A parable of our society. Believing that patent madness is overcome by good intentions. Letting violent vagrants roam our streets and hoping that they'll follow their "better angels." Mutilating children in the vain belief that we're gods and can alter their sex on whim. Opening our borders to uneducated, third world hordes and pretendin…
A parable of our society. Believing that patent madness is overcome by good intentions. Letting violent vagrants roam our streets and hoping that they'll follow their "better angels." Mutilating children in the vain belief that we're gods and can alter their sex on whim. Opening our borders to uneducated, third world hordes and pretending we'll still be America. Releasing violent sociopaths and defunding police departments. Basing our energy grid on pinwheels and panels, with a blind eye to the consequences to serve the false god of "climate change." Erasing competence requirements to serve some mad notion of "racial justice." Ignoring our deep tradition of due process and equal protection while turning a blind eye to corruption. And installing a senile imbecile as president and pretending otherwise.
America has become an asylum in the service of lunacy. Pretending otherwise doesn't change a thing. Progressive beliefs hold us in national schizophrenia. How long before our beloved nation becomes the slaughtered Carrie?
Quite the parable, Bruce. Somehow in your eyes someone’s schizophrenia as described by this writer about his friend is conflated to the lunatics running the asylum that you see as today’s USA.
You could have stayed on topic, your thoughts about this guy would have been interesting to read.
Unless you think that big bad Dems were the cause of his mental state too.
It was the big bad Dems that emptied the asylums and put the mentally ill on the streets. If the truth is too harsh and uncomfortable, the Dems cannot accept the truth.
As an example 51% of all murders are committed by 6.5% of the population and how does the left address this? They whine because an exorbitant amount of the prison population is black. A hint, when you murder someone, deal drugs and commit felonies you go to prison.
I hope that didn't offend your delicate sensibilities.
Okay. Bad decision to put the mentally disturbed on the streets - that I agree with.
But no Republican administration from Nixon through Reagan through the Bushes to Trump ever reversed it. Not one. Not one study. Not one analysis. And to my knowledge at least, not one attempt to enact legislation to change the direction of caring for the mentally ill.
You want to blame the Democratic Party for misguided policies? Add another political party to the mix.
This is a Dem problem created by them and the ACLU who went to court to have the sick deinstitutionalized. And you will notice that the Dem cities have the largest homeless populations and they do nothing to change that. California has the largest population in the nation. You may have noticed that Cal. is run by Democrats and has been for decades and will be run by them into the future.
..an interesting read, if you can open the link. Back when the NYT was far more even handed. Doesn't lay blame on any particular party or ideology, but on the medical establishment itself. Opened my eyes quite a bit.
The states failed as well because the concept of the “de institutionalization” of the mentally ill called for community mental health centers, few of which were budgeted for and fewer built.
The guy's plight is a tragedy. But treating him as if he were normal - which he clearly was not - led directly to an unspeakable tragedy and savage killing of an innocent, loving woman. Just to make some idiots feel good. Now they have blood on their hands. F them.
But who are these idiots you're referring to? Eight months in a hospital and then he's released. To me, the mistake lies there. You say he clearly was not normal - but how do you, or we for that matter, know? He must have appeared normal to convince presumably competent psychologists that he was safe to reenter society. So these idiots are who? The doctors? The NYT who made him a star? Hollywood who wanted to exalt him? Yale and every other university who wanted to accept him? The profs at Yale who thought he was brilliant and overlooked his obvious flaws? Is there an ideological slant here that taints everyone with blood on their hands - or was it just a mistake made, like mistakes are made everyday medically that no one hears or cares about.
Didn't the article say that the Yale profs knew he couldn't do the work? Unless I read that wrong, everyone seems to have been kidding themselves. To serve what end?
Apparently he was doing the work with assistance from fellow students as in some read to him, some typed his papers - Rosen didn't say they wrote his papers - and professors talked with him at length and didn't brush him off. How is this any different than someone with learning issues and needs someone to read to them, type their papers and provide time to talk through assignments etc and give support.
What became clear was that in Michael's post doc work, he could not think clearly or deeply enough to produce the type or number of published papers in law journals etc. that would have put him on track to teach or clerk. Moving from an academic world to a professional world was not achievable for him.
He may have been able to do research or be hired to read and discuss as he was brilliant but this would have been because someone understood his limitations, provided this job and been able to monitor him. Michael may not have been accepting of this type of role because of the lack of status vs a professor or practicing lawyer.
Of course we have sympathy. A loved one with a mental illness is a horrible struggle. Worse when it's one's child. I cannot imagine the daily torment. But society can ill afford pretending that they are "normal" when they're clearly not and pose dangers.
Of course, which brings me back to the mistake the doctors made after his eight month long sojourn in a hospital. They release him, allowing the wider world to assume he's better adapted to adjust, but he isn't. So perhaps its not society that is at fault, but doctors who (in retrospect, at least) should have known better..
While the doctors may take some blame, from what I read above, his Professors KNEW he still had issues. He told one of them he current saw angels and the Prof even admitted that he thought it was a joke at first, but then decided it wasn't.
This is a case of people whose ideals/beliefs were put to the test and reality won. People with real mental issues don't get better with head pats or just doing their work for them.
And this is nothing new. Increasingly, regardless of cause, we will elevate and promote people who can't actually do things. Kids with learning hinderances simply get less homework. Female firefighters are expected to carry less weight to pass their exam. Heck, lets get rid of standardized tests so they won't hold people back that can't get good enough scores.
Ideology over practicality. Form over Function. He was in a minority group, so he needs to be given extra.
He may have, indeed, been better, was released, then over time, relapsed. This happens all the time with mental illness and addiction. It happened to a friend of mine. She was able to live out of an institution only under the supervision of her daughter who was a psychiatric nurse, who understood the propensity to lie that is part of mental illness and addiction. It's tough stuff, living with a mentally ill person or an addict. There's an unreal component to it, and a person who attempts it needs to have a lot of support in place. On the plus side, it can be done, in some cases, and the one who does it with awareness, ends up stronger.
Bruce, unfortunately many, including you, use "schizophrenia" in an inexact metaphorical manner to critique our society. By definition, a country cannot be schizophrenic, only individuals can be. It is a specific disease with uncontrollable apparitions, visions and imagined events. That is not our society's problem. As I indicated in my posting above, our society chooses to willfully ignore clear realities around us to our social and individual detriment. Argumentation and education may help. It is a struggle.
It is not just the DNC. There is a profound ignorance about the illness known as schizophrenia. We still will not confront that a certain measure of loss of liberty is critical to giving these very sick individuals a chance at living a real life. The willful ignorance of the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz when I was in med school in the 1970s was embraced as brilliant. He argued that the whole labelling of mental illness as such was a conspiracy of the establishment against a misunderstood minority. That was a crock then and now. Wasted lives and tragedies have resulted.
OMG Bruce, Bari should be interviewing and writing about you. We not exactly the slaughtered Carrie yet (God forbid) but I fear we closer than further.
Unlike moral people, they extract a feeling of virtue only from permissiveness and tolerance. As such, the more extreme the thing they tolerate the more virtuous they feel. That’s why this will continue to descend into hell.
Pedophilia is standing in the on-deck circle right now swinging a giant dildo instead of a baseball bat.
“Nothing is true and everything is permitted.”
IS the Democrat creed. It’s also a quote from an Arab warlord who died in the 1100s.
Just because someone has a gun does not mean they worship the gun or violence. Look at all the major oppressive murdering regimes and what was the first thing they did? They completely disarmed their population.
I did not say that. Some people have a rational relationship to their firearms, they see as a tool they might need for hunting, sport or job. But in the US there way too many people with a very irrational relationship to their guns, creating a violence based ideology around gun ownership. I'm talking about the ones who love to pose with their arsenal, wanting to display their gun in public or just wanna talk about their little darlings all the time in NRA meetings. These are the ones we need to be scared of. They don't own their guns, they are owned by them.
I have friends, who go hunting on a regular base. Their guns are locked away and they do not occupy a large part of their lives. They just take them, when they need them and after that they go back into the locker and are of no further importance to them. I'm not worried about them. I'm more worried about that guy who lives two blocks further down the road who seems to be obsessed by his firearms, who talks frequently about them and how much he needs them in case "plunderers" from the city will come for his vegetable garden. This nutcase should not have any lethal arms at all. Who knows what will trigger him some day.
You are making assumptions about people who own guns without facts to back it up. "In the US there are way too many people with an irrational relationship to their guns". How do you know that? Have you personally interviewed every gun owner? Your comments are over reaching. You are talking about a SMALL MINORITY who go around posing with their guns. It's a gross exaggeration.
I didn't say that. Being educated doesn't make You immune to manipulation. But it's really telling that those who try to propagate views similar to Your's even themselves admit that they prefer to deal with uneducated people, because they are easier prey. That doesn't necessarily mean that all of their victims are uneducated, it just means the uneducated are overrepresented amongst their sheeplike followers.
I would never make any assumption about a person's education and intelligence just based on one post in social media. You can believe that.
And I didn’t see a single person with an alter to their guns nor a single reference to a person praying to their guns as a god.
Nice try but your attempt of understanding the Paradox of Tolerance is at a 6th grade level (you did cite NBC).
But if you tolerate violence, you will be ruled by violence.
A gun is an inanimate object incapable of independent action. It can be an instrument of violence but so can a car, a knife, a baseball bat, a rock or any of a hundred other instruments. The radical left’s full tolerance of political violence and excuse of violence by blaming inanimate objects is simply stunning from a rational standpoint.
Guns are a means of violence. If You welcome guns into Your society You welcome violence. It's certainly no coincidence that the US is the country with most privately owned guns and being plagued by daily mass shootings. That's what happens when a society loves guns more than its children. We can see it every night on TV news.
Baseball bats are made for playing baseball, a car is made as a means of transportation, a hammer is made to hammer nails in. A knife is made to slice bread. Sure these things can also be used to kill, but that's not what they are made for. Whereas guns are made for the purpose of killing and that's what people are using them for. I for example do not kill and therefore I do not own any gun. Why would I ? I don't have any need for a gun.
Cars a means of violence. White silence is a means of violence. Owning property is a means of violence. Speech is a means of violence.
Your 2nd grade mentality of "if you welcome guns into you society you welcome violence" can be disproved with a single idea. Violence existed long before guns.
Please tell me you have a thought deeper than a 5th grader.
I don’t own a gun either, but a gun is a means of defense and a force equalizer. For a woman who has been physically overwhelmed by a stronger man and raped, carrying a gun and learning to use it is a perfectly reasonable act. For someone who lives in a dangerous neighborhood without the financial means to leave and is in regular danger when s/he moves around (or even at home), having a gun and knowing how to use it is, again, a perfectly reasonable act. Just cause you don’t have a need for a gun doesn’t mean no one else does.
To say all Democrats are "pagan savages" is like saying that all Republicans are racists. Both are untrue and do nothing to enlighten the conversation.
Agreed. I hate such rhetoric when it comes from Democrats. We must keep our side of the street clean and not do it ourselves.
There are people across the aisle we can do productive business with and others we cannot, and the trick is not to alienate them by using extreme rhetoric that you are really aiming at the more fanatic members of their team.
And yes, restraining oneself from doing that is difficult because they're doing it to you.
I totally agree. This tribal BS needs to stop or Your country will descend into the abyss. People should be judged by their deeds, words and thoughts, not by their affiliation with a tribe.
That is the American concept put forth by people like John Locke. The issue is one side is fully captured by critical theories put forth by Hagel, Rousseau and Foucault.
The first stresses the individual over the group. The second is about the group over the individual.
I used to vote mostly Democrat at the national level unto about 2012 when the party made a radical shift to the far left.
When I watched Congress's hearings on the overturning of Roe V Wade, I started to shift from a reluctant pro-choice position to a reluctant pro-life position. The Democrat witnesses brought into testify were little more than ghouls and would not even admit killing new born babies are a problem, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When the radical left media made troubled autistic girl from Sweden an environmental hero whose ideas would result in the death of billions if implemented, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When multiple surveys have asked if the universe would be a better place without humans and a simple majority of Democrats say the Universe would be better without humans, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When you read the current Democrat budget and find "equity" mentioned over and over and over and you know the implementation of "equity" has resulted in the wholesale slaughter of around 100,000,000 humans in the past century, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When not a single Democrat will stand up and support women's sports from being destroyed by under-performing men able to dominate women, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When Democrats consider it stunning and brave to promote child genital mutilation as virtuous based around a gnostic belief you can turn lead into gold, I realized the democrats are a death cult.
This is not to say Republicans don't have their issues (they do) but they are not nearly glaring and dangerous to life when compared to the Democrats at this point in time.
Have you ever told a Democrat to stop calling conservatives racist? How often? I only ask because they’ve been calling us racist, literally nonstop, for several decades, so you’ve had about 38 million opportunities.
They smear the opposition violently and relentlessly and it 100% works. That’s one of the reasons I do it. That and the fact that it is true.
I am a Democrat. I grew up with a mother who is a Republican and a father who is a Democrat. I look at people individually and not as a group. I am conservative in many ways and liberal in other ways. I am not "party first" because I distrust most politicians. I am not a sheep.
Not to repeat myself but again in agreement. I was raised by nice Reform Jewish parents who were of course politically liberal, though by no means the extreme version of same we see today. As a Christian and now a conservative (or moderate, or independent, or liberal depending on the topic) I think you've got to evaluate people individually.
If I say I am a conservative on social media platforms like Quora I am immediately attacked as if I'm a gun-toting MAGA Trump supporter, people who are as far from my position as wacko extremist Democrats are.
I think if we sat down w/the saner and more moderate Dems and all let our hair down we could come to some decent policy agreements. But the more polarizing rhetoric we use, the more we push those moderates into the extreme side of their camp.
People are just people anyway. As a Christian sometimes it helps to step back and say to myself "how would JESUS see this person". Grants me a bigger, quieter outlook.
Dan-- Interesting. I just returned to the church and maybe that's why I have a similar view. I see all kinds of people at church with a variety of political and social views.
Disagree. I trust Democrat politicians completely. They are all collectivist prostitutes so I know exactly what they are going to do every single time.
You sound exactly like my Democratic friends who excoriate the Republicans. That's why I'm fed up with both sides. "Sound and fury signifying nothing."
Democrats will win the House and Senate with slim margins and the Presidency in 2024. They will knock out the filibuster and pack the court and oh so much more.
You will be so happy that you’ll forget to tell me I was right.
Then, a few years later, circumstances will become such that it will be undeniable that you helped Nazis. I, obviously, will not be allowed on the internet to say “I told you so” at that point so don’t worry.
Good points there, Kevin, and I have been mostly contesting some of your more extreme statements. But we can't afford to swing further toward the liberal pole, as you note, there is so much wrong over there.
I believe this. I also believe Newsom will win in 2024. Not because he’s qualified, but because he’ll have all of the MSM on his side. Hell, he has Silicon Valley in his backyard.
18 months ago I told my wife that in 5 years pedophelia will be normalized and you’ll be fined for flying an American flag.
This country as our founding fathers intended it, is over.
I had to laugh when I read an article yesterday (Shellenberger's substack, "Public") about how Gavin Newsom was finally working at cleaning up San Francisco not because he gave a damn but because it would look bad for his presidential run. Article is paywalled but it's at
Yes. DeSantis would lose to Kamala. It will take 10 years minimum to catch up with their ability to mobilize and it will be too late by then.
Plus the most underrated part is that about 50 million voters follow politics like CNN or Fox or NYT or Shapiro and Maddow on Facebook or whatever. ALL of the other voters, 100 million or so, who aren’t interested in politics in that way, get their information from Google and that is so tightly curated to the left you can’t believe it.
Kevin, I do agree with a lot of what you say, but what seems to be happening more & more (hoping it will continue!), is many longtime Democrats are moving away from “the Party that has left us”
Some of my registered Democrat family members, who firmly believe “THEIR PARTY WAS THE Party of the People” have become totally disillusioned by all the - quoting them - “WOKE, hateful, antiFree Speech rhetoric”
Because they feel they have no place to go (they still believe Republicans are corrupt,too) some have said they have NO ONE to vote for.
I’m fairly certain all of those people still vote for Democrats for the same ‘free money’ reasons they always did. They are just a little shy now that it’s fairly obvious their freebies netted us a mudslide of atrocities that has really just begun.
I agree that, if you’re not that sharp, totalitarianism seems like a better bad option vs. the lunacy of importing fewer destitute illiterate people with no skills.
What is crazy about a strong economy, sound moral values, a good work ethic, and honest civic mindedness? We are not the ones arguing for pedophilia, infanticide, biological impossibilities, or attacking people in the streets. We are not the ones condemning the most sincerely moral nation in the history of the world based on mistakes which were universal (and are still common in many places) until we corrected them.
This does not describe the situation in the SF-Bay area, nor does it describe the politicians in charge, nor the lack of moral values, and doing little to curb the violence against the citizens of these localities. Good luck in organizing the Moderates, of which Biden is not one as he panders to the Populist Woke ideology.
After 911 when the Patriot Act was being discussed, a good friend who happened to be a Democrat questioned me on my "semi-support" for it. Can't say I put a whole lot of thought into it other than the stereotypical, if I'm not doing anything wrong, what do I have to worry about. Well, I was wrong, but the conservatives I've supported and that have been elected since along with the liberals that I've voted against but were voted in; all of them have done nothing to turn back that law! We are all to blame for the elites that continue to hold on to power at the expense of the liberties of those on both the right and the left.
So they will stand on the sideline and do nothing. Well until their masters create a newcrisis and bring them back on board. Then there they will go, straight over the cliff dragging the rest of us with them.
I've mentioned this Frontline documentary before but it bears mentioning again; "The Right To Fail." All these well-intentioned social worker types (who are now supposed to be first responders) decide to remove seriously mentally ill patients and place them in apartments. The results are catastrophic and, in some cases, deadly.
The imbecile-in-chief is about to formally announce his candidacy for re-election. We better pray our way through the day to get through this mess.
Given Biden's mental state, this is literally putting the inmate in charge of the asylum.
His sad sojourn to Ireland was fit only for a SNL skit - when SNL was actually funny. But now that art has aped life (Being There, Part II?) nothing is funny. Just drearily depressing.
I've come to the point where I think that maybe immigrants are better... that maybe they haven't been infected with this post-modern cultural insanity that has grabbed us. Having crossed the seas or the desert to get here maybe they have a bit more appreciation for reality.
But most of them haven't. They've stumped up tens of thousands to get to you from shitholes and are generally the best the shitholes have to offer. Why do you think those places are shitholes in the first place? A Dem migrates from Cali to Texas; what is the Texan's fear, what is the first thing the Texan says to a Californicator? "Don't turn my state into a shithole like the state you fled." And you want to say yes to folk from even bigger shitholes?
More appreciation for reality? Sure, their horrible reality; they know it well. (I wonder what story they have been sold about USA?) I hope they see any helping hand USA gives as help, not handout. Handouts create a culture of dependency. And let's not ignore the human trafficking of immigrants.
Don't be so sure of that. I noted elsewhere on this thread that I was just on a NJ Transit train into NYC. English not spoken. Behavior atrocious. The evidence to your point is that our native born minorities act even worse. But we have only our own "tolerance" and racism to blame for failing to enforce longstanding social and legal norms that made America a special place.
That's ok Lee. I stand 100% behind Theodore Roosevelt's statement on what it means to be an American and how we should treat those who would cast their lot with us. I think I am in good company there. One of our greatest Presidents. A man in full.
Oh they still make them. Problem is we don't honor them.
If we did, those nitwits at the Natural History Museum would not have removed TR's statue. Lilliputian nothings, assailing a dead giant. They so lacked courage they had to wait a century after his death. Cowardly dogs. Nothing more.
Yep - The real culprit is the museum itself for not having the cajones to tell the far out progressives to f*ck off. Keep the statue up under armed guard.
We have always had a criminal element among immigrants. It’s nothing new. In the crowded tenements & on the streets English wasn’t the language of choice. It was the language of necessity.
Yes, I've seen MANY instances of immigrants coming to the US whose children often EXCEL with schooling etc. Heading that list lately is Nigeria, closely followed by China, Japan et al.
Then along comes the second generation - who are now Americanized and jump on the POC bandwagon.
The failure of low expectations. Some people believe that black kids are not capable of following rules and orderly behavior so we don't bother. Sorry but I reject that as racist. They are and they can. If we let white kids run wild and act like animals they'd do the same thing. Cracking heads of miscreants isn't racist. It's common sense.
I spent 2003-2012 in Philadelphia and Westchester County, commuting into Manhattan 2-3 times a week. Returning to Atlanta, which is heavily impacted by immigration--the second oldest city in suburban Gwinnett County is 45% Hispanic--I had a new appreciation for sprawl. Close quarters intensify negative behaviors.
Campesinos with little socialization into our ways and holding no allegiance to them or our country a recipe for chaos and disaster. The wet dream of one world Democrats. Madness.
Although the (lack of) treatment of people with severe mental illness started with JFK and accelerated since that time it is a punch to the gut to concur with everything you’ve said.
Your phrases perfectly describe America now, and it’s unrecognizable. If people, as in most democrats, can’t see the destruction Biden has caused in two years, then they have no appreciation for what America stands for and what it means to the rest of the world. We are no longer the country that leads and helps. We are no longer a country of intelligent leaders who use logic and fact. It’s all fluff. We’re a sad mess. I pray daily for a brighter future.
These changes have not happened in the past two years--they go back at least a generation. The U.S. has an illusion that everyone can simply do whatever they choose to do with no thought for other people. It's not healthy that people are left to live in the streets because that's what they choose. It's just as unhealthy that someone going to the wrong house by accident is immediately shot because media has manipulated people into being too fearful to leave their homes so that they'll stay inside and consume more media.
Congressman Jeff Jackson-D, NC claims that they “fake” outrage to get attention from anger-hungry media.
Most of the really angry voices here are faking it to keep us angry "most really angry voices" in Congress "are faking it." "These people who have built their brands around being perpetually outraged — it's an act." "I've been in committee meetings that are open to the press and committee meetings that are closed," he said.
"The same people who act like maniacs during the open meetings are suddenly calm and rational during the closed ones. "Why? Because there aren't any cameras in the closed meetings so their incentives are different.
"What I've seen is that members of Congress are surrounded by negative incentives. "There are rewards for bad behavior." Jackson said the biggest reward is being able to reach people. "The big thing that modern media and modern politicians have learned is that if they can keep you angry, they'll hold your attention. "And they both want your attention.""So if you're a politician and you show certain media outlets that you can help them keep their audience angry, they'll give you their audience."
Let's reserve judgement on the shooting incident. There was the usual handwringing and shrieks of racism and then the story has subsided. When all the facts emerge we can have a discussion. Until then, color me skeptical.
There have recently been more than one such shooting incident. Do you think we should reserve judgement on the young woman in NY state who was shot dead by an old nutter sitting on his porch (with his gun) when they drove into the wrong driveway? No race angle to the story so ignored by the national media. How about the 6 year old kid shot along with (her?) parents when they went to retrieve a basketball from the neighboring yard? Wrong races (victim white, shooter black) so ignored by the national media.
It is understandable that we become bitterly cynical after living through the Trayvon and Michael Brown stories and watching the unforgivable sins of the media. But let us remain human.
I think we should reserve judgment on all such incidents, irrespective or race, until all the facts come out. Our media are notoriously unreliable reporters of facts and getting worse and lazier by the day. Remember how they swallowed the Smollett hoax so effortlessly? (as did the imbecile in chief). So not sure what your point is. Maybe you really should just stop digging?
Note that I agree the media is corrupt and pushing to cram a fresh story right into their Narrative line (or memory hole it for the same reason). But that doesn't mean these things aren't happening or that plenty of people in this country are not borderline mentally ill or well over the line, pumped up on paranoia from click bait partisan media, and sitting on their porches armed to the teeth waiting for the insurgents to roll up the driveway.
Occam's Razor is real. Perhaps there is a 0.1% chance of some as yet unknown extenuating circumstance in the case of the dude that blew away a 20 year old girl, roughly the age of my own daughter, for the crime of turning into the wrong driveway. But I am comfortable, in this case, rushing to judgement.
Your reply was in response to Scott's comment "someone going to the wrong house by accident is immediately shot because media has manipulated people into being too fearful to leave their homes so that they'll stay inside and consume more media." My interpretation of your reply was you were saying there may not be any such phenomenon, since we can't trust the corrupt media, the rush to judgement and the need to cram everything into The Narrative.
So my point was to give other examples of the same phenomenon without the specific angles that created your suspicion of the one story.
A parable of our society. Believing that patent madness is overcome by good intentions. Letting violent vagrants roam our streets and hoping that they'll follow their "better angels." Mutilating children in the vain belief that we're gods and can alter their sex on whim. Opening our borders to uneducated, third world hordes and pretending we'll still be America. Releasing violent sociopaths and defunding police departments. Basing our energy grid on pinwheels and panels, with a blind eye to the consequences to serve the false god of "climate change." Erasing competence requirements to serve some mad notion of "racial justice." Ignoring our deep tradition of due process and equal protection while turning a blind eye to corruption. And installing a senile imbecile as president and pretending otherwise.
America has become an asylum in the service of lunacy. Pretending otherwise doesn't change a thing. Progressive beliefs hold us in national schizophrenia. How long before our beloved nation becomes the slaughtered Carrie?
My doctor asked if I was depressed. How could you be a thoughtful person and not be depressed?
Bruce! Your best comment yet*. Seriously.
RBM
* Actually makes up for your occasional responding to You-Know-Who Troll.
"Actually makes up for your occasional responding to You-Know-Who Troll."
I wouldn't go that far.
He who's name shall not be spoken? I know, I know. I just don't like cancelling anyone. Even if he is almost completely impossible.
Like you I don't want Mr. Obnoxious thrown off this BBS. I just try and ignore him, sometimes I fail.
Quite the parable, Bruce. Somehow in your eyes someone’s schizophrenia as described by this writer about his friend is conflated to the lunatics running the asylum that you see as today’s USA.
You could have stayed on topic, your thoughts about this guy would have been interesting to read.
Unless you think that big bad Dems were the cause of his mental state too.
It was the big bad Dems that emptied the asylums and put the mentally ill on the streets. If the truth is too harsh and uncomfortable, the Dems cannot accept the truth.
As an example 51% of all murders are committed by 6.5% of the population and how does the left address this? They whine because an exorbitant amount of the prison population is black. A hint, when you murder someone, deal drugs and commit felonies you go to prison.
I hope that didn't offend your delicate sensibilities.
Okay. Bad decision to put the mentally disturbed on the streets - that I agree with.
But no Republican administration from Nixon through Reagan through the Bushes to Trump ever reversed it. Not one. Not one study. Not one analysis. And to my knowledge at least, not one attempt to enact legislation to change the direction of caring for the mentally ill.
You want to blame the Democratic Party for misguided policies? Add another political party to the mix.
The entire nation owns this one.
This is a Dem problem created by them and the ACLU who went to court to have the sick deinstitutionalized. And you will notice that the Dem cities have the largest homeless populations and they do nothing to change that. California has the largest population in the nation. You may have noticed that Cal. is run by Democrats and has been for decades and will be run by them into the future.
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/science/how-release-of-mental-patients-began.html
..an interesting read, if you can open the link. Back when the NYT was far more even handed. Doesn't lay blame on any particular party or ideology, but on the medical establishment itself. Opened my eyes quite a bit.
Enjoy the day..
The states failed as well because the concept of the “de institutionalization” of the mentally ill called for community mental health centers, few of which were budgeted for and fewer built.
The guy's plight is a tragedy. But treating him as if he were normal - which he clearly was not - led directly to an unspeakable tragedy and savage killing of an innocent, loving woman. Just to make some idiots feel good. Now they have blood on their hands. F them.
That was the reply I was expecting.
But who are these idiots you're referring to? Eight months in a hospital and then he's released. To me, the mistake lies there. You say he clearly was not normal - but how do you, or we for that matter, know? He must have appeared normal to convince presumably competent psychologists that he was safe to reenter society. So these idiots are who? The doctors? The NYT who made him a star? Hollywood who wanted to exalt him? Yale and every other university who wanted to accept him? The profs at Yale who thought he was brilliant and overlooked his obvious flaws? Is there an ideological slant here that taints everyone with blood on their hands - or was it just a mistake made, like mistakes are made everyday medically that no one hears or cares about.
Who are the 'they' here?
Didn't the article say that the Yale profs knew he couldn't do the work? Unless I read that wrong, everyone seems to have been kidding themselves. To serve what end?
Apparently he was doing the work with assistance from fellow students as in some read to him, some typed his papers - Rosen didn't say they wrote his papers - and professors talked with him at length and didn't brush him off. How is this any different than someone with learning issues and needs someone to read to them, type their papers and provide time to talk through assignments etc and give support.
What became clear was that in Michael's post doc work, he could not think clearly or deeply enough to produce the type or number of published papers in law journals etc. that would have put him on track to teach or clerk. Moving from an academic world to a professional world was not achievable for him.
He may have been able to do research or be hired to read and discuss as he was brilliant but this would have been because someone understood his limitations, provided this job and been able to monitor him. Michael may not have been accepting of this type of role because of the lack of status vs a professor or practicing lawyer.
Guilt? Sympathy?
Guilt? Please. Raised protestant. Not in the lexicon.
Sympathy for?
Sympathy for attempting to overcome a mental affliction.
Of course we have sympathy. A loved one with a mental illness is a horrible struggle. Worse when it's one's child. I cannot imagine the daily torment. But society can ill afford pretending that they are "normal" when they're clearly not and pose dangers.
Of course, which brings me back to the mistake the doctors made after his eight month long sojourn in a hospital. They release him, allowing the wider world to assume he's better adapted to adjust, but he isn't. So perhaps its not society that is at fault, but doctors who (in retrospect, at least) should have known better..
While the doctors may take some blame, from what I read above, his Professors KNEW he still had issues. He told one of them he current saw angels and the Prof even admitted that he thought it was a joke at first, but then decided it wasn't.
This is a case of people whose ideals/beliefs were put to the test and reality won. People with real mental issues don't get better with head pats or just doing their work for them.
And this is nothing new. Increasingly, regardless of cause, we will elevate and promote people who can't actually do things. Kids with learning hinderances simply get less homework. Female firefighters are expected to carry less weight to pass their exam. Heck, lets get rid of standardized tests so they won't hold people back that can't get good enough scores.
Ideology over practicality. Form over Function. He was in a minority group, so he needs to be given extra.
He may have, indeed, been better, was released, then over time, relapsed. This happens all the time with mental illness and addiction. It happened to a friend of mine. She was able to live out of an institution only under the supervision of her daughter who was a psychiatric nurse, who understood the propensity to lie that is part of mental illness and addiction. It's tough stuff, living with a mentally ill person or an addict. There's an unreal component to it, and a person who attempts it needs to have a lot of support in place. On the plus side, it can be done, in some cases, and the one who does it with awareness, ends up stronger.
Bruce, unfortunately many, including you, use "schizophrenia" in an inexact metaphorical manner to critique our society. By definition, a country cannot be schizophrenic, only individuals can be. It is a specific disease with uncontrollable apparitions, visions and imagined events. That is not our society's problem. As I indicated in my posting above, our society chooses to willfully ignore clear realities around us to our social and individual detriment. Argumentation and education may help. It is a struggle.
I took poetic license. But we are living in an asylum run by the DNC. I don't think that is assailable.
It is not just the DNC. There is a profound ignorance about the illness known as schizophrenia. We still will not confront that a certain measure of loss of liberty is critical to giving these very sick individuals a chance at living a real life. The willful ignorance of the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz when I was in med school in the 1970s was embraced as brilliant. He argued that the whole labelling of mental illness as such was a conspiracy of the establishment against a misunderstood minority. That was a crock then and now. Wasted lives and tragedies have resulted.
Well said.
OMG Bruce, Bari should be interviewing and writing about you. We not exactly the slaughtered Carrie yet (God forbid) but I fear we closer than further.
Sweet but I'm afraid I would horrify our Bari.
Probably Bruce!
We live in not the Age of Enlightenment but the Age of Incompetence
WOW!!! Bruce, this is the best short essay I have ever read. Thank you.
Thanks Cat.
High praise.
Democrats are pagan savages.
Unlike moral people, they extract a feeling of virtue only from permissiveness and tolerance. As such, the more extreme the thing they tolerate the more virtuous they feel. That’s why this will continue to descend into hell.
Pedophilia is standing in the on-deck circle right now swinging a giant dildo instead of a baseball bat.
“Nothing is true and everything is permitted.”
IS the Democrat creed. It’s also a quote from an Arab warlord who died in the 1100s.
They are barbarians.
"Pedophilia is standing in the on-deck circle right now swinging a giant dildo instead of a baseball bat."
I missed this the first time around. My bad.
But you nailed it. Yes it is. And my remedy for anyone even suggesting such an abomination is hanging, drawing and quartering. No, I am not kidding.
If you tolerate crime, you will be ruled by criminals.
If you tolerate corruption, you will be ruled by corrupt people.
If you tolerate degeneracy, you will be ruled by degenerates.
This is the solution to Paradox of Tolerance. Tolerance, by itself, is not a virtue.
And if You worship guns You will be ruled and killed by the gun.
Just because someone has a gun does not mean they worship the gun or violence. Look at all the major oppressive murdering regimes and what was the first thing they did? They completely disarmed their population.
I did not say that. Some people have a rational relationship to their firearms, they see as a tool they might need for hunting, sport or job. But in the US there way too many people with a very irrational relationship to their guns, creating a violence based ideology around gun ownership. I'm talking about the ones who love to pose with their arsenal, wanting to display their gun in public or just wanna talk about their little darlings all the time in NRA meetings. These are the ones we need to be scared of. They don't own their guns, they are owned by them.
I have friends, who go hunting on a regular base. Their guns are locked away and they do not occupy a large part of their lives. They just take them, when they need them and after that they go back into the locker and are of no further importance to them. I'm not worried about them. I'm more worried about that guy who lives two blocks further down the road who seems to be obsessed by his firearms, who talks frequently about them and how much he needs them in case "plunderers" from the city will come for his vegetable garden. This nutcase should not have any lethal arms at all. Who knows what will trigger him some day.
You are making assumptions about people who own guns without facts to back it up. "In the US there are way too many people with an irrational relationship to their guns". How do you know that? Have you personally interviewed every gun owner? Your comments are over reaching. You are talking about a SMALL MINORITY who go around posing with their guns. It's a gross exaggeration.
Show me the person that has an alter of guns and prays to it every night and I’ll agree with you. Nice try but you had a swing and a miss.
Here You'll find plenty examples of gun crazy Americans taking their gun cult to the next level:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/fourth-july-musings-americas-gun-culture-viral-photos-rcna36397
The mind is the weapon. Anything you grasp is an implement. A tool. The leftist hive mind has you. You're being utilized as a tool.
What makes You think it isn't You who gets "utilized as a tool"? By those who "love the uneducated"? Because they are much easier to manipulate?
LoL. I'm uneducated. Come take something from me. Bring friends.
I didn't say that. Being educated doesn't make You immune to manipulation. But it's really telling that those who try to propagate views similar to Your's even themselves admit that they prefer to deal with uneducated people, because they are easier prey. That doesn't necessarily mean that all of their victims are uneducated, it just means the uneducated are overrepresented amongst their sheeplike followers.
I would never make any assumption about a person's education and intelligence just based on one post in social media. You can believe that.
In your world Afghanistan would have been conquered in Antiquity.
And I didn’t see a single person with an alter to their guns nor a single reference to a person praying to their guns as a god.
Nice try but your attempt of understanding the Paradox of Tolerance is at a 6th grade level (you did cite NBC).
But if you tolerate violence, you will be ruled by violence.
A gun is an inanimate object incapable of independent action. It can be an instrument of violence but so can a car, a knife, a baseball bat, a rock or any of a hundred other instruments. The radical left’s full tolerance of political violence and excuse of violence by blaming inanimate objects is simply stunning from a rational standpoint.
Guns are a means of violence. If You welcome guns into Your society You welcome violence. It's certainly no coincidence that the US is the country with most privately owned guns and being plagued by daily mass shootings. That's what happens when a society loves guns more than its children. We can see it every night on TV news.
Baseball bats are made for playing baseball, a car is made as a means of transportation, a hammer is made to hammer nails in. A knife is made to slice bread. Sure these things can also be used to kill, but that's not what they are made for. Whereas guns are made for the purpose of killing and that's what people are using them for. I for example do not kill and therefore I do not own any gun. Why would I ? I don't have any need for a gun.
Cars a means of violence. White silence is a means of violence. Owning property is a means of violence. Speech is a means of violence.
Your 2nd grade mentality of "if you welcome guns into you society you welcome violence" can be disproved with a single idea. Violence existed long before guns.
Please tell me you have a thought deeper than a 5th grader.
I don’t own a gun either, but a gun is a means of defense and a force equalizer. For a woman who has been physically overwhelmed by a stronger man and raped, carrying a gun and learning to use it is a perfectly reasonable act. For someone who lives in a dangerous neighborhood without the financial means to leave and is in regular danger when s/he moves around (or even at home), having a gun and knowing how to use it is, again, a perfectly reasonable act. Just cause you don’t have a need for a gun doesn’t mean no one else does.
“In the Bible Jesus said to love…..”
-leftist blasphemer who manipulates and exploits scripture to score political points
To say all Democrats are "pagan savages" is like saying that all Republicans are racists. Both are untrue and do nothing to enlighten the conversation.
Agreed. I hate such rhetoric when it comes from Democrats. We must keep our side of the street clean and not do it ourselves.
There are people across the aisle we can do productive business with and others we cannot, and the trick is not to alienate them by using extreme rhetoric that you are really aiming at the more fanatic members of their team.
And yes, restraining oneself from doing that is difficult because they're doing it to you.
I totally agree. This tribal BS needs to stop or Your country will descend into the abyss. People should be judged by their deeds, words and thoughts, not by their affiliation with a tribe.
That is the American concept put forth by people like John Locke. The issue is one side is fully captured by critical theories put forth by Hagel, Rousseau and Foucault.
The first stresses the individual over the group. The second is about the group over the individual.
These are not compatible.
I used to vote mostly Democrat at the national level unto about 2012 when the party made a radical shift to the far left.
When I watched Congress's hearings on the overturning of Roe V Wade, I started to shift from a reluctant pro-choice position to a reluctant pro-life position. The Democrat witnesses brought into testify were little more than ghouls and would not even admit killing new born babies are a problem, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When the radical left media made troubled autistic girl from Sweden an environmental hero whose ideas would result in the death of billions if implemented, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When multiple surveys have asked if the universe would be a better place without humans and a simple majority of Democrats say the Universe would be better without humans, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When you read the current Democrat budget and find "equity" mentioned over and over and over and you know the implementation of "equity" has resulted in the wholesale slaughter of around 100,000,000 humans in the past century, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When not a single Democrat will stand up and support women's sports from being destroyed by under-performing men able to dominate women, I realized the Democrats are a death cult.
When Democrats consider it stunning and brave to promote child genital mutilation as virtuous based around a gnostic belief you can turn lead into gold, I realized the democrats are a death cult.
This is not to say Republicans don't have their issues (they do) but they are not nearly glaring and dangerous to life when compared to the Democrats at this point in time.
What a great post.
Hi Deirdre,
Have you ever told a Democrat to stop calling conservatives racist? How often? I only ask because they’ve been calling us racist, literally nonstop, for several decades, so you’ve had about 38 million opportunities.
They smear the opposition violently and relentlessly and it 100% works. That’s one of the reasons I do it. That and the fact that it is true.
Cheers!!
I am a Democrat. I grew up with a mother who is a Republican and a father who is a Democrat. I look at people individually and not as a group. I am conservative in many ways and liberal in other ways. I am not "party first" because I distrust most politicians. I am not a sheep.
Not to repeat myself but again in agreement. I was raised by nice Reform Jewish parents who were of course politically liberal, though by no means the extreme version of same we see today. As a Christian and now a conservative (or moderate, or independent, or liberal depending on the topic) I think you've got to evaluate people individually.
If I say I am a conservative on social media platforms like Quora I am immediately attacked as if I'm a gun-toting MAGA Trump supporter, people who are as far from my position as wacko extremist Democrats are.
I think if we sat down w/the saner and more moderate Dems and all let our hair down we could come to some decent policy agreements. But the more polarizing rhetoric we use, the more we push those moderates into the extreme side of their camp.
People are just people anyway. As a Christian sometimes it helps to step back and say to myself "how would JESUS see this person". Grants me a bigger, quieter outlook.
Dan-- Interesting. I just returned to the church and maybe that's why I have a similar view. I see all kinds of people at church with a variety of political and social views.
Sounds like You are a real human being and not just a tribal warrior. More people like You are needed.
Time for some anti-nausea medicine....
Go ahead.
Disagree. I trust Democrat politicians completely. They are all collectivist prostitutes so I know exactly what they are going to do every single time.
You sound exactly like my Democratic friends who excoriate the Republicans. That's why I'm fed up with both sides. "Sound and fury signifying nothing."
Not to worry, Kevin.
We’ve got our steadfast conservative Supreme Court to protect us!! Clarence with the spear!
They’ll keep those darn barbarians from breaching the moat!
Democrats will win the House and Senate with slim margins and the Presidency in 2024. They will knock out the filibuster and pack the court and oh so much more.
You will be so happy that you’ll forget to tell me I was right.
Then, a few years later, circumstances will become such that it will be undeniable that you helped Nazis. I, obviously, will not be allowed on the internet to say “I told you so” at that point so don’t worry.
Good points there, Kevin, and I have been mostly contesting some of your more extreme statements. But we can't afford to swing further toward the liberal pole, as you note, there is so much wrong over there.
do you really think this is the case, bc now I'm terrified.
I believe this. I also believe Newsom will win in 2024. Not because he’s qualified, but because he’ll have all of the MSM on his side. Hell, he has Silicon Valley in his backyard.
18 months ago I told my wife that in 5 years pedophelia will be normalized and you’ll be fined for flying an American flag.
This country as our founding fathers intended it, is over.
I had to laugh when I read an article yesterday (Shellenberger's substack, "Public") about how Gavin Newsom was finally working at cleaning up San Francisco not because he gave a damn but because it would look bad for his presidential run. Article is paywalled but it's at
https://public.substack.com/p/victory-gavin-newsom-calls-in-national
Hey, he is good looking and has name recognition.
Yes. DeSantis would lose to Kamala. It will take 10 years minimum to catch up with their ability to mobilize and it will be too late by then.
Plus the most underrated part is that about 50 million voters follow politics like CNN or Fox or NYT or Shapiro and Maddow on Facebook or whatever. ALL of the other voters, 100 million or so, who aren’t interested in politics in that way, get their information from Google and that is so tightly curated to the left you can’t believe it.
Why doesn't the right have the ability to availability to mobilize like the left? Also, if what you're saying is true, then what's the point anymore.
Great retort.
But half seriously, if the GOP can get beyond their Trump and anti abortion fixation, they would do better than your prediction.
Kevin, I do agree with a lot of what you say, but what seems to be happening more & more (hoping it will continue!), is many longtime Democrats are moving away from “the Party that has left us”
Some of my registered Democrat family members, who firmly believe “THEIR PARTY WAS THE Party of the People” have become totally disillusioned by all the - quoting them - “WOKE, hateful, antiFree Speech rhetoric”
Because they feel they have no place to go (they still believe Republicans are corrupt,too) some have said they have NO ONE to vote for.
There isn't much to vote for. Both parties are pretty crummy, just in different ways. Politics is a crappy sport.
Triage. The Dems are the clear and present danger. They must be defeated; abstaining is what we used to call a cop-out.
Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good...do some good now and anytime you can.
That's it in a nutshell. We can't help the ones that want help, until the ones who don't want help come around. Which is sometimes never.
Yes, we cannot wait.
I’m fairly certain all of those people still vote for Democrats for the same ‘free money’ reasons they always did. They are just a little shy now that it’s fairly obvious their freebies netted us a mudslide of atrocities that has really just begun.
We vote D because we choose stupid and self righteous over bat-s crazy.
I agree that, if you’re not that sharp, totalitarianism seems like a better bad option vs. the lunacy of importing fewer destitute illiterate people with no skills.
What is crazy about a strong economy, sound moral values, a good work ethic, and honest civic mindedness? We are not the ones arguing for pedophilia, infanticide, biological impossibilities, or attacking people in the streets. We are not the ones condemning the most sincerely moral nation in the history of the world based on mistakes which were universal (and are still common in many places) until we corrected them.
This does not describe the situation in the SF-Bay area, nor does it describe the politicians in charge, nor the lack of moral values, and doing little to curb the violence against the citizens of these localities. Good luck in organizing the Moderates, of which Biden is not one as he panders to the Populist Woke ideology.
So you're on board with government surveillance and the government/academia/media/big tech censor complex? How is that not bat-s crazy?
After 911 when the Patriot Act was being discussed, a good friend who happened to be a Democrat questioned me on my "semi-support" for it. Can't say I put a whole lot of thought into it other than the stereotypical, if I'm not doing anything wrong, what do I have to worry about. Well, I was wrong, but the conservatives I've supported and that have been elected since along with the liberals that I've voted against but were voted in; all of them have done nothing to turn back that law! We are all to blame for the elites that continue to hold on to power at the expense of the liberties of those on both the right and the left.
So they will stand on the sideline and do nothing. Well until their masters create a newcrisis and bring them back on board. Then there they will go, straight over the cliff dragging the rest of us with them.
Wow....one of the best comments I have ever read..
I've mentioned this Frontline documentary before but it bears mentioning again; "The Right To Fail." All these well-intentioned social worker types (who are now supposed to be first responders) decide to remove seriously mentally ill patients and place them in apartments. The results are catastrophic and, in some cases, deadly.
The imbecile-in-chief is about to formally announce his candidacy for re-election. We better pray our way through the day to get through this mess.
Given Biden's mental state, this is literally putting the inmate in charge of the asylum.
His sad sojourn to Ireland was fit only for a SNL skit - when SNL was actually funny. But now that art has aped life (Being There, Part II?) nothing is funny. Just drearily depressing.
We don’t have to accept it we can vote these smucks out!
Bruce, All I can say is, "I wish I'd said that." Nicely stated and I agree 100%. Rick
I've come to the point where I think that maybe immigrants are better... that maybe they haven't been infected with this post-modern cultural insanity that has grabbed us. Having crossed the seas or the desert to get here maybe they have a bit more appreciation for reality.
But most of them haven't. They've stumped up tens of thousands to get to you from shitholes and are generally the best the shitholes have to offer. Why do you think those places are shitholes in the first place? A Dem migrates from Cali to Texas; what is the Texan's fear, what is the first thing the Texan says to a Californicator? "Don't turn my state into a shithole like the state you fled." And you want to say yes to folk from even bigger shitholes?
More appreciation for reality? Sure, their horrible reality; they know it well. (I wonder what story they have been sold about USA?) I hope they see any helping hand USA gives as help, not handout. Handouts create a culture of dependency. And let's not ignore the human trafficking of immigrants.
The federal government is one of the traffickers. If you have any doubt read where some of the unattended minors are ending up.
Don't be so sure of that. I noted elsewhere on this thread that I was just on a NJ Transit train into NYC. English not spoken. Behavior atrocious. The evidence to your point is that our native born minorities act even worse. But we have only our own "tolerance" and racism to blame for failing to enforce longstanding social and legal norms that made America a special place.
Perhaps we should segregate these ‘atrocious’ immigrants who won’t speak English and put them on cars at the back of the train..
Just riffin’ with you, Bruce..
That's ok Lee. I stand 100% behind Theodore Roosevelt's statement on what it means to be an American and how we should treat those who would cast their lot with us. I think I am in good company there. One of our greatest Presidents. A man in full.
Of that sir, I agree. I don’t think they make men like that anymore.
Oh they still make them. Problem is we don't honor them.
If we did, those nitwits at the Natural History Museum would not have removed TR's statue. Lilliputian nothings, assailing a dead giant. They so lacked courage they had to wait a century after his death. Cowardly dogs. Nothing more.
Yep - The real culprit is the museum itself for not having the cajones to tell the far out progressives to f*ck off. Keep the statue up under armed guard.
We have always had a criminal element among immigrants. It’s nothing new. In the crowded tenements & on the streets English wasn’t the language of choice. It was the language of necessity.
Yes, I've seen MANY instances of immigrants coming to the US whose children often EXCEL with schooling etc. Heading that list lately is Nigeria, closely followed by China, Japan et al.
Then along comes the second generation - who are now Americanized and jump on the POC bandwagon.
second gen is the worst. bunch of whiners.
I'm not sure I follow your comment that our racism is to blame for failing to enforce....The current trend is to call it racist TO enforce....
The failure of low expectations. Some people believe that black kids are not capable of following rules and orderly behavior so we don't bother. Sorry but I reject that as racist. They are and they can. If we let white kids run wild and act like animals they'd do the same thing. Cracking heads of miscreants isn't racist. It's common sense.
I spent 2003-2012 in Philadelphia and Westchester County, commuting into Manhattan 2-3 times a week. Returning to Atlanta, which is heavily impacted by immigration--the second oldest city in suburban Gwinnett County is 45% Hispanic--I had a new appreciation for sprawl. Close quarters intensify negative behaviors.
Campesinos with little socialization into our ways and holding no allegiance to them or our country a recipe for chaos and disaster. The wet dream of one world Democrats. Madness.
I believe the notion of Latino immigrants all becoming future D voters is seriously flawed, particularly in the second generation.
Many have first-hand experience of the downstream consequences of collectivization.
What frustrates me is that a few minor tweaks in R messaging could lock in this block for the next 30 years.
But we cannot let people stroll into America. They have to follow rules and demonstrate a rudimentary knowledge of our language and culture.
Oh I agree 100%. The point was if the reason for low border enforcement is future voting demographics I believe they have miscalculated.
If that is the reason. There are other possibilities I’m considering currently without hopefully straying into conspiracy cuckoo land.
Although the (lack of) treatment of people with severe mental illness started with JFK and accelerated since that time it is a punch to the gut to concur with everything you’ve said.
Your phrases perfectly describe America now, and it’s unrecognizable. If people, as in most democrats, can’t see the destruction Biden has caused in two years, then they have no appreciation for what America stands for and what it means to the rest of the world. We are no longer the country that leads and helps. We are no longer a country of intelligent leaders who use logic and fact. It’s all fluff. We’re a sad mess. I pray daily for a brighter future.
I share your prayers daily!
These changes have not happened in the past two years--they go back at least a generation. The U.S. has an illusion that everyone can simply do whatever they choose to do with no thought for other people. It's not healthy that people are left to live in the streets because that's what they choose. It's just as unhealthy that someone going to the wrong house by accident is immediately shot because media has manipulated people into being too fearful to leave their homes so that they'll stay inside and consume more media.
Anger is the new black. More media, more anger.
Congressman Jeff Jackson-D, NC claims that they “fake” outrage to get attention from anger-hungry media.
Most of the really angry voices here are faking it to keep us angry "most really angry voices" in Congress "are faking it." "These people who have built their brands around being perpetually outraged — it's an act." "I've been in committee meetings that are open to the press and committee meetings that are closed," he said.
"The same people who act like maniacs during the open meetings are suddenly calm and rational during the closed ones. "Why? Because there aren't any cameras in the closed meetings so their incentives are different.
"What I've seen is that members of Congress are surrounded by negative incentives. "There are rewards for bad behavior." Jackson said the biggest reward is being able to reach people. "The big thing that modern media and modern politicians have learned is that if they can keep you angry, they'll hold your attention. "And they both want your attention.""So if you're a politician and you show certain media outlets that you can help them keep their audience angry, they'll give you their audience."
Let's reserve judgement on the shooting incident. There was the usual handwringing and shrieks of racism and then the story has subsided. When all the facts emerge we can have a discussion. Until then, color me skeptical.
There have recently been more than one such shooting incident. Do you think we should reserve judgement on the young woman in NY state who was shot dead by an old nutter sitting on his porch (with his gun) when they drove into the wrong driveway? No race angle to the story so ignored by the national media. How about the 6 year old kid shot along with (her?) parents when they went to retrieve a basketball from the neighboring yard? Wrong races (victim white, shooter black) so ignored by the national media.
It is understandable that we become bitterly cynical after living through the Trayvon and Michael Brown stories and watching the unforgivable sins of the media. But let us remain human.
I think we should reserve judgment on all such incidents, irrespective or race, until all the facts come out. Our media are notoriously unreliable reporters of facts and getting worse and lazier by the day. Remember how they swallowed the Smollett hoax so effortlessly? (as did the imbecile in chief). So not sure what your point is. Maybe you really should just stop digging?
Note that I agree the media is corrupt and pushing to cram a fresh story right into their Narrative line (or memory hole it for the same reason). But that doesn't mean these things aren't happening or that plenty of people in this country are not borderline mentally ill or well over the line, pumped up on paranoia from click bait partisan media, and sitting on their porches armed to the teeth waiting for the insurgents to roll up the driveway.
Occam's Razor is real. Perhaps there is a 0.1% chance of some as yet unknown extenuating circumstance in the case of the dude that blew away a 20 year old girl, roughly the age of my own daughter, for the crime of turning into the wrong driveway. But I am comfortable, in this case, rushing to judgement.
Your reply was in response to Scott's comment "someone going to the wrong house by accident is immediately shot because media has manipulated people into being too fearful to leave their homes so that they'll stay inside and consume more media." My interpretation of your reply was you were saying there may not be any such phenomenon, since we can't trust the corrupt media, the rush to judgement and the need to cram everything into The Narrative.
So my point was to give other examples of the same phenomenon without the specific angles that created your suspicion of the one story.
To answer the question posed in the very last sentence of your 100% correct comments, not very long at all I think.