Tag: Fake Right

Jonah Goldberg Completes His “Joe Scarborough-fication”

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Back in the early 2000’s I used to read Jonah Goldberg’s posts at NR Online.  He was pleasant and witty and struck a balance between ideology and practicality that at the time I thought was warranted.  But over the years Goldberg has “evolved.”  His positions have become establishment conservative to the point that they are just moderate Democrat with a streak of Neo-Con foreign policy thrown in.

When Donald Trump exposed the National Review as a useless pack of losers Goldberg slid even farther to the left and then last month when Tucker Carlson began exposing the false flag nature of the January 6th “insurrection” Goldberg flounced out of his Fox News role.  Now he has completed his transition to CNN’s newest “conservative” stooge.  I guess they really needed a new one now that Joe Scarborough has completed his transformation into a less unfunny Stephen Colbert.  Goldberg will provide the needed gravitas to match Don Lemon when they break out the Point/Counterpoint act over the outrage of the week.

I look back at those times and I have to assume it was more a case of my own ignorance than Goldberg’s deception.  He’s probably still the same guy.  He may even still believe exactly the same things he always has.  What’s changed is the degree to which I’ve learned the hard lesson that the establishment Republicans; both the politicians and the media were always there just to use us for a paycheck.  They never believed in the values they claimed they were defending.  Their job was to get our votes or our dollars and put up an act as if they were fighting a battle against the Left and lose gracefully.

So all of Jonah’s act; his “Liberal Fascism” book, his cultural observations; were all just the window dressing to keep us clicking on his show.  Now his show has found its true home.  And with CNN supposedly reworking their brand to be a “straight news” outlet Goldberg can assume his place as the moderate Republican who can explain the crazies on the right to such sages as Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper.

I’m sure it will be a good gig for him.  He’ll adjust his outlook to match the stripe that CNN/Discover is pretending is their version of objectivity this week.  As I said I don’t think Goldberg has changed meaningfully over the years.  If tomorrow they need him to call himself a liberal or a libertarian or a conservative I’m sure he could tweak his act and make it work.

To me the important thing is to learn a little something from the experience.  What I’ve figured out is never take things at face value.  Look at results.  The scientific method is the operative approach.  Do a thought experiment.  If X claims to be a conservative then when X is in office does he make things more conservative?  If the opposite occurs either X is incompetent or X isn’t conservative.  Either way, eliminate X and look for a better alternative and then try it.  It’s very ad hoc but it’s probably the only way to get results.

So good luck Jonah I hope the viewers at CNN enjoy your act.  At least now you’ll be with your actual team.

Theater vs Reality

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The ZMan often makes the distinction between what he calls the Dissident Right and everyone else by the analogy of a river crossing.  So, if you’ve come around to the opinions of the Dissident Right then you’ve crossed that river and from the vantage point of the other side everything looks different.

And in a lot of ways, I’ve made that crossing.  I no longer see any hope of wresting control of the United States from the Leftists.  They hold all the levers of power and short of military force they will not relinquish them even to legitimate voting majorities.  The only thing that separates me from the dissidents is their belief that some kind of racial apartheid is necessary to prevent the madness of progressivism from ruining life.  I don’t see how that follows.  I still think that a color-blind approach to people is the correct one.  Human beings are all different but one standard allows everyone the ability to achieve their own personal best.  I’ve always known that there are people who are smarter and more-hard working than I am.  And I do not envy them whatever additional success that provides them.  And by the same token there are plenty of people who will be less successful than I am.  I feel no guilt about what that means for them.  I do think that there is a natural desire to help the less fortunate.  What I reject is the idea that we owe the less gifted some kind of blackmail so that they won’t accuse us of conspiring against them.

So, from the point of view of the Dissident Right I’m still on the other side of the river but from my point of view I’ve run out of faith in the United States of America.  As far as I’m concerned it only exists in the minds of the non-leftists who remember what it stood for.  The reality is the post-America we live in, where Dementia Joe occupies the White House bunker and Nancy Pelosi is installed behind the razor wire of the Capitol.

Now that I’ve finished my preamble, I’ll talk about the ZMan’s post.  It’s called “The Decoupling.”  And by that he means that people who have crossed the river slowly lose interest in the political theater going on in Washington and the other power centers.  They no longer see it as anything other than as a distraction that is meant to keep the masses occupied with whatever the latest outrage they want to inflict on us is.  Will they allow gays in the military?  Will they legalize gay marriage?  Will they allow the looters to burn down our cities?  Will they allow men into women’s bathrooms?  Will they give citizenship to 60 million illegal aliens?

And to the extent that you’ve given up on the concept of the United States you do stop caring about any of this.  When Marco Rubio sends me an e-mail telling me I have to send him a hundred bucks so that he can cry on the floor of the Senate about something that he is upset about, I delete it and block his e-mail account.  If Kevin McCarthy e-mails me to say he’s organizing a brilliant strategy to retake the House that includes giving the leadership spots to RINOs I delete his e-mail and block his e-mail account.  But if Representative Biedermann tell me about Texit and that other states are thinking about the same thing now he’s got my attention.  I’ll e-mail him and ask if I can help.

I’ve disconnected from the theater.  If someone has a plan to do something real, I’m interested.  So, I haven’t completely shut down my reception.  I’ve just tuned out the noise.

These Guys at American Greatness Are Making Me Feel Redundant

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Of course, I’ve never seen them post a Trump vs Morning Shmoe and Lycra.  So there is that.

Honestly, this guy Deion Kathawa in his article Conservatives Need to Stop Indulging Leftist Narratives

hits it pretty square on the head.  These “conservative” pundits he talks about would rather walk back everything they believe than have liberals call them bad names.  That should make it easy to decide who is on our side and who is along for the ride (or paycheck).

Now, of course, if they’ve taken your dog hostage and are threatening you with Fido showing up in your mailbox piece by flea-bitten piece, then, yeah, I understand.  But the worst these guys are up against is Twitter down votes.  Maybe Google will suspend their Gmail accounts.  Hardly the stuff of hard-boiled, hard-hitting humor blogging.  If groveling is an important part of your month then maybe you should be in a different line, like politics.

Anyway, the Daily Wire thing is very disappointing.  If you have to clear your comedy skits mocking leftists, through a leftist censorship committee, I think your usefulness (except as a useful idiot for the left) is done.  And that’s the good thing that’s coming from all this.  Once you figure out the game being played by the Left and the Fake Right you stop caring what people say about you and then you can say what you really think.  A young guy at work, nice kid, asked what I thought about the NFL kneeling crap.  Now I knew he didn’t care one way or the other (or so he says).  So, I said the players and the owners can do whatever they want.  And, so can I.  So, I’ll never watch another NFL game until they apologize for what they’ve been doing for the last year.  And since I know that will never happen in a million years I can start using the time I wasted watching football on something useful.  I can get an extra post done or write a story or go out and take some pictures or read a book by someone who writes things that I enjoy.  And by turning off the NFL I’ve done my small part to starve the rats.