Socialists, SJWs, and Patriots

This week on the Big Show, we start in frigid Minnesota, home of one James Lileks, who describes life in a Polar Vortex for those of us who live in more temperate climes. Then, we’re off to the swamps of Jersey for a visit from Commentary’s Noah Rothman to talk about his fascinating new book Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America. Then, it’s off to Venezuela where Annika Rothstein is on the ground in Caracas reporting on the collapse of a revolution. Finally, we end up back in the good old U.S. of A for some Super Bowl picks from the hosts. Who ya got?

Music from this week’s podcast: Not as Much as Football by Mojo Nixon

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  1. Brian Watt Inactive
    Brian Watt
    @BrianWatt

    Noah Rothman’s claim that Donald Trump helped make the alt-right a force in American politics today is laughable – “today” being the operative word here. Regrettably James, Peter or Rob did not challenge the claim. I realize that Bill Kristol and Max Boot would disagree with me vehemently…so, there is that.  

    • #1
  2. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    The big problem with “economically conservative but socially liberal” is that “socially liberal” tends to be very expensive.

    • #2
  3. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Haven’t listened yet, but @ejhill, that’s beautiful.

     

    • #3
  4. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    EJ gave Rob the best St Tropez tan, James the best moustache, and Peter the most authentic look of a Dictator about to lose control of his Country in a military coup.

    • #4
  5. Barry Jones Thatcher
    Barry Jones
    @BarryJones

    To  Annika – I have missed you here at Ricochet! I always loved your comments, notes and articles and hope you visit again. Please take care and go home safely to that awkward dinner! Link to your twitter feed is saved and I will follow it…

    • #5
  6. Petty Boozswha Inactive
    Petty Boozswha
    @PettyBoozswha

    I have seen many pictures in recent months of starving children in Yemen, with the MSM’s primary motive being to make a three ball bank shot against the US for backing Saudi Arabia, but none of the starvation in Venezuela. Is it impossible to get images out or are they deemed counter to the appropriate narrative by our media mavens? 

    • #6
  7. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    Meant to add this to the show description: here is the Morning Joe segment that was referenced in the Noah Rothman interview. 

    • #7
  8. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Brian Watt (View Comment):
    Noah Rothman’s claim that Donald Trump helped make the alt-right a force in American politics today is laughable – “today” being the operative word here. Regrettably James, Peter or Rob did not challenge the claim. I realize that Bill Kristol and Max Boot would disagree with me vehemently…so, there is that.

    I was distracted at the time, although to be honest I probably let it slide because I’m weary of the subject.

    • #8
  9. Brian Watt Inactive
    Brian Watt
    @BrianWatt

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Brian Watt (View Comment):
    Noah Rothman’s claim that Donald Trump helped make the alt-right a force in American politics today is laughable – “today” being the operative word here. Regrettably James, Peter or Rob did not challenge the claim. I realize that Bill Kristol and Max Boot would disagree with me vehemently…so, there is that.

    I was distracted at the time, although to be honest I probably let it slide because I’m weary of the subject.

    Very understandable. It would have opened up a new line of discussion and y’all were winding down. My ancestral Southerner sometimes slips out. Wait, what?

    • #9
  10. Petty Boozswha Inactive
    Petty Boozswha
    @PettyBoozswha

    Blue Yeti (View Comment):

    Meant to add this to the show description: here is the Morning Joe segment that was referenced in the Noah Rothman interview.

    I don’t think this is the original testy interview, this is a follow up.

    • #10
  11. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Someone tweeted about the Marie Kondo series – that if watch her show, and dont tidy up with in a week… She climbs out of your screen and kills you.

    Last week I was kinda chuckling about the weather from the east … while it was so cold out there it was +8 to +10 here, the snow was going away at fabulous pace … then February happened it’ll be -20 something for the next 2 weeks. 

    • #11
  12. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Finally had the time to listen. Good show. Lots of laughs, and really appreciated hearing from Miss Annika.

    • #12
  13. George Townsend Inactive
    George Townsend
    @GeorgeTownsend

    Petty Boozswha (View Comment):

    I have seen many pictures in recent months of starving children in Yemen, with the MSM’s primary motive being to make a three ball bank shot against the US for backing Saudi Arabia, but none of the starvation in Venezuela. Is it impossible to get images out or are they deemed counter to the appropriate narrative by our media mavens?

    Thank you, Petty, for the comment. If not  for this Podcast, I would not have known how much the children are staving. It is disgusting how much the MSM will put their ideology ahead of telling us how disastrously a Socialist country has failed.

    • #13
  14. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Brian Watt (View Comment):
    Noah Rothman’s claim that Donald Trump helped make the alt-right a force in American politics today is laughable – “today” being the operative word here. Regrettably James, Peter or Rob did not challenge the claim. I realize that Bill Kristol and Max Boot would disagree with me vehemently…so, there is that.

    I was distracted at the time, although to be honest I probably let it slide because I’m weary of the subject.

    Rothman’s comment angered us so much that we missed the next few minutes of the podcast ranting about it.  Are the NTs so desperate to vindicate their hatred of Trump that they must descend to this?  I tend to ignore Fascists and Faux Nazis in the Dem Party duking it out. When I heard some were pro-Trump, my only thought was damn, the Dem Party has grown too repulsive even for them.  I didn’t for one minute think Trump gave them purchase. Challenging Rothman, though, would have been pointless and go against Rob’s “nontoxic community.”

    At what subscriber level do we become “big shots”?  I guess I am a middle shot right now.

    • #14
  15. George Townsend Inactive
    George Townsend
    @GeorgeTownsend

    EHerring (View Comment):

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Brian Watt (View Comment):
    Noah Rothman’s claim that Donald Trump helped make the alt-right a force in American politics today is laughable – “today” being the operative word here. Regrettably James, Peter or Rob did not challenge the claim. I realize that Bill Kristol and Max Boot would disagree with me vehemently…so, there is that.

    I was distracted at the time, although to be honest I probably let it slide because I’m weary of the subject.

    Rothman’s comment angered us so much that we missed the next few minutes of the podcast ranting about it. Are the NTs so desperate to vindicate their hatred of Trump that they must descend to this? I tend to ignore Fascist was damn, the Dem Party has grown too repulsive even for them. I didn’t for one minute think Trump gave them purchase. Challenging Rothman, though, would have been pointless and go against Rob’s “nontoxic community.”

    At what subscriber level do we become “big shots”? I guess I am a middle shot right now.

    All right, while it is true that one go too far with this (Trump is certainly no neo-nazi) , our president has stood by, and not done nearly enough to discourage these people. I suspect he does it because his ego becomes soothed when someone – anyone – says something nice about him. This cannot be denied. Just remember the time he denied knowing who David Duke was, despite denouncing him once. This kind of thing has happened too  many times to wash it away.

    • #15
  16. Petty Boozswha Inactive
    Petty Boozswha
    @PettyBoozswha

    George Townsend (View Comment):

    Petty Boozswha (View Comment):

    I have seen many pictures in recent months of starving children in Yemen, with the MSM’s primary motive being to make a three ball bank shot against the US for backing Saudi Arabia, but none of the starvation in Venezuela. Is it impossible to get images out or are they deemed counter to the appropriate narrative by our media mavens?

    Thank you, Petty, for the comment. If not for this Podcast, I would not have known how much the children are staving. It is disgusting how much the MSM will put their ideology ahead of telling us how disastrously a Socialist country has failed.

    There were some heartbreaking photos in the Miami Herald about a year ago but I’ve seen nothing since.

    • #16
  17. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    George Townsend (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Brian Watt (View Comment):
    Noah Rothman’s claim that Donald Trump helped make the alt-right a force in American politics today is laughable – “today” being the operative word here. Regrettably James, Peter or Rob did not challenge the claim. I realize that Bill Kristol and Max Boot would disagree with me vehemently…so, there is that.

    I was distracted at the time, although to be honest I probably let it slide because I’m weary of the subject.

    Rothman’s comment angered us so much that we missed the next few minutes of the podcast ranting about it. Are the NTs so desperate to vindicate their hatred of Trump that they must descend to this? I tend to ignore Fascist was damn, the Dem Party has grown too repulsive even for them. I didn’t for one minute think Trump gave them purchase. Challenging Rothman, though, would have been pointless and go against Rob’s “nontoxic community.”

    At what subscriber level do we become “big shots”? I guess I am a middle shot right now.

    “… our president has stood by, and not done nearly enough to discourage these people….”

    I don’t care for the current methods “to discourage these people,” especially as practiced by the left, because we are all “these people” to them. I find tearing down statues in Taliban fashion to be abhorrent and am disappointed that the only people to take to the streets to stop it are these kooks.  To condemn them in Charlottesville is to side with radical lefties.  Those white radicals are a fringe group nobody takes seriously.  It is better to ignore them.  I don’t trust politicians to draw the line between reaction to racism against whites and “white supremacy.”  I expect Trump to fix what he can at the moment, judges, regulations, etc. One of my many beefs with Democrats is they expect their Presidents to use executive powers to dictate how we will live, which is in their image of what is moral. 

    • #17
  18. Roderic Fabian Coolidge
    Roderic Fabian
    @rhfabian

    Rothman produced in one paragraph the best summary of SJW doctrine I’ve ever heard.  Good show.

    I suppose he felt obligated to bash Trump, though.  The booshwa about Trump coarsening the public discourse had to be trotted out.   Like it wasn’t already plenty coarse,  Like Obama, et al., were not already divisive.  Trump is an effect, not the cause.

    • #18
  19. ericB Lincoln
    ericB
    @ericB

    Does anyone have a link to the scatter graph / grid Rob Long referred to that illustrated the prevalence of various combinations of fiscal positions and social positions?

    p.s. @roblong FYI, on graphs that measure some dependent variable Y according to (or as a “function of”) some independent variable X (e.g. time), traditionally the dependent Y axis goes up and down and the independent X axis goes side to side.  But when relating two independent considerations (e.g. a fiscal perspective and a social perspective), either one could go along either axis / dimension.  Neither is being claimed to be a mere function of the other.

    • #19
  20. George Townsend Inactive
    George Townsend
    @GeorgeTownsend

    EHerring (View Comment):
    I don’t care for the current methods “to discourage these people,” especially as practiced by the left, because we are all “these people” to them. I find tearing down statues in Taliban fashion to be abhorrent and am disappointed that the only people to take to the streets to stop it are these kooks. To condemn them in Charlottesville is to side with radical lefties. Those white radicals are a fringe group nobody takes seriously. It is better to ignore them. I don’t trust politicians to draw the line between reaction to racism against whites and “white supremacy.” I expect Trump to fix what he can at the moment, judges, regulations, etc. One of my many beefs with Democrats is they expect their Presidents to use executive powers to dictate how we will live, which is in their image of what is moral. 

    This is a very good statement. Not because of what it says; but because of what it indicates about those who always need to defend Donald Trump. The Left is awful. No one but a confirmed died-in-the-wool Leftist himself denies that. But you don’t prevail against them by denying the evils of other groups. The alt-rightists are kooky, yes, by they also evil. They attacked the brilliant you conservative Ben Shapiro during the election campaign for the “sin” of being Jewish. Or they attack blacks, or whoever else they hate. It is just wrong to say that you can’t do two do two things at once: Point out the errors of the Left, while refusing to put with the hatreds of those who pretend to be on the Right.

    • #20
  21. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    George Townsend (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):
    I don’t care for the current methods “to discourage these people,” especially as practiced by the left, because we are all “these people” to them. I find tearing down statues in Taliban fashion to be abhorrent and am disappointed that the only people to take to the streets to stop it are these kooks. To condemn them in Charlottesville is to side with radical lefties. Those white radicals are a fringe group nobody takes seriously. It is better to ignore them. I don’t trust politicians to draw the line between reaction to racism against whites and “white supremacy.” I expect Trump to fix what he can at the moment, judges, regulations, etc. One of my many beefs with Democrats is they expect their Presidents to use executive powers to dictate how we will live, which is in their image of what is moral.

    “… It is just wrong to say that you can’t do two do two things at once: Point out the errors of the Left, while refusing to put with the hatreds of those who pretend to be on the Right….”

    I have never considered them to be part of us.  To me, they are all just different factions of the left duking it out.  I made that point in my first comment. I condemn the left all the time. Feel free to condemn them all you want.  I prefer Trump stick to what we elected him to do.  His bungled attempt to address Charlottesville proves he isn’t our best moral warrior, nor was he elected to be that.  I don’t see my comment as a need to defend Trump.  However, since I also don’t see a need to criticize him at every turn, I can see the left’s response to his comments about Charlottesville for what they are, a political ploy.

    • #21
  22. ericB Lincoln
    ericB
    @ericB

    Regarding how cold it was in Minnesota, @jameslileks missed an opportunity to mention that Cotton, MN (north of Duluth, MN) managed to get down to -56 F actual temperature (not including wind chill)!

    Cotton Came in as Coldest Spot: -56

    It was actually about that cold on two different days within a week’s time during the recent cold snap, once getting to -55.9 F and separately reaching -56.4 F.  However, -56 F only “ties for 5th in coldest ever recorded temps in the state.”  At number one, Tower, MN set the current record of honor at -60 back in 1996.  (Radio station page with 30 second joyful radio news announcement back in 1996.)

    Sorry, Cotton MN.  :-(

    Cold, but no cigar: Cotton again hits 56 below, missing state record
    By Tom Olsen on Jan 31, 2019

    • #22
  23. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    George Townsend (View Comment):

    This is a very good statement. Not because of what it says; but because of what it indicates about those who always need to defend Donald Trump. The Left is awful. No one but a confirmed died-in-the-wool Leftist himself denies that. But you don’t prevail against them by denying the evils of other groups. The alt-rightists are kooky, yes, by they also evil. They attacked the brilliant you conservative Ben Shapiro during the election campaign for the “sin” of being Jewish. Or they attack blacks, or whoever else they hate. It is just wrong to say that you can’t do two do two things at once: Point out the errors of the Left, while refusing to put with the hatreds of those who pretend to be on the Right.

    Unilateral disarmament of loony voters makes as little sense as unilateral disarmament on the world stage/regarding nuclear weapons.

    If you can convince the Democrats to forego their lunatic voters, then fine.  Have at it.  But meanwhile, if it turned out that Trump won because of a few thousand white supremacist votes in a few counties, am I supposed to say, well, Hillary should have won?  Sorry, not gonna happen.  If only because Hillary no doubt received a number of lunatic votes too.  Indeed, I suspect her lunatic vote count was far higher than Trump’s.

    • #23
  24. SParker Member
    SParker
    @SParker

    Anthony Burgess out of print?  First reaction: take off parka, find snowdrift, lie down, sleep until Judgement Day (which will probably not go all that well, considering).  Second reaction:  ask what that means in the Age of Kindle.  That the world’s taste is entirely in its mouth?  I think I already knew that, or strongly suspected it.

    • #24
  25. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    SParker (View Comment):
    Anthony Burgess out of print? First reaction: take off parka, find snowdrift, lie down, sleep until Judgement Day (which will probably not go all that well, considering). Second reaction: ask what that means in the Age of Kindle. That the world’s taste is entirely in its mouth? I think I already knew that, or strongly suspected it.

    The good news is that it’ll be cheap to bring Burgess back via Kindle. Getting him back into print probably isn’t cost-effective. Scanning, OCR, bada bing. 

    But who’ll do it?

    • #25
  26. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    James Lileks (View Comment):
    But who’ll do it?

    Someone who has the books, obviously.

    • #26
  27. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    EHerring (View Comment):
    Those white radicals are a fringe group nobody takes seriously. It is better to ignore them. I don’t trust politicians to draw the line between reaction to racism against whites and “white supremacy.” I expect Trump to fix what he can at the moment, judges, regulations, etc.

    This. One million “likes’. 

    EHerring (View Comment):
    I prefer Trump stick to what we elected him to do. His bungled attempt to address Charlottesville proves he isn’t our best moral warrior, nor was he elected to be that.

    Trump lacks civic executive experience. He’s learning on the job. 

    Look at how Obama weaponized Ferguson etc. on purpose. Larry Elder was talking about how polling shows that race relations and the perception of race relations has gotten worse by 30 points during Obama’s term.

    • #27
  28. David Bryan Inactive
    David Bryan
    @DavidBryan

    How delightful was James’ advertising-segue anecdote referencing “chopped liver”….and Peter’s eruption of heartfelt laughter! 

    • #28
  29. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    Roderic Fabian (View Comment):

    Rothman produced in one paragraph the best summary of SJW doctrine I’ve ever heard. Good show.

    I suppose he felt obligated to bash Trump, though. The booshwa about Trump coarsening the public discourse had to be trotted out. Like it wasn’t already plenty coarse, Like Obama, et al., were not already divisive. Trump is an effect, not the cause.

    Never Trumpers are like high school nerds, desperate to join the cool kids:  “Look, look, we hate Trump, too!”

     Perhaps more disturbing:  all the panelists appear to accept the left-wing doctrine that certain people or certain groups are privileged, because of things that happened, in previous generations, to people who sort of looked like them. 

     Remember how the NBC interviewer accused that 15-year-old white kid of being “aggressive“, because he didn’t get out of the way when that (allegedly) Native American activist and his entourage bulled their way into the crowd of boys waiting for their bus.

     When a lord walked through a village, the peasants would have to get out of the way.

    • #29
  30. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Taras (View Comment):
    Perhaps more disturbing: all the panelists appear to accept the left-wing doctrine that certain people or certain groups are privileged, because of things that happened, in previous generations, to people who sort of looked like them.

    Like Kamala Harris, whose parents were immigrants, and while she may have African heritage, like Obama’s, it was not African-American heritage of slavery, Jim Crow, etc.

    • #30
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