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Notes -
Update. Perhaps I should just include it in the thread I created below but I feel like they go dead.
I complained at the Iowa State Fair that Vivek wasn’t taking the mask off. Here he is. Calling transitioning as a child barbaric. Perhaps this is a sign of really good public speaker that he can be aggressive in one venue and come off compassionate in a different venue.
https://twitter.com/vivekgramaswamy/status/1691880080866263319?s=46&t=aQ6ajj220jubjU7-o3SuWQ
Musks also retweeted this speech and I’ll include his summary so you don’t have to click thru.
https://twitter.com/vivekgramaswamy/status/1692267994490060817?s=46&t=aQ6ajj220jubjU7-o3SuWQ
TRUTH.
Strategy interests me. The billionaires who were backing Desantis seem to be looking at Vivek now. They like myself don’t like Trumps persona. I now think Vivek is probably the best salesman for the GOP. Especially if they want to make arguments the PMC will listen to. Desantis I believe is the best get shit done member of the GOP. If you get where I’m going Vivek will make a lot of sense as the frontman President with Desantis as VP. Trump is the best at throwing a raving party and he’s really good at taking punches from the left and keeps moving forward. Which has bought him a lot of trust in the gop.
Strategically the GOP best move is to keep Trump as the poll lead until like March/April. Let them develop their lawfare election strategy. Then slide the nomination to probably Vivek maybe Desantis. The issue with this and one of my biggest problems with Trump is he doesn’t care as much about advancing an agenda as he cares about Trump winning. But for winning an agenda my thoughts today is this would be a very good strategy for winning.
Next thought. Vivek said “God is Real”. I assumed he was Hindu so was trying to figure out what he meant. So I had to go look at his Wikipedia and find out what that meant. He’s a monotheistic Hindu. I don’t know if that’s a true belief or something adopted to be more palatable to the right. Could be something explored in the election that he at some point will likely need to explain.
The other thing I thought of when he said God is Real is Marginal Revolution ran an article on St Thomas preaching the gospel in India. So I thought with him saying God is Real it might mean he was a member of that community. I didn’t even know about old Christian communities in India until yesterday. So perhaps there is a connection between St. Thomas and Monotheistic Hinduism. I do recommend reading the marginal posts as initially they thought St. Thomas wasn’t real but then some archaeologist found some stuff that confirmed a lot of the story.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/08/no-doubt-saint-thomas-reached-india.html
Ugh. I understand why shouting ten applause lights is effective; it doesn’t make it any more comfortable.
@Eetan mentions the Great Internet Flame Wars. I think that similarity runs deeper than the obvious. Forget the religious claims—you could start an atheism-style fight by dropping any of these into a forum. Even the ones which are, in theory, uncontroversial are flagrantly tribal. The act of publishing such a slate has been unfashionable since the early recession (outside of tumblresque enclaves). I don’t think challenging the social-justice left on those terms is going to pan out.
Note that Trump didn’t have to make statements like these to get attention. He sells a complete worldview in fewer words. Ambiguity in such a worldview is a feature, not a bug.
I can’t tell if Vivek is running this more as a Sneer against progressives or more as a Statement. If the former, Trump is going to eat his lunch. If the latter…well, I still think the FPOTUS will steamroll him, to be honest.
Those aren't applause lights, not everybody agrees with them. His supporters do but isn't the whole point of campaigning being in agreement with your supporters? 9 is a statement of fact but it's to be interpreted as an anti-corporatist/deep state message. The US isn't supposed to have Blackrock as a 4th branch, or launder decisions through social media companies.
That's exactly what makes it an applause light.
He's saying it for the supporters, who know the meaning, and know it means he's in the ingroup. Cue applause.
He's not saying it for people like me, since as you note, that's not what campaigning is about. It doesn't matter that I don't like it, or that I don't know the correct bogeymen to fill in the blanks. I understand that.
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