Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Let there be snark.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The ‘Intellectual Dark Web’

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The ‘Intellectual Dark Web’

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Intellectually dark, folks!

Bari Weiss quit her cushy gig at the NYTimes because they didn’t have sufficient respect for the concept of the IDW — brave freedom fighters against whiny ‘cancel culture’ parvenus. (Also, she’s making even more off Substack subscriptions, and — by report — much of her output there is just reprinting her ‘bold’ comrades’ work.)

I’m waiting for the explanation that trying to breathe through a mask poisoned her brain.

Reader Interactions

215Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The centralized force that has the power to determine what people could say and what they couldn’t = Republican state legislatures.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    why the NYT/Acela corridor types thought we needed a reboot of Andrew Sullivan thirty years later remains one of the great mysteries, or at least annoying features, of modern media.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Intellectual Dark Web? I believe the idea is that Bari thinks she’s a bold teller of deep, and dark, truths the liberal establishment doesn’t want to hear, even though they know she’s right.
    I think she’s on the Bill Maher program like once a month these days.

  10. 10.

    Mike in NC

    We got a flyer in the mail today from a travel agency we’d used in the past. It reads, “Explore Europe Again”. Um, the timing is a bit off right now.

  11. 11.

    Suzanne

    Dude, Bari Weiss and all the other whatever-the-fuck-do-you-call-them-oh-yeah-WHINERS are just salty because they are wrong and that’s embarrassing. Their intellectual frame for the world proved to be utterly inadequate for the threats that we really face. In short, they aren’t very smart. They don’t accurately perceive the world or its patterns and themes.

    Putin, earlier today, literally said that America was trying to “cancel Russia”. That’s a specific shoutout to the people he’s been trying to cultivate. Baaaaaaariiiiiii, he’s talking to yoooooooooou.

    Imagine if you were so dumb and terrified that you actually fooled yourself into thinking that Putin couldn’t be that bad because you were afraid of getting fired from your office job because you made a joke about transgender people in front of someone who was offended.

  12. 12.

    hueyplong

    I want to say that, if Bari Weiss is actually, objectively influential, we’re already most of the way to being screwed as a nation/civilization/collection of humans that deserves to dodge extinction.

    But then I remember Donald Trump served a full term as President of the United States.  Any condemnation of the USA following that fact is going to seem trivial/unworthy of mention.

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    @Kay: The cancel culture lens has proven to be really distorting for them. Rod Dreher is trying so, so hard to thread that “I don’t support Putin, buuuuuuut” needle. It’s utterly transparent and in a just world, utterly disqualifying.

    This is because all of them operate exclusively from a place of interest and not principle.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @Suzanne:

    Putin, earlier today, literally said that America was trying to “cancel Russia”.

    Yup. Every single Right wing politician does it too. Still, I think this panic has peaked.

  20. 20.

    Nomdeguerre

    @Kay: As others have mentioned, their basic premise  of being threatened with cancellation by  a powerful liberal cabal is refuted by their continual whining about it.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    People think it was covid that drove these people round the bend, but it wasn’t. They were ginning up this panic well prior to covid.

    Black Lives Matter is what drove them round the bend.

  22. 22.

    dm

    “An elite that lied to them about peaceful protests, Russiagate, masks, and school closures” — Fox News, Trump, and his enablers, in other words?

    And “American companies toying with our freedom of conscience” — I assume she means Hobby Lobby management imposing its religion and attitudes about proper medical care on its employees?

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @Nomdeguerre:

    their basic premise  of being threatened with cancellation by  a powerful liberal cabal is refuted by their continual whining about it.

     
    Also refuted by the fact that a “powerful liberal cabal” is an oxymoron.

  25. 25.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    OT – so it would appear that I am more sick than I thought I was.  Suspected Lung Cancer (teaching me a lesson for smoking all those years), anyhoo they won’t know for sure until they do a biopsy, which because the lump is behind my rib then cannot do with a needle.  So.  Yes so. They have to do keyhole surgery to get a snip of the lump in the lung, which means shutting down the one lung and my body relying on the other.  My dear surgeon said I could come out of it no problem or die because of a) my other lung not working and me ending up on a ventilator and dying.  b) my heart not getting enough oxygen and shutting down and dying c) because of my poor circulation having a stroke and dying, d) all of the above and just, well dying.  My respitory doctor says it is 50/50 seeing I have had this lump since 2019 and have not had any symptoms whatsoever so we could ignore it. This of course is not a cure, this is purely to discover if it IS cancer and at which point I will begin Chemo.  My surgeon is merrily scheduling surgery seeming to think (after having put my case in front of an entire committee!) that it is a good idea.  So waiting to hear from my respitory doctor as to what I should do (probably tomorrow morning) so I will continue to post until next tuesday in which case if you don’t hear from me please offer tots and pears to my family (yes I am being silly about it because what the hell else can I do). Of course I am really pissed off that I have booked no less than three holidays this year!  I hope the hell that my darling husband can get refunds from the hotels in case everything goes tits up.  Wish me luck.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    Black Lives Matter is what drove them round the bend.

    “CITIES BURNING TO THE GROUNDDDDDDDD!”

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Nomdeguerre:

    They don’t get to freeze the United States to what it was when they were in college. They don’t get to define what “liberal” is to a 20 year old. I know middle age can be tough for vain, self centered people who think of themselves as cutting edge intellectuals but younger people will make their own culture and norms. Bari Weiss can’t order them back to 2001. They don’t want to go.

  34. 34.

    RSA

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Intellectual Dark Web? I believe the idea is that Bari thinks she’s a bold teller of deep, and dark, truths the liberal establishment doesn’t want to hear, even though they know she’s right.

    The thing about the real-world dark web is that hardly anyone sees it. If only Bari would take that lesson from it.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Suzanne:

    I’m telling you- sheer, sweaty panic. I get it in a way- their own young adulthood was relatively uneventful and rigidly conventional. They simply haven’t experienced the same kind of turmoil. They are frightened.

  39. 39.

    Suzanne

    @burnspbesq: Rod Dreher would argue that he got canceled instead of just being fired for being bad at his job.

    Like, how many times can they be wrong and still be employed? I mean, if I was wrong that often, buildings would be falling down.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heading down to NOLA in a few hours. Don’t think I’m dead when you aren’t subjected to my useless prattle for the next 8 days or so. You ain’t getting that lucky.

  45. 45.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @OzarkHillbilly: We’ll miss you and your prattle. More or less. Have a grand time with the grandbabies! Or is that grandbaby singular? In any case, have fun and be safe. :)

  46. 46.

    Kay

    It’s all just so banal and lazy. They really think this is an original thought? That a group of “elites” have betrayed the working man’s “culture”? Don’t they read anything in these insanely expensive colleges they attend?

  47. 47.

    matt

    Weiss is only going to get worse as she goes along. She’s not rewarded for being good.

  50. 50.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay: Speaking as a person who went to a (now) insanely expensive college, we read a LOT and were challenged to think deeply. But there are always ineducable people, regardless of the intellectual environment or quality of school they attended.

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    I didn’t get it at first either, and I looked up Bari Weiss in Wikipedia. Here’s what it says about the term:

    In May 2018, Weiss published “Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web”. This piece profiled a collection of thinkers who share an unorthodox approach to their fields and to the media landscape. Weiss collectively described them as the Intellectual Dark Web, borrowing the term from Eric Weinstein, managing director of Thiel Capital. Outlets have commented on and critiqued the label through 2020.[44][45][46]

    Interesting, if predictable, that “Intellectual Dark Web” was coined by one of Peter Thiel’s minions.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @matt:

    I don’t know- they already seem to be upping the shock value to get readers. “I’m so contrarian I’m sympathetic to Putin!” There’s only so many essays on “cancel culture” one can sell. The NYTimes purchased columns that mentioned “cancel culture” seventy times in the last year. 70. It’s a crowded market with a narrow and limited product.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    I think Rubin’s been reading her BJ again: her latest is telling Dems to ignore the blessed narrative on CRT/wokeness in schools.

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    @NotMax: In all seriousness, I fully understand why it didn’t pass. Most condo owners in Florida are not wealthy people and they cannot afford, even collectively, the kind of maintenance these buildings will require. SuzMom used to live in a condo complex in a very middle-class area and funding even basic projects, like sidewalk grinding, was really difficult. Housing is too damn expensive in this country.

    I am not comfortable in high-rise buildings, as a rule.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @matt:

    The part that makes me laugh is them sneering at people who didn’t know anything about Ukraine sympathizing with Ukraine. None of these people are experts in anything- they’re all generalists. They opine CONSTANTLY on things they know nothing about. At least “sympathy” is an authentic emotion instead of fake, shallow expertise in a subject area.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    The Atlantic featured the whiny screed of some woman I’d never heard of (journalist and author) who picked THIS WEEK to step out from the shadows of self-censorship to declare regret for not expressing pity for the Stanford rapist when that was topical. She vowed to have “an honest conversation with the world” henceforth, professional blowback be damned. The self-importance is just astounding.

    There’s always shit going on in the world, but this woman’s meeping was particularly irritating in the context of maternity hospitals being bombed and people who are actually brave putting their lives on the line to protect their democracy. It’s a species of “whataboutism” I suppose, but their silence in the face of actual government censorship in red states here at home and self-pity in the context of indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations abroad increases my contempt for the creatures.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Yay. I do think they read her. I have no proof of this but I suspect they do.

    Full-on defense of public schools. No one needs to be scared of it. Just rip them to shreds.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Oh, Litlebrit, I’m very distressed to learn about this. You most certainly have every tot and pear at my disposal, and I can find more. Is there some way a front-pager could contact your DH or a trusted friend to let us know your progress until you’re back at the keyboard? Do know that we’ll all be thinking of you with warm and optimistic wishes. Hugs.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The self-importance is just astounding.

    I have an idea. What if they just let college students figure out the culture at colleges? Music, comedy, social norms – the whole thing. What if they just loosed up a little on their death grip of control and allowed 20 year olds to be 20 year olds?
    They could be middle aged! It’ll work out great.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Suzanne:

    All civil rights protests must look like the civil rights protests I am accustomed to, which are the ones I saw on that film as a freshman in high school where the preacher walked across the bridge wearing a suit. Forever. That’s the single definition of a legitimate civil rights protest- my personal formative experience with that phrase.

    They’re insufferable. Let it go. It’ll be fine.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You just KNOW that in a few days (prolly in Sunday’s garden thread) someone is going to say “Haven’t seen Ozark for a while. Wonder if he’s okay.”  And then someone(s) else will chime in with “I’m really worried about OH.” “He always comments in the garden threads.” “Maybe Anne Laurie could send him an email.” “This place just wouldn’t be the same without him. But it’s odd he hasn’t even checked in.” “Does anyone know Ozark in real life? Maybe give him a call, you know, just to check.”

    You know that’s going to happen.

    Seriously, have a fine trip and put lots of grandfatherly love on the new one.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Oh, have fun. What people didn’t tell me about having grandchildren is they remind you of your children, their parents, and those children are gone, replaced with adults.

    “Look who’s back!”

  77. 77.

    germy

    Some people think contrarianism is dumb, but I think the exact opposite.

    — The Red Brown Alliance of "True Leftists™©Ⓡ" ?? (@TruestLeftist) March 15, 2022

  78. 78.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Thanks everyone.  I am going to be putting all my user names and passwords together tomorrow or the next day so hubby can contact people should the worst occur.  Right now I am not going to give in to it (but that could be because I have had a couple of glasses of wine, damn my herpatology doctor is going to be mad tomorrow :)) I am simply grateful that I am here, my home, with my family by my side.  I cannot imagine how I would be going through this in the US and the prospect of bankrupting us with the treatment and leaving my hubby homeless and wifeless.  Hey ho!  I  will face whatever I have to face and you can believe me I will fight like hell.  This tough former Wren is not going to give up.  I have too much to look forward to!

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    Inactions have consequences, dude.

    A husband, father and Air Force captain in Oklahoma is reportedly facing discharge for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

    Cpt. Daniel Knick told TV station KOKH that he and his family stand to lose a lot if that happens, but he isn’t changing his mind. Source

  83. 83.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Glenn Greenwald couldn’t say it better himself:

    From Sky News:

    Putin says Biden comments about him are ‘unacceptable and unforgivable’
    As reported earlier, Joe Biden said for the first time today that he believed Vladimir Putin was a war criminal.

    The Kremlin has now responded, with the Russian leader issuing an angry rebuke to his US counterpart.

    Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin’s spokesman, described Mr Biden’s comments as “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric by the leader of a country from whose bombs hundreds of thousands of people have died,” according to state news agency Ria Novosti.

  84. 84.

    Calouste

    @Kay: I’m surprised Putin didn’t says “woke” three times. That’s the magic incantation these days, is it?

  85. 85.

    Bill Arnold

    ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ == a herd of black sheep. Baaaaah! Most of them trying to be the bellwether. Invisible, much smarter sheepdogs herding them with subtle nudges.

  86. 86.

    Subsole

    There is nothing intellectual about these people and they are far, FAR too whiny to be ‘dark’…

     

    @Suzanne: Seriously. Modern conservatism is just an endless, shrieking temper tantrum by assholes who CANnot get over the fact someone called them assholes for acting like assholes, and people who think they know how to navigate that temper tantrum to grab some scrap of stability or a fleeting measure of petty power.

  90. 90.

    Martin

    Looks like Germany is going all in on banning gas vehicles by 2035. They were partway there, but with some big exemptions. I think that brings the whole of the EU in agreement. That’s a big market and a lot of big automakers taken off the table.

    I know the US doesn’t want to go that route, but if we don’t we’re setting a LOT of US consumers up for a lot of pain. Keep in mind that average new vehicle ownership is 11 years. So those 2022 cars on average will be sold in 2033. People buying cars today really need to consider what the resale market is going to look like then, as well as the ability to get parts, gas station availability, etc. It’s going to take a while for all of this to phase out, but I think people underestimate how expensive things can get in a shrinking market.

  92. 92.

    Gin & Tonic

    Five years ago today I broke my arm. Every year since I celebrated by going skiing, but go whatever reason that didn’t work out today. Maybe I’ll have a cocktail.

  94. 94.

    Subsole

     

     

    @Kay: Yes. The only thing even remotely notable about them is how thoroughly interchangeable they are…

  96. 96.

    debbie

    @Calouste:

    Hey, I saw your post in the last thread. I found the two-part Frontline documentary; it’s called Putin’s Revenge. It doesn’t sound like it was your friend’s work.

  97. 97.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    Cancel cuture people are such a bore. It’s all the same shit. 

    They’re also whiny ass shitstains.

  101. 101.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Calouste:

    I like to think of that fuckface living out the remainder of his life either bleeding out from a sniper round or in a small room in The Hague. Doesn’t matter to me which….

  102. 102.

    Tenar Arha

    @Kay: No. They were probably too busy working for right wing organizations to spy on their campus, or trying to get their professors fired.

  103. 103.

    Subsole

    @Suzanne: What kills me about all of them is that NO ONE is stopping them from living like some Bronze Age throwbacks. Rod Dreher is more than welcome to listen to his own dreary, pompous sermonizing and fuck his gay-hating ass right off to a convent – and leave everyone else out of his hangups.

    But that would deprive him of the sweet, sweet ambrosia of sneering judgementally at the rest of us.

    Dude better hope to God Jesus never comes back, because the mercy of salvation would utterly destroy him.

  104. 104.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Calouste:

    I’ll add this – the targeting by Russian forces has been obscene. There is no care given with regard to the lives of non-combatants, and I’d like to see a study of the ethics of these war crimes be given high priority at the USAWC.

  106. 106.

    debbie

    When Russia sanctioned Canada, it barred leaders from all major federal parties, including conservative leaders.But when Russia sanctioned the U.S., it barred Democratic leaders only. It didn’t name a single GOP leader.The signal couldn’t be clearer.— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 16, 2022

  107. 107.

    zhena gogolia

    I’m glad people are using Vova instead of Vlad. It’s more appropriate and more insulting.

  108. 108.

    Subsole

    @Kay: It’s probably a distinction w/out a difference, but Obama getting reelected is what broke them.

    Everything since has been whitelash against that simple fact.

  110. 110.

    laura

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Wishing you luck and reassuring you that we live in an age of miracles and wonder- and strides in medicine keep being made. Chin up, don’t cancel long planned travel unless/until absolutely necessary. If you do find yourself in the C club, build your team and let them help carry the load. All the Best to you.

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Subsole: He can’t go to a convent.  There are women there who might tempt him.  And a monastery is too full of men who live with men (an you know what that means).  Perhaps one of those beehive things hermits used to live in.

  113. 113.

    Subsole

    @Kay: I was under the impression they went to these places so they would never have to read anything ever again…

  121. 121.

    Cameron

    @NotMax: As far as I can tell, the Florida government is owned by the developers and a few of the other super-rich, so this result is not particularly surprising.

  123. 123.

    Subsole

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    D’oh. You’re right of course.

    He can go perch his self-righteous self on a pillar in the middle of the desert and call himself the High Anchorite of Sheboygan, for all I care.

  125. 125.

    apocalipstick

    @Omnes Omnibus: No, it’s really that one cannot live the life Dreher praises and still gorge oneself on artisanal meats and cheeses. Dude might praise Julian of Norwich, but he not living like that.

  127. 127.

    apocalipstick

    @Omnes Omnibus: No, it’s really that one cannot live the life Dreher praises and still gorge oneself on artisanal meats and cheeses. Dude might praise Julian of Norwich, but he not living like that.

  129. 129.

    Anne Laurie

    @SiubhanDuinne: Interesting, if predictable, that “Intellectual Dark Web” was coined by one of Peter Thiel’s minions.

    You don’t understand — they’re gangsta!  They’re swashbuckling outlaws dealing in ideas as dangerous as the actual dark-web denizens trading drugs, kiddie porn, and murder-for-hire!

    Soft-handed little dudes who wet themselves when a twitter rando makes fun of them, or a college student fails to show the deference to which they feel themselves entitled.

    This is why I regret Peter Thiel giving up on his ‘seasteading’ experiment — never mind dark-skinned pirates taking their cruise ship hostage, these weanlings wouldn’t be able to cope with the lap pool on the upper deck not being kept at the proper temperature.  Imagine how much more fun it would be to mock them, if we knew they were never coming back…

  130. 130.

    HinTN

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    my herpatology doctor

    You’re seeing a snake doctor? ?

    Seriously pulling for that B-9 on your bingo card and tots, pears, and virtual hugs in the pipeline.

  131. 131.

    Subsole

    @Omnes Omnibus: Also, just keeping it 100 here, but he seems so pathologically exercised over homosexuality I’m really not sure the women would be a temptation…

    Not that that would preclude rank misogyny…

  132. 132.

    Dangerman

    By “elites”, they mean everyone with an IQ over room temperature, right?

    I can’t imagine how morally bankrupt you have to be to be rootin for Putin. Because you were asked to wear a mask. Good grief.

  133. 133.

    Anyway

    OT – language question.

    When the presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia meet what language do they use? English?  Russian?  (I guess they’re of the generation where their education included some Russian) Polish?

    Would interpreters be necessary

  134. 134.

    Ohio Mom

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Oh dear. I missed your first report on whatever your symptoms are. I hope you are googling your symptoms and this proposed diagnosis — you can’t advocate for yourself unarmed. And I hope that doctor has an awful sense of humor and is exaggerating those odds.

    In the meantime, sending good thoughts your way.

  135. 135.

    Cameron

    @Suzanne: Just in the last two years, housing/rental prices have gone through the roof in Florida.  The average price of a one-bedroom apartment in the part of the state I live in has gone up to something like $1600/mo.  Suspect when my lease runs out this fall the only way I’m staying here is moving into somebody’s garage, or if I luck out and get into subsidized housing (of which there isn’t a hell of a lot).

  137. 137.

    Baud

    @Dangerman:

    By “elites”, they mean everyone with an IQ over room temperature, right?

     
    No, I think he’s including people like me as well.

  144. 144.

    Subsole

    @Dangerman: By elites they mean anyone who could conceivably mock them for their myriad failings. Or make them feel less special than they think they are.

    Anyone who could possibly expose their ego to the cold bright light of life on Earth.

  146. 146.

    Anne Laurie

    @Subsole: Rod Dreher is more than welcome to listen to his own dreary, pompous sermonizing and fuck his gay-hating ass right off to a convent – and leave everyone else out of his hangups.

    Not a convent, a monastery (the version for men).

    Dreher has actually written, at length, about the ‘Benedictine Option’ — decent Christians getting together, choosing to abandon our Godless modern culture for self-contained communities well away from the rootless cosmopolitan cities.

    Mind you, he’s been talking about the Benedictine Option for at least ten years (he was bitterly disappointed when he met Pope Francis, who had no idea what Dreher was talking about)… and yet, he’s still here, whining about how everybody but him & his donors are WRONG.  Doomed!  Anathema!

  147. 147.

    banditqueen

    @Litlebritdifrnt:  Will be hoping for the best of the best news — it sounds like you have a lot of confidence in your medical team, and that they’ll do everything necessary to maintain your health. Stay strong–and it’s a relief you have the NHS.

  148. 148.

    Subsole

    @Anne Laurie:

    Yeah. Heh. That was quite the goof on my part. Thanks brain.  :)

    Y’know, dude reminds me of all those nazis who went over to Gab to ‘be free of liberal censorship’, then came screaming back to twitter after like, a week, because there were no libs to troll over on gab.

    Same reason Rodimus Minimus would never, ever ever EVER go off and live in holy seclusion – no heathen sinners to sneer at.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    It’s just that it’s self moderating. It moves, by itself, to the middle. “Cancel culture” – the nasty pile ons, the rigidity with language, the overkill- would have evened out and new norms would have evolved that nearly everyone agrees with but these people are such control freaks, such self-appointed guardians of “the culture” that they couldn’t just let that happen.

    The 1619 project is going to stand or fall all by itself. People will either be reading it and teaching it in 20 years or they won’t.

    It would have been fine. They don’t need to police everything.

  154. 154.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Ohio Mom:

    That is the stupid part, I have no symptoms!  Apparently I have had this thing in my lung since 2019 (seen on a cat scan) but they forgot to tell me about it since it was so small they didn;t think it was anything to worry about.  It wasn’t until I had another cat scan in 2021 that they found it was growing and suddenly they are “concerned”.   My “lung cancer” doctor (real title, I kid you not) is not sure that having a biopsy is the best way to go seeing as I have no symptoms!  However the surgeon (who would be doing the biopsy) seems to think that it is.  The great part about it is that I KNOW that none of these doctors have MONEY in their decisions.  They will get paid whether or not I have all this surgery or treatment so I know that they have my welfare at heart and not their bank balances.   Again, I have NO SYMPTOMS, so right now it is a “leave her alone until she has symptoms” (lung cancer doctor) or “we have to know so we can treat her even if it might kill her” (surgeon).  Will wait until I hear from the Lung Cancer Doctor tomorrow to make my decision finally but in any event I am making all  of the preparations I have to to make sure everything is okay for my hubby.  Hey ho!

  156. 156.

    PJ

    @Anyway: There was a video clip that circulated yesterday.  I only heard Zelenskyy talking – he was switching between Ukrainian or Russian (I can’t distinguish between them) and English.  I would guess they also had interpreters there as well (there were a bunch of people around the table.)

  157. 157.

    dmsilev

    @Dangerman:

    By “elites”, they mean everyone with an IQ over room temperature, right?

    295? I’d feel comfortable calling someone with an IQ like that an elite. Or a cheater on IQ tests.

    What, am I the only one here who measures temperature in Kelvins?

  158. 158.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Germany is going all in on banning gas vehicles by 2035

    Looks like I picked the wrong week to buy a coal fired Pinto

  160. 160.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    They don’t need to police everything.

    No, but if they do police, they really ought to understand exactly what it is they’re policing.

  162. 162.

    Villago Delenda Est

    People like Bari Weissssssssss (imagine Tim Curry saying this) are a cancer on the body politic.

  164. 164.

    Ruckus

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    I’ve been told that word. It is not fun. I have no idea what it’s like to be shot, but I do know what it’s like to be shot at very, very closely, even if unintentionally. And once intentionally.

    Hearing that word feels a hell of a lot like that. Not trying to scare you, just my experience. In today’s world success is rather high in this area.

    Best of luck with everything.

  165. 165.

    Kent

    Speaking of our conservative brain trust, this story just popped on our local news today.  For those who don’t remember, Matt Shea was a state legislator from eastern WA who was caught up in right-wing domestic terrorism and calling for a biblical war against liberals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea

    Now he seems to be entangled in some sort of Ukrainian pedophile adoption ring out of Poland.  Predictable.

    https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/mar/16/former-washington-rep-matt-shea-accused-of-domestic-terrorism-in-poland-to-secure-adoptions-for-ukrainian-children/

    Former Washington Rep. Matt Shea, the far-right Republican who was found by a House-commissioned investigation to have planned and participated in domestic terrorism, is in a small town in Poland with more than 60 Ukrainian children, trying to facilitate their adoption in America.

    Shea has said his group helped rescue 62 children and two adult caregivers from an orphanage in Mariupol, the city in southeastern Ukraine that has been bombarded by Russian forces.

    But international agencies say, with the chaos and confusion of war, now is not an appropriate time for international adoptions from Ukraine. And Shea’s presence, and the lack of information surrounding the American group he’s with, has raised concerns among some residents of Kazimierz Dolny, the small Polish town where the children are staying at a hotel-guesthouse.

    “I asked him many times, ‘What are you going to do with these children?’ and he told me that it’s not my business,’” Weronika Ziarnicka, an aide to the mayor of Kazimierz Dolny, said of Shea. “I got the feeling in my gut that something’s wrong with this guy; he didn’t want to tell me his last name.”

  166. 166.

    Barbara

    @Litlebritdifrnt: ​  My understanding is that most of us harbor growths and tumors and whatnot, and it is when they start to grow that they become concerning, because that’s what cancer is, basically, unchecked growth of cells. Getting the biopsy would seem like the right thing to do were it not for the risk you are undergoing just to get it. “No symptoms” can be really confounding, but that’s often how cancer works. Once you get the symptoms, it might be too late to do anything. Best of luck to you and your doctors in making a decision.​

  169. 169.

    zhena gogolia

    @pluky: I can’t put my finger on why, it just seems more low-class. Although one of the people I know with that nickname is actually a prince. But I think that’s just him slumming it.

  170. 170.

    Kent

    @Baud: I assume the thought process is that in the middle of a war zone, who’s going to notice 60 missing kids.

    But then again “thought process” is maybe a generous term for what passes through conservative brain stems these days.

  172. 172.

    Kay

    Zachary Petrizzo
    @ZTPetrizzo
    ·6h
    Today while circling the Beltway, The People’s Convoy became increasingly paranoid over standard commuter cars they believe to be with “antifa.” “Six antifa vehicles! Six antifa vehicles,” a trucker said over the CB radio. “Keep your heads on a swivel!” another trucker yelled.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    Looks like Germany is going all in on banning gas vehicles by 2035.

    Isn’t this the same country whose major car companies cheated on vehicle emissions tests?

    It will be interesting to see how this develops. One thing I’ve heard is that replacement of batteries in electric vehicles is expensive, and that currently (ha) reusing old batteries in used vehicles is difficult. This has to be factored in when you consider the cost and useful life of vehicles.

    I may be totally wrong about all this. But when 2035 rolls around (ha again) I will be curious to see where we are with respect to driverless cars and gas-alternative vehicles.

    ETA. I will also be intensely curious to see what has developed with respect to smartphones and batteries used in our computing devices. Hmm. In fact it will be interesting to see where we are with respect to all battery technologies.

  174. 174.

    Heidi Mom

    @Anne Laurie: That sounds like The Village, a Joaquin Phoenix movie from many years ago.  I saw only the preview, but that was creepy enough.

  176. 176.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Barbara:  Makes sense Barbara, and that is what the surgeon is telling me.  Six months ago they wouldn’t even think about treatment because I was too weak to tolerate it, but now I am much stronger and they think I could.  Hopefully will hear something good from my “lung doctor” in the morning.  (If I can get my arse out of bed that is :))

  178. 178.

    Chris T.

    @Baud:

    Unlike pundits, [an architect or engineer] can be sued for negligence.

    Whereas pundits can be sued for competence, n’est-ce pas?

  179. 179.

    Brachiator

    @Kent:

    Former Washington Rep. Matt Shea, the far-right Republican who was found by a House-commissioned investigation to have planned and participated in domestic terrorism, is in a small town in Poland with more than 60 Ukrainian children, trying to facilitate their adoption in America.

    White babies for sale! Come and get you some white babies.

    What a sleazebag.

  180. 180.

    Cameron

    @Kay: They’re getting nuttier the less attention they get.  I have a bad feeling some innocent drivers are going to get hurt.

  182. 182.

    Kay

    @Cameron:

    I think spotting “antifa” is a mostly harmless road trip game for them, though.

    “I spy with my little eye..”

    Please. It has to be boring as shit.

  183. 183.

    matt

    @Subsole: Dreher is like the Lorax for silent religious fuckheads who are full of bigotry and hatred. He’s paid to do that job.

  184. 184.

    Subsole

    Intellectual Dark Web? Lol more like Intellectual Dim Web!

    Sorry. Had to get it out.

    @debbie: That’s the thing. They DO understand what they’re policing.

    They hate us because we are Americans. And so have a constitutionally protected legal right to not give a damn what they think.

    They hate secularism, basically. They think The Enlightenment was a mistake, and they are going to protect us all from the dangerous mania of Reason. Because the dangerous mania of Reason makes them look like groobers, mainly. Just utterly entrenched powertools.

    That, or Thiel is paying them to collapse civilization because he’s too weak to face his own mortality and limitations.

    Maybe a little of the one and a baker’s of the other.

  185. 185.

    Subsole

    @Kent: Every. Single. Time.

     

    It won’t take him down, but at this point I am waiting to hear about how many kids Abbott trafficked for Cartel donations. Because every accusation is a confession.

  187. 187.

    Brachiator

    @Dangerman:

    By “elites”, they mean everyone with an IQ over room temperature, right?

    Weird. Right wingers used to worship the elite, and honestly still do. And the American dream for some still is to become rich enough that they too can at least join the money elite, even if they never belong to the cultural elite.

    These people hate that some of the elite have decided to side with Negroes and other despised groups. They cannot abide betrayal. Not can they admit their own bigotry and hypocrisy.

    I am so old that I can remember the early 60s, when smooth voiced bigots like William F Buckley Jr would explain how it was right and just that the Northern conservative elite support Southern segregationists. It was the natural order of things.

  188. 188.

    Suzanne

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Might I recommend a second (or third) opinion? Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, Sloan Kettering. Whatever’s nearby.

    ETA: Cleveland Clinic has a London location.

  189. 189.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    It is also the country whose car companies are going whole hog on electric cars. VW has a plant, in a city I can’t come close to spelling, that only makes electric cars. Yes that VW, of dieselgate fame.

    Many of the European car companies own a lot of brands and make the same model with different names. Much of Europe is going electric in full hog mode because they don’t have petroleum, they have to import (Russia! as of now they seem to like that a lot less, hard to understand why……) it but they can and do have offshore wind and solar electrical generation. A lot of it. They have a much larger selection of electrics than we do here and they often don’t travel long distances regularly so smaller range electric cars can work there very well. Plus their transit systems are better and more accepted than in many places in the US.

    And actually electric cars need much less work than gas or diesel cars do. A lot less moving parts to wear. Batteries are being worked on in many countries that will possibly make transportation batteries a lot cheaper and with a lot more capacity. The price for batteries has come down rather rapidly and rather far over the last decade and it looks like that trend will continue for a while, which can make electric vehicles cheaper to purchase as well as operate.

  190. 190.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Geminid: While you’re wishing, add a time machine that takes you back to 2016. If only Comey coulda kept his mouth shut….

  192. 192.

    Anne Laurie

    @Kent: I can’t read the article (it’s paywalled, for me), but those hinky ‘adoptions’ are not necessarily about pedophilia.

    If Shea is a Quiverful loon, or is working for / with them, maybe it’s just a matter of collecting undocumented ‘white’ children who can be… indoctrinated.  Beaten, starved, tortured maybe, but for Jeebus.

    As I understand it, there’s a premium for white children because it’s easier for Quiverful parents to pass off a blue-eyed kid with no birth certificate as a member of their extended family — a cousin’s or sibling’s out-of-wedlock baby “generously” brought into their clan.  Social workers & teachers have gotten more suspicious about darker-skinned adoptees who show up at school half-starved or with suspicious bruises… or who don’t show up at all.  Because those interfering gubmint workers don’t understand how Jeebus wants the childen to be beaten into submission to His will…

  193. 193.

    Chris T.

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    My “lung cancer” doctor (real title, I kid you not) is not sure that having a biopsy is the best way to go seeing as I have no symptoms! However the surgeon (who would be doing the biopsy) seems to think that it is.

    Lean towards the Lung Cancer guy. General rule: Surgeons do surgery, so they think surgery is good. (Though at least in your case you don’t have the money motive to worry about too!) You’ll occasionally find a rare surgeon who says “surgery is bad, I do it as a last resort” but mostly you find ones who say “surgery has some risks but I’m so great at it you’ll be fine”.

  195. 195.

    Brachiator

    @Ruckus:

    Many of the European car companies own a lot of brands and make the same model with different names. Much of Europe is going electric in full hog mode because they don’t have petroleum, they have to import (Russia! as of now they seem to like that a lot less, hard to understand why……) it but they can and do have offshore wind and solar electrical generation.

    The issues and constraints vary from country to country. During the pandemic, UK government officials claimed that wind energy was somehow related to unusual peak energy costs. Also, public transportation in the UK is pretty bad, especially in London. And the Conservative government is so bad that they will probably have big problems providing energy for electric vehicles.

    And actually electric cars need much less work than gas or diesel cars do. A lot less moving parts to wear.

    True enough, but this is not the problem. I wonder how easy it is to repair an electric vehicle after a major or even moderate accident.

    And some stories I’ve read about electric vehicles suggest problems with maintaining battery charge capabilities after a few years. Range decreases over time. You would hope that the battery could last as long as the physical vehicle and be replaceable for a reasonable cost.

    And for electric vehicles to be truly viable you need a robust used vehicle market.

    I knew a coworker who had a Honda Civic with 200,000 miles on it. He had done scheduled maintenance, but nothing unreasonably expensive. This is what we should aspire to with respect to alternative fuel vehicles.

  196. 196.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @Litlebritdifrnt:  Cancer sucks and I really, really hope you don’t have it. However, it has been my experience that having a confident surgeon is a good thing, so you seem to be covered there. Best of luck whatever you decide.

  198. 198.

    Kay

    Katie Benner
    @ktbenner
    · 27m
    The big takeaway in the Hunter Biden story is that DOJ has struggled to find evidence to support criminal charges, even after it widened it beyond taxes, putting the department in a tough political bind.

    The US Department of Justice needs to be reformed. They keep stupidly, idiotically believing that conducting partisan investigations is somehow “okay” if the target is a Democrat.
    It’s bad.
    The way to be perceived as not political is to not be political. Bending over backward to prosecute Hunter Biden is not the way. It’s political, just in a slightly different way.
    Why can’t they manage this? Why do they keep putting themselves in a position where they are so terrified that they will be perceived as political that they do blatantly political things?
    They shouldn’t be “struggling to find criminal charges”! Not against anyone! Why is this so hard for them when thousands of local prosecutors manage it without thinking every day?

  199. 199.

    Citizen Alan

    @Subsole:

    That, or Thiel is paying them to collapse civilization because he’s too weak to face his own mortality and limitations.

    I’m sure a lot of it is the 2nd one. I genuinely think most of our older billionaire class consists of people who can’t bear the thought of the human race persisting after they’re dead.

  202. 202.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Geminid:

    Sometimes I wish I were King of the World, and I could put James Comey in a monastery where he had to take a vow of silence.

    You couldn’t have done that six years ago when it would have made a difference?

  204. 204.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    I confess, I’ve not given “The People’s Convoy” even the briefest of thoughts for many days now. Amazed they’re still in D.C.  Not in the least amazed that they’re still paranoid liars.

  207. 207.

    Reverse tool order

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I hear you. Going from a sample size of zero to one is fraught when you are the sample making the tradeoffs.

    Repurposing an old joke, you are committed whereas the docs are merely involved. However they each have a larger sample to work from. Can they thrash it out together with you maybe for the better?

    Earlier today I asked two of my docs to talk over opposing views on something more minor than you face. (I’ve a variety of contending subsystems.) May you reach a satisfactory resolution.

  208. 208.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    Like it or not, think I’m pinko environmental scum or not, we can not continue to burn the amount of stuff we do. We are running out of the relatively easy to get stuff in many countries or they don’t have enough stuff to burn under their countries or it’s Russian oil, which at the moment no one even wants or should want to buy. And it isn’t going to get cheaper over time as there is less and less of it. We have been burning stuff from underground for some time now and it hasn’t done us any good whatsoever. We sort of tried nuclear, which has a few issues, that leaves us with solar, wind and hydro – and electricity. We’ve burned all of Joe Manchin’s coal in WV and that’s worse than oil/natural gas for electrical generation. There likely is no good answer but can we at least try the by far least baddies of the bunch? According to the experts we don’t have a long time to change over and have to at least start now. Electric cars/trucks busses/trains would make a huge difference but that change can’t start till we get going. My answer to you actually is: How’s Tesla doing? Horrible? Yeah I don’t think so. Sure we have to have places to charge them but here in CA we aren’t doing bad. Other states possibly might be as good and remember if you have a garage or even a driveway a 220V charger takes a while but plug it in when you get home and in the morning you’ve got full range. Which few people ever drive in a day. Sure your electric bill will go up but your much larger gasoline bill will be non existent.

    I remember my mom’s car when I was born. 1947 Ford sedan, olive drab, 3 on the column, I’d bet good money it was army surplus. Every 10K miles dad had to do a valve and ring job on that. Now of course we don’t have to do that but electric cars have far, far less maintenance than current gas/diesel, the batteries can have second lives as home battery walls and if you have solar on your roof, a home  battery and an electric car you might just not have to have much of an electric bill and no gas bill whatsoever.

  211. 211.

    Brachiator

    @Ruckus:

    Like it or not, think I’m pinko environmental scum or not, we can not continue to burn the amount of stuff we do.

    We don’t disagree on the future of electric vehicles. But they cannot succeed unless they are viable, and there is a robust new and used car market.

    Also, used batteries will have no value if they cannot hold a charge or only have a limited useful life.

    Obviously people are working on these and other issues. Bottom line is that there are practical issues that have to be dealt with.

  213. 213.

    Chris T.

    @Brachiator:

    Also, used batteries will have no value if they cannot hold a charge or only have a limited useful life.

    FWIW, my 3 year old EV still has its original claimed range, more or less (original “full” range 235 miles; full today was 231 miles). I drive less than most though, as I’m only at 11k miles for 3 years.

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