American Identity in the Age of Trump with George Packer

0:30 - About the Jefferson Lecture
1:57 - Introduction - Dylan Penningroth
5:55 - Main Presentation - George Packer
57:11 - Audience Questions

The Trump Presidency is a symptom of the fracturing in American society that goes deeper than economics and politics to the meaning of being an American. George Packer, Staff Writer for the New Yorker, argues that none of the currently available narratives of national identity point a way out of our failure and asks if there is another way to think of ourselves as Americans. George Packer is a contributor for numerous journals and magazines, including The New York Times magazine, Dissent, Mother Jones, and Harper’s. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [1/2018] [Show ID: 33000]

[Troy-olfk]

Turns out people want a strongman to rule their country, freedom is dizzying I guess

[bunnyspank]

Mr. Packer's lecture was actually fairly well-balanced. It was something I wasn't expecting after reading some of his articles for the "New Yorker". However, his love for FDR's policies and the Progressives are quite off-putting. FDR might have saved the country from fascism and communism but he also introduced the snowballing effect of welfare. The Progressives, on the other hand, introduced Prohibition, which started the downward spiral of crime and hooliganism that the U.S. has experienced ever since.

Finally, he fails to recognize that it wasn't the right that started identity politics in the States but the left. Specifically, it was the Abolitionists in the 1830s that started pandering to their (at that time) arrogant SJWs, who were so imbued with righteousness that they were willing to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans to create their vision.

Frankly, he and his ideological ilk are the ones that created the problems the States is dealing with now.

[jacobblack]

Capisum is there reason theys people have a job.