We had a teensy bit of snow today but people around here are so not used to it that there was a massive freak out. The highway was backed up for two hours. There was such a huge number of snow trucks everywhere that it seemed like they were preparing to dig up and cart off Mount Everest.

In the meanwhile, there is an anti-Rauner rally back on campus that I’m going to miss. But at least people are finally awakening and beginning to protest.

People are not even trying to avoid sounding like jerks:

I might not be supporting the Democratic nominee either. I’m not a Hillary hater, but I never liked her husband (and I think he’s going to be a huge problem when and if he gets back into the East Wing).

Imagine how it would sound if I declared that I don’t support Bernie because I don’t like his wife. But a male blogger thinks nothing of sounding like a superficial brat.

For years now, a new leftist movement has been rising on college campuses. It speaks a new, radical language of intersectional identity politics. It is obsessed with social justice, with promoting the interests of the historically marginalized— and with policing its own adherents for their violations of its norms.

Oh, enough with this crap, seriously. A very small group of rich kids do this shit and their antics somehow get extrapolated onto all college campuses. 95% of college students in this country have never heard the expression “intersectional identity politics.” They are studying, working, taking care of their families. They are not a bunch of freaks howling about the need to be taken care of. But that’s all we see on TV. And that’s all we see covered online.

It angers me hugely that the experiences and the concerns of the majority of students are overshadowed by the silly dramas of these boring rich freaks.

Sexist Putinoids have grown so desperate in their attacks on Hillary that one of them is now claiming she was “a political operative” (whatever that is) in 1996 and confuses her entirely with Bill as if they were the same person.

Hillary’s candidacy is bringing out so much shit in people that we should all be hugely grateful to her for running. I read the linked fellow for years before realizing how much he hated women (and loved Putin.)

Young women don’t find feminism very relevant. I ask my students all the time, and they tell me feminism has achieved all its goals and is no longer needed.

It’s true that feminism doesn’t have much to offer to young women. Until they try to have actual careers, give birth (without the mediation of their parents), make serious money, experience health problems, etc, there truly is nothing for them in feminism. The only thing anybody has come up with to offer as a substitute for feminism among this group is orifice policing, and that energizes only a small segment.

And that’s the real reason why young women don’t see the need for a candidate who will champion feminist issues.

People asked me why I consider Corey Robin to be irredeemably dumb. Here is the most recent example. The poor, dense fellow is imploring Hillary supporters to reconsider because:

I ask that you be open to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the world is changing, if only a little bit.

I mean, seriously. The world is changing (duh!) so the solution is to vote for a fellow whose every word, every idea, every suggestion is a nostalgic throwback to the pre-1978 heyday of the nation-state. The world is changing, so let’s pretend it isn’t, shut our eyes really tight, and repeat very loudly, “It isn’t true if I say it isn’t!”

I understand voting for Bernie if you honestly believe that we can travel back to 1968. But if you do recognize that the world is changing, the only reasonable response is to let go of the nostalgia and look towards the future,  not the past.

Twitter is going to the dogs, people, and since the path it has to travel to get there is not that long, it will be there in no time. Whenever I try to access my Twitter feed these days, I get a mishmash of things I never wanted to follow or expressed any interest in and I have to sift through them to get access to people I actually do want to read. This gets so boring that I barely go on Twitter any more.

Plus, I’m annoyed by endless notifications about some boring starlet posting some photo I totally need to see even though I couldn’t give a crap about the starlet or her photo.

My primary objection to HRC is that she’s the queen of self-negotiation and incremental baby steps. That might have been necessary in the 1990s, when the Right was on the ascendancy. But right now, the Right is in chaos. It is falling apart. It has never been so vulnerable.

Are people mental or just plain stupid? The Congress is firmly Republican, more and more governorships are falling to the GOP, more and more states go from blue to toss-up to red. In the meanwhile, we sit here fantasizing about an imaginary advantage over people who hold us by the throat and chirp idiotically about political rrrrevolutions.

The nation-state model is eroding, and we have nothing else to offer but the disappearing nation-state. This is not a moment for dumb self-congratulation. This is the time when we need to search frantically for new narratives, not cling to the ancient ones. They are dead. All that keeps them in existence is our nostalgia. It’s time to move on.

Bill Clinton is criticizing Bernie’s campaign for sexism, and that’s good. It’s high time we had this conversation. I don’t in the least believe that Bernie is consciously sexist. He is simply a man of a different era and can’t help bringing his sensibilities of 50 years ago to a world that has changed and demands something better.

We all remember how clumsy Bernie was on the issue of parental leave, trying to massage it into the uncomfortable framework of Madonna and baby.  We have also seen how glaring the contrast was between Sanders and the much younger O’Malley when answering the question as to what their wives were going to do in case their husbands won.

Without being in the least aware of it, Sanders is couching every attack on Hillary in sexist terms. And when asked about the venomous woman – hatred of way too many of his supporters, he shrugs dismissively and says, “Yes, it’s wrong but we can’t control every single supporter.” Now would be a really good time for Bernie to talk seriously and at length to his supporters about this issue but he simply doesn’t have the language for it.

Gloria Steinem is now apologizing for the unintelligent statement she made about young women supporting Bernie to make young men like them. The statement is not only taken straight from the 1940s but is also also very ignorant of the basic laws of romantic engagement.

If you are young and want a particular person to like you, don’t agree with them! To the contrary, find something they care about and express a contrary opinion in a tired voice and prefacing it with, “As we all know. . .” And then behave as if the issue were so clear that it required no further discussion. Even 11 – year-olds today know that this is a winning strategy.

Of course, people who are older dispense with these youthful tricks because they know that a partner who requires effort is not worth it. The only partner who makes sense is the one who needs no convincing, persuading or purposeful attempts to attract.