Note: The regular Taki post is up and the topic is our friends at the FBI. Behind the green door is the Sunday news podcast. There is also a review of the book Red Plenty, which is a very interesting book on Soviet central planning. There is also a post about the looming war between the barefaced and the Masketarians.
The great Sam Francis observed that the Buckleyites were doomed to failure, because they not only engaged the Left in practical politics, but they also embraced the rules the Left had imposed on practical politics. As Francis put it, conservatives had accepted the premise of the managerial class, which meant they would eventually be forced to defend it. If the premise of your ideological movement is the permanence of the managerial state, your existence literally depends on its existence.
That is why Buckley’s project was punctuated by rounds of purges, which often seemed designed to remain in good standing with the Left. In reality, the two sides of the political class, embraced the same set of premises, and the same moral framework. It is like a rivalry between two departments in a large corporation. Their differences are completely bounded by the overarching concerns of the corporation. Both sides know that the point of their rivalry is that the corporation always wins at the end.
The problem with the purging of bad-thinkers is two-fold. One is it boils off anything resembling diversity of thought. Instead of an ongoing debate among equals, it becomes an echo chamber. The other consequence, something that appears to be a feature of the managerial class, is smart people get purged. The result is a slow decline in cognitive capital. If you are curious and ask too many questions, inevitably you run into conflict with the system.
That is what you see with National Review. The last interesting guy on staff was Mark Steyn and he was run off years ago. John Derbyshire was hurled into the void half a dozen years ago. The only thing interesting about National Review these days is looking up the long list of people they fired. Otherwise, the site is now just a collection of dullards who repeat what they are told. Like conservatism itself, National Review has been consumed and fully masticated by the system.
This is why Trump was able to win in 2016, but lost in 2020, despite being more popular and facing a vegetable. In 2016 he was facing off against a brittle and pointless right-wing system that shattered when he struck it. The left-wing side was not prepared to take on the role of disciplining the right-wing side, so Trump was able to squeak through and win the election. The left-wing side was fully prepared to deal with Trump in 2020 and made sure there was no way he could win again.
The problem for the system is it still lacks an approved alternative. Despite its many flaws, Buckley-style conservatism was a valuable vessel into which was poured the political aspirations of white America. About 40% of white people called themselves conservative at the peak. Another 25% leaned that way on most issues, but maybe had some objections on other issues. This made the right side of the political system seem like a legitimate alternative to the left side of the system.
Something similar happened in the late-1960’s and early-70’s. The old-line Republican leadership, the Rockefeller Republicans, lost their legitimacy due to their impotence in the face of the culture war waged by the Left. The Goldwater campaign in 1964 was the first shot across the bow of the old guard. The ascent of Nixon masked the problem, but finally the conservatives rose up to supplant the old guard. The Reagan revolution was more about creating a new approved alternative to the Left.
Today there is no out-of-the-box movement ready to push the wreckage of conservatism over the side. The long run of Buckley-style conservatism anathematized anything that looked like a threat from the Right. It is easy to miss, but conservatism became extremely narrow and intolerant after the Cold War. Populism, nationalism, and traditionalism are all forbidden topics in modern politics. The result is alternative thinking is a scattered mess, often polluted with eccentrics.
One strange result of this loss of an approved alternative is the left-side of the political class is in a panic. Progressivism in America is now a fully negative identity that needs an enemy to survive. More important, that enemy needs to be compliant. Over the long Cold War, the left-side of the political class evolved to depend on that compliant right-side as its constraint and raison d’etre. This is why it is desperately flailing about trying to create a new version of the old familiar.
It is also why the Republican party is trying to get a make-over. They dumped the ridiculous Liz Cheney not because they disagreed with her opinions. In fact, most Republicans share her disgust for their voters. It is just that she is screwing up the plan to put Trumpian lipstick on the old pig of right-wing politics. The hope is if they decorate their language with Trump’s rhetoric, white voters will forget how much the party hates them and go back to reflexively voting for the GOP.
The trouble they are having is that white people increasingly distrust the system as a whole, not just the Republican leaders. The Trump wing now defines themselves in opposition to system. They still talk about voting in new people, but their plan is self-contradictory, even though they do not see it. Throwing more people into the “the swamp” just means the creatures in the swamp are well-fed. Another tainted election and that reality becomes clear even to the dimmest of them.
Then there is the dissident wing, much smaller, but growing. These are the people who have come to terms with demographic realty. While lacking a coherent moral philosophy, they have broken free of the prevailing moral framework. They can no longer accept a politics that features two sides of the same. No amount of political marketing is getting this group back in the fold. Not even a return of Trump will bring this group back to liberal democratic politics.
What the political class faces is a choice. They can try to adapt to this reality and become a ruling party like in South America. They win every election, but the opposition parties are allowed to exist as a pressure relief. The other option is to prop up the Republicans and conservatives as a Potemkin alternative, knowing that very few people think they are anything more than yes-men to the oligarchy. Those are the options for the next approved opposition.
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“The problem for the system is it still lacks an approved alternative.”
Ah, the “two party system.” I often said, years back, that the only ‘party’ taking place was the one in the green room, when the “liberal” and “conservative” talkers would come off the air and giggle together over how the rubes bought their lucrative act.
10
It seems like the only alternative is an “approved” opposition sanctioned by the ruling class. The heck with that. What needs to come next is a completely unapproved alternative that sweeps away the current system. Everything is so corrupt from top to bottom and side to side, it all has to go one way or the other. More Whites must come to grips with this and realize that the old “we’ll get them in ‘22 or ‘24” isn’t going to work anymore – forever.
13
> This is why it is desperately flailing about trying to create a new version of the old familiar.
The best the left has as a boogeyman is Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Greene.
Gaetz is in a little bit of trouble due to improprieties with a 17 year old, though anyone honest with themselves knows even if he did sleep with someone a few months underage, the majority of congress has done things orders of magnitude more appalling.
The controversy with Greene reads like some script with the Cori Bushes and AOC’s of congress causing drama and acting like high school mean girls to get rid of the pretty girl threatening their power. It’s all such a bizarre spectacle they make Trump’s shenanigans look respectable.
Really surprised they aren’t going after Gosar more, as he publicly has stood with several unpersons like Fuentes. Then again, while not perfect, he’s by far one of the smartest people in the room.
10
A prime example of a guy who presents himself as rebellious (Trump supporter), yet fully follows the left’s moral framework, is Bill Mitchell. You can follow him on Gab, where he posts often and gets much push-back and ridicule.
4
Who is he, exactly? I tried to google him but there are several Bill Mitchell’s…
I have seen the dissidents set him on fire several times and fear that they may be working against themselves. The point of the beatings should be to change behaviours and opinions – not driving away possible allies…
3
Bill Mitchell is a podcaster, I think his show is called “Your Voice, America.” He jumped on the Trump train early on, and considered himself “alt-right” very briefly until he realized and was horrified that the movement was full of “racists!” I remember him saying that he simply thought alt-right meant an alternative conservatism to the current GOP, not all the race stuff. He was on Molyneux’s show a few times. One of those guys who has very little interesting to say.
2
Just now, I looked at gab and saw that Mitchell is proudly reporting that he’s working on getting Diamond & Silk on his show soon. That’s quintessential Mitchell, showing how not racist he is.
Exactly. Real change will come only when the True Con types are so thoroughly soured on the system it no longer is viable. While they make me cringe more than the communists, these people are potential and, if the venom doesn’t turn them away, inevitable allies.
1
I hadn’t checked in with National Review for a few weeks, here is a sampling of the featured articles this morning:
Bob Dylan Turns 80-By total moron Dan McLaughlin
In Big Government we Trust?-by Samuel Gregg (A research director at the Acton Institute)
Don’t Withdraw U.S. forces from the Middle East-by Roger Zakeim (The people who pay me will make less money if you do)
Behind their NR Plus paywall that a few Boomers must be paying for:
What if the Pandemic was Man Made?-by Michael Brendan Dougherty (really going out on a limb early on there, Mike.)
Why America Needs Skilled Immigrants-by David McCormick and James Cunningham (This appears to be paid content from two CEOs).
I remember reading an interview with the guy who ran the “Conservative Pundit” Twitter account during the 2016 primaries. The account was setup to satirize people like this. He said he quit doing it, because he could come up with absurd enough positions these people weren’t willing to actually take. It hasn’t changed since then. One of the consequences of National Review putting out the “Against Trump” was that they had to drop out of providing a moderator to one of the GOP primary debates. In retrospect that may have prolonged the magazine. Had Rich Lowry tried to take on Trump during a debate, Trump may have finished them off that night.
10
2016 Twitter is something I will be telling my grandchildren about as one of the turning points of American political discourse.
It’s when political officials, journalists, and the right-wing token resistance realized everyone hated them, we had the best propaganda, and the only way to put the genie back in the bottle was to go full scorched earth to silence us.
7
“I remember reading an interview with the guy who ran the “Conservative Pundit” Twitter account during the 2016 primaries. The account was setup to satirize people like this. He said he quit doing it, because he could(n’t) come up with absurd enough positions these people weren’t willing to actually take. It hasn’t changed since then.”
Muggeridge’s Law writ large:
“During the 1960s, Malcolm Muggeridge, editor of the satirical magazine, Punch, published a phony advance itinerary for Nikita Krushchev’s upcoming visit to the United Kingdom listing the most ridiculous places the Soviet premier might visit, roughly half of which were eventually in Khrushchev’s actual itinerary.”
“That event formed Muggeridge’s Law, summarized by author Tom Wolfe in a 1989 Harpers Magazine book preview essay: “We live in an age in which it is no longer possible to be funny. There is nothing you can imagine, no matter how ludicrous, that will not promptly be enacted before your very eyes, probably by someone well known.” Another version postulates that it’s impossible to parody political correctness because real political correctness has become just as or more ridiculous than satire.”
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” – Hunter S. Thompson.
5
The Left’s , and this includes D.C.Republicans’, unhinged panic over Liz Cheney’s dismissal and the failure to sour voters on the likes of Trump, Gaetz, Greene, whoever, is explicable in a broad sense: the pretenses are no longer working. Without widely accepted controlled opposition, the Ruling Party has to maintain power with a iron fist. It’s hard to maintain a system with too many dissidents. It is hard to preach to the world about liberty when you run a fascist state.
The election of Trump was the seminal event of our lifetimes because it showed to so many here and abroad what a petty tyranny the United States has become when the Ruling Class would not accept the results of a free and fair election. Since there is no way to continue the fraud, there will be no restraint on repression. Heritage America sees. The world sees.
11
Z and I and I’m sure others here used to hang at the National Review comments section not so much to troll as to watch the slow motion train wreck. What struck me was the staff’s sincere shock they were so deeply hated. Maybe Hoffer should have made “delusion” the end game of mass movements.
5
A third option is the Chicago model:
1. Elections are held only for party members, ie, democratic primaries with very low turnout.
2. Various government interest groups (teachers, police and other public unions) and ethnic groups choose a champion to run on their behalf.
3. The party determines if extra players are needed to run in order to split competing power blocks.
4. Larry Lightgroot stomps on your face until enough productive people leave.
…at which point,
5. You get a federal election in which 10 bazillion ballots are cast for the national party and 100 bazillion dollars are printed/ shipped to pay for everything.
2
The GOP should really be called the “Lilliput Party”. They just advocate what the Dems demand, but on a much smaller scale.
Dems: “$1500 stimmy for everyone, including illegals”.
GOP/Lilliputians: “Wait…um…$500 for Americans only”
Dems: “Defund the Police!”
Lilliputians: “Um…Police are desperately needed to arrest white protesters”
Dems: “Open Borders now!”
Lilliputians: “We need an organized system of H1B wage repression and EB5 pay-for-visa schemes”
Dems: “Hate speech is not protected speech”
Lilliputians: “Dissident conservatives are free to build their own Internet, then speak on their own social media networks financed by their own banks which run on their own routers and fiber optic networks running through their backyards”
Dems: “Defend Israel!”
Lilliputians: “Defend Israel!”
13
The majority will keep dancing as long as their affluence is intact. But eventually, the chickens of endlessly printing money will come home to roost. That will be the real hinge-point for the Uniparty. Do they then go full totalitarian hardcore tyranny, or does the country fracture & succumb to bloody division? Either way, the plebs will pay the price & it will be in lost freedom, wealth, and innocent life. And since I’m being bluntly & heretical, I will once again argue that it doesn’t have to be that way. We can become antibodies like our forefathers that fought the 1775 Revolution and this time focus our remedy solely on the core of the disease. The fish rots from the head. Just look around you. Can there by any doubt?
5
Based on its recent forays into Jacobin madness, the United States has the potential for what could be simultaneously the biggest freak show and bloodbath in human history. We certainly need to avoid it.
The economic spark has started with inflation, by the way. This is going to get ugly.
As much as I hate to hand out black pills on a Monday — going in to Memorial Day, no less — there’s a third option: Jamestown. Years ago I read a fascinating book by a Soviet mathematician, Igor Shafarevich, called The Socialist Phenomenon. While I found his attempt to find “socialism” in, say, Inca Peru a bit quixotic*, the main thrust of his argument was clear, and horrifying. Socialism is a suicide cult, Shafarevich proclaimed. They hate themselves and want to die, but because they hate you almost as much as they hate themselves, they want to force you into suicide with them.
Hard as it is to process when stated baldly like that, I have nonetheless come to believe that it’s true. Hillary Clinton, just to take one odious example, was practically cackling with glee on the campaign trail, over the thought of nuking Russia for the lulz. Lots of her behavior makes sense in isolation — mostly venality, some not-so-closeted Sapphic urges — but nothing makes it all hang together except as preparation for some gaudy Jonestown sendoff. Nobody’s that dumb, short-sighted, and petty… and she was just an alkie with neurological issues, not an actual pudding-slurping drool case like our totally legitimate, not at all fraudulent President, Rutabaga Joe.
*Shafarevich all but says as much. He makes an interesting, but not really germane, distinction between (I think; it was long ago) ideological and cultural socialism. He freely admits that all this is just of historical interest and, being a mathematician, helpfully puts summary abstracts at the end, and urges everyone to skip straight to them.