The prophecy of Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker, May 20, 2016

[Fla Dem]

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1193398038582063104&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.jokersupdates.com%2Fubbthreads%2Fshowthreaded.php%3FBoard%3DCurrentAffairs%26Number%3D28770128

Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist. He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker—to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism since 1986[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Gopnik

[MontanaMama]

1. This.

This explains exactly what has happened to America.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Poignant...

[Pepsidog]

3. Should Dems take control of all three branches and embark on wholesale political, social, and

economic changes, we might emerge a stronger nation. Trump has exposed our weaknesses and where we go from here is up to us. It’s a tall order and let’s hope one we can fulfill.

[Texin]

4. While correct, the countries mentioned never had long-standing democracies

or representative republics as the United States has had, and established early in its history. All of those countries mentioned were always ruled by monarchs or whichever thug managed to claw their way over the backs of other thugs to seize control. Russia, in particular, is a good example of that, in that it was first ruled by royalty, then by revolution, followed by those people who had supposedly risen to authority who then resorted to thuggery, in which a handful of the most powerful and influential thugs looted the coffers and brutalized their way into control over the majority of citizens.

[Mme. Defarge]

20. Thank you!

And there in lies my hope.

[gibraltar72]

5. Didn't take an Einstein to figure that out.

[usaf-vet]

6. WOW he sure hit the mark.

[LuvNewcastle]

7. He's right.

I've lost faith in a lot of people who I thought would stop something like the Trump administration. I hope they're keeping an eye on him and are ready to stop him if he does something too awful. He's probably going to have to be removed by the military if he wins the next election. I just wonder if we'll be in a civil war after that happens.

[Ilsa]

8. We will need a lot of education to counter trump's

destructive influence on democracy.

I'm grateful for movies like Midway that present the depth of sacrifice. We need more that reflect the annihilation brought by fascism.

[joost5]

9. So much of our future hinges on this week.

It's scary as heck. A few patriots doing the right thing for our Constitutional Republic, revealing crimes, while the crazy Faux News right are in bizzaro world believing that it was AcTUaLLy Ukraine and Biden not Russia and Trump that tried to interfere in the 2016 elections. I'd laugh if this weren't so serious.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Gopnik has the antidote in 2019 book: A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Small_Sanities

"Adam Gopnik finds kindness at the core of liberal values as he defends a way of life" review https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/12/a-thousand-small-sanities-moral-adventure-liberalism-adam-gopnik-review

"Liberalism is in fact vivid, activist, questing. It is a moral movement to fashion a world for all of us, in our kaleidoscopic complexity, to live, love and learn in. Right now, liberals do not need a philosophy lecture. They need a rallying cry, and Gopnik gives us one." review https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/cry-freedom-review-of-adam-gopniks-book-a-thousand-small-sanities/

An unflattering review https://newrepublic.com/article/153781/emptiness-adam-gopniks-liberalism-review-thousand-small-sanities

(Canadian)

[KPN]

22. "Love is all we need" John Lennon

[FakeNoose]

23. Thanks I'll look for this book

I need to read hopeful words from liberals right now. There's way too much despair going around.

[mountain grammy]

11. K & R

I can see people being taking in by a populist, but Trump is so very dumb, inarticulate, and phony it's almost mind boggling that 62 million Americans accepted this.. I believe much of that acceptance was ordered from the pulpit, and to many, directly from god. I think gay marriage put them over the cliff after abortion brought them to the edge, and the idea of a woman president is a bridge too far for any fundamentalist Christian.

[Canoe52]

12. +1,000

[Duppers]

14. Another +1000

Nailed it, grammy.

[KPN]

21. That ... and racism/white supremacy. Both are belief systems.

[mountain grammy]

36. Agree.. and I think that's at least half his base.

[shanti]

24. Yup

They felt that a Rep, ANY Rep would be better for them than a Dem with regard to their social issues, to their detriment.

[oldsoftie]

27. I think his biggest asset was being a TV star. Look at how well Oprah polls.

If he had run without the Apprentice in his history I dont know that he would have won. People are just taken by celebrity bullshit
Look at how long "Keeping up with the Kardashians" has been on. And how they've ruined American culture.

[not_the_one]

33. What oldsoftie said!

Name recognition and star power... we are so easily influenced.

And I couldn't agree more about the Kardashians. Filthy rich and world famous for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Not to mention Kenya, the hanger-on. (misspelled on purpose)

Remember "It Should Happen To You", with Judy Holliday? She saw a billboard on Columbus Circle, paid to have her name put on it, and became famous just because millions of people saw her name. (Gladys Glover)

Celebrity for nothing.

edit - Holliday has two Ls.

[mountain grammy]

35. I think that's why the media gave him so much free air time

good for ratings.. but something had to get people past his obvious incompetence and lack of knowlege about how the government works. Oprah is also a celebrity, but she has intelligence and empathy that we can see, and she wasn't born into wealth.

I don't know, maybe it was, but I look at the fervor for him from the "Christians" and I think there's a lot more going on. My evangelical inlaws are right wing trumpers because their preacher preaches it. You are right about the Kardashian crap.

[Lonestarblue]

13. The problem is the number of people who are ill informed or refuse to believe.

I forget what I was watching last night, but I saw part of an interview with a Trump supporter who completely believes that some mythical deep state of elites are out to get Trump and that he has never done anything wrong. After justifying her support by quoting conspiracy theories, her last comment was that she believed that Hillary Clinton was behind a lot of the attacks on Trump. I don’t know the real size of Trump’s base because he has lost a lot of independents who voted for him last time, but let’s say it’s around 40 million. That’s 40 million people who have no understanding of what democracy means or even an interest in learning real facts instead of buying into wacko ideas. That’s fightening.

[cstanleytech]

18. Every country's going to have those kind of morons though.

Rather than worrying about them we need to focus on getting the people who actually pay some attention out to vote.
If we can get them off their butts to the polls then we have a chance at getting some sanity back on our government.

[shanti]

26. The odds are against us

The stupids are many, the smarts are few.

[extvbroadcaster]

15. Well said

Trump might be defeated, and go in the trash bin of history, but the wound is deep. How is America so weak as to not be able to remove such an obvious con man and criminal? The real warning is what is next. A real dictator that can charm the voters and Congress with a fake loyalty to America. It is good that Trump is such a crass buffoon. The next time we will not be so lucky.

[KPN]

25. Well said and spot on imo.

[defacto7]

16. Stunning truth.

But not a surprise to me.

[cstanleytech]

17. I don't think we're at that stage yet.

If he gets a second term yeah we're fucked but otherwise we can still recover at this point.

[saidsimplesimon]

19. "the American experiment would be over"

Thank you, Fla Dem. Adam Gopnik for expressing the horrible possibility that our Republic is in grave danger of becoming a dictatorship.

[Hamlette]

28. I didn't believe it until a few months ago.

I thought we would survive and go on as a country. I think it is the GOP reaction to the Ukraine deal that shook me.

I'm also reading "The Cult of Trump" which is quite good and upsetting.

[dewsgirl]

29. Heartbreaking.💔

[Grasswire2]

30. previous OP and thread

[link:https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212670956|

[Fla Dem]

31. Sorry Grasswire2, I did a site search for Adam Gopnik before I posted and your post didn't come up.

Had it come up, I wouldn't have duplicated it.

[Grasswire2]

34. oh, it's fine. Just wanted to add link to other comments.

The comments on twitter itself are devasting, too.

A remarkable bit of writing.

[KPN]

31. It does seem already too late. How do we ever fully trust those 62,000,000 who voted for this

national horror show? How do you put toothpaste back in the tube?

On the upside, we are now aware of our own fallibility. There is that at least.

[Blue_Tires]

37. Truth...

But sadly, Hillary didn't "excite" enough people to the polls, or so I'm told...

[ismnotwasm]

38. And her emails

And her status fucking quo or something

[BlancheSplanchnik]

39. ...I've been feeling so sad, it's gotten to be a constant undertow

Since that pos got installed.

[Roland99]

40. Wow