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August 24, 2024 - 4:00pm
Few would deny that this has been an extremely strange election campaign in the United States. The last couple of months have been particularly surreal — highly enjoyable for connoisseurs of imperial decline and hallucinatory strangeness, perhaps, but less so for everybody else.
First came June’s presidential debate and the panic as a campaign built on an obvious lie collapsed in real time. There was the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, followed by the defenestration of a half-alive Joe Biden, and then the overnight retconning of a deeply unpopular Vice President as the living embodiment of “joy”. Indeed, there was so much irrational exuberance at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week that it wouldn’t have been all that surprising if they had ended it by climbing on the roof to await the descent of electoral victory from the heavens after selling all their possessions.
On Friday we were treated to another twist in this bizarre saga, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Democrat royalty turned despised apostate, committed the ultimate heresy by endorsing Trump. There have been stranger political journeys: the Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver went from singing the praises of North Korea to endorsing Ronald Reagan (before ultimately succumbing to crack addiction). Kennedy’s isn’t that strange, but it’s out there.
His campaign was quixotic, as third-party campaigns always are. But Kennedy’s came at a serious personal cost. Unlike the pseudo-rebel Bernie Sanders, who was welcomed back into the fold and stopped attacking millionaires as soon as he became one (today his schtick is aimed at billionaires), Kennedy was denounced first by his party and then by his family members. The Democrats’ stenographers in the media either ignored him or turned him into an object of ridicule: he was traduced as a conspiracy theorist, a weirdo, a kook. There was all that stuff about the parasite in his brain and the dead bear in Central Park — hallucinatory strangeness, indeed.
And yet Kennedy kept going, giving interviews, speaking to alternate media, making his case whenever and wherever he could. To paraphrase Dostoevsky, he had gone beyond the fear of appearing ridiculous. Kennedy was the holy fool of the election campaign, the man who was too earnest and naïve not to say what he really believed.
He continued in this vein during the speech announcing that he was suspending his campaign. For 48 minutes, he described how the Democrats had gone from being the party of free speech and the working man to the party of censorship, war and corporate interests. There are many who wouldn’t consider this a strange take at all, of course.
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SubscribeInteresting summary of the past few months of political events. Colorful, but accurate. The description of the Democratic convention in Chicago seemed especially apt. A staged spectacle of near-religious ecstasy, the joy, joy, joy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz try to portray seems as fake as politics gets.
Did you watch the RNC? Oy vie!
Quite right. Joy doesn’t seem to play a big part in Trump’s life at the moment, and don’t get me started on Vance.
These NC’s are always full of nonsense like this. Same thing with rally stops. Just candidates soaking in all that sweet attention and admiration.
The trouble in USA is that people have forgotten what freedom is. They have become domesticated and want someone nice to take care of them and make the decisions for them.
The vast majority of people do not value the freedoms that USA was built on- they don’t know why anyone would doubt the press or why would anyone doubt the medical community. They can’t imagine that public education could be improved. It is a complacency that Kennedy’s generation did not have.
I was raised in NYC in the 70’s and my parents taught us to ask, “Why” always. They never read mainstream press on important issues but went to the source- they knew that being able to research an issue and make the decision that you consider best is an essential freedom. They knew back then that sugar is unhealthy and that spending time with family can be more interesting that school. In fact they took us out of school before “Homeschooling” was a thing and we travelled and read books for a year.
They believed that participating in local politics is better because your voice can be heard and that everyone is responsible for our country. That is democracy and I think that is where Kennedy is coming from.
The trouble in USA is that people have forgotten what freedom is. They have become domesticated and want someone nice to take care of them and make the decisions for them.
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Too fatty.
Excellent comment.
“They have become domesticated and want someone nice to take care of them and make the decisions for them.”
Oh, the mighty chokehold that we Boomers have exercised on Canadian/American culture.
The 1950s: comfortable security for our young families behind the picket fence.
The 1960’s: exploring all boundaries to their ridiculous limits, like every teen ever. Except we were the only generation to take the whole culture with us.
The 1970’s: With a little cash and the irresponsibility of youth, hedonism reigned.
The 1980’s: The crazy dreams didn’t pan out; time to get down to the business of business.
The 1990’s: HEALTH. Where has mine suddenly gone?
The Oh-Oh’s: Investments, using the funds left to us by a Greater Generation. But with consequences inflicted on those younger than us.
The 20-teens: These kids today.
2024: We’ve become domesticated and want someone nice to take care of us and make the decisions for us.
Pretty good summary of boomerism
So, in 2024 it’s full circle back to 1959.
You left out . What about the freedoms of women? My sister was married in 1972, and she couldn’t have her own checking account without the permission of her husband. Same thing with a credit card. What about the right of women to control her her body? Would men like it if they were forced to have a vasectomy after two children?
Nonsense on stilts. Every woman has control over her body, unless mentally deficient. And since when were women forced to have a hysterectomy after two children?
Good summary, but it exaggerates the agency Boomers had in much of this. They didn’t think of it themselves, in other words.
In the 50s, of course, we were children. In the 60s, we did explore boundaries, but the direction was set by a worldwide Marxist movement. The actual leaders and braintrust of the 1960s rebellion were born in the 1920s and 30s, and mostly in Europe. The (r)evolution bloomed in the 1970s.
In the Reagan years, we indeed got down to business, but it was the business of globalism.
In the 90s, when Boomers actually came into full agency and started running things, their 60s roots became apparent as we started the process of turning tradition on its head. Getting down to business became the triple bottom line, second-wave feminism, DEI before it was called that — the 60s in full flower. And again, it was not the idea of the Boomers in general, but the next generation of radicals like Hillary.
So I think the Boomers have, in general, lacked their own agency, and have been seduced for life by the previous generation. And they still think they are brilliant.
I suppose the Boomers lacked agency in the same way that all of us are subject to market forces. (Oh my word; for the first time I just referred to my own generation in the past tense).
We provided the willing and prepared market for older gen’s to exploit. And it’s fitting that the wealth we inherited should be exploited by younger gen’s.
How about the freedom for students to read the books they want to? How about the freedom to worship for those who aren’t Christian. Kids in Oklahoma will read the Bible and pray to their Christian god. What about those who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or atheist? Where is the freedom for them? Where is the establishment clause? Go ahead and listen to Candace Owens, who says the Holocaust never happened, among other things. Go ahead and use her as a source. Even evangelical people think she is crazy.
No one has proposed banning any books, anywhere. The issue is pornographic books in school libraries. Just because they are gay themed doesn’t make them less pornographic.
The Bible is a foundational text of Western culture. It can be studied without anyone’s freedom to worship being infringed. The establishment clause simply means the state can not establish an official religion. No one is trying to do that. It does NOT mean that the public square is to be free of religious content.
Wo. How did Candace Owens get in here?
Literally no one is stopping Jewish, Muslim or any other kids from reading whatever they like, unless it’s their parents. But they’ve made a choice to come to society that has been founded in Christianity. Adapt to it, if you want to enjoy its advantages.
I’m interested in the story of your free-thinking upbringing. Since It was in America, a religious country, did religion play a part in your education?
how grotesque it was that weight-loss drugs can be prescribed to six-year-old children.
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You know, this really does seem infinitely stupid.
How grotesque, indeed how evil that “sex” change drugs are being prescribed to children less than 6 years old. Why didn’t Kennedy deign to add that to his catalog of curiosities.
Those familiar with his policies know Kennedy is on record opposing so-called “gender affirming care” for minors and protecting women’s sports and spaces — more significant and sane departures from the “woke” Democratic canon. From the FAQ on his campaign Web site, under “About”:
“Mr. Kennedy believes in body autonomy and respect for the choices of others. He believes that those who wish to alter their bodies or express as another gender should be free to do so. However, he believes it is important to preserve women’s sports and women-only shelters for biological women. And he believes that gender-change surgeries and puberty blockers should not be given to minors.”
And how evil it is that billions of dollars of armaments can be given in aid to known terrorists to enable them to perpetrate a genocide!
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/zionist-military-org-efforts-to-recruit-nazis-in-fight-against-the-british-are-revealed/00000188-d93a-d5fc-ab9d-db7ae0ea0000
Do the conventional media believe the ‘world historical levels of bullshit’? Or are they pretending to buy it, just as they pretended to buy Joe Biden’s ‘Presidency’?
If they are just pretending then another four or more years of Kamalamania must be too much, even the NYT, WAPO, BBC, CNN etc. Mental burnout must ensue.
But, I think, they do believe. Only that the idol they have anointed has been fashioned by themselves. And at breakneck speed.
Sure beats the pace at which the Golden Calf was fashioned. But will any prophet now appear to denounce the idolators, melt down the idol and call the people back to their duties and to themselves?
There’s way too much emotion on both sides. The world won’t end if Harris is elected. And the world won’t end if Trump is elected. Trump opposes open borders and net zero. Good enough for me..
Still obsessing about the non-existent open borders, Jimbo?
If you are so obsessed about borders how did you like it when Trump killed the bi-partisan border security bill purely to enhance his election chances? And the craven Republicans who fell in line behind him?
Your level of ignorance is astounding on some things. Almost embarrassed for you. Why do we need another idiotic pork barrel law to deal with the flood of illegals entering when we already have very sound immigration laws that are being ignored? But don’t answer, just cling to your flute of bubbly wine and genuflect at the alter of useful idiots.
Why were the border patrol agents supportive of the bill? In reality the only people against the bill were the cartels and Trump.
There – look how much I just educated you in only two sentences!
Even reading your comments makes me more stupid
Oh, I’m sure you had a pretty good start already!
Better to stick to insults and be thought a fool than start trying to make substantive comments and remove all doubt.
Hey, I agree with you on “borders” and “net zero”, but this election isn’t about policies, its about the fight between good and evil.
You’re right…….but good isn’t on either ticket. It just took a small step forward with RFK’s courageous stand on a couple of the key issues no-one else is even talking about.
Rolling back DEI and trans ideology is good. Strong borders are good. Supporting Israel is good. Making NATO countries pay their share is good. Standing up to China is good. Giving Clinton another really terrible hangover is about as good as it gets.
All this times 1000. And add Kamala to those having a really, really bad hangover.
I just finished reading a book which proceeds on the basis that Trump is the biblical Antichrist. I am not religious, so it was a bit of a laugh. However, if I was a Christian, I might find the evidence quite compelling.
Some of Trump’s policies, coming from anyone but Trump, may have merit, but the presence of Trump himself on the ballot entirely negates that. Plus, Trump will sell out Ukraine, because he’s Putin’s puppet.
Well, maybe it is between left wing evil (Kamala) and agent-of-Satan evil (Trump). RFK Jr gave us all a laugh, but he is too mad to have contributed anything serious.
Nonsense. This is what every talking point wants you to believe, from either side, MSM or not. It’s all about getting people to believe that it’s us vs. them. Like Yin and Yang, one can’t exist without the other. Neither side is inherently good or evil. If everyone thinks that the other half of the country is evil, we’ve already lost…
Totally agree. This is refreshing to hear from folks here. I am hoping for a Trump presidency, but I am not ready to apathetically resign to muttering under my breath for the next 4 years if Kamala wins. What choice do we have but to make the best of whatever situation is thrust upon us!
The
Ministry of Truthconventional media don’t care about the ‘world historical levels of bullshit’. They just need enough copy to keep the presses/servers running and collect money from advertisers.You can make a perfectly good argument that the Democrats have been suborned by big business and the Media by advertising for big business.
Which is another way of summarising what Kennedy was saying…
This is one of the great puzzles about the contemporary left: Do they actually believe the insane things they are saying? Or are they saying them as an expression of tribal allegiance? Or are they afraid of their comrades, afraid to end up on the business end of political correctness / “cancel culture”?
I think the answer is: it’s actually a combination of all of these things. To some extent, they actually believe insane dogma’s like “trans women are women.” But tribal allegiance and fear close the remaining gap. Sophistry, allegiance, and fear all work together to produce an outcome that no one of them could (probably) produce on its own. The fallacious arguments are just convincing enough that they can tell themselves that they really do believe, and aren’t merely cowering in the face of bullying by their fellows.
I suspect they do; which makes them even more dangerous.
What I don’t understand, and I say this as someone who didn’t have children but wanted to, is don’t any of these people have children and grandchildren? Don’t they care at all for their futures?
The manic pursuit of nut zero which is anything but environmentally caring, destroying farms and real food, allowing dangerous, misogynistic Muslims to invade the US, Canada, Europe and the UK. Never any policy for the common (not communist) good.
The money that they’ve accumulated, filched from decent taxpayers and by other nefarious means might protect them to some degree (which is a shame) but this will all end in tears if we are subjected to 4 more years of these vacuous control freaks.
I have some friends with kids who are Dems, and they very much love their kids (and are good parents, to boot). Same with my republican friends. Don’t forget, around half of the country will vote for either candidate (give or take a few million votes). I don’t agree with some of these crazy left policies, but I don’t doubt for a minute that the people who do, do.
Kennedy could have been a great President. Here’s hoping he will be a great member of a new revolutionary administration.
Surely Trump couldn’t be mad enough to hire him if he wins?
Did you actually listen to his speech? I suggest you do, and then provide us with your arguments against anything he said.
Or is posting more than one-line putdowns beyond you?
The man is a ranting conspiracy theorist! That has been the case for years!
Great essay. You don’t have to like RFK. You might think he’s deluded on many issues – take your pick – but at least he’s somewhat honest.
Honestly delusional
“Somewhat honest” is a good qualifier for Bobby Kennedy. He often does out and out lie, though, and about important things too. His book on Tony Fauci has a lot of truth in it but a lot of lies too. That’s unfortunate.
Still, the worst thing about Bobby Kennedy is that he is a lawyer. Having been one myself, I realize how hard it is for lawyers to get things done. They talk, they don’t do.
In government, a talented and experienced executive like Donald Trump is worth any number of lawyers. He focuses on action. Bobby Kennedy focuses on words. Look at his life, and he has accomplished nothing of note. Words, not action. All hat, no cattle.
If his Fauci book contained a lot of lies, Fauci would have sued him by now.
Tony Fauci would have no grounds for a lawsuit, as Bobby Kennedy doesn’t defame him even though he lies about him. And most of the lies in the book don’t have to do with Tony Fauci. The things about HIV not causing AIDS, for instance.
He successfully prosecuted Monsanto by proving the link between round-up and non Hodgekins lymphoma, and successfully prosecuted many other multinationals for their crimes. He is one of the most successful prosecutors of big business in US history. Due to his “doing” the Hudson River is clean and full of fish, prior to this it was an illegal dumping ground for the Chemical industry, with not a single fish in it. RFKjr applies his legal skills to getting things done which is precisely why he would make the president the US needs. Let’s see what he can do if Trump gets in and he is part of the team charged with tackling chronic disease.
If what you write about the Hudson being cleaned up and full of fish in 2024, and RFK Jr having played a leading role as a lawyer in achieving this, he needs to be made Secretary of the Interior and bring about cleaning up of as much of the environment of the US as he can…. by whoever becomes President.
Exactly. You don’t have to be president to achieve important things.
The DNC hate him and Harris declined to speak to him when he offered. As pharma, and other corporate interest threatened by RFK, are also the Dems largest donors, no way they’d offer RFK a place.
How do you know Fauci lied? Where did you get your PhD in epidemiology? Do you have 50 years of experience? Scientists had never seen the Covid virus. Do you think they should have known everything about it in 24 hours? Scientists did the best they could under the circumstances. Sometimes they were wrong. Sometimes they were right.
I did not say Tony Fauci lied. I said Bobby Kennedy lied.
He’s George Washington compared to the lying putz he has chosen to endorse…
I concede that he honestly believes all the crackpot crankery he spits out.
Martin M is so naive – hopelessly brainwashed by the MSM. Lacking in integrity he is entirely incapable of reasoning or dealing with truth.
I listened to enough of what he said to know what he was all about. That “brainworm” thing might explain a lot.
How can you be “somewhat honest”? Surely you’re either honest or you’re not.
Ok, so politicians are supposed to be slimy and say what people want to hear. Got it. That’s the way the scumbags do it, right? People are all stupid, and slimy politicians are supposed to tell us what we want to hear, and what we want to hear is shaped by the mainstream approved narratives…. Got it…
The author seems stuck in the past. We are in extraordinary and transitional times. So, RFK played the fool by speaking his mind because like a football player should do. Run to where the ball is!
Victor Orban however said something different recently. He said. Little children and amateurs run to where the ball is. The pros, the run to where the ball is going to be.
You see, in a world of narratives, nudged and shaped thinking eventually runs into a brick wall called “reality”. Facts are stubborn things. For example, no matter how much BS is said, and no matter if the whole world holds hands and says it all together, reality is still reality, and what the West is facing is huge and unrelenting doses of reality.
At some point Le Pen will be president of France. At some point the Ukraine war will be over. At some point all the anti-human, hyper-environmentalism. unfettered migrations is going to all be over, and there’s going to be a price to pay. At some point, no matter how much you scream out loud that the gas tank is full, it eventually becomes empty, and then fools experience the reality that all fools do.
So, people who point out the truth look like fools to the fools in the now. When everyone is running off a cliff, the person who says it looks like a fool to them. This is RFK Jr., and this is why Trump is like kryptonite to your eyes and ears. You’re a fool who thinks he is wise because you have an anti reality support system of people who think and talk just like you.
I think I first listened to RFK on Lex Friedman podcast. The first hand accounts of what happened during the JFK presidency, including anecdotes about the Cuban missile crises, were riveting. He’s a compelling speaker. He notices obvious things. This noticing inevitably means the oppressor class will launch a barrage of ‘isms’ and ‘ists’ in his direction.
I urged people to watch his address to the nation. It makes a lot of sense. No platitudinous gibberish the regime would approve of.
Noticing the obvious isn’t a compelling quality.
Nice and punchy, thank you.
Are you referring to RFK Jr?
Thank you for saying what should be said by many. That the Democratic Party establishment and mainstream media colluded to alternately smear, ignore and obstruct RFK, Jr. is an offense to democracy and an insult to every American voter who hadn’t already obligingly drunk the Kool-Aid of their polarized, corrupt parties. Hearing his speech suspending his campaign — or any of his speeches, had those voters been open to listening — limns with sadness the reality that this intelligent, principled, articulate man never had even a ghost’s chance of becoming the nation’s leader, despite heroic effort and perseverance. I’m proud of him, and will be proud to vote for him in Colorado.
Well said.
Whatever underlying views with merit that he may have had, they were obscured by the fact that he is clearly mad.
Daniel is right about the level of bullshit in modern politics.
My ageing bullshitometre is at full capacity and in danger of overload. As a precaution I might have to move the fan to the next room.
I don’t know that there has ever been a piece on Unherd so full of double-speak and backhanded-ness. What is the point of all that?
Have a look at the Bateman article which is even more shoddy. Both writers clearly have no understanding of their subject matter yet write with such pompous certainty. What’s going on Unherd?
Examples please. I can usually spot double-speak, but don’t recognise any in this article.
I may have mistaken faint praise for double speak. It’s not hard to do.
Great to see the far right freak out continue!
Trump seems to have completely lost it this week – not that that took much… He’s realized he’s about to lose in another landslide and it is making him crazy.
You people aren’t far behind!
This was a brief, brilliant and sadly truthful synopsis of the state of the U.S. and its “leaders”. I have not used the word bullshit more than in the last few months to describe what is being perpetrated upon us.
Every time I read about RFK, I can’t help thinking of Connor Roy, the delusional eldest son of Logan Roy in Succession. RFK must have got the idea of running for President from that brilliant series.
But nobody dares tell the truth that in the West zionists and zionism, known purveyors of terrorism, are idolised while their victims are routinely vilified. We live in strange times indeed.
What a brave boy you are!
Disappointment surely depends on his goals. If his goal is to stick it to the #pravda Dems and Harris in particular, he might be absolutely delighted come November
If that is all he wanted, he could have endorsed Trump straight up, and not bothered with his own campaign. He was always an odd fit in the Democrats anyway, due to his embrace of conspiracy theories.