A fetish of the modern Right in America has been complaining about and denouncing partisanship in Washington. In fairness, the Left will indulge in this on the rare occasions when the Republicans do something for their voters. Mostly it is a conservative fetish, as it is the Left that drives the debate. The Right needs to maintain the fantasy that republican virtue still matters, so they regularly complain about the Left acting in their narrow interests, rather than in the interests of the country.
In theory, the conservatives are correct. Partisanship is the great bane of a republic, as it subverts the very basis of a republic. What is necessary to maintain a republic is what Montesquieu called republican virtue, the willingness to put the interests of the system ahead of personal or factional interests. For example, you must respect the office, even if you have no respect for the man holding the office. This shows up in our military culture where you do not salute the person, you salute the rank.
The trouble with the conservative approach is we have not lived in a republic for a very long time, so they are playing make believe. We live in a liberal democracy that is decreasing liberal with each turn of the wheel. In democratic systems, the ends justify the means, so partisanship dominates. It replaces republican virtue in favor of subjective moral certainty. This is one of the reasons that conservatism is worthless in a democracy of any sort. It prohibits victory as defined by the rules.
A good example of how partisanship works is in this conversation on the Daily Wire program, which is part of a series they run call Backstage. It is one of those round table deals where the stars chat about issues of the day. The highlighted clip is the discussion of Israel and their attacks on the Arabs last week. The people behind the Daily Wire are hyper-Zionists, so the conversation follows predictable contours. Israel is heroically fighting attacks from those evil Arabs.
Matt Walsh tries to point out a true fact, which is that Americans do not have a patriotic duty to support Israel or any other country. Immediately, the rules of the show are suspended as Boreing, Shapiro and Klavan leap to attack Walsh. It is an amusing bit of mask dropping, given the title of the show. The rules of decorum stop mattering to the partisan, as soon as his interests are in play. They cut off Walsh a few times and make sure he cannot get his point across to the audience.
An example of how rules are meaningless to partisans is when Shapiro claims that patriotism means love of ideas, while nationalism means love of country. This is laughable nonsense, and he surely knows it, so it is also a lie. The word patriotism comes from the Greek for “of one’s fathers” or fatherland. Of course, nationalism means a devotion to one’s own people. Both concepts have been attacked for obvious reasons, but their etymology is never in dispute.
In other words, Shapiro does not feel bound by truth when it comes to these topics, because what matters is his partisan interests. He wants conservatives to think they are duty-bound to back Israel, so he feels justified in making crazy claims like Americans have a patriotic duty to blindly defend Israel. This is an instinct that exists in the lizard brain, so he does not think of what he is doing as dishonest or immoral. It is just what he does, like pulling his hand away from a hot item.
Another aspect of partisanship is on display with Andrew Klavan. In that clip he makes the case for exterminating the Arabs. He does not put it like that, but that is the implication of his argument. In his view, the Arabs will never behave, and the Israelis are justified in using lethal force. The logical leap from those two statements is that the final solution to the problem is the liquidation of the Arabs. His excitement at the thought of exterminating the Arabs is an insight into the partisan mind.
Partisanship, like ethnocentrism, places group loyalty at the top. The first thing the partisan does when encountering people or issues is place them on one side of the partisan lines. “Is this person on our side?” is always the first question. In the case of issues or events, the question is, “how can this be turned to our advantage?” Since the partisans swaps his own individual identity for that of the group, these questions always feel deeply personal. They are life and death.
In a sense they are life and death. Since who Ben Shapiro is, from the perspective of Ben Shapiro, is his membership in the Zionist subculture, any questioning of it is a questioning of his very existence. It is why Klavan starts to salivate at the thought of killing Arabs. He cannot see them as human, as they are opposed to his group, so they are his mortal enemies. One is always justified in using any means necessary when defending your life from a threat.
You hear this in the left-wing justifications for violence over the last year. When they say “silence is violence” they are not being cheeky. To the partisan mind, you are either on their side or against their side. Words and violence are the same to the partisan mind, as anything that opposes the group is seen as a lethal threat. That is why silence is viewed as violence, as not declaring your support means opposition and the partisan is free to use any means necessary to end a threat.
There is not only no reasoning with a partisan, but there is no appealing to their better nature or their sense of virtue. Their chief virtue, the thing that matters the most to them, is their loyalty to the cause. Everything is warped to fit that moral framework, even the very definition of words, as you see with Ben Shapiro. Everything is viewed as a tool that can either be used against opponents or can be used by opponents. Facts and reason have no more resonance than clubs and guns.
This is why moral appeals against partisanship fail. It is like making the claim that pork is healthy to a devout Muslim. He does not share your morality, so your morals appeal sounds weird and offensive. Your good intensions are proof of your bad intensions, which defeats the point of making the moral appeal. The only counter to partisanship is more extreme partisanship. Once that genie has been let out of the bottle, the only way to put it back in the bottle is through any means necessary.
The crackdown by the oligarchs on dissidents has had the happy result of a proliferation of new ways to support your favorite creator. If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!
Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.
The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.
Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb. Just email them directly to book at sales@minterandrichterdesigns.com.
Yeah this is like the endless accusations and finger-wagging at the hypocrisy of the left. They don’t care! No matter how many times you point it out, they are never going to care!!
10
I’ve been banging that drum for years. “Cognitive dissonance” only exists for normal, well adjusted people. Leftism is an all-purpose asshole license – it’s main premise is that the nastier you are, the more righteous. When they lie, cheat, steal, screw you over, for any reason or just on general principles, they think they’re doing *good.* They can’t be bargained with, they can’t be reasoned with…
15
And it’s just so tedious when it’s pointed out. That actually is when I want to start punching right. Literally.
3
1
That’s all very true, however there are many who we might call leftist, but mainly because they still trust the corporate news, where we still need to point out the hypocrisies. I cringe a bit every time I do it, but these people just don’t understand how the system works, how they’re fed constant propaganda, etc. More normie than true leftist. The true leftist, yeah, they don’t care.
2
What good is holding power if you can’t flex it on the plebes?
The Left only respects brute force and power. Everything else is fatuous nonsense to them. Given the viciousness against the White majority and the Left’s total domination of all instruments of power, we have to bear in mind all these realities to respond effectively.
13
Having studied Hoffer, I have long maintained that today’s SJW is tomorrow’s obergruppenfuhrer, because the SJW’s identity is defined by being the member of the most radical group. Once the pendulum starts swinging back… (cf.Goebbels and the “beefsteak Nazis”). I realize now that I’ve been missing a step. We don’t *want* to be partisans, because they are so obviously bitter, evil, nasty people. The missing step, therefore, is for normal people to embrace *that.* Our ” partisanship” is active, aggressive pursuit of our own interests, which starts with “not being them”… with extreme prejudice. ‘Actively hostile normality” doesn’t really roll off the tongue, but…
11
“Actively hostile normality”
That DOES role off the tongue. I’m going to use it in my conversations and live it!
2
Yeah, we didn’t really want it. But we have to begin hating things simply because they belong to the enemy. One thing I have been seeing online is the brutal rhetorical treatment of white women who sleep with black men. One guy allegedly took a woman on a date and, after discovering that her child was half black, abandoned her then and there, leading to her breaking down in the restaurant.
But this is kind of what we’re talking about. The reason is simple: it is not in our interests to raise the children of black men, neither is it in our interests to support their women. But that expresses itself in something like a joy of harming a woman who never thought of herself as doing something wrong.
3
1
I’ve been fascinated lately by how important Greek and Latin are to the understanding of words and there meaning. I learned some in elementary when I went to private school for a short time. That’s what it would mean to “be educated” if we wanted to get people back on track, but could you imagine these education major bimbos teaching or evening knowing Greek or Latin….I digress…
Those root meanings of our words are enlightening.
4
Princeton no longer requires Greek and Latin for their Classics degree. The humanities in colleges are going through Idiocracy levels of freefall.
6
Why learn Greek when the future is Ebonics, jive talking? Axe anyone.
4
My children are attending a K-12 classical school that requires 2 years of Latin and reading from primary ancient roman sources in their High School.
At graduation, they will be better versed in the Classics than a Princeton grad.
1
Yoram Hazony responded with this: https://twitter.com/yhazony/status/1399040318838870018
2
“. . . words and THEIR meaning.”
I don’t see an inherent conflict between republican virtue and democratic decision making. I’ve been part of groups where the majority has listened to the minority and has taken their views/interests into account and permitted those views/interests to influence the decision. Of course this may not be workable on a grand scale. Plato disfavored democratic organization largely for this reason, yet his philosopher king possessed, as his leading qualification, a staunch commitment to republican virtue. I know that America, 2021, isn’t Athens fourth century B.C. Alas.
2
Facts and reasoning have been virtually eliminated from any political or public discourse. There is no arguing with lefties over anything anymore. It’s high time to get as nasty and partisan as they are. It’s too bad it’s come to this, but the left brought us here, conservatism didn’t fight back and now here we are with our backs virtually against the wall. Even the most docile creature will turn and fight when there’s no other choice. Do bad Whites have the same survival instincts? It’s getting closer to now or never.
10
The right needs to get comfortable with cancel culture, up to and including getting your leftist associates fired if the opportunity presents itself.
5
Not sure whether or not we do. Let’s be honest many don’t.
2
” In his view, the Arabs will never behave, and the Israelis are justified in using lethal force. The logical leap from those two statements is that the final solution to the problem is the liquidation of the Arabs.”
This was and is exactly the thinking behind the establishment and expansion of the United States itself, as can be seen in quotes from George Washington and Andrew Johnson.
1
The difference is that Washimgton and Johnson were on their own territory, fighting for their own people; not sat halfway around the world, insisting that their foreign hosts do the heavy lifting on their behalf.
2
The best part of the session is Matt is mildly ambivalent to say anything at all, as he knows he’s going to get jumped. Remember too, these guys have been friends and associates for years, and they still can’t be bothered to give him even a little acknowledgment of the obvious that yes, maybe this blind loyalty to Israel by a foreign nation is a little strange. It’s boring as hell ,as you can tell exactly what they are going to say before they open their mouths.
Compare this to dissident shows like Myth of the 20th Century or the Amren podcasts, where there are sometimes strong disagreements that are discussed in respectful and enlightening ways. Given the Daily Wire is supposed to be one of the flagship internet Conservative media outlets, it shows how banal that side all.
1
Ideological debates can only exist (and even then, it’s not always possible) within a secure ethnic group. The Japanese, with their secure border and almost zero immigration, can have debates about various ideas because the Japanese people are secure.
As soon as your people (however you want to define that, though it will always come back to ethnicity) are not secure, ideology goes out the window. Protecting your people has to be the primary consideration for every debate and decision.
Btw, lying and deception are not wrong when protecting your own people. Jews feel no guilt lying to the goy because, in their mind, it’s part of the larger cause of protecting their own people. Even lying in business deals is acceptable because more money for them makes Jews more powerful which can be used to protect the Jews.
Jews catch a lot of flack in the DR, but in many ways, they’re just doing what needs to be done. We can learn from them, though we don’t want to be like them. Jews (especially American Jews) now have a negative identity, and it’s dragging them down. We need to fight for our people, but not out of hate for other peoples but to make something better for own own.
7
Please God, why can’t we bring back the gladiator arena and enable the partisan hacks in the media to do actual battle-to-the-death with those of us arguing on behalf of sanity and reason? Can we not have a world in which these miscreants are truly battle-tested and then actually live or die based upon the merits of their argumentation? If we’re going to play the existential game, please let it be real. The ends justifies the means baby!
5
“their entomology is never in dispute.”
Etymology is the study of language, while entomology is the study of insects like Ben Shapiro. And on the subject of Shapiro, the non-violent answer to dealing with him is the same as the non-violent answer to dealing with illegal immigrants in any sane country (not America). They have to leave. Ben is loyal to another nation. Fine, but he should have to go back there. He might complain at first, but he’s not going to resort to violence (and if he did, it would probably be amusing to watch him flail about). Making illegals leave would result in some tearful scenes (heavily filmed and exploited by the media) and a lot of them would get violent, especially if local police were charged to do their job and protect their communities (and I don’t need to tell you that the media would misconstrue every interaction as the Gestapo picking on poor, innocent brown people). Then again, if Ben’s people went home, the media might not be quite as biased. It would still be bad, and we would be left with a sizeable fraction of insane white people, but it’s all academic at this point anyway, as sane policies designed to defend the citizens are off the table. We’re the enemy, not the aliens at the top or the aliens at the bottom.
10
1
We have a winnah! When I ran spellcheck and landed on that, I bust out laughing, so I left the bug version. I was waiting for someone to spot the unintentional humor.
5
There wouldn’t be any (((media))) to run those propaganda poor-immigrant-must-go-back stories. Loosing 75% of their writers/editors would not be what killed the media, it would be the lost funding.
I don’t know what exactly the percentage is, but a lot of the US media loses money. These are propaganda outlets, not for-profit businesses.
Walsh says, “You do not have a patriotic duty to support a country that is not your own.”
They simply refused the statement in favor to the alternative: Supporting Israel is your patriotic duty. Imagine such a statement.
11
I have to hand it to Walsh, he really seems to have improved his rhetoric after the blunderous comment he made concerning “the jogger” incident. He was trying to cover for the guy, saying something along the lines of “Going into construction sites and looking around is just something guys do” He was appropriately lambasted for it by his own audience. Ever since then he seems to have become more honest, observant and dare I say blunt.
But I haven’t been following the guy, so it may be a negligible change.
3
Nobody has a duty to love support “the country,” that’s retarded. What we have, as patriots, is a duty to our nation. Our nation is not the state, nor is it democracy or any form of government or text or group of ideas. It is to our people, our nation.
If there is ANY candidate for supporting a “foreign” nation, it is most certainly NOT Israel, it is Britain. Hell, Israel didn’t even exist until 1947. If they love Israel so much, why the hell don’t they just GO!
I could not help but notice their screen shot they use for the video is one of those soyboy pictures of each one of them by themselves smiling that creepy so-boy smile. All of them have that look. They are a meme.
I don’t think Shapiro is lying here. Which is to say that he believes what he is saying.
Shapiro and his ilk are a branch of civ nats. Civic nationalism is a pseudo religious phenomenon. With the constitution and associated documents as holy writings revealed by god, establishing the one true faith. Their loyalty is to the document and ideas not any geographic area under the strict control of those ideas – much less the people living in that geographic area. Further, it’s a short step to believing that the ideas are universal and should apply to all of humanity – even if they don’t yet. Which creates a crusading impulse to bring the true faith to the benighted. The world is divided into a house of democracy and a house of tyranny (and war).
Non faithful Jewish people such as Shapiro have latched onto this pseudo-religion and extended it largely from its compatibility with their own cultural underpinnings. But they did not create it and most of the adherents are nominal Christians of European heritage.
You can see this religious element in the reverence shown to the constitution by traditional conservatives. It’s effectively a form of idolatry. The document is perfect and immortal with any problems flowing from a failure to follow the holy writ strictly enough. The people have failed the constitution, never that the constitution has failed, or was flawed or has outlived its usefulness.
It’s a common mistake when examining the actions of some group of people distant from the observer in culture or geography or time, to assume that they really think as we do, and therefor don’t really believe what they say they believe. Instead the claimed beliefs must be part of some elaborate internal deception. But that is a mistake.
3
4
Ben Shapiro is an observant Jew. His adherence to civic nationalism may be stronger, but he follows Jewish religious practices. I would say his allegiance to Judaism is stronger than his civic nationalism.
11
Happy the people who, when put to the test, ask no questions about other people’s behavior under similar circumstances, but pick up the first club that comes to hand in one simple, easy movement and hammer away with it until the humiliation and vengeance deep in their hearts give way too contempt and compassion.
Tolstoy, War and Peace, Vol. IV, Part III, Chapter 1
3
Speaking of partisans Barry Soetero recently gave an interview to tell us Potato Joe is’ “…doing great finishing the job.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/01/barack-obama-joe-biden-finishing-the-job-with-my-former-staff/
They’re not even trying to hide it.
3