Lee asks how one does such a thing unintentionally, and while I'm not a psychologist, there are studies that show conscious intention does take a back seat, but it only makes the person look worse, not better. Definitely not any more innocent.

In 2014, a study was done to see if leftists actually allow their emotions to guide their decision-making more than right-leaning people, and sure enough, every test was found to be true. Moreover, it didn't even matter the subject or population. If the person was left-leaning, their reactions were more emotionally driven.

"Across different conflicts, emotions, conflict-related contexts, and even populations, leftists' policy support changed in accordance with emotional reactions more than rightists' policy support," reads the report.

Keep that in the back your mind, because there's more science to be considered here, and this research was conducted back in 1980 by a German psychologist and published in the Schriftenreihe der Polizei-Fuehrungsakademie. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/psychological-analysis-vandalism

The German researcher found that vandalism in Europe and the United States, where it seems to happen very often, is often the result of psychological feelings of oppression and anger toward something, with vehicles actually being one of the most popular targets: //

So we have a perfect storm here. Leftists are easily manipulated because emotions are easy to manipulate. As they embrace their anger, empathy, or prejudices far more readily than others, causing them to think in terms of catastrophic outcomes — especially when their side is losing cultural or political battles — they're far more likely to act out before thinking. //

It's only when confronted directly with consequences does the emotionally driven person seem to truly get the hint that they goofed, just like the man did in the video above. When he says he didn't intend to scratch a swastika into the man's car... he's partly telling the truth. He wasn't thinking at all. He was letting his emotions guide him, and he ended up doing something stupid he could've avoided if he just allowed himself a moment of common sense.

A million Americans died of COVID. Millions more suffered long-term injuries. Still, the left-wing media and Biden administration demonized any who dared speak about a lab origin of the deadly virus.

The lies were designed to protect the guilty who had helped fund the virus's origins, such as Doctors Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins.

The Biden government also tried to use the lab theory to ridicule a supposedly pro-Trump "conspiracy.". //

Almost as soon as Joe Biden was inaugurated, the left knew that he was physically and mentally unable to serve as president.

Indeed, that was the point.

Biden's role was designed as a waxen figurine for hard-left agendas that, without the "old Joe Biden from Scranton" pseudo-moderate veneer, could never have been advanced.

His handlers operated a nightmare administration: the destruction of deterrence abroad, two theater wars, 12 million illegal aliens, a weaponized justice system, hyperinflation, and $7 trillion more in debt.

By 2017, the public knew three truths about the so-called Christopher Steele dossier.

One, it was completely fallacious -- fabricated by a has-been, ex-British spy Christopher Steele. He childishly had cobbled together lurid sex stories, James Bond spy fictions, and Russian-fed disinformation to destroy the Trump candidacy and later presidency.

Two, it was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign. She hid her checks behind the Democratic National Committee, the Perkins Coie law firm, and Fusion GSP paywalls.

Three, the FBI under James Comey hired Steele as an informant. It helped disseminate his concocted files and was also instrumental in trying to subvert the Trump campaign and later administration.

No sane person ever believed that Hunter Biden's laptop was the work of "Russian disinformation." Its contents a year before the 2020 election were verified by the FBI, but it kept mum about its confirmation. //

All these lies have divided the country and permanently damaged the U.S.

The perpetrators have neither apologized for their lies nor tried to either deny or substantiate them.

No one involved has ever been held legally accountable.

The legacy media permanently ruined its reputation and will likely never be seen as credible again.

The Biden administration, overseer of many of these lies, will be regarded as the most duplicitous and dishonest presidency in modern history.

The press and left call the right “culture warriors,” but we were not the ones who put pornographic material in elementary schools. We were not the ones who demanded kids in colleges attend seminars to learn about their inner racism. We were not the ones who demanded boys get into girls sports.

The left and press call us “culture warriors” solely because we said no and fought back against them.

And this is what it looks like for them to lose.

The press, infested by the left, sees horror and destruction all around it. What I see, as a conservative, is an effort to raze the purportedly neutral institutions irredeemably infected with progressivism. Government bureaucracies, academic institutions, and non-governmental entities were all formed as neutral institutions, but the left chose institutional capture. The left chose to advance its agenda from within these otherwise neutral institutions, infecting them, and now the only cure is tearing them down.

Academia became reliably progressive and deeply hostile to alternative viewpoints. USAID started funding trans-kids in Uganda. The press rushed to call pregnant women first “pregnant person,” then “birthing person.” The homeless became “unhoused.” And non-profits threw money at media outlets to subsidize left-wing activists as reporters to scare everyone about climate change. Progressives demanded diversity so long as the skin colors, genders, and sexual identities were different and the thinking was all homogeneously, uniformly progressive.

The left spent so long calling those of us on the right culture warriors, we finally decided to declare war. This is us fighting back, tearing down the ideologically captured institutions, and making it hard for them to rebuild or restore their trust.

You people on the left pivoted to censorship and press coverage of misinformation and disinformation — all while getting stuff wrong. We have used the internet to weaponize your lies against you and destroy your credibility with your own reporting. Trust in the media is now lower than even freaking Congress.

And you brought it on yourselves. You chose to embrace the left, be infiltrated by the left, be co-opted by the left, and finally taken over by the left. Along the way, you became arrogant and sclerotic. //

But you will not find me criticizing the razing of these institutions or the hard-charging approach to burning them all down.

It is time. The hubris of those involved from the left shows that reform is not possible, only destruction.

This is what it looks like when the right has had enough and starts fighting back. And right now, you progressives are, very deservedly, losing.

We would have accepted neutral institutions. But you foisted DEI on us all. The New York Times declared the country is systemically racist and rewrote the founding history of the nation, which some of you then pushed into public schools for re-education. You used your cultural, institutional, and media clout to chase advertisers and revenue away from right-leaning institutions and voices. You attacked productive industries with media outlets subsidized by progressive environmental groups. You captured the government-funded national radio network and turned it into soft-spoken progressive hacks. You took over academic institutions and started discriminating against Asian kids. You took over public schools and decided learning the colors of the Pride Flag was more important than learning math. When COVID happened, you people shut down schools, kept those schools shut down, and when the inevitable collapse of learning occurred, you lied about keeping schools shut down and tried, with willing accomplices in the left-controlled press, to shift the blame. In Illinois, progressive educators dragged girls into bathrooms and forced them to change in front of boys. You even got the Voice of America to explain white privilege while refusing to call Hamas “terrorists.”

So now you’ll watch the rest of us wipe out those institutions. You could have had neutrality. Instead, you called us culture warriors all while waging war to capture and use neutral institutions against everyone else. You could have chosen to embrace diversity of thought. Now, you can embrace the rubble.

This is what it looks like when the right fights back. When Trump is done, you’ll eventually take power again. There is no permanence in American politics. But you will find rubble and learn it is faster to destroy than to build. You brought this on yourselves. I have plenty of words of caution to the right and Trump supporters about overplayed hands, going too far, etc. But I can save those thoughts for later.

Erick Erickson @EWErickson
·
To the left: u chose to engage in ideological capture of institutions. The right has no choice other than razing those institutions. We would have taken neutrality. You chose to use the neutral institutions to advance progressivism. This is you losing now.
politico.eu
Trump’s move to silence pro-democracy media sparks outrage
11:23 AM · Mar 16, 2025

Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
·
Gross! The ordinary people and the unlicensed peasants are able to speak with and even influence elites in DC who are running the government. The NYT is horrified.
3:36 PM · Feb 26, 2025. //

The article attempts to put reasons why these things should be there, but only makes it more obvious that Musk is doing the people's work.

And that's exactly what's happening here. Rufo and Raichik are oftentimes passed the information from people like you and me. Using their platforms that they built over time, they drag these things into the light where Musk can see it more clearly, then Musk gets his team on it and elevate it to someone with the authority to destroy it, sometimes that person being Trump himself.

It's not just these two, either. Musk doesn't just interact with influencers. He interacts with people of all stripes, taking their advice, listening to their suggestions, and acting accordingly.

And this is what truly drives the left bonkers.

The left values authority, and no one has more authority than over-educated elites. They're the ones who know best! How dare the unwashed take control of something they're not qualified to run?

But that's exactly how America functions.

What you see in the above clip is how the sausage is made for these left-wing legacy media outlets. They were all in for Harris, and what "60 Minutes" did here proves that. CBS News has a lot of explaining to do, and no one should ever trust anything they produce again.

It's taken a while, but now we're demonstrably living in the world of mainstream News/Bias, where standard hard news mixed with opinion, innuendo and partisanship is just simply considered...The News.

Now I'm old enough to remember how the breach of this trust in 2005-2006 canned the career of Dan Rather, who was kind of like the most trusted guy in news at the time. But like a cryogenically stored body thawed out once they discover the cure for cancer, Rather has re-emerged in recent years because a cure has been found for the truth. Which, it seems, is no longer as valuable as the motive behind the story. In other words, your news stories are now fables with a message instead of simple news stories. Dan Rather wanted to tell a story about George Bush that wasn't supported by his native tongue (JD from Sam Houston State Teacher's College), so he decided to blaze a new trail and incorporate "his truth" into the mix so that the "greater truth" could spread. Great idea. Too bad he was too avant-garde for his peers then.

But he's back now after 20 years, and just like a fine cabernet that improves after years in the dark, liberals and progressives finally recognize the bravery and beauty of Rather's sacrifice. I imagine he sees himself a little bit like Caesar leading his Triumph as he hits the outskirts of Rome after having been gone for a couple of decades. He's got a book, a Netflix series and a home on Substack now. And like Caesar himself, he just might avoid going into the Capitol proper to avert the new government's reach and Donald Trump. He'll probably tell his fans that he fears retribution and arrest but can remain silent no longer. So Bold. So Brave... sigh

Anyway, after 25 years (at least) of the legacy media switching out hard news for the opposite kind, keep an eye on this one to see how much traction it gets. If it breathes life into the whole progressive narrative after having been stomped on lately, we could see more attempts to undermine Trump's presidential leadership. //

Robert A Hahn
32 minutes ago
The fellow who brought down Dan Rather was an attorney in the Atlanta area who used the screen name "Buckhead" on Free Republic. At the time, "FR" was the largest conservative-leaning forum on the internet.

I was on there one night and saw a very short note from 'Buckhead.' It said, "I gotta go, so I can't follow this up. Dan Rather's proof is fake. That is Times New Roman font, which is part of Microsoft Word, and that did not exist when W was in the National Guard."

People on FR were already making gifs that flipped back and forth between the CBS News document and the same thing typed into Microsoft Word... and the two were identical.

That got picked up by one of the early blogs -- I think it was Hindraker at "Power Blog" -- and the rest is history.

She's crying over illegal immigrants being deported. I'm angry over American people, including children, suffering and dying.

My people.

Her people.

Yet the left seems to give no mind to them. It's as if they're too privileged, too American. I have a very simple question for people who give no thought to these victims.

Were these people worth sacrificing for the act of giving a home to foreign nationals illegally, even if it means we invite unmitigated crime and violence? Are you willing to look the families of the murdered, raped, or kidnapped in the eye and say, "your unimaginable pain is necessary for the dice roll that the person who came here illegally might be upright and good?"

As it stands, the actions from people like Gomez are a wordless affirmation that, yes, your life, and even the life and safety of your child, are worth losing in the name of a simple virtue signal.

This isn't virtue, this is sickness. This is willing to sacrifice innocents on the altar of your projection of being a good person. This isn't compassion, this is spite disguised as pride in one's heritage and care for the needy.

Whose side is the left on. Not yours, but I'd venture to guess it's not even on the side of the people they profess to care about.

Their side is their own feelings about themselves and how they're seen to the wider world. So long as they feel like they're compassionate and virtuous, the world can burn to ashes, blood can flow, and their own nation can erode to death from within, but at least they can say to themselves "I did it in the name of doing right by the underprivileged."

Here’s the reality: it is a battle zone. An existential fight over the future of America. Is this massive progressive failure the norm that we should just accept as the new American reality, or are we going to look to a new way forward, one that focuses on excellence, competence and innovation over identity politics, a lowering of our standards, and an acceptance of mediocrity (or worse)?

Many including myself have been writing for years about the decline of the Golden State—and Democrat-run cities in general—but the progressive assault continues in Chicago, St. Louis, Oakland, Seattle, New York, San Francisco… the list goes on. Could this disaster be the wake-up call to America that their warped priorities and policies simply aren’t working? //

The list of failures in this disaster could fill a lengthy tome—the decades of water mismanagement and the continued failure to adequately supply LA, though it’s well within our means to do so, the refusal to capture the billions of gallons of rainwater, opting to instead let it just flow out to the Pacific Ocean while we are told to let our lawns die, the focus at the LAFD on DEI and LGBTQ instead of actual firefighting, the billions thrown at the homeless-industrial complex with almost nothing to show for it except more homeless people…

Is this what the future of America looks like? In too many cities, it already does, with Third-World country conditions prevailing, but do we want to see that everywhere? //

Altadena and the Pacific Palisades in particular look like battlegrounds as of this writing—the images reveal a hellscape that looks like it’s been carpet-bombed by our enemies for months.

Los Angeles and the entire state of California have become a battleground for ideas. Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election shows very clearly that many Americans have woken up and are starting to reject the progressive worldview—but remember, it was just four, short years ago they voted in a man who turned out to be the most divisive, spite-filled president in our history. The battle is far from over.

The governor, along with LA Mayor Karen Bass, have been accused of mismanagement over the horrific fires, which are continuing to burn largely unchecked across nearly 30,000 acres of the city.

One of the predominant complaints has been about fire hydrants running out of water as firefighters tried to douse the blazes — a problem Newsom passed off on “local folks” during a CNN interview Wednesday night.

“Look, the local folks are trying to figure that out,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, claiming the hydrants weren’t designed to handle mass fires.

“I mean those hydrants are typical for two or three fires — maybe one fire and you have something of this scale, but again that’s gonna be determined by the local,” he said.

Earlier in the day the president-elect accused Newsom of blocking a law he passed during his first term that diverted water runoff from northern California — with Trump saying Newsom was more focused on saving “worthless fish” than helping his people.

“Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this.”

The story of the Hebrew Bible is, at least in some part, the story of God punishing the wicked.

Welcome to wildfire-beset Los Angeles, or as The Post so poetically put it, HELL.A.

I don’t mean to suggest that Angelenos somehow deserve the catastrophe that has befallen them; to do so would be not only misguided but unforgivably cruel.

But as we’re reeling from one of the greatest disasters ever to befall an American city, we must be brutally honest, especially if we want to prevent this kind of calamity from happening again.

And a brutally honest assessment points to one inconvenient truth: The devastation of Los Angeles occurred largely as a result of people in power adhering blindly and madly to a very bad religion.

It was the woke religion, which judges people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character, that propelled Karen Bass to the highest office in town.

Tom Elliott
@tomselliott
·
Follow
SUPERCUT!

The 10 Most Mortifying Media Moments of 2024

Read our wrap-up:https://news.grabien.com/story-supercut-2024-s-most-mortifying-media-moments

10:56 AM · Dec 27, 2024

https://x.com/tomselliott/status/1872672931396178238

Rocuall
9 hours ago
The sad part is they don't care one bit and will double or triple down now.. No lesson learned here. they keep getting away with it. Unless the lawsuits start and that is what I have been saying for years.. freedom of speech does not mean you can SLANDER a person You have the right to SLANDER but we also have the right to take you to court. It erks me how much slandering takes place in our congress and they use the excuse... Thats Politics.. I say BS..pay up loser

Daily Wire @realDailyWire
·
EXCLUSIVE: Internal messages obtained by The Daily Wire show a FEMA official ordered relief workers in Florida not to help houses with Trump signs
4:28 PM · Nov 8, 2024. //

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced the firing of a FEMA manager who ordered her staff not to assist residents displaying flags or yard signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump's campaign. Using a Saturday afternoon message on the social media platform "X," formerly known as Twitter, Criswell acknowledged the veracity of the report that first appeared in the Daily Wire (see OUTRAGE: FEMA Workers Working Hurricane Milton Aftermath Ordered to Bypass Houses With Trump Signs). This follows a report that the responsible official was "removed" from their position on Friday. //

Firing is a necessary but not sufficient step.

First, this announcement does not appear on FEMA's website in any form other than a tweet. It seems to me that this should rate some sort of an official statement.

Second, Washington's message does not give the impression that she came up with it independently. In my opinion, it looks very much like a safety briefing she took down at a meeting.

Third, firing her and referring the case to the Office of Special Counsel looks more like an exercise in butt-covering and scapegoating than concern about her actions.

Fourth, while her actions may be viewed as just the petty tyranny we've come to expect from a highly politicized federal bureaucracy, depriving citizens of federal assistance because they supported a major party candidate is a violation of multiple federal laws. FEMA seems to be attempting to appear to take action until the heat dies down. Fortunately, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis isn't going along to get along. //

At a minimum, all staff working under her supervisory chain need to be questioned about the instructions they received. It is entirely possible that Washington was the only team leader dim enough to write down and disseminate something meant to be unsaid. In fact, it is unbelievable that this was not FEMA policy in that area. A thorough investigation that results in firing everyone involved with this policy is not enough. Asses need to go to jail. //

Dutchsinse @RealDutchsinse
·
In their own words this is illegal Mr. Desantis .. see here!!!! https://dhs.gov/civil-rights-emergencies-and-disasters

Political discrimination during disasters is also covered under the law confirmed. Screenshot from DHS site directly attached.
5:12 AM · Nov 9, 2024

“What the f*** are you talking about? Yeah. One of the biggest threats to America’s politics might be one of the greatest documents that any country has ever found on, if not the greatest ever. That could be a threat to America’s politics. What politics are we talking about? How could you possibly gaslight me enough to go along with you on this?" //

Watch @JoeRogan EXPLODE on this insane New York Times article that argues the Constitution is “dangerous.”

“What the f—k are you talking about?!”

HEADLINE: “The Constitution is sacred. Is it also dangerous? One of the biggest threats to America's politics might be the country's… pic.twitter.com/GuIhQNmSEm

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 4, 2024. //

“Trump owes his political ascent to the Constitution, making him a beneficiary of a document that is essentially antidemocratic and, in this day and age, increasingly dysfunctional,” she wrote. //

Folks making these types of arguments rarely do so because they believe the Constitution does not make us free enough. Rather, they might prefer a document that grants the government even more authority to intrude in our lives and infringe on our natural rights. In the end, any legal document or ideology that limits this authority is dangerous only to those seeking to wield state power to force their will on the rest of us. //

DK1969
9 hours ago
I thought it was pretty simple. If you don't like/agree with Constitution, you have two options: work to amend it through the process, we already have or renounce your citizenship and leave. None of the countries comprising the rest of the world have our Constitution so, the choices are endless. May I personally suggest China, Russia, N. Korea or Iran. Choose one and go.

Holden Culotta @Holden_Culotta
·
Drea de Matteo on Fox News: “I’ll never have another gig. At the moment, all I care about is … trying to wake up a few more of my fellow liberals”

“I support Kennedy all the way, and I’m happy that there’s unity right now.

I don’t think Trump is a lifelong politician, and… Show more
0:16 / 2:45
12:31 PM · Aug 31, 2024

She said that "all of that weaponization on the left is camouflaged":

Any true liberal is anti-war, anti-censorship, pro-health ... They would be anti-mandate. That's totalitarian, that was authoritarian. That was on the left! I know that there's a lot of deep-rooted corruption, and sometimes they capture each party. Right now, that capture is on the Left. //

Photog 1
10 hours ago
The thing is, people conflate leftists with liberals, and that's a deliberate redefining of the word BY the leftists. Here's a little ditty I've been posting for years:

Stop Calling Them “Liberals”
Please, folks, I've said this for years. Please stop calling them “Liberals” - call them out for what they really are: Leftists/Progressives/Socialists/Marxists/Communists. "Leftists," for short, if nothing else.

They stole, and redefined, the term “Liberal” (as is their wont, to redefine words to suit their needs), to cash in on the actual Classical Liberal’s positive points while possessing none of them.

Even the word "Progressive" has been redefined by the left, because their actions are actually REgressive, but the classic example is the word “liberal” itself, which the far-left co-opted. It was adopted because of its positive connotation, and used as a cover for imposing greater leftist/marxist control under the false guise of liberty.

In reality, there is nothing “liberal” about failing to protect life [or actively taking it under the also redefined lie of “women’s reproductive health care”], releasing multiple-time violent felons back onto the streets with no bond, burdening individuals with regulations and taxes, allowing unlimited illegal aliens into the country with no repercussions, forcing individuals to provide services to others, or “mandating” what health actions that individuals must take, and penalizing them in multiple facets of their life if they do not comply.

This is no accidental misnomer, but a strategic messaging attempt to influence people. Of course, who doesn’t want to support a policy that is “progressive,” “pro-choice,” “common sense,” or “affordable’ (all also chosen for their positive spin, while not meeting their own definitions)?

Today’s Leftists/Socialists/Progressives/Marxists, calling themselves a “Liberal,” have absolutely nothing in common with the Classical Liberal - the Classical Liberal advocated civil liberties under the rule of law with an emphasis on economic freedom - more in tune with today's Libertarians.

I’m neither - I’m so conservative I make Ronald Reagan look like Gorbachev’s even further leftist cousin, but I respect the Classical Liberal, who has more in common with the Libertarian today.

The more we call out the so-called “Liberals” for what they are, the more the mask of their eventual intent (full fledged socialism leading to communism) might become clear to some.

Spread this message far and wide, everywhere and every time you see someone incorrectly referring to a “Liberal” when they mean Leftist/Progressive/Marxist - create a wave of understanding of their true nature.

The Problem with far-left progressives, who are maybe 20% of the population, is they think themselves morally and intellectually superior to you and me, the other 80% (which includes non-progressive Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Non-affiliated, Libertarians, etc.). And because far-left progressives feel that our 80% has created an inferior society, they believe it’s their duty to overrule us by passing laws that will create the “correct society," the society that “should be." Of course, on all counts they are profoundly wrong. Unfortunately, their loud voices currently drown out the sensible portion of society. But being loud does not make you right or superior, either morally OR intellectually..

Most Democrats and actual liberals (not leftists) are quietly aware that it’s their current progressive far-left leadership that has let them down, a leadership that has not represented them properly.

They too, are being held hostage.

Regular non-progressive main-stream Democrats are over-taxed and over-regulated, too. They experience the outfall of illegal immigration, off-shoring, lawlessness, little upward mobility, drug abuse and expensive health care, just like you and me. Obviously, they live in houses and apartments, have children, jobs, hopes, expectations and fears just like anyone else.

Let’s not confuse these Democrats with their current far-left leadership, which is a tiny contingent of leaders…whose incompetence is only exceeded by their hostility and vocality.

On June 25, 2024, I wrote about tweets I saw from Gad Saad, “The West has committed the greatest self-immolation in human history”:

“When the leaders hate their civilization more than their enemies do, the civilization is doomed. Never before has history witnessed such a gargantuan self-inflicted death of a civilization that was an existential light in an otherwise world of historical darkness.”

Remember: War is coming to every corner in the West. It might take 5 days, 5 years, or 50 years but it’s coming. The West has committed the greatest self-immolation in human history. Save this post.

I just saw another series of tweets from an account Peachy Keenan along the same lines, but to me more personal:

You guys have no idea how painful it is to have been young during the absolute peak era of the greatest empire in human history and now be forced to watch it all unravel.

The saddest part is that we are doing it to ourselves.

Absolutely agonizing experience. Like watching the most beautiful person you know slowly mutilate themselves.

The reason everyone on Earth wants to move here is because if you squint your eyes, this country still basically “looks” the same, is still powerful, etc.

But we are running on the fumes of the past. //

Very Insignificant Person
@VeryInsig
·
Follow
Replying to @KeenanPeachy
Conservatives love what we have. That why we want to conserve it. So we feel pain when we lose it.

Progressives hate what they have. That’s why they want to transform it. So they feel no sense of loss when what they have is destroyed.
6:12 PM · Aug 15, 2024 //

Mike D🇺🇸🍊
@raftoregon
·
Follow
Replying to @KeenanPeachy
GenX too, I agree but we are not doing it to ourselves. This is an orchestrated takedown of America and capitalist countries around the world. The communists made the long March through the institutions here and now they’re destroying the country from within. Everyone must vote
7:08 PM · Aug 15, 2024 //

rhhardin | August 17, 2024 at 10:34 pm
The cause is news as a profit center instead of a loss leader to contribute to the prestige of the network. As a profit center they found their 24/7 audience with Jessica in the Well, namely soap opera women. Instead of reading daily about Liz and Richard in the tabloid, they follow the news.

It’s an entertainment choice, and it’s calling itself news, which makes the audience feel even better.

Women prioritize feelings (hence soap opera’s attraction), and men prioritize structure (avoidance of perverse consequences). The Founding Fathers were structure guys, not feelings guys. The female end of the Supreme Court is feelings. (So guys are better at running big systems and women are better at small systems like neighborhoods and households. Stereotype is the too-strict father.)

Hence the collapse of everything through feminization. Amy Wax has a milder diagnosis – the rules of the nursery and kindergarten brought to the academy – but it goes deeper. Feelings attracts eyeballs of women and you can sell those eyeballs to advertisers. Democrats just supply soap opera in return for votes, in a sort of business arrangement with the media. //

jb4 in reply to rhhardin. | August 18, 2024 at 10:20 am
Interesting perspective. I fault the MSM far more directly and have considered them the primary danger for years. By aligning themselves with the Democratic Party and its values, they have abandoned what I regard as a major value of journalism and the media, to bring accountability to Society. IMO if the light of day had been shined on Biden and Harris, Biden’s incipient dementia in 2020 would have kept him from running and Harris’ obvious incompetence would have disqualified her. What this Society lacks is accountability, from the shoplifter in CA, to the Trans in women’s locker rooms and sports, to the politicians at the top. What is not “right”, really isn’t right. Period. No excuses. //

JRaeL | August 18, 2024 at 12:05 am
Reading the comments I have to remind myself that the Fall happened in Paradise not outside of it.

No generation is spared the consequence of living in a fallen world. I doubt there has been a single time when some group of believers did not take the news of the day as proof the Apocalypse was at hand.

Are current events and societal changes accelerating the loss of paradise? Yep. Can it be slowed down? In patches, maybe. Overall, not a chance. Too many people yearn for that bone strewn path to Utopia. I know many will disagree but I believe we have left the battlefield and are now under siege. That means creating smaller worlds for yourself and your loved ones. It involves taking on a fortress mentality. While trying not to abandon charity, hope, and faith. That’s tricky.

I too grew up with more freedom. Some good, some bad. But at least I had the chance to learn the difference.

Tiki | July 27, 2024 at 7:29 pm
Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics:

Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.

Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.

The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

John Derbyshire adds this:

Of the Second Law, Conquest gave the Church of England and Amnesty International as examples.

Of the Third, he noted that a bureaucracy sometimes actually is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies — e.g. the postwar British secret service.

John Moore thinks the third law is almost right; it should read “assume that it is controlled by a cabal of the enemies of the stated purpose of that bureaucracy.”

Kristof notes some inconvenient truths regarding the condition of major cities on the West Coast, said condition best identified by language unsuitable for a family publication.

As Democrats make their case to voters around the country this fall, one challenge is that some of the bluest parts of the country — cities on the West Coast — are a mess.

Centrist voters can reasonably ask: Why put liberals in charge nationally when the places where they have greatest control are plagued by homelessness, crime and dysfunction?
Fear not; Kristof is nowhere near correctly assigning fault to the failed policies, platforms, and practices that make progressivism a cultural, creative, and collective cesspool. No, it’s only how those darn Haight-Ashbury refugees implement it.

(M)y rejoinder to Republican critiques is: Yes, governance is flawed in some blue parts of America, but overall, liberal places have enjoyed faster economic growth and higher living standards than conservative places. That doesn’t look like failure.

Tell that to the people of Chicago. //

So the problem isn’t with liberalism. It’s with West Coast liberalism. //

jtt888
17 days ago edited
Good lord, does this guy think Baltimore is working? Or Philadelphia? Or Chicago? Or New York? All places that people want to escape if able to. At least LA has nice weather, if nothing else. Those other places don't even have that.

Modern left-wing activism in the United States has roots in the Soviet Union's 1960s strategy to undermine Western culture. By promoting divisive ideologies and fostering internal dissent, the Soviets aimed to weaken the societal fabric from within, creating a legacy that continues to influence today’s political landscape.

Over the decades, these tactics evolved and merged with neo-communist strategies for infiltration. This resulted in a robust network of activist groups and organizations at both local and national levels. Initially designed to destabilize Western norms, these groups adapted to the changing political landscape, maintaining their relevance and influence. //

The foundation of left-wing activism in the United States can be traced back to a deliberate strategy orchestrated by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. This plan was aimed at undermining Western culture and destabilizing American society by promoting divisive ideologies and fostering internal dissent. The Soviets knew that to weaken the Western world, they needed to create discord from within, leading to a systematic effort to infiltrate various aspects of American life.

After the end of the Cold War, many leftists aligned with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union shifted their focus to the "green" movement. This shift was marked by Gorbachev's founding of the Green Cross, proving that the "green" movement was always a communist front.

The Soviet strategy aimed not only to spread communism but also to create a lasting legacy that would continue to influence and disrupt Western culture. By embedding operatives and sympathizers within influential institutions, the Soviets set the stage for long-term subversion. This approach, often referred to as the "Long March Through the Institutions," involved systematically infiltrating and gaining control of key societal structures, such as education, media, and non-profit organizations.

Nearly 60 years after tobacco companies were first required to print warning labels on cigarettes to reduce smoking, statists salivate at the opportunity to pull the lever for labels on any other behavior they wish to deter, such as eating meat.

Last fall, a coalition of scientists proposed cigarette-style caution labels be placed on meat products for alleged hazards to the climate and human health. A study examining 1,000 meat-eating adults found labels espousing hazards to climate, health, and pandemics were enough to convince participants to opt for a non-meat meal. Given the success of warning labels at reducing cigarette use, researchers expressed optimism at the potential for similar warnings for deter meat consumption.

A dramatic drop in meat at the center of the American diet, however, offers far worse implications for public health than appreciated by the statist class of academics determined to manipulate behavior. The federal government’s recommendations to embrace a low-fat diet, for example, planted the roots for the twin epidemics of obesity and chronic disease overwhelming the health care system today after three generations dutifully followed the dietary guidelines. Americans increased consumption of grains and processed oils at the behest of the “experts” and now live in a nation where nearly 42 percent of adults 20 and older are obese and 6 in 10 suffer from at least one chronic illness.