see that as being the case.
I note that on comment threads especially there is a complete lack of definitions as to what people mean when they use any of the names of political factions, and most ideologies as well. It’s difficult to recognize either opposing viewpoints or common ground.)
@AesopFan:
You say:
“However, I’m not part of that reading community, and so I am somewhat unsure what he means by “the left” and “liberals,” since it seems to me that he puts them in distinct factions when considering responses to Greenwald’s criticisms of the Democrats.
Any clarification is welcome.”
I think what you’re getting is Robinson (Old Leftist Caricature) calling out Greenwald and Taibbi as Traitors to the Old Cause because they mentioned a Progressive Hypocrisy/Contradiction re Authoritarianism/Free Speech cf. the GloboHomo Progressive Establishment instinctively deplatforming them simply because GloboHomo automatically produces antibodies against Dissent and its minions will just pile on in a virtue-spiral free-for-all.
Robinson is not happy with Greenwald for being more interested in freedom of speech and maybe even facts than in Fighting the Right. I suspect that Robinson would agree to disagree with Greenwald on any number of points so long as Greenwald maintained a constant posture of ‘Fighting the Right’ (whatever that happens to be this decade). Robinson probably is all in favour of Freedom of Speech so long as it’s free and open debate amongst Good Leftist like him.
The Other Left — The shiny updated Version 2.0 Progressive Left is a bit different. Greenwald could have just zigged when the school of fish zagged and he would have been finished forevermore. But he’s done worse than that…He’s Joined the Other Side (not just lent comfort to the enemy) He’s Fascist Filth now and that’s all anyone needs to know. And GloboHomo Progressive Left doesn’t do free and open debate even within its own ranks. I mean, why are you so keen on Hate Speech?
Cooke Says:
“In essence, the dilemma the left now faces is this:
To work with the Democrats, with liberals, who are desperate to put the mask back on the system, to shore up its deceptions, so that political stability can be restored – a stability that is waging war around the globe, that is escalating the threat of super-power tensions and nuclear annihilation, and that is destroying the planet.
Or to keep the mask off, and work with those elements of the populist left and right that share a commitment to free speech and transparency, in the hope that through open debate we can expose the current rule by an unaccountable, authoritarian technocratic class and its corporate patrons masquerading as “liberals”.”
I wonder if this goes some way toward answering your question?
People who have always been on the left since Days of Yore (The Old Left) have two paths to choose: Sell their Souls to the Devil (GloboHomo Invade the World Invite the World Western Liberalism) or hold their noses and take a chance with people they have always seen as their enemies (Populists).
The Faustian Bargain wins out most of the time. So must give half a Cheer to the likes of Greenwald, Taibbi, Dershowitz, and friends.
There’s not really any Far Right Esoteric Inside Baseball in the article, it’s just a bit long and maybe spends too much time on the history of the various protagonists and how each of them ran afoul of The System in different ways.
Final thought: The Old Left is more ‘reasonable’, focused, and easy going in its arguments and anathemas because it has little to zero power today. GloboHomo Western Liberalism utterly squashes dissent because its power is close to limitless.
Interesting Big Picture Gestalt stream of consciousness by a guy who has spent a lot of time doing business first in Japan and then later in China.
Well-worth the investment of time to listen and take it in. Try to resist urge to nit-pick every assertion and just let it accrete, get a feel for what he’s saying and then mull it over for a bit. This guy gets West / China interactions better than a room full of credentialed BugMen. He’s going to annoy you. He’s full of himself (he’s also not me). He loves the sound of his own voice. He loves an audience. (@Huxley: I suspect you’ll recognise the Type). He doesn’t drive at the point; he circles in on it. But he gets it. And so might you if you put him on while washing the car or hosing down the dog or something.
Another tome, but no melanin. He could have just said “I highly recommend this!” But could not.
Zaphod – thanks for the reply.
My impression is that the labels of left, liberal, populist, conservative, etc. are so malleable today (and have so little relation to the 18th century origin of the terms in France) as to be nearly useless.
The split dates to the summer of 1789, when members of the French National Assembly met to begin drafting a constitution. The delegates were deeply divided over the issue of how much authority King Louis XVI should have, and as the debate raged, the two main factions each staked out territory in the assembly hall. The anti-royalist revolutionaries seated themselves to the presiding officer’s left, while the more conservative, aristocratic supporters of the monarchy gathered to the right.
…
The divisions only continued during the 1790s, when newspapers began making reference to the progressive “left” and traditionalist “right” of the French assembly.
The progressives are regressing to an oligarchic regime that would be the envy of the French court, and the traditional monarchists have no real counterpart in America. Attempting to conflate US Right-wing with French Aristocrats works only if you believe the Tea-Party conservatives are the same as the GOP establishment.
The liberal ideals of the then-left got short-shrift once the Revolutionaries were in control, which does seem to be a consistency across the ages. Considering the Democrats’ support of Bigger Government, one could almost argue that the American Left is closest to the French Right.
We keep trying to map an in-space of political, economic, and cultural factors onto a 2-dimensional line, and then we argue about the details that have become invisible.
One thing that does seem clear, however, is that the Left eats their Own, after they get done with Conservatives and Old Liberals.
“What bugs me is the orders of magnitude greater universally pervasive deluge of anti-White (Call it anti-Deplorable if you’re terminally squeamish) Male propaganda. The fact that no one item in this deluge is as blatantly over the top as Jud Süß, I think misses the point. Goebbels didn’t have The Algorithms. To think that this isn’t leading somewhere is ‘Optimistic’.”
If that was your point – to draw a condemnatory parallel between a culture of smarmy Jew blaming and the current Wokeism directed against white males per se – then I admit that I completely misread it. And if so, am glad.
You’re a pretty bright guy … well-read and capable of critical if sometimes uncomfortably unvarnished, overstated, or too deeply cynical insights. Well read enough, to know that the role of “the Jew” has been reproduced in a number of cultures world wide. One or two which you have I believe, pointed out in your neck of the woods, if I am not mistaken.
With that latest, I thought you might have had a stoke or something; and gone from ostensible 360 degree cynic, to something more unreasoning and alarming.
Frankly, from what relatively little I have seen of your capabilities and outlook, if there are people whom I would be glad to see saved from the worst part of themselves, you would probably be among them.
That’s not fan mail, it’s just a fact. I’m hoping for the same for myself.
@DNW:
“If that was your point – to draw a condemnatory parallel between a culture of smarmy Jew blaming and the current Wokeism directed against white males per se – then I admit that I completely misread it. And if so, am glad.”
That was obviously my point. And I’m glad it’s now clear.
Obviously I am not an Ueber-enthusiastic Uncritical Philosemite. Somewhat more Nuanced. I think the best possible Telos for Jews would be to hie themselves back whence they came from and make the desert bloom, Save Intel by fixing their sub 10nm processes (Israeli subsidiary of Intel retrieved their ass back in early 2000s by pulling rabbit out of hat — needed again now because stupid PC Bugmen in US hired too many Indians –> nepotistic cluster$%^& — that’s the inside dope you won’t get from Bloomberg) and annoy the #$@^ out of Arabs and produce more IDF-Girl Soft Porn and music videos, and so on. I could get behind all of that wholeheartedly. For those that remain in the West, perhaps a bit less of the Tinkering to ‘Improve’ Urge might be desirable. Otherwise, have at it. Just don’t force us to eat the ‘cuisine’ 😀
The closest I get to being an out and out Nazi is encouraging Israel to work harder to eject more Palestinians so as to make space for more Jews. I’ll also admit to a fondness for Irony and yes, Cynicism 🙂 But we don’t live on the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
We’ve had discussions about the whole Mimetics Thing before, so should be pretty clear that I can take the 10,000 foot view of Scapegoating. Again… smart thing here for Jews is go live in Israel and *do* the Scapegoating. It’s not going to go away, so stop kvetching and get with the program. Baked into Human DNA for foreseeable future. But life is too short and I’m already way too prolix. So not going to provide skeleton context and take a propitiary knee every time I say something a bit pithy.
But it’s unavoidable that the Jewish Question must pop up all the time in our present epoch. It’s impossible to talk about the present crisis in the West without tiptoeing around it. Do you ever see a Leftist having to carefully state out his position so that it can’t be exaggerated and used against him the way I have just spent several paras doing? This tells you who Owns the Culture.
So what you get is a political/cultural situation where the Ruling Class all over the West has declared war on White Males and doubly so on White Working Class Males + Females. They constantly propagandise against them and are working to replace them with largely undesirable immigrants whilst exporting what few blue collar industries still exist to employ them. They have instituted quotas which discriminate against them in education and employment and in access to risk capital. And should some put-upon Flyover Whitey poke his head over the parapet and complain, or ask for a second helping of dessert why, he’s an Anti-Semite and a Racist and should be extinct ASAP. And the Hammer of Thor (err.. wires bit crossed here) Smites him and he is no more. So… I’m sorry to say that White Survival depends on a degree of Desensitization and Bad Manners. Call a person a Racist or an Anti-Semite a thousand times, thousand and first time he’s going to say something unpleasant about Joe Rogan.
Seth Rogen, I meant to say, of course.
What’s Joe Rogan even doing inside my head? Out!
Boil this tome down and it’s not just melanin after all. Truly sad. So, so, sorry.
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The flashes of lightning in the thunderstorms were cool. The whole thing was pretty cool actually.
Apparently not much nightlife in Chad. Pretty unsurprising as it consistently ranks high in the various lists of states declared officially failed.
Although I do not believe Chad was one of the places DJT described as a “sh-thole country”, had he done so you would not hear any dissension from me.
And the vast majority of that electricity is generated by coal, natgas and nuke. The Left’s fantasy to move the US to wind and solar will create regular blackouts and increase energy prices by 3x-5x. And it is all virtue signaling. Stopping the Green New Deal – and getting China to pay us the $10T it owes us – are the two main economic issues of today. Stopping CRT is the main cultural issue. And, of course, Joe Biden is on the wrong side.
Another effort to point out how, from space, “there are no borders”.
Not new. Yes, borders are man-made. This does not make them any less valid or more unreasonable than the boundary between my property line and yours, however.
Even small animals understand the idea of “my territory” vs. “your territory”. Go watch some birds chase each other out of a given space to grasp how small a brain it takes to get that idea — the size of an almond, maybe?
Do bird-defined boundaries show if you’re flying over the area at 10,000 feet? No? And yet birds will fight over them, won’t they?
(Not kvetching at you, Neo, just noting the flawed likely genesis of the idea behind this film)
The pixilated thunderstorms were interesting, though.
A dramatic illustration of a western oriented Israel amidst a sea of a somewhat primitive Mideast surrounding it.
Interesting. Surprising to see how “empty” a supposedly developed country like Egypt is when you leave the banks of the Nile.
O Bloody Hell, I did not see that. The political take away for me is that so many countries have made so little progress toward achieving what we would consider modern development. You wonder how many people are living in the great unlighted expanses, and under what condition.
I think that video could serve as the cornerstone of a college lecture on how specific political systems promote or deter development of basic infrastructure. If someone tried it, I am sure they would be “canceled” as racist. Alas.
I’ve seen several of these videos. South Korea is always lit up and North Korea is dark as the far side of the moon. There are times I think the powers that be would like that for the USA too.
The omissions are interesting too: no mention of Germany, Scandinavia, Russia (although you could say the Caspian Sea is a stand-in), Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, India . . . . and China.
PACat…Yeah…and I was out there waving up the whole time!
Kamille Harris made it to the U.S. southern border and gave a little speech in El Paso.
Harris during her speech said she visited El Paso, rather than the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, which has seen the most encounters of migrants coming to the border because many of Trump’s hardline immigration policies originated in El Paso. She noted that a pilot program for the former president’s “zero-tolerance policy” that led to children and parents being separated at the border began in El Paso.
Neo has hit this point before, and I think I was a little silently dismissive of it: It is all about being the anti-Trump. Still. Orange Man Bad. Still. It is just fine to implement genuinely bad federal policy as long as it reverses a Trump policy.
Scott @ 9:56am
I recently spent two years in Chad serving in our Uncle Sam’s diplomatic service, and can assure you that, yes, it qualifies as one of President Trump’s sh@tholes. Poverty like nothing the US knows, or even has known for decades, if ever, and the elite live behind walls of every nature, both physical and political, and look past it.
But, the people are warm and friendly, kind, once you get to know them. And the stars at night are like a cliché – diamonds so bright and just above your head that it makes you wonder if you really can reach up and touch them.
20 Years of Forever War In Afghanistan so that Afghan Girls could learn how to insert IUDs and what does the American People get in return?
https://gab.com/PeterBrimelow/posts/106473564738714129
“The United States will relocate thousands of Afghan citizens who worked for the American government before U.S. troops exit the country in the next few months.
The plan is to relocate between 20,000 and 100,000 Afghan citizens, a senior White House official tells NPR. The White House is in the process of informing both the U.S. Congress and the Afghan government, the official said.”
We take care of our own… We pay our debts… yadda yadda… Everyone reading this blog knows damn well what these ‘Refugees’ will become and just how much they will NOT contribute to quality of life in the USA.
But a lot of generals got combat badges which helped their promotions. A lot of contractors did very nicely. And obviously there was bigger graft than that. Don’t want be called a cynic so won’t try to enumerate.
Invade the World / Invite the World — Brilliant Model.
New Netflix Revenge Porn ‘Western’ being released soon.
https://gab.com/TheZBlog/posts/106471733627672619
Get the feeling there’s something brewing? Anyone?
Guess who are the Bad Guys? Take Three Guesses, White Boy.
If need any more hints, could always ask co-director Boaz Yakin.
More on Glenn Greenwald:
https://www.unz.com/jcook/what-happened-to-glenn-greenwald/
Neo has pretty much covered the issue already. Still, article might be of general interest to some of us.
You never saw “Django Unchained”? LOL
[Nothing to do with the Belgian guitarist, obviously]
As a sometimes unintentional comedy it’s not too bad, though I think that it is pretty much Quentin Tarantino’s masochistic fantasy projected onto the big screen in the form of what you described as “revenge porn”.
In Quentin’s dreams, he, or his alter egos, can always think faster, draw quicker and shoot straighter than everyone else. It’s some compensation no doubt for his cretinous looks … imagining himself perpetrator, splayed victim, and avenger, all at once.
@DNW:
I watched Pulp Fiction twice in cinemas when it first came out and enjoyed it. First time was rather inebriated, so all the disparate bits came together very nicely second time around.
Then looked into his earlier efforts and was utterly repulsed. He’s done nothing since to change that view, but have not watched any — although cannot help reading and hearing about what’s coming down the Tubes.
Detest the guy.
Still… he may well have composed our Epitaph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lL1ypndnWA
I dunno… Guess it’s Just a Movie. Maybe I’m overreacting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcSYxdt2DJ8
“A dramatic illustration of a western oriented Israel amidst a sea of a somewhat primitive Mideast surrounding it.”
You mean like those Western-oriented Taiwanese and Japanese and (video did not show it, but lit up like a Christmas Tree) Mainland Chinese?
It’s an IQ Proxy Map convolved with a Pop. Density Map.
Jews smarter and more crammed together (on the whole) than Arabs? Say it ain’t so!
@Telemachus:
You make a good point about the night sky in really remote places. Perhaps we could all do with more of those skies.
There’s something, too, about Third World Shit Holes By Night. The pools of dim light and snatches of life one sees as one drives past them. It’s just different. I kind of like it but happy to be seeing it as a ‘Space Man’ rather than living it.
God Almighty, Zaphod. Where the hell did you come up with that “Forbes” site?
Why? In aid of what? Did you click on the “channel”?
I hope to God you didn’t.
@DNW:
Obviously Googled for the notorious movie in question and got a few viable search results — most of which were on crap sites like archive.org which don’t stream well. Posted the YouTube link because it’s the one which I know won’t fail to load and stream.
Frankly I’m surprised that this YouTube channel hasn’t been disappeared. Far milder folks have gone down the memory hole.
Didn’t bother looking at his other stuff. I think we’re advanced enough folks here to grasp that posting a link to illustrate a point about propaganda and vilification of groups doesn’t imply that one subscribes to a channel owner’s credo.
The relationship between what happened last time and the way things are going with the ever-increasing tide of Anti-White Bias in movies, dramas, documentaries, etc.. shouldn’t need diagrams and flowcharts…
Gentle suggestion though: Reflexive Pavlovian Pearl Clutching and Attacks of the Vapors, and so on get to be a bit of a bore and a distraction from current issues in this Year of Our Lord 2021, no? Generals fighting the Last War, and all that…
Whatever. TLDR
More trolling by Can Do!
Thank you for your usual maximal entropy input, Om.
Another thought:
The average German in the 1930s probably got to watch one movie and newsreel per week… if that. Plus not a while lot of choice in Radio listening. Don’t know about you guys, but 25 years ago my diet was daily newspaper + quick perv at cute TV weather girl + weekly Economist + some periodicals. Compare that to today.
What bugs me is the orders of magnitude greater universally pervasive deluge of anti-White (Call it anti-Deplorable if you’re terminally squeamish) Male propaganda. The fact that no one item in this deluge is as blatantly over the top as Jud Süß, I think misses the point. Goebbels didn’t have The Algorithms. To think that this isn’t leading somewhere is ‘Optimistic’.
“article might be of general interest to some of us.” – Zaphod
Cook’s post was indeed interesting, and he makes some good points.
However, I’m not part of that reading community, and so I am somewhat unsure what he means by “the left” and “liberals,” since it seems to me that he puts them in distinct factions when considering responses to Greenwald’s criticisms of the Democrats.
Any clarification is welcome.
(There is a commenter on Greenwald’s blog who keeps insisting, somewhat maniacally, that people are slamming the liberals when they actually mean the left, but he seems to be arguing that there is no leftist tinge to any contemporary self-labeled liberal, and I don’t see that as being the case.
I note that on comment threads especially there is a complete lack of definitions as to what people mean when they use any of the names of political factions, and most ideologies as well. It’s difficult to recognize either opposing viewpoints or common ground.)
@AesopFan:
You say:
“However, I’m not part of that reading community, and so I am somewhat unsure what he means by “the left” and “liberals,” since it seems to me that he puts them in distinct factions when considering responses to Greenwald’s criticisms of the Democrats.
Any clarification is welcome.”
I think what you’re getting is Robinson (Old Leftist Caricature) calling out Greenwald and Taibbi as Traitors to the Old Cause because they mentioned a Progressive Hypocrisy/Contradiction re Authoritarianism/Free Speech cf. the GloboHomo Progressive Establishment instinctively deplatforming them simply because GloboHomo automatically produces antibodies against Dissent and its minions will just pile on in a virtue-spiral free-for-all.
Robinson is not happy with Greenwald for being more interested in freedom of speech and maybe even facts than in Fighting the Right. I suspect that Robinson would agree to disagree with Greenwald on any number of points so long as Greenwald maintained a constant posture of ‘Fighting the Right’ (whatever that happens to be this decade). Robinson probably is all in favour of Freedom of Speech so long as it’s free and open debate amongst Good Leftist like him.
The Other Left — The shiny updated Version 2.0 Progressive Left is a bit different. Greenwald could have just zigged when the school of fish zagged and he would have been finished forevermore. But he’s done worse than that…He’s Joined the Other Side (not just lent comfort to the enemy) He’s Fascist Filth now and that’s all anyone needs to know. And GloboHomo Progressive Left doesn’t do free and open debate even within its own ranks. I mean, why are you so keen on Hate Speech?
Cooke Says:
“In essence, the dilemma the left now faces is this:
To work with the Democrats, with liberals, who are desperate to put the mask back on the system, to shore up its deceptions, so that political stability can be restored – a stability that is waging war around the globe, that is escalating the threat of super-power tensions and nuclear annihilation, and that is destroying the planet.
Or to keep the mask off, and work with those elements of the populist left and right that share a commitment to free speech and transparency, in the hope that through open debate we can expose the current rule by an unaccountable, authoritarian technocratic class and its corporate patrons masquerading as “liberals”.”
I wonder if this goes some way toward answering your question?
People who have always been on the left since Days of Yore (The Old Left) have two paths to choose: Sell their Souls to the Devil (GloboHomo Invade the World Invite the World Western Liberalism) or hold their noses and take a chance with people they have always seen as their enemies (Populists).
The Faustian Bargain wins out most of the time. So must give half a Cheer to the likes of Greenwald, Taibbi, Dershowitz, and friends.
There’s not really any Far Right Esoteric Inside Baseball in the article, it’s just a bit long and maybe spends too much time on the history of the various protagonists and how each of them ran afoul of The System in different ways.
Final thought: The Old Left is more ‘reasonable’, focused, and easy going in its arguments and anathemas because it has little to zero power today. GloboHomo Western Liberalism utterly squashes dissent because its power is close to limitless.
Interesting Big Picture Gestalt stream of consciousness by a guy who has spent a lot of time doing business first in Japan and then later in China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIKbi9xnEJM
It’s about The Virus and Everything.
Well-worth the investment of time to listen and take it in. Try to resist urge to nit-pick every assertion and just let it accrete, get a feel for what he’s saying and then mull it over for a bit. This guy gets West / China interactions better than a room full of credentialed BugMen. He’s going to annoy you. He’s full of himself (he’s also not me). He loves the sound of his own voice. He loves an audience. (@Huxley: I suspect you’ll recognise the Type). He doesn’t drive at the point; he circles in on it. But he gets it. And so might you if you put him on while washing the car or hosing down the dog or something.
Another tome, but no melanin. He could have just said “I highly recommend this!” But could not.
Zaphod – thanks for the reply.
My impression is that the labels of left, liberal, populist, conservative, etc. are so malleable today (and have so little relation to the 18th century origin of the terms in France) as to be nearly useless.
The Encyclopedic Approach to Commentary:
https://www.history.com/news/how-did-the-political-labels-left-wing-and-right-wing-originate
The progressives are regressing to an oligarchic regime that would be the envy of the French court, and the traditional monarchists have no real counterpart in America. Attempting to conflate US Right-wing with French Aristocrats works only if you believe the Tea-Party conservatives are the same as the GOP establishment.
The liberal ideals of the then-left got short-shrift once the Revolutionaries were in control, which does seem to be a consistency across the ages. Considering the Democrats’ support of Bigger Government, one could almost argue that the American Left is closest to the French Right.
We keep trying to map an in-space of political, economic, and cultural factors onto a 2-dimensional line, and then we argue about the details that have become invisible.
One thing that does seem clear, however, is that the Left eats their Own, after they get done with Conservatives and Old Liberals.
If that was your point – to draw a condemnatory parallel between a culture of smarmy Jew blaming and the current Wokeism directed against white males per se – then I admit that I completely misread it. And if so, am glad.
You’re a pretty bright guy … well-read and capable of critical if sometimes uncomfortably unvarnished, overstated, or too deeply cynical insights. Well read enough, to know that the role of “the Jew” has been reproduced in a number of cultures world wide. One or two which you have I believe, pointed out in your neck of the woods, if I am not mistaken.
With that latest, I thought you might have had a stoke or something; and gone from ostensible 360 degree cynic, to something more unreasoning and alarming.
Frankly, from what relatively little I have seen of your capabilities and outlook, if there are people whom I would be glad to see saved from the worst part of themselves, you would probably be among them.
That’s not fan mail, it’s just a fact. I’m hoping for the same for myself.
@DNW:
“If that was your point – to draw a condemnatory parallel between a culture of smarmy Jew blaming and the current Wokeism directed against white males per se – then I admit that I completely misread it. And if so, am glad.”
That was obviously my point. And I’m glad it’s now clear.
Obviously I am not an Ueber-enthusiastic Uncritical Philosemite. Somewhat more Nuanced. I think the best possible Telos for Jews would be to hie themselves back whence they came from and make the desert bloom, Save Intel by fixing their sub 10nm processes (Israeli subsidiary of Intel retrieved their ass back in early 2000s by pulling rabbit out of hat — needed again now because stupid PC Bugmen in US hired too many Indians –> nepotistic cluster$%^& — that’s the inside dope you won’t get from Bloomberg) and annoy the #$@^ out of Arabs and produce more IDF-Girl Soft Porn and music videos, and so on. I could get behind all of that wholeheartedly. For those that remain in the West, perhaps a bit less of the Tinkering to ‘Improve’ Urge might be desirable. Otherwise, have at it. Just don’t force us to eat the ‘cuisine’ 😀
The closest I get to being an out and out Nazi is encouraging Israel to work harder to eject more Palestinians so as to make space for more Jews. I’ll also admit to a fondness for Irony and yes, Cynicism 🙂 But we don’t live on the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
We’ve had discussions about the whole Mimetics Thing before, so should be pretty clear that I can take the 10,000 foot view of Scapegoating. Again… smart thing here for Jews is go live in Israel and *do* the Scapegoating. It’s not going to go away, so stop kvetching and get with the program. Baked into Human DNA for foreseeable future. But life is too short and I’m already way too prolix. So not going to provide skeleton context and take a propitiary knee every time I say something a bit pithy.
But it’s unavoidable that the Jewish Question must pop up all the time in our present epoch. It’s impossible to talk about the present crisis in the West without tiptoeing around it. Do you ever see a Leftist having to carefully state out his position so that it can’t be exaggerated and used against him the way I have just spent several paras doing? This tells you who Owns the Culture.
So what you get is a political/cultural situation where the Ruling Class all over the West has declared war on White Males and doubly so on White Working Class Males + Females. They constantly propagandise against them and are working to replace them with largely undesirable immigrants whilst exporting what few blue collar industries still exist to employ them. They have instituted quotas which discriminate against them in education and employment and in access to risk capital. And should some put-upon Flyover Whitey poke his head over the parapet and complain, or ask for a second helping of dessert why, he’s an Anti-Semite and a Racist and should be extinct ASAP. And the Hammer of Thor (err.. wires bit crossed here) Smites him and he is no more. So… I’m sorry to say that White Survival depends on a degree of Desensitization and Bad Manners. Call a person a Racist or an Anti-Semite a thousand times, thousand and first time he’s going to say something unpleasant about Joe Rogan.
Seth Rogen, I meant to say, of course.
What’s Joe Rogan even doing inside my head? Out!
Boil this tome down and it’s not just melanin after all. Truly sad. So, so, sorry.