13 Comments
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ken terry's avatar

Totally agree. Megan Kelly and company are doing exactly what they decry in the woke; "agree with everything I say or be declared a hater". Most of us will agree with Hess. I love this country but not everything I see in it right now.

Blue Elf's avatar

When you try to discuss the complexity of the problem, they'll say you're "not firm enough".

#PickOnGitch's avatar

Big Senator Carl Schurz Energy!

From https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Schurz:

The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, "My country, right or wrong." In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.

Remarks in the Senate (29 February 1872) He was here responding to the famous slogan derived from a statement of Stephen Decatur: "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong."

Lars-Olov Söderberg's avatar

Conservatives in general and MAGA conservatives in particular need do get a grip on the pendulum pretty dam quick before it overcorrects and abolish all the good the right have accomplished and defended. I hate to se us do that to ourselves

Blue Elf's avatar

That's right, so we need to unite.

Cameron S. Bradley's avatar

Thank you for pointing this out.

TriTorch's avatar

This is not organic it is a hostile takeover...

These never-ending torrents of bad news - Epstein, ICE, Voting Etc. - are a demoralizing military tactic used to take down societies, and it is being fully deployed here—a multi-pronged color revolution bombardment from every angle. Full spectrum demoralizing dominance from an ancient worn out playbook.

Obama explains the lengths they are going to: "You just have to flood a country's public square with enough raw sewage, you just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plant enough conspiracy theorizing that citizens no longer know what to believe. Once they lose trust in their leaders, in mainstream media, in political institutions, in each other, in the possibility of "truth", the games won."

Who is behind this? All is brought to you by - and serves the interests of - the 1% who own and control the media and most of the government:

Here is well over a dozen Fox, CBS, ABC, & NBC local news stations all reading an identical script sent down from their singular overlord to crash & burn alternative media in order to enhance the Oligarchy’s Overwhelming threat to our democracy:

https://substack.com/@tritorch/note/c-208406729

Ultimately we are not consuming news. We are consuming a product manufactured by the richest men in human history, and that product is designed to do one thing: keep us so busy fighting our neighbors that you never notice the chains being fastened around our wrists.

Given this sad situation, I think we should put much of our emphasis back where it matters: God, family, & community, because:

"God did not give us the Book of Revelations so that we would build bomb shelters in the back yard. He gave us this Book so we'd build bigger tables and invite our friends and neighbors over and tell them about Jesus."

David Prejean's avatar

It wasn't the message, it's the venue. Time and place...

Helen Pluckrose's avatar

I’m pretty sure it was the message. Some people have said the Olympic Games shouldn’t ask contestants questions like that but the anger is directed at Hess not the interviewer. It’s unclear what he could have done differently. If he’d responded to being asked how he felt about representing America in its current political climate by saying, “I think it’s all great” this wouldn’t have made much sense because one can’t support everything going on and it would also have been coerced speech if that is not what he actually thinks. If he’d said, “I’d rather not answer that question” this would still have been interpreted as not being fully in support of the Trump administration and condemned as unpatriotic by the same people now doing so.

David Prejean's avatar

How about, "I'm focusing on my sport/performance and not politics." That would have flipped the script and upset the progressives and he'd have been seen to miss an opportunity to criticize Trump.

His honest answer would be, "I'm 20-something and spend most of my day practicing. What do I know?"

Helen Pluckrose's avatar

Even then, I’d still support someone’s right to say what their views are, even if they are an athlete competing internationally. Countries which don’t allow their athletes to offer any criticism of the government aren’t generally known for support of freedom of belief.

David Prejean's avatar

Yes, I totally support their right to say it. I'd rather they didn't talk politics, but it's not a reason to kick them off of the team.

Lisa Simeone's avatar

Thank you, Helen, as always, for your rational writing.

Alas, reason always seems to be swimming upstream, no matter the era, no matter the country, no matter the subject.