Posted on 10/23/2023 7:50:18 AM PDT by Red Badger
Call it a realignment, call it a political awakening, call it a vibe shift. Something has changed since the attacks on Israel.
Here’s an example of what we mean: a friend, appalled at the equivocation and apologia in the West after the brutal Hamas killings, told one of us that he used to consider himself a “conscientious objector” in the culture wars. “Not anymore,” he said. October 7 changed that.
Liberal friends were suddenly talking about buying guns. Progressive friends were texting about topics like border security and immigration. In a whisper, one even admitted to watching Fox News.
For a sense of what this real-time political transformation can look like, watch this clip of venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya on the podcast he co-hosts, All In. Palihapitiya, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, explains that he is rapidly revising his view of Trump’s time in office: “As a Democrat who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center but probably leaning increasingly right, I am left yet again with an appreciation, despite the messenger, of the message of the Trump administration because what those guys did was pretty incredible in hindsight.”
Chamath continued:
So much of the work that happened in that administration turns out to have been right. And that’s what is so frustrating for me. The work on the border wall? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right. Issuing long-term debt to refinance when rates were at zero? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. A structural peace in the Middle East? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. When are we gonna stop shooting ourselves in the foot? And when are we going to actually see and take the time to look past who is saying things and actually listen to them word for word?
If it’s clear that the last two weeks have been a wake-up call, the next question is: Why?
Part of the answer is the sheer depravity of Hamas’s terrorism. That depravity has made the justification and celebration of their acts by those who police pronouns that much starker. The contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side it is on after the beheading of babies, aren’t exactly difficult to spot.
To put it another way: when Black Lives Matter organizations are lionizing Islamist terrorists by posting a paraglider logo, you’d be a fool not to reassess things.
As Konstantin Kisin writes in his powerful essay today in The Free Press: “The events of the last week have shattered the illusion that wokeness is about protecting victims and standing up for persecuted minorities. This ideology is and has always been about the one thing many of us have told you it is about for years: power. And after the last two weeks, there can be no doubt about how these people will use any power they seize: they will seek to destroy, in any way they can, those who disagree.”
The other aspect of it, we think, is the sense of how thin the line is between civilization and barbarism. And how the West, which so many take for granted, is more vulnerable than we ever imagined.
We’re curious: Have you noticed something similar in conversations with friends in recent days? We love the fact that this community of half a million is so politically diverse. And we wonder, has the war in Israel and the reaction to it caused you to change your mind about anything? Or maybe something else has forced you to reconsider your opinions? If so, tell us about it in the comments.
Hindus will vote majority Republican when hell goes Baptist.
Bookmark.
LOL!
“We’re curious: Have you noticed something similar in conversations with friends in recent days?”
The handful of LibTards in my life are completely SILENT on anything that’s going on. They’re not talking about the economy, inflation, the illegals flooding over our border, Israel or _Resident Retard. They’re still building new homes at ridiculous interest rates, using their CCs and shirking their student loans.
The only hope is that wheels are turning in their little heads, but I kind of doubt it. :(
The wheels are still turning but the hamster is dead....................
Wait until there is a severe recession or even a depression. A lot of very dumb ideas meet their doom when the money runs out.
Only as long as an immediate danger is present. The self preservation instinct kicks in. For some--they're the Timothy Treadwells of the world. But in the case of the former, they'll be back to their old selves once they perceive the danger has passed.
What I’ve noticed is an increase in drivers emptying trash out of their cars onto the sidewalk, while they are parked fifteen feet away from a public trash receptacle. They think it’s real revolutionary to stop the car and secretly open the door a little bit to drop the trash on the ground in the parking lot then discreetly drive away. I’m talking a lot of loose trash and fast food containers that aren’t even bagged. These are the same drivers who have a foreign flag hanging from their rear-view mirror. Usually it is the Cuban or Puerto Rican flag, occasionally Venezuela or Costa Rica, but you get the idea.
Yeah. A little late for that.
Hindsight is always 20/20.........................
Wait until a terrorist attack here and it’s going to happen!
A war between Progressives should be fun to watch.
A very excellent tag line...may I use it?
I know Q followers who think Israel is the bad guy here, there’s a coming currency collapse, and Trump will ride in on a while horse.
I work with a number of them in my hospitals ER.
One is a young Jewish guy and when I put this to him he calms up.
He's a nice kid but dumb.
Another person who works in what's patient transport is a Trump hater and Biden bot and I almost punched him one right in the mouth, right in the ER.
Jeez, I'm not too bright doing that.
I'd have lost my job and been arrested.
It was very clear before the last week or two that wokeness was about power.
People who have never really been discriminated against claimed power based on the color of their skin, gender, sexual orientation, or sexual identity.
Not to mention re-Greta.
They’re becoming re-Gretas
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