“Donald Trump sent a mob to overturn the 2020 election. He called for the termination of all constitutional provisions that prevented his immediate reinstatement. He made it clear that if he regained the presidency, he would extend his abuse of the office. Kamala Harris warned voters repeatedly that Trump would try to rule (as he half-jokingly affirmed) like a dictator. But they re-elected him anyway. This raises serious questions about our country. Did Trump’s voters back him because of his authoritarian inclinations or in spite of them?” (11/11/24)
“The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, ‘I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.’ Those words came to mind as leading scientific and media figures lost any semblance of restraint or neutrality in bemoaning the results of the presidential election. After regaining their composure, the public was told to ignore what they had just seen. It was not surprising that the sweeping Trump victory last week produced near hysteria among some Harris supporters from women pledging to break up with men to others cutting off their hair to those pledging to flee the country (including one curiously announcing that he was ‘leaving the United States’ for Hawaii).” (11/10/24)
“On January 20, the federal government will be taken over by bad people. We don’t typically talking [sic] in those terms, instead referring to policy differences or diverse governing philosophies. But Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, and others about to step into important government roles are morally unworthy and often morally monstrous. In the coming months and years, many people will write many critiques of them and their aims. I’ll write many myself. But right now, I want to instead map out the alternative. If they represent politics for bad people, then over a series of posts, I’ll explore what it looks like to instead have a politics for good people.” (11/11/24)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“That’s all anyone should talk about when this psychopath finally dies. Anything positive he may have accomplished in his political career is a drop in the ocean compared to the significance of these mass-scale abuses. Biden spent his entire career promoting war and militarism at every opportunity, and then spent the twilight years of his time in Washington choosing to continue supplying an active genocide that is fully dependent on US-supplied arms. He refused off-ramp after off-ramp to the horrific war in Ukraine that has burned through a generation of men in that country, which he knowingly provoked by amassing a military proxy threat on Russia’s border in ways the US would never tolerate being amassed on its own border.” (11/11/24)
Source: Quillette
by Maarten Boudry & Steije Hofhuis
“Comparing other people’s beliefs to pathogens can be a cheap way of discrediting them, but the idea of ‘mind viruses’ still has real merit.” (11/11/24)
“As President-elect Trump weighs up the tariffs he has promised to impose, it is important to understand who will pay them. There is a popular misconception that when a country imposes tariffs on imported goods, it is punishing a foreign government or foreign firms. This is not a mistake made by economists. The tariff is paid at point of entry, and much of it goes to the government that imposed it. It is paid by the importer, a probable wholesaler, who passes it on in the form of higher prices for his or her customers. The usual aim of the tariff is to make imported goods more expensive so that people will buy good produced domestically instead. It gives the domestic producer an advantage by making the imported version more expensive.” (11/11/24)
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
I admit there are exceptions to the ability to engage in civil discourse. I’ve never figured out how to engage people that are convinced the earth is flat, for example. I’ve also been stumped by people that only trust (what seem to me) obviously bad sources for news and reject information from any and all legacy media (most of which I agree is far from perfect even if I think it often presents real facts). If my interlocutor only accepts what is said by sources all of which I reject and I only accept what is said by sources they reject, it quickly becomes (near?) impossible to go further — unless, perhaps, one of us has first hand evidence.” (11/11/24)
“Although Kamala Harris failed her bid for the U.S. presidency spectacularly on Tuesday, the biggest losers of the 2024 election were the Obamas. No one has had more influence on the Democrat Party in the last decade than the Obamas. The Democrat Party used to be a place working-class Americans called home. It was sympathetic to kitchen-table issues such as how soaring crime and food and gas prices affected ordinary Americans’ quality of life. But under President Obama’s leadership, the Democrat Party has been transformed into one dominated by what I refer to as ‘liberal coastal elites.’ These are individuals who reside in affluent coastal areas, often with leftist political views, and have embraced most radical left-wing social and economic policies.” (11/11/24)
“The 11th of November, specifically at 11AM is a sacred time that has taken on a religious observance among the victorious of World War One. A time to officially remember those who died in that war and the many others since, often with the observation of silence for a minute or more. It is when a nation is supposed to fall silent, stand still and dip its head for those who died in the service of King, President, Empire Or Government. It is to remember the millions who died in war that ended ancient dynasties and gave rise to new ones, a war that was supposed to be so terrible that it should have ended all wars.” (11/11/24)
