Share this page!

John Holbo Profile picture
Twitter logo
7 Aug, 4 tweets, 1 min read
So we now know that there was a more serious attempted coup, by Trump, in late 2020, that went far beyond the legally ineffectual flailings that went on on publicly, leading up to 1/6. 1/ msnbc.com/all-in/watch/h…
The Jeffrey Clark revelations have been out there a few days now, with no significant pushback from the usual legal eagle anti-anti-Trump suspects. You don't see Andy McCarthy or Dan McLaughlin saying it didn't happen. You don't see the Federalist defending Clark. 2/
That's partisanship. Still: the GOP is Trump's party. Trump tried to overturn lawful election results and the constitutional order to install himself, for a second term, by a mix of force and fraud. 3/
And Trump's apologists know this. It's not a dealbreaker for them. If you are still in the GOP in 2021 you may prefer a different route forward, but if it's Trump, you'll say ok. Attempted overthrow of the government, by force and fraud, is perhaps regrettable but tolerable. 4/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with John Holbo

John Holbo Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @jholbo1

John Holbo Profile picture
4 Aug
OK, one thought about all this and I've got work to do. The argument from the right about why we need to overthrow liberalism, the election, the constitutional order, install an American Orban, whatever, is that 'Wokeness' is an existential threat to Western Civilization.
But what is the threat from Wokeness supposed to amount to? A lot of it is 'cancel culture' stuff that really bothers conservatives: the Covington teens; people were mean to Brett Kavanaugh; Dr. Seuss; that guy who got fired from Google; de-platforming; statues coming down.
Some of it is cultural stuff that conservatives would themselves like to cancel: "Blues Clues" and the Muppets going all trans-friendly. L'il Nax X. Too many pronouns; the 1619 project; CRT.
Read 8 tweets
John Holbo Profile picture
3 Aug
That's pretty darn interesting!
I should say more than that. This piece by Moser does a good job of capturing a kind of insincerity & confusion I often suffer from. It's one thing to 'think the best' of your interlocutor for the sake of keeping the line open, seeing value where one might have missed it.
It's another to fetishize 'interestingness', to collect a menagerie of 'interesting monsters' from 'the other side'. I like to think of myself as a clever person, in a higher-order dialectical-analytic way.
Read 5 tweets
John Holbo Profile picture
19 Jul
This sort of Dale Carnegie 101 point is reasonable in the abstract but hard to know what to do with in practice. It seems like public health officials and Dems are doing - well, not the best they can, but they are trying to reach persuadables. (There have been slips, sure.) 1/
But that leaves a large basket of right-wing anti-vaxxers who are unpersuadable by Dems and public health officials, due to FOX news (and OAN & etc.) and negative partisanship. @michaelbd and McLaughlin taking the 'feelings are facts' line, with regard to this lot, is - bad. 2/
Blaming the left for not reaching out actually makes things worse because it doesn't afford the left useful Dale Carnegie tips but does give the unpersuadables a feeling that it's the left's fault that they are unpersuaded - and feelings are facts (but only on the right). 3/
Read 11 tweets
John Holbo Profile picture
18 Jul
MY is screwing with us but I lectured on this! The Ur-Indie era MPDG run is Lulu to Leeloo. That is, Demme's "Something Wild" (1986), largely forgotten - although it makes the MPDG lists - to Besson's "The Fifth Element" (1997) which clearly qualifies but is seldom counted in. 1/
In film, it goes back to classics like "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) and "My Fair Lady" (1964) - the latter is later but, due to its "Pygmalion" origins, makes the clear connection to earlier English drama. 2/
The English original MPDG is Gilbert's "Pygmalion and Galatea". These were originally described as 'fairy comedies', showing the aptness of 'pixie', later. 3/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion…
Read 21 tweets
John Holbo Profile picture
18 Jul
What's the genetic link between Schopenhauer's pessimism and "Hello, Dolly!" ?
Answer: "Hello, Dolly!" was based on a play by John Oxenford, who wrote a review piece for "Westminster Review", in 1853, "Iconoclasm in German Philosophy". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Oxen…
That review made it's way back to Germany, in translation, and made Schopenhauer's fame, late. From Safranksi's "Schopenhauer and the Wild Years in Philosophy".
Read 5 tweets
John Holbo Profile picture
17 Jul
It's very neat and tidy, as Philip Bump notes. And that's suspicious. So here are the possibilities. It's real or fake. It was leaked deliberately by the Kremlin or not. It's supposed to hurt Trump or not. 1/ washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…
It might seem obvious at least that it's supposed to hurt Trump. But it's not obvious. Because, almost certainly, it won't hurt Trump. The Kremlin leaking that it has kompromat on the sky, to the effect that it's blue, won't cause more people to believe the sky is blue. 2/
There's a good chance it will help Trump, therefore. Normally we don't apply the 'no such thing as bad publicity' show biz rule to political scandals. But the effect of this leak is to put the focus back on 'Russia Russia Russia' and that's good for Trump. 3/
Read 19 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @jholbo1 has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @jholbo1!

Read all threads by @jholbo1

:(