It may be a bold generalization but if we are reading this kind of content we may not know very many people who are ignorant and deluded *unwillingly*
some people beg for NYPost or Fox nasty content and that’s why they now have competitors like newsmax.
We may be surprised by how many young men, well to do women, and men are embarrassed and ashamed to admit they will vote Trump, but will do so. No hats no lawn signs because they know that what they are doing is morally unsavory but advantageous to their lifestyle and their preference to see elections as pageants or sports competitions where you root for your team/ champion no matter how flawed the team or the idol is.
I now see vegetarian yoga pacifists voting against their beliefs because of either post pandemic trauma or post October 7th trauma. People who I’ve gone with on spiritual retreats for the last 15 years blocking and unfollowing on social media when they see someone objecting to the destruction of Gaza.
We are in grave danger because there is a whole segment of what was a centrist and progressive population voting very differently than how they normally would.
I totally agree with you. The situation feels lost. I don't understand how these people don't see when it comes to the planetary ecology that any vote for any Republican is accelerating doom. People have become so incredibly short-term in their thinking. I have no idea what to do that can be truly helpful. Canvasing door to door in Pennsylvania perhaps. But I also don't know if I am going to be very convincing to anyone who is on the MAGA train at this point.
People (like my own beloved sister) are locked in information silos replete with echo chambers of cognitive dissonance when it comes to supporting Trump (or not voting). It’s maddening. I admire your persistence. Please take care of yourself in all this.
But this is all bullshit. This is just part of the technique of mind control. You just throw back at the opponent everything you do which makes it incredibly tiring to fight back. The people are so stupid to not see through this. There is nothing good about dictatorship. Nothing.
It is not my intention to sound mean (and apologies if I do), but in my experience within these circles ("vegetarian yoga pacifists"), so many are a combination of naive and dissociated--prone to some really magical thinking, and in real need of more "chopping wood and carrying water" instead of more spiritual-alternative-whatever.
This is so true on both sides. I’m seeing typically Republican friends go for Kamala, and women who normally vote Democrat going for Trump because they’re still mad the democrats closed down schools for their kids during Covid.
Thank you. I am tracking 100% with you on this topic. I am so saddened because most of my old friends/family fell into the delusion of normalcy and if I bring up concerns of the horrors which may unfold under Trump, I get minimized and painted as just as extreme as MAGA, or a "doomer, living in fear" with the old "no, no, he's all talk, he won't really do those horrible things, this is America ...". I noticed this theme of the delusion of normalcy became solidified in 2020. This is probably not a popular comment to make here, but a little secret the public will not accept - it is NOT ok to get Covid reinfections for the rest of your life. It changes your brain and cognitive abilities and may be contributing to the mass delusion and acceptance of lies. Regardless, after Covid when everyone desperately jumped on the "back to normal" bandwagon, I found people so desperate for "normal", you were not allowed to discuss Covid, the Russian War on Ukraine, Israel/Gaza, Trump, Climate Change, etc. .... If you bring these things up, it shatters people's desperate grasp of living their best normal lives. And I agree 100% the Climate crisis is also driving the rise of the Strongman. People's subconscious fears will push them to be drawn to the Con of the Strongman for "safety", unrealizing they have just been duped into compliance to living under a brutal dictatorship. Your last essay title sums up my ongoing state: HIGH ANXIETY!
100% with you, Rob. Thank you for speaking to covid reinfections and damage to the brain through time - lowering of IQ, cognitive function, etc. Also, the myth of normalcy you speak to... it’s like a Black Mirror episode. We’re not allowed to discuss reality because we can’t even agree on what it *is* anymore. Very discombobulating.
I appreciate that comment about Covid--it's bad for you to get again and again and people have literally no idea. It's one of the reasons why I was a life-long Democrat up to 2020 and gradually moved away. One of many reasons, but a big one. This is probably one of the largest failures of public health policy in history, allowing mass infection while public health officials and media have been actively downplaying it for three years. Why? Because it was a cheap, easy 'win' for the biden Administration to say that the pandemic is over. Nothing more, just a cynical use of the public megaphone, while Democrats followed suit and proudly paraded around shouting: we believe in science, unlike those other fascist fundamentalists. But the science is unambiguous: it's bad for you in lots of ways. And it wasn't enough for the Biden administration to pretend that the pandemic was gone, but the real crime is that they dismantled the entire infrastructure that had been set up to track it, fund it, provide medicaid, etc. And by the way, the Biden administration's approach to Covid is nothing short of massive disinformation, so let's keep that in mind when they complain about Russian bots, etc. The whole thing is just so tragic and sad.
But jackman this makes no sense, sorry. Trump threw away the thorough guidelines created for this kind of pandemic and just basically winged it - promoted hydrochlor… whatever which has no proven efficacy. The republicans are pathetic when it comes to aid. Remember Trump tossing a roll of paper towels at Puerto Ricans? I recommend you challenge your own thinking on Covid by watching Debunk the Funk on YouTube where he dissects the arguments of anti vaxers like Robert Malone, Steve Kirsch, Alex Berenson… all these Dubious characters are making tidy fortunes on their positions. The evidence doesn’t hold up.
This has nothing to do with whether Trump handled Covid well. I'm not defending him. He didn't--though the entire infrastructure that Biden dismantled WAS set up under Trump. Rather, this has to do with the science of what Covid does to the body, and it's very clear that it's quite damaging, even if you get mild cases--particularly again and again. It causes immune dysregulation, and can damage many of our organs, and of course lead to Long Covid. It ain't no mild cold. So this is not about whether the vaccines work. It's about the nature of the disease, and it sounds to me like you're unfamiliar with the science that's accumulated over the last three years, which I don't blame you for. Few people are except those studying it, and studiously not picked up by the media. It's been virtually hidden from view under this strange surreal normalization campaign rolled out by our abominable commander in chief and his minions.
Agree 100%. I switched back to Independent. Had only switched to Dem in 2016 to support Bernie and then stuck with it through various election cycles. If this election wasn't about the Union surviving the Confederacy 2.0+Russia, than Biden Admin's failure on Covid alone would have kept me out of this election. If there was one thing Trump actually said that was truthful in his debate with Biden, is that there have been more Covid deaths on Biden's watch, than when Trump was in. The irony is Biden Admin duped the public into believing Covid is "over" and OK to infect yourself over and over again (for the sake of being able to run on it in the election and keep the economy jugging), while it was most likely Long Covid that then took Biden out of the race! No one will talk about it, but his cognitive decline is consistent with Long Covid (what I try to explain to people is if you already have pre-existing issues, in Biden's case maybe he had pre-existing cognitive issues, having multiple Covid infections will exasperate and accelerate those issues). There are literally hundreds of legit medical studies now conducted over the past few years which outline the incredible dangers of Covid. But to the public/gov/media - the problem was/is everything BUT Covid (the vax, the masks, the lockdowns, on and on). It's part of the mind-fuck I did not see coming, especially amongst my own "people". So sad.
Try watching Debunk the Funk - he takes apart the anti vaccine arguments. Biden admin was way better than Trump and we don’t want Republicans in charge when there is any kind of crisis
Thanks, will def watch that. I agree 100% we can't have Trump/Republicans in charge with any crisis. Their entire plan is to dismantle the Government, so there will be no Federal National assistance of any kind. Each State will be on their own during crisis, and Blue States will get punished to make it harder to provide help to people in those states. And Bird Flu has been ramping up in the animal kingdom the past 2 years and jumping to humans, on track to potentially be the next pandemic. If this happens with Trump/GOP in charge - it will be horrific. But as far as Biden Admin goes with Covid, obviously they were "better" than Trump, but after they rolled out the vaccines, they gave up. They should have been pushing for a more effective vax that stops transmission and they should have revamped and supported a national roll out of clean air filtration and far uv light mitigation, but simply gave up with "vax only" approach.
Right on. You're nailing it. The best hope is get out the vote and register new voters. Changing the minds of the leftists and free thinkers who went over to the dark side is hopeless. My instinct tells me they've gone that way, like Russell Brand, out of a desperate thirst for attention born out of some development that has blighted their private life or their mental state. In the early Eighties I turned to Reagan after a rough acid trip and the end of a momentous love affair, seeking an atavistic rock of stability based on some reductive notion of eternal verifies. I woke up from that dark night of the soul, but it took years. I think the oligarchy pretty much has us sewn up in a sack with all their legal machinations, local government populating, media manipulation, and show business. I'm donating to get out the vote and I plan to canvas in Philly. We have a decent chance to stop Trump, a figure so abject that it smacks the gob to consider how cynical (and sadistic) the oligarchy has been to think this was the poison they'd insist we swallow to keep them fat and happy.
keep doing what you're doing here, Daniel. you're a perfectly positioned person to speak to people on the left who are feeling disillusioned in the ways you lay out. thanks for it
Yes. I have traveled to Russia 44 times since 1985. We do not want to live there. I have many Russian friends who tell me each time they have a little hope for an open society and it gets crushed. Those who could leave, left. We do not want that. This election is crucial for Americans and the world. Let’s grow up.
I just read this piece about the intellectual movement represented by Steve Bannon. Daniel, I look forward to your meta-analysis of the momentum within this piece, how it overlaps with your perspective on the election.You'll easily notice that all the brainiacs described here never mention the climate crisis. It doesn't exist for them.
Daniel, While I agree with you entirely, I am thinking in my mind of the people I personally know who fit the frame of those you are most troubled by, leftists who won't vote or view Trump as a possibly ok option. I have to say I don't think your rhetoric will reach them. It tends to sound like a mirror of the tone and fear-based words of the MAGA camp itself. I feel bad saying that, but what you write is not something I would forward to those folks. I'm guessing the folks on this list who will comment, who have argued before for RFK and Trump and such will not be moved.
The million dollar question, right? Well, I went back and re-read your essay and I can't really see a problem there anymore. Maybe mood related. Maybe just recognizing that it's pretty close to impossible to change anyone's mind. But we do need to try. Here's a good tone and content article from Starhawk focused especially on those deserting Harris over Gaza: https://starhawk.substack.com/p/the-moral-dilemma-of-this-moment
Your piece is a good effort, Daniel. Keep it up. Thanks.
Of course ! Anyone concerned about mass illegal immigration is a racist! Anyone who disagrees with the US intelligence- surveillance-disinformation - censorship- complex is under “foreign influence” or must be a Russian bot! Anyone who questions the Ukraine war is a treasonous ”Putin puppet”. When Republicans take big money from donors those donors are all Lex Luthers but when Dems take in billions it’s all clean and above board. Having better relationships, direct communications and improved diplomacy with our foreign adversaries is pure madness and far too dangerous. We certainly cannot risk losing our righteous purity !
Freedom of speech, freedom of thought and dissent as well as anti-war sentiments are all just right wing craziness. Intelligent, educated people know how dangerous all these things are and how they serve the evil agendas of foreign powers! Let’s all get safe and united by believing exactly the same / right things.
Tulsi says it well. If only Harris had some of her intelligence and independence of thought. DNC did the same thing to her they did to Bernie but she had the cojones to get angry and fight back . https://youtube.com/watch?v=7jDkYfZ7Ak4&si=oiDiJdzPgBTHh_U-
I haven’t examined Tulsi in depth. Maybe I will get there. But in this instance it is very simple: one side is saying they intend to end democracy and institute dictatorship with the right to imprison and kill dissenters. Check out The Atlantic’s endorsement of Harris: they say it well. One side wants to continue the rule of law and the other side wants to end it - based on their own declared statements. If you send me your email I will send you Unhumans which Vance thinks is the right plan, which is to do what Franco and Pinochet did to their people. Is this really what you want for your future and our future? Then let’s add the Republican long term denial of climate change and also overall they are the war mongers more than the Dems: the Iraq War, etc. I also feel people’s minds have been corrupted by the dark money constant attacks against the democrats, who are also not great. But when a dictator takes over it can last many decades and leads to accelerated oligarchy. I simply don’t understand what people find appealing about this option?
By the way, Daniel, Charles Eisenstein has given us a Personal update about "leaving politics." Predictably, he's lying through his teeth and pretending he hasn't seen any of the negative criticisms of his recent pieces on substack, including yours presumably:
"I haven’t spent much time engaging the criticism of me online, which I hear has been rather passionate. I haven’t even been reading Substack comments. I apologize to those who have issued sincere public criticism and not gotten a response. It was just a bit too much too handle. Problem is, my tendency is to take every comment in good faith."
What a liar! Every time I think my opinion of him couldn't sink any lower, he puts out another piece of nonsense: "I don't read any of the negative responses so of course I can't possibly answer any of them!" How convenient! He pretends there are no serious rebuttals or refutations of his contentions possible -- he just plain refuses to read any! This is like a child who sticks his fingers in his ears so he doesn't have to hear something he doesn't want to.
Thank you. Passionate words. I've been observing synchronistic mentions of Atlantis from myriad sources. The best from Alexander Sachon, here: https://thewisdomtradition.substack.com/p/atlantis-and-the-origin-of-the-mystery. The story of Atlantis, seen through the lens of a wisdom tradition, reveals tremendous parallels with current events. What we have in the USA is a Constitution which provides an opportunity to steer the ship of state. It requires a lot of time and energy which is routinely siphoned off by myriad obligations and even more distractions. Thanks for urging your readers to vote for Democrats because the Trumplings are playing Russian Roulette with the Nation.
After reading the comments, I just want to add that yes, covid and the "crisis" of lockdowns and mandatory masks or vaccines, sent some libertarian-leaning leftists so far over the edge that they are now on the far right. Weird, but true, the wellness community is definitely a part of this anti-science, anti-government resistance to any kind of public health measures, and they see the Dems as the true enemy of their freedom. The same people are also fearful of climate regulations through carbon budgets that might eventually apply - gasp! - to individuals. Anti-regulation resistors join up with the climate deniers, fossil fuel lobbyists, and the meddlesome billionaires. Yep, too many wellness influencers are on the right, and as Overton shifts, probably far right.
Your philosophical and historical approach to strategic voting is so very helpful. Sure, there are those people who will always vote their principles and never vote for the duopoly. However, that is an indication of either ignorance of how they betray their own interests or an indication of privilege that it just won't happen to them. Despite purists, the rest of us need to unify around a strategic vote for the Dems now, so we can keep on working to make this country live up to its ideals, drop the settler colonialist racist mindset for good, and learn from real patriots, such as climate activists and the protestors who profess their solidarity with Palestine and the Global South. We must support international cooperation on global warming and uphold international laws against genocide, apartheid, and extermination. This is not a sprint but a marathon. Vote the future!
"Decades ago, the Democrats made the terrible mistake of allying themselves with Wall Street and the managerial class, betraying working class people, under Clinton and then Obama."
This isn't a minor detail: this is the very crux of the matter that facilitated the rise of Trump -- and will facilitate the rise of far more extreme Far Right / Alt Right populist-demagogues unless the Democrats issue a true mea culpa, and soon. The betrayal of the working class was pushed even further with the party skullduggery against Bernie Sanders, who was addressing all the same class-related issues as Trump, but in a far more civil, thoughtful, mature and non-demagogic way. The Dems may have dug their own grave by backstabbing the Sanders wing of the party.
The key problem here is that the Alt Right does speak directly to the concerns and sufferings of working class whites (who are now the "deplorables" in the eyes of many blue voters thanks to Hillary's coinage) -- but it constantly tries to tie these concerns to the category of RACE. It insists on linking the problems arising from CLASS to the issue of RACE. The fake science of Race Realism saturates all the books and articles churned out in Alt Right publications (e.g. just look at the odious Richard Hanania, formerly the pseudonymous Richard Hoste -- he's the next generation Charles Murray, only he's far nastier and more spiteful than Murray). If the Dems continue to dismiss these people as the Deplorables the Deplorables will turn wherever they can find a sympathetic ear, even if that is to a card-carrying racist. And the Alt Right's attitude to the entire global south is: "Let them eat cake. We don't care what happens to them. They're a genetic dead end, let them all die off."
I agree except for this: "the rise of far more extreme Far Right / Alt Right populist-demagogue" ... I think we have arrived there with Vance, Heritage, Opus Dei etc... don't think it will get more extreme: This is it.
Look, I have lots of issues with the present Democrats, but the truth is that if Harris came out forcefully against providing more weapons for Israel, or just questioning the policy, I would vote for her in a second. As it is, we're hurtling towards WWIII in a heartbeat and she is openly saying that our commitment to Israel continues to be 'ironclad', just like her feckless, enfeebled mentor. So no, I'm a Jew who is not going to vote for continuing genocide. The obvious retort is, but Trump will too, maybe even more so. And, they say, you will be helping to elect Trump. (Maybe, maybe not. I don't know and you don't either. Yes, Trump helped create the mess we're in, but that doesn't mean he has the political stomach for an unpopular major war in the middle east in the same insane way that Biden evidently does.)
But let me turn this back on the people who are voting for Harris. If a substantial portion of progressive Democrats said they wouldn't vote for Harris because of Israel, guess what? She would be forced to change her policy. It's precisely the willingness of Democrats to pull the lever for her while she's promising continuing genocide that allows them to maintain that posture. If enough Democrats were polling POSITIVELY NO on this issue, that's what would happen.
Look at how corrosive this is. On this chain we're all furious with each other because we see that we're missing an outcome that might be possible if only the other side acted differently. But we all recognize what the right thing to do here is: it's to stop funding and enabling the war in the middle east. The real problem isn't each other. The real problem is our fucking miserable leadership.
I think the Democrats are playing a very ugly cynical game with this war. There's a significant portion of American Jews that would welcome a halt of weapons, or some kind of slamdown of Netanyahu. And there is a terrifically large cohort of young people and progressive democrats and independents who would be radically energized by a change in her position, and would easily outpace the Jews that went over Trump on account of it. Everyone is waiting for a break in the monolithic support Israel recieves. Overwhelmingly, it makes people on the blue side disillusioned and despairing. I think strategically it would be a net gain for them.
But Harris and her team are pretending that she can't do it 'politically'. It's not true. I suspect they won't do it because of their donors and--most tragically--because they're actually OK with the neocon game of rearraging the middle east. I don't think they're actually opposed to what Netanyahu is doing. If the Pentagon was really upset, it would show up somewhere--and it doesn't.
So instead of us sitting here pointing our fingers at our criminally cynical leadership, we're at war with each other, impugning everyone's motives and castigating each other about how we view the world. I'll stick with: I think our leadership sucks.
But I'm also not going to vote for her unless she changes her tune.
Already, as a mental caveat to a potential MAGA led society I embrace the notion that maybe the faster collapse takes a full hold on things, the better . . . the more of Mother Nature and all it provides will perhaps be saved, or a least the impact on her lessened. Short-term thinking (along with our tendency to fall prey to "group think and mass psychosis) is the fatal flaw present in the human species and yet, at this point in our journey circling down the drain, I can't help nurturing the mental salve should Trump win of . . . "OK, let's just get this over with the faster the better." Perhaps this state of affairs will give rise to some positive possibility that we can't imagine at this point.I know for sure, I will turn off the news for good and focus my attention elsewhere and athat in itself will be a very good thing. My girfriend is a news junkie and she has assured me in writing, that she will do the same. We are what we pay attention to. I'm just now imagining the possibilities! Still . . . the odds, so say the professionals who bet on such things, are on Kamala. I hope they are right!
I’ll be surprised if anyone can change their minds at this point. I keep thinking about the analogy, one beast with two heads, like they take turns pushing extreme content until it doesn’t altogether matter which side you pick. They all won, we lost. I will still vote, it just feels like premeditated defeat
Will do. I’ve been speaking with them to understand underlying views. Amazing the amount of them leaning away from Kamala solely because of RFK. I find him super unappealing, but many women are very into his beliefs. I think it stems from worrying about what their kids are eating and worries about rising levels of autism.
Also, some are very swayed by Elon Musk. They feel he is one of the smartest people on earth, so if he’s going for Trump, it must be the right thing to do.
Same with my daughter exactly. RFK is a hero stemming from a report she did on autism in high school. I've up trying to change her mind. The thing is, the only way she'll find out how bad the MAGA crew is is if they win. If they don't she'll forever think they would have been better.
I have known women this and last election who are secretly voting trump. They would never admit it. I hear a lot of people talk about doing financially better under republicans. Yes maybe, they will give you some pocket change by stripping social services like education and parks.
These feel like deeper stories than logic. Archetypes at play; in fact, if I’m able to simplify things down to that level, they are mad at their mothers. They irrationally hate all the top female candidates.
I agree about archetypes at play. I think this explains so much of the deluded automaticity of so many. This is something way beyond rational that has been set in motion.
It may be a bold generalization but if we are reading this kind of content we may not know very many people who are ignorant and deluded *unwillingly*
some people beg for NYPost or Fox nasty content and that’s why they now have competitors like newsmax.
We may be surprised by how many young men, well to do women, and men are embarrassed and ashamed to admit they will vote Trump, but will do so. No hats no lawn signs because they know that what they are doing is morally unsavory but advantageous to their lifestyle and their preference to see elections as pageants or sports competitions where you root for your team/ champion no matter how flawed the team or the idol is.
I now see vegetarian yoga pacifists voting against their beliefs because of either post pandemic trauma or post October 7th trauma. People who I’ve gone with on spiritual retreats for the last 15 years blocking and unfollowing on social media when they see someone objecting to the destruction of Gaza.
We are in grave danger because there is a whole segment of what was a centrist and progressive population voting very differently than how they normally would.
I totally agree with you. The situation feels lost. I don't understand how these people don't see when it comes to the planetary ecology that any vote for any Republican is accelerating doom. People have become so incredibly short-term in their thinking. I have no idea what to do that can be truly helpful. Canvasing door to door in Pennsylvania perhaps. But I also don't know if I am going to be very convincing to anyone who is on the MAGA train at this point.
People (like my own beloved sister) are locked in information silos replete with echo chambers of cognitive dissonance when it comes to supporting Trump (or not voting). It’s maddening. I admire your persistence. Please take care of yourself in all this.
And the silo on the Republican side makes all the same arguments as are made here for Democrats, but with different explanations:
Democrats want the end to democracy, (rigged elections and immigrants)
Democrats want to control your body (mandatory vaccines)
Democrats want to expand petrol state (refusal to frack or go nuclear)
Democrats are pro war. (Look at all the wars they’ve done.)
Democrats want to manipulate your mind. (Blaming Russia for everything and fake news.)
But this is all bullshit. This is just part of the technique of mind control. You just throw back at the opponent everything you do which makes it incredibly tiring to fight back. The people are so stupid to not see through this. There is nothing good about dictatorship. Nothing.
Totally, just interesting how the party’s rhetoric mirrors each other.
It is not my intention to sound mean (and apologies if I do), but in my experience within these circles ("vegetarian yoga pacifists"), so many are a combination of naive and dissociated--prone to some really magical thinking, and in real need of more "chopping wood and carrying water" instead of more spiritual-alternative-whatever.
This is so true on both sides. I’m seeing typically Republican friends go for Kamala, and women who normally vote Democrat going for Trump because they’re still mad the democrats closed down schools for their kids during Covid.
Thank you. I am tracking 100% with you on this topic. I am so saddened because most of my old friends/family fell into the delusion of normalcy and if I bring up concerns of the horrors which may unfold under Trump, I get minimized and painted as just as extreme as MAGA, or a "doomer, living in fear" with the old "no, no, he's all talk, he won't really do those horrible things, this is America ...". I noticed this theme of the delusion of normalcy became solidified in 2020. This is probably not a popular comment to make here, but a little secret the public will not accept - it is NOT ok to get Covid reinfections for the rest of your life. It changes your brain and cognitive abilities and may be contributing to the mass delusion and acceptance of lies. Regardless, after Covid when everyone desperately jumped on the "back to normal" bandwagon, I found people so desperate for "normal", you were not allowed to discuss Covid, the Russian War on Ukraine, Israel/Gaza, Trump, Climate Change, etc. .... If you bring these things up, it shatters people's desperate grasp of living their best normal lives. And I agree 100% the Climate crisis is also driving the rise of the Strongman. People's subconscious fears will push them to be drawn to the Con of the Strongman for "safety", unrealizing they have just been duped into compliance to living under a brutal dictatorship. Your last essay title sums up my ongoing state: HIGH ANXIETY!
100% with you, Rob. Thank you for speaking to covid reinfections and damage to the brain through time - lowering of IQ, cognitive function, etc. Also, the myth of normalcy you speak to... it’s like a Black Mirror episode. We’re not allowed to discuss reality because we can’t even agree on what it *is* anymore. Very discombobulating.
100%!!!
I appreciate that comment about Covid--it's bad for you to get again and again and people have literally no idea. It's one of the reasons why I was a life-long Democrat up to 2020 and gradually moved away. One of many reasons, but a big one. This is probably one of the largest failures of public health policy in history, allowing mass infection while public health officials and media have been actively downplaying it for three years. Why? Because it was a cheap, easy 'win' for the biden Administration to say that the pandemic is over. Nothing more, just a cynical use of the public megaphone, while Democrats followed suit and proudly paraded around shouting: we believe in science, unlike those other fascist fundamentalists. But the science is unambiguous: it's bad for you in lots of ways. And it wasn't enough for the Biden administration to pretend that the pandemic was gone, but the real crime is that they dismantled the entire infrastructure that had been set up to track it, fund it, provide medicaid, etc. And by the way, the Biden administration's approach to Covid is nothing short of massive disinformation, so let's keep that in mind when they complain about Russian bots, etc. The whole thing is just so tragic and sad.
But jackman this makes no sense, sorry. Trump threw away the thorough guidelines created for this kind of pandemic and just basically winged it - promoted hydrochlor… whatever which has no proven efficacy. The republicans are pathetic when it comes to aid. Remember Trump tossing a roll of paper towels at Puerto Ricans? I recommend you challenge your own thinking on Covid by watching Debunk the Funk on YouTube where he dissects the arguments of anti vaxers like Robert Malone, Steve Kirsch, Alex Berenson… all these Dubious characters are making tidy fortunes on their positions. The evidence doesn’t hold up.
This has nothing to do with whether Trump handled Covid well. I'm not defending him. He didn't--though the entire infrastructure that Biden dismantled WAS set up under Trump. Rather, this has to do with the science of what Covid does to the body, and it's very clear that it's quite damaging, even if you get mild cases--particularly again and again. It causes immune dysregulation, and can damage many of our organs, and of course lead to Long Covid. It ain't no mild cold. So this is not about whether the vaccines work. It's about the nature of the disease, and it sounds to me like you're unfamiliar with the science that's accumulated over the last three years, which I don't blame you for. Few people are except those studying it, and studiously not picked up by the media. It's been virtually hidden from view under this strange surreal normalization campaign rolled out by our abominable commander in chief and his minions.
Agree 100%. I switched back to Independent. Had only switched to Dem in 2016 to support Bernie and then stuck with it through various election cycles. If this election wasn't about the Union surviving the Confederacy 2.0+Russia, than Biden Admin's failure on Covid alone would have kept me out of this election. If there was one thing Trump actually said that was truthful in his debate with Biden, is that there have been more Covid deaths on Biden's watch, than when Trump was in. The irony is Biden Admin duped the public into believing Covid is "over" and OK to infect yourself over and over again (for the sake of being able to run on it in the election and keep the economy jugging), while it was most likely Long Covid that then took Biden out of the race! No one will talk about it, but his cognitive decline is consistent with Long Covid (what I try to explain to people is if you already have pre-existing issues, in Biden's case maybe he had pre-existing cognitive issues, having multiple Covid infections will exasperate and accelerate those issues). There are literally hundreds of legit medical studies now conducted over the past few years which outline the incredible dangers of Covid. But to the public/gov/media - the problem was/is everything BUT Covid (the vax, the masks, the lockdowns, on and on). It's part of the mind-fuck I did not see coming, especially amongst my own "people". So sad.
Try watching Debunk the Funk - he takes apart the anti vaccine arguments. Biden admin was way better than Trump and we don’t want Republicans in charge when there is any kind of crisis
Thanks, will def watch that. I agree 100% we can't have Trump/Republicans in charge with any crisis. Their entire plan is to dismantle the Government, so there will be no Federal National assistance of any kind. Each State will be on their own during crisis, and Blue States will get punished to make it harder to provide help to people in those states. And Bird Flu has been ramping up in the animal kingdom the past 2 years and jumping to humans, on track to potentially be the next pandemic. If this happens with Trump/GOP in charge - it will be horrific. But as far as Biden Admin goes with Covid, obviously they were "better" than Trump, but after they rolled out the vaccines, they gave up. They should have been pushing for a more effective vax that stops transmission and they should have revamped and supported a national roll out of clean air filtration and far uv light mitigation, but simply gave up with "vax only" approach.
Right on. You're nailing it. The best hope is get out the vote and register new voters. Changing the minds of the leftists and free thinkers who went over to the dark side is hopeless. My instinct tells me they've gone that way, like Russell Brand, out of a desperate thirst for attention born out of some development that has blighted their private life or their mental state. In the early Eighties I turned to Reagan after a rough acid trip and the end of a momentous love affair, seeking an atavistic rock of stability based on some reductive notion of eternal verifies. I woke up from that dark night of the soul, but it took years. I think the oligarchy pretty much has us sewn up in a sack with all their legal machinations, local government populating, media manipulation, and show business. I'm donating to get out the vote and I plan to canvas in Philly. We have a decent chance to stop Trump, a figure so abject that it smacks the gob to consider how cynical (and sadistic) the oligarchy has been to think this was the poison they'd insist we swallow to keep them fat and happy.
keep doing what you're doing here, Daniel. you're a perfectly positioned person to speak to people on the left who are feeling disillusioned in the ways you lay out. thanks for it
Yes. I have traveled to Russia 44 times since 1985. We do not want to live there. I have many Russian friends who tell me each time they have a little hope for an open society and it gets crushed. Those who could leave, left. We do not want that. This election is crucial for Americans and the world. Let’s grow up.
Exactly
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-nato-world-order
I just read this piece about the intellectual movement represented by Steve Bannon. Daniel, I look forward to your meta-analysis of the momentum within this piece, how it overlaps with your perspective on the election.You'll easily notice that all the brainiacs described here never mention the climate crisis. It doesn't exist for them.
I will check it out but not today
Daniel, While I agree with you entirely, I am thinking in my mind of the people I personally know who fit the frame of those you are most troubled by, leftists who won't vote or view Trump as a possibly ok option. I have to say I don't think your rhetoric will reach them. It tends to sound like a mirror of the tone and fear-based words of the MAGA camp itself. I feel bad saying that, but what you write is not something I would forward to those folks. I'm guessing the folks on this list who will comment, who have argued before for RFK and Trump and such will not be moved.
I appreciate the well meaning criticism. What tone do you think will work better?
The million dollar question, right? Well, I went back and re-read your essay and I can't really see a problem there anymore. Maybe mood related. Maybe just recognizing that it's pretty close to impossible to change anyone's mind. But we do need to try. Here's a good tone and content article from Starhawk focused especially on those deserting Harris over Gaza: https://starhawk.substack.com/p/the-moral-dilemma-of-this-moment
Your piece is a good effort, Daniel. Keep it up. Thanks.
Thank you , dear Daniel, for articulating so strongly what many of us are thinking and brooding over. May sanity prevail!
Of course ! Anyone concerned about mass illegal immigration is a racist! Anyone who disagrees with the US intelligence- surveillance-disinformation - censorship- complex is under “foreign influence” or must be a Russian bot! Anyone who questions the Ukraine war is a treasonous ”Putin puppet”. When Republicans take big money from donors those donors are all Lex Luthers but when Dems take in billions it’s all clean and above board. Having better relationships, direct communications and improved diplomacy with our foreign adversaries is pure madness and far too dangerous. We certainly cannot risk losing our righteous purity !
Freedom of speech, freedom of thought and dissent as well as anti-war sentiments are all just right wing craziness. Intelligent, educated people know how dangerous all these things are and how they serve the evil agendas of foreign powers! Let’s all get safe and united by believing exactly the same / right things.
Tulsi says it well. If only Harris had some of her intelligence and independence of thought. DNC did the same thing to her they did to Bernie but she had the cojones to get angry and fight back . https://youtube.com/watch?v=7jDkYfZ7Ak4&si=oiDiJdzPgBTHh_U-
Hi KG,
I haven’t examined Tulsi in depth. Maybe I will get there. But in this instance it is very simple: one side is saying they intend to end democracy and institute dictatorship with the right to imprison and kill dissenters. Check out The Atlantic’s endorsement of Harris: they say it well. One side wants to continue the rule of law and the other side wants to end it - based on their own declared statements. If you send me your email I will send you Unhumans which Vance thinks is the right plan, which is to do what Franco and Pinochet did to their people. Is this really what you want for your future and our future? Then let’s add the Republican long term denial of climate change and also overall they are the war mongers more than the Dems: the Iraq War, etc. I also feel people’s minds have been corrupted by the dark money constant attacks against the democrats, who are also not great. But when a dictator takes over it can last many decades and leads to accelerated oligarchy. I simply don’t understand what people find appealing about this option?
By the way, Daniel, Charles Eisenstein has given us a Personal update about "leaving politics." Predictably, he's lying through his teeth and pretending he hasn't seen any of the negative criticisms of his recent pieces on substack, including yours presumably:
"I haven’t spent much time engaging the criticism of me online, which I hear has been rather passionate. I haven’t even been reading Substack comments. I apologize to those who have issued sincere public criticism and not gotten a response. It was just a bit too much too handle. Problem is, my tendency is to take every comment in good faith."
What a liar! Every time I think my opinion of him couldn't sink any lower, he puts out another piece of nonsense: "I don't read any of the negative responses so of course I can't possibly answer any of them!" How convenient! He pretends there are no serious rebuttals or refutations of his contentions possible -- he just plain refuses to read any! This is like a child who sticks his fingers in his ears so he doesn't have to hear something he doesn't want to.
Thank you. Passionate words. I've been observing synchronistic mentions of Atlantis from myriad sources. The best from Alexander Sachon, here: https://thewisdomtradition.substack.com/p/atlantis-and-the-origin-of-the-mystery. The story of Atlantis, seen through the lens of a wisdom tradition, reveals tremendous parallels with current events. What we have in the USA is a Constitution which provides an opportunity to steer the ship of state. It requires a lot of time and energy which is routinely siphoned off by myriad obligations and even more distractions. Thanks for urging your readers to vote for Democrats because the Trumplings are playing Russian Roulette with the Nation.
After reading the comments, I just want to add that yes, covid and the "crisis" of lockdowns and mandatory masks or vaccines, sent some libertarian-leaning leftists so far over the edge that they are now on the far right. Weird, but true, the wellness community is definitely a part of this anti-science, anti-government resistance to any kind of public health measures, and they see the Dems as the true enemy of their freedom. The same people are also fearful of climate regulations through carbon budgets that might eventually apply - gasp! - to individuals. Anti-regulation resistors join up with the climate deniers, fossil fuel lobbyists, and the meddlesome billionaires. Yep, too many wellness influencers are on the right, and as Overton shifts, probably far right.
Your philosophical and historical approach to strategic voting is so very helpful. Sure, there are those people who will always vote their principles and never vote for the duopoly. However, that is an indication of either ignorance of how they betray their own interests or an indication of privilege that it just won't happen to them. Despite purists, the rest of us need to unify around a strategic vote for the Dems now, so we can keep on working to make this country live up to its ideals, drop the settler colonialist racist mindset for good, and learn from real patriots, such as climate activists and the protestors who profess their solidarity with Palestine and the Global South. We must support international cooperation on global warming and uphold international laws against genocide, apartheid, and extermination. This is not a sprint but a marathon. Vote the future!
"Decades ago, the Democrats made the terrible mistake of allying themselves with Wall Street and the managerial class, betraying working class people, under Clinton and then Obama."
This isn't a minor detail: this is the very crux of the matter that facilitated the rise of Trump -- and will facilitate the rise of far more extreme Far Right / Alt Right populist-demagogues unless the Democrats issue a true mea culpa, and soon. The betrayal of the working class was pushed even further with the party skullduggery against Bernie Sanders, who was addressing all the same class-related issues as Trump, but in a far more civil, thoughtful, mature and non-demagogic way. The Dems may have dug their own grave by backstabbing the Sanders wing of the party.
The key problem here is that the Alt Right does speak directly to the concerns and sufferings of working class whites (who are now the "deplorables" in the eyes of many blue voters thanks to Hillary's coinage) -- but it constantly tries to tie these concerns to the category of RACE. It insists on linking the problems arising from CLASS to the issue of RACE. The fake science of Race Realism saturates all the books and articles churned out in Alt Right publications (e.g. just look at the odious Richard Hanania, formerly the pseudonymous Richard Hoste -- he's the next generation Charles Murray, only he's far nastier and more spiteful than Murray). If the Dems continue to dismiss these people as the Deplorables the Deplorables will turn wherever they can find a sympathetic ear, even if that is to a card-carrying racist. And the Alt Right's attitude to the entire global south is: "Let them eat cake. We don't care what happens to them. They're a genetic dead end, let them all die off."
I agree except for this: "the rise of far more extreme Far Right / Alt Right populist-demagogue" ... I think we have arrived there with Vance, Heritage, Opus Dei etc... don't think it will get more extreme: This is it.
Look, I have lots of issues with the present Democrats, but the truth is that if Harris came out forcefully against providing more weapons for Israel, or just questioning the policy, I would vote for her in a second. As it is, we're hurtling towards WWIII in a heartbeat and she is openly saying that our commitment to Israel continues to be 'ironclad', just like her feckless, enfeebled mentor. So no, I'm a Jew who is not going to vote for continuing genocide. The obvious retort is, but Trump will too, maybe even more so. And, they say, you will be helping to elect Trump. (Maybe, maybe not. I don't know and you don't either. Yes, Trump helped create the mess we're in, but that doesn't mean he has the political stomach for an unpopular major war in the middle east in the same insane way that Biden evidently does.)
But let me turn this back on the people who are voting for Harris. If a substantial portion of progressive Democrats said they wouldn't vote for Harris because of Israel, guess what? She would be forced to change her policy. It's precisely the willingness of Democrats to pull the lever for her while she's promising continuing genocide that allows them to maintain that posture. If enough Democrats were polling POSITIVELY NO on this issue, that's what would happen.
Look at how corrosive this is. On this chain we're all furious with each other because we see that we're missing an outcome that might be possible if only the other side acted differently. But we all recognize what the right thing to do here is: it's to stop funding and enabling the war in the middle east. The real problem isn't each other. The real problem is our fucking miserable leadership.
I think the Democrats are playing a very ugly cynical game with this war. There's a significant portion of American Jews that would welcome a halt of weapons, or some kind of slamdown of Netanyahu. And there is a terrifically large cohort of young people and progressive democrats and independents who would be radically energized by a change in her position, and would easily outpace the Jews that went over Trump on account of it. Everyone is waiting for a break in the monolithic support Israel recieves. Overwhelmingly, it makes people on the blue side disillusioned and despairing. I think strategically it would be a net gain for them.
But Harris and her team are pretending that she can't do it 'politically'. It's not true. I suspect they won't do it because of their donors and--most tragically--because they're actually OK with the neocon game of rearraging the middle east. I don't think they're actually opposed to what Netanyahu is doing. If the Pentagon was really upset, it would show up somewhere--and it doesn't.
So instead of us sitting here pointing our fingers at our criminally cynical leadership, we're at war with each other, impugning everyone's motives and castigating each other about how we view the world. I'll stick with: I think our leadership sucks.
But I'm also not going to vote for her unless she changes her tune.
Already, as a mental caveat to a potential MAGA led society I embrace the notion that maybe the faster collapse takes a full hold on things, the better . . . the more of Mother Nature and all it provides will perhaps be saved, or a least the impact on her lessened. Short-term thinking (along with our tendency to fall prey to "group think and mass psychosis) is the fatal flaw present in the human species and yet, at this point in our journey circling down the drain, I can't help nurturing the mental salve should Trump win of . . . "OK, let's just get this over with the faster the better." Perhaps this state of affairs will give rise to some positive possibility that we can't imagine at this point.I know for sure, I will turn off the news for good and focus my attention elsewhere and athat in itself will be a very good thing. My girfriend is a news junkie and she has assured me in writing, that she will do the same. We are what we pay attention to. I'm just now imagining the possibilities! Still . . . the odds, so say the professionals who bet on such things, are on Kamala. I hope they are right!
I’ll be surprised if anyone can change their minds at this point. I keep thinking about the analogy, one beast with two heads, like they take turns pushing extreme content until it doesn’t altogether matter which side you pick. They all won, we lost. I will still vote, it just feels like premeditated defeat
I know a lot of women in Florida who are on the fence.
Please send them my essays if it would help
Will do. I’ve been speaking with them to understand underlying views. Amazing the amount of them leaning away from Kamala solely because of RFK. I find him super unappealing, but many women are very into his beliefs. I think it stems from worrying about what their kids are eating and worries about rising levels of autism.
Also, some are very swayed by Elon Musk. They feel he is one of the smartest people on earth, so if he’s going for Trump, it must be the right thing to do.
Same with my daughter exactly. RFK is a hero stemming from a report she did on autism in high school. I've up trying to change her mind. The thing is, the only way she'll find out how bad the MAGA crew is is if they win. If they don't she'll forever think they would have been better.
I have known women this and last election who are secretly voting trump. They would never admit it. I hear a lot of people talk about doing financially better under republicans. Yes maybe, they will give you some pocket change by stripping social services like education and parks.
It is unbearable that people are so broken and shortsighted
These feel like deeper stories than logic. Archetypes at play; in fact, if I’m able to simplify things down to that level, they are mad at their mothers. They irrationally hate all the top female candidates.
Short term thinking is the fatal flaw of the human race.
I agree about archetypes at play. I think this explains so much of the deluded automaticity of so many. This is something way beyond rational that has been set in motion.