Paul KrugmanGood roundup of the anti-Zelensky right, but I think it misses one additional point: the importance of the musclebound, thuggish Russian soldier in right-wing iconography 1/ https://www.thebulwark.com/putins-useful-idiots-right-wingers-lose-it-over-zelensky-visit/
Before Putin's war, lots of people on the right, from Ted Cruz on down, idolized bicep-flexing Russians who were supposed to be much tougher than our supposedly pampered service members 2/
Even now you see people saying "a woke military is a weak military" — in the face of the definitely anti-woke Russian army's string of disasters . And how many times has Tucker Carlson declared that Russia is winning? 3/
You don't have to be a military expert to see that while courage and endurance are as important as ever, a modern military also needs smart people who can act on their own initiative 4/
And that recruiting people from as wide a pool as possible, and with the promise of decent treatment, is going to work better than brutalizing and hazing. But admitting that would undermine the whole RW world view 5/
So Ukraine must lose, and Russia win, to vindicate the worship of thuggishness 6/
PhoenixDogLover@pkrugman As the son and nephew of men who were in the US Navy during WWII, and as a younger friend of men who fought in Vietnam, I can't reconcile the RW promotion of thuggish warriors with the reality of who has gone to war, and who has returned home to resume regular life. The RW world view is awash in fantasies.
JoeStewart@phoenixdoglover @pkrugman
PhoenixDogLover is right: the Republican narrative of the US Military is fantasy. Even when I enlisted, I was a minority as a white boy. I was surrounded by color. I adapted and grew as consequence. Sure, most senior leaders are white males. But the proportion has changed. Good for us.
PhoenixDogLover is right: the Republican narrative of the US Military is fantasy. Even when I enlisted, I was a minority as a white boy. I was surrounded by color. I adapted and grew as consequence. Sure, most senior leaders are white males. But the proportion has changed. Good for us.
Pēteris Krišjānis@pkrugman very good take. Actually Zelensky threatens own russian legend about strong man, who maybe is a thug, but he takes care about things. Zelensky directly challenges this idea. Zelensky is everything Putin is not.
@pkrugman all kremlin mafia has based it's justification of existence on "everyone's shit, so let us rule, because at least there will be order". Turns out that is huge lie.
Robert@pkrugman the patriotic conservative movement is so strange. They are without shame. They do have plenty of hubris based on ignorance and deceit.
Doremus Jessup@pkrugman
The same right wingers who would crow the loudest about Reagan winning the Cold War would cheer Putin for putting the band back together
The same right wingers who would crow the loudest about Reagan winning the Cold War would cheer Putin for putting the band back together
Gerard MacDonell@pkrugman It seems they are extremely self absorbed, like toddlers.
Bill Janssen@pkrugman
Paul, it's fascinating seeing you doing threading here. They come in last-to-first, so I keep reading, trying to figure out what you're talking about! Burma-Shave in reverse!
The key is to only make the first piece of the thread public, and then make the rest of the pieces "unlinked". That way people will just see the head of the thread, and only if they click on it will the other parts show up.
Mark Hogue@billjanssen @pkrugman It works fine from my view. Maybe it’s different with the Metatext app I’m using or related to the domain?
@asp_zuc
Maybe! I’m using the Web view.
Maybe! I’m using the Web view.
John 0tter
Thomas Røst Stenerud@billjanssen @pkrugman the thread looks fine, impeccable to me🤘🏻
BJ Kennedy@pkrugman There are a lot of folks that have spent a decade or so with a worldview that was simply "everything the left thinks is good must be bad" and absolutely nothing else. Some of them will have a hard time turning that off.
@arcdrag
Americans, from liberals to the extreme right, have a pugnacious tendency toward #abductive reasoning. Rather than building on collective/inferred premises, the absence of ideology is itself the ideology.
*liberally sprays self with Žižek repellant*
@pkrugman