Even Russians aren’t stupid enough to buy this propaganda:

Neither is Tucker but he knows that his audience will eat it up.

A first-grade teacher in Montreal: “You must speak French, not English.”

My 7-year-old nephew: “But how about my freedom of speech?”

The way things are, kids need to learn the words “freedom of speech” before they learn to walk.

We talked recently about how a disruption in bonding with the mother in infancy/early childhood results in people who can’t bond with places and other humans. These individuals won’t form families easily and will always be on the move. The perfect neoliberal workforce.

Obviously, mothers incapable of bonding with their infants always existed. But what if they became mass-produced? What if something happened to make the mother who is capable of bonding an exception and the one who can’t the norm?

A child is formed by the mother’s gaze. A new mother always keeps the child in her line of vision. Their communication is very intense. At every moment, the mother soothes, reassures, and nourishes physically, emotionally and intellectually without needing to say anything. Even when she sleeps, the mother keeps the infant within the focus of her attention. If you are a mother, you know exactly what I mean.

The attention, the focus, the sustained, unbroken concentration – this is what’s needed to make the bonding happen. (And a functioning endocrine system to start it all up, obviously).

OK, so how’s your focus been lately? Honestly? In all likelihood, as shit as everybody else’s. There’s now an obstacle between mother and child. Look around, it’s everywhere. Child stares at mom, mom stares at a screen. I know it’s a huge taboo topic because mothers can do no wrong but seriously, when’s the bonding supposed to happen?

But hey, it’s all good. It’s better to be lonely, isolated, easily transportable, and drugged to the gills anyway, right?

Americans have some weird sense of inferiority towards Europe. I keep hearing that “Europeans aren’t parochial like we are, they speak languages, they are interested in what happens in the world, I heard everybody in Europe speaks several languages.”

But that’s not true. I’ve never met people who are collectively more interested and engaged intellectually with the world than Americans. When I was in Spain last month, literally nobody evinced even 5% of the interest in Ukraine that I routinely get in the US. The guy who works at a local Dollar Store knows enormously more about the situation in Ukraine than all the academics I spoke to in Spain combined. This is a young fellow who has such complex, interested view of foreign relations that I haven’t seen in many Spanish professors. And Americans over the age of 60 are better informed than many European political commentators. I’m talking about regular people, not scholars or politicians. I get more enjoyment from talking about foreign policy with my plumber than any academic from Germany, the UK or Spain.

And it isn’t only the war in Ukraine. Americans ask more questions, they are more curious. And more likely to modify their views when they receive new information. They are excited to get new information like nobody else.

American position of leadership in the world is a direct result of this curiosity and openness.

And by the way, most people in Europe (like everywhere else) speak only their own language, and not extremely well at that.