Own Goal
Audio Recording by George Hahn
The Atlantic’s George Packer wrote: “Charlie Kirk’s murder is a tragedy for his family and a disaster for the country. In an atmosphere of national paranoia and hatred, each act of political violence makes the next one more likely.” But that’s not what this post is about. The murder is another example of our broken culture. It’s a stain on our accomplishments. Many of America’s finest achievements took place overseas and have resulted in alliances that have scaled our power. We have wisely nurtured, and invested in, these alliances. Until recently.
The most powerful image of 2024 was Trump defiantly pumping his fist after an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear. Trump also had a hand in this year’s most powerful image — a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrating their new partnership. The caption for that photo should read “Axis of Own Goal,” as Trump’s geopolitical sclerosis and bullying have isolated America from its allies and united its adversaries.
Solo Mission
Presidents of both parties have long understood that our strength doesn’t flow from our economic output, military prowess, or cultural exports, but the capacity to leverage those assets in service of coalitions that are greater than the sum of their parts. That’s not idealism, but pragmatism. The U.S. accounts for 4% of the world’s population and 26% of global GDP. By definition, going it alone would mean taking on 96% of humanity and 74% of Earth’s economic output. As Winston Churchill said, “There’s only one thing worse than fighting a war with allies, and that’s fighting a war without them.”
Less than a year into Trump’s second term, we’ve lost many friends and much influence. With the president praising authoritarians and casting doubt on our mutual defense commitments, our allies can no longer count on us. Demolishing USAID didn’t save much money — at 0.3% of the federal budget, the agency created substantial soft power on the cheap — but it did tell the world’s developing nations to look elsewhere for leadership. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs aren’t the crude tools of protectionism, but cudgels deployed in service of his id. (See: The 50% levy on Brazil for bringing criminal charges against former president Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a coup.) Since World War II, America has provided global security and economic stability, while serving as an (imperfect) vehicle to spread democracy and the rule of law. Under Trump, we’re an amoral chaos agent. Alienating allies weakens our position relative to China.
Backfire
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, George W. Bush coined the phrase Axis of Evil. Good branding, sub-scale threat. In 2002, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea had a combined GDP of $162 billion, compared to U.S. GDP of $11 trillion. China, Russia, and (now) India are a different story. Combined, the three nations account for 38% of the world’s population and 34% of global GDP. And unlike the Axis of Evil, the Axis of Own Goal isn’t a rhetorical construct, but a product of Trump’s ineptitude. As the Economist put it, “To see the cost of Trump’s bullying, tally the world leaders flocking to China.”
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit was Modi’s first trip to China in seven years. The meeting came just days after Trump’s new tariffs on India took effect, hiking duties on some exports to 50% in retaliation for India’s continued purchases of Russian oil. The tariff increase only added fuel to a fire Trump set in May, when he claimed credit for ending India’s long-running feud with Pakistan. According to Modi, India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on their own, ending a four-day border clash in May. According to Trump and Pakistan, Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
If the plan was to keep India in place as a bulwark against Chinese expansion and drive it away from Russia, the president’s moves backfired spectacularly. India continues buying Russian oil, while stabilizing its relationship with China. At the SCO summit, Xi said China and India should be friends, enable each other’s success, and choose cooperation. Modi highlighted “the positive momentum” in bilateral ties, characterizing the nations’ relationship as “partners rather than rivals.” That’s a remarkable turnaround for two countries that fought a border war in 1962 and have had continued clashes ever since, with the most recent skirmish occurring in 2022. Seeing the photo of Putin, Modi, and Xi, Trump posted, “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!”
From Russia with Love (i.e., Oil and Gas)
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine was supposed to be quick and relatively bloodless. Three years on, it’s a stalemate. Russia has suffered more than 1 million casualties. That would be a disaster for any other country, but Russia’s willingness to sacrifice the lives of soldiers is a competence. In World War II, the Soviet Union lost 10 million soldiers and another 24 million civilians; the U.S. lost roughly 400,000 soldiers and dropped two atomic bombs to avoid further casualties.
Russia’s chief asset is energy. As John McCain once said, “Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.” By some estimates, revenue from oil and gas exports has accounted for 30% to 50% of Russia’s budget over the past decade. Sanctioning Russian energy exports has helped Ukraine, but only to a point. The reason? Russia is adding energy clients faster than we can marshal our erstwhile allies in an embargo. Ukraine can’t kill its way to victory, but by shifting its strategy to target Russia’s energy production it may ultimately inflict a price too high for Russia to stomach. We can and should help Ukraine pursue that strategy. Pushing India closer to Russia and China has the opposite effect.
Reverse Nixon
Alice Han argued on our newest Prof G podcast, China Decode, that Trump missed a narrow window to do a “reverse Nixon.” In 1972, Richard Nixon went to China to drive a wedge between Beijing and Moscow. The gambit worked in geopolitical terms, but it also set the stage for an economic relationship that benefited U.S. corporations and consumers and helped China to lift 600 million people out of poverty between 1981 and 2004. Today, however, China and Russia are united by trade and their opposition to American hegemony, with Beijing as Moscow’s senior partner in a relationship the Chinese foreign minister described as “better than allies.”
Xi has cultivated his relationship with Putin, calling the Russian leader his “best friend.” Last week, with Putin by his side, Xi presided over a military parade that cast China as the allied savior in World War II. In response, Trump posted, “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.” U.S. presidents with FOMO is a bad look.
Friends and Neighbors
One of America’s greatest assets is its geography. Two oceans and a pair of friendly neighbors have saved the hundreds of billions another country might have needed to militarize borders and coastlines. China has land borders with 14 nations and maritime borders with an additional 11. In 1969, China and Russia fought a war over border disputes that dated back to the 18th century. Last year, bilateral trade between them reached an all-time high of $245 billion — double what it was in 2020.
China needs Russian energy to expand its economy, but friendly borders are the geopolitical priority. As journalist James Kynge argued on China Decode, the 1,700 miles of the Amur River that delineate the border between Russia and China tell the story in microcosm. Ten years ago, there weren’t any bridges spanning the Amur and commerce was nil. Today there are three bridges and business is booming on both sides of the river. “China’s biggest strategic priority is that, if it has to fight a war with Taiwan on its southern border, it can do so without worrying about its northern border with Russia becoming unstable.”
Zooming out, China has expanded the SCO and invested $1 trillion in “Belt and Road” infrastructure projects in more than 150 countries since 2013. The outreach has paid dividends. In 2000, U.S. trade totaled $2 trillion — 4x China’s total. Since then, U.S. trade has grown 167%; China, now the dominant trade partner for most of the world, has seen its total rise by 1,200% from 2000 to 2024. While China has comparable hegemonic firepower to the U.S. — a dominant military, capital, advanced technology, and cultural influence — we can’t plan beyond the next Congressional budget shutdown. China’s key asset is its ability to play the long game to achieve stability on its borders while spreading influence globally.
Self-Reliance
Last year, India became the top source of international pupils at U.S. universities, sending 331,602 students — a 23% increase from the previous year and more than any other country, including China. Up until a few months ago, India was one of a handful of countries globally where U.S. favorability remained positive, according to Pew, and one of only five nations where a majority of respondents had confidence in President Trump. Last week a former MMA fighter who showed up at an ICE career expo summed up our deteriorating relationship with India when he told the Washington Post, “I keep seeing these memes where Indians are bragging about taking our tech jobs. So I said, ‘Oh yeah? Well I’m going to work with these guys that are going to arrest you, slam your face on the pavement, and send you home.’”
We need India. Notwithstanding Trump’s folly, India has been a strategic check on Chinese expansion. We share democratic values, even if both nations are backsliding at the moment. English is widely spoken among India’s government officials, business leaders, and knowledge workers, with up to one-third of the population able to understand the language to some degree. India’s economy is growing at 6.4% — faster than any other major economy. Half of India’s population of 1.4 billion people is under the age of 29. Finally, India provides a pipeline of human capital that our universities and corporations can’t do without. Simply put, India’s best asset is its future: It looks like China in 2004, minus the totalitarian baggage. That’s a partner you want to cultivate.
Does India need us? Maybe not. Since its founding in 1947, India has been wary of alliances, preferring “alignment” as a means of navigating geopolitics. India aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But in the 1970s, the U.S. granted India special trade status, allowing its goods to enter American markets duty-free. More recently, Modi has renewed the idea of Indian self-reliance, saying, “When we grow and excel, the world will acknowledge our worth.” He also set a goal of increasing India’s GDP to $10 trillion over the next 12 years — a target that would give India developed nation status. That may be overly ambitious at current growth rates, but according to the World Bank, it’s achievable, if Modi can push through an economic reform agenda.
Consequences
I often say the best way to predict the future is to make it. Right now, America isn’t making the future — it’s destroying the good will, influence, and leadership it’s been building since the end of World War II. As a former Chinese diplomat explained, “The U.S. under Trump is launching revolution after revolution. The Chinese know about revolutions, and we know that you better know what the consequences will be if you launch a revolution. I don’t think Trump is fully aware of the consequences of all these tremendous forces he’s unleashing around the world.” The American century isn’t ending with a bang, but with tweets and a trade war. We built an empire in 80 years and are torching it in 8. Our edge was never the missile; it was the handshake. Restore alliances, or hand the 21st century to those who keep theirs.
Life is so rich,
P.S. Don’t just listen to me rage, watch me. Raging Moderates now has a dedicated YouTube channel. Subscribe here.
69 Comments
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Since Psychology Today editor Kaja Perina simply can’t get this ethical responsibility thing and publisher Jo Clockwork Lemon Colman (finally, he took down the idiotic profile photo that made him look like a Droog, but I can’t resist recalling it for my laugh of the day) keeps sticking by a bad decision like Kaja, I hope Psychology Today goes the way of Brill’s Content. Since Brill’s was smart enough to just pull the plug, it was obviously spared the shameless decline into unethicality and stupidity that TP has seen with the unethical imbecile Kaja at the helm.
Oh, and if anyone at Psychology Today believes that an unethical hypnotherapy started without the patient’s knowledge or consent could possibly be doing me any good, they’re just too damn stupid to be involved in psychology. Consider that a diagnosis of their mental conditions that’s as good as any they will ever deliver.
‘Expose Charlie’s Murderers’ Website Receives Over 50,000 Submissions of Leftists Celebrating Murder of Charlie Kirk — Declares Itself the ‘Largest Firing Operation in History’
I wonder how many people on the left just got themselves fired, lost their license, lost their career, lost their future, and are going to get themselves deported over this.
Years from now, when Historians are looking back at this period in time, I wonder what those final numbers will look like
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I see that Psychology Today managed to get this far without some crazed, hate-filled mental health professional writing a ditzy defense of Charlie Kirk’s murderer.
I think they were afraid of getting called on it because I’ve restated my complaint about unethical editor Kaja Perina’s participation in covering up an unethical hypnotherapy, something any ethical or competent editor would have stopped.
I’m glad someone’s getting some sense there, but when they’ve failed to even bother to try to stop an unethical hypnotherapy that any ethical practitioners would have wanted to stop immediately, I’m sure that it’s only because they’ve had someone restate an ethical complaint and try to get them to do the wrong thing.
I inquired about how to make the complaint in the comments to an unethical hypnotherapist named John Sleazy Ryder a while back. Sleazy mocked me in the comments, but he showed no interest in actually doing the right thing and helping me stop the unethical hypnotherapist.
Since there’s no enforcement mechanism for their ethics code, I recommend that everyone avoid hypnotherapists entirely, even socially. I also would like to see a ban on hypnotherapy.
The unethical hypnotherapist didn’t let me know what it was doing before it went in, so I couldn’t avoid such vile creatures enough. If you still can, please do.
Actually, I tried to get them to do the right thing and stop the unethical hypnotherapy.
When it’s Psychology Today, I can’t help but think that the rare occasion when they didn’t manage to do the wrong thing has to be because they felt constrained by an ethical complaint.
I’m thinking unethical publisher Jo Colman should stop the unethical hypnotherapist, just to try to make the claim that he can keep his writers from sounding like murderous psychotics on his own.
I don’t like Trump, but I did notice Susan Krause-Whitbourne suggesting a coup attempt through psychology, and I did think that was wrong.
I especially noticed her plan was really, really stupid, because having psychologists force Trump out would put Vance in office, not Harris. I did understand that she wouldn’t consider that a good outcome, even if it would be the natural outcome of her plan.
If Krause-Whitbourne didn’t know the presidential line of succession when she’s writing advocating a coup by psychologist, she’s too stupid to be writing and speaking anywhere.
I would guess that my unethical hypnotherapist is leftover from an office coup.
I can’t be sure, but Krause-Whitbourne’s belief that she could oust Trump as easily as you can get the low man on the totem pole in an office coup may mean that she’s participated in a few office coups. It might be interesting if someone checked her record out thoroughly.
By the way, if Susan Krause Whitbourne is angry, she should be angry at the unethical hypnotherapist and her unethical editor who thinks unethical hypnotherapy is okay.
I’d hope that would make her want to stop the unethical hypnotherapist immediately, which is what I’ve been asking for someone at unethical psychology magazine Psychology Today to do. (Too bad they’re just too sleazy and unethical to do the right thing.)
Because no one at TP was remotely ethical, it’s now obvious that Susan Krause-Whitbourne’s thought processes don’t work as well as those of someone with an unethical hypnotherapist trying to impair his mind.
Of course, it’s also obvious that she was outlining a coup if she was proposing to oust Trump with psychologists.
I’d guess the Trump administration would have a problem with her over that, but she’s probably gotten away with it so far because no one ever sees TP unless they glance at the crappy writing while making a complaint.
I see Psychology Today printed a guy named John (NostaLab) Nosta, who’s against AI because it could limit humans’ control of their own mind. Nosta’s writing for TP, which advocates hypnotherapy and helps cover for unethical hypnotherapists. Hypnotherapy always limits the human mind; when done without someone’s knowledge or consent, even more so. Until unethical editor Kaja Perina stops the unethical hypnotherapy and disavows hypnotherapists, she’s making Nosta’s words into crap. If he’s honest about valuing the human mind, Nosta will be making sure unethical Kaja stops the unethical hypnotherapy today. I hope all TP contributors will understand their words are crap, and they aren’t any better, until unethical Kaja, a dreg of humanity, stops the unethical hypnotherapy that she should never have covered for.
The hypnotherapists’ ethics code says that ethical hypnotherapists always stop the hypnosis when the person they’re doing it so says no.
It also says they should never have begun a hypnosis without my knowledge or consent in the first place.
It’s hard to stop an unethical hypnotherapist when said violator hasn’t let me know its name and a lot of people have gone along with it.
Thus, I’ve had to make a bold statement.
Anyone at Psychology Today who really doesn’t understand that they should make sure the unethical hypnotherapist is brought to a complete stop after this would have to be an utter imbecile.
Do you really want to have an utter imbecile treating you for anything?
Do you really want to work with an utter imbecile on a research project?
Do you really want an utter imbecile getting federal grants?
Does the American Psychology Association want to continue to lend its reputation to a magazine full of utter imbeciles?
When I started reading this, I expected you to put your big boy pants on and express some semblance of unity for folks reading, but no — you are exactly what you bitch about and no different than Trump. At this point, your audience is clearly 100% raging, liberal children. Quite sad as I read every one of your books and posts since the L2 days. I’ve also never voted for Trump nor do I consider myself a republican. People like you are the reason for the divide, just as much as Trump.
My only question – when Kara’s dick is in your mouth, does she like you to keep talking or do you stay silent then too?
Lots of Heavy Duty Gaslighting by King’s Cultist Cultural Revolutionaries.
Free speech is great. Except you got to be pragmatic. If I go into a Hells Angels Bar and mouth up – it does not end good for me. Same thing if I go to Harlem or South Central LA and “N” word away.
DoucheKirk just was not pragmatic enough. Bluntly he was stupid and Charles Darwin remains undefeated.
Now the Minnesota legislators gunned down by a King’s Cultist is another matter.
The Chinese will be on top on every way in the next decade. They know we are in a cultural revolution and they know what it did to them. More importantly, our bailiwick was Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness under the law. Not 3rd world banana republic wannabe leadership.
What will resolve this is not civil war or anything we can do. But the sheer chaos and pain of massive economic disaster and military failure coming our way because of the D- leadership of KingBankruptcypolluza.
Just like the 1st term. The car starts. Wheels shimmer and warble. Next thing they fall off and we are upside down in a ditch full of hog farm poop waste.
Enjoy the smell of poop, while ignoring that while everyone fights each other the Plutocrats get away with all. If that is the future. I hope China wins.
Scott calls himself a Raging Moderate but follows the Left in goose-step fashion and believes he is a moderate. His anti- Trump fixation blinds him to Trump’s underlying message that people are sick and tired of being labeled evil for being white, male, pro-American etc. I didn’t know Mr. Kirk but i wouldn’t take his death and use it as just another opportunity to bash Trump. Enjoy London.
Typical MAGA dribble. Goose-stepping left, poor white males persecuted for being pro-American, an anti-Trump bias. Dude, the election is over. Now we need insightful leaders to really make America great. Wearing a red hat isn’t smart governing. It’s the equivalent of wearing tin foil on your head to protect you from space lasers. Lastly, the essay wasn’t about Mr. Kirk, whose murder was despicable.
Can you please add a direct link to the post on the newsletter email? I like reading these in the browser but there’s not an actual link to the post.
Remember the first time you saw one of those sports rage videos?
The one where Sports Guy, whose wardrobe and personality is all wrapped up in his sports team, loses the big game and Sports Guy goes berserk and destroys his own TV and room. Someone is taking a video and posts online.
I remember getting a chuckle the first time I saw one of those videos.
Silly Sports Guy, doing several hundred / thousands dollars of damage to his own gear over something as stupid as a game. And then posting the video online? What a failure.
Then the next year seeing several more sports rage videos and then realizing this is a trend, this is something that’s just going to keep happening every year.
We are witnessing that happen this week with all the people with videos online behaving horribly over the Charlie Kirk death and then immediately getting fired.
Sports Guy just did several hundred / thousands dollars of damage to things that can be fixed or replaced.
Leftist are doing far more serious damage to their careers and reputations, things that may not ever be able to be fixed or replaced.
We are all Sports Guy now.
I had to read through twice to actually ensure I hadn’t missed something. Was your intention to actually try to twist the cold-blooded, evil murder of a loving father of two into some sort of knock on Trump’s foreign policy? Tone-deaf. As a speaker who has extolled the same virtues for young men that Charlie Kirk personifies you brushed over his death – a loss that has impacted millions. All of us have sat in heartbreak and that sickening feeling of a young father being brutally murdered in front of his family. Murdered for welcoming free speech, murdered for being a Conservative, murdered because his message was one of faith, family and country. Murdered because of a radicalized young man and a leftist “woke” culture that believes in violence and that they have the right to murder someone if they don’t agree with them. None of us can understand it. But we do understand that it is a reflection of a broken culture – you just got what part of the culture is broken wrong.
Right?
Of all the things to say this week, this is what Galloway chooses to post?
He could have posted something introspective, maybe taken a moment to look in the mirror and look at what kind of message he’s been broadcasting.
He could have written something condemning all the people on his team posting gleeful videos taking pleasure in CK death.
But he didn’t do any of these things.
Instead he goes back to his #1 Go To: Bitch about Trump.
Typical Galloway.
The definition of an anthiest aka Scott, is the definition of loving one’s self more than others. The definition of a Christian is loving someone/something more than oneself. Since Scott is a professed atheist, we should not be surprised.
Thank you, Scott! A brilliant analysis of where the U.S. is in the world today. Our country has never been so vulnerable economically and militarily. We are a Country that has a little over a 400 year history of European footprint; and a 250 years as a Nation…compared to thousands of years for China and India – those nations as well as Persia and other African and Eastern countries can outlast us – time is their friend and seemingly, with our impatience and ignorant leadership – our enemy! God Bless America – someone needs to.
Love your work – thanks for including graphs to bolster your thoughts.
There’s so much wrong right now in America; just when all of your efforts
should be on preparing for the future –
hy
Thanks for the newsletter, as always very insightful.
I would bring to your attention that the graph depicting Russian fossil fuel exports is highly misleading (it is not incorrect, just that it shows a partial truth).
It selectively highlights the decline in direct Russian exports to the EU, while ignoring the sharp rise in petroleum product imports from India—much of which is refined from Russian crude.
In fact, (cursory web check) on processed petroleum products of Netherlands from India shows they have nearly doubled since 2021!
In summary, the world is not weaned of Russian Oil, I suppose no one wants to take the inflationary hit if Russian oil was truly cut off. Every one is happy with the moral fig leaf that net imports of EU from Russia has declined.
The following the the export data of India to Netherlands (all petroleum products in MMT)
2021 10.5MMT
2022 13.5MMT
2023 17.9MMT
2024 18.5MMT
Brilliant analysis. Thank you!
Another week where we get to see the worst of humanity on parade.
All the people with Ukraine flags in their bio saying absolutely nothing about the innocent Ukraine girl being massacred by a crazy feral person.
All the people that crucified Daniel Penny for months saying absolutely nothing when watching a video of a crazy feral person murdering an innocent person on public transportation.
The left loves to worship the worst of the worst, people that pull guns on pregnant women, MS13 gangbanger human traffickers, worst of the worst.
And now they’re making celebration videos online gloating that Charlie Kirk’s kids are going to grow up without their father & that his wife is now a widow.
2025 is a test to see if you can hold onto your humanity and be a decent person or if you just go full on Dark Side.
Another week where we get to see the worst of humanity on parade.
No mercy. No honor. No soul.
Scott, you are saying exactly what the rest of us outside of America are saying.
The rest of the world is doing deals with everyone but America. The rest of us have open markets. One of the biggest losers in the US will be the military complex. Countries buy weapons from their protector but the US is not a reliable protects and China and Russia have cheaper weapons.
One thing Scott you said a little while back is that Trump is treating the rest of the world like it’s the enemy, what if an ally who has lost market access to America gets nasty and retaliates?
While I don’t fully agree with how Trump “played this hand”, India was trying to play both sides of the fence. They were a critical ally in the plan to contain China in the South China Sea and create expand borders in need of defense. But at the same time they were buying up Russian oil on the cheap to not only fuel there economic needs but to sell to the rest of the world at a markup – in essence they were “sanction profiteers”. Trump tried to shut them down and that and I think Modi thought Trump was bluffing ( he still might be – TACO trades have been profitable). Trump is trying to force Modi to firmly pick a side against both Russia and China. If Trump sticks to his guns, Modi may cave – India is certainly better off aligning with the US as opposed to aligning with China / Russia.
That the US should essentially push a government, but also the minds of the populace of India toward communism generally would have to be a spectacular failure. A country that is the largest democracy in the world and has so much in common and in aspiration with the West. For Pakistan. A proven untrustworthy relationship and country with limited prospects and value in a geopolitical relationship. Having funded a prosperous China for the sake of corporate profits, and educated both the Chinese and the Indian populace. What’s that they are holding in their hand?
Scott,
It seems like the only country responsible to defend Ukraine is the US and our tax payers to keep shoveling money to their defense.
Not the EU and definitely NOT Indian for buying oil to keep the Russian war machine going and killing Ukrainians.
We have more leverage over our friends than our enemies.
Trump realizes that leverage and is using it. Yes, that may offend them but the EU refused to increase their defense budget and want ride the American gravy train while Indian saw no consequences in buying Russian oil.
Trump said enough.
I think the bad guy is not Trump but Indian and the EU for not supporting secondary sanctions to punish Russia
Watch Scott run if the the Brits try to draft his boys and send them to Ukraine. Scott, please comment here.
One could also argue that Charlie Kirk scored an “own goal” when he enthusiastically condoned and recommended political violence against perceived political enemies. Political violence is not acceptable especially in a democracy.
Thank you Scott for another factual and cogent analysis of the things that are affecting our world.
One side wants to ban guns unless it’s used against their political opponents. They claim to be “anti-Fascists” while simulateously silencing anyone’s views they don’t agree with.
The inflammatory rhetoric of people like you are what led to this assassination, make no mistake about it. Just don’t be surprised if it happens to your side next time.
God said vengeance is mine. (his and not yours).
Romans 12:19 and Deuteronomy 32:35.
Believers need to avoid taking personal revenge and to leave retribution to God. Remember the dangerous road to Jericho and the Samaritan “enemies” you might meet along the way.
Looks like everybody here bad-mouthing “the left” just scored another own goal.
Seems Charlie Kirk’s killer is an obsessed gamer and a “groyper”
Oh well, on to the next scapegoat for them.
Shooter came from a right wing family.
Goes to college, becomes angry self loathing, leftist.
Starts banging a tranny
Your team.
Own it.
BREAKING: Charlie Kirk Assassin Tyler Robinson Lived with his Transgender Partner – Partner is Cooperating with FBI
Sure, loser.
You MAGAs are eating your own.
Take your issues to Nick Fuentes.
“The shooter was a MAGA Republican” lie was such an outrageous intentionally misleading lie that Jimmy Kimmel just got his show canceled for pushing it.
The left just can’t stop doing harm to themselves this week.
It’s like watching a Fight Club of someone just beating that crap out of themselves.
Scott Galloway for President. Please! Pretty please! I can’t be the only one thinking this.
Insightful as always. Shortsightedness, bullying, and just plain ol stupidity are destroyong our country form the inside. Quickly
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Scott,
You called people like charlie kirk nazis, fascists, bigots, and Misogynist for professing very similar views as you in regards to having a family, the joys of parenthood, and living for a purpose greater than oneself. His higher purpose and only crime it seems is that his purpose is to serve God while your is to serve money.
His only misogynist view is that he want to protect unborn life while you feel abortion is a legitimate form of birth control and also believe that women can find incredible joy in being a mom.
His only transphobic or bigot view is that he doesn’t believe men can be women and women can be men.
Ive listen to both you and him speak and believe me, 90% of the things you two say you will agree with one another.
We need to take this event and try harder, listen to one another to find common ground and not so easily use inflammatory word and name calling
I was scrolling the comments, planning to write a post, but you beat me to it.
Quote from Scott Galloway. “The soft fascism of Trump, wrapped in a good economy.” Now multiply that times 1000 of Scott’s left-wing media friends and its no wonder they have succeeded in radicalizing some of the same young men to whom Scott claims sympathy.
But I agree. I bet Scott and Charlie would agree on a majority of topics, minus abortion and transing.
Charlie was killed on a college campus. Where idea exchange and debate is supposedly THE foundation.
Unfortunately, with the left, there is no common ground. It’s a race to the bottom.
But the good news is that Charlie’s work, while cut short, will impact us forever. Just go ask one of those 23 year old men who Scott and Richard Reeves talk about in their interviews. Those kids get it.
People are programmed to fight imaginary nazis, fascists, bigots because, by default, that makes them the good guys.
That’s why the left NEEDS nazis, fascists, bigots.
So much so that they will even create counterfeit nazis, fascists, bigots ala Jussie Smollett.
The left has actually created so much demand that there’s a market for counterfeit nazis, fascists, bigots.
A few years back, I had to give up an activity that was helpful to me. The leader was hinting that she would include proclamations of gay support and possibly a few forced-by-bullying gay smooches to the activity, and I knew it was aimed at the less-popular people. It was just after a group like hers took over some suburban fundraising activities that turned out like that, according to newspaper reports, so I knew I had to give the activity up.
That said, I don’t want to see a world where LGBT people live in fear, even if someone wanted me to give up an activity I cherished for fear of bullying and abuse that was supposedly in their name.
I checked a couple of times, and the activity seemed to fail by slow, painful decline. I keep hoping someone will start a similar activity group that doesn’t involve bullying of any kind, but that seems doubtful, especially if someone might claim that not letting LGBT people take over and bully the “losers” out of the activity is in itself a form of bullying and hate.
I haven’t paid attention to Charlie Kirk, so I don’t know if his rhetoric is what leftists claim it is. I do know that someone hinting of how they’d humiliate me if I participated in an activity hurt me.
There’s a lot of bullying and hate hiding behind Democratic rhetoric, and the two sides both get nasty when they feed off each other.
There are two direct quotes that I would like to pick apart. Both were said by Kirk on “The Charlie Kirk Show.”
The first is, “If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?” The second is as follows, “If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called racists. Now they’re coming out and they’re saying it for us … You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
One right-ring raised nut job kills someone of note in a crowded place and “The murder is another example of our broken culture. It’s a stain on our accomplishments.” I suppose so. But it was one troubled kid. Where is the commentary about “stains on our accomplishments and broken culture” when its quite literally the elected leaders of this country themselves inciting and encouraging violence? Telling their mob that the political opposition are rats, traitors, terrorists, etc and blaming them for such acts before the gunshot echoes have subsided with no evidence whatsoever.
I don’t understand the desire to reserve such phrasing when a lone, utterly disempowered actor does something violent and not when the commander in chief and his entire cabinet and legions of empowered right-wing influencers call for “retribution” and “war” on their opposition or destroy families by the 100’s of thousands, or tell us to “get over” the 180th mass shooting of the year…all (formerly) cheered on by the likes of Charlie Kirk.
Right. Bribery and Retribution is not leadership.
Thank you!
As I watch Trumps world vision unfold… I as an older American am confused. I do realize that the populous is best kept like a mushroom. But as China now truly does hold ALL THE CARDS maybe just maybe, soon the defense dept. will understand that you cannot power anything at all as far as a war machine is concerned. China has cut off all sales of rare Earth minerals. All of which are absolutely vital to fly drones or planes or our fighter jets. Once again the average American has been bamboozled by a man who I could never ever defend or be proud of.
Okay, so 332,000 Indian students sent to US universities. And how many sent to China or Russia universities? Is it going up because of the present administration? In 10 years will it be a larger percentage sent to China and Russia universities, or less? I don’t know, I’m just looking for more context around the 332,000 statistic.
I agree with the message of this essay. Still, as always, I see the problem elsewhere. Neither China nor Russia put Trump in the White House. Hence, my question: what could the media and influencers, like Professor Galloway, do better?
“…the Soviet Union lost 10 million soldiers and another 24 million civilians…”
At times when I was growing up inside the Soviet Bloc, the official number was 22 million dead, and that included soldiers. I am curious to find out how that number changed.
While a 12 million person discrepancy is huge, I find it hard to see how 34 million dead versus 22 million dead affects the point being made. Russia won the war by throwing more bodies into the meat grinder than Germany could defeat. One is often under appreciated is that Germany through the bulk of its resources into invading Russia. While it may not be quite as black and white, in many ways the Germans sent the “varsity” to the Eastern front to try to defeat the Soviet Union while the “JV” was on the western front. While the non Soviet allies had a tough task getting back onto the continent via a “re-invasion” at Normandy, once they were ashore, they were fighting less seasoned troops than those on the Eastern front.
“Presidents of both parties have long understood that our strength doesn’t flow from our economic output, military prowess, or cultural exports, but the capacity to leverage those assets in service of coalitions that are greater than the sum of their parts. That’s not idealism, but pragmatism.”
What a misguided and flawed notion of how idealism drives pragmatism.
Idealism — a philosophy driven by values, ideals, and principles — is and always has been the full partner of pragmatism — a philosophy driven by practical usefulness and outcomes.
Idealistic values of freedom and self-determination were the driver that inspired our Founding Fathers to raise an army/navy and revolt against the most powerful king and kingdom on the planet. A lofty ideal and bloody bayonets.
Life and governance are not choices of either idealism or pragmatism, they are together the alchemy that creates our system and drives democracy toward a more perfect union.
JLM
Really powerful post, very thought provoking… Great read!
I’m not sure this right for a few reasons:
1. India and Russia are both very wary of China – both have or have had territorial disputes with it and, certainly for Russia, a lot of the very mineral-rich / sparsely populated Far East was historically Chinese, which is something not forgotten in China.
2. China itself has a world view that is problematic for many other countries, namely the ‘Middle Kingdom’ doctrine (essentially China sits above all the other nations on Earth).
3. Historically, this is nothing new – the US did use strength to open up foreign markets and / or exert influence. The Monroe doctrine, for example, its opening up of Japan and China in the 19th Century as another.
Can we shine some facts on this discussion?
Before Trump 1.0, India bought more than 72% of its armaments from Russia and virtually none from the US. Today, purchases from Russia have dwindled to less than half..
The US is now India’s second largest weapons supplier (through the FMS Foreign Military Sales and DMS direct commercial military sales programs)..
Amongst those systems are:
1. MQ-9B Predator Drones that replace inferior Russian systems.
2. SeaVision Maritime Surveillance System — incredibly important as it is the gold standard of Asian allies.
3. Licensed production of K9 Vajra-T Howitzers to complement a huge deal in 2017.
4. GE F414 Jet Engines — a component in indigenous manufactured Indian aircraft ensuring a long term dependency
5. Stryker Combat Vehicles — wholesale replacing inferior Russian vehicles
6. Javelin Anti-Tank Missiles — superior battle tested weapon
7. Boeing P-8I Poseidon Aircraft — core of Indian anti-submarine warfare
8. F-35 Stealth Fighters — huge deal pending final arrangements on tech transfer
9. Continuing pipeline of C-17s, Apaches, and Chinooks replacing work inferior Russian gear
There is no question that Trump is simultaneously pinching India on its Russia energy purchases that have gone from less than 0.1% to more than 40%. That, also, is good foreign relations.
JLM
You should run to become the next president of the United States. Looking at the issues in such a strategic and thought through way – while trying to aim for the bigger picture. The US is in big need for a person like you Scott.
so terribly sad……………..I wish I were younger so I could hope for a better future, but at 81, I don’t think I’ll make it.
They, being the far right, actually want Kirk to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda and have a statue made of him for Washington, a man who was admittedly a White Supremacist, homophobic, and misogynistic. Pathetic
The success of the tafirrs and reduction in crime in the nation’s capital doesn’t register on the radar….
Why do you and others who believe in America as the indispensable national continually posit that the U.S. has the largest economy in the world when in fact China’s GDP passed ours years ago and is at least 25% larger. This GDP measurement of comparative national GDPs is based on the use of purchasing power parity (PPP) which is used by the the World Bank, IMF, CIA, almost every Wall Street firm and almost all academic economists. By the way 3 of the 4 and 6 out of7 of the largest economies in the world are members of BRICS. In addition, China now is the industrial powerhouse of the world, accounting for over 40% of the world’s installed capacity and production and is the lowest cost producer of consumer and capital goods. Lastly, it’s the peer equal or leader vis-a-vis the US in every major High tech field from robotics to EV vehicles.
Clearly China has the best nationally sponsored organ harvesting operation in the world and the Chinese Social Credit System is without peer in controlling the misguided yearnings of its people for autonomy and control of their lives. Bravo, China!
JLM
Only small minds believe that economic power, military might or cultural engagement by themselves gives a country power. As you state, the combination of those things accompanied with consistency of behavior builds trust, alliances and power. Brute force is never a lasting strategy and it is the quickest way to build enemies.
This was one of the best descriptions of what is going on under this administration. Inept is a polite way to describe our fearless leader.
At the risk of sounding lazy, you really should be providing an audio version. It can’t be that hard to set up an AI voice like they have at The Atlantic
One of your best Scott! Unfortunately it’s right on the money…