They Really Are Deplorable
Mocking the blue
Do yourself a favor, pour yourself a stiff drink, and watch this short video:
Iāll wait.
Weāve long since established that there is no bottom, and that Dinesh DāSouza is a bottom-feeding charlatan. But this strikes me as revealing in more fundamental ways.
In a rational world, DāSouzaās puerile mockery of injured cops would be a career-ending episode ā a moment when voices across the political spectrum would ask of the convicted felon: āHave you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?ā
Instead it is just another data point in the cultivated crassness, crudity, and cruelty of the Trumpist right.
Our friend Olivia Troye asks: āMocking the officers, the trauma they lived, and downplaying Jan 6... How do these people sleep at night?ā The real answer: itās not just their business model, itās become a way of life.
On one level DāSouzaās mockery of police officers injured in the line of duty is just another example of performative assholery, but it also fits a pattern worth noting: Charlie Kirk mocks Simone Biles for āweakness,ā Tucker Carlson cackles about critics, and Laura Ingraham ridicules victims of the January 6 riots.
None of this has any relationship to the fight for freedom, limited government, or national greatness, or anything like a coherent set of ideas. But there is a through-line here: a strutting posture of faux toughness, and the celebration of the āstrongā as opposed to the weak.
Weāve seen this play before.
āWhat is good?ā asked Friedrich Nietzsche. āWhatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man.ā
What is evil? āWhatever springs from weakness.ā (If the German philosopher were alive, heād almost certainly have a show on Fox News.)ā¦.
ICYMI, hereās what I wrote yesterday in Politico:
This is also the new ethos on the right. Adam Serwer has famously noted that in Trumpās America, āthe cruelty is the point.ā
But in late-stage Trumpism, it is not just the cruelty: The lack of empathy is also the point. Insensitivity is cultivated; compassion is derided as weakness.
So, we are left with this moment of high absurdity, in which a symbol of human excellence and American greatness is being mocked by bloated white man-children for being āweak.ā
They have decided that Simone Biles represents everything they oppose.
How revealing is that?
You can read the whole thing here.
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BONUS: Via McSweeneyās: "Are You Allowed to Criticize Simone Biles?: A Decision Tree"
More deplorablesā¦ Read this account from St. Louis:
Editor's note: Dr. Faisal Khan, acting director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, spoke in favor of a mask mandate on Tuesday night during a county council meeting. On Wednesday, he wrote a letter to Council Chair Rita Heard Days describing his experience during and after his commentsā¦
After my presentation was completed, I tried to leave the chamber but was confronted by several people who were in the aisle. On more than one occasion, I was shoulder-bumped and pushed. As I approached the exit and immediately outside the chambers, I became surrounded by the crowd in close quarters, where members of the crowd yelled at me, calling me a āfat brown cuntā and a ābrown bastard.ā After being physically assaulted, called racist slurs, and surrounded by an angry mob, I expressed my displeasure by using my middle finger toward an individual who had physically threatened me and called me racist slurs.
Make sure you also read Jim Swiftās longer piece about the covidiocy in Missouri: āNo, We Didnāt Get the Vaccineā¦ Weāre Republicans.ā
Meanwhileā¦
The delta variant is no joke. Via the Wapo:
The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal federal health document that argues officials must āacknowledge the war has changed.ā
The document is an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention slide presentation, shared within the CDC and obtained by The Washington Post. It captures the struggle of the nationās top public health agency to persuade the public to embrace vaccination and prevention measures, including mask-wearing, as cases surge across the United States and new research suggests vaccinated people can spread the virus.
Childish petulance as a governing philosophy.
Bonus:
The MyPillow Guy Really Could Destroy Democracy.
Must read piece by Anne Applebaum who actually sat down with Mike Lindell and tried to listen to his insanity.
When you contemplate the end of democracy in America, what kind of person do you think will bring it about? Maybe you picture a sinister billionaire in a bespoke suit, slipping brown envelopes to politicians. Maybe your nightmare is a rogue general, hijacking the nuclear football. Maybe you think of a jackbooted thug leading a horde of men in white sheets, all carrying burning crosses.
Here is what you probably donāt imagine: an affable, self-made midwesterner, one of those goofy businessmen who makes his own infomercials. A recovered crack addict, no less, who laughs good-naturedly when jokes are made at his expense. A man who will talk to anyone willing to listen (and to many who arenāt). A philanthropist. A good boss. A patriotāor so he saysāwho may well be doing more damage to American democracy than anyone since Jefferson Davis.
Bonus:
Not seeing a lot of centrism on abortion.
Quick Hits
1. Is QAnon Finished?
In todayās Bulwark, Daniel Gullotta writes:
Mike Rothschildās The Storm Is Upon Us is among the first serious books about QAnon to be published since the storming of the Capitol, with more and more following, not to mention HBOās recent documentary Q: Into the Storm and the popular podcast QAnon Anonymous. For those who have not closely followed news coverage concerning QAnon or who are puzzled by its bizarre claims, Rothschildās book serves as a helpful primer, covering QAnonās mysterious origins, rapid evolution, and basic tenets.
2. House Republicansā Cynical, Empty Threats Against Big Tech
David Opderbeck writes in todayās Bulwark:
The actual antitrust proposals in the Jordan agenda range from limp (expedited trial court procedures) to inane (direct appeal of antitrust cases to the Supreme Court). But all the proposed changes to āantitrustā law are superficial. The truth is that Reps. McCarthy, Jordan, and other Republicans who remain āconservativeā about antitrust donāt really want to change the antitrust laws. Instead, theyāre making empty gestures about changing antitrust law so they can look like theyāre doing something against tech companies perceived to be hostile to conservatives.
Cheap Shots
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin:
Marco: Let us pray.
