Tim and Jane Go SCORCHED EARTH on “Rancid” Megyn Kelly (w/ Jane Coaston) | Bulwark Podcast
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Quick Read
Summary
Takeaways
- ❖Megyn Kelly's inflammatory comments on Haitian immigrants are characterized as 'vice signaling' designed for profit, not genuine concern.
- ❖The Supreme Court's decision on Haitian TPS and the severe 'Antifa terrorism' charges reveal a stark double standard in how the justice system treats different groups.
- ❖JD Vance's public embrace of Catholicism and his revisionist view of Watergate are presented as calculated political maneuvers, not genuine shifts in belief.
Insights
1Megyn Kelly's 'Rancid' Rhetoric on Haitian Immigrants
Megyn Kelly's comments telling Haitian immigrants to 'Go home' and asserting American cultural superiority are dismissed as 'rancid' and 'vice signaling.' The hosts argue she performs this outrage to appeal to her audience and benefit financially, rather than expressing genuine concern, pointing out her disconnect from everyday people.
Kelly stated, 'Go home. Get out. We know our country is better than yours... You being here only dilutes it for us.' Jane Coaston responded, 'What she's doing there... she is vice signaling. This is like yeah [__] you. I hate everybody. This is ter I'm a terrible person and I'm going to perform that.'
2Supreme Court's Haitian TPS Ruling and Perceived Racism
The Supreme Court's decision to make over 300,000 Haitians on Temporary Protected Status illegal is criticized as a 'heinous, disgusting, unamerican' policy. The hosts highlight the perceived racial bias, contrasting Justice Alito's dismissal of Trump's racist comments with Justice Kagan's dissent detailing them, and noting conservatives' selective recognition of racism.
Jane Coaston noted Justice Alito's stance that Trump's comments about Haitians 'doesn't look like anything to me,' while Justice Kagan's dissent 'is all of the things Trump said about Haitians and talking about how they're bringing AIDS, how they live in a [__] hole country.'
3Double Standards in 'Antifa Terrorism' Charges
The prosecution of 22 ICE facility protesters, with nine facing 30-100 year sentences under 'material support for terrorism' charges (including one for merely moving 'anarchist zines'), is condemned as 'objectively insane.' This is contrasted with the more lenient treatment of many January 6th defendants and the lack of conservative outrage over these severe sentences.
Tim Miller stated, 'These people got 30 to 100 years for Antifa terrorism.' Jane Coaston added, 'this person was prosecuted for terrorism for moving a box of Zen.'
4JD Vance's Politically Incentivized Catholic Conversion
JD Vance's conversion to Catholicism, influenced by Peter Thiel, is framed as a 'politically incentivized' move rather than a genuine spiritual journey. His wife, Usha Vance, humorously implies her stable Hindu upbringing meant she didn't 'need to seek something different,' contrasting with JD's perceived need for a 'journey.'
Jane Coaston remarked, 'the timing just just happened to line up for when I believed that a cultural Catholicism would be most politically advantageous.' Usha Vance stated, 'I grew up in a household, a Hindu household, a very stable household and I've not felt the same sense of of need to seek something different that he has.'
5JD Vance's Dismissal of Watergate as a '12-Hour News Story'
JD Vance's assertion that Watergate would only be a '12-hour news story' today, and his comparison of Nixon's downfall to the 'deep state' targeting Trump, is seen as a shocking normalization of political crimes. The hosts detail the extensive criminal actions of Nixon's administration to refute Vance's trivialization.
JD Vance stated, 'if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story.' Tim Miller countered by detailing Nixon's aids authorizing DNC break-ins, CIA cover-ups, and slush funds, concluding, 'The president was colluding with the deep state to help him cover up his plot to spy on his political foes.'
6Critique of the Caitlyn Clark Discourse
The discourse surrounding WNBA player Caitlyn Clark is criticized for being driven by 'old white guys' who know nothing about the league but use her as a tool for 'rage race baiting.' The hosts highlight the underlying lesbophobia and the hypocrisy of those who suddenly care about the WNBA only to complain about perceived unfairness to Clark.
Tim Miller noted, 'they have all these old white guys that are like hey I don't watch the WNBA but they seem mean to Caitlyn Clark.' Jane Coaston added, 'the lesbophobia just jumps out where it's just like all these evil lesbians are just coming at her.'
7Calls to Repeal the 19th Amendment
The recent 'boomlet' of calls to repeal the 19th Amendment (women's suffrage) by figures like sports team owner Haralbob is ridiculed as 'loser talk' and 'stupider' than 'tankyism.' The hosts point out the absurdity of blaming women's votes for societal problems and the underlying misogyny of these arguments, noting that Republicans' reluctance to imprison women for abortions is due to bad polling, not moral conviction.
Haralbob tweeted, 'This is a direct result of the 19th amendment. It permanently altered the electorate, empowered the politics of emotion over order, accelerated... the march towards open borders, welfare, statism, and the erosion of every traditional institution.' Jane Coaston called it 'loser talk' and highlighted that Republicans avoid punishing women for abortions because 'the polling is bad.'
Bottom Line
The political landscape has entered a 'post-crime' era where leaders openly normalize or dismiss actions that were once considered impeachable offenses, signaling to their base that 'we can do crimes' without consequence.
This normalization erodes the rule of law and public trust, creating a dangerous precedent where accountability is selectively applied, and political power is prioritized over ethical governance.
For citizens, this necessitates a heightened vigilance and critical evaluation of political rhetoric, demanding consistent application of legal and ethical standards regardless of political affiliation. For media, it highlights the need to resist the urge to normalize or downplay serious transgressions.
The reluctance of some conservatives to support imprisoning women for abortions is not rooted in moral opposition to such punishment, but rather in the pragmatic concern that 'the polling is bad,' indicating a purely transactional approach to policy based on public opinion rather than principle.
This reveals a cynical calculation where deeply held 'moral' positions can be abandoned or softened if they prove politically unpopular, undermining the authenticity of stated values and making policy outcomes highly susceptible to electoral pressures.
Activists and voters can leverage this insight by consistently highlighting the unpopularity of extreme policies, forcing politicians to choose between their stated ideological purity and their electoral viability. It also underscores the importance of public opinion in shaping even 'moral' political stances.
Key Concepts
Coaston's Nostalgia Theory
This theory posits that people tend to view past eras as 'the greatest time' because those were the periods when they were young, hot, and at the peak of their personal or professional lives. It suggests that nostalgia is often a self-centered reflection of one's own past experiences rather than an objective assessment of historical periods, leading to a distorted view of societal progress or decline.
Vice Signaling
A concept where individuals or media personalities perform outrage or express extreme, often hateful, views not out of genuine conviction but to appeal to a specific audience and gain financial or social benefit. It's the inverse of virtue signaling, where the performance is about demonstrating negative or 'edgy' traits.
Lessons
- Critically evaluate political commentary for 'vice signaling,' recognizing when outrage is performed for financial or political gain rather than genuine conviction.
- Challenge double standards in the application of justice and moral judgment, particularly when different groups face vastly different consequences for similar actions.
- Question narratives that romanticize past eras ('nostalgia theory'), understanding that such views often reflect personal experiences rather than objective historical reality, and can hinder progress.
Notable Moments
Jane Coaston describes Megyn Kelly's anti-immigrant rhetoric as 'rancid' and 'vice signaling,' mocking her perceived connection to 'friends in Ohio.'
This moment encapsulates the hosts' direct and unsparing critique of conservative media figures, highlighting the perceived performative nature of their commentary.
Usha Vance's comedic response to JD Vance's Catholic conversion, attributing her lack of a similar 'journey' to a 'stable household,' implying his conversion stemmed from personal instability.
This provides a humorous yet pointed critique of JD Vance's narrative, suggesting his conversion is less about faith and more about personal or political needs, and offers a rare glimpse into the dynamics of their relationship.
The hosts detail the severe 'Antifa terrorism' sentences (30-100 years) for ICE facility protesters, including one for moving 'anarchist zines,' contrasting it with the treatment of January 6th defendants.
This highlights a perceived extreme imbalance and political weaponization of the justice system, drawing attention to cases that receive less mainstream coverage but carry significant implications for civil liberties.
Haralbob's tweet advocating for the repeal of the 19th Amendment, blaming women's suffrage for societal decline, is read aloud and ridiculed.
This showcases an extreme and openly misogynistic viewpoint gaining traction in certain conservative circles, illustrating the lengths to which some go to explain perceived political failures.
Quotes
"What Megan Kelly is doing is she's being a rancid [__]. That's what she's doing. I'm sorry. Like that is all she's doing. She's like, you can call it vice signaling. That's just it's like the Winnie the Pooh in the tuxedo version of what she's doing. But she's being a rancid [__]."
"Samuel Alo saying like Trump's comments, you know, you you can say anything about someone's country. You can just like dislike people's country like whatever it's fine. Like [snorts] so it's not racist. And then you have, if I remember correctly, you have in her descent, Elena Kagan being like, 'Here is all of the things Trump said about Haitians and talking about how they're bringing AIDS, how they live in a [__] hole country, how they're just terrible people.'"
"I think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so. As I joked with Robert backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. Like the idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy. And by the way, if you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it's not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration. There is a a parallel."
"I grew up in a household, a Hindu household, a very stable household and I've not felt the same sense of of need to seek something different that he has."
"Do you miss this time or were you young andor hot at the time?"
"This is a direct result of the 19th amendment. It permanently altered the electorate, empowered the politics of emotion over order, accelerated I think of when I think of Trump. No emotion. [laughter] Accelerated the march towards open borders, welfare, statism, and the erosion of every traditional institution that once made the country governable. Democracy went wrong when it made the lonely individual the basic political unit. The family should be the unit of representation. One vote per household and all the households raising children."
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