Social phenomena have social causes. It’s easy to blame individuals because that’s other people. Accepting that social bonds are key places some responsibility on the person talking because they can do something about it. Much easier to claim “I’m strong, the problem is that other people are weak."

Hard times create societal unity as people band together to survive and prevail. Good times allow people to see fellow citizens as competitors/enemies, leading to bad times. The purely individual analysis is like thinking of rock slides in terms of single rocks, ignoring the slope.
1/

Kelly has spent more time in space than Hegseth has sober.

Anybody chasing anything as hard as Elon chases money and the adulation of his fanboys is running away from a part of themselves. He’s driven by a barely contained panic at the possibility of having to look into his own heart.

The only thing in common among the various governing systems they use is that they are administered by civil serpents.

This is the basis of the Bannon “flood the zone with shit” strategy. When the truth is no longer discernible people fall back on loyalty to leaders or groups.

If only they could have monetized videos of cats riding roombas they'd still be profitable.

Even after reading it I don't get his motivation. It's like he got thrashed at golf by a windmill salesman and just can't let it go.

i’ll add that what substantively seems to annoy silver is the existence of people with principles

This is why my mac and cheese uses rotini. Stupid macaroni fails when the sauce is naturally sticky. Sticky sauce needs surface area, not enclosed volume. It’s just physics. Yummy, gooey physics.

I read that in Homer Simpson’s voice.

The way Fox News was pushing it 24/7 on every show, even to the point of actively participating in Tea Party events was kind of a tell. Also the spontaneous emergence of very well funded “grass roots” groups with anonymous backers.

Btw, Bea is the one who said, "Mom, you really need to do a video on movement capture because I don't think enough people understand what it is."

That's been my highest-viewed video this past week. Hey kid, close to 150k people on multiple platforms learned about this bc you suggested it. ❤️❤️❤️