Friends, for "the establishment", that merry band of globalists and elitists that smugly rules over us, these are, to borrow a phrase, the best of times and the worst of times. Why the best? Because the establishment defeated its nemesis, Donald Trump, in 2020 and reestablished its monopoly on power at the federal level. It also increasingly dominates every institution we have -- which of course is no surprise. That's why it's called "the establishment", after all. What is rather shocking is the ease with which non-establishment voices are being silenced and deliberately excluded from the media, social media, our education system, Hollywood, and beyond. Add to all that the fact that government is growing by leaps and bounds, and the authority of government over even the most private aspects of our lives is growing too, thanks to the pandemic, and you'd be hard-pressed to think of a time in our history when the powers-that-be were more, well, powerful.
On the other hand, polls consistently show that those very institutions through which the elite wields its power -- from Congress, to the courts, to the presidency, from Hollywood, to higher ed, to social media, etc etc. -- all enjoy less legitimacy and less confidence from the American people than ever before. Yes, the establishment still tells us what to do and what to think, but the truth is that a very substantial fraction of the American people (based on the last election, you'd have to say...47%?) simply aren't obeying or even listening anymore. And even Democrats, who loathe all the people the elite tells them to loathe, don't repose great confidence in their "betters". So, in that sense, you'd have to say that the establishment's sway over you and me has never been shakier! It's a wacky incongruity, no?
Along those lines, behold this recent Gallup poll, which indicates that Americans' opinion of almost all our leading institutions is low...and heading lower! If I were a pillar of the establishment, I'd be pretty nervous right now!
https://www.newsmax.com/us/gallup-confidence-media-police/2021/07/15/id/1028759/
Among the venerable institutions that you might want to start scoffing at is Wikipedia, which is one of my go-to sources for information. Well, "information" is the ultimate battleground these days, so naturally the Left has tried to plant its flag on Wikipedia's virgin soil...and they've been largely successful. You've been warned!
https://unherd.com/thepost/wikipedia-co-founder-i-no-longer-trust-the-website-i-created/
In other news, rumors persist that the 2020 election might not have been 100% above board. I know -- if this were Twitter, I'd be covered in "fact checks" by now... See here some of the latest developments in Georgia and Arizona:
The lengths to which lefties will go to demonstrate their subservience to wokeness is sometimes comical. Check out the latest fit of groveling from the American Booksellers' Association... It almost makes you feel sorry for these wackos!
The amazing part of the story below is that some of the illegals crossing our southern border are still -- believe it or not -- being "turned back". What an oversight, right? I'm sure the Biden administration will get this straightened out sooner or later.
Good news! The NFL is doubling down on wokeness. Apparently their ratings just weren't low enough last season. They're trying to make the glorious sport of American football positively unwatchable, I guess. Oy!
The U.S. Secretary of State is inviting the United Nations to investigate our ongoing problem with "systemic racism". Oh good! That's bound to go well, and no doubt their inquiry will be 100% objective too. It's beginning to be clear that the Dems' constant trash-talking of America is having a serious effect on how other countries perceive us -- and amazingly they don't find our self-flagellation endearing! How odd.
https://news.yahoo.com/blinken-invites-un-investigate-contemporary-172900198.html
Those Texas House Dems are still doing the rounds in DC and avoiding Texas like the plague. Can they hold out long enough to scupper Texas Republicans' election integrity bill? Probably. Now that it's a point of pride, I'd expect the Dems to fight tooth and nail.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/texas-democrats-dadephelan-electionintegrity/2021/07/15/id/1028813/
I think we can all agree that the problem with social media is that it just doesn't censor conservatives enough. Luckily our Dear Leader Sleepy Joe is on the case. His administration is giving Facebook, Twitter, et al. helpful hints in how they can stifle heterodoxy even more effectively. Yay! If this keeps up, conservatives might have to "self-deport" themselves from the internet. I'd suggest the trusty U.S. Mail as a fallback option, but Big Brother is probably reading that too -- with extreme prejudice!
Dr.Waddy from Jack: As a librarian I should expectthe American Booksellers to be completely captured by the left. Like most (not all) of my fellow librarians, they have but little political courage.
ReplyDeleteIt's darn depressing. Books are (still) an important means of conveying information to the public. Chalk up one more form of "media" that the Left has in its pocket. Oy.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I dearly love books from all eras and I'm very comfortable with those in the exclusively book professions, such as collecting and selling. But books are no longer the premier medium of consequential opinion and scholarly synthesis of emperical evidence. Monographs, traditional vehicles of empirical evidence and reasonable interpretation are often superseded hy on line published works readily analysed for further selective indexing, on line. Booksellers are a revered but increasingly antiquarian sort and the influence of their professional organization accordingly lessened. At todays prices, purchasing new book publication for its overall informational value may be inadvisable.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Jack -- books aren't what they used to be. Video long ago superseded the written word as the primary means of sharing information.
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