I’m not sure how, but Woke 1.0’s focus on changing language was a big inhibitor to this.

i think this is dead on re: the first. Woke 2 needs to lean in heavy on "he a little confused but he got the spirit"

It’s fair to blame the Obama admin for using kid gloves with Russia, but a greater share of responsibility has to fall on Dubya. Iraq strained US alliances and left the US with sufficient foreign policy commitments that a confrontation with Russia appeared unaffordable.

I disagree on this causal relationship. I believe Trump is truly a gutter racist in the sense that his view of world is made up of a panoply of unexamined stereotypes. Trump’s political career is better explained by his belligerent sensitivity and narcissism, which easily coexists with racism.

This guy just makes shit up because he loathes Democrats more than anything in the world (except Israel). There’s literally no reason for Dems to engage with this wrecker.

Please join the liberals in our committee meeting

These guys are less driving and more clinging on. They are just one of many groups united by being desperate and/or amoral enough to attach themselves to Trump’s supernatural electoral strength. This is also how we have fascists without a mass fascist movement.

Astounding how many people will post this take as if it isn’t self incriminating (not Brian, lol)

every time I see Gladwell's name now I think about how he says that Americans didn't really talk about the Holocaust until James Woods starred in a TV miniseries in 1978

Another scream for action from me, in a world where the US is far from our best friend. Maybe one day the UK government might listen.

The major flaw with the claim that Trump's foreign policy is "realist" is the fact that it is so deeply ideological. There is no "realist" case for driving South Africa into China's embrace, rather than competing for its partnership. The only reason Trump is doing so is based on racist memes.

"grand strategy" [looks inside] politics

It’s all such transparent cope. “My wife left me because I’m too manly for her womanly sensibilities—it’s not that I’m just unpleasant for any human being to be around.”

Me, worried that a book I want to recommend on the blog is going to be at Academic Book Prices and then checking and seeing it has a reasonably affordable kindle version.

I understand folks are scared but I want you to think about the mechanics of this. There are more polling places (>100k) than ICE and CBP agents combined, so they can only pick a few districts to try to intimidate. Now what happens when cell phone footage of that goes online in the early morning?

This is a perfect example of how Democratic leadership making really modest demands puts the Republicans in a painful position. Either they accept these changes or they have to explain why the most basic standards are unacceptable. The lower the demands, the more costly it is to deny them.

in real terms, #7 would give states leverage to put an end to surges, #8 would give states the ability to outright stop construction of new detention facilities, #1 and #6 would slow the rate at which DHS could train and deploy officers, #2 and #10 would likely shrink the pool of recruits

i don't really give a fuck about the motivations (i recognize that kiwifarms' policy is wholly for self-preservation legal reasons), but the reasoning behind the policy doesn't matter, saying "we should doxx this person so they fear for their life" is a permaban offense on kiwifarms and not on here

In 2009, this was the mask of a UK SAS character in “Call of Duty.” By 2015 it was de rigeur among Iraqi government commandos and Shiite militiamen. In 2018, in “Sicario 2,” it was what CIA surrogate characters wore to disguise themselves as cartel gunmen. Now US law enforcement wears it.

Me rn

My read is that American leftism specifically has been unwilling to reckon directly with its unpopularity and instead falls into a cargo cult form of Leninism, preoccupied with building a “pure” vanguard to lead the inevitable awakening of the proletariat.

In that there's an outcome where the anti-MAGA movement appears broadly liberal and thus broadly popular (there are a lot of liberals) and so wins and there is an outcome where the anti-MAGA movement looks radical and leftist and thus unpopular (there are not a lot of radical leftists) and so loses.

I don't want to quote dunk but I saw another "body cams don't do anything" post and I just want to say that I, a criminal defense attorney, very much like having body cams.

They take on strategic proportions when that is the preponderance of the chatter. Really, we should shut the fuck up about tactics, nobody on this site has that job. Our job is to mobilize and vote. That's it. None of us are the Barber here.

Another argument in favor of inequality is that it channels the power-hungry away from the realm of government. Having them seeking the power of wealth is much less dangerous than them seeking the power of the state.

As well, while “it’s all envy” is going too far, there’s something to be said about how the truism of the evil of billionaires is colored by sour grapes. It’s very psychologically convenient that the people who are more successful than anyone is likely to be are also intrinsically morally inferior.

Attributing our woes to inequality or “oligarchs” seems to me to be a device for letting the public off the hook for voting for authoritarians.

It has to be reiterated that the criticisms of Democratic leadership are tactical differences and so the anger and volume of these criticisms should be proportionate (particularly since no one should have complete faith in any alternative!).

Thomas Paine discovering Substack and BlueSky:

And we’ll fill our vacant ranks with a million freemen more…

The crux of why I am very skeptical of this kind of argument about oligarchy is that the modern state remains an absolute leviathan. Elon Musk’s enormous wealth couldn’t even swing state races nor keep him in the White House when other courtiers outmaneuvered him.

Just one more dumpster bro, all those government thugs in tactical gear will see that we really mean business if we set just one more fire. We're just one fire away from The Revolution, I swear to you. Anyway, read theory.

The Gestapo did not copy slave catchers. That’s not a thing that happened.

100% agree with this and the British Election Study bot provides plenty of evidence for it - regularly spitting out actual voters with combinations of beliefs which the terminally online would regard as impossible

Even if you accept the false premise that violence is a necessary counterpart to nonviolent tactics, the violent component must be as distinct as possible from the nonviolent element. You would never want your nonviolent counterpart to be seen aiding or abetting the violent element.

Mike Pence showed courage and integrity in refusing to take part in the fake elector scheme, but he also showed fear—fear of what might happen to the man who openly defied the will of the American people. The Jan 6th mob would look like a picnic compared to what would assemble for a real steal.

I’m skeptical that Trump wants it and I believe the GOP as a whole is afraid of it, but aren’t willing to entertain any other options besides mild recriminations. The real issue is that Stephen Miller wants it (because he thinks major disorder will let him press the dictatorship button).

It’s always been a bad idea to bring up native Americans in the context of immigration. White nationalists very much embrace the frame of a foreign invader dispossessing the “native” people.

On China, Tooze may be more of a fan than an expert

OP does a great job showing off what so many liberals find so exasperating about leftists. It's the false consciousness crap. The lumpenproletariat and the ignorant petty bourgeoisie are finally ready to be converted if only the libs would get out of the way. No, dog, we actually like liberalism!

“Protests you find too spicy” is a hell of a euphemism for arson.

this poor guy's feed is such a casebook example of the death of knowledge. published expert on chemical weapons, long career in the field. constantly smothered by randos who half remember seeing something about people in hong kong and want to feel heroic and tell him to do research

I think these arguments are extremely popular not because they are particularly convincing but because they create a permission structure for what people perceive as the fun thing

If Trump is visited by three ghosts of statesmen past, present, and future…

Allow me to rush to say that economics columnist Adam Tooze knows nothing about Chinese military modernization. Being smart about one thing does not make you smart about everything.