The brilliant magic trick is to wave a wand and intone “MAGA” to turn off people’s brains. I have no idea if Pratt would be a good mayor but he spoke clearly about real issues. But call him MAGA and a certain type of voter votes against him.
Thanks for continuing to try to turn on people’s brains.
I enjoy your wit, your writing, and your keen intelligence. I think you are incredibly brave in speaking your truth and taking risks socially and otherwise with your opinions. In doing so, you lift the bar for all of us and challenge us to go deeper. I look forward to your podcast each week and appreciate your voice more than I can say. Thank you for these takes. Ignore those who cannot move beyond words like MAGA that trigger their limited and limiting beliefs.
“For the first time in years, there is a critical mass of citizens who are done pretending that what they see before their eyes isn’t really there.“ I am constantly in awe of, and myself guilty of performing, the mental and ethical gymnastics that it takes to ignore a pachyderm this large in the room. I’m tired of pretending my eyes are playing tricks on me and dissociating in order to deny the magnitude of it. Pratt always struck me as a prat, but good on him for bringing this issue to the fore. And brave of you for boosting his efforts!
I hope those who now share a common reality in Los Angeles stay with it and don’t lose sight of a better LA. Maybe it’s the psychedelic lighting under those beautiful gradient sunsets while a perfect temperature breeze brushes against you, but I’ve never seen an American city with so much beauty and potential.
Things probably will have to get worse before they get better, but LA is a place worth saving. Maybe when Trump is gone and all political rivers don’t flow towards him, LA will have the courage to elect someone also willing to acknowledge its common reality.
As a side note, I’d love more local interesting stories from across the country. I’m exhausted by national and global news.
Essays like this one are why I always stick with you, Meghan. Unlike everyone else liberal leaning, you don’t shy away from the truth by just renaming the situation (I always cringe when I hear the homeless referred to as “unhoused” like that makes it less distasteful.). I’m reading your latest book of essays and it’s so relatable. You’ve got a much huger crowd behind you who thinks the same way. I don’t live in LA, but I have friends who’ve left for reasons like this. I’m also fascinated by the situation that cannot be solved (just visited Tokyo and well, what a vast difference). Why can’t America do better? Keep these podcasts and articles coming, I say. You’re doing a good thing.
I really enjoyed your podcast episodes with Spencer Pratt and Adam Miller, even though I don't live in LA. I'd be excited to hear more political conversations in the future!
Meghan, I’m pretty sure the nuance-haters out there wouldn’t classify your Pratt essay as your WORST crime - they would still give top billing to the time you wrote that it’s cringey for people with PhDs in education to refer to themselves as “Doctor.”
Have really valued your coverage on these critical issues. You continue to stand out on a limb and I wish more in the media sphere were brave enough to do it. Watching these election results has been pretty crushing. The only silver lining I see is that one can no longer deny that CA's voting process is flawed beyond measure. But the powers that be won't care until we care enough to make them.
The way forward for LA is to push for short term civil commitment to general hospitals with psychiatric units. Get rid of needle distribution should come first. Needle distribution is not harm reduction, but spreading the harm, and it is killing many people on the street by enabling their dangerous and unhealthy behavior. Passing out foil and other paraphernalia, also has to go. Unlike Pratt, who spoke freely about the problems in LA and poor governance, very few in the medical or legal profession are stepping up here to address these social problems realistically. Stop the housing first nonsense, get past the medical and housing industrial complexes, and provide ordinary psychiatric assistance. Hold the severely mentally ill accountable to public laws, and yes, prosecute them and jail them when they violate laws. You need better representatives from the legal, medical, and psychiatric community, who can articulate clear plans, rather than talk about how constrained and incapable we are of being sensible. Whiny elites that have nothing better to do than critique your support for Pratt, have no idea whatsoever. They suck the air out of every room they enter.
You have my support on this Meghan. And how is it that people can’t vote for someone who is a registered Republican, especially in a local race? What are they afraid of? I don’t get it. (But I’m also a registered Republican, so what do I know?)
I hate J6, I hate Trump's fraud claims, but Pratt's election defeat was different. He underperformed Caruso so badly (Caruso had 47.5 percent of the vote before the current mayor met everyone's house burned down), it's crazy. Harvesting ballots isnt legal if the person doesn't consent to vote for the person without coercion or inducement. Nothing in the data we have shows that people weren't coerced or induced, nor do we even know if they really consented to vote. I bet a lot of people has ballots filled out for them without their knowledge. The split vote of mail in ballots went towards the candidate that would knock Pratt out. This clearly is not disprovable, and it is the most likely conclusion that fraud and coercion occurred. I think the LA mayor race makes a very strong case for federal election laws, and the ability to enforce them, because Pratt voters had their voting rights act rights deprived by coercion and fraud. My Italian friends hear about our election, and they just could not believe our elections are this corrupt and their conclusion is that it must be to enable fraud, because there is no other reason to make our elections untrustworthy. Of course, I am relying on back of the envelope calculations, and I think somebody should do a Bayesian analysis to see if this account of fraud is statistically more probable.
"The people in charge will have to answer to those citizens." No they won't. Neither the socialist Bass nor the communist Raman care what "those citizens" think. Their voters are working class blacks and Hispanics who are far more concerned about high rent than whether some rich guy's house burned down in the Palisades. And they don't care about homeless encampments either. That's just the way it is.
This reminds me of a hippie friend I knew in 1972. He was convinced McGovern would win the presidency because "everyone I know is voting for McGovern." Similarly in 1936 the majority of people who responded to an election poll conducted by telephone were voting for Alf Landon. But most voters in 1936 didn't have telephones. Roosevelt won 46 states.
The brilliant magic trick is to wave a wand and intone “MAGA” to turn off people’s brains. I have no idea if Pratt would be a good mayor but he spoke clearly about real issues. But call him MAGA and a certain type of voter votes against him.
Thanks for continuing to try to turn on people’s brains.
I enjoy your wit, your writing, and your keen intelligence. I think you are incredibly brave in speaking your truth and taking risks socially and otherwise with your opinions. In doing so, you lift the bar for all of us and challenge us to go deeper. I look forward to your podcast each week and appreciate your voice more than I can say. Thank you for these takes. Ignore those who cannot move beyond words like MAGA that trigger their limited and limiting beliefs.
That is so lovely. Thank you.
“For the first time in years, there is a critical mass of citizens who are done pretending that what they see before their eyes isn’t really there.“ I am constantly in awe of, and myself guilty of performing, the mental and ethical gymnastics that it takes to ignore a pachyderm this large in the room. I’m tired of pretending my eyes are playing tricks on me and dissociating in order to deny the magnitude of it. Pratt always struck me as a prat, but good on him for bringing this issue to the fore. And brave of you for boosting his efforts!
I hope those who now share a common reality in Los Angeles stay with it and don’t lose sight of a better LA. Maybe it’s the psychedelic lighting under those beautiful gradient sunsets while a perfect temperature breeze brushes against you, but I’ve never seen an American city with so much beauty and potential.
Things probably will have to get worse before they get better, but LA is a place worth saving. Maybe when Trump is gone and all political rivers don’t flow towards him, LA will have the courage to elect someone also willing to acknowledge its common reality.
As a side note, I’d love more local interesting stories from across the country. I’m exhausted by national and global news.
I supported you, and if I lived in LA, I would have voted for him!
Essays like this one are why I always stick with you, Meghan. Unlike everyone else liberal leaning, you don’t shy away from the truth by just renaming the situation (I always cringe when I hear the homeless referred to as “unhoused” like that makes it less distasteful.). I’m reading your latest book of essays and it’s so relatable. You’ve got a much huger crowd behind you who thinks the same way. I don’t live in LA, but I have friends who’ve left for reasons like this. I’m also fascinated by the situation that cannot be solved (just visited Tokyo and well, what a vast difference). Why can’t America do better? Keep these podcasts and articles coming, I say. You’re doing a good thing.
I really enjoyed your podcast episodes with Spencer Pratt and Adam Miller, even though I don't live in LA. I'd be excited to hear more political conversations in the future!
Regarding this campaign as well as comments to your Atlantic article:
a whole lotta Adolescent Simplification Syndrome going on.
Meghan, I’m pretty sure the nuance-haters out there wouldn’t classify your Pratt essay as your WORST crime - they would still give top billing to the time you wrote that it’s cringey for people with PhDs in education to refer to themselves as “Doctor.”
Good point!
Keep living in truth, Meghan!
Thousands of us are grateful to you.
Have really valued your coverage on these critical issues. You continue to stand out on a limb and I wish more in the media sphere were brave enough to do it. Watching these election results has been pretty crushing. The only silver lining I see is that one can no longer deny that CA's voting process is flawed beyond measure. But the powers that be won't care until we care enough to make them.
The way forward for LA is to push for short term civil commitment to general hospitals with psychiatric units. Get rid of needle distribution should come first. Needle distribution is not harm reduction, but spreading the harm, and it is killing many people on the street by enabling their dangerous and unhealthy behavior. Passing out foil and other paraphernalia, also has to go. Unlike Pratt, who spoke freely about the problems in LA and poor governance, very few in the medical or legal profession are stepping up here to address these social problems realistically. Stop the housing first nonsense, get past the medical and housing industrial complexes, and provide ordinary psychiatric assistance. Hold the severely mentally ill accountable to public laws, and yes, prosecute them and jail them when they violate laws. You need better representatives from the legal, medical, and psychiatric community, who can articulate clear plans, rather than talk about how constrained and incapable we are of being sensible. Whiny elites that have nothing better to do than critique your support for Pratt, have no idea whatsoever. They suck the air out of every room they enter.
You have my support on this Meghan. And how is it that people can’t vote for someone who is a registered Republican, especially in a local race? What are they afraid of? I don’t get it. (But I’m also a registered Republican, so what do I know?)
I hate J6, I hate Trump's fraud claims, but Pratt's election defeat was different. He underperformed Caruso so badly (Caruso had 47.5 percent of the vote before the current mayor met everyone's house burned down), it's crazy. Harvesting ballots isnt legal if the person doesn't consent to vote for the person without coercion or inducement. Nothing in the data we have shows that people weren't coerced or induced, nor do we even know if they really consented to vote. I bet a lot of people has ballots filled out for them without their knowledge. The split vote of mail in ballots went towards the candidate that would knock Pratt out. This clearly is not disprovable, and it is the most likely conclusion that fraud and coercion occurred. I think the LA mayor race makes a very strong case for federal election laws, and the ability to enforce them, because Pratt voters had their voting rights act rights deprived by coercion and fraud. My Italian friends hear about our election, and they just could not believe our elections are this corrupt and their conclusion is that it must be to enable fraud, because there is no other reason to make our elections untrustworthy. Of course, I am relying on back of the envelope calculations, and I think somebody should do a Bayesian analysis to see if this account of fraud is statistically more probable.
Thank you for your brave voice, Meghan. You give me courage and hope!
"The people in charge will have to answer to those citizens." No they won't. Neither the socialist Bass nor the communist Raman care what "those citizens" think. Their voters are working class blacks and Hispanics who are far more concerned about high rent than whether some rich guy's house burned down in the Palisades. And they don't care about homeless encampments either. That's just the way it is.
The working class blacks and Hispanics I've spoken with want safer streets and cannot believe the encampments are tolerated
This reminds me of a hippie friend I knew in 1972. He was convinced McGovern would win the presidency because "everyone I know is voting for McGovern." Similarly in 1936 the majority of people who responded to an election poll conducted by telephone were voting for Alf Landon. But most voters in 1936 didn't have telephones. Roosevelt won 46 states.