How We Talk Now

Back in Year Moderna, while I was absolutely throwing away my life and murdering my own child by refusing the lifesaving vaccines that would prevent us from being immediately slaughtered by the deadly virus, I had a series of discussions with concerned intervenors who tried to save us. The discussions always went the same way: They screamed about what a disgusting anti-science bigoted stupid dangerous hateful vicious ignorant monster pig I was. Then I sent peer-reviewed articles from medical journals describing the potential dangers of rushed vaccines, like this one: …which arrived at the conclusion that “challenge of mice given any of the vaccines led to occurrence of Th2-type immunopathology suggesting hypersensitivity to SARS-CoV components was induced. Caution in proceeding to application of a SARS-CoV vaccine in humans is indicated.” Then they screamed at me about what a disgusting and dangerous unbeliever I was, and WHY AREN’T YOU OBEYING!?!?!? You make me sick with your ignorance! Near the end of those discussions, before we lapsed into years of icy silence, I said explicitly that I was completely done responding to hyperemotional shaming language. I’ve sent articles from medical journals, I said, and would happily discuss them, or evaluate any evidence they wanted to send me. Send evidence, I said, and let’s discuss it in a rational and serious way, without emotion. Then they screamed at me that I was dangerous and a disgusting person and an unbeliever who hated Saint Dr. Fauci like a repulsive Trumper. Yes, there’s an irony in that last sentence. In Los Angeles, now, we’re seeing several days of steady rain. Our crap infrastructure isn’t built or maintained for these conditions, and the strength of the storm is causing us some problems. I put on my rain suit and took a walk last night, and the storm drains weren’t keeping up. I was glad I’d worn boots. A couple of traffic signals went out. But the schools and stores are open this morning, and life goes on. Also, the news is full of headlines about California being SLAMMED by a devastating ATMOSPHERIC RIVER that’s CRUSHING us and producing TERROR AND DESPAIR as the CLIMATE EMERGENCY worsens. We’re being lashed! I drove from Pasadena to Long Beach on Saturday night, then drove back to Pasadena a couple hours later. It was raining a bit, but nothing serious. And there were signs all along the remarkably ugly 710 freeway corridor warning about the SEVERE WEATHER. I kind of enjoy the effect I accidentally got by taking a picture as I drove by one of them, sort of illustrating the psychological effect of deliberately promulgated panic: Meanwhile, here’s the latest in medical science, from the magazine of the Harvard School of Medicine: Doctors are “bearing witness,” like Elie Wiesel, as the climate absolutely murders all the young people: Across the world, people are experiencing the health effects of a changing climate. Those health effects are especially pronounced among young people, and small groups of them are now turning to the justice system to push back. Some are even suing the government, arguing that policies permitting fossil fuel consumption violate their constitutional right to a stable climate that sustains their health. And some doctors are offering expert evidence essential to their cause. It’s medically interesting, isn’t it, that older people are much less likely to experience climate illness? But doctors are prescribing an end to fossil fuels, because of the Constitution. That’s medical care, you see, like setting a broken bone. See also this discussion about a parent who asked a pediatrician to discuss the potential side effects of vaccines, causing the doctor to stammer and weep and to throw the family out of the office forever. "I'm not going to be able to provide care for your baby,” the physician said. “I feel very strongly about this." That’s what medical doctors do — they feel things very intensely, which is the practice of clinical medicine. We’re surrounded. Public language is emotionally heightened, persistently, to the exclusion of reason. Nothing is merely bad or unfortunate; everything is an emergency, and the worst ever. Of course the intent is manipulative… eugyppius: a plague chronicle The Hysterical Style in Western Politics If one thing distinguishes present politics, it is the hysterical style. By this I mean the unceasing deployment of falsely urgent affective appeals by the press and politicians to manipulate the public attitude and mobilise support for specific programmes… Read more 7 days ago · 524 likes · 303 comments · eugyppius …but the tediousness is having the opposite effect. How do you respond to a sobbing physician who tells you that you have to obey her because she feels strongly? When every discussion is emotionally heightened, no discussion is emotionally heightened. You’ll want to notice this point during the next week of five-alarm-fire media discussion about the “bipartisan border security bill,” which will be extremely stupid. I won’t be here to witness any of it, of course, because I’m unvaccinated and being lashed by the climate emergency. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Tell Me How This Ends. © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

The Fringe Mainstream

You’re very weird. In fact, let’s face it head-on: you’re a social and political outlier, a dangerous extremist. Your views put you firmly on the fringe, and that fringe is becoming a real problem. For example, the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, has just embraced a bunch of radical fringe policies about parent notification and consent regarding schools and transgender children, simultaneously limiting the ability of young children to have their bodies medically altered to match their declared gender — and some pretty disturbing people are supporting this crazy stuff. Look how appalled normal Canadians are by these extremist maneuvers to keep parents involved in the lives of LGBT children: See the whole poll here, if you can stand the disgust from seeing extremist material, or see a detailed report on a poll of Californians that offers similar results. Fortunately, the responsible mainstream leaders of the Liberal Party and NDP are standing strong with the 14% in the majority who want parents out of the lives of transgender children, rejecting the fringe views of the 78% who live at the extremist edges. At the same time, the New York Times has just published a remarkable opinion piece on the growing concern among longtime transgender advocates, including transgendered clinicians, about the casual and rushed process by which American pediatric gender clinics are pushing children into gender transition. The essay centers on detransitioners, trans youth who change their minds and accept their biological sex. This being the New York Times, the author is compelled to mention the true danger: “The real threat to transgender people comes from Republicans who wish to deny them rights and protections.” Ahh, but watch what comes next: But the doctrinal rigidity of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is disappointing, frustrating and counterproductive. “I was always a liberal Democrat,” one woman whose son desisted after social transition and hormone therapy told me. “Now I feel politically homeless.” She noted that the Biden administration has “unequivocally” supported gender-affirming care for minors, in cases in which it deems it “medically appropriate and necessary.” Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told NPR in 2022 that “there is no argument among medical professionals — pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, et cetera — about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care.” Democrats are doctrinally rigid, and a top health official in the Biden administration says proudly that there is no debate. See, everyone believes the same thing, except mean Republicans, but that’s also now understood to be a sign of excessive ideological rigidity. Then the same piece in the Times also says a whole bunch of things like this: Studies show that around eight in 10 cases of childhood gender dysphoria resolve themselves by puberty and 30 percent of people on hormone therapy discontinue its use within four years, though the effects, including infertility, are often irreversible. I’ve removed the links from the quoted paragraphs, because they don’t work well after cutting and pasting, but you can find them all at the link to the non-paywalled opinion piece. Eighty percent of childhood gender dysphoria cases “resolve themselves” without cutting and drugging, and close to 80% of the population rejects taking parents out of the decisionmaking process for children who declare a transgender identity. So let’s use Google to search for information about trans kids, to get some ideologically safe information about that 80%: Agreeing with 80% of the population is being extremist, you see. The dangerous fringe minority, the crazies. Remarkably, as Leor Sapir notes, the top ten reader-rated comments to the New York Times opinion piece look like…this: The whole list is too large for a single screenshot, but click on the link to see all the examples. The extremist fringe of 80% is beginning to prevail over a ludicrous propaganda effort. The crazy outliers are the mainstream. Again. When you see these deflection-focused arguments about extremist views, know that you’re reading lies and manipulation. Discussion and news that aren’t about the thing itself, but that instead throws out emotionally triggering chaff — extremism! hate! meanness! Putin! — aren’t discussion and news. It’s a wall of noise, designed to prevent understanding. This is the reality gender-affirming health care, if you’d like to actually see it. That’s the thing itself. How wonderfully healthy for young children. That bizarrely honest and balanced piece in the New York Times is worth reading, by the way, and you won’t see that sentence from me very often. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Tell Me How This Ends. © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Bold Soviet PBS Documentary Documents Right-Deviationist Counterrevolutionary Crimes by Orange Devil Monster!

PBS has just aired a new Soviet-realist documentary on the January 6 insurrection, ironically titled Democracy on Trial, right as a long line of Democratic prosecutors wage lawfare against the Republican presidential frontrunner and Democratic officials throw the Republican frontrunner off the ballot and attempt to transition to single-party elections. But all of that isn’t what they mean by Democracy on Trial, you see. How honest and careful is this documentary? Here’s a screenshot from the discussion about the formation of the January 6 special committee — and no, I’m not kidding: This is what PBS is actually putting on the air about Donald Trump. Here’s a wider shot of the next frame, and note the chapter title at the bottom versus the image being shown: New shamelessness accomplishment UNLOCKED! See, what happened on January 6 is that, um, hooded Klansmen marched against the Capitol, more or less. Or, well, okay, it wasn’t that, but it was just like it. Grand Imperial Wizard Donald Trump!!!! So yes, we seem to be arriving at the moment where we address the failure of a political narrative by trying to turn up the emotional symbol-play to eleven. Give ‘em three more months, and the news will be saying the words “Donald Trump” over and over as they show you footage of Adolf Hitler ranting from the stage at Nuremberg. By November 1, the news will just be images of dying kittens writhing in agony, with a narrator chanting TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP under the footage, to Skinner Box your brain into the appropriate love of democracy. Good evening, this is the nightly news. And now our top story: DONALD TRUMP IS KITTEN MURDER DONALD TRUMP IS KITTEN MURDER DONALD TRUMP IS KITTEN MURDER DONALD TRUMP IS KITTEN MURDER And now here’s Jack with the weather. But the truly remarkable moment in the documentary is an admission against interest that starts at the 11:51 mark, just past the Klan images. Here’s a time-stamped link to this part, or see this video post on Twitter/X from Eric Abbenante. It’s a discussion of the staging of the January 6 committee, proudly covering the way the committee brought on a longtime television producer, James Goldston, to pump up the narrative. “They wanted a storyteller,” the experienced TV guy says. Watch a few minutes of this time-stamped footage to see that the chairman of the committee explicitly wanted the story to “pop,” like a really button-pushing soap opera. Actual quote from the 14:00 mark: “We wanted to make sure that this was a presentation that would grab the audience and hold onto ‘em.” They meant it as a prime-time television drama. And they still do. But don’t worry, because Frontline got in all of the most important voices. I can’t bring myself to stomach the whole thing, but presumably Max Boot and Jennifer Rubin will make an appearance at some point. If you watch it all and you do see them, please don’t tell me about it. Finally, to clarify the purpose of the “documentary,” here’s a screenshot from the opening minutes — the introduction of the brilliant and ethically flawless career prosecutor Jack Smith: Not mentioned: the loss in the John Edwards trial, or the time the Supreme Court unanimously threw out Jack Smith’s conviction of the former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell. But he’s brilliant and thorough, trust us, and he always wins and he’s never wrong and oh god please please please nominate that nikki haley person oh sorry did we say that out loud. I would only ask that PBS bill the DNC for services rendered. People who do a job for a client should expect to be paid. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Tell Me How This Ends. © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Blue is Red, and Red is Very Bad making real choices with fake dilemmas

Ed Markey is going to criminalize private militias, because private militias are very dangerous and far-right. Here, read his explanation: “As evidenced by the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, private paramilitary actors like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers pose a serious threat to democracy and the rule of law.” See, paramilitary activity is always extremely right-wing, and almost invariably associated with white nationalism. Here, look at this example from 2020: Something something Proud Boys something something! Or look at this infamous historical example from 1967, when a white nationalist group called the Black Panthers from the far-right bastion of Oakland stormed the California state capitol and walked onto the floor of the Assembly with guns, in the first recorded example of a TRUMP MAGA RALLY: Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Blue is Red, and Red is Very Bad making real choices with fake dilemmas CHRIS BRAY JAN 29 Ed Markey is going to criminalize private militias, because private militias are very dangerous and far-right. Here, read his explanation: “As evidenced by the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, private paramilitary actors like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers pose a serious threat to democracy and the rule of law.” See, paramilitary activity is always extremely right-wing, and almost invariably associated with white nationalism. Here, look at this example from 2020: Something something Proud Boys something something! Or look at this infamous historical example from 1967, when a white nationalist group called the Black Panthers from the far-right bastion of Oakland stormed the California state capitol and walked onto the floor of the Assembly with guns, in the first recorded example of a TRUMP MAGA RALLY: Or consider the example of the notorious white nationalist paramilitary leader Robert F. Williams, seen here as he trained with his wife to support Donald Trump in the Jim Crow South: Like many far-right leaders, Williams eventually fled to Cuba and sought political asylum from Fidel Castro. Guns are for right-wing white people, and that’s very scary! Shockingly, the Idaho legislature chose 2023 to begin an effort to eliminate its law against private militia activity. As a Democratic legislator in that state warns, this is very irresponsible behavior — because one of these far-right militias actually assassinated an Idaho governor. See, look at the far-right violence contained in this example: During debate on the House floor, Boise Democratic Rep. John Gannon said now is not the time to repeal the anti-militia law, noting it was put into place a few years after then-Gov. Frank Steunenberg was assassinated by Harry Orchard in a culmination of violent mining labor confrontations between pro-union forces and those who opposed the mine workers’ federation. Do you understand now? Right-wing extremists of the early 20th century were closely associated with far-right groups like the Western Federation of Miners and the International Workers of the Wor— you know what, let’s move on. Far-right militias are also attacking along our southern border… …where they break the law and engage in dangerous anti-government activity like this: The senators cited the Texas ACLU in saying PFA has collaborated with the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office and, at least on one occasion, with the Texas National Guard. “Alarmingly, there is also evidence of open collaboration with federal agents. In May 2021, a video uploaded to Facebook depicted a Border Patrol agent meeting with VOP members and praising their activities before collecting drone footage from the group,” they wrote. See, they alarmingly collaborate with local, state, and federal officials, a chilling example of anti-government extremism. So Ed Markey is leading a manufactured moral crisis built on a fake focus that excludes a bunch of obvious examples and uses absurd frames to misrepresent obvious things that are actually happening right out in the open. That must be a sign that he’s acting in good faith, and has no hidden or misrepresented agenda. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Tell Me How This Ends

Disagreementsurrection! the most violentist thing in the history of forever

Tucker Carlson gave a speech in Alberta. You can watch the whole thing here. He said terrifying and disgusting things like…like…like the expansion of MAID is a bad idea, and you should be concerned when government is killing tens of thousands of its own citizens. Clearly this man is history’s greatest monster — he’s opposed to the casual destruction of human life. Then this happened: Tucker Carlson giving a speech is violent. It’s incitement! Ohhhhhh it’s targeting! It shouldn’t be permitted! Brutal MAGA forces attacked straight into the heart of progressive Canada! Watch the whole thing if you think I’m exaggerating, because Tucker Carlson obviously invaded Canada’s Poland. This is a soccer flop. A noticeably relaxed speech, delivered with humor on serious topics Writhing, deranged agony about a terrifying threat This is the next year of our lives: idiot leftists desperately wishcasting violent extremism in the face of nothing much. It’s literally an op. Don’t take the bait. If people like this are telling you that we’re descending into the abattoir… …it’s probably time to fire up the grill and drink a beer. 2024, the year of the political soccer flop. Ignore it. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid You're currently a free subscriber to Tell Me How This Ends. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

sHoTs fIReD!!!! or not, dorks CHRIS BRAY JAN 26

During the Great Depression, the Midwestern farm states witnesses a series of serious farmer rebellions, in some cases led locally and in some cases led by a firebrand named Milo Reno. Facing widespread foreclosures, farmers held “penny auctions” in which hundreds of men showed up to offer the bank a single penny when the auctioneer opened the floor for bids — the implied threat of hundreds of massed farmers preventing other people from bidding. In Plymouth County, Iowa, a judge who ignored the very large crowd of farmers in his courtroom and went ahead with a foreclosure order was dragged to the crossroads, beaten unconscious or close to it, and left in the road without his pants. And then, finally, we come to the great Iowa Cow War of 1931. State agricultural officials contained an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis by testing cows — and killing cows that tested positive. Farmers got partial reimbursement for the destroyed cattle, taking financial losses during a period when they were already in financial crisis. State veterinarians arriving at cattle farms with test kits were…not greeted warmly. At one farm, “Assistant Attorney General Oral Swift was threatened to be thrown into a horse tank. He did sustain cuts from being pushed into a barbed wire fence but was able to avoid taking the bath.” Facing vigorous resistance, the governor called out the Iowa National Guard, and the troops set up machine gun nests to control the movement of farmers. Infantrymen patrolled farm roads with fixed bayonets. And then: pretty much nothing. Read this account of the Cow War in Cedar County: “…the Cedar County Cow War of 1931 ended without bloodshed.” Because if you call out the Iowa National Guard in 1931, who is that? Where does the Iowa National Guard get troops? The most detailed account of the whole series of events that are collectively called the Cornbelt Rebellion describes Midwestern “rebel” farmers going down to the machine gun nests to drink coffee with their sons and brothers, the troops sent to put down their rebellion. The Iowa National Guard and the Nebraska National Guard suppressed farm rebels; the Iowa National Guard and the Nebraska National Guard were…Iowa and Nebraska farmers. No one was dumb enough to shoot anybody. So. There’s a bunch of dramatic wishcasting in the news and in social media this week about “Fort Sumter,” and I nominate Will Bunch for the Dumbest Columnist prize. But then there’s this, from actual Border Patrol agents: The people who wear Border Patrol uniforms at the Texas border don’t fly in from Brooklyn every morning to work their shifts. They live in Texas border towns, have families in Texas border towns, and know people who wear the uniform of the Texas National Guard. They’re not going to shoot their neighbors because halfwit figurehead Joe Biden bumblefucks up a totally preventable crisis. All the grunts on the alleged Second Civil War battlefield are on the same side. The gravest danger between them is a backyard cookout. If there’s shooting at Eagle Pass, somebody check on the location of the FBI jackasses who brewed up the “Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping.” I assert with confidence that no Texans want or intend to shoot each other over this crap. See also this comment on my last post. If a civil war starts, this probably isn’t the Fort Sumter. It’s probably where we see that the President of the United States wears adult diapers and should take a nap. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Tell Me How This Ends. © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

It's Opposite Day

It’s becoming impossible to exaggerate the degree to which government in America is mostly like having a fire department that sends a crew around in a big red truck to light things on fire. We have a Border Patrol to make sure the border is open, and Texas is defying federal authority by securing it. “General Patton, we’re sending you to North Africa. Protect Rommel’s flanks, and make sure he has plenty of fuel for his tanks.” The news media exists to control information, pharmaceutical regulators exist to protect the ability of pharmaceutical companies to market dangerous and ineffective products, and local governments exist to pay rioters and arsonists for burning down cities. There are a bunch of things happening at Eagle Pass that merit analysis, like the much-repeated but factually incorrect claim that Texas is “defying federal authorities” by placing razor wire at the border, but at the moment I find the idea of analyzing any of it ridiculous. The people who run formally declared sanctuary states and sanctuary cities are very very upset that state and local officials are refusing to acknowledge the federal government’s supremacy in matters of immigration and border security. It’s too stupid to honor by pretending to think about it carefully. The Border Patrol exists to make sure the border is open. That’s it. That’s the current condition of American institutions, neatly summarized. “Police! Drop the gun!” (short pause) “We brought you a better one.” Our government institutions aren’t failing to prevent harm to us; they’re actively working to cause us harm, unambiguously and persistently. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Tell Me How This Ends © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Ve Vill Ask Ze Qvestions! the authorities are here to be progressive to you CHRIS BRAY JAN 24 “Doctor, I think my arm is broken.” “I see. Do you have sex with other men? I need a detailed answer on every one of these forms so I can inform Sacramento.” California has found another way to be wonderfully progressive, and you’ll never guess who’s leading the way. "Sign zee papers old man !" "I can not sign the papers !" "Vhy not ?" "You have broken both of my hands !" Questions about your gender identity, your sexual orientation, and your sexual behavior should be on all health forms, so it can be reported to the authorities. In case it’s not clear what this means, Wiener is reacting to a report from the California State Auditor that identifies the absence of SOGI data — information on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity — in some state public health reporting. You can read that report for yourself here, and don’t miss the remarkable clarity of the illustration on pg. 10: See where the arrows go after you talk to your doctor? Your personal health information rolls uphill, but Wiener is looking to get past the “certain diseases and conditions” limit: “asking the question on all health forms, not just some.” He wants you to report your SOGI up the chain during every interaction with health professionals. You tell your doctor, who tells local officials, who tell state health officials. The central authorities need to know your thoughts on hot dudes before we can deal with that ear infection. “Ve vill now show you zese photographs of a young Brad Pitt, citizen, in order to medically assess your reaction for ze authorities!” This will seem like a curveball, but give me a minute. Twenty to thirty years ago, the transition from knock-some-heads policing to community policing was seen as a progressive reform, and it required more cops. Instead of just racing up to a reported crime in a car, kicking somebody’s ass, and throwing on some handcuffs, police officers were supposed to serve as neighborhood liaisons and “community lead officers,” getting to know the area they served and engaging in problem-solving interventions. “Broken windows” policing was progressive, looking past mere incarceration to adopt a focus on social conditions. So progressive reform = larger police departments, to change the culture of policing. Then came the cultural switch, and progressive reform was defunding the police. Progressive reform is more cops; progressive reform is far fewer cops. Which one of those mutually exclusive reforms is the actual progressive reform? They both are. Progressive reform is changing whatever currently exists. Progressive reform is both X and Not X, depending on the currently declared conditions in the present game of Calvinball. So: Ten years ago, what would LGBT advocacy groups have thought of a state legislator demanding that every medical form ask about sexual orientation, so that the information collected on sexual identity could be reported to officials? Would they have regarded it as a progressive reform? Consider this story about Wiener’s effort. Sample paragraph: Since the lackluster collection of SOGI data by health officials at all levels of government became glaringly obvious at the onset of the COVID pandemic, for which there was no accurate data tracking how the novel coronavirus was impacting the LGBTQ community, Wiener has spoken out about the need to address the issue, along with other state legislators and LGBTQ advocates. The problem is “the lackluster collection of SOGI data by health officials at all levels of government.” Officials are not vigorously collecting information on the sexual behavior of all citizens! This failure must not be permitted! Sexual privacy isn’t progressive, currently. You must indicate on all health forms whether or not you nail chicks, so the proper authorities can be notified. What a time to be alive. The doctor will see you now Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Tell Me How This Ends © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe

Beat Down regarding the trajectory of the Los Angeles Times CHRIS BRAY JAN 24

The Los Angeles Times laid off twenty percent of its newsroom this week, which is showing up as a local scandal on social media. It doesn’t matter. At all. I don’t say that as someone who hates the newspaper, but as someone who grew up with the thing on my family’s dining room table. As always, generalize beyond the current example. The story I’m about to tell is about the news media, all of it. In the 90s, and then briefly into the next decade, I worked for small, locally owned newspapers in suburban Los Angeles. I’ve written about this, and how much I loved it and hated it. I was always committed to the local and alt press models, and freelanced for publications like the late Los Angeles Reader and New Times, and you could have caught Young Chris Bray at the bar bitching about the stupid corporate media. However, and this is a big but: A little more than twenty years ago, I was sitting at my desk at a small suburban newspaper when we started to hear sirens everywhere, which was our cue to go to work. It turned out that some dude had tried to kill a sheriff’s deputy in a nearby town, then vanished for a while, then turned up in our quiet little community. He was in a panel van, stopped in the middle of the street, and he ran and hid in the back of the thing when the police tried to pull him over. There he sat, probably armed, out of sight of the police, who called for a SWAT team. So I ran up the street, found the van, and threw myself down behind a brick wall to watch — next to a bunch of cops, who knew me and sighed heavily at my appearance. “Just keep your head down.” I got good stuff, and our not-terribly-daring photographer got some okay pictures. But we soon discovered that the Los Angeles Times was so totally all over everything that their photographer got a stunning photograph — I actually let out a long, awed breath — from a spot just behind the SWAT team, looking down the barrel of a rifle at the dude’s face as he surrendered, with a police dog at the periphery and looking quite pleased by the prospect of putting in some work. There was a whole perfect story in one flawlessly composed image. There was a long period in Southern California when this was the normal thing: The Los Angeles Times was an alert and constant presence. It was always, in my lifetime if not at its founding, a liberal newspaper. They had a point of view when they covered the news. But they covered the news. Working for the small local papers, I never went to a suburban city council meeting without seeing the reporter from the Los Angeles Times. They were everywhere. If you didn’t read the Times, you didn’t know what was happening in California. Their large and aggressive Sacramento bureau dominated coverage of state government; the Central Valley bureau dominated coverage of agriculture and water policy; the suburban bureaus dominated coverage of the county. And so on. If you lived in Bell Gardens or Signal Hill or La Verne, a beat reporter from the Times was assigned to cover your community, and did the job. Today I live in a small town in the Los Angeles suburbs, and I would bet that the Los Angeles Times hasn’t had a reporter regularly sitting through our city council meetings for well over a decade. They don’t bother; the local news bureaus and sections are dead. I ignore the thing, because it’s safe to ignore. As a fun test, I’d like to see how many people in the Los Angeles Times newsroom could get in the car and find South Pasadena without putting it into their phones for directions. The old newsroom directory listed the beat reporters for Long Beach and Pasadena and Santa Clarita; the current newsroom directory lists beats like this: No one at the Los Angeles Times covers your part of Los Angeles, but I can connect you to the climate justice team. Fuck off. But don’t worry, because they still cover blackness and Asianness: And then there’s this, which makes me start grinding my teeth: The newspaper of record in a 4,000 square-mile county of 10 million people has…a reporter assigned to the courts and prosecutors. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department covers a patrol area the equivalent size of several East Coast states with about 10,000 cops, which means that it’s substantially under its expected numbers and struggling with a recruiting crisis, but the newspaper with a climate change team and a racial identity team has one reporter assigned to cover the thing. And aside from the LAPD and LASD, who covers the police in Glendale and Burbank and Pasadena and Long Beach and Irwindale? Weirdly, I can’t find those beats listed in the Times newsroom directory. Yes, the Los Angeles Times went woke and then went broke, and that’s part of what happened. The bigger truth behind the implosion of the Los Angeles Times is that, and yes I’m shouting, IT STOPPED COVERING THE NEWS. It became a social justice newsletter to the exclusion of showing up and consistently covering budgeting and policy stories in California communities. It gave up on who, what, when, where, why, and how, in favor of endless prattle about Orange Man Bad and all the related pieties. The complaints about the layoffs precisely mirror the dynamics that caused the decline of the newspaper. And please do note that the Times laid off this important opinion writer even though she’s the author of a book about how mean and racist Donald Trump is: oh no where will they find another journalist who’s capable of bitching about donald trump The Los Angeles Times used to be the largest newspaper, by circulation, in the country. Then it stopped being a newspaper. The end. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Tell Me How This Ends © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Vaccines Provide Complete Immunity but with a catch CHRIS BRAY JAN 23

Three years ago, Novak Djokovic refused to save his own life. Threatened by a deadly virus, he refused the lifesaving vaccines. And now you see the terrifying result. Djokovic is so obviously crippled by Covid-19, a virus he unnecessarily chose to face unprotected, that he’s….well, one of the most shockingly fit human beings on the planet, an absolute beast of a professional athlete who dominates a remarkably difficult one-on-one sport so completely that no one else in the game comes close to consistently playing at his level. I don’t follow tennis closely enough to be sure about any of that, so I Googled — to get the commissariat-approved answer — and found this statement: “Djokovic has been ranked No. 1 for a record total of 409 weeks in a record 13 different years.” NOW DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON’T GET VACCINATED!?!?!?!? But what I can’t get over, the thing that just keeps churning in my mind, is that some jackass watched Djokovic play a match, in person, saw how completely he dominated, saw how absurdly healthy and fit he is, and then — at match point, at the end — shouted at him to get vaccinated, like he was rebuking someone for an appalling failure. Why won’t you protect your health, you stupid…most powerful and dominant professional athlete in the world. Djokovic responded by drilling the very next serve for an ace to win the match, slamming it across the court so brutally hard that his much younger opponent couldn’t even get his racket on it and had to just watch it go by. But the person in the crowd: To do that, to shout that thing at that person at that moment, requires a total immunity to information. You have to have a mind that can’t notice physical reality in any way, no matter how obvious it becomes. I guess you have to be the Novak Djokovic of stupidity, the best in the world at the game of making your own head fit inside your ass. So, yes: Vaccines induce immunity. To information. In case you’re looking for a way to protect yourself from that. Now, consider the case of this recent report at CBS News from a journalist who has a science PhD: Screenshot of a sample anti-science fringe view described in the story: “…the baseless rumour that COVID vaccines make people more prone to infection.” The date on this CBS News story (via KFF Health News) is January 18, 2024. The date on this peer-reviewed article in a medical journal is May 17, 2023: Total immunity to information. We have people who cannot be knocked off their course by mere reality. With very little effort, you can name other examples. It’s becoming the water we swim in, the defining feature of the prevailing culture. It’s a slow and steady march toward death, in a state of willful, deliberate, cultivated blindness. And it merits relentless contempt. Tell Me How This Ends is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. © 2024 Chris Bray 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Dimwitted Pantshitter Babbles About Hitler we almosh lozz amershica CHRIS BRAY JAN 5

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© 2024 Chris Bray
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104