Posted on 09/20/2025 10:48:01 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Political change mimics a supertanker in its inertia.
Turning direction proceeds imperceptibly at first. Then advances sporadically, punctuated by specific accelerating events.
Progress in the new direction proceeds over decades, interspersed by backsliding episodes.
Glenn Reynolds examines the operative political dynamic.
The Left’s “strategy has consisted of using bullying and propaganda to convince 80% of the population that the views of 20% of the population are in the majority.”
Mass gaslighting is ancient. Regimes systematically manipulate reality, making individuals doubt their perceptions, memories, and sanity.
Historical revisionism (e.g., the 1619 Project) becomes necessary to support regime lies.
America’s current gaslighting episode originated against McCarthyism, accelerating ever since.
JFK’s assassination provided an exclamation point, requiring wholesale gaslighting. A majority didn’t buy what their government was selling. The 1964 Warren Report (requiring 27 volumes, over 18,000 pages, and one magic bullet) reinforced that perception. By 1967, Woody Allen reported he was working on the report’s nonfiction version.
The emperor goes naked until a child utters the truth.
Gaslighting is often self-inflicted. We allow ourselves to entertain lies and fantasies. Con artists and magicians exploit this flaw. Unindoctrinated children declare truths that adults are conditioned into fearing to express or refusing to believe. Specific incidents jolt us awake, forcing acknowledgment of reality.
JFK, 9/11, or Charlie Kirk provide examples.
Gaslighters eventually hypnotize themselves.
As Reynolds notes, “even [Romania’s communist dictator] Ceaușescu thought everyone loved him until shortly before he was stood in front of a wall and shot.”
Heather Mac Donald’s examination of the intensive gaslighting targeting Charlie Kirk is must reading.
Wholesale government gaslighting surrounding the Vietnam War generated substantial blowback.
The New Left exploited popular discontent and accelerated radicalism’s long march through America’s institutions.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
There are various degrees that a rudder can be ordered to be turned.
The rudder can be moved in small degrees, such as five or ten degrees, making for a slow turn. A full rudder order, however, is an exponentially greater rudder degree change and it facilitates much faster turning.
So spare me the "imperceptibly at first" ignorance as a "full rudder" command is going to turn any ship quickly.
Large, massive ships, with relatively low power, (such as oil tankers), turn much more slowly than military powered vessels.
They are not designed to do quick turns.
Which doesn't mean they can't make quick turns.
When you include bow thrusters, if equipped, you can accelerate the turn, even with a low degree of rudder adjustment.
Sure. But rhetorical analogies don’t usually deal in minutia.
The realignment occurred when Trump beat a rigged nominating process in 2016.
I read the article and what is noteworthy the uniparty or swamp went unmentioned.
The following is the most overlooked FACT in the Age of Trump.
Trump won in 2016 and his signature issue was building a wall.
Immediately, after taking office the uniparty or swamp leaders McConnell and Ryan declared the wall dead on arrival.
That CONFIRMED there is only one party in America and Trump ain’t a member at least a welcome one.
WHATEVER good Trump has done in his second term (which by the way is historic) has been mostly through executive order.
How much good the BBB does remains to be seen.
But whatever good does come out of it will be totally to Trump’s credit not the party whose national ballot slot he acquired by what was in effect a hostile takeover.
And Trump had to make a lot of undesirable compromises to get the bill passed.
Trump is a political force of nature the likes of which has never been seen before.
When this force of nature leaves the stage, will this tenuous realignment that Trump achieved be sustained?
I’d like to be optimistic but the best I can be is cautiously hopeful.
Yet you’re dealing in minutia.
An easily disproven one, as a ship having a bow thruster easily shows.
The Iowa class battleships, with four screws and two large rudders, could turn remarkably quickly. A full rudder turn gave them a turning radius smaller than that of a destroyer.
A “barn door stop”, with full reverse on the screws and both rudders turned 90 degrees, could stop these ships very quickly, with a few reports, from officers in command of the maneuver, that the ship could stop in it’s own length.
The “barn door stop” was apparently only performed twice, The first time, on the Wisconsin, I think, resulted in rudder post leaks for the remainder of it’s active career.
looks like a left.
makes sense
I figured I would give you something to verify it instead of just asking you to simply take my word on it.
No prob. Thinking it through in a liquid medium vs dry land, or air, the opposite lean makes perfect sense. Actually, a car leans the same way, opposite the direction of turn.
A real life experience to which we can all relate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.