Since you are someone who has repeatedly argued that progressives have rhetorically contributed to Trump's win with things like defund and trans stuff and DEI, I assume you realized how silly it was for you, specifically, to post this, and left it up out of principle, for which I applaud you.
I think most of #2 are anti-Trump enough not to vote for him. These are people like Chait and Noah Smith, who probably vote Democrat at the state and national level pretty consistently. I mean, I'm sure some of them were angry enough at DEI to vote for Trump. But even if they didn't vote for Trump, they've contributed to his win rhetorically.
I'm saying the way GG played out, and who was part of it (demographically, but also specific individuals), looks a lot like the way anti-DEI has played out. Hell, at this point, Mar-a-Lago face is like the real life version of female characters in games having to have a certain look.
I think there are three main groups of "Anti-DEI" folks:
1) Racists and misogynists, which comprises the bulk of the right wing anti-DEI block.
2) People genuinely concerned about both the optics and the actual bad programs, which comprises some or perhaps most of the centrist anti-DEI camp.
3) Anti-woke leftists, who were under a previous terminology, anti-identitarian leftists, who are comprised of about 25% people who actually feel like identity obsession leads to division within the working class, and this limits class solidarity and action at the class level, and 75% racists and misogynists.
The genuinely concerned centrists and genuinely concerned leftists are outnumbered by the ones on the right, by a lot, and the ones on the right have pretty much all the power now, which means, in effect, that the centrists (less so the leftists, because there are so few of them that they're not culturally or politically relevant in anyway) have just been carrying water for the racists and misogynists. To me, this makes the differences in reasons behind their anti-DEI stances irrelevant, because the end result is always racists and misogynists winning.
This is also a helpful way of painting over socially unacceptable beliefs: convince yourself that the reason a person thinks your a racist or a misogynist is not because you've been openly misogynistic or racist, but merely because they disagree with you.
Gamergate did provide a really nice example of what the anti-"woke", anti-"CRT," and anti-"DEI" movements would look like conceptually, and even a hint about what sorts of people would be pushing these movements.
I suppose it says something positive about our society that we've reached a point at which misogynists and racists have to wrap their bigotry and hatred up into packages that they can, at least among themselves, argue is about something other than what it's clearly about.
I think USAID does real good, and it's a shame that's stuff is going away. It's very good that its black money and propaganda functions will be gone, though I assume agencies like the CIA will pick them right up.
I have mixed feelings about the administrative state, but the way it's being dismantled, and the speed with which it's being dismantled, are undeniably reckless and will cause a great deal of suffering while doing damage to a myriad of institutions that are, at least for the most part, good (like universities).
I don't think Xi sees the U.S. the way the U.S. sees China. Putin may see the U.S. the way the U.S. sees Russia, though, but if he were running things, I have no doubt that the military would be his first target, not cancer research grants or the Department of Education.
In fairness, it's not a particularly original idea. See, e.g., this book, which was written in '94, when Trump was just a hotel owner, serial bankruptcy filer, and frequent tabloid fodder, who was the primary cause of the death of the USFL.
This might be one of the strangest things I've seen someone say on this site. I can see a comparison to, say, Orbán, in that it looks like Trump is trying to remake the government and to some extent universities in his ideological image, but even that comparison, which unlike comparing him to Putin or Xi (two very different rulers from each other, even) makes some sense, is pretty limited. He hasn't yet gone after the press, or protestors in really, and even his attacks on universities (through withholding grant money) are nothing like Orbán's yet.
Leaving the realm of myth and religion, it strikes me as very much a case of the political struggles of Cold War and post-Cold War America "creat[ing] circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero’s part." Specifically, I think this is a path we've been headed down since the end of WWII, with all the contradictions, both domestic and international, of the economic and political order that came out of that.
DEI as like PR or QA or other common, in some cases even necessary corporate practices, is a pretty good way of thinking about it. It also helps explain why a lot of bad DEI programs or practices are out there, why there are a ton of people out there selling easily replicated and scalable DEI programs that probably don't do anything to promote actual D, E, or I.
The thing is, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a person who opposes DEI because of how it's implemented, and not because they think D, E, or I are bad things.
Re: Twitter, I plan to go down with the ship. I've tried a couple of the replacements, and find them either to be either very boring (Mastadon) or almost entirely populated by the sorts of people I went out of my way to avoid on Twitter (BlueSky). Since I see almost none of the far right stuff on Twitter, at least for now, it remains mostly bearable, though I did block literally hundreds of people talking about a certain conflict in a certain part of the world (including some people here).
Speaking of the far right stuff, Musk's attraction to it was apparent pretty much as soon as he bought Twitter, when he started interacting with those people openly over there. For example, he has repeatedly agreed with and amplified "Great Replacement" views.
I assume the use of dog whistles is really just trolling, because he's already shown us who he is, and everyone acting as though his flirting with the far right on Twitter, or hanging out with AfD in Germany, etc., doesn't mean he's like them is either kidding themselves or doesn't really care if he's like them.
Or such people are at this point just so reflexively contrarian about anything said by anyone to the left of the median House Republican that they've lost all sense of perspective and gravity.
If anything, what the Democrats have shown in this moment is that agency is something they lack completely. They are not agents, they are large blobs of jelly in expensive clothing.
“Russia messed with us during Vietnam, now we mess with them. Payback is a best served cold.”
I thought we got them back much sooner, in their "Vietnam."
Hopefully this time our payback doesn't produce villains who will haunt us for decades and result in our being mired in an endless war on a concept like the last one.
I'm genuinely curious about what made you so confident that he hadn't said it. Not only is it on his Wikiquote page, with the source, but it's from a pretty well-known Orwell essay, at least among people who actually read Orwell beyond the two books everyone's read. Hell, the essay has its own Wikipedia page:
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
Since you are someone who has repeatedly argued that progressives have rhetorically contributed to Trump's win with things like defund and trans stuff and DEI, I assume you realized how silly it was for you, specifically, to post this, and left it up out of principle, for which I applaud you.
"
I think most of #2 are anti-Trump enough not to vote for him. These are people like Chait and Noah Smith, who probably vote Democrat at the state and national level pretty consistently. I mean, I'm sure some of them were angry enough at DEI to vote for Trump. But even if they didn't vote for Trump, they've contributed to his win rhetorically.
"
I'm saying the way GG played out, and who was part of it (demographically, but also specific individuals), looks a lot like the way anti-DEI has played out. Hell, at this point, Mar-a-Lago face is like the real life version of female characters in games having to have a certain look.
"
I think there are three main groups of "Anti-DEI" folks:
1) Racists and misogynists, which comprises the bulk of the right wing anti-DEI block.
2) People genuinely concerned about both the optics and the actual bad programs, which comprises some or perhaps most of the centrist anti-DEI camp.
3) Anti-woke leftists, who were under a previous terminology, anti-identitarian leftists, who are comprised of about 25% people who actually feel like identity obsession leads to division within the working class, and this limits class solidarity and action at the class level, and 75% racists and misogynists.
The genuinely concerned centrists and genuinely concerned leftists are outnumbered by the ones on the right, by a lot, and the ones on the right have pretty much all the power now, which means, in effect, that the centrists (less so the leftists, because there are so few of them that they're not culturally or politically relevant in anyway) have just been carrying water for the racists and misogynists. To me, this makes the differences in reasons behind their anti-DEI stances irrelevant, because the end result is always racists and misogynists winning.
"
Hoping for some induced demand.
(I realize I'm using this term figuratively.)
"
This is also a helpful way of painting over socially unacceptable beliefs: convince yourself that the reason a person thinks your a racist or a misogynist is not because you've been openly misogynistic or racist, but merely because they disagree with you.
"
Gamergate did provide a really nice example of what the anti-"woke", anti-"CRT," and anti-"DEI" movements would look like conceptually, and even a hint about what sorts of people would be pushing these movements.
I suppose it says something positive about our society that we've reached a point at which misogynists and racists have to wrap their bigotry and hatred up into packages that they can, at least among themselves, argue is about something other than what it's clearly about.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025”
OPM doesn’t have the legal authority to make that request.
I just don't think this matters anymore.
"
You can't have mature capitalism without a welfare state.
"
More of the Seasteading, but instead its fortified neighborhoods, type.
"
"Defund the Police," Libertarian Edition.
"
I think USAID does real good, and it's a shame that's stuff is going away. It's very good that its black money and propaganda functions will be gone, though I assume agencies like the CIA will pick them right up.
I have mixed feelings about the administrative state, but the way it's being dismantled, and the speed with which it's being dismantled, are undeniably reckless and will cause a great deal of suffering while doing damage to a myriad of institutions that are, at least for the most part, good (like universities).
I don't think Xi sees the U.S. the way the U.S. sees China. Putin may see the U.S. the way the U.S. sees Russia, though, but if he were running things, I have no doubt that the military would be his first target, not cancer research grants or the Department of Education.
"
In fairness, it's not a particularly original idea. See, e.g., this book, which was written in '94, when Trump was just a hotel owner, serial bankruptcy filer, and frequent tabloid fodder, who was the primary cause of the death of the USFL.
"
This might be one of the strangest things I've seen someone say on this site. I can see a comparison to, say, Orbán, in that it looks like Trump is trying to remake the government and to some extent universities in his ideological image, but even that comparison, which unlike comparing him to Putin or Xi (two very different rulers from each other, even) makes some sense, is pretty limited. He hasn't yet gone after the press, or protestors in really, and even his attacks on universities (through withholding grant money) are nothing like Orbán's yet.
"
Leaving the realm of myth and religion, it strikes me as very much a case of the political struggles of Cold War and post-Cold War America "creat[ing] circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero’s part." Specifically, I think this is a path we've been headed down since the end of WWII, with all the contradictions, both domestic and international, of the economic and political order that came out of that.
On “From Vox: How Democrats should respond to Trump’s war on DEI”
DEI as like PR or QA or other common, in some cases even necessary corporate practices, is a pretty good way of thinking about it. It also helps explain why a lot of bad DEI programs or practices are out there, why there are a ton of people out there selling easily replicated and scalable DEI programs that probably don't do anything to promote actual D, E, or I.
The thing is, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a person who opposes DEI because of how it's implemented, and not because they think D, E, or I are bad things.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025”
One thing is for certain: if this country is well and truly cooked, then it's us who put it in the oven and left it there.
"
Re: Twitter, I plan to go down with the ship. I've tried a couple of the replacements, and find them either to be either very boring (Mastadon) or almost entirely populated by the sorts of people I went out of my way to avoid on Twitter (BlueSky). Since I see almost none of the far right stuff on Twitter, at least for now, it remains mostly bearable, though I did block literally hundreds of people talking about a certain conflict in a certain part of the world (including some people here).
Speaking of the far right stuff, Musk's attraction to it was apparent pretty much as soon as he bought Twitter, when he started interacting with those people openly over there. For example, he has repeatedly agreed with and amplified "Great Replacement" views.
I assume the use of dog whistles is really just trolling, because he's already shown us who he is, and everyone acting as though his flirting with the far right on Twitter, or hanging out with AfD in Germany, etc., doesn't mean he's like them is either kidding themselves or doesn't really care if he's like them.
Or such people are at this point just so reflexively contrarian about anything said by anyone to the left of the median House Republican that they've lost all sense of perspective and gravity.
"
1) Yes, it's pretty obvious at this point.
But more importantly,
2) Dude, are you on Twitter?
"
Turtles at least have some agency.
"
If anything, what the Democrats have shown in this moment is that agency is something they lack completely. They are not agents, they are large blobs of jelly in expensive clothing.
"
What could possibly go wrong?
https://x.com/RepTimBurchett/status/1889719640923762971
On “Beware: Promises Being Kept”
“Russia messed with us during Vietnam, now we mess with them. Payback is a best served cold.”
I thought we got them back much sooner, in their "Vietnam."
Hopefully this time our payback doesn't produce villains who will haunt us for decades and result in our being mired in an endless war on a concept like the last one.
"
Fair enough. Subtract a point for ChatGPT on that one.
"
Sorry, meant to link to the essay, and somehow didn't:
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/second-thoughts-on-james-burnham/
I'm genuinely curious about what made you so confident that he hadn't said it. Not only is it on his Wikiquote page, with the source, but it's from a pretty well-known Orwell essay, at least among people who actually read Orwell beyond the two books everyone's read. Hell, the essay has its own Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Thoughts_on_James_Burnham
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