Well I was going to listen but I don’t need to hear an exhausting take about how everyone shares equal blame for where we are
His opinion was the right extremist are responsible currently at least that's how I took it. He also clearly said Trump is the only President ever to do what he is doing. He then discusses generally that extremism on either side eggs on the other side and talks about it historically. Where I think he fails is assuming that if there was no antifa out there fighting with them that right extremists would fail because it's them against normal Americans. However, I don't agree with that assertion because the right extremism has been a growing problem for years even before antifa. They're taking the position anyone not agreeing with them is a socialist or communist. His point that antifa is not going to beat them into submission is correct.
I listened last night when I couldn't fall asleep, so I'll listen again, but didn't he imply that Antifa threats were mostly part of the same garbage in as election fraud and other conspiracy theories?
Exactly. If it wasn’t Antifa as the boogeyman, it was BLM. If not BLM, then far left socialist “Squad” members. If not them then it’s “far left socialists like Kamala.” They would find their “extremists” no matter what, the media would enable it and agree that those are the extremists of the equation, and the “above the fray I’m smarter than you” centrists would still treat the situation as exactly the same. Basically, he’s just asking the left to shift their Overton window to the right by a few turns of the dial. It’s stupid. Saying that cops kill and treat black people differently is not the same “extremism” as saying that a Democratic cabal of child eating pedophiles used the reanimated corpse of Hugo Chavez to infiltrate Dominion voting systems and alter votes in an election. Fucking stupid. Pretty much.
Eh if he’s both sidesing it felt like 80:20 or 75:25 right extreme vs left. Biggest thing I’d push back/ask him is whether extreme opposition actually needs to exist or if you’ll always find/invent one to justify your own extremism.
I like that he emphasized Trump’s responsibility for the current crisis. He pointed out that Trump has a significant personality disorder and that he (Carlin) warned in 2016 that this would come to a bad end. He quoted someone that “Antifa was a a godsend” to the rightist extremists, for the reasons you point out. I agree with you though...if there is no Antifa, nothing would change for these people. Why? Because their extremist POV is anchored in racism. Reaganism and then the Tea Party were too. With racism as the core value they really don’t need a visible bogeyman to point at. They all know what it’s about. The bogeyman they have historically pointed at is abortion. But, except for a small minority of them, I’ve always felt that was a facade to hide the truth of the movement.
I think his both side argument for BLM protests was that when you get huge mobs together that are left or right they often times turn violent regardless of belief system because all kinds of people end up showing up. This issue is the BLM was a legit protest where some people went solely to get violent or to break shit. Almost any BLM protestor would be against any of the rioting or looting. The right sided protests have a similar smaller group of people with an intent of violence but they are doing it right in the open with the right extremists not involved in this either not caring or just looking the other way.
Even if given the worst interpretation, BLM is protesting and/or rioting to change the system, while pretty much the entire right side of the spectrum is protesting/rioting to overturn the results of a democratic election.
That’s another significant point he alluded to, but needs to have a brighter light shown on it: The summer protests were marred by a small subset of people who weren’t really there to protest. In contrast, the assault on the Capitol was largely by people who were there to do exactly that. They prepared with planning and brought the weapons and tools necessary to carry out the assault. They obviously had help on the “inside” from conspirators who knew it was going to happen.
Carlin is bad about talking about something currently happening and then he starts speaking in more general terms that comes off as "both sides" talk when I don't think that's his true intent. My impression was he wanted to explain what is going on with right wing extremism but went off on his "generalized" tangents about extremism and historically both sides using similar tactics and then went back to why this is different. I mean it's true that the left and right have their own extremists but only one right now is actively attempting to overthrow the US government.
It's wild that someone with so much historical knowledge can be off by so much on the situation right in front of them
would disagree here, the unifying nature of most these folks is violence, they talk about it openly, its parroted back to them by news outlets, etc still mystifies me how carlin can take in history from 2000 years ago and come to strong conclusions but on present day stuff hes largely paralyzed in drawing strong conclusions for whatever reason
No way to know. There is clearly a subset that will take violent action at a moment's notice or will plot it. I'm sure there is a group that supports it but would not actually do it themselves as well as another group that is fine protesting but against any violence being involved. Regardless, the numbers on the right willing to actively be involved in violence or passively encourage is much higher on the right than left.
At risk of being that guy who plays armchair psychologist - it’s pretty obvious he’s wrestling he’s own identity as a proud enlightened centrist/libertarian he’s boasted about forever. He knows it’s all bullshit but can’t quite cope w it so right when he’s on a roll correctly analyzing everthing that’s going on, he reflexively backslides and has to equate it to the other side of punching nazis.
i do think his mental block is largely because he identified(or still does) as a libertarian which aligned him with republicans off and on over the years so that ideological stance cripples his ability to deal with modern affairs
It was a disappointing listen. Remebering his background/where he comes from and it’s not too surprising.
Just listened. 50 minutes of false equivalence both sides nonsense. At one point he begs the question, "If you punch a Nazi in the face and the Nazi punches back, what happens next?" Somehow he fails to consider what might happen if you don't punch the Nazi
which is an INSANE thing to talk about knowing how thoroughly he understands nazi germany history or maybe he doesnt
I listened to this take down of Gladwell a few years ago. Basically all the researchers of the studies he cites hate him because he disengeniously reinterprets the data and conclusions.
I would argue he knows WWI much better but still such an unbelievably disappointing take, even more so after Jan 6 TLDR Robert Evans understands nazis better
Keys/Pathways to success ranked 1. born into wealth 2. luck 3. No scruples 4. Lying (see 3) 5. Hard work and education
Gladwell is a more upscale Joe Rogan. I really like Michael Lewis’ (author of MoneyBall, Blind Side The Big Short etc.) podcast on Gladwell’s network
I blew one of my friends mind that the same person wrote those three books. (Clearly he is more into movies than books)
I don’t hate him or anything but the thing that annoys me about him is that he’ll find some data that he finds interesting and make some groundbreaking claim that is supported by the data and his conclusion is almost always much too overreaching and profound.
Well he said the next episode will cover Iwo and Peleliu - unsure if you could cram Okinawa, fire bombing of Japan, Russia entering the theater, the debate over the bomb, and Japan trying to negotiate surrender in that episode. so long story short - at least 2 more episodes, so some time 2022?
Trying to listen to the addendum. So far it’s Dan delivering an inspired prompt and Gladwell responding with indiscernible word vomit.
Just caught up on Supernova. Definitely got better as they went along. Party V was up to standard. Guessing the 1st few didn't have his full attention due to his other projects at the time.
Newest (and last) supernova is out. I’ve been waiting three years to listen to them all in a row given that my audible recollection is trash. Super pumped.