above

The Left has always correctly surmised that the "marketplace of ideas" is a total myth. Democracy, too, is a myth. So is the idea that if we leverage our freedom of speech or engage in enough open dialogue with the other side, the truth will inevitably prevail and then manifest itself in legislation. All of these things are basically childish ideas about how politics actually works, but we keep clinging to them because they make us feel good. Here’s how things actually work. You take power You defund your enemies You hire your friends You enact policies that send your enemies into exile while importing new voters who are loyal to you And you rinse and repeat all of this until your political worldview gets installed as the equivalent of "just being a heckin' decent human being." This is all so easy to understand, but every time someone says it out loud, we treat it like they’ve either said something unbelievably scandalous, or they're the second coming of Machiavelli.