Professional Left Podcast #476

“In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."

-- Hunter S. Thompson, writer

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David Brooks' Open Letter to His Many, Many, Many Critics

Dear Sir or Madam,

Calling people out for the awful things they say and do...

You see that when denunciation is done through social media, you can destroy people without even knowing them. There’s no personal connection that allows apology and forgiveness.

You also see how once you adopt a binary tribal mentality — us/them, punk/non-punk, victim/abuser — you’ve immediately depersonalized everything. You’ve reduced complex human beings to simple good versus evil.

...leads inexorably to totalitarianism and genocide.

I’m older, so all sorts of historical alarm bells were going off — the way students denounced and effectively murdered their elders for incorrect thought during Mao’s Cultural Revolution and in Stalin’s Russia.

Once you adopt binary thinking in which people are categorized as good or evil, once you give random people the power to destroy lives without any process, you have taken a step toward the Rwandan genocide.

So just cut it out before you get everyone killed!

Yours in Opulent Humility,

David Brooks
c/o Villa Straylight

Hey speaking of call-out culture, binary tribal mentality, depersonaliztion and David Brooks, I just happen to be the owner of a video in which David Brooks is publicly chastised for all the demeaning, depersonalizing, slanderous claptrap he wrote about us Libtards back when he was loudly warpimping Bush's Iraqi Clusterfuck for The Weekly Standard.

And guess what!  The caller-outer handles herself exactly as Mr. Brooks recommends: she did it in-person, no swearing, didn't call him Evil, and offered him ample opportunity to apologize and seek forgiveness.

Let's see how that worked out shall we!

And so the lesson for today, kids, is that, whatever you may think of call-out culture in general, Mr. David Brooks is way overdue for a long, brutal and very public digital flogging.

Behold, a Tip Jar!

Tempest in an S.E. Cupp

You may remember Ms. Cupp from her meteoric rise to Conservative Fox News pundit middle-management back in the days when she wore smart girl glasses and presented other attributes which would not be readily apparent if you had only been listening...

...to her...

...on the...

...radio.

But  her act got old, and Fox News was already wildly overstocked with the kind of "pundit" that quickens the pulse and delights the eye of the septuagenarian bigots who are their core demographic, and so Ms. Cupp found herself relegated to the wingnut pundit limbo of the HLN network.

But now she's back in the Big Time baby!  At the Rick Santorum Network!

However during the interregnum between her long fall from grace at Fox News and her landing a gig at onetime home of Jeffrey Lord, the world changed.  You see, the reign of President Stupid has has been so spectacularly awful that is has put even the most hardcore Both Siderists like S.E. Cupp on starvation rations. And more and more frequently the hunger cramps get so bad that they resort to just making ridiculous shit up to be mad at Democrats about.

For example, as she prowled the back alleys of the internet today, pawing through dumpsters behind the White House full of hot takes about cold McDonald's “hamberders” while looking for some sweet, sweet bipartisan indignation to gnaw on, Ms. Cupp happened across this Tweet...

Rep. Omar: "Lots of Americans" agree with me that Trump is blackmailing Sen. Graham over his homosexuality pic.twitter.com/xPMAUHSLYE

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 17, 2019

...and promptly went ballistic...

This is ignorant, homophobic and unacceptable, @IlhanMN. Democrats, this is becoming a very bad look. https://t.co/EhEmXKvN33

— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) January 17, 2019

...and would not let the mere fact that Representative Omar said no such thing back her off from being outraged -- Outraged I tell's ya! -- at what Representative Omar clearly did not say.

No. A member of Congress jumped on the patently homophobic “Lindsey must be hiding something” bandwagon and offered precisely ZERO proof, only wholly invented, baseless hypotheticals. That’s irresponsible...and also ignorant, homophobic and unacceptable. https://t.co/gtAL6QGunl

— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) January 17, 2019

How fortunate for Ms. Cupp that now works for the Paris Dennard Network, where credibility is obviously is not part of the mission statement.

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New Dumbses is Even Dumber Than The Last Dumbses

From Bloomberg:

Trump Orders Thousands Back to Work Without Pay to Blunt Shutdown Disruption

Something about making bricks without straw.

So let it be written.

So let it be done.

Yes, I have used this trope before.

And I will go right on using it until the Republican monster machine is reduced to rubble.

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Giuliani Goalpost Moving and Storage

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Sink Along With Mitch!

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Where I Live

Welcome to Trump Country.

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Bring Out The Gimp

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Besties!

I.

Told.

You.

So.

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According To The Current Republican Standard of Proof...

..., Nixon should have been removed from office only if he had grown a giant villain mustache and began twirling it in public and cackling, "Yah, I did it!  I did it all!  Everything they say, and more! The Kennedys?  Dead!  George Lincoln Rockwell?  Dead!  Wallace?  Wheelchair city!  It was Nixon!  It was all Nixon!  Bwahahahaha!"

Behold, a Tip Jar!