Expressing support for a loony housing appointee, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani became the latest politician to ratify a truly evil set of academic race theories
Insanity that a single minute of your valuable time had to be used to write this, Matt.
Insanity that I have to read it, so I can know just how insane the Civil Rights & Affirmative Action crowd has become.
My daughter graduated College in 2009. Her highly regarded East Coast State College had the option for blacks to be in a fully segregated graduation ceremony.
This "culture" has been metastasizing since 1965.
I am concerned if a step down is even possible in America at this point. There are so many people truly dependent financially and emotionally on these really twisted philosophical beliefs.
It’s so infuriating to me to realize I sent both of my children off to college at great expense only to have them sent back to me as someone else. I had to listen to my daughter explain to us our white privilege, which is really funny considering my father died when I was 7 and my mother raised three of us with no formal education. We all worked. I was 14 …my first job. Always hungry. She did not get food stamps or any benefits that I’m aware of. I worked three jobs to pay for college. I can’t hate this stuff anymore than I already do. And the hypocrisy is priceless.
The worst thing I’ve ever hear a president say was Joe Biden’s comment that “whites will become a minority in America by 2045 and that’s a good thing”. The leader of America publicly celebrating the decline of white civilization.
Whites are a minority of the world population, and there is now a concerted effort to wipe us out -- cheered on, in many cases, by white people, themselves.
And that is something to look at. How it is that when a white person screams about "replacement theory" they have scorn heaped on their head as "conspiracy theory, white supremacy, internalized Klan loons"......but then at the very same time the neo-racist "progressives" are looking forward to the day that very thing happens. I don't labor for any fight against any "racial replacement" dogma, since any racialized society, to the degree it is racialized at all, is a diminished one. A society which transcends race is what should be fought for. Only actual white supremicists AND "progressives" advocate racialization. I'm truly grateful for Matt Taibbi, a genuine journalist and person of good will. Go Matt, Go!
That's the schizoid, bi-polar nature of the topic. For years, we've been told by "the experts" that demographic evolution of America trends towards brown people of mostly Hispanic legacy and that the European white population is diminishing. That IS the replacement theory. It's measurable and displays a rational, predictable trend. If replacement theory is presented in that form, it's a high-falutin' way of saying the same thing that a gap-toothed, hayseed, Appalachian-American would say... "We're bein' replaced!", who would be condemned as being a racist, white supremacist, especially by "the experts".
Well, the guy had undiagnosed metastatic prostate cancer and rapidly progressing dementia, both "undiagnosed" by his personal MD and "unnoticed" by his wife, family, the DNC and Senators and Representatives, MSM, the Left and the "Biden Administration." Everyone apparently except the citizens of the USA. People just gave him another ice cream cone to keep his mouth busy.
If you pointed all of this out to your daughter, and others indoctrinated into this liberal obsession with "white supremacy" being everywhere, they would tell you this: "Well, you just can't usually see the white privilege nowadays. It's too often discreet and under the radar." See, that's the problem... it's so "hidden" that we *do not see it*. You have to "really look" in order to find evidence of it, which liberals are good at since they're looking for it everywhere and anywhere. And when you're always looking for something, you are guaranteed to find it because your mind will interpret everything you see as being what you want to see.
Well, what I told her was she was indeed privileged and I did it to her. She didn’t have to pay for college, she didn’t have to get a job at 14 and help the family financially, she never wanted for anything. I set her up to go away and have some stranger teach and/or indoctrinate her. In fact, we never discussed politics in our house. We encouraged our kids to have their opinions. But those institutions did a number on them and they now think we are capitalist, privileged, religious “old people”☹️. Don’t get me wrong, we all get along, we just don’t discuss certain things and they haven’t disowned us for voting for Trump.
I'm glad you all still get along. That's the most important thing, the love you have for each other, not the opinions each of you hold.
That aside, it always makes me laugh when liberals critique capitalism. They periodically make statements against it yet ignore the fact that it's the highest capitalists on the class totem pole who formulated and pushed all types of identity politics, including the liberal variety. Huge multi-trillion dollar companies like BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, JP Morgan -- the true rulers of the world -- started this to keep the working class divided. This is a well known fact, yet liberals pretend they oppose capitalism. They also firmly support the Democrats, which are themselves firmly supported by the 0.1% donors, and whose utter refusal to help the working class and stop the endless wars because they refuse to stop putting the capitalist class first has resulted in the conservatives being embraced whenever they pretend to be populists.
So, yes, remind liberals of this whenever they tell you that they are against capitalism.
Work ethic is a reality, I’ve seen it in various industrial workplaces throughout my life, it’s typified by qualities like self-discipline, focus, consistency, and attention to detail. And by a pride of work quality. That the capitalist exploits the workers genuine desire to produce, and produce quality, shouldn’t lead us to reject what can and will be a genuine benefit to a working-class organized society, one free of capitalist exploitation or of bureaucratic dominance and parasitism. Trotsky and Lenin both promoted workplace practices and standards that would be recognizable under the term “work ethic” but it was a work ethic in service to the needs of the working-class as a whole, rather than to the capitalist as the model or “leader” of a productive society, or to a single worker as a “bread-winner” or an individual. Che debated Soviet economists over their bureaucratic, top-down models which often used capitalist methods to achieve increased production. Che advocated for a concept called “voluntary labor” (and other measures) in which a workplace would contribute a worker (while maintaining its own production with fewer workers) to temporary teams for “special projects” like building housing, factories, community resources that had otherwise languished for lack of workers or resources. And that helped build an understanding of the generalized role of labor, and the need for increased production, a working-class work ethic. You can read those debates in Carlos Tablada’s book, “Che Guevara on Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism” and in this article: https://themilitant.com/2024/02/24/che-guevara-on-economics-and-politics-on-road-to-socialism/
Work ethic was a construct designed to get working class people to think it's healthier to work than to be idle so we could be exploited easier, and agree to take peanuts in exchange for 40+ hours of hard work a week. Were the capitalists going out of their way to do the drudge work? No, either we did it or the increasingly advancing automation they invest in did it. And we are being rewarded for making few people obscenely wealthy over the past century by being replaced by automation -- which we should rightfully control and use to deliver *all* people from drudge work.
That’s wildly historically inaccurate. Find some primary source material ie writings/evidence from the classifications of people you claim are to blame. They don’t exist. Your post is progressive narrative conjecture.
Pick up a copy of Max Weber’s Capitalism and the Protestant Work Ethic and glance at the documentation. Weber explains the causes and they’re not your junk propaganda.
It's hardly historically inaccurate for anyone who had to do tedious or back-breaking work and were constantly told that the only reason anyone wouldn't want to work under those conditions is because they were "lazy" and "didn't want to work." As if working as many hours a week or year as you possibly could was in and of itself was a good thing, as opposed to doing a reasonable amount of work and being compensated for it with the full fruit of your labor.
This was common and it was an integral part of capitalist work culture to propagandize and shame workers into giving their all under bad conditions that were rigged against their benefit but which greatly benefited the capitalist class who owned everything and did little to no useful work themselves. Their work ethic is to make others work for them, and that is an empirically observable fact, not "propaganda."
The way the system is collapsing right now as automation owned entirely by the capitalist class takes all our jobs and increasingly cheapens what little financial worth our labor power now has is beyond simple "narrative conjecture" but very obvious.
Pro-capitalism propaganda and its pro-capitalist conception of a "work ethic" is what is junk propaganda, not observations that can easily be borne out by anyone who worked under capitalism for even a mere few years, and how the system is collapsing right now we we get less and less and the capitalist class keeps hoarding more and more of the wealth.
Battle tested kulaks are watching. Private property will not be abolished here nor will clowns that believe this drivel ever have the success required to make any relevant change. We see you :) Comrade. Cheers envy monger. Try working hard and see how that goes for a bit sport.
I can easily explain it. Centuries ago, and in fact up until just about a short time ago historically speaking, we had a pre-industrial society. Only a tiny surplus was possible, which enabled a tiny minority to achieve class rule over the rest, and real scarcity prevailed for the people down below. They had no choice but to toil in drudge work to get things done. But now the world isn't anything like that any more. The Industrial Revolution was a major game changer. It made capitalism and all forms of class rule obsolete since we can now eliminate real scarcity, material want, and most drudge work. We can now focus on work that interests us, and only need to do a reasonable about of it to enjoy the full fruit of our labor. The type of "work ethic" that made since in those earlier, agrarian societies no longer makes sense, and has only resulted in most of us overworking for scant reward with a tiny handful hoarding the now-abundant wealth.
So.....why didn't the Soviet Union deliver the "workers paradise" which really would outrun the capitalist west? Once the parasitic capitalist "owners of production" were thrown out and the workers would eat ALL the fruits of their labor every measure of prosperity should have grown faster and more justly in the communist/socialist world. Wealth produced, leisure enjoyed, better HOUSING, better healthcare, better education, agricultural productivity, technological innovation, mental health....everything in the socialist world should have been better than in the capitalist one. Everyone should have been trying to get over the Berlin Wall from West to East. Everyone should have been trying to get FROM Key West TO Havana.
It is true, that business managers are often short-sighted and SOMETIMES place the workforce too low on the list of stakeholders in enterprise. That's why there is a need for a government role in trade policy and organized labor for negotiation. But the socialist model is always a wrong direction.
By the way, if you learn even a little bit about technological innovation and what manual labor was needed to do EVERYTHING for thousands of years of human history, and compare that with what people call "drudge work" today, you would see that almost everyone in the capitalist West has been liberated from real "drudge work" as you call it.
Hi, Russell. I'll answer your points in numbered fashion.
"So.....why didn't the Soviet Union deliver the "workers paradise" which really would outrun the capitalist west?"
Because the Soviet Union was a class divided society that was established in a place where the technology required to produce an abundance for all -- a non-negotiable prerequisite for an Industrial Democracy -- did not exist. So, a vanguard party was established to create what was essentially a more centralized variant of the system we know that has often been called "state capitalism" that masqueraded as a worker's system. It had most of the features of capitalism and none of the features of a classless society.
"Once the parasitic capitalist "owners of production" were thrown out and the workers would eat ALL the fruits of their labor every measure of prosperity should have grown faster and more justly in the communist/socialist world."
Except that the capitalist class was replaced by an equally authoritarian bureaucratic class that continued class rule, with the end result being the same but even less efficient from a logistical sense.
"Wealth produced, leisure enjoyed, better HOUSING, better healthcare, better education, agricultural productivity, technological innovation, mental health....everything in the socialist world should have been better than in the capitalist one. Everyone should have been trying to get over the Berlin Wall from West to East. Everyone should have been trying to get FROM Key West TO Havana."
Except that none of that could be created in a class-divided society, and especially not in nations whose technological development was "Third World", i.e., not advanced enough to provide all of the above. Hence, the better social programs often offered by such nations could not overcome those technological limits that limited what was materially available to go around to everyone.
"It is true, that business managers are often short-sighted and SOMETIMES place the workforce too low on the list of stakeholders in enterprise. That's why there is a need for a government role in trade policy and organized labor for negotiation. But the socialist model is always a wrong direction."
The capitalist model has led us to what we have now... bad model. The state capitalist model is inefficient in its own way, and is still a class-divided system and thus structurally incapable and not designed to produced an abundance for all, though it can produce much more under the right government investments and motives, as China is now making clear. But a true Industrial Democracy as formulated by Marx and Engels -- a moneyless, stateless, classless society of full social ownership by all the workers with no boss class of any sort -- has not yet been tried anywhere.
"By the way, if you learn even a little bit about technological innovation and what manual labor was needed to do EVERYTHING for thousands of years of human history, and compare that with what people call "drudge work" today, you would see that almost everyone in the capitalist West has been liberated from real "drudge work" as you call it."
But not nearly as much as we should be. Heavy lifting on construction sites, flipping burgers for 40 hours a week, working for 17 hours straight on a tedious assembly line, working in an extremely dangerous and demanding coal mine -- is all drudge work, and that is partly because of how many hours per week and how many years out of our lives we are expecting to do it. Yes, things are easier now than they were in the pre-industrial era, but they are still far more grueling than they should be given the modern level of automation. Drudge work still exists and it's very damaging to the human body over time when you have to do it 40+ hours a week for 50 years, which is something the human body is not designed for. Sometimes it isn't good enough to simply give us more than we had in the past, but to give us what is fully possible to give us that modern technology would allow if only it were socially owned.
WTF does that even mean? Values are not constructs, I don't live in a post-modernist world where I determine reality and there is no truth. Take a walk on your local highway and try to determine that reality.
I am in the same boat with one of my two. Both educated in MN. The hurt is what has happened to two of my granddaughters. One claiming to be male and the other not sure of her gender, self-harming with pink or red hair and piercings. I get along by avoiding all discussion of culture or politics.
I had the same experience. A low point was when my oldest son told me with a straight face that he deserved the reverse discrimination because he was a white male. It sucks to feel sorry for your son.
Marie, I couldn’t agree with you more! How is it that you sacrifice your life so that your children can go to college and then ice you out with their newfound leftist ideas.
"blacks to be in a fully segregated graduation ceremony"
Northeast liberals can be complicated, especially in NYC.
If you were to google "segregation maps NYC", you'll come across images that show NYC is one of the most segregated cities in America, despite over 90% of voters registered as Democrats.
One image shows at least 90% of the city is either less than 10% white or less than 10% black.
Self segregation is definitely an aspect of big cities, or we wouldn't have Chinatowns, Korea-towns, pockets of land where largely people from India live, cities and neighborhoods that are largely Jewish, or Muslim, Black or Hispanic. Used to be areas known for their Polish residents and their restaurants, Irish and Ukrainian mini villages in cities, and areas known as Little Italy. Also neighborhoods known as "gay" or "lesbian" friendly areas. Why is this frowned on?
The point is most of the integration push on the masses is orchestrated by elites who at the end of the day go back to their elitist enclaves. They love pushing integration on others but not on themselves.
As a resident of New York City and a person whose job involves going to all these various communities, I can confirm this. If the old food analogy of America was a melting pot and/or a mixed salad, NYC is a mezze platter. Lots of different things just next to each other.
I also graduated in 2009 from a southwestern state university and had no idea resegregation was already underway. My memory was that “trigger warnings” only began in the 2010s. Clearly this thinking existed earlier than many realize, and the question becomes what exactly caused it to go mainstream
A possible answer to your question is that 'racism' cannot be clearly defined, especially not in legal terms. So anything goes.
To put it in terms of a particular evolutionary perspective applied to cultural evolution, we are increasingly in cultural 'explorer mode'--now that the limits of physical exploration of the planetary niche have essentially been reached. And epigenetics is leaving genetics in the dust, quite literally. Technology, uncontrolled, rules the planet.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Well stated.
Because this nonsense has embedded itself here (thanks, Dept of Ed!) we will sadly now have to wait for this over-educated population to process the reality that the world doesn't match the America- and white people-hating philosophies of their college professors, which seemed to suit their need to blame someone, anyone, for their feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. Pity no one told them to forge their own path and build!. Nope, they are at the stage of reaching for AbSoLuTe CoNtRol!
Years of grievance struggles are what these people are in for. And the rest of us will continue suffering, waiting for them to wake up to reality and the ideas of goodness, fairness, and peace, cooperation, and healthy competition between people and nations. But first, ThEy MuSt RaGe!
The classes are probably called "Theory of XYZ." Does it take getting our hands really dirty and stained before we know the definition of "theory?" Probably, and that doesn't happen in Ivory Towers.
The nature we are endowed with today evolved when there were only a few million of us widely scattered over the globe. Those rules of play don't work so well now. We learn to create new technology a whole lot faster than we learn how to deal rationally with it.
I mean we have to reciprocate the rough handling and disregard they respond to our misplaced kindness with… because that’s our mistake. This will require needed and overdue downsizing.
The warmth of collectivism is when New Yorkers burn because Zohran appointed a DEI hire who has never served as a firefighter to run the FDNY. Cea Weaver is one of many commissars who will be feeding at the taxpayer trough. He will do nothing to make New York affordable, but his red guards will still lick his wife’s $650 luxury boots: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/zohran-warmth-of-collectivism
Her STYLIST? This is so good it almost feels surreal. An ardent Socialist has a stylist who provides her with rented Balenciaga clothing? the Balenciaga of child bondage? The $600 boots. I can't wait to see this power couple hobnobbing with the in crowd at the Met Gala, a la AOC... Pathetic privileged children of wealth using our tax dollars for their playground. This is going to be fun!
Mamdani appointee’s mother turned out to own a beautiful house. That was fun to read. But Mamdani’s mom Mira Nasir also owned a luxury loft in Manhattan's West Chelsea neighborhood from 2008 to 2019. Nair purchased the property in 2008 for $1.375 million and sold it in 2019 for $1.45 million. The description says the high-end unit featured 12-foot ceilings, a Schiffini-designed kitchen, and a "spa-like en-suite bathroom" with a double glass shower. Its mid-2025 estimated value was $1.9 million. I love their socialist lifestyle. And the boots are really to-die-for.
That IS the point!! Blue-collar, middle-class people cannot afford to own homes, even condos or co-ops, in Manhattan. Maybe they still can on Staten Isle or the Bronx, but not Manhatten. Its all just pure hypocrisy wrapped up in a blanket of cynacism, paired with a pillow of grift.
True. But then why the tortured excuse about her outfit being "borrowed"? As if someone who can afford that lavish wedding has no presentable clothes and had to "borrow" something to wear for the inauguration.
That said, I do believe she didn't have to pay for those clothes and boots. More likely, Balenciaga and every fashion house sent her their pieces from their latest collections free of charge. She's cultural elites approved (unlike Melania) and the free advertising & bragging right are all worth it. She'll be supplied free designer clothings for as long as they're fashionable with the left wing Hampton and Hollywood crowd. The plebs who bought their snake oil have no clue that the free handouts she's entitled to are not the dime store free handouts her husband is promising them.
NY Mag had a fashion shoot with her where all of the clothes were "loaned". That happens i guess for some fashion shoots. I had to laugh where apparently Meghan Markle did one of those but walked out with the clothes, which were supposed to be returned.
A stylist kind of takes over their “look” and presentation. They liaison with designers and publicity, PR and the customers many human assistants. They collect clothing and accessories for approval. I watched a short show on that once. Looked exhausting.
A stylist is a person hired on a photo shoot, video shoot, media appearance, album cover shoot, or movie crew that is responsible for wardrobe, including fit, cut, color, style, and accessories. Stars, models, public figures, and musicians do not dress themselves, and they do not wear their own clothes. Depending on the industry they also do not decide on their own hair and makeup. Clothing is either donated or heavily discounted from a designer (like with the first lady or a Vogue shoot, the Oscars, etc) or provided by the stylist.
A public entertainer's public image is not their own. I'm an art director, and back when I was directing photo shoots for magazines I would just tell the stylist what I wanted, even if it was a band, a personality, or other media type. Sometimes the stylist works for the publication (Vogue), sometimes for the photographer (Andrew MacPherson), and sometimes for the talent (called a personal stylist).
Just the way the business works. Unless it's a personal stylist (which I'm assuming this was), they are paid for by the media entity, not the talent. HTH
Hmmm, I’ll have to check how my “ stylist “ feels about that. What, you say? You don’t have a stylist? The warmth of collectivism provides that, don’t you know.
Marie, they made it vague mixing “rented”, “borrowed”, and “loaned”. Probably on purpose. This article has all the details. I am surprised many commenters defend her choices. Vogue article compares her to other First Ladies, but none of them had communist ideas regarding private property. She looked attractive, but high couture hardly generates the warmth of collectivism.
It’s all about which team. When Sarah Palin was running with McCain, she got trashed for wearing clothes the campaign lent her. She made it clear those weren’t her clothes and they were loaned to her because she really needed to be presented as a VP candidate suddenly in different weather climates. Didn’t make any difference. She sinned by borrowing clothes necessary and practical for a VP candidate, on the GOP ticket.
Now, the commie arm candy who has no real reason to be all dolled up as she’s not even a politician, “borrows” haute couture outfits and that’s 👌 a-ok. The hypocrisy is stunning.
She didn't rent them. At best, it was a "loan" from big name fashion labels that are tripping over themselves to send her free stuff to wear because she's now a walking billboard for them, not to mention the social credits these fashion designers would get within their leftist elite circles and at the next Met Gala. It's Capitalism at its best.
Huge business in that. I would rent a ball gown if ever I had a need but thankfully, my choices most days are the everyday hoodie or the hoodie I save for an outing that doesn’t have coffee stains. I’m an artist. I need at least one artsy fartsy look—which usually includes a vintage something. Not just something “PreCovid”. I don’t attend church at the moment so not much needed. Too many clothes are a burden IMHO and at my advanced age.
I’m with you. Hiked the Camino this year, my closet got cleaned out and I’ll never go back. Comfortable clothing is key for me and I still look stylish . Just not runway! 😝
👍🏻. Last time I wore any shoe with a small high heel was 2001 at my daughter’s wedding. Yes, I too like to look pulled together. I have always loved clothes. Sewed mine for years. But I’d rather go camping, hiking and painting outdoors or have coffee with friends along with a few art things than do much of anything else, socially. When it gets dark, I stay home. Last new shoes I bought were Merrill hiking boots. I’ll be 80 in 2 years. It’s nice to slough a few things off in my life.
Women's footwear fashion is one of those things that are trivial in the overall scheme of things, but really get me wound up.
I'll save a full 5,000 word rant for my little-used Substack, in the unlikely event that I ever get around to writing it, and just leave a couple remarks here.
Obviously, no one--male or female--should be wearing footwear with a highly elevated heel. For women in a formal setting, the quality of a well-made flat is readily apparent.
No one should wear closed shoes with toe boxes that are not wide enough to comfortably accommodate the shape of their foot, and sandals should only be worn if they are held in place by straps around the body of the foot and don't have straps that compress the toes.
It's weird that such obvious advice should be so pervasively ignored, but I guess foot fetishes and the accentuation of the calf muscle by high heels have some big impacts on human behavior.
(There is some rational reason for my interest in this subject. First, my wife, now in her early sixties, has spent the last ten years struggling to undo the effects of following footwear fashion in her younger years. And second, even men's fashion goes through periods when dress shoes have narrow toe boxes. (You'll never catch me wearing them.))
And just wait until all those fires happen from property owners who, if trying to sell have to offer to the state first at a discounted premium. They’ll be definitely upping their fire coverage. Ooops, can’t believe somebody left a candle burning in the basement. Thanks for check, State Farm.
Good grief. Most of the calls the FDNY receives are for medical service. Mamdani’s appointee as FDNY commissioner has 31 years of experience with the FDNY EMS. Additionally, the FDNY commissioner is an administrative role handling policy, budget and resource management. Day to day operational command of firefighting in NYC is managed by the chief of fire operations, not the fire commissioner.
As for the boots worn by Mamdani’s wife at his inauguration, they were borrowed.
How do you know. Are you a personal friend of the famous couple. Is this insider info? How can you prove it? Nonetheless, it's the optics and on that, they are bad. Is she hanging out with people who buy $600 boots? in a society where everything has meaning, her Balenciaga coat, a supposed rental, and her Miista boots say much about the lovely lady who lunches and wear not just clothes but haute-couture! It's all part of the package. DeBlasio's wife was a bit more careful.
I just hope they are going to send their kids to Mamdani’s new leveled down public schools which shun both charter schools and gifted programs as too bougie. Because, hey, nothing more bourgeois than paying $60,000 a year for private elementary school like the one Mamdani himself attended.
Same as the former leader of the socialist NDP Party in Canada. He attended private schools, drives a very expensive car, and is never seen without his Rolex. They have no shame.
As the First Lady of NYC, Rama Duwaji is entitled to dress however she wants — including wearing fashionable clothing. If that triggers right wingers like you, so be it.
I think you are missing the point that people, especially public servants, who call themselves "socialists" tend to be super hypocritical. Kinda like rules for thee but not me.
Her clothing choice goes against her husband’s portrayal of a socialist leader. Surely, even you can see that. That’s what is so ironic about her clothing . You do get the obvious mismatch, I’m sure.
Good grief, if Rama Duwaji wore a faded $10 outfit to Mamdani’s inauguration you right wingers would be complaining she did not show enough respect for the occasion. She is the First Lady of NYC and it is understandable that she wanted to look good during a special event. She borrowed some clothes in order to accomplish that. It is laughable that you are making a big deal about her attire.
She borrowed ridiculous “designer” clothes. What, normal clothes that average, including we the white privileged wear everyday weren’t good enough. You really don’t get it, do you? Most American women have never had their feet in $600 boots. You don’t need them to look nice. Wearing them merely draws attention to your hypocrisy. But then again, I’m sure it’s not her fault…must be her stylist’s inability to understand Mandami’s voters.
I was just remembering Michele Obama lauded for dressing "fashionably" in J Crew.
The point of reaction to the comment is that her husband apparently believes we're not entitled to our own property but his wife is "entitled" to dress how she pleases in haute couture.
I remember hill clinton wearing $4,000.00 (minimum value back then) gold bracelets and a $25,000 jacket on a debate stage. And if you don't think that people who live paycheck to paycheck see that on television, you should take some time to think about it. What kind of loser notices a Bentley or a Jaguar or the color of human skin and eyes, eh?
What the hell does a $25,000 jacket even look like?
Not many people who live paycheck to paycheck watch debates on TV. And if they do watch, and they can tell the difference between $200 worth of bracelets and $4000 worth, and they can I-Spy the value of clothes, they may have missed their professional calling. Quit that waitress gig and head for fashion!
I couldn't tell you if JD Vance or Mark Kelly wear $1000 or $7000 suits. They wear suits.
I can see a Jaguar hood ornament from some distance. I can't tell the quality of Hillary's jewelry watching at home.
And it's one thing if people simply have that kind of an eye for fashion. The losers I'm talking about brand-checking shoes are the ones who don't care about the shoes, they just want to be able to say that Person A is either cheap and wears crap, so we should think less of him/her, or is wearing way-overpriced, designer shit, and we should think less of him/her.
Nope. Warren first proposed a wealth tax on folks worth over $50 million six years ago so it is not a new idea as you claim. Also, Warren’s net worth is not $50 million. Credible sources put her net worth between $7 million and $12 million.
I really don’t care about the sexual orientation of the fire chief. The way it was announced strongly implied that her being gay influenced the hiring decisions.
That is false. The Los Angeles fire chief in January of 2025 was Kristin Crowley who started with the LAFD in 2000 and served as a firefighter, paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain, battalion chief, assistant chief, fire marshal and deputy chief before becoming chief of the department.
No fire chief could have stopped those fires. Between the topography of the Santa Monica Mountains, persistent drought, the majority of Topanga State Park not burning in over 50 years and very strong Santa Ana winds, the fires were unstoppable.
It would have helped if they had water and if the fire department budget had not been slashed by millions of dollars. Rick Caruso was able to protect his own property. Californians should have elected him rather than Bass who remained in Ghana despite the ominous pre-fire warnings. Also, maybe LA could have used some of those unvaccinated firefighters that were canned.
National building codes for fire protection limit building houses within 5 feet of property lines, which translates to ten feet from neighbors.
Most Pacific Palisades and Altadena homes were built to this bare minimum, even though as you pointed out, the area is prone to Santa Ana winds and persistent droughts.
There is a reason why the fire underwriters fled CA.
Again, Kristin Crowley was a battalion chief, assistant chief, fire marshal and deputy chief before she became fire chief. She clearly had a lot of managerial experience. As for "prowess" — again, no amount of skill was going to stop such a large wildfire originating in Topanga State Park during drought conditions where a fire had not burned in over 50 years and when very strong Santa Ana winds were in effect.
Actually, there is new video out saying the fire smoldered underground for weeks and its location was in the park. The article intimated the park rangers didn’t want the firefighters in the park. Something about damaging the plants. So, it was possible for the fire to be contained.
No amount of evidence contrary to your entitled belief system will be tolerated, will it. You’re demonstrating the premise of the article very handily.
When whining starts about an appointment like this, you could ask people how much experience holding elected office Donald Trump had before January 20, 2017.
And thank goodness for that. Obviously, people were pretty happy overall with what he did, they reelected him. Or maybe it was because the guy before him with OVER 50 years of political experience was so freakin terrible!
Yes, we must always elect career politicians who don't know how to do anything else, have never held a job in the private sector, and live the narrow, privileged life of the ruling elite. After all, they are doing such a fabulous job!
That's not my point, Linda. I don't care if we elect people with lots of experience or no experience, or somewhere in-between. I'm merely pointing out that those who defended Trump not having elected experience are now using similar weak attacks against Mamdani.
It's the hypocrisy; if it weren't so amusing it'd be annoying.
Lawyers Guns & Money - the big deal stares right in your face, and it is not the price tag. They think property is a weapon of white supremacy. Luckily for her, she sold the property before her relationship with it changed.
My parents came from Cuba. My grandparents are from Cuba and China. Socialism/Communism (it always ends in totalitarianism). Has always been nothing but death and ruin. Democracy and Capitalism are not perfect but they are infinitely better than any other form of government and economics ever tried. I am an optimist, but wonder if and when the good people who have worked, taken care of their families and built their communities need to stand up to defend themselves against this hateful ideology.
Yep. My parents are Korean and so I was taught at a young age how bad communism is. I don’t understand how people don’t see how communism always leads to death and famine. They’re willfully ignorant.
Did you happen to see Ruy Teixeira's very sane op-ed in the NYT today? Democrats are going to be screwed if they don't get a clue. Like 4/5 of the commenters are like whatabout Trump! AEI rightwinger! And the other 1/5 are like we are so screwed, these dumbasses will never get it.
I think part of Teixeira's implicit point was that there aren't really enough D partisans out there to bring it home for the Dems. Because that sort of shit isn't really going to fly with a lot of sane Democrats, centrists and a lot of Indies.
I don't know if you've ever read any of his blog (The Liberal Patriot), but he's a strong supporter of the working classes. He left CAP and went to AEI because CAP wouldn't let him talk about class politics, only ID. He's really more like Bernie. But the wokesterati think he's a right winger.
I hope he is right. Young people are being strongly brainwashed by nitwit academics. Not long ago I was a sane Democrat myself. During the pandemic, it seemed like the ranks were thin.
Because we are nearly extinct, being anathema to the DNC. Taibbi has referred to himself in this way. Although he has apparently become increasingly reluctant to do so.
I flushed the Democratic party toilet back at the millennium, but still voted for them top of the ticket, but '08 was the last time i did that. Now 3rd party / write in / sat it out last time. Bernie was my guy.
As much as elections are about the number of D's versus the number of R's, they are very much about voter turn out... how many of those D's and R's are motivated to vote in any given election. The other major issue is a legacy media that is feeding the public propaganda. I had a lengthy discussion with an older family member the other day and she looked to be in shock when I read off some actual facts and figures to her.
They live through their groupthink cult narrative. Which does not have to make sense. Just has to reinforce their herd identity, because these people are not individuals yet.
Congratulations Matt on one of the best written pieces I have read in years. It takes patience to sort through and makes sense let alone trace the history of this nonsense.
I am sure most readers here have noticed that the leftwing process of living in upside-down land tends to run in themes. They go intensively into one theme, in a synchronized fashion, wear it out, and then move to another.
Recently the themes have centred around private property. And this week the theme being pushed is specifically "international law", triggered by the Venezuela situation.
Referring to the private property theme ..." in British Columbia, Canada, recent court rulings -- especially the 2025 Cowichan Tribes decision, which affirmed Aboriginal title over lands including areas with private property -- created uncertainty about ownership validity and potentially overriding existing titles". In other words, if an aboriginal tribe claims your private land as theirs, they might just be able to take it over.
This is not a new issue in Canada, where there are approximately 650 "First Nations" comprised of indigenous tribes. But the concept of taking over private property in indigenous claims is moving swiftly now.
I am waiting to see what happens when a BC tribe claims the land under the city of Vancouver.
I noticed in 2016 that all the pundits were saying in unison that Hillary was the most qualified candidate ever to run for POTUS. This narrative was followed by the news saying “Hillary is powering through it” when she was sick. These narratives stick out like a sore thumb these days.
The leftwing is comprised of persons whose psyches have gone into the Splitting mode.
There was a pair of 70s cult researchers who termed the moment of Splitting the "Mind-snap" (though they knew nothing else at the time about what these persons snapped in to). This is when they move from individualism into the Collective Unconscious, or the hive-mind. Once they operate from the hive-mind, they will use the same narratives and the same themes and the same terms as one another -- usually dictated by leaders within their group. It becomes almost a form of telepathy in that sense. I talk about them receiving "the memo from head office" when they all begin to spout the same ideas or comments at the same time as if in lockstep.
I don't care about "narratives", "stories", "messages", etc. I care about policy, what they did, and what they're looking to do. If I want a story, that's what books are for.
Taking over private property in America is already an established practice. When the Dallas Cowboys wanted a new stadium in 2004 where a neighborhood stood eminent domain was used to take the land. When a private mall wanted to expand in Hurst, Texas in 1997 eminent domain was also used to seize land on which 127 homes stood. When a private developer wanted to build a hotel and stores on a 9 acre neighborhood in New London, Connecticut in 2005 eminent domain was again used.
Matt closes by acknowledging that he understands "the tragic fact" of racism's role in American history. Well gosh, don't we all? If any free people have been subjected to so complete an education/indoctrination of one component of their nation's history as we have with that one subject it has escaped my notice.
Black history. I'm done with it. Been so for decades. Does this mean I don't care about their welfare? Absolutely not. But I'm not about to allow myself to become captive of any group, especially one that denies the basic decency of its non-members (whites, Asians, Hispanics) while simultaneously exploiting their need to prove the possess it.
It's a pay-to-play humiliation shakedown and all that's missing is a ball gag and a whip.
The family histories of the majority of Americans are filled with "tragic facts," be they loses of homelands, of loved ones in battle, of economic disasters, or, take notice, loses to vicious street thugs. I've got a list of them in my tree, but they've played such a small part in how I've lived my life and treated my fellow Americans that I have to work my brain to remember them.
Mamdani's line about how NYC must move from home ownership to one in which the “state guarantees high-quality housing for all.” Hilarious! Because wow, everyone wants to live in those beautiful state-guaranteed section 8 high-quality housing blocks! Bwahahaha
Okay, so I read Matt's article, trying hard to follow the logic and reasoning of Crenshaw, Harris and Weaver. I struggled to understand it until the lightbulb went on. These women really aren't making a logical argument. They are fulfilling a goal - take stuff away from the white folk. Their supposed argument is simply the backfill necessary to accomplish that goal. The Constitution? Bah, a racist document that needs "investigating". Property? Well, you excluded us when you accumulated it, so now we're gonna take it back. You say you earned it through achievement? Haha, achievement is the label found under those white hoods you used to wear.
Sorry, but this is simply intimidation and bullying using pseudo-intelligent faculty language, created on a foundation of laziness, jealousy and envy.
There’s no logic to it. It’s a cult. It’s their religious ideology. Matt’s analysis of original sin being applied is correct. When you understand that it is a cult, you understand that no amount of logic will change their minds or make any sense of any of it. Think of the most crazy zealots and that is what these people are.
The cherry on the sundae was the story of how Cea Weaver broke into tears and ran from reporters who asked her about her mother's 1.6-million dollar home.
Let's not forget the other pillar of whiteness detailed by our ankle-deep intellectual class: Competition. Never mind that the most legendary competitor in American history is Michael Jordan, a guy who would hold a lifelong grudge against someone he lost a game of tic-tac-toe to.
And end up like sleepy Joe, collecting over $400k a year in pension, highest paid politician in history. Not to mention all the other stuff he collected during service to our nation. I
"Here’s what happens when something like Whiteness is Property becomes sacred writ on liberal arts campuses. It gets gobbled up by mentally ill white intellectuals, who can’t get enough of being told how inescapably guilty they are."
Matt hints at this theological angle, that the “original sin” in the Bible is being modified in this new “religion” to the original sin of “whiteness”.
Once it becomes a religious precept it is difficult to counter with logical discussion.
It’s absolutely a religion. Once you see it from that lens, the behavior makes sense. Especially the picking and choosing of history and narratives they do.
I see fanatical evangelicals doing the same thing with homeschooling. They refuse to teach their kids fairy tales or stories of the Greek/Roman myths for fear of “polluting” the minds of their kids. They are insane.
Insanity that a single minute of your valuable time had to be used to write this, Matt.
Insanity that I have to read it, so I can know just how insane the Civil Rights & Affirmative Action crowd has become.
My daughter graduated College in 2009. Her highly regarded East Coast State College had the option for blacks to be in a fully segregated graduation ceremony.
This "culture" has been metastasizing since 1965.
I am concerned if a step down is even possible in America at this point. There are so many people truly dependent financially and emotionally on these really twisted philosophical beliefs.
It’s so infuriating to me to realize I sent both of my children off to college at great expense only to have them sent back to me as someone else. I had to listen to my daughter explain to us our white privilege, which is really funny considering my father died when I was 7 and my mother raised three of us with no formal education. We all worked. I was 14 …my first job. Always hungry. She did not get food stamps or any benefits that I’m aware of. I worked three jobs to pay for college. I can’t hate this stuff anymore than I already do. And the hypocrisy is priceless.
The worst thing I’ve ever hear a president say was Joe Biden’s comment that “whites will become a minority in America by 2045 and that’s a good thing”. The leader of America publicly celebrating the decline of white civilization.
It is truly bizarre.
Whites are a minority of the world population, and there is now a concerted effort to wipe us out -- cheered on, in many cases, by white people, themselves.
But, look, in all seriousness, Somali migrants built Minnesota making it a vibrant, prosperous place.
You live and you lear
So, replacement theory is not a theory, after all.
And that is something to look at. How it is that when a white person screams about "replacement theory" they have scorn heaped on their head as "conspiracy theory, white supremacy, internalized Klan loons"......but then at the very same time the neo-racist "progressives" are looking forward to the day that very thing happens. I don't labor for any fight against any "racial replacement" dogma, since any racialized society, to the degree it is racialized at all, is a diminished one. A society which transcends race is what should be fought for. Only actual white supremicists AND "progressives" advocate racialization. I'm truly grateful for Matt Taibbi, a genuine journalist and person of good will. Go Matt, Go!
That's the schizoid, bi-polar nature of the topic. For years, we've been told by "the experts" that demographic evolution of America trends towards brown people of mostly Hispanic legacy and that the European white population is diminishing. That IS the replacement theory. It's measurable and displays a rational, predictable trend. If replacement theory is presented in that form, it's a high-falutin' way of saying the same thing that a gap-toothed, hayseed, Appalachian-American would say... "We're bein' replaced!", who would be condemned as being a racist, white supremacist, especially by "the experts".
Looks pretty real to me.
Well, the guy had undiagnosed metastatic prostate cancer and rapidly progressing dementia, both "undiagnosed" by his personal MD and "unnoticed" by his wife, family, the DNC and Senators and Representatives, MSM, the Left and the "Biden Administration." Everyone apparently except the citizens of the USA. People just gave him another ice cream cone to keep his mouth busy.
If you pointed all of this out to your daughter, and others indoctrinated into this liberal obsession with "white supremacy" being everywhere, they would tell you this: "Well, you just can't usually see the white privilege nowadays. It's too often discreet and under the radar." See, that's the problem... it's so "hidden" that we *do not see it*. You have to "really look" in order to find evidence of it, which liberals are good at since they're looking for it everywhere and anywhere. And when you're always looking for something, you are guaranteed to find it because your mind will interpret everything you see as being what you want to see.
Well, what I told her was she was indeed privileged and I did it to her. She didn’t have to pay for college, she didn’t have to get a job at 14 and help the family financially, she never wanted for anything. I set her up to go away and have some stranger teach and/or indoctrinate her. In fact, we never discussed politics in our house. We encouraged our kids to have their opinions. But those institutions did a number on them and they now think we are capitalist, privileged, religious “old people”☹️. Don’t get me wrong, we all get along, we just don’t discuss certain things and they haven’t disowned us for voting for Trump.
I'm glad you all still get along. That's the most important thing, the love you have for each other, not the opinions each of you hold.
That aside, it always makes me laugh when liberals critique capitalism. They periodically make statements against it yet ignore the fact that it's the highest capitalists on the class totem pole who formulated and pushed all types of identity politics, including the liberal variety. Huge multi-trillion dollar companies like BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, JP Morgan -- the true rulers of the world -- started this to keep the working class divided. This is a well known fact, yet liberals pretend they oppose capitalism. They also firmly support the Democrats, which are themselves firmly supported by the 0.1% donors, and whose utter refusal to help the working class and stop the endless wars because they refuse to stop putting the capitalist class first has resulted in the conservatives being embraced whenever they pretend to be populists.
So, yes, remind liberals of this whenever they tell you that they are against capitalism.
Glad that you still get along. Perhaps you can make amends by no longer providing financial privileges.
The financial privileges have stopped, she’s a doctor. But she just became a mom and there are some conservative streaks starting to appear. 🙏
Amazing what happens when you have skin in the game.
Or she could pay mom back, and remove any taint of her own privilege.
Highly unlikely
My guess is that she doesn't feel herself to be tainted.
If parents let institutions raise their kids they shouldn’t be surprised when the institutions form their kids' values and opinions. Kids are sponges.
I was a complete idiot when I was that age.
Work ethic is just a construct.
Work ethic is a reality, I’ve seen it in various industrial workplaces throughout my life, it’s typified by qualities like self-discipline, focus, consistency, and attention to detail. And by a pride of work quality. That the capitalist exploits the workers genuine desire to produce, and produce quality, shouldn’t lead us to reject what can and will be a genuine benefit to a working-class organized society, one free of capitalist exploitation or of bureaucratic dominance and parasitism. Trotsky and Lenin both promoted workplace practices and standards that would be recognizable under the term “work ethic” but it was a work ethic in service to the needs of the working-class as a whole, rather than to the capitalist as the model or “leader” of a productive society, or to a single worker as a “bread-winner” or an individual. Che debated Soviet economists over their bureaucratic, top-down models which often used capitalist methods to achieve increased production. Che advocated for a concept called “voluntary labor” (and other measures) in which a workplace would contribute a worker (while maintaining its own production with fewer workers) to temporary teams for “special projects” like building housing, factories, community resources that had otherwise languished for lack of workers or resources. And that helped build an understanding of the generalized role of labor, and the need for increased production, a working-class work ethic. You can read those debates in Carlos Tablada’s book, “Che Guevara on Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism” and in this article: https://themilitant.com/2024/02/24/che-guevara-on-economics-and-politics-on-road-to-socialism/
Work ethic was a construct designed to get working class people to think it's healthier to work than to be idle so we could be exploited easier, and agree to take peanuts in exchange for 40+ hours of hard work a week. Were the capitalists going out of their way to do the drudge work? No, either we did it or the increasingly advancing automation they invest in did it. And we are being rewarded for making few people obscenely wealthy over the past century by being replaced by automation -- which we should rightfully control and use to deliver *all* people from drudge work.
That’s wildly historically inaccurate. Find some primary source material ie writings/evidence from the classifications of people you claim are to blame. They don’t exist. Your post is progressive narrative conjecture.
Pick up a copy of Max Weber’s Capitalism and the Protestant Work Ethic and glance at the documentation. Weber explains the causes and they’re not your junk propaganda.
It's hardly historically inaccurate for anyone who had to do tedious or back-breaking work and were constantly told that the only reason anyone wouldn't want to work under those conditions is because they were "lazy" and "didn't want to work." As if working as many hours a week or year as you possibly could was in and of itself was a good thing, as opposed to doing a reasonable amount of work and being compensated for it with the full fruit of your labor.
This was common and it was an integral part of capitalist work culture to propagandize and shame workers into giving their all under bad conditions that were rigged against their benefit but which greatly benefited the capitalist class who owned everything and did little to no useful work themselves. Their work ethic is to make others work for them, and that is an empirically observable fact, not "propaganda."
The way the system is collapsing right now as automation owned entirely by the capitalist class takes all our jobs and increasingly cheapens what little financial worth our labor power now has is beyond simple "narrative conjecture" but very obvious.
Pro-capitalism propaganda and its pro-capitalist conception of a "work ethic" is what is junk propaganda, not observations that can easily be borne out by anyone who worked under capitalism for even a mere few years, and how the system is collapsing right now we we get less and less and the capitalist class keeps hoarding more and more of the wealth.
Battle tested kulaks are watching. Private property will not be abolished here nor will clowns that believe this drivel ever have the success required to make any relevant change. We see you :) Comrade. Cheers envy monger. Try working hard and see how that goes for a bit sport.
"work ethic" goes back centuries and predates "capitalists". So explain that.
I can easily explain it. Centuries ago, and in fact up until just about a short time ago historically speaking, we had a pre-industrial society. Only a tiny surplus was possible, which enabled a tiny minority to achieve class rule over the rest, and real scarcity prevailed for the people down below. They had no choice but to toil in drudge work to get things done. But now the world isn't anything like that any more. The Industrial Revolution was a major game changer. It made capitalism and all forms of class rule obsolete since we can now eliminate real scarcity, material want, and most drudge work. We can now focus on work that interests us, and only need to do a reasonable about of it to enjoy the full fruit of our labor. The type of "work ethic" that made since in those earlier, agrarian societies no longer makes sense, and has only resulted in most of us overworking for scant reward with a tiny handful hoarding the now-abundant wealth.
So.....why didn't the Soviet Union deliver the "workers paradise" which really would outrun the capitalist west? Once the parasitic capitalist "owners of production" were thrown out and the workers would eat ALL the fruits of their labor every measure of prosperity should have grown faster and more justly in the communist/socialist world. Wealth produced, leisure enjoyed, better HOUSING, better healthcare, better education, agricultural productivity, technological innovation, mental health....everything in the socialist world should have been better than in the capitalist one. Everyone should have been trying to get over the Berlin Wall from West to East. Everyone should have been trying to get FROM Key West TO Havana.
It is true, that business managers are often short-sighted and SOMETIMES place the workforce too low on the list of stakeholders in enterprise. That's why there is a need for a government role in trade policy and organized labor for negotiation. But the socialist model is always a wrong direction.
By the way, if you learn even a little bit about technological innovation and what manual labor was needed to do EVERYTHING for thousands of years of human history, and compare that with what people call "drudge work" today, you would see that almost everyone in the capitalist West has been liberated from real "drudge work" as you call it.
Hi, Russell. I'll answer your points in numbered fashion.
"So.....why didn't the Soviet Union deliver the "workers paradise" which really would outrun the capitalist west?"
Because the Soviet Union was a class divided society that was established in a place where the technology required to produce an abundance for all -- a non-negotiable prerequisite for an Industrial Democracy -- did not exist. So, a vanguard party was established to create what was essentially a more centralized variant of the system we know that has often been called "state capitalism" that masqueraded as a worker's system. It had most of the features of capitalism and none of the features of a classless society.
"Once the parasitic capitalist "owners of production" were thrown out and the workers would eat ALL the fruits of their labor every measure of prosperity should have grown faster and more justly in the communist/socialist world."
Except that the capitalist class was replaced by an equally authoritarian bureaucratic class that continued class rule, with the end result being the same but even less efficient from a logistical sense.
"Wealth produced, leisure enjoyed, better HOUSING, better healthcare, better education, agricultural productivity, technological innovation, mental health....everything in the socialist world should have been better than in the capitalist one. Everyone should have been trying to get over the Berlin Wall from West to East. Everyone should have been trying to get FROM Key West TO Havana."
Except that none of that could be created in a class-divided society, and especially not in nations whose technological development was "Third World", i.e., not advanced enough to provide all of the above. Hence, the better social programs often offered by such nations could not overcome those technological limits that limited what was materially available to go around to everyone.
"It is true, that business managers are often short-sighted and SOMETIMES place the workforce too low on the list of stakeholders in enterprise. That's why there is a need for a government role in trade policy and organized labor for negotiation. But the socialist model is always a wrong direction."
The capitalist model has led us to what we have now... bad model. The state capitalist model is inefficient in its own way, and is still a class-divided system and thus structurally incapable and not designed to produced an abundance for all, though it can produce much more under the right government investments and motives, as China is now making clear. But a true Industrial Democracy as formulated by Marx and Engels -- a moneyless, stateless, classless society of full social ownership by all the workers with no boss class of any sort -- has not yet been tried anywhere.
"By the way, if you learn even a little bit about technological innovation and what manual labor was needed to do EVERYTHING for thousands of years of human history, and compare that with what people call "drudge work" today, you would see that almost everyone in the capitalist West has been liberated from real "drudge work" as you call it."
But not nearly as much as we should be. Heavy lifting on construction sites, flipping burgers for 40 hours a week, working for 17 hours straight on a tedious assembly line, working in an extremely dangerous and demanding coal mine -- is all drudge work, and that is partly because of how many hours per week and how many years out of our lives we are expecting to do it. Yes, things are easier now than they were in the pre-industrial era, but they are still far more grueling than they should be given the modern level of automation. Drudge work still exists and it's very damaging to the human body over time when you have to do it 40+ hours a week for 50 years, which is something the human body is not designed for. Sometimes it isn't good enough to simply give us more than we had in the past, but to give us what is fully possible to give us that modern technology would allow if only it were socially owned.
WTF does that even mean? Values are not constructs, I don't live in a post-modernist world where I determine reality and there is no truth. Take a walk on your local highway and try to determine that reality.
I was being sarcastic-
I am in the same boat with one of my two. Both educated in MN. The hurt is what has happened to two of my granddaughters. One claiming to be male and the other not sure of her gender, self-harming with pink or red hair and piercings. I get along by avoiding all discussion of culture or politics.
I had the same experience. A low point was when my oldest son told me with a straight face that he deserved the reverse discrimination because he was a white male. It sucks to feel sorry for your son.
Even more remarkable -- some of my friends struggle financially, socially, or with health for many years and complain of white privilege.
Marie, I couldn’t agree with you more! How is it that you sacrifice your life so that your children can go to college and then ice you out with their newfound leftist ideas.
Same.
"blacks to be in a fully segregated graduation ceremony"
Northeast liberals can be complicated, especially in NYC.
If you were to google "segregation maps NYC", you'll come across images that show NYC is one of the most segregated cities in America, despite over 90% of voters registered as Democrats.
One image shows at least 90% of the city is either less than 10% white or less than 10% black.
Self segregation is definitely an aspect of big cities, or we wouldn't have Chinatowns, Korea-towns, pockets of land where largely people from India live, cities and neighborhoods that are largely Jewish, or Muslim, Black or Hispanic. Used to be areas known for their Polish residents and their restaurants, Irish and Ukrainian mini villages in cities, and areas known as Little Italy. Also neighborhoods known as "gay" or "lesbian" friendly areas. Why is this frowned on?
It's not frowned on.
The point is most of the integration push on the masses is orchestrated by elites who at the end of the day go back to their elitist enclaves. They love pushing integration on others but not on themselves.
Los Angeles is the king of this . We have Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Bangladesh, Filipinotown, and any number of segregated areas.
“Our diversity is our strength.”
-Mayor Karen Bass, and every leftist in California.
As a resident of New York City and a person whose job involves going to all these various communities, I can confirm this. If the old food analogy of America was a melting pot and/or a mixed salad, NYC is a mezze platter. Lots of different things just next to each other.
I also graduated in 2009 from a southwestern state university and had no idea resegregation was already underway. My memory was that “trigger warnings” only began in the 2010s. Clearly this thinking existed earlier than many realize, and the question becomes what exactly caused it to go mainstream
A possible answer to your question is that 'racism' cannot be clearly defined, especially not in legal terms. So anything goes.
To put it in terms of a particular evolutionary perspective applied to cultural evolution, we are increasingly in cultural 'explorer mode'--now that the limits of physical exploration of the planetary niche have essentially been reached. And epigenetics is leaving genetics in the dust, quite literally. Technology, uncontrolled, rules the planet.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Well stated.
Because this nonsense has embedded itself here (thanks, Dept of Ed!) we will sadly now have to wait for this over-educated population to process the reality that the world doesn't match the America- and white people-hating philosophies of their college professors, which seemed to suit their need to blame someone, anyone, for their feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. Pity no one told them to forge their own path and build!. Nope, they are at the stage of reaching for AbSoLuTe CoNtRol!
Years of grievance struggles are what these people are in for. And the rest of us will continue suffering, waiting for them to wake up to reality and the ideas of goodness, fairness, and peace, cooperation, and healthy competition between people and nations. But first, ThEy MuSt RaGe!
The classes are probably called "Theory of XYZ." Does it take getting our hands really dirty and stained before we know the definition of "theory?" Probably, and that doesn't happen in Ivory Towers.
😢
"If you are not a liberal at 25, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative by the time you are 35, you have no brain."
Yeah mon!
It’s just human nature returning and we’d better learn how to really play with the other kids again or go extinct.
The nature we are endowed with today evolved when there were only a few million of us widely scattered over the globe. Those rules of play don't work so well now. We learn to create new technology a whole lot faster than we learn how to deal rationally with it.
I mean we have to reciprocate the rough handling and disregard they respond to our misplaced kindness with… because that’s our mistake. This will require needed and overdue downsizing.
I’ve been Captain since the premier in 1964. Et vous?
The warmth of collectivism is when New Yorkers burn because Zohran appointed a DEI hire who has never served as a firefighter to run the FDNY. Cea Weaver is one of many commissars who will be feeding at the taxpayer trough. He will do nothing to make New York affordable, but his red guards will still lick his wife’s $650 luxury boots: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/zohran-warmth-of-collectivism
Her stylist said she borrowed them! Apparently, she rented both her vintage Balenciaga coat and Miista boots. Their fans can still lick them LOL.
People actually gullible enough to believe she "rented" or "borrowed" her designer wardrobe.
Why does she need to wear designer clothes and shoes anyway if she and her husband are true socialists? What's wrong with Target and Walmart?
Can't believe people buy their phony "socialism".
They say, “… to each according to his needs.” They don’t promise everybody’s needs will be equal.
Obviously, Alphas like Mamdani and his friends have greater “needs” than Betas like us!
Wouldn't the Mao uniform be more appropriate?
Sackcloth...
It is truly remarkable, isn't it?
Look up "nomenklatura." T'was ever thus.
Borrowed them from the original designers and stylists as being a good customer or wanna be influencer. That’s done quite a lot in their world.
Her STYLIST? This is so good it almost feels surreal. An ardent Socialist has a stylist who provides her with rented Balenciaga clothing? the Balenciaga of child bondage? The $600 boots. I can't wait to see this power couple hobnobbing with the in crowd at the Met Gala, a la AOC... Pathetic privileged children of wealth using our tax dollars for their playground. This is going to be fun!
Mamdani appointee’s mother turned out to own a beautiful house. That was fun to read. But Mamdani’s mom Mira Nasir also owned a luxury loft in Manhattan's West Chelsea neighborhood from 2008 to 2019. Nair purchased the property in 2008 for $1.375 million and sold it in 2019 for $1.45 million. The description says the high-end unit featured 12-foot ceilings, a Schiffini-designed kitchen, and a "spa-like en-suite bathroom" with a double glass shower. Its mid-2025 estimated value was $1.9 million. I love their socialist lifestyle. And the boots are really to-die-for.
Apparently Qatar funds Nair's films.
Rtj no doubt, just as they fund most of Hollywood
And also Trump's new Air Force 1. What's your point?
Just a point of clarification. It’s not Trumps plane, it’s our plane that Trump uses.
.... and what about Nigerian property??
The median priced home in Manhattan is between $1 and $1.5 million.
If you tell me his mom owns a $1.5 million home in Manhattan, Kansas, you might have a point.
What is the big deal here?
That IS the point!! Blue-collar, middle-class people cannot afford to own homes, even condos or co-ops, in Manhattan. Maybe they still can on Staten Isle or the Bronx, but not Manhatten. Its all just pure hypocrisy wrapped up in a blanket of cynacism, paired with a pillow of grift.
Right. We all know this. I was pointing out someone's use of the value of the home to make it seem more palatial.
In fairness, unlike her husband, i'm not sure that she ever claimed to be a socialist. I'm guessing that she comes from money too.
True. But then why the tortured excuse about her outfit being "borrowed"? As if someone who can afford that lavish wedding has no presentable clothes and had to "borrow" something to wear for the inauguration.
That said, I do believe she didn't have to pay for those clothes and boots. More likely, Balenciaga and every fashion house sent her their pieces from their latest collections free of charge. She's cultural elites approved (unlike Melania) and the free advertising & bragging right are all worth it. She'll be supplied free designer clothings for as long as they're fashionable with the left wing Hampton and Hollywood crowd. The plebs who bought their snake oil have no clue that the free handouts she's entitled to are not the dime store free handouts her husband is promising them.
Some people are more equal than others.
NY Mag had a fashion shoot with her where all of the clothes were "loaned". That happens i guess for some fashion shoots. I had to laugh where apparently Meghan Markle did one of those but walked out with the clothes, which were supposed to be returned.
Not surprised. But I’ve heard that about some other “entitleds” doing that over the years, so maybe that’s urban legend stuff.
It's an entertainment business thing. MM should not have poached those clothes though.
Exactly. It happens in Hollywood, in the world of these elites, everywhere. Of course they don’t actually buy them but are walking billboards.
Yup. That’s what these elites do. Use other people’s money, sort of.
Okay,.. “ her stylist “?? LMAO!! where’s my stylist? and I wear an 8 Medium !
No clue who that is, I’m old. But wise enough to know that having a stylist is not part of the democratic socialist playbook….for us.
A stylist kind of takes over their “look” and presentation. They liaison with designers and publicity, PR and the customers many human assistants. They collect clothing and accessories for approval. I watched a short show on that once. Looked exhausting.
A stylist is a person hired on a photo shoot, video shoot, media appearance, album cover shoot, or movie crew that is responsible for wardrobe, including fit, cut, color, style, and accessories. Stars, models, public figures, and musicians do not dress themselves, and they do not wear their own clothes. Depending on the industry they also do not decide on their own hair and makeup. Clothing is either donated or heavily discounted from a designer (like with the first lady or a Vogue shoot, the Oscars, etc) or provided by the stylist.
A public entertainer's public image is not their own. I'm an art director, and back when I was directing photo shoots for magazines I would just tell the stylist what I wanted, even if it was a band, a personality, or other media type. Sometimes the stylist works for the publication (Vogue), sometimes for the photographer (Andrew MacPherson), and sometimes for the talent (called a personal stylist).
Just the way the business works. Unless it's a personal stylist (which I'm assuming this was), they are paid for by the media entity, not the talent. HTH
Yep, she has a stylist - Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. Believe it or not.
The ole hyphenated two name liberal. Of course…
I used to work with someone who, when reviewing a lengthy ballot, began by eliminating anyone with two names.
I would imagine that he was right 99% of the time…
Hmmm, I’ll have to check how my “ stylist “ feels about that. What, you say? You don’t have a stylist? The warmth of collectivism provides that, don’t you know.
Rented them! Really..what BS
Marie, they made it vague mixing “rented”, “borrowed”, and “loaned”. Probably on purpose. This article has all the details. I am surprised many commenters defend her choices. Vogue article compares her to other First Ladies, but none of them had communist ideas regarding private property. She looked attractive, but high couture hardly generates the warmth of collectivism.
https://www.vogue.com/article/rama-duwajis-first-lady-style-and-the-politics-of-borrowing-fashion.
It’s all about which team. When Sarah Palin was running with McCain, she got trashed for wearing clothes the campaign lent her. She made it clear those weren’t her clothes and they were loaned to her because she really needed to be presented as a VP candidate suddenly in different weather climates. Didn’t make any difference. She sinned by borrowing clothes necessary and practical for a VP candidate, on the GOP ticket.
Now, the commie arm candy who has no real reason to be all dolled up as she’s not even a politician, “borrows” haute couture outfits and that’s 👌 a-ok. The hypocrisy is stunning.
She didn't rent them. At best, it was a "loan" from big name fashion labels that are tripping over themselves to send her free stuff to wear because she's now a walking billboard for them, not to mention the social credits these fashion designers would get within their leftist elite circles and at the next Met Gala. It's Capitalism at its best.
Huge business in that. I would rent a ball gown if ever I had a need but thankfully, my choices most days are the everyday hoodie or the hoodie I save for an outing that doesn’t have coffee stains. I’m an artist. I need at least one artsy fartsy look—which usually includes a vintage something. Not just something “PreCovid”. I don’t attend church at the moment so not much needed. Too many clothes are a burden IMHO and at my advanced age.
I’m with you. Hiked the Camino this year, my closet got cleaned out and I’ll never go back. Comfortable clothing is key for me and I still look stylish . Just not runway! 😝
👍🏻. Last time I wore any shoe with a small high heel was 2001 at my daughter’s wedding. Yes, I too like to look pulled together. I have always loved clothes. Sewed mine for years. But I’d rather go camping, hiking and painting outdoors or have coffee with friends along with a few art things than do much of anything else, socially. When it gets dark, I stay home. Last new shoes I bought were Merrill hiking boots. I’ll be 80 in 2 years. It’s nice to slough a few things off in my life.
Women's footwear fashion is one of those things that are trivial in the overall scheme of things, but really get me wound up.
I'll save a full 5,000 word rant for my little-used Substack, in the unlikely event that I ever get around to writing it, and just leave a couple remarks here.
Obviously, no one--male or female--should be wearing footwear with a highly elevated heel. For women in a formal setting, the quality of a well-made flat is readily apparent.
No one should wear closed shoes with toe boxes that are not wide enough to comfortably accommodate the shape of their foot, and sandals should only be worn if they are held in place by straps around the body of the foot and don't have straps that compress the toes.
It's weird that such obvious advice should be so pervasively ignored, but I guess foot fetishes and the accentuation of the calf muscle by high heels have some big impacts on human behavior.
(There is some rational reason for my interest in this subject. First, my wife, now in her early sixties, has spent the last ten years struggling to undo the effects of following footwear fashion in her younger years. And second, even men's fashion goes through periods when dress shoes have narrow toe boxes. (You'll never catch me wearing them.))
The whole Mamdani movement is a grift, a scam.
And just wait until all those fires happen from property owners who, if trying to sell have to offer to the state first at a discounted premium. They’ll be definitely upping their fire coverage. Ooops, can’t believe somebody left a candle burning in the basement. Thanks for check, State Farm.
If gas stoves are outlawed by the loonie liberals, that option is gone.
Aint going to happen.
You apparently missed watching the 1977 World Series. It has happened before and very well could happen again.
Good grief. Most of the calls the FDNY receives are for medical service. Mamdani’s appointee as FDNY commissioner has 31 years of experience with the FDNY EMS. Additionally, the FDNY commissioner is an administrative role handling policy, budget and resource management. Day to day operational command of firefighting in NYC is managed by the chief of fire operations, not the fire commissioner.
As for the boots worn by Mamdani’s wife at his inauguration, they were borrowed.
How do you know. Are you a personal friend of the famous couple. Is this insider info? How can you prove it? Nonetheless, it's the optics and on that, they are bad. Is she hanging out with people who buy $600 boots? in a society where everything has meaning, her Balenciaga coat, a supposed rental, and her Miista boots say much about the lovely lady who lunches and wear not just clothes but haute-couture! It's all part of the package. DeBlasio's wife was a bit more careful.
I just hope they are going to send their kids to Mamdani’s new leveled down public schools which shun both charter schools and gifted programs as too bougie. Because, hey, nothing more bourgeois than paying $60,000 a year for private elementary school like the one Mamdani himself attended.
Same as the former leader of the socialist NDP Party in Canada. He attended private schools, drives a very expensive car, and is never seen without his Rolex. They have no shame.
Must have 2 Rolex, since battery replacement and upkeep of a Rolex takes a watchmaker/technician several days to a week to complete.
Good point!
Won't.
Yeah, it doesn't matter how much rented lipstick you put on it.
Haha funniest reply! Thanks for posting.
DeBlasio’s wife was aunt Jemima in costume.
As the First Lady of NYC, Rama Duwaji is entitled to dress however she wants — including wearing fashionable clothing. If that triggers right wingers like you, so be it.
I think you are missing the point that people, especially public servants, who call themselves "socialists" tend to be super hypocritical. Kinda like rules for thee but not me.
Dressing for special events by renting and borrowing the individual parts of one’s ensemble is actually quite frugal.
How many clothes have you rented? And, do you even realize what it costs to rent the runway? Probably not. It’s NOT being frugal.
Ask any guy who ever went to prom or got married, or was a groomsman in a wedding.
That's what you tell yourself, at least. It would be a lot more frugal and in line with what her husband preaches if she shopped at discount stores.
Her clothing choice goes against her husband’s portrayal of a socialist leader. Surely, even you can see that. That’s what is so ironic about her clothing . You do get the obvious mismatch, I’m sure.
Good grief, if Rama Duwaji wore a faded $10 outfit to Mamdani’s inauguration you right wingers would be complaining she did not show enough respect for the occasion. She is the First Lady of NYC and it is understandable that she wanted to look good during a special event. She borrowed some clothes in order to accomplish that. It is laughable that you are making a big deal about her attire.
She borrowed ridiculous “designer” clothes. What, normal clothes that average, including we the white privileged wear everyday weren’t good enough. You really don’t get it, do you? Most American women have never had their feet in $600 boots. You don’t need them to look nice. Wearing them merely draws attention to your hypocrisy. But then again, I’m sure it’s not her fault…must be her stylist’s inability to understand Mandami’s voters.
Lick them boots! lol.
You’re part of the problem, and you’re not a smart person to top it off
#1, you didn't address the point. At all.
#2, insults often come when you don't really have an argument.
Insults like "triggers right wingers like you"? Those kinds of insults?
Your comment (2) is easily considered an insult.
So true.
Says the guy here. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.
You're not very bright, are you.
How about responding to the point on its merits?
I was just remembering Michele Obama lauded for dressing "fashionably" in J Crew.
The point of reaction to the comment is that her husband apparently believes we're not entitled to our own property but his wife is "entitled" to dress how she pleases in haute couture.
You really can't make this stuff up.
What merits? Read Ann above and attempt to get a perspective.
LOL
All these things can be rented or borrowed from designers at all times. They are then walking adverts. With perks.
I'm interested in what kind of loser is brand-checking fucking shoes.
Lol - such information is genetically programmed among the "privileged." Beside the point, but she looked great in her rented clothes.
I remember hill clinton wearing $4,000.00 (minimum value back then) gold bracelets and a $25,000 jacket on a debate stage. And if you don't think that people who live paycheck to paycheck see that on television, you should take some time to think about it. What kind of loser notices a Bentley or a Jaguar or the color of human skin and eyes, eh?
What the hell does a $25,000 jacket even look like?
Not many people who live paycheck to paycheck watch debates on TV. And if they do watch, and they can tell the difference between $200 worth of bracelets and $4000 worth, and they can I-Spy the value of clothes, they may have missed their professional calling. Quit that waitress gig and head for fashion!
I couldn't tell you if JD Vance or Mark Kelly wear $1000 or $7000 suits. They wear suits.
I can see a Jaguar hood ornament from some distance. I can't tell the quality of Hillary's jewelry watching at home.
And it's one thing if people simply have that kind of an eye for fashion. The losers I'm talking about brand-checking shoes are the ones who don't care about the shoes, they just want to be able to say that Person A is either cheap and wears crap, so we should think less of him/her, or is wearing way-overpriced, designer shit, and we should think less of him/her.
Are you surprised? AOC went to the Met Gala to rub shoulders with ultra wealthy, and her dress read “ tax the rich”. Everyone thought it was cute.
Related to this, Elizabeth Warren wants a wealth tax on the wealthy, but the tax is to apply only to people wealthier than her $50 million wealth.
Makes sense 😂. These people are hilarious. If only they were comedians and not our government.
Absolutely. If only Richard Pryor was still young and performing we could get a collective chuckle. He did a great skit on television preachers.
Nope. Warren first proposed a wealth tax on folks worth over $50 million six years ago so it is not a new idea as you claim. Also, Warren’s net worth is not $50 million. Credible sources put her net worth between $7 million and $12 million.
Painted in red on her backside. Another great moment in modern fashion history. She looked great too.
lol. Sandy Cortez is considered attractive "for DC" because of her peer group. A DC 8 is an LA 3.
A matter of taste I suppose, but you are probably right that the bar in DC is relatively low.
Out of curiosity, what number would you put on Mrs. Mamdani?
For NYC? 2.5.
She looked like a cheesy street walker on the prowl for a Dem John
Lol - you are clearly uninterested in fashion design!
Here is everything you don't want to know: https://open.substack.com/pub/brainmatterbygkj/p/rama-duwaji-zohran-mamdani-first-lady-inauguration-fashion
She should have worn her burqa. That'd have been more her "style". That or a Mao jacket.
I really don’t care about the sexual orientation of the fire chief. The way it was announced strongly implied that her being gay influenced the hiring decisions.
That is false. The Los Angeles fire chief in January of 2025 was Kristin Crowley who started with the LAFD in 2000 and served as a firefighter, paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain, battalion chief, assistant chief, fire marshal and deputy chief before becoming chief of the department.
And she did a wonderful job huh?
No fire chief could have stopped those fires. Between the topography of the Santa Monica Mountains, persistent drought, the majority of Topanga State Park not burning in over 50 years and very strong Santa Ana winds, the fires were unstoppable.
It would have helped if they had water and if the fire department budget had not been slashed by millions of dollars. Rick Caruso was able to protect his own property. Californians should have elected him rather than Bass who remained in Ghana despite the ominous pre-fire warnings. Also, maybe LA could have used some of those unvaccinated firefighters that were canned.
National building codes for fire protection limit building houses within 5 feet of property lines, which translates to ten feet from neighbors.
Most Pacific Palisades and Altadena homes were built to this bare minimum, even though as you pointed out, the area is prone to Santa Ana winds and persistent droughts.
There is a reason why the fire underwriters fled CA.
I think a competent fire chief might have noticed and taken action and
responsibility for bone dry reservoirs
But had no managerial experience or prowess.
Again, Kristin Crowley was a battalion chief, assistant chief, fire marshal and deputy chief before she became fire chief. She clearly had a lot of managerial experience. As for "prowess" — again, no amount of skill was going to stop such a large wildfire originating in Topanga State Park during drought conditions where a fire had not burned in over 50 years and when very strong Santa Ana winds were in effect.
Actually, there is new video out saying the fire smoldered underground for weeks and its location was in the park. The article intimated the park rangers didn’t want the firefighters in the park. Something about damaging the plants. So, it was possible for the fire to be contained.
You're like Nolan Ryan smelling another no-hitter. They can't TOUCH your stuff.
Yes I see I am mistaken on that. Not sure where I got that idea. I remember reading it somewhere but apparently not true. I edited it. Facts matter!
No amount of evidence contrary to your entitled belief system will be tolerated, will it. You’re demonstrating the premise of the article very handily.
Sure they were. Her stylist said so.
Begged, borrowed, or stolen it shrieks volumes about the "designer boots for me of the ruling class but not for thee of the proletariat."
Really, borrowed, how often have you loaned something you wear on your feet? She seems to have rich friends.
Ew.
When whining starts about an appointment like this, you could ask people how much experience holding elected office Donald Trump had before January 20, 2017.
And thank goodness for that. Obviously, people were pretty happy overall with what he did, they reelected him. Or maybe it was because the guy before him with OVER 50 years of political experience was so freakin terrible!
No argument from me. My point was that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
50 years of openly bigoted and sexist and warmongering and yes he was the best the DNC could put forward. Questionable whether he "won?"
CEO of a multi billion/international company outside of the DC swamp ? Exactly what America needed and wanted!
Also shows that people don’t understand emergency services at all.
Yes, we must always elect career politicians who don't know how to do anything else, have never held a job in the private sector, and live the narrow, privileged life of the ruling elite. After all, they are doing such a fabulous job!
That's not my point, Linda. I don't care if we elect people with lots of experience or no experience, or somewhere in-between. I'm merely pointing out that those who defended Trump not having elected experience are now using similar weak attacks against Mamdani.
It's the hypocrisy; if it weren't so amusing it'd be annoying.
Lawyers Guns & Money - the big deal stares right in your face, and it is not the price tag. They think property is a weapon of white supremacy. Luckily for her, she sold the property before her relationship with it changed.
I appreciate the irony but the mayor's wife looked great.
My parents came from Cuba. My grandparents are from Cuba and China. Socialism/Communism (it always ends in totalitarianism). Has always been nothing but death and ruin. Democracy and Capitalism are not perfect but they are infinitely better than any other form of government and economics ever tried. I am an optimist, but wonder if and when the good people who have worked, taken care of their families and built their communities need to stand up to defend themselves against this hateful ideology.
Yep. My parents are Korean and so I was taught at a young age how bad communism is. I don’t understand how people don’t see how communism always leads to death and famine. They’re willfully ignorant.
THANK YOU Matt! Just the Taibbi article I need for some sorely needed break from the escalating political madness & rhetorics out of Minneapolis.
Did you happen to see Ruy Teixeira's very sane op-ed in the NYT today? Democrats are going to be screwed if they don't get a clue. Like 4/5 of the commenters are like whatabout Trump! AEI rightwinger! And the other 1/5 are like we are so screwed, these dumbasses will never get it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/opinion/minnesota-welfare-fraud-democrats.html
No. Thanks for the heads up. Will check it out.
The link you posted is hidden behind an insistence on logging in.
Could not access it and will not pay for it.
https://archive.ph/JsuVF
Thank you! Good read. Will check out the blog.
The blog is on Substack.
I think part of Teixeira's implicit point was that there aren't really enough D partisans out there to bring it home for the Dems. Because that sort of shit isn't really going to fly with a lot of sane Democrats, centrists and a lot of Indies.
I don't know if you've ever read any of his blog (The Liberal Patriot), but he's a strong supporter of the working classes. He left CAP and went to AEI because CAP wouldn't let him talk about class politics, only ID. He's really more like Bernie. But the wokesterati think he's a right winger.
I hope he is right. Young people are being strongly brainwashed by nitwit academics. Not long ago I was a sane Democrat myself. During the pandemic, it seemed like the ranks were thin.
I’ve never seen those two words used in conjunction: Sane Democrat.
Because we are nearly extinct, being anathema to the DNC. Taibbi has referred to himself in this way. Although he has apparently become increasingly reluctant to do so.
I flushed the Democratic party toilet back at the millennium, but still voted for them top of the ticket, but '08 was the last time i did that. Now 3rd party / write in / sat it out last time. Bernie was my guy.
Back in the day I too voted for Bernie. Seems like a long time ago, so much has transpired since.
Write in, sit it out, and Bernie have been your attempts to enact change in the status quo? How has that worked out for you?
As much as elections are about the number of D's versus the number of R's, they are very much about voter turn out... how many of those D's and R's are motivated to vote in any given election. The other major issue is a legacy media that is feeding the public propaganda. I had a lengthy discussion with an older family member the other day and she looked to be in shock when I read off some actual facts and figures to her.
They live through their groupthink cult narrative. Which does not have to make sense. Just has to reinforce their herd identity, because these people are not individuals yet.
Congratulations Matt on one of the best written pieces I have read in years. It takes patience to sort through and makes sense let alone trace the history of this nonsense.
second. keep it up, Matt.
I am sure most readers here have noticed that the leftwing process of living in upside-down land tends to run in themes. They go intensively into one theme, in a synchronized fashion, wear it out, and then move to another.
Recently the themes have centred around private property. And this week the theme being pushed is specifically "international law", triggered by the Venezuela situation.
Referring to the private property theme ..." in British Columbia, Canada, recent court rulings -- especially the 2025 Cowichan Tribes decision, which affirmed Aboriginal title over lands including areas with private property -- created uncertainty about ownership validity and potentially overriding existing titles". In other words, if an aboriginal tribe claims your private land as theirs, they might just be able to take it over.
This is not a new issue in Canada, where there are approximately 650 "First Nations" comprised of indigenous tribes. But the concept of taking over private property in indigenous claims is moving swiftly now.
I am waiting to see what happens when a BC tribe claims the land under the city of Vancouver.
I noticed in 2016 that all the pundits were saying in unison that Hillary was the most qualified candidate ever to run for POTUS. This narrative was followed by the news saying “Hillary is powering through it” when she was sick. These narratives stick out like a sore thumb these days.
The leftwing is comprised of persons whose psyches have gone into the Splitting mode.
There was a pair of 70s cult researchers who termed the moment of Splitting the "Mind-snap" (though they knew nothing else at the time about what these persons snapped in to). This is when they move from individualism into the Collective Unconscious, or the hive-mind. Once they operate from the hive-mind, they will use the same narratives and the same themes and the same terms as one another -- usually dictated by leaders within their group. It becomes almost a form of telepathy in that sense. I talk about them receiving "the memo from head office" when they all begin to spout the same ideas or comments at the same time as if in lockstep.
The bald faced hornet hive. Nasty thieves.
I don't care about "narratives", "stories", "messages", etc. I care about policy, what they did, and what they're looking to do. If I want a story, that's what books are for.
Taking over private property in America is already an established practice. When the Dallas Cowboys wanted a new stadium in 2004 where a neighborhood stood eminent domain was used to take the land. When a private mall wanted to expand in Hurst, Texas in 1997 eminent domain was also used to seize land on which 127 homes stood. When a private developer wanted to build a hotel and stores on a 9 acre neighborhood in New London, Connecticut in 2005 eminent domain was again used.
Matt closes by acknowledging that he understands "the tragic fact" of racism's role in American history. Well gosh, don't we all? If any free people have been subjected to so complete an education/indoctrination of one component of their nation's history as we have with that one subject it has escaped my notice.
Black history. I'm done with it. Been so for decades. Does this mean I don't care about their welfare? Absolutely not. But I'm not about to allow myself to become captive of any group, especially one that denies the basic decency of its non-members (whites, Asians, Hispanics) while simultaneously exploiting their need to prove the possess it.
It's a pay-to-play humiliation shakedown and all that's missing is a ball gag and a whip.
The family histories of the majority of Americans are filled with "tragic facts," be they loses of homelands, of loved ones in battle, of economic disasters, or, take notice, loses to vicious street thugs. I've got a list of them in my tree, but they've played such a small part in how I've lived my life and treated my fellow Americans that I have to work my brain to remember them.
Mamdani's line about how NYC must move from home ownership to one in which the “state guarantees high-quality housing for all.” Hilarious! Because wow, everyone wants to live in those beautiful state-guaranteed section 8 high-quality housing blocks! Bwahahaha
Brings to mind CHA’s Robert Morris Homes and Cabrini Green in Chicago…
Right?
Okay, so I read Matt's article, trying hard to follow the logic and reasoning of Crenshaw, Harris and Weaver. I struggled to understand it until the lightbulb went on. These women really aren't making a logical argument. They are fulfilling a goal - take stuff away from the white folk. Their supposed argument is simply the backfill necessary to accomplish that goal. The Constitution? Bah, a racist document that needs "investigating". Property? Well, you excluded us when you accumulated it, so now we're gonna take it back. You say you earned it through achievement? Haha, achievement is the label found under those white hoods you used to wear.
Sorry, but this is simply intimidation and bullying using pseudo-intelligent faculty language, created on a foundation of laziness, jealousy and envy.
White guilt is their business and it's booming...
"That was a lot of white guilt money. There's a lot of white folks being like, “ 'We just got to put the money.' ”
— Patrisse Cullors, founder of BLM, who treated herself to a $1.4 million home in Los Angeles and a "custom ranch" in Georgia.
You go, girl!
There’s no logic to it. It’s a cult. It’s their religious ideology. Matt’s analysis of original sin being applied is correct. When you understand that it is a cult, you understand that no amount of logic will change their minds or make any sense of any of it. Think of the most crazy zealots and that is what these people are.
Only if you choose to accept it.
Exactly.
The cherry on the sundae was the story of how Cea Weaver broke into tears and ran from reporters who asked her about her mother's 1.6-million dollar home.
It’s hard to explain hypocrisy. Does anyone know…has she disowned her mother? I mean white privilege and all.
Now is the time for the federal government to stop backing student loans.
YES! Remember who federalized Student Loans?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-student-loan-crisis-college-debt-government-11648590176
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obama-created-student-loan-crisis-with-1-trillion-in-loans/
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/10383
Let's not forget the other pillar of whiteness detailed by our ankle-deep intellectual class: Competition. Never mind that the most legendary competitor in American history is Michael Jordan, a guy who would hold a lifelong grudge against someone he lost a game of tic-tac-toe to.
Yes, and that anti-competition drivel was birthed from our pathetic education system 25 years ago.
Yes, he is keenly competitive to a degree that most people wouldn't believe.
You said it, Matt. What sane person? They are insane. We need to return to insane asylums vs. putting them in educational institutions.
Public educational systems are the modern asylums!
But they can leave and work in government.
🎯 Sadly, I found it populated with them!
And end up like sleepy Joe, collecting over $400k a year in pension, highest paid politician in history. Not to mention all the other stuff he collected during service to our nation. I
That's a shit ton of ice cream
Doubt he is collecting anything, his family is and has been acting for him.
But they escape……
😢 ... and often w a degree!!
In Women’s and Gender Studies
Or Prisons!
"Here’s what happens when something like Whiteness is Property becomes sacred writ on liberal arts campuses. It gets gobbled up by mentally ill white intellectuals, who can’t get enough of being told how inescapably guilty they are."
👍👍🎯
Matt hints at this theological angle, that the “original sin” in the Bible is being modified in this new “religion” to the original sin of “whiteness”.
Once it becomes a religious precept it is difficult to counter with logical discussion.
It’s absolutely a religion. Once you see it from that lens, the behavior makes sense. Especially the picking and choosing of history and narratives they do.
I see fanatical evangelicals doing the same thing with homeschooling. They refuse to teach their kids fairy tales or stories of the Greek/Roman myths for fear of “polluting” the minds of their kids. They are insane.
Well, i read the tabloids, so i can share that this woman's mother apparently owns and lives in a house in Tennessee worth like $1.6 million.
I am so fucking glad that there was no social media when i was a dumb bigmouth degenerate highschool and college kid.
“ I am so fucking glad that there was no social media when i was a dumb bigmouth degenerate highschool and college kid.”
💯
Everyone i knew would have been unemployable for life.
Indeed! most of this group here I suspect and note with glee, would have been cancelled, or worse, in our youths.
Yours is the best comment on the anti-whiteness mania adopted by people like Weaver. Thanks!