It’s all rather delicious if you ask me. The Left is now in full meltdown mode. It’s bad enough that President Trump’s very existence “triggers” them, now they trigger each other. Or get triggered because of something that has nothing to do with politics at all.
Yesterday, Chris Cuomo, an alleged journalist on the Clown News Network, had a three-alarm, full-bore meltdown in front of God and everybody. He was at some public venue and a person called him “Fredo”. The reference is to Federico “Fredo” Corleone, the second son of Don Vito Corleone of The Godfather (played by the late John Cazale).
Fredo, in case you didn’t know, was the superfluous, none-too-bright brother, the one who was passed over in favor of Michael (played by Al Pacino). In his own words, Fredo was given the “Mickey Mouse” jobs that nobody else wanted to do and which he couldn’t screw up too badly.
Those of us on the right have had a field day throwing this name around as an epithet for quite some time now. Kurt Schlichter calls the #nevertrumpers “Fredocons”. Those of us who do the actual fighting in the trenches get it. I’m not so sure that the Fredocons do. Oh well. Too bad for them. Anyways, like Fredo Corleone, they’re quite useless.
Regardless, Cuomo took umbrage. Boy did he take umbrage! He puffed himself up like some gangster wannabe and let fly the most profane, pseudo-macho, obscenity-laced verbiage ever. Worse, he threatened violence, all the while knowing he was being filmed.
So why did he do it?
My working hypothesis is that the Left in general has gone completely off the rails. Perhaps there’s something in their drinking water but that can’t make sense as there are rabidly insane liberals pretty much everywhere. Is it possible that they’ve all opened themselves up to demonic forces? Lord knows. But there’s something going on.
Still, isn’t it ironic that when the Left accuses those of us on the Right about something, in this case, the made-up terror of “toxic masculinity”, it’s always some famous liberal who actually engages in it (even if he behaves in a faux manner)?
Of course, there’s so much irony here. Remember all those “Red Flag” laws that everyone is talking about in relation to the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton? Well, if they ever pass (and I’m hoping they don’t), Cuomo just screamed to the entire world that he’s an unhinged madman and his house should be raided forthwith. And then when those Red Flag laws don’t work and we need to immediately incarcerate those apparent madmen who are clearly a danger to others –well, there you go. I for one won’t shed a tear when Cuomo is frogmarched into a padded wagon in a straight-jacket.
And I’m not buying into the counter-argument proffered by some on the Right (such as Sean Hannity), that nobody should be harassed while in public. While true, thanks to people like Cuomo, this is now irrelevant, as Cuomo and his ilk have raised the temperature of this country significantly; Cuomo for his part has praised Antifa. There are literally dozens of cases in which conservatives have been harassed, insulted and even beaten near-to-death because of the toxic atmosphere created by self-righteous people such as he in the media.
Seriously, what are these people thinking? That ordinary people won’t fight back? They can dish it out but they can’t take it. As they say, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. For some reason, liberals and progressives never think that cliche would ever apply to them.
If you get a chance, please take the time to watch this video from Blue Collar Logic (one of my frequent YouTube analysts). As always, I’m posting these clips not only because they’re entertaining and enlightening but because almost all of the good ones have been demonetized and algorithmically suppressed.
P.S. BCL has the clip of Cuomo going ballistic so this video is not safe for work.
“My working hypothesis is that the Left in general has gone completely off the rails. Perhaps there’s something in their drinking water but that can’t make sense as there are rabidly insane liberals pretty much everywhere. Is it possible that they’ve all opened themselves up to demonic forces? Lord knows. But there’s something going on.”
I have noticed this for the past few years, ever since Donald Trump came onto the scene as a presidential candidate right in the middle of the Summer of 2015. At first, they were scoffing him. “He’ll never make it! He’s too insane to be president! He’s done it before! (In 2000, but as a 3rd Party candidate” But as he persisted, and he began to offer a unique platform, new political solutions, different from his Republican rivals, who were still hawking stale Gingrich, G.W. Bush, Neocon, and Tea Party platforms. Trump was offering promises to blue collar and mid-America that had been negatively affected by globalization…he was really giving Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio a run for their money. This understandably upset the GOP establishment, who were trying their darndest to uphold neoconservative and ‘centre-right’ globalist platforms. Even more so, he frightened the Democrats, and enraged the dominating liberal worldview, that not only Democrats and progressive minded people held, but was the modus operandi of most of the Western World since the end of the Cold War, or possibly earlier than that, depending on how one wants to look at it.
The rise of Trump not only challenged the dominating political thinking or the assumptions of famous political theorists who have been prolific since the late-80s, such as Francis Fukuyama and his “End of History” thesis (wherein he predicted that liberal democracy would be the last and final destination for mankind, similar to how Marx believed that for communism), but also the epistemic arrangement. Obviously the liberals weren’t going to have any of that…so they are fighting hard as hell to curtail this. They became even more desperate, and resorted to dirty tricks, even all out psychological warfare against whom they deem “deplorables.”
As the story goes, Trump is elected president. Everyone against him melts down. I have personally witnessed this in my…old “friendship” circles. Anti-Trumpers became absolutely bitter, and I daresay psychotic. One woman I know was accusing me of things, of “oppression”, I was deemed a “product of the ‘failed’ education system.” (Ironically, the same “failed” education system that they enshrine and want to continue throwing money at), many people, if they did not cold shoulder me, called me a retard, a Russian agent, a oppressor, a fascist, a communist (Ironic, coming from those on the left), an “Eichmann”, an enemy of God (yep, there were religious liberals and leftists that tried to virtue-signal, piety-signal, and purity-shame me). I wasn’t even particularly pro-Trump. I did not even vote for him (In retrospect, I really regret not doing so). My initial crime was doubting Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, and going into detail as to why she lost and criticizing the prevalent western political, economic, and epistemic order that she tried to uphold, that was collapsing under its own weight. That was enough to set people off. My old “friends” no longer paid attention to me, and they put in the corner. Naturally, I became bitter and “redpilled” from that, and grad
As days become weeks, weeks become months, and months become years, the anti-Trump become crazier, even more puffed with pride. I sense that same woman who turned people against me on Facebook is losing her religion (that she, a white woman, took up to give her “intersectionality” points). Meanwhile, I decided to bail on my old circles. Clearly I was a misfit in it, and I may be dense and slow to catch onto things, but I know when I’m not wanted. Luckily, they just left me alone. Luckily, they were just liberals and SJWs, they aren’t militant ANTIFA members who would probably stalk me, track my movements, dox me, and make life difficult for me.
Following that, I spent time on the “alt-right.” Now, long before the 2016 election, I’ve always had a right-wing streak to my worldviews. I started off as a High School young Republican who supported George W. Bush (although I was not really enthusiastic about him), then I became familiar with figures like Julius Evola, Oswald Spengler, and Rene Guenon and (loosely) associated with the so-called “Traditionalist” clique, who are radical rightists who have been on the fringes for a long time, well before the Trump announced his 2016 candidacy (I became acquainted with them in the mid-2000s). Later, I would delve into the popular Alt-Right. Eventually, in November of last year, I decided to make my move and accept Orthodox Christianity in a ROCOR parish. Since then, I have become increasingly critical of a lot of radical right-wing thinking along with leftism. One favors Moloch while the other favors Odin. Actually, I have come to reject and disassociate from a lot of popular western political currents, knowing that a solution to the ailments and crises facing the West will not be come from the never ending and vicious ideological Hegelian cycle it is trapped in. Although if I had to choose, I would most likely align with the right in the spirit of lesser evilism.
RE: “. . . I have come to reject and disassociate from a lot of popular western political currents, knowing that a solution to the ailments and crises facing the West will not be come from the never ending and vicious ideological Hegelian cycle it is trapped in.”
If you were to draw two conjoined circles and label one “What Politicians Say,” and the other “What the Media Says,” one could probably reject everything they have in common (vesica piscis) and be right 90+% of the time. I haven’t heard so much Russia bashing since the cold war.
Yuri, brilliant!
Like my son asked me today:. “How are we to be in the world when the world is so horrible?”
The point has always to be in but not of the world.
I’m in the world because I have had a wife for 52 years, have and raised five children, who are now in their 40s and 50s, have grandchildren, represented clients in serious matters for 45 years, had and discharged responsibilities for decades.
I’ve twice run for public office (mercifully lost both times), have a wife who is running her 6th local election, have been, frankly, proud that we have tossed our hats into the ring and been active in our community for decades.
We have lived ourselves in a world without famine, disease, and persecution, so can hardly complain, inasmuch as those have been the lot of mankind since forever most times, and are still, most places.
We are in the world because it is real and God has placed us here. Horrible? Indeed. But joyful, too. I have seen more joy by far than horror, for which I am deeply grateful, and which I do not take for granted. Lord have mercy.
TimR, someday I hope to meet you and and your wife. Your life experiences are an example of how Christians can live “in the world” with merit to both themselves and the little corner of the world which they inhabit.
We need more such examples. It’s not time to give up on the world just yet.
I cringe a little to re-read this, because my intent is not to extol myself but to point out that I believe we are to engage the world full force, starting young. The parable that ‘worries’ me the most is the parable of the talents. It’s a bad thing to bury our talent, out of fear and worry, or even worse, a sort of world-weary despondency and cynicism.
I always advise the young to dive into life, get married and have children young, live life ‘concurrently’, not ‘serially’.
I believe that one of my most important duties is to encourage the young, as I was encouraged when I was young.
We can’t fight if we are downcast. I think of St. Paul, hungry, cold, sleeping on stony ground, worried about crossing the river tomorrow, and beasts and bandits tonight. Above all, consumed by anxiety about what is going on with his churches. But he never flagged nor failed.
Very much agreed. There is nothing wrong with being in politics –strictly speaking. Politics just means “being the city” (more or less). According to proper Christian anthropology, God gave man two gifts: the Church and the Kingdom. Both are ministries necessary for salvation.
We are to be active in both but mindful of what is the province of each.
To divert the discussion into politics, per se, I have some observations about local politics; something that used to be of great interest, but which often fades to background in the torrent of unending national and international ‘news’.
I see community engagement as an obligation for most people, though most do not take up the obligation. In this I am like our friend Costa (who seems to have fallen quiet); though I am not onboard with his specific preoccupations, I share his views about ‘Main Sreet’ engagement in the community.
America is possibly unique (I don’t know for sure) in the level of its local citizen engagement in public issues, in both the public and private spheres. Leaving aside the much-maligned Masons, we have always had a plethora of local organizations performing important good works: Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, local ‘businessmens’ clubs’; the list is endless. From cleaning up the local vacant lots, to building hospitals, they are always at it (or were). And here they were deliberately non-denominational; a melting pot of good works, enlisting all through “Judeo-Christianity”– not a bad system for a republican polity.
And politics– the local elected councils and boards were peopled by the real estate agent, the insurance agent, the auto sales manager, the local lawyer, the mortician, the engineer, the small businessperson of many trades and professions.
These people filled the state and national political pipelines, leading to competent and experienced leadership at all levels. Now the pipeline is emptying out, as these responsible people retreat from local politics, and the boards and councils fill up with non-profit-organization and public employees. And so they eventually take up national positions.
I guess I should say this is Part I….but quietism and cynicism will not do…more later.
michael sone yrs ago in Uk a medical student asked me how an individual could make a difference amongst the sea of evil.
I said that, and forgive me, it was either St Seraphim of Sarov or Saint Silouan, said that if every one lit a candle in their hand, the world would be full of light.
Saint Silouan said to keep one’s mind in hell and despair not.
Nikos, as the quotes you provide indicate it is not really about “making a difference” (I have grown to despise that phrase) nor is it about enduring as William Faulkner would have had it, it is about recognizing that as real as hell seems, it has no ontological existence. It is actually the remains of the decay and death that sin brings.
The Elder Sophrony of blessed memory said that St. Silouan’s dictum could be fulfilled by learning to be thankful to God for all things. Thanksgiving is a discipline. A crucial part of a prayer filled life. It is not about outcomes or transactions but a deep humility and obedience that I some how suspect I lack.
I see the truth of it from afar but I cannot transmit it. Yet I long for it and the following is a true story told by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand from his time in Communist prisons in Romania:
Michael Bauman (August 23, 2019 at 9:11 am) says:
Nikos, as the quotes you provide indicate it is not really about “making a difference” (I have grown to despise that phrase) nor is it about enduring as William Faulkner would have had it, it is about recognizing that as real as hell seems, it has no ontological existence. It is actually the remains of the decay and death that sin brings. SNIP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many thanks to Michael Bauman for sharing the edifying story by Rev. Richard Wurmbrand.
I’d like to point out, though, that while evil has no objective existence, but is merely a perversion of what is good, the same is not true of Hell (Haides, Gehenna, the abyss, etc.) as it’s variously called in the scriptures.
That this place/state/condition of punishment has an objective existence is clearly stated by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
In the twenty-fifth chapter of St Matthew’s version of the Gospel, Jesus goes on at some length about the day of judgement, describing what sort of behavior will lead His faithful sheep to Him, and what will cause Him to reject the goats, saying to the damned: ‘You accursed ones, depart from Me into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ (MT 25:41)
So, while Hell might not have been made for us, our evil deeds (or lack of good deeds) might cause us to share in the punishment of the demons for whom it was originally created.
The objective existence of Hell, then, is not in any way related to what we do. It’s just there since the fall of Satan, and we can, by our ins, choose to go there, too.
I recommend that we don’t do that, but follow the blessed examples given by our Lord.
Monk James, I was speaking rather imprecisely concerning the existential hell of this world. Not of the undiscovered country. I realized my error but too late to correct. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
Michael Bauman,
What a moving story!
Indeed.
Pastor Wrumbrand had many such stories. In prison he made deep and lasting connections with his fellow Orthodox prisoners and saw the depth of their witness. In later years, close to death he actual said, I understand, that he was not worthy to become Orthodox. Hah! but that is the way he felt because of the story above and many others like it.
Another one of my favorites:
An Orthodox priest who was dying from the effects of the communist torture was lying next to Pastor Wurmbrand who was suffering from TB. The priest gave Pastor Wurmbrand his medicine. But then another prisoner was brought into the common cell and placed on the cot on the other side of Pastor Wurmbrand. The new prisoner was the man who had tortured the priest to the point of death.
The torturer was bereft, he belatedly recognized the horror of what he had done when he, too, who had served the regime faithfully was denounced and tortured and near death. He deeply lamented his fate knowing that he would be going to hell.
The priest upon hearing this had some fellow prisoners help him to the bedside of his dying torturer. The priest sat on the edge of the bed and looked into the other man’s eyes and said, “If I, who am a man can forgive you, how much more can God forgive you, and I forgive you.”
Both died that night in peace, it was Christmas Eve.
Or another: In another prison there was a humble Orthodox peasant and, among others, a denounced professor who was not a believer. The professor was making the case that there was no God, no one could prove it to him. The humble peasant politely disagreed saying he knew Jesus was real because he, the peasant, had seen him. The professor mocked and demanded the peasant describe what Jesus looked like. The peasant said nothing, he merely paused in prayer, and then looked at the professor with such a transformed and beatific face that the mocking professor was first silenced and then believed.
These stories almost make me long for those prisons, but I know I am too weak for such things and much more like the professor than the peasant. Today’s prisons, if they come, will be different and probably worse in many ways.
Sometimes, we make it too complicated. Glory to God for His mercy.