Twelve dead, 29 injured (updates continue) on Bondi Beach in Australia

Very much sending Love and support to all our Aussie friends.

I will save commentary for a more reasonable time.

Perhaps I came a bit late because you might already know this, but it is worth sharing the obituary anyway.

RIP James Ransone. Actor James Ransone, known for his role in ‘The Wire,’ dead at 46.

His fictional character, Ziggy Sobotka, was one of my favourites in The Wire. I read on the Internet that he also performed in other interesting works of American drama.

More than a dozen staff members at the influential conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation are leaving the organization to join a group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.

The mass departure follows turmoil within Heritage and the larger conservative movement over the role of right-wing influencers who've promoted antisemitic and other extremist ideas. Those tensions were on display at Heritage after its president, Kevin Roberts, released a video defending Tucker Carlson for a friendly interview in October with Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist who has previously praised Adolf Hitler. — NPR

I found this story interesting. The right seems to be dividing out between the ideologues and the entertainers. The former are trying to push their ideology and the latter trying to get as many hits as possible. You've got Tucker Carlson platforming an open racist/misogynist/anti-Semite (Fuentes), Candace Owen with crazy conspiracy theories, and plenty of others complicit on that side. Then you've got the true believers running from them (the Heritage Foundation members, Pence, and Shapiro). The fault line was openly exposed by Shapiro (an Orthodox Jew) with his open atrack on Carlson when Fuentes said Hitler was great guy (or some such).

Vance, not wanting to lose support from the racist crowd, has tried to ride the fence. Hopefully that works out poorly for him.

What I'm hoping is this moment signals the beginning of the end to Trump Republicanism. Unfortunately the left has responded to Trump by shifting too far left for ordinary voters, which means the binary choice will be between radicals.

The next few years will be interesting. Vance commented that he's fascinated by Bernie Sanders. I hope that's a good sign, because Sanders is a fundamentally decent human being, whatever one thinks of his politics.

A rather confused analysis.

In fact what is happening in the U.S. and throughout Europe is the rise of forms of ethno-nationalism (similar to what is in effect in Israel), largely in response to the post-war policies of "openness" and "inclusivity," and spurred on by the inevitable problems being caused by mass immigration (from grooming gangs in England to widespread fraud in Minnesota).

The reaction of the post-war generation is predictable: accuse everyone of "racism" or some made-up "phobia" and hope the problem goes away. Instead of having an honest look at the real problems, just rely on dogma, taboo, and shibboleths in conjunction with a great deal of sanctimony. Indeed, this has been the policy of TPF in banning individuals who raise these burgeoning societal issues, from Lionino to Bob Ross. This has resulted in a highly insular echo chamber filled with individuals who cannot see the forest for the trees.

R. R. Reno is among those who have catalogued the problem that the post-war regime will inevitably have to stop ignoring with their taboos and gaslighting. Here is a short video.

Instead of having an honest look at the real problems, just rely on dogma, taboo, and shibboleths in conjunction with a great deal of sanctimony. Indeed, this has been the policy of TPF in banning individuals who raise these burgeoning societal issues, from Lionino to Bob Ross. This has resulted in a highly insular echo chamber filled with individuals who cannot see the forest for the trees. — Leontiskos

We can openly discuss what you've described, which is a societal reaction to stresses, without entertaining thinly concealed attempts at advocacy for unacceptable positions

For example, you may wish to argue Nick Fuentes arose from a dysfunctional system and that to correct the problem we should identify the source, but that doesn't equate to our treating his positions as valid.

I don't get to parade my misogyny around (for example) because society hasn't taught me a better way to express myself. If you want to talk about why misogyny might be on the rise we can, but if I speak not as the analyst, but the advocate, I should expect ostracizism.

So, if you want to know why homophobia is on the rise, ask it. If you want to say gays are disgusting deviates (as Bob did), save it or get banned. There's a difference between asking why bigots are on the rise and catering to them.

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