Dr. Drezner, we all need to protect our health and monitor our stress levels. So it's okay to not revisit the toddler thread. We need to find ways to laugh, but we more importantly need to keep calm and carry on and not obey in advance, as they say, and remain true to the principles we believe in.
I agree with you, whatever humor there was in the first term won’t be the same this time around. Nothing is remotely humorous about what that administration plans to do, and it over shadows any (and I’m sure there will be many) toddler-like incidents. And there is your sanity to think about as well!
Absolutely...what's so funny about RFK, Jr as HHS Sec.? Wonder if he'll try to kill polio vaccinations? Wonder what will happen if there's another viral pandemic on the scale of Covid-19? Wonder if....oy vey!
I’d worry about your mental health picking this up again, and I say this as someone who loved the book. More to the point, things have gotten so much more dire that I think renewing the thread would trivialize what’s happening.
Thanks for asking. The thing you said that most resonated with me is “very little about Trump’s immaturity is funny anymore.” Women dying because they are legally denied health care, leaving an unlivable climate to our children in exchange for Big Oil & Gas campaign donations, the destruction about to be wreaked on our economy, our military, our immigrants, our health, our scientists, our universities, our journalists, our activists - no hard to see anything funny there at all. And I have to wonder if the trivialization of his behavior is part of the reason we are back in this hellhole, because of people just seeing this all as one big reality TV show and not grasping the consequences. We need to focus on those consequences and the actions and policies that will lead to them - not looking for comic material.
#4 is the reason. Trump 1.0 was funny and weird, though frequently destructive. This time it is deadly serious. Let's not get distracted by his clownish antics and get distracted from the likely terrible things he and his fanatical crew are set on doing.
Less humor and more deadly seriousness on our side during Trump 2.0, please.
I think you have presciently concluded that Trump V2.0 will by an large not be funny. V1.0 was mostly buffoonish. Thus time around is shaping up to be purely insidious.
Is Trump assuming that the Senate will gracefully reject his outrageous candidates for AG, DNI, DOD, HHS so he can dispense with these losers — sorry, but I tried — and then name more serious, at least marginally qualified people? Sounds to me like wishful thinking. Why would he accept the humiliation of those rejections?
More likely he wants the Senate to bend the knee and humiliate itself and let the destruction of these agencies proceed.
I'm a huge fan of Dan Drezner - though I guess it's more likely I'm a huge fan of his hard-working staff - here and at the erstwhile Spoiler Alerts. So I would encourage both the staff and Dr. D to produce as much output as they can reasonably produce. At the same time, as a believer in human dignity, and every person's right to choose their own path through this vale of tears and toddlerdom, I fully respect a decision to forgo turning a spotlight on one aspect of the Krackpot Kommander-in-Chief's public disintegration. In other words, I won't miss the toddler chronicle, even a little, as long as Drezner and the staff continue to examine and lend their insights into other facets of our manchild maniac's tenure in the Big Chair.
I may be wrong but I’ve been assuming the the references to the hard working staff are something of a running joke reference to said staff being Prof. Drezner alone or possibly with some occasional collaboration or editing from students, colleagues or family. I think in contrast to some other blogs of comparable “gravitas” but much greater readership that are run more like a media business than the professor/expert/enthusiast’s public channel that most blogs used to be and this one still is.
I believe you are correct, and my references to the staff were intended in that same humorous vein. Still, if there is a staff lurking somewhere in the background too, then kudos to them too.
I'm in team "it ain't worth it". A bleakly amusing Bluesky thread ain't worth your mental health, and humor has proven effective against Trump as an ice cube tray against a forest fire.
Agree with 1) and definitely 4). My X account appears deleted because of inactivity and reading the threads from Best of #Econtwitter is the only coherent reason I have to start another account. During Trump's first term I never knew whether to laugh or cry. Trump has made his malign intent clear enough in less than a week that I am not going to laugh.
You have outlined some pretty compelling, disappointing, depressing, and ultimately correct points on why you should not restart the thread. In 2017, he may have actually tried to be presidential at first, but then quickly went back into the familiar campaign mode. This time, he has a plan and a bunch of people he can hand it to and report back with accomplishments that can please him - true or not. He is a lame duck, so rallies won't give him the sugar high he craves. He will tire, get bored, and not care about what his team does. What we need is direction on how to change individual actions of the coming hiring blitz while maintaining our own safety. There are lots of opinions and strategies for doing this and I would like to see more discussion and recommendations here.
I agree with your conclusion. The Toddler bit was quite funny the first term. I think the seriousness, and its effects on real people, of what will occur in the second term shouldn’t be dimenishrd
Dr. Drezner, we all need to protect our health and monitor our stress levels. So it's okay to not revisit the toddler thread. We need to find ways to laugh, but we more importantly need to keep calm and carry on and not obey in advance, as they say, and remain true to the principles we believe in.
I agree with you, whatever humor there was in the first term won’t be the same this time around. Nothing is remotely humorous about what that administration plans to do, and it over shadows any (and I’m sure there will be many) toddler-like incidents. And there is your sanity to think about as well!
Absolutely...what's so funny about RFK, Jr as HHS Sec.? Wonder if he'll try to kill polio vaccinations? Wonder what will happen if there's another viral pandemic on the scale of Covid-19? Wonder if....oy vey!
I’m o I’ll L
I’d worry about your mental health picking this up again, and I say this as someone who loved the book. More to the point, things have gotten so much more dire that I think renewing the thread would trivialize what’s happening.
Thanks for asking. The thing you said that most resonated with me is “very little about Trump’s immaturity is funny anymore.” Women dying because they are legally denied health care, leaving an unlivable climate to our children in exchange for Big Oil & Gas campaign donations, the destruction about to be wreaked on our economy, our military, our immigrants, our health, our scientists, our universities, our journalists, our activists - no hard to see anything funny there at all. And I have to wonder if the trivialization of his behavior is part of the reason we are back in this hellhole, because of people just seeing this all as one big reality TV show and not grasping the consequences. We need to focus on those consequences and the actions and policies that will lead to them - not looking for comic material.
No, do not revive it.
#4 is the reason. Trump 1.0 was funny and weird, though frequently destructive. This time it is deadly serious. Let's not get distracted by his clownish antics and get distracted from the likely terrible things he and his fanatical crew are set on doing.
Less humor and more deadly seriousness on our side during Trump 2.0, please.
Reason number 4 surely overrides all other considerations. Not funny anymore, nossir.
I think you have presciently concluded that Trump V2.0 will by an large not be funny. V1.0 was mostly buffoonish. Thus time around is shaping up to be purely insidious.
Is Trump assuming that the Senate will gracefully reject his outrageous candidates for AG, DNI, DOD, HHS so he can dispense with these losers — sorry, but I tried — and then name more serious, at least marginally qualified people? Sounds to me like wishful thinking. Why would he accept the humiliation of those rejections?
More likely he wants the Senate to bend the knee and humiliate itself and let the destruction of these agencies proceed.
Apologies in advance for this.
I'm a huge fan of Dan Drezner - though I guess it's more likely I'm a huge fan of his hard-working staff - here and at the erstwhile Spoiler Alerts. So I would encourage both the staff and Dr. D to produce as much output as they can reasonably produce. At the same time, as a believer in human dignity, and every person's right to choose their own path through this vale of tears and toddlerdom, I fully respect a decision to forgo turning a spotlight on one aspect of the Krackpot Kommander-in-Chief's public disintegration. In other words, I won't miss the toddler chronicle, even a little, as long as Drezner and the staff continue to examine and lend their insights into other facets of our manchild maniac's tenure in the Big Chair.
I may be wrong but I’ve been assuming the the references to the hard working staff are something of a running joke reference to said staff being Prof. Drezner alone or possibly with some occasional collaboration or editing from students, colleagues or family. I think in contrast to some other blogs of comparable “gravitas” but much greater readership that are run more like a media business than the professor/expert/enthusiast’s public channel that most blogs used to be and this one still is.
I believe you are correct, and my references to the staff were intended in that same humorous vein. Still, if there is a staff lurking somewhere in the background too, then kudos to them too.
I'm in team "it ain't worth it". A bleakly amusing Bluesky thread ain't worth your mental health, and humor has proven effective against Trump as an ice cube tray against a forest fire.
Agree with 1) and definitely 4). My X account appears deleted because of inactivity and reading the threads from Best of #Econtwitter is the only coherent reason I have to start another account. During Trump's first term I never knew whether to laugh or cry. Trump has made his malign intent clear enough in less than a week that I am not going to laugh.
You have outlined some pretty compelling, disappointing, depressing, and ultimately correct points on why you should not restart the thread. In 2017, he may have actually tried to be presidential at first, but then quickly went back into the familiar campaign mode. This time, he has a plan and a bunch of people he can hand it to and report back with accomplishments that can please him - true or not. He is a lame duck, so rallies won't give him the sugar high he craves. He will tire, get bored, and not care about what his team does. What we need is direction on how to change individual actions of the coming hiring blitz while maintaining our own safety. There are lots of opinions and strategies for doing this and I would like to see more discussion and recommendations here.
IF and ONLY if you choose to revive it, PLEASE do so either on Substack or Bluesky. NEVER on Xitter. PLEEZE. 😎✌️
I was not around for the earlier thread but I think you make compelling arguments against 2.0. OTOH, I want to read your book and article now!
Let someone else pick up the baton. Your work is done, enjoy your retirement.
I agree with your conclusion. The Toddler bit was quite funny the first term. I think the seriousness, and its effects on real people, of what will occur in the second term shouldn’t be dimenishrd
Go with your gut on this one.