Civility

I’ve been watching “Jeopardy Masters.” (I’m about 10 days behind, so please, no spoilers!) What’s striking is how gracious these superb players are to each other. Maybe they’re directed to be nice, but it seems utterly genuine. If only our “civil” discourse could be so truly civil.

Damon Linker:

Beginning with September 11, we entered an era shaped decisively by militant populism and disruption. From Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders’ 2016 insurgency to Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the GOP to the Women’s March and George Floyd protests to the insurrectionary riot of January 6, 2021 and Trump’s 2024 re-election and so many other, smaller examples, both here and around the world—militant populism and disruption targeting establishments and the people who run them have become the predominant fuel for politics, as well as the lens that at once focuses and distorts our public life. …

We now live in a world shaped by constantly churning popular anger and grievance arising from the periphery and directed at the perceived core of power. Those in genuine positions of authority can try to suppress the fury through acts of repression. But such efforts often just end up fueling the next round of outrage from outside and below. The outraged, meanwhile, aim above all at provocation. Their primary goal is to embarrass and shame the powers that be. Hence the popularity of “owning the libs” on the American right and, on the left, of denouncing racists and xenophobes. …

— a form of politics motivated above all else by the compulsion to take the other guys down a peg.

This will make you happy.

Do you know Instagram’s “Dust-to-Digital” account? It’s a great collection of clips of superb musicians performing on the street, in houses, at church, all over, everywhere in the world, often using homemade instruments. Try this one featuring young artists. Sound up!

Damon Linker

Every day this know-nothing lunatic remains in the presidency is a day during which the country, and the world, tempts … terrible fates. The stupidity radiating from the Oval Office is blinding, though often in a quasi-comical way. But it wouldn’t take much to turn that comedy into tragedy.

Eccentricity Crisis

Sam Buntz

Through its educational priorities and excessive fixation on the quantifiable, the U.S. only supports forms of eccentricity that lend themselves to some immediately definable commercial goal, while neglecting any that have to do with pure curiosity. Hence, we’re lobbing gobs of money at the Sam Altmans and Elon Musks of the world, while forsaking interest in reality itself, in what all this stuff actually is. Pure curiosity about nature, the force that motivated Thoreau and Ramanujan, seems liable to languish on the fringes.

Real Genius

Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.

– Arthur Schopenhauer

Saruman or Adrian Vermeule?

As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.

Difficult on purpose

Jonah Goldberg:

For obvious reasons, I don’t trust Trump with unchecked power. But I also wouldn’t trust Abdul Al-Sayed, or Bernie Sanders, or anyone else with unchecked power. Indeed, the fact that these people tend to believe that obstacles and inconveniences on their quest for ever-more power are somehow illegitimate or unfair is precisely why I don’t trust them with power.

Real Casualties

Isabella Gonzales, a 19-year-old Army private from a Dallas suburb, was one of the three U.S. service personnel killed over the weekend because of Donald Trump’s lack of impulse control. Real death, real grief; not that he cares. But the rest of us should.

Messi notwithstanding, this is just terrible.

From The Athletic:

Argentina standing with their backs to the presentation as Spain players go up to receive their medals.

More from Darron Richman on The Athletic:

… Argentina shamed themselves from beginning to end and even beyond the final whistle. They were an embarrassment.

Oh, and this is nice too. Post-match.

Leandro Paredes, … pushed the Barcelona defender [Eric Garcia] in the throat.

Finally, this Argentina showreel.