Spinal Tap Politics

Fifty years ago, two things were clear to those thinking and talking about politics at the higher level, what people call meta-politics today. One was the American Left was intellectually exhausted. It no longer had anything to offer for the problems facing late industrial age society, other than partisan sloganeering. On the other hand, the creative minds were all on the newly formed Right. There you had creative thinking about the problems of the present and hard thinking about the future.

Half a century on and it is the Right that is bankrupt. All of the old theorists that made the political Right dynamic and interesting have either died or been exiled. What is left of conservatism is a collection of mediocrities wearing the old cloaks of those who built the platforms on which they stand. The closest there is to an engaging thinker in conventional conservatism is Christopher Caldwell. Douglas Murray can be insightful on occasion, but otherwise, conservatism is an intellectual desert.

The Left, on the other hand, has descended into a partisan madness. They no longer even pretend to care about the problems of the age or even about reality. The American Left is now a weird cargo cult led by senile oldsters. At the top we have detached and delusional geezers reenacting what they think were their salad days. Below them are their children and grandchildren, play acting as if this is the Days of Rage. The Left is live action role playing for people trapped in the past.

The madness of the Left gets all of the attention, but it is the intellectual bankruptcy of the Right that should get the attention. Fifty years ago, when the New Left burst onto the scene and set the political world ablaze, there was a viable and healthy Right to provide a firebreak of sorts. The madness of the 60’s and 70’s was followed by the relatively sober minded 80’s and 90’s. This was due in large part to the Right having lots of smart people thinking hard about how to set things in order.

This is not the case today. You see this in the writing of the people considered to be the bright lights of conservatism. This is a recent piece from Ross Douthat about the state of American society. The word “obtuse” was invented for this sort of post. It is mostly a grab bag of talking points from cable chat shows. He claims Charlottesville was some sort of right-wing riot. Then he follows on with all the silly whoppers the Left has been peddling about the January protests.

At the end of the piece, he lets his slip show by hailing the new regime’s plans to push through a bunch of nation wrecking polices. It is the writing of someone with nothing to say but compelled to say something. The image that emerges is of a confused and frightened man, unable to think critically about the age and terrified that the mobs may decide to come for him. It is a pre-emptive struggle session that should probably be read aloud as he sits on a stool wearing a dunce cap.

Like the Left, the Right has a cargo cult quality to it. This post by Kevin Williamson at National Review is a good example. It’s the sort of bumper sticker rhetoric Jack Kemp would have used in the 1980’s. Today, it is as relevant as leisure suits. More important, it is factually wrong. The market had zero to do with the vaccine. It was government with its promises of blanket immunity and billions in credit money. No one this stupid should be allowed to own a pencil, much less write for the public.

Even fifty years ago, you could cherry pick columns from conservatives that were stupid and ridiculous, but they were exceptions. Williamson and Douthat are considered intellectuals of the movement. These are the guys standing where Buckley, Francis, Sobran and Kirk once stood. Conservatism is now the Stonehenge scene from the movie This Is Spinal Tap. The only thing preventing people from noticing the absurdity of the Right is the over-the-top lunacy of the Left.

It is popular to compare what is happening today with what happened in the 1970’s, as many of the performers were around back then. The gerontocracy is made up of people who still have some corduroy suits in their closet. The big difference is there is no net underneath the Left this time. There is no conservative movement ready to step in and make things right. When this clown car veers off the road, there is not rescue team ready to pull it out of the ditch.


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American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

No one wants to pull the clown car out of the ditch. I think everyone, left and right, is ready to say goodbye to America. On the Left, it’s all just stolen land and plantation slavery. On the right, it’s a welfare state of freeloaders who have zero value in productive work. We would all benefit from rending it asunder and letting smaller nations emerge from the rubble. Everyone on Earth, from China to New York, from London to LA, is ready to watch America collapse like the Soviet Union did. I hope for this outcome to come sooner. I… Read more »

Hi - Ya!
Hi - Ya!
3 years ago

And oh, how they dah-nced, the lih-uhl children of Stone Hendge. Beneath the haunted moon. For fear that day-break, might come, TOO SOON!!!!

Good grief I watch that movies one too many times…

Whiskey
Whiskey
3 years ago

Zman, I have a different take. The intellectual bankruptcy of the Right and Craziness of the Left stem from the same source: the Managerial Elite being squeezed. Charles Murray is good for something, and he noted that the elites all live in the same 11 zip codes, all went to the same 4 schools, and are all married or related to each other, and they all don’t own the means of power and wealth but manage it. This made sense when we needed an ever expanding army of managers from 1920-1970 during massive industrialization and the need to manage the… Read more »

Epaminondas
Member
Reply to  Whiskey
3 years ago

But that doesn’t explain why the craziness has seeped into the intelligence and military departments. This stuff is toxic. And without a steady hand on the tiller, this ship is going down.

TomA
TomA
3 years ago

The only thing useful that can be gleaned from current events is an educated estimate of when the collapse will get rolling in earnest. Normie still wants to keep his head in the sand and pretend everything will be alright come 2022 when the Rs retake the House & Senate. Comfort First Baby!!! In reality, nothing will change until the environment changes and real hardship returns. Most will react by whining harder, but at some point, the root problem must be tackled. That is how dissidents can make a difference. That is the road to redemption & salvation.

BTP
Member
3 years ago

Amused to read Douthat thinks Trump might really, when you think about it, kinda be like the Mule, that character in the Asimov novels. Dude is the conservative opinion guy at the NYT and comes up with takes that were insightful here five years ago when Z first served it up.

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
3 years ago

By cutting off the paleocons like Sobran and Sam Francis the conservative movement cutoff any chance to survive.
It’s too late for them now we are entering the demographic age.
The dissident right will continue to grow.
Maybe not a linear growth but we will grow going forward.
Because we have the truth about man.

Major Hoople
Major Hoople
Member
Reply to  G Lordon Giddy
3 years ago

First they cut off people like Francis, now they’ve cut off any base. Not only has the intellectual power of the right evaporated, so has an electoral base ready to follow. The Republican voter block may not be dissident right, but they are in the main contemptuous of their leadership. Trump still has some authority with his voters, but that he would do anything with it is questionable.

ABCer
ABCer
3 years ago

Z is right, all of them in DC at least are finished. They know it, but until they are pushed off the branches they’ve sawn in half or it collapses we have to endure this spectacle. They are moving on inertia as there’s no alternative. Now they may well consolidate their power in the absence of any challenge, and none it seems are forthcoming. Were something organized in the past it would presently be pushing the gerontocracy off its precipice – but no, nothing but words, no organizing as that meant risk. One could say it was fear of Feds,… Read more »

krustykurmudgeon
krustykurmudgeon
3 years ago

eh I feel the conservative movement was always bankrupt and part of finklethink. Who I find more interesting are movement conservatives who went off the reservation. Think Revilo Oliver or Willis Carto.

Severian
3 years ago

Before I retired from the professing biz (aka “when I stopped giving a crap what the administration thought”), I’d regularly ask classes of undergraduates to estimate the percentage of “African Americans” in the population. Estimates varied, but usually the answer was “25-35%”. I asked “what percentage of Americans are gay?” and got a similar answer.

“So look around,” I’d say. “According to you guys, every third kid in here is a gay Black. Where on earth did you get that idea?”

Blank stares. The propaganda REALLY works, y’all.

Severian
Reply to  Severian
3 years ago

Sorry, this was supposed to be a reply to Citizen of a Silly Country, about kids still acting like it’s1965.

Thud Muffle
Member
Reply to  Severian
3 years ago

And all the stores and shops would be boarded up.

Thud Muffle
Member
3 years ago

You are overthinking. The whole lefty appetite for political control is about the rewards. Fifty six years ago my wife and I bought our first house. The neighborhood was less than desirable but the schools were the best in the area. One of the houses was “welfare house”. Her caseworker dropped by on Monday and Wednesday to get his ashes hauled. The real estate broker who owned the house was there Tuesday and Thursday. She had Friday off to party with her white trash friends. Fast forward thirty years or so, I was in middle management for a company that… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
3 years ago

Z claims that 50 years ago the Left was intellectually exhausted, but downpage, says this: “Fifty years ago, when the New Left burst onto the scene and set the political world ablaze…” If the Left was intellectually exhausted, how, pray tell, did it set the political world ablaze, and over the opposition an intellectual right that, as Z notes, had tankers full of intellectual candle power? The two assertions are incommensurable. Where Z errs is in claiming the Left was intellectually exhausted. In point of fact, it was invigorated and galvanized by a host of French poststructuralists who had put… Read more »

Juri
Juri
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
3 years ago

The cold war was one sided. Soviet side did little above basic self defense. There are zero evidence that Soviets ever planned any attack to Europe. All Soviet actions were counter moves to US attacks.

Sidvic
Sidvic
Member
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

The Soviets were active fomenting liberation movements all over. Communist internationale. Africa asia south america etc. What the heck are you talking about?

Dicksister
Dicksister
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

It is blatantly obvious at this point that the american empire has been the bad guy for a long time

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Dicksister
3 years ago

Yes. For about 30 years now. Alas, I didn’t realize it until about 10 years ago.

Stephanie G
Stephanie G
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

Here in GB during the latter years of the Cold War the Conservatives always used to say ad nauseam:’vote Labour and the Red Army will be in London by the end of the month’. This made me realise that in order to widen their appeal to the British electorate, who don’t care for extremism, the parties changed the policies to occupy the centre ground. In an attempt to become all things to all men they abandoned their core beliefs. The Conservatives were widely believed to be strong on defence,business and law and order. While Labour were thought to be strong… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

The USSR was hardly guiltless. Directly the Bolsheviks came to power they created the Comintern whose object was to foment communist revolution abroad. And that’s just for starters.

ronehjr
ronehjr
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
3 years ago

“Where Z errs is in claiming the Left was intellectually exhausted. In point of fact, it was invigorated and galvanized by a host of French poststructuralists who had put paid to traditional Marxism,”

This issue has been dealt with here and elsewhere. Z is speaking of the Right in a contextual manner. He has often commented on how the modern right simply follows the left by a few years. He understands as well as anyone there has been zero actual right wing resistance to the left in modern history, especially in regards to equality.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  ronehjr
3 years ago

Which is beside the point. The Left was hardly intellectually bankrupt ca. 1970.

Gagdad Bob
3 years ago

Looked at a certain way, the only reason the right isn’t bankrupt is because the left keeps printing so much intellectual funny money. Critiquing the insanity of the left is so easy, that one can forget to create a positive argument rooted in real intellectual value. Or as Sr. Dáviila says, “Whoever insists on refuting idiotic arguments ends up doing so with stupid reasons.”

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Gagdad Bob
3 years ago

My word! Look who spiraled down the celestial firepole on wings of slack, seized the wheel of the cosmic bus, and deigned to abide in a bewilderness adventure of higher nondoodling in The Zman’s universe! Welcome, fellow Dissident!

Compsci
Compsci
3 years ago

“When this clown car veers off the road, there is not rescue team ready to pull it out of the ditch.” This is not a bad thing. One phenomenon I have noticed in a lifetime of playing the “good civnat” is that when the pendulum swings too far to the left and the country “swerves off course”, the Rep’s step in and patch the holes (somewhat), right the ship (as best they can), and steer around the shoals. In short, saving he Leftists from themselves and putting he electorate to sleep once again. Indeed, the pendulum swing analogy is a… Read more »

Juri
Juri
Reply to  Compsci
3 years ago

Full communist tyranny is not veering off the road. Lenin made his revolution with exactly same people like your ones. Snowflakes, sexual deviants ,criminals , mentally defect , and just the spineless filth who were ready to serve their new masters. I cant see any obstacle for full communism in the US.

ABCer
ABCer
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

Nor I. I see no obstacle to any of their agenda.

The Right confuses words with actions, and critiques and mocks any who do act.

You cannot build an army around snide deserters.

American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
Reply to  ABCer
3 years ago

You cannot build an army around snide 70+ year old deserters. It’s an extremely geezerly crowd of old guys who would have donned the hood and lit a cross on fire in their youths but who are now mere spectators. The “dissident right” is mostly old white guys. They are just typing out comments on the internet. Very little else.

B125
B125
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

Agree, we’re not going off the rails, we’re full steam ahead on the road to a POC Bolshevik revolution . With (((them))) and their ignorant white liberals who think they’re in the conductors cabin.

And they are for now but this runaway train will steamroll them too … The question is will they also destroy us first.

Vizzini
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

Full communist tyranny is the path the clown car takes on its way off the road.

Karl Horst (Germany)
Karl Horst (Germany)
3 years ago

As a fan of classic movies, I was watching ‘Fiddler on the Roof ‘ this weekend and it struck me that Tevye was absolutely correct when he said – “Because of our traditions, everyone of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.” The Left has been very successful at removing Christian values, pushing LGBT at every level and now imposing cancel culture. The results are people have become more and more confused about who they are, and no one knows, or cares, what they’re expected to do since there’s no ultimate moral authority to answer… Read more »

Whitney
Member
Reply to  Karl Horst (Germany)
3 years ago

The word to describe that is deracinate. Which apparently spell check has never heard of and would like me to change to decimate or deactivate which is somehow fitting

B125
B125
Reply to  Whitney
3 years ago

Life is pretty simple. I’m convinced that 80% of people’s personal problems could be solved if they just went to church and read the Bible. But on the left, traditional is evil. And white Christians are sexist, racist, colonizers. And of course the average “right wing” Boomer doesn’t want to think about his own actions. Ie. He likes chasing meaningless pussy, cheer on Africans running a ball up the field, and as long as he has a new truck every 5 years it’s all good if his neighbours are all mexicans. So we will continue to be replaced by a… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

B125, I don’t remember if you’ve addressed this question before, but I’m curious. If you had to move to one of two countries with no information except that one country is black and Christian and the other is white and non-Christian, which would you choose and why?

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

The boomers I know are changing their tunes. They’re realizing the system (whatever you want to call it) that worked for them for decades is now working against them. Great news.

Ganderson
Ganderson
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

I watch golf, hockey and lacrosse. Nary an African to be found.

Hi - Ya!
Hi - Ya!
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

Protestantism was the beginning of progressivism

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Whitney
3 years ago

Yup, I’ve noticed that my spellchecker has become Woke of late.

Andy Texan
Reply to  Karl Horst (Germany)
3 years ago

Another classic movie you should see, Inherit the Wind. This movie documents the beginning of the end. I think the year is 1912. A fitting year to mark the beginning of the end of western civilization.

Sandwasp
3 years ago

Not sure there was much worth in the old “intellectualls”

Most of not all of them were paid stooges for the wealthy elites.

Just as the podcaster has made the talk radio host obsolete, the internet grifter has replaced the CIA funded Buckleys of the right.

The David Frenchs and Douhats no longer have an audience. Instead of conservative thought leaders being beholden to elite interests, they cater to the lowest common denominator to get internet crowdsourced funding.

Whitney
Member
Reply to  Sandwasp
3 years ago

And they can write books that can then be used as a money laundering scheme don’t forget that

Karl Horst (Germany)
Karl Horst (Germany)
Reply to  Whitney
3 years ago

Despite the impact of his decision to reduce exports of cocoa to Switzerland, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo started his discussion praising the influence of the Swiss missionary work in his country over a century ago – • Established educational institutions • Established the First agricultural school • Set up the first health facilities and hospitals • Spread the cultivation of cocoa, now mainstay of the Ghana economy • Translation of the bible from English into two of the main Ghana languages Of course the anti-white, woke and BLM crowd will be sure not to mention this because they believe whites,… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

It’s interesting how both sides seem stuck in the past. I actually get to talk with teenagers and the liberal ones speak as though it’s 1965. It’s just blacks and Whites, and how White racism is keeping down blacks. Sure, they throw in the occasional “People of Color” comment, but they focus exclusively on blacks. It’s as though the past 50 years haven’t happened. They don’t notice that Hispanics are 25% of the population, almost double blacks. Asians and Indians, who are they? Neither side has a real vision for the future because that would mean acknowledging that Whites will… Read more »

B125
B125
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

Yes, this is an important observation. I live in a ~30% white (and most are boomers) part of the Toronto area and traditional white politics are completely dead. The major groups are Hindus, Sikhs, Arabs and Chinese. Generational warfare is absent. Wokeness is absent. Homo parades don’t exist. Crime is low, there are no homeless, streets are clean. Progress also stagnates – they have low motivation. General community (like neighbourhoods) is non existent – but ethnic/religious communities are strong. Bike lanes are not even debated – highway widening and new condo developments are always being promoted. Outright racism is pretty… Read more »

Dinothedoxie
Dinothedoxie
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

they say yes sir Mr. Trudeau we are following social distancing and then not follow it at all.

That’s the latinoized CA future for America.

The government passes laws to virtue signal – which are promptly ignored by everyone.

Not the worst possible future by a long shot.

Rwc1963
Rwc1963
Reply to  Dinothedoxie
3 years ago

Yep. I remember the last 4th of July, Newsom said no parties, no fireworks, etc. And what did the people of LA do? Have grilling parties, shoot off a boat load of illegal fireworks, ignore masks, etc.

It was amusing watching the local news media freak out seeing the entire night sky full of exploding salutes.

It was one of the best 4th’s ever.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

Thanks for this.

I’ve been wondering about two things of late.
1. What are the exemplars of successful none-white societies that the left is aiming for?
2. What instances do we have, within the larger structure of the West do we have of functioning multi-racial, minority white communities?

Your answer to the latter is interesting because while you are long on the Hindu, you are light on the Dindu,

B125
B125
Reply to  Bilejones
3 years ago

1. This is a whole other topic. The truth is that there are none – at least not the kind they’d like to live in. Saudi Arabia (and the whole gulf) and China are some decent examples of functional non white societies. Of course these are not democracies or egalitarian or diverse at all. Leftist ideas seem to be more about destroying the European races as opposed to building anything else though. 2. Again, there are none. In a place with Hindus, Punjabis, Arabs, and Pakistanis, everyone is a minority. The communities are based on ethnic and religious lines. There… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

Japan and Singapore.

B125
B125
Reply to  Bilejones
3 years ago

Punjabis and Arabs are wanna be Dindus, especially 2nd generation “assimilated” ones. Believe it or not Punjabi rap music is even more hideous than regular rap music. They are more annoying than Dindus but less dangerous physically. They all hate whitey too and are great at scamming the system. Because they’re higher intelligence I believe they will be a bigger problem long term. Though I want nothing to do with Dindus I do respect them for “keeping it real” and given their low intelligence levels would be easily dealt with by a white population (or Hindu population) that is not… Read more »

sentry
sentry
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

“For instance, at the small BLM / homo parades in the area, it’s basically white degenerates acting performatively as an ever diminishing minority. Hindus/Sikhs/Muslims cringe a bit and then just keep doing whatever. It falls on deaf ears.”

Damn, this is the equivalent of someone going to the neighbours house to show off his degenerate porn collection.
The neighbours are repulsed, but the leftist instead of being ashamed of himself, he thinks he’s a brave visionary who has transcended the dogma of the past.

B125
B125
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

Ahh why didn’t my comment show I put so much effort into it. If it’s in moderation limbo please show it asap, Z ☹️

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

Drone at a major Globohomo Corp reporting:

Now that BLM, sorry, Black History Month is over, the company has switched from daily indoctrination about blacks, equity, and the racisms to…..

Daily indoctrination about ASIANS, equity, and the racisms.

Left unsaid is WHO is oppressing the Asians. (Harvard and Yale are not acceptable answers).

HR departments a scourge on morale. Classic strategy though: everyone in the company will hate each other after a few more years of this: perfect opportunity to expand HR to deal with the “problem”!

B125
B125
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

I should also add that this place has alot of “older” immigrants. Educated people who came here before the woke started, probably late 80s/early 90s into the mid 00s.

The newer ones seem alot more hostile, especially Punjabis / Muslims.

And their kids / 3nd gen pretty much lose their positive cultural attributes and basically follow a cheap imitation of African American culture. Especially the males.

sentry
sentry
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

“Sure, they throw in the occasional “People of Color” comment, but they focus exclusively on blacks. It’s as though the past 50 years haven’t happened. They don’t notice that Hispanics are 25% of the population, almost double blacks. Asians and Indians, who are they?”

I’ve read users on this blog claim propaganda stopped working, that people in general opened their eyes…apparently it works just fine.

Severian
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

Before I retired from the professing biz (aka “when I stopped giving a crap what the administration thought”), I’d regularly ask classes of undergraduates to estimate the percentage of “African Americans” in the population. Estimates varied, but usually the answer was “25-35%”. I asked “what percentage of Americans are gay?” and got a similar answer.

“So look around,” I’d say. “According to you guys, every third kid in here is a gay Black. Where on earth did you get that idea?”

Blank stares. The propaganda REALLY works, y’all.

B125
B125
Reply to  Severian
3 years ago

Asian people are convinced that white supremacists and rednecks are literally murdering Asians in the street of San Francisco…

Here at Zman we are of the select few who are not totally insane and have the ability to see through brainwashing.

Sidvic
Sidvic
Member
Reply to  Severian
3 years ago

Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time in Japan. Many of the Japanese assume the majority of Americans are black. I wonder where they got that idea from?

el-porko
el-porko
Reply to  Sidvic
3 years ago

I saw a “man on the street” type interview with people on the streets of Japan where they were asking passers-by about various opinions and beliefs about foreigners. When asked about how many people in the US were black, answers seemed to range from 25 to 70%. Most people interviewed were under the impression that America was half black.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  el-porko
3 years ago

Hell, look up Naomi Osaka some time. Half-black/Jap pro-tennis gorill…player who doesn’t even speak Japanese.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  Sidvic
3 years ago

It’s weird, isn’t it? The “worldwide” BLM protests that happened last year stunk of fake and gay, but they also happened in Japan. People protest all the time and do street demonstrations in Tokyo. It’s a lesson learned from the 1960s when national riots occured. There, the diet hamfisted that one and got a lot of people killed. Now they figure it’s better to let college kids blow off some steam as long as they don’t get violent. Still, even though BLM just gave them something to march around about that month, the turnout was pathetic and there were an… Read more »

Hi - Ya!
Hi - Ya!
Reply to  Severian
3 years ago

When I was growing up it was the 10% society.

Stephanie G
Stephanie G
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
3 years ago

My mother and sister firmly believe that American blacks are systematically oppressed. That black males could all be like that very nice,very personable Will Smith if only White Americans would stop endlessly oppressing them. Thanks to decades of indoctrination by the state broadcaster the BBC they simply cannot be talked out of this belief.
I believe that blacks are their own worst enemies and that a black male/female could start a fight in an empty house. However to say that risks being forever labelled as an incorrigible racist.

Felix Krull
Member
3 years ago

Douglas Murray can be insightful on occasion, but otherwise, conservatism is an intellectual desert. He’s stone-solid when it comes to Islam – a freebie for kosher-right shills. But still, he went on Al Jazeera and told all the camel fuckers straight to their faces that their god was a perverse joke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NBh6DhmYcI In connexion to this he related an anecdote about Richard Dawkins: Dawkins had gone on Al J. himself, railing about muh Jesus and about Jewism, when the host asked: “but what about Allah? Is he a fairy tale too?” So Dawkins blanched and came up with this: “I… Read more »

Hi - Ya!
Hi - Ya!
Reply to  Felix Krull
3 years ago

Hehe, Muh-Mohammed!

David Wright
Member
3 years ago

The intellectual backbone is gone now, all that can happen is watch most of western and Christian society continue in freefall.

The heirs to the great minds of the Right’s past are honing their ideas, teaching and fortifying generations to come. Hopefully in decades to come they will be ready to create a new home for people like us but understand it will be new and not resurrected America. I hope and pray that true Christianity will be part of that also. I don’t see any other way.

Sidvic
Sidvic
Member
Reply to  David Wright
3 years ago

Yeah, the cowardness is what I despise. Charles Murray had the balls, and perhaps naivete, to publish the bell curve. It provides the unassailable argument against white systemic racism explaining poor black academic performance. Does anyone at conservative inc. use it? Hell no, easier to just let the whites be painted as morally deficient. Lolz, I’ve gently prodded Steve Hayward to even acknowledge that such an argument exists. Got banned for my trouble, heh. I was a NR reading stalwart as little as 10 years ago. Today, I find myself despising those fuckers more than the child diddlers in the… Read more »

B125
B125
Reply to  Sidvic
3 years ago

The cowardliness of whites disgusts me. We see it from boomers at globocorp. Firing good young white people over petty disagreements. Hiring POC morons so nobody challenges / “threatens” their ideas. Disparaging young “millenials” when it’s a very specific group of “millenials” who are lazy, fucking everyone else over. White execs constantly promoting BLM and other wokeness and jerking each other off over how progressive they are. These aren’t the small hat people but full on crackers. Basically fucking over everyone else coming after them, but hey they got theirs. I hope they get the pillow treatment as they’re dying… Read more »

Infidel1776
Infidel1776
Reply to  Sidvic
3 years ago

Murray has a book coming out in June called “Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race in America.” From the description at Amazon: “The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.” I gotta believe that Amazon will pull the book when Jamal’s white upper middle class… Read more »

Hi - Ya!
Hi - Ya!
Reply to  Sidvic
3 years ago

THe NO is not the Catholic Church

ABCer
ABCer
Reply to  David Wright
3 years ago

What is an intellectuals backbone and where is it located?

The Intellectuals? They’ll be with us- Goebbels

The intellectuals are humanity’s eternal race of whores – Moldbug.

We can now review the intellectuals during the struggle against Communism…nah.

There is no such thing as intellectuals with backbones.
They sing for their supper and thats all.

Gauss
Gauss
3 years ago

>The closest there is to an engaging thinker in conventional conservatism is Christopher Caldwell.

I’ve got a copy of his book The Age of Entitlement but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. Is it any good?

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Gauss
3 years ago

It’s good.

The main thesis is that the 1964 Civil Rights Act created a parallel extra-Constitutional series of rights that ultimately gutted and subjugated the actual Constitution, and is doing so with ever increasing vigor.

Good for gateway discussions for the ‘muh Consitushn’ types on our side who say all we need to do is get back to the basics.

Use caution with the “freedom of association” argument. That’s some straight up racisms right there, but it’s the essence of a free society. Again, gutted by the 1964 CRA (and follow up legislation)

B125
B125
3 years ago

Conservatism in 2021:

-dems are the real racists
-*provides some feeble pushback that men in female sports is bad for strong girls idolizing WNBA players*
-also Charlottesville and capitol hill people are the real racists
(Please don’t call us racist, please)
-heres why mass immigration is actually good – Africans are filling up seats at my church !

Etc.

Rwc1963
Rwc1963
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

Those are the words of a party that is dead. They had become so corrupt over the last 25 years that they drove out the few half-way intelligent and populist types in the party. Now all they are, are meat puppets for BigTech and Wall Street. Trump tried to bring the party back but they hated him so much they destroyed the country to get rid of him. Trump’s failure was not understanding the GOP was by his time a party that was openly hostile to White Americans and to having a happy an prosperous working and middle-class in the… Read more »

Vizzini
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

“Look at our [black/gay/Muslim/female/trans] keynote speaker!”

usNthem
usNthem
3 years ago

All the smart people on the right thinking about how to set things in order didn’t do much else other than think about it. The cultural and societal rot has continued apace despite our former deep thinkers. The sooner the clown car veers off the road, the better. Then those of us on this side of the great divide can start picking up the pieces, while leaving “them” to their fate or perhaps bringing that fate to fruition. The only platform I want to see “conservative” mediocrities and their leftard brothers and sisters on is the type with a falling… Read more »

Infidel1776
Infidel1776
Reply to  usNthem
3 years ago

Yep. Ideas are important, but so is the occasional whiff of grapeshot.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  Infidel1776
3 years ago

Nah, filling trenches with bodies doesn’t work in the long run. FWIW, that doesn’t work for the left, either. Their version now is on-demand abortion and neutering men (LGBT crap), but it amounts to the same thing. We’re still here, and a growing number of people getting tired of this crap every year.

SidVic
SidVic
Reply to  Forever Templar
3 years ago

Nonsense “filling trenches with bodies” works every time it’s been tried.

One of Many Georges
One of Many Georges
3 years ago

“Douglas Murray can be inciteful.”

I’ll put this down as a Freudian slip. In truth, we need more inciteful people.

ABCer
ABCer
Reply to  One of Many Georges
3 years ago

I once had an eval where as my goals for the next year was;

“Use experience to incite the troops.”

I think he meant inspire, but I do hope to incite before I pass.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
3 years ago

Like any “conservative” allowed in the NYT, Douthat is just a puppet. And Gateway Pundit ran a good summary of what really happened on 1/6: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/case-falls-apart-capitol-hill-investigators-ask-60-day-delay-build-case-jan-6-protesters-fbi-media-conspiracies-crumble/

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Jack Boniface
3 years ago

I’m reliably informed it was an “insurrection” on the level of 1861 when:

11 states voted to succeed,

raised actual armies,

engaged in a fight that led to the deaths of 2% of the population (equivalent to 6.5 million deaths today),

wounding about 3x that (about 20 million equivalent today),

drafted/volunteered 80% of men between age 18-45 in the south and 50% of men between age 18-45 in the north.

This is why we still have 25,000 troops, gates, and razor wire in the Capitol

ABCer
ABCer
Reply to  ProZNoV
3 years ago

No, the Troops are there because the children young and old, mostly old are terrified of the consequences of what they’ve done.

And don’t know what else to do, but govern like its 2014 still.

Andy Texan
Reply to  ABCer
3 years ago

When I heard of the insurrection of Jan 6th and that after seizing the capital building they all went home , I though to my self the once in a lifetime opportunity for a bloodless revolution shot to hell. If they had planned on holding the capital and brought weapons they could rounded up the traitors.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  ProZNoV
3 years ago

25,000 soldiers, and reserve components to boot, with little-to-no ammunition and just there to collect extended annual training pay, are not going to stop an insurrection. Come on, it’s security theater for the goobers *inside* the wire.