Once you get beyond the surprisingly good job he did of defending Brett Kavanaugh during his hearings, I’ve never had a lot of particularly nice things to say about the late Lindsey Graham.
The Democrats are largely a collection of socioeconomic malcontents with low self-esteem and thus have adopted a victim mindset to help mitigate the justified depression that would envelope them having to accept the truth that their views, choices and behavior is responsible for their lack of life success. People within that space are generally lost, and are really defined as insane, unless they can get effective cognitive behavior therapy. However, it is good to know that they are lost because it helps prevent the waste of time arguing logical points with them... and instead should energize the rest to ensure their insanity does not leak out and gain power and influence over society and the economy.
Now, these lost people are primarily female. And we have promoted females to a dominate position in many of our institutions and parts of our economy. So, in effect, we have allowed the insane to gain power and influence.
That fat girl with the sign in any other day would never have felt safe displaying that sign because the majority would not put up with that insanity. But since the promotion of females and thus the promotion of insane people, she feels safe. She should not feel safe. My guess is that there were plenty of people there that did not agree at all, not only with her position, but the crap behavior for bringing it and displaying it at a fucking basketball game. If I had been there and close by I would have been telling her that she is a crap person for doing that. Why would she go to a basketball game to rage her idiot political views? I would tell her to go away. She is not welcome. She is insane. She should leave and go exercise. She should not feel welcome and safe behaving like that.
Yes, there are no they... but there are categories of we the people that can be identified and lumped together as having a common behavior.
That people like that obese clown go to sporting events and bring signs like that reminds me of the great scenes from Mickey Rourke’s classic, Barfly. He and Faye Dunaway are sitting at a bar drinking and she says she hates people. After a pause he replies that he doesn’t hate people, he just feels better when they’re not around. https://youtu.be/FuXpD3xDwvU?is=nn4nV75fRqehda2A
In any random population there's bound to be a normal distribution of smart vs dumb, good vs evil, pretty vs ugly, tall vs short etc. There were a lot of baby boomers born. Many already died either through bad luck or bad decisions. Many have survived through good luck & good decisions. I think the normal rules of statistics still apply to more recent generations. The drums simply beat louder in today's world.
I think the big thing today is there are so many people with a vested interest in telling people what they want to hear and for many people, there are no sweeter words in the human language than, "It's not your fault that things are going wrong in your life." Once you accept that some "they" is responsible, it's takes the onus off of you and puts all the responsibility for your failures on other people.
That's the opposite of how successful people think. They take personal responsibility for pretty much everything that happens in their life and they address it instead of blaming it on some "them" and waiting for that imaginary problem to get fix (Hint: It never will be).
John, I'm glad you included the picture of that morbidly obese woman with the hating sign. She hates Caitlin Clark because she's a white, straight woman playing in a predominantly black, lesbian league. She hates Sophie Cunningham for saying that the "W" in her professional league ought to mean women, not men who think they are women but know they would be far more likely to enjoy success there than even getting a chance to play in the NBA. I'm speculating a little here, but I'd guess the other reason she hates on Caitlin and Sophie is that most men would find them highly attractive, while most men would find her most unattractive. In the era of GLP-1's, there is a reasonable possibility that she could lose the extra 100 plus pounds of fat that she is carrying, instead of letting it ruin her health. Maybe her outlook on life would improve as well.
I think the wise thing to do is to decide who "they" are by following Voltaire's criteria:
You figure out who it is that cannot be criticized. That tells you who "they" are.
Before the Reformation you couldn't criticize the Pope.
After Henry's break with Rome, you couldn't criticize the King.
In the Soviet Union the one who could not be criticized was Comrade Stalin (and his Party).
Under the monarchies, the one who could not be criticized was the king, queen, emperor or Kaiser.
In America it isn't an individual. It's a group.
When you determine who that group is, you have the answer to the question who "they" are.
Lindsey Graham knew quite well who "they" were. He kept his lips attached to their backsides through his entire career. He always served them and screwed over his own people.
Lindsey Graham was and remains an eternal disgrace to South Carolina. As someone all of whose ancestors for the past several centuries came from South Carolina, I think Lindsey Graham is a rare bird:
Someone who makes me ashamed to be a birthright South Carolinian.
Graham was a reasonable competent con artist.
He sure made a ninny our of the fool who swallowed this statement.
I also had lots of things to say about Mr. Gramnesty. He was basically a coward in many ways- he could call out others, make strongly worded speeches, and then- "surprise!" he would act the traitor to the Republican party. I disliked him, mainly because he was "reliably unreliable." I don't know enough about South Carolina to understand the birthright, I just visited the law school there once. It was nice, but the heat and humidity was tough on a WI boy like me. I hope you're not throwing John Hawkins under the bus, here? He's certainly not a fool, and I have to admit that I have never met anyone who agrees with me all the time, yet I forgive them for being so obtuse! Thanks for writing this interesting comment.
Mr. W-H: By no means am I throwing John Hawkins under the bus. I like him. I subscribe to his Substack because I think he has cogent, interesting things to say. I can tell Mr. Hawkins and I have several issues on which we disagree, but on most things we see eye to eye. I don't press issues on which I suspect we disagree, which is why I left it an open question as to who "they" are. I suspect my own answer would upset Hawkins and I don't want to upset him. Put my name down on the list of the members of the John Hawkins Fan Club.
Very well said, John. One of your best. Most of the people that talk about they are, whether they understand it or not, looking for someone to blame for their own problems. That’s the base reason for the support for socialism/communism.
If you combine your thoughts here with the pieces you do a few months ago about what rules of success you should follow and what you should avoid, you will have the answer.
Will people follow that advice? Alas, most will not. Why? Because most people find it easier to blame “they” for their failures and “they” for the success of others.
Are there some people who have life handed to them on a golden plate? Sure. Are there some people that got nothing but lemons from life? Again, of course.
But, the difference is that most successful people, regardless of what life dealt them, work hard, and I mean long hours, early mornings, late nights, weekends. Whatever it takes to get the job done and to get ahead.
There’s simply no way to avoid the basic avenue for success: stay off drugs, don’t get pregnant until you’re ready, work hard, harder than the people around you, don’t waste money on door dash or Uber Eats, etc.
PS- I laughed out loud when I first that X post. Classic!
The Democrats are largely a collection of socioeconomic malcontents with low self-esteem and thus have adopted a victim mindset to help mitigate the justified depression that would envelope them having to accept the truth that their views, choices and behavior is responsible for their lack of life success. People within that space are generally lost, and are really defined as insane, unless they can get effective cognitive behavior therapy. However, it is good to know that they are lost because it helps prevent the waste of time arguing logical points with them... and instead should energize the rest to ensure their insanity does not leak out and gain power and influence over society and the economy.
Now, these lost people are primarily female. And we have promoted females to a dominate position in many of our institutions and parts of our economy. So, in effect, we have allowed the insane to gain power and influence.
That fat girl with the sign in any other day would never have felt safe displaying that sign because the majority would not put up with that insanity. But since the promotion of females and thus the promotion of insane people, she feels safe. She should not feel safe. My guess is that there were plenty of people there that did not agree at all, not only with her position, but the crap behavior for bringing it and displaying it at a fucking basketball game. If I had been there and close by I would have been telling her that she is a crap person for doing that. Why would she go to a basketball game to rage her idiot political views? I would tell her to go away. She is not welcome. She is insane. She should leave and go exercise. She should not feel welcome and safe behaving like that.
Yes, there are no they... but there are categories of we the people that can be identified and lumped together as having a common behavior.
That people like that obese clown go to sporting events and bring signs like that reminds me of the great scenes from Mickey Rourke’s classic, Barfly. He and Faye Dunaway are sitting at a bar drinking and she says she hates people. After a pause he replies that he doesn’t hate people, he just feels better when they’re not around. https://youtu.be/FuXpD3xDwvU?is=nn4nV75fRqehda2A
In any random population there's bound to be a normal distribution of smart vs dumb, good vs evil, pretty vs ugly, tall vs short etc. There were a lot of baby boomers born. Many already died either through bad luck or bad decisions. Many have survived through good luck & good decisions. I think the normal rules of statistics still apply to more recent generations. The drums simply beat louder in today's world.
I think the big thing today is there are so many people with a vested interest in telling people what they want to hear and for many people, there are no sweeter words in the human language than, "It's not your fault that things are going wrong in your life." Once you accept that some "they" is responsible, it's takes the onus off of you and puts all the responsibility for your failures on other people.
That's the opposite of how successful people think. They take personal responsibility for pretty much everything that happens in their life and they address it instead of blaming it on some "them" and waiting for that imaginary problem to get fix (Hint: It never will be).
Nailed it!
John, I'm glad you included the picture of that morbidly obese woman with the hating sign. She hates Caitlin Clark because she's a white, straight woman playing in a predominantly black, lesbian league. She hates Sophie Cunningham for saying that the "W" in her professional league ought to mean women, not men who think they are women but know they would be far more likely to enjoy success there than even getting a chance to play in the NBA. I'm speculating a little here, but I'd guess the other reason she hates on Caitlin and Sophie is that most men would find them highly attractive, while most men would find her most unattractive. In the era of GLP-1's, there is a reasonable possibility that she could lose the extra 100 plus pounds of fat that she is carrying, instead of letting it ruin her health. Maybe her outlook on life would improve as well.
I think the wise thing to do is to decide who "they" are by following Voltaire's criteria:
You figure out who it is that cannot be criticized. That tells you who "they" are.
Before the Reformation you couldn't criticize the Pope.
After Henry's break with Rome, you couldn't criticize the King.
In the Soviet Union the one who could not be criticized was Comrade Stalin (and his Party).
Under the monarchies, the one who could not be criticized was the king, queen, emperor or Kaiser.
In America it isn't an individual. It's a group.
When you determine who that group is, you have the answer to the question who "they" are.
Lindsey Graham knew quite well who "they" were. He kept his lips attached to their backsides through his entire career. He always served them and screwed over his own people.
Lindsey Graham was and remains an eternal disgrace to South Carolina. As someone all of whose ancestors for the past several centuries came from South Carolina, I think Lindsey Graham is a rare bird:
Someone who makes me ashamed to be a birthright South Carolinian.
Graham was a reasonable competent con artist.
He sure made a ninny our of the fool who swallowed this statement.
I also had lots of things to say about Mr. Gramnesty. He was basically a coward in many ways- he could call out others, make strongly worded speeches, and then- "surprise!" he would act the traitor to the Republican party. I disliked him, mainly because he was "reliably unreliable." I don't know enough about South Carolina to understand the birthright, I just visited the law school there once. It was nice, but the heat and humidity was tough on a WI boy like me. I hope you're not throwing John Hawkins under the bus, here? He's certainly not a fool, and I have to admit that I have never met anyone who agrees with me all the time, yet I forgive them for being so obtuse! Thanks for writing this interesting comment.
Mr. W-H: By no means am I throwing John Hawkins under the bus. I like him. I subscribe to his Substack because I think he has cogent, interesting things to say. I can tell Mr. Hawkins and I have several issues on which we disagree, but on most things we see eye to eye. I don't press issues on which I suspect we disagree, which is why I left it an open question as to who "they" are. I suspect my own answer would upset Hawkins and I don't want to upset him. Put my name down on the list of the members of the John Hawkins Fan Club.
Another great essay.
Very well said, John. One of your best. Most of the people that talk about they are, whether they understand it or not, looking for someone to blame for their own problems. That’s the base reason for the support for socialism/communism.
If you combine your thoughts here with the pieces you do a few months ago about what rules of success you should follow and what you should avoid, you will have the answer.
Will people follow that advice? Alas, most will not. Why? Because most people find it easier to blame “they” for their failures and “they” for the success of others.
Are there some people who have life handed to them on a golden plate? Sure. Are there some people that got nothing but lemons from life? Again, of course.
But, the difference is that most successful people, regardless of what life dealt them, work hard, and I mean long hours, early mornings, late nights, weekends. Whatever it takes to get the job done and to get ahead.
There’s simply no way to avoid the basic avenue for success: stay off drugs, don’t get pregnant until you’re ready, work hard, harder than the people around you, don’t waste money on door dash or Uber Eats, etc.
PS- I laughed out loud when I first that X post. Classic!