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Read the Room, Dude

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Clarissa

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OK, what needs to happen for Trump to drop this talking point? It’s horrible, it’s losing him support, yet he persists with the intensity of an alcoholic reaching for a bottle.

Read the room, dude. Your base hates this endless drumbeat of how America’s greatest problem is Americans.

Is there anybody on any side of the political spectrum who doesn’t subscribe to the Magic Dirt theory? Is there anybody who realizes that a country is its people and not a landscape, populated by whoever is more convenient to drag over to save a buck?

I’m growing increasingly desperate to find any political representation for my views.

50 responses to “Read the Room, Dude”

  1. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    My favorite talking point from certain “MAGA” shills is that if only there wasn’t infighting going on in the GOP right now with groypers spoiling the party, the administration would be able to carry out its agenda better. Such a retarded talking point. So you’re saying Based Stephen Miller will not carry out mass deportations if private citizens on social media keep making edgelordy jokes about jews? Do you fucking realize what you’re implying? That Stephen Miller’s and the entire DHS/ICE apparatus’s first priority is the jewish community and they’re only using the base’s righteous anger about open borders to further this particular agenda? You happy with this talking point?

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  2. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    I loved this article.

    https://fiddlersgreene.substack.com/p/how-conservatism-died-an-open-letter

    But before I join you in handwringing over the scourge of online radical trolls, there’s just one problem that we need to discuss, Rod. Because, despite how much you might hate Niccholas J. Fuentes, you created him. You made the Groypers necessary, and until we address the problems with the conservative message, the pathologies of these young men will, in some sense, be inevitable. Your decisions led us to this place, and the Groypers are hardly the worst of what’s coming.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      What a great article. Thank you so much for bringing it here.

      I guess I’m not outraged by the Tucker -Fuentes interview because I routinely hear much more radical things said on campus with a completely serious face. “Ooh, he said he likes Stalin.” As does every campus leftist, so why am I supposed to be shocked? I looked at the list of student organizations the other day for something conservative. There are pages and pages of the most radical leftist stuff. Trotskyists, BLMers, hammer and sickle people. Nothing conservative. The young people who want to be part of something but there’s no organization where they can show up and hang out with similarly minded people, where should they go? And whose fault is it that they go to online communities?

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        The only thing I have to object is that I don’t think the author fully realizes the extent to which young people have interiorized this conditioning. I’m struggling very unsuccessfully to get my male students off the “men are bad and oppress women” message. White, black, Hispanic – they are all devoted to this message. I can’t pry them away from it no matter what I do.

        Liked by 1 person

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    2. v07 Avatar
      v07

      I have mixed feelings about it.

      Intellectually I understand that it is better to do something about the experiences of young men than not to do it. But my first emotional reaction is – what kind of racket is this – “we want society to provide us with good jobs, women and meaning of life, or else”…

      To be clear, I am not a libertarian so I do not think those young men just have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and if they do not – they did not work hard enough and therefore their failures are their own personal responsibility. But does any other group get to threaten the society like this?

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        I’d rather we all collectively humored the young (who are not causing any public upheavals) than the endlessly pissed off retirees who protest every Friday in obnoxious ways.

        I fully confess, however, that I’m very pissed off at the Boomer generation right now because a Boomer grandpa at the hotel pool tried to tell me off for expecting him to watch my kid while I went back to the room. None of which I was remotely trying to do. I wasn’t engaging with the Boomer dude at all. So yes, I might be generationally prejudiced right now but I do think that maybe let’s do something for the young and not for the generation that brought us neoliberalism, BLM and open borders. Which are all the same thing, of course.

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      2. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        ” But does any other group get to threaten the society like this?”

        Look at societies that don’t provide any path to success for young men (many in Latin America, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa) and get back to us.

        Doping them up and turning their brains into scrambled eggs with gaming and free pr0n might take care of some problems but it’s still sacrificing the future for the comfort of some entitled boomers.

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      3. Avatar
        Anonymous

        Only the impotent get to make such threats. Nobody’s afraid of an army of potsmoking basement incels. As soon as it looks specific and credible, they get a visit from law enforcement.

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        1. cliff arroyo Avatar
          cliff arroyo

          “Nobody’s afraid of an army of potsmoking basement incels”

          Boomers – the generation that devoured the three generations following them and felt self-righteous about it.

          Any society that doesn’t help young people get established and begin contributing has signed its own death warrant, spiritually if not physically (though usually… physically too).

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          1. Avatar
            Anonymous

            Yeah. I started to reply at greater length, but it turned out way too long for a combox comment. I’m typing it up as a blog post instead.

            -ethyl

            Liked by 2 people

            Reply
            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              Please link when you are done!

              Like

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              1. Avatar
                Anonymous

                https://yarrow549425.substack.com/p/floors-and-ceilings

                Liked by 2 people

              2. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                In a well-ordered Republic, there would be fellowships for talented people like you to write chronicles. It would be a million times better than most of the uses of government money.

                Reading the article makes it doubly clear why mass migration is so aggressively imposed. An immigrant doesn’t know this history. The degradation of lifestyle and aspirations is unknown to him. He’s not upset at the loss because he doesn’t know anything has been lost. With every new loop of degradation, fresh people are needed who are completely ignorant about the country. It’s a never-ending cycle.

                Liked by 1 person

              3. Avatar
                Anonymous

                What I was trying to get at, without dragging in immigration, is that we’re experiencing simultaneous lifestyle degradation and a ratcheting up of the minimum allowable standards (but only for citizens). Migrants can pile in 4 to a bedroom, but when we rent a house, the terms specifically forbid more than two. How does that work? My family does not have access to the same housing that migrants do. We now have two entirely separate legal/economic tiers, one for citizens and one for migrants– the pro argument is “Americans don’t want these jobs” or “Americans should lower their standards”. But we are literally not allowed to lower our standards to the same level as migrants (or the same level as our grandparents), even when the price of everything goes up faster than our incomes. We are not allowed to downgrade to a 2br house. We are not allowed to buy an empty lot and build a log cabin. We are not allowed to drive around in uninsured cars. We are not allowed to eat the ducks in the park (great-grandma would not have hesitated).

                I don’t know what happens when the ceiling of what we can afford, finally hits the floor of what’s required. Nothing good.

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      4. oldcowboy3 Avatar
        oldcowboy3

        v07

        “But does any other group get to threaten the society like this?”

        Enough DEI horseshit, has any other group been more openly discriminated against in your entire f’ing lifetime? Do you really imagine that there will be no consequences? We’ll be very fortunate to avoid fascism.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply
        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          True. And what did people expect was going to happen? We have fed the young people to the Moloch of cynicism and hopelessness.

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        2. v07 Avatar
          v07

          I am not sure what is particularly DEI-y in my thoughts… I am just averse to bullying and threats of bullying. My first impulse in such situations is – “go F yourself, you do not get to threaten people here”. And also “women are not society’s property to use them to appease somebody else”. But, as I said, intellectually I understand that it is better to help those men find some useful meaning of life and not just blame them for their problems and call them incels. Since I am not a conservative, I do not think that meaning of life we should help them find is necessarily something from the past.

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            It’s not you we blame for DEI. It’s the DEI people who brought us all to this place.

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          2. oldcowboy3 Avatar
            oldcowboy3

            v07

            The time to be “averse to bullying” was before DEI, AA, quotas, and set asides, before the Kangaroo college courts, before Kavanaugh, before me-too — the time to demand fair play, to tell the truth against bullying was a long time ago. Where were you?

            Liked by 1 person

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  3. ed Avatar
    ed

    Trump is America first as long as it doesn’t hurt his pocket book nor that of his oligarch friends.

    Maybe Bernie Sanders was the real America first politician all along. Can’t trust billionaire and oligarchs not to want to sell their country for a profit.

    Do some research on how much money Trump and his family has made on crypto scams and “special” deals. It’s shameless stuff.

    Like

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  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Bringing in foreign workers to do work in tech centre, work that Americans are trained in and want to do, is the issue that will break the MAGA movement. American tech workers have every right to expect that they will be first in line for jobs in their own country. By allowing tech firms to import foreign labour, American politicians have betrayed their own people, just for marginal gains in the profits of tech companies.

    If Pres.Trump continues this betrayal of Americans, expect bad things to happen. It will get so bad that people will nostalgic for Trump’s presidency.

    Here is another comment on the foreign worker issue

    https://pjmedia.com/jamie-wilson/2025/11/20/the-lie-that-broke-a-nation-jobs-americans-wont-do-and-the-economic-and-social-devastation-it-hid-n4946215

    Raymond R

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. oldcowboy3 Avatar
      oldcowboy3

      Well done, Canada, my country faces the same problems. Young people, particularly young men are angry, and complaining about Fuentes does not correct anything — he is merely a symptom, not the reason.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        The ones who are angry are all right. Its the ones who accepted everything and have interiorized the self-hatred and the guilt that worry me.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply
        1. cliff arroyo Avatar
          cliff arroyo

          “The ones who are angry are all right”

          Anger is a completely rational and proportional response to the total mismanagement of the country for decades now.

          A lack of anger is far more concerning.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply
        2. oldcowboy3 Avatar
          oldcowboy3

          Both responses worry me, our civilization depends upon the optimism and the confidence of our youth. Yesterday I posted a link by Carlson with Haley’s son, it is long, but you would probably enjoy it.

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    2. cliff arroyo Avatar
      cliff arroyo

      ” American tech workers have every right to expect that they will be first in line for jobs in their own country”

      Nation state mindset. I agree but that’s not the world Trump or any US politician lives in. For them, immigration is a sacred right that purifies them (I’m serious — it’s a religious mindset).

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  5. oldcowboy3 Avatar
    oldcowboy3

    Allowing immigration to fill positions that do not exist in the nation is not the same as opening up immigration to undermine the wages of citizens are two very different thing. The former actually strengthens the country, the latter is treasonous.

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    1. oldcowboy3 Avatar
      oldcowboy3

      LOL, they are

      Like

      Reply
  6. ed Avatar
    ed

    I just read some of the points for Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine:
    https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-trump-plan-92b2c89b62f4326ff67abc5613c9b59e

    How can Trump continue to be so clueless? Can he really be this stupid? It’s like he has learned absolutely nothing about how Russians operate.

    Like

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I know. It’s pathetic, what can I say?

      And did you see him prancing around Mamdani today like best buddies? It’s truly better just to avoid the news.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        “see him prancing around Mamdani today like best buddies?”

        Class solidarity over voters’ interests.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Spot on. I keep saying that all criticisms of Mamdani as a Muslim and socialist are completely off. He’s a rich globalist. If we still can’t recognize these people, we are well and truly cooked.

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  7. Hyakujo's Fox Avatar
    Hyakujo’s Fox

    Trump reversed his position on h1b the day after India silently agreed to stop buying Russian gas. Not sure if they are related but the timing sure is suspicious.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Trump was always in favor of letting tech bring in unlimited migration. During the campaign he promised to staple green cards to diplomas.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        “always in favor of letting tech bring in unlimited migration”

        The attitude of those that either don’t understand technology or who think of those in the STEM professions as glorified maids…. interchangeable and disposable.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          When N was in his PhD program at Purdue, it was him, one American guy, one Belgian professor, and everybody else was Chinese. Including a couple of women who were not there to start careers in tech. The craze with bringing in Chinese students extended to my department at Yale where a Chinese student was accepted into the doctoral program who didn’t speak a word of Spanish. This caused a lot of embarrassment to everybody, so he was shifted to computer science department, which he always wanted but failed to get admitted.

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          1. cliff arroyo Avatar
            cliff arroyo

            “where a Chinese student was accepted into the doctoral program who didn’t speak a word of Spanish”

            A few years ago a friend was hired to get a private college program in order (they were worried, probably rightly, about accreditation). Anyway, at the beginning someone told him proudly that they’d accepted a student from China! (who didn’t speak any Polish). He got the program in order and they wanted him to stay but he’d had enough… barely having what they had together they expanded….

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              Before that Chinese student, the program didn’t require an oral interview for acceptance. They trusted that the documents were truthful. But after him, the trust died. The symbolic nature of that couldn’t have been lost on a group of literary critics.

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        2. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          I have no idea about tech, but in my PhD program we had 50-50 Americans and foreigner and the program was set up so that getting jobs after graduation would be practically impossible for Americans.

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          1. Hyakujo's Fox Avatar
            Hyakujo’s Fox

            getting jobs will be impossible for Americans

            I didn’t know that! How so?

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            1. v07 Avatar
              v07

              I second that. How so? In STEM one could argue that postdocs on H1B was questionable because hypotethically, some American did not get a job because of me. But for faculty positions there was no preference for foreigners. Maybe a slight preference for the Americans that was too slight for somebody’s liking….

              For national labs jobs there was clear preference for US citizens (for security reasons).

              Anecdotal evidence is … anecdotal. When I started my postdoc in the States the boss somewhat apologetically asked for a proof of my degree. Because recently he hired an American… who falsely claimed having a PhD… I have not seen that guy – he left before I arrived, but judging by the name he was not any kind of recent immigrant.

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        3. oldcowboy3 Avatar
          oldcowboy3

          cliff arroyo

          “…who think of those in the STEM professions as glorified maids…”

          LOL, not necessarily as maids but definitely as a curious, even weird, type of servant. And rather suspect t’was always thus, because so many higher level government positions apparently were to some extent a matter of who’s your Dad or increasingly, who’s your Mom ;-D

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  8. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “We now have two entirely separate legal/economic tiers, one for citizens and one for migrants”

    This is an extremely important point that too many involved (both those claiming that there’s no real housing crisis (the ‘just move!’ crowd) and that endless mass immigration is mandated by the statue of liberty) never seem to consider.

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    1. Avatar
      Anonymous

      For real. We could totally support our family on whatever $6/hr peanuts they’re paying the migrants, if we also had access to all the other resources the migrants had access to: subsidized housing, free health care, SNAP benefits, money to help us buy a car plus the ability to drive it around without insurance and not worry about penalties, the freedom to ignore any laws and regulations that aren’t really affordable for us… what’s the dollar value on all that?

      -ethyl

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      1. Avatar
        Anonymous

        I think every time somebody suggests “Americans won’t”, we need to loudly push for this. Open up ALL the migrant benefits to ALL people seeking the same jobs. So all meatpacking plant employees, all construction workers, all ag workers, all landscaping employees (they busted one company locally and deported at least 35 people), and every other industry claiming they can’t find enough Americans who want the jobs… they can all get free housing, free cars, free doctor visits, free dental, car insurance exemption, and a generous grocery stipend.

        See if Americans still “won’t”.

        -ethyl

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        1. oldcowboy3 Avatar
          oldcowboy3

          ethyl

          Those workers don’t want charity/welfare schemes, all of us boys worked construction, plus one did meat working, and I worked the oil rigs. Those were all were high paying jobs, particularly the latter two because of additional risk. The rates that somebody(I think you) posted have obviously been negatively affected by immigration and most particularly by importation of illegal aliens.

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            There are so many issues that are downstream of mass migration, it’s crazy.

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          2. Avatar
            Anonymous

            I get it: no self-respecting person would accept that deal. I am not suggesting it as a real policy proposal, only as a possible way to get the dishonest bastards to admit that the illegals are NOT actually working for lower wages than Americans: they ARE being massively subsidized by taxpayer dollars and shady NGO funding which are not available to American workers. This is NOT a level playing field, where migrants are getting the jobs because they’re somehow more worthy. They’re getting the jobs because the taxpayer is picking up the tab for their living expenses, so that employers can pay them less.

            -ethyl

            Liked by 1 person

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            1. Avatar
              Anonymous

              **but if you did propose it as an actual policy, it has the benefit of instantly being shot down as unrealistic, outrageously expensive, and corporate welfare…

              But apparently people only notice that if you talk about offering it to Americans.

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            2. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              The #1 principle of neoliberalism: the costs are socialized while the benefits are privatized. We can see how it works in this example of migrant labor. It’s so profitable because the employers can neatly shift the costs onto the public.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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