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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   38215 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.

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.

You may want to find a better source than the literal CCP propaganda mouthpiece.

No, we didn't.

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