Ian Masters, the host of a great podcast, Background Briefing, did a very interesting interview today with Orville Schell, who drew a number of apt comparisons to Mao Zedong & the Cultural Revolution.
The scary thing about the Khmer Rouge is they killed 25% of the Cambodian population - two million people. After Trump's incitement of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, I have no doubts about the violent depravity of Republicans.
Trump as Pol Pot. I can see that. The Republicans and the Khmer Rouge - very violent, mob mentality, anti-intellectual, repressive, inhumane, ideologically fanatical. Trump also reminds me of Slobodan Milosevic (a scapegoating, populist, vindictive purveyor of resentments).
Like for those who didn't become politically aware until 2015, it might be hard to imagine as bad as Bush was on things like torture, he didn't try to destroy the Kennedy Center and in fact maintained celebrations of art like the PBS In Performance at the White House concerts.
Trumpism is just a uniquely terrible and destructive cultural force and there's truly no bottom. Especially now that there isn't even the discipline of a legitimate reelection campaign to stop him.
The big difference, and perhaps our saving grace is these goons do not yet have a total lock on the means of state violence and it's not at all likely rank and file troops share the Trumper's toxic brew of ressentiment and utopian fantasies of violently reshaping society in their image.
Bush did PEPFAR (and, yes, not as an act of pure altruism, but even the version he did saved a lot of lives). Trump is trying to take it apart, and is willing to break the law to do so. That clearly shows the moral degeneration between the two.
Wild to think Bush is actually our best president from a purely utilitarian point of view
PEPFAR may not have been pure altruism, but it was a personal priority that he came into office with. But my good will towards him for that is rapidly eroding in the face of his refusal to speak up & defend it
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https://soundcloud.com/user-830442635/bbriefing_2025_03_06a_orville?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fuser-830442635%252Fbbriefing_2025_03_06a_orville
PEPFAR may not have been pure altruism, but it was a personal priority that he came into office with. But my good will towards him for that is rapidly eroding in the face of his refusal to speak up & defend it