rolling explaining conservatism

It’s amazing. They are doing a number, just stick with us. Don’t believe what you see from these people in the fake news. Don’t believe that crap you see from these people, the fake news.

Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening.

“he has too many skeletons, he can’t have a public divorce.”
“the issue was he wanted her to WANT to have the group sex and got upset she didn’t”
“Has mom been tested for STDs?”

https://spectator.us/2018/07/has-mom-been-tested-for-stds-the-manaforts-home-life-and-why-it-matters/

everyone is corrupt and only looking out for themselves or lying to themselves about it. people only vote "democrat" to tell the popular republicans in their family to keep their distance at thanksgiving, christmas, and weddings, because they're failed, poor, and/or cheap

I must tell you that Paul Manafort’s a good man. He was with Ronald Reagan; he was with a lot of different people over the years, and I feel very sad about that. Doesn’t involve me but I still feel, you know, it’s a very sad thing that happened. This has nothing to do with Russian collusion. This started as Russian collusion; this has absolutely nothing to do . . . this is a witch hunt that ends in disgrace. But this has nothing to do what they started out, looking for Russians involved in our campaign. There were none. I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. Again, he worked for Bob Dole; he worked for Ronald Reagan. He worked for many, many people and . . . the way it ends up. It was not the original mission, believe me. It was something very much different. So, had nothing to do with Russian collusion. We continue the witch hunt.

it's hard to live in a world where smug centrists are always smarter than i am

"Remember this has nothing to do with Trump!"
"None of this has anything to do with Russia."
"Time to legalize tax evasion ... "
"This is still in no way a "vindication" of the Mueller witch hunt."
"Speaking of unpaid taxes, did Al Sharpton ever pay up, or does he, as a Liberal Democrat, just walk unscathed?"

"neutrollization"

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0967010618785102

why do right wing nut jobs always default to calling their enemies p3d0z?

Projection

mr. trump wrote the "op-ed" to show liberals how wrong they are about his intellect and inflexibility. on halloween he'll reveal he's really Q, and the liberals will be forced to admit he's a stable genius. #maga

mike tokes!

BOMBSHELL: Christine Blasey Ford’s brother worked with Peter Strzok's sister-in-law at Exelis Inc, a US Defense and Intelligence contractor.

•Jill Strzok is Peter Strzoks' sister-in-law
•Jill Strzok works with Thomas Blasey
•Thomas Blasey is Christine Ford's brother pic.twitter.com/KTFBM6TZxd

— Mike Tokes (@MikeTokes) September 29, 2018

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/

Trump’s only true skill is the con; his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear: immigrants, black voters, feminists, and treasonous white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. The president’s ability to execute that cruelty through word and deed makes them euphoric. It makes them feel good, it makes them feel proud, it makes them feel happy, it makes them feel united. And as long as he makes them feel that way, they will let him get away with anything, no matter what it costs them.

As much as it's a facile opinion, it does seem like owning the libs is the only coherent way to explain modern conservatism. Which is maddening, which is the point.

i'm not sure how into christianity trump is, but otherwise that's otm

white evangelicals sure are into him, so he reciprocates the love

for sure. also, he attended sermons by norman vincent peale as a youth and was certainly influenced by the kind of cult of solipsism that peale helped make into the true american religion

i'm actually surprised that connection hasn't been mined more in essays. "the power of positive thinking" definitely had a huge impact on trump and his refusal to acknowledge facts that don't fit his narrative. he's one of the few people other than his father that trump has openly cited as an influence

I think one thing that the election made crystal clear is that 'christian' is more of an identity than a religious belief for most americans. the facade that the right was a bunch of true believers was something they lost in 2016 that they'll never get back.

Me: 'I don't like Brussels sprouts so I will opt to not eat Brussels sprouts.'
A conservative: 'I don't like Brussels sprouts so there is nothing I won't sacrifice in the long-term pursuit of filling the Supreme Court with justices who will rule Brussels sprouts to be unconstitutional.'

Funny that, conservatives over here don't like Brussels much either.

"having integrity and morals limits one so. lying, cheating, getting help from our enemies makes it so much easier"

The right has followed the Powell Memo, the 1971 roadmap for business domination of politics written by Lewis Powell — then a corporate lawyer and soon to be a Supreme Court justice — almost exactly, except for this part: https://t.co/X0lD6zlhjj pic.twitter.com/cO1WF89J7Y

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) October 9, 2018

i'm actually surprised that connection hasn't been mined more in essays. "the power of positive thinking" definitely had a huge impact on trump and his refusal to acknowledge facts that don't fit his narrative. he's one of the few people other than his father that trump has openly cited as an influence

Gary Lachman's Dark Star Rising - https://garylachman.co.uk/dark-star-rising/ - gets into the influence of Peale on Trump and expands outward to the occult via Dugin, Evola, etc. Worth checking out.

except for this part

that part turned out to be too costly and ultimately superfluous to the success of the program

"presidential harassment" -- sure thing, mitch ; )

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-urges-dems-not-investigate-trump-after-midterms

no joke, this is pretty good

https://newrepublic.com/article/151603/nihilist-nation-empty-core-trump-mystique

are all your other posts jokes then or

Yeah I started reading that article with the same feeling of frustration that I read the GQ "Republicans all hate you" article a few days ago, like, the feeling like "oh great another article that isn't actually getting it" but then this article started to get it, I think. There's more to it than this, I feel? But I'm not smart enough to unpack it

I liked that quite a lot thx. Normally when things get so reductive i get all “theres way more than THAT” but i think the mutually reinforcing relationship of nihilism and endstate capitalism well.

I don't know, the premise of the article is good and I'd like to have seen where he was going with it but, really, where was the editor? I made it as far as the Mike Pence and Lady GaGa bit and then I thought the author of this has got lost in the woods

where was the editor?

i'm finding a lot to enjoy in the article, but this sentence stopped me in my tracks. especially the second half.

In the same way as antecedents for Donald Trump can be found in Roman tribunes and Nazi demagogues but not in any previous American president, you will search the historical record in vain for persuasive evidence confuting that nihilism in this country is something new.

there must be a simpler way to make that point. holy shit

I read it a third time and took delight in the author's preference toward more cryptic phrasing. I feel like it's actually kind of necessary? to get you to the "the answer, trite as it is, is l-o-v-e" ending

Xp I had the same issue with that sentence. Wtf is “confuting?”

causing confusion

confusing is just refuting. my main point of confusion was the presence of several dozen negatives in that sentence and trying to figure out which ones canceled each other out

= in the same way as
*antecedents for donald trump*
+ can be found in roman tribunes and nazi demogogues
- but non in any previous american president,
::
+you will search the historical record
-in vain
+for persuasive evidence
-confuting that
*nihilism in this country*
+is something new

in other words, "nihilism in this country is something new."

I think there is a lot of truth to this article

before anyone criticizes, yes, i am a professional sentence diagrammer and that was my very best effort

also, on the whole i liked that article a lot and recognized a lot of what the author was talking about in people around me, and impulses that i have, as well

i'm gonna be the one to say that it felt like this guy was stretching... a lot

I honestly don’t think he is.

Nihilism sounds like a kind of hysterical term but he definds it well here. And he is right: trump supporters aren’t pursuig some kind of positive good that is just different from ours, in mant cases their sole motive seems to be “owning the libs” or else exacting some kind of punishment on their target groups (women, minorities, percevied “cultural elites”) from which they will draw no benefit. This is a passion for negativity, not just selfishness.

The aversion to climate research is the most symptomatic thing here in my view. They’re hurting themselves too.

they're impervious to harm though because they've already been mugged by reality

punishment on their target groups (women, minorities, percevied “cultural elites”) from which they will draw no benefit

the religious cohort of the right wing at least defines such punishment in positive terms, as the ascendancy of the power of right and good over evil and wrongheadedness. they see this as pleasing to god, as beneficial to society and therefore to themselves as followers of god and members of society. in their terms, it is redemption rather than nihilism.

I think it’s more likely they’re so alienated they don’t really grasp consequences, experiencing the world as some kind of spectacle from which they’re disconnected

Xp qualmsey

I think those people are different than the bulk of people who are really embracing this trump wave. Most of his supporters seem to be enjoying his offensiveness—they’re along for the ride. It doesn’t seem like it’s about punishing the wicked in some fundamentalist christian sense although those people are around too

xps - for some of the Trump supporters that is no doubt true. but when you paint at least 80 million people with such a broad brush, you're going to be wrong every time, both in large and in detail.

i think maybe it's a self-aware kayfabe routine, wearing a 'trump 2016: fuck your feelings' tshirt to a 'war on christmas' protest rally, laughing inside, grimacing outside, sticking it to the virtue-signaling know-it-all libs who don't "get" "hypocrisy"

The article doesn’t say that trump supporters are the only nihilists, aimless. He says there is a larger crisis of meaning and trump’s rise is just the most prominent example of it. The author also singles out postmodern academics. It’s definitely not a trendy position but I think there’s truth to it. You can’t have a functional society where everyone is an iconoclast.

The article doesn’t say that trump supporters are the only nihilists, aimless. He says there is a larger crisis of meaning and trump’s rise is just the most prominent example of it.

and that capitalism drives people toward nihilism