Political Theatre category archive
Recommended Reading 0
Shaun Mullen rounds up a list of the best books about Russian Impulses.
Playing the Victim 0
A letter to the editor of my local rag exposes the con.
Herky-Jerky 0
Jeremy E. Sherman explores the moves and motives of “total jerks.” Here’s a bit from his intro:
Some people love the way he’s putting total jerk liberals in their place to make America great. Some people just think he’s a total jerk. Either way, his behavior is a golden opportunity for us all to attend to the most fundamental moral challenge ever: How to identify and thwart total jerks.
“Lessons in Leadership” 0
My boss at my first full-time job was a really good boss. (Like many good bosses, if he had a failing, it was that he would try too hard to save the jobs of persons who had demonstrated that they richly deserved to be separated from the organization.)
One day after I had known him long enough to feel comfortable do so, I asked how he got to be so skillful at managing people. He replied, “Welllll, I think about what my first boss would have done.
“Then I do the exact opposite.”
Ronald E. Riggio suggests that the same statement applies Donald Trump’s leadership you-could-hardly-call-it-a style.
False-Flagging Interests 0
PoliticalProf explains the cynical cycle of the conservative con.
Articles of Faith 0
David Atkins calls the roll of what modern American conservatives must believe in order to be, well, modern conservatives. In the aggregate, assembled all in one place, the list is mind-blowing. Here’s a bit of it; the rest is at the link.
To be a modern conservative is to believe that thousands of desperate Central American migrants are being paid by George Soros–himself a symbol and often a substitute code word for Jews, also coded as “globalists” in mainstream Republican rhetoric–to come to the United States to vote illegally and disrupt the midterm elections.
To be a modern conservative is to believe in a ludicrous, grandiose conspiracy of tens of thousands of organizers, undocumented people and elections officials to implement voter impersonation fraud at scale.
Missing the Point 0
One of the purposes of the social contract is that persons can attend public events without needing armed guards.
So Much Whining 0
Bob Cesca is tried of all the whining. A snippet:
The “Kavanaugh Defense” 0
Elie Mystal explains how it works. Here’s a snippet:
Follow the link for a more nuanced explanation.
