Let us consider two observational truths. 1) any practical weaning from fossil fuels must include nuclear power; and 2) Housing First is not getting addicts and mentally ill off the street, nor resolving the damage they inflict on themselves as well as the rest of us.
It shouldn’t be controversial to say so, but in California it is heresy.
Michael Shellenberger, once a man of the environmental left and now a fearless witness for common sense, earns my vote for governor.
There is something else unfolding besides a foregone election.
Institutional America is closing ranks around a successor ideology to democracy as we have known it, with the legacy media leading the way in demanding Big Tech de-platform and demonetize all dissenters. But beneath that, there is an extraordinary reevaluation of polarity and affiliation taking place in real time. Much open-field running, poetically and politically, from left to right, as well as the other direction, led by facts.
I find it quite thrilling, perhaps the defining intellectual moment in my lifetime. The army of Born Again Realists is advancing, and manages to include Tucker Carlson on the right and Glenn Greenwald on the left and a lot of people in between, like Matt Taibbi, Krystal Ball, Saagar Enjeti, Bari Weiss, Andrew Sullivan, Freddie DeBoer, Aaron Mate and all the people on Substack.
Also comedians like Bill Maher and Jimmy Dore and Russell Brand. And paleoconservatives like Rod Dreher and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, the no longer quite so lefty Naomi Wolf, who is doing a podcast with, of all people, Steve Bannon.
We are all a little trans now, politically. Two years of Covid propaganda, married to lethally flawed policy, woke a lot of somnolent Americans.
Trump’s exit from the stage gave certain people permission to come out of the closet.
Out: CNN
In: Joe Rogan
Out: National Review
In: Zerohedge
Out: Lord Fauci
In: Bret Weinstein, Peter McCullough and Robert Malone
We live in the Era of Forever Lying. America needs more bullshit callers. Only one institution needs to flip for the edifice to come crashing down.
Faster, Elon. Close the deal. Land this plane.
Excellent!
Baruth-worthy, using one-tenth the words.
Thank you. High praise. Jack is wonderful, by the way.
Indeed he is.
Fantastic. Born Again Realists – I like it. I must be part of the club, because there’s maybe only 2 or 3 people you listed who I already DON’T follow pretty regularly, and then only b/c of time limitations. This army is growing faster than the Davos crowd realizes.
My B.A.R. list would have been three times the length, but I didn’t want to bore people.
I roll my eyes when I read peoples nostalgia for the ‘good old days’ of media. Before internet, before cable, before near instant communication.
Yeah we were sure better off when 3 TV networks and a few newspapers decided what we knew about things. And mostly coverage of anything started with one ‘source’, often the NY Times, and then spread like a spilled can of paint, making everything the same color.
So called reveals/scoops were usually someone in government angry with someone else in government leaking a limited, distorted glimpse of a part of things.
Now the challenge is to sort through all the ‘scoops’ and ‘leaks’.
Certainly those that agree(d) with the elite media want to silence others.
Been that way forever.
This is new:
Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland
“The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors. These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.”
I too like the phrase Born Again Realist! Nothing like a bad dose of crime and economic pain to focus the mind.
The traditional media are no longer the bullshit callers. Thus the rise of Rogan, Weinstein, Weiss, and others. Weinstein paid a heavy price for calling bullshit and we owe him a debt of gratitude for that.
In addition to Big Tech we now have a government agency dedicated to silencing and persecuting the people you mention. If I told you on Jan 20, 2021 this was going to happen, would you have believed me? I wouldn’t have believed it myself, but here we are.
A gun toting branch of the Department of Homeland Security, I might add.
I’m right there with you. Looking forward to a great debate about the ideology that is ruining us.
Even though Michael S lost, he still is in the game. His ideas, reality reborn, are gaining momentum. He is going to be looking at ballot initiatives too. So I feel some hope.
I call myself a PH, politically homeless.
BTW have you seen this photo collection from the Old Valley? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/galleries/article-9645725/Inside-vanished-world-SoCals-cruising-scene-summer-72.html