I'm a conservative and was close to being a never-Trumper myself but I kept my mind open after his election to see what would happen. I watched in dismay as so many of the people I once respected seemed so consumed by their Trump hatred that they abandoned all the principles they once professed to have. I realized that much of what I thought I knew about the world was wrong and that can be very disorienting.
What Rob Reiner and never-Trumpers don't understand is that getting rid of Trump will not solve the problems that caused the rise of Trump in the first place. The clash between populists and globalists is real and it was the systematic dismissal of populist concerns by the elites in both parties that gave rise to an outsider like Trump. Because "decent" people refused to acknowledge populist concerns it was left to someone uncouth like Trump to burst the bubble.
I applaud you Sasha for being one of the few people who are capable of keeping an open mind and actually listening to what people are saying. We will need many more people like you if we are to avoid some very dark times.
Great comments. If you want to see first hand the globalists dismissal of populists. Check out John Kerry full blown messiah complex at the WEF Davos. The globalists are really caricatures of every villains you’ve seen in movies. Truth is stranger than fiction.
It’s a gathering of a bunch of Malthusian nitwit technocrats that haven’t a clue where stuff comes from or how it’s actually made. While their little plans are impossible in material reality, they are harming a lot of people playing global puppet master to see how far they can push it. I’m sure I’m not the only one tired of my tax dollars being reallocated to their pocketbooks via policies like “operation warp speed” or the “inflation reduction act.”
I don’t care how much they want to sit around and pontificate about their demonstrably false “theories” by playing with their 💩 in 💩 out “models,” but I think they should be tried for actual crimes against humanity over the group’s insistence on hijacking everything from share voting of pension plans against the interests of the owners/ beneficiaries to buying off politicians to control entire governments so they can play a demented game of wannabe be baby God.
These stupid fools threw out thousands of years of knowledge about human disease and biology, gained through replicated observed outcomes over hundreds or thousands of generations, to demand the world treat a respiratory virus like a friggin computer virus, and human beings like hard drives. Or maybe they aren’t fools, just crooks no better than SBF, because guess what they are all massive owners of?? solar, wind, and big pharma!! Sorry for the rant.
Thank you for your wise commentary. With regard to globalization, I would ask you to consider the concept of globalization without centralization. Our planet is a sphere, it has no sides, and we can interact with all people in a competence hierarchy. The problem arises when the basis of interaction is a power hierarchy and this ultimately degrades into conflict and war. We have blown up our monetary systems (https://youtu.be/6ut1yQg2qA4) and we face global population collapse. (see the work of Peter Zeihan, and question it). Please explore the concept of a parallel civilization that we can evolve without using extreme power hierarchies but rather collaborative structures that integrate the individual with the international. We have the capabilities (humanprogress.org, see superabundance), we have a civilization to rebuild, let's get busy.
Thank you VERY much for some new vectors to explore on my journey towards sentience. My only immediate comment is that I find collective environments enslaving and collaborative environments (freedom to choose) empowering. However, one of my operational tenets (my Kant Manual) is that 'you can't discuss what you can't define' and I am going to explore your words to see if I first fully understand the terminologies. I can only offer one other comment. As a pioneer in satellite technology, I have helped build communications systems of which I am now very suspect. The network state that you describe is completely controlled by he who has the access codes. The granularity of control down to an individual's network access point is intolerable to me. I will go away, study some more, and with your permission would love to re-engage at your future convenience. Do Good Well -mrs
This current crop of people that comprise the modern left only come around every century or so. They utopians - the same breed of cat as the Progressives, fascists and communists of the early 20th century and the Jacobins of yesteryear.
They cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be defeated. They can only be endured until they blow themselves up or wear themselves out.
If Trump proved one thing it is that it doesn't matter who controls the White House. What matters is who controls the security state and the administrative state. And those are firmly on the left and they cannot be removed or voted out. Plus they can force the private sector to do their dirty work.
Ain't that the truth - it was astonishing to observe the military on multiple occasions to flip Trump the bird...Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo, Crazy out-of-control General Milley on Jan 6....it was downright creepy.
Not to split hairs, but might it be more accurate to specify the military brass, and not so much the rank-and-file grunts and NCOs? I'm thinking that your typical enlisted man LOVED Trump (if the response to his being in attendance at the Army/Navy games is any indication), but the managerial class would have crushed any kind of support almost instantly.
Totally agree - I was only pointing out the decision makers at the top, the ones who dealt with Trump directly and who make policy. Why General Milley wasn't fired for his treasonous act of contacting the Chinese gov't on Jan 6 and telling them he would notify them first before he sought permission from the President - is a mystery. The same way that the Capitol Hill cop literally murdered Ashley Babbitt when she wasn't carrying a weapon, wasn't threatening him - but was shot anyway. Why didn't the cop shoot more people if he felt he was so threatened? Our leaders are skunks.
Starting in the mid-to-late 70's thru the 80's access to college grew immensely, while simultaneously there was a vast growth of the administrative state. Together these streams converged giving the same clowns who took both Mao's "little red book" and Alinsky's "Rule for Radicals" as instruction manuals, a shot at lifetime employment with minimal effort and no requirement to interact with the real world.
And unfortunate occurrence that's made "The Long March" that much easier.
In retrospect - whoever decided to cast Rob Reiner to play the roll of 'Meathead' in 'All in the Family' was incredibly insightful. He continues to master that role today in real life.
If you watch a rerun of AITF today, it did not age well. Archie was supposed to represent the ignorant (if dominate) Privileged White Male opposite the Meathead as an almost messianic construct who always seemed to get the better of Archie and put him in his place. Today, Meathead comes off as just another arrogant, condescending, and insufferable Marxist social justice warrior insisting their P.O.V. is the only correct one and anyone who disagrees is an unredeemed Neanderthal unworthy of just about anything.
I'm a new subscriber who's somewhat on the left (depending on the issue), and no worries. I figure people across the political spectrum talking to each other is exactly what the TDS crowd doesn't want us to do, which is why I'm up for it. There's a lot that's broken in this country, but we can't fix any of it until this raging partisanship stops.
Glenn Greenwald is no longer on Substack, but on System Update on Rumble. Existing subscribers to Greenwald's Substack have been migrated to a proprietary Rumble component called "Locals", while losing the valuable feature of public commenting on Rumble without, apparently, yet another paid subscription to System Update. In a recent email to subscribers Greenwald declared he will no longer publish anything on Substack.
Good for you Sasha, keep it up! Your voice; along with others like Matt Taibbi, Barry Weiss, Dave Rubin, Nick Catoggio that criticize the far right as much as the far left - so refreshing (this from a mouth breathing conservative).
You know when they’ve invaded your head, and your sense of equilibrium, when you find yourself feeling like you need to apologize for liking Trump. But you see, we neither have to like Trump nor to apologize for voting for him. He simply espouses the values we feel America needs right now...he says he will do the things we all know in our heart of hearts need to be done to get our country back on track.
After watching what we all saw happen to Trump during his 4 years, I find it “almost” funny that those who denied the very existence of “The Deep State,” now argue that the hithertofore nonexistent Deep State and its cohorts in the media, big tech and social media are now absolutely essential in order to protect America from any Trump-like creature in the future!
Hence, we have Rob (once a meathead, always a meathead) Reiner arguing for Merrick Garland...of all people...doing anything necessary (legal or not) to lock Trump up so as to ensure the survival of democracy!
That kinda’ says everything you need to know about the mindset of these folks...and once you understand that, that “need” to explain yourself evaporates.
Great Substack! Sasha's been a breath of fresh air in a world that's become so smog-ridden by the mainstream news sources that only push stories that usually have a hidden agenda (and, yes, that includes Fox News, CNN and PMSNBC.)
Not arguing, just want to get a message out regarding abortion from a repub standpoint... 80% of the country is against 3rd trimester killing of babies(that is what 'abortion' is). I am a GenXer and I have only met a few people who have openly admitted they are against killing babies under any circumstance; an overwhelming majority are in support of women's health but against baby killing as contraception.
Republicans(more accurately Civic Nationalists) are loath to tell anybody what to do, we just don't want to pay for your decisions(taxpayer funded anything including the killing of babies) unless absolutely necessary(safety net, basic health care, etc.).
At each of our child births I told the medical staff if they have to save one life to save the mother.
My husband said the same thing at both of our children’s births. I quickly told them to ignore him - my body, my choice, and I choose the baby. Fortunately we are all happy and well.
I’m a moderate conservative. I support early abortion rights but oppose ripping a living feeling human apart alive, or burning he or she alive in saline. I agree generally with the observation. I wish we could find a moderate solution as a country on abortion, but I’m not ever again voting for the people who demanded we mask toddlers or lock a generation of poor kids up on house arrest for two years. While I respect lots of opinions I do have lines I won’t cross. People who push policies that amount to child hating nihilism aren’t people I could ever vote for as a mom or person.
No kidding about the idiots who locked our kids up for years. Thankfully I am well away from our Twin City radicals and our semi-rural community didn't comply with much except the schools.
How about after 16 weeks we have some restrictions outside of mothers health? That gives someone four full months to make a decision before the baby is fully formed. To me it sounds reasonable.
Anti abortion arguments from religious conservatives are always based on an implied but unstated assumption that tens of thousands of women are seeking to abort third trimester fetuses. I have yet to see any data that proves this is a problem. If it is, I would agree that "there oughta be a law against this." At this point, the allegations that women and doctors in large numbers are killing viable fetuses looks like a straw man argument.
There are over 11,000 abortions performed after 21 weeks each year in the US. It’s been established that babies can feel pain at least by 15 weeks (and possible as early as 8). Each year over 45,000 abortions are performed after 15 weeks in living, feeling human beings. These abortions are performed most often by ripping the innocent baby human being apart limb by limb, or burning them alive in saline. Over 97% of these abortions are elective.
Planned parenthood’s research arm did a study in 2005 showing women got late term abortions for the same reasons as early abortions - elective choices around relationships, not wanting a baby etc.
Since 1973 there have been more than 15,000 babies to survive botched abortion attempt.
How many humans being tortured to death because there mothers couldn’t be bothered with ANY degree of personal responsibility for months will be enough to acknowledge we do in fact have an enormous problem with torturing innocent humans to death? It’s cruel and evil to literally torture living humans to death for the connivence of the very person who chose to give them life for months. 45 would be too many for me. 45,000 is sick. Every single year.
Edit to add source: Guttmacher Institute. “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States.” September 2019.
Thank you for the above Guttmacher reference. I will look through the data again on that and the CDC site. What I have found in the past is that most later term abortions involve birth anomalies or threats to maternal health or survival. Some of these issues aren't detectable until fetuses are at least second term.
Guttmacher reports that other variables correlating with later term abortions include barriers to getting earlier abortions, and with maternal demographics. Women who were unmarried, Black, less educated and poorer were disproportionately represented among women who obtained abortions later in their pregnancies.
I think that there needs to be continuing access to affordable birth control, post-sex pregnancy preventatives, and early term abortions. More attention needs to be focused on how to provide better options for women in the demographics just listed, so that they can terminate unwanted pregnancies sooner.
I am not opposed to placing some legal restrictions on abortions past 16 weeks or so. In my opinion the intent of these laws should focus on curtailing misuses of the medical system. It does appear to me from my brief review of the Guttmacher site that there could be some overuse of later term abortions in the absence of health risk to the mother or medical condition in the fetus.
Your work, and the others I follow on Substack and elsewhere (Krystal and Saggar) aren't the traditional Right v Left, but People versus Power Elite. Trying to get back to a place in time (if it ever truly existed) where our elected government serves the people instead of ruling over them.
"Trying to get back to a place in time (if it ever truly existed) where our elected government serves the people instead of ruling over them."
"Serves the people" meaning what? In my mind, it can serve us best by leaving us alone (if we're not robbing or defrauding people) and not stealing huge amounts of our money at every turn. As long as we look to the government to be Santa Claus, we'll have Big Brother.
Once again. Great piece. It seems your connection to like minded people continues to grow. Just keep doing what you do with your own style. It’s a winner. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Sasha, for putting your thoughts and opinions out for people like me to contemplate. I try to be open-mined and consider other view points, like I imagine you do. I voted for Trump, twice. Might vote for him again, if he's the nominee. I don't care for his personality, I find him arrogant and narcistic, but I agree with his positions more than what the other side offers. Sasha, you tied the "Four Turning" to the title of your substack but I haven't seen you discuss the subject. Do you discuss the 'turnings' somewhere else? (I recently finished reading the book)
My only critique is where you say the right is against LGBTQIA rights. Obviously many on the right are, but I found you from a comment on Bari Weiss's substack. I also read Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, and my favourite book is The End of the World is Flat by Simon Edge. There are a lot of lesbians and gays involved in this fight. I also would prefer it clarified that we aren't anti trans, and adults are adults, it's just the way activists are selling and packaging the idea to kids that they might be born in the wrong body that's the trouble.
It seems like we live in a time when the left and right are being redefined, and I think what you stated so eloquently is that most of us who have found ourselves here are here because we are populists who believe in democracy and free speech, not sexual orientation.
This message, (and others written by the few intrepid humans who overcome the primal desire for social safety to actually shake off the fog and realize they've been completely had) is truly bravery at its best. Sacrificing personal comfort, wealth and security for the ability to seek and speak the truth is the stuff that legends are made of.
I know that sounds hyperbolic, but I believe that in this time, it's people like Sasha and the other brave souls speaking up that will lead us out of these dark, twisted, hypocritical times.
I feel like I should be speaking out more but I have a hard time articulating the feelings and experiences that have brought me to this place. I’m not a good debater and have difficulty “proving my points”, even when I am quite certain I’m right. Always been more of a math/science guy than a writer, though I do have a feel for music and maybe I should pursue songwriting as I find it easier to express my thoughts and views through that type of art.
“As an astrophysicist, I'm a product of institutions that are steeped in systemic racism and white supremacy,” Gosnell says. “The tenets of white supremacy that show up [in physics] of individualism and exceptionalism and perfectionism… it’s either-or thinking, and there's no subtlety, there's no gray area. All of this manifests in the way that we think about our research, and what counts as good research, what counts as important research?”
The best quote thought: "Most of Gosnell’s career has been dictated by the hyper-masculine world of astrophysics."
I have to know what commune she grew up in where the males were so insipid that by comparison Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking were considered "Hyper Masculine".
You know, I don't understand people like Rob Reiner. I've tried to sustain that level of hate and vitriol for people who have actually harmed me in real life. I can't pull it off. We only have so much energy in this life, and to waste it on that . . .
So how on earth people in the Twitterverse pull it off, I don't know. I just must be so much lazier.
Well, it probably helps a great deal if you have no other responsibilities and/or obligations – you know, like a job, or having bills to pay, or kids to raise, or just being human to people with whom you interact on a daily basis at the market, maybe the bank, or, if it's a really bad day, the DMV...
I'm a conservative and was close to being a never-Trumper myself but I kept my mind open after his election to see what would happen. I watched in dismay as so many of the people I once respected seemed so consumed by their Trump hatred that they abandoned all the principles they once professed to have. I realized that much of what I thought I knew about the world was wrong and that can be very disorienting.
What Rob Reiner and never-Trumpers don't understand is that getting rid of Trump will not solve the problems that caused the rise of Trump in the first place. The clash between populists and globalists is real and it was the systematic dismissal of populist concerns by the elites in both parties that gave rise to an outsider like Trump. Because "decent" people refused to acknowledge populist concerns it was left to someone uncouth like Trump to burst the bubble.
I applaud you Sasha for being one of the few people who are capable of keeping an open mind and actually listening to what people are saying. We will need many more people like you if we are to avoid some very dark times.
Great comments. If you want to see first hand the globalists dismissal of populists. Check out John Kerry full blown messiah complex at the WEF Davos. The globalists are really caricatures of every villains you’ve seen in movies. Truth is stranger than fiction.
It’s a gathering of a bunch of Malthusian nitwit technocrats that haven’t a clue where stuff comes from or how it’s actually made. While their little plans are impossible in material reality, they are harming a lot of people playing global puppet master to see how far they can push it. I’m sure I’m not the only one tired of my tax dollars being reallocated to their pocketbooks via policies like “operation warp speed” or the “inflation reduction act.”
I don’t care how much they want to sit around and pontificate about their demonstrably false “theories” by playing with their 💩 in 💩 out “models,” but I think they should be tried for actual crimes against humanity over the group’s insistence on hijacking everything from share voting of pension plans against the interests of the owners/ beneficiaries to buying off politicians to control entire governments so they can play a demented game of wannabe be baby God.
These stupid fools threw out thousands of years of knowledge about human disease and biology, gained through replicated observed outcomes over hundreds or thousands of generations, to demand the world treat a respiratory virus like a friggin computer virus, and human beings like hard drives. Or maybe they aren’t fools, just crooks no better than SBF, because guess what they are all massive owners of?? solar, wind, and big pharma!! Sorry for the rant.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/shopping-i-cant-really-remember-what-that-is-or-how-differently-well-live-in-2030/?sh=52f98c381735
^^Applause!^^ Spot ON!
Kerry has not just 'lost-the-plot" - it's not clear if he ever understood it. His money and incredible privilege has rotted his brain.
Thank you for your wise commentary. With regard to globalization, I would ask you to consider the concept of globalization without centralization. Our planet is a sphere, it has no sides, and we can interact with all people in a competence hierarchy. The problem arises when the basis of interaction is a power hierarchy and this ultimately degrades into conflict and war. We have blown up our monetary systems (https://youtu.be/6ut1yQg2qA4) and we face global population collapse. (see the work of Peter Zeihan, and question it). Please explore the concept of a parallel civilization that we can evolve without using extreme power hierarchies but rather collaborative structures that integrate the individual with the international. We have the capabilities (humanprogress.org, see superabundance), we have a civilization to rebuild, let's get busy.
Thank you VERY much for some new vectors to explore on my journey towards sentience. My only immediate comment is that I find collective environments enslaving and collaborative environments (freedom to choose) empowering. However, one of my operational tenets (my Kant Manual) is that 'you can't discuss what you can't define' and I am going to explore your words to see if I first fully understand the terminologies. I can only offer one other comment. As a pioneer in satellite technology, I have helped build communications systems of which I am now very suspect. The network state that you describe is completely controlled by he who has the access codes. The granularity of control down to an individual's network access point is intolerable to me. I will go away, study some more, and with your permission would love to re-engage at your future convenience. Do Good Well -mrs
This current crop of people that comprise the modern left only come around every century or so. They utopians - the same breed of cat as the Progressives, fascists and communists of the early 20th century and the Jacobins of yesteryear.
They cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be defeated. They can only be endured until they blow themselves up or wear themselves out.
"They cannot be defeated."
They DO need to be removed from positions of power over our lives; this cannot wait until they blow themselves up or wear themselves out.
If Trump proved one thing it is that it doesn't matter who controls the White House. What matters is who controls the security state and the administrative state. And those are firmly on the left and they cannot be removed or voted out. Plus they can force the private sector to do their dirty work.
Ain't that the truth - it was astonishing to observe the military on multiple occasions to flip Trump the bird...Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo, Crazy out-of-control General Milley on Jan 6....it was downright creepy.
Not to split hairs, but might it be more accurate to specify the military brass, and not so much the rank-and-file grunts and NCOs? I'm thinking that your typical enlisted man LOVED Trump (if the response to his being in attendance at the Army/Navy games is any indication), but the managerial class would have crushed any kind of support almost instantly.
Totally agree - I was only pointing out the decision makers at the top, the ones who dealt with Trump directly and who make policy. Why General Milley wasn't fired for his treasonous act of contacting the Chinese gov't on Jan 6 and telling them he would notify them first before he sought permission from the President - is a mystery. The same way that the Capitol Hill cop literally murdered Ashley Babbitt when she wasn't carrying a weapon, wasn't threatening him - but was shot anyway. Why didn't the cop shoot more people if he felt he was so threatened? Our leaders are skunks.
"Our leaders are skunks."
You're being generous.
Good way to put it. Endless examples but my favorite analogy is watching Sons of Anarchy where the circle of lies eventually kills the club.
Starting in the mid-to-late 70's thru the 80's access to college grew immensely, while simultaneously there was a vast growth of the administrative state. Together these streams converged giving the same clowns who took both Mao's "little red book" and Alinsky's "Rule for Radicals" as instruction manuals, a shot at lifetime employment with minimal effort and no requirement to interact with the real world.
And unfortunate occurrence that's made "The Long March" that much easier.
In retrospect - whoever decided to cast Rob Reiner to play the roll of 'Meathead' in 'All in the Family' was incredibly insightful. He continues to master that role today in real life.
If you watch a rerun of AITF today, it did not age well. Archie was supposed to represent the ignorant (if dominate) Privileged White Male opposite the Meathead as an almost messianic construct who always seemed to get the better of Archie and put him in his place. Today, Meathead comes off as just another arrogant, condescending, and insufferable Marxist social justice warrior insisting their P.O.V. is the only correct one and anyone who disagrees is an unredeemed Neanderthal unworthy of just about anything.
Fascinating thought. Meathead has become Archie. Closed minded. Arrogantly Clinging to outdated stereotypes and ideas.
I'm a new subscriber who's somewhat on the left (depending on the issue), and no worries. I figure people across the political spectrum talking to each other is exactly what the TDS crowd doesn't want us to do, which is why I'm up for it. There's a lot that's broken in this country, but we can't fix any of it until this raging partisanship stops.
Welcome Ann, I think you'll like it here.
Sasha is one of my more recent finds (I started with Taibbi, Greenwald and Weiss, in that order) bur has quickly become my favorite.
Thank you! It sounds like we read the same people. :)
You might want to check out Burning Bright. He’s a former liberal now turned MAGA but has some great insights and is a helluva writer.
Glenn Greenwald is no longer on Substack, but on System Update on Rumble. Existing subscribers to Greenwald's Substack have been migrated to a proprietary Rumble component called "Locals", while losing the valuable feature of public commenting on Rumble without, apparently, yet another paid subscription to System Update. In a recent email to subscribers Greenwald declared he will no longer publish anything on Substack.
Good for you Sasha, keep it up! Your voice; along with others like Matt Taibbi, Barry Weiss, Dave Rubin, Nick Catoggio that criticize the far right as much as the far left - so refreshing (this from a mouth breathing conservative).
You know when they’ve invaded your head, and your sense of equilibrium, when you find yourself feeling like you need to apologize for liking Trump. But you see, we neither have to like Trump nor to apologize for voting for him. He simply espouses the values we feel America needs right now...he says he will do the things we all know in our heart of hearts need to be done to get our country back on track.
After watching what we all saw happen to Trump during his 4 years, I find it “almost” funny that those who denied the very existence of “The Deep State,” now argue that the hithertofore nonexistent Deep State and its cohorts in the media, big tech and social media are now absolutely essential in order to protect America from any Trump-like creature in the future!
Hence, we have Rob (once a meathead, always a meathead) Reiner arguing for Merrick Garland...of all people...doing anything necessary (legal or not) to lock Trump up so as to ensure the survival of democracy!
That kinda’ says everything you need to know about the mindset of these folks...and once you understand that, that “need” to explain yourself evaporates.
Great Substack! Sasha's been a breath of fresh air in a world that's become so smog-ridden by the mainstream news sources that only push stories that usually have a hidden agenda (and, yes, that includes Fox News, CNN and PMSNBC.)
Not arguing, just want to get a message out regarding abortion from a repub standpoint... 80% of the country is against 3rd trimester killing of babies(that is what 'abortion' is). I am a GenXer and I have only met a few people who have openly admitted they are against killing babies under any circumstance; an overwhelming majority are in support of women's health but against baby killing as contraception.
Republicans(more accurately Civic Nationalists) are loath to tell anybody what to do, we just don't want to pay for your decisions(taxpayer funded anything including the killing of babies) unless absolutely necessary(safety net, basic health care, etc.).
At each of our child births I told the medical staff if they have to save one life to save the mother.
My husband said the same thing at both of our children’s births. I quickly told them to ignore him - my body, my choice, and I choose the baby. Fortunately we are all happy and well.
I’m a moderate conservative. I support early abortion rights but oppose ripping a living feeling human apart alive, or burning he or she alive in saline. I agree generally with the observation. I wish we could find a moderate solution as a country on abortion, but I’m not ever again voting for the people who demanded we mask toddlers or lock a generation of poor kids up on house arrest for two years. While I respect lots of opinions I do have lines I won’t cross. People who push policies that amount to child hating nihilism aren’t people I could ever vote for as a mom or person.
No kidding about the idiots who locked our kids up for years. Thankfully I am well away from our Twin City radicals and our semi-rural community didn't comply with much except the schools.
How about after 16 weeks we have some restrictions outside of mothers health? That gives someone four full months to make a decision before the baby is fully formed. To me it sounds reasonable.
Anti abortion arguments from religious conservatives are always based on an implied but unstated assumption that tens of thousands of women are seeking to abort third trimester fetuses. I have yet to see any data that proves this is a problem. If it is, I would agree that "there oughta be a law against this." At this point, the allegations that women and doctors in large numbers are killing viable fetuses looks like a straw man argument.
There are over 11,000 abortions performed after 21 weeks each year in the US. It’s been established that babies can feel pain at least by 15 weeks (and possible as early as 8). Each year over 45,000 abortions are performed after 15 weeks in living, feeling human beings. These abortions are performed most often by ripping the innocent baby human being apart limb by limb, or burning them alive in saline. Over 97% of these abortions are elective.
Planned parenthood’s research arm did a study in 2005 showing women got late term abortions for the same reasons as early abortions - elective choices around relationships, not wanting a baby etc.
Since 1973 there have been more than 15,000 babies to survive botched abortion attempt.
How many humans being tortured to death because there mothers couldn’t be bothered with ANY degree of personal responsibility for months will be enough to acknowledge we do in fact have an enormous problem with torturing innocent humans to death? It’s cruel and evil to literally torture living humans to death for the connivence of the very person who chose to give them life for months. 45 would be too many for me. 45,000 is sick. Every single year.
Edit to add source: Guttmacher Institute. “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States.” September 2019.
Thank you for the above Guttmacher reference. I will look through the data again on that and the CDC site. What I have found in the past is that most later term abortions involve birth anomalies or threats to maternal health or survival. Some of these issues aren't detectable until fetuses are at least second term.
Guttmacher reports that other variables correlating with later term abortions include barriers to getting earlier abortions, and with maternal demographics. Women who were unmarried, Black, less educated and poorer were disproportionately represented among women who obtained abortions later in their pregnancies.
I think that there needs to be continuing access to affordable birth control, post-sex pregnancy preventatives, and early term abortions. More attention needs to be focused on how to provide better options for women in the demographics just listed, so that they can terminate unwanted pregnancies sooner.
I am not opposed to placing some legal restrictions on abortions past 16 weeks or so. In my opinion the intent of these laws should focus on curtailing misuses of the medical system. It does appear to me from my brief review of the Guttmacher site that there could be some overuse of later term abortions in the absence of health risk to the mother or medical condition in the fetus.
Thanks for all of your work Sasha.
Your work, and the others I follow on Substack and elsewhere (Krystal and Saggar) aren't the traditional Right v Left, but People versus Power Elite. Trying to get back to a place in time (if it ever truly existed) where our elected government serves the people instead of ruling over them.
Agreed. Until we can get the country back from the insane ones, there's no right or left. It's just the people vs the elite.
"Trying to get back to a place in time (if it ever truly existed) where our elected government serves the people instead of ruling over them."
"Serves the people" meaning what? In my mind, it can serve us best by leaving us alone (if we're not robbing or defrauding people) and not stealing huge amounts of our money at every turn. As long as we look to the government to be Santa Claus, we'll have Big Brother.
Fearless!!! Keep it coming!!
Once again. Great piece. It seems your connection to like minded people continues to grow. Just keep doing what you do with your own style. It’s a winner. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Sasha, for putting your thoughts and opinions out for people like me to contemplate. I try to be open-mined and consider other view points, like I imagine you do. I voted for Trump, twice. Might vote for him again, if he's the nominee. I don't care for his personality, I find him arrogant and narcistic, but I agree with his positions more than what the other side offers. Sasha, you tied the "Four Turning" to the title of your substack but I haven't seen you discuss the subject. Do you discuss the 'turnings' somewhere else? (I recently finished reading the book)
My only critique is where you say the right is against LGBTQIA rights. Obviously many on the right are, but I found you from a comment on Bari Weiss's substack. I also read Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, and my favourite book is The End of the World is Flat by Simon Edge. There are a lot of lesbians and gays involved in this fight. I also would prefer it clarified that we aren't anti trans, and adults are adults, it's just the way activists are selling and packaging the idea to kids that they might be born in the wrong body that's the trouble.
It seems like we live in a time when the left and right are being redefined, and I think what you stated so eloquently is that most of us who have found ourselves here are here because we are populists who believe in democracy and free speech, not sexual orientation.
This message, (and others written by the few intrepid humans who overcome the primal desire for social safety to actually shake off the fog and realize they've been completely had) is truly bravery at its best. Sacrificing personal comfort, wealth and security for the ability to seek and speak the truth is the stuff that legends are made of.
I know that sounds hyperbolic, but I believe that in this time, it's people like Sasha and the other brave souls speaking up that will lead us out of these dark, twisted, hypocritical times.
I feel like I should be speaking out more but I have a hard time articulating the feelings and experiences that have brought me to this place. I’m not a good debater and have difficulty “proving my points”, even when I am quite certain I’m right. Always been more of a math/science guy than a writer, though I do have a feel for music and maybe I should pursue songwriting as I find it easier to express my thoughts and views through that type of art.
Every time I think the pendulum is starting to swing back to sanity, some nonense like this shows up in my news feed:
https://www.coloradocollege.edu/newsevents/newsroom/2023/professor-gosnell-combines-art-and-science-in-immersive-art-piece.html#.Y8dURkHMK3_
“As an astrophysicist, I'm a product of institutions that are steeped in systemic racism and white supremacy,” Gosnell says. “The tenets of white supremacy that show up [in physics] of individualism and exceptionalism and perfectionism… it’s either-or thinking, and there's no subtlety, there's no gray area. All of this manifests in the way that we think about our research, and what counts as good research, what counts as important research?”
The best quote thought: "Most of Gosnell’s career has been dictated by the hyper-masculine world of astrophysics."
I have to know what commune she grew up in where the males were so insipid that by comparison Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking were considered "Hyper Masculine".
There is a persistent tendency among the woke to project onto others what they themselves do: Either/or thinking, no subtlety, no gray area.
"Those who can't teach physics do art."
-- Mark Emerson
You know, I don't understand people like Rob Reiner. I've tried to sustain that level of hate and vitriol for people who have actually harmed me in real life. I can't pull it off. We only have so much energy in this life, and to waste it on that . . .
So how on earth people in the Twitterverse pull it off, I don't know. I just must be so much lazier.
Well, it probably helps a great deal if you have no other responsibilities and/or obligations – you know, like a job, or having bills to pay, or kids to raise, or just being human to people with whom you interact on a daily basis at the market, maybe the bank, or, if it's a really bad day, the DMV...