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Tag: Zooey Deschanel

Ghost Machine

self(-)consumption

Published May 6, 2012
Categorized as Art, Featured, Internet, Movies, Philosophy, Technology, TV Tagged Apple, Samuel L Jackson, Siri, Zooey Deschanel

From the Featured Archives

Liberals against Liberalism (Chait’s Insanity)
(8)
April 19, 2014
History, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, PoliticsChait Conservatism Liberalism presumption of innocence Racism
Liberals against Liberalism (Chait’s Insanity)
(8)
April 19, 2014
History, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, PoliticsChait Conservatism Liberalism presumption of innocence Racism

To be a meaningful right, the right to argue must also entail a right to win.

Continued

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After East Ghouta 4: Inconvenient Empathies
(10)
September 22, 2013
History, International Relations, Neo-Imperialism, WarAfter East Ghouta Neo-Conservatism neo-imperialism Neo-Isolationism Obama Syria
After East Ghouta 4: Inconvenient Empathies
(10)
September 22, 2013
History, International Relations, Neo-Imperialism, WarAfter East Ghouta Neo-Conservatism neo-imperialism Neo-Isolationism Obama Syria

Soon, in whatever state or state of states or unstate we are found, today's neo-isolationists of left and right may find themselves exposed to ironies mirroring those now felt by the neo-conservatives of just the other day, who thought they were advancing a needed heightening, deepening, and expansion of engagement, but instead reinforced an older impulse to wash one's hands of it all.

Continued

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Public Lessons: Pedophilia, Bullying, and the Case of Alex Knepper
(27)
October 18, 2010
Culture & EntertainmentAlex Knepper Bullying David Frum NewsRealBlog Pedophilia Sadly No Teen Suicide
Public Lessons: Pedophilia, Bullying, and the Case of Alex Knepper
(27)
October 18, 2010
Culture & EntertainmentAlex Knepper Bullying David Frum NewsRealBlog Pedophilia Sadly No Teen Suicide

We are far from having worked this matter out even after 3,000 years of intensive labor, and far from knowing where they will lead, other than, from time to time, to tragedy.

Continued

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Noted & Quoted

Keith Spencer: …data shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate – Salon.com
(3)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election
Keith Spencer: …data shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate – Salon.com
(3)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

TV pundits and op-ed writers of every major newspaper epitomize how the Democratic establishment has already reached a consensus: the 2020 nominee must be a centrist, a Joe Biden, Cory Booker or Kamala Harris–type, preferably. They say that Joe Biden should "run because [his] populist image fits the Democrats’ most successful political strategy of the past generation" (David Leonhardt, New York Times), and though Biden "would be far from an ideal president," he "looks most like the person who could beat Trump" (David Ignatius, Washington Post). Likewise, the same elite pundit class is working overtime to torpedo left-Democratic candidates like Sanders.

For someone who was not acquainted with Piketty's paper, the argument for a centrist Democrat might sound compelling. If the country has tilted to the right, should we elect a candidate closer to the middle than the fringe? If the electorate resembles a left-to-right line, and each voter has a bracketed range of acceptability in which they vote, this would make perfect sense. The only problem is that it doesn't work like that, as Piketty shows.

The reason is that nominating centrist Democrats who don't speak to class issues will result in a great swathe of voters simply not voting. Conversely, right-wing candidates who speak to class issues, but who do so by harnessing a false consciousness — i.e. blaming immigrants and minorities for capitalism's ills, rather than capitalists — will win those same voters who would have voted for a more class-conscious left candidate. Piketty calls this a "bifurcated" voting situation, meaning many voters will connect either with far-right xenophobic nationalists or left-egalitarian internationalists, but perhaps nothing in-between.

From: There is hard data that shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate | Salon.com

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Eli Zaretsky: Trump’s Charisma – LRB Blog
(5)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election
Eli Zaretsky: Trump’s Charisma – LRB Blog
(5)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

Understanding Trump’s charisma offers important clues to understanding the problems that the Democrats need to address. Most important, the Democratic candidate must convey a sense that he or she will fulfil the promise of 2008: not piecemeal reform but a genuine, full-scale change in America’s way of thinking. It’s also crucial to recognise that, like Britain, America is at a turning point and must go in one direction or another. Finally, the candidate must speak to Americans’ sense of self-respect linked to social justice and inclusion. While Weber’s analysis of charisma arose from the German situation, it has special relevance to the United States of America, the first mass democracy, whose Constitution invented the institution of the presidency as a recognition of the indispensable role that unique individuals play in history.

From: Trump’s Charisma

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Matt Yglesias: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying – Vox
(0)
Operation American Greatness
Matt Yglesias: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying – Vox
(0)
Operation American Greatness

[E]ven Fox didn’t tout Bartiromo’s big scoops on Trump’s legislative agenda, because 10 months into the Trump presidency, nobody is so foolish as to believe that him saying, “We’re doing a big infrastructure bill,” means that the Trump administration is, in fact, doing a big infrastructure bill. The president just mouths off at turns ignorantly and dishonestly, and nobody pays much attention to it unless he says something unusually inflammatory.On some level, it’s a little bit funny. On another level, Puerto Rico is still languishing in the dark without power (and in many cases without safe drinking water) with no end in sight. Trump is less popular at this point in his administration than any previous president despite a generally benign economic climate, and shows no sign of changing course. Perhaps it will all work out for the best, and someday we’ll look back and chuckle about the time when we had a president who didn’t know anything about anything that was happening and could never be counted on to make coherent, factual statements on any subject. But traditionally, we haven’t elected presidents like that — for what have always seemed like pretty good reasons — and the risks of compounding disaster are still very much out there.

From: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying - Vox

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Extraordinary Comments

  • 2015-05-23 9:49 am
    They also blog who only sit and comment… (Commentariat 2)
    trumwill

    These changes look like they will be fantastic. I already like the ability to go further back. When might we see the lower-left icons?

  • 2013-06-10 8:26 pm
    not discussing a conservative understanding of the sexual division of labor
    Robert Greer

    CK, I love this. Like you, I've had misgivings about the liberal feminism that's popular right now, and I've found it hard to articulate [...]

  • 2015-05-16 12:52 pm
    To Wade McKenzie
    Negative Action
    CK MacLeod

    Now, I could point out that this site is my site. I pay for it. I built it. I maintain it. All of its content [...]

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