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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   38178 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 2023

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Richard Hanania thinks Desantis should challenge Trump to a boxing match. Desantis's campaign so far has been pretty pathetic. He's been afraid to really push back against Trump despite Trump lobbing almost daily attacks against him. Desantis is great on paper, with his victories against woke institutions in Florida, but he's failed to appeal to the Republican id so far. Many Republican voters care far more about appearance and physical vigor than policy positions, good governance, intelligence, etc.

I don’t think Trump can lose a Republican primary at this point. But if I were giving DeSantis advice, it would be to do the opposite of what Abernathy suggests. Republican voters love the stupidity, obnoxiousness, vulgarity, and simian chest-beating. While the conventional wisdom seems to be that Rubio and Cruz tried rolling around in the muck with him and failed, Rubio’s most vicious personal attacks in 2016 didn’t come until after Trump had won the New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucuses, that is, pretty late in the game. And Rubio wasn’t the guy to do it.

Instead of seeing Republican primary voters as concerned citizens seeking a voice, try to imagine them as chimps laying around under a canopy. They’ve chosen the alpha male. He’s the loudest, most obnoxious member of the tribe, and his power depends on the degree to which other apes are afraid of him and give him symbolic displays of respect, which in this case has meant saying, for example, that he actually won the 2020 election. What could break this spell? Not reasoned arguments, but signs of weakness. And no, not weakness in the sense that he might not be the most electable candidate — that’s counting on a level of thinking that is far too abstract for this population.

Rather, one needs to emphasize literal physical weakness. Notice how obsessed Republicans have been with the real and imagined physical and cognitive shortcomings of figures like Biden and Hillary. In many corners of right-wing media, “our opponents are old, fat, ugly” seems to get at least as much attention as actual issues, especially during election season. In 2020, we saw doctored videos of Pelosi slurring her words go viral on social media, and this shows not only how susceptible the Republican base is to fake news, but also how obsessed they are with physical and physiological correlates of health.

The Dylan Mulvaney hysteria is another demonstration of the red tribe being driven by the most base and primitive instincts. These people started shooting beer cans with assault rifles because a company sent a six pack to a guy who acts like a sissy. Good luck explaining to them the importance of going after higher education accreditation agencies.

You might think it’s strange for a group like this to have chosen Trump as their leader. But when he posts memes of himself as an Adonis or says things like he’s in better shape than Obama or Bush were while they were in office, and no one corrects him, that serves to only cement his dominance over the party. Trump’s perfect body is like the unreliability of Dominion voting machines. Shirtless Putin has a similar effect in Russia. Educated Westerners roll their eyes at his primitive demonstrations of vigor, but I suspect that, like Trump, he’s a much better student of human nature than they are. The conspiracy theories might have been false, but the Trump-Putin bromance was real, and no accident.

This means that DeSantis’ best shot is trying to emphasize that Trump is physically weak and he no longer intimidates others in the party. You can’t do this with words alone. DeSantis can call him fat, and Trump can reply everyone is saying that I’m in the best shape of any man who’s ever lived, and the voters will eat it up. The Florida governor needs a way to clearly highlight that he’s younger, stronger, and more physically courageous.

DeSantis should therefore challenge Trump to a boxing match. Trump will almost certainly refuse, at which point he can say that this shows what a coward the former president is. Or, DeSantis could say that, on further reflection, maybe it wasn’t fair to challenge an 85 year-old man (yes, lie and exaggerate, Republican voters love that too), and he understands that his opponent is too feeble at this point in his life to get into the arena.

DeSantis shouldn’t do this out of the blue. He could start by trying to bait Trump into saying something particularly nasty about him, or preferably his wife or kids. Then he can play the role of the justifiably angry patriarch. Every time Trump launches a personal attack, DeSantis can reply by saying that his opponent is a pathetic coward, and if he has a problem with him he’s already made clear that they can settle their differences like men. If he’s not willing to do that, then we can stick to the issues, at which point DeSantis can go on about whatever he did in Florida. At the very least, a challenge to fight will eat up all the energy and make sure no other candidate gets any attention, as one of the main things DeSantis needs to do is make the primary into a two-man race.

Right now, the DeSantis strategy is to try to get the Republican voter to ask questions like “who is more electable?” or “who has shown more focus in fighting woke?” Those are exciting questions to conservative intellectuals but way too boring for the Republican masses. They will never tell a pollster this, but they resent anyone trying to make them think too hard, which is part of the reason they hate liberals in the first place.

There are a lot of ways that this could go wrong, and it probably wouldn’t work. But I think people are still yet to truly understand that, if things proceed as normal, Trump is going to be the nominee. Making sure he’s not would require meeting Republican voters where they are, instead of continuing to wish they were something else.

Richard Hanania thinks Desantis should challenge Trump to a boxing match. Desantis's campaign so far has been pretty pathetic. He's been afraid to really push back against Trump despite Trump lobbing almost daily attacks against him. Desantis is great on paper, with his victories against woke institutions in Florida, but he's failed to appeal to the Republican id so far. Many Republican voters care far more about appearance and physical vigor than policy positions, good governance, intelligence, etc.

Unless either of them is caught making a Nazi salute or soliciting for underage sex, or Trump is indicted and arrested for major crime, it's a horserace at this point until actual the primaries begin. it was like this at this time in 2015 too. It was close, and people still actually thought Jeb, Cruz, or Rubio could win . What makes it close is that they both have relative equal strengths and weaknesses. If wokeness is of paramount concern, then the choice is DeSantis. If you care more about immigration or economic nationalism , then Trump.

DeSantis not getting into a boxing match is the better strategy to appeal to the mass of the public, if he's serious about this campaign. Presenting himself as statesman-like and not getting into the mud to wrassle the pig is a better look for the undecided/swing voter. "He's not as populist as Trump, he's doesn't seem as bad as the Democrats are painting him, maybe I'll consider him".

If DeSantis is going to get into mud-slinging exchange, reserve it for Newsom. I think Hanania wants this kind of dumpster fire row because he has such hatred for the ordinary Republican voter, he thinks (and says) they're id-driven morons who know nothing and don't want to know, so he wants to be proven correct by having the two popular guys going at it like the abysmal beasts he says they are. That would prove him right to regard ordinary people with loathing and insult.

Relatedly, Trump just got indicted again.

"This time for sure!" one more time, eh?

yeah talk about timing. just minutes after my post.

To be fair, you did specify 'major crime,' and the current indictment appears to be deriving from the Mar a Lago raid. That was the one focused on taking classified documents from the administration... which occurred right before Biden was found to have documents in a literal garage from when he was Vice President.

Ultimately, I don't think this is an indictment that will change any opinions, especially given the contrast with Hillary.

If wokeness is of paramount concern, then the choice is DeSantis. If you care more about immigration or economic nationalism , then Trump.

DeSantis knows that "destroying wokeness," is a meaningless term that's simply throwing red meat to the base. What does that even mean in concrete terms, from a policy standpoint? Is he going to implement a national ban on gender studies or revoke gay marriage? If he's smart I think even he understands that he doesn't have much of a chance contending with Trump. Possibly, but his campaign may better serve his future odds of election, and this is just an attempt for name recognition.

Yet another "bake the cake, bigot!" case in favour of the Real Genuine Totally A Lady, this time a spa owned by a Korean and wanting to restrict attendance to women-only because the clients will be naked in the pool. Trans ladies can attend but they must be post-surgery. Twist to it is that the owner is not alone conservative but Christian.

"Women with dicks are valid too!" says activist, who then sues the spa and wins the case based on a phone call and not even turning up to attend and being refused.

Seattle District Court Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein on Monday upheld a discrimination ruling against Olympus Spa filed by local trans activist Haven Wilvich, who gloats about being “more woman” than many feminists who’re “only incidental.”

The traditional Korean Spa had maintained that its “women-only rule … is essential for the safety, legal protection, and well-being of our customers.”

It willingly accepted transgender women — but “only if they have ‘gone through post-operative sex confirmation surgery,'” the ruling noted.

Wilvich, however, “‘identifies as a woman’ but ‘is biologically male and has not undergone sex reassignment surgery,’” the court papers said, noting that the activist never actually went to the spa.

Wilvich told The Post on Friday that the complaint came after a phone call to the spa — not a visit — and being told that “pre-op trans women were not allowed.”

“They were breaking Washington state law and I reported that violation,” the activist said.

...Spa owner Myoon Woon Lee sued to reverse the decision, saying it defied his “traditional, theologically conservative” Christian values and put his clientele at risk.

Lee — who has owned the spa for 20 years — also “conveyed his fear that exposing female customers (especially minors) to male genitalia could subject Olympus Spa to criminal penalties.”

There had been “several” incidents where customers “noticed male genitals exposed ” in the spa — creating “humiliation, trauma, and rage,” a complaint by the owner said.

“Those patrons apparently demanded refunds and never returned.”

Lee claimed that the discrimination policy “requires them to service nude males and females in the same rooms,” forcing them to “choose between violating the law or their religious convictions,” his complaint said.

The cherry on top, if I may use that phrase, for me is this:

Meanwhile, Wilvich said she regrets that she was identified in the complaint, insisting that “my name never should have been part of the public record.”

She claims that the identification in the court documents is a “dangerous precedent to be set for minority people.”

So it's okay for Ms. Genuine Even Realer Woman Than Cis Women Haven Wilvich to remain anonymous while dragging the name of the spa and its owner into public view, which might get him into trouble, but I'm A Real Lady is endangered merely by being identified as the face-ache looking for cases to be offended by and go to court to force businesses to change their policies.

So much for downstream of "gay marriage will never affect you", eh? Trans rights activists took the game plan and ran with it.

Gosh, however can a reputation for "fighting wokeness" advantage DeSantis, you wonder?

The Bud Light and Target rows may be more pertinent now. Before, it was easy to paint DeSantis as fighting a stupid battle in Florida with Disney. But now? It's a national mood, baby! Companies not festooning everything with rainbows as much, DEI movie projects not doing so well - it's the pendulum swinging, and I think it really is down to "the children".

People will put up with a lot of stuff when it doesn't really impinge on their day-to-day lives. Oh great, the workplace has the Pride flag up on the wall for this entire month, whatever, I just put my head down and do my job.

But when it starts getting into schools, and when you have people arguing that six year olds do too know their own gender identity and it's genocide if you don't put twelve year olds on puberty blockers, then it starts hitting home. Then you have people going "Hang on a minute, I don't care what adults get up to, it's their choice, but what the hell do you mean I can't tell my kid there are only two sexes?"

DeSantis knows that "destroying wokeness," is a meaningless term that's simply throwing red meat to the base.

Really? There are lots of concrete proposals federally akin to what he's done in Florida.

  1. Schools. DeSantis narrowed curriculum requirements to stop giving woke teachers free range to teach whatever quack theories they wanted. Almost all student loans are now through the feds and are the lifeblood of universities. Make them conditional on total transparency on admissions, make them partially dischargeable after a number of years, and make schools financially on the hook for a portion of that discharged debt.

  2. Our of control bureaucrats. DeSantis, unlike Trump, has cultivated a corps of appointees he can port from FL to the US alphabet agencies.

  3. Transing the kids legislation is clearly a possibility under the gigantic federal medical bureaucracy. At a minimum, good appointments in the medicaid realm will stop federal dollars paying for such things.

DeSantis specifically talked about accreditation as a possible way to target wokeness in schools (also power of the purse with funding).

Also through SEC he can influence ESG standards.

Right. I had already stated above that there were things he's done, but how impactful it's actually going to be, I think is somewhat overstated. And on a federal level, what specific policies do his supporters think that 1) he's willing to propose and 2) is likely to get signed into law, that'll have the effect of "destroying wokeness?"

'build the wall' was almost equally meaningless and meat for the base

Oh definitely. I think he realized at some point he had to deliver something to show for it, even if it wasn't much. Equally, people like AOC and Warren's wealth tax, "eat the rich," Green New Deal was just as populist and unrealistic as "build the wall" was.

DeSantis has done lots to hobble woke indoctrination in education and also to energise citizens against it. That's been his most powerful point of leverage as as a state governor. The Presidency has different points of leverage.

Ironically Hanania has done more than anyone (except maybe Chris Rufo) to document how much of the modern woke-imperium is upheld by American law, especially civil rights law. Hanania is also the one who pointed out how much of that is actually done through executive orders. Any republican could deal a big blow to that, and their respective track records show DeSantis is likely to actually do it while Trump is not.

Trump didn't have an explicit aim to 'target wokeness' as a matter of his official platform, but I'd say he did the left far more damage as a matter of his public persona, than DeSantis could likely achieve by legal fiat. I think DeSantis has generated a much greater image that's incommensurate with the actual political impact he's had governing Florida. Sure, he's accomplished things, I'm not denying that, but I think far too many people who want to play up his qualifications largely discount the substantial media effect that the impact of his actions have actually had, in reality.

Trump just had to sit around as the establishment media wrung their hands and made complete fools of themselves, crying about this or that, demonstrating how little power they actually had.

Showing people what a complete farce the whole thing is, and leaning into it.

Sometimes I'd wonder if I was the only person on an island who thought the impact he had on the media was brilliant. The desperation with which they wanted to paint him as someone who was completely insane, left me with the sinking feeling that it was all projection that was true of the MSM itself. I sometimes get asked by people why I don't trust the media, and they look at me like I'm crazy; because it isn't something that can be explained in a 15 second elevator pitch, but requires extensive background. I think anyone who's even slightly educated as a layman under the whole 'manufacturing consent' framework for instance, can see the trappings of the American ideological system pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. Especially when you look at something like western coverage of the Ukrainian conflict.

Personally, I 'loved' what Trump did to the media.

I don't think Ukraine is a great example, so I wouldn't lean into it, otherwise I agree with you.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202112/1240540.shtml

We instigated the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

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