by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
My hot take — barring Haley being in serious contention to be Trump’s veep….this is a meh. But I can’t predict the future so, who knows.
Hmmmm……Did Nikki Haley Cheat On Her Husband?
Tag: hot takes
My Hot Take On Elon Musk Officially Buying Twitter
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
At the moment, at least, the key crux of what’s going on with Elon Musk buying Twitter is a vibe shift. MAGA Republican fascists believe they have the wind against their backs now and they will finally no longer be “shadow banned.” They dream of finally getting the high engagement they believe their spicy fascist hot takes deserve from Twitter as a whole.
The fact that they’re, well, just boring given how racist and misogynistic they are with their tweets doesn’t seem to cross their minds. But they bitch a moan SO MUCH about being “shadowbanned” that now even Musk himself is getting in on the action.
All things considered, though, the MAGA Republican obsession with being “shadow banned” is just embarrassing. They believe that any slight — perceived or otherwise — is oppression in the extreme. Like any good little fascist they want leniency for themselves and strict control for speech they don’t like.
And, of course, in the end, that’s what’s going to happen if Musk abides by the wishes for the Far Right. I’m going to have to wade through a deluge of fascist speech while they won’t have to see my tweets saying they suck. No good will come of this, of course.
I think what might ultimately happen is someone from the center-Left might come up with a better social media mouse trap and Twitter will be another victim of the United States tearing itself into Blue and Red nations. Not even Twitter will survive as everyone picks a hostile camp to hide behind.
Or maybe not. Maybe, just like the country as a whole, Blues online will bend a knee to the fascists of Twitter and that will be that. For all their talk about leaving Twitter for something else, Twitter liberals may just grit their teeth and suffer the jackboot of Catturd and others.
My Hot Take On David Sacks’ Critique Of American Support For Ukraine
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Let me be clear –I’m just a broke ass writer in the middle of nowhere and David Sacks rubs elbows with wealthiest people in the world. But I do have a hot take on his recent ranting about how the United States should essentially demand Ukraine give up because of the risk of WW3 or, as he puts it “Woke War III.”
There is a lot to unpack here.
As I keep saying, it’s very alarming that Silicon Valley Tech Bros seem determined to be Russian Fifth Columnists and Fellow Travelers. They give as their excuse the risk of WW3, but really they obviously have run the numbers and think it would be better if we just washed our hands of Ukraine and moved on to turning the United States into a MAGA-themed fascist autocracy.
I’ve said before that I understand the sentiment. But I have to say again that just because you’re the Smartest Guy In The Room, doesn’t mean you know jack shit about the best interests of the United States on a geopolitical basis. And, remember, we still don’t know if Putin is a rational actor or not. If we give into appeasing Putin, there’s every reason to believe he will see it as weakness and attack NATO directly.
Remember, the same argument that Sacks makes about not defending Ukraine could be made for not defending the smaller NATO states in the Baltic. If his primary concern is the risk of nuclear war, then, really, why is the United States a part of NATO to begin with? Why not bring the boys home, turn us into Fortress America and elect fucking Trump God King For Life.
The point of American foreign policy for the last 75 odd years has been to keep the global order together through might and preemptive engagement. And, what’s more, there comes a point when you have to think about the moral implications of what you’re doing — even if it means increasing the risk of nuclear war.
The current war in Ukraine is one of Russian aggression and the United States has a moral imperative to support a fellow democracy. The last thing we should be doing is just giving up and let a tyrant walk all over Ukraine because the Baltics or Poland or whomever could be next if we do.
The lesson of 1930s appeasement is it doesn’t work. The more you give a tyrant, the more they expect later down the road. So, it’s best to take a stand as soon as possible and try to manage the risks involved.
And let’s address Sparks’ complaint that he’s being “smeared.” What horseshit. He’s the one who interjected himself into a very divisive debate and he has to have known that what he proposes is extremely unpopular — especially on Twitter where he whines about being “smeared” all the time.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, as they say.
Silicon Valley Tech Bros Are Determined To Follow In The Path Of Charles Lindbergh When It Comes To MAGA & Putin
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
As I’ve said many times before, I have a lot of respect for tech people of Silicon Valley. Sometimes I wonder why they’re kind of sitting on their hands these days when it comes to changing the lives of everyday people, but, in general they have been the cause of a shocking amount of improvement in human life.
Then there are moments like this when the continue to be tone deaf about not just the rise of MAGA but Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
It’s all very odd. Here are these really smart guys who are just totally on the wrong side of not just history but common sense when it comes to the evils of both MAGA and Russian’s war of aggression on Ukraine. It makes you wonder what is going on. Why are they like this?
I really struggle with this particular situation. There is something about the mentality of Tech Bros that I just can’t understand. The fact that so many noteworthy Tech Bros hate democracy and are actively rooting for fascist MAGA to turn the United States into an autocracy is…unsettling, to say the least. And the idea that Tech Bros would be appeasers and apologists for a fascist thug like Putin is also not great.
The only explanation I might be able to say is Tech Bros are so busy thinking about cold hard metrics and nerd stuff like coding and its associated math that they totally miss the obvious moral implications of MAGA and Putin, even if they’re clear to the mass of other people.
Or something. I think that’s what’s going on. It’s all a mystery to me. I think if I were to talk to someone from Silicon Valley and they were willing to have a good faith conversation with me on the subject, I could probably figure it out. Then I would alternate between being mad and angry that people who should know better are no better than 1930s German Industrialists.
My Hot Take On Scott Galloway
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While in general I don’t really have an opinion one way or another on Scott Galloway, given how vocal he’s been about Elon Musk and Twitter I feel compelled to give my hot take.
For me, the key thing about Galloway is he looks the part. If you were to say, find a picture of a former finance bro who’s the smartest guy in the room who has a successful podcast I’m pretty sure I would pick him out of a lineup blind. And that, I think, is very telling about the nature of success in the real world.
If you look the part of whatever it is you want to do in life, you’re far more likely to be a success regardless of other issues. It’s well known that good looking people generally are successful. So, most of your successful New Yorkers are tall, dark and handsome with the occasional oddball simply because that’s the nature of humanity.
Another thing — if I ever met him, at, say, a cocktail party after I sell my first novel and get to be cool on a national scale because it’s a huge success — we would probably have a very loud debate about issues of the day. In fact, if I was drunk at the time, the argument would be so loud, wide ranging and interesting that I might find a few attractive women staring at me from the open bar before it was all over with.
Anyway. Lulz, nothing matters. He’s a success and I, for the time being at least, am just a drunk loser with a dream.
The Ballad Of Barr & Pence: A MAGA Autogolpe That Wasn’t
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
When the history of Trumplandia is written, two people will stick out as having changed everything by what they did — or didn’t do: Bill Barr and Mike Pence.
What makes their actions so weird in hindsight is neither one of them was ever mentioned as the “guardrails” that were going to save us from Trump’s excesses. In fact, they were some of the biggest toadies for Trump — until they weren’t at very crucial moments in time.
Bill Barr — at least in my opinion — had a specific purpose when he was originally hired: end the Mueller Investigation. He wrapped that up and did plenty of really shitty things. And then in the 2020 – 2021 timeframe he did something that saved American democracy for four more years: nothing.
He sat on his hands.
So, even though Barr intimately knew on a personal basis how badly Trump wanted DOJ to indict the Bidens, or Hillary or Obama or whomever, he was able to simply slow walk all of Trump’s would-be autocratic moves so they were moot. Without Barr doing that, it’s very possible that all the autocratic things I thought up in 2020 Trump would have done and he would still be president.
Then there’s Mike Pence.
Pence is the consummate Trump sycophant. Or, at least, he was until January 6th. After defending Trump at every turn for any and everything he did, no matter how horrible or autocratic, on January 6th Pence gave American democracy a second chance by simply doing his fucking job. (Which in the specific case of certification was simply to announce the certification, he didn’t really have to do anything other than not nullify the certification by going rouge.)
And, so because of the actions of two people everyone assumed would be Trump’s lapdogs, American democracy was spared for a few years. You honestly could not make such shit up.
What happens next is up to us. We aren’t going to be as lucky, next time.
The Tokyo Olympics & The Prospect Of An ‘Omega Variant’
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Each time COVID bounces from one person to the next, there’s a chance it might mutate into something along the lines of the virus found in The Stand. It’s an admittedly microscopic chance, but it does exist. Throw into the equation people from all over the world in Tokyo at the moment and it’s easy to imagine a Stephen King-size clusterfuck.
So, it’s at least possible that at some point in the next few months (years?) we’re going to have to go through all of this again because an Omega Variant breezes past all our vaccines and starts killing people not in the thousands, but the millions.
But that’s all very speculative. It’s just if the COVID pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that when you’re dealing with a virus, all the narrative management in the world isn’t going to save us.
And, yet, it could be I’m over thinking all of this. I’m often wrong. I hope I am this time, too.
We Have To Talk About Joe Rogan’s Weird Anti-SNL Fetish
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
What the fuck is up with Joe Rogan bringing on people who can’t hack the hyper competitive environment of SNL? Now, let me be clear — I BARELY listen to Rogan’s podcast on Spotify, but from what I’ve seen of the clips on YouTube there is a recurring theme. And that theme is SNL is some sort of shitty place to work where everyone is out to get you.
This, of course, is bullshit.
What I think is going on is there two things. One, Rogan probably couldn’t get on to SNL and he resents that. Two, the idea that SNL is some sort of viper’s nest plays into Rogan’s New Right lite grievance politics.
What is really going on is this — SNL is competitive as hell. Either you sink or swim. If you can survive — and thrive — in such an environment, then you have what it takes to be a huge star.
But Rogan brings on people who hate that type of environment and they sit around talking about what a shitting place SNL is. Ugh.
A Little Contemplated Aspect Of A Potential First Contact: The Religious Right
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Given the extremely weird development that the U.S. Military is like, “Oh, by the way, UFOs are real,” I’ve found myself given a bit more serious thought about what First Contact would be like in practical terms.
Now, obviously in the back of my mind I’m kind of couching this in a “JEWS IN SPACE” plot device for a hazy movie in my mind, but we shouldn’t sleep on the Religious Right in the United States getting really fucking worked up about converting any space aliens we might eventually encounter.
It would not happen right away. And how likely it was to happen would depend on the actual nature of the ETs. (I think it’s likely that any ETs we actually encounter would be machine intelligence, but, lulz, even that wouldn’t stop MAGA Religious Right people.)
It’s easy to imagine a situation where one the shock wore off that we Were Not Alone that the (white) MAGA Religious Right in the United States would see the aliens as Souls To Save. The only reason why I even suggest this is the fucked up religious logic that has made the absolute support of Israel a foundational aspect of the modern Christian Right.
If they can pull that out of their ass, they can definitely think up a reason to demand they get the opportunity save aliens souls, too. (I’m not picking on Israel, but, as I understand it, the American Religious Right’s love for it is for a kind of dark reason.)
It would be surreal that once we reached Alien Nation levels of indifference to aliens being in our presence that the aliens would start to complain about how pushy the American Religious Right was. (How the American Religious Right would get to the point where they finally came to believe that ETs had “souls” would also be pretty surreal.)
Anyway. lulz.
How America Would React To Our Best Geopolitical Bud Great Britain Collapsing
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Americans think of Great Britain as our far older, posh relative that swings by every once in a while to hand out Fleabag DVDs. The United States is so big that we only have a hazy understanding of the outside world. Canada, cold. Mexico, hot. Great Britain — King George III was an asshole, Churchill was cool.
I’m not in any way suggesting I have any bead on the slow-motion collapse of Great Britain, but anyone paying attention to the goings on there will have to admit that the United Kingdom of 2021 has a very 1918 Austro-Hungarian vibe to it.
Or, to put a more fine point on it, a closer historical approximation might be Czechoslovakia. The two nations that made up that multi-ethnic state just gave up and split because they no longer had the energy to stay together.
The same thing with Great Britain, in that it definitely seems as though the very concept of being “British” is beginning to evaporate. Just look at how worked up the English got when they faced Italy on the football pitch recently. The English team didn’t go into that sports battle as British, they went into it as English.
This leads to the question, “How would America react if Great Britain finally buckled and ceased to exist?”
Well, ironically the United States is, uh, going through somethings right now itself. The United States is suffering a similar disunity momentum as Great Britain is. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say at some point between now and when the US is likely to go tits up (2024-2025) the UK beats us to it.
First, there would be earth shattering shock that the Union Jack was no longer applicable. The idea that once the Scots bounce out of the UK that the Union Jack would be moot would be something the poor old American brain could not comprehend. It’s a simple thing to grasp and a lot of people who don’t care about geopolitics would gasp.
Then, as the whole country pealed away with the departure of Wales and the unification of Ireland, Americans would start to make comparisons to the other big collapse of the last century — the Soviet Union.
But the dissolution of the UK would be one of those rare occasions when the United States would sit up and take notice that there was an Outside World beyond our boarders. Comparisons would also, likely be make to the shock of the 1940 Fall of France.
There would even be a bit of a question as to how difficult it would be to make the rump state of England a US state. (This would happen in some of the more bonkers portions of MAGA because, well, white people.)
We just would not be able to process any of it at first.
Until, of course, we had our own civil war and then everyone would say, “Fuck, both major Anglophone nations collapsed within years of each other.”
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