Clarissa's Blog

I don’t know what postliberal means but if it stands for “completely over liberalism in its every flavor and permutation” then OK, I’m that.

After listening to Trump’s interview with Laura Ingraham which contained a major walk back on his signature issue of immigration, I believe Trump has reached his ceiling.

Trump achieved an enormous lot. He completely changed the political landscape, and for many years to come, future politicians will address Trump’s ideas and define themselves in relation to things he brought into the conversation.

There’s been enormous positive change. Nobody was even talking about the really important issues back in 2015, before Trump started his first campaign. Today’s young people are losing interest in fluid identities and are looking angrily at the oldsters who stole normalcy and offered freakdom instead.

We should be very thankful to Trump but also start considering our next steps. This is only the beginning. The next stage is very important. It won’t come from Trump unless he does one of his aboutfaces and rapidly quits being the infinity migration champion we saw in yesterday’s interview.

Let’s continue undaunted, give thanks were deserved, and look to the future with calm confidence.

Wife: <problem>

Me: <solution>?

Wife: I don’t want <solution>!

How do you get past this dynamic?

— Peter Hague (@peterrhague) November 12, 2025

Here’s a huge life hack for the sociability challenged among us:

People don’t want advice. The act of giving advice is always perceived as a claim to being superior. Claims of superiority annoy and anger people. Even if you have what you believe is excellent advice, the only way not to come off as a dick is to keep it to yourself.

The biggest giveaway that a person most certainly doesn’t want advice and will detest you for offering any is when they say, “please, I really need some advice.” Whatever you do, do not, and I repeat, do not offer advice. You’ll create a lifelong sworn enemy if you fall for this trick. Tell them that their suffering is so massive and exceptional that you, who never experienced anything remotely this daunting, would never dare give advice to such a paragon of strength, bravery, and inhuman intelligence as they are.

Humbling experiences are good for you, which is why I’ll publicly share that I googled my hotel in Milwaukee and, observing a sort of a coastal situation on the map, wondered if it’s located on the East or the West Coast.

Now that I know where it’s actually located, I understand why a friend said he’d pop over from Chicago to Milwaukee to see me there. I thought he was being weird, to be honest, because I imagined a 10-hour drive. To the coast. Or a coast, rather.

I’ve had an uneasy relationship with geography since the fifth grade. But please, everybody, appreciate the level of honesty here. I could have easily concealed this story.

Every time N walks into the room and finds me there (which, as you can imagine, is all the time), he exclaims with an expression of fresh joy, “You are here!”

It’s like I can make every day Christmas.

In the meantime, an American participant in the “No Kings” protest did this:

Why, yes I DID kiss the sneakers of @JasmineForUS and I DO worship the ground she walks on! And she was LOVELY about it! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/cUl4K96dam

— Stephanie Miller (@StephMillerShow) November 9, 2025

I would love to hear what our liberal readers have to say about this.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the Russian humanoid robot that was unveiled with great pomp today looks and acts very drunk:

«Национальная технологическая коалиция» представила российского человекоподобного робота.

Закрадываются мысли, что если у вашего прямоходящего робота на спине встроена специальная ручка для поднимания его с пола на ноги – то, скорее всего, что-то у вас пока идёт не так… pic.twitter.com/NBwythxnLA

— Павел Комаровский (@Rational_Answer) November 11, 2025

I never listened to Ben Shapiro before but, in view of the recent upheavals, I watched several episodes of his show. As a result, I can now say with confidence that Ben Shapiro is a very typical neoliberal. Neoliberalism is a variety of liberalism, as the name demonstrates. Shapiro, unfortunately, doesn’t have the intelligence to notice that there’s not much difference between his “just move” and a more self-aware liberal’s “just change your pronouns.” The underlying worldview in both cases is that human beings are endlessly malleable and fluid and that any form of grounding, rootedness and attachment is bad because it puts constraints on human freedom.

Individual freedom as the greatest value is at the core of liberalism. Again, it’s in the name. This is why a neoliberal is always ultimately a liberal, no matter which momentary obfuscation around this term Ronald Reagan created back when I was a toddler.

People get upset when I contradict political self-identification of individuals. But I’m only being consistent. Self-ID is meaningless to me both in terms of biological sex and in terms of politics. Self-awareness is the rarest of traits. If a dude proclaims liberal beliefs, what is it to me that he’s unaware he’s doing it?

Do you believe that any constraints on the human freedom to remake oneself and refashion reality are bad?

You are a liberal.

Do you believe that objective reality should cede to the force of human desire?

You are a liberal.

Do you believe that any sacrifice of individual desire and will to the interests of the community is bad?

You are a liberal.

Do you react more positively to the word rights than to the word obligations? Do you react negatively to the words limits, duty, and constraints? Do you believe that you are the way, the truth and the life?

Liberal, liberal, liberal.

Yes, it’s a very seductive way of seeing the world until the exact second when the unbending reality of frailty, infirmity, or age hits you smack dab in the kisser. Then it becomes less fun to “just move”. But that’s a whole other discussion.

Other than the fact that he’s a sincere, unclouded neoliberal, Ben Shapiro is a great dude.

Ben Shapiro is right. If you live in an area where you can't afford housing, move. Often you don't have to go more than 50 miles to find a significantly cheaper location (my husband and I did this). Stop helplessly clinging to your entitlement, refusing to make your life better.

— Abby Libby (@abbythelibb_) November 11, 2025

Yes, move. And then move again, and then keep moving. Whatever you do, never question the neoliberal dogma that you are the cause and the solution for everything.

I can’t believe we are still at the “just move” stage of the discussion.

The mind works in the strangest ways. I perceived the editing of my book as being extremely hard. Every day I had to force myself to do it because it was just so very painful.

But now I’m also writing an article which is much harder. Editing the book has become my way of avoiding the difficult article and it feels so easy. All I want to do is edit, edit, edit. The article is on hybrid warfare in two novels, and there’s very little place for neoliberalism in it. I mean, there obviously is neoliberalism but I’m poring over military theory and it’s really not my strong suit.

I am discovering that military theorists really know their shit and were predicting the rise of hybrid warfare thirty years ago. They were saying that human conscience has become postmodern (which is a synonym for neoliberal) and warfare will follow the same path.

In any case, what I’m saying is that I’m living the joke about a rabbi and a goat, and it’s all true.