The Need for a Fantasy Past

Posted on Sunday 28 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

There are two problems with MAGA. First, it’s regressive in that it’s trying to reimpose primitive tribal values onto a complex, global world. Second, more practically, it’s simply not possible to return to conditions of the past. Today’s items:

  • Why MAGA can’t return to the past;
  • Myths (lies) Republicans tell about abortions;
  • More about Christian hysteria over the Olympics Opening Ceremony, which they completely misunderstood;
  • And another piece about how the attraction to conspiracy theories can’t be fought with truth; it’s about psychological needs to matter;
  • And OnlySky is back.

Washington Post, Megan McArdle, 25 Jul 2024: Opinion | J.D. Vance can’t go back in time — and neither can the rest of us, subtitled “The days of America’s manufacturing boom are gone for good.”

For one of the youngest vice-presidential candidates ever nominated, J.D. Vance sounds a little crotchety. His convention speech last week pined for an America that the 39-year-old himself never knew — a land before drugs and deindustrialization ravaged the Rust Belt, when housing was cheap and families were intact, and proud American craftsmen made the world’s best products with their own hands.

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The Resurgence of Tribal Human Nature

Posted on Saturday 27 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Again, one theme of this blog is the resurgence of tribal human nature and morality, at the expense of the achievements of the Enlightenment: Science and Democracy;
  • With examples today beginning with “childless cat ladies” from the right;
  • How Trump is saying if he wins in 2024, Christians will never need bother to vote again; what could he possibly mean by that?;
  • How in the Olympics opening ceremonies, Christians see devils and perceive offense everywhere.

I try to connect daily links with some kind of bigger picture, and at the risk of repeating myself, I’m to say once again that the theme of this blog is about the big picture of life in the United States, perhaps the world, these past couple decades, in the resurgence of tribal human nature, to the detriment of the great achievements of humanity in the era of the Enlightenment, science and democracy, that increasingly are being challenged by the forces of religion and ignorance. Tribal mentality. The mentality and morality that drove the human race for hundreds of thousands, even millions of years, but which is not suitable for the modern, global world, facing global, existential problems. Humanity may never overcome this. There is no escaping tribal human nature except through education, and the tribalists go to great length to shield their children from education.

(Why is this happening? A topic for another post, though I’ve certainly discussed it before.)

Every day provides more examples. Picking up where we left off yesterday; so much is going on.

*

More pieces about what conservatives/Republicans really think about people who are unlike themselves.

Media Matters, Matt Gertz, 28 Jul 2024: JD Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment points to the GOP’s right-wing media problem, subtitled “Rising in Republican politics requires appealing to the party’s sadistic weirdos”

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Tribal Human Nature Fights Back

Posted on Friday 26 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Thomas L. Friedman asks Trump and Vance: What is wrong with you people?
  • Republican attacks against Kamala Harris as being childless reveal base tribal motivations for how society ought to be run;
  • And who’s brainwashing whom?
  • Do children ‘belong’ to their parents? Or to society?
  • Meanwhile, in reality, the economy is doing quite well: three items, one of which claims “The US economy is pulling off something historic”

Conservatives, who have very firm ideas about the Way Things Ought To Be, have a new Person They Disapprove Of. Never mind evidence or competence or policies, about which further down.

Let’s begin with this. This is about the Republican response to Biden stepping down.

Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 25 Jul 2024: Just One Question for Trump and Vance: What Is Wrong With You People?

Ever since President Biden’s Sunday announcement that he would not seek re-election, clearly because of age, I keep thinking about Donald Trump’s and JD Vance’s contemptuous reactions to one of the most difficult personal decisions a president has ever made, and what it says about their character.

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 5

Posted on Wednesday 24 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

After being distracted by Texas affairs, politics, Riven, and reading Brian Greene and others, let’s get back to this book and try to finish summarizing it and capturing key points. This and one more post.

Earlier posts about this book: post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4.

– – –

Part IV: Know Thyself

How does human nature influence our public and private lives? Most of what people know is “based on gut feelings, folk theories, and archaic versions of biology.”

–Ch12, In Touch with Reality

This chapter concerns whether or not reality is socially constructed, or whether we accurately perceive reality. Neither is totally correct. Naive realism is refuted by visual illusions (examples). Again: the brain evolved to prioritize survival and reproduction of the species. Relativists, on the other hand, are concerned with how we categorize things, suggesting that everything is a social construct, even the facts of science and history. But categorization, like stereotypes, can be dangerous: not necessarily false in every respect, but with many ways they can go wrong. Beware identity politics. Some condemn even language as constraining thought. [[ To the extent these are equivalent might lead to some sf speculation. ]] But cognitive scientists and linguists reject such ideas for several reasons. Both images and words are inherently ambiguous; these confusions are reflected in contemporary art.

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Life carries on and on and on and on

Posted on Tuesday 23 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Heather Cox Richardson taking a future historian’s perspective on recent political events;
  • The irony of Republicans accusing Democrats of staging a coup;
  • Paul Krugman on how Republican accusation of immigrants taking away “black jobs” is wrong in so many ways;
  • Short items about garbage immigrants, lies and disinformation, them vs us, and the Christian concept of race.
  • And a Peter Gabriel song, “I Grieve”.

A few more items about recent events. Then, I promise to switch topics in the next day or two.

Heather Cox Richardson summarizes events of the past few days, in her detailed, historian-looking-back-from-the-future manner.

Letters from an American, 23 Jul 2024: July 22, 2024

Thus it begins: Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Politics | Comments Off on Life carries on and on and on and on

Far, Far Better Thing?

Posted on Monday 22 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

So this is the week that President Joe Biden, under fire by everyone since his lame debate performance last month (which I wrote about here), stepped down from his candidacy for a second term as president. This is virtually unprecedented in American history. It was an historic day. He endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, and remarkably, virtually all Democrats have endorsed her too, with no one emerging to challenge her nomination for, now, president; in fact, Biden’s abdication is regarded as a sacrifice for the greater good, putting principle before personal glory.

In contrast are the Republicans, who are undergoing hissy fits, upset that their plans to run against a doddering incumbent have been thwarted. You’d think a contract had been signed or something; some of them are threatening lawsuits to keep Biden on the ticket. And of course they’re engaging in their usual hyperbole and calumny, misogyny and racism. That’s what conservatives do.

Items today:

  • Tom Nichols and Robert Reich think this is a good thing, that it illustrates the difference between Democrats and Republicans, that Democrats should unite behind Harris, and maybe Mark Kelly should be VP;
  • Reactions, compiled by Slate, Salon, The Atlantic, and others, include accusations of a coup, the usual attacks against Harris, and yet another threat of civil war;
  • And even-handed commentary from John Scalzi.

Tom Nichols takes the high road.

Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 21 Jul 2024: A Candidate, Not a Cult Leader, subtitled “After Biden’s decision to leave the race, the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans could not be clearer.”

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Subjective Worlds

Posted on Sunday 21 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

First of all, I updated yesterday’s post to include the initial list of falsehoods in Trump’s RNC acceptance speech as compiled by CNN, and read off on TV by its fact-checker in the minutes after the speech ended.

For today, I’ll set aside the news today about Biden stepping down, and catch up on a few more items about this past week. Beginning with the subject of Republican lies.

NY Times, David French, 21 July 2024: One of the Republican Convention’s Weirdest Lies [shared link]

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Lies and More Lies, and Fans Who Don’t Care

Posted on Saturday 20 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Many many comments about Trumps RNC speech on Thursday, accepting his third nomination to become president. He had promised — after his near-death experience the week before — to throw out his earlier combative speech, and instead give one that would be more conciliatory and uniting. The general consensus, even among Republicans, is that his speech began well, for the first 20 minutes, as he recounted that attempted assassination event. And then, for over an hour more, he went off-script to rant about all his usual grievances and false claims, and ruined his opportunity. He just couldn’t help himself. He is who he is.

Response was swift, starting with the CNN fact checker who read back his notes in the minutes following the speech (as we watched the show on TV). He had to rush through them, there were so many to read in his limited time slot. They were online later that evening.

CNN, updated 19 Jul 2024: Fact check: Trump makes more than 20 false claims in RNC acceptance speech

No, there isn’t record inflation under Biden; No, Trump didn’t stop missile launches from North Korea; No, Trump didn’t defeat ISIS in a couple months; No, the Florida judge didn’t rule that the case against him was ‘unconstitutional’; No, Democrats are not going to destroy Social Security and Medicare; No, Trump didn’t cinch a $50 billion trade deal with China; No, gas prices aren’t up 60%; No, the government didn’t recently hire 88,000 IRS agents; No, the Biden administration isn’t going to raise Americans’ taxes by four times; and so on, and on. Right Try, Russian warships, Afghanistan. No, the world was not at peace during his administration; No, Venezuela is not purposely sending their criminals to the US, nor are other countries doing so; and No, the US crime rate is not going up. No great invasion, no 57% rise in grocery prices, no the US wasn’t energy independent under his administration. Trump’s claims about his tax cuts were false. Yes, there was some inflation under Trump. His claim about domestic oil and gas prices is misleading. And on and on, with other false claims from Eric Trump, Mike Pompeo, and Trump’s biographical video.

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The Incoherency of Religious Rationales

Posted on Saturday 20 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s generally considered impolite to point out the irrationality and incoherency of religious faith, but sometimes the examples are so blatant, you wonder if they aren’t signs of some mental disorder. Like those cases where brain damage causes one side of the brain to perceive one thing, the other half, something different. (See Oliver Sacks and others.)

CBS News, 19 Jul 2024: In RNC speech, Trump recounts surviving assassination attempt: “I’m not supposed to be here”

So here for example is Trump (with that absurd ear ‘bandage’) saying, near the beginning of his RNC speech the other night, “I’m not supposed to be here tonight” in one breath, then a moment later, “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”

Well, which is it? Continue reading →

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Never Mind Policy or Principles, Conservatives Need Only Stories

Posted on Thursday 18 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Politics and the Narrative Drive converge in items today.

  • Robert Reich about how the GOP is courting unions;
  • How J.D. Vance emphasizes his personal story rather than conservative principles;
  • How Republicans cling to the myth of migrant crime;
  • And how people on the right think, nonsensically, that the left is “godless.”

We’ve been watching the Republican National Convention the past few evenings because, well, there’s nothing else on. We’re not in the midst of watching any particular show on cable, or DVD, and it’s easiest just to turn on one network or another and watch the show. What struck me on the first night was that a union leader (!) was speaking to Republicans, as if Republicans support unions. They never have; they’re pro-big business, and thus anti-union.

Robert Reich, 16 Jul 2024: The GOP pretends its pro-union, subtitled “How the anti-union party courts working-class voters”

The strategy here, apparently, is if you say black is actually white, some people will believe you.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Narrative, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Never Mind Policy or Principles, Conservatives Need Only Stories