#Trump sublimation

[southdigitalcreation]

https://southdigitalcreation.etsy.com/listing/1597060023

[citysvg1]

I'M With The Outlaw And The Hillbilly, Trump Vance 2024 SVG

[glitchyvisions]

[foxsoulcourt]

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I've uploaded your fic for Fandom Trumps Hate - do you have an AO3 account for me to gift it to? Hope you like it!

Awwww, THANK YOU SO MUCH! It’s G O R G E O US!!!! I read it when it first came out and literally G A S P E D at how BEAUTIFULLY you responded to the prompt we discussed. Haven’t commented yet because I, FOOLISHLY, am determined to craft a comment which matches the sublime work. (I know, I know, but ::shrugs in embarrassment of riches::) THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for such a beautiful gift! My AO3 account is under FoxsoulCourt.

FRIENDS, please take some time to enjoy the wonder which is The Golden Crown that Makes a Man King by kyaticlikestea. To summarise it by saying it’s a reflection on gender and masculinity is to undersell the experience of reading it, but that’s a start.

[nicklloydnow]

“About a decade ago, I ventured my opinion that the adult multitudes queueing for superhero movies were potentially an indicator of emotional arrest, which could have worrying political and social implications. Since at that time Brexit, Donald Trump and fascist populism hadn’t happened yet, my evidently crazy diatribe was largely met with outrage from the fan community, some of whom angrily demanded I be extradited to the US and made to stand trial for my crimes against superhumanity – which I felt didn’t necessarily disprove my allegations.

Ten years on, let me make my position clear: I believe that fandom is a wonderful and vital organ of contemporary culture, without which that culture ultimately stagnates, atrophies and dies. At the same time, I’m sure that fandom is sometimes a grotesque blight that poisons the society surrounding it with its mean-spirited obsessions and ridiculous, unearned sense of entitlement. Perhaps this statement still requires some breaking down.

(…)

Quite liking comics, aged 14 I thus became a comics fan with my discovery of British fandom, which was then still gummy-eyed and fresh out of the egg. The first convention I attended in London, in the basement rooms of a Southampton Row hotel in 1969, was tiny and inspiring. The attenders barely totalled a three-digit number, almost all of them some few years short of legal drinking age. The comics companies, having no monetary interest in a handful of penniless teenagers, went blissfully unrepresented, and the only industry celebrity that I recall was the sublime and sweetly unassuming genius Frank Bellamy, passing Dan Dare or Garth originals around, appearing wonderstruck that anyone had heard of him. The only thing uniting the assembly was its passion for an undervalued storytelling medium and, for the record, the consensus verdict of the gathered 15-year-old cognoscenti was that costumed musclemen were the main obstacle preventing adult audiences from taking comics seriously.

Of that hardly-a-hundred schoolkids, office boys and junior librarians, the great majority were actively involved in their pursuit, publishing or contributing to a variety of – for the most part – poorly duplicated fanzines, or else going on to work professionally in the field, such as Kevin O’Neill, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse or Jim Baikie, all of whom were downstairs at the Waverley hotel that weekend, keen to elevate the medium that they loved, rather than passively complain about whichever title or creator had particularly let them down that month. Of course, this was the 1960s and the same amateur energy seemed to be everywhere, spawning an underground press, Arts Lab publications and a messy, marvellous array of poetry or music fanzines that were the material fabric of that era’s counterculture; flimsy pamphlets as important and innovative today as they were then, although considerably more expensive, trust me.

Soon thereafter, caught up in the rush of adolescent life, I drifted out of touch with comic books and their attendant fandom, only returning eight years later when I was commencing work as a professional in that fondly remembered field, to find it greatly altered. Bigger, more commercial, and although there were still interesting fanzines and some fine, committed people, I detected the beginnings of a tendency to fetishise a work’s creator rather than simply appreciate the work itself, as if artists and writers were themselves part of the costumed entertainment. Never having sought a pop celebrity relationship with readers, I withdrew by stages from the social side of comics, acquiring my standing as a furious, unfathomable hermit in the process. And when I looked back, after an internet and some few decades, fandom was a very different animal.

An older animal for one thing, with a median age in its late 40s, fed, presumably, by a nostalgia that its energetic predecessor was too young to suffer from. And while the vulgar comic story was originally proffered solely to the working classes, soaring retail prices had precluded any audience save the more affluent; had gentrified a previously bustling and lively cultural slum neighbourhood. This boost in fandom’s age and status possibly explains its current sense of privilege, its tendency to carp and cavil rather than contribute or create. I speak only of comics fandom here, but have gained the impression that this reflexive belligerence – most usually from middle-aged white male conservatives – is now a part of many fan communities. My 14-year-old grandson tells me older Pokémon aficionados can display the same febrile disgruntlement. Is this a case of those unwilling to outgrow childhood enthusiasms, possibly because these anchor them to happier and less complex times, who now feel they should be sole arbiters of their pursuit?

There are, of course, entirely benign fandoms, networks of cooperative individuals who quite like the same thing, can chat with others sharing the same pastime and, importantly, provide support for one another in difficult times. These healthy subcultures, however, are less likely to impact on society in the same way that the more strident and presumptuous fandoms have managed. Unnervingly rapidly, our culture has become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in. Our entertainments may be cancelled prematurely through an adverse fan reaction, and we may endure largely misogynist crusades such as Gamergate or Comicsgate from those who think “gate” means “conspiracy”, and that Nixon’s disgrace was predicated on a plot involving water, but this is hardly the full extent to which fan attitudes have toxified the world surrounding us, most obviously in our politics.

Elections that decide the fate of millions are conducted in an atmosphere more suited to evictions on I’m a Celebrity …, in which contestants who are insufficiently amusing are removed from office. Saleability, not substance, is the issue. Those who vote for Donald Trump or Boris Johnson seem less moved by policy or prior accomplishment than by how much they’ve enjoyed the performances on The Apprentice or Have I Got News for You. And throughout the UK, we’re now familiar with what a Stephen Yaxley-Lennon fan convention looks like.

An enthusiasm that is fertile and productive can enrich life and society, just as displacing personal frustrations into venomous tirades about your boyhood hobby can devalue them. Quite liking something is OK. You don’t need the machete or the megaphone.

Candidly, for my part, readers would have always been more than sufficient.”

[neilnordegirl]

“ i don't know what kind of girl i am „ intro ★🐛🍎

🐾🌀 ,, ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵐᵉ

✿︎ 𝘁𝗮𝘆/𝗰𝗹𝘆𝗱𝗲,, she/any, minor.. im a middle schooler sigh...

nerdy, bisexual, audhd, ocd mess, scorpio, intp, native canadian 🫖,,

✿︎ 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗳𝗳 𝗶 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲,,

scott pilgrim, juno, fantastic mr fox, twd, tlou, dying light, the quarry, life is strange, until dawn, bayonetta, jennifers body, mean girls, new girl, superstore, gilmore girls, dylan dog, the hunger games, south park, sonic, heathers, the poto, legally blonde(musical and movies), rtc,, I love so much more stuff ughhh

✿︎ 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰,,

hole, kimya dawson, chappel roan, the offspring, korn, sublime, green day, april march, mommy long legs, dazey and the scouts, fiona apple, big thief & adrienne lenker, the smashing pumpkins, plumtree, jack off jill, cheap perfume, bikini girl, the whole scott pilgrim vs the world soundtrack, mom jeans, etc,,, theres so much..

✿︎ 𝗗𝗡𝗜,, i block freely

17+ unless i interact first, basic dni, no cis men unless ur cool & a teenager, fatphobics, people who are generally mean, sexists & mysogynists, trump supporters, republics, & conservatives, ppl who r super religious,, i have sum religious trauma & it makes me uncomfy.

✿︎ 𝗽𝗽𝗹 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝘀𝘀𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗮𝘆!! oh ya also im a neil nordegraf, cato hadley, and mischa bachinski yume eheheh so yes(on twt)

tt: neilnordegirl

twt/x: mewzie_

insta: _zombiegrrl

pinterest: neilnordegirl

disc: gortdasnort

letterboxd: neilnordegirl

[dinosaursr66]

I am getting obsessed with Florist. Sublime beauty flows out of her effortlessly. I’m in.

SONG OF THE DAY - Thursday, March 20, 2025

Fuck Trump.

[thahxa]

So heads up - the “government spends too much” narrative is the bugbear that has destroyed everything you want for the US. Key example: the Clintons 90s healthcare reform enjoyed popular, bipartisan support. Americans wanted each of the individual things it called for. So why didn’t it happen? Insurance companies, the only group that didn’t want it, ran the most successful lobbying campaign in history using just one line - “this will make government and government spending bigger.” Americans supported spending for each of the individual elements, but when you pointed out that 1 spending plus 1 spending equaled 2 new spendings, they opposed it.

i more or less both agree and disagree with this take, i could write a whole essay but im kinda tired so

concerns about excessive gov't spending are largely bullshit in many cases yes, most gov't spending is redistribution which can't be meaningfully cut, concerns over this are sublimated debates over welfare etc

at the same time, the current breed of dems/repubs dont seem to actually care v. much about spending (trump ran massive deficits and both him and biden did the massive covid stimulus)

however, in many places, particularly dem-controlled states theres a lot of difficulty turning dollars spent into things built (see: californian HSR, anything in SF, transmission lines, etc)

this specific ability of the fedgov to both retain and hire competent, hardworking ppl and excessive regulation (ex. fda, ftc, nepa arguably some parts of the sec, etc.) is in fact a problem for our country and hurts our ability to both build things (in general) and be competitive and should be targeted

[southdigitalcreation]

[citysvg1]

Stands For america Png, Fight Trump shooting Png

[thebpdcrybaby]

My name is Sadie and I'm 33 years old with autism and borderline personality disorder. I am not in treatment because I have Medicare for insurance and there are 4+ year waiting lists for therapy. I am on three medications- Effexor, Risperidone, Wellbutrin. I have severe depression, general anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, adjustment disorder, unspecified mood disorder, auditory processing disorder. I have binge eating disorder and struggle with self harm. I'm obese and have always struggled with my weight. I live on my own in an apartment complex, where my mother and five year old autistic son also live. She is raising him now because of my worsening mental health. I have been in a relationship with my son's father for 9 years, it has been a lot of ups and downs. He is my FP (favorite person). He just moved to Arizona due to unfortunate circumstances, so we are now maintaining a long distance relationship. I'm on social security income and live in Pennsylvania, USA. I have heavy suicide ideations. My BPD type is "self destructive." My autism is between level 1 and level 2.

Physical illnesses: morbid obesity, PCOS, hypothyroidism, sciatica on right side plus moderate back pain from spinal degeneration, constant tachycardia

- she/her/hers

- LGBT ally

- extreme leftist

- socialist, anti capitalism

- non religious with interest in The Satanic Temple

- 420 friendly

- Daddy issues

- no ableism

- no fatphobia

- no kink shaming

- no homophobia

- no transphobia

- no racists/Nazis

- no Republicans/Trump supporters

Horror movie fanatic.

Music is life.

Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, HIM, Linkin Park, Grey Daze, Jack Off Jill, Nirvana, Green Day, Yungblud, Melanie Martinez, Lana Del Rey, Halsey, Buckcherry, Korn, Pearl Jam, Fuel, Pink Floyd, John Mellencamp, She Wants Revenge, Oasis, Pixies, Maroon 5, Sick Puppies, Sixx:A.M., Motley Crue, Aerosmith, Eagles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Third Eye Blind, Thirty Seconds to Mars, AFI, Violent Femmes, Rise Against, The Struts, In This Moment, The Pretty Reckless, Bring Me The Horizon, Evanescence, Shinedown, Hollywood Undead, Daughtry, The 69 Eyes, Mindless Self Indulgence, Filter, Rob Zombie, Lords of Acid, Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, Papa Roach, Seether, Puddle of Mudd, Bush, Creed, P!nk, Rancid, The Doors, Radiohead, Gin Blossoms, Sex Pistols, My Chemical Romance, Tool, Hole, Good Charlotte, Sublime, Machine Gun Kelly, Miley Cyrus, Noah Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift

My comforts and hyperfixations: Joker, Pete Davidson, Yungblud, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, HIM/heartagrams, Bam Margera, Taylor Swift, The Twilight Zone, The Golden Girls, Home Improvement sitcom, old sitcoms, old black and white movies and TV, Art the Clown, Jack Skellington, Hello Kitty, Rugrats, the 90s, cemeteries, true crime, splatterpunk, gore, slashers, collecting DVDs and Blu-ray, reading books and Kindle, "alternative" goth, punk, emo, Funko Pop, Squishmallows, The Sims, casual mobile gaming, poetry, Tate Langdon from American Horror Story season one, American Horror StorIES show on Hulu, Kurt Cobain, Chester Bennington, The Virgin Suicides, Girl Interrupted, Pearl, Euphoria, girlblogging, Sylvia Plath, Franz Kafka

They call me Cry Baby but I don't fuckin care...

Hail to the BPD king, Pete.

[sethshead]

It’s not in any way a parallel, but the last time right-wing populism seemed ascendant internationally, there was little solidarity then, either. Austrofascists Dolfuß and Schuschnigg were very opposed to Hitler and the Anschluss (bis in den Tod, Rot-Weiss-Rot!). Hitler very nearly made an enemy out of Mussolini with his irredentist coveting of Austria and the German-speaking Italian Tyrol. The Baltic nationalist dictators all suppressed Nazi-agitating ethnic Germans. Polish Sanacja was nationalistic and illiberal. The Yugoslavs who refused to join the Axis, who overthrew Prince Paul and installed Peter II, were largely Serbian nationalists. Metaxas in Greece was essentially a fascist, and fought Italy, Germany, and Bulgaria. The Slovak National Revolt was provoked by formal German occupation. The right wing is not known for playing well with others, and nationalists are not probe to sublimate their ethnic and state interests to those of others.

This is a contributing factor, aside from respectability and self-preservation, that so many in the European far-right are distancing themselves from Trump now. More important, however, is that the needlessly adversarial tone and policies Trump has adopted towards former allies has made him - and America itself - radioactive to all but the most craven toadies. Trump is succeeding in uniting the world, albeit against us.

[buzzdixonwriter]

What’s The Deal, Neil?

We cancel Cosby, we cancel Rowlings, we cancel Allen, we cancel Savile, we cancel Allen.

We do not cancel Curtiz or Hitchcock or Mozart.

Why?

There is a reason, and a valid one at that.  Michael Curtiz and Alfred Hitchcock and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never set themselves up as moral exemplars, publicly proclaiming their righteous acts while hiding their unrighteous deeds.

Quite the contrary.

Their sleazy behavior is often shrugged off with “Well, what did you expect?” as we continue to enjoy their works.

We do not feel betrayed by them, we have not invested in admiring them not just for their artistic works but the causes they championed as well.

Gaiman, Rowling, Cosby, Savile, Allen et al presented a highly moral / ethical face to the world yet they conducted themselves privately in a wholly contrary manner.

We don’t object to scoundrels behaving like scoundrels; if we did Donald Trump would have landed in jail long before running for president.

We do object to those who say one thing yet do another – and this is why those cancelled richly deserve their cancellation.

They betrayed us not by merely demonstrating feet of excrement, but by undermining the very things they urged us to aspire to.

Like religious leaders who can’t imagine why people flee their congregations, they fail to grasp that their predatory actions and unsavory behavior destroys the trust others once placed in what they taught.

Gaiman et al make us look askance at all their works we once adored and legitimately admired, causing us to wonder if those works are somehow as tainted as their creators.

And if so tainted, then what about the ideas and ideals contained within?

There are many capable of separating the art from the artist, to continue to enjoy the work -- Casablanca in Curtiz’ case, to name one example -- while righteously denouncing the creator of the work for egregious bad behavior.

Some creators -- such as Mozart -- manage to link outrageous personal behavior with breathtaking beauty by taking unrestrained joy in both, never denying their baseness but never letting it sully their sublimity.

The line that cannot be crossed, the unpardonable atrocity, the literally unforgiveable sin found in the gospels is to blaspheme the holy. 

To set up an ideal, to fire people’s imagination, to urge them to cling to that ideal, to present oneself as a living embodiment -- however imperfect -- of that ideal is to create something holy, regardless of one’s formal beliefs or disbeliefs.

And to undermine that through bad behavior is to hew away the foundations of other people’s lives and identities.

Some things can’t be forgiven…

…nor should they.

  © Buzz Dixon

[brightquang]

Elon Musk Đã Giải Cứu Nước Mỹ Khỏi Khoản Nợ Công 35 nghìn Tỷ Đô La Như T... President Trump should quickly reform the term of the United States Congressmen that their limit's term has two terms without having for long life. When they have been sitting for a long time, they ought to raise tyrants. They secretly build their deep state. Let them have been building for monopolizing parties like communism. They freely corrupt, bribe, and destroy American capitalism because the term of the American President has only two terms which is why the United States Congressmen have for a long life which is why the United States Constitution and law have been distorted by them. In fact, Mr. Elon has been finding out so much of the fraud in the government of the United States as bait and switch from the local government to the central government without having expressed Unmitigated Punishment for offenders. For example, one United States senator Wayne Morse was an American attorney. He was born on October 20, 1900 and died on July 22,1974 in Portland, Organ which is why his attorney has distorted his Sublime Constitution because the US Constitution hasn't allowed any American leaders has self-testified hearings before the United States Congress to let him tame all of the heart of the American leaders to invade and subvert the sovereignty of Vietnam when the United States has solemnly approved the sovereignty of Vietnam. In fact, Senator Wayne Morse was a powerful political democratic party to become a tyrant because he had learned the law by heart, he didn't carry out the law to serve his nation or so-called "Unmitigated Punishment for offenders." That is why he was a belligerent senator when he persuaded his Congressmen and His president to fall in love with foreign wars- for example, he first mobilized the United States Congress to enact the law to let the United States fight against international communism in the Republic of Vietnam. That is why his congress didn't keep it, but his congress has betrayed his Vietnam ally. Why did a great powerful America become disloyalty, unjust cause, and injustice theory? Next, a United States Congress senator Joe Biden has been expressing unkindness, the lack of loyalty, and immorality. Even worse, he understood about the Vietnam War when he was a US senator which is why he declared and said, " America has no obligation to the Vietnamese people and soldiers while his congress has betrayed his Vietnam ally on April 30, 1975, and he didn't vote a bill to evacuate the Vietnamese people and soldiers out of Vietnam when he and his congress strongly swallowed four multilateral and the thirty-seven bilateral treaties without having kept any morality and face. Why did a great powerful America not respect any native laws and Constitution with a weak foreign nation like Vietnam? Why does his democratic Congress have freely exchanged the freedom of thoughts? Because his party has been exchanging from Capitalist to socialist, he and his congress has been mobilizing the foreign Vietnamese people to fight against communism which is why he and his congress didn't respect any American honors, face, and simple human dignity. Ironically, while Senator Joe Biden has refused the evacuation of the Vietnamese people and soldiers to refugees to the United States, when the Vietnamese people and soldiers have been protecting for the life of America Armed Forces, they were invading and subverting in South Vietnam- for example, the Department of Police has saved the life of  The United States Secretary of Defense Robert Mc Namara and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in October 15, 1964 by a Vietnamese communist spy's Nguyen Van Troi bombed to assassinate them which is why they were survived by the Vietnamese South spies, that is why the United States didn't respect us when the United States has abused power to return good for evil without having tribunal of human conscience. Just because they have secretly solde their Vietnam ally to the mainland China when they have not only deprived the rights of life to South Vietnamese people and sold them to let them protect the core of their national interests rather than humanitarianism. Why did they deprive the rights of life to the weakest humans? Why do they boundlessly enrich themselves from the marrow and bones of the weakest humans like their Vietnam ally?  The United States of the powerful political American leaders have distorted the constitution. Let them build the foreign wars without having kept law and constitution because no article and chapter of the United States Constitution allowed any powerful political American leaders to self- enact the law to invade to foreign nations- unless, some foreign nations secretly terrorized to the United States, so the United States enacted law to allow President to attack to terrorism without having regrets them. In contrast, Sovereign Vietnam has not only closed off the United States but also hasn't had the dangerous enemy of the United States. That is why the United States had not only terrorized Vietnam but also sold the sovereignty of Vietnam to socialism- if the United States of America were situation's Vietnam, what does the United States truly think frankly in comparison? In fact, Ex-President Joe Biden lost his first son- how would he feel pain for the long run? Senator Joe Biden was happily seen by so much of his Vietnamese allies. They were detained by many concentration camps, nationalized, and assassinated without having openly sentenced the judges. so, many crimes of the worldwide Ex- President Joe Biden were wide open hands. He would like to welcome them to live in his wonderful nation while he has ordered his workers, they gave the foreign criminals to come to his nation by the American Visa special with- out having had any American securities investing them. But he secretly ordered the Department of finance to take the American taxes, it was hiding for the good motels to let them reside. In the meantime, the illegal immigrants have not only robbed the American people but also destroyed the calm of innocent American society- why was he careless to the life of his people? In fact, each American home has built the fence which protects the American house which is why his wonderful nation has not had any borders to protect his nation and people. As a result, President Trump thought quickly to reform the United States Congress must have two terms because the congressmen have been sitting for a long time, they could push the United States to demagogy, tyrant men, and to become a monopolization. Author Bright Quang

[grandhotelabyss]

Thoughts on Trump picking a writer as VP?

I haven't read Vance's book, so I don't know if he's a good writer, but I've heard it's a reasonably effective memoir, written mostly before he had this level of political ambition.

I just read his personal essay about his conversion to Catholicism today. I am cautious around writing that proclaims its humility and thereby forces me to search for its will to power; this is why I proclaim my will to power and allow you, but only if you want, to discover my humility, my debility, my "male vulnerability." Other than that, the essay is most moving and persuasive where it refutes the simplistic materialism of the likes of analytic philosophers and Sam Harris, and where he details his real spiritual experiences (I believe him). His critique of the left's superficially compassionate but actually cruel attitude toward the poor ("like sympathy for a zoo animal") is also exactly right. But I find it overly solemn, anxious, barely concealing the abandonment of his natal Protestantism for its plebeian or peasant quality—no less part of his desire for acceptance by an elite than was his earlier atheism. I was raised in plebeian or peasant Catholicism myself, on the other hand, which has nothing at all to do with the authorities he cites, like René Girard and St. Augustine. I look slightly askance on adult converts drawn in by the theology and morality. It has always seemed to me that the point of Catholicism—and I mean this much more religiously and much less blasphemously than it sounds—is the architecture and the incense, the barely sublimated sex and the eros of death. But I also love, as an outsider, the reckless, almost doom-seeking individualism of certain strains of Protestantism, some of them laundered as atheism. Since these seem to me to be the point of America, I am wary of overly intellectual Catholics and social democrats, their philosophies literally reeking of the over-crowded warrens of 19th-century Europe, moralistically tut-tutting about it. His second long quotation from Augustine gives me a chill, not in a good way. "[I]n his own affairs let everyone with impunity do what he will in company with his own family, and with those who willingly join him," our theologian jeers. Yes, Bishop, that's the American dream. Why not be a climate-doomer de-growther flinging soup in a museum with an attitude like that? The solution to poverty is abundance.

Possibly more significant for practical purposes, however, is Vance's tie to the literary-philosophical network around the Silicon Valley dissidents: Yarvin, BAP, and their associated publications and social media presences. (This is a good time to revisit James Pogue's Vanity Fair piece on the new right from 2022.) As Walter Kirn observed yesterday, that makes this election different from the last two. The last two were organized around the force of Trump's personality as he tried to hold together a fraying and fracturing Republican coalition of "provincial capital" (the proverbial boat dealer), the (mostly but not entirely) white working class, and the old Reagan Republican business constituencies of defense and energy, even as finance defected to the Democrats, while entertainment, academia, and intelligence pursued total war against their almost undefended reactionary enemy. The belligerent entrance of Musk and Andreessen into this election on Trump's side as representatives of big tech, with Vance as the political figurehead of big tech's literary and philosophical vanguard wing, makes it a much more even and generally significant contest: a true class war between incumbent and emergent elites. Literature has played no small part in this class war, as so many now widely-read writers and thinkers, love them or hate them, have resigned from the old left-liberal consensus. I don't mean to sound excessively neutral on the subject, but I belong to neither of the contending classes, and neither is at all democratic. I'm still not totally sure how the emergent elites' values are connected to a downbeat puritanical Augustinian Catholicism either, but since it seems to have everything to do with the aforesaid René Girard, we are still in the realm of literary theory if not literature.

In any case, the service of literature to any political faction or project should be the taming of its worser tendencies and the opening of its members to dialogue, irony, sympathy, and fresh perspectives. I will be told this is too idealistic.

[shrinkrants]

During times like these, I am reminded of the courageous speech of philosopher Cornel West, who attributes to St. Augustine the profound existential observation that we are born between urine and feces, that we are born out of and through the funk. West has said, “We down in the funk, and there is love and freedom and sublimity in that funk.” Within the context of this funk, West urges us to think of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, reminding us: “His funk raised us and renewed us. His funk got us through.” The point here is that we must be on intimate terms with funk and despair but not prisoners of despair. . . . . . . West reminds us, and it is an existentially powerful message at precisely this historical moment, that pain and sorrow can be our constant companions as we continue to “engage in an endless quest for healing and serving others.” It is this sense of ethical fortitude in the face of this election that led me to reach out to my dear brother Cornel West. This exclusive interview is the fruit of West’s generosity. As a person who refuses to be bought by empire and seduced by “sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal,” brother West urgently reminds us of a tradition of speaking truth to power and refuses to honor a political and corporate duopoly that has forgotten about poor and working-class people. Read closely and you will feel the pain, the outrage, and the love and insistence to keep on keeping on.

George Yancy interviews Dr. West. Listen up.