They're anti-thought in part BECAUSE they're anti-Trump. NPR has happily followed along with every ridiculous progressive pet project since.....forever it seems like.
But if NPR were full of Substackers who were thrown out of polite society for wrongthink, the Democrats would be falling over one another to "deplatform" our "incorrect and dangerous views" -- just like they do when we go on a podcast or TV show.
It's becoming increasingly obvious that the political left has no principles whatsoever, and will say anything to gain a fraction of a political point -- even if it's the exact opposite of what they were saying yesterday.
Example: "COVID IS SUPER DANGEROUS AND YOU MUST STAY HOME. UNLESS YOU'RE PROTESTING FOR GEORGE FLOYD."
NPR is a wasteland of left-wing propaganda. Gave up on it 20 years ago, about when Klick and Klack went off the air. I like most of the programming on PBS, but think all of it can stand on its own feet or sold to Discovery or Disney or other streaming/cable channels. The Newshour has become as bad as NPR. For example, here is a current leading headline on their website:
"Waltz ousted as national security adviser, nominated for UN role in White House shakeup"
A headline reflecting reality would read: "Waltz promoted to UN Ambassador."
Yes, their lawyers! There is a window overlooking Harvard Square with those names. :) And don't forget their limo driver Peekup Andropov and statistician Marge Inoverra, to name but a few. They were the BEST! RIP Tommy...
That’s interesting. I left at the same time. The remaining programs had no interest to me. I hardly know what they say anymore but I don’t think they need any more of my tax money.
It’s cracking me up that so many comments on here mention that the publication was ‘so smug.’ I ended my comment with the same description thinking: ‘That’s not a very sophisticated word. But what the heck. It’s still true.’ And then reading so many contributors using the same word. Love it!
I quit listening about 20 years ago too. It was on my car radio for drive to/from work. They hated Bush43, with their disgruntled voices announce they had to break to cover 'the president's national address'. I agreed his policies were on the downside. But what got to me was their experts giving advice on an assortment of things only the rich could put into action. Example - always check which hospital performs the best for the operation you need, as if your employer's health insurance was not limited to 'preferred network'.
Likewise, NPR’s money programs would recommend that workers put aside a hefty chunk of their monthly poverty level wages to provide for retirement because lord knows the social safety net has big and getting bigger holes in it. These people never activate for solutions to a problem; they assure their own nests are feathered first.
The fact that there is the appearance of some accountability at all is nice. Even if it is a "yeah he wasn't fit for that job, but let's try him somewhere else". Compare that to Blinken and Sullivan and others who never had to be worried about losing there jobs or being criticized.
Reasonable. I reckon Trump is doing this due to the success of the Minerals agreement with Ukraine. Maybe Stefanik or Grennell for NSA? I would suggest that UN Ambassador is a promotion since it requires Senate confirmation whereas, NSA does not.
Of course, Trump could also be throwing Waltz under the bus by forcing him to face criticism in the Senate over the Signal kerfuffle. Let the Senate kill his career. That's politics.
I think we agree the original headline was not factual but opinion.
I am certain an article could contain all you write to add context.
My point was simply news is first the basic facts. The article can add the nuance and analysis. Just don’t state it as fact without support and sources.
Won’t Waltz fall under the failing up promotion idea? Or being rewarded as the fall guy? NPR gave up on objective reporting of events years ago, as has most MSM. Broadcasts weave in the “proper thinking” about what is being broadcast, no room for divergent ideas.
WSJ going on today about CEO’s etc. cozying up to Trump, to find favor, etc. Never once mentioned the guy was voted in by a majority, and maybe, just maybe, at least some of these CEO’s actually approve of Trump and are expressing appreciation. Same old slanted “news” reporting that is really ideological interpretation.
CEO's cozy up to people in power; that's part of their job. Like the sudden rise of oligarchs, it's only a problem for the media when the Wrong People are in power!
I was CFO for a large family-owned road construction and maintenance company in upstate NY, run by Republicans/conservatives. They paid lobbyists on both sides and contributed to both parties. Those running businesses understand the realities of politics.
It’s suspicious that the chat leak included Goldberg, of all people (what are odds of that). Did neocons and neoliberals *experts* set up an intentional leak?
I think you’re correct on the senate taking him down. He should have resined/fallen on his sword after that fiasco.
One of Waltz's aids is taking the hit for including Goldberg. Don't know if it's legit mistake or an intentional sabotage. Possible that one of criminal referrals made by Gabbards is this guy.
I'm thinking that Waltz will ask to be withdrawn from the nomination rather than be put through the wringer by members of the Senate. Warner and others are out for blood.
Oddly enough, I found the first headline more accurate -- though that may be because I don't like Waltz. I thought he was yanked out of one position (in which he displayed poor judgment), and placed in another, where he could do less harm.
Basically, he's a war pig, who should be as far away from war-making decisions as possible.
False. There is a reason UN Ambassador requires Senate confirmation and NSA does not. POTUS can have multiples NSAs, but can only be represented at the UN General Assembly by one person.
Looking at salary.com, the NSA gets paid $163,689 (as of 4/10/2025) and the UN Ambassador is paid $227,960.
With the security council structure at the UN, shrieking is about all of consequence that can be accomplished there. Still glad they are in NYC so we can keep an eye on them easier.
What I wrote was correct. The NSA has more raw political power than ten UN ambassadors put together, no matter what their salaries are, no matter whether they need to be confirmed by the Senate. The secretary of the Interior has to be confirmed by the Senate, too, but you'd never argue that person has more power than the keeper of all American intelligence.
The NSA sees and evaluates all intelligence from FBI, CIA, NSA, and other secret letter agencies, and injects policy recommendations straight into the president's bloodstream. A good NSA is a true power broker. Even a good ambassador to the UN has no real power, only a lofty title, because the UN is a collection of 100+ ambassadors with the same standing.
I can't agree. Sure, the NSA has the ear of the president and plays a very important role for advising on policy, but the position you described is the DNI. When John Bolton was forced to resign as GWBush's UN Ambassador (a recess appointment, but anticipating a thumbs down from the Senate) and was offered the role of NSA, no one regarded that as a promotion at the time. It was a step down for Bolton's career. Same with Susan Rice. She was Obama's UN Ambassador and eventual nominee for Secretary of State to replace Hillary. Her nomination was withdrawn due to the likelihood of being voted down by the Senate. She was then offered the position of NSA. Again, no one regarded this as a promotion for her. More like a consolation prize.
You're confusing the National Security Agency with the National Security Advisor. The two are not the same. The former is a signals intelligence agency with ~32,000 employees, whereas the latter is an individual advisor.
I gave up in 2008 after being a loyal contributor and default liberal living in extremely liberal Ithaca, NY, working at Cornell. Having heard about evil Fox News, I was curious to hear what "the opposition" had to say about Obama. I realized I was hearing two VERY different stories, and I was disturbed that NPR was omitting much of what Fox was saying about Obama, which I confirmed through alternative, unbiased sources (like Matt). I began to see the bias in both WHAT NPR reported and HOW they reported it, and how they cloaked their bias in their erudite attitude. After avoiding NPR for years, I gave them one last shot in October 2020 when the social media censorship surrounding Hunter's laptop came to light. True to form, they reported THAT Twitter and Facebook were being accused on censorship, but they conveniently neglected to include ANY of the details of the laptop contents! I agree they are cleared biased and I resent my tax dollars funding them until they provide truly equal time for ALL points of views.
actually, Waltz was probably IC copromised. he just got Nikki Haley'd. i.e. Trump avoids the appearance that he was bullied into firing him, but is rid of his malign influence, nonetheless.
I can't see Trump having an issue firing anyone, and I don't think he'd feel any need to soft-pedal or hide why he decided to fire. This, more than anything else, is why it feels like a promotion instead of a punishment.
generally agree, but in this case, it would have been painted as Trump was pressured to get rid of him after the signal thing fallout. I think he wanted to deny them that narrative.
Come on. An appointment to UN Ambassador is a very prestigious position. He hasn't been confirmed and frankly, I doubt that he will be, but it is still an honor.
The reason they are so willing to deny what they proclaimed as vital truth yesterday is the belief that all reality is subjective and unreal, hence NPR's former CEO:
"I'm certain that the truth exists for you. And probably for the person sitting next to you. But this may not be the same truth"
What sort of people think nothing is knowable for sure? People whose lives have been spent in a system where success or failure is based entirely on what you say and whether people agree with you, regardless of whether it's true or not. Public sector organizations accumulate such people because they survive literally regardless of what they do, say or think. Reality genuinely doesn't matter to them!
This is why they always believe their problem is the messaging. "If only we had been more eloquent about why boys should be in girls' sports, we would have won." So they try (very obviously) to frame the issue using words that do not really belong in the conversation.
A recent example is "Maryland father" Garcia, who "sometimes gives his buddies a ride to the jobsite."
Funny that you mentioned this, I was ranting about this in a comment to an Alex Berenson post yesterday and today. It is not just NPR- CBS TV in Baltimore referred to him only as Maryland Man wrongly deported. WINS radio did the same but said they had "obtained a video" of a traffic stop in TN but it contains NO evidence of human trafficking. I kid you not. I heard the first nonsense at barber shop in MD and the second several times while stuck in traffic in NYC today. I have tons more detail- basically in both cases they left out 90% of the relevant facts and completely misled their listeners. Bonus, CBS Baltimore next covered Kamala's speech- they used a brief clip where she claimed she predicted tariffs would lead to a recession. They left out the dumpster fire rest of the speech.
I want to know why this guy was driving from Texas to Maryland without a license and a car full of illegals, gets stopped and suspected of human trafficking (that's clearly in the video), AND THE POLICE JUST LET HIM WALK AWAY.
Nobody seems to be able to answer that very simple question. It's no wonder these people don't have records IF WE DON'T ARREST THEM FOR BREAKING THE LAW.
It completely blows my mind too. They probably could have arrested him for the traffic violations alone. They could have asked for the IDs of everyone in the vehicle. Did he even get a ticket or have to pay a fine? I wondered as I was driving, do illegals have EZ Pass for tolls? If not, they are charged tolls by mail. Do they even pay? Have you even heard of a problem of unpaid tolls? I can't imagine there is not one. Or do they get a free ride while I pay $14 for the privilege of entering Staten Island and another $12 to get into Brooklyn.
It's been reported that the THP contacted the FBI and the FBI asked that the driver and occupants not be held. I don't know if the current FBI leadership or the THP has confirmed all that.
The person (I think it was a woman) sitting next to him in the video was creepy. Never moved a muscle or even blinked. Drugged to not cause trouble on the trip?
Right. You watch all the body cam vids, and you see he had 8 guys in the back of his truck, $1200 in cash himself, and they had no luggage, per the officers. The officers knew what was going on (coyote Texas to Maryland) but when they called the FBI (Biden’s) from roadside, FBI said let them go. So they did.
That was always Obama's take on everything. I should have spent more time selling the idea, because people did not understand how good the idea was, not that the idea was bad. He also famously said after he lost Congress, I also heard from those that didn't vote.
Back in the early days of the Biden presidency, Joe floated the idea of doing a 'victory lap' around the country to explain how things were great and he was really helping.
That was abruptly canceled as inflation really kicked in.
In case you don't know, the rejection of any and all objective truth is actually a core tenet of critical theory, the "philosophy" behind the woke movement.
I learned so much from that book! It is a dense read, but when I finished it I understood most of the stupid arguments that woke people push when they're losing a debate.
For those who don't know or remember, Pluckrose and Lindsay were part of the group that proved how vacuous, and biased, modern academia has become by submitting woke-word-salad manuscripts for "serious" journals, some of which were published or in the process. A few titles:
"Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at the Dog Park"
"The conceptual penis as a social construct"
"Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism." (mostly a transcription of Mein Kampf)
“Who Are They to Judge? Overcoming Anthropometry and a Framework for Fat Bodybuilding” (in the journal Fat Studies)
That quote is right up there with Steve Coll, former head of the CJR (and a guy I knew personally for a period and greatly respected) saying the First Amendment is dangerous to a civilized society.
These people are the modern day version of the stage play Bent.
That is what college students said about 10 years ago in a video when asked about other's moral conduct. Everyone has their own moral code so who am I to say for someone else.
I pity the contemporary student who comes away with vapid ideas like this. "Moral codes" only exist because human beings must live together without butchering one another and stealing at will.
To quote the late, great Paul Kantner, "No man is an island. He's a peninsula."
What "kind" of people? Well, Al, they are kinda into Marxist Relativity. There is no Truth and "they" are not kind! Do look up their Great & Good Tool: The Noble Lie... because you can't STAND the truth! (Ooo, I'm Tom Cruise,)
Wow that’s so true. Holding the right views is crucial for advancement today. I heard a McKinsey consultant (no longer working there) explain how the McKinsey business model both hired based on ideology and also propagated a singular ideology throughout every corporate and government entity. They are building a global monoculture.
Who can forget "And going to church will certainly spread COVID, but that protest will be okay if you wear a mask. Wearing a mask into a restaurant, then removing it to eat is also okay"?
I always said, the Covid virus was like a cartoon. As soon as you sat down at a restaurant, the virus screeched to a halt like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Same as 6 feet apart. Virus just came to a screeching halt. All mind f..k. But not at the French Laundry, where his majesty Gov. Newscum was dining. The essential liquor stores were open with the supermarkets. Standing 6 feet apart in the snow, waiting to get into the store. WTF was wrong with us? Washing hands every 30 seconds, mail, steering wheels, door knobs, shopping carts, groceries. Time we will never get back. Masks, vaccine cards, no holidays, no church, job loss over vaccine compliance. This was a tool in the box to stop Trump
Hang on, hang on, hang the hell on!!! SC, you seem to have forgotten The Science.™️
On June 11, 2020, NPR and MSNBC reported that masks were ineffective, social distancing was racist, and Maximal Intersectionality in Support of Efforts to Undermine Privilege and The Parltriarchy was found by experts to suppress the viral load of the COVID-19 virus. Fauci himself recommended we all ditch the masks and distancing, and march for St. Floyd.
Shake my damn head, man. How quickly we all forget.
We seem to be living in a then/now situation where the beliefs of our chosen ones, so fervently held then, are now misinformation by the “right “. This is not just changing one’s mind after discovering the truth but altering the truth to fit an agenda.
they have one commitment and one only - power. "whatever appears necessary." hence a position can change from one day to the next. this is the epitome of fascism. if you see their positions consistent with accumulation of power, it all makes sense. but then you must acknowlege the epidemic of psychopathy.
As always, hurrah for RACKET and subscription journalism. And the subscribers who subscribe. The possibility of a healthy human truth/fact based American national conversation continues to breathe. Our Republic and her citizens deserve a truth/fact based human reality not a psyop.
The perps are terrified but they will not quit. They will burn America to the ground. It's what megalomaniac narcissism and ideological utopianism does. The A-Bomb rattling 20th Century was exactly that. And they're rolling the dice again. "..it isn't happening to me so it doesn't matter what's happening to you.." is spook land-bubble land psychology to the core. Feeding on lives and labor (your tax dollars at work), usurpation of liberty and the final destruction of the nation state is the obvious intent. I offer the stench of the pettifogging mind numbing electronic sewer soaking American life with lies as proof. Because, people lie out of fear and to cover crimes. In America lying and obfuscation is an industry.
It's simple. It's the $$$$$. The destruction of American lives for access to the $$$$$ and the unaccounted disappearance of tax $$$$$ in the trillions. $$$$$, and access to $$$$$, is the only conversation. (I am heartened that RACKET is devoting more space to the
topic.) In this age of front page billionaire oligarchs, numbered accounts and collapse can there be any
As in - his presence as a symptom or symbol of the failing state of culture, that we cannot have a civil discussion wherein the first to are not conflated?
You know... Substack is free to anyone with a pulse, as yours truly is proof of. I love the idea that people here think this one platform is the second coming of the Internet.
Let's see what SS is like in a few years when it is as shitted-up with ads as YouTube, the last great liberator.
Donald Trump didn't shut down my state or turn local business owners into the mask police. He didn't force 10-year-old to wear masks while playing soccer outside in the rain. He didn't shut down WA schools for years while opening some of those schools to use as day-care centers for the "essential" workers at the weed shop.
He DID "platform" the very people who lied to use about nearly every aspect of the pandemic, though -- and that's certainly on him.
You know what? Tell it to Planet Earth, because it looks to me like everyone everywhere was trying to figure out the best way to stop the spread of this novel virus that no one knew what it would do. You want to pretend NOW that you had all the answers THEN? Give me a break. (And then move on, would ya? It's been like four frikkin' years since the pandemic ended.)
Anybody who was following me then knows that I indeed had all the answers. But it's not because I'm a super genius or anything, I just read the actual data. It's how I knew the virus affected the old and sick but not really kids. It's how I knew the jabs didn't stop transmission so protection granted by them was purely personal -- which blew a hole in the entire "protect others by getting your shot" narrative. It's how I knew we most likely paid for the creation of covid in a shoddy Chinese lab. It's how I knew by Summer 2020 the virus was seasonal and nothing we did or didn't do could change that. We could go on and on here - and I'm more than happy to do so.
Because the reason we're still talking about it is that nobody has been punished for lying to us. Until they are, we have to worry they'll do the same exact same thing with Bird Flu or whatever else they cook up in the labs.
"Anybody who was following me then knows that I indeed had all the answers. But it's not because I'm a super genius or anything, I just read the actual data. It's how I knew the virus affected the old and sick but not really kids."
I'm ready to be proven wrong on this, but isn't part of the premise for treating children no different than adults because children A) children can still spread the virus as certainly as any adult can and B) The faculty of their schools was by no means a safe cohort? The fact that the young were less likely to contract a terminal case of COVID does not mean that it was wise to let the disease run riot through them.
(Also, quit being so cavalier about "the old and the sick". There are plenty of all of those, and they have rights too.)
As for the "lab leak": Guess what? Perfectly reasonable assumption. Now, who is running the show in Washington right now? Why, it happens to be the guy who was in charge when COVID hit our shores!
So when was the last time you heard Mr. Man of the People mention COVID at all, much less a lab leak? Ain't you at all curious why?
"Flatten the curve" wasn't even about preventing infections, it was about slowing them down. It was obvious (even to the experts) that everybody would be exposed to covid one way or another. Grandma doesn't care if she got covid from Timmy or Nurse Betty.
But statistically she was more likely to catch it from nurse Betty.
"Of note, there were no cases in children younger than 15 years of age. Either children are less likely to become infected, which would have important epidemiologic implications, or their symptoms were so mild that their
infection escaped detection, which has implications for the size of the denominator of total community infections."
Tony Fauci in February 2020, before a single school closure.
"Throughout the pandemic, many child care centers have stayed open for the children of front-line workers — everyone from doctors to grocery store clerks. YMCA of the USA and New York City's Department of Education have been caring for, collectively, tens of thousands of children since March, and both tell NPR they have no reports of coronavirus clusters or outbreaks. As school districts sweat over reopening plans, and with just over half of parents telling pollsters they're comfortable with in-person school this fall, public health and policy experts say education leaders should be discussing and drawing on these real-world child care experiences."
NPR, talking about the worst-hit city in the world, being hit at the worst possible time. (While also speeding up their curve by infecting all the at-risk at once. We shut down the schools to protect grandma and then forced covid patients into grandma's nursing home, then forced her to die alone. Because we care so much about the rights of the old and sick!
The lab leak was a perfect assumption THAT GOT YOU BANNED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA. Literally for wrongthink!
Lastly, one of the things I hate MOST about Trump is his ignoring of the entire covid situation. I'm not afraid to say that he fucked it up bigtime - but he fucked it up by listening to people like Fauci and Birx, the very people idolized by you.
I wish it [edit: “it” to read _ they _] would, but that’s just not how it is. It’s nothing more than a mouthpiece of the PMC with some CIA sewage floating on top. However something outside of the privateer equity profiteers’ media is needed and there’s a small chance it could reemerge in the PBS ecology. So terminating its tiny funding stream seems a wasted effort, to me.
If you appreciated that final Flaubert novel, you’ll likely appreciate “12 Chairs” too. Or maybe, having resided in Russia and, I think, you speak the language, you already know it?
Marxism means end of all private business. (America has virtually no actual marxists or actual left wing). Calling NPR marxist is like calling pro-law enforcement fascist.
I'd think restitution would be upon court order, i.e. if Alex Berenson's case has a favorable outcome. As in payment because his constitutional rights were violated. That's not really the same thing as taxpayer money going to fund media.
“I feel irredeemable barbarism rising from the bowels of the earth. I hope to be gone before it carries everything away....Never have things of the spirit counted for so little. Never has hatred for everything great been so manifest - disdain for Beauty, execration of literature....I have always tried to live in an ivory tower, but a tide of shit is beating at its walls, threatening to undermine it....I can no longer talk with anyone at all without becoming furious, and everything I read by my contemporaries makes me quiver with indignation. A fine state to be in! Not that it’s preventing me from preparing a book in which I'll try to spew out my bile.
THE PRESS IS A SCHOOL THAT SERVES TO TURN MEN INTO BRUTES, BECAUSE IT RELIEVES THEM FROM THINKING."
Times change, politicians come and go, empires rise and fall, but STUPIDITY IS ETERNAL. None of us are exempt, but Flaubert also pointed a way forward:
"What are we to believe in, then? Nothing! Such is the beginning of wisdom."
"I can no longer talk with anyone at all without becoming furious, and everything I read by my contemporaries makes me quiver with indignation. A fine state to be in!"
The most ironic thing about this controversy (and same with the Ivys) is that the left is now using the argument that federal funding is free speech and without it, their 1st Amendment rights are violated. It's a load of horseshit and that's the end of it.
Matt, a big part of NPR's fecklessness is its unwillingness to embrace any critique that's truly Left, i.e. anything that smacks of "class warfare." Sure, NPR will support Democratic bromides about diversity and the like, but only a certain kind of diversity (certainly not political diversity).
Put differently, what chance do you have of getting a fair hearing on NPR? How about Walter Kirn? And if you two are too "radical" for NPR, it tells you all you need to know about its tepid conformity, its willingness to uphold or to manufacture consent for the DC/elite establishment.
Thus, it's not "national" at all, nor does it capture public diversity. It's niche, safely "liberal," and all about vanilla stories that will never threaten anyone in power, especially Democrats and "moderate" (Liz Cheney? David Brooks?) Republicans.
Well, yes, exactly. NPR not only excludes conservative viewpoints, it doesn’t even allow narrow debate within its sea of pseudo-left bromides. A decade ago I was often a guest on NPR stations and would be encouraged to talk about failures of both parties with respect to 2008 - I could sneak in sharp comments about people like Eric Holder. Now I don’t think they would even countenance a discussion about class/populist revolt… they would see that as illegitimate
My grandsons will pay the price, not me. And I HATE it. I’d rather sacrifice my remaining life for a better future for them than sit back and watch it happen. My powerlessness cries while our guitars gently weep.
“Hypermasculinity” is just another one of the made-up Newspeak words for “straight white male stuff” - it’s a dog whistle for “we hate you, get in the truck.” but couched so it is harder to accuse them of sexism and bigotry.
They hate masculinity. Which one could argue is strange, considering their dogma around gender fluidity, or that biological sex is anti-science thinking. Men (in the West, anyway) are valued by what they do - ergo to defeat them, everything they do must be nullified or made poisonous.
Many feminists have been willing accomplices in this hatchet-job, but rest assured that they’re coming for you next. This isn’t about gender, sexual orientation or anything remotely like equality: it’s about control.
*In the real Fourth Reich, you’ll be the first to go!*
Under the Social Justice dispensation, the only valid form of masculinity and the only acceptable men are Trans Men aka women. Women who "know they're really men inside" are the only socially approved "real men", while actual men who embrace the same masculine essence are dangerous and must be monitored and re-educated.
This is a sort of weird reconception of Marxist power dynamics and critical consciousness applied to the sex binary, which like all Marxist lenses aren't supposed to make sense but are designed to separate the Damned from the Saved and provide another weapon in their eternal war to destroy all that IS in the name of some utopian OUGHT.
Well put. It’s strange to me that gay / queer men aren’t speaking out against this shit too - some of the most “masculine” dudes I’ve known were / are not hetero. Could be they don’t care (hard to blame them) or that they still think the cretins are on their side.
My gay friends are pretty skeptical re Transmania but they still mostly socially define themselves as allies of all sexual minorities (growing up closeted was searing and formative) and opponents of MAGA/conservatives.
All social taboos nudge them toward embracing the Gay Pride narrative of "acceptance" and against questioning any points of dogma, and most people will obey the necessary taboos, esp if their social and sex lives depend on it.
You are right, CP. My lesbian friends mostly comment that they "support trans people." None of them admits to having any questions about the existence of a population of people who correspond to that term.
It is interesting that the same SJ people embrace, at least in their fantasies, the most malignant criminals and terrorists. I would presume that these criminals, coming as they do from male supremacist, misogynist cultures, want to be incarnations of toxic masculinity, which many of them are. Perhaps the Puritanical repressiveness of the woke cult fosters the emergence of a very dark Satanic devotion. It doesn't surprise me that women would be particularly drawn into this dynamic; this has always been the case.
Hard to respond to that mess, but appreciate your stab at it. You did say, "Left academia." What any of this has to do with progeny is incomprehensible. No offense meant. Let's stop talking. Have a inspiriting weekend.
You can't deny that critical theory and all its downstream effluvia is the result of the Frankfurt School's efforts to re-tool Marxism for a proletariat too comfortable to accept the revolution.
Maybe that's why many use the terms "neo-Marxism" or "cultural Marxism."
First of all, they needed a firmer division for the divide-and-conquer, and compiling a collection of immutable "identities" was perfect. As you point out, "a proletariat too comfortable to accept the revolution" was/is always posed the danger that the desired *war* could peter out.
Second, by dropping class rather than creating a no-brainer supermajority composed of *both*, the welfare of the proles was revealed not to be any goal at all. In fact, worse than that, the architects of this movement wanted not merely new allies but a new enemy. So rather than simply ignore the working class, the latter became the ultimate sinners ... as racist, sexist, ignorant idiots. It follows also that, in time, the welfare of the woke beneficiaries won't be needed *either*, and trust me, they'll discover the sins.
What *is* their goal, and why? That is, for those who are actually driving this?
I studied Marx a long time ago, and not sufficiently to be considered knowledgeable, but neither trivially. But I know I should have jumped into literature *about* Marx, too, at that time.
Because what I realize now I don't recall ever hearing is what really motivated him to divorce Leftism from Rightism, creating *oppositional* sides, and thus inciting perpetual intranational wars rather than evolving our political diplomacy. Ostensibly, in the French Revolution the two sides were well-arguably seen as complementary parts addressing two kinds of power (along with culture) necessary to having a healthy society. This perspective survives to this day in fact in the French national motto, unchanged from that time.
Unless the hypermasculine (a fit guy with muscles) is a cop or a disposable meatbag for the DoD, he’s useless. We use robots for welding and all that heavy work, thanks.
I often comment in pieces like this that I actually listen to NPR regularly so that you don't have to (you're welcome!). They never disappoint. Again, I often say that I've made a drinking game out of taking a shot every time an NPR story is about a) racism, b) gender, or c) climate change. Bonus points for those stories (more frequent than you might think) that unite all three obsessions: a segment about how climate change disproportionately harms LGBTQ+ persons of color. Have fun. You'll be passed out on the floor by 10 a.m.
What's most dismaying is when I hear friends and acquaintances parroting NPR gibberish as though these are novel thoughts they arrived at on their own after careful study and contemplation. Just the other day I was talking with a friend who is an actress and a playwright about a podcast on which she had recently appeared with my husband, who is also an actor. One of the hosts of the podcasts -- a woman -- was championing the mission of actively discriminating against white men in theater, television, and movie casting, and "doing good" by hiring only "neglected minorities." I expressed the opinion that racism and sexism are evil in all of their forms. Our friend then averred, "well, of course, something must be done to redress previous wrongs."
But does it? Does it really? Is that even a thought? Or is that something that she's simply heard over and over and over again, through outlets such as NPR, that sounds so warm and good and fair that it must be right and true. But is it? Why should a blameless white man, who never discriminated against anyone for any reason, be forced to pay the price for something bad that somebody else did to somebody else... a long time ago?
We cannot go backwards. We can only move forward from where we are. Shouldn't we simply stop discriminating against anyone and everyone based on race, sex, age, etc.? How does a white man not getting a job or admission to a college in 2025 in any way make recompense to a sold slave in 1840? It doesn't.
NPR and other "groupthink" outlets are for people for whom actual thinking is too effortful. They prefer to simply buy their ideas in bulk from someone else. Is Trump for it? Or against it? Well, now we've just made the decision easy for them.
I once heard a man say that NY firefighters were racist. I asked him how he knew that. He "heard their jokes in his local bar". I asked him if he knew of any instances in one of them ever refused to enter the buring aparment of a person of color. Crickets.
Reminds me of 2020 when many of my lib facebook friends, doubtless NPR listeners, would repeat every slogan ("flatten the curve," "hammer and the dance," "stay home save lives," "my mask protects you" etc.) as if they'd come up with these thoughts and were benevolently sharing their wisdom with the rest of us.
I know, John Duffner; I used to cringe whenever anyone would intone the mealy-mouthed mantra, "Stay safe!" So many people were willing to hide under their beds forever during Covid, willing to stop living just to stay alive. That's when I realized that we were no longer the same country that won two world wars. %-(
So, all lives... don't matter, Salusa Snape? Or just someone like Brian Thompson? Is that the kind of life that doesn't matter? Or is that just some left wing talking point shit?
I stand by my statement, and I'm happy about it: Racism. And. Sexism. Are. Evil. In. All. Of. Their. Forms. ;-)
Also, glancing back at your reply again, I find other puzzling statements.
You say triumphantly, "Ah!.... I hardly expected you to admit it!" As though suggesting that all people have value should be somehow controversial or even shameful, and that this is a sentiment I should somehow be trying to conceal.
Then you suggest that I "don't actually believe that racism or sexism exists against blacks or women..." But, again, when did I say that? I didn't.
Of course sexism (against both women and men), racism (against all races), ageism (against young and old), and all the world's various -isms exist. Always have and always will. Man is a fallen creature.
But I'm saying that flipping the script to discriminate against and persecute the "other" is not the way to redress the failures of the past. Swinging the pendulum back so that we may marginalize and oppress different groups based on immutable characteristics is not virtuous, for then we have only become the same monsters we once beheld.
Do you see what I'm saying? I have many quibbles with Chief Justice John Roberts, but one quotation of his that should live forever in "Bartlett's Familiar..." is "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." Amen, brother.
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
I request Matt Taibbi throw a flag onto the field for this one. If this banality isn’t fit for The Dictionary of Received Wisdom, I don’t know what is.
Salusa Snape, your thinking appears to be muddled, and never seems to come in for a landing. In my comments, I never said "All lives matter." You did. And somehow managed to attribute it to me, as you were describing it as "a right wing talking point" and "propaganda." Describing as "propaganda" the notion that we should care equally about everyone? I'm not sure how we got there.
But if you can remain civil (something I've appreciated greatly in Substack comments), perhaps you can explain to me why the principle that "All lives matter" is somehow wrong.
I may be naive, but... don't all lives matter? It's practically simply a rephrasing of the Golden Rule. %-)
Agreed, RandallS, that black lives matter, too, because... all lives matter.
To be clear, I never invoked "all lives matter" in my original comment to Matt Taibbi's NPR column; that was Salusa Secundus Snape, who appears to have led us down that rabbit hole.
I'm still not sure why those who bristle at "All Lives Matter" seem to assume that this means that black lives don't matter. It does not mean that, but means literally the opposite.
So while I did not initiate this particular all-lives-matter controversy, I would agree with the sentiment. I'm not sure why that's objectionable, but no one seems prepared to enlighten me. I am as perplexed as gortroe appears to be.
Even trying a little bit with DOGE brought ear-shattering talk of fascism. Imagine if we actually tried to repair government to its constitutional limits?
What breaks my heart is how many years it has taken to come to the realization of what NPR and PBS has morphed into. Thank God Trump has mustered the political will to correct it.
They turned into the arm of the socialist propaganda ring, disgracing America, and disrespecting the US Constitution. Freedom of speech, without public funding. They can do it on their own and try to survive.
Anti-thinking is the base requirement for anti-Trumpism. There's plenty of valid reasons to be against any or all of Trump's policies. But anti-Trumpism isn't about policy, it's about focusing on Trump himself. As many have said, if Trump came out in favor of clean air, millions would die from holding their breath. Anti-Trumpism is a cult, not a policy disagreement.
Not only should they defunded, but something like half the infrastructure on the public dime they have accumulated over five decades must also be re-distributed.
I know that NPR's audience is whiter than Fox News's, but I'm pretty sure it's far more affluent as well. So there's every reason to think they should do fine without government funding--but you will be hearing a lot more ads about wealth management services.
I am happy to double NPR’s funding and endure a daily “Transgender Power Hour” if it means I can listen to intelligent people discuss the news on my car radio without them being interrupted every 39 seconds by a mattress store commercial.
Snobbish! Now I understand why NPR appeals. Actually Fox seems to be reporting a lot of stories more accurately in retrospect, eg asking more questions on pandemic policies, the laptop.
I agree with you. I was just responding to the constant, obligatory trashing of Fox which should probably be reevaluated in light of the fact that recently Fox actually got some major news stories right when others missed the mark.
Sir, I have scrolled down these threads of yours and find you (Salusa Snape, a cartoon name perhaps from a book my children once read?) a pitiful non-contributor to this website. The joy of Substack and Racket was that they brought fresh, vibrant, intelligent viewpoints. Like all good things, they were bound to also attract mescreants and dopes. You know the typle, Salusa. People like you, the equivalent of 30 second mattress ads. Please go elsewhere.
Stopped listening to NPR years ago, but not to long ago I was a passenger in a car whose driver loved NPR. The report breathlessly documented the discovery of a thousand year old grave that contained the body of a Nordic woman, buried with her sword. It was quickly determined the woman was definitely “Non-Binary”
I searched furiously through the glove box for the car sick pills.
If you want to listen to NPR, fine with me, have at it, you’ll just have to write a bigger check come fund raising, and oh yes, sorry, no Yanni box set this time.
They're anti-thought in part BECAUSE they're anti-Trump. NPR has happily followed along with every ridiculous progressive pet project since.....forever it seems like.
But if NPR were full of Substackers who were thrown out of polite society for wrongthink, the Democrats would be falling over one another to "deplatform" our "incorrect and dangerous views" -- just like they do when we go on a podcast or TV show.
It's becoming increasingly obvious that the political left has no principles whatsoever, and will say anything to gain a fraction of a political point -- even if it's the exact opposite of what they were saying yesterday.
Example: "COVID IS SUPER DANGEROUS AND YOU MUST STAY HOME. UNLESS YOU'RE PROTESTING FOR GEORGE FLOYD."
NPR is a wasteland of left-wing propaganda. Gave up on it 20 years ago, about when Klick and Klack went off the air. I like most of the programming on PBS, but think all of it can stand on its own feet or sold to Discovery or Disney or other streaming/cable channels. The Newshour has become as bad as NPR. For example, here is a current leading headline on their website:
"Waltz ousted as national security adviser, nominated for UN role in White House shakeup"
A headline reflecting reality would read: "Waltz promoted to UN Ambassador."
Click and Clack, sponsored by Dewey, Cheatem, and How !!! :). Still miss those guys, they were great.
My car makes a noise every time I drive down the street, there advice, “Don’t drive down that street anymore”!
Agree they were entertaining.
LOL
Klick and Klack - ah, those were the days.
"The Tappet brothers"
"Don't drive like my brother!"
Especially in his Dawdg Daht!
Yes, their lawyers! There is a window overlooking Harvard Square with those names. :) And don't forget their limo driver Peekup Andropov and statistician Marge Inoverra, to name but a few. They were the BEST! RIP Tommy...
That’s interesting. I left at the same time. The remaining programs had no interest to me. I hardly know what they say anymore but I don’t think they need any more of my tax money.
It's the smugness.
That’s the real rub to me. Smuuug
There's a veritable Cloud of Smug hovering over NPR broadcasts.
That might make a great horror film. “Hovering over LA, DC, Boston and the Ivy League the cloud of Smug suffocates the brains of all it surrounds”.
"Reality has a Liberal Bias"
"We're on the Right Side of History (TM) and don't you forget it!!"
Elite and erudite attitudes, far from representing The Public at large.
It’s cracking me up that so many comments on here mention that the publication was ‘so smug.’ I ended my comment with the same description thinking: ‘That’s not a very sophisticated word. But what the heck. It’s still true.’ And then reading so many contributors using the same word. Love it!
It’s an apt description. Used to really enjoy NPR, but they dove into DEI and the accompanying ideology way too deep.
Smug is the most appropriate word for sophisticated. Only those who believe they are among the sophisticated could be properly smug.
I quit listening about 20 years ago too. It was on my car radio for drive to/from work. They hated Bush43, with their disgruntled voices announce they had to break to cover 'the president's national address'. I agreed his policies were on the downside. But what got to me was their experts giving advice on an assortment of things only the rich could put into action. Example - always check which hospital performs the best for the operation you need, as if your employer's health insurance was not limited to 'preferred network'.
Laptop class radio…
Likewise, NPR’s money programs would recommend that workers put aside a hefty chunk of their monthly poverty level wages to provide for retirement because lord knows the social safety net has big and getting bigger holes in it. These people never activate for solutions to a problem; they assure their own nests are feathered first.
Perhaps: Trump moves Walz from NSA role to UN. Rubio to temporarily assume NSA as part of his portfolio.
No editorial view at all. Its debatable that its a promotion or an oust? So make that part of the article not the headline.
The fact that there is the appearance of some accountability at all is nice. Even if it is a "yeah he wasn't fit for that job, but let's try him somewhere else". Compare that to Blinken and Sullivan and others who never had to be worried about losing there jobs or being criticized.
Two guys that were unquestionably not qualified to scrub the toilets, much less their jobs.
Reasonable. I reckon Trump is doing this due to the success of the Minerals agreement with Ukraine. Maybe Stefanik or Grennell for NSA? I would suggest that UN Ambassador is a promotion since it requires Senate confirmation whereas, NSA does not.
Of course, Trump could also be throwing Waltz under the bus by forcing him to face criticism in the Senate over the Signal kerfuffle. Let the Senate kill his career. That's politics.
I think we agree the original headline was not factual but opinion.
I am certain an article could contain all you write to add context.
My point was simply news is first the basic facts. The article can add the nuance and analysis. Just don’t state it as fact without support and sources.
Point is well taken.
See M. Chrichton’s “Why Speculate.”
Won’t Waltz fall under the failing up promotion idea? Or being rewarded as the fall guy? NPR gave up on objective reporting of events years ago, as has most MSM. Broadcasts weave in the “proper thinking” about what is being broadcast, no room for divergent ideas.
WSJ going on today about CEO’s etc. cozying up to Trump, to find favor, etc. Never once mentioned the guy was voted in by a majority, and maybe, just maybe, at least some of these CEO’s actually approve of Trump and are expressing appreciation. Same old slanted “news” reporting that is really ideological interpretation.
CEO's cozy up to people in power; that's part of their job. Like the sudden rise of oligarchs, it's only a problem for the media when the Wrong People are in power!
I was CFO for a large family-owned road construction and maintenance company in upstate NY, run by Republicans/conservatives. They paid lobbyists on both sides and contributed to both parties. Those running businesses understand the realities of politics.
Possible.
No, not Stefanik, please.
She'd be pushing for war with Iran within minutes.
It’s suspicious that the chat leak included Goldberg, of all people (what are odds of that). Did neocons and neoliberals *experts* set up an intentional leak?
I think you’re correct on the senate taking him down. He should have resined/fallen on his sword after that fiasco.
If he resined his sword first, would it have cut better?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist)
One of Waltz's aids is taking the hit for including Goldberg. Don't know if it's legit mistake or an intentional sabotage. Possible that one of criminal referrals made by Gabbards is this guy.
I'm thinking that Waltz will ask to be withdrawn from the nomination rather than be put through the wringer by members of the Senate. Warner and others are out for blood.
Makes sense, if anything makes sense, anymore….
Oddly enough, I found the first headline more accurate -- though that may be because I don't like Waltz. I thought he was yanked out of one position (in which he displayed poor judgment), and placed in another, where he could do less harm.
Basically, he's a war pig, who should be as far away from war-making decisions as possible.
I was alarmed when Trump gave him the nod for Intel, said so to friends. Glad he was yanked. Still hope he follows Trump's lead at the UN.
Sorry, but in no universe is a move from national security adviser to UN ambassador a promotion. It's a demotion. NPR's headline was more correct.
That said, sure, end the government subsidy and let PBS fly on its own.
False. There is a reason UN Ambassador requires Senate confirmation and NSA does not. POTUS can have multiples NSAs, but can only be represented at the UN General Assembly by one person.
Looking at salary.com, the NSA gets paid $163,689 (as of 4/10/2025) and the UN Ambassador is paid $227,960.
Wow!
That is waaay too much money for UN Ambassador.
All Nikki Haley ever did there was shriek -- but then I guess that's her thing.
With the security council structure at the UN, shrieking is about all of consequence that can be accomplished there. Still glad they are in NYC so we can keep an eye on them easier.
What I wrote was correct. The NSA has more raw political power than ten UN ambassadors put together, no matter what their salaries are, no matter whether they need to be confirmed by the Senate. The secretary of the Interior has to be confirmed by the Senate, too, but you'd never argue that person has more power than the keeper of all American intelligence.
The NSA sees and evaluates all intelligence from FBI, CIA, NSA, and other secret letter agencies, and injects policy recommendations straight into the president's bloodstream. A good NSA is a true power broker. Even a good ambassador to the UN has no real power, only a lofty title, because the UN is a collection of 100+ ambassadors with the same standing.
I can't agree. Sure, the NSA has the ear of the president and plays a very important role for advising on policy, but the position you described is the DNI. When John Bolton was forced to resign as GWBush's UN Ambassador (a recess appointment, but anticipating a thumbs down from the Senate) and was offered the role of NSA, no one regarded that as a promotion at the time. It was a step down for Bolton's career. Same with Susan Rice. She was Obama's UN Ambassador and eventual nominee for Secretary of State to replace Hillary. Her nomination was withdrawn due to the likelihood of being voted down by the Senate. She was then offered the position of NSA. Again, no one regarded this as a promotion for her. More like a consolation prize.
Ack! You're right, Jeff, and I was wrong. I mixed up the NSA with DNI, and of course UN ambassador outranks an NSA. Thanks for the clarification.
In the present day, UN is useless. NATO to follow…
That’s a bingo and he can hide there for years and get rich.
Could be, but UN is meaningless, while NSA still does something (I think).
You're confusing the National Security Agency with the National Security Advisor. The two are not the same. The former is a signals intelligence agency with ~32,000 employees, whereas the latter is an individual advisor.
I would guess the Advisor does more than anyone at the UN. It’s just a matter of time that organization disappears.
I gave up in 2008 after being a loyal contributor and default liberal living in extremely liberal Ithaca, NY, working at Cornell. Having heard about evil Fox News, I was curious to hear what "the opposition" had to say about Obama. I realized I was hearing two VERY different stories, and I was disturbed that NPR was omitting much of what Fox was saying about Obama, which I confirmed through alternative, unbiased sources (like Matt). I began to see the bias in both WHAT NPR reported and HOW they reported it, and how they cloaked their bias in their erudite attitude. After avoiding NPR for years, I gave them one last shot in October 2020 when the social media censorship surrounding Hunter's laptop came to light. True to form, they reported THAT Twitter and Facebook were being accused on censorship, but they conveniently neglected to include ANY of the details of the laptop contents! I agree they are cleared biased and I resent my tax dollars funding them until they provide truly equal time for ALL points of views.
PBS Election Night 2016 is one of the most important historical artifacts of the 21st century. View in full while we can:
https://www.youtube.com/live/lL-gicgoCAY?si=86md4UJ4UGUowkct
Watching it again, wonderful stuff.
'like'
Thank you!
no no. no Jacques Pepin on Disney
actually, Waltz was probably IC copromised. he just got Nikki Haley'd. i.e. Trump avoids the appearance that he was bullied into firing him, but is rid of his malign influence, nonetheless.
I can't see Trump having an issue firing anyone, and I don't think he'd feel any need to soft-pedal or hide why he decided to fire. This, more than anything else, is why it feels like a promotion instead of a punishment.
Trump likes to say ”you’re fired,” he made a whole TV show out of it.
generally agree, but in this case, it would have been painted as Trump was pressured to get rid of him after the signal thing fallout. I think he wanted to deny them that narrative.
As if Trump (or me) cares how this was “painted.”
Certainly possible.
A step further would be "Trump pigeonholes Waltz at UN, where he can have no real effect"
you really think that's a promotion? How much respect does Trump have for the U.N.?
Come on. An appointment to UN Ambassador is a very prestigious position. He hasn't been confirmed and frankly, I doubt that he will be, but it is still an honor.
I think they actually got that one right. Waltz was demoted.
I don't think that either John Bolton or Susan Rice regarded moving from UN Ambassador to NSA as being a promotion. More like consolation prizes.
That's what we need: Kathleen Kennedy in charge of Sesame Street.
😂
The reason they are so willing to deny what they proclaimed as vital truth yesterday is the belief that all reality is subjective and unreal, hence NPR's former CEO:
"I'm certain that the truth exists for you. And probably for the person sitting next to you. But this may not be the same truth"
What sort of people think nothing is knowable for sure? People whose lives have been spent in a system where success or failure is based entirely on what you say and whether people agree with you, regardless of whether it's true or not. Public sector organizations accumulate such people because they survive literally regardless of what they do, say or think. Reality genuinely doesn't matter to them!
This is why they always believe their problem is the messaging. "If only we had been more eloquent about why boys should be in girls' sports, we would have won." So they try (very obviously) to frame the issue using words that do not really belong in the conversation.
A recent example is "Maryland father" Garcia, who "sometimes gives his buddies a ride to the jobsite."
No mention that the trip was TEXAS TO MARYLAND.
Funny that you mentioned this, I was ranting about this in a comment to an Alex Berenson post yesterday and today. It is not just NPR- CBS TV in Baltimore referred to him only as Maryland Man wrongly deported. WINS radio did the same but said they had "obtained a video" of a traffic stop in TN but it contains NO evidence of human trafficking. I kid you not. I heard the first nonsense at barber shop in MD and the second several times while stuck in traffic in NYC today. I have tons more detail- basically in both cases they left out 90% of the relevant facts and completely misled their listeners. Bonus, CBS Baltimore next covered Kamala's speech- they used a brief clip where she claimed she predicted tariffs would lead to a recession. They left out the dumpster fire rest of the speech.
I want to know why this guy was driving from Texas to Maryland without a license and a car full of illegals, gets stopped and suspected of human trafficking (that's clearly in the video), AND THE POLICE JUST LET HIM WALK AWAY.
Nobody seems to be able to answer that very simple question. It's no wonder these people don't have records IF WE DON'T ARREST THEM FOR BREAKING THE LAW.
It completely blows my mind too. They probably could have arrested him for the traffic violations alone. They could have asked for the IDs of everyone in the vehicle. Did he even get a ticket or have to pay a fine? I wondered as I was driving, do illegals have EZ Pass for tolls? If not, they are charged tolls by mail. Do they even pay? Have you even heard of a problem of unpaid tolls? I can't imagine there is not one. Or do they get a free ride while I pay $14 for the privilege of entering Staten Island and another $12 to get into Brooklyn.
It's been reported that the THP contacted the FBI and the FBI asked that the driver and occupants not be held. I don't know if the current FBI leadership or the THP has confirmed all that.
That's the last I've heard as well. Somebody's desperately looking for a fall guy who retired a year ago......
The person (I think it was a woman) sitting next to him in the video was creepy. Never moved a muscle or even blinked. Drugged to not cause trouble on the trip?
There were 8 guys in the back of the covered truck. You are only being shown the snippet of the cab of the truck. Deceptive.
Right. You watch all the body cam vids, and you see he had 8 guys in the back of his truck, $1200 in cash himself, and they had no luggage, per the officers. The officers knew what was going on (coyote Texas to Maryland) but when they called the FBI (Biden’s) from roadside, FBI said let them go. So they did.
That was always Obama's take on everything. I should have spent more time selling the idea, because people did not understand how good the idea was, not that the idea was bad. He also famously said after he lost Congress, I also heard from those that didn't vote.
Back in the early days of the Biden presidency, Joe floated the idea of doing a 'victory lap' around the country to explain how things were great and he was really helping.
That was abruptly canceled as inflation really kicked in.
Right! Like those against NPR, we're just not "smart" enough to understand their genius! LOL!
Ha!
That's pretty funny.
>What sort of people think nothing is knowable for sure?
Villains in an Ayn Rand novel.
Any woke academic schooled in post-modernism and critical theory.
People who value sorting out the correct butts to kiss. 💋
Yep.
In case you don't know, the rejection of any and all objective truth is actually a core tenet of critical theory, the "philosophy" behind the woke movement.
Is it really?
That explains so much.
Yes, as critical theory derives from post-modernist philosophy. Check out the book Cynical Theories, by Pluckrose and Lindsay.
I learned so much from that book! It is a dense read, but when I finished it I understood most of the stupid arguments that woke people push when they're losing a debate.
Likewise.
For those who don't know or remember, Pluckrose and Lindsay were part of the group that proved how vacuous, and biased, modern academia has become by submitting woke-word-salad manuscripts for "serious" journals, some of which were published or in the process. A few titles:
"Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at the Dog Park"
"The conceptual penis as a social construct"
"Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism." (mostly a transcription of Mein Kampf)
“Who Are They to Judge? Overcoming Anthropometry and a Framework for Fat Bodybuilding” (in the journal Fat Studies)
Where thought floats free from reality. My favorite illustration is The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Sooner or later reality catches up with you.
That quote is right up there with Steve Coll, former head of the CJR (and a guy I knew personally for a period and greatly respected) saying the First Amendment is dangerous to a civilized society.
These people are the modern day version of the stage play Bent.
I think that’s called “situational morality”
If not individual morality, no one owns the right to say what is moral.
Really… you have me fooled on that
That is what college students said about 10 years ago in a video when asked about other's moral conduct. Everyone has their own moral code so who am I to say for someone else.
I pity the contemporary student who comes away with vapid ideas like this. "Moral codes" only exist because human beings must live together without butchering one another and stealing at will.
To quote the late, great Paul Kantner, "No man is an island. He's a peninsula."
Bullseye
What "kind" of people? Well, Al, they are kinda into Marxist Relativity. There is no Truth and "they" are not kind! Do look up their Great & Good Tool: The Noble Lie... because you can't STAND the truth! (Ooo, I'm Tom Cruise,)
Nah, that makes you Jack Nicholson 🤣
NO! You’re Jack! I’m the good looking one! 😉
Wow that’s so true. Holding the right views is crucial for advancement today. I heard a McKinsey consultant (no longer working there) explain how the McKinsey business model both hired based on ideology and also propagated a singular ideology throughout every corporate and government entity. They are building a global monoculture.
Beautifully stated!
this is right on target.
Who can forget "And going to church will certainly spread COVID, but that protest will be okay if you wear a mask. Wearing a mask into a restaurant, then removing it to eat is also okay"?
Going to the bar with your friends is very dangerous.
Unless you also order food.
The exceptions were the things they wanted to do.
I always said, the Covid virus was like a cartoon. As soon as you sat down at a restaurant, the virus screeched to a halt like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Same as 6 feet apart. Virus just came to a screeching halt. All mind f..k. But not at the French Laundry, where his majesty Gov. Newscum was dining. The essential liquor stores were open with the supermarkets. Standing 6 feet apart in the snow, waiting to get into the store. WTF was wrong with us? Washing hands every 30 seconds, mail, steering wheels, door knobs, shopping carts, groceries. Time we will never get back. Masks, vaccine cards, no holidays, no church, job loss over vaccine compliance. This was a tool in the box to stop Trump
relatives at the end of their lives dying alone
Still mad that I didn't get to see my grandmother for the last year and a half of her life.
Yep, my step-Mom died all alone. I spent 9 days in the hospital for scary heart surgery, without my husband able to come in at all.
Yes, I don't hear enough about what a cruel and authoritarian order that was.
The lunacy was well captured here. No critical thinking was allowed.
LOL!!
Hang on, hang on, hang the hell on!!! SC, you seem to have forgotten The Science.™️
On June 11, 2020, NPR and MSNBC reported that masks were ineffective, social distancing was racist, and Maximal Intersectionality in Support of Efforts to Undermine Privilege and The Parltriarchy was found by experts to suppress the viral load of the COVID-19 virus. Fauci himself recommended we all ditch the masks and distancing, and march for St. Floyd.
Shake my damn head, man. How quickly we all forget.
That was then; this is now…
We seem to be living in a then/now situation where the beliefs of our chosen ones, so fervently held then, are now misinformation by the “right “. This is not just changing one’s mind after discovering the truth but altering the truth to fit an agenda.
It’s called Confirmation Bias. We all suffer from it.
they have one commitment and one only - power. "whatever appears necessary." hence a position can change from one day to the next. this is the epitome of fascism. if you see their positions consistent with accumulation of power, it all makes sense. but then you must acknowlege the epidemic of psychopathy.
More the evil triad….. totally agree
As always, hurrah for RACKET and subscription journalism. And the subscribers who subscribe. The possibility of a healthy human truth/fact based American national conversation continues to breathe. Our Republic and her citizens deserve a truth/fact based human reality not a psyop.
The perps are terrified but they will not quit. They will burn America to the ground. It's what megalomaniac narcissism and ideological utopianism does. The A-Bomb rattling 20th Century was exactly that. And they're rolling the dice again. "..it isn't happening to me so it doesn't matter what's happening to you.." is spook land-bubble land psychology to the core. Feeding on lives and labor (your tax dollars at work), usurpation of liberty and the final destruction of the nation state is the obvious intent. I offer the stench of the pettifogging mind numbing electronic sewer soaking American life with lies as proof. Because, people lie out of fear and to cover crimes. In America lying and obfuscation is an industry.
It's simple. It's the $$$$$. The destruction of American lives for access to the $$$$$ and the unaccounted disappearance of tax $$$$$ in the trillions. $$$$$, and access to $$$$$, is the only conversation. (I am heartened that RACKET is devoting more space to the
topic.) In this age of front page billionaire oligarchs, numbered accounts and collapse can there be any
other topic?
the economy.
We should all be anti-trump, whether you're public radio or TV.
WRONG
???
As in - his person?
As in - his policies?
As in - his presence as a symptom or symbol of the failing state of culture, that we cannot have a civil discussion wherein the first to are not conflated?
Seems important to clarify
You know... Substack is free to anyone with a pulse, as yours truly is proof of. I love the idea that people here think this one platform is the second coming of the Internet.
Let's see what SS is like in a few years when it is as shitted-up with ads as YouTube, the last great liberator.
I think "Substackers who were thrown out of polite society for wrongthink" is a pretty defined group and doesn't encompass all of Substack.
I think it might be time to retire "wrongthink". Every online Nazi accuses the world of persecuting them for that sin.
You DO remember that Donald "Lightbulbs Up the Ass" Trump was the supervisor of the COVID response at that time, don't you?
A lot of you seem to have lost your memory of the pandemic.
Donald Trump didn't shut down my state or turn local business owners into the mask police. He didn't force 10-year-old to wear masks while playing soccer outside in the rain. He didn't shut down WA schools for years while opening some of those schools to use as day-care centers for the "essential" workers at the weed shop.
He DID "platform" the very people who lied to use about nearly every aspect of the pandemic, though -- and that's certainly on him.
You know what? Tell it to Planet Earth, because it looks to me like everyone everywhere was trying to figure out the best way to stop the spread of this novel virus that no one knew what it would do. You want to pretend NOW that you had all the answers THEN? Give me a break. (And then move on, would ya? It's been like four frikkin' years since the pandemic ended.)
Anybody who was following me then knows that I indeed had all the answers. But it's not because I'm a super genius or anything, I just read the actual data. It's how I knew the virus affected the old and sick but not really kids. It's how I knew the jabs didn't stop transmission so protection granted by them was purely personal -- which blew a hole in the entire "protect others by getting your shot" narrative. It's how I knew we most likely paid for the creation of covid in a shoddy Chinese lab. It's how I knew by Summer 2020 the virus was seasonal and nothing we did or didn't do could change that. We could go on and on here - and I'm more than happy to do so.
Because the reason we're still talking about it is that nobody has been punished for lying to us. Until they are, we have to worry they'll do the same exact same thing with Bird Flu or whatever else they cook up in the labs.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/covid-was-years-ago-just-move-on
This was written for people like you.
"Anybody who was following me then knows that I indeed had all the answers. But it's not because I'm a super genius or anything, I just read the actual data. It's how I knew the virus affected the old and sick but not really kids."
I'm ready to be proven wrong on this, but isn't part of the premise for treating children no different than adults because children A) children can still spread the virus as certainly as any adult can and B) The faculty of their schools was by no means a safe cohort? The fact that the young were less likely to contract a terminal case of COVID does not mean that it was wise to let the disease run riot through them.
(Also, quit being so cavalier about "the old and the sick". There are plenty of all of those, and they have rights too.)
As for the "lab leak": Guess what? Perfectly reasonable assumption. Now, who is running the show in Washington right now? Why, it happens to be the guy who was in charge when COVID hit our shores!
So when was the last time you heard Mr. Man of the People mention COVID at all, much less a lab leak? Ain't you at all curious why?
"Flatten the curve" wasn't even about preventing infections, it was about slowing them down. It was obvious (even to the experts) that everybody would be exposed to covid one way or another. Grandma doesn't care if she got covid from Timmy or Nurse Betty.
But statistically she was more likely to catch it from nurse Betty.
"Of note, there were no cases in children younger than 15 years of age. Either children are less likely to become infected, which would have important epidemiologic implications, or their symptoms were so mild that their
infection escaped detection, which has implications for the size of the denominator of total community infections."
Tony Fauci in February 2020, before a single school closure.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejme2002387
"Throughout the pandemic, many child care centers have stayed open for the children of front-line workers — everyone from doctors to grocery store clerks. YMCA of the USA and New York City's Department of Education have been caring for, collectively, tens of thousands of children since March, and both tell NPR they have no reports of coronavirus clusters or outbreaks. As school districts sweat over reopening plans, and with just over half of parents telling pollsters they're comfortable with in-person school this fall, public health and policy experts say education leaders should be discussing and drawing on these real-world child care experiences."
NPR, talking about the worst-hit city in the world, being hit at the worst possible time. (While also speeding up their curve by infecting all the at-risk at once. We shut down the schools to protect grandma and then forced covid patients into grandma's nursing home, then forced her to die alone. Because we care so much about the rights of the old and sick!
The lab leak was a perfect assumption THAT GOT YOU BANNED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA. Literally for wrongthink!
Lastly, one of the things I hate MOST about Trump is his ignoring of the entire covid situation. I'm not afraid to say that he fucked it up bigtime - but he fucked it up by listening to people like Fauci and Birx, the very people idolized by you.
Nobody knew what was going on in the early days. But trump also wanted to reopen the country by July. Remember?
BTW, did you ever see the Steven Soderbergh movie “Contagion”? Really good and eerily prescient.
I do not believe NPR is the political left, nor really any influential national figure of the Demoratic party. I believe the culture
What does that mean?
NPR and PBS are welcome to spread all the Marxist horseshit they want.
But not with my tax dollars.
Put ads for Bud Light or Ben and Jerry's on it, or fuck off.
NPR's corporate sponsors:
Entertainment:
Columbia Records
Concord Records
Fox Searchlight Pictures
HBO
Universal Pictures
Warner Home Video
Technology & Communication:
Intel Corporation, Microsoft, and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Financial Services:
MasterCard, Raymond James Financial Services, and Visa.
Other Industries:
Kashi Company, Travel Guard, Pabst Brewing Company, Feeding America, and National Association of Realtors
Awesome.
Excellent list of companies to boycott.
Splendid!
So they should be able to get by without our money.
Fucking hipsters. I knew it…
Could've sworn the Gates Foundation was a big one. Maybe I'm thinking of PBS.
They definitely used to be. Maybe they don’t count as a corporate sponsor?
Good point. From what I recall, the list of foundation sponsors is quite long, as well.
Digging into the deep state connections of their board is illuminating too. These people are not our friends.
It’s not Marxist you idiot.
It’s bourgeois liberalism with zero concern for wealth redistribution.
You seem nice.
You should be deported to the Marxist paradise of North Korea. Or have your face boiled off with acid.
I don't care which. But I will volunteer to do the acid.
You seem stupid.
You are stupid.
Die
Exactly.
Celtics fans wouldn’t allow their tax dollars to be used to make the Knicks tougher. Although the Knucks would probably need something like that…
I wish it [edit: “it” to read _ they _] would, but that’s just not how it is. It’s nothing more than a mouthpiece of the PMC with some CIA sewage floating on top. However something outside of the privateer equity profiteers’ media is needed and there’s a small chance it could reemerge in the PBS ecology. So terminating its tiny funding stream seems a wasted effort, to me.
Probably true. But, so deserved, don’t you think?
If you appreciated that final Flaubert novel, you’ll likely appreciate “12 Chairs” too. Or maybe, having resided in Russia and, I think, you speak the language, you already know it?
I have that in a DVD set of Mel Brooks' films, but I haven't watched it yet.
It’s a classic. And it has a very, very young Frank Langella. Maybe his first starring role.
Mel Brooks? Really! I had no idea. I now have to find it.
I haven't read the book, but have seen two movie versions.
Marxism means end of all private business. (America has virtually no actual marxists or actual left wing). Calling NPR marxist is like calling pro-law enforcement fascist.
Please.
The left in this country celebrates CEO killers and absolutely has Maoist views.
They don't say it out loud on NPR because they need corporate funding.
Every single person who works there is advancing an agenda so they can say it out loud.
DPR & DBS. Just is. We know. They know.
I would oppose taxpayer money for NPR and any other media organization even if the organizations were conservative leaning.
Exactly, Allison. The Media and government should be as distant from each other as possible.
Precisely because the media's raison de etre is SUPPOSED to be to hold government accountable. Thank heaven independent media took on that mantle.
Yes, agree, and what a disgrace that the MSM completely fumbled their true mission.
Exception: Restitution for people who were censored by government. But this wouldn't be ongoing.
I'd think restitution would be upon court order, i.e. if Alex Berenson's case has a favorable outcome. As in payment because his constitutional rights were violated. That's not really the same thing as taxpayer money going to fund media.
😂😂😂😂😂
Flaubert in a letter to Turgenev:
“I feel irredeemable barbarism rising from the bowels of the earth. I hope to be gone before it carries everything away....Never have things of the spirit counted for so little. Never has hatred for everything great been so manifest - disdain for Beauty, execration of literature....I have always tried to live in an ivory tower, but a tide of shit is beating at its walls, threatening to undermine it....I can no longer talk with anyone at all without becoming furious, and everything I read by my contemporaries makes me quiver with indignation. A fine state to be in! Not that it’s preventing me from preparing a book in which I'll try to spew out my bile.
THE PRESS IS A SCHOOL THAT SERVES TO TURN MEN INTO BRUTES, BECAUSE IT RELIEVES THEM FROM THINKING."
Times change, politicians come and go, empires rise and fall, but STUPIDITY IS ETERNAL. None of us are exempt, but Flaubert also pointed a way forward:
"What are we to believe in, then? Nothing! Such is the beginning of wisdom."
“ I live in an ivory tower, but a tide of shit is beating at its walls….” Boy, does that ring true.
Thanks for sharing this great letter!
"I can no longer talk with anyone at all without becoming furious, and everything I read by my contemporaries makes me quiver with indignation. A fine state to be in!"
Aye.
Aye-aye.
And ai-ai-ai-ai-ai!
He could have written it today. Thanks for this.
That was great! 😃
Great Flautbert quote. Thanks.
Wow!!
Looks like he arrived at the same conclusion as Robert Anton Wilson!
u mean vice versa ;)
Yes, that🎯
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/trumpland?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=778851&post_id=162751580&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=eov1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Thank you for this
The most ironic thing about this controversy (and same with the Ivys) is that the left is now using the argument that federal funding is free speech and without it, their 1st Amendment rights are violated. It's a load of horseshit and that's the end of it.
"Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of reach," but apparently it does mean entitlement to tax dollars (for them).
Someone needs to break this to them, that if they need state money to survive, they ARE stated media.
Succinct and powerful, Jeff!
Well said.
True
Matt, a big part of NPR's fecklessness is its unwillingness to embrace any critique that's truly Left, i.e. anything that smacks of "class warfare." Sure, NPR will support Democratic bromides about diversity and the like, but only a certain kind of diversity (certainly not political diversity).
Put differently, what chance do you have of getting a fair hearing on NPR? How about Walter Kirn? And if you two are too "radical" for NPR, it tells you all you need to know about its tepid conformity, its willingness to uphold or to manufacture consent for the DC/elite establishment.
Thus, it's not "national" at all, nor does it capture public diversity. It's niche, safely "liberal," and all about vanilla stories that will never threaten anyone in power, especially Democrats and "moderate" (Liz Cheney? David Brooks?) Republicans.
Well, yes, exactly. NPR not only excludes conservative viewpoints, it doesn’t even allow narrow debate within its sea of pseudo-left bromides. A decade ago I was often a guest on NPR stations and would be encouraged to talk about failures of both parties with respect to 2008 - I could sneak in sharp comments about people like Eric Holder. Now I don’t think they would even countenance a discussion about class/populist revolt… they would see that as illegitimate
My grandsons will pay the price, not me. And I HATE it. I’d rather sacrifice my remaining life for a better future for them than sit back and watch it happen. My powerlessness cries while our guitars gently weep.
“Hypermasculinity” is just another one of the made-up Newspeak words for “straight white male stuff” - it’s a dog whistle for “we hate you, get in the truck.” but couched so it is harder to accuse them of sexism and bigotry.
They hate masculinity. Which one could argue is strange, considering their dogma around gender fluidity, or that biological sex is anti-science thinking. Men (in the West, anyway) are valued by what they do - ergo to defeat them, everything they do must be nullified or made poisonous.
Many feminists have been willing accomplices in this hatchet-job, but rest assured that they’re coming for you next. This isn’t about gender, sexual orientation or anything remotely like equality: it’s about control.
*In the real Fourth Reich, you’ll be the first to go!*
Under the Social Justice dispensation, the only valid form of masculinity and the only acceptable men are Trans Men aka women. Women who "know they're really men inside" are the only socially approved "real men", while actual men who embrace the same masculine essence are dangerous and must be monitored and re-educated.
This is a sort of weird reconception of Marxist power dynamics and critical consciousness applied to the sex binary, which like all Marxist lenses aren't supposed to make sense but are designed to separate the Damned from the Saved and provide another weapon in their eternal war to destroy all that IS in the name of some utopian OUGHT.
To which we all should say: Nazi Punks Fuck Off!
Jello uber alles!
Well put. It’s strange to me that gay / queer men aren’t speaking out against this shit too - some of the most “masculine” dudes I’ve known were / are not hetero. Could be they don’t care (hard to blame them) or that they still think the cretins are on their side.
My gay friends are pretty skeptical re Transmania but they still mostly socially define themselves as allies of all sexual minorities (growing up closeted was searing and formative) and opponents of MAGA/conservatives.
All social taboos nudge them toward embracing the Gay Pride narrative of "acceptance" and against questioning any points of dogma, and most people will obey the necessary taboos, esp if their social and sex lives depend on it.
You are right, CP. My lesbian friends mostly comment that they "support trans people." None of them admits to having any questions about the existence of a population of people who correspond to that term.
It is interesting that the same SJ people embrace, at least in their fantasies, the most malignant criminals and terrorists. I would presume that these criminals, coming as they do from male supremacist, misogynist cultures, want to be incarnations of toxic masculinity, which many of them are. Perhaps the Puritanical repressiveness of the woke cult fosters the emergence of a very dark Satanic devotion. It doesn't surprise me that women would be particularly drawn into this dynamic; this has always been the case.
Clever P. Leave Marx out of it.
lol this always happens.
Marxist lenses are a must-have in Left academia but thou shalt not mention them. People get really touchy about St Karl!
I've noticed people who throw Marx into the mix obviously know nothing about him. Don't call me left or right. You don't know me.
I didnt call you anything nor would I.
I just always get hit w the No True Marxist fallacy every time I mention the Marxist roots of Critical Gender and Critical Race theories.
I understand the OG Marxists are embarrassed of their retarded progeny, but even if a parent disowns their child, they're still blood.
No offense meant.
Hard to respond to that mess, but appreciate your stab at it. You did say, "Left academia." What any of this has to do with progeny is incomprehensible. No offense meant. Let's stop talking. Have a inspiriting weekend.
You can't deny that critical theory and all its downstream effluvia is the result of the Frankfurt School's efforts to re-tool Marxism for a proletariat too comfortable to accept the revolution.
Maybe that's why many use the terms "neo-Marxism" or "cultural Marxism."
They needed a new-and-improved army...
First of all, they needed a firmer division for the divide-and-conquer, and compiling a collection of immutable "identities" was perfect. As you point out, "a proletariat too comfortable to accept the revolution" was/is always posed the danger that the desired *war* could peter out.
Second, by dropping class rather than creating a no-brainer supermajority composed of *both*, the welfare of the proles was revealed not to be any goal at all. In fact, worse than that, the architects of this movement wanted not merely new allies but a new enemy. So rather than simply ignore the working class, the latter became the ultimate sinners ... as racist, sexist, ignorant idiots. It follows also that, in time, the welfare of the woke beneficiaries won't be needed *either*, and trust me, they'll discover the sins.
What *is* their goal, and why? That is, for those who are actually driving this?
I studied Marx a long time ago, and not sufficiently to be considered knowledgeable, but neither trivially. But I know I should have jumped into literature *about* Marx, too, at that time.
Because what I realize now I don't recall ever hearing is what really motivated him to divorce Leftism from Rightism, creating *oppositional* sides, and thus inciting perpetual intranational wars rather than evolving our political diplomacy. Ostensibly, in the French Revolution the two sides were well-arguably seen as complementary parts addressing two kinds of power (along with culture) necessary to having a healthy society. This perspective survives to this day in fact in the French national motto, unchanged from that time.
Not this one. And I no longer think of myself as a feminist because they have become so deranged and hateful.
Hard same.
Real Men are a threat to the Marxist state. They have the stones to stand up and resist.
For “hypermasculinity” to make a comeback it would have to be a real thing in the first place. It isn’t. 🤷🏻♂️
Unless the hypermasculine (a fit guy with muscles) is a cop or a disposable meatbag for the DoD, he’s useless. We use robots for welding and all that heavy work, thanks.
I often comment in pieces like this that I actually listen to NPR regularly so that you don't have to (you're welcome!). They never disappoint. Again, I often say that I've made a drinking game out of taking a shot every time an NPR story is about a) racism, b) gender, or c) climate change. Bonus points for those stories (more frequent than you might think) that unite all three obsessions: a segment about how climate change disproportionately harms LGBTQ+ persons of color. Have fun. You'll be passed out on the floor by 10 a.m.
What's most dismaying is when I hear friends and acquaintances parroting NPR gibberish as though these are novel thoughts they arrived at on their own after careful study and contemplation. Just the other day I was talking with a friend who is an actress and a playwright about a podcast on which she had recently appeared with my husband, who is also an actor. One of the hosts of the podcasts -- a woman -- was championing the mission of actively discriminating against white men in theater, television, and movie casting, and "doing good" by hiring only "neglected minorities." I expressed the opinion that racism and sexism are evil in all of their forms. Our friend then averred, "well, of course, something must be done to redress previous wrongs."
But does it? Does it really? Is that even a thought? Or is that something that she's simply heard over and over and over again, through outlets such as NPR, that sounds so warm and good and fair that it must be right and true. But is it? Why should a blameless white man, who never discriminated against anyone for any reason, be forced to pay the price for something bad that somebody else did to somebody else... a long time ago?
We cannot go backwards. We can only move forward from where we are. Shouldn't we simply stop discriminating against anyone and everyone based on race, sex, age, etc.? How does a white man not getting a job or admission to a college in 2025 in any way make recompense to a sold slave in 1840? It doesn't.
NPR and other "groupthink" outlets are for people for whom actual thinking is too effortful. They prefer to simply buy their ideas in bulk from someone else. Is Trump for it? Or against it? Well, now we've just made the decision easy for them.
Or... think for yourself. It's not illegal. Yet.
I once heard a man say that NY firefighters were racist. I asked him how he knew that. He "heard their jokes in his local bar". I asked him if he knew of any instances in one of them ever refused to enter the buring aparment of a person of color. Crickets.
Reminds me of 2020 when many of my lib facebook friends, doubtless NPR listeners, would repeat every slogan ("flatten the curve," "hammer and the dance," "stay home save lives," "my mask protects you" etc.) as if they'd come up with these thoughts and were benevolently sharing their wisdom with the rest of us.
I know, John Duffner; I used to cringe whenever anyone would intone the mealy-mouthed mantra, "Stay safe!" So many people were willing to hide under their beds forever during Covid, willing to stop living just to stay alive. That's when I realized that we were no longer the same country that won two world wars. %-(
Like James Brown said, echoing MLK: “open up the door, I’ll get it myself.”
^^^This!!! x a million
“ I expressed the opinion that racism and sexism are evil in all of their forms”.
Isn’t that itself a right wing talking point? This is some “all lives matter” shit.
So, all lives... don't matter, Salusa Snape? Or just someone like Brian Thompson? Is that the kind of life that doesn't matter? Or is that just some left wing talking point shit?
I stand by my statement, and I'm happy about it: Racism. And. Sexism. Are. Evil. In. All. Of. Their. Forms. ;-)
Why is that simple concept so hard to grasp?
Ah! So “all lives matter” IS your propaganda of choice. I hardly expected you to admit it.
You don’t actually believe that racism or sexism exists against blacks or women, or else you wouldn’t be trying to appropriate it for yourself.
Also, glancing back at your reply again, I find other puzzling statements.
You say triumphantly, "Ah!.... I hardly expected you to admit it!" As though suggesting that all people have value should be somehow controversial or even shameful, and that this is a sentiment I should somehow be trying to conceal.
Then you suggest that I "don't actually believe that racism or sexism exists against blacks or women..." But, again, when did I say that? I didn't.
Of course sexism (against both women and men), racism (against all races), ageism (against young and old), and all the world's various -isms exist. Always have and always will. Man is a fallen creature.
But I'm saying that flipping the script to discriminate against and persecute the "other" is not the way to redress the failures of the past. Swinging the pendulum back so that we may marginalize and oppress different groups based on immutable characteristics is not virtuous, for then we have only become the same monsters we once beheld.
Do you see what I'm saying? I have many quibbles with Chief Justice John Roberts, but one quotation of his that should live forever in "Bartlett's Familiar..." is "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." Amen, brother.
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
I request Matt Taibbi throw a flag onto the field for this one. If this banality isn’t fit for The Dictionary of Received Wisdom, I don’t know what is.
LOL! Banal, or so elegant and self-evident in its simplicity that it belongs not in the category of "received wisdom," but of simply... wisdom. ;-)
Have a blessed Sunday, Salusa Snape!
Salusa Snape, your thinking appears to be muddled, and never seems to come in for a landing. In my comments, I never said "All lives matter." You did. And somehow managed to attribute it to me, as you were describing it as "a right wing talking point" and "propaganda." Describing as "propaganda" the notion that we should care equally about everyone? I'm not sure how we got there.
But if you can remain civil (something I've appreciated greatly in Substack comments), perhaps you can explain to me why the principle that "All lives matter" is somehow wrong.
I may be naive, but... don't all lives matter? It's practically simply a rephrasing of the Golden Rule. %-)
“All lives matter” as a response to Black Lives Matter seemed to ignore to point, which was Black Lives Matter…too.
Agreed, RandallS, that black lives matter, too, because... all lives matter.
To be clear, I never invoked "all lives matter" in my original comment to Matt Taibbi's NPR column; that was Salusa Secundus Snape, who appears to have led us down that rabbit hole.
I'm still not sure why those who bristle at "All Lives Matter" seem to assume that this means that black lives don't matter. It does not mean that, but means literally the opposite.
So while I did not initiate this particular all-lives-matter controversy, I would agree with the sentiment. I'm not sure why that's objectionable, but no one seems prepared to enlighten me. I am as perplexed as gortroe appears to be.
Enjoy your blessed Sunday, RandallS! ;-)
What is racism?
They don't?
“You’ll marvel at how I don’t rise to that one.”- Supreme Ruler of Queppu
We really need a deep review of what the Federal Government should, and shouldn’t do. Media is NOT in their purview
How do we untie the Gordian knot?
Even trying a little bit with DOGE brought ear-shattering talk of fascism. Imagine if we actually tried to repair government to its constitutional limits?
It’s going to be a rough traverse to tomorrow
The Gordian knot was an intractable puzzle that couldn't be untied. Alexander solved the problem with a swift slice of the sword instead.
What breaks my heart is how many years it has taken to come to the realization of what NPR and PBS has morphed into. Thank God Trump has mustered the political will to correct it.
But does Congress have the balls to take it to the finish line?
They turned into the arm of the socialist propaganda ring, disgracing America, and disrespecting the US Constitution. Freedom of speech, without public funding. They can do it on their own and try to survive.
Anti-thinking is the base requirement for anti-Trumpism. There's plenty of valid reasons to be against any or all of Trump's policies. But anti-Trumpism isn't about policy, it's about focusing on Trump himself. As many have said, if Trump came out in favor of clean air, millions would die from holding their breath. Anti-Trumpism is a cult, not a policy disagreement.
Not only should they defunded, but something like half the infrastructure on the public dime they have accumulated over five decades must also be re-distributed.
Hear. This woman is the embodiment of Evil in the modern world. I'd like to see her move to North Korea.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/04/17/npr_ceo_katherine_maher_a_reverence_for_the_truth_might_be_getting_in_the_way_of_getting_things_done.html
I know that NPR's audience is whiter than Fox News's, but I'm pretty sure it's far more affluent as well. So there's every reason to think they should do fine without government funding--but you will be hearing a lot more ads about wealth management services.
I am happy to double NPR’s funding and endure a daily “Transgender Power Hour” if it means I can listen to intelligent people discuss the news on my car radio without them being interrupted every 39 seconds by a mattress store commercial.
You're a mattress ad yourself, Salupso.
The crux of your argument: “intelligent “
Well, when Fox News is where you get your inputs, I hardly think you are in a position to judge.
I happen to like mattress store ads.
"Salusa whatever" is this site's execrable mattress ad. Sometimes you just have to skip the bullshit he brings.
How do you know where I get my info from?
Snobbish! Now I understand why NPR appeals. Actually Fox seems to be reporting a lot of stories more accurately in retrospect, eg asking more questions on pandemic policies, the laptop.
But, to be clear, I was talking about the demographics of NPR's audience, not really the quality or content of their shows.
I agree with you. I was just responding to the constant, obligatory trashing of Fox which should probably be reevaluated in light of the fact that recently Fox actually got some major news stories right when others missed the mark.
How did my precious Matt wind up as some ex-liberal Harold Hill to Moms for Liberty?
Times change. I mean, The New York Times.
Sir, they are only toothless because they are all on the north side of 80.
Sir, I have scrolled down these threads of yours and find you (Salusa Snape, a cartoon name perhaps from a book my children once read?) a pitiful non-contributor to this website. The joy of Substack and Racket was that they brought fresh, vibrant, intelligent viewpoints. Like all good things, they were bound to also attract mescreants and dopes. You know the typle, Salusa. People like you, the equivalent of 30 second mattress ads. Please go elsewhere.
Great article Matt, you’ve done it again.
Stopped listening to NPR years ago, but not to long ago I was a passenger in a car whose driver loved NPR. The report breathlessly documented the discovery of a thousand year old grave that contained the body of a Nordic woman, buried with her sword. It was quickly determined the woman was definitely “Non-Binary”
I searched furiously through the glove box for the car sick pills.
If you want to listen to NPR, fine with me, have at it, you’ll just have to write a bigger check come fund raising, and oh yes, sorry, no Yanni box set this time.
Cheers