Useless Idiots

Clowns to the left of me, authoritarians to the right.

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Having woken up to the Alexei Navalny news, Jonah spends this Ruminant thinking through what the Russian opposition leader’s death might portend. From tzars and (real) settler colonialism to useful idiots a-la Tucker Carlson, the good listener should expect a very Russian episode. Пожалуйста. A more patient listener will also hear Jonah revisiting his conversation with the Lewis brothers, due to somewhat popular demand.

Show Notes:

-The Lewis brothers on The Remnant

-Kevin Kosar on The Remnant

-Bernie Sanders on Soviet chandeliers

-Dan McLaughlin: “Tucker Carlson’s Lowest Moment“

-Kevin D. Williamson: “The Full Duranty“

-WSJ: “China’s Shipyards Are Ready for a Protracted War. America’s Aren’t”

–

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Comments (61)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Kimbaukusfitzgibbon

    Jonah, thank you for speaking out about Putin. My husband is 71. My dearest synagogue friend is his age. My friend grew up in Siberia and listened to a loud speaker announcement while her father held her at age 2 that Stalin was dead. While the crowd was sobbing about Stalin’s death, my friend’s father who’d worked as an engineer at WWII munitions factory said, “We are safe. I’m not going to be executed.” Her father said this because the Jewish man that he worked for after given a medal for his service was executed for being a Jew. My friend was deported from the USSR for teaching Hebrew in Stalingrad. The KGB officer who was in charge of her deportation said,” You will never be able to come back here. I’d suggest America over Israel as Israel is so provincial.” My friend chose Israel but eventually landed in the US. It just blows my mind that anyone in the United States of America can think that Putin a former KGB officer or that anything connected to this mediaeval and repressive regime could represent anything close to the profound ideas laid out in Our Declaration and Our Constitution.

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    1. Goatprairie

      Anybody who says, like Putin said, that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century is never to be trusted with power.
      Russia will pay the price for his criminal actions many years hence.

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    Charley Warns

    With the new "Republicans" calling me a "warmonger" because of my position on Ukraine, left vs right has lost its meaning. If a liberal feminist, how would you categorize the belief that it's okay for a male to dominate women's track or swimming? Is my understanding that the mRNA vaccine to be an injection of the genetic signature of the virus rather than the actual virus make me liberal, conservative, or just not ignorant? What about believing it to be a lab leak? Is being a protectionist make one liberal, conservative or just corrupt? Is arguing for ending the Jones Act make one left, right, or just not corrupt? If one wants to rid co2 from the atmosphere for fear of global warming and then argue for nuclear power, why is that Republican in nature rather than arriving at the most obvious solution? A woman on twitter was saying Newt was "too far right" during the tea party days and so I tried to get her explain what that meant. I asked her to provide some examples of what she figures are too far right. She kept ducking my question and eventually blocked me.

    By MBD's logic, Russia has moral justification to keep expanding west until they reach the English Channel: "The presence of a hostile army on Russia’s border with Ukraine is seen by Russian leaders — not just Putin — as completely intolerable." He added: "Millions of Russians have family roots in Ukraine and vice versa." By what logic does that deny Ukraine the right to be a nation and join NATO? It would have given him more credibility, for example, if he at least acknowledged that Americans are not being asked to fight for Ukraine. He really made a lame argument at NR.

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    1. Goatprairie

      "He really made a lame argument at NR."

      That's because he's a really lame writer. NR's worst.

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    2. Bobby D

      It’s worth noting that the reason why Russians have family in Ukraine is because of Russia’s past efforts to subjugate and Russify the territory.

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        Charley Warns

        MBD is using that "family" connection as a pretense to justify not helping Ukraine. It's a version of the "turf war" excuse. He's trying to argue it's a civil war that the U.S. has no business taking sides in; and yet, couldn't France have used that same excuse when deciding to help us fight England? Ukraine had been a nation minding its own business until 2/24/2022 when Russian tanks and soldiers entered its territory ... full stop. Given Putin has said nothing to suggest that didn't support what the USSR did to E.Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, etc., after ww2 – it would more than suggest his like intent for Ukraine.

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        1. Goatprairie

          "It's a version of the "turf war" excuse. "

          To argue MBD's point would be to argue that Germany had the perfect right to invade Poland to start WW2 because Poland was allied with Britain and France. A bullsh*t argument.

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        2. Bobby D

          The problem is that it’s a false narrative. One could quibble over where the eastern border should be, as the eastern provinces had always been part of Russia until the USSR moved the border. But is no more part of the Russian family than the eastern two-thirds of Poland and the Baltic states. Yes, they have a history of being conquered by Russia and resisting genocidal efforts to Russify them.

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            Charley Warns

            That's why I'm describing it as pretense, dude.

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    Honest Ape

    Yes, please invite Will Inboden to be a guest. The legacy of The Remnant will be less than what it should be if there isn't a recording of him saying, "No you won't. This is a podcast."

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      Charley Warns

      I don't know what you mean, but I believe he would be a relevant guest. It looks like the "The Peacemaker" would be a relevant read right now.

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    Stephen.Tootle

    I don't know if I'm breaking a rule to do this, but I reviewed The Myth of Left and Right for the Vital Center. Here is the review: https://thevitalcenter.com/fall-2023/beyond-left-and-right

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    Ben Connelly

    No you won’t this is a podcast!

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  7. Gsalas72

    When are we taking the Occam's Razor explanation for the pro-Putin GOP and start asking whether some Republican officials are outright Putin assets? It is the cleanest explanation for the anti-Ukraine obstructionism, the use of Senators are mail couriers to Putin, the 4th of July parties in Moscow, the Maria Butina-funded NRA campaign contributions, the defection of Tara Read move to St Petersburg (not Florida), and a long etc.

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      VarneyofBisbee

      “some Republican officials are outright Putin assets ?” … like the former President of the United States? If this were proven to be so, what would the Constitutional responsibility of the CIA be ?

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    Pgrossjr47

    You need to listen to the Editors podcast just to get Geraghty's reaction to the discussion on Tucker.

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  9. Bobby D

    I’m basically convinced by the Lewis thesis. I appreciate Jonah’s scrupulousness in defining terms in his earlier book. But, even at that time, the popular usage of the term “conservative” included various illiberal groups, such as the religious right and many culturally conservative Democrats who made up much of Rush Limbaugh’s audience. And the conservative movement has always included people like Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’Souza, whose “conservatism” amounted to little more than knee-jerk opposition to progressives. This cancer of illiberalism had festered within the conservative movement for decades before it metastasized in 2016. They were useful idiots who could be manipulated by wedge issues to vote for conservatives with whom they otherwise had little in common. But this strategy became the tail that wagged the dog.

    In short, I would have more sympathy for Jonah’s position if he’d gone to greater pains at the time to point out illiberal sub-movements that had come to infect the conservative movement.

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    1. Goatprairie

      "They were useful idiots who could be manipulated by wedge issues to vote for conservatives with whom they otherwise had little in common."

      Sounds like you have a miserable or non-existent knowledge of the conservative movement. I suggest you read Hayek's "The Road To Serfdom" to understand why people are conservatives or convert to it.

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      Charley Warns

      Yeah ... like the new Republicans (i.e., the deplorables) calling Reagan Republicans (i.e., Republicans) "warmongers." Unlike the host, it pains me so greatly to point out this infection, if you will, of the conservative movement.

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      1. Bobby D

        Well, and none of these populists ever describes the immense costs of moving to a multi-polar world order. A more chaotic world functions as a sort of tax. Even if the US is situated to weather that storm better than most countries, it’s still a storm. Goods and services will be much more expensive and there won’t be concomitant increases in income to compensate. If you want to imagine what life would be like in a multi-polar world, just imagine your lifestyle if everything cost about double what it currently does. Yes, it would be worse elsewhere. But that’s probably little comfort when you can’t afford a car and have to resort to heating your house with wood.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Tracie

    Regarding the Mayor canceling Shot Spotter in Chicago, but waiting until after the DNC convention, the local NPR shows's Week in Review devoted the opening to the issue.

    https://open.spotify.com/episode/2juS4Y8MckMF1JkF6DtONK?si=1RQM6rGMT6-22gaJS-uE3Q

    The company that owns Shot Spotter threatened to cut off this weekend. Sounds like the original contract was through September.

    Next they talked about migrants.

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      Pgrossjr47

      The original contract was through last Friday. The mayor wanted to extend it through the Democratic convention (9/22), but the company initially refused to do that. They have since come to an agreement to do just that, but the mayor is getting a lot of blowback.
      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/sources-say-shotspotter-could-be-turned-off-at-midnight-friday-night-in-chicago/ar-BB1ipd8Q

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        Tracie

        Sorry for the late reply. Busy week.

        Guess my point is that everybody knows the Mayor specifically wants it used through the convention.

        Probably I'm more attuned to national politics than Chicago politics, but I think everybody's holding their breath for the convention.

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