not to get panglossian but I think these hearings are helping the Ds become the party of wholesomeness and patriotism and the Rs the party of grievance and pettiness. that would be a disaster watershed moment for the party of Reagan.— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) November 19, 2019
Who's Litman? His Twitter profile says: "Washington Post columnist. Former US Attorney, DOJ official.Teach con law at UCSD and UCLA. Practice law @CCWhistleblower. Exec. prod. & host, @talkingfedspod."
This tweet is such a perfect example of cocooned liberal self-love. If there is one thing that has given me energy from Day 1 of this blog, it is my aversion to cocooned liberal self-love.
The word in that tweet that really gets me is "wholesomeness." Imagine staring at Adam Schiff for hours thinking, oh, that is so reassuring, he's so gosh-darn wholesome.
I like the "panglossian," and not just because I'm elite-educated enough to know what it means. Click my Voltaire tag to check my credibility. But I looked up "panglossian" in the OED anyway, in the hope of finding some good quotes. The best one is from Thomas Hardy (1922): "Should anything of this sort in the following adumbrations seem ‘queer’—should any of them seem to good Panglossians to embody strange and disrespectful conceptions of this best of all possible worlds, I apologize; but cannot help it."
Absorbed in the OED, I looked up "cocoon." When did the silky larva-spun case break out into the butterfly of figurative usage? The OED says1865 (D. Masson Recent Brit. Philos.): "That power of thinking which has involved itself in such a vast cocoon of wonders." And 1870 (J. R. Lowell My Study Windows): "The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts."
ADDED: I clicked on my Voltaire tag and noticed this drawing of a bust of Voltaire (which I scrawled many years ago at the Louvre and blogged in the first year of blogging):
And I got something out of this previously blogged Voltaire quote: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." I don't know if that's patriotic and wholesome, but it's great support for the proposition that Donald Trump does not rule over us. You can totally criticize that guy as much as you want. It's strongly encouraged!
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109 comments:
Two movies, one screen. Litman obviously was watching the other movie than the one that I saw. I don't think his is going to do boffo box office.
If there is one word in that tweet that gets me, it's "wholesomeness." Imagine staring at Adam Schiff for hours thinking, oh, that is so reassuring, he's so gosh-darn wholesome.
:-D Love it!
Imagine staring at Adam Schiff for hours thinking, oh, that is so reassuring, he's so gosh-darn wholesome.
He's trying to stop the Worst President Ever (tm)! What could be more wholesome than that?
Now, shut up, you filthy racist!
It's a mistake to vote for any candidate for any office except for a straight white man.
Every other variety is protected from criticism by liberal race, sex and class doctrine. You're racist, sexist or classist if you dare to criticize them.
So, if you want accountability from public officials, you must vote for straight white men.
I'm surprised Litman's doesn't use a thumbnail of himself with a milk mustache.
... isn't that ironic? Pangloss is gloriously wrong about things? Being Panglossian is not a point in favor of your argument. Also I don't see it. This is still the classic sides on display.
Maybe I understand Litman's excitement.
In Candide's world life was either crushing boredom or abject misery.
The impeachment hearings offer both!
It’s not just two movies- one movie is playing to a packed house of leftie deep staters, rising and falling with every word. The other is playing on an old black and white tv set, cockeyed rabbit ears, playing in the background of people living their lives, garnering only an occasional glance and a shake of the head at the outlandish fiction or to discern when the movie will be over.
This tweet is such a perfect example of cocooned liberal self-love. If there is one thing that has given me energy from Day 1 of this blog, it is my aversion to cocooned liberal self-love.
Althouse,
You are a gem. It is no wonder you have attracted such a loyal following.
Imagine staring at Adam Schiff for hours thinking, oh, that is so reassuring, he's so gosh-darn wholesome.
It's an eye-popping claim.
Wholesome as Stalin. As Patriotic as Mao.
not to get panglossian...
You got it.
Well I had to look up panglossian, guess that is my comeuppance for never having read Voltaire. Whenever someone makes a post or tweet like this, aren't they tacitly conceding the exact opposite? That off the two parties, the Republicans are at least perceived as the patriotic and wholesome group and the Democrats are seen as the group of pettiness and grievance? I would think when using a wistfully hopeful statement like this caution would suggest that you at least find not so negative terms for the bad stuff, because that is basically what you are saying your group currently is.
Also, I don't know many on the left that are overly concerned about appearing patriotic or wholesome. Not to say they are unpatriotic, but that party has more than a few times forgot to have an American flag on stage for a national debate. And as far as wholesome goes, the left has for decades been the group that tries to say it is ok to be different, odd, quirky, or non-traditional.
I think this guy is trying to attach adjectives to the Democrats that most people on the left don't view as rather important adjectives have attached to them.
Also, not initially knowing what panglossian meant, it made me think of deglazing a pan at first glance.
Not to get pedantic, but the "To know who rules over you" quote has quite a colorful and disputed history.
Maybe Littman is a parody of himself like Titania McGrath. Or he could be clinically insane!
On their screens: the new Charlie's Anglea and the new Ghostbusters
On our screens: Toy Story and Clint Eastwood
On college student's screens: PornHub
To amplify Paco Wové's comment, it really says something that a neo-Nazi is closer to the today's truth than the many cocooned liberals.
"...my aversion to cocooned liberal self-love...."
On the contrary, what you mistakenly perceive as "aversion" is simply a failure of humility, of self-discipline, to make the effort to see the evidence as your betters have told you to see it. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity. You preferred to be a lunatic... Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston, errrr, I mean Althouse.
I looked at the old posts. What was the resolution on the pen issue?
Bring back the rats!
This tweet is such a perfect example of cocooned liberal self-love.
Democrats: I think you owe me a solid reason why you’d vote for Trump. The media and I worked our asses off for you to have exciting plans to live in a utopian society and you owe us a reason that makes sense. I want to hear it.
America: Because. When I read your tweets. When I hear you speak. When I look at you lately, I just want to smash your face in.
so,
They're saying that President Trump was responsible for the Lisbon earthquake? in 1755?
or, are they just saying that having President Trump, is the Best of all possible worlds?
I feel sorry for people like this. Cocoons imply metamorphosis. I don't think there are going to be any butterflies when the bubble pops.
Kevin said...
When I look at you lately, I just want to smash your face in
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a news anchor's face - forever
You know that this type of deplorable click bait is posted because it gets you people so panglossian and shit which is very entertaining.
"a boot stamping on a news anchor's face - forever"
One can only hope.
I'm state school educated (University of Toledo for my BBA and JD) so I had to look up panglossian.
If I was his editor, I would have told him to use a different word.
But then, I'm not of the liberal elite.
I had to look it up too:
The name "Pangloss" comes from Greek pan, meaning "all," and glossa, meaning "tongue," suggesting glibness and talkativeness....Merriam-Webster
Is it similar to Commentary's take on Pauline Kael?
The clearest example of the bizarrely naive quality of hermetic liberal provincialism was attributed to the New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael almost 40 years ago..
I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.
The entire twitter thread is one of cocooned self love and intellectual bigotry.
And that's a great Voltaire (despite being state school educated, I've read Voltaire); it's going on my quote list.
I also have to add, I really do not like the sanctimony of the left. No, let's make that stronger, I hate the sanctimony of the left.
So trying to get rid of a duly elected President because you don't like the cut of his jib is patriotic and wholesome?
Come on Civil War II! If we ever needed you it's now!
“Imagine staring at Adam Schiff for hours thinking, oh, that is so reassuring, he's so gosh-darn wholesome.“
As usual, the face of Adam Schiff, the Enemy of the People, had flashed on to the screen. There were hisses here and there among the audience...
According to Wikipedia, the Voltaire quote is "misattributed".
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire#Misattributed
According to Mediaite, it's racist.
https://www.mediaite.com/online/to-learn-who-rules-over-you-viral-voltaire-quote-probably-originated-with-white-supremacist/
So, the lesson, as always, is everything is racist.
Still a great quote, no matter who said it.
I need to get to work, but I suppose I want to say somewhere:
I really don't give a shit what Trump did with Ukraine at this point. I don't care about quid pro quo.
And I really, really don't understand why it's okay for the Obama administration to run a counter intelligence operation involving the Russians against Trump. Like actually seek and get FISA warrants, but Trump sounding off is impeachable.
This hypocrisy is why I don't give a shit about what he did in Ukraine.
For the most part, I could not care less who rules if they would NOT go all panglossian on us.
But no, never a moment's peace. They simply MUST continually hound us and signal their virtue and how all their graft and corruption is somehow for our benefit.
And wholesome. Yeah that's a word that leaps to mind when thinking of them.
Here's Dr Pangloss lecturing his students on the Best of All Possible Worlds in a brilliant production of Bernstein's Candide.
Voltaire quote: "To learn ...
It's not from Voltaire, and, though it might be true in, say, N. Korea, it's completely false in modern Western civilization.
If I was his editor, I would have told him to use a different word.
Yeah, it's like using "quid pro quo." You gotta focus group words like that so our LIVs understand them. Use "bribery" instead.
Panglossian is an understatement. His statement requires a completeness in his detachment from reality that is particularly hard to achieve.
It requires a willful ignorance about polling that shows that the public is 1) tuning out and 2) that those who are tuning in are increasingly supporting the President. It also requires a rejection of concepts such as justice, due process and basic fairness.
The impeachment is a perfect example of "name the man and I will find you the crime". he must consider Lavrenty Beria a prophet and saint. I expect the left to nominate an image of Beria to replace Washington on the one dollar bill.
Litman is one of those Lawfare assholes - the lawyer wing of the "Get Trump" Squad.
Best of All Possible Worlds
That's a primitive version of "It is what it is."
Ann said...
"If there is one word in that tweet that gets me, it's "wholesomeness." Imagine staring at Adam Schiff for hours thinking, oh, that is so reassuring, he's so gosh-darn wholesome."
With those crazy cult eyes (he shares with AOC)? Not a chance. The best place to see "The Look" now are in Washington, DC and that documentary "Wild, Wild Country" on Netflix.
I think we all know what it's about.
We can't coexist with collectivist filth. They have to win or their whole way of life dies. They will never stop or compromise.
I reckon only a credentialed, deep state worshipping, registered Democrat idiot like Litman could longingly gaze with Tiger Beat eyes at a creeepy cut-rate Roland Freisler like Adam Schiff and think he was...wholesome.
As for "panglossian," shucks, I've always thought that was a shade of Revlon lipstick.
Wholesomeness as in that whole-grain nuttiness.
"I really don't give a shit what Trump did with Ukraine at this point. I don't care about quid pro quo.
And I really, really don't understand why it's okay for the Obama administration to run a counter intelligence operation involving the Russians against Trump. Like actually seek and get FISA warrants, but Trump sounding off is impeachable.
This hypocrisy is why I don't give a shit about what he did in Ukraine."
I'm in this camp, too, though I'm usually a rule-of-law and so forth kind of person. The fact is, the Dems have done so many corrupt things for so many years and gotten away with them (Hello, Madame Pantsuit Cattle Futures Wizard!) that I really don't care at this point if Trump actually abused his power to strike at Biden. I don't think he did, but if he did it is small, small potatoes compared to the vast Democrat/Media/Deep State coup attempt of the last three years. Very small potatoes. Potatoes so small that you need an electron microscope to see them.
I went to state college before the dumping of the Western Civ canon. I read Voltaire and studied how he affected his time and ours. Listen to Leonard Bernstein conduct the musical overture of Candide on YouTube. Quite a joy. But then I’m just an ignorant deplorable.
He went full panglossian. Never go full panglossian.
This tweet is such a perfect example of cocooned liberal self-love. If there is one thing that has given me energy from Day 1 of this blog, it is my aversion to cocooned liberal self-love.
And seeing the quoted remarks confirms the sense I have always had that your blog is based on sensibilities I share even when we disagree on particulars!
While I’ve always had libertarian leanings and fairly conservative sensibilities, I, too, came of age in the heart of the elite on the basis of education and academic inclinations. Culturally, I’m even now more comfortable in the world of the high culture (what’s left of it) than popular culture.
But.... and but’s are crucial .... I cannot and have never been able to abide the smug, self-referential, and unself-aware sense of entitlement in so many in what has come to be the establishment left.
That alone makes me more comfortable with comfortable-in-their-own-skin middle and working class Americans than with most of my intellectual, social, and economic peers.
So, a douchebag pedant deep-state worm cheering for the deep state. You could knock me over with a feather.
John Borell said...I'm state school educated (University of Toledo for my BBA and JD) so I had to look up panglossian.
I can't say for sure if I read it in English class in a Cleveland high school or in English Lit at Ohio State. But either way it was a tax-payer supported institution.
Of course, it may not have been Freshman English and you may have majored in something useful.
Nothing screams patriotism more than attempting to over throw a duly elected president through fabricated scandals and show trials without due process for the accused!
It’s the “Swalwell Effect”... smelling one’s own flatulence and imagining roses.
"Patriotic" is hard to pull of when most of your presidential candidates don't even like this country or the people in it.
The thing about Pangloss is he thought he was wise but he was a fool, and not only a fool but a fool that could not be convinced of his error under any circumstances. He was a human tautology for which all inputs resulted in the same conclusion.
This tweet has multiple layers of irony.
Is the same wholesomeness that made Michael Avenatti a hero to the Democrats a while back?
for the three years, that the Ukrainians were underfire from the little green men, apparently no weapons were sent, just #hashtags and bandages,
I refuse to believe 6,000 liked that tweet. And Schiff is a lot of things. Patriotic and Wholesome aren't among those. He's a liar, a partisan hack, and a weirdo. He looks like the type that's involved in some shady financial deals and strange sexual practices.
I didn't see much of the hearing, but there was one shot of Schiff were I could have sworn I saw a slim little forked tounge darting between his lips. Wholesome indeed.
These people need to be ridiculed at every turn.
Birkel said:
“On their screens: the new Charlie's Anglea and the new Ghostbusters
On our screens: Toy Story and Clint Eastwood
On college student's screens: PornHub”
I would also add “Ford v Ferrari” to our screens. I saw it Monday and enjoyed it very much. There’s no wokeness in it, just a couple of guys Shelby and Miles) trying to create a great product and beat the competition.
Ann: you made me feel good about my education; I read Candide a half a century ago (do college students still read it?).
no one watched charlies angels and the new ghost busters, I re read candide a while ago, it's a dark satire on liebniz philosophy, and early 18th century horrors,
"Should anything of this sort in the following adumbrations seem ‘queer’—should any of them seem to good Panglossians to embody strange and disrespectful conceptions of this best of all possible worlds, I apologize; but cannot help it." Back when being educated actually meant something. What a glorious assemblage of words. A balm to the soul.
I can’t wrap my head around the idea that someone could think the party of ninth month abortion, tranny story hour, legalizing defecating in the streets, slur walks and teaching elementary kids about anal is “wholesome”. Lol. The Democrats are trying to change the meaning of a word again to benefit themselves. Just as they did with liberal. Just as they did with fascist.
Fernandistein said:
'Voltaire quote: "To learn ...
It's not from Voltaire, and, though it might be true in, say, N. Korea, it's completely false in modern Western civilization.'
Generally, assertions like that are followed by some form of supporting argument or evidence...
@tcrosse, thanks for posting the video link! I wasn't aware that there had been a major staging of the opera/musical since the one from right around the time of Bernstein's death (which was... 1990? I saw him conduct a concert when I was living in the dorm at University of Michigan, so 1988 or 1989...) (And because of Bernstein's version I knew who Pangloss was, but I never studied Voltaire anywhere and couldn't have told you at a moment's notice that he wrote the original Candide. I do regret not taking the second year of Great Books...)
When I think of Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the first words that come to mind are "wholesomeness" and "patriotism."
the Pedo-crats, who protected Clinton, Weinstein, Epstein, et al--
...wholesome?
Maybe in Lower Panglossia, but not here.
I don’t think whether one has read Voltaire - at least the often-considered-cannonical Candice - in either English or French is a question of whether one went to a public or private college or university. It’s more a matter of when one obtained one’s education. I read Candice in English in a West Coast public high school philosophy class in the early 1960s, and my wife read it in French in her late 1960s East Coast public high school French class. Our children did not read Candice in either language (despite having 6 years of French) in their supposedly first rate New York metropolitan area suburban public high school, or in their highly rated private colleges/universities in the first decade of this century.
There's a higher patriotism which can overthrow an American election and a higer wholesomeness which can be friends with Harvey Weinstein and a hire greenness which can take a private jet to Epstein's island. Trump voters won't vote for hire higherness but Dem leaders can easily do the higher-slut walk and their "voters", well, this vote's for hire. Voltaire would have laughed himself sick.
Verdammt auto correct Candide into Candice!
Isn't contract law based on "quid pro quo", otherwise known as "consideration"?
So...why is a "you do this for me and I will do this for you" illegal in the case of Ukraine?
Someone wanna 'splain that to me?
I've heard that Kamala gave Willie Brown good panglossia.
Ken B said...
"Is the same wholesomeness that made Michael Avenatti a hero to the Democrats a while back?"
No, it's the wholesomeness that (deep breath) killed Jeffrey Epstein, killed two black guys in an LA Democrat donor's meth-filled apartment, brought the "branding" girls together for the NXIVM cult, has Ronin Farrow now saying Bill Clinton is a rapist, and led to so much adultery and "throuple" nonsense I can't even list it all.
The Democrat Party. What a party.
Voltaire or whoever said it pretty much nailed the theory underlying political correctness. Voltaire is like Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin in that pithy quotes sometimes get misattributed to him. Another one Voltaire supposedly said, but didn't, is "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Back to the subject of the post, Litman speaks panglossalalia.
Since Pangloss is associated with "this is the best of all possible worlds", Litman's use of that reference makes no sense in the context of what he wants to say. "Pangloss" just jumps off the page as a pretentious literary reference. He means that he is being optimistic about what is happening, but to use Pangloss for that is nuts, because Litman surely doesn't think that this is the best of all possible worlds.
Even more delusional, Litman thinks that the fake, fake accolades by the Ds to the military service of the witnesses is going to remake the image of Democrats into the "Patriotic Party"? This is truly 100 proof delusion.
Isn't contract law based on "quid pro quo", otherwise known as "consideration"?
So...why is a "you do this for me and I will do this for you" illegal in the case of Ukraine?
Pretty much ALL foreign policy is quid pro quo. You don't do things for, or give billions of dollars to another country without expecting that they give something back. It might be that they are expected to bend on certain policies or stances. Perhaps allow you access to something through their territory. Maybe support you in your own policies that you wish to advance.
Where quid pro quo goes wrong in government is if the politician or other official is getting things that personally benefit him/her instead of benefiting the country. Self dealing. Kind of like Biden threatening Ukraine in order to get his son a cushy position for which he wasn't in the least qualified.
Trump did not ask for anything. People who are testifying are saying what they think, feel, intuit, have used their ESP powers to intuit. However, most of the testimony so far is that there was NO quid pro quo for Trump.
Now....in business dealings, there is always a quid pro quo. You expect to and plan to personally benefit. Otherwise, why even BE in business :-)
"and the Rs the party of grievance and pettiness"
True. Rs pettily oppose the coup.
"Litman surely doesn't think that this is the best of all possible worlds."
Well, far be it from me to defend a Dem, but why wouldn't he?
I mean, as the teacher didn't explain when we were discussing Voltaire, on what grounds would you decide that this is not "the best" of "all possible" worlds? For example, if this is the only possible world, isn't it ipso facto (ha!) the best? Isn't Pangloss just a Voltairean cheap shot?
I think he meant "Pollyannaish." :)
Weren't you disemboweled in Paraguay?
Yes, but such things are not always fatal!
From memory, one of my favorite interactions from Candide. And it's kind of to the point. The Dems think they are disemboweling Trump with every breathless revelation and yet he keeps showing them it's not fatal.
"on what grounds would you decide that this is not "the best" of "all possible" worlds?"
--Sebastian
Well, clearly Litman would prefer a possible world in which Trump was not President.
I don't know why, but the patriotism issue is really bugging me. I watched a little Tucker and a little Hannity last night, and they showed clips of CNN and MSNBC commentators falling all over themselves to say how supremely patriotic Vindman and other witnesses were. What happened to their globalist elite perspective that America is mired in militarism and fascism?
I read Candide a half a century ago
I read Terry Southern's version.
I don't know why, but the patriotism issue is really bugging me.
“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” - Samuel Johnson, 1775.
Harry Litman is a boilerplate, MSNBC, whack-job, leftist/feminist, crackpot conspiracy theorist who spent the last three years feeding MSNBC's easily duped, hysterical viewers the crackpot "collusion" conspiracy theory.
I read Candide a half a century ago
I read Terry Southern's version.
In 1970, I took Senior French Advanced Honors. We read Candide in French. I don't remember much and I didn't understand it then.
I took Advanced Porn as a HS Sophomore. I recall that Candy was quite titillating. There was something about a hump.
I think Pangloss is a characterture of Leibnitz. The best of all possible worlds.
Characature
The account is from a guy calling himself "Litman". Did you look up the slang meaning of the word "lit"? As in drunk?
There you have your explanation. It is a parody account. A man pretending to drunk tweet.
Charicature
Caricature. Sorry.
"Good grief, it's daddy!
Reading Candide is no feat of workaholism or deep scholarship.
The thing is a quick, fast moving, entertaining read, full of action and bizarre incident.
It was meant to be popular and Voltaire wrote it that way. It is entertainment, if you read French well or have a good English translation that’s in the spirit of the thing.
It’s got its tongue way, way in cheek, so it works on several levels, but you don’t have to have any particular background to get the jokes on some level, if not all.
Go read it.
These days though it would cause even worse trouble in the classroom than it did in its day.
The thing is not gentle in any sense.
It's just the WaPoo WaPooping. Avert thine eyes. And hold thy nose.
You don’t have to get that Pangloss is Liebnitz nor that the thing is a parody of the then popular picaresque novel, nor even the savaging of the Church or know anything about Jesuits in Paraguay, or the legend of Eldorado.
It’s very topical about the current events and controversies of its day, but it works regardless.
If you wonder, while reading the thing, whether Voltaire will “go there”, whatever it is that is going to upset someone, well, yes he will.
Buster you are right. There he is, pretending to be drunk and still using clever words like "Panglossian" correctly and I use the word "parody" to describe his caricature. I really need remedial English lessons.
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
So we are ruled by Hillary Clinton, Anita Hill, and Christine Blasey Ford.
"Candid" is from the Latin for white. "Candidate" because Romans running for office wore specially whitened togas. The 18th century meaning of "candid" was to whitewash the bad in something or someone. Somehow, that was twisted into its modern usage of "honest and forthright."
These days though it would cause even worse trouble in the classroom than it did in its day.
The thing is not gentle in any sense.
"The Marriage of Figaro" did much the same. It was preformed once and banned. The opera toned it down considerably,.
If Litman looks at Schiff and thinks, "Wholesome," he must think "The Children of the Corn" is "The Sound of Music."
These days though it would cause even worse trouble in the classroom than it did in its day.
My high school French teacher thought it would get us in trouble to discuss it. This was in the early 1960's.
I often get Pangloss confused with Pantagruel.
Tcrosse recalls: "Good grief, it's daddy!
Yeah, I remember that, too. But not fondly.
Tcrosse, I also took HS French in the early 60's. We didn't read Voltaire but did read Moliere. Also some Sartre. While Tartuffe has its moments, M. H***** seemed unconcerned that we would be corrupted by it. But, then, he was actually French.
Mockturtle
That's a gargantua error.
Wholesome.
The Democrats are actually explicitly running against the constitution aren’t they? Abolish the electoral college via an unconstitutional compact amongst states; vitiate parts of the first amendment by banning “hate speech” and mandating odd pronouns; undermining the Supreme Court by demanding recusals; impeachment for policy differences. Has any party ever run such an explicitly anti-constitutional platform in the country’s history?
Mockturtle
That's a gargantua error.
;-D
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