Posts by Michael Jay Tucker
The Anglosphere…Or Not
So I ran across an interesting term a year or so back, “The Anglosphere.” What this is, basically, is the English-speaking nations of the world considered as a single social, economic, and political grouping—i.e., Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Why I find the Anglosphere interesting politically is that at least some…
Read MoreOf Such Things Dictatorships Are Made
One of the strangest movies ever made in Hollywood was Gabriel Over The White House (1933), which basically called for some sort of Fascism in America. (Among its financial backers was William Randolph Hearst, which will tell you something if you know anything about his history. Think Citizen Kane.) But, the premise of the…
Read MoreMaybe Some Euros After All
So, yesterday, I wrote about a recent article in the New York Review of Books (NYRB) about the newest European “New” Right. (We get a new New Right about once each twenty to thirty years or so. Last time it was the “libertarian” New Right of Reagan and Thatcher.) Anyway, I wrote about the newest…
Read MoreThe Newest New Right
a. So there was a fascinating article in last month’s issue of the New York Review of Books, Two Roads for the New French Right by Mark Lilla. In it, Lilla looks at the French (and, by extension, European) New Right—that is, the populist or radical Right. (An aside, we come up with a “newer” New…
Read MoreThey Call Us Snowflakes
The Real Terrorism
Interesting article over on the Foreign Affairs website a while back, “Women for Bolsonaro” by Chayenne Polimédio. In it, the author asked why it was that many Brazilian women support Jair Messias Bolsonaro, the right wing populist who is now the nation’s president and practicing despot. Polimédio’s answer is intriguing— Fear! Brazil is in the…
Read MoreWaiting Is Hard, But Light Will Come
National Parks, Shutdown, Libertarianism
So I read the other day that when Trump (partially) shutdown the government, he effectively shut down the national parks. The rangers and others who would have otherwise staffed the parks…taking tickets, clearing roads, maintaining bathrooms, providing police services, etc. …were shut out. Thus the parks were left to themselves. But people kept right on…
Read MoreThe F*ck Tesla Trucks
From The Editor’s Desk… So I saw this the other day on the Reddit social media site. The OP, Leicina, drove their Tesla car to a designated charging station at a Sheetz. (Some background, Sheetz is a chain of convenience stores.) The problem was that when they arrived, they found the station blockaded by a…
Read MoreCan Ayn Rand Be Saved?
Late last year, there was an intriguing article in Politico, The Next Koch Doesn’t Like Politics. It seems that the Koch Brothers, the famous “Libertarian” billionaires who have done so much to shatter the American centralist consensus in politics, are growing old. So, increasingly the massive foundations and political networks they’ve created are being transferred…
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