- Anything that interferes with their agenda; in effect the entirety of Jonathan Rauch’s “constitution of knowledge,” since MAGA conservatives don’t truly believe in the Constitution or our system of government;
- Robert Reich on the billionaire class, that doesn’t care about anyone else, and who are planning for an “event” to further isolate themselves from the real world;
- Once again, Republican elites tolerate Trump because they want the tax cuts;
- Checking in with Michael Hobbes, and his comments about how conservatives have turned against reality;
- A new conspiracy theory: JD Vance killed the pope!; Numbers on autism, despite RFK Jr; and conservatives shielding their kids from the reality of the world through library boards.
To conservatives, anything that interferes with their agenda means they’re “being framed by the deep state.”
Or: what conservatives mean by the “deep state” is the entire set of government institutions that keep our society running — including the functions of law and order. (See Rauch.) They think it’s some kind of conspiracy, waiting to pounce when they try to take advantage of the system, or impose their worldview on others, since they don’t truly believe in the Constitution.
These thoughts triggered by this relatively incidental example in the news today:
JMG, 22 Apr 2025: Fired Hegseth Aide: I Was Framed By The Deep State
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More about the notion that wealthy conservatives are happy to cut government services, and then cut taxes, because they themselves don’t need those government services, and don’t care about the many people who do.
Robert Reich, 22 Apr 2025: The secession of the billionaire class
Billionaire Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the drop in the stock market is nothing to be concerned about because Americans aren’t looking at the “day-to-day fluctuations” in their retirement savings.
Billionaire Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says we shouldn’t be concerned that mass layoffs in the Social Security Administration have caused delays because his mother-in-law wouldn’t be worried if she didn’t get her monthly Social Security check.
The richest person in the world, Elon Musk, whose minions are busily slashing the Social Security Administration, calls Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”
Billionaire Trump says he “couldn’t care less” if automakers raise their prices because of his tariffs.
On what planet do these people live? Surely not this one.
This is what you get when oligarchs are in charge of the nation.
To be fabulously wealthy today means not having to come across anyone who isn’t. It therefore means having not a clue about how average working people live or what they worry about it.
The billionaire class doesn’t care if producers raise their prices, because prices mean almost nothing to them. They aren’t concerned about retirement savings, because they don’t have to prepare for retirement.
If anything, Reich goes on, the billionaire class is preparing for an “event” —
the thing that will cause them to secede even further from the rest of the world into isolated, sanitized survival chambers. The “event” could be massive social unrest, an unstoppable virus, a malicious computer hack that takes everything down, or environmental collapse.
You wonder how much of this, like Musk’s obsession with colonizing Mars to ensure the survival of the human race, comes from alarmist science fiction. Reich quotes a Guardian article by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, then concludes:
[Trump] and his billionaire appointees feel no connection to the rest of America. They want only to dismantle government and insulate themselves from the ensuing chaos.
As Klein and Taylor say, the most powerful people in the world are preparing for the end of the world, an end they themselves are frenetically accelerating.
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Once again.
The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait, 22 Apr 2025: The Force That Holds Trump’s Coalition Together, subtitled “Traditional Republican elites tolerate the authoritarianism because they want the tax cuts.”
When I was 5 or 6 years old, I pulled an extremely mean trick on my little brother. I told him that if he cleaned my room, I “might give him a dollar.” Once he had performed the chore, I told him I’d decided against paying him.
I thought of that shameful (and oddly Trumpian) moment a few weeks ago, when I began encountering news stories reporting that President Donald Trump was considering a plan to raise taxes on the rich. (Axios: “Scoop: Trump might let taxes rise for the rich to cover breaks on tips.” Semafor: “Trump told Republican senators he’s open to raising taxes on highest earners.”)
The gist here: Republicans have from time to time over the years floated the idea of raising taxes on the rich. But they never do.
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Via a post on Facebook, something by Michael Hobbes, a journalist and podcast host with considerable background, and 174K followers, whom I’ve not been previously aware of, and this post on BlueSky.
Michael Hobbes on BlueSky, 21 Apr 2025.
The conservative movement has turned against reality on every scientific issue of our time, from gun violence to climate change to epidemiology.
If campuses are ideologically homogeneous, it’s not because academia has ostracized conservatives. It’s because conservatives have ostracized academia.
Followed by numerous comments, including these from Hobbes:
The entire concept of “ideological conformity” applied to academia makes no sense. Is the belief that the Earth is round a type of conformity? On some level, yes: Everyone thinks the same thing.
But sometimes everything thinks the same thing because that thing is true! This is how science works.
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I expect that the field of geology does not have a lot of Scientologists. Is this evidence that there’s a culture of “stifling conformity” among geologists? No! It’s evidence that humans didn’t emerge from fucking volcanos.
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When Republicans take power do they expand “viewpoint diversity”? No. They purge scientists, delete data and promote their own mediocre minds. If you support Trump you are signaling membership in a movement that *hates* science, science is not obligated to pretend otherwise.
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Short items.
Boing Boing, Rob Beschizza, 22 Apr 2025: J.D. Vance killed the pope, at least according to memes
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Some numbers.
PolitiFact, Louis Jacobson, 21 Apr 2025: RFK Jr. exaggerates share of autistic population with severe limitations
The highest figure we found for people with autism severe enough to pose significant challenges to daily living was about one-quarter of the autistic population. More frequently, academic estimates for this group are in the range of 10% of people on the spectrum, or lower.
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Conservatives are obsessed with shielding their children from the reality of the world. Tribalism.
Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, 17 Apr 2025: Arkansas Republicans just fired the state’s Library Board to please one Christian Nationalist
And
Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, 16 Apr 2025: Christian Nationalist Jason Rapert Topples The Arkansas State Library Board
Sigh.
