Disagree, hypocrisy is not real. Carnivores are hypocritical, and we are not a Protestant government, nor should we assume the posture of a religious society. White supremacy requires the subjugation of the people to alternative-basis ethics to evade the truth, and cannot hear or even faithfully testify all that it knows.
For the next Bulwark Movie Club, can you guys do 12 Angry Men? I have no offers as to why it would be a good choice in these political moments, but it's SO good. One of my favorites. Probably not a good reason, though, but you never know.
I recall a highly educated Trump apologist defending how McConnell blocked the confirmation of Garland and later rushed Barrett through the process in a spectacular violation of the stated principle for blocking Garland. The defense was: "Democrats would have done the same thing if they could." The apologist claimed that some Democrat had admitted it, but nobody was named.
It was a defense of the open embrace of hypocrisy, with an argument that went beyond whataboutism because it wasn't that the other side did the same thing, but only that the other side would have done so. (And every Trumper would have responded with outrage.)
"It's fine when our side does it" may well be a bipartisan prejudice, but it has never been so obvious as it is in Trumpism, with its foundational doctrine that Trump must not be held to the same standards by which all other politicians are judged. Elite Trumpy thought leaders claimed to be prioritizing higher values - i.e., their own ideological agenda - which supposedly necessitated a large measure of indulgence on little things like personal integrity and decency.
In the case of the SCOTUS nominations, the higher value was getting a court packed with "originalists," which many on the right have held to be a matter of the highest importance, a way of restoring truth and justice to our judicial system. But then we learned that the "originalists" had no qualms about casting aside originalism in a rather obvious way with their immunity decision, and then in less overt ways by using the shadow docket to give Trump extra leeway to continue enacting his policies.
*All Is Lost* haunted me for a long time afterward. I grew up watching Robert Redford. Right now I'm watching one I haven't seen before, *an unfinished life* with Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez. Another haunting film (so far). Many, many years ago I ran into Robert Redford, literally, walking down Fifth Avenue, because I was reading a book (yes, yes, I know). He was with someone and there was someone in a stroller. I mumbled a hasty "sorry, excuse me" and kept walking, but I'll never forget it. They say stars are larger than life in person for a reason. RIP.
Hold on wait. When Republicans politicians told me for 40 years that Liberal Supreme Court Justices were radicals that wanted to invent case facts and Legislate from the Bench instead of humbly restrict their scope to calling balls and strikes and relying on Precedent .....that was all a lie?
Another thing that bugs me about the obsession with hypocrisy is that it makes for philosophically weak arguments. Often times, it’s effectively a form of _ad hominem_ attack. I mean, I’ll see some progressive on the socials scream “Ayn Rand collected social security, so that invalidates everything she ever said”, and I’m like no, it doesn’t work like that. You haven’t discredited the ideas, only the person espousing them. Now repeat _ad infinitum_ with every ideal that someone advocating it might fail to uphold at some point in their life. It devolves into name-calling and insult and gets us nowhere.
A fight no one enjoys - like all good fights, though, we do not do it for our enjoyment - we do it for our kids and grandkids. Everyone reading our words, Sonny, needs to remember this simple fact - shits gonna get bad, and it is going to get dark. We are in the beginning stages of what will be the defining threat to our country this century.
Unless a giant meteor hits us.
I have very little doubt that Trump will trigger, probably, a depression, and in all likelihood start or escalate wars already in progress.
The real threat from hypocrisy died 30 years ago. That's why the republican party, almost lock, stock and barrel, folded in like three minutes - because they were hypocrites all along. Not the people at the Bulkwark, not Liz Cheney and a few others - but the bulk of the party.
And here's the thing, the bulk of the democratic party are also hypocrites, and have been for decades. That is why they were defenseless against Trump.
And welcome to another exciting day of coverage of La Grande Ballroom (at the Rose Garden) brought to you by Supreme White the only toothpaste you'll ever need to make your smile be worth a million bucks. ... Let's see what everyone is wearing today...
History suggests this doesn't end well. Right Louis? Marie?
I saw a great comment that stuck with me. Ttumpism is all about displays / performance of power, power for its own sake, and displays of dominance.
If we agree that's the case (I do) then the hypocrisy is part of that project. It is a feature and not a bug.
It seems hypocritical to us only because we value rationality and consistency, we believe in principles and values. Rules. And so on.
But Trumpism is about dominance and power. And so they will routinely claim privileged status and exemptions from rules for the in-group while at the same time applying strict scrutiny and additional restrictions on the out-group, an exercise that is all about expressing power and dominating.
This is so well and succinctly said, I'm going to print it. The hypocriscy is intentional, because what better underscores: we're the power and you are not? I would only add, Kotzu, that it also feeds the buzz of "what can I get away with." I believe that blatantly hypocritical acts are SOUGHT, because it's the ultimate icing on the cake of supreme power.
Yeah exactly! I can't take credit I'm paraphrasing something I saw somewhere else. But what you added is exactly it, to do the hypocrisy is an exercise of domination and power for powers sake.
We can sit around and say, "Well do you really want this politics? What if Dems regain power?"
And to me they feel safe because:
(1) I think there really is just a short term project of domination and power that doesn't have a planning horizon beyond one act to another.
(2) They sometimes believe for real that they are destined to stay in power forever because they are righteous and correct, and the Dems need to trick people into voting for them. Like the rhetoric about white genocide / great replacement and illegal immigration isn't purely empty xenophobia, it's how they reinforce this idea that the natural balance of things is them in power exercising dominance, and deviation from that is unnatural (i.e., Democrats 'cheat' to win).
(3) They know the Dems are actually pretty toothless and for all the rhetoric of disaster should they win, they don't really expect to ever be held accountable should the Dems take power. They know the Dems don't practice power for power's sake and dominance for the sake of dominance.
Thanks and on the subject of being accountable: correct, they function as if there will be no future reckonning, when US history shows that the reins do indeed switch back and forth. As for the next DEM being soft; I really think this time when a Dem wins , there will be swift consequences, no more of a gentle Joe Biden who says let's just move forward. Look how that turned out. Not anymore.
Also, there is less and less care about painting entire groups with a broad brush. For example: Twitter's move, pre Musk, to ban Trump becomes something to add to "The Dems" column. So granted, there may be hypocritical moves from people on both sides, but what's most disturbing here is that you have on and on intentional hypocriscy, I believe, promoted from the president himself.
“…pure power politics in which the only thing that matters is having the will to destroy your enemy.” I think Sonny really hit on it. Trump has always been a shameless man who is willing to do the thing other people wouldn’t. It could be insulting your hair on the debate stage to taking a bribe in broad daylight. He does it and everyone sputters trying to respond. Then he only hired people willing to do the same.
I hear the administration is producing a movie about the 2024 election under the working title of Triumph of the Will. Feelers have been put out to Leni Riefenstahl to direct.
I would have to agree - as much as I wish I had never been hypocritical, I'm 100% certain I have. Also, I have been meaning to tell you - I didn't read your review or watch your video about The Long Walk because if you didn't like it I didn't want to know until after I get a chance to see it. I loved the book SO MUCH that I am hoping the movie will be good. Unfortunately, with all that's going on in the world, I don't know if I have the heart to watch it right now. So, I guess I'll read your review after it starts streaming somewhere lol.
Speaking of hypocrisy, TheBulwark might want to look into why Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Facebook, etc, along with countless small vendors, are peddling t-shirts that call for political assassinations - and why they won't remove them if you report them.
If you want to see them type "Take Brandon to the Train Station shirt" into Google and click "Images".
In case you are unfamiliar with the Yellowstone TV series, "take to the train station" means "murder", so there is no doubt about the intent. There are equivalent shirts that replace Brandon with Joe, Biden, Kamala, Harris, Walz, Nancy and/or Pelosi. To my knowledge, no one is selling an equivalent "Trump" shirt, but part of the problem there is that all the Democratic target's shirts appear to be meta-tagged with "Trump" so that they come up in searches for his name.
It's very bizarre that the owners would try to make a tiny few bucks when they are almost certainly running directly into 18 U.S.C. § 871 & § 879, the laws pertaining to current and former presidential threats. Note that case law clearly establishes that coded messages are still illegal as long as the target audience is likely to perceive them as a threat.
Of course, those t-shirts--like most MAGA swag, including the cheap, chintzy, flimsy renditions of Old Glory flying disgracefully tattered from so many pickup truck beds (which are likely made in Mexico), as well as their ugly red hats--are almost all made in China.
Disagree, hypocrisy is not real. Carnivores are hypocritical, and we are not a Protestant government, nor should we assume the posture of a religious society. White supremacy requires the subjugation of the people to alternative-basis ethics to evade the truth, and cannot hear or even faithfully testify all that it knows.
I have an actual explanation: https://substack.com/@strongfixion/note/p-174668464
What a gorgeous piece of writing!
Where’s the Movie Club on Clear and Present Danger?
The video team had some folks out this weekend so we got pushed to either late Monday (today) or tomorrow. Sorry about the delay!
Thanks! I’m really looking forward to it. Forgot how great the movie was.
For the next Bulwark Movie Club, can you guys do 12 Angry Men? I have no offers as to why it would be a good choice in these political moments, but it's SO good. One of my favorites. Probably not a good reason, though, but you never know.
I recall a highly educated Trump apologist defending how McConnell blocked the confirmation of Garland and later rushed Barrett through the process in a spectacular violation of the stated principle for blocking Garland. The defense was: "Democrats would have done the same thing if they could." The apologist claimed that some Democrat had admitted it, but nobody was named.
It was a defense of the open embrace of hypocrisy, with an argument that went beyond whataboutism because it wasn't that the other side did the same thing, but only that the other side would have done so. (And every Trumper would have responded with outrage.)
"It's fine when our side does it" may well be a bipartisan prejudice, but it has never been so obvious as it is in Trumpism, with its foundational doctrine that Trump must not be held to the same standards by which all other politicians are judged. Elite Trumpy thought leaders claimed to be prioritizing higher values - i.e., their own ideological agenda - which supposedly necessitated a large measure of indulgence on little things like personal integrity and decency.
In the case of the SCOTUS nominations, the higher value was getting a court packed with "originalists," which many on the right have held to be a matter of the highest importance, a way of restoring truth and justice to our judicial system. But then we learned that the "originalists" had no qualms about casting aside originalism in a rather obvious way with their immunity decision, and then in less overt ways by using the shadow docket to give Trump extra leeway to continue enacting his policies.
*All Is Lost* haunted me for a long time afterward. I grew up watching Robert Redford. Right now I'm watching one I haven't seen before, *an unfinished life* with Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez. Another haunting film (so far). Many, many years ago I ran into Robert Redford, literally, walking down Fifth Avenue, because I was reading a book (yes, yes, I know). He was with someone and there was someone in a stroller. I mumbled a hasty "sorry, excuse me" and kept walking, but I'll never forget it. They say stars are larger than life in person for a reason. RIP.
Hold on wait. When Republicans politicians told me for 40 years that Liberal Supreme Court Justices were radicals that wanted to invent case facts and Legislate from the Bench instead of humbly restrict their scope to calling balls and strikes and relying on Precedent .....that was all a lie?
With the immunity ruling, the Court majority weren't even really pretending to be committed to "originalism" anymore.
Another thing that bugs me about the obsession with hypocrisy is that it makes for philosophically weak arguments. Often times, it’s effectively a form of _ad hominem_ attack. I mean, I’ll see some progressive on the socials scream “Ayn Rand collected social security, so that invalidates everything she ever said”, and I’m like no, it doesn’t work like that. You haven’t discredited the ideas, only the person espousing them. Now repeat _ad infinitum_ with every ideal that someone advocating it might fail to uphold at some point in their life. It devolves into name-calling and insult and gets us nowhere.
A fight no one enjoys - like all good fights, though, we do not do it for our enjoyment - we do it for our kids and grandkids. Everyone reading our words, Sonny, needs to remember this simple fact - shits gonna get bad, and it is going to get dark. We are in the beginning stages of what will be the defining threat to our country this century.
Unless a giant meteor hits us.
I have very little doubt that Trump will trigger, probably, a depression, and in all likelihood start or escalate wars already in progress.
The real threat from hypocrisy died 30 years ago. That's why the republican party, almost lock, stock and barrel, folded in like three minutes - because they were hypocrites all along. Not the people at the Bulkwark, not Liz Cheney and a few others - but the bulk of the party.
And here's the thing, the bulk of the democratic party are also hypocrites, and have been for decades. That is why they were defenseless against Trump.
You make me think Sonny, thank you for that!!!!!
Can recommend "All Is Lost" - really good.
And welcome to another exciting day of coverage of La Grande Ballroom (at the Rose Garden) brought to you by Supreme White the only toothpaste you'll ever need to make your smile be worth a million bucks. ... Let's see what everyone is wearing today...
History suggests this doesn't end well. Right Louis? Marie?
With a special musical presentation by....Whitey White and the White Tones
I saw a great comment that stuck with me. Ttumpism is all about displays / performance of power, power for its own sake, and displays of dominance.
If we agree that's the case (I do) then the hypocrisy is part of that project. It is a feature and not a bug.
It seems hypocritical to us only because we value rationality and consistency, we believe in principles and values. Rules. And so on.
But Trumpism is about dominance and power. And so they will routinely claim privileged status and exemptions from rules for the in-group while at the same time applying strict scrutiny and additional restrictions on the out-group, an exercise that is all about expressing power and dominating.
This is so well and succinctly said, I'm going to print it. The hypocriscy is intentional, because what better underscores: we're the power and you are not? I would only add, Kotzu, that it also feeds the buzz of "what can I get away with." I believe that blatantly hypocritical acts are SOUGHT, because it's the ultimate icing on the cake of supreme power.
Yeah exactly! I can't take credit I'm paraphrasing something I saw somewhere else. But what you added is exactly it, to do the hypocrisy is an exercise of domination and power for powers sake.
We can sit around and say, "Well do you really want this politics? What if Dems regain power?"
And to me they feel safe because:
(1) I think there really is just a short term project of domination and power that doesn't have a planning horizon beyond one act to another.
(2) They sometimes believe for real that they are destined to stay in power forever because they are righteous and correct, and the Dems need to trick people into voting for them. Like the rhetoric about white genocide / great replacement and illegal immigration isn't purely empty xenophobia, it's how they reinforce this idea that the natural balance of things is them in power exercising dominance, and deviation from that is unnatural (i.e., Democrats 'cheat' to win).
(3) They know the Dems are actually pretty toothless and for all the rhetoric of disaster should they win, they don't really expect to ever be held accountable should the Dems take power. They know the Dems don't practice power for power's sake and dominance for the sake of dominance.
Thanks and on the subject of being accountable: correct, they function as if there will be no future reckonning, when US history shows that the reins do indeed switch back and forth. As for the next DEM being soft; I really think this time when a Dem wins , there will be swift consequences, no more of a gentle Joe Biden who says let's just move forward. Look how that turned out. Not anymore.
Also, there is less and less care about painting entire groups with a broad brush. For example: Twitter's move, pre Musk, to ban Trump becomes something to add to "The Dems" column. So granted, there may be hypocritical moves from people on both sides, but what's most disturbing here is that you have on and on intentional hypocriscy, I believe, promoted from the president himself.
This is true for all authoritarian movements. It's what makes them so dangerous.
“…pure power politics in which the only thing that matters is having the will to destroy your enemy.” I think Sonny really hit on it. Trump has always been a shameless man who is willing to do the thing other people wouldn’t. It could be insulting your hair on the debate stage to taking a bribe in broad daylight. He does it and everyone sputters trying to respond. Then he only hired people willing to do the same.
I hear the administration is producing a movie about the 2024 election under the working title of Triumph of the Will. Feelers have been put out to Leni Riefenstahl to direct.
/s
I would have to agree - as much as I wish I had never been hypocritical, I'm 100% certain I have. Also, I have been meaning to tell you - I didn't read your review or watch your video about The Long Walk because if you didn't like it I didn't want to know until after I get a chance to see it. I loved the book SO MUCH that I am hoping the movie will be good. Unfortunately, with all that's going on in the world, I don't know if I have the heart to watch it right now. So, I guess I'll read your review after it starts streaming somewhere lol.
Speaking of hypocrisy, TheBulwark might want to look into why Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Facebook, etc, along with countless small vendors, are peddling t-shirts that call for political assassinations - and why they won't remove them if you report them.
If you want to see them type "Take Brandon to the Train Station shirt" into Google and click "Images".
In case you are unfamiliar with the Yellowstone TV series, "take to the train station" means "murder", so there is no doubt about the intent. There are equivalent shirts that replace Brandon with Joe, Biden, Kamala, Harris, Walz, Nancy and/or Pelosi. To my knowledge, no one is selling an equivalent "Trump" shirt, but part of the problem there is that all the Democratic target's shirts appear to be meta-tagged with "Trump" so that they come up in searches for his name.
It's very bizarre that the owners would try to make a tiny few bucks when they are almost certainly running directly into 18 U.S.C. § 871 & § 879, the laws pertaining to current and former presidential threats. Note that case law clearly establishes that coded messages are still illegal as long as the target audience is likely to perceive them as a threat.
Of course, those t-shirts--like most MAGA swag, including the cheap, chintzy, flimsy renditions of Old Glory flying disgracefully tattered from so many pickup truck beds (which are likely made in Mexico), as well as their ugly red hats--are almost all made in China.
'Murica! Fuck yeah!
On the positive side, I bought tees with Mexican style art that say "FUCK ICE" with a middle finger from Amazon.