The Right also likes to fall in love with its own narratives and then draw conclusions on their basis as if they were universally true.

Example. I don’t know how many times I’ve come across the idea that “the Left has radicalized so much in a few years that they now see even the ultra radical Obama as too tame.”

This is stupid because the Left never saw Obama as ultra-radical. I was on the Left and a great Obama supporter and I know exactly how it was. I wrote here on the blog a week after he won the election in 2008 that the Left had placed such expectations on him that he was never going to meet them. They were publishing lists of what they wanted him to do, long, long lists. And those lists were completely insane, so the guy was set up to disappoint from the start.

The narrative about Obama on the Left was always – ALWAYS – and not since last year or since Trump or whatever – that he was a middle-of-the-road empty suit disappointment. The Left nicknamed him “Deporter in Chief,” which was ludicrous but it gives you an idea of the general perception.

I’ll tell you more. This isn’t even about Obama. Absolutely any president would prove a disappointment to the Left. Because what they want is what a president by definition can’t give them.

In any case, the Right needs to get out of the echo chamber and pay attention to what the opponents actually are as opposed to what they imagine them to be. The Left is congenitally incapable of engaging with anything but the fantasy but the Right is not inhabiting the land of unicorns, so it can.

What’s really funny is that I vastly prefer male gynecologists to female ones. But I’d never go to a male masseur.

N, on the other hand, finds the idea of a massage horrifying. A strange person touching him! Never! Yet he goes to the sauna and sits there naked with other guys while I don’t want to be around naked women ever.

It’s probably easier to get into the Federal Reserve than into this massage. I’m getting text messages every hour asking me to sign forms, answer questionnaires, and sternly reminding me of the procedure.

I only want this massage for relaxation purposes but this isn’t making me feel relaxed.

One thing that I can’t get used to is that in English people refer to the cross I wear around my neck as “a necklace.” In Russian a cross is a cross. Every time it’s “please remove your necklace” and I say “I’m not wearing one.” Then we stare at each other dumbly.

Yes, an absolute mystery. For “experts” who get their news from CNN and WashPo.

This is what happens when people believe their own lies about “masks and lockdowns work” and all that sort of silliness.

I’m having a day off to rest and enjoy life. Swimming pool, spa, massage, reading in bed. Maybe a visit to the Home Goods store.

Before anybody thinks “lazy professors,” I’ll be working in the office on both Saturday and Sunday.

Found this great survey on Twitter:

My answers are:

1. Strongly advocated for my university to move online in mid-March of 2020. It would have happened without me, obviously, but I feel like an idiot for buying into the panic.

2. We are experiencing the second stage of the process that started in 2008-9. This is a massive transfer of capital from the middle classes to the global digital oligarchy. COVID, BLM – it’s all about that. We are being robbed while we sit there mesmerized, following the shiny object in a con man’s hand.

3. I went back to normal on April 1, 2020. I had been duped but only for two weeks. The first thing I did when I went back to normal was to organize a picnic with friends and a playdate for my kid.