Identity Politics Brought Down the Left.

[mallorys_camera]

Another piece about Steve Bannon. Gotta say, the guy kinda fascinates me. If one assumes his come-to-Ronnie moment – that Ronnie being Reagan – occurred some time during the Carter Administration, then Bannon has been playing a very long game indeed.

It’s also interesting that this piece appeared in The Hollywood Reporter (which has become the go-to media outlet for all the most interesting news as the Gray Lady becomes grayer and grayer and The Washington Post morphs into the Bezos Vanity Press.)

One of the more striking roles the social media played in this current election cycle is that it forced the equivalence of all content. Any obscure website carries as much social currency as The New York Times if enough people look at it. Since social media has an attention span of approximately .02 seconds, the emphasis is on getting it out in front of the eyeballs quickly. Fact-checking suffers.

Ironically, “Fake news sites” has also become a story now. This story may actually last a week because it’s fueled by massive indignation. HRC advocates need to find some reason why they lost the election (‘cause they’re in complete denial over the fact that the Democratic Party ran the wrong candidate), and they’re pointing the finger right now at Breitbart, Red State, the Blaze, Twitchy, ZeroHedge, the Daily Wire et al.

I read Breitbart regularly for the same reason that for many years, I remained a registered Republican: I firmly believe that it’s more important to know your enemies (so you can sabotage them) than it is to exchange high-fives with your friends.

I’m also practically the only person I know who maintains open channels to both HRC and Trump supporters on social media.

Fact is that in those weeks leading up to the election, both sides were equally guilty of disseminating fake news – by which I mean opinion disguised as news.

Opinion disguised as news – and carefully, carefully, carefully goose-stepping over the various libel and slander laws – would appear to be the new norm. Did I mention carefully? Carefully! ‘Cause none of us want to end up like Nick Denton with only a $24,000 a year clothing allowance as the Gawker bankruptcy stares him in the face.

###

Identity politics brought down the Left.

On the micro-level where human relationships form and opinions about them crystallize, people tolerate differences. Everybody has a gay cousin. African-American culture is the predominant pop culture for most people in this country under the age of 30. I’m not sure that many white people over the age of 30 have African-American friends, though, people outside work acquaintances with whom they actually share good times. And that’s true of people on both sides of the political spectrum. It is not a good thing.

I understood the slogan Black Lives Matter perfectly. But I think it left the majority of the white folk feeling defensive. And defensiveness soon degenerates into belligerence.

Nail in the coffin, though, may have been the transgender bathroom controversies. And on this one, I’m actually on the side of the Powers of Darkness. The whole hysterical outpouring of Leftist outrage on that issue was a complete turn-off to me. Are there attendants outside every bathroom in the United States of America ready to check your genitals before you go inside and pee? No? Then just go in and piss, and shut up about it! And don’t forget to wash your hands.

It doesn’t matter if there are laws on the books that say you can’t use a particular bathroom. Enforcement is what matters. And if you don’t make a huge fuss over it, there is no enforcement. In Arizona, cutting down a cactus carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. Does this law prevent any Arizonian from cutting down cacti? I doubt it.

###

Reading the Bannon piece above, it seems the plan to reemploy rustbelt America involves launching massive infrastructure projects and imposing tariffs on companies that maintain call centers in Mumbai. (I suppose ideally they’d also like to bring manufacturing plants back to the U.S. but I suspect it’s too late for that.) Since neither laying concrete nor answering phones requires a college degree, this is a huge hit for the higher education industry.

Can’t say I altogether disapprove of that. I see the value of liberal education. Liberal education awakens people to thought, to tolerance, to the beauty of diversity. But the emphasis in recent years has been on certification and licensing programs, and the only value I can see to those is that they keep entry level people out of the job market for longer and longer periods of time, thereby protecting the jobs of those few lucky enough to have found one already. (Full disclosure here: When I went to nursing school, I elected to go a hospital program. I saw no benefit whatsoever in a college nursing degree. Nursing is a trade. Like plumbing.)

If Bannon et al are successful here in providing remunerative employment to working class folk unwilling to become indentured servants for the dubious privilege of acquiring a college degree, that’s probably a good thing – much as it galls me to admit that.

###

The globalists gutted the American working class and created a middle class in Asia, says Bannon. The issue now is about Americans looking to not get fucked over. If we deliver, we'll get 60 percent of the white vote, and 40 percent of the black and Hispanic vote and we'll govern for 50 years.

Well, I fuckin’ hope not!

But it’s a big wakeup call.

###

The other interesting thing Bannon says is, I am Thomas Cromwell in the court of the Tudors.

One must assume that Bannon knows his history well enough to realize that not only did Thomas Cromwell end up with his head on the chopping block but that his enemies at the court got the axeman so drunk the night before that the execution was very, very messy.

I guess Bannon’s reasoning is that so long as he steers Der Donald away from dynastic marriages, he’s safe.

Comments

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

This!
Nail in the coffin, though, may have been the transgender bathroom controversies. And on this one, I’m actually on the side of the Powers of Darkness. The whole hysterical outpouring of Leftist outrage on that issue was a complete turn-off to me. Are there attendants outside every bathroom in the United States of America ready to check your genitals before you go inside and pee? No? Then just go in and piss, and shut up about it! And don’t forget to wash your hands.

If my son is dressed as a female, nobody would even think to stop him from entering the women's room to do his business, even in the MostConservativeStateInTheUnion - unless he shouted out "look at me, I am a MAN in a dress!"
Shut up and use the toilet in private.
And use soap to wash your hands.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Egg-zactly! :-)

[lilchiva.livejournal.com]

If my son is dressed as a female, nobody would even think to stop him from entering the women's room to do his business,

Unless your son is pre-pubescent that's not the case. We could just have proper bathrooms that have floor to ceiling stalls, like most other civilized countries, and then they could all be unisex. While I agree, that the issue with trans bathrooms is mostly silly and very niche, it's not a non issue. Trans-gender harassment has happened to so many people I know, including myself. (not trans but a little gender queer). So, in the actual logistical sense, I agree with you guys. But, properly, people I know getting harassed in grocery stores for (gasp) wearing heels shouldn't happen. And, in many places, it actually does happen.

And, yes that dude lobbying for more "Men's rooms" is an asshole.


The problem with the left's identity politics is that became about smaller and smaller groups of people and involved endless purity testing. The consequence was that working class, mainly, white people took the brunt of it. You add that to the endless cries of globalism, the (mostly) fake immigration problem, the general sense that "White working class lives don't also matter", and suddenly you have disenfranchised, at least on an ideological level, the vast majority of people who vote. This I think is something nearly every middle-aged adult agrees on. (regardless of whether or not you actually agree with it)

But, maybe I'm mistaken. I certainly know that many of my former Facebook friends are still crying about privilege and unfriending their "redneck" relatives over ideological disagreement. To them, it's the fault of Those "Anti-Adam and Steve" jerks. It's not, that everyone could have spent 15 minutes figuring out what they had in common with their actual neighbors, before figuratively burning them in effigy as "deplorable". To that end, I think the whole 'deplorable" thing was the nail in the coffin for anyone's idea of moral high-ground.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

We could just have proper bathrooms that have floor to ceiling stalls, like most other civilized countries, and then they could all be unisex.

Yes, to unisex bathrooms! With one small bathroom marked "Ladies" and one small bathroom marked "Gents" to placate those among us whose ureters spasm at the thought that a person of the opposite gender might hear their tinkle hit the porcelain bowl and become unseemly aroused.

Bullying is always objectionable. Never one to pass up the pleasure of patting my own back, I will note here that I am one of those people who usually says something about it when I see it even at the risk of making myself a target. Not all the time. But usually. People shouldn't have to depend upon the social justice instincts of Good Samaritans, though.

I will also note that with the imminent passage of The First Amendment Defense Act pending, I now believe that gender preference is a political issue here.

I agree with your analysis of the election and particularly the harm done by that "deplorables" remark (which I think far exceeded any harm done by the reopening of the FBI investigation.) Because what it signaled was that the Left was perfectly comfortable marginalizing, humiliating, and ridiculing people. Just not if they were black, Hispanic, Islamic, gay or trans.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Psst - not only do I follow a wide swath on on the book of face, but I also get the emails from the Heritage Center, MoveOn.org, Restore Liberty, Ben Carson....

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Whoa! You're eclectic!

I'm very fond of both MoveOn.org and the Heritage Center actually. :-)

There's a really simple way to bring the Trump momentum to a crashing halt in 2020, by the way. Every one of those 63, 045, 266 people who voted for Hillary Clinton simply needs to register as a Republican and subvert that party from within. Of course, it would never occur to them to do so. :-)

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

The same reason I remain a registered democrat ;)

"Fake News" sites are just clickbait. They come up with fake stories guaranteed to ring one side's bells and hope they go viral so the sites get tons of clicks and make tons of money. It's not so much a question of swinging an election. Follow the money ...

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree that fake news sites were originally set up to generate revenue flow. But now they're also a tool in the political arsenal.

In fact, if the Left were smart, they'd set up a network like Breitbart. The Huffington Post and Medium don't cut it.

Progressive Fake News Sites And Operatives

[robby.livejournal.com]

Re: Progressive Fake News Sites And Operatives

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that some of these sites showed a strong HRC reporting bias but collude?

Maybe CNN. In that instance when Donna Brazille leaked a debate question.

Breitbart's particular talent lies in its editorial voice. It's written at about the same level as the materials I use in my English as a Second Language class and with that kind of fervency.

I'm thinking more along the lines of a political Buzzfeed. In the early days of Gawker, I seem to recall that Nick Denton ran a political website that was good but a little too ironic. Irony is not good when you're propagandizing. But something snappier, hipper than Breitbart.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

I have always considered both "The Onion" and "Snopes" to be exactly what you are describing!
Funny, literate, and VERY far left!!!

[petrona.livejournal.com]

Snopes is a fact checking site.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Yeah, humor is good when you're propagandizing to Millennials. :-)

Not sure it works when you're propagandizing Boomers.

Breitbart employs a singularly earnest editorial voice, quietly but insistently pushing the reader toward the revelations of horror all around him, horror that can and must be stopped! :-)

Re: Progressive Fake News Sites And Operatives

[robby.livejournal.com]

Ron Paul put this out, and wikileaks published the supporting emails to show collusion.

[bb-lurks.livejournal.com]

In August, as I contemplated a Trump Presidency, I thought something like what you say Steve Bannon is saying now. Massive (Keynesian) stimulus through “infrastructure” would be Trump’s Nixon/China moment. Even in a crisis, even a popular Democrat (Obama) wasn’t able to get it through the Congress. But Trump just might be able to do it. The Democrats, always on the lookout for something to bring home to the districts, and generally in line with Keynesian policies will sign on, and if Trump can get enough GOP votes he’ll get what he wants, so long as he acts quickly, before there’s ground to stand on against him in the GOP.

It would be an odd irony that the Tea Party wing, coming into power on the basis of shrinking government, and eventually empowering the Trump majority in swing states (including by legal voter suppression in GOP-dominated legislatures) would be compelled to support such a policy.

The sticking point is whether Trump has enough juice and enough leadership ability to force the GOP to play ball with him on this. He’s going to need (assuming all the Dems sign on, about 30-40 votes in the House and really only 2 or 3 in the Senate. HIs problem is that almost nobody in the GOP owes his/her seat to him, or feels that way in any case. The House is crucial. They have to look toward 2018. If they sign on to Trump and he self-destructs, they’re toast. On the other hand, if he does put a big rocket under the economy, they’re safe for 2 or 3 elections, a big deal in Congress.

You didn’t say this, and it couldn’t be the case. The $$$$$$ are not coming from the “tariffs”. They have to come from somewhere, either deficit spending, or a big cut in military, which is pretty much the only big pot of discretionary dollars left. Cancelling some of the idiot programs like the F-35 might do the trick, but that’s valuable pork, which is why that particular white elephant is still trying to get airborne. For the Members who have the manufacturers in their districts the cost overruns are a feature, not a bug. Perhaps a big draw down in foreign adventures could do it, but that takes time, and now the biggest sums are in the overhang from the Iraq and Afghan ventures, such as veterans’ benefits, which he dare not touch. So that’s the hard part.

Probably much of the GOP opposition to Trump was character-based, as he’s an undoubted vulgarian, but much was also based on the fact that he’s always been a liberal Democrat, and never a conservative, GOP or otherwise. His version of business is Keynesianism writ small, stimulating his income using other people’s money. In just the same way the Treasury can get money circulating again by shoveling tons of it, not at bankers and investors by reducing interest rates to near zero, but by doing the orthodox Keynes program; shoveling money into the hands of people who will spend it immediately—instead of banking it and seeking “rent” for it.

BTW, my reading of 538.com was always that Trump had at least a good chance of wining. At the worst, the odds were 4:1 for HRC, but who would play Russian Roulette at those odds, and right after the Comey thing, it was down to less than 2:1, not exactly overwhelming. There was almost no time when HRC/Trump voting projections in swing states were outside of the margin of error. All this to say I was getting used to the idea of “President Trump” for a while.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Good analysis. I'm having this same conversation over in Facebookland. Check out what Morgan Hua sez. In particular: The coal workers and steel workers won't be re-employed. Robots will be doing the job. Even roads are now more high tech than just a layer of asphalt. Roads now have multiple layers. You don't see guys shoveling and leveling asphalt that much these days, unless it's just to patch a hole. So, the promised jobs won't appear.

Of course, as I've no doubt bored you by nattering on and on already, my own thought is that the Republicans will be looking for a way to get rid of Trump sooner rather than later. They rode him into power. But it's not in their best interests to have a charismatic loose cannon at the helm. My speculation is that this is why Ted Cruz did that 180 after humiliating Trump at the nominating convention. Cruz and Pence are besties; everyone will be happy when Mike Pence is President!

Well. Maybe not the alt.right. Or the cast of Hamilton. :-)

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

http://truthfeed.com/ny-times-idiot-fashion-director-praises-hillarys-frumpy-pantsuit-look-and-trashes-melanias-stunning-style/36752/

Right now, the right will keep Trump for reasons like this, which show Average Joe SixPack exactly how stupid the left thinks normal people are...

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Ohmygawd. That woman's bio is too hilarious: Amy Moreno is a Published Author!

Will you build me a little annex in your house, millysdaughter, and hide me when Der Donald's brownshirts come for me? :-)

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Indeed - always room for another. The brownshirts will not take us gently into the night from here...
How is your aim?
Or would you serve better as a loader?

[cah1470.livejournal.com]

HB2 talk has been ridiculous I have to agree. A gay couple on my friend's list lives in Salisbury and thought a protest vote for Gary Johnson was the right move. Now they post on and on about how they don't feel safe and how their marriage and the ability to use public restrooms safely is at risk. It's hard not to roll my eyes. I know all about not feeling safe but I also understand I don't have the luxury of a protest vote in these not quite so purple parts. In that group of "friends" we have all types and of course that includes transgendered. They spend a LOT of money to look like the sex they identify with, seems likely we have been using the same public bathroom as them for a very long time.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Huge part of it for me is that you have to pick your battles wisely and for many, many reasons, this was not a wise battle.

I keep thinking about that woman Rachel Dolezal who wanted to stake a claim to being black. The Left condemned her roundly. But what's difference between cultural appropriation and gender appropriation? And why should resources that could go to other things be spent appeasing 0.3% of the population?

[cah1470.livejournal.com]

It's so funny you mention that because I had a conversation at work about her when the story broke. On one hand I absolutely relate to why she would want to identify more as black. She is married to a black man, her child is mixed and looks more ethnic, while she was blonde. Why should her desire to relate more to her child be shunned or politicized and she shouldn't have lost her job over it. Identifying her as yet another group that requires laws and resources feels extreme.

This is the arena where liberals fracture in my opinion and why we lose. A minority one that can't take off their color and experiences their race first and mostly on negative terms in every arena from the day they are born has a hard time associating their discrimination as equal to the LGBT community. So the rub happens when the white guy who never worried about how his name looked on a resume or it being thrown in the trash insists on solidarity and equality in "the struggle" with minorities being shot in the back at a traffic stop.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

So the rub happens when the white guy who never worried about how his name looked on a resume or it being thrown in the trash insists on solidarity and equality in "the struggle" with minorities being shot in the back at a traffic stop.

Yeah. In the past, I've had a very hard time seeing the equivalence of those two struggles myself.

I think the pending First Amendment Defense Act legislation -- which will almost certainly pass -- does turn this struggle into a major civil rights issue.

[cah1470.livejournal.com]

Agreed it probably will pass and it is a major civil rights issue. Sigh things are so poisonous can we even deal with the Pence/Cruz/Ryan regime AND pussy grabber reacting to every single perceived slight on twitter?

[cah1470.livejournal.com]

Yes! but since I love Hamilton so much I was secretly hoping there would be outraged republicans willing to sell their tickets ;) I receive California 360 updates on pending litigation so I saw the 25 mil settlement in an email update Friday morning. He broke a strict rule about settling AND discarded his usual tactic of wearing plaintiffs down.