Martin Gurri

New media analyst

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

Plato believed citizens should be bred for quality like horses. All his political excursions embraced tyrants and ended in disaster.
We need spirit in a dispirited age. That's what Rubio is claiming. Only a philosophy professor can hallucinate a connection with Hitler from this claim...

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

I did not believe an American political figure could deliver a speech this profound…

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

Finally, someone nailed the aesthetics to convey the civilizational stake of our present age.

Standing before the acropolis as the sun bathed its marble in warm tones, Rubio makes the case for the grandeur and virtues of Western civilization in all its splendor. Empires have risen and vanished beneath that ridge, and the stones remain, indifferent to the fashion of the hour.

Rare to hear a Western leader use vocabulary that modern education has largely purged - sacrifice, duty, inheritance, the debt owed to those who built before us.

The men who raised those columns did not do so under the illusion of permanent safety. They understood what separates glory and ruin, and that the only lasting answer to ruin is the deliberate transmission of daring and courage.

It's a glorious speech, truly one for the ages.

[Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) @antoniogm]

"...until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

As a fully paid up boomer I concur

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

This whole "blame the boomers" narrative is getting old.

If the people you're complaining about are 46–61 years old, most of them aren't boomers. They're Gen X.

And honestly, Gen X is exhausted from hearing the same complaints on repeat.

We didn't get free college. Most of us never had guaranteed pensions. Housing wasn't magically cheap when adjusted for inflation, and plenty of us spent decades working, sacrificing, and starting from scratch.

Every generation faces its own challenges. Ours did too.

The difference is that we were taught that life isn't fair, nobody is coming to rescue you, and success usually comes from adapting, working, and pushing forward when things don't go your way.

You don't have to like that message, but constantly looking for someone else to blame won't improve your situation.

At some point, personal responsibility matters more than finding a new generation to be angry at.

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

This whole "blame the boomers" narrative is getting old.

If the people you're complaining about are 46–61 years old, most of them aren't boomers. They're Gen X.

And honestly, Gen X is exhausted from hearing the same complaints on repeat.

We didn't get free college. Most of us never had guaranteed pensions. Housing wasn't magically cheap when adjusted for inflation, and plenty of us spent decades working, sacrificing, and starting from scratch.

Every generation faces its own challenges. Ours did too.

The difference is that we were taught that life isn't fair, nobody is coming to rescue you, and success usually comes from adapting, working, and pushing forward when things don't go your way.

You don't have to like that message, but constantly looking for someone else to blame won't improve your situation.

At some point, personal responsibility matters more than finding a new generation to be angry at.

[Andrey Mir @Andrey4Mir]

@Grok makes a hypnotic video out of the cover.

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

I feel the same way about Nabokov…

[Liza Libes @pensandpoison]

Vladimir Nabokov frequently disparaged novels that prioritized psychological complexity over what he called “aesthetic bliss.” He famously hated Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann, and William Faulkner.

He’s wrong, of course—Dostoyevsky, Mann, and Faulkner are some of the greatest novelists to have ever walked this earth—but at least he cracks you up.

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

Yep.

[Aleph @woke8yearold]

This is how the French and Germans have always thought. Anglos are the only ones who believed in free speech. Britain eliminated pre-publication licensing in 1695. France had a royal censorship board. That’s part of why free speech falling in Britain was so sad.

[Aleph @woke8yearold]

This is how the French and Germans have always thought. Anglos are the only ones who believed in free speech. Britain eliminated pre-publication licensing in 1695. France had a royal censorship board. That’s part of why free speech falling in Britain was so sad.

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

Yoani Sanchez is under house arrest. The Cuban regime must be panicking…

[Yoani Sánchez @yoanisanchez]

Otro día con operativo en los bajos de nuestro edificio para impedirnos salir de casa. Los días de encierro se multiplican. #Cuba #SOSCuba

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

Relax. Nothing has ever been expected of you (and you’ve met our expectations)…

[Rushi @rushicrypto]

Millennials deserve one full year where absolutely nothing is expected of us. No major historical events. No once-in-a-lifetime crises. Nothing. We’ve been participating against our will since 2001. Give us a break.

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

Germany, man

[Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @Baltic_Takes]

August Hanning was head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service under Gerhard Schröder during the period in which Berlin got hooked on Russian energy, with Hanning backing Nord Stream 1.

Days after Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine, Hanning publicly argued Western arms deliveries wouldn’t make much difference and said he hoped “normal relations” with Russia could be restored soon.

After the Nord Stream explosion, he quickly and baselessly made accusations about Polish and Ukrainian responsibility, and suggested Germany should seek compensation from Poland and Ukraine.

Hanning has also previously smeared Latvia.

He joined the supervisory council of Norvik Banka, later PNB Banka, which subsequently collapsed. Its insolvency administrator later brought a €32 million damages claim against former board and supervisory council members, including Hanning.

During the process, Hanning publicly made sweeping allegations of corruption about Latvian officials and institutions. In later arbitration proceedings, an international tribunal said he made unsubstantiated claims.

He has today been arrested on suspicion of espionage, attempted treason and obtaining state secrets.

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

Alarm about war with Russia is reaching panic levels in Europe. But what kind of war? And how does it prop up Europe's tottering governments?
My latest at The Free Press.
https://t.co/RnVJxDs2CF

[Charles Alloncle @CHAlloncle]

En France, un chef d’entreprise doit justifier chaque facture, chaque note de frais, chaque euro dépensé. Un agriculteur doit respecter des centaines de normes. Un artisan doit déclarer chacune de ses recettes.

Partout, ceux qui travaillent, produisent et entreprennent sont soumis à des règles, à des contrôles et à une exigence permanente de transparence.

Mais à France Télévisions, lorsqu’il s’agit de centaines de millions d’euros de contrats conclus chaque année, cette même exigence de transparence serait, à en croire certains dirigeants et producteurs, une violation du secret des affaires ou pire une atteinte à l’État de droit.

C’est ainsi que prospère une gouvernance marquée par l’opacité, l’irresponsabilité dans la dépense et les connivences.

Comment demander toujours plus de comptes aux Français lorsque ceux qui dépensent leur argent refusent d’en rendre ?

[Mike Solana @micsolana]

“something must be done” about democracy

[Martin Gurri @mgurri]

From your lips to God’s ear…

[Nico 🍉 @sssabandija]

Es básicamente imposible que Lula gane en 2da vuelta porque todos los demás candidatos, a excepción de una, son de derecha. Perdimos a Brasil. El Escudo de las Américas ganó y veo más cercana la caída de Cuba. Se vienen tiempos de barbarie, despojo, devastación y ecocidios.

[Nico 🍉 @sssabandija]

Es básicamente imposible que Lula gane en 2da vuelta porque todos los demás candidatos, a excepción de una, son de derecha. Perdimos a Brasil. El Escudo de las Américas ganó y veo más cercana la caída de Cuba. Se vienen tiempos de barbarie, despojo, devastación y ecocidios.

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

A lot of western leftists look at Brazil (and other places) and see it as some abstract fun ideological laboratory, relevant solely through the prism of the issues they prioritize from a distance (US imperialism, Israel, the viability socialism in Latin America, etc. etc.).

In reality, tens of millions of poor people, black people, working-class Brazilians, etc. voted for Bolsonaro again (just as their American counterparts voted for Trump). If you talk to random apolitical people, what they worry about is not what the David Adlers worry about when jetting into Brazil, but rather what plagues their daily lives: extreme levels of street violence, drug gangs, economic misery, lack of good education and health care for their kids, etc.

You can lecture them all they want that Lula is better for them but they've been hearing that forever. Lula and his party have been in the presidency in Brazil for 20 of the last 26 years. Younger people don't know and don't care about the inspiring mythology and iconography of Lula.

They just don't think the government cares about their lives and so blame those in power: same story throughout the democratic world. It's not ultimately all that complicated.

[Mike Jones @technopopulist]

“Fires break out”

“Fight between pilots”

The BBC, ladies and gentlemen.

[Josh Howie @joshxhowie]

You really are the most shameless cunts @BBCNews. This is not what Netanyahu said, he has made it clear it was a terror attack, with intelligence the co-pilot was deliberately trying to crash the plane in Israel. What Netanyahu said was, it’s unknown whether there was any connection to Iran. I can’t believe you keep getting away with this shit.