Drew Downs

It is remarkable — Indiana’s Governor, parroting the president, wants you mad, not that someone died, but that an immigrant is involved. He doesn’t want you to demand safer roads, but the rejection of immigrants. He doesn’t want you mourning the dead, but hating the living.

Are we really not going to talk about how the administration is pushing the Melania movie after spending the last decade convincing us that immigrant is a synonym for murderer?

or The Common Writing Advice I Most Need to Ignore
open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...

I can't repost it, but the first reply to this post starts with "Vance has never improved a situation a day in his life," which is the meanest and funniest and truest thing I think I've ever heard anybody say

this is such an embarrassing speech to give a newsroom of media professionals. this all boils down to "the internet exists and people don't watch as much TV news". incredible revelation Bari. Her solution seems to be "create a product people want even less than TV news".

For those struggling to connect the dots, CBS News viewership is down 25% since Bari Weiss took over with the claim that it needs to be more centrist and unsurprisingly Trump still wants to kill it.

So much was good about 2025. Here are 100 things that made my year! open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...

Either it’s that ICE attracts the worst people or ICE brings out the worst in people. Lawless gestapo is the model.

Every time I see a new thing from the admin, I have the same thought. "These losers are so thirsty."

Every single time.

The idea of a media blackout for sports made more sense when tickets were like five bucks and people could just go to them. But in a world when a trip to a game costs a week's wages, blocking games seems self-defeating.

Some meandering thoughts on “elections have consequences.” There’s a phrase that seems sensible. We say that elections have consequences, which is only half true, and deceptively not.

I keep thinking about what people keep expecting from the government, from democratic norms, and from the systems of power in the US. And it occurs to me that maybe the problem starts with our expectations. drewdowns.net/2025/11/13/s...

Our saints are the antidote — Revealing God’s dream The saints help us see the alternative vision that Jesus offers: that we can actually love as we are loved and give as God gives.

They are getting their joy now, at the world’s expense. At the expense of our future.
drewdowns.net/2025/11/02/o...

The Interview — What we can learn from it.

#dreaming #substack

open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...

Even if it’s negotiable, that makes it a negotiation. Just because a president crossed the line and people voted for him doesn’t change the line. Nor does it suggest we should accept where they want to place the line. It isn’t dependent on partisanship, but on common behavior. 2/2

One should not take it as given that the plurality that has accepted things that are over the line should be able to dictate where a hypothetical new line should be drawn. 1/2

the lesson of the kimmel thing is that a corporation that previously caved to trump was forced by its audience to defy him.

they're afraid of him but they're more afraid of you.

Using him, not to make the world a better place for everyone. But to push for conservative hegemony.

In short, journalists are putting the cart before the horse when talking about Kirk and influence. And because of that, it makes the whole spectacle look opposite to what it is. This isn't a movement inspired by Kirk. It is a movement who are using him in death as a martyr.

This is often how journalists cover people because their influence is usually measurable in direct impact on their community. But when one is a product of a system, is given wealth and status within it, and builds up a corner of the movement, the influence goes the other way.

This isn't to say it isn't aligned with Kirk's agenda, it totally is. The point is that this is clearly not a spontaneous reflection of how powerful this one man was. Like he was the centerpiece of an upstart thing called the conservative movement. And now they're just following his lead.

They are giving the man credit for influence that came from being part of a movement machine. And the canonization of him has to at least be considered an intentional amplification of their own agenda.

It is frustrating to hear journalists talk about the right's championing of Kirk as a reflection of his influence. Where is the incredulousness? Isn't it more likely, given the character of the individuals involved, that they are using him as a reflection of their movement?

STEWART: “Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether— we’re the banana peel in the coal mine… authoritarians are the threat to comedy, music, art, thought… progress.”

Nailed it.

Want proof that the right doesn't care about free speech atm? They want to define "celebrating" for the rest of us.

Want proof that the center doesn't get that it's being played?
They keep going along with the right's definition like it is consistent.

Like, he could really be just killing for the killing and not know it is also what fascists want from him. And people are out here thinking there’s a true, draw the dividing line with a sharpie and I’m like, you’re literally giving the fascists what they want.

Whether or not we ever come to a satisfying motivation for the Kirk shooter kind of misses the point. The White Power ideology we see in the Groyper community is so cross-pollinated with brain rot that a young man could be doing it for the lolz and be a fascist.

I keep seeing people post that Kirk was a champion of lively debate. What ignorance! He was an intolerant bigot who championed political power and bullying others. May God have mercy on his soul.

Writing is the work.

open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...

#substack #writing #living #creativenonfiction #writersblock

Prayer isn’t just a wish that things be different. It is the active desire to become different.
#substack #Faith #prayer #peace #genocide

open.substack.com/pub/drewdown...

It is the fate of all libertarians to rail against decency, empathy, "wokeness" et al as constrictive and oppressive, posit being totally rude and edgy and whatever man as true freedom, helping pave the way for someone to take away that decency; and then the libertarians go "aww no wait this sucks"