Who knows? Maybe they really are too stupid to accomplish anything worthwhile. But they were smart enough to get elected. Count your blessings in that you have elections every four years, no matter what. As per Musk, what do you care? He's going to be on the first rocket to Mars where he will populate an entire world with his own mini-me's.
It astonishes me how many people are comfortable embracing soothing falsehoods.
As I often say these days, is it better to be right? Or to feel like you're right, even when you're wrong? If it's better to be right, you need to be comfortable with uncertainty, with seeking out errors in your perception, with challenging your existing beliefs when they cannot explain new evidence.
One of God's names, perhaps the most important one, is "Truth."
****
Sadly, this also helps to explain the rise of the world's Loomers. I think it was Eric S. Raymond who would often make the point that if certain truths are deemed bigoted to say out loud (for example, that CAIR is hostile to America), then the only people who will dare to speak the truth will be bigoted people (like Loomer). If so, then people seeking out the truth will be drawn to the bigoted people, and not knowing the difference, will become steeped in bigotry.
In a weaker form, this applies to the rise of Trump himself. He was the only national politician willing to take on the problems that others have been ignoring for decades, and that was because the cocktail-party set decreed that it was rude to actually address our problems.
You'll get no argument from me on the female writers you brought in back at NewsReal Blog and PJ Tatler. Good times, good research, good articles that mattered.
I miss it-
Michelle Horstman, former middle aged researcher and writer who never had to pose with spike heels and long legs to get Dave to read one of my pieces. :)
Great read, much to think about here but you really do cut to the heart of what's gone on in the political sphere.
On a more prophetic note the ten plagues/Pharaoh promise has been hitting hard in my dreams since late March and I was dismissing it as being the approach of Passover and a life time of religious studies.
The rot started with Nixon and Reagan and before that, long before that with the Catholic Church, which IS Rome, a brutal empire interested only in power and money, even when they get a more moderate pope. Conservative America has always been white and male supremacist. Yea, there are token females and people of color, but not enough to bring in any new ideas or experiences. Now it has devolved , empowered by those things you named, but the rot was already there. I am amazed how you cannot seem to get that. Jesus was a radical, he preached against all the things conservatives proclaim (or hide from public view). His story was bastardized for Rome and its been a sick sacrificial religion since. Sure, there have always been good people, but the system is a cult. You start with the premise that people are sinful, wrap that around sex and what do you get - prurient objectifying sex and pornography and thus a population easy to manipulate with sex and especially dominator sex.
You write “because I already regarded our country as the greatest in the world. And why is our country so great?
Because our Constitution is the best. We have the best form of government ever imagined into existence”.
Sorry, but if your constitution was so great, and if your institutions were strong enough, this wouldn’t have happened. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
By making this statement, I doubt you have ever made a study of other countries’ constitutions or Basic Laws, how they have re-written them to reflect the present times with their challenges and dangers. Good luck to you and yours.
"Sorry, but if your constitution was so great, and if your institutions were strong enough, this wouldn’t have happened."
What do you mean? What sort of institution should we have to prevent amoral people like Trump from running for president? How do you want our Constitution changed?
"By making this statement, I doubt you have ever made a study of other countries’ constitutions or Basic Laws, how they have re-written them to reflect the present times with their challenges and dangers."
Which country has a Constitution which is superior and has demonstrated that in the prosperous results which it has provided? And how would such a country make it illegal for the Trumps of the world to gain power?
I have a degree in political science and have written professionally on a full-time basis about international matters for 15 years now. You can certainly disagree with me but our disagreement is not because of my ignorance about these matters. It's because we have different moral values.
Please substantiate “different moral values”. On what evidence is that declaration based? Different insights, different experiences perhaps? Perhaps a bachelors degree at an American university is a big deal over there, but I doubt very much it stands up against a higher degree at a top European university like the Sorbonne. As for myself, I am not an ignoramus and have several degrees. A bachelors in a STEM field, two Master’s degrees and a PhD in a related field. Not to brag, but to demonstrate I am not easily awed by terms like university, professional. Sounds to me like even more American exceptionalism. If that makes you happy, then stick to it.
Who knows? Maybe they really are too stupid to accomplish anything worthwhile. But they were smart enough to get elected. Count your blessings in that you have elections every four years, no matter what. As per Musk, what do you care? He's going to be on the first rocket to Mars where he will populate an entire world with his own mini-me's.
It astonishes me how many people are comfortable embracing soothing falsehoods.
As I often say these days, is it better to be right? Or to feel like you're right, even when you're wrong? If it's better to be right, you need to be comfortable with uncertainty, with seeking out errors in your perception, with challenging your existing beliefs when they cannot explain new evidence.
One of God's names, perhaps the most important one, is "Truth."
****
Sadly, this also helps to explain the rise of the world's Loomers. I think it was Eric S. Raymond who would often make the point that if certain truths are deemed bigoted to say out loud (for example, that CAIR is hostile to America), then the only people who will dare to speak the truth will be bigoted people (like Loomer). If so, then people seeking out the truth will be drawn to the bigoted people, and not knowing the difference, will become steeped in bigotry.
In a weaker form, this applies to the rise of Trump himself. He was the only national politician willing to take on the problems that others have been ignoring for decades, and that was because the cocktail-party set decreed that it was rude to actually address our problems.
You'll get no argument from me on the female writers you brought in back at NewsReal Blog and PJ Tatler. Good times, good research, good articles that mattered.
I miss it-
Michelle Horstman, former middle aged researcher and writer who never had to pose with spike heels and long legs to get Dave to read one of my pieces. :)
I miss it too. Thanks for being one of the great ones then and for still being such a good friend.
Great read, much to think about here but you really do cut to the heart of what's gone on in the political sphere.
On a more prophetic note the ten plagues/Pharaoh promise has been hitting hard in my dreams since late March and I was dismissing it as being the approach of Passover and a life time of religious studies.
The rot started with Nixon and Reagan and before that, long before that with the Catholic Church, which IS Rome, a brutal empire interested only in power and money, even when they get a more moderate pope. Conservative America has always been white and male supremacist. Yea, there are token females and people of color, but not enough to bring in any new ideas or experiences. Now it has devolved , empowered by those things you named, but the rot was already there. I am amazed how you cannot seem to get that. Jesus was a radical, he preached against all the things conservatives proclaim (or hide from public view). His story was bastardized for Rome and its been a sick sacrificial religion since. Sure, there have always been good people, but the system is a cult. You start with the premise that people are sinful, wrap that around sex and what do you get - prurient objectifying sex and pornography and thus a population easy to manipulate with sex and especially dominator sex.
All I can say is look deeper!
Thank you.
Thank you for your thoughtful and engaging perspective, much of which I agree with. I wrote this piece last year which might resonate with you: https://open.substack.com/pub/godofthedesert/p/judeo-christian-mysticism-vs-pauline?r=14q4c&utm_medium=ios
You write “because I already regarded our country as the greatest in the world. And why is our country so great?
Because our Constitution is the best. We have the best form of government ever imagined into existence”.
Sorry, but if your constitution was so great, and if your institutions were strong enough, this wouldn’t have happened. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
By making this statement, I doubt you have ever made a study of other countries’ constitutions or Basic Laws, how they have re-written them to reflect the present times with their challenges and dangers. Good luck to you and yours.
"Sorry, but if your constitution was so great, and if your institutions were strong enough, this wouldn’t have happened."
What do you mean? What sort of institution should we have to prevent amoral people like Trump from running for president? How do you want our Constitution changed?
"By making this statement, I doubt you have ever made a study of other countries’ constitutions or Basic Laws, how they have re-written them to reflect the present times with their challenges and dangers."
Which country has a Constitution which is superior and has demonstrated that in the prosperous results which it has provided? And how would such a country make it illegal for the Trumps of the world to gain power?
I have a degree in political science and have written professionally on a full-time basis about international matters for 15 years now. You can certainly disagree with me but our disagreement is not because of my ignorance about these matters. It's because we have different moral values.
Please substantiate “different moral values”. On what evidence is that declaration based? Different insights, different experiences perhaps? Perhaps a bachelors degree at an American university is a big deal over there, but I doubt very much it stands up against a higher degree at a top European university like the Sorbonne. As for myself, I am not an ignoramus and have several degrees. A bachelors in a STEM field, two Master’s degrees and a PhD in a related field. Not to brag, but to demonstrate I am not easily awed by terms like university, professional. Sounds to me like even more American exceptionalism. If that makes you happy, then stick to it.
I think you’ve made abundantly clear that you and I operate from different sources of morality. Is the evidence for that not plain in your responses?
Well, Laura Loomer's tweets aren't wrong.