Recent Substack NOTES

Fragmented thoughts and memorable quotes...

[Writing by and from others is in italics]

Aug. 30, 2023

“I did not see the debate. Did anyone go after Donald Trump as a loser? As President, he did not drain the Swamp. Instead the Swamp drained him. He lost in 2020. He is probably the candidate most likely to lose to Biden in 2024. He has some necessary enemies, and I can sympathize with his fights against them. But he has way too many unnecessary enemies, meaning people who have tried to work for him and with him, only to be on the receiving end of his anger and abuse. That is why he is a loser.”

-Arnold Kling

Aug. 30, 2023

I prefer to intersperse my writing with selections from poetry and literature which deal with war, tragedy, love, and history… as a reminder of what’s truly important and a commentary of gratitude. We are all of us unbelievably lucky to live where and when we do and we shouldn’t forget that for a single day.

Aug. 30, 2023

“[Behold] the strangeness of Matt Yglesias…getting denounced by his followers… for having interacted with me on Twitter. The discourse is in a sad state when we can’t have any kind of contact with people we disagree with… I think that part of the issue is liberals having long existed in a bubble of privilege, where they don’t have to engage with any ideas, or even people, that make them uncomfortable. With Twitter and Substack now supporting free speech, and the declining power of cancellation journalism, power appears to be shifting and the left may find itself forced to become more tolerant by necessity.”

-Richard Hanania

Aug. 30, 2023

“…a state-like entity that expands its dominion on two fronts: the “woke” revolution and the colonization of ordinary life by technical expertise.

These appear unrelated, but share an underlying logic. Both displace and delegitimize vernacular practices, as well as the understandings that support them. On both fronts, the legitimacy of the ruling entity rests on an anthropology that posits a particular kind of self— -- a vulnerable one, which the governing entity then positions itself to protect. Both developments expand the reach of managerial authority, generate new bureaucratic constituencies, and disqualify common sense as a guide to reality. On both fronts, the entity expands through claims of special knowledge.”

-Matthew Crawford

Aug. 30, 2023

“Given current circumstances, with the Left’s seemingly wholesale capture of major institutions—public education, the universities, private-sector leadership, culture, and, increasingly, even the sciences—the current battlefield can appear overwhelming. But today’s Left has an Achilles heel: its power is, to a significant degree, a creature of the state, subsidized by patronage, loan schemes, bureaucratic employment, and civil rights regulations. These structures often appear permanent, but they can be reformed, redirected, or abolished through the democratic process.”

-Chris Rufo

Aug. 31, 2023

“ There’s an axis of powers in the US who have successfully framed the topic of medicalizing gender identity around a set of ideas designed to polarize the debate. Terms like “trans kids” and “gender affirming care” did not exist in the public discourse even ten years ago, but you can trace how a small group of organizations and individuals, with the complicity of a guileless media, have managed to dictate how the topic of medical regulation for minors is reported to the general public. Most Americans, upon learning what is specifically happening to children, understand that this is not “life-saving care,” but unfortunately, the actual facts have been suppressed.”

-Corinna Cohn, with Eliza Mondegreen

Aug. 31, 2023

“The equity action group was the most non-‘action oriented’ group I’ve ever seen.”

-Tabia Lee

https://www.youtube.com/live/3He1B0ZM50s?si=tExtcYylUGaAQmuO

Almost as if this is a grift for white college graduates, and not an event respond to social problems…

Aug. 31, 2023

REGARDING TRUTHSOCIAL.COM:

If you want to keep a finger on the pulse of the deep rightwing echo chamber in the US, get on TruthSocial (Trump’s social media platform). You’ll find plenty of QAnon narratives, many Christians and homeschoolers and trad wives, lots of despair about the border situation and overdose deaths and woke agendas.

You will NOT find transphobia, racism, homophobia, or a dozen other things that the Left would like to connect the Right to. I’m sure it’s there to some extent but I’ve spent hours clicking around and I’VE FOUND NONE OF THESE. Why is this kind of casual, easy, no-barrier investigation too difficult for 95% of American journalists to perform? Or is it just that they prefer to strengthen their chosen narratives, even at the risk of general defamation and untruth?

Sept. 1, 2023

I get a deep satisfaction in watching videos of entitled people being arrested. It’s not the most spiritually redeeming activity, I admit.

Some people have been so conditioned to tolerance and enabling that they literally cannot conceive of the fact that police are ALLOWED to use force. Threatening lawsuits or suicide or malingering or exaggerating hurts are very common and these are just ways that manipulative people continue to try to control the situation, even cuffed and in a squad car.

There’s also a pattern which you will see in virtually every cop show where people resist arrest while pleading that they’re ‘not doing anything!’ What they mean is they’re not aggressing but that’s obviously irrelevant. By pulling away or tensing up or refusing to yield their limbs they ARE resisting. 

Police will use any force required to arrest a suspect once they’ve decided to do so and they are legally protected in that effort. It always amazes me that people think they will plead or argue or complain their way out of handcuffs. Once they’ve decided to arrest you you will be arrested and once you’re arrested you will go to jail.

Sept. 1, 2023

Jonathan C. Richardson was convicted for killing his 11-month-old stepdaughter.

Now the ACLU is suing to gain tax dollars to fund his gender transition in prison.

76% of Americans polled fully support this! JUST KIDDING

These are the kinds of strange and almost willfully unpopular policies that regular citizens do NOT like.

Sept. 1, 2023

“From a pharmacokinetic + pharmacodynamic standpoint, GnRHa has the analogous effect on the young brain as lobotomisation — severing the connection between vital brain parts, causing damage to growing and pruning neural connections which happens at puberty. Puberty enables the brain and the entire physiology to mature and grow to prepare for adulthood! Pubertal suppression harms children and it forms part of a deeply authoritarian and highly unorthodox and experimental approach to child psychiatry and psychology. No valid and reliable evidence exists to demonstrate the pubertal suppression reduces psychological distress or prevents suicide.”

-Ruksana Sukhan

Sept. 26, 2023

In response to: 

Generational Wealth: The Foundation

Our culture's minimization of childbearing as an aspiration and an occupation will ultimately be, I think, our biggest civilizational flaw. It's one which we've exported around the world. A country which could maintain our political emphasis on individual liberty and the dynamism of markets while celebrating and incentivizing family-formation and child-rearing would be a formidable country indeed.