In the chattering classes, the line dividing the Left from the Right is over means, not ends. Watch cable news for a while and inevitably they will have one of those mini-debates they like staging to illustrate the two extremes of what is acceptable opinion on some issue. After the Dallas shooting, for example, a liberal and conservative would offer their take on the incident. What we are supposed to take away from these exchanges is that your opinion better fall somewhere between the two offered on TV. Otherwise you’re some sort of fringe weirdo or worse.
The acceptable window varies from station to station, but there’s not a lot of diversity within the dominant political culture. The liberal channels set the window closer to their preferred opinion while Fox is slightly to the right of them. The thing is, everyone agrees on the ends. You never see two people debating an issue where one has an entirely different goal in mind. Both sides always start from the same premise and have the same ends in mind. By “ends” I mean esoteric concepts like world peace, racial harmony or economic equality. They both talk about “solutions.”
If I were to describe what it is that drives those on the dissident right away from conventional politics, into the arms of various alt-right groups, I think I’d start with the ends in mind. People in the various refusenik camps, on the fringes of society, simply reject the ends that the conventional Left and Right accept as their starting point. It’s not that the trouble makers want the opposite of those Utopian goals. It’s that they reject the assertion that those goals are possible. Humans are imperfect and there is no solution to that bit of reality.
An example of how this works is in this piece from The American Conservative on the problems of Baltimore City.
From near and far, too many people who felt qualified to offer an opinion or exercise power to help didn’t take the time to appreciate the history that has shaped West Baltimore or the variety of people who have been working for decades to improve this place. Accounts of a place like Sandtown have to start with policies forged decades ago regarding redlining and lead paint—policies that handicapped the value of many residents’ homes or did likewise to their children’s brains. The harm is ongoing: conservatives can easily recognize how the welfare state disinclines people to work, but it is hard to blame recipients when most of the wealth transferred through government goes straight to property managers and hospitals, not to the people themselves, who have little opportunity to accumulate wealth. The institutions that are accessible to people in West Baltimore—primarily churches and gangs—are trusted because other institutions don’t maintain any reliable order or support.
Ask any liberal why Baltimore is a dumpster fire and they will make the exact same claims. They blame it on magic. Redlining, as a real practice, never really existed. In fact, banks have been under pressure for generations now to lend to unqualified minorities. Even if we pretend it was a real thing, it ended two generations ago. Blaming long dead bankers for the problems of today is the same as blaming ghosts. No one ever tries to explain how not getting a mortgage causes T’Quan to murder Terrelle for his sneakers. Blaming redlining is no different than saying Allah wills it.
There’s a similar problem with lead paint. It was banned in 1971 and government has been removing it from housing for two generations. There’s also the fact that there are no studies showing increased levels of lead in the residents of Baltimore, compared to the surrounding areas. It’s an interesting theory, but that makes it a good example of how statistical correlations can lead you down a blind alley. But, blaming magic means not facing reality so the Left and Right embrace crackpot theories like lead paint as the cause of black crime.
Rebuilding institutions requires local leadership as well as outside aid. Great hay was made of some $130 million spent on a public-private partnership in the late 1990s and early 2000s to revitalize the neighborhood. Much of this money can still be seen in the homes that were rebuilt. You can walk around whole blocks that were vacant 30 years ago and that now have clean sidewalks, no drug traffic, and the sort of neighborliness that New Urbanism celebrates. As deep as the problems of Sandtown are, much good has been achieved using outside investment directed by people from within the community.
This is the sort of stuff black radicals like the Black Panthers used to demand back in the 60’s. They wanted no-strings attached money from white people so they could build their Afro-paradise. When they got it, they stole most of it and used the rest to build out their criminal enterprise. Well intentioned white people supported these groups because they assumed the fairy tales were true. If you just gave black people money, they would create a black version of Mayberry USA. It was just assumed that all human capital was the same, because after all, all humans are the same and only racists would say otherwise.
West Baltimore is what it is because it is full of West Baltimoreans. The people who built and maintained the city’s institutions left a long time ago for suburbs. The current residents moved in, like animals taking up spots in abandoned buildings. They did not build it. They could not maintain it. The result was that nature took its course. The institutions decayed and collapsed. The habits and ways of the new inhabitants took over. There’s no solution to this reality. You don’t fix human biology with a government program or pseudo-prayers to the gods of diversity.
The line dividing the New Right and the Buckley Conservative is between those who accept the reality of the human condition and those who don’t. The writer of that piece thinks all people are the same and that the observable differences are due to various forms of magic like racism and lead paint. It’s why they are called the Wuss Right. They inevitably give into the Left because they share all the same assumptions about humanity as the Left. They share the same goals. Convergence in the form of orchestrated surrender is the inevitable result.
Another excellent piece. “The line dividing the New Right and the Buckley Conservative is between those who accept the reality of the human condition and those who don’t. ” This is the dividing line and there is no talking through it. Either you accept that poverty ridden places are that way because of the people themselves… or you think can you re-engineer the world. Unfortunately, the later idea is so seductive and highly narcissistic in nature. Christianity doesn’t say “solve the problem of the poor”, it says “help them out as you can”. It calls for engagement, not re-engineering human… Read more »
Good point, Piffle. Shoot, so why can’t everybody be upper middle class human perfection? I think another difference is this – collective salvation vs individual salvation. One can argue that there may not be any salvation possible either way, but we seem to be hardwired to believe otherwise. The collectivists want you to change toward perfection, the individualists will leave you alone. That, to me, seems to be the big difference.
@ Piffle4Me – Your statement “Do not expect to make a shiny suburb out of people who think 2 hours ahead at most.” is actually a very global perspective and is why much of the rest of the world is where it is today. In a population which revolves primarily around a gun-culture and lacks the ability to adapt and advance through the use of their intellect, no amount of Christian charity is going to change anything. They acquire (notice I didn’t say work) only what they need for today and the next day, they repeat the process. Multiply this… Read more »
Karl, “gun culture” may mean something else in Germany (or simply the intent with which you use the phrase), but in the US the overwhelming majority of persons who are members of Gun Culture are firm believers in individual responsibility and rule of law, and are in general less prone to crime than the aggregate US population. Now if by “gun-culture” you meant people who demand “respect” by making threat-displays (whether via shouting and posturing or actually brandishing firearms), and act as if violence is the default means of settling disagreements, you’re describing something other than US Gun Culture. Predatory,… Read more »
@ Mike_C – What I meant by ‘gun culture’ is more to the ghetto-thug you describe. However ghetto-thug is a limited definition that would only fit American blacks. I use the term ‘gun culture’ to describe any number of countries that as you say, openly display weapons as a show of force and power. Mozambique is a obvious example given they have the AK-47 in their flag. America may have guns as part of their culture, but is not what their culture is based upon. By definition culture is “The customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation,… Read more »
Karl, I am glad to see that you understand a bit more about Americans and the gun culture we have. I also think your example of Mozambique is the penultimate example of “arrested development.” I mean, really, who puts an AK-47 on their country flag? As to why American soldiers do not carry weapons in public, that I cannot really answer except to say that the military is not authorized to operate within the US in full military mode. Something to do with The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 I believe. However, until recent attacks on military bases within the… Read more »
@ LetsPlay – The Swiss population is made up of about 25% foreigners (non-Swiss citizens) like myself, so I follow what’s going on here as I do in my own country. Switzerland is a bit unique in it’s relationship to the rest of Europe. Among other things, it does not have open borders (as exist between France and Germany or the Netherlands), it has strict import control at the borders for items brought into the country (and tariffs must be paid upon entry) and it also maintains the Swiss Franc (CHF), not the Euro. Switzerland also practices what I would… Read more »
I see. Danke.
Hey you guys, this is an excellent treatise on why the 2nd in the first place. Below is the conclusion of that piece. http://www.guncite.com/journals/vandhist.html 1994 Valparaiso Univ. Law Review THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT David E. Vandercoy VI. Conclusion English history made two things clear to the American revolutionaries: force of arms was the only effective check on government, and standing armies threatened liberty. Recognition of these premises meant that the force of arms necessary to check government had to be placed in the hands of citizens. The English theorists Blackstone and Harrington advocated these tenants. Because the public… Read more »
Karl, There is an important aspect about guns I think you are missing like to point out to you. Guns are property. Owning property, that is a fundamental right of free people. That is something I believe no one or any state but the owner of property has any business deciding. As soon as some one or something decides they have special power to decide this regardless of the property owners consent, tacit or otherwise, you have tyranny. It is like the Wuss Right, they have abrogated their duty to protect and defend the rights of property.That is all they… Read more »
@ Doug – As with any property, governments determine what you can and can’t own. And there are no absolutes – such as in the case of eminent domain, even your land can be taken. In the case of firearms, the US and a few other countries, have decided to include ownership of these particular items in their Constitutions as a right. For others, ownership is a privilege based on certain conditions which must be met first. Like a drivers license, where driving is a privilege, not a Constitutional right.
And if the left can’t win on a complete gun ban, then they go for the “death by a thousand cuts.” Example, Gov. Moonbeam in CA. Recently the CA Legislature passed a passel of new laws on magazines, push button extractors for magazines, etc. Their aim is two fold: 1. to make it prohibitively expensive to be a gun owner in CA and 2. to make the guns owned and sold in CA (or even brought into CA) less capable than originally designed. And of course, the never ending push to “register” and know who owns what and where you… Read more »
@ LetsPlay – I find it very dishonest that American politicians attempt to disable the intent of the 2nd Amendment (2A) in a way that does not impact criminals, but only law abiding gun owners. While I do not necessarily agree that the purpose behind the 2A still exists as it once did, (for reasons I have mentioned previously) the logic is clear that a nation that does give it’s citizens the right to own firearms, must allow those same citizens the ability to protect themselves from criminals who can and do use firearms against them.
This is not a new problem. Just finished reading “Blacklisted by History” by M. Stanton Evans. A mountain of facts….McCarthy was done in by Republicans eager to accept the new deal and “move on.” He was right on almost every detail, actually did have real lists, and his charges were pretty much completely correct. But anytime a Republican populist closes on a leftist throat his party establishment fades away…Tim
Like Edward Long Shanks said in Braveheart. “The trouble with Scotland is that it is full of Scots.” Same can be said about migration. People migrate to escape something. In the 21st century it is invariably an aspect or symptom of their culture; which they typically deny and therefore will not shed, thereby poisoning the native culture in which they seek refuge. Multiculturalism means one culture must die, “Neither can live while the other survives.” Neighborhoods, cities, nations; it all works the same. It only tangentially involves skin color, culture is everything.
I agree, Tom. It’s all about culture. I don’t think we have a race problem, we have a culture problem.
I must say, Zman has an effortless way of explaining things that others, like me, need a three volume set to work out.
I disagree, we have a race problem. Culture is the unique creation of each of the distinct races. With the exception of eating and seeking shelter, there is little commonality between the western white culture and the black african culture. A culture which allowed even the wheel to escape notice appears to be alien to white westerners. The opposite is of course also true.
Yes, culture follows race, or more precisely, ethnicity. Tiny differences in peoples will play out with the enormous leverage of time and borders, be they nations or ghetto walls. Germans are not Italians, even though Romans may have been a German tribe who displaced the Etuscans. No one would mistake the habits the language, or arts of the two, or often of their descendants in America. If only that were the gulf separating Africans from everything else. For all of human history people too badly damaged to leave West Baltimore suffered the consequences of natural selection. The Progressive experiment is… Read more »
A.T. – I see your point, of course, but I have known and worked with too many Blacks, Hispanics and Asians who precisely shared the same traditional American culture that I did. Obviously the African gene pool and the European gene pool developed separately and apart up until very recently, so the distinct nature of each must be naturally and profoundly different. Yet I have seen those traits overcome by traditional American assimilation, not that Africans became Europeans, or the other way round, but that we have here in the US found a way to live together. It ain’t perfect,… Read more »
Hi Terry, I was not discussing asians or hispanics, most asians and a majority of hispanics can get along with whitey. It is specifically the negro who will never sign the truce, the disparity of IQ and their very nature preclude a truce when the feral 90% sense weakness in our ranks.
I believe an all out race war can only be avoided by some type of separation. Very few whites can have contact with feral negroes and not realize their hatred of us, all you need do is observe their patterns of attack, which are consistent. Separation or war.
A.T. – Thanks for reply. I understand exactly what you’re saying – I lived in Chicago long enough to have had a few run-ins of my own with feral black individuals from what was then Cabrini Green. We lived in the De Paul area and had “visitors” rob and intimidate us from time to time. I saw the hopelessness of integration up close.
But what do you mean by “separation”? Is it not already in progress naturally? How would such a thing transpire if made a policy? And what of those who rightfully wish to remain within the dominant culture?
Hi Terry, if you lived near Cabrini Green I am sure you are familiar with TNB (Typical Negro Behavior) so I will not preach to the choir. They, as the minority, must be given an area, perhaps in the US or perhaps somewhere else, where they are not exposed to our hateful racisms. They should be provided a subsistence existence by the grateful taxpayers of this wonderful country and nothing else. They must all go. If we allowed some well behaved negroes to stay we would have the same type problem in just a few generations. Deviation to the mean… Read more »
So, Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell should be shipped off to the reservation, no?
Hi Terry, unfortunately yes, not because they present a danger but their black offspring may. All races are subject to genetics, so even these august individuals are capable of producing offspring which appear to be straight out of Africa. You could visit them if you wished.
Sorry, got sidetracked and didn’t finish. The difference between the Uber (Democrat) and the Quisling (Republican) branches of the Party is mostly a matter of method rather than destination. The Ubers are fine with stampeding the herd, and if a few get trampled or a few pounds are run off no big deal. Speed and direction are everything; can’t let anyone think about what’s ahead (progressivism) just make sure they fear what’s behind. The Quislings want to mosey the herd along, let them graze as they go, get there with the most meat on the bone, and when they arrive… Read more »
I think the thing you have to keep in mind is our society because of the illegitimacy of the elites, from all sectors, because of their meddling in our affairs and cultures, so much has been purposefully skewed for their enrichment and power, and the natural reaction is devolved into extremes at each end of the political, social, and economic spectrum, that in order to come out the other end of whats going down, you must keep on the straight and narrow, keep to traditions, yes be a bitter clinger, because either extreme is ultimately an unmitigated disaster. There is… Read more »
100% off-topic, but i just discovered your blog via alt-right twitter about a week ago. great stuff.
“People in the various refusenik camps, on the fringes of society, simply reject the ends that the conventional Left and Right accept as their starting point. It’s not that the trouble makers want the opposite of those Utopian goals. It’s that they reject the assertion that those goals are possible. Humans are imperfect and there is no solution to that bit of reality.” Americans have never shied away from seeking Utopian goals. However, our foundational cultural and political understanding was that you did so voluntarily using your own, private resources. The idea of building various public Utopias with other people’s… Read more »
It’s important to remember that Buckley Conservatism didn’t start out cucked on race. Admittedly, the movement started by Buckley wasn’t really focussed on race at all; it was primarily concerned with uniting rightists of all stripes in order to 1) Oppose international Communism, and 2) Oppose the metastasizing New Deal state. But within that framework, Buckley”s original outfit was not averse to race realism. Close Buckley collaborator James Burnham listed equality of the races as “one of those liberal beliefs that is, on the evidence, false” in his book “Suicide of the West”. National Review supported southern efforts to resist… Read more »
This race thing won’t go away, will it? I have a distant relative who is black, and she has (from what I am told via her posts on FaceBerg, but as I do not belong to that cult I cannot comment directly) gone ballistic over the BLM issue. She is daily incandescent with rage. She was pretty wound up over Brexit (or at least at those old bastards who wanted Britain to make its own way in the world) but when it comes to the current black outrage she is way out in front on this one. Yet she is… Read more »
Eh, sounds like my sister, except in her case it’s the homosexuals she’s always championing. Again, NOT American herself, and not even British, yet that didn’t stop her peppering me with mocking internet memes about how stupid the Brexit voters were. When she forced a political conversation on me by asking if I liked Donald Trump I said yes and she reacted as if I were Jeff Goldblum at the end of “The Fly”. When she trotted out the “fascist” word I simply said “Very likely.” Dammit, I’m sick of having scare-words thrown at me and being expected to quiver,… Read more »
This is very good stuff! In the 1980’s I made the observation that blacks were “self-segregrating.” They were not so much being discriminated against in housing, etc. but choosing to form their own communities. And now after many more years and seeing how that has worked out in concert with both the civil rights movement and the race hustlers we all know, and the wasted investment in “black” communities, it is apparent that all of this has simply been one big criminal enterprise. It is my belief that this “self-segregation” was instituted as a way of raping and pillaging their… Read more »
This is why I’m starting to favor Universal Basic Income. Liberals and Cucks (BIRM) are religiously devoted to equality of outcome. In the real world, we know that’s impossible. Solution: Give everyone their allowance, let the chips fall where they may, and when the inner-city dindus spend their allowance on Air Jordans and crack, label any attempts to further “help” them racist. And look, Cletus up the holler made the same decisions, so it’s obviously not a race thing! Let the bleeding-heart world-savers get their virtue fix by running basic fiscal responsibility classes out of Teach for America. So long… Read more »
@ Severian – Doesn’t the state of Alaska already have a system very similar to basic income? If this works under the governorship of a conservative republican like Mrs. Palin, why would the rest of the US not also benefit from a similar program?
Yes! It’s not that I have any real policy ideas to improve Chicago or Baltimore other than an end to the subsidies that support the current situation. It’s that I don’t care. All that matters to me is that my tax-dollars and some of our national wealth is being wasted on those places.
When I here “conservatives” like Bill Bennett talk about urban policy, all I hear is a buzzing noise.
In the Cloud, the political demarcation lines are there for all to see. Yet, the battles are intermural and the war is for exhibition. I often find myself wondering if even talk-radio conservatives like Rush Limbaugh are, likewise, mere judas goats braying “conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy” against the ideological wolves of critical thinking and true liberty. Also, consider “conservatives” such as Glenn Beck, Chief Justice John Roberts, Paul Ryan, the Never-Trump Crowd, etc, ad nauseam. Given today’s surveillance capabilities, as revealed by Snowden, and the ensuing Barry-care, Omnibus, TPP and, most recently, Too Rigged to Jail: It is not hard to… Read more »
It appears that the left, in general, do not understand human nature. They also do not seem to understand the simian mind of America’s Negroes. They grossly misjudge and vilify all things right without a shred of evidence to back their slaggings. Trump must win or civil/race war is certain.
All this caving to, and acceptance of the ideology of “Everybody’s the Same” by the “Conservative” rulers is folly and they know it, yet they still maintain the go-along-to-get-along mantra. Deep down the people know it’s all a lie. This is what made Trump the nominee, without question. It also was the core of the Brexit vote. The bad whites, in their gut, are angry, scared and they have good reason to be. Here’s a good example of what’s been waiting in the wings and nibbling around the edges since the 1920s. It’s known as the “Kalergi Plan” and it’s… Read more »
Good point Fuelster. It really pissed me off that Eich could lose his job, especially for something that happened 8 years beforehand. Talk about Wusses. More like a bunch of pricks.
To all, more info at:
http://kickasstorrentsan.com/coudenhove-kalergi-praktischer-idealismus-practical-idealism-1925-t11325359.html
http://www.infowars.com/the-kalergi-plan/
Interesting to contrast the machinations of these early twentieth century “Daddy Warbucks” and their global aspirations with the twenty-first century types. The ego jaded, god-like desires of the elites is truly megalomaniacal. Evil aspirations transferred from one generation to the next and yet they are revered because of their wealth.
debating leftists – exploiting mental differences – anonymousconservative.com. ” the futility of arguing with modern Liberals. No matter how logical your argument, they will dismiss it in the stupidest fashion, and then all pat each other on the back – the idiots of Idiocracy, all dazzled by their own brilliance. Of course such a mind as the Liberal’s has no use for logic – its sole measure of success is not the degree to which its argument comports with logic, but rather the degree to which its argument averts the “ discomfort of being out-grouped, of having it pointed out… Read more »
http://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/touching-the-raw-amygdala-part-i-foundational-understandings/
This lines up with the Cult being the party of death—abortion, assisted suicide, no real health care for the old and dying, etc., being among their most cherished principles. Do they realize that perfection, that is, the total lack of contrast, of duality, would result in the death of the human spirit, followed quickly by physical death, by the end of the species? Who knows what they realize and don’t realize. They’re all crazy.
I’ve heard that the dirt in Liberia is “Magic Dirt”
Maybe that’s why so much cash was “invested” there.
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I really don’t see why Doug Ross remains on your blogroll.
Who is Doug Ross? And who are you Mr. freedom of speech, teapartydoc?
I was making a suggestion and stating an opinion, asshole. Not making a demand. Read the fucking article and look up and read the blog referenced and you will understand what I am talking about. And next time think and read before you make an ass of yourself.
There’s no call for calling LetsPlay an ass. That’s just plain hatefulness.
Doug Ross was one of the original alternative media blogs and news aggregators. He deserves recognition and consideration for his courage. I was a long time reader of Doug Ross, the guy has put out some great stuff, but lately it was becoming more difficult to go to his sight due to his vehement anti Trump campaign he was waging. It just seemed out of character.
That is his business. Doug still puts out great stuff. Very creative fellow.
Yeah, well, I don’t read Doug Ross regularly so it didn’t “click” when I saw him mentioned in your “suggestion. What did “click” with me was the contradiction in your name and calling for the censure of someone giving their opinion. You sound like righteous supporter of individual rights, so long as they agree with yours! So just who is making ASSumptions here?
A good article with the exception of the huge load of horse crap about “Buckley Conservatives,” by which I expect you mean people who do not participate in /4chan/ white supremacist discussions and who are not stupid or corrupt enough to support a clown like Donald Trump for the presidency, having identical views with liberals concerning the culture of racial complaint.
No, I did not mean any of those things.
Well, I’m a Movement Conservative and I knew Bill Buckley and I basically agree with your criticisms of the liberal perspective. So would pretty much every conservative commentator I can think of this side of David Brooks.
I’m sure I have a few posts here on my view of Buckley Conservatism. In short, I think it ceased having a purpose when the Soviet Union collapsed. It was all about fighting communism, which was a noble cause. The Buckley people were willing to trade just about anything in order to have the whip hand on fighting communism. Now that communism is gone, what’s left is giving the Left everything in order to sell books and magazines. The modern conservative conserves nothing because he believes in nothing.