In Kenya (& many other places) the police (sometimes it’s not even the police in some countries) put up road blocks to check that “everything is according to regulations” (ie the driver is licensed, the bus is not overcrowded, the tires still have treads) but instead it’s just a shakedown. (An old friend from NYC told me in the early 80’s that I didn’t need to pay a toll if the guardrail was in the up position. Anyone dumb enough to actually pay was only contributing to toll workers “on the take.”)
What kind of society will be left when these people have taken down all the guard rails & let thugs like thump do as he pleases?
It will be worse than fascism.
Sounds more like “Lord of the Flies” (although I never actually read the book or saw all of the movie…)
Once again I thank heaven that I’m 65 with no kids. I just might HAVE TO shoot myself.
When I get to feeling that way, I close my laptop and take a walk. They can never take away THAT. I mean, they could, I suppose, but you know what I mean.
Totally impressed by the depth and breadth of your scholarship. This Granny still has a lot fight left in her to reclaim the rights we marched for long ago. Lead on, Greg!
Okay, Katharine. This is your editor speaking. There is an “of” missing in your sentence. Please proofread more carefully before you post in your excitement to spread the word. Or get on the laptop with a real keyboard and large letters. The fight is still strong, but the eyes and ears are pretty shot.
Agreed, great journalism. Greg - how about a novel about how the NRx snowflakes fail on all counts and the reasons for failure all emanate from their own short-sighted, self egotistical, idiotic views - that is , Thiel and the others aren’t genius, just self absorbed, and like a stinky sloppy sponge we (the regulars) squeeze them dry. Genius would be making the current system better, not blowing it up for no reason.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The labor conflict against Tesla in Sweden is spreading to neighboring Denmark where transport workers with the country’s largest trade union said Tuesday they will take action in solidarity with Swedish workers against the Texas-based automaker.
Tesla is non-unionized globally, but the Swedish workers are demanding that the carmaker sign a collective bargaining agreement, which most employees in Sweden have. Tesla has no manufacturing plant in Sweden but has several service centers.
″Although you are one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules. We have some agreements on the labor market in the Nordics, and you have to comply with them if you want to do business here,” Jan Villadsen, Danish Union leader said.” 🇩🇰 🇸🇪
I think we don't want laws regulating who we are allowed to spend time with. Then, some government force decides who is or is not a Nazi sympathizer. That feels dangerous to me.
Greg. Woah. Woe. Woke. Great rant. Rant on! Love your work.
If journalists, like you, are Fourth Estate, woke and unwoke government bureaucrats are the Fifth Estate, protecting the ideals of the constitution. They take an oath.
Great piece Greg! How much $$ is enough to make these people happy? What I don’t get is isn’t Peter Theil gay? And wtf with JD Vance? Still pissed that the democrats didn’t do more to help elect Tim Ryan to the Senate! Most of these people come from privileged backgrounds went to elite colleges and this is what they want to do to the country? 🖕🖕
'...they want to do to the country?' is exactly right...nothing for...it's like an incredible self-hatred attempting to be transferred outward, however, the attempted destruction is only for their own psyches.
Strangely enough, doing manual labor might help change their minds...shovels full of dirt are a great equalizer, more so than any ideological genius transformer.
As to Thiel being gay, one need only look at the fact that the organizers - and many of the members - of the Sturm Abteilung (the Nazi "brownshirt" street brawlers) were gay. And on The Night of the Long Knives, Hitler got rid of all of them at once, having gotten all the use of them he needed and now going after more "respectable" supporters like the German industrialists.
I will not presume to know what goes on in that man's mind. As for Tim Ryan, if memory serves, he didn't want Biden campaigning for him, which was a mistake.
The most spoiled are the most vapid and empty, despite the trappings of success. Saw this while working with jr high and high school students in rich district.
LOL: "If you ask me, they are all just butthurt that assholes aren’t a protected class under Title VII." Hey -- did you mean to reference Grocer Cleveland, or was that a typo, because that was funny, too.
And, as a person who fictionalized the Byzantine Empire, but had to know its history to do so, you must know that the shambling toward shizzleness that we are on course for is, to a large extent, inevitable. More interesting to me anymore is what we will tuck under our arms and pad quietly away with while the thundering implosion continues...and then how we will use those treasures to rebuild.
I consider myself reasonably hip for an octogenarian, and I’m definitely woke. But my reaction to this movement has been, interestingly, one of a get-off-my-lawn sort. It feels just like one more thing out to get me and everything I hold dear, like another virus; something I can’t get my mind around and don’t want to.
Is NRx founded in an originalists interpretation of the Constitution? Is woke derived from the Bill of Rights? That former wondrous document excluded people of color, did not recognize women as anything but second class citizens and generally pandered to white men. The Bill of Rights was authored by the same men who drafted the Constitution, principally to ensure passage of the Constitution, correcting what some saw as defects. Later other defects were addressed by the judiciary via Supreme Court rulings, courts that Presidents have long stacked with their preferred judges, ideologically in step with their belief system. These have wavered, first Roe then Dobbs. The judiciary has proven to be the most imperfect of the three branches of government.
We give names to things that confuse us, woke and NRx among them. Many write to explain these terms which in essence are words coined by not a member of that belief system but others on the outside, often diametrically opposite to that belief system, trying to gain a perspective to the central question, why do people believe as the do?
Just as a jihadist can find justification for suicide bombings in the Koran, we Americans can find justification for just about anything in the documents drawn up by the founding fathers. I am certain that many will excoriate me for this analogy, perhaps correctly so. To me it all comes down to good versus evil. However even the words good and evil are open to interpretation.
My singular point. I have become desensitized to people explaining people. Greg, this is not a criticism, please never stop doing what you do. I shall continue to be an avid everytime reader. My goal, however is very simple, live and let live, have respect for those with whom we disagree. Each of us must vote for those living in our own belief bubble and steel ourselves for the outcome, good or bad. I truly believe that good will prevail, whatever good means. I cannot believe differently, otherwise why go on? Is there good in others evil? The circular argument goes on and on.
Thanks for the insightful comment. The Unabomber talks about the Revolutionary War in the manifesto, too. And Amanda Milius, in that article, says to the author that she thinks the NRx has become the "live and let live" faction, as opposed to the tyranny of the woke, or some such sentiment. Would that everyone felt that way...
Boggles my mind that the Unibomber’s Manifesto is relevant on Dec 5, 2023. “Tyranny of the woke” sounds like the far left elites that Bill Maher rails against. He must know way more of them than I have known in a long life.
A lot of them defected to the New Right after being disillusioned with the Far Left.
This has actually been quite common politically, particularly in the past 105 years since the Bolshevik Revolution. Former German Nazis became dedicated Stasi agents in an East Germany run by Stalinists. "Birds of a feather flock together" as they say, and Totalitarianism is Totalitarianism whether wearing a black shirt, a red armband or a cardinal's robes. The Far Left and the Far Right have always been two sides of the same coin.
As to Amanda Milius and her looney father, having met both of them here in Okeefenokee West, the best, most polite, most accurate term to describe either of them is "Fucking Moron."
That term is also accurate in describing the social illiterates up in Silly Con Valley, where the bros all need to be wearing orange jumpsuits with their bank accounts confiscated for their crimes against the planet.
Basically, these people are the permanent pre-pubescents who used to love detailing their loyalty to Ayn Rand's bullshit. It's no wonder they want to bring back clubbing a woman and dragging her off to the cave, since it's the only way Permanent Dweebs like them can propagate. One of these days, they need to bring their minds out of Mommie's Basement, and we need to be more thorough in chasing them home after school.
Thanks. Yes, the horseshoe is the horseshoe, so Tulsi goes on Fox News, and so on. Ideologues are always rigid in their thinking, no matter what side they are on. I've always been more of a pragmatist. I think that works better, in life and certainly in government.
Pragmatists take into account cause and affect. These people; do they have a common purpose Greg, or do you think they are a bunch of mentally homeless people group tenting for security? I’m positive Bannon thinks of his pen as a mini sword. And I think Greece was pretty woke. Dick Cheney is the Sparta General who won. Liz Cheney must look at people like Speaker Johnson like people she’d not invite to the party ten years ago. I saw a documentary on Bannon…. I dare anyone to convince me he’s mature. Gawd. They are ALL COIFED now. (Hair done.)
I knew there was a reason to start watching THE HUNGER GAMES again. Rich dilettantes, many of whom were possibly born here, thanks to Trump Miami, so they could have duel citizenship rights to come and go as they damn well please. Rich and well educated with far too much money and time on their hands to do the destruction from the inside for no other reason, it seems, than to cause chaos for the fun of it. They’ll be just fine. When things get too bad here, they can jet off to some other location that’s not such a mess. Carpe diem and eff the rest.
YIPPPEEEEE - It’s TUESDAY🎉
What an altogether stunning piece of journalism. Scary AF though.
Thanks, Teresa. And: yes.
I couldn’t hit the like button because I kept wanting to commit suicide. (I couldn’t even finish, although I probably should.)
I also just read:
https://thestartupfromafrica.substack.com/p/civil-serpents-in-the-garden-of-work
In Kenya (& many other places) the police (sometimes it’s not even the police in some countries) put up road blocks to check that “everything is according to regulations” (ie the driver is licensed, the bus is not overcrowded, the tires still have treads) but instead it’s just a shakedown. (An old friend from NYC told me in the early 80’s that I didn’t need to pay a toll if the guardrail was in the up position. Anyone dumb enough to actually pay was only contributing to toll workers “on the take.”)
What kind of society will be left when these people have taken down all the guard rails & let thugs like thump do as he pleases?
It will be worse than fascism.
Sounds more like “Lord of the Flies” (although I never actually read the book or saw all of the movie…)
Once again I thank heaven that I’m 65 with no kids. I just might HAVE TO shoot myself.
Fuck that. Shoot THEM.
That’s what my husband says - or at least take a bunch down with me as I go!
Yes, I prefer warrior mode. Good for him.
When I get to feeling that way, I close my laptop and take a walk. They can never take away THAT. I mean, they could, I suppose, but you know what I mean.
I am anti-nihilism, myself...
Totally impressed by the depth and breadth of your scholarship. This Granny still has a lot fight left in her to reclaim the rights we marched for long ago. Lead on, Greg!
Okay, Katharine. This is your editor speaking. There is an “of” missing in your sentence. Please proofread more carefully before you post in your excitement to spread the word. Or get on the laptop with a real keyboard and large letters. The fight is still strong, but the eyes and ears are pretty shot.
You need to tell me where the "of" is so I can insert it. : )
Between lot and fight!
But it’s in my reply, not your post!
Thanks, Katharine!
Agreed, great journalism. Greg - how about a novel about how the NRx snowflakes fail on all counts and the reasons for failure all emanate from their own short-sighted, self egotistical, idiotic views - that is , Thiel and the others aren’t genius, just self absorbed, and like a stinky sloppy sponge we (the regulars) squeeze them dry. Genius would be making the current system better, not blowing it up for no reason.
You have to know the past to understand the present. ✍🏼 Carl Sagan
Thanks, Richard. This is novelworthy, for sure...for better or worse.
It is well known that people with superiority complexes are nursing great insecurities.They seem to flock together looking for others approval.
I call bullseye, Katie, on your comment. Where would these superiors be without their sheep of believers?
Grocer Cleveland ... I'm dead 😅
"You're a grocery clerk...who's come to collect the bill."
Meanwhile, The Texas GQP voted against a proposed ban on members associating with Nazi sympathizers. 🤠 Only in America!
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The labor conflict against Tesla in Sweden is spreading to neighboring Denmark where transport workers with the country’s largest trade union said Tuesday they will take action in solidarity with Swedish workers against the Texas-based automaker.
Tesla is non-unionized globally, but the Swedish workers are demanding that the carmaker sign a collective bargaining agreement, which most employees in Sweden have. Tesla has no manufacturing plant in Sweden but has several service centers.
″Although you are one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules. We have some agreements on the labor market in the Nordics, and you have to comply with them if you want to do business here,” Jan Villadsen, Danish Union leader said.” 🇩🇰 🇸🇪
Good news!
#Tesla’s Nordic labor crisis drags on as Danish pension fund dumps its shares in Elon Musk’s EV maker. 🇩🇰
I think we don't want laws regulating who we are allowed to spend time with. Then, some government force decides who is or is not a Nazi sympathizer. That feels dangerous to me.
Having Nazis & sympathizers in government and the White House is a disgrace to everybody who fought in WWII. ✌🏻
You don’t get to be both a Nazi and a proud American. We literally had a war about this. The whole world was involved. ✌🏻#NeverForget
Texas may make a good home for this destruction derby. Then we can just cut it loose. I’d find a way to move.
I’m sure they’ll come to their senses when they lose the election 😉
How many elections have I been thinking that. Lost count
We win when we all vote and have been lately.
Ah, but will they have lost or was it stolen? They can play that game forever.
MAGA Fruitcakes never change but will soon be singing the jail house rock with their leaders.
Greg. Woah. Woe. Woke. Great rant. Rant on! Love your work.
If journalists, like you, are Fourth Estate, woke and unwoke government bureaucrats are the Fifth Estate, protecting the ideals of the constitution. They take an oath.
They do, and government bureaucracy is vital to the sustainability of a state. History shows this time and again.
Truth! “ If you ask me, they are all just butthurt that assholes aren’t a protected class under Title VII.”
Nina that is a great line!! Greg hits the nail on the head again!
I like that line, too, because it's true. We said this in HR all the time: there's no law against being an asshole.
These peeps have way too much time on their hands..misplaced superiority complexes.
Love that
Great piece Greg! How much $$ is enough to make these people happy? What I don’t get is isn’t Peter Theil gay? And wtf with JD Vance? Still pissed that the democrats didn’t do more to help elect Tim Ryan to the Senate! Most of these people come from privileged backgrounds went to elite colleges and this is what they want to do to the country? 🖕🖕
'...they want to do to the country?' is exactly right...nothing for...it's like an incredible self-hatred attempting to be transferred outward, however, the attempted destruction is only for their own psyches.
Strangely enough, doing manual labor might help change their minds...shovels full of dirt are a great equalizer, more so than any ideological genius transformer.
Dirt helps more than muscles, if it’s not the porn kind
As to Thiel being gay, one need only look at the fact that the organizers - and many of the members - of the Sturm Abteilung (the Nazi "brownshirt" street brawlers) were gay. And on The Night of the Long Knives, Hitler got rid of all of them at once, having gotten all the use of them he needed and now going after more "respectable" supporters like the German industrialists.
A lot of this comes from a place of self-loathing, seems to me.
Excellent point.
Self loathing without any understanding of self loathing. A real dumb and dumber aspect to all this.
And over compensating with the anti-LGBTQ bullshit.
Thanks, Christine.
I will not presume to know what goes on in that man's mind. As for Tim Ryan, if memory serves, he didn't want Biden campaigning for him, which was a mistake.
The most spoiled are the most vapid and empty, despite the trappings of success. Saw this while working with jr high and high school students in rich district.
LOL: "If you ask me, they are all just butthurt that assholes aren’t a protected class under Title VII." Hey -- did you mean to reference Grocer Cleveland, or was that a typo, because that was funny, too.
And, as a person who fictionalized the Byzantine Empire, but had to know its history to do so, you must know that the shambling toward shizzleness that we are on course for is, to a large extent, inevitable. More interesting to me anymore is what we will tuck under our arms and pad quietly away with while the thundering implosion continues...and then how we will use those treasures to rebuild.
Should I leave the typo? Maybe I'll just leave it.
Empires fall, they all do...
Leave it.
I consider myself reasonably hip for an octogenarian, and I’m definitely woke. But my reaction to this movement has been, interestingly, one of a get-off-my-lawn sort. It feels just like one more thing out to get me and everything I hold dear, like another virus; something I can’t get my mind around and don’t want to.
I feel that way about most of the more religious rightwingers. I don't understand the mindset. I think I get where these NRx are coming from.
Still trying to wrap my head around the latter…
But they seem to live without any concept of future. Yet, they are all so ambitious. As if, they don’t even have utopian fantasies.
Is NRx founded in an originalists interpretation of the Constitution? Is woke derived from the Bill of Rights? That former wondrous document excluded people of color, did not recognize women as anything but second class citizens and generally pandered to white men. The Bill of Rights was authored by the same men who drafted the Constitution, principally to ensure passage of the Constitution, correcting what some saw as defects. Later other defects were addressed by the judiciary via Supreme Court rulings, courts that Presidents have long stacked with their preferred judges, ideologically in step with their belief system. These have wavered, first Roe then Dobbs. The judiciary has proven to be the most imperfect of the three branches of government.
We give names to things that confuse us, woke and NRx among them. Many write to explain these terms which in essence are words coined by not a member of that belief system but others on the outside, often diametrically opposite to that belief system, trying to gain a perspective to the central question, why do people believe as the do?
Just as a jihadist can find justification for suicide bombings in the Koran, we Americans can find justification for just about anything in the documents drawn up by the founding fathers. I am certain that many will excoriate me for this analogy, perhaps correctly so. To me it all comes down to good versus evil. However even the words good and evil are open to interpretation.
My singular point. I have become desensitized to people explaining people. Greg, this is not a criticism, please never stop doing what you do. I shall continue to be an avid everytime reader. My goal, however is very simple, live and let live, have respect for those with whom we disagree. Each of us must vote for those living in our own belief bubble and steel ourselves for the outcome, good or bad. I truly believe that good will prevail, whatever good means. I cannot believe differently, otherwise why go on? Is there good in others evil? The circular argument goes on and on.
Thanks for the insightful comment. The Unabomber talks about the Revolutionary War in the manifesto, too. And Amanda Milius, in that article, says to the author that she thinks the NRx has become the "live and let live" faction, as opposed to the tyranny of the woke, or some such sentiment. Would that everyone felt that way...
Boggles my mind that the Unibomber’s Manifesto is relevant on Dec 5, 2023. “Tyranny of the woke” sounds like the far left elites that Bill Maher rails against. He must know way more of them than I have known in a long life.
A lot of them defected to the New Right after being disillusioned with the Far Left.
This has actually been quite common politically, particularly in the past 105 years since the Bolshevik Revolution. Former German Nazis became dedicated Stasi agents in an East Germany run by Stalinists. "Birds of a feather flock together" as they say, and Totalitarianism is Totalitarianism whether wearing a black shirt, a red armband or a cardinal's robes. The Far Left and the Far Right have always been two sides of the same coin.
As to Amanda Milius and her looney father, having met both of them here in Okeefenokee West, the best, most polite, most accurate term to describe either of them is "Fucking Moron."
That term is also accurate in describing the social illiterates up in Silly Con Valley, where the bros all need to be wearing orange jumpsuits with their bank accounts confiscated for their crimes against the planet.
Basically, these people are the permanent pre-pubescents who used to love detailing their loyalty to Ayn Rand's bullshit. It's no wonder they want to bring back clubbing a woman and dragging her off to the cave, since it's the only way Permanent Dweebs like them can propagate. One of these days, they need to bring their minds out of Mommie's Basement, and we need to be more thorough in chasing them home after school.
Thanks. Yes, the horseshoe is the horseshoe, so Tulsi goes on Fox News, and so on. Ideologues are always rigid in their thinking, no matter what side they are on. I've always been more of a pragmatist. I think that works better, in life and certainly in government.
Another solid point scored!
We need a pragmatist party.
Pragmatists take into account cause and affect. These people; do they have a common purpose Greg, or do you think they are a bunch of mentally homeless people group tenting for security? I’m positive Bannon thinks of his pen as a mini sword. And I think Greece was pretty woke. Dick Cheney is the Sparta General who won. Liz Cheney must look at people like Speaker Johnson like people she’d not invite to the party ten years ago. I saw a documentary on Bannon…. I dare anyone to convince me he’s mature. Gawd. They are ALL COIFED now. (Hair done.)
Absolutely right about thinking in terms of black and white STULTIFYING at best.they bore me.
Their rigidity might be the result of the insecurities Katie spoke of. They can't allow any possibility that they are wrong.
I knew there was a reason to start watching THE HUNGER GAMES again. Rich dilettantes, many of whom were possibly born here, thanks to Trump Miami, so they could have duel citizenship rights to come and go as they damn well please. Rich and well educated with far too much money and time on their hands to do the destruction from the inside for no other reason, it seems, than to cause chaos for the fun of it. They’ll be just fine. When things get too bad here, they can jet off to some other location that’s not such a mess. Carpe diem and eff the rest.
Yeah, pretty much. "Fuck you, pay me" is the mantra.
W.O.W. Sharing.
Thanks!