Seems to be that alienating our base is a loser, who knew. /hj

you love to see it

The optimal outcome for the rest of the world is for America to be divided up and governed by a coalition of outsider countries a la Germany And China.

Hatred is a luxory belief.

I also sense the rhetoric shift among the candidates running plays a role too.

I’ve been beating this drum since the 2024 election while seeing otherwise smart people swear the problem was Dems didn’t throw the our supporters under the bus enough to get the MAGA voter who will never vote for a Dem.

Thinking like a Technocrat: On Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer’s “Mastery and Drift” - Cleveland Review of Books The remaking of liberalism was both subtler and more profound than Clinton's slick campaign—soundtracked with Fleetwood Mac and enlivened by cynical displays of tough love—disclosed.

clereviewofbooks.com/brent-cebul-...

As a nuclear enthusiast, I concede this. I still have hope. Batteries are the Last thing standing before completely ending the need for nuclear power. Well that and submarines.

We lack a sense of self preservation, a hesitancy to uphold ourselves as better than them.

It helps that all the urban, educated people are self-hating

And we can't take very clear data points like this and use it to infer anything about the intelligence or quality of people that make up rural white America. That would be mean. Don't judge them on their words, actions, and record. Instead give them infinite unearned good will for existing.

Investing in blue cities is self preservation.

@hcrichardson.bsky.social made a good point recently about Biden/Harris making a mistake by treating MAGA Republicans like a normal opposition party and trying to compete on policy, instead of prosecuting them as the traitors that they were/are and running on anti-corruption Peter Magyar-style.

#hottake of the day: rural and suburban people would be significantly happier if they were deported to the cities. #sanfrancisco thoughts.

Why half ass electric and deal with problems of both ice and ev when you can get the full thing.

PHEV were only useful from 2012-2015ish.

I kind of suspect the NIMBY/YIMBY split is going to develop out into "the YIMBYs end up the economic right wing of the new Democratic coalition", the slow recreation of "socially liberal, economically conservative," and I think this is broadly good

Democracy isn't about "earning" votes it's about judging policies and deciding what is best for the country.

It is also, as a matter of basic sense, immensely difficult for people in opposition to "earn" anything because they don't have power.

A bowl of ramen noodles with veggies (red pepper, onion, carrots, broccoli, cilantro) a sliced up grilled pork chop and a poached egg with red pepper

I’m just using ramen for everything these days

One of the consequences of letting inflation be low for so long is that it messed with people’s expectations. Like the 2010s non-flation was abnormal. We’re never going back to that, nor should we.

I have an unpopular take that we need to cool it with the "big pharma" rhetoric because it very easily transitions into the antivax gateway for the crunchy-to-fashy pipeline.

Also because big pharma is good

Like with oil, we have to learn the hard way

austerity failed to stop the far right in europe

A lot of them have yet to be humbled and yield to the masters

Pete Hegseth is a Princeton grad. Let’s get one good thing out of this administration: the recognition of how massively overrated the Ivy League schools are & how their gatekeeping has negative effects on our society.

Oh J. S. Mill, gotta love him *and his wife Harriet was also excellent).

my hot theory is that a lot of these kids are people who grew up in extremely
liberal/similar ethnic areas, and few had to live life in a predominantly white school

MAGA Indians Went All In on Trump. Many Right-Wingers Can’t Stand Them South Asians are a powerful, visible minority in the Trump administration. They’re also facing a racist backlash, fueled in part by the white nationalist Groyper movement.

I remember meeting a young Chinese American kid who worked for some chud Congressman last time I was in DC and asking him "What do you think your nickname is when your back is turned?"