Said Gavin Newsom, interviewed by Ezra Klein, in "The Contradictions of Gavin Newsom" (NYT)(audio and transcript at Podscribe, here). Kirk had been a guest on Newsom's podcast, and Klein wanted to know what Newsom had learned from Kirk.
Instead of taking on Klein's idea that the right does offer solutions, Newsom seized on that last word —Christianity — and tumbled into personal storytelling mode:
Christianity is a big part. That was also telling. I lazily said, “Jesus!” and he got offended. And then I said it again, and I realized: Boy, I really am offending him now. Forgive me. I didn’t understand how deeply held his faith was and how much of an organizing principle it was for him, as well.
Why the hell wouldn't you understand that? Why would you suddenly understand because he took offense at your using the name Jesus as an expletive? This seems incredibly obtuse, but Newsom seems to think it's a lighthearted story.
And how these rallies and everything — that’s interesting. Just that merger in terms of creating community, a sense of belonging, meaning, identity — it’s hard to break.
Klein prompts: "I mean, he was trying to build a new Christian right."
Yes, and Trump understands that. It gives people meaning and purpose. It’s powerful. I haven’t been to a Bernie rally necessarily, but it seems not dissimilar. Even more, there’s a religious construct to it. That’s powerful. Faith, community, belonging — we’re desperate for that. And those are universal. Those are not right and left.
Another Klein prompt: "Are you religious or spiritual at all?" Newsom is "spiritual." I laughed out loud when I heard that, but Newsom proceeded to develop the idea in a way that seemed pretty decent to me, because it was connected to Catholicism rather than mere Californianism:
Yes, spiritual, probably, more than religious. As my dad would say: I went to Catholic schools and went to a Jesuit university — I’m a Catholic of the distant kind. I’ll go to church on Christmas. I’m one of those. But I feel a deep connection to my faith beyond that in a spiritual sense. And a Jesuit upbringing really has defined me. St. Francis is our patron saint in San Francisco: “Many parts, one body.” When one part suffers, we all suffer. This notion of social justice, racial justice, economic justice is deeply ingrained in me. It has really shaped me in that respect. So I don’t dismiss that when I talk to someone like Charlie. I respect that deeply. I admire that.
At this point and without a Klein prompt, Newsom gets back to the problem of the nihilism of the young, which was what he was about to explore when Klein pushed him to recognize the right's proffered solutions to problems. Newsom now gets back to his topic: unsolved problems.
Look, I think there are a lot of grievances there. But there are also a lot of grievances I have in this space: that my party has completely neglected this space, that we haven’t been organizing the campuses. We haven’t been organizing young men. We haven’t been addressing their societal screams, their concerns. Their suicide rate — four times that of women. Their dropout rates. Their depths of despair. We have men who are suffering, and it’s hurting women. Any mother understands this.
Most politicians, having come that far, would switch from outlining the problems to claiming that he's got the solutions, but Newsom doesn't do that. He talks about his own son's interest in Charlie Kirk:
I’ve got two boys, and one of them, as you know if you listened to that podcast, was so excited Charlie Kirk was coming on because his algorithms are saying that Andrew Tate is innocent, and this guy Jordan Peterson is an unbelievable thought leader up in Canada, and Joe Rogan is the best. And Charlie Kirk — you really need to get to know him, Dad. I started to wake up to this reality that the Democratic Party needs to wake up to. And that’s, again, the entry into why I did this podcast and had those folks on as first guests.
Newsom never purported to have any solutions to the problems. He seems only to want to display himself as a person interested in understanding the problems. He's at the information-gathering stage. He didn't want to concede that Kirk was offering solutions. He seems to want us to picture him and Charlie as 2 human beings, sitting back, podcasting, observing all the problems.
***
I took a break in the middle of writing this post to listen to the old Talking Heads song, "No Compassion." You should listen to it. AND: Do you think the song "No Compassion" speaks to the larger problems of this world — social and political problems — or must we regard it as addressing a particular individual with problems — probably a girlfriend of the singer who complains too much and doesn't do anything about solving problems?
Posts
77 comments:
..he was trying to build a new Christian right..
as opposed to a new Muslim left?
of course, according to planetgeo, ALL Muslims are white people;
so What do *i* know?
Of course gov Greasy slithered away from answering the hard question. It's what he's been doing his whole slimy career. He personally drove us out of California by his incompetence coupled with the highly efficient CA-DNC that can harvest ballots from every planet in the solar system within the specified voting period (so they say).
Newsom’s a walking, talking, opportunistic fraud. He has done much to make Calunicornia increasingly unlivable.
What has been prescribed by the folks promoting MAHA seems straightforward common sense and will help improve the health of Americans.
"Newsom never purported to have any solutions to the problems. He seems only to want to display himself as a person interested in understanding the problems."
Sounds like Newsom lacks testicular fortitude and is doing his best to squeeze solutions from what isn't there. He's ballsy enough to think this will win him the White House.
Ah the revival of the classical Hillary! "listening tour."
And like her he won't actually hear, learn or understand anything. It's just a pantomime of listening.
I posted this last night in open.
It belongs here.
Democrats are going to be wishing they had Trump back in 4 years.
Because newsom is evil, he lets his leading cities burn
I am increasingly distrustful of the “spiritual but not religious” response.
Newsom is “Mr. Unsustainability”.
Newsom is a political weather vane. He at least knows what voters want, but he is too self absorbed to actually do anything for them.
narciso said...
Because newsom is evil, he lets his leading cities burn
And he wont let them rebuild their houses afterwards.
I reject any sort of analysis that incudes a derogatory explanation like ‘a closed border’. There was not some sort of planetary crisis demanding the import of ten to twenty million political refugees, it was liberals and globalists recruiting third worlders to come to the United States and we’ll reward you with a US middle class lifestyle- actually better than that because not only will we give you transportation and housing and tuition if you want it and thousands a month on a debit card every month, you’ll have super citizen status where you’re free to commit crimes, run grifts and scams and hell, we’ll let you raid the US Treasury and send it home to the shit hole you came from, all tax and judicial entanglement free..
…so in short, fuck you with your ‘a closed border’ shit…
"...This seems incredibly obtuse, but Newsom seems to think it's a lighthearted story...Most politicians, having come that far, would switch from outlining the problems to claiming that he's got the solutions, but Newsom doesn't do that...."
Yeah, more hair gel. I've come to the conclusion that Newsom is one of those types that holds the camera pretty well, has excellent self-preservational instincts, but is actually not very bright. He doesn't have a solution because he hasn't been told what his solution is, yet.
The only thing Gavin Newsom believes is that he ought to run things. Especially his mouth.
Faith (i.e. logical domain) and religion (i.e. behavioral protocol) are separable but complementary. Who do you trust? What do you do? The right is libertarian. The left is authoritarian.
Labor and environmental arbitrage are myopic solutions with sustainable damage.
Social etc... equivocal justice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Reconcile.
That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. Men and women are equal in rights and complementary in Nature, nature. #HateLovesAbortion is a wicked solution.
Newsom fiddled while Bass strummed a DEIst cacophony and California burned.
Newsom and Adam Schiff are textbook examples of how white men get ahead in California (business | politics). They opportunistically slide between old traditions such as the Blue Dog coalition and Christian schools as they tell their overwhelmingly non-white supporters what they want to hear.
All white men who stick to their guns are forced into exile as ever-losing Republicans. The slippery California white guys have been called "business Democrats" for a long time, and are not much different than Bill Clinton's triangulation.
IMO, this works well in California because politics is a TV/media business there and California is the land of Hollywood image making. Hollywood released "The Candidate" (1972) as a warning tale -- California Democrats took it as a campaign handbook.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068334/
There are basic 2 camps -
1) those who want to hear Charlie Kirk speak. [subset]- those who value free speech, arguments, disagreements, and stretching their paradigms...
&
2) those who want to kill Charlie Kirk.
Gavin is a loyal leftist who kissed Biden's ass. Which isn't really kissing Biden's ass - it was a bow and a kiss signal to the Mob/Controller asses.
Nihilism is engendered by liberal leisure and Diverse dysfunction aided and abetted by progressive corruption. What's in your fitness function?
Gavin is spiritual in his pants.
He'll fuck anyone.
The irony is, it is the left that offers no solutions. How could they when, as Newsom shows here, they can't even recognize a solution when they are presented with one (whether they want to accept that solution or not, it is still a solution).
All Newsom has, all the left has, is general superficial pablum ("we need more organizing") that they try to turn into something by throwing lots of money and regulations at it. When it doesn't work, they throw more money and more regulations. Failure is always countered with "more," never with sober reflection or rethinking of assumptions.
Althouse said...
Why would you suddenly understand because he took offense at your using the name Jesus as an expletive? This seems incredibly obtuse, but Newsom seems to think it's a lighthearted story.
In announcing her run for senator from Texas, Jasmine Crockett introduced herself as "JC."
"Well, so was JC. Wow. You're in good company."
Kirk was neither black nor white nor brown when politically convenient, neither left nor right but remarkably conservative: pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness under a Constitutional framework with Christian inspiration, guidance.
They want to destroy city states countries look at the eviden d their work
Gavin Newsom took office as governor of California in 2019. He was lieutenant governor for eight years before that. He was mayor of San Francisco for seven years before that. He was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for seven years before that. In those twenty-nine years he never managed to come up with any ideas for fixing anything? He was observing for twenty-nine years and came up with diddly? I'm convinced, that's presidential material.
Advice to couples and States: communication and reconciliation with original fidelity.
When does Newsom do actual governoring?
people who identify as "spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) tend to report worse mental health outcomes, including higher rates of anxiety, depression, and neurotic disorders
Source: <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/philosophy-and-therapy/202408/the-mental-health-of-the-spiritual-but-not-religious>Psychology Today</a>
'Where there is no vision; the people perish'
Newsome summary - Men are suffering, women hardest hit.
Also, he seems to think that young men only listened to Kirk, Peterson, Tate or Rogan because the algorithms tell them to. As if the algorithm is some AI force that decides, based on nothing, that this is what young men want to watch.
His shtick is destruction, the prototypical 'san francisco democrat'
Leftist solutions usually or always involve their radical left utopian personal un-scientific emotional bullcrap.
In CO - the rich white leftists in charge are going to ban Natural Gas.
See what i mean.
Spiritual is the novel aether.
"Be a little more selfish,
It might so you some good."
Great song. I never heard that one before.
I think it applies at macro, AND micro levels.
Isn't capitalism based on this? Blind self interest?
“Solutions” don’t occur to Democrats and people of the left unless they are limited to spending other people’s money. Newsom has spent years in government leaving only problems behind. He is the perfect Democrat.
"Ah feeyull yer pain"
Another Talking Heads song comes to mind.
Same as it ever was.
Down with the old boss same as the old boss
Achilles said...
"I posted this last night in open."
That was a great interview. I've met Nick. He's a great guy.
Much of the problem with young men is that young women have been re-programmed to believe that their paramount purpose in life is to pursue "social justice," which is a society in which the state provides lifetime support to women as promised in the "Julia" meme. So women are abandoning their desire to find prospective husbands to take care of them and are instead longing for a full-on socialist government to play that role. Young men are thus deprived of any realistic prospect of earning fulfillment in life by providing for and protecting a wife and children. What's left for them but the pursuit of short-term gratification in its various forms?
The conservative solution to this is not a political one; it's ANTI-political. It says, "Stop trying to change 'society' and instead focus on your own personal and spiritual wellbeing. Find a partner, have children, be a source of strength and support for your friends and family, etc." And of course that message is completely anathema to the left because they are counting on legions of mentally distraught young women to help them claw their way into positions of power.
California seed pods
Immediate solutions offered by Kirk: Jesus Christ, the Constitution, Marriage and Family, borders, meritocracy, etc., and government facilitation, not derogation, of same.
Peachy said...Leftist solutions usually or always involve their radical left utopian personal un-scientific emotional bullcrap.
With the left, the problems may change, but the solutions never do.
Crime poverty hopelessness that is the dem brand
People are hungry for belonging - they’re hungry for an answer.
How about truly following the teachings of Jesus Christ, Gavin? You could sell everything that you have and give it to the poor, and pick up your cross and follow Him.
Whooaaa - wait a minute, let’s not go that far. I’m just looking to get elected.
Surprising to me that while discussing the Bernie rally he sort of admits that politics is a religion for the left. Just as he fails to grasp using Jesus in vain is insulting to Christians, he doesn't grasp how worship of politics equaling worship of God is vile.
Newsum blows up DAMS, presides over massive waste and fraud, and still no train, cannot fix a major roads / Highway 101 after a rock slide is closed for months on end, only cleans up San Fran when the Chinese (the left's owner/ main benefactor) show up.
Oh, Charlie was offering solutions. I won't say I agreed with all of them, but he was for sure offering solutions and alternatives. A lot of them I do agree with, and a few I don't, as I think a few of them get crosswise with the Constitution. But Charlie understood that too, and was careful not to advocate violating the written Constitution.
You can use "algorithms" as an explanation for why young men heard about Charlie Kirk. To explain why they were persuaded by him, you have to dig a little deeper than that.
Mary Beth @8:51, I can't here to say exactly what you said: he dismisses his son's interest in wrongthink as a product of "his algorithms."
I’ll go to church on Christmas. I’m one of those.
Does he always carry hot sauce in his purse too?
Dogma and Pony Show said, "Much of the problem with young men is that young women have been re-programmed to believe that their paramount purpose in life is to pursue "social justice," which is a society in which the state provides lifetime support to women as promised in the "Julia" meme. So women are abandoning their desire to find prospective husbands to take care of them and are instead longing for a full-on socialist government to play that role."
This segment of a Rogan interview with Bret Weinstein is very relevant and worth watching.
"Heather Heying’s observation is brutal: young women especially began treating ideologies the exact way evolution wired them to treat babies. Climate change, social justice, whatever the cause of the month is — it gets defended with literal mama-bear ferocity, the same neurochemistry that once guarded a toddler from predators now guards an abstract idea from wrong think."
I love how Newsome goes after Pete Wilson and Prop 187. Yeah, Pete Wilson that racist, ethnonationalist, who didn't want the state government to pay for illegal aliens.
If elected, Newsome will be our first openly anti-white, anti-American President. Notice I said "openly". He's making it quite clear he wont enforce the immigration laws or keep illegals from voting. Anyone from anywhere in the world will be able to come here and go on welfare, get government services, and vote.
And he'll probably win.
IOW, he'll make the rest of the USA like California. Goodbye America. Hello Brazil.
1. Gavin Newsom demonstrates once again that he doesn’t understand Christianity in the slightest. He has at best a surface acquaintance viewed through a very dusty political filter.
2. He then tries to be half in with the “I’m more spiritual than religious” trope. That sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it.
3.Great post at 9:07 D and PS.
Newsom's foolishness and failure are key to his nomination for President by the Democrats, but he's got a lot of competition from similarly accomplished performers in the party.
Someone should ask Klein why he thinks Jews can have a country like Israel, but Christians can't have the United States.
Calling Gavin Newsom "incredibly obtuse" is cutting that narcissistic twit way too much slack. He's been a walking disaster for California. But he's got incredible hair! What a buffoon.
Too many young women treat the government as their sugar daddy. It’s hard for young men to compete with that.
Also, Charlie Kirk’s last book was released yesterday, “Stop, in the Name of God”. It’s a plea and roadmap for humans to reconnect with each other.
And with God, meant to add…
Newsom emulates a vacuous human machine. Data in, data out, no assimilation or context required. He’s just performing as a leader, but exhibits no care about his actual constituents. He’s also more in love with government than he is any actual human beings. IMHO.
Tariffs, closed border, christian nationalism, crypto bribes, war crimes, open corruption AND worsening dementia.
In the 11 months since Pacific Palisades burned to the ground, how many homes have been rebuilt? For how many homes has rebuilding even begun? Hell, how many permits have even been issued?
How many billions of federal dollars were received from the federal government? How many miles of track have been laid?
The other day I filled up my gas tank here in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley at $2.69 per gallon. Yesterday it was even cheaper, at $2.59. What is the average cost of gas in California?
Should I go on? Let me ask one final question for Gavin Newsom. Given your personal level of graft and corruption, is there any reason besides the “(D)” after your name why you aren’t in jail?
The Left's skinny-boy strut relies on Christians turning the other cheek.
Interchangeable lives under Diversity umbrella ideologies. Disposable lives under the Pro-Choice religion. Redistributive change schemes in regulatory arbitrage and grift. Political congruence and exclusion. A climate of cacophonious change.
Oh, science and seance, too.
Assuming the story is true about Newsom's son's interest in Kirk etal, then Newsom's story about it shows literally no respect for his own son's autonomy.
Gropers as the third leg of social progress.
This time of year is always especially tough on TBH and the resident pagans.
What problems in California has Newsom solved in his 6 years in the governor's mansion? What problems has Newsom solved during his 30 years in elected politics?
Newsom has always sounded like a guy who scored a 960 out of 1600 on the SAT. I suspect he couldn't escape a locked room with a key.
There is nothing dumber than a liberal Catholic, especially one that's been mis-educated by that gaggle of commie fags known as the Jesuits. "One body" refers to the Church, not to the secular republic, dumbass.
Pedo Don always sounded like a guy who got a 300 on the PSAT, so his daddy paid someone to take the SAT for him.
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