"Whenever any person or institution violates the inherent values of free human exchange among persons, imposing upon anyone a diminution of his nature as a rhetorical animal, he is now shown, in this view, to be wrong—not just inconvenient or unpleasant but wrong..."
"There are genuine values, intersubjectively demonstrable, that judge his wrongness. Those same values will of course sit in judgment on any more of protest against the violation. I am not free to choose whether it is right to silence you because you would silence me:"
"of course it will be wrong to silence you. I may of course be forced to do so in opposing a greater wrong, even knowing that my means are evil, as we had to work at silencing the Nazis once they had set out to use force to silence the rest of us..."
I think about this a lot, from @Comey: "Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from..."
"It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites. It starts with your sitting silent while he lies, both in public and private, making you complicit by your silence..."
"In meetings with him, his assertions about what “everyone thinks” and what is “obviously true” wash over you, unchallenged, as they did at our private dinner on Jan. 27, 2017, because he’s the president and he rarely stops talking..."
Here's another story of conflict of interest without regulations (and why we now have food safety regulations). Do you like arsenic in your milk? No? But it makes it look so white and fresh and covers up the rotten stink, the business folks said: pbs.org/wgbh/americane…
"Deregulation" sounds innocuous, maybe even good--who likes rules? Regulations are rules (too many rules, they say). But enforced regulations make our world cleaner, safer & prevent businesses from cutting costs (maybe killing us in the process) for profit. Deregulation is a con.
Trump is a dangerous demagogue who wants to become dictator in America. That's been clear since 2015 and undeniable since 2021. You could always tell by the way he used language.
Which is why it's crucial for everyone to defend democracy in America. One way to do that is for Democrats to use the language of national stability (rule of law, patriotism, and freedom): On Defining Democratic America via @resolutesquareresolutesquare.com/articles/2Ydsq…
"In the fantasy of the strongman, politics vanishes and all is clear and bright. In fact, a dreary politics penetrates everything. You can't run a business without the threat of denunciation. You can't get basic services without humiliation. You feel bad about yourself."
"You think about what you say, since it can be used against you later. What you do on the internet is recorded forever, and can land you in prison. Public space closes down around you. You cannot escape to the bar or the bowling alley, since everything you say is monitored."
"The person on the next stool or in the next lane might not turn you in, but you have to assume they will. If you have a t-shirt or a bumper sticker with a message, someone will report you. Even if you just repeat the dictator's words, someone can lie about you and denounce you."