Good week for video essays it seems. I found this one spoke to something I'd been feeling - the grotesqueness of the disconnect between the values we want to communicate to our kids and the values in our politics, esp. MAGA politics.
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The scariest part of the video for me was the Mabel McClay's "well next time youre excited maybe you'll make better choices" and holy SHIT man. At BEST, you discipline your kid for excitedly yelling? What kind of shitty parenting is that?
aug 28, 2025, 3:38 pm • 21 0 • view
I LOVE when my kids get excited about something, even if its building the same Mickey Clubhouse Duplo for the 12th time. The idea of making your kid calm the fuck down because theyre excited over something new is a nightmare to me
aug 28, 2025, 3:38 pm • 16 0 • view
Also, the way the camera constantly frames her as looming over the kid. Even the cinematography has this eerily authoritarian bent.
aug 28, 2025, 7:51 pm • 3 0 • view
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%... I dont expect Matt Walsh to know what to do with a woman, let alone frame one in a TV show
aug 28, 2025, 7:53 pm • 2 0 • view
The point at which someone is talking, within a Christian frame about the "sin of empathy" and Jesus needing your "hatred" of others, something has just clearly gone very wrong in an obvious way. And the lack of self-reflection in that is hard for me to comprehend.
aug 28, 2025, 3:24 pm • 343 29 • view
I like the use of "within a Christian frame", because I strongly believe that we should not cede the use of the identity "Christian" to those who do not in any way live up to it. Same as with "patriot".
aug 28, 2025, 3:59 pm • 8 0 • view
Yeah, I mean...if someone thinks Jesus wants you to hate *people* (rather than sin itself)...then that someone is at the very least a heretic. And it sure seems like the 'sin of empathy' is, in fact, the virtue of charity.
aug 28, 2025, 5:26 pm • 16 1 • view
It's also new, at least in its baldness. I know folks here will assume bad faith, but a lot of 80s, 90s, aughts conservatives really did think their policies would produce better outcomes for everyone in the medium to long run. There was a gesture at kindness. And none of that now.
aug 28, 2025, 3:24 pm • 263 7 • view
I'm reminded of George H.W. Bush's "kinder, gentler nation" speech from the late 80s and how that quote became an instant punchline.
aug 28, 2025, 7:17 pm • 2 0 • view
There was a time when Mr Rogers earned respect from conservatives and even damn near brought a Republican Senator to tears in support of PBS. Those days feel long gone.
aug 28, 2025, 5:35 pm • 5 0 • view
To be fair, of course, there were also a fair number of bad faith bigots using conservatism's, "sometimes you have to make hard choices now to be kind in the long run" position as a smokescreen for their bigotry. But at least they felt the need for the smokescreen? Not so much, now.
aug 28, 2025, 3:25 pm • 232 3 • view
I’m still baffled by the part where they didn’t even *try* to justify their massive tax cuts for the rich earlier this year. No “trickle down,” no “job creators,” just complete silence about why this should be good for anyone but the ultra-rich.
aug 28, 2025, 3:42 pm • 9 0 • view
They have learned that silence is effective as a form of suppressing debate about the indefensible: look at the absolute refusal of the right to acknowledge Trump's mental and physical decline. But it only works when they can rely on compliant media and ineffective opponents.
aug 28, 2025, 4:11 pm • 3 0 • view
The point at which you are basically going to war with Mr. Rogers and "Stronger, Smarter, Kinder" Sesame Street (that end-credits song will never leave my head now that I have a little one who loves Elmo)...it's amazing to not wake up one moment and realize, "oh s***, I'm the bad guy."
aug 28, 2025, 3:26 pm • 233 12 • view
Trump and his supporters believe there are no good guys. There's no such thing as morality, all that matters is power and money and never showing weakness. Claims to the contrary are "virtue signalling".
aug 28, 2025, 4:04 pm • 6 0 • view
The thing is, most of them know, they know they're the bad guy. They have a worldview, I've seen it in some of my relatives, where the world is not good and bad, but instead 'cheaters and suckers,' and they're determined to be the cheaters who win, rather than the suckers who lose.
aug 28, 2025, 3:27 pm • 298 22 • view
But "cheaters never prosper" while it may not hold 100% of the time, is an idiom for a reason. Those Copybook Headings said what they said for a reason. Those Sesame Street values are the way they are for a reason. Conservatism used to mean knowing that. 🤷♂️
aug 28, 2025, 3:29 pm • 235 6 • view
With regard to Sesame Street values, this story is from 1970. I should add that the ban was quickly rescinded.
aug 28, 2025, 4:09 pm • 7 1 • view
I feel like the issue is that the General feeling is that the saying is just a lie and the reason it is a saying is that pushing the idea is usefull for the powerfull. Because looking at the highest levels of sucess it almost feels like only cheaters prosper.
aug 29, 2025, 7:42 am • 0 0 • view
Of course, MAGA isn't conservative in any meaningful way: it is radical and reactionary in equal measures, just radically bigoted. It is not 'going back to' or 'preserving' a system we had, but inventing an entirely new one.
aug 28, 2025, 3:38 pm • 220 18 • view
If you go back and look at the intellectual horsepower of the Reagan movement today, guys like Buckley and Gilder, pretty fn racist. The southern strategy brought the racist elements of southern society to their real home. It's been a challenge for Democrats ever since.
aug 29, 2025, 9:42 pm • 0 0 • view
It is traditional for radicals trying to create a new system to pretend that they were restoring an earlier (since "corrupted") one, stretching back millennia to at least that "...and put together the common thing causa". These "conservatives" are proudly continuing this most ancient tradition. /s
aug 28, 2025, 11:43 pm • 2 0 • view
I’ve had a lot of thoughts about the difference between conservatism as a mindset and right-wing reactionary radicalism lately.
aug 28, 2025, 4:11 pm • 7 1 • view
re "conservative in any meaningful way", that seems to imply that there's a "respectable" form of conservatism, but i'm starting to feel like all conservatism is just varying degrees of adherence to Wilhoit's Law. sometimes conservatives tolerate democracy, but they always really want Wilhoit's Law.
aug 28, 2025, 4:32 pm • 41 1 • view
I think in a country founded, however imperfectly, on liberal values which is, on the balance, substantially more liberal than most countries, it is possible to have a sort of 'liberal conservatism' which is suspicious of change but nevertheless affirms the liberal values of a free society.
aug 28, 2025, 5:15 pm • 100 1 • view
That basically describes Eisenhower/Rockefeller Republicanism. The last elected politician to fall under that category was probably Arlen Specter, and he had to switch to the Democratic Party at the end of his career.
aug 28, 2025, 6:58 pm • 2 0 • view
This basically sounds like the old strain known as Rockefeller Republicans.
aug 28, 2025, 5:36 pm • 0 0 • view
If that's the case why not use cautious-liberals or pragmatic-liberals instead of including those that are hostile to liberal values? I think the problem with liberal conservatives is that its a contradiction in terms, what values are going to win out when push comes to shove, tradition or liberty?
aug 29, 2025, 7:17 pm • 4 0 • view
It's a sort of 'Chesteron's Fence' conservatism that wants to be careful about reforms, but is willing to enact reforms that are proved to have a high likelihood of enhancing liberty or improving wellbeing without injury to liberty. That form can exist and does exist, but it is not MAGA.
aug 28, 2025, 5:16 pm • 85 0 • view
It's possible, sure, but does it have any actual traction over the decades-long flood of shit that modern conservatism has become?
aug 28, 2025, 5:33 pm • 3 0 • view
I mean, "conservatism," in the sense of wanting to CONSERVE things, can in fact apply to good things. I would like to conserve the New Deal and the Civil Rights Act, among other things.
aug 28, 2025, 5:24 pm • 3 0 • view
In my lifetime Canada had a conservative Prime Minister who was the greatest creator of protected public spaces the country has ever known. Now, conservatives spend their days hacking those spaces to pieces for their billionaire sponsors. The whole movement is as corrupt as it is bigoted.
aug 29, 2025, 9:55 pm • 0 0 • view
Wow. I hadn't heard of Wilhoit's law before, and I'm glad you brought it up. Not only does it seem to fit the situation, when I looked it up, I stumbled upon an interview with Wilhoit, where he comes across as a very intelligent and interesting person, very worth reading. slate.com/business/202...
aug 29, 2025, 11:07 am • 4 1 • view
glad to help! it's the gift that keeps on giving. other fun eponymous laws you might not have heard of * Brandolini's Law * Betteridge's Law
aug 29, 2025, 4:23 pm • 2 0 • view
I'd say its bigotry is very conventional for reaction - reaction has been tied to bigotry just about forever. What makes it radical, like Nazism/fascism generally, is that it is anti-institutional. Institutionalism is typically part of at least small c conservatism but very much is not for fascism
aug 29, 2025, 9:11 pm • 0 0 • view
'Cheaters never prosper' is manifestly untrue. Saying so was about policing the behaviour of those who might be tempted to cheat, not changing the behaviour of actual cheaters. It would be more honest, but tougher to say 'cheaters often do prosper, but cheating is unethical and socially harmful'.
aug 28, 2025, 4:05 pm • 2 0 • view
A society of cheaters, or ruled by cheaters lacks the internal cohesion necessary to ward off threats, either natural or by foreign powers.
aug 29, 2025, 10:38 am • 1 0 • view
A society can still function while tolerating cheaters, so long as they are confined to certain areas of activity and never exceed a certain proportion of the population. If cheating were to be normalised through a population and in all areas of life, you would be right: but does that ever happen?
aug 29, 2025, 5:31 pm • 0 0 • view
Trump's America is now a society where the ruling class are cheaters and this behaviour will percolate down into broader society. We'll see how it goes.
aug 29, 2025, 8:55 pm • 1 0 • view
I think you'd enjoy reading this as an antidote to that entire style of religious thinking. Rigorous rather than lazy, empathetic and kind rather than selfish and cruel. www.quaker.org.uk/documents/re...
aug 28, 2025, 3:36 pm • 6 0 • view
That's actually making me chuckle a little - in appreciation! Love how the 1st page is mostly 'Here's how we're going to undermine your attempt to subvert our inclusive cultural norms, while staying true to those norms and our faith.'
aug 28, 2025, 3:49 pm • 9 0 • view
It's beautiful to read something that is so kind and empathetic, but also rigorous and thought through. There's no laziness in the thinking, scarely an extra word beyond what is needed. It doesn't leave anything to respond to.
aug 28, 2025, 4:00 pm • 7 0 • view
Maybe you know - does the salutation 'Friend' imply that the anonymous recipient is a Quaker? Or is that a standard Quaker salutation?
aug 28, 2025, 4:05 pm • 4 0 • view
I'm not sure it did. Limbaugh and his performative cruelty, the overt lies and shock-jocking, started so long ago that I'm not sure there's a "conservatism" to save.
aug 28, 2025, 5:31 pm • 4 0 • view
To mangle an aphorism: "Cheating never prospers, For if it prosper, none dare call it cheating." -- no apologies to John Harrington
aug 28, 2025, 3:51 pm • 3 0 • view
SSK is *such* a catchy song, especially for one that only has like 6 lines. I think partly its because its such a clear and positive thesis for children's programming. "What do we want our kids to be?" Stronger, Smarter, Kinder
aug 29, 2025, 10:27 pm • 0 0 • view
A bit obvious, but Fox News was attacking Mr. Rogers well back in 2007: www.snopes.com/fact-check/f...
aug 28, 2025, 8:11 pm • 0 0 • view
I have a number of extended family and acquaintances who absolutely bought into the Compassionate Conservatism thing. Of course, over the past few years, most of them have either become democrats or apolitical.
aug 28, 2025, 3:55 pm • 13 0 • view
I have many, many friends who were raised by parents of this ilk and whose parents were shocked when the kids then turned around in the 10s and 20s and said, "You raised me to love and respect everyone and that includes trans kids and undocumented immigrants."
aug 28, 2025, 5:25 pm • 50 0 • view
My parents were not shocked, but I feel like that is basically my experience growing up. We were a conservative family and I was told that what we were conserving was a country in which people were treated fairly regardless of sex or race, immigrants were welcome and all were protected by the law.
aug 28, 2025, 5:28 pm • 60 2 • view
Very similar here. My parents are extremely sincere missionaries who gave up a more comfortable life to go help other people the best way they knew, and taught us the values of empathy, sincerity, curiosity, self-examination... We're politically divided now but I can still respect them.
aug 30, 2025, 2:57 pm • 1 0 • view
And so part of the foundation of my political thinking is the sense that I am not demanding radical change - I am demanding the country that, when I was a kid in the late 80s, early 90s, the kind of country you told me *we already had* (but we didn't, really, in key ways).
aug 28, 2025, 5:29 pm • 82 3 • view
Honestly, part of my fury over MAGA is it feels like a broken promise. As imperfect as things were in the 90s, I was told that we had all agreed on at least the *goal* of a society where race and sex didn't limit you, in which the law was blind...and actually a bunch of those adults were lying.
aug 28, 2025, 5:31 pm • 149 16 • view
right, that's it - and we get called fools for believing in that goal and that promise, but even if we may have been naive about it ever coming to fruition, nobody can tell us why were wrong to want it
aug 28, 2025, 5:33 pm • 18 0 • view
Because it hurts white men's feelings if they have to actually make an effort to get into Harvard, that's why
aug 28, 2025, 5:35 pm • 5 0 • view
I don't even know that it was that specific to be honest
aug 28, 2025, 5:36 pm • 3 0 • view
Oh sure, that's only one factor It also hurts their feelings that they can't rape at will
aug 28, 2025, 5:37 pm • 3 0 • view
I understood myself as part of a tradition of liberty, of Washington, Lincoln and MLK and also my grandfather getting two purple hearts fighting the Nazis, all for a society of greater liberty and there's a real, visceral sense that this moment is a betrayal of that, of child-me's faith in it.
aug 28, 2025, 5:35 pm • 130 5 • view
And what burns me up the worst, with just the most incandescent fury is I am now raising my own child and I wanted, I *expected* to give her that same promise of, if not a just society, a -more- just society, that I had growing up and yet that dream has been betrayed by my countrymen.
aug 28, 2025, 5:36 pm • 144 12 • view
Obama was elected when my kid was 9 months old. We had a good run when he was little 😭
aug 28, 2025, 5:51 pm • 11 0 • view
Not only did my grandfather get multiple Purple Hearts my grandmother was literally a member of the Dutch Resistance, so yeah June 2018, right before moving to Canada, I found myself shouting their story into a bullhorn at a rally about the kids in cages at the border
aug 28, 2025, 5:37 pm • 13 0 • view
They chose to settle in the US postwar because it was a free, forward-looking society!!!!
aug 28, 2025, 5:37 pm • 11 0 • view
Same.
aug 28, 2025, 5:37 pm • 7 0 • view
Studying history is why I've never believed in that whole arc towards justice An awful lot of the past is horrific almost beyond belief and in almost every case until very recently, the tyrants and villains just get away with it again and again. Justice is fleeting and must be bought with blood.
aug 28, 2025, 6:32 pm • 3 0 • view
ah but remember they thought there was a gentleman's agreement that we would always be "aspirationally" inclusive, and then Obama goes and wins an election to the Presidency of all things, and the Bush administration was conservative in every way and it was a disaster and people noticed...
aug 28, 2025, 5:35 pm • 10 0 • view
100%.
aug 28, 2025, 5:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes, exactly. Which is the same fundamental appeal made by Martin Luther King! "Rise up and live out the true meaning of her creed."
aug 28, 2025, 5:30 pm • 5 0 • view
It's hard to take any of it serious. The magical text is supposedly infallible yet entire denominations renegotiate its meaning every generation to eek out new sins and give new permissions to cognatively dismiss living in constant hypocricy.
aug 28, 2025, 3:48 pm • 5 0 • view
If Jesus came back tomorrow these people would have him on a cross by tomorrow night.
aug 28, 2025, 3:27 pm • 8 0 • view
As pointed out by Dostoyevsky, among others.
aug 28, 2025, 3:59 pm • 4 0 • view
My takeaway from this video is that MAGA is going to genocide Americans if they aren't driven from power. Their dehumanizing rhetoric is painting them into a corner: eventually, *not* doing a genocide will seem like betraying the movement. Those are the stakes.
aug 30, 2025, 4:07 pm • 1 0 • view