At this point I wept. "He has devoured volumes of American history, knows Whitman by heart, wonders why so few Americans have ever read the Federalist papers, believes in the United States of Europe, the Union of the English-speaking world, and the coming democratic revolution all over the earth."
Vance Mr C: Mr. C is a brilliant and embittered intellectual. He was a poor white-trash Southern boy, a scholarship student at two universities where he took all the scholastic honors but was never invited to join a fraternity…..but they have seldom invited him—or his wife—to dinner.
Unfortunately this doesn’t describe the women well. I know several beautiful, kind, loving women who keep allying with power no matter who it hurts. The 53% of white women who voted for Trump aren’t all “mean.” It would hurt less if they were
That *is* mean though. The fact they hide behind courtesy and niceness (can’t “ally with power no matter who it hurts” and be kind) doesn’t change that fact. It just may make it harder to sort out before you know them well, and make it harder to trust people generally once you clearly see them.
That’s what I’m saying and why I put quotes around “mean.” These women are incredibly charismatic, pillars of their community, charitable, the whole nine in public. They don’t act subservient, shrewish, or mean at any get together like this story describes
But you can. You’ve assuredly known mean girls like that since middle school. The signs are there, if you look for them. They can make you feel amazing, and often do many great helpful things. But they’ll be judgmental and hurtful too. Often under the guise of being helpful.
"The frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis."
Y'all caught the perfect portrait of Vance that Thompson wrote in.. 1941, yes? The guy who's a heartbeat away from being the most powerful man on earth? Who now runs in the highest echelons of power? Yeah.
From the article:
It’s fun—a macabre sort of fun—this parlor game of “Who Goes Nazi?” And it simplifies things—asking the question in regard to specific personalities.
Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. .... 1/
... They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. ... 2/5
... But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis.
... Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t—whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to." 5/5
Comments
"The frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis."
It’s fun—a macabre sort of fun—this parlor game of “Who Goes Nazi?” And it simplifies things—asking the question in regard to specific personalities.
Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. .... 1/
Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. ... 3/5
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