Hey guys, so just FYI the next few months are going to be equally crazy, but I just kind of hit a crunch, so I wasn’t able to keep up with the writing schedule. Next week, we’ll be returning to the two articles and three threads a week schedule.
Anyways, let’s get to The Roundup.
1619 is such a target because it undermines the (Southern) right’s entire narrative. So don’t act so shocked that they’re targeting it. They’re not (that) stupid; they understand that projects like 1619 are building the groundwork for progressive reform. Which the South and their Whig friends don’t want. Duh.
I’m working on an idea I call “Critical Intersectional Zero-Sum Theory”.
Basically, it’s the idea that Critical Race Theory ought to be more properly understood as a subset of a much larger framework. That framework being, that zero-sum dynamics have dominated human history along a countless number of intersectional dimensions, and most of our current problems are merely the ongoing aftereffects of these systems impeding our natural progress towards a positive-sum future.
In other words, the racism that CRT analyzes throughout US history both shapes and is shaped by the zero-sum nature of the systems that created and persist in the US.Here’s a new narrative: People will always misuse intellectual movements, regardless of how hard the intellectuals try to prevent this by properly framing their ideas. People naturally ignore framing, because people are stupid. The best solution is to plan ahead on how to deal with the stupidities and misframing.
I think it’s time to start gaming out what actually does happen if the US simply starts declining towards herrenvolk democracy.
My first impression is that it’s not great. Without America, the world is kind of fucked. Most of it is already falling into its own illiberalism. And I don’t think Europe will stand tall before America catastrophically makes clear that it’s no longer able to. This is exactly what happened with us when the British fell: We hesitated.
But unlike the prewar US, Europe isn’t exactly bursting with natural resources and protected by two oceans. Which is why I think we may all be in for a long century.Prediction: If Republicans win either house in the midterm, I think it’s 95% likely that Trump runs in 2024. If they don’t, then it’s more like 65%. And that’s all if Trump doesn’t die from all the McDonald’s and Diet Coke in the meantime. Which is probably the best thing that can happen to prevent a Long Century.
I also don’t think the Republicans really have “the next Trump” just waiting in the wings. I mean, look at this pack of sycophants and hacks. They got beaten by a two-bit con man six years ago, and they’re still kowtowing to him. None of them has managed to capture his base’s hearts. The most dangerous Republican isn’t an elected one, it’s Tucker Carlson, and even he has that same repellant stink that kept Ted Cruz from winning the spotlight.
Devil’s Advocate: The lack of a restaurant bailout has cleared the market of a lot of bad restaurants. In a sector that’s notoriously short-lived to begin with, this may only be a slight refresh, but it’s meaningful. Obviously not all of them were bad, but bad restaurants ought to have been predisposed to getting hit the hardest.
The flip side is that we may be looking at a period of consolidation and top-down invasions in the sector, which is bad. Anecdotally, down the street from me a local nanobrewery was among the first to close - and good riddance, because they were shit! But a bougie new French place is being imported by a group from Port Chester. People who live in the neighborhood are super confused, because we have zero appetite (no pun intended) for that. But we’re getting it anyways, because that’s who had the capital to invest.
Expect more wierd stories like this to come up during this recovery.Section 230 will get reformed eventually. It’s one of the few issues where there’s a bipartisan consensus that “something” must be done. If we take the most recent major compromise, criminal justice reform, as a rubric, this will still take another 3-4 years to pass, because the issue maintains a gap in partisan valence. And the reform will seem a lot less ambitious than anything being tossed out there right now.
But both parties clearly want to see it done. And I think this is also one of those policy areas where they both can fool themselves into signing onto some relatively vague update to the language, and the courts will end up deciding what it actually means.
Enjoy the long weekend, folks!