F’n Rubes Who Shovel S***, or Virtuous Manhood

Avi Woolf

3rd class Elder of Zion. Wilderness conservative/traditionalist. Buckley Club alum. Chief editor of @conpathways.

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16 Responses

  1. Dude, this is soooo good! Love it!Report

  2. Chip Daniels says:

    I think it was Tod Kelly who wrote a terrific essay during the 2016 campaign where he noted that virtually everyone in the Trump campaign was some sort of grifter, con man or hustler.

    There is that Hannah Arendt quote going around of how the death of a healthy republic is when the people join in this cynicism, and applaud the strongman for his clever lies and deceits, and smugly pride themselves for being in on the con.Report

    • Saul Degraw in reply to Chip Daniels says:

      Tod is not the only one to note this but I think it is more complicated because the cons are also true believers to a certain extent. It is hard to pull an Alex Jones, Jacob Wohl, Steve Bannon, Breitbart, etc without believing in some or a lot of it. But they somehow managed to figure out how to combine their hatred of liberals with grift.Report

    • Aaron David in reply to Chip Daniels says:

      Ah yes, the “All My Political Enemies Are Con Men!” trope. I was sad in ’16 and it is sad in ’20.

      Should we ask Michael Avanatti’s opinion? How are the Piss Hookers doing?

      Dude, bad actors are on all sides, trying to swindle you. But if you try to play it off as only being the other side, well, let us just say someone already made you the mark.Report

      • Chip Daniels in reply to Aaron David says:

        Did you see my Hannah Arendt quote about citizens applauding cynicism, and decide to recite it unironocally?Report

        • Aaron David in reply to Chip Daniels says:

          While I am in general a big fan of Ms. Arendt* I don’t think your use of a possible quote by her (we don’t know, as you don’t bother to use an actual quote) is warranted. It is not in the slightest bit cynical to point out that both sides of a political debate need to clean up their backyards. And to point out that the person most heavily invested in pointing out a con is in fact guilty of falling for a con himself, well, let us say the I wrote the correct reply.

          *She and my great grandmother’s brother went around together after the holocaust talking to various groups about the holocaust. Believe me when I say I am very familiar with her.Report

          • Chip Daniels in reply to Aaron David says:

            Yes, it is the very essence of cynicism to imply there is not a profound difference between two things.

            Because the BSDI claim is always simply a desperate diversionary tactic to produce a squid cloud of confusion, never to clarify.

            Trump is running the single most corrupt administrations in modern history. No amount of confusion can conceal this fact.Report

            • Aaron David in reply to Chip Daniels says:

              Ah yes, the hiding behind the misdirection of BDSI… And the claims of corruption? Maybe we should have seen convincing evidence in the Dems ill-fated impeachment proceedings. The impeachment that the Dems didn’t even bother to invite the instigators of to their nominating convention, it failed so spectacularly.

              No, Chip. at this point, your team is worse. You, and I do mean you specifically Chip, have endorsed riots that have lead to people’s deaths, have endorsed looting that has destroyed minority communities, you have endorsed lying in your politics to win an election. You, who want a race war to live out your fantasies of 1968 redux.

              No, Chip, it was your party that destroyed any chance of police reform in your blind rage against Trump. There is no BDSI here. You are the bad guys.Report

              • Chip Daniels in reply to Aaron David says:

                Notice how I started by talking about the corruption and grifting of the Trump campaign and administration, then the topic somehow changes to the riots and race relations.

                Weird, its like no one wants to talk about the corruption and grifting of the Trump campaign and administration.Report

              • George Turner in reply to Chip Daniels says:

                Oh, let’s talk about it! Remember Solyndra and the other green energy boondoggles where Obama’s friends and major donors got insanely rich while their companies went bankrupt? Why did the Chinese government give Joe Biden’s son a billion dollars to play with? Why did a Ukrainian energy company give him a multi-million dollar no-show job, and why did that company then launder its money through a US investment firm whose major stockholder was Obama’s national security advisor? Why did Obama, his cabinet officials, his UN ambassador, and the heads of his intelligence agencies attempt to rig the 2016 election and spy on the Trump campaign?

                Oh wait, you wanted to talk about Trump. Gee, if only the press was interested in investigating anything he did, like eating two scoops of ice cream. If only the Democrats would maybe launch an impeachment investigation to try and uncover any evidence of wrongdoing.

                The problem you have is that Trump is so rich that he can afford to lose hundreds of millions by being President, whereas people like Obama and Hillary entered politics poor, straight from the working class, and somehow ended up with hundreds of millions of dollars.Report

              • Aaron David in reply to Chip Daniels says:

                Notice how I showed the corruption and con artistry of the Democrats and you immediately tried to change the tune.

                Weird, it’s like you aren’t willing to hold a mirror to yourself and see the deep disfunction of your own party and how hollow any message it sends truly is. And every time someone tries to show you this reflection, you scream corruption or some other buzz word to push away the spotlight. But given an opportunity to show this supposed corruption, you fall victim to your own hubris.Report

  3. fillyjonk says:

    I’ve been saying for several years now that the rules my parents taught me growing (mostly about honesty and fair-dealing) seem to have been forgotten, and that I sometimes feel like a chump for continuing to stick to them. But, God help me, I cannot do otherwise.

    I don’t know what the answer is.

    I think there are a lot of people out there like me, discouraged at what we see happening in the world, keeping on keeping on doing what we were always taught, wondering if we were the ones who were actually wrong all along…I mean, I know in a moral sense I’m not, but….

    It’s also probably always been like this and now people are just no longer ashamed of being open about it, and in some circles it’s actually celebrated.

    You see this big and little; so so so many petty politicians in my region have been found to have had one hand in the city’s till, or doing things that are a pretty blinding conflict of interest. I don’t know if power corrupts or if it attracts the pre-corrupted, or if the responsibility it carries is so awful that at some point you say “Fish all the people telling me to do stuff, I’m just gonna get mine.”Report

    • greginak in reply to fillyjonk says:

      Most of us are still being good the way our parents taught us. The brazen cheaters and liars get all the press. Surely having no shame has become a winning tactic which sucks and blows. But i still don’t think in the long run that will work. In any case if that works on some people to hell with them, I’m still going to live my life right.Report

      • Oscar Gordon in reply to greginak says:

        Cheaters and liars were bound to float to the top once it became clear that winning and holding onto power for the sake of power was more important than doing ‘good’ with that power.Report

        • greginak in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

          True. But there are cycles in everything. To many Americans have been bedazzled by hucksters for a few decades now. That may be burning out now. Or of course it could be getting worse. But it ain’t the kids who seem most suckered. It’s the olds.Report

          • Oscar Gordon in reply to greginak says:

            The olds might be suckered, but the kids seem to be working the system as it is. I don’t see younger people as thinking Trump is something other than what he is, I see them voting for him because he can be manipulated into pushing their agenda(s).Report