I often disagree with Bill, and disagree with some of this. I think he oscillates between pretending the far left and the Democratic Party are synonymous and acknowledging they're not. The Democratic Party is diverse; it's the *GOP* that made its fringe the whole of its project.
(PS) What idiot conservatives like Scott Adams are missing in trumpeting this video is that Maher *is* a classical liberal, and *is* saying that the Democratic Party's *policies* are where most of the country is—including, yes, the white Heartland.

The issue is, paradoxically...
(PS2) ...that folks like Maher conflating the Democratic Party and its left-most fringe is *precisely* the problem the party faces. Why? Because a party can't control all its fringes—unless it's an authoritarian party like the GOP—but it *can* ask people to focus on its policies.
(PS3) A political party is what it *does*—and what it does *in the main*, not scattered anecdotes of unreasonableness dredged up by enemies or a fake metanarrative that pretends the fringe is the center. Bill misses *his* responsibility in talking about how politics really works.
(PS4) When conservatives—led by the nose by far-right demagogues—*choose* to focus on fringe-left nonsense instead of the fact that Democrats are representing middle-class, working-class, and poor interests far better than the GOP, why gaslight Democrats over that? Blame the GOP.
(PS5) Notice that—in saying this—I don't feel a need to address Maher's criticisms of the leftist fringe, because yes, it's part of the Democratic Party, but no, it is not where most Democrats are.

It's where the best pro-GOP anecdotes come from; it's not where policy-making is.
(PS6) What's really crappy is Maher going after AOC—who's a *very* policy-oriented person whose agenda would benefit nearly all Americans. The folks Maher is *really* angry at are far-left social media users with no power whatsoever and really no relevance to daily American life.
(PS7) The paradox Maher misses: the very *reason* fringe-left culture is so foreign to Heartland Americans is because *it's not part of their life experience*. Which literally means they're obsessing over something that *isn't part of their life* rather than policies that *are*.
(PS8) The only "wokeness" most Americans ever need worry about is being awake to the fact that most pols, media folks, and (yes) pundits are lying to them by trying to get them to focus on issues that aren't actually relevant to their daily life. *That* is what *needs* to change.
(PS9) I focus on threats now posed to American democracy, American rule of law, Americans' voting rights, and U.S. national security because the implications of *ignoring* the Trumpist insurrection are so dire that—yes—they could destroy all our lives all at once and irrevocably.
(PS10) In contrast, I *don't* focus on the outrage du jour being pushed by elements within my political party because in nearly every instance it doesn't actually affect the life of anyone but the small number of people directly involved.

Maybe Maher should start doing the same.
(NOTE) I understand that Maher's point is that folks *are* focusing on the outrage du jour whether I like it or not. But in that case, the people to harangue are the far-right demagogues distracting everyone from what really matters and the GOP voters who choose to be so lied to.
(NOTE2) If I were Maher, I'd tell people to stop pretending "wokeness" is part of their lives when it isn't. You find a stranger too woke? Avoid them. On Twitter? Block them. In politics? Don't vote for them. But *obsession* should be reserved for *actual public policy debates*.
(NOTE3) And no, Glenn Youngkin, it isn't an "actual policy debate" when a Youngkin donor gets her son—who works for the GOP—to say that a Pulitzer Prize winning book gave him a nightmare when he was 17. I'm talking about whether folks have healthcare and can pay their damn bills.

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More from @SethAbramson

21 Nov
(🔒) NEW at RETRO Digital Culture (see the tweet following this for a discount link): "The Response to the Rittenhouse Verdict on Social Media Reveals the Rot in the American Experiment"

I think this is the talk we need to have. I hope you'll share this. retrostack.substack.com/p/the-response…
(DISCOUNT LINK) Click the link below to get 30% off an annual RETRO subscription (i.e., less than $3/month for a full year if you subscribe through November 30): retrostack.substack.com/p/the-first-ev…
(PS) After I posted my RETRO article about how far-right demagogues use anecdotes to poison reasoned criminal justice system discourse, Tim Pool began to trend on Twitter for claiming that the political left is represented by a madman who wrote that he wanted to harm Rittenhouse.
Read 18 tweets
19 Nov
If this insurrectionist leader thinks this will stop me from reporting on her ongoing seditious attempts to destroy American democracy, she is wrong.
(PS) Note that the tweet by this person that I attacked in the strongest possible terms—pre-block—was one in which she urged her far-right insurrectionist followers to “be like Kyle,” i.e. armed vigilantes.
(PS2) But I'm sure she was also unnerved by my revelation that members of Trump's January 5 Trump International Hotel war room are political donors of hers.

She is an Oath Keeper, a sponsor of domestic terrorist Ali Alexander, and a clear and present danger to the United States.
Read 4 tweets
19 Nov
(1 of 2) I hope everyone is screenshotting the statements being made today by top Republicans and far-rght demagogues. It won't be long before someone in the antifa movement brings an AR-15 to a Proud Boys or Oath Keeper event and starts shooting if someone throws a plastic bag.
(2 of 2) This is precisely why—unlike Republican leaders and unlike far-right demagogues—those of us who believe in peace and the rule of law are urging all parties to stay away from protests in which they are not participating, and to by no means go to such protests while armed.
PS/ The reason to screenshot today's comments by Republican leaders and far-right demagogues is that this sort of vigilante violence—which is wholly unacceptable—will undoubtedly come from both ends of the political spectrum. Anyone not condemning it categorically isn't a leader.
Read 4 tweets
19 Nov
This is the result that most criminal defense attorneys have been saying we would see since the beginning of the trial. Take that for what it's worth, which may be absolutely nothing. I know a lot of people are upset and hurting right now over this verdict.
(PS) I mention this because the hunt will now be on for far-right demagogues searching through social media to find journalists predicting a conviction. They'll have to search very hard, as most experts predicted the verdict we just saw and did so from very early on in the trial.
(PS2) In fact, the people least confident of an acquittal where those on the far right. Yesterday, Newsmax falsely reported that the jury was deadlocked 6-6; the far right believed it and soon began spinning conspiracy theories. Those on the left continued to expect an acquittal.
Read 4 tweets
18 Nov
(🔒) BREAKING NEWS: Three Major Revelations About the January 6 Insurrection Just Dropped

I hope you'll subscribe, read, and RT—these revelations about the funding of January 6, a key January 5 war council, and the January 6 Ellipse speakers are critical. sethabramson.substack.com/p/breaking-new…
Summary #1: Everything we thought about the funding of January 6 appears to be wrong.
Summary #2: The first new attendee of the January 5 Trump International Hotel war council to be revealed in six months has now been revealed—and the identity of this person *and what we now know they did at the hotel* may change everything about who was responsible for January 6.
Read 5 tweets
18 Nov
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you—below—the biggest turd on Twitter. This man has plagued my hometown, Boston, for decades. The only thing he has even a mediocre grasp of is sports, but despite a troglodytic IQ believes he knows better than anyone about everything else, too.
When he got pushed out at WEEI in 2019 Callahan blamed "dark forces" and "bad people"—your typical blame-everyone-else-first Trumpist "victim" who can't take responsibility for his abject mediocrity. This is who far-right snowflakes are and always will be. nbcboston.com/news/local/ger…
Callahan tends to have the biggest problem with women of color—whom he habitually deems stupid—but hey! it's just a coincidence! stop seeing race in everything! /s

Only Boston would let a white guy with a subzero knowledge of crime and justice opine about it on-air for 30 years.
Read 5 tweets

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