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I agree with everything you say, but it seems obvious that this entire liberal consensus perspective and method of curtailing dissent hinges on having a critical mass of support - you downplay the electorate's power in this process, and I agree that institutions are the bigger players here, but there are still points of contact between the two. Think of the absolute fiasco for the progressive project that happened when those Ivy League Deans - all women who were very obviously hired for diversity points and were completely unable to handle the gravity of the situation - were questioned by Congress and unable to deny even the most outrageous accusations against the campus culture they fostered because the institutional jargon they use to defend it only worsens their case in the eyes of the public.
A Dean of Harvard getting easily out-dribbled rhetorically by some Republican congresswoman seemed unthinkable even 15 years ago (or maybe I just have rose-tinted glasses of the Democratic coalition before Obama), but the liberal project has allowed their own echo chamber to become so narrow and restrictive that they have no idea how stupid and hypocritical they sound to anyone outside of it - all while doing all in their power to push as many people out of said space as possible. There's also just been a massive cratering in terms of intellectual standards, which I guess was to be expected of any environment that punishes skepticism.
Regardless, Trump's rather decisive re-election (and it's equally significant flip side, the electorate's clear disapproval of Kamala Harris) should have been the writing on the wall for how useless this style of politics has become - the liberal establishment still has a lot of strings it can pull, but these strings are increasingly being stress-tested, dismantled, and in some cases, outright disregarded by the current administration. By keeping up this arrogant and deliberately antagonistic style, the establishment seems to be heading for a scorched Earth policy rather than any serious attempt to recapture their lost electorate - how long will it last?
Because I don't see the electorate as really having much power, nor their temporary, merely-elected representatives. To quote the Dreaded Jim:
You say:
I don't see how that was a fiasco. The Ivy League seems pretty undiminished in institutional power to me. And if the NYU hack was any indicator, they're probably actively defying the recent Supreme Court ruling (as they declared they would), and I'd say they still have good odds of getting away with it. (Because who's gonna stop them?)
My point is that as the system is set up, working within the confines of the law, they don't have to care how stupid and hypocritical they sound, because all real power centers lie inside their bubble, and the people outside it, including the many people they've pushed out of it, are mostly powerless, no matter how numerous.
I doubt Genghis Khan's inner circle had highly rigorous intellectual standards, and that didn't stop him. So long as you have power…
"Should," but from what I've seen, it hasn't — only that they haven't tried "this style of politics" hard enough.
I'd say way it's too early to tell if this really is the case, and there's plenty of people in the circles I frequent who are highly skeptical, viewing Trump as "containment" by the establishment, and all of his "victories" as just an empty show for the rubes.
Until the next Democrat administration holds Nuremberg trials for Trump, Vance, Musk, etc., and engages in a thorough "de-Nazification" of the electorate, potentially with re-education camps?
Lol. LMAO even. Top recruiters are shifting away from the ivies, for just one metric.
I've sorta-kinda heard this, but have you got any examples I could look at?
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The power of a military leader and a priesthood both exist but they aren't the same.
The power of the intellectual elite comes from the perception that they fulfill some essential, moral role in society. They're a priesthood that cannot even claim to have been invested with their power by a god.
This might be why they've collapsed so readily into endless moralism.
But that is also a weakness. It depends on the deference of the people.
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Apologies if I'm being rude, but what exactly is your power level?
Well, I was referring, at least somewhat, to things ranging from Parvini's "putting the woke away" to this piece at unz.com:
to the general attitude at therightstuff.biz.
But if you must know, I'm a couple of degrees of IRL separation from those TRS podcasters, and the Charlottesville organizers, etc., mostly thanks to a couple of old friends from grade school. (OTOH, I'm also a couple of IRL degrees of separation from the likes of Rod Dreher.) Very much "I know a guy who knows a guy…," along with how pretty much everyone in the Anchorage School District's gifted program around my age ended up either solidly woke leftists or far-right radicals, and the far right can be a pretty small space.
Wait... goddamn, somehow I confused you with @ControlsFreak. I already had a good gauge of your views.
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