Spirit of the Realm

Aficionado of enlightened and authoritarian Roman Emperors.

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

Je crois qu'on ne mesure pas ce qu'Elon Musk est en train de construire avec X.

Tous les médias de l'histoire ont été couplés à une culture, une langue, une bulle géographique. Le Monde parle aux Français. Le NYT parle aux Américains. NHK parle aux Japonais. Chaque média filtre le réel à travers le prisme de sa culture locale.

X est en train de devenir le premier média de l'humanité. Pas d'un pays. De l'espèce.

Je le vis en temps réel. Mes posts en français se font RT par des Japonais, répondre par des Brésiliens, citer par des Américains. Des conversations qui n'auraient jamais existé il y a 5 ans. Un libertarien français qui débat avec un ingénieur de Tokyo et un entrepreneur de Sao Paulo sous le même tweet. Pas traduit par un éditeur. Traduit instantanément par l'IA, en un clic.

Les bulles de filtre culturelles sont en train d'exploser.

Et je pense qu'on sous-estime massivement les effets composés de ça.

Quand une idée peut traverser un océan en 3 secondes, quand un argument sourcé posté à Paris peut être vérifié par un économiste à Singapour et amplifié par un développeur à Austin dans la même heure, le coût de propagation d'une bonne idée tend vers zéro.

Et c'est catastrophique pour un type d'acteur très précis : les médias qui ont construit leur business model sur le monopole de l'information locale. Ceux qui pouvaient raconter n'importe quoi sur "ce qui se passe ailleurs" parce que personne ne pouvait vérifier.

Quand un journaliste français écrit que "le modèle américain ne marche pas", maintenant il y a 50 Américains dans les réponses avec des sources. Quand un éditorialiste dit que "le Danemark prouve que le socialisme fonctionne", il y a un Danois qui explique que le Danemark est 10e en liberté économique mondiale.

Le fact-checking n'est plus un département. C'est un effet réseau.

Les médias honnêtes n'ont rien à craindre de ça. Les médias qui vendaient une narration protégée par l'ignorance géographique de leur audience vont avoir un problème existentiel.

Parce qu'on ne peut plus mentir à l'échelle locale quand le monde entier regarde.

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

Trump is just basically doing all of the things he thought about doing if he could have been president in the 1980s.

[James Woods @RealJamesWoods]

America!

[9mmSMG @9mmsmg]

A friend who used to rag on Charlie Kirk for being too soft and center sent me this.

[The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial]

So it seems the deep state took a career politician with dementia & cancer, staged a riot to certify his mathematically improbable election, arrested anyone who contested it, sanctioned an invasion, weaponized the courts, silenced speech, and turned the US into sodom & Gomorrah

[Spirit of the Realm @basedbadger]

@TheQuartering I think you are right on this one. Between that issue and then ACT 10 waiting to be killed off by this liberal majority, it’s basically given them a hammerlock on statewide offices.

It was hard enough for conservatives to win statewide here without that extra baggage.

[Spirit of the Realm @basedbadger]

@politico If we had a GOP county chair that thought this was “in the bag” then that is part of the problem.

This was never “in the bag” and anyone that has lived here for a while and can remember how these off cycle Supreme Court elections go should know that.

[Spirit of the Realm @basedbadger]

I don’t know why it is so difficult for Republicans in this state to find us a genuine good conservative lawyer that isn’t a schmuck, doesn’t appear like an aloof jackass, and can’t easily be labeled as a lunatic.

I’m so sick of losing supreme court elections in this state. This shouldn’t be that hard. We had a 5-2 majority at one point and blundered our way to a 4-3 minority and it could actually get worse until the next liberal is up in like 2028.

[Spirit of the Realm @basedbadger]

It’s interesting. I consume almost 100% online video so ads to me are delivered via YouTube or other platforms like that. Overwhelmingly anti-Schimel. I didn’t see a single one negative on Crawford. The mailers I received split evenly between the two. Maybe the anti-Crawford people stuck more to traditional radio and traditional TV. It is probably another part of the problem.

[Spirit of the Realm @basedbadger]

This is a solid take. The anti-union case is also sitting before them which is also a motivator.

[play nice Gen X @playnicegenx]

Because the abortion issue is not settled in WI and has been sitting with the current SC for 6 months and still no decision. The only thing they have to run on. All the local stations are for the democrats and keep promoting them and trashing the Republicans. Plus we are surrounded by blue states that keep moving here and all the conservatives are leaving the state.

[Spirit of the Realm @basedbadger]

The candidate the republicans ran was not strong — didn’t inspire enough trump voters to show up. Plus it is off cycle election in a state that has a pissed off set of democrat voters in it that are very motivated to 1) resist and 2) ensure that a hated anti-union law passed over a decade ago is overturned. nobody in wisconsin is voting based on the popularity of the democrat party (or lack of it). its literally a non-factor in a race like this.

[PJ Ace @PJaccetturo]

What if Studio Ghibli directed Lord of the Rings?

I spent $250 in Kling credits and 9 hours re-editing the Fellowship trailer to bring that vision to life—and I’ll show you exactly how I did it 👇🏼

[Spirit of the Realm @basedbadger]

I don’t think what @nicksortor did was an attack. He simply cast light on a previously hidden truth. If that transparency is inconvenient or problematic for those involved — then that is a problem with what they did, not @nicksortor for pointing it out.

Many people value authenticity and being genuine — those things build trust and credibility.

For years, folks on the right have endured this same sort of thing from the mainstream media. They speak to you on camera claiming independence and “balance” while off camera they are embedded in the left and “paid back” with access and influence — spouting the talking points they are given by the left.

If these influencers can’t see the parallel of that to what they are doing here by accepting money to push views then they are either don’t care or simply motivated by grifting in MAGA/MAHA. A) They should know better. B) If there is backlash because of what they did, that is on them not on the people that expose it.

[Aelfred The Great @aelfred_D]

BREAKING: DOGE has discovered that USAID delved too greedily and too deep in the mines of Moria, awakening in the darkness of Khazad-dûm shadow and flame.

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

To fully understand just how remarkable today’s exchange with Colombia was, you need to understand how Washington DC has traditionally worked through these sorts of issues, and the different way it works now under Trump.

I’ll illustrate.

Traditional Approach:

1. Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.
2. On Monday, the State Department convenes an interagency task force with DoD, NSC, DEA, INS, ICE, Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security.
3. The task force meets for four days and develops a position paper.
4. The position paper is rejected by the Secretary of State, who is unhappy that insufficient equity considerations are built into the process.
5. The task force reconvenes a week later to redevelop three new, equity-centric courses of action and create a new position paper.
6. The process is delayed a week because Washington DC gets three inches of snow.
7. SecState approves the new position paper for interagency circulation, and considerable input is received from the heads of other departments so the task force must reconvene.
8. The original three proposed responsive courses of action are scrapped in favor of a new, fourth course of action that achieves the worst aspects of the three prior courses of action but satisfies the interagency.
9. Someone in State who disagrees leaks to the Washington Post, who writes a story about how ineffective the Presidential administration is.
10. The White House Chief of Staff sets up a session three days later to brief the President, who approves the new fourth course of action.
11. Over a month after the issue is first raised, the State Department Public Affairs Officer holds a press conference announcing that Colombia has agreed to try to send fewer criminals into the US and everyone declares victory.

Trump Approach:

1. Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.
2. After a par-5 third hole where he goes one under par, Trump uses his iPhone to post on social media as to how the USA will destroy Colombia’s economy if they do not do what the USA demands.
3. By the time Trump gets to the par-4 sixth hole, Colombia’s President has agreed to repatriate all the illegal Colombians in his own plane, which he will pay for.
4. Trump finishes three under par and goes to the clubhouse for a Diet Coke where he posts a gangsta AI image of himself and the new FAFO Doctrine.
5. Winning.

See the difference? It’s called LEADERSHIP.

[Community Notes & Violations @CNviolations]

Javier Milei: "You can’t give sh*t leftards a single inch”

[James Woods @RealJamesWoods]

OMG. go to https://t.co/8ZC7i4iIZL

[Arthur Schwartz @ArthurSchwartz]

Who put Pete Hegseth’s Nazi tattoo on the cover of Jimmy Carter’s funeral program?