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Note! I pop-up on Twitter alot to bring up stuff that is on my mind no matter the topic. So, don't forget to check it out! It is my Twitter roll, so you don't need to be logged into Twitter or need an account. The skinny!
April 12, 2022. The Blame Game Misses the Point:
There is a disconnect with reality in this country and it is deeper than politics. We, the public, drive the political rhetoric and our rhetoric is increasingly selfish.
Two problems facing this nation/world point this out. One, there is an infant formula shortage in this country. Retailers are limiting sales to customers per order. At the same time, only 25% of new mothers breastfeed their babies to a minimum of six months. The solution seems obvious, notwithstanding marketing by the infant formula companies. Their product is inferior! We've been brainwashed!
Secondly, one Ukraine war outcome is a world-wide fertilizer shortage, which, in turn, means the possibility of a new reality, world-wide famine. Those at risk? Poorer nations.
At the same time, as warm weather comes to much of the US, homeowners are stepping up with lawn care which includes fertilizer application. The result? Non productive grass requiring more frequent mowing.
We have met the enemy. It is us. We are privileged. We complain about high prices and inflation, but unwilling to sacrifice the unproductive. Our houses are not being bombed. We don't wait at an airport, then hit by a missle strike. Our cars are not being riddled with bullets. We are cozy and safe. Maybe too safe.
We, are moved to, as increasingly, in this election year, political types pile on, blame Biden not Putin. We seem to have lost all perspective. JMHO.
March 13, 2022. Putin, Trump and Identity Politics:
Outstanding read from Tony Robinson. Connecting the dots. Here is the gist from his blog post, although, I have included the link following since Tony provides links of his own. You might also be interested in reading the book "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man" by Mary L. Trump PhD. Yes, Donald J. Trump's sister. Additionally, while you're at it, take time to read David Brooks' excellent March 11 column, "Why Putin Can't Back Down" in which he writes, "Carl von Clausewitz famously asserted that war is the continuation of politics by other means. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the continuation of identity politics by other means." Check it out at www.conwaydailysun.com/opinion/columns/david-brooks-why-putin-cant-back-down/article_60956dc8-a16c-11ec-b4b1-4ba76bbf4695.html.
Tony writes, Putin is in the business of identity politics. Putin had been viewed to this point as a savvy strategist, taking calculated risks and outflanking the west. But, the sound strategist has now been eclipsed by the identity politician who sees himself as leading the white, Russian, Christian resistance against the infidels of the liberal West.
This explains Putin's alliance with the reactionary Moscow Patriarch, Kirill, of the Orthodox Church. It also explains why the American right and Trump have been so enamored with Putin. They see him as fighting the same culture war they are. Hence the support not only of Trump, but of Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and Josh Hawley, Madison Cawthorn to name a few. The Putin Fan Club, reaches deep into the Republican Party, enamored as it is of "The Strongman."
But identity politics, and Putin's self-perception as the savior of Mother Russia and Christendom, is a dangerous, if not entirely new, development. Strategic thinkers are amenable to reason and inclined toward caution in ways that Putin, the identity politician, does not appear to be. His is a holy war, from which, he cannot back down.
In these respects, the longstanding and once perplexing Putin Trump connection becomes much more clear. Whether Putin and Russia "have something" on Trump or not, the two have a lot in common. Both have a sense that someone has taken something from them. In Putin's case, the great Russian Empire. In Trump's case, American "greatness." Both wrap religion and race into the mix. Both work from a sense of grievance and seek to stir that among their followers.
Both, astoundingly, see themselves as "victims," and appeal to legions who nurture their own sense of resentment and grievance. "Make America Great Again," is mirrored by "Make Russia Great Again."
Trump's early embrace of Putin was telling us a lot about Trump long before most of us got the message. There's, however, a warning here about the embrace of identity politics by those on the left. As the economist, Glenn Loury, sagely observed before the 2016 election, "Those who live by the identity politics sword, will die by it." Two can play this game. Identity politics, which necessarily subordinates individual identity and freedom of thought to group identity, can be put in the service and cause of liberation or repression.
Putin and Trump have one other thing in common. Big-time Daddy Issues. Both were raised by harsh, distant fathers who framed the world as a relentless, winner-take-all competition. You are a winner or a loser. The only way to survive in such a world is by doing unto others before and worse than they do to you. That and by making up your own version of reality ("Stolen election," "Stolen Empire,") when actual reality doesn't conform to your ego needs.
Source URL: www.anthonybrobinson.com/winter-on-fire.
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