Davis

jakelafort wrote:
They don’t much care about democracy.

I still have hope they can shed their cult uniforms. They surprised me with their gullibility and falling for a malignant narcissistic style of self-confidence, arrogance, and bullshit “solutions that will save America”, and they WILL suffer some consequences when it hits rural America e…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Please don’t see my criticism as anti-American. I hope it is seen as pro-Enlightenment. I have no tribal attachment, and I can separate the myth from the machinery.

Oh, oh, you talking to us? I don’t think so, and it makes me suspicious, as does much of your other recent writings of thoughtful quality, that you’re w…[Read more]

Pope i don’t think the great majority of MAGA care what he does. Only thing that seemed to be an issue for them….Epstein bar virus.

I cited a poll about the supporter’s and their proclivities concerning King Trump. They don’t much care about democracy.

All insurrectionists (and Christian Nationalists) in the audience, come on down! A president can pardon any and all criminals ahead of time?

16 minutes:

I had Mr. Lloyd for 7th grade social studies. Pretty sure my teacher would not have had the courage to look the lefty’s in the eye.

Churchill would roll over on his cloud and fall through a wormhole into a different dimension to avoid the stench.

Once you no longer reserve a hidden compartment in your reasoning for “maybe there’s a divine exception,” the entire field of view opens up. You stop having to protect contradictions, and patterns that were once blurred by reverence or taboo become visible. I don’t carry a residual conceptual veto. When you remove that invisible constraint of ma…[Read more]

Thanks, Reg!

Have a great week!

Words and thoughts we invent. Words and thoughts of the president. Is he real? Can we know? Just a robot, Joe Blow?

Tea with thee is glee. Tea for free without me. Tee off. Check your balls. Cough! Cough! Easy mister that hurts. He squirts and ejaculates as the bot conflates concepts, confuses dates, misstates facts sprays unhealthy snacks. Even…[Read more]

Thanks Jake, I was mostly thinking about Ireland when I wrote that :-).

I failed again in my prediction that MAGA would become aware enough of the pain that even they will inevitably feel, e.g. wrt losing health care (and now food support) for low income families. It is happening, but their core love and trust in their father figure/cult leader is largely still there.

As is the hate of libs and any of vestiges of…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
At that point, our only hope will be the military.

Trump keeps acting stupid and unaccountable, intentionally claiming ignorance of some of the people and policies affected by decisions made by his kabal that are borderline criminal or mafia-like.

To what you’re saying about how the military might be our only hope, the…[Read more]

Really well said Reg in a departure from lots of other really well said.

The Enlightenment was about freeing thought from authority, be that authority religious, royal, or dogmatic. Now the new authorities are hashtags and outrage algorithms. The problem is not just ideological, it’s epistemic. Both the ‘Lunatic Left and Rancid Right’ have abandoned Enlightenment principles like reason, evidence, and open debate in fa…[Read more]

Garden of Earthly Delights.

You might think the ideals of America would be sacrosanct with the young and educated. Alas a smack what they aint got they lack. Globalize the intifada! Free Palestine.

But hey Dems did ok and Trump’s support was not a hamburger helper. So maybe the train will stay on the tracks.

The idea of America; self-determination, free inquiry, equality before the law, is extraordinary. The execution of it has always been messy, compromised, and full of contradictions. Please don’t see my criticism as anti-American. I hope it is seen as pro-Enlightenment. I have no tribal attachment, and I can separate the myth from the machinery. T…[Read more]

@Jakelafort – I agree with the sentiment, but I am more optimistic (or naïve!) about the future. The pace of scientific and technological progress has far outstripped the average person’s ability or willingness to keep up intellectually with these advances. It is not so much that there is a growth in ignorance and stupidity but rather that it now…[Read more]

When i skim science headlines (and yea read some of the articles) and think back just 4 or 5 yrs. today’s headlines feel like sci fi. The richness of the prospect for improving our lives is staggering. At same time it feels like the norms and beliefs and stupidity are overflowing their toilet and depositing turds everywhere you look.