Martin Luther wrote, “Peace, if possible, but truth at all costs.” Yet I’ve witnessed the exact opposite, over and over. Biblical accountability is anathema. (Reaping, sowing, etc etc.)
Martin Luther wrote, “Peace, if possible, but truth at all costs.” Yet I’ve witnessed the exact opposite, over and over. Biblical accountability is anathema. (Reaping, sowing, etc etc.)
Church, too. As lay leader, I once had a parishioner complain about the “depressing” disclosure we made to parents that the beloved secretary’s husband who’d been moonlighting as a handyman was also a convicted pedophile using an assumed name—an arrangement that had been blessed by my predecessor.
Psychopathology, en masse. Surreal.
I think about this all the time.
On the old site I had bookmarked something you wrote that was, to me, an incredible distillation of Christian virtue. Solidarity being at the heart of it. Wish I could see it— deleted my account. I saw the very thing you’re describing play out during Covid in our church. Was painful to witness.
agreed. Julian Sanchez said something similar recently.
lol I just referenced Kernberg up thread. I too have made that hot potato analogy. You're completely right. And it's all entirely unconscious.
Yes, 100x yes. It's psychopathology. Wish as many commentators were as familiar with Otto Kernberg as they are with Carl Schmitt.
I really think this is it. I've been so underwhelmed by the profiles that have been written on him so far... he's motivated by something far deeper than ideology.
I think of this at least once a week.
Amen.
I think about this too, except in churches/ministry. The accountability structures are far too weak for a vocation that attracts a wildly disproportionate % of people with narcissistic tendencies and worse.
technically raccoons aren't rodents, but your point stands...
Yes. I saw exact scenario play out over the last 40 years in my hometown. (And God forbid if the upwardly mobile 2nd gen kid returns from MIT to the hometown to improve it.)
It was peak-covid and I was hiding from my kids in my closet, trying to get some work done, when I read you'd won the MacArthur. I yelped and stomped my feet in joy. (Of course kids heard me and came running, lol.) Blessings on this chapter. Can't wait to keep learning from your work.
My husband was impressed with him in a small group setting discussing in-the-weeds policy a few years ago. This moment calls for someone entirely different. You can't fake the clear-eyed courage of a Pritzker. (Independent wealth helps, but Mitt Romney had that and...)
I think about this often. Few people have the real-time courage to break the force field of this kind of systemic narcissism. Wish I had a clearer way to say this. But I've watched the same play out in more local contexts (churches, in particular) and it's consistent. People like Pritzker are rare.
And, crucially, he can't be bought. There's immense freedom there for someone with his temperament, insight, and personal fortune. Mitt Romney could have had an entirely different and more noble final chapter in the Senate, but he lacked the courage to fight. You can't fake that.
This is correct. It's psychopathology, not ideology. It's depressing how few commentators recognize this.
Grew up in a small Midwestern town and ate there so often with my grandparents.
Was a total fluke it ended up like this and I don’t take a minute of it for granted.
Perfectly stated.
We split time between NYC and AVL, and I think NYC playground culture has protected my kids in this way. They initiate convos and low-stakes, short-term friendships all summer at different camps, etc. They’re more social than I am here— it’s fun to see.
Read this. Apparently that very well may have been the case: www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/08...
Oh man… I’d forgotten about that. Ain’t that the truth.
Not sure it’s even Christo with him … he’s destroyed things even conservative Xians held dear. Still waiting for someone to do a deep-dive profile of RV.
And one I wish wish wish was recorded was Belle and Sebastian covering Darling Be Home Soon by the Lovin’ Spoonful. They played it as an encore at the 930 in DC like 20 years ago and I’ve never forgotten it… incredible.
Bill Withers-Let it Be, Toots+Maytals- Take Me Home, Country Roads, Town Mountain - I’m on Fire, Staples Singers - Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, Joe Cocker - Change in Louise, Willie Nelson - Midnight Rider, Merry Clayton - Southern Man
That last one. Has been on my mind all night.
Except that Cuomo isn’t Muslim. That’s driving more of this than the socialism.
I think it’s more like a pathetic example of game recognizing game.
I read every word. It was impeccably done. A masterful job of showing, not telling.
I’ve kept a running reading list to this effect. Read a deep dive into the Tate Bros from Buzzfeed years ago and all I could see was Anna Freud’s theory of identification with the aggressor. They were *so* damaged by their father, who was *so* damaged by his. True of so many of these people.
"He enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence." -- Caroline Kennedy, on her cousin. She also described him as a predator. It's sadism via bureaucracy.
I’m curious about whether FNC still has that power. (And, relatedly: what could change—and how fast—were Murdoch to die tomorrow, given his failed attempt to amend the family trust to consolidate Lachlan’s control over the company. He’s 94.)
I'm concerned he's going to start voting with Republicans just out of anger at Dems. He's clearly not well. There's no chance he'll be able to muster the energy/resources to run for reelection, but how much damage could he do in the meantime?
You were right. I remember a similar warning from Laura Secor at a Dem media thing in the early aughts; I was in my mid-20s and in my hubris thought she sounded over the top and out of touch with reality. Nope. I think back on this often. She was right. They have played the longest game.
I’m much closer to Canada, and before now we could, even if only at a private clinic. Who knows what it will look like in the fall.
I think about this multiple times per day. Trying to figure out how/when we can get to Canada in the early fall to get vaxxed. Insanity.
Correct
It’s Biblical.
I’ve seen this over and over again at the micro level in a different institutional setting with old-guard gatekeepers getting played by a highly motivated young narcissist. They can’t simply admit they were wrong and saw what they wanted to see (incl a bit of themselves) in the guy. It’s wild!
I'm really curious about his personal motivation, in particular. Evidently he has a kid with CF who was helped by an experimental drug that was borne out of NIH-funded research. He isn't stupid; he knows the harm he's causing. What personal vendetta is he acting out here? Who's he trying to punish?
May justice roll down like water.
I read so much faster than I can listen, and it’s much easier for me to remember words on a page than something I’ve heard. Don’t have a car or commute more than 15 mins at a time. Clearly I’m an anomaly but podcasts are lost on me. Give me text any day.
1000% correct.
seeing this earlier made me tear up. I'm grateful for their example.
100% correct.
thank you. yes. my pillar-of-the-community-for-45-years father-in-law had his store vandalized on the regular after 9/11 because it had "Middle Eastern" in the name. And same for my husband in airports.
We loved Ludwig on BBC. Recommend.
YES
because he sustained brain damage. he isn't the same person he was when he was running.
enforce existing rules + add speed bumps in key areas. It's absurd this has never been done. (I read somewhere long ago that this common-sense solution was blocked by someone influential at the conservancy who used the park as his personal racecourse.)
best possible response.
Bingo.
That's just it; he truly is. The man is profoundly unwell.
Good. Bless him. "He told the Vatican’s official news website last year that 'the bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom.'" Amen.
I remember. Man oh man, I wish the median voter did, too.
I keep wondering why that is. I’ve read all the profiles and suspect it’s bc he’s so bizarre and his ‘philosophy’ is so convoluted that it beggars belief that people with actual authority and power would be in thrall to this guy. But they are! Report on it! Loudly!
Oh my gosh, yes, 100%. Haven’t thought of that for 40 years!!!
There is nothing like their cold fudge sundae anywhere else. The best.
I live around the corner from one in NYC on the UWS. For the first 8 months after opening, just meh neighborhood interest. Then apparently the company started paying influencers and, no joke, there were people lined up around the block every day. Still a mad crush when they release new flavors.
Did you read the deep-dive profile of the T brothers in Buzzfeed a few years ago? They are the product of pretty severe intergenerational trauma. So many of these men are living out Anna Freud's concept of identification with the aggressor. And we're all paying the price for it.
Came here to say the same.
So, so many father-son issues in these men. Over and over again. Brain damage from a stroke doesn’t automatically result in behavior like this.
Wow, somehow this is my first time hearing that Willie Nelson album. Thank you!!
She sounds awesome. What great memories.
100%. We experienced this at micro level in our church (Episcopal, NYC) back then. Happened that our warden was a world-class public health prof and was working overtime to keep v diverse parish safe. Pretty sure her effectiveness was blunted by simple fact she was a woman. Insanely frustrating.
This is so old. Saw the same w/Iraq war protests, etc.
Or went to therapy.
Me too. I’ve never felt that way about a pope; I’m not even Catholic.
you're not wrong about this. there's some deep theology in that song, and in your observation.
(cotd) He comes out of a Christian context that values global engagement via agencies like World Vision...that were decimated by his cuts to USAID. Something deeper is at work in this guy and that article didn't scratch the surface. How does he square his Christianity with this nihilism? Etc.
Sorry, dashed that off and walked away for the day. That piece didn't uncover the grievance or animus that made putting career civil servants "in trauma" his raison d'être. He has a child with cystic fibrosis who received a miracle drug that exists bc its development was federally funded.
Yes, 100x yes. But I fear they don’t have it in them.
wish someone would do a deep dive profile on him.
Ack, scratch that.
2028 his term ends, I think.
Honestly, herein lies my hope. He can't help himself.
Chaperoned a 1st grade field trip from UWS to Chelsea on the subway last week and the trick is to bring picture books or kid magazines. Older kids: Hershey kisses. Even one apiece is a total game-changer in the moment, as I learned on an hour ride + platform wait with 6th grade class in the fall.
This is such low-hanging fruit and absolutely right on the merits, and yet I don't have a lot of faith anyone will. I'm routinely taken aback by how accountability has become anathema in American life. I've watched this play out in schools and church contexts where the misconduct was significant.
Someone who pays an employee under the table.
1000x this. Accountability is anathema.
Came here to say the same. This is all in reaction to… nothing. It’s surreal.
Ranked choice voting has not helped us here.
Have any of you ever spent time with Lebanese Christians in Lebanon? (Maronites, specifically.) My husband is 2nd gen and we were not surprised by this. It’s all “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” except this guy learned the hard way that in the eyes of ICE, he’s no diff from Hezbollah.
This is arguably what (further) broke the brains of Musk and Bill Ackman— loss of control over their kids’ beliefs/identities. Good psychoanalytical take on it here: publicseminar.org/2024/03/psyc...
The Iraqis would like a word…
Until I went toe-to-toe with a true malignant narcissist, I would have asked the same. The will of someone with this psychopathology is other-worldly. I've never experienced anything like it. It's like a nuclear-powered drive to defend oneself and dominate others, at all costs.
Same in financial world.
Been going to Pittsburgh for 25 years bc in-laws, and it has been so fun to see it change and grow. Magical combo of smart people + cheap real estate. Fantastic food scene, too. Excellent museums, esp for kids.
I don’t know how I missed this back then, but reading it now left me with the distinct sense that V*nce/Th*el will dispose of Trump once he’s outlived his usefulness. They’re playing an entirely different game.
There was so, so much wrong with that piece. The title alone-- I don't think one woman is quoted in the whole thing, either. It's about a very particular type of disaffected white guy (often ex-vangelical) who really needed therapy but started a substack instead.
I think this point can’t be hammered home enough. The media environment is the difference-maker. I don’t know how civics instruction can address this sea change.
Infantile crooks with *personality disorders*…. It takes something extra special to respond this way.
not a single woman was quoted in the piece. think one commenter counted 24 men.
amen
This is actually a hallmark behavior/defense mechanism of people with borderline personality disorder. It’s wild to see it play out in the wider population.
Honestly, I have no idea if that’s true. I feel like I’m living in a foreign country these days. Americans seem most unnerved by being rule by anyone who isn’t white or male, as far as I can tell.
Same. Shopping for more pens, even tho I have enough to open a store selling Muji pens.