Jesus no
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He's not nearly as pathological. And he's a lot smarter. I am sure my opinion is not unanimous, but I think he's a decent fellow as well.
Education is extremely important.
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He's not nearly as pathological. And he's a lot smarter. I am sure my opinion is not unanimous, but I think he's a decent fellow as well.
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His built-in immunity to Nick Fuentes style racism, with his wife and family, is not to be overlooked either.
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He's not nearly as pathological. And he's a lot smarter. I am sure my opinion is not unanimous, but I think he's a decent fellow as well.
AOC is even less pathological, not any less smart, and probably more decent, too.
Claimed without evidence. As is mine, granted. Just opinion. But I'll be happy to listen to them debate, and I'll be unsurprised at your mindless fanboyism, to whatever extent you'll exhibit the courage to say anything at all.
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His built-in immunity to Nick Fuentes style racism, with his wife and family, is not to be overlooked either.
AOC is even more immune to Nick Fuentes style racism.
No, push-back from within is more effective than default push-back from the other tribe. For instance that's why you're so completely dismissible. Beyond the fact that you only rarely bother attempting to formulate anything resembling an interesting argument.
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He's not nearly as pathological. And he's a lot smarter. I am sure my opinion is not unanimous, but I think he's a decent fellow as well.
He's not nearly as pathological. And he's a lot smarter. I am sure my opinion is not unanimous, but I think he's a decent fellow as well.
Yeah I'd be fine voting for Vance, agree with your summary above. I'd say his main flaw was abandoning his principles to join Trump's team (remember, he called Trump "America's Hitler", a "stomach churning moral disaster", but perhaps if it was a long term play to stay involved it is somewhat understandable.
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Vance's Hitler comment is partial urban legend. His quote paraphrased was, in a private exchange with a friend, that he couldn't decide whether Trump is awesome or Hitler. It meant he had mixed feelings and was unsure.
Education is extremely important.
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I don't remember my exact feelings about Trump back then. I figured he couldn't win, and that his run was a joke. I knew at the time that if he did win, it would destroy people's minds. I guess that indicates something or other about something I knew about him, but I can't put my finger on it right now. I never hated the guy. This is because I probably have less respect for the average human than most. I think Trump is a joke in a different way than your average suited normie who takes themselves seriously. Now, the pathology, that could certainly be dangerous and should be taken seriously. I've always trusted the system to keep him in check, and my faith in SCOTUS remains. To the extent that SCOTUS can serve as an effective check.
Education is extremely important.
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The days when we viewed our presidents as virtuous heroes are long gone. While he is deeply flawed, I am confident that he loves the country, not that he'd love it if only it were different, less like its constitution intended. That is one major reason why he's better than AOC or Harris.
Horace, I trust, and hope, you are right about SCOTUS. I think the guardrails are in place, given the GOP backlash to the Reiner thing and the recent Senate vote to rescind his executive order which stripped collective bargaining rights from roughly one million federal workers. Thirteen Republicans broke ranks to vote yes.
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Vance's Hitler comment is partial urban legend. His quote paraphrased was, in a private exchange with a friend, that he couldn't decide whether Trump is awesome or Hitler. It meant he had mixed feelings and was unsure.
Vance's Hitler comment is partial urban legend. His quote paraphrased was, in a private exchange with a friend, that he couldn't decide whether Trump is awesome or Hitler. It meant he had mixed feelings and was unsure.
This doesn't seem very ambiguous:
“I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” He said that on the radio in 2016.
I agree he's smart but he's a smart man of low character which is not a good combination.
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Overall he clearly accepted the default "clown/reality TV star/non serious con man" narrative. The famous Hitler quote though indicates that even then, he considered Trump potentially politically useful. I.e. someone who could be hired for the job reasonably.
"I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler."
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I don't remember my exact feelings about Trump back then. I figured he couldn't win, and that his run was a joke. I knew at the time that if he did win, it would destroy people's minds. I guess that indicates something or other about something I knew about him, but I can't put my finger on it right now. I never hated the guy. This is because I probably have less respect for the average human than most. I think Trump is a joke in a different way than your average suited normie who takes themselves seriously. Now, the pathology, that could certainly be dangerous and should be taken seriously. I've always trusted the system to keep him in check, and my faith in SCOTUS remains. To the extent that SCOTUS can serve as an effective check.
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I think Trump is a joke in a different way than your average suited normie who takes themselves seriously.
Care to elucidate on that claim?
I think Trump is a joke in a different way than your average suited normie who takes themselves seriously.
Care to elucidate on that claim?
When I say someone takes themselves seriously, I mean they have no epistemological humility. Human adults tend to fall into patterns where they become ridiculously confident, especially regarding politics, to the point of becoming a joke. But that's the electorate, and not everybody is ridiculously confident (read: tribal in almost all cases). As for Trump, when compared to his peers, I grant he's more pathological in that he believes the reality he spins with his own words. It's not mere rhetoric to him, it's a magic spell he casts when he talks out loud. His peer presidential candidates try to sound just as confident, but being more normal psychologically, somewhere down deep they understand that they can't possibly be as sure as they appear to be. But they also know that without the appearance of total conviction, a presidential candidate is dead in the water. The electorate might pretend to want a humble and realistic leader, but that is just the electorate lying to themselves. Which would be a joke-ish part of themselves.
Or so I opine.
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I think Trump is a joke in a different way than your average suited normie who takes themselves seriously.
Care to elucidate on that claim?
When I say someone takes themselves seriously, I mean they have no epistemological humility. Human adults tend to fall into patterns where they become ridiculously confident, especially regarding politics, to the point of becoming a joke. But that's the electorate, and not everybody is ridiculously confident (read: tribal in almost all cases). As for Trump, when compared to his peers, I grant he's more pathological in that he believes the reality he spins with his own words. It's not mere rhetoric to him, it's a magic spell he casts when he talks out loud. His peer presidential candidates try to sound just as confident, but being more normal psychologically, somewhere down deep they understand that they can't possibly be as sure as they appear to be. But they also know that without the appearance of total conviction, a presidential candidate is dead in the water. The electorate might pretend to want a humble and realistic leader, but that is just the electorate lying to themselves. Which would be a joke-ish part of themselves.
Or so I opine.
Good post. I am sure that both you and I along with 99.8% of the participants on this TNCR forum can all humbly agree that we are simply less wrong than the common tribal rabble out there in the current dystopia of exaggerated unpleasantness.
