7 Comments

Truly, when they put me up against the wall, at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing I subscribed to my blog.

Michael Ian, you speak for me, taking my own confused thoughts - and fears - and clarifying them with your intelligence, insight and fine grasp of word-smithing. You get to the heart of the matter, thank you. And - in this particular matter - damn, someone go clone Wilt right fecking now, we need to win this jump ball!

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We are well and truly fucked.

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I am a Canadian. So my interest is both from a hopefully safe zone and an intense fear that my beloved country is only a few steps behind. Unless/until the population reels in the excessive greed of the oligarchs, the excessive religiosity of “Christians”, and the belief that only WE have the moral high ground, we are doomed

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As an aside, Deneen would consider "sociopathic capitalism" part of liberalism--putting one's individual right to property above the welfare of others--and agree that it is much of the reason for social collapse. That is, sociopathic capitalism is the natural and inevitable consequence of liberalism and it's really really bad.

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you're confusing liberalism with liberTARIANism. Libertarians are the" I Me Mine and Fuck you" crows

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Not in the philosophical sense, which is where I think Deneen and our host are having communication issues. What was once known as “classical liberalism,” e.g. John Locke’s work and other Enlightenment authors, was put on steroids and turned into the political movement of libertarianism... perhaps because “liberalism” had been co-opted by the center-left? I’m not sure about the timing there.

At any rate it’s an annoying vocabulary shift that leads to misunderstandings exactly like you and I just had. :)

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Jump ball, indeed.

You wrote: “ Defeating Trump next year will do little to rid America of this threat.”

He is not the only neo-fascist in the country and he is not even a true Christian nationalist; he only courted them to get the keys to the Oval Office and wants them on his side next time.

But, like the new Speaker of the House, there will be millions of true adherents in the voting booth. And they have the extremism to be blind to those unlike them and the power to put their colleagues in office.

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