Agree with all of that, Zooey. What we should do, and how difficult it is to get there, etc.

Major frustration for me: Europe clearly gets far better results on all the matters discussed here. They have better health care, for half the price. Lower infant mortality, lower birth-mother mortality. People there live longer, happier, healthier lives. Heck, they even have lower incidences of abortions and SDTs due to their far more open sex ed, etc. On pretty much every quality of life metric, they kick our butts. Yet our “leaders” refuse to move in their direction. Quite the opposite, of course.

I know you know this. It also frustrates me that Europe is far from being “radical.” If only. They’ve had a mix of conservative and social democratic governance since WWII, but for too many Americans, they’re wild-eyed and “far left.” Ironically, social democrats there want to go much further and can’t seem to make that happen. They, too, are all too often jammed by conservatives.

(Personally, I think social democratic reforms, even if implemented fully, fall well short of what the world and planet earth need. Martin Hagglund speaks brilliantly about all of this in his This Life.)

Anyway, we’re so far from even half-way decent realities, and slipping further and further away by the hour . . . When I think about it, I hear the Stones “Paint it Black” again and again.

At least the Rams ended their skid.

Well, ya see . . .

So far, I think it’s missing the best of Marvel elements: myth. I’m partial to Asian geography in that case, because of the obvious martial arts aspects. But it can be anywhere. Then again, Marvel doesn’t always make that work so well, with, perhaps, the best (worst) example being the Iron Fist series. In 2021, it’s very difficult to stick the landing, culturally. Movies like Shang-Chi, which I really liked, except for the kinda lame dragons, don’t have to go through so many potential gauntlets to just be themselves.

If memory serves, Hawkeye as Rodin has the geography, but not really the cool origin myth. Maybe memory doesn’t serve.

I’m willing to listen to alternative views, but I wish Marvel had chosen Black Widow to survive Endgame instead of Hawkeye.

(I haven’t kept up with the comics themselves since I was a kid, so I don’t know how far the movies and series veer away from them . . .)

Zooey,

What’s your take?

Again, there is a huge difference between pre-Civil War American jurisprudence and post-Civil War. Amendments which came after it “nullify” the 10th for the most part (ironically), and the Tenther Movement is stuck in pre-1860 America, in my view.

Hoping Waterfield responds, but would also like to hear your take. Not only regarding interpretation of the Constitution, but also what we should do?

Waterfield,

Actually, contrary to conventional wisdom, the founders granted themselves massive powers in their constitution. Article One, Section Eight gives sweeping powers to the Federal government, for better or worse. I’ve never understood how anyone can read those four pages and come away thinking it was written by Ron Paul. The anti-federalists lost the argument. We don’t go by the Articles of Confederation, etc.

And, then there was the Civil War, and all those amendments after the Civil War. Like the 14th, which reads in part:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Zooey,

Was wondering about some things. I think I have a pretty good sense of humor — believe it or not. Friends and family say I do, anyway.

;>)

But I have to admit to struggling with more than a few of those twitter memes and photos you guys post. Just like New Yorker cartoons, I’m all too often perplexed and can’t see the humor. At all.

Like the one with the wine bottle. And most of those “guy who leers at other girl while walking with his now angry girlfriend” captions.

Is there a special decoder ring needed for twitter humor?

Hope all is well.

McVay’s rep and his performance strike me as being at odds recently. Initially hailed as a revolutionary mind on offense, from this fan’s perspective, their offense seems all too vanilla and predictable these days. It also strikes me as very “conservative” and rigid. Yes, as many a commentator has said over the last few years, he runs variants from a basic setup. But the rigidity when it comes to that one setup makes it easier for teams to counter.

Wouldn’t it be all the more difficult if he switched up packages and ran variants within several? That would confuse the hell out of DCs.

Use an extra lineman, move him to the backfield now and then. Do the same with extra tight ends. Activate Perkins and run the option with him. More variants. etc. etc.

And, yeah, I know injuries have limited him. But they can still try these things with the players they have. If they’re good enough to make an NFL team, they’re good enough to follow an enhanced playbook.

Things gotta change. As others have mentioned, this is really screwing up the Rams’ defense too. Keeps them on the field far too long, and they can’t pin their ears back and rush when they’re down two touchdowns, etc.

A bad offense makes for a mediocre D, even one with Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey on it.

That’s unconscionable. And incredibly stupid, cuz non-profit, truly public goods and services will always be cheaper for patients and consumers than for-profit, “private” goods and services. Recent estimates put the savings for M4A, for instance, at 600 billion dollars per year, just on admin costs!

But this move is also a part of the inexorable competitive “laws of motion” of capitalism, which David Harvey explains so well. Not only the pressure to colonize the future (debt, speculation, crypto-currencies, etc), but to forever expand markets spatially, geographically, and via “enclosures” of the Commons.

Going after Medicare and Social Security is a kind of reversal of reversals of those enclosures. As you guys know, enclosures happened primarily during the early rise of capitalism — and a bit before — as a way to kill off and privatize centuries-old common lands. FDR and LBJ took back some of that enclosed space, and now Dem moderates, centrists, conservadems, and the entire GOP are working double-time to take it back and then some.

The “then some” comes in by keeping taxpayers on the hook, regardless. The old “socialize the risk, privatize the gains” deal. Plus, prices will go up, so citizens will get screwed 8 days a week and twice on Sunday.

I really don’t know how much longer America will be able to hold together, with this grotesque combo of rising fascism, runaway “pragmatic” corporatism, cowardly leadership, pandemics, climate change, etc. etc.

Hey, but at least we have the surging Rams to take our minds off of things. Um, well, through the last 8 games, anyway.

Joemad,

I was against the trade from the jump. I thought it was way too much to give up for a QB his age, and I didn’t think the level of upgrade was sufficient to warrant all those picks. I would have preferred it if they had just kept Goff, worked on his throwing motion, and supported him when he was down. Lift him back up. Cuz, given what he had done for the Rams in the past, it had to be mostly an issue of confidence, which McVay wasn’t helping.

Of course, then you have to go back to the stupidity of that huge contract extension, which was — what? — two years before they had to worry about it? Gurley too. And, all of those picks they gave up to move up to draft him in the first place. I’m a diehard, going all the way back to 1966, but I hate when they botch things like this. Though, I have to admit, when they botch things, they do it with panache!

;>)

Anyway, I think if Stafford is healthy, he’s better than Goff. But he’s not healthy, and he likely has too much wear on his tires to ever be what he once was. I wouldn’t have made the trade**, but I support him now, etc.

**Maybe Goff and a 3rd. Maybe. Even that might be too much. And Detroit wasn’t going to agree to that, obviously, which would have been just fine with me.

Zooey,

Agree with you about the coaches and Rapp. I wasn’t thrilled with the pick when it happened, seeing him as a bit slow for the position. He’s tough, and a try-hard guy, but seems limited athletically. Basically, a box-only guy. That’s where Johnson was superior, and he was basically another coach on the field.

(They haven’t managed the cap well at all, so they struggle to keep their own good players)

You just can’t do needed upgrades across the board when you throw away picks at the drop of a hat — and the Rams have done that a coupla times recently for single-season rentals.

Fluke injuries have been a major factor too, and that’s not the team’s fault. But, unlike the Packers, the Rams appear not to have the talent to go “next man up” with positive results.

I’ll still keep watching and hoping, when the Rams are on TV. But it looks like another one of those “wait until next year!” years.

The Rams aren’t strong enough as a team to give away so many points. Against poor to mediocre teams, perhaps. But not against good teams. Their offense just isn’t strong enough to come back from those turnovers, and Stafford isn’t healthy enough to bring them back or stop being a turnover machine.

Heresy, I know, but I think it’s time to bench him, let him heal. Play Perkins instead. If the Rams can make the playoffs, bring Stafford back. If not, get him ready for next season.

Obviously, that’s not what the Rams will do. They’ve invested so much in him, they’ll ride that train until the bitter end, win, lose or draw. But it may just be that he’s one and done, if they keep playing him while he’s hurt. Back, throwing arm, ankle, and the likelihood of brand new injuries on top of that . . .

I think their “all in” strategy is biting them already, and showing how thin they are in too many areas. Forced to play a UDFA like Koski at punt returner, or risk Kupp getting injured, etc. They’ve lacked early picks for far too long, which prevents them from upgrading talent in key spots. O-line, inside backer, corner, safety, return teams, etc.

Had really high hopes for this season. But they’re fading. As always, I want them to prove me wrong.

I probably should have just started with this. It’s what led me to the Bregman book:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/11/the-right-wing-story-about-human-nature-is-false

Are we naturally violent, power-hungry, and greedy? Rutger Bregman’s book “Humankind” devastates the myth of human selfishness.

Nathan J. Robinson

filed 18 November 2021 in History

Quick addition:

This makes great sense to me, on the kill rate issue: Studies have shown that throughout history the human aversion to killing other humans is most stark when it comes to hand to hand. Looking your enemy in the eye and then killing him or her is very rare. The further distance between enemies the “easier” it becomes, but, again, it’s still not at all easy. Dropping bombs, leaving IEDs, using drones, long-distance sniper fire — these methods reduce the aversion. But the overall takeaway seems clear to me:

People who kill other people tend to be sociopaths or psychopaths. It has never been our “norm.” It has always been a tiny minority that actually wants to kill.

Bregman calls us “Homo puppy” for a reason. But he also gets into the downside of “friendliness” and “cooperation,” even “empathy,” all of which can be manipulated by others for their own malicious ends.

In short, his book isn’t sappy, happy, joy joy at all. It’s quite realistic about us humans, IMO, as were the other books I mentioned. The all do “nuance,” in short.

WV,

What’s your take on the conventional wisdom with regard to “human nature”? I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately about evolution, biology, traits, etc. . . . and have discovered that the tide is turning. As in, the old ways of seeing humans as inherently violent, selfish, and hopelessly cruel, are being countered with a ton of evidence to the contrary.

I think this is important in tackling the larger issue of “systems,” because much of the refusal to change goes back to that initial pessimistic, cynical, harsh vision of ourselves. I can’t even count the times people have told me socialism can’t work because, “human nature.” But the books I’ve been reading — like Humankind — make it pretty clear that we’re naturally sociable and survived as a species because we cooperated with each other. One scientist quipped that it should be “the survival of the friendliest, not the fittest.”

Many scientists now think we defeated other hominids because we could work together with much larger groups than they could, and that we lived communally, with almost no hierarchy, for most of our time on this planet. That we’ve basically self-domesticated, and reduced violence radically. More and more scholars are also beginning to think that our downfall was leaving our Hunter-gatherer lifestyle behind. We were healthier, stronger, freer, and lived longer before the switch to settled, agro-villages, etc.

To make a long story short, science actually supports socialism as far more “natural” than capitalism. It actually lends “natural” support to leftist philosophy.

Something most Americans can’t quite get their minds around, because they think in Manichean terms. I’m guilty of this too at times:

The problem isn’t “evil” per se. Or Good versus Evil. The problem is that people often do evil things, thinking they’re doing good things. They’ve been manipulated into this, lied to, propagandized, indoctrinated, etc.

Reading a fantastic book right now, Rutger Bregman’s Humankind, which goes into this at length, along with completely debunking a host of things we think we know beyond a shadow of a doubt — mostly in the realm of our supposedly rotten “human nature.” The book is extensively sourced, with copious notes, and he does a great job of play by play in debunking dozens and dozens of falsehoods, from the Stanford Prison Experiment, to the Milgram Shock story, to Kitty Genovese, Lord of the Flies, Eichmann, etc. etc.

Rittenhouse was led to believe he was doing “good.” Even when he took a photo with Proud Boys — a photo that wasn’t allowed in court, btw. He likely thought he was doing “good” by supposedly protecting private property, and that he was righteously in opposition to “bad guys.”

IMO, it’s a losing battle at this point to try to change his mind and folks on his side. What needs to be our focus, IMO, is eliminating access to all the weapons and methods of implementing the right’s view of things. Legally, democratically, get rid of the structures and tools they have to force that vision on the rest of us. We’re not going to change their minds.

Smaller scale stuff is a good place to start: End open-carry, nationally; ban all assault-style weaponry, and limit guns to internal chambers only, six shots max, hand-loaded. License, registration, training, insurance, and smart tech. Establish extensive public sector research centers on gun proliferation, gun violence, and destroy the power of the gun lobby. For starters . . .

I go back and forth between complete dismay, utter horror, and variations on “Of course! All of that was expected.”

But underlying all of that is this conviction:

America is insane. No sane nation allows open-carry. Period. No sane nation allows citizens to own weapons of war like an AR-15. For a host of reasons, most of which are too obvious to have to say, but they need saying.

Open carry laws and the stockpiling of weapons of war will lead, has led, is automatically going to cause countless deaths, plus the suppression of dissenting voices. It’s going to cause our reps to change their votes to avoid being shot and killed by vigilantes. It’s going to cause other reps — and teachers, principals, public health workers, etc. — to quit their jobs to avoid being shot and killed by vigilantes. And when they quit — and many have already — those jobs will be filled by proponents of even greater insanity regarding guns, vigilantism, MAGA, anti-science, anti-truth and the like. In short, fascism.

Open carry laws and the stockpiling of weapons is fascism. Rittenhouse, the murderer, is now a hero to fascists. The political right is the home of fascism, and America used to know this. So there’s insanity here and mass amnesia.

America has forgotten too much to still be sane.