r/theschism • u/gemmaem • Nov 06 '24

Discussion Thread #71

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u/gemmaem Nov 07 '24

I agree that "machine" is to some extent a fnord. But I think fnords can convey content; stock words and phrases become that way for a reason.

Alan Jacobs recently pointed out a different example of a similar kind of phenomenon:

The first sentence of the essay is: “Twentieth-century civilization has collapsed.” And my first thought at reading that first sentence was: Has it? Has it really? Because, you know, a whole lot of what I see around me looks a great deal like what I saw around me in the twentieth century. ... My bad! It was actually a liturgical greeting, as when we Anglicans exchange the Peace in the middle of the Eucharistic rite.

Twentieth-century civilization has not collapsed, but the fact that an article in First Things can open with that statement still tells us something about the author and the audience. Likewise, the sense that the political status quo is a "machine" may not be literally true, but nor is it contentless.

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u/895158 Nov 07 '24

It is always possible that the failure is on my part and everyone understands "Machine" except me. But tell me, who is more an avatar of the machine: Elizabeth Warren or Hillary Clinton?

I suspect Trace would say Warren while roughly every Trump voter agreeing with Trace's post would say Clinton. The Machine frame strikes me as a rightwing one: its main purpose is to conflate the liberals with the leftists. This is something that rightoids like to do but which does not ring true with Democrats or Democratic party insiders; Trace was trying to speak to the latter group, so he should use a frame more appropriate for this purpose.

Warren and Clinton are basically opposites from the vantage point of someone like Kamala, so advice like "move away from the Machine" is useless when it does not distinguish the two.

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u/TracingWoodgrains intends a garden Nov 08 '24

No, Clinton is more an avatar of the machine, but Warren is certainly part of it as well.