Thank you for avoiding using the term “right” for people who are clearly wrong and using the moniker, “right wing”, instead; and thank you for not using the inappropriate term “conservative” for politicians who should more accurately be referred to as destructive since they conserve nothing.
It seems to me conservatives preserve their own wealth and power pretty well. And they always have. The belief that there is some form of "true" conservative who is not self serving and elitist is the biggest zombie idea of them all.
Their use of the very word "conservative" is hypocritical. It technically means someone who wants to "conserve" the status quo - avoiding dramatic changes. Clearly, that only applies when the status quo is what they want it to be. Otherwise, all bets are off.
I would agree, except: To me, "Conservative" in American English seems to be a proper name, i.e. "a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about but not of telling anything about it."
In other words, complaining that Conservatives in the US are not really conservative is like complaining that the Holy Roman Empire wasn't really holy.
Speaking of which, it seems that Trump's GOP is not only not conservative, they aren't even reactionary, as in "wanting to resurrect the past". Instead, they are in the process of transforming the US into an abomination that never existed before on American soil: A nightmarish dictatorship modelled after Putin's Russia.
Fascists always appeal to a mythic past that has been sanitized of truth. In the terms of Gen Z, fascist "history" is all about the vibe, not the substance.
That's the magical 'narrative' they portray for propaganda Winston. Not too much unlike that "magical invisible hand" of capitalism, which if to be believed hook, line, and sinker acts like some fair sounding give and take equalizer. Rubbish ! It always adds and never hardly ever subtracts. In your gut, you know this.
Do you think that the New York Times is hypocritical when they call MAGA adherents "conservative", or are they simply using that word as a proper name like I described it?
The subjective honesty of misguided redhats from flyover country notwithstanding: Do you think that beltway stakeholders honestly think they are about to resurrect a glorious past, or is "MAGA" just a mendacious slogan to defraud the rubes?
"Do you think that the New York Times is hypocritical when they call MAGA adherents "conservative", or are they simply using that word as a proper name like I described it?"
The Times is adhering to a long-standing policy that is, as Professor Krugman has pointed out, based on the delusional hope that they will one day be read by Iowans and South Dakotans, etc. making the Times national newspaper. That isn't going to happen and tailoring their language to avoid offending people who aren't ever going to be subscribers is utterly irrational.
Today, I consider the Times to be a world class purveyor of euphemisms. Trump never lies. He tells falsehoods or misleads or needs context. Republicans are "conservative" because that is what they want to be called. The fact that they aren't conservative in any meaningful political sense of the word is unimportant to the Times. Instead of providing "all the news that's fit to print," they offer all the euphemisms that won't offend too much, if at all. This practice is less "hypocritical" than it is simply dishonest.
A recent Times column showcased David Leonhardt's mindless centrism. In a discussion with the columnist Michelle Goldberg, she ran intellectual circles around Leonhardt. His comments made it clear, to me at least, that he is a major problem for the Times being what it should be -- a paper that focuses on the truth rather than what will please the most people. His belief in moderation is laughable since the only way to have "moderate policies" is to have a Republican Party willing to constructively engage with Democrats. How often has that happened since 1995 when Newt Gringrich brought his scorched earth attitude to the House? See the final ACA vote in 2010 for an example of a moderate, though inadequate plan, that couldn't get a single Republican vote. I say the ACA was inadequate because, while it helped, we still have millions of Americans without health insurance and unpaid medical bills are still the largest single cause of personal bankruptcy in the US.
In another discussion that Professor Krugman had today, he emphasized that the US doesn't need a radical solution to make our health care system work for all Americans. His point was that all we need is something like what all the developed European countries already have. However, in the US, a universal health care system is a radical idea, since the mere mention of it inspires deafening shouts of SOCIALISM. People are too stupid and brainwashed to understand that ideology is not what matters, but what works is. And we have numerous examples of why a universal system is what is needed. Today, we are farther away from getting that than we have been in the past, when we were never close.
Conservatism is about maintaining a status quo. To many current MAGAts/GoP/"conservatives" that is primarily a social conservatism. IOW, the conservatism in question isn't about economics or socio-economic status (directly).
The current movement is actually reactionary rather than conservative. They seek a return to an older status quo. A status quo that is, in part, basically mythical. It is primarily race and gender based. This is quite evident when you look at the rehtoric and actual actions.
There are basically two things going on here:
1) The social conservatism of the rank and file--male and white racial supremacy with a healthy dash of ethno-Christian nationalism used as justification; and
2) The rich and powerful maintaining or expanding THEIR interests/status.
#2 absolutely needs #1 in order to gain power to affect their policies. Which is what we have basically seen over the last few decades. Group #1 is quite willing to screw themselves over economically (in what they see as the short term) to get what they want. They unreasonably believe that achieving a return to their mythical past will somehow (magically) also solve their economic problems.
Everyone will have a magical great paying job like it was in the Good Old Days.
There are very few people in this country who are still conservative in the Burkean sense. The MAGA movement has largely driven the responsible center-right into the underground, although there are still a few of these who speak out against the Trumpists (Charlie Sykes, George Will, etc).
"It seems to me conservatives preserve their own wealth and power pretty well. And they always have. The belief that there is some form of "true" conservative who is not self serving and elitist is the biggest zombie idea of them all."
Thank you. The neverending search for "good" conservative counterparts is one of the worst brain bugs in modern liberalism.
Burke was reactionary to what was going on in France at the time and was a protector of the status quo in England. He gets credit for being a founder of conservatism, but conservatism goes back a lot further than that, most notably to the Roman Republic.
You have always had people of position/favored by the status quo coming up with philosophy that justifies the maintenance of same.It is the opposite of
I have read Burke, Locke, Montesquieu. Smith, etc. Burke is primarily about maintaining an ordered society on the basis of traditional values and practices (although he extended this in a limited sense to American objections to British colonial policy and to Catholic empancipation in England).
Locke is all about property rights (which doesn't do much for those without property).
It is my experience that Smith is often misrepresented or things left out that don't mesh with "conservative" economic thought.
I have always been somewhat amused by the reverence given to these people. It is also amusing to see former "radical" parties (like the GoP) become conservative parties when their agenda is achieved or when they find that they need the social conservatives to win elections due to shifts in culture/demographics.
“John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” -- Ronald Wright
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." LBJ
Similarly, poor people in corrupt developing countries do not complain about corruption because they expect also "to make it" through some corrupt scheme.
No, not true. They have no choices but to hide all liberties inside themselves; Hidden from all. They dare not be heard saying or even longing. My best friend in life that's still alive came here from Honduras in the late 60 - 70's when central America was on fire with revolutions. He still goes back; In fact he's there right now. I'm sure to get another in depth view.
I have no idea whether that’s an accurate Steinbeck quote or not, but I can report, from my wife and I teaching sociology in a community college in the poorest state in the nation, that quote would properly identify too many of our students.
The phrase actually originates from Ronald Wright’s 2004 book "A Short History of Progress" where Wright paraphrases Steinbeck’s views but does not provide a direct citation
Except the 39.6% tax rate is so much better for wealthy Americans than 35% or 37%. We have a consumer spending economy!! Wealthy Americans don’t end up more disposable income when they receive a tax cut. While they receive the benefit from lower income tax cuts because dollars can only be spent and wealthy Americans are generally small business owners or heavily invested in the stock market. And for their businesses they have a line of credit with a bank and so the extra income they get from a tax cut isn’t necessary to grow their business. So it seems all an upper income tax cut does is jack up housing prices which is bad for people with an income of $500k because all of their extra money goes to higher property taxes and insurance and private school tuition and utility bills. So a $700k home in Dallas comes with $4800 monthly cost before utilities and tuition although that would be in a district with a good public school…but that’s Dallas with no mountains and no beaches and 4 months of 100 degree weather and near zero chance of kids going to the cheap state flagship university.
I am arguing why Republicans should support the 39.6% top rate. Btw, the Trumpiest states have expanded Medicaid while the Bush Republican states like Texas and Wyoming haven’t. Utah has but that’s because 20 year old Mormons start families and want maternity coverage. Trump 2016 supporters actually agree with liberals on a lot of important issues. And Bush was the president that shipped jobs to China and invaded Iraq under false pretenses.
I wish I could remember the handle so as to give proper attribution, but I once saw a comment on substack referring to it as the "reichwing". I've been using that ever since.
Why do tRump, Musk, the Project 2025 people actually want to KILL Americans with their policies and politics? Surely to Jesus they understand the implications of all that they have wrought, and that the public's welfare and lives are at acute risk by decimating those services that people have grown dependent upon to keep them safe. What motivates the tRump crowd in their callousness toward and carelessness with our well-being?
I am simply at a loss to even understand at the most basic level what actually creates a mindset whose main preoccupation is immiseration and cruelty on a national scale.
The GOP and 2025 believe that empathy will destroy the U.S. That empathy weakens society. It is all part off the big white bully is strong plan of 2025. Cooperation is for sissies, corruption and crime is they way to $uccess.
But the people who elected them usually do have empathy when it comes to their own personal interactions. The people they elected to represent them do not. For them, empathy is equivalent to weakness. So we need to reinforce empathetic behavior on the part of our neighbors, but loudly and relentlessly act against their representatives in government.
Tear it all down; Rebuild in their own image / design. When your mindset is my way or nothing, building consensus and democratic ideals are just for suckers and fools, like sissy democrats and 'their' r.i.n.o.'s. Have no delusions; It's ultimately all out, no holds barred war on democracy from within. Accept it; Act on it.
I don't think they want to kill everyone. They simply want people to work as long as they can and die as soon as they are unable to work. Like things used to be before Social Security.
Perhaps they have read the writings of those who say the coming environmental catastrophe will eliminate at least fifty per cent of us by 2050 and they are trying to pre-select a number of that group?
A note on terms. Regarding the phrase, "something they do with a sense of satisfaction," it would be more precise to replace "a sense of satisfaction," with the word, "glee."
I prefer facists to right wing. After all, facism is "an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization." That's what the GOP advocates for every day.
Richard, thank you for highlighting the contradictions ! Could the lemmings who auto identify as 'conservative' or 'right wing' be so shallow to assume being 'right' to be the same or equal to 'correct' ? As well, as you note, what.. 'do' they conserve ? Are they inflexible to change and the dynamic nature of life ? Calcified is far more fitting; I think that, everytime I see a photo of McConnell and we certainly know his game is conserving wealth. Not a crime, but when it's a DNA level pursuit, uh... something's very wrong about that.
Btw, I looked in at your project; Good on you friend.
I would say they conserve hatred, but they don't even do that; they *generate* an awful lot of it, but they spew it all over the undeserving, because it's people of undeserving of hatred they hate.
Yeah, I guess you're right. They conserve nothing at all - not even their misery. They try to spread that around too by making everyone else as miserable as they are, though even apparent success doesn't make them happy.
No grief from me, not then and not now. And since the GOP is doing nothing to restrain Trump – and are actually cheering him on, I have to say that the GOP = bullies.
“OK, I’ll probably get a lot of grief for saying that — but maybe not as much grief as I would have gotten a few months ago. For does anyone doubt that the people now running America are bullies completely lacking in any kind of compassion?
And why do bullies beat up people who can’t defend themselves? Because they can.”
Being that MAGA thrives on racism, all of this works for them.
Ronald Reagan successfully framed “Welfare People” as being single black women with a bunch of kids and lazy black men doing drugs as the only people on welfare.
Almost 50 years later, it’s still working for them.
Plus, they don’t have to worry about losing votes from the actual people that are getting cut off-mostly very poor white kids.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” - LBJ
Why set up class versus race in explaining the sadism? Seriously. The Trump regime is both classist and virulently white supremacist (and virulently nativist and sexist BTW).
I don't disagree with you. It is both class and race. But some people outright refuse to see class while always seeing race. We need to mention class as much as race and hammer home that if you ain't rich, you have no standing with MAGA. Politicians have often used race to divide class groups. I always like to recall something Charles Barkley once said on the Tonight Show: if the whites, the blacks and the Hispanics of the same class could all get together they would be very powerful (or something to that effect) I remember this specifically because he mentioned class as a uniting principle. Now I think we could throw in many of the Middle Eastern immigrants in that group as well. Working class and poor whites often see others as getting in their way economically and contributing to holding them back on race alone. Which isn't true. If they could see that it's not other races they have to worry about but people a rung or two up in social status who may not be as smart but are better connected who are pissing on them as well as the minority groups, then maybe they would join the fight against the oppressive wealthy whites rather than being so bloody white supremacist (I say this coming from a working class background and putting myself through college..There was no support for me and many assumptions that I was wealthy because I am white. Nope! )
Oh yes; His totally made up myth of a cadillac welfare queen. What a bullshitter, and most people ate it up and washed it down with Koolaide. Almighty Ronnie the 'b' actor whose career and life was nearly in the gutter, until GE bought and owned him.
This 'receiving government should be working but are choosing to be lazy' is a typical American willfully being ignorant issue. Just like Americans are willfully ignorant about how it treats prisoners and minimum wage workers.
Because they are deeply and unconsciously afraid of threats to their place in power. All bullies are sadistic, because it's via inflicting pain that they are simultaneously put in touch with that fear and overcome it with violence in one form or another.
They beat up the weak because they are most like their true selves. Everything they do is to fill an inner hole that can never be filled, not with money, not with power, not with sycophants, not with anything external. Why does anyone need 1000's of millions of dollars? Unless money isn't for any purpose except as a kind of score to compare yourself to others and someday be able to say "I'm better than you" but in the end they're still just as empty.
In Buddhism one of the six realms of samsara, suffering and rebirth, is the realm of the hungry ghosts. They have big bellies and long skinny necks and can not eat fast enough to feel full. The same sickness of the soul.
It is rare to find bullies openly bullying outside of the schoolyard. Adults can recognize it for what it is since they have personal experiences. A political party devoted to the art of bullying is possible under the guise of defining the other. Establishing who the other is and relentlessly pecking at them as flock of chickens would becomes the self perpetuating modus operandi.
Physical appearance in general has a subconscious effect on people’s view of others. Big people = bears. Sometimes they’re dangerous, sometimes cuddly but mostly intimidating on first glance. This opinion could be influenced by my being short though. 😄
You won't get any grief from me Michael, they 'think' they are. "And why do bullies beat up people who can’t defend themselves? Because they can.” No Mike; Because we let them. They've been allowed to carry on and spread some narrative that all democrats are gun haters and sissies. They 'think' and spread that for simple minds that need small-box definitions - ad hoc as though any group of complex human beings can so easily be defined. I would dare any to challenge my marksmanship or my ability to step through most any normal, natural fear; Up to and including socking a bully in the shnozola. Scraps don't seem so cool if the hoped for victim turns it into a real scrap with no "winners."
Agreed. "Bullies" is accurate but comes up short. So does "oligarcha" and even "authoritarians." This is a fascist regime, as it has been described by Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley on his way to Canada.
Paul Krugman isn’t just right—he’s one of the few voices willing to name what too many tiptoe around: that we’re witnessing a deliberate erosion of empathy in American policy. This isn’t about fiscal responsibility. It’s about power. It’s about a political movement that treats the poor as expendable and the wealthy as entitled to more.
The facts are clear—tax cuts for the rich don’t pay for themselves, and work requirements for Medicaid don’t get people jobs. They get people kicked off life-saving healthcare. That’s not reform. That’s engineered abandonment.
And let’s be honest: this isn’t a debate about economic models. It’s a test of moral character. When legislation is designed in ways that disproportionately harm the bottom 40% of Americans—especially children—you don’t get to hide behind spreadsheets. You are choosing winners and losers, and you’re choosing cruelty over care.
Krugman sees the playbook for what it is. A cynical, zombie resurrection of long-dead ideas that refuse to stay buried because they serve the rich and punish the vulnerable. He’s not being inflammatory—he’s being honest.
And if more of us had the guts to call it what it is—an orchestrated transfer of pain from the top down—we might finally stop mistaking injustice for ideology.
So yes, Krugman’s right. And the real question isn’t whether he’s too harsh. The real question is: why aren’t more people this angry?
Elon Musk recently told Joe Rogan that “empathy is the fundamental weakness of western civilization”. He isn’t the only powerful person to believe this, especially in tech world. They think empathy and democracy cause weakness and want both to go away.
I suspect most of the people in the current T administration would agree with Musk's outrageous statement. Anyone who believes that empathy is a weakness is a dangerous sociopath and a threat to civilization.
The Republicans in power want to desensitize us to mass suffering and death, just like they tried to do with the USAID cuts. Don’t let them. Why? Two reasons: 1) Standing up for the most vulnerable is the right thing to do. 2) For anyone who lets the Rs get away with this because only ‘others’ are affected, don’t kid yourself: you’re next.
It’s not the malice or the cruelty, it’s the stupidity. THAT’S what is so amazing: they are waging war on a whole generation of children and adults and America will reap what they sow.
Yeah, there are two kinds of stupidity - one type would be, they think that these policy changes will work well. That's really stupid. And probably not something many of these craven weasels in the Republican party believe. But the other kind of stupid is thinking that it's good for ANYBODY in the long-term to intentionally inflict harm on half the population. They're all that stupid. Have fun ruling over the ashes, assholes.
The book Careless People addressed this. The title comes from the author's experience that the elites at Facebook just don't care what damage they do. I think this is true for a lot of the MAGAs. They just don't care. It isn't their problem.
"Paul Krugman isn’t just right—he’s one of the few voices willing to name what too many tiptoe around: that we’re witnessing a deliberate erosion of empathy in American policy."
And he got chased out of the traditional media's largest news outlet.
I don't think he was "chased out" of the NY Times. I think he wanted more independence, and the way he attained the independence was to retire from the constraints of the main stream media.
Once 47 was elected, they started controlling his writing much more, he'd been reasonably independent previously. It wasn't friendly on their side because they gave no shout out to this substack. Fortunately for me, the comments told me where to find him.
Yes; Independence. And that speaks volumes about MSM. Just imagine a powerful news editor / owner choosing to x out the best advice of some medical professional. I'm not gonna' even put Paul on such similar pedestal; he's made mistakes; he's apologized for some. Medical doctors 'practice' the medical 'arts.' Paul 'practices' economic 'arts.' The "patients" received the best available that is known to date; Subject to change. For me that analogy works as well for economics, because it's so damned abstract; it is not all graphs and solid models. It's so much more. I give thanks to the minds that can chase those 'squirrels.' jmho ~
Sadly, Republicans are not alone in their belief that Medicaid (and every other safety net program) is just crammed with people wrongly taking advantage of the system to get money and benefits they do not deserve . . . and that those people are costing taxpayers trillions of dollars.
The essential ignorance of the average citizen when it comes to the federal budget is a big part of this problem. Ask the average person where all the tax money goes and they'll tell you: About half goes to foreign aid, another 50% goes to welfare, probably a third goes to unions, maybe a quarter goes to funding degenerate art, and the rest goes to pork-barrel projects. The military? Maybe 1% of the total budget.
So with that as background, is it any wonder why the Republicans' message of ever-expanding cruelty resonates with so many voters?
Most Americans do not know the difference between the "debt" and the "deficit" and conflate and use the two terms interchangeably. Most Americans do not understand the difference between "money" and "currency" and blithely spout off about the government "printing" money, thereby demonstrating that they have no clue. And so when Trump accepts (and possibly solicits) a $400 million bribe from Qatar and a $2 billion bribe from Aby Dhabi, Trump's approval rating actually increases by 2%, thereby proving that America is morally depraved and deserves what it's got coming.
Ouch Charles ! Isn't that sort of ad hoc logic ? I'm generationally American - to the 1700's at the least. Yet, I'm 'all in' for eighty sixing, forty seven yesterday... or even 2015.
At some point after his presidency, Bill Clinton gave a speech at the Democratic convention about the Republicans' challenges with arithmetic. It's still true.
I thought the category of despicable human beings was just trump and his stooges. It is a big tent that includes republicans in Congress as well. Corrupt. Cruel. Criminal. Racist.
As for Medicaid, the impact goes beyond the eligible population; it will cripple the health care system. Hospitals will treat emergencies regardless of ability to pay. This bill will mean that instead of a low reimbursement, the hospitals may get nothing. That will impact the cost for all of us and may result in hospitals reducing services or closing particularly in rural areas. Congratulations to MAGA🤮
This awful bill will kill a lot of people and small rural hospitals. More women will die - unattended at home because there is nowhere to go with a birth center. Kids and old people will lose Medicaid and get put on the street. SNAP benefits are being cut - which means more hungry people. I can only suppose that all these new street people will be rounded up and sent to the camps so they are not an inconvenience for the 1%. To me, it seems like the oligarchs, lead by tRump are deliberately creating the next Great Depression. And because they have their 'Nut', their stash - likely gold - they will weather the storm just fine. We're going to need a whole hell of a lot of Guillotines.
You make a good point that always flummoxes me: cutting healthcare for people who can’t afford it in a “free market” doesn’t mean we don’t pay for their healthcare. It just means it becomes more expensive with horrific outcomes.
Right on, these moves from the short-sighted GOP will cause our Physicians, Nurses and healthcare staff get sick & tired, and threaten to walk off the job.
Mike Johnson deserves his own special section of hell for his antics. Using his piety as a cloak elevates his despicable behavior to new heights (greater depths?) in my estimation.
I think that bears amplifying. Project 2025 wasn't written by Trump. He probably wasn't even lying when he said he didn't read it, because he doesn't read. The GOP has the Trifecta and control over SCOTUS. They can implement literally anything that they can agree upon. And what they have chosen to agree upon is an authoritarian dictatorship. Trump is only a symptom of the deep moral rot that has devoured the GOP from within.
I believe Trumpkopf was involved in P2025, at least peripherally. Aside from that, he definitely represents where the GOP's been headed since at least 1953.
The GOP is a party that has been trying to destroy Social Security since the 1930s--a policy first initiated in Germany by that famous leftist, Otto von Bismarck. They are doing it now by gradually destroying the value of the dollar.
The autocrat Bismarck also created the “Bismarck” health care system which is the basis for the system Germany — and some other countries — still uses today.
Bismarck created the German social security system that is still in function today and he was the exact opposite of a leftist. The laws named „Socialist laws“ brought hundreds of social democrats in jail.
Not said here that the more people suffer and work a daily basis just to survive, the less time they have to fight for their rights. The underlying approach here is to consolidate more and more power to the hands of the rich ruling class.
This is not inconsistent with Trump‘s initial and only real approach to dealing with Covid. When Covid first effects were being experienced by blue states that Trump disliked, it was fine, and there was no sense of urgency. For the people that were going to be dying we’re old that they didn’t have to worry about taking care of, another plus.
Once they realize that they could not control Covid at all the plan was to blame everybody else
Your first sentence is spot on James. All of their time is utterly consumed surviving "Lives of quiet desperation." (Thoreau ?) I know because that is 'my life' owing only to disability 8 years ago - at work, without compensation.
“OK, I’ll probably get a lot of grief for saying that — but maybe not as much grief as I would have gotten a few months ago. For does anyone doubt that the people now running America are bullies completely lacking in any kind of compassion?”
You had me at hello professor. And the term “bullies” is an understatement. I’m just wondering when the useless invertebrates we call the democrats will finally find a hill they can die on, because right now this country is suffering a slow death, by a thousand needless cuts! IMHO…:)
but assuming that every Democrat votes against this monstrosity of a bill - it still passes. So how can they usefully die on a hill that would be a winning battle?
I’m talking more or less about their messaging, or lack thereof. While all this chaos is taking place, they can’t even unify with a message of hope, or call out this nonsense for what it is. They’re essentially paralyzed in fear, or just confounded and confused.
Therein lies despair—too often we hear that dealing with Republican cruelty requires condemning Democrats, which discourages support for them (and no doubt elicits gleeful chortles from the wingnuts).
You’re missing the point. All this cruelty is going unchecked. You’d never know the cruelty because of republican spin and democratic ineptitude.
If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, doe it matter? This is my point, they have what sounds like legitimate answers to people’s concerns, even though they’re just cruel and unnecessary policies. Yet, the democrats don’t even have a unifying message. There’s no party discipline and they’re fighting amongst themselves for power.
Just look at last week. The DNC was busy trying to fire David Hogg, tell me what positive outcome comes for that?
To be fair, (maybe), the silence is probably a strategy. James Carville suggested democrats should just let the republicans have their day and go hog wild with the cruelty. When democrats save the day, or so the thinking goes, it just gets more republican votes because it feeds the thesis that “We got to take it out on the <insert disfavored group here> and it wasn’t so bad!”
While I am quite disgusted by cynical strategies like this because every time Americans target Americans we all lose, I do feel that the Democrats are in minority, and if the filibuster is not in play, at the end of the day they can’t stop it. All they can do is make a big noise and lose anyway. So, the left is asking their representatives to engage in performative but ultimately futile action. As long as the Republicans abandon shame and vote together, there is very little we or anyone can do. Elections have consequences.
Well said, but this strategy never works. And if they continue to let the republicans control the narrative, everything else will get lost I. The confusion. My opinion was that they need to stop trying to undermine each other, unify, and have a disciplined message to rely to the people.
Instead, of unification, we’re seeing democrats go after each other. IMHO…:)
Lest we forget the Dems "welfare mothers" sucking the system zombie idea fostered by Bill Clinton. Oh yeah, wasn't Carville his campaign guru? "It's Class, stupid" (stealing from Carville) - not the political party.
Actually Anne, I'm sure that was Reagan, aka "all those Cadillac driving welfare queens." Clinton it seems to me, 'played along to get along' with the gop. And yes he did, nix welfare as we knew it.
It was under Prez Clinton - in 1996 - that two important pieces of legislation were enacted: a law against poor people (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act) and a law against immigrants (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act).
I was actually wondering about this. So many poor elderly depend on Medicaid for nursing home residency. Is this going to go away? Will poor old people be thrown to the streets, or, if lucky, rescued by their poor adult children?
My father, who suffered from dementia, did not qualify for Medicaid because his second wife "hid" his assets. My sisters and I had just enough money to pay for two months in a nursing facility (no inexpensive feat). Luckily (!) he also had lung cancer and miraculously died the end of the month that the money ran out.
Hi Paul, The super cruelty we are now seeing seems to me to be related to Artificial Intelligence and the red tech elite’s belief that we will soon need many less people to do work or generate capital. In many ways, Trump is the AI President. Cambridge Analytica’s machine learning tools won him the election in 2016, when CA amassed 5,000 data points on every American and used it to exploit our “inner demons” via Facebook. This really helped break the American mind.
When you combine these budget items with RFK and the destruction of FEMA, it really seems clear their plan is at the very least to encourage poor people - which will soon include many laid off programmers and legal aids - to die as soon as possible. This may also be their ultimate plan to combat climate change: you remove most of the people and they no longer waste CO2. Obviously people like Musk and Thiel know what’s coming with environmental breakdowns and much more of what we are already seeing in the South. The combination of needing raw materials for AI and the environmental collapse in southern states is also probably why they intend to take Greenland and Canada. (By the way I write about these topics regularly on my blog, danielpinchbeck.substack.com).
Have you also seriously considered that Trump intends to crash the economy and default on the debt? This is what the book “The Sovereign Individual” says is coming: the collapse of the nation state for “commercialized sovereignty.” Both Thiel and Marc Andreessen call this their favorite book.
PS also Bannon and Musk seem to be Nazis - they intentionally made Nazi salutes and the DOGE symbol contains clear Nazi symbolism. Ultimately Nazis intend to do Nazi things.
Beyond the cruelty, techno-feudalism or whatever you want to call the maga-fied version of austerity is strategically stupid.
Compound the idiocy of the House GOP's budget bill (also known as Trump's Big Beautiful Bill) with Russell Vought's vendetta at OMB (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/05/russell-vought-trump-doge/682821/) and you'll discover the crippling of America by shutting down every path of competitive advantage, innovation, and economic resilience. Through their rigid adherence to austerity they are gutting the middle class and exposing the US to higher risk. Their approach drains our resilience making this country much more vulnerable in rapidly changing conditions.
Ask yourself, "Who benefits from the destruction of US?" You don't have to think long for answers. We're witnessing the biggest wealth transfer in history.
Yup - and there's also the self-righteous "I worked for my money!" trope. I know some of these people who weren't born rich - it hasn't made them more sympathetic, just given them the feeling that anyone who doesn't make it is lazy and deserves a spanking.
What continues to drive me nearly insane is the silence from mainstream, corporate media about this gigantic theft by the kleptocrats. Thank you, Professor Krugman, for calling out the bastards.
Not true. Shortly after his appointment as chancellor in 1933 there was the Reichtagsbrand, which was followed by establishment of one party rule. Anything that looked like an election after that was sham.
Yup, they voted him in again and again all the way to 1939, when he suspended elections during the war. Of course, within two WEEKS of him assuming office, if you DIDN’T vote for him you risked ending up in Dachau. A portent?
Thank you for avoiding using the term “right” for people who are clearly wrong and using the moniker, “right wing”, instead; and thank you for not using the inappropriate term “conservative” for politicians who should more accurately be referred to as destructive since they conserve nothing.
It seems to me conservatives preserve their own wealth and power pretty well. And they always have. The belief that there is some form of "true" conservative who is not self serving and elitist is the biggest zombie idea of them all.
Their use of the very word "conservative" is hypocritical. It technically means someone who wants to "conserve" the status quo - avoiding dramatic changes. Clearly, that only applies when the status quo is what they want it to be. Otherwise, all bets are off.
I would agree, except: To me, "Conservative" in American English seems to be a proper name, i.e. "a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about but not of telling anything about it."
In other words, complaining that Conservatives in the US are not really conservative is like complaining that the Holy Roman Empire wasn't really holy.
Speaking of which, it seems that Trump's GOP is not only not conservative, they aren't even reactionary, as in "wanting to resurrect the past". Instead, they are in the process of transforming the US into an abomination that never existed before on American soil: A nightmarish dictatorship modelled after Putin's Russia.
That's true, but the real point here is the hypocrisy rather than semantical exactitude.
As for the reactionary part, they do seem to want to resurrect an >imagined< past. Indeed, that's exactly what "MAGA" means.
Fascists always appeal to a mythic past that has been sanitized of truth. In the terms of Gen Z, fascist "history" is all about the vibe, not the substance.
Yep. Shiny looking, new thing.
That's the magical 'narrative' they portray for propaganda Winston. Not too much unlike that "magical invisible hand" of capitalism, which if to be believed hook, line, and sinker acts like some fair sounding give and take equalizer. Rubbish ! It always adds and never hardly ever subtracts. In your gut, you know this.
Well, the question is: Whose hypocrisy, exactly?
Do you think that the New York Times is hypocritical when they call MAGA adherents "conservative", or are they simply using that word as a proper name like I described it?
The subjective honesty of misguided redhats from flyover country notwithstanding: Do you think that beltway stakeholders honestly think they are about to resurrect a glorious past, or is "MAGA" just a mendacious slogan to defraud the rubes?
"Do you think that the New York Times is hypocritical when they call MAGA adherents "conservative", or are they simply using that word as a proper name like I described it?"
The Times is adhering to a long-standing policy that is, as Professor Krugman has pointed out, based on the delusional hope that they will one day be read by Iowans and South Dakotans, etc. making the Times national newspaper. That isn't going to happen and tailoring their language to avoid offending people who aren't ever going to be subscribers is utterly irrational.
Today, I consider the Times to be a world class purveyor of euphemisms. Trump never lies. He tells falsehoods or misleads or needs context. Republicans are "conservative" because that is what they want to be called. The fact that they aren't conservative in any meaningful political sense of the word is unimportant to the Times. Instead of providing "all the news that's fit to print," they offer all the euphemisms that won't offend too much, if at all. This practice is less "hypocritical" than it is simply dishonest.
A recent Times column showcased David Leonhardt's mindless centrism. In a discussion with the columnist Michelle Goldberg, she ran intellectual circles around Leonhardt. His comments made it clear, to me at least, that he is a major problem for the Times being what it should be -- a paper that focuses on the truth rather than what will please the most people. His belief in moderation is laughable since the only way to have "moderate policies" is to have a Republican Party willing to constructively engage with Democrats. How often has that happened since 1995 when Newt Gringrich brought his scorched earth attitude to the House? See the final ACA vote in 2010 for an example of a moderate, though inadequate plan, that couldn't get a single Republican vote. I say the ACA was inadequate because, while it helped, we still have millions of Americans without health insurance and unpaid medical bills are still the largest single cause of personal bankruptcy in the US.
In another discussion that Professor Krugman had today, he emphasized that the US doesn't need a radical solution to make our health care system work for all Americans. His point was that all we need is something like what all the developed European countries already have. However, in the US, a universal health care system is a radical idea, since the mere mention of it inspires deafening shouts of SOCIALISM. People are too stupid and brainwashed to understand that ideology is not what matters, but what works is. And we have numerous examples of why a universal system is what is needed. Today, we are farther away from getting that than we have been in the past, when we were never close.
1. The NYT is being circumspect but not outright hypocritical.
2. It's just a mendacious slogan to (very successfully) defraud the rubes.
Every time I see Johnson I think, ‘Poot-in’ for Putin..little fart-let’s…back to adolescents, strange smile. Middle school!
I think "weasel."
Conservatism is about maintaining a status quo. To many current MAGAts/GoP/"conservatives" that is primarily a social conservatism. IOW, the conservatism in question isn't about economics or socio-economic status (directly).
The current movement is actually reactionary rather than conservative. They seek a return to an older status quo. A status quo that is, in part, basically mythical. It is primarily race and gender based. This is quite evident when you look at the rehtoric and actual actions.
There are basically two things going on here:
1) The social conservatism of the rank and file--male and white racial supremacy with a healthy dash of ethno-Christian nationalism used as justification; and
2) The rich and powerful maintaining or expanding THEIR interests/status.
#2 absolutely needs #1 in order to gain power to affect their policies. Which is what we have basically seen over the last few decades. Group #1 is quite willing to screw themselves over economically (in what they see as the short term) to get what they want. They unreasonably believe that achieving a return to their mythical past will somehow (magically) also solve their economic problems.
Everyone will have a magical great paying job like it was in the Good Old Days.
Another 'banana republic' , sh_t hole country, in "it's" vernacular.
There are very few people in this country who are still conservative in the Burkean sense. The MAGA movement has largely driven the responsible center-right into the underground, although there are still a few of these who speak out against the Trumpists (Charlie Sykes, George Will, etc).
"It seems to me conservatives preserve their own wealth and power pretty well. And they always have. The belief that there is some form of "true" conservative who is not self serving and elitist is the biggest zombie idea of them all."
Thank you. The neverending search for "good" conservative counterparts is one of the worst brain bugs in modern liberalism.
For example?
Burke was reactionary to what was going on in France at the time and was a protector of the status quo in England. He gets credit for being a founder of conservatism, but conservatism goes back a lot further than that, most notably to the Roman Republic.
You have always had people of position/favored by the status quo coming up with philosophy that justifies the maintenance of same.It is the opposite of
I have read Burke, Locke, Montesquieu. Smith, etc. Burke is primarily about maintaining an ordered society on the basis of traditional values and practices (although he extended this in a limited sense to American objections to British colonial policy and to Catholic empancipation in England).
Locke is all about property rights (which doesn't do much for those without property).
It is my experience that Smith is often misrepresented or things left out that don't mesh with "conservative" economic thought.
I have always been somewhat amused by the reverence given to these people. It is also amusing to see former "radical" parties (like the GoP) become conservative parties when their agenda is achieved or when they find that they need the social conservatives to win elections due to shifts in culture/demographics.
Most "conservatives," if we're using the term to mean, broadly, "Republican voters," have no wealth or power.
“John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” -- Ronald Wright
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." LBJ
Similarly, poor people in corrupt developing countries do not complain about corruption because they expect also "to make it" through some corrupt scheme.
No, not true. They have no choices but to hide all liberties inside themselves; Hidden from all. They dare not be heard saying or even longing. My best friend in life that's still alive came here from Honduras in the late 60 - 70's when central America was on fire with revolutions. He still goes back; In fact he's there right now. I'm sure to get another in depth view.
Oh; I didn't realize that Steinbeck was a part time comedian. My bad. I'm as poor as they come, but have never had that confusion.
I have no idea whether that’s an accurate Steinbeck quote or not, but I can report, from my wife and I teaching sociology in a community college in the poorest state in the nation, that quote would properly identify too many of our students.
Perplexity tells me:
The phrase actually originates from Ronald Wright’s 2004 book "A Short History of Progress" where Wright paraphrases Steinbeck’s views but does not provide a direct citation
Except the 39.6% tax rate is so much better for wealthy Americans than 35% or 37%. We have a consumer spending economy!! Wealthy Americans don’t end up more disposable income when they receive a tax cut. While they receive the benefit from lower income tax cuts because dollars can only be spent and wealthy Americans are generally small business owners or heavily invested in the stock market. And for their businesses they have a line of credit with a bank and so the extra income they get from a tax cut isn’t necessary to grow their business. So it seems all an upper income tax cut does is jack up housing prices which is bad for people with an income of $500k because all of their extra money goes to higher property taxes and insurance and private school tuition and utility bills. So a $700k home in Dallas comes with $4800 monthly cost before utilities and tuition although that would be in a district with a good public school…but that’s Dallas with no mountains and no beaches and 4 months of 100 degree weather and near zero chance of kids going to the cheap state flagship university.
Is this extreme snark or extreme tone-deafness?
I am arguing why Republicans should support the 39.6% top rate. Btw, the Trumpiest states have expanded Medicaid while the Bush Republican states like Texas and Wyoming haven’t. Utah has but that’s because 20 year old Mormons start families and want maternity coverage. Trump 2016 supporters actually agree with liberals on a lot of important issues. And Bush was the president that shipped jobs to China and invaded Iraq under false pretenses.
I wish I could remember the handle so as to give proper attribution, but I once saw a comment on substack referring to it as the "reichwing". I've been using that ever since.
On Facebook, the author David Gerrold has been using “Rethuglican.” I quite like that one.
Then good old Repulsivcans
My term is Republithugs
It's certainly accurate.
Repignican, repugnican
I like that better. Thanks Winston.
Republican'ts
Why do tRump, Musk, the Project 2025 people actually want to KILL Americans with their policies and politics? Surely to Jesus they understand the implications of all that they have wrought, and that the public's welfare and lives are at acute risk by decimating those services that people have grown dependent upon to keep them safe. What motivates the tRump crowd in their callousness toward and carelessness with our well-being?
I am simply at a loss to even understand at the most basic level what actually creates a mindset whose main preoccupation is immiseration and cruelty on a national scale.
They don't care about "the little people." They have no empathy.
The GOP and 2025 believe that empathy will destroy the U.S. That empathy weakens society. It is all part off the big white bully is strong plan of 2025. Cooperation is for sissies, corruption and crime is they way to $uccess.
But the people who elected them usually do have empathy when it comes to their own personal interactions. The people they elected to represent them do not. For them, empathy is equivalent to weakness. So we need to reinforce empathetic behavior on the part of our neighbors, but loudly and relentlessly act against their representatives in government.
Kathleen - Elon loves "little people"! Oh wait, you meant the other kind.
Like Maxwell when she said “ They are just TRASH and don’t matter” of the underage victims. Many of the 5% think the same
Tear it all down; Rebuild in their own image / design. When your mindset is my way or nothing, building consensus and democratic ideals are just for suckers and fools, like sissy democrats and 'their' r.i.n.o.'s. Have no delusions; It's ultimately all out, no holds barred war on democracy from within. Accept it; Act on it.
According to this article, to kill off the weak.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/may/04/maga-soft-eugenics
Remember your Dickens: "They'd best get to dying and reduce the surplus population. " If you're not productive to them, they don't want to help you.
Greed?
I don't think they want to kill everyone. They simply want people to work as long as they can and die as soon as they are unable to work. Like things used to be before Social Security.
Perhaps they have read the writings of those who say the coming environmental catastrophe will eliminate at least fifty per cent of us by 2050 and they are trying to pre-select a number of that group?
A note on terms. Regarding the phrase, "something they do with a sense of satisfaction," it would be more precise to replace "a sense of satisfaction," with the word, "glee."
I prefer calling them regressives...
They aim to preserve their wealth and position at the top of the heap. It's all hands on deck and damn the torpedoes.
I prefer facists to right wing. After all, facism is "an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization." That's what the GOP advocates for every day.
So call a spade a spade is what I say!
Richard, thank you for highlighting the contradictions ! Could the lemmings who auto identify as 'conservative' or 'right wing' be so shallow to assume being 'right' to be the same or equal to 'correct' ? As well, as you note, what.. 'do' they conserve ? Are they inflexible to change and the dynamic nature of life ? Calcified is far more fitting; I think that, everytime I see a photo of McConnell and we certainly know his game is conserving wealth. Not a crime, but when it's a DNA level pursuit, uh... something's very wrong about that.
Btw, I looked in at your project; Good on you friend.
I would say they conserve hatred, but they don't even do that; they *generate* an awful lot of it, but they spew it all over the undeserving, because it's people of undeserving of hatred they hate.
Yeah, I guess you're right. They conserve nothing at all - not even their misery. They try to spread that around too by making everyone else as miserable as they are, though even apparent success doesn't make them happy.
word games are silly
word games are silly
word games are silly
No grief from me, not then and not now. And since the GOP is doing nothing to restrain Trump – and are actually cheering him on, I have to say that the GOP = bullies.
“OK, I’ll probably get a lot of grief for saying that — but maybe not as much grief as I would have gotten a few months ago. For does anyone doubt that the people now running America are bullies completely lacking in any kind of compassion?
And why do bullies beat up people who can’t defend themselves? Because they can.”
Being that MAGA thrives on racism, all of this works for them.
Ronald Reagan successfully framed “Welfare People” as being single black women with a bunch of kids and lazy black men doing drugs as the only people on welfare.
Almost 50 years later, it’s still working for them.
Plus, they don’t have to worry about losing votes from the actual people that are getting cut off-mostly very poor white kids.
So true, David. If you can get someone engaged in racism and hatred, they are much less likely to notice that you are picking their pocket.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” - LBJ
There is some racism, but I think it's more poorism. They have nothing but contempt for people who are poor/working class.
I agree
It's definitely class warfare
Why set up class versus race in explaining the sadism? Seriously. The Trump regime is both classist and virulently white supremacist (and virulently nativist and sexist BTW).
I don't disagree with you. It is both class and race. But some people outright refuse to see class while always seeing race. We need to mention class as much as race and hammer home that if you ain't rich, you have no standing with MAGA. Politicians have often used race to divide class groups. I always like to recall something Charles Barkley once said on the Tonight Show: if the whites, the blacks and the Hispanics of the same class could all get together they would be very powerful (or something to that effect) I remember this specifically because he mentioned class as a uniting principle. Now I think we could throw in many of the Middle Eastern immigrants in that group as well. Working class and poor whites often see others as getting in their way economically and contributing to holding them back on race alone. Which isn't true. If they could see that it's not other races they have to worry about but people a rung or two up in social status who may not be as smart but are better connected who are pissing on them as well as the minority groups, then maybe they would join the fight against the oppressive wealthy whites rather than being so bloody white supremacist (I say this coming from a working class background and putting myself through college..There was no support for me and many assumptions that I was wealthy because I am white. Nope! )
Southern Strategy - all because Barry Goldwater let the 'evangelical' preachers peek under the tent!
After they peeked up their skirts
Oh yes; His totally made up myth of a cadillac welfare queen. What a bullshitter, and most people ate it up and washed it down with Koolaide. Almighty Ronnie the 'b' actor whose career and life was nearly in the gutter, until GE bought and owned him.
This 'receiving government should be working but are choosing to be lazy' is a typical American willfully being ignorant issue. Just like Americans are willfully ignorant about how it treats prisoners and minimum wage workers.
Greets from NL
Because they are deeply and unconsciously afraid of threats to their place in power. All bullies are sadistic, because it's via inflicting pain that they are simultaneously put in touch with that fear and overcome it with violence in one form or another.
"deeply and unconsciously" and unconscionably.Especially unconscionably.
And if we're going to have a conscience worth the name, we'd better stand up to this, loudly and proudly. The whole thing AOC said.
They beat up the weak because they are most like their true selves. Everything they do is to fill an inner hole that can never be filled, not with money, not with power, not with sycophants, not with anything external. Why does anyone need 1000's of millions of dollars? Unless money isn't for any purpose except as a kind of score to compare yourself to others and someday be able to say "I'm better than you" but in the end they're still just as empty.
Native Americans called this Wetigo and said it was a disease where the soul was empty and could not be filled.
Exactly the same. Thanks! I didn't know about that concept. Found a good site about it https://www.innertraditions.com/blog/wetiko-in-a-nutshell
In Buddhism one of the six realms of samsara, suffering and rebirth, is the realm of the hungry ghosts. They have big bellies and long skinny necks and can not eat fast enough to feel full. The same sickness of the soul.
https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism/hungry-ghosts/
Thanks for the links Jim.
Can we just start using the functional name White Supremacy Party? Because that's what the former Republican Party has become.
a/k/a Wholly Stupid Party
I thought trump the first time was inciting a race war. Now its everyone against everyone
I have friends that voted for him and family members who basically don’t speak to me the Liberal 😊
It is rare to find bullies openly bullying outside of the schoolyard. Adults can recognize it for what it is since they have personal experiences. A political party devoted to the art of bullying is possible under the guise of defining the other. Establishing who the other is and relentlessly pecking at them as flock of chickens would becomes the self perpetuating modus operandi.
Translation please. Also, this is some serious privilege talking. Few bullies outside of the school yard? You don’t get out much apparently.
I guess my height and weight is yet another privilege:-)
They could be. They might give you advantages in certain circumstances and they are not particularly mutable traits. 🤔
Yes both are indeed louder than words. Only a bully would take that advantage though.
Physical appearance in general has a subconscious effect on people’s view of others. Big people = bears. Sometimes they’re dangerous, sometimes cuddly but mostly intimidating on first glance. This opinion could be influenced by my being short though. 😄
No, the GOP aren't bullies. The GOP are vicious, sadistic, bastards.
You won't get any grief from me Michael, they 'think' they are. "And why do bullies beat up people who can’t defend themselves? Because they can.” No Mike; Because we let them. They've been allowed to carry on and spread some narrative that all democrats are gun haters and sissies. They 'think' and spread that for simple minds that need small-box definitions - ad hoc as though any group of complex human beings can so easily be defined. I would dare any to challenge my marksmanship or my ability to step through most any normal, natural fear; Up to and including socking a bully in the shnozola. Scraps don't seem so cool if the hoped for victim turns it into a real scrap with no "winners."
What’s the average person supposed to fight back with? We lack influence because we lack money and time and education. It’s kind of circular, you see.
I do see. Collectively: There are far more of us than there ever was of them.
Agreed. "Bullies" is accurate but comes up short. So does "oligarcha" and even "authoritarians." This is a fascist regime, as it has been described by Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley on his way to Canada.
Paul Krugman isn’t just right—he’s one of the few voices willing to name what too many tiptoe around: that we’re witnessing a deliberate erosion of empathy in American policy. This isn’t about fiscal responsibility. It’s about power. It’s about a political movement that treats the poor as expendable and the wealthy as entitled to more.
The facts are clear—tax cuts for the rich don’t pay for themselves, and work requirements for Medicaid don’t get people jobs. They get people kicked off life-saving healthcare. That’s not reform. That’s engineered abandonment.
And let’s be honest: this isn’t a debate about economic models. It’s a test of moral character. When legislation is designed in ways that disproportionately harm the bottom 40% of Americans—especially children—you don’t get to hide behind spreadsheets. You are choosing winners and losers, and you’re choosing cruelty over care.
Krugman sees the playbook for what it is. A cynical, zombie resurrection of long-dead ideas that refuse to stay buried because they serve the rich and punish the vulnerable. He’s not being inflammatory—he’s being honest.
And if more of us had the guts to call it what it is—an orchestrated transfer of pain from the top down—we might finally stop mistaking injustice for ideology.
So yes, Krugman’s right. And the real question isn’t whether he’s too harsh. The real question is: why aren’t more people this angry?
Paul Waldman addressed your first point here:
“ Conservatives Declare War on Empathy
Understanding others' perspectives and caring about their welfare? Why would
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/conservatives-declare-war-on-empathy
Elon Musk recently told Joe Rogan that “empathy is the fundamental weakness of western civilization”. He isn’t the only powerful person to believe this, especially in tech world. They think empathy and democracy cause weakness and want both to go away.
I suspect most of the people in the current T administration would agree with Musk's outrageous statement. Anyone who believes that empathy is a weakness is a dangerous sociopath and a threat to civilization.
You know, we probably aren't hearing the name "Ayn Rand" as much as we should be these days.
We just shrugged that off:-)
(-;
Well since you look at it that way, yes.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s piece on “Moral Collapse” is excellent. https://open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/we-are-living-through-moral-collapse?r=2qymr2&utm_medium=ios
The Republicans in power want to desensitize us to mass suffering and death, just like they tried to do with the USAID cuts. Don’t let them. Why? Two reasons: 1) Standing up for the most vulnerable is the right thing to do. 2) For anyone who lets the Rs get away with this because only ‘others’ are affected, don’t kid yourself: you’re next.
Michael Cohen wrote an essay related to this topic recently: https://www.meidasplus.com/p/deported-by-glitch-buried-by-silence
It’s not the malice or the cruelty, it’s the stupidity. THAT’S what is so amazing: they are waging war on a whole generation of children and adults and America will reap what they sow.
Yeah, there are two kinds of stupidity - one type would be, they think that these policy changes will work well. That's really stupid. And probably not something many of these craven weasels in the Republican party believe. But the other kind of stupid is thinking that it's good for ANYBODY in the long-term to intentionally inflict harm on half the population. They're all that stupid. Have fun ruling over the ashes, assholes.
The book Careless People addressed this. The title comes from the author's experience that the elites at Facebook just don't care what damage they do. I think this is true for a lot of the MAGAs. They just don't care. It isn't their problem.
Well said! And a good question at the end of your post
"Paul Krugman isn’t just right—he’s one of the few voices willing to name what too many tiptoe around: that we’re witnessing a deliberate erosion of empathy in American policy."
And he got chased out of the traditional media's largest news outlet.
HMM.
I don't think he was "chased out" of the NY Times. I think he wanted more independence, and the way he attained the independence was to retire from the constraints of the main stream media.
Once 47 was elected, they started controlling his writing much more, he'd been reasonably independent previously. It wasn't friendly on their side because they gave no shout out to this substack. Fortunately for me, the comments told me where to find him.
Yes; Independence. And that speaks volumes about MSM. Just imagine a powerful news editor / owner choosing to x out the best advice of some medical professional. I'm not gonna' even put Paul on such similar pedestal; he's made mistakes; he's apologized for some. Medical doctors 'practice' the medical 'arts.' Paul 'practices' economic 'arts.' The "patients" received the best available that is known to date; Subject to change. For me that analogy works as well for economics, because it's so damned abstract; it is not all graphs and solid models. It's so much more. I give thanks to the minds that can chase those 'squirrels.' jmho ~
He was censored until he left of his own volition he could have been like the hacks that remain and put up with it for the paycheck.
Sadly, Republicans are not alone in their belief that Medicaid (and every other safety net program) is just crammed with people wrongly taking advantage of the system to get money and benefits they do not deserve . . . and that those people are costing taxpayers trillions of dollars.
The essential ignorance of the average citizen when it comes to the federal budget is a big part of this problem. Ask the average person where all the tax money goes and they'll tell you: About half goes to foreign aid, another 50% goes to welfare, probably a third goes to unions, maybe a quarter goes to funding degenerate art, and the rest goes to pork-barrel projects. The military? Maybe 1% of the total budget.
So with that as background, is it any wonder why the Republicans' message of ever-expanding cruelty resonates with so many voters?
No enough voters yet...too many are still buying the false rhetoric spoon fed out by Fox and others.
What do we do? Write postcards, make phone calls, share truth to fill the education void created by this administration.
Most Americans do not know the difference between the "debt" and the "deficit" and conflate and use the two terms interchangeably. Most Americans do not understand the difference between "money" and "currency" and blithely spout off about the government "printing" money, thereby demonstrating that they have no clue. And so when Trump accepts (and possibly solicits) a $400 million bribe from Qatar and a $2 billion bribe from Aby Dhabi, Trump's approval rating actually increases by 2%, thereby proving that America is morally depraved and deserves what it's got coming.
Ouch Charles ! Isn't that sort of ad hoc logic ? I'm generationally American - to the 1700's at the least. Yet, I'm 'all in' for eighty sixing, forty seven yesterday... or even 2015.
In other words, they can't do basic math.
At some point after his presidency, Bill Clinton gave a speech at the Democratic convention about the Republicans' challenges with arithmetic. It's still true.
I thought the category of despicable human beings was just trump and his stooges. It is a big tent that includes republicans in Congress as well. Corrupt. Cruel. Criminal. Racist.
As for Medicaid, the impact goes beyond the eligible population; it will cripple the health care system. Hospitals will treat emergencies regardless of ability to pay. This bill will mean that instead of a low reimbursement, the hospitals may get nothing. That will impact the cost for all of us and may result in hospitals reducing services or closing particularly in rural areas. Congratulations to MAGA🤮
This awful bill will kill a lot of people and small rural hospitals. More women will die - unattended at home because there is nowhere to go with a birth center. Kids and old people will lose Medicaid and get put on the street. SNAP benefits are being cut - which means more hungry people. I can only suppose that all these new street people will be rounded up and sent to the camps so they are not an inconvenience for the 1%. To me, it seems like the oligarchs, lead by tRump are deliberately creating the next Great Depression. And because they have their 'Nut', their stash - likely gold - they will weather the storm just fine. We're going to need a whole hell of a lot of Guillotines.
But with all the new tariffs, those Guillotines will be made in the US. MAGA!
What a sorry spectacle.
You make a good point that always flummoxes me: cutting healthcare for people who can’t afford it in a “free market” doesn’t mean we don’t pay for their healthcare. It just means it becomes more expensive with horrific outcomes.
Yes, they then turn up in the emergency room sick as hell.
Right on, these moves from the short-sighted GOP will cause our Physicians, Nurses and healthcare staff get sick & tired, and threaten to walk off the job.
Mike Johnson deserves his own special section of hell for his antics. Using his piety as a cloak elevates his despicable behavior to new heights (greater depths?) in my estimation.
"It is a big tent that includes republicans in Congress as well. Corrupt. Cruel. Criminal. Racist."
Always has, always will. Trumpkopf is nothing more than the culmination of where the GOP has been going all along.
I think that bears amplifying. Project 2025 wasn't written by Trump. He probably wasn't even lying when he said he didn't read it, because he doesn't read. The GOP has the Trifecta and control over SCOTUS. They can implement literally anything that they can agree upon. And what they have chosen to agree upon is an authoritarian dictatorship. Trump is only a symptom of the deep moral rot that has devoured the GOP from within.
I believe Trumpkopf was involved in P2025, at least peripherally. Aside from that, he definitely represents where the GOP's been headed since at least 1953.
The GOP is a party that has been trying to destroy Social Security since the 1930s--a policy first initiated in Germany by that famous leftist, Otto von Bismarck. They are doing it now by gradually destroying the value of the dollar.
The autocrat Bismarck also created the “Bismarck” health care system which is the basis for the system Germany — and some other countries — still uses today.
Bismarck created the German social security system that is still in function today and he was the exact opposite of a leftist. The laws named „Socialist laws“ brought hundreds of social democrats in jail.
Not said here that the more people suffer and work a daily basis just to survive, the less time they have to fight for their rights. The underlying approach here is to consolidate more and more power to the hands of the rich ruling class.
This is not inconsistent with Trump‘s initial and only real approach to dealing with Covid. When Covid first effects were being experienced by blue states that Trump disliked, it was fine, and there was no sense of urgency. For the people that were going to be dying we’re old that they didn’t have to worry about taking care of, another plus.
Once they realize that they could not control Covid at all the plan was to blame everybody else
Your first sentence is spot on James. All of their time is utterly consumed surviving "Lives of quiet desperation." (Thoreau ?) I know because that is 'my life' owing only to disability 8 years ago - at work, without compensation.
Just like Reagan and the AIDS crisis.
The lack of empathy in US society is astonishing.
“OK, I’ll probably get a lot of grief for saying that — but maybe not as much grief as I would have gotten a few months ago. For does anyone doubt that the people now running America are bullies completely lacking in any kind of compassion?”
You had me at hello professor. And the term “bullies” is an understatement. I’m just wondering when the useless invertebrates we call the democrats will finally find a hill they can die on, because right now this country is suffering a slow death, by a thousand needless cuts! IMHO…:)
but assuming that every Democrat votes against this monstrosity of a bill - it still passes. So how can they usefully die on a hill that would be a winning battle?
I’m talking more or less about their messaging, or lack thereof. While all this chaos is taking place, they can’t even unify with a message of hope, or call out this nonsense for what it is. They’re essentially paralyzed in fear, or just confounded and confused.
Remember this the next time you feel the urge to vote for democrats incumbents in the primary.
Therein lies despair—too often we hear that dealing with Republican cruelty requires condemning Democrats, which discourages support for them (and no doubt elicits gleeful chortles from the wingnuts).
You’re missing the point. All this cruelty is going unchecked. You’d never know the cruelty because of republican spin and democratic ineptitude.
If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, doe it matter? This is my point, they have what sounds like legitimate answers to people’s concerns, even though they’re just cruel and unnecessary policies. Yet, the democrats don’t even have a unifying message. There’s no party discipline and they’re fighting amongst themselves for power.
Just look at last week. The DNC was busy trying to fire David Hogg, tell me what positive outcome comes for that?
To be fair, (maybe), the silence is probably a strategy. James Carville suggested democrats should just let the republicans have their day and go hog wild with the cruelty. When democrats save the day, or so the thinking goes, it just gets more republican votes because it feeds the thesis that “We got to take it out on the <insert disfavored group here> and it wasn’t so bad!”
While I am quite disgusted by cynical strategies like this because every time Americans target Americans we all lose, I do feel that the Democrats are in minority, and if the filibuster is not in play, at the end of the day they can’t stop it. All they can do is make a big noise and lose anyway. So, the left is asking their representatives to engage in performative but ultimately futile action. As long as the Republicans abandon shame and vote together, there is very little we or anyone can do. Elections have consequences.
Well said, but this strategy never works. And if they continue to let the republicans control the narrative, everything else will get lost I. The confusion. My opinion was that they need to stop trying to undermine each other, unify, and have a disciplined message to rely to the people.
Instead, of unification, we’re seeing democrats go after each other. IMHO…:)
Lest we forget the Dems "welfare mothers" sucking the system zombie idea fostered by Bill Clinton. Oh yeah, wasn't Carville his campaign guru? "It's Class, stupid" (stealing from Carville) - not the political party.
Actually Anne, I'm sure that was Reagan, aka "all those Cadillac driving welfare queens." Clinton it seems to me, 'played along to get along' with the gop. And yes he did, nix welfare as we knew it.
It was under Prez Clinton - in 1996 - that two important pieces of legislation were enacted: a law against poor people (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act) and a law against immigrants (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act).
Apparently the tent isn't quite as big as the corporate Dems want us to believe.
Exactly…:)
Going unchecked and broadcast far and wide by a compliant MSM largely... or is that bigly. Hmm.
We do a fabulous circular firing squad, instead of blaming the enemy.
You have underestimated the effect on the lowest income segment. Medicaid is a huge supplier of services for eldercare. See https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/5-key-facts-about-medicaid-eligibility-for-seniors-and-people-with-disabilities/#:~:text=1.,MAGI%20pathways%20(Figure%201). And see https://www.milbank.org/2025/03/aging-at-risk-the-impact-of-medicaid-cuts-on-older-adults/. These plans in the proposed budget literally "throw momma from the train", because so much supplemental care in nursing facilities is funded by medicaid. In rural areas, the loss of such care is magnified by distance to care providers and, often, the lack of care options. Programs like PACE https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/long-term-services-supports/program-all-inclusive-care-elderly are lifelines. When programs like these fold in places like Manhattan KS and in Fargo ND, the effects will be profound. Not only will there be layoffs of heroic nursing home employees, but working people will find that their loved ones with dementia or disabilities will be left hanging. Please note, too, that people with severe disabilities fall into the same trap.
Mom is going to be in a tent on the sidewalk.
And I, Dad will be sent off into the "Soylent Green" factory to become a tasty, saleable food commodity.
Not if you're past the pull date.
lol Al...
I was actually wondering about this. So many poor elderly depend on Medicaid for nursing home residency. Is this going to go away? Will poor old people be thrown to the streets, or, if lucky, rescued by their poor adult children?
My father, who suffered from dementia, did not qualify for Medicaid because his second wife "hid" his assets. My sisters and I had just enough money to pay for two months in a nursing facility (no inexpensive feat). Luckily (!) he also had lung cancer and miraculously died the end of the month that the money ran out.
This is a cruel country.
The state of Michigan just published a report of those impacts in the state. https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/-/media/Project/Websites/mdhhs/Inside-MDHHS/Newsroom/ED-2025-3-FINAL.pdf
Hi Paul, The super cruelty we are now seeing seems to me to be related to Artificial Intelligence and the red tech elite’s belief that we will soon need many less people to do work or generate capital. In many ways, Trump is the AI President. Cambridge Analytica’s machine learning tools won him the election in 2016, when CA amassed 5,000 data points on every American and used it to exploit our “inner demons” via Facebook. This really helped break the American mind.
When you combine these budget items with RFK and the destruction of FEMA, it really seems clear their plan is at the very least to encourage poor people - which will soon include many laid off programmers and legal aids - to die as soon as possible. This may also be their ultimate plan to combat climate change: you remove most of the people and they no longer waste CO2. Obviously people like Musk and Thiel know what’s coming with environmental breakdowns and much more of what we are already seeing in the South. The combination of needing raw materials for AI and the environmental collapse in southern states is also probably why they intend to take Greenland and Canada. (By the way I write about these topics regularly on my blog, danielpinchbeck.substack.com).
Have you also seriously considered that Trump intends to crash the economy and default on the debt? This is what the book “The Sovereign Individual” says is coming: the collapse of the nation state for “commercialized sovereignty.” Both Thiel and Marc Andreessen call this their favorite book.
PS also Bannon and Musk seem to be Nazis - they intentionally made Nazi salutes and the DOGE symbol contains clear Nazi symbolism. Ultimately Nazis intend to do Nazi things.
Duck Nazis. If it walks like a duck and...you get the idea.
Apologies to the ducks.
Clearly, Jesus and the Holy Babble told them to do it.
BTW, I found Jesus last year--he was working as a waiter at a fancy hotel in Barcelona.
Beyond the cruelty, techno-feudalism or whatever you want to call the maga-fied version of austerity is strategically stupid.
Compound the idiocy of the House GOP's budget bill (also known as Trump's Big Beautiful Bill) with Russell Vought's vendetta at OMB (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/05/russell-vought-trump-doge/682821/) and you'll discover the crippling of America by shutting down every path of competitive advantage, innovation, and economic resilience. Through their rigid adherence to austerity they are gutting the middle class and exposing the US to higher risk. Their approach drains our resilience making this country much more vulnerable in rapidly changing conditions.
Ask yourself, "Who benefits from the destruction of US?" You don't have to think long for answers. We're witnessing the biggest wealth transfer in history.
Don't forget to ask, "What foreign individuals and governments benefit from the destruction of the US?".
"Follow the money; Always"
Yup - and there's also the self-righteous "I worked for my money!" trope. I know some of these people who weren't born rich - it hasn't made them more sympathetic, just given them the feeling that anyone who doesn't make it is lazy and deserves a spanking.
They don't grasp that they just got plain lucky.
Or the mean lady who browbeats the wait staff, then stiffs them because they say “with tips they make more money than I do”.
What continues to drive me nearly insane is the silence from mainstream, corporate media about this gigantic theft by the kleptocrats. Thank you, Professor Krugman, for calling out the bastards.
That's because their owners are amongst the kleptocrats. They too stand to gain from this.
The Germans did not give up on Hitler until he was dead outside his bunker.
Not true. Shortly after his appointment as chancellor in 1933 there was the Reichtagsbrand, which was followed by establishment of one party rule. Anything that looked like an election after that was sham.
Not to say that he was popular until very late towards the end
Yup, they voted him in again and again all the way to 1939, when he suspended elections during the war. Of course, within two WEEKS of him assuming office, if you DIDN’T vote for him you risked ending up in Dachau. A portent?
In 1939 the Germans were riding high.