THERE’S a neologism that ought to stick. From @CliftonDuncan on X:
The Bluegeoisie can never come back to the center.
Everyone is now fully aware of how contemptuous, how bereft of common sense, how dishonest and incompetent they are. It won’t work.
They can never build “their own Joe Rogan.” The notion is ridiculous–not just because it evinces their tendency toward top-down control, but because their cult renders intellectual, political and philosophical exploration outside of narrow ideological parameters impossible.
These people have psychotic meltdowns, blacklist peers, and cut off relatives over politics. They’re incapable of empathizing with anyone outside their congregation.
For all their fetishizing of credentials, their masturbatory exaltation of their educations, they’re violently allergic to intellectual curiosity–how on earth COULD they “build” their own Rogan, or a Lex Fridman, whose curiosity and openness are part of their brand?
How COULD they lower themselves to understand why they’re so despised?
Look at these people now, a month out from the election. They’re losers who are still lost, liars who keep lying. They’re throwing tantrums. Pointing fingers. Doubling and tripling down. The lack of reflection is astonishing.
They haven’t learned anything because they can’t learn anything. Learning would threaten their careers, reputations and relationships. Learning would require them to abandon the hubris that defines them.
They’ll never do that.
And even if they did, who would believe them, or be willing to listen, after they spent decades calling everyone racists and sexists, fascists and Nazis? Who’s going to forget such long-term abuse and slander?
We know power corrupts. The pendulum has now swung forcefully in a different direction. We need strong, sensible, rational opposition to check the excesses of those now assuming power.
Where the hell is it going to come from?
Excellent observation, and good question.