Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Biden Unchained

 https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/shut_up_clown_fool_liar__the_vile_debate_spewings_of_joe_biden.html?fbclid=IwAR2K6F7jDP_lmJ0YmQyXXHy_ft9IoF5gvLDjzcvJ0LjEQF1Ro4JjGR5s7Lo


I don't waste my time watching "debates" -- I'm certainly voting a straight R ticket because the Rs are the least objectionable alternative in "Wokeistan". It is possible they won't send me to a reeducation camp -- or a mass grave for "Deplorables". 

I have of course heard that may Rs were "disappointed" -- what sane person would not be in a country where Hillary (and may other Ds) declare that Biden should not concede under any circumstances, and ACB is a member of a "weird sect" (Bible believers) that believes men are divinely ordered to head families? 

Apparently. the "debate" showed that the narrative "Biden nice civil guy" is exposed to anyone that cares. I doubt that many do, however the truth is better than fiction. 

Somehow, Biden always brings this Batman scene to mind -- he has that Jack Palance sort of vibe about him. 






Recovering The Family

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/the-power-line-show-ep-216-the-recovery-of-family-life-with-scott-yenor.php

An excellent podcast that makes me tear up. 

I went through the whole indoctrination that feminism was the companion and possibly even the "mother" of equality in my 70's "education" (I did learn how to program computers). Feminism was at least "co-equal" (a term nearly as nebulous as "justice") with "Civil Rights" -- a term once clearly defined as "removal of discriminatory barriers for blacks, giving them equal rights as opposed to equal outcomes". 

Today "Civil Rights" seems to mean advantage for blacks, discrimination against Asians/white men, advantage to particular "identities", and I'm really not up to date on the latest -- it seems to be that sexualization of children is the bleeding edge of this "progress" (mentioned at end of podcast). 

The tears are because feminism has been VERY "successful" at making not just women, but all of us, much more "independent". From our families, often friends, community, country, meaning, God, and the universe in general. All too often it "frees" a tragic number from their very lives through suicide. 

Perhaps relationships are a much better goal than independence? 

After all, what is the goal of "progressivism"? If each of us has exactly what we "feel" is our "just result", of us being eternally sovereign, as Dante not already explained where we will be? 

 Sadly, (although in the bigger more nuanced picture, I believe eternally joyfully) relationship is a lot more demanding than "making a clean break". In the short term it will almost certainly mean that word that the moderns admonish us we ought never "settle for" -- compromise. Maybe, dare I even utter it, sacrifice? Burning the house down is much easier than building it, and often even harder is repairing it when it is clearly damaged, even broken. 

Yet another level of difficulty is if the daunting task of repair is to be taken up with care, possibly even love, rather than just calling on some "expert" to "fix it". Could we not just "watch a YouTube" and follow the "wisdom" found there? 

The podcast covers some of the "collateral damage" of feminism -- feminized, infantilized, "men", massive divorce and broken homes, increased income and "life quality" inequality (An outcome of "successful" women tending to marry "successful" men, so that they can struggle to have a "co-equal" sort of "family")  A "family" with nobody bearing the burden of leadership, and nobody understanding the necessity of order. 

Like a military with no commander, a ship without a captain, and a body with no head. 

The podcast is stupendous, his books are OMG expensive! 

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Primary Source For Russiagate Proven As Russian Spy

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/09/25/dossier_source_was_russia_spy_suspect_and_the_fbi_knew_it_125358.html

If the US had any credible MSM left, everyone would have known this before the "Russiagate" hoax got off the ground very early in the Trump administration. We know the Deep State, MSM, and global media-elite complex never accepted the results of the 2016 election ... and they still don't, their plan is power takeover by any means this time

So the bottom line is that as anyone who paid attention to the minimal MSM reporting on the Strzok/Page texts, the FBI was seeking to stop Trump even before the election, 

The FBI was well aware that their main "source" was a Russian spy:

The FBI long suspected that a major source for Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier was a Russian spy, according to newly declassified documents. In other words, the bureau knowingly relied on the word of a suspected Russian spy to spy on a Trump campaign aide wrongly smeared as a Russian spy: Carter Page.
So we knew this long ago, but now, anyone that even cares a tiny bit knows beyond reasonable doubt that our Federal "institutions" are massively (irretrievably?) corrupt. 
By July 2010, the FBI was applying for a FISA warrant to put Danchenko under surveillance. But before the FISA application was approved, Danchenko left the U.S. The FBI closed the investigation.

Come the end of 2016, the Crossfire Hurricane team at the FBI knew that Danchenko was the source of Christopher Steele’s extraordinary allegations. The Crossfire crew also knew of the 2009 investigation that gathered evidence Danchenko was a Russian spy.

And yet, even with reason to suspect that the materials produced by Danchenko were Russian disinformation, the FBI agents investigating the Trump campaign continued to treat the Steele dossier as if it were something to be believed.
How many people care? I fear not nearly enough. 

Monday, September 28, 2020

Corona In Late September

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/covid-19-in-five-states-revisited.php

As was stated by many at the onset, Covid19 is "the flu" -- a quite virulent strain of flu (meaning we mostly all get it because it is easily spread), but thankfully, a strain that has a very low death rate unless you have other underlying illness or are over 70.

The CDC recently updated the survival rates for REPORTED cases of Covid19. Remember, we still are being told that "over 50%" of people infected with Covid do not know they are infected -- thus the masks. You are admonished to wear a mask to "protect others" because you may have Covid and be a "spreader" even if you feel fine. (there is no "science" that says you can be asymptomatic and spread it, however it warms the hearts of the  control oriented bureaucrats to see you in a mask). 

https://twitter.com/adam_creighton/status/1308652790823051264?s=21

Survival rate by age: 

0-19              99.997%

20-49           99.98%

50-69           99.5%

70+               94.6%

Again, this is TOTAL REPORTED! These people mostly had symptoms and went in to be tested. For people without underlying illness the survival chances are MUCH higher!

We can observe that this happy fact is not being reported. We can argue about "why"? 

As I've often mentioned, reputable moderately educated people SCALE numbers! "I've lost 50 lbs" is GREAT news for me, obviously fatal news for a 100lb woman. SCALE MATTERS! When numbers are not scaled you know that the people using them are either not educated or they have an agenda. 

All numbers from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/



Also remember that the US numbers are HEAVILY affected by the mismanagement in 6 states that seeded nursing homes with infected patients. 



So yes, Corona was negligently mismanaged in 6 states in the US! 

The other factor to understand is that in only 6% of the Corona deaths was Corona the only factor. So the US reporting of "death by Corona" is certainly vastly overstated in comparison to other countries. Interestingly, we STILL look darned good if one looks a deaths per million and consider our size, diversity of population, etc. 

As the PL link points out, Corona is largely political, and I believe has been from the git go. The PL link shows that the different handling of the virus in adjacent states was statistically insignificant. 

The real tragedy is that we are a nation are now so ideologically blinkered that a very low percentage of the population has any hope of learning from events










Sunday, September 27, 2020

The Stakes : America At The Point of No Return

This link should take you to all my notes and comments on Goodreads. 

The book is unimaginably great, and sadly, probably all but unreachable to most Americans because in this age of distraction, the general population is so convinced that a quick hitter high entertainment value tribal tidbit is all they need to bother with. Something long enough to provide required context, is by design something to avoid. Let the experts deal with it, surely we can trust them! 

It turns out that Michael Anton is the "Decius" that wrote an incendiary column in the fall of 2016 -- commented on by me here.

The point of it all is that we are either "at", or (as I believe) beyond the point of no return for America. That fabled nation that believed in GOD GIVEN rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" ) ... or maybe conferred by "the thing" as the current candidate for president of "The Party"(TP-D) prefer. "God" is a bit uncomfortable if you worship the relativism of "if it feels good, it IS good"! 


 

This book summarizes what I had predicted from my study of 100s of books, articles, etc of 20+ years. Basically: 

  • Democracy is either dead or in hospice in the once Constitutional Republic (but no longer) of America. 

  • We are in or headed quickly for "Bluetopia" / "Wokeistan". Essentially current California (or the burning cores of our TP controlled blue cities)  -- a place where only the very elite of the 1% or the bottom "20%" can live "decent" (though very different definitions of "decent") lives.

    The top 1-5% look a lot like a little better version of the old "American dream" -- nice homes, great schools, safe communities, bright futures, etc.

    The "hollow middle" either increasingly leave, or live like college students in crowded "dorms" (2 bedroom apartments with 5-10 "living" in them) in increasing nasty "ring suburbs" ... even if they make like $200K a year! 

    The bottom lifestyles look like a welfare subsidized much better version of Mexico, Guatemala, Somalia, etc -- the shell of what once America is still a significant step up from a lot of the world. The elite Wokerati is planning that as the target lifestyle for the masses.

    If TP wins, there will be nowhere to go, so we Deploreables will get what the elite has decided we deserve.

  • The world is being "Davosized" -- the 1% get 99% of the good stuff and the 99% get the shaft. (like 8 guys have more wealth than the bottom half of the world)

  • Since our elites receive only a very narrow "education" (really rat race indoctrination), "our betters" have a complete lack of "native intelligence / common sense", and have no choice but to parrot whatever the TP "experts" bleat. 

  • We are a nation that is demoralized and "stuck" ... covered well in "Decadent Society"  

I found this quote to be rather chillingly aligned with one of my main observations. Rather like pre-reformation Western civilization, where questioning anything might be seen by the Popeish elite of that day as "burn at the stake, heresy". 

More sinister is the insistence that you deny reality—for example, affirm that a man is really a woman—or profess things you don’t actually believe: say, that the world will end in twelve years “because of climate change.” As with all cases of religious intolerance, outward conformity is an unsatisfactory defense; the inquisitors must be satisfied that, in your heart, you really believe. Hence insufficient fervor for elite California’s latest enthusiasm is taken as sufficient proof of heresy. There is no political or cultural check on any of this. Millions of Californians may disagree on this or that point and even resent being bullied, but there’s no way to know because they never dare say so—not if they want to stay and continue to earn a living.

In order to survive in Wokeistan, you need to increasingly convince the Elite that you BELIEVE what they demand you believe. BLM "mostly peaceful"? Sig Heil!  Showing ID to vote is racist? Ya Vol! Killing the baby after it is born? Yes master! 

Fear is the universal solvent for rationality. 

This is a decent review, where I stole the following conclusion: 

Anton is praiseworthy in that he is at least still seeking peaceful outcomes. For those who would paint his work in a negative light, ask yourself who else is doing the same. Armed violence is in our streets, and cities are burning in the face of those Anton calls the Wokerati. The old solutions no longer work.

Both left and right say that the solution is to vote the other out of power at every level, but neither has the votes. War is the obvious solution, but not a good one. This book wisely tries to imagine a new working way.
I like this review as well if you don't think you can handle the book. If that is the case, I HIGHLY recommend finding a way to read chapter 7. 

By far the most striking interlude in the book comes in Chapter Seven. Anton describes his ruling class oligarchy in detail — the tech monopolists, the woke universities, the leftist foot-soldiers, the neoliberal economists, the sock-puppet Democratic leaders, the administrative state — and then games out what might happen if their project hits the wall. Contemplations range from the mild (continued geographical sorting along political lines), to the less mild (secession), to the apocalyptic (civil war). These are, to put it lightly, troubling scenarios. In recent days Anton has warned of another: that the Democrats might be plotting a coup in November.

The fact that the RINO ruling class wanna be Republicans hate Trump is one more impetus for me to like him (not love, LIKE!). "There is very little wrong with Trump that more Trump won't fix". 

If TP triumphs, we will get to experience the interior of a totalitarian hell updated from the Gestapo, and KGB versions. With modern surveillance technology, will there really be any difference between inside and outside the reeducation camps? Will your mind even realize it has been captured? 

 

RIP, Animal, Past Lives

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/joseph-laurinaitis-wrestlings-animal-of-the-road-warriors-dies-at-60/2020/09/24/2dd5c35a-fdef-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html

Strange event to bring some of my past life to the surface of my now brain surgery / seizure damaged brain. Early in my IBM career, around the time of my marriage, my "team" (X.25 if I recall correctly) went to see the Road Warriors in Rochester, where oddly we ran into a very straight-laced corporatist 2nd line manager who had taken his early or slightly pre-teen daughter that loved the Road Warriors to the same show.  

I had more than a passing interest in lifting heavy things in those days -- 325 on the bench, 240 military. I had a lot of respect for professional wrestling -- "ballet for those over 250 lbs" as I saw it. 

I was also going through a good deal of "religious angst". Raised and Baptised a "Born again Baptist". Severely doubting the truth of God as I ardently pursued Computer Science and the almighty dollar, I was beginning my quest for "wisdom" -- theological, philosophical, technical, cultural,  and "whatever".  Complicated by falling in love with an even more conservatively raised woman. 

So how did we culturally decide that the "last night" of single life for a man ought to be a night of debauchery? 

Not that I really trust Time magazine, but their take is

The bachelor party, however, goes back much further than you'd expect. It's rooted in ancient history — as early as the 5th century B.C. It is believed that the ancient Spartans were the first to make a celebration out of the groom's last night as a single man. Spartan soldiers held a dinner in their friend's honor and made toasts on his behalf — with, one assumes, a Spartan sense of decorum. Since then, the events have generally grown more raucous. In 1896, a stag party thrown by Herbert Barnum Seeley — a grandson of P.T. Barnum — for his brother was raided by police after rumors circulated that a famous belly dancer would be performing nude. Before his wedding to Gloria Hatrick, Jimmy Stewart's infamous bash at the Beverly Hills hangout Chasen's included midgets popping out of a serving dish.

Having been raised in pietous past, my curiosity leads me to Luther's opinion on Mardi Gras. The internet is always helpful (if not always correct, let alone righteous!): 

https://michigandistrict.org/healthy-workers/the-theology-of-pancakes/

This is a temptation for any of us: focus too much on how much you’re not sinning, and the thought starts to creep into your mind that perhaps your own right living is the basis of your acceptance before God. And yet, this misses the essence of faith: not sin-avoidance, but Christ-reliance.

And so Martin writes Philip with words that are as compelling as they are controversial:

“If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and sin boldly, but trust in Christ more boldly still, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.

Luther isn’t recommending that Philip rob a bank or insult his mother. His point is that we should always take Christ and his mercy much more seriously than we take ourselves and our sanctity. “[Christ] became for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor 1.30–31).

I'm not claiming to understand the Truth that we are BOTH "Saints and Sinners". I just understand that it IS truth!  

So my oh so helpful team in that distant past decided that I needed a Bachelor Party, and given that they knew of my pietous past, religious searching,  and impending marriage, they thought a stripping "nun" would be somehow appropriate (we were young). Apparently, as the "act" proceeded, cheers for "Road Warriors" rose to a crescendo, and I executed the "Road Warrior press" ( grasping under the arms, military pressing her to full height over my head) on said "nun". ( I'm not likely to get on the SCOTUS) 

I'm told that the event was marred by my quickly going to arms raised in triumph as her apogee was reached, oblivious to the fact that gravity would  return the spike heeled lass expeditiously to earth. Thankfully, she was young, agile, and resilient, so no injury ensued. 

My heart was gladdened to see in the article that: 

Both Mr. Laurinaitis and Hegstrand became born-again Christians, something which helped Hegstrand conquer his addictions. Nevertheless, he died from a heart attack in 2003 at age 46.
How long we hang on in this veil of tears is of very little significance. I'd like to imagine that we could have some great heavenly tag team matches. Perhaps they will be known as "The Legion of Grace"? 

We Live In Teddy Kennedy's America

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/reflections-on-the-devolution-2.php

The linked makes the case that the "Borking of America" on July 1 1987 was a critical point in the devolution of America into a broken leftist "Wokeistan". I agree it was a key point, however I maintain that Chappaquiddick,  was the extreme turning point -- metaphysically linked with the Moon Landing. 

God is not subtle -- hubris and the fall are eternally linked, and to any with even the most minimal of faith, the truth remains obvious. 

As Bronner suggested, Senator Kennedy’s unconstrained opposition to Bork’s appointment has indeed had profound effects in the practice of “judicial politics.” As Steve put it in The Age of Reagan, “the subsequent public campaign of the activist Left was stunning in its breadth, depth, and dishonesty.” We saw it recur preeminently in the confirmation proceedings following the nomination of Justice Thomas, but not just there. It has become something of a template for liberal attacks on mainstream conservatives beyond the realm of judicial politics.

The tone set by Kennedy in connection with the Bork nomination lives on among Senate Democrats. We live in Edward Kennedy’s America not only in the consequential legislation that he sponsored and saw through the Senate, but also in the afterlife of the vulgar political sham on which Senator Kennedy relied to spark the defeat of Judge Bork’s confirmation.
"Ted Kennedy" is a great answer to "how was America destroyed". 

Roe v Wade (January 22, 1973) cemented the fact that whatever the nation was, it was no longer a "Constitutional Republic" under which Roe would have required the recall of any supporting judge, since it was in no way Constitutional. The idea of "rights" found found nowhere in the Constitution, but only in a  paranormal "penumbra", having more basis in witchcraft than law. Finding a "right" for women to vote, rather than going to all the trouble of the 19th Amendment was the Constitutional way to CREATE a new right -- which everyone understood in 1920. Voting is never really a matter of life and death -- abortion is. 

Teddy was the warlock that reified the witchcraft of conjuring "rights" out of the spirit world with no consideration of such mundane things as Constitutional Amendments. 

In Teddy Kennedy's "america", babies die by the tens of millions, "protected classes" riot and burn cities, "schools" indoctrinate children on hatred of parents, God, tradition, and patriotism, and even the basic truths of man and womanhood are denied. 

To a significant degree, America died with Mary Jo Kopechne on July 29, 1969.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Is It OK For Liberals To Make Public Death Threats?

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/are-liberals-responsible-for-the-consequences-of-their-death-threats.php

This is of special interest to me because I have heard Nils Gilman on Steven Haywards podcast (as he mentions in his post). 

Nils has 14K twitter followers, and is a lefty in good standing -- employed by an institute with a $500 million endowment. The fact that Steve H reaches out to converse with him is one of the reasons I follow Power Line and especially Steve Hayward -- he has civil discussions with guys like Nils!

I'm quite saddened by this event. I'm 2/3 through "The Stakes", Anton's an excellent chronicle of the decline of Conservative / Constitutional / small R republican America. 

This development gives much more creedence to Anton's point that the left is already resorting to violence -- the only real question is if the "silent majority" is going to finally stand up, or just die quietly.

Are there enough "Americans" to stand up and demand that we return to being a great Constitutional Republic, or are we "Wokeistan"? 

Hunter Biden vs Donald Trump Jr

 https://www.nationalreview.com/news/senate-report-details-hunter-bidens-extensive-foreign-business-dealings-and-obama-officials-efforts-to-distance-themselves-from-it/

We know that Hunter Biden had a host of corrupt influence peddling activities, and we know that since he is a D, the MSM doesn't care. He is on "the right (left) side of history". 

The Biden's aren't the only corrupt family in left wing American politics ... the Kerry's play for pay as well, and daddy is happy to lie about it. 

The day after Hunter joined the Burisma board in May 2014, Kerry’s stepson Christopher Heinz, who was a business partner of Hunter’s, emailed his father to inform him of Hunter’s appointment to the board and to distance himself from the decision. Kerry’s staff followed up with a briefing on the press inquiries prompted by Hunter’s board seat, according to their testimony before the committees.

Neither Kerry nor anyone else in the administration appears to have intervened to put a stop to the younger Biden’s influence peddling.

When asked by a reporter in 2019 whether he had any knowledge of Hunter’s work for Burisma, Kerry responded “I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No."

 Mitt Romney likes to criticize Trump -- most likely because he has a son Matt, a principle in Solamere Capital, which Mitt is involved in as well. 

In March 2013, Mitt Romney became chair of Solamere’s executive committee and a member of its investment committee, and Solamere’s bare website currently lists him as the executive partner group chairman. The site only describes the company as “a collection of families and influential business leaders leveraging their broad networks and industry expertise to invest strategic capital.”

Isn't it nice to have "broad networks". Mitt needs to keep pretty close to THE party line -- you know, THE Party (D) rather than his supposed party --R! 

Just imagine for a minute if it was Donald Trump Jr who we were talking about rather than Hunter! Any chance MSM interest would be a bit higher????  

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Censorship Google Style, Lysenkoism

 https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/20/google_pushes_conservative_news_sites_far_down_search_lists_144246.html

News to nobody -- social media, the big info companies (Google, Microsoft, etc) subtly and not so subtly censor views that do not comply with the current "Deep State, Global Davos Elite, Mass Media, etc" approved thought. 

As "Scientific" American -- an endorser of "200 million Americans will die before I finish this speech" Biden would say, "You MUST follow the "science" "! 

Both Breitbart and the Daily Caller have confirmed that their Google traffic fell dramatically as their search rankings fell.

Internal Google files have hinted at such action. In 2018, the Daily Caller reported on a leaked exchange the day after President Trump's 2016 election win. In it, employees debated whether Breitbart and the Daily Caller should be buried.

“This was an election of false equivalencies, and Google, sadly, had a hand in it,” Google engineer Scott Byer wrote, according to the documents obtained by the Daily Caller.

Those who believe that truth is something that is best decided by the mass population (the "Proletariat") vs "The Party", the media, the elite, etc, need to review Lysenkoism

The Metaphysical Club, Louis Menard

 https://newcriterion.com/issues/2001/10/ideas-as-anecdotes

A clear case where reading the linked review is much more enlightening than reading the book. As a "group biography"of the initiators of Pragmatism,  the book is "decent" with insights into the life experiences, addictions, loves, families, etc of the subjects, but in knowledge "cash value", it has a very low signal to noise.

It is basically a "Supermarket Tabloid" for Pragmatism. 

... Peirce endowed ideas with the power to convert doubt into belief, annoyance into comfort, while James remarked that wrong ideas can kill us, right ones can save us. Menand recognizes that power—and tames it. He returns all questions to the realm of circumstance, where complexities may be narrated as personal conflicts. The result is an entertaining but superficial exercise in intellectual history, one in which ideas are wheeled on not because of their substance or truth value but because of their anecdotal force.

I'm all for simplification, however it seems likely that converting "War And Peace" to a Meme will leave out a bit! 

... For most people, truth and justice are lofty things best pursued disinterestedly. But for Menand, “making those kinds of decisions—about what is right or what is truthful—is like deciding what to order in a restaurant.” To distinguish between judging what is right and selecting an entrée, apparently, would be to venture outside the world of real human action.

This is a quote from Menard that appears in the review: 

The lesson that Holmes learned from the war can be put in a sentence. It is that certitude leads to violence. The key to Holmes’s civil liberties opinions is the key to all his jurisprudence: it is that he thought only in terms of aggregate social forces; he had no concern for the individual. This [the idea of community] was the conviction at the bottom of all Peirce’s thought. Everything James and Dewey wrote as pragmatists boils down to a single claim: people are the agents of their own destinies.

One might also observe current rioting and conclude that loss if fixed belief and chaotic thinking also leads to violence. Perhaps regression to an unredeemed human state leads to violence? 

I ran into this work because it was mentioned in a NR column. My view would be that mention was "grasping at straws". Yes, Pragmatism was an attempted response to the "failure" of the Civil War. How could BOTH sides be supposedly Christian, Civikized, etc and still have a war that killed over 600K? 

The thinking of that article, and many today is "how can this be happening"? 

To Christians and Constitutional Republic supporters, the answer is painfully obvious. When God and Law are abandoned, POWER is "god", and the establishment of who is most powerful requires violence in many forms.

Clearly, Pragmatism did not prevent war -- see WWI and WWII! 

Next to Hell, war is a walk in the park. As long as human pride is widely substituted for the fear of God, we can be certain that war will be with us! 

Thursday, September 17, 2020

James Burnham and the Struggle For the World

 https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=66

The linked review is quite long and I believe accurate ... Burnham was a fearless, generally non-ideological intellectual genius. His life and thought presents a window into the largely leftist intellectual elite conflict of "control vs chaos" -- veers from being a Trotskyist, to a CIA employee, to a McCarthy sympathiser, to a prophet of "The Managerial Revolution", to an editor of the National Review with close ties to William F. Buckley. 

While he seemed to value not "settling" on any specific world view MUCH more than I, I do much respect his willingness to attempt to always have an open mind. In some cases, it seemed that his mind may have been so open that the brains fell out, his intelligence made his "above the fray of ideology / religion to be believable.  My perspective is that since his fear of being pinned down to a specific worldview became a fetish that was in fact much aligned with a worldview -- that the world is inevitably headed toward a specific ideology that is bureaucratic, "managed", and is quite close to Fascism. (Fascism is NOT "Nazism" -- it is bureaucratically managed collaboration between massive government and increasingly large corporations, with the "common man" increasingly disposed of (physically or metaphysically).   

I think he is essentially correct at a high level, though wrong on the specifics -- he thinks that Capitalism will be replaced by this "Managerial State". I believe what we see is that Capitalism remains as the "engine" that produces the wealth that supports the increasingly centralised worldwide bureaucratic state (Davos World). Trump and Brexit are either the last gasps of actual competition and freedom, or harbingers indicating that Capitalism and the Proletariat are much more elemental to humanity than Marx or Burnham believed. I pray for the latter. 

From the linked review on the Burnham path from Trotsky to "management". I am reminded of one of the things that tech people used to say about the last and supposedly greatest management "Flavor of the Day" idea to "improve"  -- "Management for management's sake". Hey, they needed to feel that they were doing SOMETHING! 




Kelly writes, “It is tempting to write off Burnham’s Trotskyist phase as wasted time, a six-year detour into the sterile world of left-wing sects. But this judgment would be wrong” because “the involvement prepared him for what would be his real career” (pp. 87–88). In 1940, Burnham’s first major work appeared and sold well. Called The Managerial Revolution, it showed the influence of Machajski, Rizzi, Berle, Means, Veblen, Thurman Arnold, and Lawrence Dennis, as well as of Trotskyism (pp. 95–96). Burnham argued that bureaucratic management was the wave of the future, even if it took such forms as fascism, communism, and the New Deal, depending on circumstances. Only a cold, empirical, social-scientific approach could tell us where we were headed.


This quote from the linked is a valid summary of the book -- though, as always, the map (summary) is NEVER the territory! 

Burnham’s books do have interesting and important insights—especially The Managerial Revolution, Congress and the American Tradition, and Suicide of the West—but the Cold Warrior Burnham constantly undermined the conservative Burnham (if conservative is the right word). He embraced empire, constant frontier wars, managerialist determinism, and the warfare state, while complaining occasionally about Caesarism, the decline of Congress and other intermediate institutions, the growth of federal bureaucracy, and the loss of traditional liberties. This circle could not be squared. Burnham seldom considered that anything other than big impersonal historical forces might be causing the things he bewailed, that actual human agents might be driving some of the seeming inexorabilities. As a result, his rather willful disregard of economic theory and his battles against “doctrinaires” such as Frank Meyer look like symptoms of a larger failure of vision.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Consilience Revisited

https://quillette.com/2020/09/09/at-the-intersection-of-art-and-science-revisiting-eo-wilsons-consilience/

I reviewed Consilience here -- naturally, you would be well served to go view that review! ;-) 

I enjoyed the linked as well. The basic thesis of Wilson is that randomness randomly happened in a universe in which humans randomly evolved to somehow acquire a innate "environmental imperative". 

For Wilson, evolution is "god", so naturally, since any "god" will have infinite powers, "anything is possible" ... and believable, to believers -- even "scientists". 

Postmodernism’s popularity, he argues, may be explained by the possibility that its “love of chaos” is part of a universal human nature. He sees postmodernism as possessing “a surge of ‘revolutionary spirit’ generated by the real—not deconstructed—fact that large segments of the population… have been neglected for centuries and are only now beginning to find full expression within mainstream culture.” But instead of it having “exploded human nature into little pieces…” he sees its rise as an opportunity to “set the stage for a fuller explanation of the universal traits that unite humanity.” In the sciences, he sees consilience as a necessity in order to gain full insight into human behavior: “Works of art that prove enduring are intensely humanistic. Born in the imagination of individuals, they nevertheless touch upon what was universally endowed by human evolution.” For the scientist, the desire to know the real world, to answer the “how” and “what,” is paramount, while for the artist, it is a desire to take that real world and expose it to imagination, intuition, and experience.


I firmly believe that "love of chaos" is part of Satan's nature, and one can detect the Satanic by “a surge of ‘revolutionary spirit’". 

Old Adam is indeed by nature sinful and rebellious -- and since we are created in the "image of God" our nature includes a desire to seek the order of God. Wilson seems to have a clue, however Satan is helping him mistake disorder for created order. 

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

How Many "Americas" Are There? And What is "Normal"?

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/coronavirus-pandemic-americans-divided-assessing-risk/#slide-1

Many of us realized a good while ago that we were not in "America" anymore -- you know, the one that built the Bomb, won WWII, landed on the Moon, created the PC and the Internet -- THAT America. 

"The Decadent Society" is one good book that covers our degree of lostness ... there are others linked there. 

I'd argue that we have been divided from the beginning, as everyone and every human institution is -- between "Control and Chaos" ... we "boiled over" in the Civil War, to some degree in the 1960's, and it looks like we are at it again. 

I think the linked is a worthy read if only as a root for some books that appear to be good .., I have "The Metaphysical Club" on order. 

The other big division is between being a practicing Christian and not being so. Everyone has a "god", and for a much larger percentage of the population today, the "god" they believe they have is government -- sadly, they are wrong in that assumption. The Bible makes it clear, you either serve God or Satan, when you cease to regularly participate in the Divine Service with the Body and Blood, Satan, like the dog waiting for table scraps, is there to take your reins.  

Government is a particularly nasty false god, since it has the power of the sword and the purse. Our Constitution split government into three branches with the hope that "faction" -- jealousy of power, would limit the dangerous "Leviathan"  and keep government as the servant of the people, who were in turn servants of God. It was a wonderful architecture -- but it required a religious people in order to continue to operate.  

So we are sadly divided with no shared foundational belief as to what this territory of N America formerly the "United States", holds as "truth" -- clearly in this failed state, there is no such thing for a majority approaching "self evident" truth. We are supposed to be "woke" to the tragedy of "Critical Theory".

Well, at least it isn't critical "fact" ;-(.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Fake Sturgis Covid "News"

 https://reason.com/2020/09/09/no-the-sturgis-motorcycle-rally-didnt-spawn-250000-coronavirus-cases/?fbclid=IwAR0kOsLKAezeW63NDr2K4WrLTXF0hiPuuwNwHmikCeUQkC64_0gctsieWhE

Why can't we all get along? Formerly somewhat respectable sites like "The Hill" put up headlines like Sturgis cost public health 12 BILLION dollars! 

We live in the satanic mirror world of Austin Powers, though this is supposed to "reality". 


We are so far gone from any sort of sanity that the MSM picks that up and spreads it! And people still look at the MSM???? 

Reason does WAY more work than the sane require to understand this is less credible than UFOs ! 

The old supermarket tabloids were more credible. 



George Floyd Update

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/what-killed-george-floyd.php

If you are still not convinced that George Floyd died of a fentanyl OD, go to the linked and listen. 

When the Floyd death occurred, NPR "reported" on it thusly

The HEADLINE says "homicide", which the "NEW" medical examiner's report says ...

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released a new autopsy report Monday, ruling George Floyd's death was a homicide. The office said Floyd's heart and lungs stopped functioning "while being restrained" by law enforcement officers.

The autopsy original said ... 

In charging documents released last week, prosecutors said that preliminary results from an autopsy "revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."

As the podcast makes clear, there is no way this is "asphyxiation"  -- but it needs to be, because that fits the narrative that the Deep State / MSM / Democrat "party" is pushing. Apparently we need RIOTS as part of their takeover plan!

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Voting Coup, War? 2020

 https://americanmind.org/essays/the-coming-coup/

The linked Anton article is EXCELLENT ... go there first! 

I've been concerned that US elections had become unreliable since the "apparently close one" of 2000. If you want to dig deeper, start here. 2000 likely wasn't all that close really ... just rigged. "Popular Vote" has been meaningless for a LONG time ... the big urban Democrat strongholds run up the numbers so big that they exceed the number of live voters. 244 counties in the US have more voters than live residents!

Naturally, the Democrats are VERY proud of their popular vote "wins" -- and if they "win" in 2020, those manufactured  totals are going to have even more impact as the Electoral College and the power of the Senate go away. 

If you are more a podcast sort, this will cover a lot of what is in the excellent linked article.  As those who know me will guess, I'm also reading Anton's book. 

The bottom line is:

  • The Democrats, Deep State, MSM (but I repeat myself) are setting up to TAKE the presidency by ANY means, including military. 
  • They have a lot of actions underway -- mail-in voting, already in place for 3/4ths of US voters and being pushed HARD for more, being just one. 
  • Maybe most concerning -- and surprising, at least to me, is that the Democrats believe they have the military wired to support their coup (more on that in the linked)

From the linked ... 

Two more data points (among several that could be provided). Over the summer, two former Army officers, both prominent in the Democrat-aligned “national security” think tank world, wrote an open letter to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in which they urged him to deploy the 82nd Airborne Division to drag President Trump from the Oval Office at precisely 12:01 PM, January 20, 2021.

About a month later, Hillary Clinton declared publicly that Joe Biden should not concede the election “under any circumstances.” The old English major in me interprets the word “any” to mean “no,” “none,” “nada,” “niente,” “zero,” “zilch” “bupkis”…you get the idea.

This doesn’t sound like the rhetoric of a political party confident it will win an upcoming election.

For a sometimes cringeworthy "view from the left" on how much "wargaming" they are doing with the "Transition Integrity Project",   this is DEFINITELY worth a listen. 

God, guns and gold. (9mm ammo is a buck a round and over, IF you can find it!)

Since there already is violence, it is pretty certain there will be more -- the only real question is if the "privileged" are going to roll over without a fight. 

Vote Fraud 101

https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/report/four-stolen-elections-the-vulnerabilities-absentee-and-mail-ballots

Certainly since 2000, and really since at least 1960, anyone that has cared to look has KNOWN that vote fraud in the US is widespread and easy to do because of the antiquated and vulnerable ways our votes are counted. I covered the tip of this iceberg in the past ... 2016 being one example

ONE simple method if you have access to the ballots prior to counting ... or especially REcounting is to just see if the vote is for your candidate. If it is, then great, if not, you just also mark the vote as being for your candidate -- thus invalidating the vote. In any sort of "punch" system, this is extremely easy and efficient. Carefully stack a group of ballots and run a rod through the hole for your candidate -- if they voted for them, great! If not, you just invadated all the votes for the other candidate in the stack. 

One drawback of this is since the rod is not as crisp as the voting machine, it tends to create a lot of "hanging chads". Imagine that! 

In FL in 2000 in Broward county, there were apparently a lot of "confused people" (no doubt due to the infamous "butterfly ballot") that "over voted" -- voted for BOTH Bush and Gore!

Mail-in voting creates a lot more opportunity for ballot manipulation. Maybe MOST important, it delays the outcome of the election as the mailed ballots continue to trickle in, so the counting continues until the MSM, Deep State approved candidate finally "wins" as Al Franken did in MN in 2008. 

The link probably gives you more detail than you want, however at least scanning it will give more credence to how big the problem is. 

As Democrats fight tooth and nail against Voter ID and an FOR mail-in, you might get the idea that they are pretty sure where their bread is buttered! 

Remember, Canada has voter ID, as does Mexico 

The Mexican system would be a great model for how we might return trust US elections! 

Is Covid A Sign From God?

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2020/07/covid-19-as-a-sign-from-god/

As Veith reminds us, for believers, EVERYTHING is at least allowed, if not instigated by God. 

I like his concluding paragraphs: 

Those of us who had become so complacent, so “carnally secure,” are so no longer. We might catch the disease from an asymptomatic carrier and in two weeks be dead. And even if we don’t, our prosperity, our recreation, our social ties, our sense of well-being, are all threatened. We have taken so much for granted, but the epidemic shows just how contingent it all is, how fragile and transient these things are, and how we need to build our lives on something–and Someone–eternal. Becoming less secure in ourselves can drive us to Christ, who bore the evils and the suffering of the world, to bring us to an eternal happiness that is not of this world.

All of this is horrible for us to go through. But I suspect God believes that we need to go through it.
Growth requires "pain" ... see exercise, study, investment - delayed gratification, work, etc. 

Spiritual life / growth is no exception -- YES, justification is a free gift from God, sanctification is to some degree (hopefully often joyful), WORK! 

Hopefully Covid reminds us that we are not nearly as powerful / in control as we often think, and, that Christ IS both powerful and eternally in control!

Voter Fraud (2016 Discussion)

Donald Trump Voter Fraud Warning: He’s Right & Media Are Wrong to Dismiss It | National Review

Not a very long read, but a very worthy one. Voter fraud is WELL documented in A LOT of places, if it looks like a Democrat is going to lose, or if they DO lose, we even hear quite a lot about it all of a sudden. Remember Diebold?

Pretty much everyone else in the world that votes requires an ID to vote. Democrats are well on the way to making that unconstitutional here. This isn't really a very hard position to understand if you care to. The author of the column, John Fund, wrote a good book on the subject a good while back "Stealing Elections" ... you really don't want to look into it if you agree with BO that Trump is crazy to suggest such a thing. 

Friday, September 4, 2020

Obama Stopped Testing For H1N (Oct 2009)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/swine-flu-cases-overestimated/

The headline is interesting -- OVERestimated when the testing was stopped? 

"In late July [2009], the CDC abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting individual cases. The rationale given for the CDC guidance to forego testing and tracking individual cases was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there's an epidemic?

Some public health officials privately disagreed with the decision to stop testing and counting, telling CBS News that continued tracking of this new and possibly changing virus was important because H1N1 has a different epidemiology, affects younger people more than seasonal flu and has been shown to have a higher case fatality rate than other flu virus strains."

I'll leave it up to go off to the article and explore the fact that even though they were "certain" they had an epidemic, and therefore could stop testng?, their testing wasn't going as expected -- way too many negative tests!

While we waited for CDC to provide the data, which it eventually did, we asked all 50 states for their statistics on state lab-confirmed H1N1 prior to the halt of individual testing and counting in July. The results reveal a pattern that surprised a number of health care professionals we consulted. The vast majority of cases were negative for H1N1 as well as seasonal flu, despite the fact that many states were specifically testing patients deemed to be most likely to have H1N1 flu, based on symptoms and risk factors, such as travel to Mexico.

Also interesting is the guidance to keep on vaccinating for H1N1 even when it is clear there are significant uncertainties -- and how many are infected is very clearly in doubt given that we are "sure it is an epidemic", AND a lot of our tests are negative.


However, the CDC recommendation for those who had "probable" or "presumed" H1N1 flu to go ahead and get vaccinated anyway means the relatively small proportion of those who actually did have H1N1 flu will be getting the vaccine unnecessarily. This exposes them to rare but significant side effects, such as paralysis from Guillain-Barre syndrome.


It also uses up vaccine, which is said to be in short supply. The CDC was hoping to have shipped 40 million doses by the end of October, but only about 30 million doses will be available this month.

The CDC did not respond to questions from CBS News for this report.

Ah, good old Guillain-Barre syndrome -- an apparition from my Swine Flu college youth

We aren't too certain of what is going on here, but let's go ahead  and use an experimental vaccine on 40 million people anyway. Hey, what could go wrong? 





Thursday, September 3, 2020

Mask Effectiveness, Statistical Manipulation, Covid Hype

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/covid-confusion-is-largely-intentional.php

Go read it ... short answer: 
  •  Lots of evidence that masks don't work, but we are being manipulated. by statistical malpractice to think they do.
  • You are being lied to! Intentionally, at all levels if government / media. 
Why? Because government at all levels screwed up massively, and ALL the "elite" worldwide want you to be biased in favor of "trust in me"! The Deep State is "universal" ... the "One True State (religion).



Following the news on a daily basis, it is hard to escape the conclusion that governments at all levels, along with more or less the entire journalism industry, are intentionally trying to convey an inflated impression of the impact of the Wuhan virus. Further, there is a growing body of empirical evidence, both nationally and internationally, that strongly suggests the cataclysmic shutdowns that have been imposed by governments both here and abroad have been more or less useless. Our governments have made mistakes that have resulted in the devastation of many millions of lives, and our reporters and editors want to keep that fact quiet. This isn’t surprising, of course: we all know what side they are on.

Covid19, Causality, "Real Numbers"

 https://www.vox.com/2020/9/1/21410352/cdc-6-percent-covid-19-deaths-comorbidities

The linked is from Vox, and biased left, however if you read it with glasses not so tinted, it does provide some useful info on cognitive issues like "motivated reasoning".

The CDC recently updated some of their stats to show that only 6% of the deaths listed as being "caused" by Covid19, was Covid19 the ONLY potential causal mechanism present. Determining "cause of death" is more art than science. 

Trump and others have jumped to the conclusion that those were the only deaths caused by Covid19, and most of the media left wing government complex says that is COMPLETELY WRONG ... the commonly reported big number is "right"! (or maybe even low!) 

My guess is that the likely answer is something less than that -- say "40-60K" ... this post is the reasoning that leads to that number. 

Reading the linked article will give you at least a bit more information that the right answer is almost certainly "in between" ... however since the folks writing that article are not immune from all the cognitive  problems described they fall into them and assume that all of the folks reporting the big numbers are correct! Hey, our tribe MUST be right!  We ALL ... readers, statisticians, media people, docs, scientists, Vox article writers, etc have A LOT of biases! What is a Moose to do? 

What I ATTEMPT to do (imperfectly) is to assume that if something completely agrees with my biases, it is nearly certainly "mostly false". The world is nearly never black and white, and it takes EFFORT to get to something approaching truth -- and none of us really "likes" effort, although we will make it if we are motivated by something  -- like if the information challenges our deeply held beliefs, indicates we may be "wrong", "stupid", or such. 

One of the ways we can learn is by paying attention to history, even RECENT history like H1N1 in 2009, when Obama stopped testing as the numbers got too high! There is fairly good evidence that H1N1 was more serious problem than Covid19 -- it killed the young. 

Last year, I had a seizure 4 days after I drove my motorcycle from Rochester to our place in IA. Had I seized on the bike, crashed and died, they would not have done an autopsy. Looking at the chart, they would have likely selected "unintentional injury". Autopsies are not commonly done on people over "60" unless the cause of death is "suspicious" -- or, they are looking for something (like Covid). 


If you go look at the CDC instructions for filling out cause of death, the most interesting relative to this discussion may be the following. 

The elderly decedent should have a clear and distinct etiological sequence for cause of death, if possible. Terms such as senescence, infirmity, old age, and advanced age have little value for public health or medical research. Age is recorded elsewhere on the certificate. When a number of conditions resulted in death, the physician should choose the single sequence that, in his or her opinion, best describes the process leading to death, and place any other pertinent conditions in Part II. If after careful consideration the physician cannot determine a sequence that ends in death, then the medical examiner or coroner should be consulted about conducting an investigation or providing assistance in completing the cause of death

Clearly, this guidance is going to lead to "motivated reasoning"  (discussed in link). At least in Minnesota, the docs got a 6 page memo to help motivate them toward Covid19. At one time it was possible to follow links and actually read the memo, which I did. As someone who worked in a bureaucracy for 34 years (IBM) the memo was CLEAR ... "when in ANY doubt, it's Covid!" So, given the chart above and all of our well known proclivities to "take the easy way", "follow the crowd", and others covered in the link above, it seems extremely and conservatively reasonable to assume that the "reported deaths" can at LEAST be cut in half. My guess is that the likely answer is something significantly less than that -- say "40-60K". 

While we are on "motivated reasoning", one of the common ideas proffered for Covid mortality is: " Covid MUST be CAUSING more death since there are "excess deaths" "!  This is discussed in this post. The simple answer is "correlation is NOT CAUSATION"! Drowning deaths correlate with ice cream sales, but that does not make ice cream a cause of drowning! 

Elderly people are vulnerable to lots of things ... their routine being disrupted, being scared, being cut off from their loved ones, having procedures delayed (even for just "weeks"), etc, etc. We are regularly told -- and to some degree I believe,  that "life events" are a significant causal factor in death -- older people die after "something traumatic" -- death of a loved one, a move, a change in health status, etc. 

The way we have responded to Covid was going to "cause" (be a factor) in more death among vulnerable populations like the elderly, mentally ill, etc. There was GOING to be a "bump" in deaths given isolation, delayed procedures, scare factor, etc. This is why the past response to things like Covid as been "first do no/minimal harm" -- amputation will always "cure" an infection in a limb, but reasonable docs don't go there first. So why did we respond so differently to Corona? If you follow the link, that topic is discussed more deeply, but I think the simple answer (as it is for EVERYTHING in 2020) is TRUMP! 

In my view, the greatest tragedy of this is that it appears that not many people are learning from this event -- they have retreated to their tribal bunkers and other than firing some Social Media pot shots at their perceived "enemies" on the "other side", they are dug in like WWI trench warriors. Ideology kills at least learning -- and typically, people as well! 

Naturally, I think I'm the exceptional "reasonable person" -- don't we all? 

Can we all agree that these are not "reasonable times"? Mass and social media compete for "clicks". The sensational gets "reported",  the reasonable does not. Our "tribes" increasingly attempt to filter what we even see ... and to the extent we become more tribal, or unwilling to even look at the news at all, we become comfortable in our tribal ignorance. 

Masks may or not be effective relative to Covid19, but they certainly ARE effective in increasing government control of the population and in dividing the population politically! 

Yes, I know this is the age of "Identity" -- which often makes the purity of the Pilgrims seem liberal by comparison. We are where we are -- we need to realize that neither the current upper or lower bound is reported is likely to be correct, and neither are any of our assessments -- but if we THINK, we can likely get closer to reality than the extremes. 

Humility and thought would seem far more beneficial than  retreat to opposite incorrect conclusions.

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Lincoln, Trump, Mob Rule

 https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/01/a_timely_message_on_mob_rule_from_our_16th_president_144114.html

Not very long, just read it! 

Today, the same toxic mix again threatens the survival of our political institutions, and more broadly, our American way of life. But the two situations are largely reversed, with Black Lives Matter (along with their white “antifa” allies) pillaging and destroying some of America’s great cities and threatening to bring their violence to a town or suburb near you. As Attorney General William Barr observed while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, not one Democratic member of the committee was prepared to denounce what Lincoln called “the mobocratic spirit,” despite the graphic nine-minute video he showed at the opening of his testimony. The mainstream media has largely covered up the violence and lawlessness, while liberal politicians have doubled down on the problem by supporting proposals to defund the police.

Lincoln's lyceum address.   

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Wokeness, Critical Theory

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-roots-of-wokeness

Well worth just skipping my excerpts and just reading the relatively short article that describes a key foundation of why I continue to assert we need to "man the barricades" or "Western Civilization" is just "history" ... and really not even that, because such things as supposed "actual history" will be destroyed ... just like pulling down statues.

What the book helps the layperson to understand is the evolution of postmodern thought since the 1960s until it became the doctrine of Social Justice today. Beginning as a critique of all grand theories of meaning—from Christianity to Marxism—postmodernism is a project to subvert the intellectual foundations of western culture. The entire concept of reason—whether the Enlightenment version or even the ancient Socratic understanding—is a myth designed to serve the interests of those in power, and therefore deserves to be undermined and “problematized” whenever possible. Postmodern theory does so mischievously and irreverently—even as it leaves nothing in reason’s place. The idea of objective truth—even if it is viewed as always somewhat beyond our reach—is abandoned. All we have are narratives, stories, whose meaning is entirely provisional, and can in turn be subverted or problematized.
Notice how today it is ALL about "the narrative"!

Just as this theory denies the individual, it also denies the universal. There are no universal truths, no objective reality, just narratives that are expressed in discourses and language that reflect one group’s power over another. There is no distinction between objective truth and subjective experience, because the former is an illusion created by the latter. So instead of an argument, you merely have an identity showdown, in which the more oppressed always wins, because that subverts the hierarchy. These discourses of power, moreover, never end; there is no progress as such, no incremental inclusion of more and more identities into a pluralist, liberal unified project; there is the permanent reality of the oppressors and the oppressed. And all that we can do is constantly expose and eternally resist these power-structures on behalf of the oppressed.
Why don't we just talk this over? 

There is no such thing as persuasion in this paradigm, because persuasion assumes an equal relationship between two people based on reason. And there is no reason and no equality. There is only power. This is the point of telling students, for example, to “check their privilege” before opening their mouths on campus. You have to measure the power dynamic between you and the other person first of all; you do this by quickly noting your interlocutor’s place in the system of oppression, and your own, before any dialogue can occur. And if your interlocutor is lower down in the matrix of identity, your job is to defer and to listen. That’s partly why diversity at the New York Times, say, has nothing to do with a diversity of ideas. Within critical theory, the very concept of a “diversity of ideas” is a function of oppression. What matters is a diversity of identities that can all express the same idea: that liberalism is a con-job. Which is why almost every NYT op-ed now and almost every left-leaning magazine reads exactly alike.
The book he references is on my rather extensive "books to read" list!

I sadly scratched this scab back in 2017 ... it is a painful one