Althouse: But if you go wearing pictures of Chairman Mao.... you are going to make it with Portland people anyhow.

November 1, 2020

But if you go wearing pictures of Chairman Mao.... you are going to make it with Portland people anyhow.

Look at the skirt!

87 comments:

wendybar said...: Your choice...Communism, or Freedom. That really sums up this election.; 11/1/20, 7:36 AM
Sebastian said...: Right. We saw that long ago. Leftists like mass-killing leftists. So? It's who they are. It's what they do.

Give her points for honesty. Next up, a Great Leap Forward and re-education camps.

So, Althouse, you see where the American left is going. And you think Joe will stop them?; 11/1/20, 7:37 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Brain dead people. She strongly implies that she supports Mao’s ChiComs against the United States. Why? She could, of course move there, if she really preferred his worker’s Paradise. But after her usefulness wore out, eventually they would treat her like shit, since she is not Han Chinese. What is the allure of the ChiCom’s brutal authoritarianism? Do they really like restive religious minorities having their body parts harvested and sold? Or housing projects in Wuhan having their gates welded shut in order to quarantine their population to fight the coronavirus that their scientists apparently constructed, and military (probably) negligently released into the public? Yes, the ChiComs of today, who created and released COVID-19 into the world are Mao’s direct spiritual and political descendants.; 11/1/20, 7:48 AM
Ralph L said...: And pawing a priest!; 11/1/20, 7:49 AM
hawkeyedjb said...: "My Hitler skirt was in the wash."

But the sad truth is that these cosseted, helpless, empty souls would almost certainly choose Mao or Pol Pot over Orange Man. Lined up against the wall or starved in a labor camp, their last thoughts would no doubt be of their rightness, their own purity. When I was a teenager I fantasized that the fascist US government was the great threat to me and to all humanity. Some people never cease being teenagers.; 11/1/20, 7:50 AM
Roughcoat said...: Good grief.; 11/1/20, 7:51 AM
richlb said...: Good and hard....; 11/1/20, 7:53 AM
Fernandinande said...: "Mao crazy man!"; 11/1/20, 7:55 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "So, Althouse, you see where the American left is going. And you think Joe will stop them?"

If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.; 11/1/20, 7:55 AM
tcrosse said...: Après Mao, le déluge.; 11/1/20, 8:00 AM
Douglas2 said...: I was disappointed that the article link on "Land Value Tax" was incorrect. I've read up on 'georgism' and concluded that with the incentives and 2nd order effects it would create it would be a pretty bad idea, but for entertainment's sake I'm wanting to know which of the many many critical articles on LVT comports with Driscoll's view of why it is a very-bad-thing (tm); 11/1/20, 8:03 AM
Richard Aubrey said...: wrt to being able to see who would be more likely to stop the progress of the hard left; would you be agreeable to the difference being Trump would try and might fail, while Biden would not try and maybe it wouldn't happen anyway?; 11/1/20, 8:08 AM
Larry J said...: “ Sebastian said...
Right. We saw that long ago. Leftists like mass-killing leftists. So? It's who they are. It's what they do.

Give her points for honesty. Next up, a Great Leap Forward and re-education camps. ”

Mao’s Great Leap Forward was a collection of idiotic ideas that directly resulted in the executions of millions of people and brought on a famine that killed 40-60 million more. The Green New Deal is a collection of idiotic ideas that would reek economic devastation on our country. I call it the Green Leap Forward.; 11/1/20, 8:17 AM
narciso said...: biden and harris, are allied with the anarchist forces, captained by thousand currents, how much trump can act against them is an open question; 11/1/20, 8:18 AM
buwaya said...: "If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't."

Neither can. All you Americans can do is directly oppose these people directly, first of all in your universities. Or get rid of your universities. And to do that it will be necessary to oppose and crush every institution of power in your country. Neither flavor of (no longer, really) normal politics will do that, or can do that. There is no way through other than radical means. This has been obvious for a very long time, it it will just take a while for the conclusion to be accepted. It is ugly, it is revolting, it will be tragic.

Which is of course why I am here and not there.; 11/1/20, 8:19 AM
Donatello Nobody said...: -- If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.

AYFKM?!; 11/1/20, 8:19 AM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Ted Wheeler has been antifa's doormat for all four years of his mayorality. Blockade the ICE building for a month? No problem. Beat up Andy Ngo, no problem and no prosecution! Defend your self from antifa goons? Straight to prison because you're prosecuted by an antifa prosecutor.

We would stay in Portland on our way to Ashland, OR. No more.; 11/1/20, 8:19 AM
mezzrow said...: Alternative present:

Vote for Kerensky!; 11/1/20, 8:20 AM
Michael K said...: If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.

To some degree, I agree with Ann. The corruption of the Administrative State seems to be unstoppable. The forces behind this drive to Tyranny seem too powerful. Nonetheless, if I can help to stop them, even for a few years, in my own time it will be enough for me. To choose otherwise is the choice of sheep.; 11/1/20, 8:23 AM
Francisco D said...: Sane people who live in Portland are terrified.

When Brett Weinstein and Heather Heying actively support the idiot Ted Wheeler (who they despise), you know that this woman is a Communist loon.; 11/1/20, 8:29 AM
gspencer said...: When lefties wear shirts and skirts with Charlie Hebdo images of Big Mo on them, then we'll see some courage.; 11/1/20, 8:31 AM
wendybar said...: Then you are blind. Sorry, but it isn't hard to see what side is the hateful and violent one. You just have to open your eyes and stop reading NYT and WAPO and turn off the Pravda media.; 11/1/20, 8:33 AM
Marshall Rose said...: Trump may not be able to stop the progress of the radical left, true. Trump is the only chance to do so though.

Biden will enable the radical left because his victory will validate all their tactics to date.

Vote for Trump for the only chance we have.; 11/1/20, 8:38 AM
mockturtle said...: Mass hysteria has besieged Portlandia for several years now but this idiocy cannot be sustained and will implode from its own failed policies, as will many other leftist cities.; 11/1/20, 8:39 AM
brylun said...: "If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American [sic], I would vote for that one. I can't."

Which one, Trump or Biden/Harris, will encourage the progress of the radical left in America?

This seems to be an obvious choice...; 11/1/20, 8:45 AM
Paul Zrimsek said...: Defund the police, and use the money for the secret police.; 11/1/20, 8:47 AM
John henry said...: Mao murdered at least 50 million Chinese.

Perhaps this loon will say it is a small price to pay for socialism.

OK lady. You first.

John Henry; 11/1/20, 8:47 AM
JAORE said...: "If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't."

Of course no one can see the future with certainty.

Best you can do is play the odds.

It really is clear.; 11/1/20, 8:48 AM
wendybar said...: “As most of your audience knows,” Dave Rubin told Fox, “I’ve been a lifelong Democrat: I voted for Obama twice, I voted for Gore, I voted for John Kerry. This is the first time I’ve ever voted for a Republican president.”

Although Rubin doesn’t necessarily see Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as a radical himself, he sees the Biden-Harris campaign as a Trojan horse for the radical

And Trump is “the last bulwark” to stop it, he said.

“I see Trump as basically the last bulwark to stop the radical left,” Rubin said. “Joe Biden himself may not be radically left — it’s a little unclear what Joe Biden is and what he stands for at this point — but what’s coming behind him, what the future of the Democratic Party is, is this progressivist left, this collectivist left, the AOC-Ilhan Omar Democrats, and [Biden’s] just the guy that they’re smuggling it in with and I think that is the worst set of ideas possible. “It’s counter to everything America is all about.”; 11/1/20, 8:51 AM
Sally327 said...: I think it's possible that someone who was a sincere adherent of Chairman Mao and his ideology would find that skirt disrespectful.

But I'm not one of those devotees so maybe I'm wrong and not that it matters anyway. She would have ended up in a reeducation camp during the Great Leap Forward or would have died in the famine it caused if she'd actually ever lived under Chairman Mao instead of just wearing him on her skirt. Of course (and fortunately for the rest of us) being the Mayor of Portland doesn't allow you to exercise anywhere close to that sort of power but I guess a girl can dream.; 11/1/20, 8:52 AM
wendybar said...: According to Rubin’s experience as an ex-Democratic voter, there’s a fundamental difference between leftists and Trump supporters — patriotism.

“You know, part of me also likes kind of being patriotic, and there’s no feeling of that on the left anymore,” Rubin said.

“This is a great country. For 250 years we’ve given more opportunity than any other country in the history of the world and I think we can continue that, but we can only continue it if we have a president that believes in the Constitution and believes that America is fundamentally good.”

A political party riddled with anti-American sentiment and doctrine can and will gut and replace the values and rights expressed in the very Constitution that is meant to protect them.; 11/1/20, 8:53 AM
chuck said...: The true Mao reincarnation will be among the peasants in Eastern Oregon. I don't think Sarah will like it.; 11/1/20, 8:54 AM
DavidD said...: Ann Althouse said...
“If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.”

The radical left supports Biden because they believe he’ll be malleable; they have never said that about Trump.; 11/1/20, 9:01 AM
Joe Smith said...: This is very old news...where is her Che shirt?

"If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't."

Really? Wow...

One would at least resist the progress. One would enable and embrace it, even if only because Harris would be president.

Have some more coffee and think about it again...; 11/1/20, 9:02 AM
Anonymous said...: If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.

that sounds alot like the same prelude to voting for Slow Joe that we heard in 2008 and 2012, and 2016.

Trump will fight the hard left. It will be ugly just after the election.

If Joe wins, it will be the calm before the storm, but...Joe is going to roll over. Then the MSM will discover Huntergate and senility and there will be calls for Kamala. In the end, the left will rule a one party system. Black shirt parades. After the new states, packed court, popular vote compact, no filibuster, and amnesty.

I live near Portland, I am viewing the future and buying ammo.; 11/1/20, 9:02 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: That Ted Wheeler isn't leftwing enough is downright frightening.
The White Left of Portland are the rise of the Neo Brownshirt Stalin/Nazi. All while they call YOU the nazi, slit your throat, and burn down your business.; 11/1/20, 9:06 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Trump sent in help to stop the violence in Portland. It was batted down by the media. labeled by the press as the 'real violence'; 11/1/20, 9:08 AM
Temujin said...: Yes. Nothing says "Follow me" like wearing a skirt glorifying a man responsible for killing approximately 50 million to 78 million people, while destroying an entire culture.

If this is truly Oregon, and not just a small percentage of extreme and stupid lefties hanging out in Portland, then I say we allow them to drift off into their own sort of country. If it does not represent all of Oregon, it's time for the eastern and southern parts of that state to start to take their state back.

Washington- pay attention here. You're on the clock.; 11/1/20, 9:10 AM
DavidUW said...: Portlandia is screwed.

Detroit for white people coming up.; 11/1/20, 9:11 AM
Ken B said...: If you live in a blue city, move.; 11/1/20, 9:22 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: OT, but related.

UK Grauniad discovers world's biggest drama queen: We left the UK for Portland expecting a liberal dream. That wasn’t the reality; 11/1/20, 9:24 AM
Qwinn said...: You can vote for a President who sees China as the enemy, or the one who is in China's pocket.

If you can see a future where a President who is wholly owned by China, along with the media and most other institutions, leads to stopping the radical Left, you have one hell of an imagination. Because I don't see how that is even remotely plausible.; 11/1/20, 9:43 AM
hstad said...: Who cares about Portland, OR(or Seattle, WA)? They have the God-given right to vote for anyone. As a result, they won't be the first community of idiots to destroy their town. Happened in the past will happen in the future. The people in Portland are "WOKE KARENS" and proud of it. Now let's see them find the money for all of these "free" things once businesses have exited or closed down permanently.; 11/1/20, 9:47 AM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: I see three choices:

Support Trump and hope he can force the Dems back from the extreme. Like Nixon and Reagan did.

Support Biden and let the extremists fuck things up so bad we have mass revolt against them (either peaceful or violent).

Abstain and position yourself so you can cowardly not to have to take responsibility for the bad actions of your tribe.

I'm not seeing the tough choice here. But again I don't pride myself on being part of the intelligtensia.; 11/1/20, 9:56 AM
alanc709 said...: The left IS the administrative state. Any vote for them is a vote to expand it. To claim you can't see who is more likely to stem that growth, Biden or Trump, is asinine. Has any other president rolled back regulations like Trump?; 11/1/20, 10:00 AM
Sam L. said...: YYYYYYYYYYYyyyep!! PURE Portland!!; 11/1/20, 10:00 AM
gilbar said...: If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.

serious question
could you (or anyone?) see Biden being able to:
act his way out of a paper bag?
hit the side of a barn he was Standing IN?
walk and chew gum at the same time?
find a mask he has in his pocket?

i don't know that ANYONE can stop the progress of the radical left...
i don't think that Jo Biden would even think to try; 11/1/20, 10:08 AM
YoungHegelian said...: Ms Iannarone & the fools that'll vote for her remind me of those poor lost souls in the Soviet Union that shouted "Long Live Comrade Stalin" right before the NKVD put a bullet through their head.; 11/1/20, 10:08 AM
Douglas B. Levene said...: I voted for Wheeler, who’s a conventional and completely ineffectual liberal, because there is no Republican on the ticket and Iannarone is a commie by temperament if not Party membership.; 11/1/20, 10:08 AM
I'm Not Sure said...: "If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't."

So there's no point in supporting the one who would come closer to that goal, even if there's no guarantee it will be reached? The perfect really is the enemy of the good, I guess.; 11/1/20, 10:09 AM
Big Mike said...: If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.

I can. Trump is just the first step.; 11/1/20, 10:21 AM
Big Mike said...: Portland is going to discover the truth of the saying that you can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.; 11/1/20, 10:23 AM
Narayanan said...: unlike Mr Hume who wonders in front of his fireplace if he still has his ass

>>>> with faces on her skirt she has to occasionally fart on one - which one is it and has she considered it?; 11/1/20, 10:25 AM
JAORE said...: My wife told me weeks ago that the Portland/Seattle.... riots might start changing voter minds in those blue cities.

Well she was right, but 180 degrees off. The idiots are doubling down.

[With my tiny little voice] I will speak out against any funding to rehabilitate the cities that LET the rioters burn and loot. I will chastise any corporation that rebuilds in those areas.

I will vote accordingly.; 11/1/20, 10:25 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: The radical socialist program since at least 1948 is to put or keep a Republican in the White House until they are ready to take over the country. They are Trump’s allies of convenience.; 11/1/20, 10:26 AM
Narayanan said...: Ann Althouse said...
"So, Althouse, you see where the American left is going. And you think Joe will stop them?"

If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.
----------==========
and professora refuses to read Atlas Shrugged >>> all this is but reprise of the plot in the novel sub text …

is-atlas-shrugging

“Atlas Shrugged,” Rand observes in closing, “is not a prophecy of our unavoidable destruction, but a manifesto of our power to avoid it, if we choose to change our course.”; 11/1/20, 10:34 AM
Narr said...: The rot is deep, wide, and well-entrenched, and even a big Trump win will probably only delay the inevitable. Nations and political systems age and decay too, and imperial overstretch is the fate of all hegemons.

Trump may be a clod, but his instincts against the Imperial Garrison State are authentic and all-American; the other side is chained to foreign interventions and corruption like slaves on a medieval galley.

Narr
Glub glub?; 11/1/20, 10:37 AM
Iman said...: What a maosie looking abroad...; 11/1/20, 10:46 AM
Drago said...: She should run for office in Michigan! I understand there is an army of "lifelong republican" "muh principles" "conservatives" who would give an arm and a leg to work for her, assuming they could break their cultish infatuation with Whitmer.; 11/1/20, 10:56 AM
Bilwick said...: This is why I contend that, to be more popular with the hip, happenin' crowd, Trump should start killing people by the bushel. "Liberals" and orher State-fellators have had a long history of idolizing mass murderers. Trump just has to make sure that he justifies the murders inthe name of some "liberal" superstition or shibboleth, such as "the Common Good."; 11/1/20, 10:58 AM
mockturtle said...: And don't think they haven't stockpiled weapons and ammo. The only good deplorable is a dead deplorable.; 11/1/20, 11:08 AM
Night Owl said...: None of us can see the future. Be we can imagine.

Imagine that Joe Biden wins:

1) Joe Biden does not stay the president for very long, either due to his age or due to his corrupt past catching up to him. Which would install Harris, who has been described as the most far-left member of the U.S. Senate.

OR

2) Biden's past stays hidden from the Democrat base due to a corrupt media and corruption in the FBI and intelligence agencies. He remains the president beholden to those who are hiding his past. That would signal to moderates that the far-left narrative is more powerful than alternative ones which would intimidate them into silence.

Now imagine if Trump wins:

1) It would send a message that moderate Americans reject the radical left.

2) Which will embolden people who are currently afraid to push back against the radicalized cancel culture of the left.

Now imagine which one would stop the progress of the radical left in American. It isn't hard to do.; 11/1/20, 11:14 AM
Night Owl said...: Maybe you imagine that under Harris/Biden the left will go too far and a backlash will get rid of them in 2024? Well when you silence the voice of 1/2 the population the reaction may be violence. Is that a backlash you want to see in your golden years?; 11/1/20, 11:20 AM
Night Owl said...: “Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.”
Jean-Paul Sartre

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie I

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Desmond Tutu

“Not to speak one’s thought is slavery.”
Euripides

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
John F Kennedy

(I apologize if this posts twice. Blogger crapped out on me.); 11/1/20, 11:24 AM
Rabel said...: "If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't."

Living in a college town and obsessively reading the New York media every day could conceivably make it difficult to see those alternatives.

There are plenty of exit ramps on the road to serfdom. There's one coming up on Tuesday.; 11/1/20, 11:45 AM
J. Farmer said...: “I see Trump as basically the last bulwark to stop the radical left,” Rubin said.

This is a good example of how partisan thinking prevents effective coordination. Identifying the primary threat to the US as the "radial left" is absurd. Consider what has brought us to this point over the last several decades: trade liberalization, financialization, mass immigration, global militarism, and post-industrialism. That is not a "radical left" agenda. It's neoliberalism. It supports market liberalization in the economic realm and culturally left attitudes in the social realm. The "radical left," by contrast, opposes this agenda, is opposed to Biden and Trump, and has been highly critical of campus identity politics.

There's a reason the establishment wouldn't bat an eye over a Biden-Harris victory. It's because they know it poses practically no risk to their position. The Biden administration will be broadly within establishment boundaries, just as Obama, Bush, Clinton, the other Bush, and every Congress for 30 years has been.; 11/1/20, 11:47 AM
Rick said...: If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.

Do you not consider weaponizing Title IX part of the far left's agenda? Here is Emily Yoffe reporting on Joe's contribution to it.

Joe Biden's Record on Campus Due Process Has Been Abysmal. Is It a Preview of His Presidency?

Note how the Title IX activism tracks cancel culture and the far left's other initiatives.

- Fake concern over "safety".
- Fake statistics.
- Slanderous descriptions of any opposition.
- Using illegitimate means of creating law.

Title IX is the roadmap to successfully undermine the rule of law and implement the far left vision, and there was Biden leading the way. There is no question Biden will help the far left achieve its vision, we've already seen him do it.; 11/1/20, 12:04 PM
n.n said...: Celebrate the victims and collateral damage of the final solution, the wicked solution, diversity dogma, and great leaps in social progress and justice.; 11/1/20, 12:26 PM
mikee said...: I, for one, support the placement of Mao's face under the fat ass of a deluded white woman.; 11/1/20, 12:28 PM
Night Owl said...: I didn't vote in 2016 for a number of reasons:

1) I could not vote for the corruption of the Clintons and their ilk;
2) I didn't know enough about Trump to trust him;
3) I lived in a deep blue state so I told myself that my vote didn't count;
4) My cynicism had led me to believe that a Clinton win was inevitable due to entrenched leftist corruption, even though my intuition was telling me Trump could win.

This time around:

1) A vote for Biden is a vote for more corruption. Not an option for me. Plus it sickens me how dishonest our media is. They've turned most of my family into brain dead Biden zombies; so this time it's personal;
2) I've seen Trump in action and while his methods are unorthodox his results are better than I ever expected;
3) I still live in a blue state, but my vote counts because leftists are too stupid to understand the electoral college;
4) Trump winning the last election showed me that my cynicism can lead me astray.

Therefore it was easy for me to decide to vote for Trump. Even though the cynic in me says that a Trump win is probably just delaying the inevitable triumph of the authoritarian left. At least I can try to ensure it doesn't happen on my watch.; 11/1/20, 12:29 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: Ms Iannarone & the fools that'll vote for her remind me of those poor lost souls in the Soviet Union that shouted "Long Live Comrade Stalin" right before the NKVD put a bullet through their head.

On the skirt was pictures of Mao, Che and Stalin.; 11/1/20, 12:33 PM
fleg9bo said...: The few national news stories I've seen that reported on Democrat cities adding new plywood surfaces to their downtowns did not mention Portland. Let me assure you that I witnessed a lot of new plywood going up in downtown Portland on Friday. And I expect, if Trump wins, to not be going there again for a long time to come, for safety reasons. It will be interesting to note, from my safe suburban perch, whether the current mayor and governor will do anything to stop the new round of violence. Perhaps Trump, with nothing to lose whether he wins or not, will send in the troops, but I suspect he'd rather let the prog voters get what they deserve.

20 years ago this October we decided to move to the Portland area from California based on the good impression we got from a weekend in a downtown hotel. If we could have seen what the downtown turned into under progressive leadership, even before covid, we might well have had second thoughts.; 11/1/20, 12:44 PM
Narr said...: Hey lady, sit on Mao face and I'll guess your weight!

Narr
I know your IQ already; 11/1/20, 1:28 PM
Mikey NTH said...: Althouse: Biden will not stop the Left; Trump may not.

Choose the imperfect human that best represents your interest, for not choosing is, in a way, making a choice.; 11/1/20, 1:42 PM
Francisco D said...: The "radical left," by contrast, opposes this agenda, is opposed to Biden and Trump, and has been highly critical of campus identity politics.

I thought you were making some valid points Farmer, until I came upon the above chestnut.

Identity politics, CRT, Social Justice, Post Modernism etc are the tools the radical left uses to manipulate people into working towards a Marxist Utopia. That may not be our greatest existential threat right now, but it is a cancerous tumor.; 11/1/20, 1:45 PM
daskol said...: Need a new song. No more, you say you want a revolution. More like: you're in a revolution now whether you like it or not. Other people have decided this for you.; 11/1/20, 1:57 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Yeah, that's why I voted for incumbent Ted Wheeler despite his failures. The choice is bad and, well, Communist.; 11/1/20, 2:06 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Francisco D:

Identity politics, CRT, Social Justice, Post Modernism etc are the tools the radical left uses to manipulate people into working towards a Marxist Utopia. That may not be our greatest existential threat right now, but it is a cancerous tumor.

The radical left has produced a number of criticisms of woke culture, most perceptibly that it is most often indulged in by privileged people and thus tends to reflect the attitudes and values of the upper classes. One of the primary critiques of CRT is that it lacks praxis, and Marxism and postmodernism are largely antagonistic towards each other.

Corporate America, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the media, universities, the local, state, and federal bureaucracies, and NGO's are on board with wokeness. Wokeness is most strongly present in Northern Europe and the Anglosphere. These are among the most liberal, capitalist, and individualist societies in the world. You don't need Marxism and French postmodernism to make sense of this.; 11/1/20, 3:56 PM
Achilles said...: Ann Althouse said...

"So, Althouse, you see where the American left is going. And you think Joe will stop them?"

If I could see the alternative futures well enough to know if Trump or Biden would stop the progress of the radical left in American, I would vote for that one. I can't.

Oh god that's pathetic.; 11/1/20, 4:28 PM
Achilles said...: Narr said...

Hey lady, sit on Mao face and I'll guess your weight!

Narr
I know your IQ already

Room temperature is still a fairly wide range of numbers...; 11/1/20, 4:37 PM
Big Mike said...: Identifying the primary threat to the US as the "radial left" is absurd.

Farmer being a moron. How typical.; 11/1/20, 4:39 PM
Achilles said...: J. Farmer said...

Corporate America, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the media, universities, the local, state, and federal bureaucracies, and NGO's are on board with wokeness. Wokeness is most strongly present in Northern Europe and the Anglosphere. These are among the most liberal, capitalist, and individualist societies in the world. You don't need Marxism and French postmodernism to make sense of this.

Wokeness is driven by HR.

Human Resources is a wide collection of ne'er do wells and losers who would otherwise be filling grocery bags but wokeness gives them a path to power over other people.

Bureaucracies form using government laws to provide these kind of people government positions of power over other people.

HR is just another place for these otherwise mediocre talents to feed their dreams and parasitize the corporate beast.; 11/1/20, 4:44 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Big Mike:

Farmer being a moron. How typical.

Have you ever said anything interesting just by accident?

@Achilles:

Wokeness is driven by HR.

I am not entirely sure what you mean by that. The two certainly intersect, given that HR departments are often responsible for compliance with labor laws, EEOC requirements, conflicts between employees, etc. But HR long predates wokeness, which is an intersection of civil rights, the women's movement, and gay liberation. These issues and concerns have been with us for at least 50 years.; 11/1/20, 6:11 PM
directorblue said...: Don't sugarcoat the headline.

"But if you go wearing pictures of China's own version of Hitler.... you are going to make it with Portland people anyhow."

30 to 40 million dead thanks to Mao.

The number of human lives extinguished by this maniacal philosophy -- and cheerled by Democrats -- deserves attention from all Americans.; 11/1/20, 7:19 PM
Birkel said...: director blue:
You are off by about 2X.
The numbers range from 60 to 100 million.

Smug typed some things and then gets Smug when people disagree.
1000 random names out of the Tampa phone book would do better than all the professors at Smug University.; 11/2/20, 6:47 AM
daskol said...: Farmer, the hegemony theorizing in the contemporary philosophical "schools" you apparently eschew as having any explanatory power, explain well how the inauthentic, corporatized/bureaucratized flavor of these leftist ideologies get pushed by the institutions they capture. The end result, such as it may be, may land pretty far from the original leftist ideal, but it's still a leftist derived virus that infects the entire body politic. Wokeness may have been coopted by powerful interests in the (once) liberal state, but it has a logic of its own, and it's only partially under the control of our administrative state betters. The point of mentioning HR is not to say that it invented wokeness, only as an example of how HR has been captured and is now, like the university before it, the greatest propounder of it in our society. Just as shadowy masters of the liberal state only partially control the woke hordes they manipulate, the great corporations are slowly ceding control of ever more of their culture to HR.; 11/2/20, 6:56 AM
Kirk Parker said...: daskol,

Good summary. I don't suppose you actually expect Farmer to understand it though, do you?; 11/3/20, 9:49 AM