The left is in denial and so in order to try to explain away the movements in Europe they use the tired arguments of “far right” and racism rather than examining their own failures.
European state and corporate media use the "far right" smear as liberally as their American counterparts. They deploy sickening DARVO techniques where they reverse the victims.
Upset about schoolchildren being stabbed by a migrant who has been on welfare for 20+ years in Ireland? Congrats, you are far right.
Upset about a teenager being stabbed to death after a mob attacked his village's holiday party in France? Congrats, you are far right.
Upset about crowds chanting death to Jews while flying the Palestinian flag in the UK? Congrats, you are far right.
Upset about Bataclan, Manchester, Madrid, etc? Congrats, you are a far-right Islamophobe.
"Far right" is another supposed derogatory term that has lost all meaning due to overuse and everyone being accused of it. Just like "racist", "sexist" and ever type of "-phobe".
"...who has been on welfare for 20+ years..." is a key element of this issue that is driving so many Europeans to anti-immigration political parties. Successful immigration requires immigrants to assimilate to the host country's laws and customs and become productive, contributing members of society. That doesn't mean that they have to disown their own religious and cultural traditions, but they do need to adapt and conform, and be productive citizens. This didn't used to be controversial or a difficult concept to understand, but "assimilation" is now considered a bad thing by the Left and expectations that immigrants assimilate are called "racist."
The lefties here and abroad are on a never ending fools errand. They don’t have facts to substantiate their insane policies so they inevitably revert to name calling and social coercion such as the cancel culture model of groupthink technocrats.
Maybe they’re the ones who need to be shipped off to live in the make believe “paradise” they are silly enough to think their Marxist ideology will usher in. Or perhaps they can review history without rewrites and with open eyes and minds for a change.
I wouldn't quote Harris on anything, bloke's brains slopped out a while ago and he was never the sharpest knife in the draw in the first place. You only have to read the rest of the transcript. Equivocation and Hamas apologetics up the wazoo.
I am not familiar with Sam Harris, his blog, or his intellectual capacities, but there are multiple sources pointing to the fact that the term was introduced by Iranian regime to deflect criticism of their aggression.
I don't agree with you. I think Mr. Harris is an incredibly insightful and hyper articulate person. I would absolutely understand why people might think he is a person that, of late, seems to be making, increasingly unreasonable and unfashionable statements. But, there is nothing at all wrong with this, in fact, I believe it serves as food for thought. This might even be a reflection that it is the status quo and not Mr. Harris that has got waylaid by current misleading ideas and the popular trends of thought that we are witnessing in this moment. His job after all, is not to say things that make people feel comfortable. He pays a high price for his beliefs and that makes me think this is a person willing to put his money where his mouth is. My instinct is to listen. I think time will tell, in any case.
How do we all come together? What is one thing we can all agree on? Food seems divisive. Shelter - we're supposed to own nothing and be happy. Sex - so 20th century. How about using art and symbols to unite us? They seem like the only thing that has made the test of time
I say we turn the peace sign upside down (the death rune) so it represents growth and peace like it's supposed to. Rune painting everywhere like the good old days. Bob Ross the Viking edition.
They don't want us to be united. Even if they did, it is impossible to unite two groups that fundamentally see the world, and the purpose of life, so differently.
You know JoAnna, as much as I think you're right, I think you're about 99% right. I think there's 1% of their brain that wants to see us come together. They, like God, love horror movies, but God also loves love stories. Who doesn't love a good plot twist? Let's give them the show they are asking us for.
The thing is - the goal should not be to "bring everyone together". The goal should be to unite under the American and state flags only and go about life with our differences.
This thing where Biden and now Haley want "to bring us all together or else!" is false and coercive. It ought to be "you do you and leave me and my children alone".
I feel like the Haley Follower Fantasy is that we can all just ignore the "culture wars" (the radical Marxist "Queering" destruction) and it will no longer hurt us.
I don't want to be "brought together" under any BLM signs, Pride Progress flags, or lawn signs :) Haley would not take that cult rot out of the government schools which are indoctrinating a generation. (I am alarmed by Ds and Rs who think she's a winner.)
Thank you Loving Mother - I think you raise a valid point. Decentralization is the only way toward radical sovereignty. We can use the example of Switzerland and its cantons - they all get along and have a "I don't mess with you, you don't mess with me attitude."
Okay, infadel and proud of it. I’m no islamophobe but I really don’t care what they think. I do care that they think they have the right to force the whole world to accept Islam or die. Those are fighting words and, well, if they won’t stop without a fight then so be it.
Not all Muslim ppl are militant Islamists. I also will defend the right of anyone choosing to be or become Muslim. If God gives ppl the right to choose then that’s between them and Him and a choice I am not empowered to make or change.
Just don’t tread on my choice to accept Yeshua (Jesus) and the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Left and its media fellow travelers repeatedly characterize Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as “far right”, Mahmoud Abbas in the 18th year of his 4 year term as President of the Palestinian Authority as a “moderate” and the terrorists of the genocidal death cult that is Hamas as “militants”. So, nothing really shocking by this point.
The left/MSM know full well that Islamists are not supportive of feminism, LGBT, etc...it’s all tied up with the concept of “Intersectionality”. Intersectionality means that the struggle of one type of “oppressed” people is inexorably tied to the struggle of every other type of “oppressed” people. So, even when the basic interests of one “oppressed” group are completely antithetical to another “oppressed” group, according to the doctrine, they are allies.
If this makes no sense to you, then voilà, you’ve gotten it! It is a fundamentally, flawed and illogical ideology.
<sarcasm>Now, say it with me, loud and proud, “Palestinian rights are reproductive rights” (abortion is illegal in Gaza); “Palestinian rights are Gay rights” (homosexuality is illegal in Gaza); “Palestinian rights are women’s rights”...etc.
I believe it was Thomas Sowell who said; “The word racism is like ketchup, you can practically put it on anything.” When the left has lost the argument, they always refer back to the far right boogeyman or racism.
I disagree. The left is not in denial. They simply do not care what the hoi-polloi think and deliberately use this far right smear to silence opposition under the guise of disinformation and hate speech.
THere most definitely is a right that is not 'far right.' I argue, most conservatives are left of far right. We're mostly middle right socially, but may be far right fiscally. What's the matter with less spending and smaller government? I could give countless examples
Of course! Perhaps I should have said (more or less), "When and/or where have you ever seen anyone anywhere use the descriptor "right" without having affixed the modifier "far"?"
(I'll stick to brevity, thank you; I get few complaints.)
The left’s strategy is to shame, blame, cancel and yes, gaslight anyone who doesn’t hold their race-based viewpoint. Because the elites of so much of our society signal compliance with left “woke” ideologies, a fear is instilled in the public and they count on this fear, which silences opposition, to win elections. It’s going to be an interesting election year…if not an all out war.
The media and the left were asleep at the wheel, thinking Prez. Hillary was a slam dunk. The slobbering paeans were written well in advance waiting to be delivered to your TV screens. It was like a Disney movie about to come to life. The glass ceiling was set to shatter. The ceiling did shatter but for a different reason. She fell through it and fucked up the chandelier in the process.
Listening to people not on the left, rather than mocking them, would have been helpful had they done so.
But listening is not a strong trait associated with snooty folk who find you deplorable. Their message to those misguided Americans is “No! You listen to me!”
The fear and paranoia was really ratcheted up after her failed run implying Trump was a domestic terrorist that slipped through the cracks and snuck into the White House. They really couldn’t understand how it happened. They remain mystified.
He still sits far atop the “Worlds Most Dangerous Man” list in their minds. The national circus masquerading as a presidential election campaign is about to kick into high gear soon. Grab your popcorn 🍿
I said the same thing IRL a few days ago. How is it that every newly elected leader in foreign countries who liberal MSM don't like is called the "Trump" of [fill in the country]? Whatever one thinks of Trump, Trump is a very unique person with an unparalleled personality to excite and rally his supporters. Any way I look at it, like him or hate him, he's a one of a kind phenomenon. It is just impossible that there are duplicate mini-Trumps popping up around the world. We'd be hard pressed to even find a second person who can be like that. Equivocating every conservative or non-liberal elected leader from vastly different countries to Trump is absurd and a dumbing down of how to understand the world. Plus a huge dose of fear-mongering. (Because Trump is dog whistle for the Anti-Christ, right?)
"Because Trump is dog whistle for the Anti-Christ, right?" Yup
I disliked "dog whistle" the first time I ever heard it. It means that some superior leftist can decide what some other person means by the words the person uses. Like: "My shoes are wet". Leftist Dem: "He/she/they/zir/it is saying that only middle aged hetero men have rights!" Very dangerous.
Is it true that DJT employs the phrase "dog whistle" all the time? Or, is it that you are saying , for instance, that when he said there were good people on both sides of the statue debate - folks were correct to accuse him of signalling racism to his supporters? You see, I think people need to use real words - like maybe just say the above and then let other people disagree if they like. This term, "dog whistle" gets bandied about as much as the reactive "phobe" suffix and the accusations of "implicit racism". They are thought stopping words, IMO.
For the record I would like to see a President DeSantis.
I'd add that "anti-immigrant", if anything like what is occurring in the US, is more correctly identified as "anti-ILLEGAL-immigrant". Thrown into the mix, the third world muslims who don't want to assimilate and CHEER the destruction of their benevolent host countries and it's not exactly hard to see why there might be a populist (root: popular) winning elections...
Left-wing people lie. It's a foundational trait of theirs. Their worldview, going back at least as far as Rousseau, says that truth is subjective and words are power constructs. They tell themselves that everyone everywhere is a lying hypocrite, so there's nothing immoral about behaving this way themselves; rather, the only game that's ever being played is "who can manipulate others the most successfully?" So that's the game they're always playing.
Everything that left-wing people say should be interpreted with this understanding.
Have you not heard of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Internationals? The Left was 'Globalist' a century or more before the word was coined. It has always been globalist and seeking to export "revolution" everywhere.
I became a subscriber right after Bari founded and started publishing The Free Press. To this day it’s one of my favorite subs.
That said I wrote her early on and recommended she find some good writers that come from rural southeast (Carolina's, GA, Bama, Miss, Louisiana) as well as Appalachia, rural central, mid and south west (fly over states). People who come from blue collar or first generation white collar families, who hunt, fish, grow a real garden every year, and are capable changing the oil in their own cars. There's a perspective & representation that TFP is missing with a huge swath of the US populace by not having the voice from these areas IMHO.
So far it seems she's only brought in Walter Kirn, who's a national treasure for sure, but there needs to be many more Kirns and way fewer Wisemans who can't seem to quite figure out why more and more people are turning away from progressivism and running towards populism.
Agree. I also challenge her to have people like Victor Davis Hansen on. He is smart and thoughtful and respectful. Yet his point of view is never considered at the free press
I subscribe to this site because Bari Weiss believes in free speech. This is rare for a leftist who are, even if well intentioned, totalitarians at base. This is why I see little support on this site for Ukraine and no opposition to the Conquest Ideology which has convinced the historically ignorant youth in America that there should be permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
I recently came across the substack of Ward Carroll and the essay of the brilliant Dr. Justin Bronk regarding the war in Ukraine. There will be no peace until all Conquest Ideologies are opposed and their influence is limited.
Agree with you here. We are living too long under the construct of Dominion, the ideology (religion) it came from and perpetuates today. We are trying to evolve from it but doing a really terrible job. Young people sense it but are too ignorant and inexperienced to know what to do properly, and we are not guiding them well. Elites, whatever elitism is the flavor of the moment, do not want to give up their status for anything. They just shift their ideology (and money) with whatever culture war is raging. Dominion, conquest, power and greed must be broken down.
Where is this essay of Bronk's? He crops up on pro-Nato, pro-Ukraine channels; is he walking that bollocks back now it has become obvious Ukraine can't win?
My mother’s parents were immigrants from Poland, which, is not surprisingly given its history of being conquered, limiting immigration from adherents of The Conquest Ideology.
Wiseman is there for a foreign perspective. While I don't disagree that she needs to broaden the outlook of her writing base, a lot of people here do care about foreign goings-on.
They took themselves out of the NYT; but taking the NYT out of them hasn't happened yet. If Israel and Jews weren't being attacked and the Grey Lady being all fur coat and no knickers anti-semitism-wise, they'd still be writing for the rag and attacking everyone to the right of Mao.
I quit the NYT because they kept moderating me out of existence even when my comments had slipped through the gate and garnered 125 "likes" or more before they were taken down, sometimes 4-5 days later.
I was glad to see that although for most of my years reading that paper my moderate comments were the voice in the wilderness, by the time I left, a number of readers were saying the same things -- and complaining their comments weren't being published either. So something has changed.
The WSJ is, in general, a more reliable newspaper than the NYT anyway. I can usually trust its facts. Some of its commenters, though, are as snarlingly right-wing and close-minded as the NYT's left wing. Well, there we are.
Point taken, but it was the "And yet serious, good-faith examinations of why outsider parties are faring so well are hard to come by. Instead, we must wade through unhelpful, knee-jerk descriptions of everyone" and then his referencing Trump supporters in America and links to similar populist movement stories in US publications that prompted my comment.
Walter is a treasure and his content is few and far between on TFP. I think he was sort of a token hire. Someone they could bring out in case the heat of us middle Americans complaining the coastals were out of touch with us got too hot. His weekly observations on the news and American culture far outshines TGIF. But Walter represents meat eaters, probably is a consumer of many non-organic products, and has a distaste for media and activist driven histrionics so every five months or so they’ll print something of his to let us know he’s still on staff.
But a while ago I did get to read the opening paragraph of a TFP story by one of the young interns that began with her stating that the majority of her peers wants her dead, for the fact she was Jewish and/or pro Israel. For which she was then rewarded by being used as a prop, giving testimony in a congressional hearing intended to bolster our nations full support for more indiscriminate death and destruction in Gaza to “root out Hamas.” A real feather in the cap for TFP.
Since Oct. 7 I’ve found myself passing on many of the articles on the conflict for excusing Israel of any responsibility whatsoever, printing items as fact that were in no way verified still to this date and looking side eyed at anyone who expresses any sympathy for Palestinians. The comments sections following those articles were surprisingly incendiary.
And Bari’s 180 degree reversal on free speech has left me...speechless.
The real victims on both sides are thousands of miles away on another continent. Palestinians and Israelis are both victims of poor leadership as are we in this country. Netanyahu’s approval ratings were as far down in the tank as Biden’s. I feel threatened by our administrations constant missteps here and abroad and its ability to make enemies. But our problems pale in comparison right now to civilians in Israel and Gaza who are the unintended victims of dangerous rhetoric and lethal actions promoted by their leaders. Those victims are in my thoughts.
Victims of hate speech not so much. I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of hate speech in my lifetime and would never say to families of the dead, “what about me?”
I’m sure I’ll be subjected to a barrage of it for writing this post.
And sorry if I came off more grumpy/cynical than usual. I’ve had a sinus infection that knocked me on my ass and am only halfway through at this point.
You obviously weren't paying attention. Bari and Nellie left the Times because it was anti-Israel and anti-Jew. In that order. If you want turkeys to vote for Xmas or Thanksgiving, you are in the wrong place. It isn't going to happen here. What concord has Yahweh with Beliar?
Racism and cultural criticism are usually equated by the chattering class when it comes to opinion makers. It is NOT so much the so-called "refugees" that is the problem, it is their steadfast refusal to integrate into an existing culture that is the problem. You can't shit in another person's living room and then complain when the host complains. It is WAY past time to call a halt to that type of thinking!
That is the point, in all of Europe. The Muslim world and enlightenment values, do not mix well together. What the left always fails to understand, is that the religious right Christians may pray for you, if they disagree. But Muslims, will kill you, and that doesn't work in a free society. Sadly, Europe is beginning to figure this out, but it might be too late.
But even extremist Christians went on their sprees: It was once the fashion, in I guess the 1980s, to murder OB/GYNs who performed abortions and to blow up "abortion clinics."
The Christians called them abortion doctors and baby killers, but these were just gynecologists who terminated pregnancies for the myriads of reasons they need to be terminated, often in "clinics," that is, facilities which also provided mammograms and other wellness services for women.
They've calmed down since.
That said, there's something really bizarre about Muslim women walking around Flatbush in full burka (and at one point demanding that they be photographed in full burka for their drivers licenses; I think that was quashed). When I'm gardening in the front, I say hi to everyone, but these ladies seem not to want to reply to a "good morning." A quiet Brooklyn street is the essence of Anywhere, USA, and saying good morning back is the usual thing in Anywhere. Even the probably illegal Central American immigrants pushing baby carriages past my house return my greetings; I hold out greater hope for their assimilating.
And bizarre, too, about Muslim youth (along with their college-student comrades and BLM bodyguards) demanding -- demanding! -- our attention during Thanksgiving parades and Christmas tree lightings, as though they don't already have our attention, and we're sick to death of them.
The pro-Hamas types have got our attention, and most of us don't like what we see: They're like five-year-olds running loose in restaurants, enjoying themselves and busting up things. Or standing next to their parents at cocktail parties tugging at their sleeves and not letting them have grown-up conversations.
Who are the grownups who will control them? Who will say "Not now! Quiet! Sit down!"?
We might not like what'll happen, but it's what you will get when you don't nip bad behavior early.
B., that first assertion is BS. Sorry, but every cause has it wingnuts; your attempt to tar the lot with such is despicable. As to the innocent OGGYN who was offed (a crime, I emphasize) was reportedly known even to his friends as Dr Tiller the baby killer. Sort of a pre-Gosnel Gosnel. A non-spree spree. The reason even my CT GP recognized Kansas as where one went for abortions that no one else would do. Too bad about the turd in the punch bowl; not bad otherwise; curious, though, why the abortion card? It adds nothing, even had you resisted tarring Christendom with it.
Not looked to the Russian Othodox Church and Xtian goings on all across Africa have we? Few might go as far a bombings in the US; but how many would condone not banging abortionists up for life with no parole?
"Extremist." There's the word you missed. Wasn't crazy about people like Anita Bryant either, with her anti-gay shrieking. Or the Westboro clan protesting at soldiers' funerals.
I'm pro-marriage equality and very much against transgender stuff. I am not anti-Muslim but loathe terrorist antisemitic types. Most Black people probably prefer Riley to Kendi, but that doesn't mean I appreciate my city being shut down in 2020.
The issue is not extremist Christians or extremist Muslims, it is the blending of cultures. Europe is a very tolerant society that allows behaviors that are outside of religious norms. The average Muslim because all their home countries do not have separation of church and state, it offends them. The gay lifestyle, the more libertine way of living, that we have accepted in the West, is not something that they accept. A second thing is the work ethic, and the new people coming into the countries, don't have the same expectations for work. And that's a problem as well. So it's more the culture that they were in and the culture shock of the new place where they are. And there's data all over the place showing that that's not working
Agree, Albert. Some cultures really don't mix at all.
I have a hard time, for example, living near people who think that their loud music, amplified past sanity, blasting from cars, is a way of showing their affection for the neighborhood. A cultural thing. Yech.
And obviously don't appreciate Muslims and their friends setting fires in our shopping avenues or graffitiing up our streetscapes. Not my idea of free speech.
You get the impression from Saudi and the Gulf that the ONLY people working are metics brought in from abroad. Yeminis and Palestinians are the only Arab Muslims that ever appear as actualy doing any work in those narratives and they too are metics denied citizenship.
I agree. Assimilation is more the issue than diversity and racism. We can all come to respect others people's cultures and have done. It takes time, but at some point immigrants must adapt and respect the place and the people in the country they live and now call home.
Unfortunately there are only a few modernized Muslim majority countries where women actually don’t have to wear a hijab, can walk on their own in public, can drive and go to school. I think only when all of the Middle East comes out of the dark ages will they ever be able to immigrate into western cultures. There are examples of this in Ayaan and Dr Jasser.
Theresa, please excuse me...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You have a very optimistic view of things in the Muslim world. It is difficult to go against 1400 years of programming. Assimilation was NEVER their goal, and it never will be.
Regrettably, you’re right. Which is sad. We forget that Islam is 600 years “younger” than Christianity so it’s possible to argue that it is going through its own spasms of extremism and murder just as Christianity did for hundreds of years (think, the 100 years war - 1548-1648, concluded only by the Treaty of Westphalia which held out tolerance between Catholics and protestants). But Islam would need to have its own Age of Enlightenment which opened the possibility of taking Christianity seriously but not literally, or even of not taking it at all - which led to the explosion of scientific thought, Darwinism and Albert Einstein. Even today, many evangelical Christians do not accept this. For Muslims, the Koran (and the Hadith) are LITERALLY the word of God and Islam IS the state. Until they too have their epiphany, they are fundamentally unassimilable.
Gentlemen, you are harsh and off base. Assimilation is very possible for any culture, including the Muslim culture. You are talking about two different things. Muslim and radical Islam. Most Muslims here and in Canada and Australia assimilate very well and have done for decades. And please don't condescend and ask if I have lived in or visited any; I most certainly have.
Dr. Jasser is still a Muslim. He puts a nice face on a Conquest Ideology.He is the most dangerous Muslim in America. Hirsi Ali has at long last come to her senses.
I always look at a guy's enemies. ALL the Usual Suspects I see. Ex Navy, former Staff Internist to the US Congress. Oh yeh, I can see why one would think he was a terrorist. NOT.
His is very much a minority Muslim opinion and he is terribly naive about Ijtahid. In theory Islam contains its own reformation; in theory it contains a seedbed for democracy. The trouble is there are no tools to work with to make that change. What usualy happens in fact is schism and the creation of faiths that are compatible with Western values but are almost immediately ejected from the Ummah and persecuted.
On the other hand, what passes for a reform/enlightment movement in Sunni Islam's main rootstock lies in the turn of the 19th/20century Egyptian scholar Muhammed Abduh. His greater fame? The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' parents; and Al Quaida both claim him an ancestor.
Eric Weinstein, one of the brightest folk on the planet and not stupid about Islam, talked about visiting Istanbul recently. I didn't here him say anything about there being a particular danger to Jews or a particular threat to the West in Erdogan or Turkey. Out of Terry; Eric; and Casey, I'll go with Eric and agree with you. I'm not clairvoyant I can only go on the evidence of now and yesterday.
Turkey is balanced between two worlds; but they've been there before. They chose wrong last time and were only saved by accident and secularism. I hope they remember that.
Europe is further along in being conquered than America, so it will figure out Islam before America does. Europe does not have freedom of “religion”, which ironically is a serious impediment to surviving The Conquest Ideology which if successful will ban all true religions.
Muslims are not legitimate refugees. They are adherents of a Conquest Ideology. The only way for the West to avoid conquest is to ban Muslim immigration.
And yet serious, good-faith examinations of why outsider parties are faring so well are hard to come by. Instead, we must wade through unhelpful, knee-jerk descriptions of everyone
In a post on the recent string of victories for radical right-wingers,
———
Radical right wingers. Hmmm sounds like the free press is complicit In the slurs. Shameful
And why is it never radical left wing or hard left wing or even left wing?
I thought the same thing when I read that paragraph. Must be something in the Washington DC water or ole Oliver doesn’t get outside of the beltway enough.
“Cowan also suggests that since these parties keep winning elections, “you can’t call them ‘far right’ anymore! How about ‘deep center?’ ” I take the point, but I’m not sure that’s quite right either. But whatever we call Wilders et al., their impact on European politics is only growing.” However you are correct. The term “far right” is tiresome and I’m sure there are liberals that are tired of being called “far left”. I think we all need to come back to some semblance of sanity in the middle.
I would’ve liked to see commentary about the recent agriculture revolts in Holland. According to one source: “When the Dutch government announced plans to buy out farms close to nature reserves and cut the country’s livestock herd by as much as one-third, farmers revolted, staging massive demonstrations and destabilizing politics in the Netherlands.” I think this played a role in the election as well
Yes, and I followed those stoires closely. But as Margret pointed out, all coverage of this uprising simply evaporated overnight. And this was long before this latest batch of Hamas atrocities, which has pretty much sucked the oxygen out of the room for any other topic.
A small country far away, of which you know little and care less. A goldfish has a greater attention span than an American about anywhere in the world other than the USA.
Name me one positive of open immigration and the free and open borders on any country in the world? Does anyone think people with college degrees are doing the immigration, or is people looking for free and the truth is, an I mean lots of criminals escaping from what is sure to be hell prisons or death in their country. Rapists, gang members helping spread their gangs, people looking to change where they are immigrating to. Unwilling to simulate into society but demand you change to the crap policies and beliefs they left behind. Peoples countries literally being changed forever and not for the better. The sick ass liberals wonder why people get tired of this stupid, insane process?
People want their countries back and some semblance of normal. Normal is not drugs, homelessness, immigrants in police stations, airports, schools, and bankrupting their cities and states. The left fails to realize their ignorant and self serving policies make even gentle people demand more drastic and immediate changes. The old woke liberal policies have been shown to be failures over and over again. These idiots are destroying everything and preventing normal intelligent discussions on how to solve societal issues by being in your face and declaring you to be a racist and fascist. The hall mark claims of failed policies, beliefs, and yes; no ability to logically discuss and compromise.
I really really really don't want Trump to be the nominee, but he most likely will be. I’ll then vote for him in the hopes that his actions on deportation and closing the border shut with a snap so loud they can hear it in Uzbekistan match his rhetoric.
Trump is no answer! He is just another form of the rot that has been working inside our populace. Sure he accomplished a few good things, but by and large, he is just as self-serving as any other politician! Pleas him and he is your best friend, disagree and you are the new evil! I cannot vote for that, sorry.
DeSantis is a better answer but the Left’s corrupt war on Trump and Justice may make him the R. nominee. Tump is being prosecuted for fraud in NYC for conduct which resulted in no one being defrauded. The prosecution is the fraud and an attack on Justice. And this site is silent.
Should President Trump recover the Presidency; DeSantis probably won't be chosen to his Administration in any office. President Trump knows how to hold a grudge and then some. DeSantis' recent faux pas have ruled him out altogether I'm afraid.
A couple of months ago I'd have been in the affirmative about RFK Jr; but I'm hearing more than a hint of boiler-plate Dimocrat daffy from him of late. I'll not be surprised if he becomes daffy to the point of toxic well before November.
In conscience, I CANNOT vote for the man, anymore than I could vote for Mussolini because he made the trains run on time! Now, I am not equating Trump with Mussolini, I am just saying that voting FOR him is the same as voting for another for years of nastiness, character assassination, lies and exaggerations, and an incompetently run cabinet full of amateurs. Biden is a fraud, himself. A ventriloquist's dummy whose jaws flap and emit only the word of whoever has their hand on his controls. Just consider me to be a conscientious objector.
Fine, vote your conscience (while we still have a free country.) That's what you must do.
But you did just compare Trump to Mussolini while not addressing my assertion that
1. Your life was not that bad while Trump was president. I look at it as he's hired to clean up the sewer backup in my basement. I don't have to like my plumber...just get the job done. And as long as you don't sleep with children or farm animals, your personal life is not my business.
2. If you don't vote for the Rep. nominee you're wasting your vote, and if we have 4 more years of this sh*tshow the reason is because there were too many people that wasted their vote. (read: it's your fault and people like you.)
My life was not bad under Trump, and it is even BETTER under Biden, but neither scenario was due to whoever was in the White House! I worked hard, paid off credit cards and my auto loan, then sold my condo for four times what I paid for it. No president did that for me, I DID THAT!
And I didn't say that Trump WAS Mussolini, I said that just because Mussolini made the trains run on time that it was no reason to support him, and in the same way, just because Trump did a couple of good things, THAT does not make him worthy of my vote! Tell me, what is he running on now? What policy has he said he would try to push through? N.O.T.H.I.N.G! Oh wait, yes, he is running on the Dems stole the election! Yeah, THAT one is great for the country, REVENGE! Always a worthy issue.
And "people like you"? Without a coherent argument you resort to ad hominin attacks? Get real!
> Name me one positive of open immigration and the free and open borders on any country in the world?
GDP growth. Line goes up. That's a really, really big positive, especially for people in power. If you can import 10 million people, give each of them $5000/month worth of benefits, then it provides a ton of labor and growth for the local economy. And then some of those people can take cheap labor, so it can keep prices down (until all the inflation catches up). As to whether the average native people see benefits from this... well, you can slice that a ton of different ways to make arguments for or against. As for incidences of violence and crime, it is definitely higher among immigrant populations to Europe, but still a fairly small minority.
The real issue I see is cultural change -- your holidays, foods, customs, languages. Your jokes, your folklore, your social mores. The land where your grandfather built his house, your great-great-grandfather dug a well by hand. Your churches, your Christmas markets, your autumn bonfires and summer dances.... this is what is lost. Your very history is colonized by the immigrants -- for example, the BBC is now lying and saying Stonehenge was built by black people, that black women were the greatest victims of the 13th-century bubonic plague in London, or making the Vikings diverse. In an interview, one of the show runners said he wants to "tell a little lie to make history better."
“… the national Christmas tree toppled over in high winds in Washington on Tuesday evening, two days before Joe Biden was set to turn the lights on. The most powerful nation in human history. But one that can’t keep the Christmas tree on the lawn of the White House standing during a few November gusts. “
If memory serves, it was Biden’s former boss who famously said that you should “never underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up,” or at least words very close to those. He could find a way to mismanage a two-car funeral.
That whole formulation: if we can do X we can do Y has been a lazy joke for a long time. It would be wise for anyone claiming the term "journalism" to avoid it except when obviously being humorous.
Ex. If we can beat the Nazis in WW2 surely we can make a good pastrami sandwich.
Oliver, next piece please define these terms: populist, far right, right wing. You throw them around quite often. Would be good to know what they mean and since they are intended to be derogatory who they exactly apply to. While at it how about defining left wing populist and if that term applies to a politician who orally or through actions or inaction ( failure to enforce laws) is an open border advocate.
“Trump-like.” The comparison usually prefaces a shallow, parochial analysis.
Leave it up to the MSM to try to pigeon-hole the public's outrage over progressive policies! "WE are the world" sentiments can only go so far, then the reality sets in and the elites go running to time tested tropes of "racism" to explain away public outrage. It's about time! The EU MAY not be lost after all.
QUITE FRANKLY, PRESIDENT TRUMP opened our eyes to the insanity we are experiencing now. That’s why he is hated so much. EVERYTHING is “trumpism” or “racism”.
I disagree somewhat; Trump is far from perfect, but rather than an example of rot in our politics, he is more emblematic of the rot in our society as a whole.
His personal dalliances with porn stars and in reality TV cater to the sensationalist.
The career politicians (Biden, McConnell, Schumer, Pelosi et al) and bureaucrats that are emboldened by them (Fauci, Wray etc.) are the maggot infested rot plaguing politics.
As a Dutch national, I’ve never felt antipathy against Wilders. In my early twenties, the brutal murders of Fortuyn and Van Gogh shaped my political en social worldviews against the backdrop of 9/11, so I’ve always understood where he came from, and why. I never voted for his party, though, because he always pushed the envelope just that bit too far in his rhetoric, with the “less Moroccans” incident and various other outbursts that kept me from voting for him or his Party for Freedom. He was a welcome presence in dusty ol’ politics, but never a serious option for (a belief in) actual change.
However, in the last few years he has been slowly dialing down his rhetoric. In part because far more outrageous parties rose up and staked even louder claims (mainly Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy, which started out as a fresh, classical liberal movement that very rapidly went down the slide and into the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories), but also because - I think - the reality of migration and Islamization caught up with his warnings: we had seen Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan, and various other vicious Islamist attacks in Europe. We’ve witnessed the rise and - thankfully - demise of ISIS and their sadistic brutalities. And just a few weeks before last week’s elections, we not only saw how Hamas ISIS’ed its way through Israel, but many people witnessed the shocking and reprehensible response of both Muslims taking to the streets to celebrate, and many mainstream media outlets criticizing *Israel* for its response. A lot of masks dropped at the same moment many eyes opened.
This, combined with a whole heap of social and political crises from inflation and a housing shortage to a rise in energy prices and the cultural self-flagellation you see all around the West, created momentum for Wilders to seize the electoral moment. And I found myself voting for his party, too, together with many others who saw their objections against the PVV fall away against the failures of the ruling classes that are not only abandoning their electorate, but risking both culture and democracy by failing to step over their own shadow of a projected “decency” that prohibits them from taking action *for* the people and *against* undermining threats to the social fabric.
Islam(ization) has become not a side dish in Wilders’ political menu, but the buffet of topics has grown bigger - big enough to invite more people to come and have a taste. Because the offerings of the competition have gone stale, and the appetite for new flavors has grown - together with a desire to spice things up. And we know that if Geert Wilders can deliver one thing, is a bit of hot pepper in politics.
So not shocked that the CIA has been infiltrated by those who hate the US - so has the Pentagon and especially Foggy Bottom (re- Georgetown School of Foreign Service has been a hotbed of Saudi /Qatari funded antisemitism for decades). They have been educated at the US hating elite universities, so why would any of this come as a surprise?
They are not intended to mean anything. They are intended to demean, destroy and silence the opposition. Bitter clingers. Maga extremists. Colonizers. Etc etc.
MEDIA: "A 'far-right' politician with 'far-right' ideas is poised to win another election in Europe and potentially push that country further to the 'far-right' as centrists and the media worry that the 'far-right' is gaining ground in countries where most sensible citizens view the 'far-right' as dangerous.
Hmmm... it seems our totally non-partisan, centrist, 'mainstream' media elites are trying to make a point. But for the life of me, I can't spot it.
The Free press needs to do a profile on the biggest political prisoner from our most important ally the UK, Tommy Robinson. A centrist in almost everything but cast as "far right" because he simply doesn't want his country taken over by Islamists in a generation.
Christophe Guilluy: "Yet in the economic, social, and cultural chaos that is France (Western Civilization)
today, there is one hope left. It is not a hope placed in politicians, or in intellectuals and certainly not in ideologues; rather, it is one founded on the majority’s instinct for survival—the majority being the working and middle classes."
The most profound words in regard to the struggle ahead. The last, best hope for mankind.
The left is in denial and so in order to try to explain away the movements in Europe they use the tired arguments of “far right” and racism rather than examining their own failures.
European state and corporate media use the "far right" smear as liberally as their American counterparts. They deploy sickening DARVO techniques where they reverse the victims.
Upset about schoolchildren being stabbed by a migrant who has been on welfare for 20+ years in Ireland? Congrats, you are far right.
Upset about a teenager being stabbed to death after a mob attacked his village's holiday party in France? Congrats, you are far right.
Upset about crowds chanting death to Jews while flying the Palestinian flag in the UK? Congrats, you are far right.
Upset about Bataclan, Manchester, Madrid, etc? Congrats, you are a far-right Islamophobe.
"Far right" is another supposed derogatory term that has lost all meaning due to overuse and everyone being accused of it. Just like "racist", "sexist" and ever type of "-phobe".
Amen. Well said.
"...who has been on welfare for 20+ years..." is a key element of this issue that is driving so many Europeans to anti-immigration political parties. Successful immigration requires immigrants to assimilate to the host country's laws and customs and become productive, contributing members of society. That doesn't mean that they have to disown their own religious and cultural traditions, but they do need to adapt and conform, and be productive citizens. This didn't used to be controversial or a difficult concept to understand, but "assimilation" is now considered a bad thing by the Left and expectations that immigrants assimilate are called "racist."
The lefties here and abroad are on a never ending fools errand. They don’t have facts to substantiate their insane policies so they inevitably revert to name calling and social coercion such as the cancel culture model of groupthink technocrats.
Maybe they’re the ones who need to be shipped off to live in the make believe “paradise” they are silly enough to think their Marxist ideology will usher in. Or perhaps they can review history without rewrites and with open eyes and minds for a change.
Either way, good luck with that.
The term 'Islamophobia' was invented by Iranian theocrats in the 1970s to prevent any criticism of Islam and to cast secularism as a form of bigotry.
"Islamophobia is a term created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons"
- Sam Harris, Making Sense podcast Episode 340 The Bright Line Between Good and Evil: https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-bright-line-between-good-and-evil
I wouldn't quote Harris on anything, bloke's brains slopped out a while ago and he was never the sharpest knife in the draw in the first place. You only have to read the rest of the transcript. Equivocation and Hamas apologetics up the wazoo.
I am not familiar with Sam Harris, his blog, or his intellectual capacities, but there are multiple sources pointing to the fact that the term was introduced by Iranian regime to deflect criticism of their aggression.
I don't agree with you. I think Mr. Harris is an incredibly insightful and hyper articulate person. I would absolutely understand why people might think he is a person that, of late, seems to be making, increasingly unreasonable and unfashionable statements. But, there is nothing at all wrong with this, in fact, I believe it serves as food for thought. This might even be a reflection that it is the status quo and not Mr. Harris that has got waylaid by current misleading ideas and the popular trends of thought that we are witnessing in this moment. His job after all, is not to say things that make people feel comfortable. He pays a high price for his beliefs and that makes me think this is a person willing to put his money where his mouth is. My instinct is to listen. I think time will tell, in any case.
How do we all come together? What is one thing we can all agree on? Food seems divisive. Shelter - we're supposed to own nothing and be happy. Sex - so 20th century. How about using art and symbols to unite us? They seem like the only thing that has made the test of time
I say we turn the peace sign upside down (the death rune) so it represents growth and peace like it's supposed to. Rune painting everywhere like the good old days. Bob Ross the Viking edition.
They don't want us to be united. Even if they did, it is impossible to unite two groups that fundamentally see the world, and the purpose of life, so differently.
You know JoAnna, as much as I think you're right, I think you're about 99% right. I think there's 1% of their brain that wants to see us come together. They, like God, love horror movies, but God also loves love stories. Who doesn't love a good plot twist? Let's give them the show they are asking us for.
I like your idea about the peace sign.
The thing is - the goal should not be to "bring everyone together". The goal should be to unite under the American and state flags only and go about life with our differences.
This thing where Biden and now Haley want "to bring us all together or else!" is false and coercive. It ought to be "you do you and leave me and my children alone".
I feel like the Haley Follower Fantasy is that we can all just ignore the "culture wars" (the radical Marxist "Queering" destruction) and it will no longer hurt us.
I don't want to be "brought together" under any BLM signs, Pride Progress flags, or lawn signs :) Haley would not take that cult rot out of the government schools which are indoctrinating a generation. (I am alarmed by Ds and Rs who think she's a winner.)
Thank you Loving Mother - I think you raise a valid point. Decentralization is the only way toward radical sovereignty. We can use the example of Switzerland and its cantons - they all get along and have a "I don't mess with you, you don't mess with me attitude."
:) Yes!
But, right now we experience very heavy handed top down control:
"Transgender Your Businesses, Nonprofits, And Schools, Or No Federal Grants For You"
https://thefederalist.com/2023/11/28/transgender-your-businesses-nonprofits-and-schools-or-no-federal-grants-for-you/
An ironic proposal since Switzerland has been increasingly adopting The Way of the Loony themselves in the last few decades.
Maybe they need to have more of their grassfed butter for their brains, and get out in the fresh mountain air and off their social media.
Okay, infadel and proud of it. I’m no islamophobe but I really don’t care what they think. I do care that they think they have the right to force the whole world to accept Islam or die. Those are fighting words and, well, if they won’t stop without a fight then so be it.
Not all Muslim ppl are militant Islamists. I also will defend the right of anyone choosing to be or become Muslim. If God gives ppl the right to choose then that’s between them and Him and a choice I am not empowered to make or change.
Just don’t tread on my choice to accept Yeshua (Jesus) and the Hebrew Scriptures.
How about roving bands of Muslim men hunting the streets at night for women to rape? Don't forget that one.
The Left and its media fellow travelers repeatedly characterize Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as “far right”, Mahmoud Abbas in the 18th year of his 4 year term as President of the Palestinian Authority as a “moderate” and the terrorists of the genocidal death cult that is Hamas as “militants”. So, nothing really shocking by this point.
Honesty isn’t a strong suit of the leftist mob. It rarely supports their positions/arguments/ideology.
The left/MSM know full well that Islamists are not supportive of feminism, LGBT, etc...it’s all tied up with the concept of “Intersectionality”. Intersectionality means that the struggle of one type of “oppressed” people is inexorably tied to the struggle of every other type of “oppressed” people. So, even when the basic interests of one “oppressed” group are completely antithetical to another “oppressed” group, according to the doctrine, they are allies.
If this makes no sense to you, then voilà, you’ve gotten it! It is a fundamentally, flawed and illogical ideology.
<sarcasm>Now, say it with me, loud and proud, “Palestinian rights are reproductive rights” (abortion is illegal in Gaza); “Palestinian rights are Gay rights” (homosexuality is illegal in Gaza); “Palestinian rights are women’s rights”...etc.
Please give yourself a rabbit for that!
<sarcasm> This Public Service Announcement is brought to you by the Gaza Ministry of Truth. (We approve of this message. Hamas.)
I believe it was Thomas Sowell who said; “The word racism is like ketchup, you can practically put it on anything.” When the left has lost the argument, they always refer back to the far right boogeyman or racism.
And, now they cry "phobe" for everything.
I disagree. The left is not in denial. They simply do not care what the hoi-polloi think and deliberately use this far right smear to silence opposition under the guise of disinformation and hate speech.
I do hate much of what leftists say and do. But then they have hate down to a science. Identity politics is driven by hatred and is very bigoted.
The Left controls the MSM narrative. It is Far Wrong.
I encountered an otherwise un-noteworthy essay the title of which asked (more or less), "Is there any right that isn't far?"
THere most definitely is a right that is not 'far right.' I argue, most conservatives are left of far right. We're mostly middle right socially, but may be far right fiscally. What's the matter with less spending and smaller government? I could give countless examples
Of course! Perhaps I should have said (more or less), "When and/or where have you ever seen anyone anywhere use the descriptor "right" without having affixed the modifier "far"?"
(I'll stick to brevity, thank you; I get few complaints.)
Is there any Left that IS far?
Certainly.
The left’s strategy is to shame, blame, cancel and yes, gaslight anyone who doesn’t hold their race-based viewpoint. Because the elites of so much of our society signal compliance with left “woke” ideologies, a fear is instilled in the public and they count on this fear, which silences opposition, to win elections. It’s going to be an interesting election year…if not an all out war.
The media and the left were asleep at the wheel, thinking Prez. Hillary was a slam dunk. The slobbering paeans were written well in advance waiting to be delivered to your TV screens. It was like a Disney movie about to come to life. The glass ceiling was set to shatter. The ceiling did shatter but for a different reason. She fell through it and fucked up the chandelier in the process.
Listening to people not on the left, rather than mocking them, would have been helpful had they done so.
But listening is not a strong trait associated with snooty folk who find you deplorable. Their message to those misguided Americans is “No! You listen to me!”
The fear and paranoia was really ratcheted up after her failed run implying Trump was a domestic terrorist that slipped through the cracks and snuck into the White House. They really couldn’t understand how it happened. They remain mystified.
He still sits far atop the “Worlds Most Dangerous Man” list in their minds. The national circus masquerading as a presidential election campaign is about to kick into high gear soon. Grab your popcorn 🍿
I said the same thing IRL a few days ago. How is it that every newly elected leader in foreign countries who liberal MSM don't like is called the "Trump" of [fill in the country]? Whatever one thinks of Trump, Trump is a very unique person with an unparalleled personality to excite and rally his supporters. Any way I look at it, like him or hate him, he's a one of a kind phenomenon. It is just impossible that there are duplicate mini-Trumps popping up around the world. We'd be hard pressed to even find a second person who can be like that. Equivocating every conservative or non-liberal elected leader from vastly different countries to Trump is absurd and a dumbing down of how to understand the world. Plus a huge dose of fear-mongering. (Because Trump is dog whistle for the Anti-Christ, right?)
"Because Trump is dog whistle for the Anti-Christ, right?" Yup
I disliked "dog whistle" the first time I ever heard it. It means that some superior leftist can decide what some other person means by the words the person uses. Like: "My shoes are wet". Leftist Dem: "He/she/they/zir/it is saying that only middle aged hetero men have rights!" Very dangerous.
It’s not a Left term. DJT uses them all the time. And very effective too: your supporters understand your meaning but you can deny crossing any lines.
Is it true that DJT employs the phrase "dog whistle" all the time? Or, is it that you are saying , for instance, that when he said there were good people on both sides of the statue debate - folks were correct to accuse him of signalling racism to his supporters? You see, I think people need to use real words - like maybe just say the above and then let other people disagree if they like. This term, "dog whistle" gets bandied about as much as the reactive "phobe" suffix and the accusations of "implicit racism". They are thought stopping words, IMO.
For the record I would like to see a President DeSantis.
I'd add that "anti-immigrant", if anything like what is occurring in the US, is more correctly identified as "anti-ILLEGAL-immigrant". Thrown into the mix, the third world muslims who don't want to assimilate and CHEER the destruction of their benevolent host countries and it's not exactly hard to see why there might be a populist (root: popular) winning elections...
Left-wing people lie. It's a foundational trait of theirs. Their worldview, going back at least as far as Rousseau, says that truth is subjective and words are power constructs. They tell themselves that everyone everywhere is a lying hypocrite, so there's nothing immoral about behaving this way themselves; rather, the only game that's ever being played is "who can manipulate others the most successfully?" So that's the game they're always playing.
Everything that left-wing people say should be interpreted with this understanding.
Have you not heard of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Internationals? The Left was 'Globalist' a century or more before the word was coined. It has always been globalist and seeking to export "revolution" everywhere.
I became a subscriber right after Bari founded and started publishing The Free Press. To this day it’s one of my favorite subs.
That said I wrote her early on and recommended she find some good writers that come from rural southeast (Carolina's, GA, Bama, Miss, Louisiana) as well as Appalachia, rural central, mid and south west (fly over states). People who come from blue collar or first generation white collar families, who hunt, fish, grow a real garden every year, and are capable changing the oil in their own cars. There's a perspective & representation that TFP is missing with a huge swath of the US populace by not having the voice from these areas IMHO.
So far it seems she's only brought in Walter Kirn, who's a national treasure for sure, but there needs to be many more Kirns and way fewer Wisemans who can't seem to quite figure out why more and more people are turning away from progressivism and running towards populism.
Agree. I also challenge her to have people like Victor Davis Hansen on. He is smart and thoughtful and respectful. Yet his point of view is never considered at the free press
I subscribe to this site because Bari Weiss believes in free speech. This is rare for a leftist who are, even if well intentioned, totalitarians at base. This is why I see little support on this site for Ukraine and no opposition to the Conquest Ideology which has convinced the historically ignorant youth in America that there should be permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
I recently came across the substack of Ward Carroll and the essay of the brilliant Dr. Justin Bronk regarding the war in Ukraine. There will be no peace until all Conquest Ideologies are opposed and their influence is limited.
Agree with you here. We are living too long under the construct of Dominion, the ideology (religion) it came from and perpetuates today. We are trying to evolve from it but doing a really terrible job. Young people sense it but are too ignorant and inexperienced to know what to do properly, and we are not guiding them well. Elites, whatever elitism is the flavor of the moment, do not want to give up their status for anything. They just shift their ideology (and money) with whatever culture war is raging. Dominion, conquest, power and greed must be broken down.
The “conquest ideology” at play in Ukraine is the de facto expansion of NATO into territory that all parties agreed was off limits.
Where is this essay of Bronk's? He crops up on pro-Nato, pro-Ukraine channels; is he walking that bollocks back now it has become obvious Ukraine can't win?
word to your mother.
Evan W
My mother’s parents were immigrants from Poland, which, is not surprisingly given its history of being conquered, limiting immigration from adherents of The Conquest Ideology.
Scuse my ignorance but what’s the Conquest Ideology? (and I note the caps)
Wiseman is there for a foreign perspective. While I don't disagree that she needs to broaden the outlook of her writing base, a lot of people here do care about foreign goings-on.
They took themselves out of the NYT; but taking the NYT out of them hasn't happened yet. If Israel and Jews weren't being attacked and the Grey Lady being all fur coat and no knickers anti-semitism-wise, they'd still be writing for the rag and attacking everyone to the right of Mao.
I quit the NYT because they kept moderating me out of existence even when my comments had slipped through the gate and garnered 125 "likes" or more before they were taken down, sometimes 4-5 days later.
I was glad to see that although for most of my years reading that paper my moderate comments were the voice in the wilderness, by the time I left, a number of readers were saying the same things -- and complaining their comments weren't being published either. So something has changed.
The WSJ is, in general, a more reliable newspaper than the NYT anyway. I can usually trust its facts. Some of its commenters, though, are as snarlingly right-wing and close-minded as the NYT's left wing. Well, there we are.
Point taken, but it was the "And yet serious, good-faith examinations of why outsider parties are faring so well are hard to come by. Instead, we must wade through unhelpful, knee-jerk descriptions of everyone" and then his referencing Trump supporters in America and links to similar populist movement stories in US publications that prompted my comment.
"capable changing the oil in their own cars"
I love that descriptor. I would think precious few FP readers even know what a dipstick is let alone how to change the oil.
El Gato Malo had a great meme last week https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/sunday-memepool-getting-in-the-game
Woman: "My car is making a terrible noise"
Mechanic: "Try taking out the Drake CD"
In England "dipstick" is a polite way of referring to a fucktard.
They know exactly what a dipstick is. All real women have one
🤣🤣🤣
Walter is a treasure and his content is few and far between on TFP. I think he was sort of a token hire. Someone they could bring out in case the heat of us middle Americans complaining the coastals were out of touch with us got too hot. His weekly observations on the news and American culture far outshines TGIF. But Walter represents meat eaters, probably is a consumer of many non-organic products, and has a distaste for media and activist driven histrionics so every five months or so they’ll print something of his to let us know he’s still on staff.
But a while ago I did get to read the opening paragraph of a TFP story by one of the young interns that began with her stating that the majority of her peers wants her dead, for the fact she was Jewish and/or pro Israel. For which she was then rewarded by being used as a prop, giving testimony in a congressional hearing intended to bolster our nations full support for more indiscriminate death and destruction in Gaza to “root out Hamas.” A real feather in the cap for TFP.
Since Oct. 7 I’ve found myself passing on many of the articles on the conflict for excusing Israel of any responsibility whatsoever, printing items as fact that were in no way verified still to this date and looking side eyed at anyone who expresses any sympathy for Palestinians. The comments sections following those articles were surprisingly incendiary.
And Bari’s 180 degree reversal on free speech has left me...speechless.
The real victims on both sides are thousands of miles away on another continent. Palestinians and Israelis are both victims of poor leadership as are we in this country. Netanyahu’s approval ratings were as far down in the tank as Biden’s. I feel threatened by our administrations constant missteps here and abroad and its ability to make enemies. But our problems pale in comparison right now to civilians in Israel and Gaza who are the unintended victims of dangerous rhetoric and lethal actions promoted by their leaders. Those victims are in my thoughts.
Victims of hate speech not so much. I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of hate speech in my lifetime and would never say to families of the dead, “what about me?”
I’m sure I’ll be subjected to a barrage of it for writing this post.
And sorry if I came off more grumpy/cynical than usual. I’ve had a sinus infection that knocked me on my ass and am only halfway through at this point.
You obviously weren't paying attention. Bari and Nellie left the Times because it was anti-Israel and anti-Jew. In that order. If you want turkeys to vote for Xmas or Thanksgiving, you are in the wrong place. It isn't going to happen here. What concord has Yahweh with Beliar?
Agree.
Racism and cultural criticism are usually equated by the chattering class when it comes to opinion makers. It is NOT so much the so-called "refugees" that is the problem, it is their steadfast refusal to integrate into an existing culture that is the problem. You can't shit in another person's living room and then complain when the host complains. It is WAY past time to call a halt to that type of thinking!
That is the point, in all of Europe. The Muslim world and enlightenment values, do not mix well together. What the left always fails to understand, is that the religious right Christians may pray for you, if they disagree. But Muslims, will kill you, and that doesn't work in a free society. Sadly, Europe is beginning to figure this out, but it might be too late.
But even extremist Christians went on their sprees: It was once the fashion, in I guess the 1980s, to murder OB/GYNs who performed abortions and to blow up "abortion clinics."
The Christians called them abortion doctors and baby killers, but these were just gynecologists who terminated pregnancies for the myriads of reasons they need to be terminated, often in "clinics," that is, facilities which also provided mammograms and other wellness services for women.
They've calmed down since.
That said, there's something really bizarre about Muslim women walking around Flatbush in full burka (and at one point demanding that they be photographed in full burka for their drivers licenses; I think that was quashed). When I'm gardening in the front, I say hi to everyone, but these ladies seem not to want to reply to a "good morning." A quiet Brooklyn street is the essence of Anywhere, USA, and saying good morning back is the usual thing in Anywhere. Even the probably illegal Central American immigrants pushing baby carriages past my house return my greetings; I hold out greater hope for their assimilating.
And bizarre, too, about Muslim youth (along with their college-student comrades and BLM bodyguards) demanding -- demanding! -- our attention during Thanksgiving parades and Christmas tree lightings, as though they don't already have our attention, and we're sick to death of them.
The pro-Hamas types have got our attention, and most of us don't like what we see: They're like five-year-olds running loose in restaurants, enjoying themselves and busting up things. Or standing next to their parents at cocktail parties tugging at their sleeves and not letting them have grown-up conversations.
Who are the grownups who will control them? Who will say "Not now! Quiet! Sit down!"?
We might not like what'll happen, but it's what you will get when you don't nip bad behavior early.
B., that first assertion is BS. Sorry, but every cause has it wingnuts; your attempt to tar the lot with such is despicable. As to the innocent OGGYN who was offed (a crime, I emphasize) was reportedly known even to his friends as Dr Tiller the baby killer. Sort of a pre-Gosnel Gosnel. A non-spree spree. The reason even my CT GP recognized Kansas as where one went for abortions that no one else would do. Too bad about the turd in the punch bowl; not bad otherwise; curious, though, why the abortion card? It adds nothing, even had you resisted tarring Christendom with it.
Wasn't tarring Christendom. Just pointing out that Christianity has had its extremists even recently. Sorry to have hit a nerve.
Not the same thing. One is a few extremists (Christianity). In the other, the extremism is very common (Islam).
Not looked to the Russian Othodox Church and Xtian goings on all across Africa have we? Few might go as far a bombings in the US; but how many would condone not banging abortionists up for life with no parole?
So you say. "....even extremist Christians went on their sprees..." is a pretty broad brush, sir. Words matter.
"Extremist." There's the word you missed. Wasn't crazy about people like Anita Bryant either, with her anti-gay shrieking. Or the Westboro clan protesting at soldiers' funerals.
I'm pro-marriage equality and very much against transgender stuff. I am not anti-Muslim but loathe terrorist antisemitic types. Most Black people probably prefer Riley to Kendi, but that doesn't mean I appreciate my city being shut down in 2020.
A comfortable middle is all I ask.
You lie.
very helpful... she has a point, and made it. Try to understand what she is saying before getting defensive and spiteful. Trolling is a waste of time
The issue is not extremist Christians or extremist Muslims, it is the blending of cultures. Europe is a very tolerant society that allows behaviors that are outside of religious norms. The average Muslim because all their home countries do not have separation of church and state, it offends them. The gay lifestyle, the more libertine way of living, that we have accepted in the West, is not something that they accept. A second thing is the work ethic, and the new people coming into the countries, don't have the same expectations for work. And that's a problem as well. So it's more the culture that they were in and the culture shock of the new place where they are. And there's data all over the place showing that that's not working
Agree, Albert. Some cultures really don't mix at all.
I have a hard time, for example, living near people who think that their loud music, amplified past sanity, blasting from cars, is a way of showing their affection for the neighborhood. A cultural thing. Yech.
And obviously don't appreciate Muslims and their friends setting fires in our shopping avenues or graffitiing up our streetscapes. Not my idea of free speech.
You get the impression from Saudi and the Gulf that the ONLY people working are metics brought in from abroad. Yeminis and Palestinians are the only Arab Muslims that ever appear as actualy doing any work in those narratives and they too are metics denied citizenship.
I agree. Assimilation is more the issue than diversity and racism. We can all come to respect others people's cultures and have done. It takes time, but at some point immigrants must adapt and respect the place and the people in the country they live and now call home.
B
Nonsense. Christianity was spread by the Word and the blood of its martyrs. Fighting back and resisting conquest is not a spree.
I think the people who faced the Spanish might disagree?
Carolingian conquest of the Saxons; the Baltic Crusades; Portugese imperial practices.
Unfortunately there are only a few modernized Muslim majority countries where women actually don’t have to wear a hijab, can walk on their own in public, can drive and go to school. I think only when all of the Middle East comes out of the dark ages will they ever be able to immigrate into western cultures. There are examples of this in Ayaan and Dr Jasser.
Theresa, please excuse me...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You have a very optimistic view of things in the Muslim world. It is difficult to go against 1400 years of programming. Assimilation was NEVER their goal, and it never will be.
Maybe I am however there are a few examples. Have you ever watched Turkish TV or movies?
Have you ever been to Turkey, Theresa? Do you really believe Turkish soap operas reflect the real Turkey?
Please.
They are not soap operas and no I have not been there but I know several people who have been there. PLEASE
You're offering Mr Erdogan's sandbox as an exemplar of modernism? Really?
You obviously have not watched Turkish TV or movies. Yes Really Casey.
Regrettably, you’re right. Which is sad. We forget that Islam is 600 years “younger” than Christianity so it’s possible to argue that it is going through its own spasms of extremism and murder just as Christianity did for hundreds of years (think, the 100 years war - 1548-1648, concluded only by the Treaty of Westphalia which held out tolerance between Catholics and protestants). But Islam would need to have its own Age of Enlightenment which opened the possibility of taking Christianity seriously but not literally, or even of not taking it at all - which led to the explosion of scientific thought, Darwinism and Albert Einstein. Even today, many evangelical Christians do not accept this. For Muslims, the Koran (and the Hadith) are LITERALLY the word of God and Islam IS the state. Until they too have their epiphany, they are fundamentally unassimilable.
Gentlemen, you are harsh and off base. Assimilation is very possible for any culture, including the Muslim culture. You are talking about two different things. Muslim and radical Islam. Most Muslims here and in Canada and Australia assimilate very well and have done for decades. And please don't condescend and ask if I have lived in or visited any; I most certainly have.
Theresa Bruno
Dr. Jasser is still a Muslim. He puts a nice face on a Conquest Ideology.He is the most dangerous Muslim in America. Hirsi Ali has at long last come to her senses.
That is ridiculous
I always look at a guy's enemies. ALL the Usual Suspects I see. Ex Navy, former Staff Internist to the US Congress. Oh yeh, I can see why one would think he was a terrorist. NOT.
His is very much a minority Muslim opinion and he is terribly naive about Ijtahid. In theory Islam contains its own reformation; in theory it contains a seedbed for democracy. The trouble is there are no tools to work with to make that change. What usualy happens in fact is schism and the creation of faiths that are compatible with Western values but are almost immediately ejected from the Ummah and persecuted.
On the other hand, what passes for a reform/enlightment movement in Sunni Islam's main rootstock lies in the turn of the 19th/20century Egyptian scholar Muhammed Abduh. His greater fame? The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' parents; and Al Quaida both claim him an ancestor.
Eric Weinstein, one of the brightest folk on the planet and not stupid about Islam, talked about visiting Istanbul recently. I didn't here him say anything about there being a particular danger to Jews or a particular threat to the West in Erdogan or Turkey. Out of Terry; Eric; and Casey, I'll go with Eric and agree with you. I'm not clairvoyant I can only go on the evidence of now and yesterday.
Turkey is balanced between two worlds; but they've been there before. They chose wrong last time and were only saved by accident and secularism. I hope they remember that.
Europe is further along in being conquered than America, so it will figure out Islam before America does. Europe does not have freedom of “religion”, which ironically is a serious impediment to surviving The Conquest Ideology which if successful will ban all true religions.
Muslims are not legitimate refugees. They are adherents of a Conquest Ideology. The only way for the West to avoid conquest is to ban Muslim immigration.
This is a ignorant statement.
This is something The chattering class doesn't understand. That's because they rarely go outside their bubble.
And yet serious, good-faith examinations of why outsider parties are faring so well are hard to come by. Instead, we must wade through unhelpful, knee-jerk descriptions of everyone
In a post on the recent string of victories for radical right-wingers,
———
Radical right wingers. Hmmm sounds like the free press is complicit In the slurs. Shameful
And why is it never radical left wing or hard left wing or even left wing?
I thought the same thing when I read that paragraph. Must be something in the Washington DC water or ole Oliver doesn’t get outside of the beltway enough.
Oliver is part of a crowd that's trying very, very hard to be a little bit pregnant. Enjoy!
It appears he’s making progress.
No question! They all (I think) are! And it certainly spices up the comments, doesn't it?)
That seems to be a theme at TFP.
Lol what?
He also wrote
“Cowan also suggests that since these parties keep winning elections, “you can’t call them ‘far right’ anymore! How about ‘deep center?’ ” I take the point, but I’m not sure that’s quite right either. But whatever we call Wilders et al., their impact on European politics is only growing.” However you are correct. The term “far right” is tiresome and I’m sure there are liberals that are tired of being called “far left”. I think we all need to come back to some semblance of sanity in the middle.
...but where do you see anyone called "far left?" Just curious.
MSNBC??
I cannot cite one example since Bill Clinton was president when anyone from the left made a sincere move to the center.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no other left than far left.
Yes. I prefer calling leftists Far Wrong Left.
Your prerogative.
Stockholm syndrome.
I would’ve liked to see commentary about the recent agriculture revolts in Holland. According to one source: “When the Dutch government announced plans to buy out farms close to nature reserves and cut the country’s livestock herd by as much as one-third, farmers revolted, staging massive demonstrations and destabilizing politics in the Netherlands.” I think this played a role in the election as well
The farmers' protests in Holland were totally ignored by the corporate press, to no surprise. (they don't want to give the common folk any ideas)
It was covered in great detail by Michael Shellenberger and it is why I started following his Substack which has turned into Public.
Yes, and I followed those stoires closely. But as Margret pointed out, all coverage of this uprising simply evaporated overnight. And this was long before this latest batch of Hamas atrocities, which has pretty much sucked the oxygen out of the room for any other topic.
A small country far away, of which you know little and care less. A goldfish has a greater attention span than an American about anywhere in the world other than the USA.
🪒🛎️
Name me one positive of open immigration and the free and open borders on any country in the world? Does anyone think people with college degrees are doing the immigration, or is people looking for free and the truth is, an I mean lots of criminals escaping from what is sure to be hell prisons or death in their country. Rapists, gang members helping spread their gangs, people looking to change where they are immigrating to. Unwilling to simulate into society but demand you change to the crap policies and beliefs they left behind. Peoples countries literally being changed forever and not for the better. The sick ass liberals wonder why people get tired of this stupid, insane process?
People want their countries back and some semblance of normal. Normal is not drugs, homelessness, immigrants in police stations, airports, schools, and bankrupting their cities and states. The left fails to realize their ignorant and self serving policies make even gentle people demand more drastic and immediate changes. The old woke liberal policies have been shown to be failures over and over again. These idiots are destroying everything and preventing normal intelligent discussions on how to solve societal issues by being in your face and declaring you to be a racist and fascist. The hall mark claims of failed policies, beliefs, and yes; no ability to logically discuss and compromise.
I really really really don't want Trump to be the nominee, but he most likely will be. I’ll then vote for him in the hopes that his actions on deportation and closing the border shut with a snap so loud they can hear it in Uzbekistan match his rhetoric.
Trump is no answer! He is just another form of the rot that has been working inside our populace. Sure he accomplished a few good things, but by and large, he is just as self-serving as any other politician! Pleas him and he is your best friend, disagree and you are the new evil! I cannot vote for that, sorry.
He's the best answer we have at the moment.
DeSantis is a better answer but the Left’s corrupt war on Trump and Justice may make him the R. nominee. Tump is being prosecuted for fraud in NYC for conduct which resulted in no one being defrauded. The prosecution is the fraud and an attack on Justice. And this site is silent.
And do not forget The Free Press's MIA report on the Biden Crime Syndicate!
Exactly right, who do you think Bari and Nellie voted for?
I like DeSantis, but he has tainted himself with help from too many GOPe types.
He would probably fare better in getting votes from white women, but Trump will do better with minority voters, so on that, I think it's a wash.
Should Trump win, I think an excellent place for DeSantis would be Attorney General.
Should President Trump recover the Presidency; DeSantis probably won't be chosen to his Administration in any office. President Trump knows how to hold a grudge and then some. DeSantis' recent faux pas have ruled him out altogether I'm afraid.
Not good enough.
He's too old - and can't serve a second term.
He's 4 years younger than Biden, and I don't see the Dems rushing to get rid of Joe, whose senility is clearly obvious.
He'll have to find a credible running-mate. Where they'll come from, fuck knows now DeSantis has burnt his bridges.
Why not RFK Jr?
He's still a leftist and ultimately has to appease the Jew-hating left.
What makes you say that? He's vehemently pro-Israel, and running on a message of uniting this fiercely divided country.
A couple of months ago I'd have been in the affirmative about RFK Jr; but I'm hearing more than a hint of boiler-plate Dimocrat daffy from him of late. I'll not be surprised if he becomes daffy to the point of toxic well before November.
What specific "boiler-plate Dimocrat daffy" are you referring to? I'm genuinely asking, because I haven't heard anything like that (yet).
Iff you don't vote for the Republican nominee, whoever it may be, you're voting for more of the same dumpster fire we've been handed from Democrats.
It's that simple. Don't make perfect the enemy of good.
Your personal life was not bad while Trump was president.
I venture to say it was probably pretty good. No question better than today.
In conscience, I CANNOT vote for the man, anymore than I could vote for Mussolini because he made the trains run on time! Now, I am not equating Trump with Mussolini, I am just saying that voting FOR him is the same as voting for another for years of nastiness, character assassination, lies and exaggerations, and an incompetently run cabinet full of amateurs. Biden is a fraud, himself. A ventriloquist's dummy whose jaws flap and emit only the word of whoever has their hand on his controls. Just consider me to be a conscientious objector.
Capital crime of omission. A "good man" who stood about while evil triumphed.
Fine, vote your conscience (while we still have a free country.) That's what you must do.
But you did just compare Trump to Mussolini while not addressing my assertion that
1. Your life was not that bad while Trump was president. I look at it as he's hired to clean up the sewer backup in my basement. I don't have to like my plumber...just get the job done. And as long as you don't sleep with children or farm animals, your personal life is not my business.
2. If you don't vote for the Rep. nominee you're wasting your vote, and if we have 4 more years of this sh*tshow the reason is because there were too many people that wasted their vote. (read: it's your fault and people like you.)
My life was not bad under Trump, and it is even BETTER under Biden, but neither scenario was due to whoever was in the White House! I worked hard, paid off credit cards and my auto loan, then sold my condo for four times what I paid for it. No president did that for me, I DID THAT!
And I didn't say that Trump WAS Mussolini, I said that just because Mussolini made the trains run on time that it was no reason to support him, and in the same way, just because Trump did a couple of good things, THAT does not make him worthy of my vote! Tell me, what is he running on now? What policy has he said he would try to push through? N.O.T.H.I.N.G! Oh wait, yes, he is running on the Dems stole the election! Yeah, THAT one is great for the country, REVENGE! Always a worthy issue.
And "people like you"? Without a coherent argument you resort to ad hominin attacks? Get real!
Nonsense
🤦♀️
Facepalm. You've done or said something bloody silly or inept.
Yes, IMNSHO open borders and Climate Alarmism are the most serious problems facing America.
That's the elephant in the room, isn't it? Same as asking where socialism has ever had a success by any rational measure.
> Name me one positive of open immigration and the free and open borders on any country in the world?
GDP growth. Line goes up. That's a really, really big positive, especially for people in power. If you can import 10 million people, give each of them $5000/month worth of benefits, then it provides a ton of labor and growth for the local economy. And then some of those people can take cheap labor, so it can keep prices down (until all the inflation catches up). As to whether the average native people see benefits from this... well, you can slice that a ton of different ways to make arguments for or against. As for incidences of violence and crime, it is definitely higher among immigrant populations to Europe, but still a fairly small minority.
The real issue I see is cultural change -- your holidays, foods, customs, languages. Your jokes, your folklore, your social mores. The land where your grandfather built his house, your great-great-grandfather dug a well by hand. Your churches, your Christmas markets, your autumn bonfires and summer dances.... this is what is lost. Your very history is colonized by the immigrants -- for example, the BBC is now lying and saying Stonehenge was built by black people, that black women were the greatest victims of the 13th-century bubonic plague in London, or making the Vikings diverse. In an interview, one of the show runners said he wants to "tell a little lie to make history better."
“… the national Christmas tree toppled over in high winds in Washington on Tuesday evening, two days before Joe Biden was set to turn the lights on. The most powerful nation in human history. But one that can’t keep the Christmas tree on the lawn of the White House standing during a few November gusts. “
If memory serves, it was Biden’s former boss who famously said that you should “never underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up,” or at least words very close to those. He could find a way to mismanage a two-car funeral.
That whole formulation: if we can do X we can do Y has been a lazy joke for a long time. It would be wise for anyone claiming the term "journalism" to avoid it except when obviously being humorous.
Ex. If we can beat the Nazis in WW2 surely we can make a good pastrami sandwich.
"If we can beat the Nazis in WW2 surely we can make a good pastrami sandwich."
But only if it is not at a Jewish deli!
Kinda like
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1206:_Einstein
?
Neither Biden nor the national Christmas tree seem capable of standing upright. How utterly symbolic of America in 2023.
Oliver, next piece please define these terms: populist, far right, right wing. You throw them around quite often. Would be good to know what they mean and since they are intended to be derogatory who they exactly apply to. While at it how about defining left wing populist and if that term applies to a politician who orally or through actions or inaction ( failure to enforce laws) is an open border advocate.
“Trump-like.” The comparison usually prefaces a shallow, parochial analysis.
Leave it up to the MSM to try to pigeon-hole the public's outrage over progressive policies! "WE are the world" sentiments can only go so far, then the reality sets in and the elites go running to time tested tropes of "racism" to explain away public outrage. It's about time! The EU MAY not be lost after all.
QUITE FRANKLY, PRESIDENT TRUMP opened our eyes to the insanity we are experiencing now. That’s why he is hated so much. EVERYTHING is “trumpism” or “racism”.
'he is hated so much' By whom? The left, far left, Socialist Democrats, etc?
Is he hated so much by conservatives? Many prefer another candidate, but would take 10 Trumps over this sh*tshow dumpster fire we now have.
Trump is just another form of the rot in our politics. Agree with him and you are his friend, disagree and you are the devil.
Rot is an apt term. I hope we eventually have a Convention of States to address term limits because our current state of affairs sucks.
I disagree somewhat; Trump is far from perfect, but rather than an example of rot in our politics, he is more emblematic of the rot in our society as a whole.
His personal dalliances with porn stars and in reality TV cater to the sensationalist.
The career politicians (Biden, McConnell, Schumer, Pelosi et al) and bureaucrats that are emboldened by them (Fauci, Wray etc.) are the maggot infested rot plaguing politics.
As a Dutch national, I’ve never felt antipathy against Wilders. In my early twenties, the brutal murders of Fortuyn and Van Gogh shaped my political en social worldviews against the backdrop of 9/11, so I’ve always understood where he came from, and why. I never voted for his party, though, because he always pushed the envelope just that bit too far in his rhetoric, with the “less Moroccans” incident and various other outbursts that kept me from voting for him or his Party for Freedom. He was a welcome presence in dusty ol’ politics, but never a serious option for (a belief in) actual change.
However, in the last few years he has been slowly dialing down his rhetoric. In part because far more outrageous parties rose up and staked even louder claims (mainly Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy, which started out as a fresh, classical liberal movement that very rapidly went down the slide and into the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories), but also because - I think - the reality of migration and Islamization caught up with his warnings: we had seen Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan, and various other vicious Islamist attacks in Europe. We’ve witnessed the rise and - thankfully - demise of ISIS and their sadistic brutalities. And just a few weeks before last week’s elections, we not only saw how Hamas ISIS’ed its way through Israel, but many people witnessed the shocking and reprehensible response of both Muslims taking to the streets to celebrate, and many mainstream media outlets criticizing *Israel* for its response. A lot of masks dropped at the same moment many eyes opened.
This, combined with a whole heap of social and political crises from inflation and a housing shortage to a rise in energy prices and the cultural self-flagellation you see all around the West, created momentum for Wilders to seize the electoral moment. And I found myself voting for his party, too, together with many others who saw their objections against the PVV fall away against the failures of the ruling classes that are not only abandoning their electorate, but risking both culture and democracy by failing to step over their own shadow of a projected “decency” that prohibits them from taking action *for* the people and *against* undermining threats to the social fabric.
Islam(ization) has become not a side dish in Wilders’ political menu, but the buffet of topics has grown bigger - big enough to invite more people to come and have a taste. Because the offerings of the competition have gone stale, and the appetite for new flavors has grown - together with a desire to spice things up. And we know that if Geert Wilders can deliver one thing, is a bit of hot pepper in politics.
Let’s see if he can serve up what he proclaims.
Thank you for your “our man in Holland” contribution. I found it very interesting.
So not shocked that the CIA has been infiltrated by those who hate the US - so has the Pentagon and especially Foggy Bottom (re- Georgetown School of Foreign Service has been a hotbed of Saudi /Qatari funded antisemitism for decades). They have been educated at the US hating elite universities, so why would any of this come as a surprise?
Double progressive tears..Geert is pro Israel too
As is Milei in Argentina
Milei says he wants to convert to Judaism.
How is the Left's offering of literal cash payments to prospective voters not also populism?
That's a good reminder that the labels don't mean much of anything.
They are not intended to mean anything. They are intended to demean, destroy and silence the opposition. Bitter clingers. Maga extremists. Colonizers. Etc etc.
I agree.
MEDIA: "A 'far-right' politician with 'far-right' ideas is poised to win another election in Europe and potentially push that country further to the 'far-right' as centrists and the media worry that the 'far-right' is gaining ground in countries where most sensible citizens view the 'far-right' as dangerous.
Hmmm... it seems our totally non-partisan, centrist, 'mainstream' media elites are trying to make a point. But for the life of me, I can't spot it.
The Free press needs to do a profile on the biggest political prisoner from our most important ally the UK, Tommy Robinson. A centrist in almost everything but cast as "far right" because he simply doesn't want his country taken over by Islamists in a generation.
Christophe Guilluy: "Yet in the economic, social, and cultural chaos that is France (Western Civilization)
today, there is one hope left. It is not a hope placed in politicians, or in intellectuals and certainly not in ideologues; rather, it is one founded on the majority’s instinct for survival—the majority being the working and middle classes."
The most profound words in regard to the struggle ahead. The last, best hope for mankind.