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113 sats \ 10 replies \ @398ja OP 11 Jul \ on: Niall Ferguson: We’re All Soviets Now (15 min) BooksAndArticles

If you've enjoyed this piece, consider reading Jonah Goldberg's rebuttal. In essence, while Goldberg agrees on many points, he also believes that Ferguson's comparisons and analogies go too far, and fail at capturing the nuances and highlighting the moral superiority of the US. He concludes with this quote:

“To say that we and the Soviet Union are to be compared is the equivalent of saying that the man who pushes the old lady into the way of an oncoming bus, and the man who pushes the old lady out of the way of an oncoming bus, are both people who push old ladies around.”

https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/gfile/no-we-are-not-living-in-late-soviet-america/ (12 min)

76 sats \ 0 replies \ @wingalt 11 Jul

What a weak rebuttal there is nothing in there, either wrong or twisted arguments the whole piece while agreeing 90% with the original article. So pretty much a good a academic exercise (i.e., meaningless babbling)

76 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 11 Jul

Please... What an absurd response to this article. I didn't read Ferguson's piece as the people of the US are as bad as the people of the USSR. I also didn't read it as the governments are on the same level.

I would summarize that when you are fighting something be careful that you don't become what you hate. I think the US government has been on that path since the cold war.

All that said, I haven't read Goldberg response yet.

55 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 11 Jul

Goldberg is a waste of time. No one cares about his opinions. He has zero demand in the marketplace for pundits.

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 11 Jul

I read "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left" by him many years ago. Was interesting but I was in a very different place with my world view.

63 sats \ 4 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Jul

I have to intervene as a 'friend'

Ferguson is good but Jonah Goldberg and the dispatch are pathetic Never Trump Republicans without an audience.

Jonah is more knowledge than intelligence, once in a while he gets lucky and say something insightful like a broken clock twice a day

Stop reading Jonah Goldberg and Dispatch

Regarding his quote, Niall is comparing the Democrats and left wing apparatchiks to the old Soviet Union Politburo and Pravda

Democrats have embraced Kremlinology

68 sats \ 2 replies \ @398ja OP 11 Jul

I didn't want to say it first, but I found that Goldberg was just nitpicking...

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 11 Jul

Dang, it sure is nitpicking. I mean I could nitpick it as well but the main thread is spot on.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Jul

That's what he does because he can't contribute anything of substance

Lost a lot of respect for him in 2017

I didn't mind he didn't vote for Trump but he hated Trump personally

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 11 Jul

Goldberg is an establishment guy. I haven't read anything from him in years because he seemed like a mouth piece for the neocons to me. The neocons hate Trump because he doesn't really have ideals and doesn't play their game. I'm not Trump fan but his brash approach and ability to garner support exposes the truth in those that hate him. Those in his party and those in other parties. Its one of the more fascinating things to observe as a politically disenfranchised person.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 12 Jul

https://dailycaller.com/2024/07/11/victor-davis-hanson-brezhnev-pravda-soviet-union-joe-biden-kamala-harris

Something similar has happened to a calcified America under President Joe Biden. Like the late-stage Brezhnev, Biden is now a president in name only. He has outsourced his administration to a vestigial hard-left apparat from the Obama years.