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Jeet Heer Profile picture
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19 May, 4 tweets, 2 min read
1. No Drama Obama on the UFOs: "We can't explain how they move, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern. And so I think that people still take seriously, trying to investigate and figure out what that is."
Reasonable! But should we be freaking out?
2. As people rightly insist the "u" in UFO just means "unidentified." Doesn't necessarily, or even at any serious degree probably, mean space aliens. Just means there is weird shit flying around all over the world which we can't explain. Which is interesting/worrying.
3. Depending on you rigorously you want to define UFOs, they've been a thing since 1940s, or 1890s, or really the beginning of recorded history. Humans often see things they can't explain! And in vast majority of cases that's just optical illusion and/or delusion.
4. The story is not UFOs (which have been around for a long time) but new respectability of UFOs: Pentagon used to be hush-hush, now they're all X-Files. NY Times, New Yorker, 60 Minutes covering. Thoughts on why this is so: jeetheer.substack.com/p/ufos-and-the…

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More from @HeerJeet

Jeet Heer Profile picture
18 May
1. Fittingly, Philip Roth is posthumously entangled in several overlapping scandals about free speech. Equally fittingly, they are an outgrowth of Roth's characteristic attempt to have extreme control the narrative of his life & the inevitably blowback this produced.
2. I don't think it's sufficiently appreciated how Roth made to engineer a biography that he hoped would vindicate him against the portrait given by his ex-wife Claire Bloom in her memoir.
3. The broad story is Roth wanted a sock puppet official biographer who would voice his side of the story. The first sock puppet (Ross Miller) passive-aggressively resisted & so Roth settled on Blake Bailey. Whose bio overshadowed by sexual assault accusation. Hubris & nemesis.
Read 7 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
15 May
1. Trump is committed to lying to delegitimize 2020 election; most elected GOP de facto agrees; lies about election are ideological fuel to efforts to roll back voting access. It's in that context, Dems have a right to ask Never Trump Republicans to do much more.
2. Liz Cheney's anti-Trump words are welcome but if the broader threat to democracy is real (and it is) then she should pressed on that. Also worth challenging the silence of George W. Bush.
3. Bush has gotten a remarkably free ride. All he has to do is subtweet about Trump and his approval numbers among Democrats dramatically improve and he gets mainstream media praise for his mediocre paintings.
Read 4 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
15 May
1. In terms of democratic regression in the United States, the example that most people think of is of course the rise of Jim Crow in late 19th century as part of counter-revolution against Reconstruction era. But there was an earlier example also pertinent for now.
2. The early 19th century, peaking with Andrew Jackson's reign, used to be portrayed as an era of the democratic revolution & mass enfranchisement (the Schlesinger/Wilentz view). But that's true for white men. Other groups lost voting rights previously held.
3. In the early Republic some women had the vote (widows who headed household), as well as some freed Black men and Native men. Most (not all) saw their voting rights curtailed with the rise of white male democracy.
Read 5 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
14 May
1. Speaking of authoritarianism, yesterday's NY Times report of Trumpists (led by Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince) organizing a spy network to entrap FBI agents and national security advisor H.R. McMaster should be seen as part of the same governing pattern as Jan. 6 riot
2. It was the usual Trumpian clownshow (i.e. Project Veritas was involved) and more Get Smart or Austen Powers than James Bond. For that reason the usual suspects (you know who they are) will say it was no big deal. But it shows how American authoritarianism would work
3. Lewis Namier described 18th-century British politics as "aristocracy tempered by rioting." In the same spirit, Trumpism is authoritarianism tempered by clowning. But future demagogues might have a different authoritarian/clownshow ratio.
Read 4 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
13 May
1. David Horowitz and Ronald Radosh met in a communist youth group in 1951. They remained friends for 70 years despite the ups-and-downs of life (6 marriages between them) & politics (the Old Left, the New Left, neo-conservatism). Then came Trump.
2. I think most people wisely ignore David Horowitz for good reason (he's a tiresome buffoon who only preaches to the choir). But that's a mistake because figures who mobilize the far right can actually reshape mainstream politics. Pat Buchanan & Sam Francis for example.
3. Horowitz both self-important (did you know he edited Ramparts and befriended the Black Panthers? Don't worry, he'll remind you) but also of some historical importance (as pioneer of Trumpian cultural grievance & mentor to Stephen Miller)
Read 4 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
11 May
1. Almost exactly a year ago Joe Biden said, "With Donald Trump out of the White House—not a joke—you will see an epiphany occur among many of my Republican friends.” But in fact GOP continues to Trumpify: Trump critics are defenestrated & party rallying behind voter suppression
2. Stepping back, it's crucial to see how unusual it is that a defeated president continue to be a dominant figure in party who sets agenda & can punish foes: was that true of (in recent memory) Ford, Carter or Bush Sr.
3. Even successful presidents normally in modern times step background, only rarely commenting on public events & exercising authority in background. That's not Trump, who continues to set GOP agenda & have pols come to kiss his ring.
Read 6 tweets

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