Author of the Mega-Viral Thread on MAGA Voters, Darryl Cooper, Explains His Thinking
outsidevoices.substack.com
Tucker Carlson devoted seven minutes of airtime to reading it. Donald Trump heaped praise on it. Why did this Twitter analysis resonate so widely on the right?
As a former lefty that is now lost in this new world I resonate with this essay a lot, even if I never could like or support Trump (is it a new world or was I just unaware?). I've starting paying attention to the right, actually I pay attention to every view, except maybe the corporate press (but still do sometimes). I've noticed there has been a mass shift on the right, they are seeing the world as it is and what forces are at play. I notice this author calls it the Regime. Others on the right call it the Cathedral. When I first heard the word Cathedral I thought it was silly and paranoid. I don't think that anymore. Regardless of how little I liked Trump I'm completely mortified at the level of coordination we saw across government, intelligence, media, protestors, and the DNC. I don't know how you put this back together. You don't need a majority to break a country, not even close. The fact that they aren't even trying to put things back together, but quite the opposite, has me worried.
Awesome. What convinced me was the obliteration of Parler by a conspiracy consisting of Amazon, Twitter and FB. This, even though the Jan 6 protesters did not even use Parler, but rather Twitter Instagram and FB, to “coordinate” their activities. Like the censorship of Biden’s laptop and its evidence of Joe and Hunter’s corruption, there was simply no excuse for it. It was simply an exercise in raw power.
Thanks for this. The only thing that I would add is that based on my perspective, I actually saw the election being stolen in real time. Election night started very much like 2016 with Florida and Ohio getting called for Trump relatively easily. Then Texas comfortably. History says there isn't much of a path to the White House that doesn't include either Florida or Ohio. He was also up by half a million votes or something like that in Pennsylvania. But not yet called. That looks pretty much like game over. At that very moment, a questionable call of Arizona for Biden, and then as you state, the four critical swing states must stop counting. That is third world election-type sh*t. How are all the votes counted in Florida and Ohio an hour after the polls close, but "it might be days" before they get counted in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia?
But political junkie that I am, I'm still awake at 3-4 in the morning, watching to see what happens. All of the sudden, 100k 100% Biden vote "drops" just popping up in every swing state. Again, pure Third World-type sh*t. Boxes of ballots just dropped off and/or pulled out in the middle of the night, in Democrat-controlled big cities. It's not a "conspiracy"; I saw it happen in real time. Maybe those were "legal" ballots filled out by campaign workers on behalf of real voters, according to the "COVID" rules, but that's not how we understand a true democracy to work anywhere in the world. You are responsible for voting in your own name, as an individual, in a secret ballot. If voting comes down to which political party can manipulate the rules to allow them to "harvest" votes that they wouldn't otherwise have gotten, it's over. We're now something else, not a democratic republic.
If the left cared one bit for helping the poor and middle class they never would have voted for Biden, the senator from the credit card industry or Kamala the prosecutor who laughed about putting men in prison for marijuana use. They care about power.
The answer to the question, "Was the election stolen from Trump?" is absolutely maybe. If nothing else - literally nothing else - the collusion between all major media, Big Tech, and the DNC to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story - which was most definitely newsworthy, amounts to one of the most shameful moments in the history of the Fourth Estate. The degree to which the electorate would have shifted if that story had been allowed to come out fully cannot be known. Republicans have every right to be permanently pissed off about it. Cooper nails it.
"They could have managed the shock if it only involved the government. But the behavior of the press is what radicalized them. Trump supporters have more contempt for journalists than they have for any politician or government official, because they feel most betrayed by them."
I had a general disdain for the media prior to the last five years but now seething hatred is more appropriate. Don't even get me started on the intelligence community.
One need not be a conservative to accept that Cooper has accurately described conservative beliefs and their genesis. I am a liberal libertarian who has never been a Republican. I never voted for Trump. I watched the same things happening that Cooper relates, and objected because due process was thrown under the bus.
Denying anyone due process is denying all of us due process. "Because Trump" does not excuse perjury, using government to spy on your political opponents, Brady violations or bankrupting your political opponents for fun and profit. All of these and more occurred. The people doing these things were neither liberals nor conservatives, but authoritarians. Enough, I say. The anarchist-authoritarian movement captured the media, Big Tech, and the Democratic Party. I was inspired to become a liberal Democrat by JFK in 1960. I was inspired to become a liberal libertarian by Nancy Pelosi in 2009.
To me, the media's glib and completely corrupt abdication of its fundamental role is captured in a single headline from the once mighty CBS News:
"Trump pushes baseless voter fraud claims at Georgia rally."
When did rank editorializing and conclusion-drawing (in the fucking headline no less) become part of journalism? EVERY major media outlet covering the 202 election did the SAME thing. It comes down to syntax and it's why people are pissed and distrustful.
Wow. This dude is spot on. And funny. A GREAT READ. Some high points:
"It was used as an open threat to keep people from working in the administration."
EXACTLY! This was the whole MESSAGE of the Manafort, Papadopoulos, Stone et al scorched earth approach. It wasn't to turn anybody or get them to make up stories on Orange Man, IT WAS TO KILL THE POSSIBILITY THAT ANYONE WOULD EVER WORK FOR A NON-ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATE IN THE FUTURE.
"But many Trump supporters see clearly that the Regime is not partisan."
YES! This is why a Paul Ryan can go to DC as a kid, get GROOMED by the SWAMP and become a republican speaker that did nothing but be a placeholder and let the House be lost in 2018.
"This is where people whose political identities have for decades been largely defined by a naïve belief in what they learned in civics class began to see the outline of a Regime that crossed not only partisan, but all institutional boundaries."
While I disagree with significant and important portions of this well-written piece, it is totally worth reading and contemplating. As a sociological matter, much of it is almost certainly correct.
But this bit at the end, I reject:
"But if in 2004 I had told you that the majority of the GOP voter base would soon be seeing the folly of the Iraq War, becoming skeptical of state surveillance, and beginning to see the need for action to help the poor and working classes, you’d have told me such a thing would transform the country. Take the opportunity. These people are not demons, and they are ready to listen in a way they haven’t in a long, long time."
They may not be demons, but a 65-year-old who was raised by National Review, far right parents -- in their milieu and their church -- I assure you this is wrong. Conservatives per se (not all libertarians, of courser), by definition, support authority, and will revert to it as soon as their comfort levels can again be sated. I'm a social democrat now -- a leftwinger -- and I know, from long and painful exposure, that the right is the enemy of what I value, of what is human and humane.
In Greenwald's threads the majority are Trumper rightwingers and numerous are the insulting and ignorant comments ranting that people like me are Communists, leading all to death camps & etc ad stupidum. So, no, I don't sign on at all to that last graf.
This is really great breakdown of the key issues. Like a lot of people, I have no definite answers either but know that all of the irregularities, censorship/suppression, and outright lies by the cabal of media, government, tech and corporate elite are not an accident. The other point I would make is that if the cabal genuinely believed that 45 was a Russian asset and engaged in treasonous activities, then it would be noble and proper to collaborate and neutralize the threat in any way possible. I would expect no less.
Darryl Cooper really captures my own journey. Until 6 years ago I was also conservative by nature, but all that changed due to life events a few years before the Trump election of 2016.
Although I soon lost faith in our institutions as hopelessly corrupt, it took longer for me to acknowledge that even democracy itself was compromised. All this despite my knowledge of what the Kennedy family did in 1960. It's amazing how easy it is to section off parts of our own knowledge when they don't match up with what we want to believe.
Admitting democracy itself is compromised became obvious the moment I gave it serious thought, but it took me longer to get their than it should have.
Incidentally, anyone who thinks democratic elections in America were running as a well oiled machine until 2020 are kidding themselves. Once I realized how our antiquated system is designed to be easily gamed at every level, I realized this problem goes back much further than just Donald Trump. Most people want to believe in democracy and fair elections so deeply that it takes a lot for them to admit it's not what it appears.
I was electrified by the viral thread on Twitter when it appeared and now by this long-form version. As a leftist streaked with conservatism and with no interest in IdPol, I share a lot of Greenwald’s positions, and what Darryl says resonates with me. As an immigrant from the UK, I’m also horrified by the sloppy way US elections are run. It is beyond belief that votes aren’t counted publicly and in a timely way. Did California ever finish counting the Dem primary votes in 2016? How about that bullshit app in Iowa in 2020?
As a former lefty that is now lost in this new world I resonate with this essay a lot, even if I never could like or support Trump (is it a new world or was I just unaware?). I've starting paying attention to the right, actually I pay attention to every view, except maybe the corporate press (but still do sometimes). I've noticed there has been a mass shift on the right, they are seeing the world as it is and what forces are at play. I notice this author calls it the Regime. Others on the right call it the Cathedral. When I first heard the word Cathedral I thought it was silly and paranoid. I don't think that anymore. Regardless of how little I liked Trump I'm completely mortified at the level of coordination we saw across government, intelligence, media, protestors, and the DNC. I don't know how you put this back together. You don't need a majority to break a country, not even close. The fact that they aren't even trying to put things back together, but quite the opposite, has me worried.
Awesome. What convinced me was the obliteration of Parler by a conspiracy consisting of Amazon, Twitter and FB. This, even though the Jan 6 protesters did not even use Parler, but rather Twitter Instagram and FB, to “coordinate” their activities. Like the censorship of Biden’s laptop and its evidence of Joe and Hunter’s corruption, there was simply no excuse for it. It was simply an exercise in raw power.
Thanks for this. The only thing that I would add is that based on my perspective, I actually saw the election being stolen in real time. Election night started very much like 2016 with Florida and Ohio getting called for Trump relatively easily. Then Texas comfortably. History says there isn't much of a path to the White House that doesn't include either Florida or Ohio. He was also up by half a million votes or something like that in Pennsylvania. But not yet called. That looks pretty much like game over. At that very moment, a questionable call of Arizona for Biden, and then as you state, the four critical swing states must stop counting. That is third world election-type sh*t. How are all the votes counted in Florida and Ohio an hour after the polls close, but "it might be days" before they get counted in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia?
But political junkie that I am, I'm still awake at 3-4 in the morning, watching to see what happens. All of the sudden, 100k 100% Biden vote "drops" just popping up in every swing state. Again, pure Third World-type sh*t. Boxes of ballots just dropped off and/or pulled out in the middle of the night, in Democrat-controlled big cities. It's not a "conspiracy"; I saw it happen in real time. Maybe those were "legal" ballots filled out by campaign workers on behalf of real voters, according to the "COVID" rules, but that's not how we understand a true democracy to work anywhere in the world. You are responsible for voting in your own name, as an individual, in a secret ballot. If voting comes down to which political party can manipulate the rules to allow them to "harvest" votes that they wouldn't otherwise have gotten, it's over. We're now something else, not a democratic republic.
If the left cared one bit for helping the poor and middle class they never would have voted for Biden, the senator from the credit card industry or Kamala the prosecutor who laughed about putting men in prison for marijuana use. They care about power.
The answer to the question, "Was the election stolen from Trump?" is absolutely maybe. If nothing else - literally nothing else - the collusion between all major media, Big Tech, and the DNC to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story - which was most definitely newsworthy, amounts to one of the most shameful moments in the history of the Fourth Estate. The degree to which the electorate would have shifted if that story had been allowed to come out fully cannot be known. Republicans have every right to be permanently pissed off about it. Cooper nails it.
"They could have managed the shock if it only involved the government. But the behavior of the press is what radicalized them. Trump supporters have more contempt for journalists than they have for any politician or government official, because they feel most betrayed by them."
I had a general disdain for the media prior to the last five years but now seething hatred is more appropriate. Don't even get me started on the intelligence community.
One need not be a conservative to accept that Cooper has accurately described conservative beliefs and their genesis. I am a liberal libertarian who has never been a Republican. I never voted for Trump. I watched the same things happening that Cooper relates, and objected because due process was thrown under the bus.
Denying anyone due process is denying all of us due process. "Because Trump" does not excuse perjury, using government to spy on your political opponents, Brady violations or bankrupting your political opponents for fun and profit. All of these and more occurred. The people doing these things were neither liberals nor conservatives, but authoritarians. Enough, I say. The anarchist-authoritarian movement captured the media, Big Tech, and the Democratic Party. I was inspired to become a liberal Democrat by JFK in 1960. I was inspired to become a liberal libertarian by Nancy Pelosi in 2009.
To me, the media's glib and completely corrupt abdication of its fundamental role is captured in a single headline from the once mighty CBS News:
"Trump pushes baseless voter fraud claims at Georgia rally."
When did rank editorializing and conclusion-drawing (in the fucking headline no less) become part of journalism? EVERY major media outlet covering the 202 election did the SAME thing. It comes down to syntax and it's why people are pissed and distrustful.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-rally-georgia-senate-election-false-voter-fraud-claims/
Wow. This dude is spot on. And funny. A GREAT READ. Some high points:
"It was used as an open threat to keep people from working in the administration."
EXACTLY! This was the whole MESSAGE of the Manafort, Papadopoulos, Stone et al scorched earth approach. It wasn't to turn anybody or get them to make up stories on Orange Man, IT WAS TO KILL THE POSSIBILITY THAT ANYONE WOULD EVER WORK FOR A NON-ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATE IN THE FUTURE.
"But many Trump supporters see clearly that the Regime is not partisan."
YES! This is why a Paul Ryan can go to DC as a kid, get GROOMED by the SWAMP and become a republican speaker that did nothing but be a placeholder and let the House be lost in 2018.
"This is where people whose political identities have for decades been largely defined by a naïve belief in what they learned in civics class began to see the outline of a Regime that crossed not only partisan, but all institutional boundaries."
DING! DING! DING! DING!
EXCELLENT PIECE! WELL DONE SIR!
While I disagree with significant and important portions of this well-written piece, it is totally worth reading and contemplating. As a sociological matter, much of it is almost certainly correct.
But this bit at the end, I reject:
"But if in 2004 I had told you that the majority of the GOP voter base would soon be seeing the folly of the Iraq War, becoming skeptical of state surveillance, and beginning to see the need for action to help the poor and working classes, you’d have told me such a thing would transform the country. Take the opportunity. These people are not demons, and they are ready to listen in a way they haven’t in a long, long time."
They may not be demons, but a 65-year-old who was raised by National Review, far right parents -- in their milieu and their church -- I assure you this is wrong. Conservatives per se (not all libertarians, of courser), by definition, support authority, and will revert to it as soon as their comfort levels can again be sated. I'm a social democrat now -- a leftwinger -- and I know, from long and painful exposure, that the right is the enemy of what I value, of what is human and humane.
In Greenwald's threads the majority are Trumper rightwingers and numerous are the insulting and ignorant comments ranting that people like me are Communists, leading all to death camps & etc ad stupidum. So, no, I don't sign on at all to that last graf.
Kudos to Cooper and Glenn. Expect to vilified by the usual suspects. Tell them to "Go shit in their hats" as my tough Irish mother would say.
This is really great breakdown of the key issues. Like a lot of people, I have no definite answers either but know that all of the irregularities, censorship/suppression, and outright lies by the cabal of media, government, tech and corporate elite are not an accident. The other point I would make is that if the cabal genuinely believed that 45 was a Russian asset and engaged in treasonous activities, then it would be noble and proper to collaborate and neutralize the threat in any way possible. I would expect no less.
This. Is. Awesome.
The media charged with reporting facts and reality are now committed to The Party above the truth. We defeated the Soviet Union only to become it.
Darryl Cooper really captures my own journey. Until 6 years ago I was also conservative by nature, but all that changed due to life events a few years before the Trump election of 2016.
Although I soon lost faith in our institutions as hopelessly corrupt, it took longer for me to acknowledge that even democracy itself was compromised. All this despite my knowledge of what the Kennedy family did in 1960. It's amazing how easy it is to section off parts of our own knowledge when they don't match up with what we want to believe.
Admitting democracy itself is compromised became obvious the moment I gave it serious thought, but it took me longer to get their than it should have.
Incidentally, anyone who thinks democratic elections in America were running as a well oiled machine until 2020 are kidding themselves. Once I realized how our antiquated system is designed to be easily gamed at every level, I realized this problem goes back much further than just Donald Trump. Most people want to believe in democracy and fair elections so deeply that it takes a lot for them to admit it's not what it appears.
I was electrified by the viral thread on Twitter when it appeared and now by this long-form version. As a leftist streaked with conservatism and with no interest in IdPol, I share a lot of Greenwald’s positions, and what Darryl says resonates with me. As an immigrant from the UK, I’m also horrified by the sloppy way US elections are run. It is beyond belief that votes aren’t counted publicly and in a timely way. Did California ever finish counting the Dem primary votes in 2016? How about that bullshit app in Iowa in 2020?