From the New York Times: JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended: His political views differed from a transgender classmate’s, but they forged a bond that lasted a decade — until Mr. Vance seemed to pivot, politically and personally.

The article is worth a read, or even just a skim.

Things move so fast, it's hard to catch up with them. I guess I just wanted to share a few reactions I had to reading this article.

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From the comments section, "Stacey" writes "Sharing these with a news outlet ia a betrayal of friendship and the person who shared them is clearly not trustworthy."

I think when someone aims to be the vice president to a 78-year-old McDonald's consumer, it's pretty clear they dream themselves as your master. The betrayal happened at some previous moment. Anything goes.

As now-Senator Vance seeks the vice presidency, Nelson has shared about 90 of their emails and text messages, primarily from 2014 through 2017, with The New York Times.

I've talked about The New York Times and their anti-trans bias. There's a whole lot of writing out there on it, and I link to some of it in that other post.

In spite of the NYT's clear anti-trans bias, I still think it's worthwhile to engage with the NYT. Nelson seems to agree with me. If you're going to compromise your moral and ideological considerations in return for practical gains, you can do a lot worse than contributing to the country's biggest lib paper.

But Nelson and Mr. Vance had a falling out in 2021, when Mr. Vance said publicly he supported an Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors, leading to a bitter exchange that deeply hurt Nelson.

It's always that, isn't it?

Most gender surgeries that are performed on children are performed on intersex children. I think is because you need clearly defined gender roles if the working class is just breeding stock, which is clearly what Vance thinks. If you're intersex or transgender or gay or whatever, it's so much harder to be a Mother Heroine.

Responding to a request for comment on the emails, Luke Schroeder, a spokesman for the Vance campaign, issued a statement:

“It’s unfortunate this individual chose to leak decade-old private conversations between friends to The New York Times. Senator Vance values his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum. He has been open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to change after becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best.”

It's unfortunate the other individual is a little fascist pig. Fuck you.

“I hate the police,” Mr. Vance said in his response. “Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy goes through.”

Living in the Bay Area at the time, on June 28 that year, he wished Nelson “Happy Pride,” adding, “I’m thinking of braving the crowds in S.F. just to people watch.”

After attending the Pride Day parade, he wrote, “It felt more like a frat party than I expected. But still nice to see a lot of happy people.”

“I’m obviously outraged at Trump’s rhetoric, and I worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country,” he wrote. “And there have always been demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe crazy shit. What seems different to me is that the Republican Party offers nothing that’s as attractive as the demagogue.”

“The more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people will suffer. I really believe that,” he wrote.

“I’m deeply pessimistic right now,” he wrote. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the civil rights movement and legislation in the 1960s, and I wonder if our society is healthy enough to accomplish anything of that scale (or even close to it).”

An opportunist through and through. Makes you wonder about him.

“My zany prediction: in 20 years H.R.C. and Paul Ryan will be part of the same party,” he continued, using an abbreviation for Mrs. Clinton. “And you and I will be on the other side.”

Maybe he's right.