The photos of the "crowds" at the tank parade remind me of when Bill Hicks would come on stage in an almost-empty club, scan the room slowly, and announce "I've had more people in bed than this" ...
When the president sends a cabinet member on TV to announce "We are using the military to liberate an American city from its elected leaders," where do you go from there. What is left to say. The idea of that being anything short of a near-universal "Wait, what the fuck is going on" moment proves how far we've backslid.
This is from 2022 but it was absolutely right. The practiced buffoonery of Trump 1, all the "just kiddings" and "seriously but not literallys" absolutely succeeded in desensitizing people who are hardly paying any attention to the harder stuff they always intended to do next. ...
The basic fallacy in chasing votes by being "tough on immigration" is that the modal American's position on the issue is "Deport the Bad ones and keep the Good ones," and they alone know who is which, and that simply does not translate into workable policy. So this kind of gestapo stuff horrifies some of the same people who cheered when Trump promised to do it. There are true sociopaths who love this, but "No, I meant only the BAD immigrants! Not my coworker/friend/neighbor!" is as likely a reaction as enthusiasm. You cannot do immigration policy that satisfies these people because what they want is nonsensical.
So by the time center-left parties fully commit to chasing the far right by "getting tough" on immigration, the backlash has already begun to build and they walk right into it. "I thought you people wanted this!" No, they want something impossible and convinced themselves they'd could have it - the "eat whatever you want AND lose weight!" of immigration policies.
It is hard to grasp but large masses of Americans are both racist/xenophobic AND not racist/xenophobic enough to applaud what Trump is doing. It's goldilocks shit, they want a level of racism/xenophobia calibrated exactly to their personal preferences, and you just can't make that policy. Don't try. ...
AP: Trump extends olive branch, invites Musk to White House cellar to taste some brand new amontillado ...
Rick says:
Have no fear, Ed. There is nary a shortage of pen-wielding editorialists who salivate at the thought of writing the next critically acclaimed piece of literature, or even just something to talk about at the water cooler. She is not one but part of a conglomerate of writers that write not for the art or the satisfaction of creating a well-crafted semantic masterpiece, but only to drop a bomb in a sewage tank and see who rushes to complain about her "well written" piece of work.
I went to college with a few of those folks…
J. Dryden says:
But…but, how can you say that she's stupid? I mean, she uses words like "naivete" and "idee fixe," so she must be smart! (Although…aren't those…*French* phrases?! The language of the enemy?! Hmmm.) And "dilemma" and "irony"–so, yeah, OK, she misused the latter, but–no, no, she *must* be correct, because nobody with a vocabulary like that can possibly be wrong!
And she really hit the nail on the head, Jerry Falwell style, when she correctly identified the significant role of the Wiccan pagans as part of the murderous cabal who took over where the Elders of Zion left off. Yep, can't trust those Wiccans. And those Buddhists. How dare we think of them as morally superior in their conduct? Look at all the acts of organized terrorism and violence that they, um, well–OK, shut up about that. Point is–Why are you siding with the terrorists???
I wonder…is Ed Anger from the WWN moonlighting at the Lexington H-L?–'cause that would explain everything about this piece.
Matthew says:
Close!
http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2001/community/re.htm
Jenean McBrearty, prof. sociology, Des Moines Area Community College
But she doesn't seem to appear on their website? Either she doesn't work there anymore, or she just pretended to in the first place. Hmm…
Ed says:
I would be so happy if it turned out that she's LYING about working at a Community College.
Working at a CC, now that would be funny on its own. But lying about something that meager….well, that's just priceless.
Tandarts Rotterdam says:
Pretty solid article. I think i saw an other site that had a post just like this one. This article is older so they probably copied it from your site
– Tandarts Rotterdam
Truman says:
This is a great post! keep the good job and if is possible write more posts about this.