Category: Right Mindset

Posts that focus on the mental tools that will help us fight the good fight

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Preaching From Matthew 25 While Jesús Cleans the Church—For Very Little Money

Here are the key points. 

First, there was a big, big bump in immigration under Biden.

Second, that big, big bump noticeable downward pressure on wages for all types of unskilled workers in the United States. See my previous post. 

Third, Trump thinks the resulting anger among Latino and other voters was what put him over the top in the 2024 election—and, for once, Trump is almost surely right. 

Fourth, lots of people like me were reluctant to crack down on undocumented immigrants. After all, didn’t Rabbi Jesus teach us to welcome the stranger? And didn’t Exodus and Leviticus in the Hebrew Scriptures teach us the very same thing?

Conclusion?

It’s a win-win situation! 

Opening the floodgates to undocumented immigrants is the right and moral thing to do!

And we economically comfortable folks get to benefit from cheap labor.

Like I said, a win-win.

And if unskilled working class people here in the United States see their wages depressed, well then, they had just better reread what Jesus said in Matthew 25, learn to share, and not be so picky about what wages they receive. If they have to choose between paying the rent and buying groceries, that’s just the burden they have to bear in order to do the right thing and welcome the stranger.

Oh Wait! That Sounds Like Hypocrisy!

It sounds like prosperous progressives are using purported morality as a cover for economic oppression of the working class.

Maybe we should all cover ourselves in sackcloth and ashes, rend our garments, and spend the next six months in profound contemplation of our own wickedness.

No! No! No! No! No!

Listen up, folks. Here’s the takeaway message. 

We are in a political crisis. Trump and his enablers have leveraged concern over immigration to get the electorate to vote for a proto-fascist regime. 

If your house is on fire, you put out the damn fire before you start to think deeply about what caused the fire.

Contemplating our own alleged hypocrisy at length is a luxury we can no longer afford.

Establishing a fine moral balance between the worth of a poor person in Guatemala versus a not quite so poor person here in the United States is, likewise, something that we cannot afford to do.

What we MUST do—well in advance of the 2026 election—is to work with the Latino community to develop a politically acceptable solution.

More posts on this issue to follow soon.

Posted by Ron Davis, Dec. 16, 2024

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While Resentment Can Put Bad People in Power, in the Long Run it Can’t Keep Them There

Words of Wisdom from Paul Krugman’s Final Column

So is there a way out of the grim place we’re in? What I believe is that while resentment can put bad people in power, in the long run it can’t keep them there. At some point the public will realize that most politicians railing against elites actually are elites in every sense that matters and start to hold them accountable for their failure to deliver on their promises. And at that point the public may be willing to listen to people who don’t try to argue from authority, don’t make false promises, but do try to tell the truth as best they can.

We may never recover the kind of faith in our leaders — belief that people in power generally tell the truth and know what they’re doing — that we used to have. Nor should we. But if we stand up to the kakistocracy — rule by the worst — that’s emerging as we speak, we may eventually find our way back to a better world.

Posted by Ron Davis, Dec. 10, 2024

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I Resolve …

2025 is almost here, and, along with it, the second Trump inauguration. As we face hard and troubling times, I have decided to make some resolutions.

I resolve to acknowledge my shock, my grief, and my nausea at the outcome of the 2024 election, but I also resolve not to let those emotions overcome me.

In lieu of uncontrollable anger at my fellow Americans who voted for Trump, I will permit myself a little Schadenfreude.

I resolve to remain politically engaged.

Although Trump’s second term will pose a clear and present danger to our civil liberties, I resolve to speak out—and act on—the assumption that those civil liberties remain in full force and effect. 

I resolve to put, first and foremost, the protection of the rule of law. 

Although the rule of law has suffered great setbacks, and although it is likely to face grave challenges in the near term, I resolve to remain firm in my resolve that the rule of law will ultimately prevail.

To that end, I resolve to support the rule of law not only by speaking out but also by providing financial support for those trying to save our constitutional republic.

I resolve not to be a summer solder or a sunshine patriot. 

I resolve not to give way to fear—or to exhaustion. 

To the extent humanly possible, I resolve to overcome my cognitive biases and to observe our present political environment with eyes wide open.

I resolve to process all the facts—the facts I like, plus the facts I don’t like, plus the facts that seem so strange that I can hardly believe them. 

I resolve always to keep in mind the distinction between a known fact and a reasonable working hypothesis.

I resolve always to keep in mind the distinction between a reasonable working hypothesis and a mere plausible speculation.

I resolve to remember that my name is not Nostradamus: I can plausibly speculate about the future based on the known facts, but, beyond that, I cannot actually predict the future. 

I resolve to remember that my name is not The Amazing Kreskin: I can plausibly speculate about what you are thinking, based on how you act and on what you say, but, at the end of the day, I cannot actually read your mind. 

I resolve to remember that my name is not Rosy Scenario. I resolve not to just assume that a happy outcome will occur.

I resolve to remember that my name is not Debby Downer. I resolve to remember that a happy outcome is still possible. 

I resolve, in the words of the hymn, to “wake now compassion” and “give heed to the cry” of the “voices of suffering” that “fill the wide sky.”

I resolve, in the words of the hymn, to “wake now my reason” and “reach out to the new.” 

I resolve, in the words of the hymn, to “take not for granted a privileged place.”

I resolve to work toward a new Democratic coalition of the working class and the educated professional class, and I resolve to do my part in relentlessly promoting a strategy and a set of tactics that will lead to that goal. 

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A Known Fact vs. a Working Hypothesis vs. a Reasonable Speculation vs. Bullshit

I don’t know about you, but I was blindsided by the 2024 election results. Now, several weeks after the calamity, as the talking heads talk and as the pundits pontificate, I am impressed both by the insights I am getting from some and by the bullshit I am hearing from others.

Please let me suggest to you, respectfully, that, on the political journey that awaits us, the first and foremost mental tools we need are unflinching commitment to situational awareness, shrewd evaluation of the evolving political situation, and creative thought about what coalitions are needed to create a new, rational majority.

In that vein, let me suggest that we learn some utterly vital wisdom from Sunzi, from Confucius, and from Rabbi Jesus. 

Know Your Side, Know Your Adversary

Sunzi (Sun Tzu, Master Sun), the ancient Chinese military strategist, said “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Translation: if you are in a war, and if you actually want to win the war, then you had better know all the facts, and you had better put aside your cognitive biases.  

And What Exactly Does it Mean to “Know” the Facts?

From Confucius (Kongzi, Master Kong) we gain this vital insight about what it means to “know” something: “To know what you know and to know what you do not know—that is true knowledge.”

Translation: while you’re being about knowing your side and knowing your adversary, be damn sure that what you think you know is really true. 

Because remember Sunzi’s last point: if you’re acting on false “knowledge” about your side and about your adversary, then you’re going to lose every single battle.

Implication: As you try to be situationally aware—as you describe the current political crisis to others—be very, very conscious of the difference between a good working hypothesis, as distinguished from an established fact. 

And be very, very conscious of the difference between a good working hypothesis and a mere plausible speculation.

Because if you mistake a hypothesis or a plausible speculation for an established fact, then you are probably going to screw up big time.

How Metaphorical Sheep Deal with Metaphorical Wolves

To these hard sayings from Master Sun and from Master Kong, Rabbi Jesus adds this vital instruction, in the form of a startlingly mixed simile: “Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Translation: as you face danger, use clever strategy and tactics to defeat the bad actors, all the while maintaining your moral innocence.