Joshe

Exactly. Resisting truth out of fear.

It's not intellect they lack, but courage. Most of them are more than cognitively capable, but reflection is very risky for them, so they tend to avoid it. This is why I say cowardice is at the core. They reject things like evolution, not because they're dumb, but because they're afraid to part with their religion and other self-deceptions.

"prominent", as in key, influential and powerful figures who can actually affect change and move hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Some nutty professors are not prominent. If you were to collect the top 50 influencers and top 50 politicians for each side and analyze their messaging honestly, you would see a huge difference in terms of divisive and ideologically antagonistic rhetoric, and it wouldn't even be close. You can't take people who have very little power and are not even known by 10,000 people and compare them to the right-wing figures we're speaking of.

This should hopefully clear it up for anyone uncertain: https://x.com/Cobratate/status/1966495134029083065

And it's very common on the right:

It's possible to call out pathology in others and not use it to boost oneself. I don't think I'm better than anyone - I don't think in those terms, but certain things are healthier than others.

True. Cowardice and is at their core, which is often masked with false, arrogant certainty.

You're talking out of your ass. Mirror effect. Shapiro: "We do know this kid was of the left, we do know that". Maher: "We don't know what he is. How are you so sure he's of the left? You're sure he's not a groyper?" Shapiro: "I'm not sure he's not that". There's no distortion of reality on my part. This dude might be of the left, but we don't know that yet. To claim you do know, which is what Ben did, is the distortion.

Again, I don't care what you call it. We're dealing with a serious threat to democracy. People use the word "fascist" to label that threat, but you can use whatever word you want. Trump is selling Trump 2028 merch on his website and has mentioned running in 2028 several times. He tried to coup the US in 2020. He's gutted the government and replaced everyone with loyalists. I'd say this is cause for concern. If you think Trump doesn't want to remain in power forever, just like a fascist dictator would, you're blind. Use whatever word you want, but just make sure you acknowledge the reality.

Nice to see Shapiro's rhetoric that the killer was of the left get shut down. First he says we're sure the killer was of the left, then is forced to say he's not sure. Such a fucking hack.

All I can say is that you should try to penetrate through to the truth of the dangers the left is in a tizzy about and see that they're not only legitimate concerns, but very serious concerns. You believe the threats aren't real, but they are. I don't care what word you choose to use to call it what it is, so long as you see the reality. The word itself doesn't matter. We don't even need a precise word that describes it best, so long as we see the actual reality - you can use whatever word you want. The people calling the right "fascist", mostly see the reality for what it is, even if their wording is imprecise. There's a lot of truth to what they see.

He's not trying to figure out who could be next. He's trying to understand the political landscape by asking, is there even a left equivalent to Kirk. And he's right, there is not. Just like there's no left equivalent to Trump, Carlson, Musk, Bannon, and dozens more. This is actually very important to understand.

This is a very good, reasonable question. The answer to such a question would aid in a better understanding of the political landscape. Try answering it for yourself.

Everything he said is reasonable. His entire post is open minded and reasonably inquisitive. There's nothing wrong with it at all. Can you point out a single error or falsehood?

WTF? He has a good point.

I disagree. I think they're more contributory to violence than explicit, occasional calls for it from someone like Trump. Of course both contribute, but these 3 voices prime the violence. Without the prime, there's often no start.

Thanks!

I mean, yeah, they're not explicitly calling for violence - it's just in the subtext of more than half of their messaging. Bannon's podcast is called the War Room. Tucker Carlson puts all his life energy into pouring fuel on the culture war fire. Elon Musk has followed suit. "Hey, you good patriots - look at this vile and disgusting stuff - and look at who delights in it, and look at how this is bad for you". Violence isn't their goal, but they're continuously nurturing the conditions for its manifestation and they're indifferent to it. Semantically, you're right. They aren't calling for violence - they're just daily handing out ammunition. Crafting and handing out weapons isn't technically calling for violence.

No, you have to look at pattern and intent of the one stoking shit. These guys aren’t just out here calling a spade a spade, engaging in honest, open dialog, just sharing their viewpoints. Their intent is personal gain through division. This is violent.

In this case with these 3, yes it is. If tensions are high between group A and group B on a playground, and Musk draws up a sign that makes group B even more angry at A and then parades in front of them with it, that is calling for violence, just non-verbally. These 3 do this nearly daily.

To intentionally and consistently anger millions of people is calling for violence.

How to delete posts?

Haha, bro, he didn’t hold it because he needed plausible deniability. Musk intentionally did a Nazi salute, but not because he’s a Nazi.

They call for violence through doublespeak and subtext all the time - nearly everyday. Those guys are craving violence, but they’re not dumb enough to explicitly call for it, so they have figured out how to call for it in other ways.

Trump himself may not be, because you have to be evolved enough to even have an ideology, but Trump is certainly in cahoots with and is doing the bidding of many fascists. This is a fact.