Trump Says He'd "Take It" If Russia Again Offered Dirt On An Opponent
LOL one thing about Trump I can absolutely, positively relate to: he's afflicted by thermonuclear contrarianism.
I think many misunderstandings of the guy are grounded in a failure to recognize that. I'm inclined to think that the left is now the more conformist end of the spectrum--the opposite was true when I was a kid. Take an intolerance for heterodoxy, add in rabid TDS, a failure to recognize the guy's contrarian nature, a burning drive to construe everything he says in the most uncharitable possible way...add in a desire to virtue-signal / play to the home crowd...and, man, you get a freaking disaster.
One difference, though, between Trump and me: even if I somehow magically stumbled into a possible world in which running for president was a live possibility, I'd run the other way at least as fast as possible. Because I actually revere my country. Contrarianism is a dumbshit characteristic for even an ordinary person to have. A contrarian president...saints preserve us.
One of the reasons I was such an Obama fanboy was that I thought he had the right sentiments, temperament and intellectual dispositions--as I've said about a hundred times. Trump's a wreck in these respects, obviously.
I do think that the number of people badgered and shamed into political correctness is likely at least as high as the number who actually believe the nonsense. And I've begun to think that you have to be willing to be kind of an asshole to effectively fight PC. You've got to be willing to withstand the disapproval of the people society represents as the repositories of virtue. You've got to be willing to be accused of shit you consider to be genuinely vile. And to sustain that, I think you've kinda got to take a bit of pleasure in harassing the harassers... And Trump has moved the ball downfield against PC in several ways. Though, as I've said, I do fear that apres lui, le deluge.
Needless to say, contrarianism can go too far, and often does. There's nothing original in the observation that it's not clearly more virtuous than conformism. The trick is to be immune to social badgering and lunacy without going too far. It's almost as if there were a...I dunno...a kind of...virtuous mid-point...a mean, if you will...between...what?...a...vice of excess and one of deficiency... I dunno, I'm just spitballing here...
What was I typing about anyway?
Oh, yeah: if the FBI says "come to us if that happens," I think you ought to go to them if that happens. But, then, I'm the kind of old-fashioned guy who also thinks that if Congress says "Your Uncle would like a word with you," you get a haircut, find a tie, and head on up to D.C...
I think many misunderstandings of the guy are grounded in a failure to recognize that. I'm inclined to think that the left is now the more conformist end of the spectrum--the opposite was true when I was a kid. Take an intolerance for heterodoxy, add in rabid TDS, a failure to recognize the guy's contrarian nature, a burning drive to construe everything he says in the most uncharitable possible way...add in a desire to virtue-signal / play to the home crowd...and, man, you get a freaking disaster.
One difference, though, between Trump and me: even if I somehow magically stumbled into a possible world in which running for president was a live possibility, I'd run the other way at least as fast as possible. Because I actually revere my country. Contrarianism is a dumbshit characteristic for even an ordinary person to have. A contrarian president...saints preserve us.
One of the reasons I was such an Obama fanboy was that I thought he had the right sentiments, temperament and intellectual dispositions--as I've said about a hundred times. Trump's a wreck in these respects, obviously.
I do think that the number of people badgered and shamed into political correctness is likely at least as high as the number who actually believe the nonsense. And I've begun to think that you have to be willing to be kind of an asshole to effectively fight PC. You've got to be willing to withstand the disapproval of the people society represents as the repositories of virtue. You've got to be willing to be accused of shit you consider to be genuinely vile. And to sustain that, I think you've kinda got to take a bit of pleasure in harassing the harassers... And Trump has moved the ball downfield against PC in several ways. Though, as I've said, I do fear that apres lui, le deluge.
Needless to say, contrarianism can go too far, and often does. There's nothing original in the observation that it's not clearly more virtuous than conformism. The trick is to be immune to social badgering and lunacy without going too far. It's almost as if there were a...I dunno...a kind of...virtuous mid-point...a mean, if you will...between...what?...a...vice of excess and one of deficiency... I dunno, I'm just spitballing here...
What was I typing about anyway?
Oh, yeah: if the FBI says "come to us if that happens," I think you ought to go to them if that happens. But, then, I'm the kind of old-fashioned guy who also thinks that if Congress says "Your Uncle would like a word with you," you get a haircut, find a tie, and head on up to D.C...
posted by Winston Smith at
9:42 AM
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