domain:drmanhattan16.substack.com
Jiro
15hr ago
"Let's not be charitable to someone who thinks the children are little fascists" strikes me as a pretty fair norm.
JarJarJedi
15hr ago
You know, one can gain a lot of wiggle space by alluding to secret thoughts of Trump and imagining what he really thinks based on tortured interpretations of some words (like, if he thinks destroying a monument to some person might be bad idea, that means he actually embraces the single worst thing they ever thought and those of everyone they ever associated with, because that's totally how people work). But when you go out and say Trump did not condemn white supremacists while he did, I personally heard him do that, and there's a lot of recordings of him doing it - the game is over. There's no longer any pretense that you are interested in finding any kind of truth or revealing anything in the vicinity of it. It's pure partisan manipulation, and can be only seen as such.
anti_dan
16hr ago
I don't think he's done any soul searching, he's done whatever is intended to get people like yourself to think he's done a soul searching.
This is the fellow who ran the Journo-List after all. You should require extensive and overwhelming evidence to convince you that he is not a malicious actor, he has not provided such evidence.
Instead, he has a shtick, which is talking in PBS voice, which makes him sound reasonable as he says unreasonable things. The most recent example I am aware of is his podcast episode entitled something like "Trump's Blue Scare". In said episode he scares his listeners into thinking Trump is going to use Charlie Kirk's death to fire half the federal work force for being Democrats, round a bunch of people into cages, etc. What happened after Ezra recorded that pod? Jimmy Kimell got back on air, and ICE facilities were attacked by sniper fire. Basically the opposite of what he predicted. He's completely disconnected from reality in a way that makes me suspect everything he says is simply an attempt to cynically convince suburbanites that the Democrats are worth voting for.
OliveTapenade
16hr ago
I could be in an echo chamber. But, it sure feels like the truth.
Surely all echo chambers feel like the truth? That's the function of an echo chamber.
CertainlyWorse
No one is coming. It's just you.
16hr ago
Thanks, I'll take a look.
CertainlyWorse
No one is coming. It's just you.
16hr ago
The Baroque Cycle
No, but I do like Neal Stephenson from Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, so I'll look into it. Thanks.
JarJarJedi
16hr ago
The Whitmer Kidnapping Plot
The one FBI has constructed pretty much out of the whole cloth? There was not ever any danger, and Trump is completely free to condemn any Democrat politician - especially given as they actually tried to put him personally in jail on ridiculous charges, and did the same to many of his followers.
Paul Pelosi Attack
The whole story is beyond ridiculous, the guy is a full blown nutter, but somehow is made to be an ideological crusader for the right.
It was that unequivocally condemning a white supremacist who committed murder should be the easiest thing a president does
And he did it. And the Left still continues to lie for years that he called Nazis "fine people". Still lies about it. Because it doesn't matter what he does, he will always be accused of something, even if it's a complete fabrication.
This is probably the most he ever did in that his office issued a written statement condemning the attacks
And that's still not enough for you, somehow.
But when he actually got in front of a microphone he couldn't resist the opportunity to dunk on Tim Walz.
What, he should have made a solemn vow never to criticize Walz again? Did Walz made the same vow when Trump had been shot? Did any of the Dems do anything like that, or did they keep calling him Hitler and threat for democracy that must be removed by any means necessary?
As the years past the plight of the poor insurrectionists became a cause celebre on the right,
Because the whole "insurrectionist" thing was a total bullshit - unlike, for example, the kind people of Portland and Chicago right now, even the most unhinged of them never strayed beyond what has been seen many, many times in many, many leftist protests. Of course the right pushed back on this bullshit - which did not prevent the FBI from unleashing absolutely horryfiying suppression campaign, where every last grandma who stepped for a minute into the Capitol was prosecuted harsher than if she were a Mexican drug cartel boss. If anything was demonstrated by this very well, it's the fact the FBI actually can squash any group or organization they want like a tiny insect, and the fact that the violent left had been performing their activities largely unhindered, starting with 2017 inauguration riots, through Covid/Floyd violence wave and now to the massive insurrections in major Dem cities - is not happening because they lack the capacity to make it stop.
But how many things has Trump said that would have traditionally disqualified a presidential candidate?
Did he ever told anybody he would like to murder his opponent's kids? No? Well, bye.
Since you asked for a source for when the right dropped the ball with regard to objective facts, back in 2012 George R.R. Martin commented about red tribe voter suppression. In response, someone in the red tribe claimed that “the Obama administrations lawsuit in Ohio is meant to prevent active duty servicemen from being allowed to vote early”. The right wasn’t even being told the same story the left was.
I think that what Mr. Jones said was disgusting and should torpedo his chances of election. You’re still overreacting.
And yet when I say something perfectly innocuous and reasonable like “blow it out your ass Janny Hotpockets, you DO IT FOR FREE”, suddenly that’s a three day ban. Not this time though, I’m sure you’ll extend me the same charity you extend to Mr. Jones.
JarJarJedi
16hr ago
none of the smarter MAGA people believe the narrative.
What's "the narrative"? I certainly think that Biden had been absolutely horrible. I don't have legal education enough to see if he could be plausible charged with treason (probably not successfully), but I think he certainly did not have mine or The People's interests in mind even in those rare moments he was able to keep anything in mind. And certainly whoever was running the autopen in his stead - which must be some kind of serious crime, though I again don't know how to properly call it - did not. Do I want Biden on the gallows? Shit no, what would it give me? I don't even really want him in jail, he probably wouldn't be able to even understand what's going on. But I wouldn't mind seeing in jail some of the people who were running the clown show. But much more important is to do everything possible to undo at least some of the harm that they inflicted on the country and the society. If believing all that makes me an "idiot" in your eyes, so be it, it's not my problem.
FarmReadyElephants
16hr ago
I started a wiki, Memory Whole (https://memorywhole.tv/), inspired by the idea that a lot of the analysis and events on twitter is useful to know, but too fleeting and drowned in noise.
I currently have signups enabled, but I have to manually add people to the editors group. I'm planning to do a big announcement soon
Quantumfreakonomics
16hr ago
ThenElection
16hr ago
I haven't met a non-communist straight man who has 'volunteered for the democrats' or 'worked on the campaign'.
As a (admittedly bi, but married to a woman) man in a deep blue city, I'll raise my hand. A half lifetime ago, I spent several years getting my paychecks from Democratic campaigns and the DNC (depending on when in the cycle we were).
Thinking about my ex-coworkers (who were mostly male) I've stayed in touch with, I'd say a third to a half are now thoroughly disenchanted with the Democratic Party, with the turn toward identity-based politics being a repeated, major point brought up by them.
Though none of us have voted Republican, AFAIK.
hydroacetylene
16hr ago
Trump being anything other than pro-israel?
I for one would much rather go to Bumfuck University, USA than have the misfortune of setting foot in the UK. Even if the school might be "better" an Oxford graduate is looking at a far lower salary than a graduate from a completely mediocre US school. And good luck networking, because the snooty aristocrats certainly won't let you in the club.
going to the Ivy League is like being a member of Annabel's and all the new money connotations that gives while going to Oxbridge is like being a member of The Athenaeum (even being a member of White's is more respectable than being a member of Annabel's); for those of us who know, we know...
Sounds like a bunch of stuck up people starting a cool kids club to cope with the fact that they make less money than a Taco Bell store manager in the United States. Literally the only people who care are the people who got in.
Personally, I'm partial to Sam's.
Edit: Apparently I can get reciprocal membership to the Athenaeum. Maybe I should show up just to ruin all those elites days for having to deal with being in the presence of a schlub like me.
JarJarJedi
16hr ago
Democrats don't want you dead, because the democrats asking for your head don't have any understanding of violence.
Most of them may not have a practical knowledge of how the violence is done, but they will wholeheartedly support, enable and defend those 10% who do. And another 10% who want to and will play the meat shield for the previous ones should it prove necessary (like it's happening in Portland right now) and commit as much of haphazard and ineffective violence as they can, fully taking advantage of the fact that nobody would fight them like the real enemy (while they would, as much as they could). And those 20% are enough to deliver a lot of damage, especially given that there's no organized opposition to them so far (every attempt to do what they are doing on the right had been forcefully squashed by the law enforcement, and likely many of those were the fake from the start, clearly created to weed out the active 10% on the right and put them out before they can do anything).
Grunts are cheap though. Cheap and replaceable. If you have tens or hundreds of thousands of people who think murder of political opponents is A-OK, and all their peers think the same, and all their reference circle thinks the same, and literally everybody they know think the same - it won't be hard to find one or two to commit the action when necessary. Gavrilo Princip wasn't some kind of superhuman terminator, he was a poor student. Most assassins are totally unremarkable. The candidate pool of them is inexhaustible once the proper mindset is entrenched.
My point is, they shout about killing Trump because they are unable to imagine the act of killing, punching or drawing blood.
I am not sure how the person with knowledge of the events event for the last year can say something like that. I mean, they literally shot him in the head. And tried to do it again. They very well can imagine it, and that's exactly what they imagine in their wet dreams (when those aren't occupied by trans furry porn, of course). Many of them may not know the technical details of how to effectively do it, but as we are being proven repeatedly, it doesn't take a superhuman, just a random joe with the demonic idea possessing him harder than most of his peers.
The slightest glimpse into real violence leaves a lasting negative taste in one's mouth (unless you're a psychopath).
Their ideological drivers are smart. They know humans don't like violence. That's why the decades-long campaign of dehumanization of the right is (was, has been) necessary. Violence against Nazis is not real violence. That's why this word is being used. It's a marker. Once you are marked a "Nazi", you are excluded from the human empathy mechanism, and the left by now is very well trained to do this. It may have taken a long time, but now it is done. The code is written, uploaded and running. The barrier is down. There's no pit in anyone's stomach about killing the Nazis, only the righteous rage towards the enemies of humanity.
then, call in the national guard.
Haven't you heard yet? National Guard is now owned by a certain Portland judge, and she in the Supreme Commander. Nothing can be called anywhere unless all Antifa-loving judges agree with it. So, you have nobody to call.
faceh
16hr ago
I'm comfortable saying that if someone IS comfortable shooting a child, I would rather they be launched into a volcano by trebuchet than continue co-existing with them. Much less they have political power over me.
Sure I can think of justifications for possibly shooting a kid, but a person who does should be pretty repentant and broken up about it, probably to the point of having PTSD. Incidentally the apparent callous disregard for children as casualties is why I'm not really rooting for a "side" in the Israel Palestine conflict.
So I do NOT want to accuse this guy of being okay with kids getting shot, lest I also have to suggest he get launched into a volcano.
But the casual ability to joke about a specific person's children that way is definitely irksome. Its fair to demand much, much better of public servants.
Butlerian
Not robot-ist just don't like 'em
16hr ago
Women making porn is disgusting and harms them, but the Left messaging on that is not ‘You’re pigs, we want to let you’ but ‘You are beautifully expressing your sexuality and simultaneously a victim of the patriarchy, men are disgusting and we want to destigmatise you’, which is the kind of double standard that men might noootice.
phailyoor
16hr ago
Meanwhile in Canada giving lethal injection to homeless mentally ill people is not only a mainstream political opinion, but the official policy of the government.
Quantumfreakonomics
16hr ago
there’s not much the rank and file can do to stop them.
All they have to do is check the box labeled “Ocasio-Cortez”. That’s it. Nothing can stop them if they decide to check the box.
ulyssessword
16hr ago
It's not surprising, it's appalling. The asymmetry is worth pointing out for that reason. And if it causes people to lose trust in the system? Tough shit, become trustworthy if you want to be trusted.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
16hr ago
I mean, sure, but also, how retarded were we when it happened?
This was a conversation he had when he was already a sitting state representative, with another sitting state representative for the opposite political party.
There are private conversations... and then there are conversations that are conceivably FOIA'able, and this, if not the latter, is really fucking close to it. To say nothing of it just being fucking stupid. In a world where "private conversation" summons up the image of signal chats being leaked, or pre-political career SMS messages or group chats, this is about as far away from that as possible, while still, maybe, and only maybe, being covered by the umbrella of "private conversation".
ThisIsSin
PC is for progressive-conservative
16hr ago
It is disgusting and harms them.
Yes, that is an objectively correct characterization of how my outgroup works in relation to me.
ulyssessword
16hr ago
The crucial mistake of the J6 protestors is that they were all incredibly stupid. The BLM rioters at least had the sense to operate primarily at night, conceal their identities, and choose locations that weren't guaranteed to be under God-level surveillance.
Organized, premeditated crime that takes active countermeasures against police actions is worse than unplanned or spontaneous crime, and yet I've seen it trotted out again and again as a defense of leftwing riots. It's not like you can cancel out a murder by also obstructing police, tampering with the crime scene, and conspiring to hide the shooters. That's just three extra crimes.
Do you know what functional states do when faced with (effective, organized) criminal opposition? They take it down. If regular policework isn't enough, then start creating specialized departments for it. Maybe it shouldn't be called the "Organized Crime" department since that name's already taken, but where are the police organizations dedicated to deliberate, organized criminal leftwing riots?
I thought Klein had it mostly right there, and it reminds me of something Dean said on this site a while back, albeit about fictional characters. Do so-and-so feel like they want people like me in their lives? Not just tolerate me, not be civil or 'inclusive', but genuinely want people like me to be happy? Do they want me around?
It's a piece of advice that I would actually generalise to all people. Be the kind of person who is interested in other people. Be the kind of person who wants other people in his life. As this applies to gender, I'm reminded of Eneasz Brodski writing about the same - be the kind of man who genuinely likes women, and look for the kind of woman who genuinely likes men. That doesn't necessarily mean sexually or romantically (here I like Dean's examples of celibate or homosexual women who clearly care deeply about white men in their lives), but you need to like other people.
Obviously policy matters and this is not the one weird trick that will fix all the Democrats' problems, but insofar as attitude or culture can help, I would advise them to start by trying to like - to genuinely like and appreciate - the kind of people they want to vote for them. You cannot say, or even imply, "vote for me you pond scum". Start by training yourself to like them. It's possible. Openness and affection for people is something that can be practiced.
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