Tea at Trianon: The Revolving Door

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

The Revolving Door

From Amuse on X:

In the past decade, a peculiar phenomenon has emerged, blending the power of unelected bureaucracies with the unparalleled influence of Big Tech companies. Google, Meta, Twitter, and even OpenAI now operate as soft extensions of the federal government, employing hundreds of former FBI, CIA, DOJ, and DHS officials. These figures, long familiar with surveillance and information control, have seamlessly transitioned into roles dictating content moderation, security policy, and even artificial intelligence ethics. This phenomenon, which mushroomed during the Biden administration, reveals a disturbing reality: the government’s ability to outsource censorship to private entities, effectively sidestepping constitutional constraints.
A quick LinkedIn search reveals that hundreds of former federal employees, many from surveillance and justice agencies, have taken key roles at Big Tech companies. Google alone absorbed 130 former DOJ, FBI, and CIA officials. Meta followed suit, hiring 47 ex-government operatives for politically sensitive positions in trust and safety, security, and content moderation. TikTok, despite its Chinese ownership, employed 25 former U.S. intelligence officials, while Twitter (pre-Elon Musk) had 46 former FBI employees, many of whom held significant positions.
The stories behind these hires underscore the tight integration between government and tech. James Baker, the former FBI general counsel who played a controversial role in the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, became Twitter’s deputy general counsel, where he oversaw legal and policy decisions, including those related to content moderation. Aaron Berman, a CIA veteran, now manages misinformation policy at Meta, influencing decisions on what content is allowed to circulate. OpenAI has followed suit, hiring Paul Nakasone, the former Director of the National Security Agency, to advise on security and policy issues, ensuring government-aligned priorities shape AI development. These individuals are not mere advisors; they hold significant sway over policies that directly shape the flow of information and public discourse, as evidenced by their roles in suppressing key stories such as the Hunter Biden laptop controversy and moderating pandemic-related dissent. Their embedded presence within corporate hierarchies demonstrates how deeply government-aligned priorities can permeate private platforms. (Read more.)

Trump and the New World. From Armas:

Friends, it’s a new year and a new episode of The Hard Country, in which we discuss the extraordinary actions — against the trafficking cartels, and especially against their allies in the Mexican state — undertaken in the first week of the new Administration of President Donald J. Trump. The odious Vladimir Lenin once quipped that there were decades in which nothing happened, and weeks in which decades happened — and the new White House has given us an example of the latter. Settle in and have a listen on what’s changed, and why we may allow ourselves a sentiment on the border and the Western Hemisphere that has been in short supply for many years: Hope. (Read more.)

Fantasy ideology. Because living in a make-believe world has consequences. From Jennifer Roback Morse:

Let’s give this problem a name: Fantasy Ideology. The purpose of a Fantasy Ideology is NOT to solve a problem. It is to help the partisans accumulate more power.
The process works like this.
Creating a Dystopia, in Five Easy Steps
Step 1. Sell the public on the utopian ideal of completely eliminating an Intolerable Problem. (Climate change. Systematic racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Injustice to transgender people. COVID. Take your pick, the possibilities are endless.) Catastrophize the Intolerable Problem. Demand nothing less than its complete elimination.
To be clear, even good ideas and noble goals can be transformed into utopian impossibilities. For instance, we can eliminate some inequality, but we will never have perfect equality in every dimension. That’s completely impossible. Human beings are irreducibly different from each other.
For instance, some environmentalists want to eliminate all pollution, all carbon footprints. That’s not possible. Can we reduce pollution? Sure. But eliminate it? No.
Some in the public health establishment insist on trying to eliminate all cases of COVID. Can we reduce the number of cases? Sure. But eliminate them all? No.
But these ideas must never spoken aloud, because realistic obtainable goals do not serve the purpose of accumulating power.
Step 2: Sell yourself and your ideological buddies as the potential Savior Class who can make this dream a reality, if only
Step 3: You have enough power. Doing the impossible requires a lot of power. Thus, the Savior Class requires unlimited power to bring about the Fantasy. But even with lots of power, you can’t really do the impossible. So, you must fill the society with
Step 4: Unlimited propaganda. The propaganda keeps people convinced that the Fantasy is possible and desirable. It diverts attention from the problems and costs associated with trying to do the undoable. Finally — and very importantly — the propaganda must divert the attention of ordinary people away from the failure of the Fantasy and toward the
Step 5: Scapegoat Class. The Fantasy will never materialize, even with massive amounts of power and propaganda. So the self-appointed Savior Class needs someone to blame.
Every totalitarian ideology you can think of has had a Scapegoat Class. The Communists had their kulaks and rich peasants. The Nazis had their Jews. Today’s Ruling Class has its “basket of deplorables,” the unwashed, embittered “garbage” people who “cling to their guns and their religion.” (Read more.)