They never cared about deficits, never cared about fiscal responsibility.
They never cared about national security.
Never cared about corruption.
Or freedom of speech.
Or preventing terrorism.
Never actually even wanted to reduce abortions.
It was only ever about dominance.
They didn't ever care about the dignity of the office.
They didn't care about our national reputation.
Never cared about rule of law.
Or the constitution.
Or morality.
Or discourse.
Or civility.
Or "norms."
It was only ever about dominance.
They think compromise is weakness.
They think honesty is for saps.
They think trust is for fools.
They use our desire for them as tools for domination.
They've proved it.
Trust is good, but trust is earned.
We'd be foolish to trust those who only use trust as a tool.
They think science is a scam
They think evidence is a sham
They put their faith in propaganda and conspiracy
And vote for damned liars
They believe lies, but not b/c they truly believe them
Rather b/c it's a way to establish dominance
To prove only they can control their reality
Believing a lie is preferable to believing a truth, if what you want is to dominate
A person who lives according to a truth you've told may have been persuaded by truth, not you
To force a person to live according to your lie means you have dominated them
So they believe lies
And persuasion is good. A dialogue of persuasion indicates good faith, which we desire.
And so we desire to persuade.
And they use that desire as a tool to dominate.
It is a poor use of your time to persuade somebody who has made themselves deliberately unpersuadable.
We're dealing with fascists.
We didn't kill trust, but it's dead
We didn't create the divide, but we mustn't bridge it
Persuade who you can, but watch for those who have made themselves unpersuadable
Withdraw trust from those who would use it as a tool
To those who scold that we mustn’t assume evil intentions into the actions of people who consistently pursue absolute evil with steadfast dedication and unshakable resolve: yes, we should.
I guess the ultimate answer to "you don't know what their true motivations are" is "who gives a shit what their motivations are?"
I care *that* you want to burn down my house. I only care *why* you want to burn down my house to the extent it helps me stop you.
Father: *strangles my brother*
Me: help help my father is murdering my brother
Centrist Cousin: it’s that sort of us vs them thinking that’s tearing this family apart
Me: no look literally he’s murdering my brother right in front of us
Centrist Cousin: he’s never going to want to stop if you keep vilifying him with overheated black and white language; I’ve engaged many stranglers and learned a lot about the complexities
Brother: gkkk gkk gk
Me: Look he’s about to die, for real; I really think we just need to stop my dad from killing him right now
Centrist Cousin: that’s exactly the sort of judgemental escalating bad thinking on our side that we need to criticize, I refuse to let myself become just as bad as he is
To be clear, that's any Republicans at any level for any position at any time, and honestly we may want to expand that to include Democrats willing to work with Republicans.
Shut the whole party down, out, and over.
If you want to live in a modern enlightened society and you vote for Republicans, no you don't.
As a Wordle pro on the tour, I feel I should share the best starting word, which all the pros know.
(My own personal favorite starting word is COCCYX, but if I show amateurs how to guess 6-letter words I will be banned from the Wordle Pro Tour and forced to sit next to Bret Stephens in the NYT cafeteria.)
Wordle is a game of constantly shifting strategy; I recommend you get the latest version of my strategy compendium, v14.
Specifically with this order. The one that exists. This reality. The way our systems and laws are set up, the way they’re codified and the way they’re operationalized. What they claim to intend to do, and what they actually do.
“The way things are,” in other words.
Let’s think of conservatism as being, in its essence, an orientation that desires to keep the existing order just as it is, or to make slow and deliberate calculated minor adjustments, to the existing order.
In BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, Mickey Rooney played I. Y. Yunioshi, dressed up in buck teeth and a cartoon squint, a grotesque caricature of a Japanese person.
So I suppose in that sense “you wouldn’t be able” to make BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S today.
Which seems somehow preferable.
Now: what interests me is what it means to say *you can’t* make BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S these days.
It doesn’t mean you CAN’T. Unlike teaching, say,The Bluest Eye to Texas schoolchildren, there exist no laws to prevent Will Ferrell from putting in the teeth and playing Yunioshi.
So actually you *can* make BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S today, I.Y. Yunioshi and all, and throw in Long Duc Dong if you want.
You can if you want wear blackface and dance around in white gloves, like Fred Astaire in SWING TIME, if you want to.