I think Newsome’s on the right track. It’s encouraging that someone high up is waging war on the stupidity of this administration. It makes me feel hopeful.
Inherent rights, Equality before the law, Equal opportunity and government by consent are all core conservative principles (see, for example, https://www.nationalswa.com/what-we-stand-for/ ). That is what differentiates conservatives from both the radical right (fascism, Nazism) and the far left (anarchists communists). MAGA are not conservatives by the standards of any other English speaking country.
They are NOT conservative values. That group is liberal.
The founding fathers wrote the Declaration on Independence and the constitution as liberal documents, they rejected the conservative state of affairs living under a monarch. The liberals in the French Revolution enshrined those axioms in their Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which conservatives rejected outright.
MAGA and the GOP are conservative as they support authoritarianism, do not believe in any of those liberal axioms. They are the internal enemy and must be crushed if our liberal society is to survive.
Sure, but that was in the 18th Century. Since then the rise of (at least nominally) socialist parties has pushed liberals and conservatives into alliance and sometimes into the same party*, for example the Australian Liberal Party. The US is slightly odd in that liberals and conservatives used to be located in both parties (think the Northern vs Southern Democrats or the Eastern vs Western Republicans). Now the Republicans have mutated into fascists leaving the Democrats as the de-facto party of liberalism. Of course this is complicated by people like AOC who would not be considered liberals elsewhere in the Anglosphere.
So, for example, the most recent edition of 'The Spectator' has an article warning that socialism sees liberalism as the enemy of equality.
No, the definition still stands. Liberals hold those axioms and conservatives oppose them by definition.
It is true that the concept of egalitarianism formed the alliance between libertarians and conservatives in the GOP who share the belief that the rich are better people and should rule the world, libertarians because they are more industrious and makers, and conservatives because they are god's elect.
Socialists are liberals, libertarians are liberals who unfortunately refuse that they have obligations to others, selfish is their virtue. Socialism and communism are boogeymen because of conservatives. Fuck them.
You are funny. If socialists are liberals why did Menzies (a liberal) try to ban the Communist Party? And if liberals and conservatives are seperate then why do Tony Abbott (conservative Catholic, monarchist, pro-life, anti-marrage equality, anti-Voice) and Malcolm Turnbull (republican, pro-choice, pro-marrage equality, pro-Voice) both identify as Liberals? As John Howard said, the right consists of two wings, liberal and conservative, and has done so since the1910 fusion of the Free Trade and Protectionist parties.
Liberals don't always agree and may be confrontational to each other over issues. However, liberals are defined by holding those four axioms that conservatives refute.
Conservatives and liberals may united, as in the GOP between the libertarians and conservatives to achieve a state that cannot regulate, which serves the ideology of each even though each has different values, they align on "small government". However, certain libertarians do see the threat that conservatives pose if they are allowed to create their authoritarian theocratic state, those Christian nationalists, that extend well beyond a purely laissez-faire state.
‘Engagement’, making their audience feel as involved participants….This is such a big part of the MAGA project; getting people to discover their worst selves. It start with teasing out the transgressive thrill of cruelty. Then inviting others into the tribe, no judgements about anything if they choose the red hat. ‘Telling it like it is’, just another way of exploring your personal depths of spirit. Praise for nothing more than provoking that in others. Every good instinct drowned in nihilism and apathy. All the things Hannah Arendt wrote about a lifetime ago. The ‘banality of evil’.
"A better tack is to highlight just how much the Trump [sic] administration is compromising actual crime-fighting. Diverting FBI agents to street patrols is stupid and wasteful. They are not trained for ordinary police work, but rather for finding and arresting swindlers, terrorists, and child-porn sellers. Ditto for DEA agents and the other federal officials Trump has pulled from their regular duties."
Also "stupid and wasteful" is calling up the National Guard to assist in policing. This is definitely a case where DOGE needs to step in. Guardspeople need to be housed and fed; even on a military base these are costs that must be paid, and the soldiers themselves also have to be paid.
Add "dangerous" to the list if XFG actually goes ahead and orders the Guardspeople to be armed. If their assignment is to squelch a so-called riot there is a good likelihood that civilian blood will be flowing. The odds are that there will be many who will have little to no compunction in giving the Libs a reminder of who's in charge now.
Circling back to paying the soldiers; if they are deployed in DC, they are active duty military and get paid as such. But if it's as much of a hellhole that XFG says it is then they should be getting hazard pay as well. I mean, to hear him describe the situation it's got to be similar to the last week of April, 1975 in (then) Saigon or Kabul mid-Aug, 2021.
Outlets like the Daily Wire and Turning Points while existence is to spout the talking points they’ve been sent. Their dark money deep pocketed evil masters pay well for it.
Mona,Andrew and Jim, Great pieces all. Thanks for the reporting,commentary and analysis. I ask myself, why does Maga hate the Libs? Clinton balanced the budget, Obama saved us from the mortgage crisis. Biden brought us out of the pandemic, brought inflation back down and invested in infrastructure and technologies that produced growth and jobs. The Maga heroes, Reagan, Bush and Trump did not do these things. They gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy, got us into forever wars, put masked thugs on our city streets, took bribes and payoffs and decimated our rule of law. It's time Maga and people in general judge the actions of their leaders by the same standards. The answer then becomes crystal clear, the Republicans, and especially Trump, are incapable of governing and are putting regular Americans at risk and in danger.
A Presidential Medal of Honor for the MAGAn who rats out the highest number of people (whether they've actually exhibited any "liberal" proclivities or not, now that we're in the due-process-is-woke era.
I just got a facebook friend suggestion for Kash Patel! I'm thinking of accepting it so I can leave a nasty comment. But I'm afraid I'll invite an FBI investigation.
In the likelihood that Orange trusts Pukin: KYIV, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Russia targeted a U.S.-founded electronics manufacturer near Ukraine’s border with the European Union in a major air attack on Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought U.S. support to bring Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
Replacing 'deep state operatives' with regime loyalists is central to Project 2025. The fact that it is happening just means that there is nothing to see here, move along. Authoritarian regimes privilege loyalty over competence so the result is always a bureaucracy which fumbles along pretty much as before, but with renewed vigor to enforce the fever dreams of the new ruling elite. Yay.
The male gamer economy is in real trouble right now. The consoles and PCs are all more expensive with the Trump tariffs. The porn-adjacent games that they are playing are being banned by Steam and other platforms due to pressure on the payment processing companies and the Heritage Foundation. There are starting to be memes going around talking about how Project 2025 is the reason that their "spicy" games are not available any more. We might see a swing back to these guys not voting in the next election.
As always, it is important to understand that perception and narrative outweigh reality by orders of magnitude. Data-based arguments pale in comparison and get basically no traction.
Another reason why Democrats lose the communication war--because they are providing data that "everyone knows" is wrong. No one wants data that contradicts what they believe and raises questions about what they are doing. People SAY they do. Some few people actually mean it. Usually people in the hard sciences, but they have their political/ideological issues as well.
"Everybody knows" that cities are hell pits of crime and disease and All Bad Things--at least, MAGA and a lof of people who have never been to a city know that, anyway. I have discussed what is behind that elsewhere, but in simple terms in is an identity issue.
People want data, but they want the RIGHT data. The data that tells them they are right and that they should do what they want. They will cherry pick or misreprsent exist accurate data to do that or, when all else fails, make shit up.
The data you do not like is wrong, flawed. The continuing argument is that the data you have is incomplete or skewed. Particularly from people who are at the ends of the political horseshoe because they have trust issues.
The reality is that the data is usually flawed or incomplete--BUT unless it is fatally compromised or incomplete, it is what you have to work with. Most crime data we have is NOT fatally dlawed or incomplete. It is not perfect or complete. No data ever is, TBH.
But people will try to use that argument to ignore data (had an argument in that vein this morning with a colleague).
Truth is always in competition with what "everyone knows." Truth is always in competition with pleasing narrative or "trusted sources." Trust is identity based.
The key is finding the way to counteract that. This is where Democrats fail badly a lot of time.
You have to tell good, engaging STORIES to build trust and belief. You have to leverage what "everyone knows" and make the turn to what the data says.
And, in the end, you cannot combat misinformation in people who will not or cannot be bothered to look outside their dfe, trusted spaces. Not directly.
Right now you need stories about how ineffective the whole DC NG thing is. Examples of where it has led to failures, injuries, deaths. Misallocation of resources. Ignoring "real" crime. You need some mockery and sarcasm.
Data is not going to win the fight unless you work it into the right narrative that reaches the persuadable and it is the narrative that actually wins the fight.
I think Newsome’s on the right track. It’s encouraging that someone high up is waging war on the stupidity of this administration. It makes me feel hopeful.
Conservatism is a cancer that must be eliminated. Liberalism is based on the following four axioms:
- Inherent rights
- Equality under the law
- Equal opportunity
- Consent to and participation in governance
Conservatives do not live well in a liberal society, so let's get rid of them or marginalize them. One way or another because this is war.
Inherent rights, Equality before the law, Equal opportunity and government by consent are all core conservative principles (see, for example, https://www.nationalswa.com/what-we-stand-for/ ). That is what differentiates conservatives from both the radical right (fascism, Nazism) and the far left (anarchists communists). MAGA are not conservatives by the standards of any other English speaking country.
They are NOT conservative values. That group is liberal.
The founding fathers wrote the Declaration on Independence and the constitution as liberal documents, they rejected the conservative state of affairs living under a monarch. The liberals in the French Revolution enshrined those axioms in their Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which conservatives rejected outright.
MAGA and the GOP are conservative as they support authoritarianism, do not believe in any of those liberal axioms. They are the internal enemy and must be crushed if our liberal society is to survive.
Sure, but that was in the 18th Century. Since then the rise of (at least nominally) socialist parties has pushed liberals and conservatives into alliance and sometimes into the same party*, for example the Australian Liberal Party. The US is slightly odd in that liberals and conservatives used to be located in both parties (think the Northern vs Southern Democrats or the Eastern vs Western Republicans). Now the Republicans have mutated into fascists leaving the Democrats as the de-facto party of liberalism. Of course this is complicated by people like AOC who would not be considered liberals elsewhere in the Anglosphere.
So, for example, the most recent edition of 'The Spectator' has an article warning that socialism sees liberalism as the enemy of equality.
No, the definition still stands. Liberals hold those axioms and conservatives oppose them by definition.
It is true that the concept of egalitarianism formed the alliance between libertarians and conservatives in the GOP who share the belief that the rich are better people and should rule the world, libertarians because they are more industrious and makers, and conservatives because they are god's elect.
Socialists are liberals, libertarians are liberals who unfortunately refuse that they have obligations to others, selfish is their virtue. Socialism and communism are boogeymen because of conservatives. Fuck them.
You are funny. If socialists are liberals why did Menzies (a liberal) try to ban the Communist Party? And if liberals and conservatives are seperate then why do Tony Abbott (conservative Catholic, monarchist, pro-life, anti-marrage equality, anti-Voice) and Malcolm Turnbull (republican, pro-choice, pro-marrage equality, pro-Voice) both identify as Liberals? As John Howard said, the right consists of two wings, liberal and conservative, and has done so since the1910 fusion of the Free Trade and Protectionist parties.
Liberals don't always agree and may be confrontational to each other over issues. However, liberals are defined by holding those four axioms that conservatives refute.
Conservatives and liberals may united, as in the GOP between the libertarians and conservatives to achieve a state that cannot regulate, which serves the ideology of each even though each has different values, they align on "small government". However, certain libertarians do see the threat that conservatives pose if they are allowed to create their authoritarian theocratic state, those Christian nationalists, that extend well beyond a purely laissez-faire state.
‘Engagement’, making their audience feel as involved participants….This is such a big part of the MAGA project; getting people to discover their worst selves. It start with teasing out the transgressive thrill of cruelty. Then inviting others into the tribe, no judgements about anything if they choose the red hat. ‘Telling it like it is’, just another way of exploring your personal depths of spirit. Praise for nothing more than provoking that in others. Every good instinct drowned in nihilism and apathy. All the things Hannah Arendt wrote about a lifetime ago. The ‘banality of evil’.
(Late to the party, but...)
"A better tack is to highlight just how much the Trump [sic] administration is compromising actual crime-fighting. Diverting FBI agents to street patrols is stupid and wasteful. They are not trained for ordinary police work, but rather for finding and arresting swindlers, terrorists, and child-porn sellers. Ditto for DEA agents and the other federal officials Trump has pulled from their regular duties."
Also "stupid and wasteful" is calling up the National Guard to assist in policing. This is definitely a case where DOGE needs to step in. Guardspeople need to be housed and fed; even on a military base these are costs that must be paid, and the soldiers themselves also have to be paid.
Add "dangerous" to the list if XFG actually goes ahead and orders the Guardspeople to be armed. If their assignment is to squelch a so-called riot there is a good likelihood that civilian blood will be flowing. The odds are that there will be many who will have little to no compunction in giving the Libs a reminder of who's in charge now.
Circling back to paying the soldiers; if they are deployed in DC, they are active duty military and get paid as such. But if it's as much of a hellhole that XFG says it is then they should be getting hazard pay as well. I mean, to hear him describe the situation it's got to be similar to the last week of April, 1975 in (then) Saigon or Kabul mid-Aug, 2021.
fnord
Outlets like the Daily Wire and Turning Points while existence is to spout the talking points they’ve been sent. Their dark money deep pocketed evil masters pay well for it.
so much soul rot
Mona,Andrew and Jim, Great pieces all. Thanks for the reporting,commentary and analysis. I ask myself, why does Maga hate the Libs? Clinton balanced the budget, Obama saved us from the mortgage crisis. Biden brought us out of the pandemic, brought inflation back down and invested in infrastructure and technologies that produced growth and jobs. The Maga heroes, Reagan, Bush and Trump did not do these things. They gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy, got us into forever wars, put masked thugs on our city streets, took bribes and payoffs and decimated our rule of law. It's time Maga and people in general judge the actions of their leaders by the same standards. The answer then becomes crystal clear, the Republicans, and especially Trump, are incapable of governing and are putting regular Americans at risk and in danger.
propaganda & apathy & ignorance & anger & immaturity
Well said
If MSNBC is a failure by any name let's name it "TRUMP"!. That should square the circle, or whatever it is circles and squares do to each other.
Regarding the 'audience participation' element of the 'liberal purge,' it seems very Maoist, a high tech version of the Cultural Revolution.
A Presidential Medal of Honor for the MAGAn who rats out the highest number of people (whether they've actually exhibited any "liberal" proclivities or not, now that we're in the due-process-is-woke era.
I just got a facebook friend suggestion for Kash Patel! I'm thinking of accepting it so I can leave a nasty comment. But I'm afraid I'll invite an FBI investigation.
In the likelihood that Orange trusts Pukin: KYIV, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Russia targeted a U.S.-founded electronics manufacturer near Ukraine’s border with the European Union in a major air attack on Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought U.S. support to bring Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
Replacing 'deep state operatives' with regime loyalists is central to Project 2025. The fact that it is happening just means that there is nothing to see here, move along. Authoritarian regimes privilege loyalty over competence so the result is always a bureaucracy which fumbles along pretty much as before, but with renewed vigor to enforce the fever dreams of the new ruling elite. Yay.
The male gamer economy is in real trouble right now. The consoles and PCs are all more expensive with the Trump tariffs. The porn-adjacent games that they are playing are being banned by Steam and other platforms due to pressure on the payment processing companies and the Heritage Foundation. There are starting to be memes going around talking about how Project 2025 is the reason that their "spicy" games are not available any more. We might see a swing back to these guys not voting in the next election.
hope!
As always, it is important to understand that perception and narrative outweigh reality by orders of magnitude. Data-based arguments pale in comparison and get basically no traction.
Another reason why Democrats lose the communication war--because they are providing data that "everyone knows" is wrong. No one wants data that contradicts what they believe and raises questions about what they are doing. People SAY they do. Some few people actually mean it. Usually people in the hard sciences, but they have their political/ideological issues as well.
"Everybody knows" that cities are hell pits of crime and disease and All Bad Things--at least, MAGA and a lof of people who have never been to a city know that, anyway. I have discussed what is behind that elsewhere, but in simple terms in is an identity issue.
People want data, but they want the RIGHT data. The data that tells them they are right and that they should do what they want. They will cherry pick or misreprsent exist accurate data to do that or, when all else fails, make shit up.
The data you do not like is wrong, flawed. The continuing argument is that the data you have is incomplete or skewed. Particularly from people who are at the ends of the political horseshoe because they have trust issues.
The reality is that the data is usually flawed or incomplete--BUT unless it is fatally compromised or incomplete, it is what you have to work with. Most crime data we have is NOT fatally dlawed or incomplete. It is not perfect or complete. No data ever is, TBH.
But people will try to use that argument to ignore data (had an argument in that vein this morning with a colleague).
Truth is always in competition with what "everyone knows." Truth is always in competition with pleasing narrative or "trusted sources." Trust is identity based.
The key is finding the way to counteract that. This is where Democrats fail badly a lot of time.
You have to tell good, engaging STORIES to build trust and belief. You have to leverage what "everyone knows" and make the turn to what the data says.
And, in the end, you cannot combat misinformation in people who will not or cannot be bothered to look outside their dfe, trusted spaces. Not directly.
Right now you need stories about how ineffective the whole DC NG thing is. Examples of where it has led to failures, injuries, deaths. Misallocation of resources. Ignoring "real" crime. You need some mockery and sarcasm.
Data is not going to win the fight unless you work it into the right narrative that reaches the persuadable and it is the narrative that actually wins the fight.
Thank you for these posts; they are great.
Using the term alien is just as dehumanizing and intentionally cruel as rights emphasis on using illegal alien every chance they get. Why use it?