JD Vance has proven himself the kind of loyalist for whom nothing exists but the loyalty, with his actions regarding the lies about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.
I keep trying to figure out how they’re going to fuck up the election - especially with Elon and all.
You can add Leonard Leo to the list you put together and we’ve really got ourselves a party! Seriously though, a considerable number of these people either were or have converted to (a pretty radical version of) Catholicism too.
Exactly. As I read it, I thought immediately about a young (former personal trainer) who is a former radical Catholic, now a converted radical evangelical Catholic, who, being in his thirties and smarter than anyone else on the planet, thinks exactly like these bros. It smacks of a subculture of white men who dream of a patriarchal society, where they live like kings and everyone else works for them. They are empty, and a little too big for their own britches. Unfortunately, some, like JD, are easy manipulated by the Peter Thiels of this world yet have enough brains to adopt the Thiel strategies to use against others on his own personal behalf.
That is a fantastic summary, TC. The only thing I would add is this: If they get their desires and overthrow the current "regime" or method of governing, they will only replace it with their own corruption, their own tyranny and oligarchy. They will impose their beliefs upon the riff raff, the unwashed masses that they deem not sophisticated enough to govern themselves.
I am sure Vance, Musk, Thiel, et al see trump as the opening for them to become the master race.
Yes. Musk is already attempting to repopulate the time zones where he travels, and I suspect it won't be enough for him to spread his seed; somewhere in a lab his DNA is stored for when the cloning begins.
2. It seems that these acolytes of the New Right or post-liberalism (I’ve seen both used and we need to settle on a label), are largely pre-Vatican II Roman Catholics. We know Roman Catholicism had been driving a few of the Supreme Court justices for a couple decades. The close alignment between an organized religion and a political movement is discomforting in the extreme. We recall how people worried in 1960 that Kennedy would be taking orders from Rome. Liberals of the day fought back against the bigotry of those attacks. But now we are seeing something different. I fear the sectarian battle that seems to loom on the horizon.
wow, yeah. a hairshirt might look very becoming on Vance. and the little whip thing those guys carry would feel nice in ANY hand bringing it down on ANY part of Vance's anatomy.
I saw an article last month or thereabouts on Vance's "conversion." it wasn't your usual "I'll go to the priest in the corner search and go on from there. it was "I'm gonna go to the most famous Catholic intellectuals [an oxymoron, perhaps?] I can find and get the most "elite instruction" available in my generation." what a prick.
this stuff about these scumbags knowingly pushing a dangerous lie in Ohio and ruining the environment in what looks like a nice town for god knows how long has been anatomized by many other people much more competently than I could manage. is this as low as they go?
I must have read the same article. Conversion @2019 as I remember. Guess he wants to play with the big boys. I want to see Miss Sassy Vance go down in flames. Those poor residents. And they just won’t stop. And North Carolina? Dear gawd.
We relaxed and now it time to ring the alarm bells again. These cretins didn’t have Rose Kennedy saying that “those to whom Much is given, much is expected.” Hope it’s not too late to fight back. And I thought it was just crazy chump. The MAGAts think they will be part of the ruling red hats, but they will just be the new slaves
21st Century revision of enlightened despotism…same old rotting garbage wrapped up in a pretty box to attract the rubes is all it is. Then the rubes will be surprised when their new masters chain them to their oars to propel the corporate ship of state.
Brilliant essay. Seems like the billionaires are pursuing a hostile takeover of the country. With the blessing of the AG, the Sup Ct, and the sycophants who fear for their lives or sell out. PTSD society ... Post Truth Status Dystopia. Orwell would not be surprised.
Government by an elite core, in league with corporate interests and conservative religion is a definition of fascism. A premise and justification for fascism is that ordinary people are not fit to govern themselves.
Here’s a quote from G.I. Gurdjieff: (for lack of a better words, he could be called a mystic or highly conscious human being)
“A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror.”
To which I’d add, as an edit, another of his: “That which does not consciously grow, degenerates”
Excellent essay, TC. Rich, white, male, and a firm belief they are the cream of the crop, and full of the hubris their accident of birth provides them.
TC, that was one of your best "armor piercing" essays of that distinct group "called to serve God" but not in a 'spiritual' sense. I need to go back & watch Luis Bunuel's 'The Milky Way', ' La Voie Lactee'.
Their "new right" sure looks like a stale rehash of historical so-called elites taking over, like the nazis in Germany and the communists in Russia and China. And they're really not that different from plain old conservative repubs like Reagan, Nixon, Newt, Dick Cheney, etc.
They strike me as an amalgam of libertarian and evangelical at heart but with the Opus Dei gang out front because they are better dressers. At any rate, groups that call themselves "New" anything or other are merely advertizing and propagandizing. I'm surprised they don't promote themselves as the NEW Young Guns in order to seize the adoration of the SecAmen crowd, a group that might normally be suspicious of them. Bottom Line: New is just a growing patina on the old because the shine wears off quite quickly. (McCarthy, Cantor, and Ryan--Where are they now?)
I’m going to have to reread and let this one sink in. I can’t imagine the new right ever considering the common good. It’s always been about making the most money, taking, taking, taking, and yet imposing their narrow minded views on the rest of us.
This is another instance of radical income inequality devouring not only capitalism, but democracy as well. The magas are fools to think Elon Musk, Trump's ostensible future "efficiency czar", has anything but contempt for them. If he actually reads the stuff on X, how could he not have? Musk, Bezos, Ellison, et. al. have too much power over all the nations in which they do business. We must pound away on restoring the Middle Class or give in to the crushing reality that sometimes democracies "fall apart and the center cannot hold."
Excellent summary -- I don't think we're anywhere near enough sufficiently terrified of what JD Vance represents.
Agree, with so much focus on TFG, not so much attention has been spent on the underling. He's a dangerous fellow...
Assholes like Vance are the ones who start civil wars! Great profile of this fascist bastard!
I keep trying to figure out how they’re going to fuck up the election - especially with Elon and all.
You can add Leonard Leo to the list you put together and we’ve really got ourselves a party! Seriously though, a considerable number of these people either were or have converted to (a pretty radical version of) Catholicism too.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/catholic-right-celebrity-conversion-industrial-complex
Exactly. As I read it, I thought immediately about a young (former personal trainer) who is a former radical Catholic, now a converted radical evangelical Catholic, who, being in his thirties and smarter than anyone else on the planet, thinks exactly like these bros. It smacks of a subculture of white men who dream of a patriarchal society, where they live like kings and everyone else works for them. They are empty, and a little too big for their own britches. Unfortunately, some, like JD, are easy manipulated by the Peter Thiels of this world yet have enough brains to adopt the Thiel strategies to use against others on his own personal behalf.
Yes, thank you Tom. And just
maybe that's the "plan". Get
Trump/Vance elected and
a few months later Trump
steps down due to health or
mental illness. If we don't
take the House, Mikey
Johnson is next in line to i
move up to VP if this
happens, right?
Think of all the billions these
techi bros have. Musk alone
is headed to be the 1st
trillionaire. He and Theil have
their own history. Then
there's Zuckerberg too, who
has been changing quite a
bit over the last 2 yrs.
Creepy and chilling.
That is a fantastic summary, TC. The only thing I would add is this: If they get their desires and overthrow the current "regime" or method of governing, they will only replace it with their own corruption, their own tyranny and oligarchy. They will impose their beliefs upon the riff raff, the unwashed masses that they deem not sophisticated enough to govern themselves.
I am sure Vance, Musk, Thiel, et al see trump as the opening for them to become the master race.
Yes. Musk is already attempting to repopulate the time zones where he travels, and I suspect it won't be enough for him to spread his seed; somewhere in a lab his DNA is stored for when the cloning begins.
Scariest thought ever
Two random ideas:
1/ Vance smells a bit like Aaron Burr, yes?
2. It seems that these acolytes of the New Right or post-liberalism (I’ve seen both used and we need to settle on a label), are largely pre-Vatican II Roman Catholics. We know Roman Catholicism had been driving a few of the Supreme Court justices for a couple decades. The close alignment between an organized religion and a political movement is discomforting in the extreme. We recall how people worried in 1960 that Kennedy would be taking orders from Rome. Liberals of the day fought back against the bigotry of those attacks. But now we are seeing something different. I fear the sectarian battle that seems to loom on the horizon.
Me too.
Opus Dei anyone?
wow, yeah. a hairshirt might look very becoming on Vance. and the little whip thing those guys carry would feel nice in ANY hand bringing it down on ANY part of Vance's anatomy.
I saw an article last month or thereabouts on Vance's "conversion." it wasn't your usual "I'll go to the priest in the corner search and go on from there. it was "I'm gonna go to the most famous Catholic intellectuals [an oxymoron, perhaps?] I can find and get the most "elite instruction" available in my generation." what a prick.
this stuff about these scumbags knowingly pushing a dangerous lie in Ohio and ruining the environment in what looks like a nice town for god knows how long has been anatomized by many other people much more competently than I could manage. is this as low as they go?
no fucking way...there are WEEKS left.
I must have read the same article. Conversion @2019 as I remember. Guess he wants to play with the big boys. I want to see Miss Sassy Vance go down in flames. Those poor residents. And they just won’t stop. And North Carolina? Dear gawd.
Tis is all his desperate way of not being "Hillbilly white trash," which is what he is and what he hates, which is why he wrote that book.
He and Trump share somewhat aligned backgrounds . Outside looking in.
We relaxed and now it time to ring the alarm bells again. These cretins didn’t have Rose Kennedy saying that “those to whom Much is given, much is expected.” Hope it’s not too late to fight back. And I thought it was just crazy chump. The MAGAts think they will be part of the ruling red hats, but they will just be the new slaves
21st Century revision of enlightened despotism…same old rotting garbage wrapped up in a pretty box to attract the rubes is all it is. Then the rubes will be surprised when their new masters chain them to their oars to propel the corporate ship of state.
Excellent
Brilliant essay. Seems like the billionaires are pursuing a hostile takeover of the country. With the blessing of the AG, the Sup Ct, and the sycophants who fear for their lives or sell out. PTSD society ... Post Truth Status Dystopia. Orwell would not be surprised.
Excellent deep-dive TC.
Government by an elite core, in league with corporate interests and conservative religion is a definition of fascism. A premise and justification for fascism is that ordinary people are not fit to govern themselves.
Here’s a quote from G.I. Gurdjieff: (for lack of a better words, he could be called a mystic or highly conscious human being)
“A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror.”
To which I’d add, as an edit, another of his: “That which does not consciously grow, degenerates”
Those empty containers are where woke goes to die.
But what are we teaching our children? We have the wrong criteria for who a teacher, or a leader for that matter, should be.
I’m talking in the larger sense if you zoom way out. For now we are fortunate to have K. Harris.
That's such an insightful quote. Chilling accurate, I'm afraid.
Sadly true, in my estimation. Zombie power
Excellent essay, TC. Rich, white, male, and a firm belief they are the cream of the crop, and full of the hubris their accident of birth provides them.
TC, that was one of your best "armor piercing" essays of that distinct group "called to serve God" but not in a 'spiritual' sense. I need to go back & watch Luis Bunuel's 'The Milky Way', ' La Voie Lactee'.
Thank you, brilliant.
If we don’t win overwhelming up and down the ballot, we are probably toast. And Opus Dei will dance on our graves.
Exactly right.
Opps. Posted before I saw this.
Their "new right" sure looks like a stale rehash of historical so-called elites taking over, like the nazis in Germany and the communists in Russia and China. And they're really not that different from plain old conservative repubs like Reagan, Nixon, Newt, Dick Cheney, etc.
They strike me as an amalgam of libertarian and evangelical at heart but with the Opus Dei gang out front because they are better dressers. At any rate, groups that call themselves "New" anything or other are merely advertizing and propagandizing. I'm surprised they don't promote themselves as the NEW Young Guns in order to seize the adoration of the SecAmen crowd, a group that might normally be suspicious of them. Bottom Line: New is just a growing patina on the old because the shine wears off quite quickly. (McCarthy, Cantor, and Ryan--Where are they now?)
Thanks for digging into this Tom. I've had a nagging suspicion about Vance ascending to the presidency.
I think that's his plan. The 25th would suit him just fine.
I’m going to have to reread and let this one sink in. I can’t imagine the new right ever considering the common good. It’s always been about making the most money, taking, taking, taking, and yet imposing their narrow minded views on the rest of us.
That's what they mean when they say "common good." Words no longer mean the same thing to the different sides nowadays.
Even the "word" common particularly as in the "Commons" or common grounds or ....
This is another instance of radical income inequality devouring not only capitalism, but democracy as well. The magas are fools to think Elon Musk, Trump's ostensible future "efficiency czar", has anything but contempt for them. If he actually reads the stuff on X, how could he not have? Musk, Bezos, Ellison, et. al. have too much power over all the nations in which they do business. We must pound away on restoring the Middle Class or give in to the crushing reality that sometimes democracies "fall apart and the center cannot hold."