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Notes -
Newsom basically calling for a boycot of Target.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/did-governor-newsom-spark-target-boycott-among-liberals
So he’s not too happy that red tribe has learned how to cancel something. I think we are approaching a day where you have to declare your allegiance. Red or blue.
I usually don’t like Balaji and think he’s a smarter hack who knows how to grift, but I think he’s right in this thread
https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1659094966671425536?s=46&t=aQ6ajj220jubjU7-o3SuWQ
And Scott had a thread about how pride is just like every other cities holiday posted recently. I can’t find it.
America seems to be in a religious war between two cultures now. A couple years ago red tribe didn’t know how to wield power. Desantis has done that highlighted by his war on Disney and grassroots red tribe found their first success with Budweiser. Twitter going Musks was an obvious red tribe move. Jan 6 and Trump overall was a movement that hadn’t found their real leaders who could use power.
I don’t think religion is that strong anymore on the right. I say this because there is a lot of tolerance for Trump being not a Christian. He bangs hookers. So red tribe has an internal sub-war between their traditional alpha male and their good Christian Desantis.
I do like Scott’s metaphor of this being a time like when Christianity took over the Roman Empire. No one believed in the old pagan gods anymore. And I think blue tribe would have won this but they made two crucial mistakes:
The movement doesn’t have a great place for males. Who have always dominated every society.
The trans movement has a lot of vibes of backward religions. Getting kids to cut themselves up and change their bodies has a lot of vibes of practices we long since banished.
I see the Trump bit as alliance, and not really endorsement. It’s not that religion isn’t strong, but that they’re not powerful enough to win without allies who share their goals. Religion has what it always does — jihad. Religious groups tend to be much more likely to go scorched earth, to be willing to give up everything for a win. Everyone else has a price. The business community will stop when it becomes clear they’ll lose their money if they continue. People seeking power will align with the winning side eventually.
And I think what’s happening on the right is people learning to use social power effectively . They know that they can cut woke down at the knees by cutting off the money. They know that if they can make sales drop 20% they get the behavior to stop. They’re no longer afraid of the beast before them. I’m not sure that the woke are going to do as well as people think they will. They’re used to calling the shots with little opposition, and simply getting their way. Businesses aren’t going to be nearly as eager to anger Americaners as they’ve shown that they can turn the screws equally as well as the left can. Which, depending on what wokies do next could make the thing shift.
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