Recently, conservative pundit David Brooks reported on his experience at the National Conservatism Conference held in Florida in the Atlantic magazine. Brooks, an unapologetic conservative, was dismayed by what he heard and saw there: “Rachel Bovard is one of the thousands of smart young Americans who flock to Washington each year to make a difference. She’s worked in the House and Senate for Republicans Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, and Mike Lee, was listed among the ‘Most Influential Women in Washington Under 35' by National Journal, did a stint at the Heritage Foundation, and is now policy director of the Conservative Partnership Institute, whose mission is to train, equip, and unify the conservative movement. She’s bright, cheerful, and funny, and has a side hustle as a sommelier. And, like most young people, she has absorbed the dominant ideas of her peer group.
Wow. I don't think I took a breath the whole way through. this is exactly what I've been thinking, but in a way that's been made shrill and pretty anarchic because of the rage this shit always kicks off. this post was comprehensive and amazingly dead-on. and the case is made brilliantly by you and the two completely brilliant people you quote so extensively; both Hofstadter and Adorno have long been personal heroes of mine. Wow again...magnificent. really.
But listen to this!! An under 30, German woman living in the U.S, a business owner, an anti- vaxxer, told me that it was exactly because she had been taught her country's history that she views things like shut downs and vaccine/mask mandates with suspicion as the heavy hand of government control-- and sees pharmaceutical companies in league with governments to make millions by producing untried, harmful to fertility, vaccines. She is disgusted with current Germany and especially the Merkle administration's decisions as well as with the current U.S. administration. She is NOTthe German generation, like Adorno, who personally lived through Nazi Germany, but she does represent some percentage of two generations later who have been warned against fascism in what they are taught in school about their own history and the lives of their grandparents. It is frightening to me that the wake up call in this brilliant piece of yours is not only lost on her but is actually being interpreted in the exact opposite way, despite her schooling. I can only think it is extreme fear about her own health and the health of her business that has caused her to align with those aspects of the growing fascism within the U.S. which she then twists to view as actually fighting against the fascism she learned about. It defies belief but shows what a chokehold the movement has! Maybe someone else here, smarter than I, can explain how this can be??? She is like a granddaughter to me . I listen and try to suggest other thinking but she is holding fast to her views (and her fears). What is most interesting is that she sounds a lot like my youngest sister who is a little older but also a business owner, full of fear and aligned with TFG and his ilk. It is so difficult! I love them both but it is so difficult to navigate these relationships in the face of this very real and present danger to our democracy.
I am going to have to go back and read this after some sleep followed by coffee. This articulates what I have been seeing in so many of my former law enforcement colleagues in a way I have been unable to voice. They. Want. This.
As always, thanks for seeing and saying the truth. It’s so clear. Vote, vote, vote. Do everything within our power and capability to maintain peoples rights. And don’t waste time talking to those who don’t want to wake up.
Ya know the old saying, " nothing new under the sun", is in full swing with the current Nazi lovers, the entire Republican party. They are an organization of cowards, fools, traitors, bastards. And this shit goes deeper than 40 years ago with scum Reagan.
Just Google, "nazi rally, 1939, Madison Square garden" and you'll see first hand how these soulless fucks work 24/7 for this country to be the fourth Reich. Fuck em.
I read David Brooks’ description of Rachel Bovard and thought, “Well, this chick has truly drunk the Kool-Aid.” I mean chick as a baby bird. She has no idea what she does not know. I think she just sounded whiny.
"Fascism is the essence of Totalitarianism." ovular, I say [in opposition to seminal]
You will face the same oppression as HCR should the idjts prevail. I am in admiration of your courage and rather admiral abilities to speak truth to power--or wanna-be power.
"But I did hear callousness, invocations of combat, and whiffs of brutality." The whiffs easily turn into torrents. History proves that over and over. I wonder if evil wins out on this go round.
We need to use the correct word every time: fascists. Period.
Wow. I don't think I took a breath the whole way through. this is exactly what I've been thinking, but in a way that's been made shrill and pretty anarchic because of the rage this shit always kicks off. this post was comprehensive and amazingly dead-on. and the case is made brilliantly by you and the two completely brilliant people you quote so extensively; both Hofstadter and Adorno have long been personal heroes of mine. Wow again...magnificent. really.
But listen to this!! An under 30, German woman living in the U.S, a business owner, an anti- vaxxer, told me that it was exactly because she had been taught her country's history that she views things like shut downs and vaccine/mask mandates with suspicion as the heavy hand of government control-- and sees pharmaceutical companies in league with governments to make millions by producing untried, harmful to fertility, vaccines. She is disgusted with current Germany and especially the Merkle administration's decisions as well as with the current U.S. administration. She is NOTthe German generation, like Adorno, who personally lived through Nazi Germany, but she does represent some percentage of two generations later who have been warned against fascism in what they are taught in school about their own history and the lives of their grandparents. It is frightening to me that the wake up call in this brilliant piece of yours is not only lost on her but is actually being interpreted in the exact opposite way, despite her schooling. I can only think it is extreme fear about her own health and the health of her business that has caused her to align with those aspects of the growing fascism within the U.S. which she then twists to view as actually fighting against the fascism she learned about. It defies belief but shows what a chokehold the movement has! Maybe someone else here, smarter than I, can explain how this can be??? She is like a granddaughter to me . I listen and try to suggest other thinking but she is holding fast to her views (and her fears). What is most interesting is that she sounds a lot like my youngest sister who is a little older but also a business owner, full of fear and aligned with TFG and his ilk. It is so difficult! I love them both but it is so difficult to navigate these relationships in the face of this very real and present danger to our democracy.
I am going to have to go back and read this after some sleep followed by coffee. This articulates what I have been seeing in so many of my former law enforcement colleagues in a way I have been unable to voice. They. Want. This.
As always, thanks for seeing and saying the truth. It’s so clear. Vote, vote, vote. Do everything within our power and capability to maintain peoples rights. And don’t waste time talking to those who don’t want to wake up.
Ya know the old saying, " nothing new under the sun", is in full swing with the current Nazi lovers, the entire Republican party. They are an organization of cowards, fools, traitors, bastards. And this shit goes deeper than 40 years ago with scum Reagan.
Just Google, "nazi rally, 1939, Madison Square garden" and you'll see first hand how these soulless fucks work 24/7 for this country to be the fourth Reich. Fuck em.
I read David Brooks’ description of Rachel Bovard and thought, “Well, this chick has truly drunk the Kool-Aid.” I mean chick as a baby bird. She has no idea what she does not know. I think she just sounded whiny.
The necessary follow up to a diagnosis is prescriptive treatment if the condition is to be cured. Is that the next chapter?
Is there any hope?
Tour de force, TC!
"Fascism is the essence of Totalitarianism." ovular, I say [in opposition to seminal]
You will face the same oppression as HCR should the idjts prevail. I am in admiration of your courage and rather admiral abilities to speak truth to power--or wanna-be power.
You ROCK!
"But I did hear callousness, invocations of combat, and whiffs of brutality." The whiffs easily turn into torrents. History proves that over and over. I wonder if evil wins out on this go round.