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Intellectually Exhausted
I find myself posting less and less these days. Probably it’s because we have had more than a handful of Ricochet members that have really stepped up their game and set the bar far higher than I can reach. (I’m looking at you, you and you, plus a whole lot more.)
Worse, I have been overcome by a certain malaise, a resignation that the American moment has passed. I see the discourse that emanates from our political class and that seems pretty hard to overcome. We are, as a people, intellectually exhausted.
I keep trying to tell myself that Twitter is not real life. But the media has just become Twitter on steroids, amplifying the same nonsense to a greater degree. Where once we had the “CW,” i.e. “conventional wisdom,” we now have the “CD,” the “cognitive dissonance.” Here’s how this works (or more precisely, doesn’t work) on the Left:
I have my own truth, you believe lies.
I am the #resistance, you are an #insurrectionist.
I believe SCOTUS is illegitimate, the Senate is undemocratic, every red state law must be overturned, you do not believe in “norms” or upholding the Constitution.
I believe the 2000, 2004, and 2016 presidential elections were rigged (not to mention Georgia’s gubernatorial election of 2018), you need to accept that 2020 was totally the most legitimate and secure election ever and any talk of “stolen” elections is downright un-American.
I want to live in a diverse nation, you don’t understand how your views undermine unity.
I believe that the American Right is full of gun-loving fascist nut jobs BUT if we pack the courts, rig the elections and add four sure-fire Democrats to the Senate by granting DC and Puerto Rico statehood those same gun-loving fascist nut jobs will totally roll over and accept that. Not only will they accept it, but when the newly constituted court invalidates Heller and the entire 2nd Amendment they will gladly turn in their firearms.
Any of this may translate into a great eight-minute segment on MSNBC or CNN. As a governing philosophy, not so much.
They discount the possibility of civil war because they are entrenched in a red-state, blue-state mentality. But if that were to happen it will most certainly not be that way. It won’t be the armies of Union vs. Confederation, it will be more like Beirut or Syria, urban and asymmetrical, a bloodbath of innocents. But that’s what you get when you lose the plot and have no idea what holds a country together.
There is, of course, a cadre of those on the Right that have semi-lost the plot, as well. They can see the coming disaster and therefore advocate surrender to the authoritarian Left rather than risk a shooting war. Perhaps they believe they will be a moderating force. Perhaps they believe the crocodile will eat them last. They’re probably wrong on both counts. They, too, are intellectually exhausted.
Where we go from here is the great question. I’m too exhausted to come up with an obvious solution.
Published in General
One advantage of getting older is now there are more women you
lust forfind attractive . . .Notice how you never see those two in the same room. Uncanny, really…
I understand, EJ. I just feel worn out, and hopeless. I’ll get an idea for a post, and think, “Eh, why bother?”
Sometimes I write it anyway, but it’s not as fun as it used to be for some reason. I think I’m just really frustrated.
“How do you control the people? Sure the rich want power, so give it to them, power over this or that, they’ve always had it, and so you’re not losing anything. And the poor, what do they want? Stuff. So give them stuff. But what does the middle class want? You give them hope.”
This is a paraphrase of a guy I once met, a very strange guy, who was frenetic and talked all the time, but was interesting to listen to. He was a big blustering young guy, with multiple businesses so he said. He did a lot of his business with the Chinese but I don’t remember if he said what his businesses were. And on his business cards were names something like Red Dragon this or Dragon that.
His words have been coming back to me frequently these days, especially his words at the end.
Why do we write? You might as well ask why we love and have children. To be human and to make a positive difference. We get frustrated because nobody seems to listen. As parents we should be familiar with that feeling.
I get frustrated because since 2016 I’ve been pounding the same drum over and over. I could never, ever be described as a full-throated Trumper. I was, however, a full-throated supporter of his supporters. And I remain one. Our betters seem intent on doubling and tripling down on their own arrogance and stupidity and it exhausts me, physically, mentally and spiritually.
The establishment branch ran a 40-year con on their base and are angry that the base caught on. And the more that they profess their innocence in that con and the more they keep trying to repeat it, they are inviting something much, much worse than Donald Trump. Believe me, that worse exists. And the more the establishment fights “Trumpism,” the more inviting the worse will be.
Yes, terribly frustrating when these establishment types condescend to anyone who questions any of the hundreds of anomalies of the 2020 election, or when the establishment types promote Chris Wallace as a fair and impartial commentator, or when they mock Rudy Giuliani for asking questions about the election based on eye-witnesses who have signed affidavits under penalty of perjury, or dismiss Giuliani when he raises questions about Joe and Hunter Biden’s financial dealings, or categorizing anyone who voted for Trump as being a sycophant for the man rather than considering that perhaps they made the calculation that Trump was certainly better than the alternative candidate who was certified and now naps in a Delaware basement after opening the border and making Afghanistan a well-armed terrorist nation-state. It’s a good thing that this never happens here on Ricochet.
Yes. That is NR.
Don’t they have strong ties to R<
No. They used to carry our podcasts and we theirs but that hasn’t been the case for several years now.
OK.
They do seem hell bent on jettisoning anyone who is actually conservative.
I feel exactly the same, plumb tuckered out……the root cause for my malaise?
Its all been said, in one form and forum or another. Whats the point? I’ve been a member here for years, and read what I was prepared to write so many times lololo…pass……
Re; my attempts to communicate with others whom feel differently from me/us….
I used to think and say to myself; I am sure when I’m talking to a ‘proggy’ they think as I do, in that they, the ‘other side’ simply won’t consider, seriously think on and consider the others position…
I used to think it was hubris and/or arrogance to feel that way, but alas, it really really isn’t and frankly, I have found a certain peace in that.
You see, I do, I really earnestly try to consider and think through anothers position but, alas, it became lonely and senseless, I just gave up, becasue they dont, they really really dont.
My last several attempts had me to the point of yelling; “hey !!! dont you see? do you hear me? I am thinking and considering and in some cases I can see how you got there…do you see, in any case or facet, how I got where I am?”
No….never….QED; I am done……
Chris Wallace appeared on Stephen Colbert’s show (from the Daily Caller – emphasis mine):
Note the term “election deniers”. Clearly to be an “election denier” is now akin to being a “holocaust denier” or “Climate Change denier”. Does anyone deny that an election occurred? Millions of Americans believe that rampant fraud occurred and with good reason – enough fraud to bring certifications in several states into question – and most of those states that have not had thorough forensic audits to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that those specific elections results were accurate.
Note how Wallace slides from Colbert’s false claim that “people saying things they know aren’t true…” to immediately discuss the January 6th riot at the Capitol? Essentially the tactic is to smear anyone who has legitimate and quite rational questions about the integrity of the vote counts in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, or Pennsylvania based on the testimony of witnesses with sworn affidavits, mathematical anomalies, 4am voting spikes, multiple tabulations of the same ballots, and the fact that numerous audits in these states have been blocked – as a conspiracy theorist, and someone who obviously supported the mayhem at the Capitol on January 6th.
Sadly, the same false characterization of Ricochet members – who were adhering to “irrational beliefs” and advancing a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election also occurred on this site by people who ought to have known better.
Now ask yourself who Democrat Chris Wallace voted for.