There are already over 300 comments over there (this one is open). Some people think it’s because of Trump, but I think Democrat suppression of opposition began before Trump. He merely accelerated it. Basically, most of the “liberals” are no longer liberal; they’re leftists, to whom suppressing dissent comes naturally.
Well, there’s Dershowitz and maybe a few others…
(Gosh, I hope there’s more than that…)
OTOH, I won’t be surprised when Dershowitz admits that he’s had it with his “life-long” party.
In fact, we may have to define a new term for the left-of-center politically bereft:
Neolib (noun) – Liberal who’s been mugged by the Democratic Party.
File under: Will the Last Liberal out the door please turn off the lights…
Re yesterday’s discussion on female beauty:
I always had, and still have, a thing for Gibson Girls. Love their look. I used to seek out and date girls who looked like the girls in Charles Dana Gibson’s drawings. I love it when my wife arranges her hair like a Gibson girl.
Well, Barry, there’s the black Georgia state representative from Atlanta, who just switched to Republican because her support for school choice caused her Democrat colleagues to treat her badly. We have one of those in NC (white). The question both of them have is why people are still voting for Democrats when that party opposes things that are good for low-income children?
Why some vote democrat… it seems to pay well. Tip of the proverbial iceberg?
Has donate upwards of $475 million in an effort to “[re]interpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics.
Questions for those of you who believe DeSantis should be the Republican nominee:
1) What do you think of kicking off his wife’ “Mamas for DeSantis” initiative by having her dress in a T-Shirt/ Camo leggings/ Stiletto heels?
2) Does giving his wife a larger role in his campaign give you confidence in how DeSantis is performing as a candidate?
3) Even if you do not feel this way, can you understand why I wrote the following: “Yet my respect for DeSantis has declined for the simple reason that he and his staff do not appear to respect the public. They behave as if we do not understand the difference between “shiny objects” and substance.”?
She asks “Why don’t we have singers like this today?”
What can Trump not do?!
So… abandoning the constitution generally, the electoral college, the first amendment, packing the Supreme Court — these used to be ideas that would horrify sane Democrats. And Trump is the justification for going stark raving, totalitarian-loving mad?
The vicious smears (most recently white supremacist, but racist, sexist, fascist and Nazi) go back to the Clinton administration. The more the corruption and crimes of Bill and Hillary came out, the more important it was for Republicans to be despicable.
Blame the viciousness on the loyalty to the cult being far greater than any loyalty to the nation.
thats frankly silly there is plenty of substance, considering she recently recovered from a bout with cancer, shes doing well, this is why some trump supporters honestly put their foot in their mouth,
Valid question! (Why don’t we have singers like this today?)
talent is no longer at a premium
It is reported that Milan Kundera has died.
Here is a very relevant quote from him–
“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.”
Isn’t this exactly what our “educators” and various people who want to purge existing literature of what they say is this or that objectionable word or content have been doing?
How about the crowds of leftists who have been tearing down various statues.
How about those painting over “offensive” murals depicting aspects of our past history?
that guy – That wouldn’t have been my fashion choice, but I’m not Casey DeSantis, nor am I a woman. From the pictures I’ve seen of th event, the outfit wasn’t revealing or immodest. So, it seems that your objections come down to a matter of style.
I’m not sure if your criticism is coming from the perspective of a Trump supporter or a supporter of one of the other non-DeSantis candidates. Either way, I think that attack is likely to backfire. Unless objectively inappropriate, Casey DeSantis can wear whatever she darn well pleases. Frankly, I suspect that she was probably going for “relatable” rather than “objectified.” I also suspect that she succeeded. None of the women in my life would have worn heels quite that high, but I could see (and have seen) many of them in similar outfits. I could also see many of the women in my life responding to someone like Casey DeSantis in a way that they are not going to respond to Melania Trump. I mean no disprespect to Melania at all. Casey DeSantis just has more of an “every woman” vibe to her that Melania does not.
As for DeSantis’s campaign, I really don’t know whether they respect the public. There hasn’t even been a debate yet and the first votes are seven months away. DeSantis is either my 1 or 1A choice right now, but there are a handful of candidates that I would cheerfully vote for in the primaries and a larger group that I would happily support in the general election. Let’s see how the primaries go. It’s early.
Kate,
Regarding your comment on Matt Taibi’s new opinion piece:
It’s a valid question and your take is likely a factor, but one huge thing I don’t hear discussed enough is the shift in demographics; especially towards single women*.
About a month ago I was walking and I noticed something missing. It had been missing for so long I almost forgot it had once existed, had been ubiquitous. Summer, nice weather, middle of the day…
I did not hear a single child.
No swimming pool splashes. No basketball’s bouncing. No shouts from baseball diamonds. No bicycle bells. There were no kids to be seen anywhere. Think about it. When is the last time you recall hearing the sounds of kids playing?
45% of women are projected to be single and childless by 2030. This year we topped 25% of women over 40 being childless** for the first time since records were kept.
A few years ago I heard a comedian commenting about a certain type of female comedian that had become popular; Silverman, Schumer, Handler… All childless and all obsessed with telling others what to do. AOC is an example of this in politics. His premise, explained comedically, was these women are in their peak, maternal years and have no outlet for their maternalism so we, the public, have become their children. They will take care of us and we will be taken care of, whether we choose so, or not.
Adult, single women do not have an outlet for the natural instinct of creating and fostering life. They are very active and many are turning to politics and activism to scratch that itch. They are not traveling west and becoming schoolmarms. They are not joining nunneries. They are graduating from colleges with credentials and earning good money, which gives them power and clout.
I don’t know where it goes. I don’t know where it ends. But it is a huge paradigm shift in American politics.
*A surplus of single, idle men is another huge issue and our country is minting more and more of those, also. No society with a lot of idle men fares well, see Paris for a recent example of how that often plays out.
**Over 16% of American adults over age 55 have no children! Having kids changes one’s perspective of the future and often changes how one votes. Imagine a nation with a majority of childless voters. How does that change things?
As to “why don’t we have singers like that today?” – We do. We also have phenominal instrumentalists in many different genres. You just have to look a bit beyond the mainstream today to find them. Try these guys:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
– Ronald Reagan
AMartel and miguel cervantes,
There are amazing, incredible singers alive today. They’re just not popular in a “top 40” sense. I mainly listen to jazz and the number of extremely talented vocalists, especially female, under age 40 is astounding. None of them is as famous or wealthy as an Ella Fitzgerald or Dinah Shore in their day, but they are really good vocalists who know the music well.
that guy, since I am a DeSantis primary vote, if he’s still in it when they get to my state:
(1) If she can wear stilettos comfortably, what’s wrong with them? You object to the t-shirt and leggings? Melania Trump has been seen in leggings and stilettos, albeit probably more expensive models. She always looks good, and so does Casey DeSantis.
(2) De Santis’s strategy is to win a few primaries. He’s got organizers working in several states. We’ll see. What bothers you about his wife’s involvement? She apparently campaigned for him for Congress and for the governorship.
(3) I don’t follow your charge of disrespect for the public coming from the DeSantis campaign, or the “shiny objects.” The campaign has published plenty of specific policy statements, and points also to his record in Florida.
If you think Trump is more likely to win the general election in 2024, by all means vote for him in the primary.
Here’s an excellent short history of slavery, a range of information which I doubt is being taught in many of our schools today.
Rufus – The population crash that will result from the lack of children is going to be the biggest crisis for the current rising generation.
There are going to be a lot of childless adults, but they are going to be living in an environment in which SS and Medicare become even more financially unsustainable than they are now. There’s a lot of talk on the left about white people becoming a minority. What happens when young people become a minority? What happens when the childless oldsters begin to consistently outvote the young people and then use government to take larger and larger portions of the young people’s paychecks to keep things like SS and Medicare somewhat solvent in the short term?
What happens if/when democracy becomes an excuse for the older generations to cripple the younger generations with debt and then raid their paychecks and destroy their standard of living just to keep the whole ediface from collapsing for a little bit longer? Is democracy just in that circumstance?
I fear that we are not going to be even remotely prepared to address that question and its associated challenges.
RE: Erasure/rewriting of U.S. history and, as well, the slavery issue–a twofer
A perfect example of this rewriting would seem to be Nikole Hannah–Jones’ “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,” which was featured in a special 2019 issue of the New York Times Magazine.
Also – Rufus – Amen on the non-mainstream artists. I might go as far to say that today is something approaching a golden age for great music, but none of it is mainstream and the artists are far from superstars as they would have been a few decades ago.
yes it’s a staggering exercise in historical malfeasance, something the soviets would have concocted in its day, (which probably isn’t too far from the truth)
Rufus T. Firefly–
Some factors contributing to the dearth of children might also be the attitudes of many of today’s hard-edged, entitled “feminist” women, and how the courts overwhelmingly favor the interests of women in divorces.
These realities inclining a lot of marriageable age men to steer clear of marriage and children; pregnancy apparently often used to trap men into marriage and/or into decades of paying (spousal and) child support.
“stiletto heels”
Oh the horror!!
Important to remember that party switching is not political switching.
There are probably a lot of Clinton Democrats and even some Obama Democrats uncomfortable with being in the party that supports mutilating children and failing to educate them. That does not mean they changed their views on gun control, taxes, social programs, etc.
If those people switch to voting Republican, all that does is make Republicans the party of Clinton and Obama Democrats.
Over 1 trillion has been added to the Federal debt in the five weeks since McCarthy gave his name to the Dem’s debt ceiling deal, in exchange for nothing of substance in return. That’s the Republican Party today on fiscal matters. Gaining a bunch of Democrats will get the Republican Party acting the same way on every other issue we care about. More than they do. And it’s not guaranteed they’ll stop the mutilation of children either.
I don’t vote for Republicans because I want to see red hogs at the trough instead of blue ones. I don’t vote for Republicans because I want socialism and gun control and ever-increasing government debt. If we confuse “Republican” with “conservative” and cheer on the red-blue kayfabe without making bottom-up reforms of our institutions, that’s what we’ll get.
Rufus: Regarding “I did not hear a single child.”
I would hate to be a kid today. Kids’ lives are so different today.
What children there are today don’t go outside. Parents are irrationally afraid of stranger kidnappings, schools have reduced recess to almost not at all, and summer things for kids are disappearing.
In my childhood…
There were pool clubs and public pools. The pool clubs have pretty much all disappeared, and the public pools have a tiny fraction of the attendance they did when I was a kid. There were a ton of summer leagues for kids, now, in the same town. just a handful. Even just hanging out — we used to meet up on the elementary school diamond and play a pick-up game of softball — now that is not allowed. Even in winter, we ran around outside: Went skating on the pond at the golf course, sledding on the hills… Snowball fights and building snow forts. Fall was all about jumping in piles of leaves.
We also had a lot more recess. In first and second grade, we had three recesses: before school, morning recess, and after lunch. For thrid and fourth grade, it went down to two: morning recess and after lunch. And for fifth and sixth grade, we lost morning recess. But we still got to run around a LOT. If the weather was bad, we had recess in the gym (though the before-school one for first and second grade was just in our classrooms.)
What happens when young people become a minority?
Bauxite:
I suggest Peter Zeihan on the subject. Here’s a good PZ quote:
_______________________________________
“Most parts of the world now have far more people aged over 65 than they have children,” Zeihan said. “Population growth has inverted. Birth rates have collapsed and now consumption levels are dropping. … We’ve passed peak consumption and we’re passing peak production all right now. If we fast forward just a couple of years, when we’re on the backside of all this…consumption is done. Investment is done. Capital accruing is done. … And we are at that point in less than a year.”
Zeihan doesn’t offer solutions so much as observations. We are in the midst of an overall demographic collapse. It will be hard, very hard. However, humanity will muddle painfully through and reach a new equilibrium.
He sees the US and Mexico becoming a tighter economic alliance and doing better than most of the rest of the world.
Lee Also says, “I would hate to be a kid today. Kids’ lives are so different today.”
I keep thinking of the effects of the lockdowns, masking, forced vaxxes, and the other adult-imposed COVIDiocies on kids since 2020. Randi Weingarten should be sent to Club Fed (at the very least) for her role in pressuring Rochelle Walensky into extending school closures and forcing the jab on kids over 6 months of age.
OMG … Anchor Brewing in San Francisco is over.
___________________________
Anchor Brewing Company, a historic San Francisco craft brewery, announced Wednesday morning it is ceasing operations and liquidating the business.
In a press release, Anchor Brewing spokesperson Sam Singer said that economic pressures made business “no longer sustainable,” and that employees were given their 60-day notice Wednesday. In June, Anchor Brewing limited distribution to California and axed one of its most popular beers.
That’s the end of an era. Anchor Steam was the classic San Francisco beer. The brewery in Potrero Hill was a landmark.
The article and quotes seem carefully worded to avoid laying any blame on San Francisco’s deterioration.
Kids stay inside a lot more than they used to.
You can discuss the number of people , especially whites,not having any children, yet there is another phenomenon , of white conservative families with far more than just two kids – whether biological or adopted. I doubt it balances out, but it exist.
Reference “I would hate to be a kid today.”
All that has been said is so true. I always come back to what affect the abortion issue must have on today’s kids (Doesn’t it ‘cheapen’ life?) Now the additional distraction of what is male/female. I attended a very rural school (9 kids HS graduation). All children, especially new babies, were very special back then. Over the years we adopted 3 kids, all happy normal adults now. I wouldn’t want to go through childhood today… and wouldn’t attempt raising a child.
New York, California, and Illinois have huge populations, relatively low voter turnout, and reliably vote Dem. The popular vote compact means that Dems only have to pay to harvest blue ballots in those three states to win the Presidency, instead of something like a dozen.
Jon baker,
I’m very aware of the movement of some couples choosing to have big families. One of my sons is in such a marriage and it is a joy going to parties at their house attended by other, like-minded couples. Just like the old days; kids everywhere, moms sharing covered dishes, scraped knees, fireworks, jell-o salads…
But they are a minority.
Triggernometry podcast recently interviewed Stephen Shaw* who has studied couples and births across the world. He was surprised to learn that the average number of kids per married couple that has kids hasn’t changed much in the west. In other words, of couples having families the number of kids in those families is similar to the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s. The big change is in those who are having zero kids, and that’s what skews the average.
He puts most of it on women not fully understanding the biological limitations of conceiving and bearing children. He very sadly reported about hundreds of interviews he’s done with childless, middle-aged women who wanted children but nature favors the young in that regard and time simply ran out for them.
I don’t see that trend reversing. Society and culture continue to orient towards putting off marriage and child bearing.
*Apparently he’s made a documentary, “Birthgap – Childless World.”
Child restraint seats cut down on the number of children a family has. Seriously.
Bauxite et al,
I agree that the rapidly changing demographics worldwide is the biggest story of the next 50 – 100 years and will have the greatest impact on what human thriving looks like in 50 – 100 years. I don’t pretend to have a prediction how that will play out. I tend to be optimistic regarding homo sapiens’ ability to adapt to their surroundings. 50 years ago most experts assumed a planet with this large a number of humans was unsustainable. We adapted. They were wrong. So I’m not going to portray doomsday if it goes the other direction in the next, 50 years.
But I agree with your list of challenges and our need to adapt to them. I recently read an article about large sections of Italy and Spain returning to nature because the humans have left. Some villages in Japan offer free homes (they have been abandoned) if people will agree to live in them.
stan,
Yes and no. I remember my wife and I deciding on whether to advance beyond child #2 and our current lack of carseat space in our automobiles was discussed, but it was nowhere near an issue that would veto our decision. Mini-vans can be had relatively cheaply (we bought our first one used) and we’ve owned a few awesome SUVs with third row, fold-down seats.
I promise you, education expenses were a much greater consideration than automobile type when the wife and I discussed family planning.
cb,
Any state that would pass such a law deserves what’s coming to it. However, the XVIIth amendment passed, so it’s entirely possible.
cb,
Good on you and your spouse for adopting! Parents who adopt are the unsung heroes of society.
RE: UFOs–a “complicated” situation
In one of his many interviews about the UFO situation Lou Elizondo–the one government employee, it seems, who has been most deeply involved with the UFO issue, while also revealing the most about it– said that this issue was “complicated.”
Several different people have recently mentioned that what we might be dealing with are several different races of Aliens, each with it’s own agenda.
Others have put forth various theories–summarized by Elizondo–about what such beings might be, or come from.
Thus, in the simplest case, they could just be extraterrestrials.
Another alternative theory is that they might be beings from an existing, very ancient terrestrial civilization which, for whatever reason, have only now decided to come out of hiding and reveal themselves, or which we have only now developed the technology to notice.
One subset of this theory has such beings having bases in the deepest parts of our oceans, or perhaps on the Moon.
Some posit that these beings are time travelers, from the Earth, but from some high civilization in our ancient past, or our far future and are, thus, some form of human.
Another theory is that these beings are from another, possibly coterminous, higher dimension, and able to just dip in and out of our three dimensional world; their appearances, of necessity, perceived by us as very bizarre, absurd, sometimes very frightening, and perplexing.
The thought has occurred to me that perhaps what Elizondo referred to as this “complicated” situation is really, really complicated, and that we are simultaneously being surveilled, interacted with, and sometimes imposed upon, by a number of different beings–each with it’s own origin and civilization and, thus, very likely very different perceptions, behaviors, and agendas; that we may unfortunately be the equivalent of Grand Central Station, the cross roads of our local region of space, dimension, and time.
Snow on Pine,
I agree that in the U.S. the women control the marriage statistics. There’s an old, crude joke men share: “Every woman can predict the future. She knows whether you will *** **** tonight.”
It’s true there are a lot of men online talking smack about “going their own way” and refusing to marry, etc. But I am fairly confident that if a decent woman gave any one of them more than half a second of sincere attention they’d fold like a card table.
I also agree that a lot of young woman are projecting an image that makes marriage difficult. Marriage is a lot of compromise, especially when children come into the picture. I think a lot of modern, American women do not want to have to compromise. Unfortunately, human biology has not changed along with our cultural trends.
It’s funny. I don’t know if this is true, but in my experience it seems accurate. Non-college educated men are less likely to compromise than college educated men, but the opposite is true with women. Maybe? I think?
Regardless, as Cole Porter wrote, “even educated fleas do it.”
huxley,
Sad to hear about Anchor brewing. Anchor steam was the first “exotic” beer I ever had. I drove from Chicago to San Francisco when I was 18 and discovered it there. It’s a good beer!
Perhaps my viewing of a lot of YouTube—a bad habit I picked up during our COVID imposed isolation—has given me a very skewed view of the current situation, but from what I’m seeing there, “decent women” who really want to be married, to perform some housewifely duties, and to be mothers and have children may be in pretty short supply.
Regrettably, DeSantis’ chances in 2028 are likely suffering due to his run this year. If he exits quickly and endorses Trump, he might recover. Part of his problem is whether or not there might be an attractive high profile MAGA option in ’28. Is there such a person?
P.S.—I’m afraid that between militant “feminism,” and their promotion of “strong women” who must value a career far higher than being a housewife and mother—akin to being a downtrodden slave really—and the “girls just want to have fun” virus, which seems to have infected all too many women, women who want to be married, who see as their natural and desirable path in life to be wives and mothers, and to keep a household have greatly diminished.
Rufus T. Firefly; Snow on Pine:
Some women are like that, but I see just as many men who seem to be really intense misogynists who combine that misogyny with standards for female appearance that are so high they are in the stratosphere. Women who fail to reach a movie-star-like appearance are considered dogs. And many guys require women to put out by the second date – if there even is what could be described as a “date” – and to perform like porn stars.
The problem is a two-way street.
neo–Look to porn and effective contraception as being responsible for some of the male attitudes you have pointed out.
In sum, as I see it, the Left’s good ol’ Gramscian march–in effect an ideological and psychological IED–has also done a great job of creating and promoting so many negative attitudes towards marriage, families, and having and rearing children, of sowing so much dissention, dissatisfaction, disdain, and even hatred that its nearly destroyed the traditional ideas of marriage, the family, and relations between the sexes.
Snow on Pine– It’s not just Gramsci– it’s also technology, particularly the triple whammy of social media, smartphones, and the Internet. Online communication not only gives people unrealistic expectations of men and women, it also facilitates scams and criminal behavior of various types (catfishing, romance scamming, stalking, blackmailing, and other forms of predation) that at worst can end in murder or suicide. I have never opened any social media accounts, partly from lack of interest, partly from lack of time, and partly from the wish not to fatten Mark Zuckerberg’s bank balance. E-mail and snail mail work just fine for me in keeping in touch with friends, family, business contacts, and other people I know personally, and the risks (phishing e-mails, etc.) are a lot easier to recognize and manage than the problems built into social media.
OTOH, stands to reason: after all, Lincoln was born in Kentucky…
I also agree that a lot of young woman are projecting an image that makes marriage difficult.
==
Excess weight, tats, and f-bombs certainly project an image.
neo–Gramsci has taken it’s toll, and people’s heads are just in a very different place, their world-views, preoccupations, goals, and viewpoints very much different than they were, say, 50 years ago, and that makes returning to those traditional ideas about marriage, family, and children a very hard thing to do.
Art Deco—
Exactly, I agree. And to that I’d add how many women today dress—work out clothes, a slutty look or looking like they just escaped a displaced persons camp.
Cont’d—To me these various looks are just not attractive, and they certainly do not scream here is some real marriage material, what used to be called and meant by the term a “lady.”
Re: Men / Women / Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW)
I’ve read/watched a fair amount of the MGTOW discussion. I submit that the situation is much less equivalent and far more unpleasant than the comments above reflect.
But it’s not a short discussion and this topic is a day-old. I’ll conclude with a couple indisputable facts which are important factors.
(1) Men and masculinity are under far greater attack today then women and femininity.
(2) Men’s treatment in divorce courts is nightmarishly unfair and there are plenty of burned older men passing the word to younger men, “Don’t get married.”
Current marriage rates are at rock bottom.
huxley:
I disagree.
Men – particularly white men – are indeed under attack in the systemic and institutional sense. If I hear one more word about “white men” and how awful they are I will scream. However, on a very personal level – comments on blogs and other places all around the internet – I see an ever-rising amount of misogyny as well. On this thread we are not talking – at least, I’m not talking – about things like hiring. I am talking about a very personal man to woman and woman to man level, and I see it getting worse and worse on both sides and there is tremendous vitriol towards women as well. This is something that a lot of young girls going through puberty feel, and it is one of the reasons that this group is particularly prey to the trans movement in an attempt to run away from what they see.
As far as divorce goes, I’ve done quite a bit of work in the area of divorce and forty years ago men were saying the same things and yet it was the women I knew who were screwed by the divorce courts. This is a huge topic and I’m not going to take the time for a lengthy argument about it right now, but let’s just say that contested divorces are by definition contentious and both parties just about always think the decision was unfair.
It seems obvious to me that–among the many pernicious effects of removing religion from so much of our daily life–this absence has played a major role in the decline of marriage, family formation, and having children.
Judeo-Christian religion presented a set of expectations, standards, a pattern to follow, how things were supposed to be, what you were supposed to do–you grow up, find a wife or husband, establish a family–that is a cooperative effort, have children, then, raise them as your successors, and this marriage was supposed to last, and not be as disposable as Kleenex.
You might say that religion set up some guardrails within which you were supposed to live your life.
Now that those guardrails have largely been removed, people–without the guidance they formerly had–are careering all over the place, and trying all sorts of strange and ultimately unsatisfactory and ineffective ways to live their lives.
Ways which do not strengthen these individuals but weaken them, do not strengthen society but weaken it, and that was the whole point of the Gramscian attack.
Sorry, meant to write “careening” above, not careering.
@ Snow > “Sorry, meant to write “careening” above, not careering.”
In the context of the full discussion, the typo was appropriate.
I don’t want a career; I want to careen.
–Barry Stevens, “Don’t Push the River”
_____________________________
Stevens was a natural born therapist in the Third Force Movement of the 60s/70s. She worked first with Carl Rogers, then Fritz Perls, therapeutic giants who are now largely forgotten.
I remember reading that line in a “Whole Earth Catalog” in a college commune room in Fall, 1971. I don’t have a photographic memory, but almost everything reminds me of something.
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Milan Kundera, R.I.P.
https://www.newsmax.com/thewire/milan-kundera-obituary-czech/2023/07/12/id/1126770/
He was 94.
From Matt Taibbi: “Where Have All the Liberals Gone?”
https://www.racket.news/p/where-have-all-the-liberals-gone
There are already over 300 comments over there (this one is open). Some people think it’s because of Trump, but I think Democrat suppression of opposition began before Trump. He merely accelerated it. Basically, most of the “liberals” are no longer liberal; they’re leftists, to whom suppressing dissent comes naturally.
Well, there’s Dershowitz and maybe a few others…
(Gosh, I hope there’s more than that…)
OTOH, I won’t be surprised when Dershowitz admits that he’s had it with his “life-long” party.
In fact, we may have to define a new term for the left-of-center politically bereft:
Neolib (noun) – Liberal who’s been mugged by the Democratic Party.
File under: Will the Last Liberal out the door please turn off the lights…
Re yesterday’s discussion on female beauty:
I always had, and still have, a thing for Gibson Girls. Love their look. I used to seek out and date girls who looked like the girls in Charles Dana Gibson’s drawings. I love it when my wife arranges her hair like a Gibson girl.
Well, Barry, there’s the black Georgia state representative from Atlanta, who just switched to Republican because her support for school choice caused her Democrat colleagues to treat her badly. We have one of those in NC (white). The question both of them have is why people are still voting for Democrats when that party opposes things that are good for low-income children?
Why some vote democrat… it seems to pay well. Tip of the proverbial iceberg?
Has donate upwards of $475 million in an effort to “[re]interpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/07/11/foreign-billionaire-exploits-loopholes-to-give-half-a-billion-to-u-s-far-left/
Questions for those of you who believe DeSantis should be the Republican nominee:
1) What do you think of kicking off his wife’ “Mamas for DeSantis” initiative by having her dress in a T-Shirt/ Camo leggings/ Stiletto heels?
2) Does giving his wife a larger role in his campaign give you confidence in how DeSantis is performing as a candidate?
3) Even if you do not feel this way, can you understand why I wrote the following: “Yet my respect for DeSantis has declined for the simple reason that he and his staff do not appear to respect the public. They behave as if we do not understand the difference between “shiny objects” and substance.”?
She asks “Why don’t we have singers like this today?”
What can Trump not do?!
So… abandoning the constitution generally, the electoral college, the first amendment, packing the Supreme Court — these used to be ideas that would horrify sane Democrats. And Trump is the justification for going stark raving, totalitarian-loving mad?
The vicious smears (most recently white supremacist, but racist, sexist, fascist and Nazi) go back to the Clinton administration. The more the corruption and crimes of Bill and Hillary came out, the more important it was for Republicans to be despicable.
Blame the viciousness on the loyalty to the cult being far greater than any loyalty to the nation.
thats frankly silly there is plenty of substance, considering she recently recovered from a bout with cancer, shes doing well, this is why some trump supporters honestly put their foot in their mouth,
Valid question! (Why don’t we have singers like this today?)
talent is no longer at a premium
It is reported that Milan Kundera has died.
Here is a very relevant quote from him–
“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.”
Isn’t this exactly what our “educators” and various people who want to purge existing literature of what they say is this or that objectionable word or content have been doing?
How about the crowds of leftists who have been tearing down various statues.
How about those painting over “offensive” murals depicting aspects of our past history?
that guy – That wouldn’t have been my fashion choice, but I’m not Casey DeSantis, nor am I a woman. From the pictures I’ve seen of th event, the outfit wasn’t revealing or immodest. So, it seems that your objections come down to a matter of style.
I’m not sure if your criticism is coming from the perspective of a Trump supporter or a supporter of one of the other non-DeSantis candidates. Either way, I think that attack is likely to backfire. Unless objectively inappropriate, Casey DeSantis can wear whatever she darn well pleases. Frankly, I suspect that she was probably going for “relatable” rather than “objectified.” I also suspect that she succeeded. None of the women in my life would have worn heels quite that high, but I could see (and have seen) many of them in similar outfits. I could also see many of the women in my life responding to someone like Casey DeSantis in a way that they are not going to respond to Melania Trump. I mean no disprespect to Melania at all. Casey DeSantis just has more of an “every woman” vibe to her that Melania does not.
As for DeSantis’s campaign, I really don’t know whether they respect the public. There hasn’t even been a debate yet and the first votes are seven months away. DeSantis is either my 1 or 1A choice right now, but there are a handful of candidates that I would cheerfully vote for in the primaries and a larger group that I would happily support in the general election. Let’s see how the primaries go. It’s early.
Kate,
Regarding your comment on Matt Taibi’s new opinion piece:
It’s a valid question and your take is likely a factor, but one huge thing I don’t hear discussed enough is the shift in demographics; especially towards single women*.
About a month ago I was walking and I noticed something missing. It had been missing for so long I almost forgot it had once existed, had been ubiquitous. Summer, nice weather, middle of the day…
I did not hear a single child.
No swimming pool splashes. No basketball’s bouncing. No shouts from baseball diamonds. No bicycle bells. There were no kids to be seen anywhere. Think about it. When is the last time you recall hearing the sounds of kids playing?
45% of women are projected to be single and childless by 2030. This year we topped 25% of women over 40 being childless** for the first time since records were kept.
A few years ago I heard a comedian commenting about a certain type of female comedian that had become popular; Silverman, Schumer, Handler… All childless and all obsessed with telling others what to do. AOC is an example of this in politics. His premise, explained comedically, was these women are in their peak, maternal years and have no outlet for their maternalism so we, the public, have become their children. They will take care of us and we will be taken care of, whether we choose so, or not.
Adult, single women do not have an outlet for the natural instinct of creating and fostering life. They are very active and many are turning to politics and activism to scratch that itch. They are not traveling west and becoming schoolmarms. They are not joining nunneries. They are graduating from colleges with credentials and earning good money, which gives them power and clout.
I don’t know where it goes. I don’t know where it ends. But it is a huge paradigm shift in American politics.
*A surplus of single, idle men is another huge issue and our country is minting more and more of those, also. No society with a lot of idle men fares well, see Paris for a recent example of how that often plays out.
**Over 16% of American adults over age 55 have no children! Having kids changes one’s perspective of the future and often changes how one votes. Imagine a nation with a majority of childless voters. How does that change things?
As to “why don’t we have singers like that today?” – We do. We also have phenominal instrumentalists in many different genres. You just have to look a bit beyond the mainstream today to find them. Try these guys:
https://youtu.be/HW_07a0zZlI
@ Snow on Pine: That reminded me of ~
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
– Ronald Reagan
AMartel and miguel cervantes,
There are amazing, incredible singers alive today. They’re just not popular in a “top 40” sense. I mainly listen to jazz and the number of extremely talented vocalists, especially female, under age 40 is astounding. None of them is as famous or wealthy as an Ella Fitzgerald or Dinah Shore in their day, but they are really good vocalists who know the music well.
that guy, since I am a DeSantis primary vote, if he’s still in it when they get to my state:
(1) If she can wear stilettos comfortably, what’s wrong with them? You object to the t-shirt and leggings? Melania Trump has been seen in leggings and stilettos, albeit probably more expensive models. She always looks good, and so does Casey DeSantis.
(2) De Santis’s strategy is to win a few primaries. He’s got organizers working in several states. We’ll see. What bothers you about his wife’s involvement? She apparently campaigned for him for Congress and for the governorship.
(3) I don’t follow your charge of disrespect for the public coming from the DeSantis campaign, or the “shiny objects.” The campaign has published plenty of specific policy statements, and points also to his record in Florida.
If you think Trump is more likely to win the general election in 2024, by all means vote for him in the primary.
Here’s an excellent short history of slavery, a range of information which I doubt is being taught in many of our schools today.
See https://www.prageru.com/video/a-short-history-of-slavery
Rufus – The population crash that will result from the lack of children is going to be the biggest crisis for the current rising generation.
There are going to be a lot of childless adults, but they are going to be living in an environment in which SS and Medicare become even more financially unsustainable than they are now. There’s a lot of talk on the left about white people becoming a minority. What happens when young people become a minority? What happens when the childless oldsters begin to consistently outvote the young people and then use government to take larger and larger portions of the young people’s paychecks to keep things like SS and Medicare somewhat solvent in the short term?
What happens if/when democracy becomes an excuse for the older generations to cripple the younger generations with debt and then raid their paychecks and destroy their standard of living just to keep the whole ediface from collapsing for a little bit longer? Is democracy just in that circumstance?
I fear that we are not going to be even remotely prepared to address that question and its associated challenges.
RE: Erasure/rewriting of U.S. history and, as well, the slavery issue–a twofer
A perfect example of this rewriting would seem to be Nikole Hannah–Jones’ “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,” which was featured in a special 2019 issue of the New York Times Magazine.
Also – Rufus – Amen on the non-mainstream artists. I might go as far to say that today is something approaching a golden age for great music, but none of it is mainstream and the artists are far from superstars as they would have been a few decades ago.
yes it’s a staggering exercise in historical malfeasance, something the soviets would have concocted in its day, (which probably isn’t too far from the truth)
Rufus T. Firefly–
Some factors contributing to the dearth of children might also be the attitudes of many of today’s hard-edged, entitled “feminist” women, and how the courts overwhelmingly favor the interests of women in divorces.
These realities inclining a lot of marriageable age men to steer clear of marriage and children; pregnancy apparently often used to trap men into marriage and/or into decades of paying (spousal and) child support.
“stiletto heels”
Oh the horror!!
Important to remember that party switching is not political switching.
There are probably a lot of Clinton Democrats and even some Obama Democrats uncomfortable with being in the party that supports mutilating children and failing to educate them. That does not mean they changed their views on gun control, taxes, social programs, etc.
If those people switch to voting Republican, all that does is make Republicans the party of Clinton and Obama Democrats.
Over 1 trillion has been added to the Federal debt in the five weeks since McCarthy gave his name to the Dem’s debt ceiling deal, in exchange for nothing of substance in return. That’s the Republican Party today on fiscal matters. Gaining a bunch of Democrats will get the Republican Party acting the same way on every other issue we care about. More than they do. And it’s not guaranteed they’ll stop the mutilation of children either.
I don’t vote for Republicans because I want to see red hogs at the trough instead of blue ones. I don’t vote for Republicans because I want socialism and gun control and ever-increasing government debt. If we confuse “Republican” with “conservative” and cheer on the red-blue kayfabe without making bottom-up reforms of our institutions, that’s what we’ll get.
Rufus: Regarding “I did not hear a single child.”
I would hate to be a kid today. Kids’ lives are so different today.
What children there are today don’t go outside. Parents are irrationally afraid of stranger kidnappings, schools have reduced recess to almost not at all, and summer things for kids are disappearing.
In my childhood…
There were pool clubs and public pools. The pool clubs have pretty much all disappeared, and the public pools have a tiny fraction of the attendance they did when I was a kid. There were a ton of summer leagues for kids, now, in the same town. just a handful. Even just hanging out — we used to meet up on the elementary school diamond and play a pick-up game of softball — now that is not allowed. Even in winter, we ran around outside: Went skating on the pond at the golf course, sledding on the hills… Snowball fights and building snow forts. Fall was all about jumping in piles of leaves.
We also had a lot more recess. In first and second grade, we had three recesses: before school, morning recess, and after lunch. For thrid and fourth grade, it went down to two: morning recess and after lunch. And for fifth and sixth grade, we lost morning recess. But we still got to run around a LOT. If the weather was bad, we had recess in the gym (though the before-school one for first and second grade was just in our classrooms.)
What happens when young people become a minority?
Bauxite:
I suggest Peter Zeihan on the subject. Here’s a good PZ quote:
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“Most parts of the world now have far more people aged over 65 than they have children,” Zeihan said. “Population growth has inverted. Birth rates have collapsed and now consumption levels are dropping. … We’ve passed peak consumption and we’re passing peak production all right now. If we fast forward just a couple of years, when we’re on the backside of all this…consumption is done. Investment is done. Capital accruing is done. … And we are at that point in less than a year.”
https://www.financialsense.com/blog/20008/world-about-fall-demographic-cliff-warns-peter-zeihan-and-implications-will-be-enormous
_______________________________________
Zeihan doesn’t offer solutions so much as observations. We are in the midst of an overall demographic collapse. It will be hard, very hard. However, humanity will muddle painfully through and reach a new equilibrium.
He sees the US and Mexico becoming a tighter economic alliance and doing better than most of the rest of the world.
Lee Also says, “I would hate to be a kid today. Kids’ lives are so different today.”
I keep thinking of the effects of the lockdowns, masking, forced vaxxes, and the other adult-imposed COVIDiocies on kids since 2020. Randi Weingarten should be sent to Club Fed (at the very least) for her role in pressuring Rochelle Walensky into extending school closures and forcing the jab on kids over 6 months of age.
OMG … Anchor Brewing in San Francisco is over.
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Anchor Brewing Company, a historic San Francisco craft brewery, announced Wednesday morning it is ceasing operations and liquidating the business.
In a press release, Anchor Brewing spokesperson Sam Singer said that economic pressures made business “no longer sustainable,” and that employees were given their 60-day notice Wednesday. In June, Anchor Brewing limited distribution to California and axed one of its most popular beers.
–“San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Company says it’s ceasing operations”
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/anchor-brewing-company-ceasing-operations-18196509.php
___________________________
That’s the end of an era. Anchor Steam was the classic San Francisco beer. The brewery in Potrero Hill was a landmark.
The article and quotes seem carefully worded to avoid laying any blame on San Francisco’s deterioration.
Kids stay inside a lot more than they used to.
You can discuss the number of people , especially whites,not having any children, yet there is another phenomenon , of white conservative families with far more than just two kids – whether biological or adopted. I doubt it balances out, but it exist.
Reference “I would hate to be a kid today.”
All that has been said is so true. I always come back to what affect the abortion issue must have on today’s kids (Doesn’t it ‘cheapen’ life?) Now the additional distraction of what is male/female. I attended a very rural school (9 kids HS graduation). All children, especially new babies, were very special back then. Over the years we adopted 3 kids, all happy normal adults now. I wouldn’t want to go through childhood today… and wouldn’t attempt raising a child.
News …
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fopinion%2Fcampaign%2F4091106-national-popular-vote-scheme-would-relegate-michigan-to-irrelevance%2F
New York, California, and Illinois have huge populations, relatively low voter turnout, and reliably vote Dem. The popular vote compact means that Dems only have to pay to harvest blue ballots in those three states to win the Presidency, instead of something like a dozen.
Jon baker,
I’m very aware of the movement of some couples choosing to have big families. One of my sons is in such a marriage and it is a joy going to parties at their house attended by other, like-minded couples. Just like the old days; kids everywhere, moms sharing covered dishes, scraped knees, fireworks, jell-o salads…
But they are a minority.
Triggernometry podcast recently interviewed Stephen Shaw* who has studied couples and births across the world. He was surprised to learn that the average number of kids per married couple that has kids hasn’t changed much in the west. In other words, of couples having families the number of kids in those families is similar to the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s. The big change is in those who are having zero kids, and that’s what skews the average.
He puts most of it on women not fully understanding the biological limitations of conceiving and bearing children. He very sadly reported about hundreds of interviews he’s done with childless, middle-aged women who wanted children but nature favors the young in that regard and time simply ran out for them.
I don’t see that trend reversing. Society and culture continue to orient towards putting off marriage and child bearing.
*Apparently he’s made a documentary, “Birthgap – Childless World.”
Child restraint seats cut down on the number of children a family has. Seriously.
Bauxite et al,
I agree that the rapidly changing demographics worldwide is the biggest story of the next 50 – 100 years and will have the greatest impact on what human thriving looks like in 50 – 100 years. I don’t pretend to have a prediction how that will play out. I tend to be optimistic regarding homo sapiens’ ability to adapt to their surroundings. 50 years ago most experts assumed a planet with this large a number of humans was unsustainable. We adapted. They were wrong. So I’m not going to portray doomsday if it goes the other direction in the next, 50 years.
But I agree with your list of challenges and our need to adapt to them. I recently read an article about large sections of Italy and Spain returning to nature because the humans have left. Some villages in Japan offer free homes (they have been abandoned) if people will agree to live in them.
stan,
Yes and no. I remember my wife and I deciding on whether to advance beyond child #2 and our current lack of carseat space in our automobiles was discussed, but it was nowhere near an issue that would veto our decision. Mini-vans can be had relatively cheaply (we bought our first one used) and we’ve owned a few awesome SUVs with third row, fold-down seats.
I promise you, education expenses were a much greater consideration than automobile type when the wife and I discussed family planning.
cb,
Any state that would pass such a law deserves what’s coming to it. However, the XVIIth amendment passed, so it’s entirely possible.
cb,
Good on you and your spouse for adopting! Parents who adopt are the unsung heroes of society.
RE: UFOs–a “complicated” situation
In one of his many interviews about the UFO situation Lou Elizondo–the one government employee, it seems, who has been most deeply involved with the UFO issue, while also revealing the most about it– said that this issue was “complicated.”
Several different people have recently mentioned that what we might be dealing with are several different races of Aliens, each with it’s own agenda.
Others have put forth various theories–summarized by Elizondo–about what such beings might be, or come from.
Thus, in the simplest case, they could just be extraterrestrials.
Another alternative theory is that they might be beings from an existing, very ancient terrestrial civilization which, for whatever reason, have only now decided to come out of hiding and reveal themselves, or which we have only now developed the technology to notice.
One subset of this theory has such beings having bases in the deepest parts of our oceans, or perhaps on the Moon.
Some posit that these beings are time travelers, from the Earth, but from some high civilization in our ancient past, or our far future and are, thus, some form of human.
Another theory is that these beings are from another, possibly coterminous, higher dimension, and able to just dip in and out of our three dimensional world; their appearances, of necessity, perceived by us as very bizarre, absurd, sometimes very frightening, and perplexing.
The thought has occurred to me that perhaps what Elizondo referred to as this “complicated” situation is really, really complicated, and that we are simultaneously being surveilled, interacted with, and sometimes imposed upon, by a number of different beings–each with it’s own origin and civilization and, thus, very likely very different perceptions, behaviors, and agendas; that we may unfortunately be the equivalent of Grand Central Station, the cross roads of our local region of space, dimension, and time.
Snow on Pine,
I agree that in the U.S. the women control the marriage statistics. There’s an old, crude joke men share: “Every woman can predict the future. She knows whether you will *** **** tonight.”
It’s true there are a lot of men online talking smack about “going their own way” and refusing to marry, etc. But I am fairly confident that if a decent woman gave any one of them more than half a second of sincere attention they’d fold like a card table.
I also agree that a lot of young woman are projecting an image that makes marriage difficult. Marriage is a lot of compromise, especially when children come into the picture. I think a lot of modern, American women do not want to have to compromise. Unfortunately, human biology has not changed along with our cultural trends.
It’s funny. I don’t know if this is true, but in my experience it seems accurate. Non-college educated men are less likely to compromise than college educated men, but the opposite is true with women. Maybe? I think?
Regardless, as Cole Porter wrote, “even educated fleas do it.”
huxley,
Sad to hear about Anchor brewing. Anchor steam was the first “exotic” beer I ever had. I drove from Chicago to San Francisco when I was 18 and discovered it there. It’s a good beer!
Perhaps my viewing of a lot of YouTube—a bad habit I picked up during our COVID imposed isolation—has given me a very skewed view of the current situation, but from what I’m seeing there, “decent women” who really want to be married, to perform some housewifely duties, and to be mothers and have children may be in pretty short supply.
Regrettably, DeSantis’ chances in 2028 are likely suffering due to his run this year. If he exits quickly and endorses Trump, he might recover. Part of his problem is whether or not there might be an attractive high profile MAGA option in ’28. Is there such a person?
Why yes. Yes there is.
P.S.—I’m afraid that between militant “feminism,” and their promotion of “strong women” who must value a career far higher than being a housewife and mother—akin to being a downtrodden slave really—and the “girls just want to have fun” virus, which seems to have infected all too many women, women who want to be married, who see as their natural and desirable path in life to be wives and mothers, and to keep a household have greatly diminished.
Rufus T. Firefly; Snow on Pine:
Some women are like that, but I see just as many men who seem to be really intense misogynists who combine that misogyny with standards for female appearance that are so high they are in the stratosphere. Women who fail to reach a movie-star-like appearance are considered dogs. And many guys require women to put out by the second date – if there even is what could be described as a “date” – and to perform like porn stars.
The problem is a two-way street.
neo–Look to porn and effective contraception as being responsible for some of the male attitudes you have pointed out.
In sum, as I see it, the Left’s good ol’ Gramscian march–in effect an ideological and psychological IED–has also done a great job of creating and promoting so many negative attitudes towards marriage, families, and having and rearing children, of sowing so much dissention, dissatisfaction, disdain, and even hatred that its nearly destroyed the traditional ideas of marriage, the family, and relations between the sexes.
Snow on Pine– It’s not just Gramsci– it’s also technology, particularly the triple whammy of social media, smartphones, and the Internet. Online communication not only gives people unrealistic expectations of men and women, it also facilitates scams and criminal behavior of various types (catfishing, romance scamming, stalking, blackmailing, and other forms of predation) that at worst can end in murder or suicide. I have never opened any social media accounts, partly from lack of interest, partly from lack of time, and partly from the wish not to fatten Mark Zuckerberg’s bank balance. E-mail and snail mail work just fine for me in keeping in touch with friends, family, business contacts, and other people I know personally, and the risks (phishing e-mails, etc.) are a lot easier to recognize and manage than the problems built into social media.
For Civil War buffs…an astounding discovery…in a cornfield no less….
“‘The Most Insane Thing Ever’ – Man Finds Huge Hoard Of Civil War Gold On Kentucky Farm”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/most-insane-thing-ever-man-finds-huge-hoard-civil-war-gold-kentucky-farm
OTOH, stands to reason: after all, Lincoln was born in Kentucky…
I also agree that a lot of young woman are projecting an image that makes marriage difficult.
==
Excess weight, tats, and f-bombs certainly project an image.
neo–Gramsci has taken it’s toll, and people’s heads are just in a very different place, their world-views, preoccupations, goals, and viewpoints very much different than they were, say, 50 years ago, and that makes returning to those traditional ideas about marriage, family, and children a very hard thing to do.
Art Deco—
Exactly, I agree. And to that I’d add how many women today dress—work out clothes, a slutty look or looking like they just escaped a displaced persons camp.
Cont’d—To me these various looks are just not attractive, and they certainly do not scream here is some real marriage material, what used to be called and meant by the term a “lady.”
Re: Men / Women / Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW)
I’ve read/watched a fair amount of the MGTOW discussion. I submit that the situation is much less equivalent and far more unpleasant than the comments above reflect.
But it’s not a short discussion and this topic is a day-old. I’ll conclude with a couple indisputable facts which are important factors.
(1) Men and masculinity are under far greater attack today then women and femininity.
(2) Men’s treatment in divorce courts is nightmarishly unfair and there are plenty of burned older men passing the word to younger men, “Don’t get married.”
Current marriage rates are at rock bottom.
huxley:
I disagree.
Men – particularly white men – are indeed under attack in the systemic and institutional sense. If I hear one more word about “white men” and how awful they are I will scream. However, on a very personal level – comments on blogs and other places all around the internet – I see an ever-rising amount of misogyny as well. On this thread we are not talking – at least, I’m not talking – about things like hiring. I am talking about a very personal man to woman and woman to man level, and I see it getting worse and worse on both sides and there is tremendous vitriol towards women as well. This is something that a lot of young girls going through puberty feel, and it is one of the reasons that this group is particularly prey to the trans movement in an attempt to run away from what they see.
As far as divorce goes, I’ve done quite a bit of work in the area of divorce and forty years ago men were saying the same things and yet it was the women I knew who were screwed by the divorce courts. This is a huge topic and I’m not going to take the time for a lengthy argument about it right now, but let’s just say that contested divorces are by definition contentious and both parties just about always think the decision was unfair.
It seems obvious to me that–among the many pernicious effects of removing religion from so much of our daily life–this absence has played a major role in the decline of marriage, family formation, and having children.
Judeo-Christian religion presented a set of expectations, standards, a pattern to follow, how things were supposed to be, what you were supposed to do–you grow up, find a wife or husband, establish a family–that is a cooperative effort, have children, then, raise them as your successors, and this marriage was supposed to last, and not be as disposable as Kleenex.
You might say that religion set up some guardrails within which you were supposed to live your life.
Now that those guardrails have largely been removed, people–without the guidance they formerly had–are careering all over the place, and trying all sorts of strange and ultimately unsatisfactory and ineffective ways to live their lives.
Ways which do not strengthen these individuals but weaken them, do not strengthen society but weaken it, and that was the whole point of the Gramscian attack.
Sorry, meant to write “careening” above, not careering.
@ Snow > “Sorry, meant to write “careening” above, not careering.”
In the context of the full discussion, the typo was appropriate.
I don’t want a career; I want to careen.
–Barry Stevens, “Don’t Push the River”
_____________________________
Stevens was a natural born therapist in the Third Force Movement of the 60s/70s. She worked first with Carl Rogers, then Fritz Perls, therapeutic giants who are now largely forgotten.
I remember reading that line in a “Whole Earth Catalog” in a college commune room in Fall, 1971. I don’t have a photographic memory, but almost everything reminds me of something.