NYTimes.com: JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman

[John Clark]

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription.

JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman

A MAGA-world celebration of Francisco Franco and Joseph McCarthy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/opinion/jd-vance-fascism-unhumans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A04.azyl.iqyleuISpgS4&smid=em-share

[Terren Suydam]

Wow. Vance lends a supportive blurb to a book that says that democracy is a failure and needs to be replaced by an authoritarian regime. This is nakedly un-American. I can't believe anyone who isn't an extremist can support that.  But extremism is mainstream on the right now, and this blurb is an example of how those on the right are no longer paying any price for saying the quiet things out loud, and the overton window for this kind of talk is continuing to shift.

And as evidence for how little truth means on the right, a common refrain at Trump rallies is that voting to keep the left in power will spell the end of democracy. They are in the business of saying whatever people want to hear and planting ideas that spread hatred and division, in order to attain and stay in power. That exists on the extreme left too, but again, it's not mainstream.

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[John Clark]

On Tue, Aug 6, 2024 at 10:12 AM Terren Suydam <terren...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Wow. Vance lends a supportive blurb to a book that says that democracy is a failure and needs to be replaced by an authoritarian regime. This is nakedly un-American. I can't believe anyone who isn't an extremist can support that.  But extremism is mainstream on the right now, and this blurb is an example of how those on the right are no longer paying any price for saying the quiet things out loud, and the overton window for this kind of talk is continuing to shift.

And as evidence for how little truth means on the right, a common refrain at Trump rallies is that voting to keep the left in power will spell the end of democracy. They are in the business of saying whatever people want to hear and planting ideas that spread hatred and division, in order to attain and stay in power. That exists on the extreme left too, but again, it's not mainstream.

I agree with every word you wrote, however you criticize Trump so you should prepare yourself for a furious attack by Will Steinberg directed at you; at least that has been my experience whenever I implied that Trump was somewhat less than perfect.

 

John K Clark

 

[Will Steinberg]

It’s exactly like I said, if I try to explain why people like Trump, or why they are disenchanted with the left (I am the latter but not the former btw), John thinks it means I have a boner for Trump.  That kind of loyalty test is scary and authoritarian.  It’s what the right has been doing for a while; now the left is catching up because I guess one party obsessed with ideological purity wasn’t enough.

I could sit here and criticize Trump but I wouldn’t be saying anything that isn’t already said on 90% of news outlets every day over and over.  I could criticize the right but I wouldn’t be saying anything that hasn’t been said for the past 50 years.  The extreme right should be held to task for their insanity but the discourse doesn’t require much evolution.  On the other hand, the insane and scary shit the left is pulling is comparatively new, and it deserves to be criticized, just like the burgeoning discourse around criticism of the American right in the later half of the 20th century.

Here is a fun game: which irrelevant sentence in this post will John hone in on and gravely misinterpret?  It could even be this one!

Like I have said in the past, the way John reacts to criticism of the left, writ large, is why demagogues like Trump have gained so much power in the past decade.  If you were smart you’d listen and try to course correct because (as I have also said in the past) if the left doesn’t get its shit together then the next Trump is going to be a lot worse.

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[John Clark]

On Tue, Aug 6, 2024 at 11:23 AM Will Steinberg <steinbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Here is a fun game: which irrelevant sentence in this post will John hone in on and gravely misinterpret?  It could even be this one!

THAT'S A BINGO! Let's play that game. 

> I could sit here and criticize Trump but I wouldn’t be saying anything that isn’t already said on 90% of news outlets every day over and over. 

So instead you sit here and criticize anybody who criticizes Trump every day over and over again like a broken record.  

> Like I have said in the past, the way John reacts to criticism of the left, writ large, is why demagogues like Trump have gained so much power in the past decade. 

I have absolutely no objection to criticisms of the extreme left of the Democratic Party, they're fools and they deserve criticism, and I've done plenty of it myself. My objection is with your condemnation of *me* whenever I dare to criticize Trump. And, using nearly identical language every time, you've been whining about that over and over again for nearly a decade, and it's starting to get a little old.   

> If you were smart you’d listen and try to course correct

Course correct? You expect me to diagnose and correct all the imperfections in American society in the 90 days we have till the election? I hate to disillusion you but I am not a miracle worker and neither are you. A miracle is just not going to happen, but maybe just maybe a micro-miracle could happen, Donald Trump might be defeated in November.  If Harris becomes president will that turn America into a heaven on earth? No, you will still find plenty of things to whine about. If Harris becomes president will that prevent hell on earth? Yes.

John K Clark