There certainly IS one-sided polarization when you steal an election, corrupt the judiciary with partisan activists, subvert, undermine and control all mainstream media, weaponize the security services, the police forces, the military and the Internal Revenue Service - and many, many other departments of government - AGAINST American citizens. This is the epitome of TYRANNY.
Shall we talk about all the Johammad Talibiden regime’s dozens and dozens of violations of the law regarding J6, which amount to TREASON against the nation? Shall we get into the corrupted, two-tiered justice system where the illegitimate usurper squatting in the American People’s White House gets away with PROVEN, DOCUMENTED instances of accepting BRIBES from foreign adversaries?
I have zero qualms asserting forcefully that the partisanship and polarization comes the Marxist-controlled demonrat party.
You complicit enablers of this criminality have no clue of the magnitude of the shit storm that will imminently engulf your kind. You deserve it times one million.
There will be no tears shed for demonrats. Scratch an demonrat and just below the surface there’s a criminal beneath - every time.
There will be no reconciliation - only punishment for provable crimes. Your calls for curbing partisanship and polarization fall on deaf ears at this point. You will reap what your kind has sown.
All evidence of unprecedented criminality is recorded. It has been recorded for years. All of it. The Internet is forever. There is no escape from the inevitable consequences.
The source of the polarization is defining "Our Democracy™" as "our guys were elected, so they get to do anything they want in the name of the 'common good' - and if if that doesn't work for you or even harms you, you have to just take one for the team".
That is not the social contract - the only social contract that can be sustained between human beings - this nation was founded to respect and protect.
************
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
************
Not just any powers that sound good to us, but just powers … powers that do not work against the reason government is instituted: to secure these rights. Unalienable rights, which supersede even a majority vote - to be restricted only when one's free exercise of them poses a clear, present, and significant interference with the free exercise of those rights by others.
When strictly respected, this sets limits upon our government operatives in their ability to reach into our lives – to “first, do no harm” as Hippocrates put it.
It neutralizes identity politics. It is respectful of all spiritual worldviews that are compatible with it, instead of giving one faith (that happens to see its gods in their mirrors) exclusive access to our institutions for its spread.
And strict allegiance to it maximizes the amount of distributed intellect applied to our problem-solving processes – engaging millions of people with common sense and proximity-informed insight that a “little intellectual elite in a far-off capital” CAN’T possess – by incentivizing the responsible exercise of individual initiative instead of expecting government to solve one’s problems FOR them and therefore submitting to its operatives.
I’m conservative and Trump was not my first choice in the Republican primary of ‘16 but by the time the nomination rolled around, he had won me over. Not because of his personality but because he had a plan that I agreed with, that he was able to articulate to the people. And I liked him even more when he did most of what he set out to do. What politician does that these days?
I can tell you that I’m very involved in county politics and know a whole lot of conservatives, right-leaning libertarians and moderate Democrats and the vast majority of us who support Trump are not into “hero worship”, we’re into saving our republic and seeing it led by someone with common sense, an understanding of basic economics and capitalism and the ability to negotiate with others from a position of power.
Right with you. Could not vote for him in 2016, simply did not trust him. Voted libertarian. By 2018 I would crawl over broken glass to vote for him. He does what he says, he solves problems. Trump 2024.
TDS makes people mentally ill. I'm convinced it's happened to a Facebook friend of mine. She's 83, ethnically Greek, married to a man who is Jewish.
She's obsessed with Trump, and is becoming downright hysterical. In an email to her yesterday, I pointed out that all of the "progressive" student demonstrations against Israel are of the Left.
In her reply, I could almost hear her shrieking. She has become irrational. She denies that the contemptible brats who are pro Hamas are Leftists. ( Most of them aren't, really. Anyone who has seen interviews with some of them knows how colossal their ignorance is. As the journalist, Priscilla McMillan, commented about Lee Harvey Oswald, whom she interviewed in 1960 after his defection to Russia, he thought he was a Marxist. It gave him an identity. )
This woman is not, I think, suffering from dementia. She was certain Kyle Rittenhouse was a murderer. And I can't stand to cope with her anymore.
Well throughout history mass manias and delusions have been documented. TDS definitely falls into that category. So does covid & climate zealotry, and this new pro-Palestine evangelism.
Come to think of it, aren't they all different manifestations of the same authoritarian leftism?
I think so. It seems to me that all Leftism has eschatological realization as its guiding idea. It holds that everything worthwhile must be connected to the pursuit of a perfect world. Of course, it brings with it the guarantee of tyranny. Look at the monsters at Columbia, and their kindred dark souls all over the country. Can anyone doubt that they'd be our slave masters if they became an electoral majority? I think we're blessed, really, to have their poisonousness on such garish display. If the pro - Hamas demonstrators emulated the great dignity of the civil rights demonstrators of the early 1960s, they might have a lot more people inclined to consider their point of view.
A conservative temperament knows that if there is ever a perfect world, the Divine will have to bring it about. You can be economically pretty far Left and still be a temperamental conservative. I am.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed Josh, most of the TDS people have no ability to debate or care to be right about specifics. I truly crave debate with different views as it’s the only path to wisdom. But it’s almost never that I get a decent debate form them.
Well they also believe in pronouns and that men should compete with women if the man thinks he’s a woman. Which when you think about that holy shit how crazy are these people?
Many of them, even those who understand the gender crisis, understand that Hamas are evil and Israel is defending itself, who reject the apocalyptic climate BS, and are against DEI, still believe to the bottom of their hearts that Trump is a monster, an evil antisemite, a racist, who will take supreme power and murder all of his detractors starting Day 1. I wish I were making this up. But I hear this with my own ears from family and friends (my own husband) who cannot bear to listen to anything that contradicts these beliefs. They won’t debate because they can’t debate. That would require actually listening to the other side and evaluating it with an open mind and perhaps, even, being willing to change their minds. This is so threatening to their very self-identity.
Exactly. And if you ask them about Trump's frustrated attempts to build concentration camps when he was President, they give you the blank look which is an emblem of their minds.
Wait, there are people against the gender crisis & DEI, anti-Hamas, reasonable on climate, BUT who still have TDS?
I haven't seen that from where I'm sitting but certainly I believe it.
What I've seen is people who are incredibly disillusioned with Trump and his persona, and who would rather see a more traditional Republican like DeSantis in the candidacy. Many such people also resent that Trump won't distance himself from his Administration's misjudgments during the covid clusterfuck, such as ceding power to Fauci and Birx, and staking all bets on Operation Warp Speed.
I understand all of these objections to Trump. I’m a disaffected Democrat and actually voted for Hillary in 2016. But in 2020 I did vote for Trump and was roundly attacked by my nearest and dearest for voting for EVIL!!!! I turned out to be a whole lot smarter than them (especially the ones who stopped talking to me as a result) but for 2024 I much preferred DeSantis for his walking the walk as a governor. I also preferred DeSantis because I disliked Trump’s “baggage” and knew it would discourage a lot of independents in 2024 making a Biden reelection more possible. Nevertheless, right now, it is so critical to defeat the Democrats that I advise anyone who agrees but is concerned about Trump’s “character” to hold their effing noses and vote for him. Otherwise, we as a nation are done!
I vote for principles over personalities. I do not expect to vote for Trump, but I am securely in the camp of America First.
I read one of John McWhorter's books long ago: Losing the Race. Have not kept up with his current positions. To hear him describe "Trump supporters" in a monolithic way surprises me. He is critical of Black culture in a way that made me see him as conservative; I thought he would be critical of DEI.
In Losing the Race, he claims 3 factors of the community that are self-defeating. The first is anti-intellectualism; McWhorter is a linguist and used examples of black students studying linguistics, that didn't even have proficiency with a second language, didn't show up to class, and scrambled to complete the coursework. The second is separatism; should be self explanatory. The third is victimology; also self-explanatory.
To be honest I think he’s quite centrist. He’s had a lot of shit from the crazed left because he was anti affirmative action. Smart guy, but he’s got his biases as a man who’s worked in academia a long time. I think for a man like that it’s hard to see the appeal of Trump.
I can understand that position. But the way he generalizes people aligned with Trump is certainly questionable. I would expect more from him, even if he personally feels aligning with Trump is distasteful.
What gets me more than anything in this political moment is people like McWhorter who see the chaos unleashed on the left but still insist on voting for it. Lionel Shriver is another TDS carrier, although she did say recently that the law fare perpetrated by the Dems against Trump sets a very dangerous precedent.
I don't love everything that Trump does, either. I do think he is pretty funny (or rather, petty funny?) but he definitely has some glaring personality faults.
What I do love, however, are results based on decisions made for the benefit of society.
My take on TDS is similar to my take on a lot of our other current problems: our country has been softened by feminization, so that most people can't prioritize real, objective thoughts on behalf of society, over feelings for a particular individual or cause.
They have been taught WHAT to FEEL, instead of HOW to THINK...their brain has zero influence over their heart ("their truth").
Not American, but I'll be voting conservative this time for the first time in my life, too. Hopefully before ALL of the American trends fully land in my country. It's exceedingly obvious that way too many already have, but it seems like a "not yet too late" situation over here. 😫
I did not vote for Trump in 2016. Didn’t vote for Hillary either. But I did vote for him in 2020 because I felt that he did was better than I expected and Biden would be exponentially worse, which I was right about. There are many things I dislike about Trump, and I think he is making more than a few dumb moves in his current campaign. But I won’t vote for the great mistake that is the Biden presidency.
Same here. Trump should quit disparaging those that don’t kowtow to him. He should focus on solutions. Personally, I don’t know how he has persevered since he started his political runs. I admire his tenacity more than I dislike his narcissistic ways.
Democrats, Media, the Spook community, edu and the deep state responded to the populist uprising that Trump signified, by re-igniting race hatred among "oppressed" minorities. That, plus a wide open border, plus the sterilization and sexual mutilation of children, and covid-con authoritarianism, is why I will be voting for Trump despite that I think he is not anything like as strong as we need, to lay waste to the DC mostly bipartisan occupier of America.
The Left has neither curiosity or a sense of humor. Trump may not appeal as a dinner companion, but he has a unique skills set for the job we need filled. In addition, he's done it before. We know what life was under his watch. Don't invite him to dinner. Hire him to right this ship. And for heaven's sake, if you can't do that please just don't vote.
I actually needed to read this today. I went through this last night with my own husband. Only his opinion of Trump voters and the fact that this still-registered former liberal Democrat voted for Trump in 2020 is frequently expressed at 100X the hysterical condemnation compared to McWhorter. I try to explain my position exactly as you stated it here. I add on the obvious fact that Biden and the Dems are throwing Jews and Israel under the bus with their constantly flip-flopping rhetoric and tolerance from true antisemites in the party. But my husband is convinced that it is Trump and his minions who will make us wear yellow stars and herd us off to the death camps if he is elected. There is literally no way to calm him down when he reacts to what I think is rational discourse. He has declared me “mentally ill” and that I need an intervention to get me out of the cult I am in.
Thanks, Josh. Pure projection. I could say more, but not in public. I will say we have been in couples therapy for nearly 2 years and we were back at square one this past week.
I'm not in the U.S so have no skin in the game either way.
But as an outsider looking on, I don't know how any sane, rational, critical-thinking adult could not see the glaring dichotomy between the Biden years, compared to the Trump years.
Add to that the eternal mystery of why people keep voting Democrat despite year after year of nothing ever improving, and Democrat run cities falling into ever-greater decay, poverty and lawlessness.
And finally the complete insanity of the lunatic positions and policies the Left advocate.
I believe that the reason for Trump Derangement Syndrome is that:
1) Trump strongly disagrees with the policies of the Left. Those who are Left of Center hate anyone who disagrees with them strongly. It is just a matter of degree.
2) Trump’s political style stands in stark contrast to the social conventions of highly educated professionals. Most Republican politicians have conservative policies, but they present those policies in a manner that is amenable to highly educated professionals. They would fit right in a corporate boardroom.
3) Trump knows how much his political style pisses off the Left-of-Center professionals, so he deliberately provokes them, so they will reveal the fundamentally irrational nature of their worldview. They fall for it every time by exploding in irrational rage, and every time it drives up Trump's political support. Trump reveals that under all their polish, they are unhinged ideologues. So they destroy themselves.
4) Half of the electorate is tired of being morally bullied by our institutions that have embraced ideologies of the Left, and they like it when they have a bigger bully stand up for them. Everyone loves it when their bully gets beaten up. They know he is a narcissist, but he reveals the narcissism in our institutions.
The reality is that Trump's policies are not that different from a typical moderate Democrat of the 1990s. He just has a different style, and it is perfectly crafted to get Leftists to reveal who they really are.
So true, thanks for pointing that out. It’s snobbishness and false pretense in essence? I find that most people of the Left live in self-contradictory worlds, they are all about costumes and mouthing falsities to “impress” because they seem to have a hard time with truth or authenticity?
They are the most in-authentic people around, and their actions and words never seem to line up? That is why they are so big on political correctness, it allows them to hide who they really are under the carefully crafted makeup plastered all over their face - and I used to be a Democrat who used the word “liberal” to describe myself.
I was never into political correctness, I think people I knew on the Left liked me because they knew I was authentic in what I said, even if they couldn’t handle some of the things I said. Looking back, I didn’t see how I could have been so fooled by who these people were, the last 2-3 years have opened my eyes in many ways, and I still can’t believe I gave these people the time of day let alone votes!
Voted for Trump in the Arizona primary, and will do so in November, Arizona needs to go back to it’s Republican roots…. This being said by a lifelong “Democrat.”
Criticism of Trump echoes criticism of Truman. Even though Truman was a Democrat, and a man known specifically for his integrity, especially to his wife, who was the one love of his life. I think people’s objections to Trump are a lot more about class snobbishness than morality or public policy. Not how they like to see themselves.
It’s no longer left vs. right.
It’s good vs. evil.
This could not be more obvious at this point.
For those who STILL think voting for the Biden regime is acceptable, I have one question, “Why do you want to inflict harm on your fellow Americans?”
This kind of inflammatory rhetoric only contributes to the extreme polarization and partisanship our country is currently grappling with.
Who caused the polarization?
Who created the partisanship?
Who is responsible for inflaming emotions?
It is those up to no good. Those who, motivated by pure malice, intend to deliberately cause as much harm as possible.
If you have failed to perceive this - even at this extremely late date - there is no hope for you.
P.S. Advocating for CENSORSHIP in my presence earns you an immediate rhetorical smack down. I was kind this time. Don’t do it again.
There’s no such thing as one-sided polarization.
And dude, chill. This is an online forum.
There certainly IS one-sided polarization when you steal an election, corrupt the judiciary with partisan activists, subvert, undermine and control all mainstream media, weaponize the security services, the police forces, the military and the Internal Revenue Service - and many, many other departments of government - AGAINST American citizens. This is the epitome of TYRANNY.
Shall we talk about all the Johammad Talibiden regime’s dozens and dozens of violations of the law regarding J6, which amount to TREASON against the nation? Shall we get into the corrupted, two-tiered justice system where the illegitimate usurper squatting in the American People’s White House gets away with PROVEN, DOCUMENTED instances of accepting BRIBES from foreign adversaries?
I have zero qualms asserting forcefully that the partisanship and polarization comes the Marxist-controlled demonrat party.
You complicit enablers of this criminality have no clue of the magnitude of the shit storm that will imminently engulf your kind. You deserve it times one million.
There will be no tears shed for demonrats. Scratch an demonrat and just below the surface there’s a criminal beneath - every time.
There will be no reconciliation - only punishment for provable crimes. Your calls for curbing partisanship and polarization fall on deaf ears at this point. You will reap what your kind has sown.
All evidence of unprecedented criminality is recorded. It has been recorded for years. All of it. The Internet is forever. There is no escape from the inevitable consequences.
K.
The source of the polarization is defining "Our Democracy™" as "our guys were elected, so they get to do anything they want in the name of the 'common good' - and if if that doesn't work for you or even harms you, you have to just take one for the team".
That is not the social contract - the only social contract that can be sustained between human beings - this nation was founded to respect and protect.
************
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
************
Not just any powers that sound good to us, but just powers … powers that do not work against the reason government is instituted: to secure these rights. Unalienable rights, which supersede even a majority vote - to be restricted only when one's free exercise of them poses a clear, present, and significant interference with the free exercise of those rights by others.
When strictly respected, this sets limits upon our government operatives in their ability to reach into our lives – to “first, do no harm” as Hippocrates put it.
It neutralizes identity politics. It is respectful of all spiritual worldviews that are compatible with it, instead of giving one faith (that happens to see its gods in their mirrors) exclusive access to our institutions for its spread.
And strict allegiance to it maximizes the amount of distributed intellect applied to our problem-solving processes – engaging millions of people with common sense and proximity-informed insight that a “little intellectual elite in a far-off capital” CAN’T possess – by incentivizing the responsible exercise of individual initiative instead of expecting government to solve one’s problems FOR them and therefore submitting to its operatives.
I’m conservative and Trump was not my first choice in the Republican primary of ‘16 but by the time the nomination rolled around, he had won me over. Not because of his personality but because he had a plan that I agreed with, that he was able to articulate to the people. And I liked him even more when he did most of what he set out to do. What politician does that these days?
I can tell you that I’m very involved in county politics and know a whole lot of conservatives, right-leaning libertarians and moderate Democrats and the vast majority of us who support Trump are not into “hero worship”, we’re into saving our republic and seeing it led by someone with common sense, an understanding of basic economics and capitalism and the ability to negotiate with others from a position of power.
Right with you. Could not vote for him in 2016, simply did not trust him. Voted libertarian. By 2018 I would crawl over broken glass to vote for him. He does what he says, he solves problems. Trump 2024.
I will crawl over a mile of broken glass to vote for Trump and it ain’t because I’m enamored by him…
LOL. Same.
TDS makes people mentally ill. I'm convinced it's happened to a Facebook friend of mine. She's 83, ethnically Greek, married to a man who is Jewish.
She's obsessed with Trump, and is becoming downright hysterical. In an email to her yesterday, I pointed out that all of the "progressive" student demonstrations against Israel are of the Left.
In her reply, I could almost hear her shrieking. She has become irrational. She denies that the contemptible brats who are pro Hamas are Leftists. ( Most of them aren't, really. Anyone who has seen interviews with some of them knows how colossal their ignorance is. As the journalist, Priscilla McMillan, commented about Lee Harvey Oswald, whom she interviewed in 1960 after his defection to Russia, he thought he was a Marxist. It gave him an identity. )
This woman is not, I think, suffering from dementia. She was certain Kyle Rittenhouse was a murderer. And I can't stand to cope with her anymore.
Well throughout history mass manias and delusions have been documented. TDS definitely falls into that category. So does covid & climate zealotry, and this new pro-Palestine evangelism.
Come to think of it, aren't they all different manifestations of the same authoritarian leftism?
I think so. It seems to me that all Leftism has eschatological realization as its guiding idea. It holds that everything worthwhile must be connected to the pursuit of a perfect world. Of course, it brings with it the guarantee of tyranny. Look at the monsters at Columbia, and their kindred dark souls all over the country. Can anyone doubt that they'd be our slave masters if they became an electoral majority? I think we're blessed, really, to have their poisonousness on such garish display. If the pro - Hamas demonstrators emulated the great dignity of the civil rights demonstrators of the early 1960s, they might have a lot more people inclined to consider their point of view.
A conservative temperament knows that if there is ever a perfect world, the Divine will have to bring it about. You can be economically pretty far Left and still be a temperamental conservative. I am.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed Josh, most of the TDS people have no ability to debate or care to be right about specifics. I truly crave debate with different views as it’s the only path to wisdom. But it’s almost never that I get a decent debate form them.
They insist Biden/Democrats are better “just because” rather than than articulating policy outcomes that actually helped anyone
Well they also believe in pronouns and that men should compete with women if the man thinks he’s a woman. Which when you think about that holy shit how crazy are these people?
Many of them, even those who understand the gender crisis, understand that Hamas are evil and Israel is defending itself, who reject the apocalyptic climate BS, and are against DEI, still believe to the bottom of their hearts that Trump is a monster, an evil antisemite, a racist, who will take supreme power and murder all of his detractors starting Day 1. I wish I were making this up. But I hear this with my own ears from family and friends (my own husband) who cannot bear to listen to anything that contradicts these beliefs. They won’t debate because they can’t debate. That would require actually listening to the other side and evaluating it with an open mind and perhaps, even, being willing to change their minds. This is so threatening to their very self-identity.
Funny check this out…
https://tjswift.substack.com/p/why-i-fly-the-confederate-battle/comment/54875403?r=14enoz&utm_medium=ios
Exactly. And if you ask them about Trump's frustrated attempts to build concentration camps when he was President, they give you the blank look which is an emblem of their minds.
LOL!
He didn’t build the concentration camps in which Hamas family members were water boarded and tortured mercilessly? Are you sure?
He planned for a speedy trial for all the Jan. 6 gulag prisoners, though, of course. You can tell these concerns keep him up at night.
But don’t worry after four years in gulag he will be providing cardboard tasting pizza for all of them. Whata’guy, yeah huh.
Thank you. It's a phenomenon when someone makes an incomprehensible comment.
Wait, there are people against the gender crisis & DEI, anti-Hamas, reasonable on climate, BUT who still have TDS?
I haven't seen that from where I'm sitting but certainly I believe it.
What I've seen is people who are incredibly disillusioned with Trump and his persona, and who would rather see a more traditional Republican like DeSantis in the candidacy. Many such people also resent that Trump won't distance himself from his Administration's misjudgments during the covid clusterfuck, such as ceding power to Fauci and Birx, and staking all bets on Operation Warp Speed.
I understand all of these objections to Trump. I’m a disaffected Democrat and actually voted for Hillary in 2016. But in 2020 I did vote for Trump and was roundly attacked by my nearest and dearest for voting for EVIL!!!! I turned out to be a whole lot smarter than them (especially the ones who stopped talking to me as a result) but for 2024 I much preferred DeSantis for his walking the walk as a governor. I also preferred DeSantis because I disliked Trump’s “baggage” and knew it would discourage a lot of independents in 2024 making a Biden reelection more possible. Nevertheless, right now, it is so critical to defeat the Democrats that I advise anyone who agrees but is concerned about Trump’s “character” to hold their effing noses and vote for him. Otherwise, we as a nation are done!
I vote for principles over personalities. I do not expect to vote for Trump, but I am securely in the camp of America First.
I read one of John McWhorter's books long ago: Losing the Race. Have not kept up with his current positions. To hear him describe "Trump supporters" in a monolithic way surprises me. He is critical of Black culture in a way that made me see him as conservative; I thought he would be critical of DEI.
In Losing the Race, he claims 3 factors of the community that are self-defeating. The first is anti-intellectualism; McWhorter is a linguist and used examples of black students studying linguistics, that didn't even have proficiency with a second language, didn't show up to class, and scrambled to complete the coursework. The second is separatism; should be self explanatory. The third is victimology; also self-explanatory.
He is very anti DEI
To be honest I think he’s quite centrist. He’s had a lot of shit from the crazed left because he was anti affirmative action. Smart guy, but he’s got his biases as a man who’s worked in academia a long time. I think for a man like that it’s hard to see the appeal of Trump.
I can understand that position. But the way he generalizes people aligned with Trump is certainly questionable. I would expect more from him, even if he personally feels aligning with Trump is distasteful.
McWhorter is not a leftist. That the author identified him as such reflects his bubble.
Not a leftist but a liberal in a classic sense and these days liberals need to stop sitting on the fucking fence.
What gets me more than anything in this political moment is people like McWhorter who see the chaos unleashed on the left but still insist on voting for it. Lionel Shriver is another TDS carrier, although she did say recently that the law fare perpetrated by the Dems against Trump sets a very dangerous precedent.
Ooof. I'm quite sorry to learn that about Shriver.
Shriver has come out very strong against the border crisis. I struggle to believe she'll remain a Biden supporter a second time around.
I don't love everything that Trump does, either. I do think he is pretty funny (or rather, petty funny?) but he definitely has some glaring personality faults.
What I do love, however, are results based on decisions made for the benefit of society.
My take on TDS is similar to my take on a lot of our other current problems: our country has been softened by feminization, so that most people can't prioritize real, objective thoughts on behalf of society, over feelings for a particular individual or cause.
They have been taught WHAT to FEEL, instead of HOW to THINK...their brain has zero influence over their heart ("their truth").
Not American, but I'll be voting conservative this time for the first time in my life, too. Hopefully before ALL of the American trends fully land in my country. It's exceedingly obvious that way too many already have, but it seems like a "not yet too late" situation over here. 😫
Good commentary Josh.
I did not vote for Trump in 2016. Didn’t vote for Hillary either. But I did vote for him in 2020 because I felt that he did was better than I expected and Biden would be exponentially worse, which I was right about. There are many things I dislike about Trump, and I think he is making more than a few dumb moves in his current campaign. But I won’t vote for the great mistake that is the Biden presidency.
Same here. Trump should quit disparaging those that don’t kowtow to him. He should focus on solutions. Personally, I don’t know how he has persevered since he started his political runs. I admire his tenacity more than I dislike his narcissistic ways.
Democrats, Media, the Spook community, edu and the deep state responded to the populist uprising that Trump signified, by re-igniting race hatred among "oppressed" minorities. That, plus a wide open border, plus the sterilization and sexual mutilation of children, and covid-con authoritarianism, is why I will be voting for Trump despite that I think he is not anything like as strong as we need, to lay waste to the DC mostly bipartisan occupier of America.
The Left has neither curiosity or a sense of humor. Trump may not appeal as a dinner companion, but he has a unique skills set for the job we need filled. In addition, he's done it before. We know what life was under his watch. Don't invite him to dinner. Hire him to right this ship. And for heaven's sake, if you can't do that please just don't vote.
I actually needed to read this today. I went through this last night with my own husband. Only his opinion of Trump voters and the fact that this still-registered former liberal Democrat voted for Trump in 2020 is frequently expressed at 100X the hysterical condemnation compared to McWhorter. I try to explain my position exactly as you stated it here. I add on the obvious fact that Biden and the Dems are throwing Jews and Israel under the bus with their constantly flip-flopping rhetoric and tolerance from true antisemites in the party. But my husband is convinced that it is Trump and his minions who will make us wear yellow stars and herd us off to the death camps if he is elected. There is literally no way to calm him down when he reacts to what I think is rational discourse. He has declared me “mentally ill” and that I need an intervention to get me out of the cult I am in.
I'm really sorry this is something you have to deal with in your marriage Sandra. From your description it sounds like projection.
Thanks, Josh. Pure projection. I could say more, but not in public. I will say we have been in couples therapy for nearly 2 years and we were back at square one this past week.
Holy cow! You have my sincere sympathy, I am sorry you have to deal with that.
Hi Josh, thanks for your continued voice of reason!
This is a little bit off the topic… But I thought you might enjoy this stack as someone else is calling out this behavior as cluster B:
https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/cry-havok-and-let-slip-the-dogs-of?r=r9ckx&utm_medium=ios
I'm not in the U.S so have no skin in the game either way.
But as an outsider looking on, I don't know how any sane, rational, critical-thinking adult could not see the glaring dichotomy between the Biden years, compared to the Trump years.
Add to that the eternal mystery of why people keep voting Democrat despite year after year of nothing ever improving, and Democrat run cities falling into ever-greater decay, poverty and lawlessness.
And finally the complete insanity of the lunatic positions and policies the Left advocate.
I'd be voting for anyone NOT that.
I believe that the reason for Trump Derangement Syndrome is that:
1) Trump strongly disagrees with the policies of the Left. Those who are Left of Center hate anyone who disagrees with them strongly. It is just a matter of degree.
2) Trump’s political style stands in stark contrast to the social conventions of highly educated professionals. Most Republican politicians have conservative policies, but they present those policies in a manner that is amenable to highly educated professionals. They would fit right in a corporate boardroom.
3) Trump knows how much his political style pisses off the Left-of-Center professionals, so he deliberately provokes them, so they will reveal the fundamentally irrational nature of their worldview. They fall for it every time by exploding in irrational rage, and every time it drives up Trump's political support. Trump reveals that under all their polish, they are unhinged ideologues. So they destroy themselves.
4) Half of the electorate is tired of being morally bullied by our institutions that have embraced ideologies of the Left, and they like it when they have a bigger bully stand up for them. Everyone loves it when their bully gets beaten up. They know he is a narcissist, but he reveals the narcissism in our institutions.
The reality is that Trump's policies are not that different from a typical moderate Democrat of the 1990s. He just has a different style, and it is perfectly crafted to get Leftists to reveal who they really are.
I go into more detail in these articles:
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/where-does-ideology-come-from
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/why-the-left-undermines-progress
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/the-left-has-hit-a-historical-dead
So true, thanks for pointing that out. It’s snobbishness and false pretense in essence? I find that most people of the Left live in self-contradictory worlds, they are all about costumes and mouthing falsities to “impress” because they seem to have a hard time with truth or authenticity?
They are the most in-authentic people around, and their actions and words never seem to line up? That is why they are so big on political correctness, it allows them to hide who they really are under the carefully crafted makeup plastered all over their face - and I used to be a Democrat who used the word “liberal” to describe myself.
I was never into political correctness, I think people I knew on the Left liked me because they knew I was authentic in what I said, even if they couldn’t handle some of the things I said. Looking back, I didn’t see how I could have been so fooled by who these people were, the last 2-3 years have opened my eyes in many ways, and I still can’t believe I gave these people the time of day let alone votes!
Voted for Trump in the Arizona primary, and will do so in November, Arizona needs to go back to it’s Republican roots…. This being said by a lifelong “Democrat.”
Criticism of Trump echoes criticism of Truman. Even though Truman was a Democrat, and a man known specifically for his integrity, especially to his wife, who was the one love of his life. I think people’s objections to Trump are a lot more about class snobbishness than morality or public policy. Not how they like to see themselves.