August 7, 2023

What's going on here? Hillary Clinton is performing concern about our loneliness

This caught my eye:

 

I copied the whole layout — headline, author's name, lugubrious image— because it's so absurd. And yet, it's just going back to her roots: It takes a village.
When I wrote It Takes a Village, I was concerned about the effects on young people of violence on TV. Now, in the age of social media, those worries almost seem quaint.... 
Long before Bannon ran Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, he was involved in the world of online gaming. He discovered an army of what he later described as “rootless white males,” disconnected from the real world but highly engaged online and often quick to resort to sexist and racist attacks. When Bannon took over the hard-right website Breitbart News, he was determined to turn these socially isolated gamers into the shock troops of the alt-right, pumping them full of conspiracy theories and hate speech. Bannon pursued the same project as a senior executive at Cambridge Analytica, the notorious data-mining and online-influence company largely owned by the right-wing billionaire Robert Mercer. According to a former Cambridge Analytica engineer turned whistleblower, Bannon targeted “incels,” or involuntarily celibate men, because they were easy to manipulate and prone to believing conspiracy theories. “You can activate that army,” Bannon told the Bloomberg journalist Joshua Green. “They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump.”

Like many others, I was too slow to see the impact this strategy could have. Now the surgeon general is telling us that social disconnection is not just a problem at the margins—not just the usual “angry young men”—but is in fact an epidemic sweeping the country.

I have seen firsthand how dangerous lies can fuel violence and undermine our democratic process. During the 2016 campaign, a shocking number of people became convinced that I am a murderer, a terrorist sympathizer, and the evil mastermind behind a child-sex-abuse ring. Alex Jones, the right-wing talk-show host, posted a video about “all the children Hillary Clinton has personally murdered and chopped up and raped.”...

Though we are divided in so many ways, though we are lonelier and more isolated than ever, it remains true that none of us can raise a family, build a business, strengthen a community, or heal a nation alone. We have to do it together. It still takes a village.

93 comments:

rehajm said...

When I wrote It Takes a Village, I was concerned about the effects on young people of violence on TV. Now, in the age of social media, those worries almost seem quaint.

Now that we see the leaders of the village want to do with your kids after they steal the election, Hillary’s ideas from the 1990s seem almost quaint…

Dave Begley said...

“ I have seen firsthand how dangerous lies can fuel violence and undermine our democratic process.”

Does this woman realize how ridiculous she is?

Just go away. Leave us alone. I don’t want you and your fucking Commie friends anywhere near me and my family. One of Vivek’s ten truths is about the nuclear family.

And Queen Hillary never took questions from us plebes when I saw her on the campaign trail. Her idiot daughter and cheating husband did.

rhhardin said...

Dear Mr. Quistgaard:

Although you do not know me my name is Jane. I have seized your name from the telephone book in an attempt to enmesh you in my concerns. We suffer today I believe from a lack of connection with each other. That is common knowledge, so common in fact, that it may not even be true. It may be that we are overconnected, for all I know. However I am acting on the first assumption, that we are underconnected, and thus have flung you these lines, which you may grasp or let fall as you will. But I feel that if you neglect them, you will suffer for it. That is merely my private opinion. No police power supports it. I have no means of punishing you, Mr. Quistgaard, for not listening, for having a closed heart. There is no punishment for that, in our society. Not yet. But to the point. You and I, Mr. Quistgaard, are not in the same universe of discourse. Now it may have appeared to you, prior to your receipt of this letter, that the universe of discourse in which you existed, and puttered about, was in all ways adequate and satisfactory. It may never have crossed your mind to think that other universes of discourse distinct from your own existed, with people in them, discoursing. You may have, in a commonsense way, regarded your own u. of d. as a plenum, filled to the brim with discourse. You may have felt that what already existed was a sufficiency. People like you often do. But I say unto you, Mr. Quistgaard, that even a plenum can leak. Even a plenum, cher maitre, can be penetrated. New things can rush into your plenum displacing old things, things that were formerly there. No man's plenum, Mr. Quistgaard, is impervious to the awl of God's will. Consider then your situation now. You are sitting there in your house on Neat Street, with your fine dog, doubtless, and your handsome wife and tall brown sons, conceivable, and who knows with your gun-colored Plymouth Fury in the driveway, and opinions passing back and forth, about whether the Grange should build a new meeting hall or not, whether the children should become Thomists or not, whether the pump needs more cup grease or not. A comfortable American scene. But I, Jane Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, am in possession of your telephone number, Mr. Quistgaard. Think what that means. It means that at any moment I can pierce your plenum with a single telephone call, simply by dialing 989-7777. You are correct, Mr. Quistgaard, in seeing this as a threatening situation. The moment I inject discourse from my u. of d. into your u. of d., the yourness of yours is diluted. The more I inject, the more you dilute. Soon you will be presiding over an empty plenum, or rather, since that is a contradiction in terms, over a former plenum, in terms of yourness. You are, essentially, in my power. I suggest an unlisted number.

Yours faithfully,

Jane

Barthelme, Snow White

rehajm said...

Why do the people that cause all the problems believe they are the solution to the problems?

Owen said...

Yes, let’s focus on our diversity —the alienating differences, and especially those arbitrary accidental ones that can’t be wished or washed away, like sex and race. That will help us create a community, and then we can forcibly include everyone in it, and for those who can’t or won’t go along, we’ll quietly suppress their discordant voices. And in that community everybody will enjoy equity, which is whatever we say it is. We know best and we really care. Trust us.

Bob Boyd said...

It takes a village to tar and feather a snake oil grifter.

Scott Gustafson said...

And of course she wants to run the village. No thanks.

rehajm said...

Now that Democrats have signaled the beginning of election season with indictments of their political opponents it makes me wonder what scenario is Hillary dreaming about? The one where she is something other than a leftie liability with a chit to cash?

Buckwheathikes said...

I don't wish to live in a community that would have Hillary Clinton as a member.

She's a rotten person and a criminal. She sold uranium to the Russians to use in their nuclear weapons and then the Russians gave her husband $500,000.

We should put her in jail.

Rusty said...

Alas. Behind a paywall.

Dagwood said...

It probably took a village to write it for her.

Kai Akker said...

What's going on is that the Democrats have very, very few choices for a candidate.

But if Hillary could not handle the rigors of campaigning eight years ago.....

She would have to run from her bomb shelter; or, she just can't live without a little more attention.

Bob Boyd said...

It takes a village to decimate the ranks of the incel army...and the name of that village is Pound Town. Put on your pussy hats and get to it, ladies. Win those hearts and minds and what not.

MadTownGuy said...

She's a fine one to talk about isolation. I'm sure she was all in for the lockdowns.

John henry said...

Isn't "village" in her usage just another word for "state"? She expects the village to force people to be the way she wants. Just like a state does.

"everything within the state, nothing outside outside the state, nothing against the state."

Benito Mussolini

I'd like to miss Hilary but she just won't go away.

John Henry

Aggie said...

Hillary, putting on a display of reaching out, while the rest of us retch out.

She is singularly the most reptilian politician this country has to offer, and that's saying quite a bit. If she comes across as warm, it's because she's been sitting in the sun.

Kai Akker said...

Barack decimated the ranks. And they have no ideas other than LGBTQ on which to generate any interest or enthusiasm. They are certainly not financially bankrupt, but the Democrats are ideologically bankrupt. There must be a limit somewhere to the "free stuff" supply.

Gusty Winds said...

Hillary is so self serving and full of shit.

America's loneliness epidemic was put into warp speed via the bullshit pandemic. Lockdowns and vaccine mandates split families and lifelong friendships. Made everyone tribal.

The smart phone and social media don't help, but relationships destroyed because of "stay home, save lives" are more than likely never to fully recover.

Lyle said...

Communism saves!

Dave Begley said...

I have a question for Hillary. Were you lonely during Bill’s repeated trips to Epstein’s Island where he had sex with numerous minor females?

Heartless Aztec said...

Maybe Hillary should try a Mea Culpa essay like David Brooks recently did. That would make interesting reading.

mezzrow said...

It takes a village to make sure these monsters are silenced. A village AND ubiquitous surveillance and control to be sure, but the village is handy. It helps the narrative, and disperses executive responsibility for any unfortunate consequences.

cassandra lite said...

Arsonist laments the ashes.

Iman said...

pantsuited pantload
your fake concern for others
is deplorable

Kai Akker said...

I thought it would be paywalled but I guess the Atlantic thinks Hillary will be a big draw. I couldn't get through the mediocre thought content and style. My eyes just glazed over. I am prejudiced, but is there anything that could grab someone less than stale thoughts from Hillary Clinton?

MayBee said...

What do we call women who are involuntarily celibate?

This term for men really irks me. Like we are criminalizing men who aren't attractive to women.

Skeptical Voter said...

A well equipped village has an idiot. Hillary is the one.

hombre said...

"... those ...."

Classic Hillary. None of the proponents of the Democrat Antichrist Movement will remember the biblical admonition, roughly, "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

Or maybe they do remember ....

Kate said...

GAMERGATE! Garlic and crosses at the ready!

Quayle said...

A facade of unity by one of the principal practitioners and beneficiaries of divisive triangulation.

And by the way, how exactly DID the Clintons get so rich? Did they sell a product that anyone owns and uses? Did they write some software that is deployed and operating? What was it exactly that they sold?

stlcdr said...

It takes a Village == It takes the Government.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

She is not wrong about Alex Jones, or some of the strange conspiracy theories out there - that are just plain silly and absurd. That said - the left swing so far left - they ignore that human trafficking is REAL.

But the fact is, Hillary Clinton set up and used a private Server while sec of state, and she used it in secret. Then she/her people smashed the hard-drives with hammers. None of that is a conspiracy at all.

Where is her analysis of Antifa-Thuggery? That is completely missing.

For Hillary - it's just more 2016 butt hurt.

Kevin said...

It takes a village, whether you want one or not.

Temujin said...

And let's face it, when we think of 'bringing communities together', who doesn't have the name Hillary Clinton pop up as the next thought in their mind?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Is she trying to run for president again? Same message as before.

Deplorables everywhere. Evil Right-wingers LYING about pure Hillary... scurring about like cockroaches. oooo those evil white men.
... But look - She has standard boilerplate BS promises for you to read.... They are for sale.

Breezy said...

Pretty funny that the highlighted blurb focuses on isolated males, but the photo is of an isolated woman. Is that Hillary herself in the window?

Iman said...

hillary clinton
the stench is making me clench
winebox criminal

Iman said...

cherubic chipmunk
two left wings and two fat thighs
KFC special

Gahrie said...

She attacks Bannon but makes no admission of her owns sins: the private email server or the fake Steele dossier.

It must burn her ass that she has to pretend that Biden got 15 million more votes than her.

Jake said...

I love platitudes. Also, do the democrats and their agents seek ways to activate members of their base through deceit and treachery? Asking for a friend.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

LOL - she made it all about her.


Are you lonely - you evil right wing white males? You're all conspiracy nuts! Again her message is: You are all hopeless deplorables.

Sebastian said...

Gotta hand it to progs. First they try to destroy any semblance of village anywhere. Then they pretend to care about community. All wiithout blushing.

Of course, prog villages will only allow you to drive a car for 15 minutes a day, not in the center of town, and charge it for 10. And they'll have all the nice LGBTQ+ books on the kindergarten shelves, to foster that nice community spirit.

Leland said...

Where was this concern in 2020 and 2021 during forced social distancing. It could have even been used as a debate against Trump in 2020, but Democrats opted to support forced social isolation. In face, we were told it was our civic duty to isolate, because “it took the village” to isolate for 2 weeks (represented by almost 2 years) to stop the spread.

Wince said...

Hillary using the "lonely" to paint herself as victim once again, "weaponizing" loneliness into a screed against her political enemies.

As for the truly lonely out there, symbolized by the NYT as that woman in the window...

Hillary will leave it to Roy Orbison sing for the lonely.

Cappy said...

Dafuq...

mikee said...

I look forward to the day when her always self-serving, self-aggrandizing, self-interested public utterences are no more. Hillary exemplifies the "ME" in mediocre.

Randomizer said...

Hillary should be celebrating Bannon's ability to reach out to rootless white males and bring them into a community that is engaged with politics and current events. She doesn't seem to be.

It seems like Hillary is saying that the social isolation of the "angry young men" is usual and expected, and now that it extends beyond them, everyone should be concerned.

Bob Boyd said...

One idea: Parachute eager beavers into incel held territory.

In Idaho in the 1940s, officials rounded up beavers from populated areas and relocated them – sometimes by parachute – to remote areas to create fire-resistant wetlands. Could the technique be adapted to tamp down the burning needs of lonely fellas before they break out into electoral wildfires?

https://earthsky.org/earth/parachuting-beavers-dams-fire-resistant-wetland/

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

The search for relevance continues.

Quayle said...

No Hillary, it takes virtue. No village without virtue.

Another old lawyer said...

I wouldn't believe Hillary! if all she said was 'good morning.'

ALP said...

"Weaponized" is a word that's overused and now whenever I see it the steel plate in my head throbs.

farmgirl said...

We had coffee and donuts after Mass, yesterday. Our priest- from India- was explaining their politics &surprisingly, there are communist states in India. Communism is a living political party there. He explained that “projects” are a huge $$suck: airports, for one. Always building into bankruptcy…

… like the democrats here, he says.
Lol.

Be best.
America first.

Buckwheathikes said...

Hillary is scared that someone smarter than Bannon will reach out to rootless white males and form them into an army instead of a bunch of dudes doing politics.

She sees her days being numbered.

Ampersand said...

Hillary's village is the friendly sounding embodiment of Rousseau's "general will", the mechanism by which the true and the good (as determined by the village's general will) are to be forced upon those who disagree.
Legal philosopher John Rawls pulls a similar trick with his methodology of a mythical original position in which persons blessed with omniscience as to certain categories of knowledge make the decisions that bring justice into being.
It's magical thinking by magicians who wants to rule you. It's also totalitarian.

lonejustice said...

Steve Bannon is not a problem. Now Alex Jones, he is a problem.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Rh, that’s Hilarious.

Had me LOLing.

William said...

I didn't read the article. Did she mention any of the left's misplaced conspiracy theories? The Ferguson riots were based on a lie. Michael Brown was not shot with his hands up while surrendering. The subsequent riots were far more destructive and hateful than anything that happened on 1/6. You'd think in the interests of fairness, she make some kind of mention that loneliness and rage are problems shared equably by Republicans and Democrats.....Some people turn to politics the way other turn to religion. There are a lot of political fanatics.

Rusty said...

Granma's in the box wine again!

FleetUSA said...

She most obviously wants to run. Barf

Owen said...

Iman @8:04: ISWTDT. She's unworthy of a haiku, but I'll still give you props.

Owen said...

Iman @8:30, 8:33: One was enough! And too much!

I cry you mercy!

Iman said...

pantsuited pantload
buy some bleach and scrub yourself
use a cheese grater

MalaiseLongue said...

Oh, do fuck off, Mrs. Clinton.

CJinPA said...

Now the surgeon general is telling us that social disconnection is not just a problem at the margins—not just the usual “angry young men”—but is in fact an epidemic sweeping the country.

'This isn't just hurting white guys anymore. Now it's a REAL problem.'

I have seen firsthand how dangerous lies can fuel violence and undermine our democratic process. During the 2016 campaign, a shocking number of people became convinced that I am a murderer, a terrorist sympathizer, and the evil mastermind behind a child-sex-abuse ring.

Yet, during the 2016 campaign, it was Trump supporters chased down in the streets and attacked trying to get into his speech venues.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

As I recall someone else actually wrote "her" book and she stole the title from yet another author. Stay classy Hillary!

Yancey Ward said...

This is Shelob putting out feelers for whether or not she should run next year. I guarantee you she has already formed a committee looking into it.

M Jordan said...

I agree, Ann, that Hillary's returning to her "roots" here but I put roots in quotes because they are only roots in the sense that once upon a time she adopted this viewpoint and wrote a book on it. Hillary's real roots are suburbia Chicago, a supposed-Methodist/Goldwater girl who quickly became a celebrated college power lady.

To be sure, the Goldwater/Methodist stuff wasn't really her roots either. If so, how could she call anyone "Irredeemable"? Wesley famously criss-crossed England on horseback to preach the gospel to the irredeemable. And Goldwater girl? I guess the only real root there is amorality. That the libertarians match up with her quite well.

No, Hillary's is not truly an "It takes a village" kind of lady. She's a transactionalist. An amoral libertarian. A Gimme, gimme, gimme girl. An "I'll stay with a cheating husband because Gimme, gimme, gimme."

And that's all she really is. And thankfully, her days of influence are over.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Hillary, my Father had a saying for you that is so appropriate. "Don't go away mad, just go away." Your expiry date was December 2016. Now your just spoiled milk. Always sour and smelly.

Doug said...

It doesn't take a village ... just six pallbearers.

Narayanan said...

so her village is deserted and abandoned

wildswan said...

I was born into the cohort born from from 1928-1945. the generation just before the boomers. There were then 47 million of us in a nation of 134 million. There are 23 million of us left in a nation of 334 million. We can remember a better time. Probably older people always can but this might be a little more true than usual. We were there for the period of American manufacturing and military preeminence after World II, the arrival of TV and high-fi, the landing on the moon and Civil Rights, the electric guitar, the arrival of foreign manufacturing (Japan in the Seventies and Eighties), the CD, the sale of American manufacturing and politics to China in the Nineties by the current elite or their parents, the DVD and computers, 911, digital cameras, the collapse of the culture (what is a woman?, who is a man?, child mutilation and sex trafficking are OK, abortion is the central drawing card of one major party, what is truth? journalism exists to repeat the lies of the powerful, it is OK for those who control access to social services to harvest the ballots of those who use social services, the collapse of the birth rate and the border), social media and smart phones. Probably we'll be there for The Big Collapse - unless this is it already and it's a slow-motion collapse.
There is a kind of loneliness in that so much has come and gone including a lot of parents, spouses, brothers and sisters, friends and unknown people of the same age with the same experiences. What incels never had, we have lost. But experience at least teaches this: you can't "weaponize" nothingness or loss. They aren't there. The big cities and the culture which the Dems have destroyed aren't there to be used and their loss is like a vacant lot. It can't be weaponized or used. It's a vacancy. It's like the end of of The Magnificent Seven where they say: only the farmers won. Only what's left of family, country and faith is here and is able to act. And it is now resistant to being used by the likes of the Clintons and Bidens.

LinSee127 said...

I understood the message of her book "It Takes a Village" to be that in Clinton's ideal model, everyone in a village would look after everyone's children. Consequently there would be no expectation that parents would take special care of their own children, or accept responsibility for raising them.

JK Brown said...

They are prepping for a Draft. A wholesale enslavement of, especially the young, in service of the state to combat their loneliness. After all, soldiers report high camaraderie from their time in service. That the indoctrinators will be in control of the time and effort of the draftees, well, that's a State bonus hole to exploit

BUMBLE BEE said...

I was gonna post a link to 'Devil with the Blue Dress' in honor of Monica, but I got lost in some fine, fine Mitch Ryder tunes. He's NOT in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame you know.
He's far more important to America than Hillary.

JK Brown said...

Fresh from the Atlantic is this

Sociologists Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, and Timothy J. Nelson preview their forthcoming book The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America in an Atlantic feature titled, “What the Best Places in America Have in Common.”

They list Appalachia, the Cotton-belt and the Texas border region as the most impoverished when looking not just at income but also available social/community services.

The solution, be more like Ann's neighborhood. Which inadvertently means adopting the culture of NW European immigrants

The social leveling that is characteristic of communities in the upper Midwest is more than just a quaint cultural feature. It is the foundation of a community’s well-being. Until these regions’ virtues are shared nationwide, poverty and disadvantage will continue to haunt America.

Rocco said...

rehajm said...
"Why do the people that cause all the problems believe they are the solution to the problems?"

Back in the 80's a local radio station would every now and then run spoof ads for a fake corporation. The ersatz corporation's slogan was: "Creates a need and then fills it!"

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

This is just a desperate attempt to keep herself relevant for the upcoming cash fest that will be the 2024 election. After all, those checks aren’t going to cash Themselves.

What a wretched human being. What a national embarrassment.

walter said...

MayBee said...
What do we call women who are involuntarily celibate?
--
Victims of Toxic Masculinity (or mean spirited lesbians)

who-knew said...

Althouse said: "Hillary Clinton is performing concern". Brilliant! Performing concern is the most you could expect from her. Actual concern about anything other than herself is just not in her emotional repertoire.

JAORE said...

"And by the way, how exactly DID the Clintons get so rich? Did they sell a product that anyone owns and uses? Did they write some software that is deployed and operating? What was it exactly that they sold?"

Their souls.

Mutaman said...

Althouse demonstrating the self-hating female syndrome.

Mikey NTH said...

Hillary: She's tanned, rested, and ready.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

This is how you sell books these days. If you haven't noticed, take a look at how many books have "Hillary Clinton" slapped on the cover. It's a lot!

HC makes money, the publisher might make money, and maybe the ghostwriters get something. I hope it was in advance.

RMc said...

Alas. Behind a paywall.

You misspelled "Luckily".

Blair said...

I think Hillary Clinton is a despicable and immoral person, and the Podesta brothers are creepy and questionable. Furthermore, a lot of people who know the Clintons have ended up dead by strange means. Whether this means that Pizzagate is real, or FrazzledRip is genuine is another matter. I do find it interesting that both these things exist even as lies. Somebody out there thought people would believe Clinton and Abedin ripped the skin off a girl's face for a hit of adrenochrome in the basement of Comet Ping Pong, and they were right. That's sociologically very interesting completely aside from whether it is true.

IamDevo said...

I read the first two paragraphs, or rather a part thereof only, since The Atlantic has a paywall and I would never pay for the opportunity to have my sanity assailed by that crew, but observed that Mrs. Clinton took her inspiration from that utter quack, that personification of snake oil salesmanship and Mengele level quackery Vivek Murthy. Murthy's dismissal from his post as Surgeon General by President Trump was one of the earliest of the myriad of Very Good Things done by The Donald after his inauguration. At any rate, despite my rather small sampling of her (or more likely, a ghostwriter on her behalf) oeuvre, my reaction was that I had never witnessed such a large volume of gaslighting in so short a piece of written material before. To that extent, I offer my congratulations. After all, a record set is a record set.

Jupiter said...

At least we still have Hillary Clinton to kick around.

Tim said...

a Mea Culpa essay like David Brooks recently did.

He did? So what. F him. He helped destroy the USA.

Marc in Eugene said...

Are former secretaries of state afforded state funerals? I might watch that online for a couple of minutes but otherwise Mrs Clinton's activities don't interest me. I have seen firsthand how dangerous lies can fuel violence and undermine our democratic process-- that I don't doubt at all.

tcrosse said...

The picture suggests Hillary under house arrest.

Goldenpause said...

Wow! At this writing there are 90 posts. Each and every one of them is critical of Hillary. Maybe she is a unifier after all.

Narayanan said...

It doesn't take a village ... just six pallbearers.
===========
from Ghana >>> they come dancing at no extra cost