Scott asks a perfectly fair question: why I used to pearl-clutch so hard about authoritarian populism in 2008, but am perfectly okay with the Trump administration in 2025–despite all its manifest errors, incompetences, and even cruelties? Surely the answer is that I’ve Sold Out

No, Scott, I pearl-clutched in 2008 for the same reasons you’re doing it now: I was a libtard and a coward. I still am. I’ve just recovered a bit more. You could work on that too, Scott. (You’re better paid, too. The right, unlike the left, isn’t here to pay off its friends.)

(Scott is obviously not *paid* by the left. He is paid by his audience, like me. His is bigger, if not better.) Being a libtard and a coward was not, of course, my logic. Just my motivation. Let me explain the logic of my corrected attitude toward authoritarian populism

Politics = monarchy, oligarchy, democracy: authority, prestige, popularity. Authoritarian populism versus institutional meritocracy. Fact: the physical energy of democracy has declined 1000x in 250 years. Go on pretending that January 6 is the storming of the Bastille lol

On January 6, no one’s organs were ripped out and carried around on spears. Nor were they going to be. Lol. Effective, non-symbolic democracy is always the fuel behind monarchy. The mob always finds a leader. In 1789, that fuel was dynamite. In 2021, it was Miller Lite

Claude says all the Miller Lite sold in the US in 2021 had 1.5 petajoules of energy, which could lift 5000 tons to orbit. But: Unlike dynamite, it won’t do it *by accident*. If your fuel is 1930s Germans, it’s gasoline. Worry about gasoline vapors. Don’t worry about beer vapors

Effective democracy is a political engine. This engine concentrates, contains and controls its fuel. When the fuel is strong—hardened WW1 veterans—containment is key. When the fuel is weak—checked out suburban grill-Americans—concentration is key. Lite beer doesn’t explode

But what about all the awful deeds of Orange Hitler? OMG we need to reopen Auschwitz but as a yuppie eco boot camp, so everyone who makes this comparison can spend a week there—two, for the worst cases. Probably the existing facilities aren’t big enough, we’ll have to franchise

When you see the world through a narrative produced by interested powers, you are living in “managed democracy.” We know all about Putin’s pet media. But that’s just the difference between democracy managed by monarchy/authority, and democracy managed by oligarchy/prestige

Our 20th-century Walter Lippmann managed democracy usually gets you by making you look through a microscope at 10000x resolution. You see some fake “PhD student” with a Star Wars name, in a Star Wars costume, bundled into a van by goons, for “writing” college essay 5 years ago

Muh freedom of speech. You forget that this regime has spent the last century managing public opinion with every carrot and stick it can find, up to and including asking professors to compose their own inventive and detailed loyalty oaths to gay race communism. Oh yeah that

You forget that the US immigration system was already a giant Kafkaesque monster that has been randomly tormenting Americans of every color, creed and nationality, whether their name is John Smith or Jabba the Hutt, basically since Pocahontas was a little girl. Oh yeah that

You forget that during the lifespan of this regime, whose crimes have no statute of oblivion, many once civilized places became desolate and dangerous, forcing whole populations to flee—including most of most of our cities, even the hometown of the new Pope lol. Oh yeah that

You forget that when we let doctors and virologists, not Facebook moms and narcissistic billionaires, run our medical research, they invented a pandemic and killed 20 million people, for absolutely no sane reason at all. And that was just the start of the crazy. OH YEAH THAT

But no—you can’t keep your eye away from that microscope. The poor lady with the Star Wars name. The PhD student. At Tufts which is actually a good university if not quite Harvard. On her metal bed. I hope they let her have her books! I bet they didn’t let her have her books

Scott, managed democracy is normal. You know and I know: people don’t think. They have to be educated. Someone is always pointing a screen at them. Give the people power and they have to be trained to use it. It’s the trainers’ power. But a managed philosopher is a hack

How do they manage you? Like you manage anyone—carrot and stick. You’re a libtard and a coward. The libtard gets the carrot—the lure of prestige. The coward gets the stick—the threat of cancellation. This isn’t a new system. It wasn’t invented in 2012 lol. Or even 1962

And authoritarian populism is the only force with the power to end it. And today it’s about where fusion is: it’s a huge thing if it can light a lightbulb for 5 minutes. And yes there’s some radiation. And the coal industry tells us it’s Fukushima and Hiroshima put together

When the Trump administration does something crazy, stupid and even cruel—as seen through the libtard microscope—I think it’s actually a good sign in the grand scheme of things. It means Trump supporters will support anything. Frankly, that’s the attitude they need to win

The things that actually must be done are not crazy, stupid or cruel—but they are quite beyond the experience or understanding of those who will have to support them. Republican voters, even Trump voters, are still far from granting this level of consent—but they are learning