The Super Unwoke vs the Unwoke: A right wing split.

Tucker Carlson, Putin admirer, continues his slide to the far right

Although I've criticized the North American Intelligent Design (NAID) tribe for their subliminally pagan category of so-called blind natural forces and also their slant toward the political right (*1), they are by no means the most extreme community to be found in the US. We only have to compare them with Ken Ham's "Young Earth" theme park and Ken's frequent pseudo-scientific patter. Also, politically speaking the Trump supporting NAID community isn't as extreme as it gets. This came to light at the end of last year in the following post on the NAID website Science & Culture....

At a Wrenching Time, My Gratitude for Discovery’s Leadership | Science and Culture Today  

The writer of this post, David Klinghoffer, gives the NAID leadership a good slap on the back for helping to encourage him during what he refers to as a civil war among conservatives....

In my lifetime, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s been called a civil war among conservatives.

He goes on to say (My emphases)....

KLINGHOFFER: An Institutional Catastrophe: It was last month that another prominent think tank — with a lot of great people there, including friends of mine — split down the middle over the organization’s partnership with that tireless insinuator Tucker Carlson. The leadership of that organization, in my view, failed spectacularly. It hurt many on the staff, not least Jewish staff, with a number of resignations resulting from this including from the Board of Trustees. It was an institutional catastrophe, and recovery, if it comes, will take years.

Immediately after that, at a routine, planned staff meeting, Discovery Institute leadership spoke to us about all this. They could have ignored it. After all, another think tank’s self-immolation is not an obvious action item for us. CSC Managing Director John West addressed the situation directly, including about the related rise of some proponents of so-called “Christian Nationalism,” who use the mask of faith toward dark ends. Discovery President Steve Buri also spoke. Their frank views, which I share entirely, did not surprise me. But I was very moved to hear them articulated so promptly, forcefully, and publicly. After the meeting, John West proactively encouraged me to write about Tucker in relationship to the Alt Right and what’s often called the Woke Right, which I did here. He did not need to do that either.

MY COMMENT: I'm very pleased to see that Christian Nationalism, the Alt-Right and Tucker Carlson are being disowned here. Interestingly this disowning goes as far as referring to the Alt-Right bad boys as the "Woke Right" - remember that for the loose coalition of US right-wing tribes the term "Woke" is used to label all that is unspeakably evil! (which may well include even myself, a soft-left conservative!). So it is only natural that the NAID tribe label the Alt-Right baddies under the same classification heading of "Woke", in an attempt to identify them as all part of those "evil others"; a convenient over-simplification of political realities, typical of tribal life. For myself I think the term Super-Unwoke is far more appropriate as the Alt-Right clearly have social & ideological connections with the Unwoke community of which NAID is part; in fact those social & ideological connections  are clearly evidenced given the stormy "institutional catastrophe" that Klinghoffer describes; an institutional catastrophe only makes sense if there were initial social & ideological sympathies between the waring antagonists. 

Tucker Carlson appears to be a Putin apologist and in fact an apologist for authoritarian leaders more generally. Perhaps then the following quote from the same Science & Culture article is not so surprising (My emphases)...

KLINGHOFFER: For a Colleagues Own protection: To say that I felt supported by Discovery leadership would be an understatement. It’s too bad I can’t tell you about other pertinent details, but I’ll just mention that we have someone else in our Discovery circle, a Christian, whose courage extends to frequently putting himself at physical risk in order to do the right thing in this context. Sorry I have to be vague about that, for his own protection. But again, as a Jew, I’m grateful for it, as I am for the friendship of CSC Director Stephen Meyer, Discovery Founder Bruce Chapman, and others.

MY COMMENT: Gasp! Has the civil war got that bad? And again: The above is strong evidence of the hitherto close social & ideological links of the Unwoke and the Super-Unwoke. Civil wars between neighbors can be the source of the worst kind of acrimony and cruelty. I'm sure Klinghoffer is feeling that a slap on the back is much better than a knife in the back. 

***

The following post on Science & Culture is from the same author David Klinghoffer and gives us more detail on the Super-Unwoke,,,

Tucker Carlson and the Second Coming of the Alt-Right | Science and Culture Today 

According to Klinghoffer the Alt-Right were at one time atheists (Was Hitler an atheist? - I know he was anti-Christian) but for the "second coming" of the Alt-Right this is what Klinghoffer tells us...

KLINGHOFFER: Well, there is one surface-level difference: while the Alt-Right was frankly atheist, Tucker, Fuentes, the poisonous, delusional Candace Owens, and others on their team mostly wrap themselves in pseudo-Christian trappings. I liked the atheists better. At least you couldn’t say about them that they took the Lord’s name in vain.

MY COMMENT: Yes I agree that Candace Owens is poisonous and delusional and also I agree that the Alt-Right's Christian gloss is alarming. Klinghoffer goes on to list some of the sins of the Alt-Right such as their rabid antisemitism and yet underneath it Klinghoffer wants to stay loyal to the Trumpite right wing if possible; after all Trump has been spoon-feeding the Christian right-wing....

KLINGHOFFER: The Alt-Right did more plundering of pseudo-science, while the Woke Right plunders Christianity while pretending to revere it. Despite cries from the left and the media that Trump was a crypto-Nazi, the Alt-Right had no effect on the 2016 election outcome. Now the Woke Right is complaining that the President isn’t a Nazi. Speaking only for myself, I fear that the divisions they are sowing among conservatives will, over the coming two elections, hand the country back to the left. It’s a price that the All American “patriot” Tucker, surrounded on his set by all the iconography that can be purchased from L. L. Bean, is willing to pay.

MY COMMENT: To me the above is white-washing MAGArism by comparing it with the very dark black of the Alt-Right. But I suggest that it is Trumpite extremism which has let the evil genie out of the bottle. The Super-Unwoke represented by Carlson and Fuentes has gained confidence in the face of Trump's narcissistic extremes and his lying portrayal of those who oppose him as the "evil other", accusing them of being "Woke" or Radical Communists. These misrepresentations and his lies about vote rigging & conspiracies have help drain confidence in US democracy and indeed Western civilization itself. I repeat: MAGArism has let the evil genie out of the political bottle. Unintentional no doubt but the extremely polarised language of Trumpite MAGArism in its demonization of critics has fueled the Super-Unwoke phenomenon and given it a perverse legitimacy. 

****

Is any of this a surprise? All human beings are both morally and epistemically challenged. The tribal thinking of both the left & right extremes, thinking which persists in sourcing the human predicament in "outsiders" and the "evil other" is simply false (See the Book of Romans). Sourcing the blame for society's ills in outsiders is exactly how Trump, Ken Ham and the Super-Unwoke work. They then unleash the emotional fires of alienation, tribal hate & anger, stoked up with the fuel of conspiracy theorism. The far-left harness similar methods & emotions in order to achieve ultimate control. The end-game involves installing a dictatorship in place of democracy's controlled row; this row is an accountable and constitionalised agreement to disagree; mutual criticism is enshrined in democracy. In short neither the Woke nor the Unwoke make provision for the very human disease of sin and the consequent unbridled ego enhancement which is at the heart of social & political problems. Let us be conscious of our infirmities and weaknesses, both moral and epistemic. 

Interesting Links

1. Laura Loomer is a malign crank

Laura Loomer calls IDF to 'target' Iran's mass public funeral for Ali Khamenei with over 20 million attendees expected

2. Tucker Carlson: "It's all them others"

Tucker Carlson says America is a 'one-party state': Why his third party push lands four months before midterms

3. Back to the middle ages with public executions (Islamic state had the same idea). See this link...

If we’re going to hang any member of the “loser generation,” start with…

This suggestion by a billionaire masquerades as "masculine" style leadership! What next? Back to the public torturings of Rome and the Middle Ages?

4. Loomer vs Carlson

Laura Loomer: Tucker is turning the 'GOP into modern-day Hitler Youth'

Footnote:

*1 See also a certain John West, who writes for Science & Culture and also for the The Trump supporting Townhall Magazine. He has come to my notice before as a right-wing commentator. 

Political Corruption?

In this post I accused Charlie Kirk of being politically corrupt; after all, he stands accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation,  supporting the white genocide conspiracy theory and promoting false claims of electoral fraud in 2020.... contrast the latter with the 2024 election which was a genuine win for Trump and where there were little in the way of claims of electoral fraud by the losing side; the losing side accepted that the American voting system was basically reliable.  Now, when I saw the quotes below from Kirk I concluded that he was also intellectually corrupt...

At first I wondered if these quotes were mischief making by anti-Kirk commentators, but they are all over the internet with no contradiction I can find.

With no knowledge of the "new age" in the early 1970s I was using the term "empathy" to explain the process by which one center of conscious cognition projects conscious feelings into another first person perspective. That was before the New Age became a noticeable popularist movement. The word "compassion" is not disconnected from "empathy"; compassion makes no sense if we don't have the initial first step of empathy which enables us to identify others as centers of conscious cognition. In the above quotes Kirk is mindlessly playing with words which chime with his supporters. 

Computer game players have no compassion about the simulated foes they shoot-up in their games: That's because no empathetic projection of consciousness need be made toward a simulant no matter how intelligently that simulant acts.  In the quotes above Kirk is virtue signaling to his constituency, a constituency who may well pejoratively label empathetic parties as "snow flakes" and "social justice warriors".  

Here's Hannah Arendt using the term "empathy" well before Kirk was born and well before New Age was a thing. But she would probably be written off by the Trumpite-right as a communist & "social justice warrior".  

Finally, seeing the picture below was no surprise. The irony is that Musk and Kirk only add fuel to the fire of those far-left revolutionary Marxists whose case will look stronger in the dark shadows of Musk and Kirk. Worst of all, Kirk has help corrupt Christian culture from within bringing it into disrepute (In this connection note that the 1st graphic above is from tTGA). 

An enthusiastic supporter of Kirk is fundamentalist theme park manager Ken Ham. Ken is as intellectually compromised as Kirk, But if you disagree with Ken look at the kind of thing he says about Christians who don't swing into line behind his views!

Interesting Links

1. Trump vs MTG

Being an unwoke right-winger doesn't in anyway excise the fundamental problems of power, ambition and divisiveness....

Trump targets ally Marjorie Taylor Greene ahead of Epstein files vote - BBC News

Marjorie Taylor Greene doubles down on calls to release Epstein files - BBC News

QUOTE....

She (MTG) said she's also focused on ending hate and division in politics, which she said is splitting apart American families, friends and neighbours.

"I think America needs to come together and end all the toxic, dangerous rhetoric and divide, and I'm leading the way with my own example, and I hope that President Trump can do the same," she told Bash.

It's a stark messaging shift for Greene, who has previously been accused of stoking political divides by promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories and elevating controversial posts on social media. She liked a post that called for the executions of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama, and posted a photo of herself holding a gun beside images of three progressive Democratic congresswomen.

When Bash brought up some of these examples, Greene reiterated her past apologies and said a core part of her Christian faith is forgiveness.

Well, I hope she stays true to that new message. Perhaps at last Marj has seen the light. Trouble is, given Marj's track record Donald's accusation of her being "wacky" and a "ranting lunatic" will have some traction.

See also here:

Will Marjorie Taylor Greene turn the Maga movement against Trump?

2. The Christian nationalist's war against empathy

Kirk and musk aren't alone

Religious scholar explains how Christian nationalists use and abuse the Bible

McClellan noted that Christian nationalists are demonizing the word "empathy" and railing against "the sin of empathy." Claiming that "empathy" is inherently bad, according to McClellan, is a distortion of scripture.

McClellan told Letson, "Those are the people who are overwhelmingly trying to defend precisely parochial empathy because they're trying to convince others it's bad for us to empathize with undocumented immigrants. It's bad for us to empathize with people from other nations. It's bad for us to empathize with either conservatives or liberals. I think empathy that is outward looking is good."

North American Intelligent Design and Rule by Diktat

"F*ck climate science!"

A post on the North American Intelligent Design website Evolution News is apparently in favour of the idea is that the Smithsonian Institute is being called to heel by the Trump Administration. Here are some quotes (with my emphases) from the article & accompanied by my comments. 

***

Evolution News: New Criterion editor Roger Kimball rightly takes issue with the assumption that correcting the problems with the Smithsonian Institution is a mere “footnote” to a larger agenda. On the contrary, he sees it as being of “central” importance. 

My Comment: What is that larger agenda and why is kicking the Smithsonian into line of central importance? The Evolution News article then quotes Roger Kimball....

Roger Kimball: The Trump administration just announced that it would be conducting a detailed "internal review" of the Smithsonian's exhibitions and curatorial practices in order to root out wokeness and return the sprawling agglomeration of museums to their founding purpose (on who's say so, I wonder?).  It is part of the fulfillment of [Trump's] Executive Order to abolish the racist and divisive practice of DEI.  [See picture] below.....

Click to enlarge.

My Comment:  My take on the subject of "Wokeness" can be seen here. (The term is used as an alarmist political rallying cry by the far right - whom one might refer to as the "unwoke".).  See also here. 

Whatever one's opinion of Western society's current malaise and its philosophical disquiet, it is in fact an ethos which has slowly evolved since the enlightenment (and ironically it may even have its roots in the Reformation with the latter's emphasis on individualism, self-determination and freedom of conscience). But, one thing is clear: This ethos hasn't been imposed by centralised diktat, but as the above quote actually acknowledges it's evolution was a gradual process. In contrast I read the above as very much in favour of our aspiring would-be-dictator Trump commandeering the institutions of education in favour of what is likely to be an imposed "unwoke" agenda. To the credit of the conservatives mentioned, they have shied away from the methods of diktat because it is likely they have understood it to be an attack on the hard won democracy of the Western world. It's no surprise that the Putin admiring Donald Trump "understands" the world of commandeering. 

The article continues as follows....

Evolution News: Denying human exceptionalism is intended to make human visitors to the museum feel animal-like and without special dignity. Though phrased in scientific terms, that’s as corrosive a message as the rest of the radical messaging.

My Comment:  Pointing out that human life is very much of a piece with the animal kingdom doesn't necessarily conflict with human exceptionalism. As I don't trust the alarmist assessments of the "unwoke" I would want to see chapter and verse where the Smithsonian explicitly rules out that humans are "animals++" or "animals 2.0". They may actually leave answering that big religious and very controversial question to visitor opinion; that would be the democratic way. 

Yes, that's right, I don't trust the stuff that Evolution News comes up with either. Some of its pundits are not what I would consider to be sufficiently competent (See here). I suspect that the above quote is working from a naïve "God did it xor evolution did it" dichotomy.

Evolution News: Arguably, it’s more corrosive, in that it attacks something — being human — that’s far more fundamental than being American. Social restoration, so urgently needed, can’t be accomplished if the public is consistently being told we are little better than animals in the forest. In telling us that, over and over, our institutions of science education train us to act like animals. And in that, they are succeeding.

My Comment:  Oh yes, the ethos that we are no more that animals in a meaningless and purposeless universe is corrosive of society. But to my mind the "unwoke" MAGA agenda is even more corrosive as it tries to usher in a government which attempts to fix "problems" by diktat. Aping the criminal and lying Putin regime is the direction I fear MAGA is going: Putin is to Russian Orthodoxy as Trump is to North American evangelicalism.

In comparison I have a lot more sympathy for genuine atheists such as this who have become captive to an all but empty philosophy and yet who have no intention of "correcting the problem" of theism by commandeering churches. In contrast does Evolution News, by identifying itself with the Trumpism, aim to impose upon us its philosophy of classic dualism? 

INTERESTING LINKS

1. "Trumptruth" trumps truth

When you don't like the news shoot the messenger boy

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2dj217z2w6o

2. A creeping Dictatorship?

Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode

3. Trump Scared of Putin?

The global struggle of Democracy vs Autocracy and the weakness of Trump

Just one man can stop Russia's war on Ukraine, warns expert - and it's not Trump or Putin

4. Trump acolyte Bannon talks up civil war in the UK!

Bannon, like Putin may actually want to see a civil war in the UK.

Britain is on the brink of civil war, says Steve Bannon

Let's recall that Bannon has a favourable view of Russia's dictator.  See this quote from Wiki....

Bannon has defended Trump's ties to and praise for Russian president Vladimir Putin.[399][422] He expressed a belief that traditionalists see Russia as an ally. Bannon said they "believe that at least Putin is standing up for traditional institutions, and he's trying to do it in a form of nationalism—and I think that people, particularly in certain countries, want to see the sovereignty for their country. They want to see nationalism for their country" rather than a "pan-European Union".[422] According to the book War for Eternity, Bannon met Russian far-right political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin in Rome in 2018 to advocate closer relations between the United States and Russia, as well as Traditionalist philosophy.[423][424] Bannon supports closer ties to Russia to ally them against China.

Too bad about allying with Russia against China, Steve old son! Looks as though Putin has already found his true allies!

5. I hope this isn't true

I've often wondered if Trump is his own man or if foreign powers have a hold over him. After all he seems powerless re: the Ukraine War. 

Putin has 'kompromat' file on Trump, says ex-KGB agent

But then there is this with Bannon taking a predictable view:

MAGA faithful turn on Trump over Ukraine policy shift

Mike Pence gives a warning....

Mike Pence has ‘no doubt’ Russia will attack Nato country if successful in Ukraine

6.  Stirring up Xenophobic Emotions

Below is a list of characters who have had a tendency (or more than a tendency in some cases) to exploit fears around unfavored "outgroups". They identify these "outgroups" as the people to blame for one's problems and discontent.  They use these fears to drum up a strong group identification.

At some stage it's worth me expanding on this subject more fully as the social exploitation of xenophobic emotions and "home team" identification is common to both political autocrats and religious cult leaders. Needless to say Adolf Hitler was the prototypical model for this kind of behavior.

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Nigel Farage, Kim Jong Un, Noel Stanton, David Berg, David Koresh, Jim Jones, Ken Ham....etc

7. Trump starts to round up political adversaries

Trump promised retribution - how far will he go? - BBC News

8. Crankier and Crankier

Report: The West is plotting to eliminate humans with a virus

The Marxist, Anarchist and Libertarian Pipe Dream.

The "libertarian" notion that human society can somehow do without the interference of centralized information and control, especially given the latter's potential for being a resource of corrupt authoritarianism, is a yearning of many political idealists. As the above schema suggests (which I've cribbed from Wiki) "libertarianism" is an ideal which crosses the left-right fault-line and crops up among both left and right political agitators. I'm not quite sure why this common hankering exists; at a guess it's something do with instincts left-over from the time of those folksy communal freedoms which were the lot of hunter-gatherer communities. It is very tempting to dream about hunter-gatherer fireside life, a life which knew no ramifying cloud capp'd towers of information & control and where, best of all, in an intimate community there was little social anonymity: So, finding a sense of belonging, and an appreciated role where one could leave one's mark on society was a lot easier. 

At this juncture I can't help thinking of the relevance and mythical  meaningfulness of the Biblical Edenic story where it seems our erring fruit gathering ancestors were cast out of their original idyllic garden environment before they were fully ready to start populating & subduing the chaotic & imperfect earth. (See Gen 1:28). As it was to turn out, humanity then faced the double problem of not only subduing the earth but also subduing its own nature, as the subsequent books and chapters of the Bible illustrate.

Adam and Eve's post-Edenic sexual union produced the agriculturalists Cain and Abel. Cain was an arable farmer and Abel a pastoralist. After murdering Abel Cain was driven from his farm fearing popular vengeance for Abel's murder. But in spite of his crime God promised his protection and Cain went onto to build a city (Genesis 4:17). Building a city would imply that he was exploiting not only an efficient agricultural base but also had available the techniques of centralized information & control (such as writing) required for the successful organization, management and cooperation of the large concentrations of people that city life demands.

Although from Genesis 4 we see hate, vengeance and killing as the post-Edenic themes of the human predicament impeding Project Earth, nevertheless at that time progress in populating and subduing the earth was actually being made: A city was built, and tools of bronze and iron were fashioned. Above all, writing must have been invented to facilitate the centralized information and control necessary for city life. 

And yet the inevitable seedy sleaziness of urban life may have given rise to a yearning for a return to the idealized Edenic idyll before the advent of that signature of post Edenic life; namely, the city with its government, its appetite for information & control and its tendency toward collateral squalor.  But these are not the core problem of the East of Eden experience; they are only correlates. The heart of the problem is Sin, the word with the "I" in the middle (See the Book of Romans).

Conflating the correlates with the core problem of the human predicament is idealistic libertarianism's big mistake. This becomes clearer when we look at the following signature issues of right-leaning libertarianism, namely ....

* A tendency to believe in deep state conspiracy theorism. 

* Climate science skepticism - Climate science may be seen as a deep state disinformation campaign to excuse enhancing centralised information and control. 

* A priori opposition to pandemic lockdowns; again these lockdowns may be seen as part of a deep state hoax to excuse increasing centralized  control. 

* Belief in small government if not no government at all, sometimes to the point of anarchy. 

* Belief in a very unregulated free market; that's an oxymoron if there ever was one! A market can't function without standardization and agreement of standards, not to mention regulating the exploitation of workers, exploitation which fuels Marxist unrest.  

* Skepticism toward the institutions of society; e.g. the media,  academia, education, science institutions, politicians, health institutions, big business, the police.

* Little acknowledgement of the paradoxes of free-speech.

* Little acknowledgement that the high organization of complex adaptive systems (cf. organisms) make use of both distributed and centralized information & control. 

The above are part of a malaise which tends to view regulation, high social organization, government and the like (that is social information and control) as part of the problem rather than the solution. But for me information and control is neither the problem nor the solution; the problem is in the individual units which make up communities; namely human beings with their temptations to serve self first. When the latter is combined with the very natural epistemic challenges humanity faces we have on our hands a very explosive mix..... the human predicament.

Some of the above points are also very much part of left-wing libertarianism; in particular, a belief in the conspiracy of the owning classes, suspicion of the media, academia, large corporations, politicians and government in general - all of which are trappings of urban life, but to the leftist they will be seen as conniving with the owners of the means of production who are exploiting the working class. The Marxist doctrine is that in the structural levelling of society conflicts of interest between classes will dissolve and peace and harmony will reign. The abstraction behind this belief is that once you get the systems of society right the human problems will come out in the wash; that there is such a thing as a problematical human nature (which has its roots in the first person perspective) is at best considered irrelevant and at worst denied an existence.  

And finally an opinion I've expressed before: In their endeavor to purge society of centralized information and control in favour of distributed information and control libertarians face the irony of helping to create a power vacuum which sucks in would-be libertarian autocrats.

NOTE

I've published the following note on libertarian leaning James Knight's blog post here...

The Philosophical Muser: A Flawed Idea About Billionaires

What you are suggesting here may well work with somebody like Bill Gates who as far as I can tell has a sense of philanthropy and purpose (although the far right conspiracy theorists and Marxists will likely disagree!). As the centralised controller of high wealth he has done us well and is also concerned about world health. So no complaints there from me; If I were a billionaire I’d try to emulate him. See also Tim Coldwell from my Xenotron Case Study.

But Musk is a very different kettle of fish and he gives every impression of using his wealth to seek centralised power. This is where the marginal utility argument breaks down completely: For a start how can we measure the marginal utility of power? If we can define the analogue of a power-measure of marginal utility we would almost certainly have to re-calibrate our notion of it. Moreover, I doubt such a measure would decay at the rate of the elementary economics concept of marginal utility; in fact it may well increase with increasing wealth!

As you may have guessed I’m not very impressed with economics as an exact science; it gives us some rough rules of thumb…. guidelines and not tramlines. Moreover, its quantification measures aren’t very useful when it comes to the human thirst for power, status, influence, reputation and that whole cluster of motivations which revolve around social relations. However, I wouldn’t go as far as saying economics is bunk, but any pretense it might have to being a complete quantified description of the social dynamic breaks down in the human relational zone. 

Eccentric, Cranky, Crackpot, Insane or just Weird?

or twisted & evil?

I have taken the quote below from this website:

So unstable': Morning Joe hosts stunned by 'deranged' Trump's latest conspiracy rant (msn.com)

This website ("Raw Story") contains a quote lifted from Trump's  TrumpTruthSocial and it seems unlikely they have concocted it. At first I found it difficult to credit it; it suggests that D J Trump is a person completely detached from reality and is making TrumpTruth up as he goes along in order to have something spicy to tell his besotted following......

According to Trump, "What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE. He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!

So, assuming this name calling tirade is what Trump has actually committed to the airwaves then any reasonable person would realize that this is the kind of prediction with the risk of being checked at a later stage. But then Trump seems to be the type who lives for the moment and  his following have short memories; also, going on their taste for conspiracy theorism  they too have a tenuous connection with reality. Moreover, if they are presented with the fact-checking of Trump's rhetoric their belief in the quasi-messianic anointing of their leader is so strong that they would likely either dismiss it as mischief making or make allowances for him that they don't make for others.

My reading of the quote above is as follows: Trump has constructed a world that contains only two sorts of people; those who love him and are thoroughly loyal to him and those who aren't and who are therefore bad, bad, bad (whether Republican or not). My guess is that he projects this kind of egocentric thinking onto other people and therefore he has concluded that "Crooked Joe Biden" must be thinking along similar narcissistic/sociopathic lines as Trump himself. Thus, Trump finds it entirely plausible that Crooked Joe is looking to make a vengeful come back after an unconstitutional leadership coup by his enemies in the Democratic party has stolen his presidency (Not unlike Trump's belief in a stolen 2020 election). Trump's psychology is such that he just can't believe the change in the leadership of the Democrats has nothing sinister about it and is simply a case  of putting old Joe deservedly out to grass with old Joe himself, after a life time in politics and suffering from Covid, at last reading the obvious writing on the wall.

***

Another weird guy is Ken Ham who is very likely to be a Trump voter (and subliminally even a QAnon supporter) and thinks that any one who disagrees with his Biblical literalist organisation (AiG), whether they be Christians or not, must be bad, bad, bad or perhaps even anti-Christ .....

I  once got clobbered by Ken myself and that story can be read here.. 

RELEVANT LINKS

1. TRUMP THE LIAR or TRUMP THE FANTASIZER?

Trump falsely claims Harris crowd was faked

2. WELL, I WOULDN'T PUT IT PAST TRUMPITEISM

Donald Trump falsely claims Taylor Swift’s endorsement with AI-generated posts (msn.com)

3. FASCIST FUENTES THINKS MAGAT CAMPAIGN NOT EXTREME ENOUGH

Why Maga civil war threatens Trump election campaign (msn.com)

4. STEPS TOWARD AUTOCRACY

Experts explain just how dangerous a second Trump term would be (msn.com)

5. KEN DOESN'T TELL US WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DONALD TRUMP. 

In the following post Ken Ham warns us against Kamala Harris' support for abortion and also of D J Trump's support for abortion up to 15 weeks. (Trump of course is thinking of his votes). 

https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2024/08/25/what-christians-must-know-about-kamala-harris/

Fair enough, I also object to abortion. But what Ken will never tell us about are the perversions and lies of "Trump Truth", Trump Conspiracy theorism and Trump's bid to terminate democracy; but then Ken himself is an authoritarian who thrives on spiritual intimidation. I wait in vain for an article from Ken titled What Christians must know about Donald Trump!

The Big Bad Wolf is Dressed as Granny

 

A picture of Nigel Farage in bed.
But who is in bed with Nigel?
See the reports below for some answers.

We keep getting news reports of Reform UK's parliamentary candidates & activists making offensive, crypto-fascist, racist or authoritarian statements. See here:

Reform UK drops three candidates over offensive comments - BBC News

Labour and Tories turn fire on Reform UK and Farage (msn.com)

Sunak says ‘racism stings’ as Farage refuses to apologise for activist’s slur (msn.com)

Views, News and Pews: The Poisoning of Politics (viewsnewsandpews.blogspot.com)

To me this signals the kind of people the Trump supporting Nigel Farage is attracting - some very unpleasant people indeed. And note that Nigel, although going through the motions of apparently excommunicating the offenders, still tells people to vote for them.

Led by Donkeys interrupt Nigel Farage speech by lowering huge Putin banner | The Independent

Interesting Links

1. Meanwhile in America...

I've always had a suspicion that someone like the Putin Supporting Steve Bannon is waiting in wings to take over from the aging and far less intelligent narcissistic showman, Donald Trump. In this connection see this report:

Steve Bannon says 'Maga army' ready, as he reports to prison - BBC News

In that article we hear about Bannon's....

“Maga army ready to ensure the former president defeats Joe Biden and returns to the White House". 

....and while Bannon is in jail....

"...his show - described as a “military command centre for Maga” - will remain on the air in his absence. He has arranged for other hosts to present the War Room along with all his regular contributors."

If that sounds all ominously jingoistic then here's what'll happen under a Trump administration: 

Law enforcement agencies and the military would all be “brought to account” under a future Trump administration, Bannon said, and President Joe Biden would also face prosecution.

And what if Trump loses the election?....

It is “impossible”, he told me, for Joe Biden to win the election in November. And, therefore, there is no way he or his "Maga army" will accept the result if the president is reelected.

As I've said before, if a Trump/Bannon like dictatorship emerges in America it will likely form a pact with Putin against China. 

The Poisoning of Politics

 

The woman who drenched Nigel Farage with her drink was, rightly, arrested. See here.  When our politicians are physically assaulted we are on the road to barbarism. Points, lost or won, should be made within the democratic forums. If people feel that the only way to express themselves politically is through physical assault then either the democratic constitution is failing it's populace or the democratic forums are under attack.  In this case I think it's the latter. But I place a good part of the blame on the Trump supporting Nigel Farage who seems to have a knack of raising the emotional temperature of politics by angering and polarising the populace. It's unlikely Farage will see it like this and in common with his friend DJ Trump is so conceited as to present himself as the deserving, even universal, voice of the people and freedom. Farage, like his friend DJ Trump, is a poisoning & subversive influence on politics in the UK; in fact, like Trump, a popularist Sauline figure.

***

It's a long story as to how I got myself on to the far-right's Townhall mailing list but I thought I'd publish an example of the Trumptripe that comes my way from this quarter. See the example below.  I suspect that these people don't see the implications of what they are affirming with such emphatic confidence. If the system is so rigged & corrupted against them as they claim then this implies America isn't a democracy after all but some kind of criminal crypto-autocracy. Townhall is promoting proto-conspiracy theorism and therefore it is no surprise that the far-right represented by Townhall has in it's midst numerous conspiracy theorists (e.g. QAnon).  But if Townhall is right and the US political system is so corrupt why should I believe that Townhall isn't itself part of the overall banana-republic-like corruption they are describing and is telling lies in order to ease their way to power and perpetuate just more Godfather rule? 

But of course, in my view the corrupt party are Townhall; they are part of DJ Trump's egotistical bid for Godfather power and to this end Townhall are undermining US democracy by doing all they can to sow the seeds of distrust in the workings of the US system of government, its legal system, its media and its high tech industries.

Here is the email I got from Townhall: 

RIGGED VERDICT Are you surprised?  WE ARE NOT. They will silence us all if we let them. They RIGGED SOCIAL MEDIA so conservatives were silenced. They RIGGED FACT-CHECKING so they were in charge of the “facts.” They RIGGED the 2020 ELECTION while everyone was locked down. They IGNORED STATE ELECTION LAW to make sure President Trump couldn’t win. WE NEED YOUR HELP.  We need PATRIOTS like YOU to say, “ENOUGH, I am going to STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH in 2024!" DEMOCRATS ATTACKED DEMOCRACY but pretended they were its savior. They RIGGED STATE LAWS to go back in time to trap President Trump and force him to spend millions to defend himself. They CREATED FOUR FAKE LEGAL CASES to keep President Trump off the campaign trail. They RIGGED A JURY from one of the most liberal districts in the country — #12 out of 435.  They got what they wanted yesterday BUT DEMOCRATS and LIBERALS WILL LOSE IF WE FIGHT BACK HARD ENOUGH. WE MUST FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH, which is why WE NEED YOU RIGHT NOW! STAND UP FOR TRUTH - 60% OFF  Townhall can’t fight for your values without your help. The liberals must not be allowed to win.  If they win, they will DESTROY America as we know it. We need your support TODAY. Soros is getting radical left prosecutors elected all over the country. If the truth isn’t spread, not a single conservative or Republican will be safe.  The American dream is under attack. We need you in the fight this year, it’s do or die for America. We're offering our PATRIOT email subscribers an exclusive special discount. Become a member today and receive 60% off your annual subscription, our biggest discount ever offered… we need to know that you’re willing to fight. PLEASE don’t abandon the fight now. STAND UP FOR AMERICA! Jonathan Garthwaite Publisher - Townhall Media The conviction of Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, (See here) is evidence that the US justice system is still working and gives the lie to the above contention by Townhall  that the American system is dominated by Biden party rigging. The above email is just more far-right poison thrown into the political forum, undermining trust and confidence. It fans the flames of unrest and disaffection.  Interesting Links 1. Really? I can't believe this is true...... If it is I'm underestimating Reform UK's capacity to attract evil (and stupid) men.  Reform candidate says UK should have ‘taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality’ instead of fighting Nazis (msn.com) Just some of the spicy statements from Ian Gribben who is a member of Farage's party "Reform UK"..... A candidate for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has claimed the country would have been “far better” off if it had “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality” instead of fighting the Nazis. Ian Gribbin, who is standing in Bexhill and Battle, also wrote online that women were the “sponging gender” and should be “deprived of health care”. He also described Winston Churchill as “abysmal” and praised Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to the BBC. Mr Gribbin is reported to have posted on the Unherd website in 2022: “Britain would be in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality … but oh no Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people.” The same month he wrote that the UK should “exorcise the cult of Churchill and recognize that in both policy and military strategy, he was abysmal”. In 2021, he wrote female soldiers “almost made me wretch [sic]” and were a “total liability”. In the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said that President Putin had “shown a maturity of which we can only dream of”. "Reform UK" = Crypto-fascist? Let's understand that these highly toxic statements are being made retrospectively in the light (or rather darkness) of what Hitler's fascism went on the "achieve"! If as Nigel Farage says that this is just "pub talk" then it is clear that Gribbin is not a fit voice for parliament.  2. Farage at it again Nigel Farage criticised for saying West provoked Ukraine war - BBC News Typically authoritarian Farage:  "The West provoked Putin", and not as it should be: "A fearful Putin used EU expansion and encroaching democracy as a pretext to build his authoritarian empire".  In any case if countries want to join the democratic West, why can't they Nigel? Do we give in to playground bullies because otherwise we might "provoke them"? 3. It's what's under the surface of Farage's dapper image that is of concern A crypto-fascist accuses liberals of being fascist: Nigel Farage agrees with Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ rant in resurfaced clip (msn.com) In the interview, the Reform UK leader replied to Mr Jones: “Yes, the liberals actually are very illiberal. In fact the liberals have become the very fascists that they try and criticise with their rhetoric.” “Don’t underestimate how massive the seismic shock of 2016 was: the victory of brexit, the victory of Trump. “We are winning, but it doesn’t feel like were winning the left and the state are fighting back with all their might. “If we can resist this politically correct charge, this attempt to stop us thinking and speaking freely, if we can resist that, then our victory actually will be complete.” 4. ....and again? Really? Reform UK candidate is booed as he tells hustings Putin is 'very good' (msn.com)