About 20 years ago, I spent two weeks at the Hedonism II nudist resort in Negril, Jamaica. (This was FOR WORK, thank you very much: Hedo II was the filming site of National Lampoon’s Strip Poker.) So I was there with the film crew, a few actors, and 18 or so models.
I’m sure glad we came with those models. Because I learned a very valuable lesson at Hedo II: The people who go to nude beaches aren’t the ones you wish went to nude beaches!
Unfortunately, lots of people are WAY more attractive with their clothes on.
That’s something our hyper-sexualized, overly-exposed OnlyFans culture doesn’t understand: Bare flesh will get a reaction, sure, but desire — how much we covet someone or value something — is a mental process.
Attraction doesn’t come from our eyes; it’s from our brains.
According to relationship expert Dr. Orion Taraban, it’s why men usually blow the first date. They talk so damn much, they ruin the fantasy the girl built up in her head.
If a woman agrees to a [first] date, she can’t really be interested in you because she doesn’t really know who you are. She had very little information on which to base that decision one way or another. She’s not in a position to evaluate who you are as a person or as a potential lover. This is something that is really important to understand: She’s there on the date not because she’s attracted to you, but because she’s attracted to the idea of you. [emphasis added]
Guys don’t realize this, so they overshare — exposing so much of themselves, they disabuse their dates of their preconceived fantasies:
In the act of trying to impress a woman, you will inevitably reveal more and more details about who you actually are and how you actually are and how you actually live, and the likelihood that any of those details will actually correspond with the fantasy of any particular woman has in her mind about who she wants you to be — or hopes you could be — are functionally zero.
So instead, Dr. Taraban advises men to wait until an attraction builds and the girl falls in love — and then rip off the mask.
Is it cynical advice? You betcha!
But is it accurate? You betcha!
Psychologically, we project what we want onto others. When we yearn for something good, we fill the missing gaps in data with whatever makes us happy; we assume the best. (And the opposite is also true: If we hate something, we fill the gaps with our darkest, ugliest thoughts.)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is beloved and adored by the liberal base of the Democratic Party. She’s been a grassroots favorite ever since she upset Joe Crowley in 2018.
For eight years, she’s been their dream girl.
To be fair, there’s much to like. Her social media game is among the best in D.C.; she can feces-post with the best of ‘em. She’s good-looking, ethnic, and nearly 50 years(!) younger than Nancy Pelosi. In a party of stiffs like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, her charisma jumps off the charts.
It’s why so many political commentators, from conservatives like Ben Shapiro to data-driven journalists like Nate Silver, have named her the Democratic Party’s 2028 frontrunner.
But the problem is, AOC is just one of 435 legislators in the House of Representatives. She’s a (very) minor cog in the legislative process. It’s difficult for any congressperson, no matter how spicy/snarky her social media game, to demonstrate executive leadership or foreign relationship bona fides.
Still, for most of her party’s base, that wasn’t a problem: They projected their best thoughts, wishes, and desires upon her — and assumed she’d be EXACTLY what they wanted.
Like they say, the heart wants what the heart wants.
All she had to do was stay quiet — avoid talking about foreign policy, focus like a laser beam on affordability, and let her base fantasize away.
Because whatever it was imagining was always going to be better than anything AOC could deliver.
This past week was utterly disastrous for AOC because her foreign policy incompetence was laid bare before the world.
From Fox News: "AOC Mocked for ‘Absolute Train Wreck’ Weekend on Global Stage: ‘Made a Fool Out of Herself’"
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is being widely mocked for what one critic called an "absolute train wreck" weekend full of gaffes while in Germany for the Munich Security Conference.
One of the leading voices of the Democratic Party and a rumored 2028 presidential frontrunner, Ocasio-Cortez was ripped over several comments she made this weekend, including one in which she attempted to mock Secretary of State Marco Rubio for saying that U.S. cowboy culture originated in Spain.
"My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain," Ocasio-Cortez said, laughing. "I believe that Mexicans and the descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that."
[…]
"Tell me you know nothing about history without saying you know nothing about history," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote.
Her answer on Taiwan led to international ridicule:
Who gave the better answer to a foreign policy question: AOC or Miss South Carolina? Listen and decide: pic.twitter.com/V5LrWHc4JU
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 16, 2026
And her choice to accuse Israel of genocide — in Germany, of all places — won’t soon be forgotten.
Tom Gross, an expert on international affairs, told Fox News digital that "AOC has flown all the way to Munich — infamous as the city in which Hitler staged his Nazi Beer Hall Putsch that marked the beginning of the road to the Holocaust — in order to smear the Jewish people further with a phony genocide allegation."
[…]
The conservative commentator Derek Hunter posted on X. "Imagine going to Germany to complain about a fake genocide by Jews...in Munich, of all places. @AOC is about as smart as clogged toilet."
In Dec. 2024, Germany joined the U.S. in rejecting the allegations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
Her struggles with geography were also humiliating.
From the New York Post: "AOC Lampooned for Claiming Venezuela Is Below Equator — While Trying to Show Off Foreign Policy Chops"
Far-left New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being widely mocked for erroneously claiming that Venezuela is “below the equator” while trying to show off her foreign-policy chops in Germany.
Venezuela sits just above the equator, but that didn’t stop the Democratic socialist — who majored in international relations at Boston University — from making the embarrassing gaffe while speaking at a Technical University of Berlin panel Sunday.
“[Nicolas] Maduro canceled elections. He was an anti-democratic leader,” Ocasio-Cortez said, describing the Venezuela elections that took place under the Maduro regime and which many international organizations have said were rigged.
“That doesn’t mean that we can kidnap a head of state and engage in acts of war just because the nation is below the equator,” AOC said, referring to the Trump administration’s capture of the ruthless dictator last month and its attacks on suspected drug boats in the region.
Once again, the hecklers had a field day:
🚨 LMAO! AOC has AGAIN made a fool out of herself on stage saying that we can’t capture leaders like Maduro in Venezuela “just because the nation is south of the equator”
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 16, 2026
NONE of Venezuela is south of the equator
PLEASE run in 2028, AOC 🤣🔥 pic.twitter.com/s1eVL0BkXt
The trip was a horrendous misstep for AOC. Her ignorance and not-ready-for-primetime intellect were on full display. All at once, the foreign policy fantasies of her party’s base were replaced by this haunting reality:
Maybe she’s just not that bright.
She revealed too much, too fast. We saw the empress without any clothes, and there just wasn’t any there there.
And if she ever shares a debate stage with Marco Rubio, she’ll be absolutely obliterated. Her base knows this now.
The fatal flaw for AOC was never her age, ethnicity, or gender. The opposite is true: Just like Kamala Harris, her demographics are perfect. They're probably her greatest asset.
In theory, she’s everything a good liberal could want.
Her fatal flaw is that she’s nothing more than an interesting bio. If AOC were a middle-aged white dude, there’d be absolutely NOTHING special about her.
So, her supporters held out hope she’d eventually reveal a brilliant mind. In their 2028 fantasies, she’d take the stage and dazzle the nation with her wit and wisdom — and validate their love and affection. Because, when nobody was looking, she became an intellectual dynamo!
Those fantasies are history.
And with it, so are her hopes for 2028. The whole world saw her for what she is — and it wasn’t pretty.
Related: The Creepy Media Cover-Up of Gov. Pritzker’s Family Ties to Jeffrey Epstein
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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