24 Comments

I loved the message in last sentence. To push back against the Great Awokening, people who can take the hits need to stand up and take them. Thanks for standing up and taking some hits, Tara!

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Read Meghan’s book when it came out in 2018 or so? Looking at the changes that were going on then from a generational standpoint was really helpful. Gen X and their mentality was basically run out of town by what we now call wokeness gradually and then all at once as Hemingway said. As Adolph Reed has so succinctly pointed out there is no “left” in American life anymore, nothing based on political economy - only identitarianism. Is it any wonder Democrats and Liberals and Ndp in Canada are hemorrhaging working class support? I disagree with Daum that the media is mostly trustworthy and true. They reflect the values of the ruling class which is left/liberal in their social values and neoliberal in their economic ones. This is the opposite of how most people look at things in my opinion. But what do I know. Great podcast as always Tara.

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Why are people so sheeple? She obviously gets it, BUT she can't admit this:

You ARE crazy, IF you watch CNN, listen to NPR, read The New York Times.

Then Yes, You Are Crazy. I would see CNN once in awhile when staying at a hotel and hanging out in the lobby for one reason or another. Simple reaction: that is bleepin crazy and if you can actually sit there and absorb it without vomiting, then Yes, You Are Crazy.

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Am I the only one in the entire universe who is willing to point to Obama??? Amazing.

"This actually started well before the rise of Trump. I was noticing this in 2014."

Hello? I noticed it in 2012/13. When was Obama elected? When did he start preaching this to his flock? Hello? This is only Obama's entire approach to life. It is ALL narrative with him. It is ALL circle the wagons. It is ALL "Us vs Them".

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He hates America, and knew exactly how to make it fester.

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Who - Obama? You’re right on the money when you referred to the current culture as “dysfunctional” then you make an utterly dysfunctional comment like this?

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You will always be right Emily.

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Thanks for the Like Emily, I needed it.

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Obama does not hate America. You know that.

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It's obvious once you see it.

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Maybe you're just not old enough to see this started in the 70s and 80s. Nixon was all about us/them and circle the wagons. Reagan will one day be properly seen as "The Great Divider." Listen to some of his press briefings and you'll hear open contempt for anyone who doesn't praise him. The alt-right's attempts to break social programs and starve the beast by a thousand cuts worked -- and resulted in the surviving Koch brother admit that they'd made a mistake and unleashed the end of America.

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Ha ha. That is hilarious. Maybe you're TOO old. You have confused ECONOMICS with everything else. Ha ha. Yes, the economic divide began to swing wide open in the '80s. That has almost nothing to do with Identity Politics and Everything Else. LOL.

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May 26, 2022Edited
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😂 I had a good laugh! It seems her competitive human instincts kicked in.

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"Allergic to bullshit". I love it!

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I found something very comforting in this conversation. Thank you Tara and looking forward to diving into Meghan Daum's work.

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Hurray for Meghan Daum! One thing I hear consistently from the authoritarian/identitarian Left is that calling attention to Left wing authoritarianism and group-think divides us, and weakens us in the fight against the far Right. But the reverse is actually true. Unless or until we analyze and address these trends we'll never inspire those Daum calls "normal people" to join in the fight for a more just and humane society, socialist or otherwise.

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So you remember WW2 when the "far Right" were fighting to free the Dirty from camps and stop the Gesundheitspass?

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The term Culture War got me thinking. A war usually means fighting to live or defending one's land. The left vs. right 'war' could be seen as progressives fighting to live the new way, that has never been done before vs. those on the right who want to preserve a way of life, like defending one's land.

The term 'drinking the Kool Aid' dates back to the 1970's when Jim Jones led a cult(ure) that suicided itself by drinking poison en masse. What we all should be on guard for in our respective culture, is choosing a lifestyle that puts us on the losing edge of the survival game. Any species that loses it's survival instinct is not long for this world. In the 1970's for example they tried a mass vaccination program but withdrew it after a few dozen people died from the shot. Today...

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Didn't Forrest Gump explain it all in 5 words?

Most if not all of us are not smart enough to re-invent our ways of life every generation. Horses jump out of the womb and start running, they are all trained up and ready to go. We humans are supposed to take many years of training - from our wise elders. When our elders are watching CNN and CBC, we are in trouble, horribly unprepared for life.

The rapid pace of technological change has flummoxed most of us, in being able to sort out our place in the world. Adapting to the world of smartphones and Facebook mania - is not the right approach, that system was placed there to enslave us by mega corporations that then flood our environment with EMF to handle the broadband.

How does the Flexner Report of 1910 mesh so well with the Covid crisis of today?

https://www.cancertutor.com/flexner-report/

Listening to the interview and previous ones by Tara, I see a people who are seriously engaged in trying to figure out their world, but maybe not the world. The answers are out there, of what is really going on, but it's not always a comfortable realization.

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“Why is she taking all this time to praise toughness and talk about how important it is to be tough, instead of working to build a world where toughness is not necessary?”

A hard life creates tough people that make easier life. Easier life creates weak people that make harder life.

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We've had it easy so long, that we've dreamt up ways to make it hard again. Our culture is now dysfunctional, which gives people the drama they need.

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