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Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

#181: April - June 2022 (Non-Fiction)
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DWill

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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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The impact of the new state- freedom to pass draconian abortion laws was demonstrated almost instantly, with the horrifying case of the raped, pregnant 10-year-old. David Von Drehel, whose columns appear in the Washington Post, as usual made astute commentary on the situation: now Republicans will be stuck with the consequences of allowing the most radical of the right-to-life movement set their agenda. We'll see other cases of suffering publicized, too, whereas examples cannot illustrate the supposed benefits of the new forced-birth laws.

But political comeuppance for Republicans will be little consolation to the women whose "pursuit of happiness" has been so drastically curtailed.

Three cheers for the woman carrying the sign reading, "MANDATORY VASECTOMIES. CONCEPTION BEGINS AT EJACULATION."
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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The astonishing results out of Kansas show that there are a lot of people on the pro-choice side who really care, and that people on the pro-life side may not be as concerned as it was thought. It has been predicted for decades that the end of Roe would be a big problem for the Republican Party. Now we shall see.
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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There are going to be numerous challenges to various draconian laws some states are trying to pass. In what might be seen as poetic justice, some of the challenges are taking the form of religious freedom. As it turns out, there are other theological views on when life begins. Some Jewish faiths, for example, believe the woman's life is important too!

Also, as DWIll mentioned, there are already horrific examples of women who can't find medical treatment related to ectopic pregnancies and such. I can see a day, probably soon, when the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in on abortion again.

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/ ... hs-say-yes
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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Harry Marks wrote: Wed Aug 03, 2022 4:17 pm The astonishing results out of Kansas show that there are a lot of people on the pro-choice side who really care, and that people on the pro-life side may not be as concerned as it was thought. It has been predicted for decades that the end of Roe would be a big problem for the Republican Party. Now we shall see.
It remains my view, watching from a distance, that the main conservative concern about Roe v Wade was about centralising power through the judiciary, not about abortion as such. The pro-life extremists will have initial victories which will rapidly be wound back at state level in the face of popular backlash.
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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After just reading this amazing new article in the New Yorker about the total Gilead subversion of democracy by the autocratic dictatorship in Ohio, I see the situation is worse than I realized. For example their legislation to provide equal rights for Nazi teaching in schools showed a shocking indifference to democratic values and human rights. Their flouting of the law to destroy democracy has reached an extreme level.

Republicans don't want democracy, they want dictatorship. It looks like they are building up to go to war against state governments that prevent their takeover. This raises another civil war scenario - if Democrats are elected in a state with a lot of rabid right wing extremists, Republicans could mount a local military coup, requiring federal intervention to reinstall democracy. Trump's response to Jan 6 signals this destruction of the US Constitution as quite plausible.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022 ... -democracy
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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Wow great article. I was aware of most of this as I live on the other side of town from Jean Schmidt. I've watched David Pepper's videos, etc. One revealing detail that was omitted was one of the redistricting plans rejected by the state supreme court was resubmitted right at the deadline, effectively saying "Here's your revised redistricting plan with zero changes and two middle fingers to go along with it!" Imagine your state being in this condition - we cannot vote our way out of it, a massive turnout won't change the outcome. One possible lever for change could be major corporations - they are telling Indiana and other states "Since you are passing laws like that, we will not increase employment in your state."

I expect the example of Ohio will go against what I gather is the thrust of French's solution - let the various states sort out different scenarios and compete. However, to the contrary as David Pepper's book indicates, states have now become Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines.
Mr. Tulip wrote:...I see the situation is worse than I realized.
I thought a few of your earlier comments were naive, but you are onto it now...
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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In this environment, "free speech" isn't about dialogue. It's about transmitting truth to the unenlightened. It's an exercise of power. For angry activists, speech is a sword. Censorship and shame campaigns are a shield. Activists wield the sword to slice and dice opponents. and wield the shield to protect themselves from the pain of disagreement, or - heaven forbid - the wrenching pain of being exposed as wrong or misguided. The goal is domination, not discussion, and certainly not coexistence.

Chapter 11 p. 116
Well said, but not exactly a news flash...
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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The Economist wrote:Matthew Continetti, a conservative journalist, comes closest to achieving that clarity and thoughtfulness. For him, understanding Mr Trump’s grip on the modern Republican Party requires assessing the past century of right-wing thought. His thoroughly researched intellectual history, “The Right”, reveals many antecedents to Mr Trump in the margins of conservatism: Father Charles Coughlin, whose populist diatribes against Franklin Roosevelt were spread by radio (then a newfangled medium); Charles Lindbergh and his “America First” isolationism; the strongman Huey Long and his embrace of the welfare state; the paranoid conspiracism of anti-communists like Joseph McCarthy and the John Birch Society; George Wallace and his politics of white racial grievance; and Pat Buchanan and his angry politics of cultural revanchism.

What held the party together throughout this period of warring ideological factions was a common enemy, sometimes internal and sometimes external: the New Deal, communist saboteurs, the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union, and Islamic terrorism and the “axis of evil”. The brilliance of Mr Trump was to recognise the demise of the last common enemy after the failed “forever wars” in the Middle East. He reforged a winning, lasting coalition out of a new enemy: the modern left and its allies in the media.
Source is https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/ ... ican-party

This seems to me a good analysis, that the American need for an enemy has turned inward, with conservatives seeing woke culture as demonic. The seventy million plus Americans who voted for Trump are united solely by their hostility toward progressive values. That should generate some soul-searching on the left.

This situation emphasises to me the urgent need to find policy ideas that can gain bipartisan support, in order to reverse the fissiparous trends that are pulling the USA apart. For example in climate policy, to say geoengineering faces a veto by the left on partisan grounds only feeds the culture war.

It would be good if people could agree that a climate response that can delay the need for emission cuts would be a good thing. Unfortunately that confronts deep-seated leftist ideology that has demonised the fossil fuel industry, despite its central role in delivering prosperity and stability.
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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Mr. Tulip wrote: For example in climate policy, to say geoengineering faces a veto by the left on partisan grounds only feeds the culture war. It would be good if people could agree that a climate response that can delay the need for emission cuts would be a good thing. Unfortunately that confronts deep-seated leftist ideology that has demonised the fossil fuel industry, despite its central role in delivering prosperity and stability.
I can't read the Economist article cuz I'm not a subscriber. But it seems you have a few things twisted 'round. I'm sure the above forces exist - I'll take your word for it, but I doubt they are very powerful at all.
The seventy million plus Americans who voted for Trump are united solely by their hostility toward progressive values.
Fighting climate change is a progressive value. The long standing paranoid wing of US and international politics is what you should focus on. You know the bizarre conspiracies of QAnon and others about vaccines, pedophile cults, etc. They used to demand law & order, but now have a lust for power; they beat police officers and threaten to destroy Congress, the FBI, or anyone else who dares to impede Trump's actions. Once those forces train firepower on carbon mining and geoengineering, hallucinatory conspiracies will overwhelm and destroy the public info space.

Side note: the Economist quote mentions The John Birch Society. When I left college many decades ago, I was very conservative. I attended a JBS meeting. Only one. They had about 15 points printed on a card, stuff like "The US must leave the UN and kick it out of New York." If you did not fervently believe in every single one of those 15 points, you were a pinko commie who should be destroyed. That Group Think felt like a touchstone to insanity and I instantly recoiled. That's part of what led me away from the far-right circus arena.
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Re: Divided We Fall - Chapters 11 - 15

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LanDroid wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:22 pm I'm sure the above forces exist - I'll take your word for it, but I doubt they are very powerful at all.
The “above forces” are the progressive consensus that cutting emissions is the main game in climate policy. Now, you could quite reasonably say this progressive consensus is not “very powerful at all”, in that despite all the advocacy from the UN over the last 30 years emissions have continued a remorseless upward trend which scientists and their allies have been powerless to stop.

And yet, in terms of the power of public debate, it is also arguable that the advocacy of emission reduction alone as a climate policy has a lot of power. This viewpoint has largely if grudgingly accepted the need for greenhouse gas removal, but it remains adamantly opposed to any work to brighten the planet.

It had enough power to exclude mention of geoengineering from the Summary for Policy Makers of the Recent IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. It has enough power to enforce the UN fatwa against any field testing of geoengineering technologies over the last decade. It has enough power to generally cancel serious discussion of geoengineering in the mainstream media. It has enough power to prevent NGOs such as Greenpeace from engaging in scientific discussion, due to fear of loss of funding from emotional activist campaigns. None of that helps at all to cool the planet or cut emissions, but it is still all a form of power.

A consequence of this situation is that right wing commentators rightly observe that cutting emissions will not affect the temperature (Exhibit A is Trump’s Paris Withdrawal Speech), and ask why so much public money is being wasted on something that cannot achieve its stated goal. This increases public cynicism and polarisation about progressive politics in general. Never mind the hypocrisy that Trump and the Saudis prevented the UN Environment Program from conducting a study of geoengineering in 2019, supposedly for fear that it would add fuel to the emission reduction agenda.
LanDroid wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:22 pm
The seventy million plus Americans who voted for Trump are united solely by their hostility toward progressive values.
Fighting climate change is a progressive value.
It is not quite that simple. There is a hierarchy of progressive values, including things like electing Democrats, reducing social inequality, etc. Fighting climate change is actually quite low on this hierarchy, which is why progressives have invented the concept of “climate justice”, which ignores any work to cool the planet in favour of redistributing money to the poor.
LanDroid wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:22 pm The long standing paranoid wing of US and international politics is what you should focus on. You know the bizarre conspiracies of QAnon and others about vaccines, pedophile cults, etc. They used to demand law & order, but now have a lust for power; they beat police officers and threaten to destroy Congress, the FBI, or anyone else who dares to impede Trump's actions.
Sure, I completely agree the wacky right is far more powerful and dangerous than the wacky left. Red states are on the brink of a fascist military dictatorship. But I think what David French explains is the need to build the sensible centre of politics, trying to reduce the polarisation that demonises and distorts its opponents. The need is to reconcile differences through recognition that there is a reasonable range of views in political debate.
LanDroid wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:22 pm Once those forces train firepower on carbon mining and geoengineering, hallucinatory conspiracies will overwhelm and destroy the public info space.
I don’t agree. The really interesting thing about geoengineering is that it requires alliance with fossil fuel industries and will enable delay in the shift to renewable energy. Since those are things that even the wacky right support, it is likely the mainstream right will see the sense in supporting a climate policy that can actually secure stable weather while also supporting economic stability and avoiding social and economic disruption. It is a way to force Q-Anon back into its hole.
LanDroid wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:22 pm
Side note: the Economist quote mentions The John Birch Society. When I left college many decades ago, I was very conservative. I attended a JBS meeting. Only one. They had about 15 points printed on a card, stuff like "The US must leave the UN and kick it out of New York." If you did not fervently believe in every single one of those 15 points, you were a pinko commie who should be destroyed. That Group Think felt like a touchstone to insanity and I instantly recoiled. That's part of what led me away from the far-right circus arena.
The nature of fascism is an emotional personality cult based on tribal loyalty, with the plausible seed idea of anti-communism used to build an elaborate fantasy that excludes logic and evidence. American Trumpite fascism today is the heir of the extreme JBS insanity you describe. Achieving political stability has to recognise that conservatism is not the same as fascism, even though they are increasingly hard to distinguish. Conservatism has legitimate views on prosperity, stability and morality, but the polarisation of politics is steadily integrating those legitimate views with illegitimate ideas based on hatred and conflict. French is working to keep open the channels of respectful dialogue between people of differing views.
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