Note #1: The Monday Taki post is up. The topic is somewhat related to the post today, but using the war as a jumping off point. Because I was traveling over the weekend, no Sunday Thoughts behind the green door, but I have a write up of the VDare event posted there instead. Later this week I will have a longer post on the event at the castle and the issues discussed there.
Note #2: If you are a law student or know a law student, there is a competition around the legal difficulties of the J6 victims. It is an essay contest. If you are interested, here is their website. The principles behind it are listed on the site. Scroll down.
The Opposite Rule of Liberalism states that whatever the Left is saying about its political opponents, assume the opposite and you will get close to the truth. This should not be confused with contradiction. If the Left says “X”, it does not follow that the literal opposite of “X” is the truth. All this rule tells us is that what the Left is saying is not the truth and that the truth is going to be completely different from what they are saying, often the complete opposite.
The classic example of this is ten years ago when the Tea Party was a thing. This purely grassroots movement in reaction to the radicalism of the Obama administration was called “AstroTurf” by the Left. The Left claimed their activism was organic while the Right was manufacturing activism. The Tea Party was a creation of the Republican Party and their corporate masters. The reality was the opposite. Left-wing activism was controlled by the party and financed by corporate America.
The opposite rule can also work as a warning. In fact, this is the best application of the rule as it helps prepare for left-wing shenanigans. The way this works is that once you hear warnings from left-wing people about some threat, you can assume they are planning it or they are actively engaged in it. The last bit is the way to bet when the Left is overly excited about the claim. In other words, they have a habit of accusing their opponents of crimes the are committing.
A good example of this is when the neocons were organizing the police state during the Bush years. The Bush people said these new weapons of the state would only be used against Muslims. Most of them were probably sincere about this. Neocons hate Arabs more than they hate Europeans. The Left said these tools would be used against normal Americans. Of course, as soon as the Left gained power they started using these tools to spy on Americans.
This behavior of the Left, where they accuse their enemies of what they are plotting or doing, is used by conservatives as proof of the Left’s cynicism. For conservatives, hypocrisy is the most powerful abracadabra word. Despite all the evidence, they are sure that uttering this word will destroy their enemies. When the Left accuses their enemies of something they are doing, the conservatives scream about hypocrisy, believing is does something magical for them.
This never has the desired effect because being accused of hypocrisy only works if you care about factual accuracy. For conservatives, being factual correct is important, so they would rather lose than be accused of contradiction. This is mostly why they lose every fight. They like losing while being right. For the Left, advancing their goals is what matters, so they can live with contradiction. For them, facts are just another tool that can be used as a weapon against the opposition.
It also helps that left-wing politics attracts a specific type. Eric Hoffer observed that people often join mass movements out of self-loathing. They wish to swap their hated sense of self with the identity of the group, which they view positively. This is almost always true with left-wing politics. The people in it are looking for a form of salvation, where they are saved from thinking about their hated sense of self. Instead, they get to focus on an enemy they can enthusiastically hate.
Of course, hating an enemy that has the qualities you hate about yourself is pretty much the ideal enemy for this sort of person. Their self-loathing is transformed into a virtue while they express their hatred for qualities they fear they possess. Collectively, this transforms the Left into a mob driven by what looks like moral indignation and a desire to purge the world of corruption. This is what makes a relatively small number of people into a powerful force in American society.
This shameless ability to project onto others the sins of the Left has been the primary reason the Left has denominated American politics. They claim the moral high ground, accuse anyone that resists of doing something bad and then they do that bad thing to the people they are accusing. After all, they have created the justification for the bad thing they are doing. Conservatives spent the last half century trying to prove they are not the villains while the Left marched from triumph to triumph.
The opposite rule has been so effective, in fact, that there is no longer an effective opposition to the Left in America. Conservatism has collapsed and the political divide in America is the Cloud People, who populate and control the managerial class, and the Dirt People, who suffer under the rule of the managerial class. The Cloud People now accuse the Dirt People are various things, like the insurrection business, which is used to justify heavy handed tactics against the Dirt People.
This self-referential indignation that grows from self-loathing has become a religion for the managerial class. In fact, it has helped them become class aware. It is why they find bizarre things to impose on society. They are in support of child molesters in the schools, for example, because it gives them people to hate. Those normal parents showing up to fight against groomers and bigots in the schools provide the needed foil for the Left. Their religion demands a devil.
This bizarre religion that animates the ruling class is effective at walling them off from society and preserving their position. It is why any questioning of official policy is labeled one of the abracadabra phases that mean “outsider.” Ask about food bills doubling and you are spreading misinformation. Question the war in Ukraine and you are a Putin shill. Notice that crime is rising at rates not seen since the 1970’s and you are a violent white supremacist.
This is where that opposite rule becomes so effective. The need to accuse an outsider of the worst crimes the Left can imagine becomes a justification for committing those crimes against the alleged enemy. It is how America so quickly moved from defending the liberal order and individual rights to celebrating corporate censorship and the persecution of political prisoners. The bad guys get worse, so the means to defeat them must get worse as well. This is the terror escalator.
This is a parasitic and corrosive ruling ethos. The sharp decline in the quality of life for most Americans over the last generation is one result. The collapse in social trust is another consequence. Like the desperate person eating the seed corn, what we call liberal democracy is consuming the social capital of society in order to fuel the hate-machine that props up the managerial class. At some point, maybe soon, they run out of things to burn and the system becomes unstable.
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That’s a fantastic last paragraph but “The sharp decline in the quality of life for most Americans over the last generation” is difficult to quantify.
In fact, my impression is that most people are ecstatically (if superficially) happy. (to take people found in shopping malls as the most significant demographic). The sum of human happiness in the world has never been higher, and what mall man has lost in the meaning of life in recent decades has been more than been offset by the boon of technology.
I’m not sure the left is “consuming the social capital of society” so much as feeding it with an inexhaustible supply of self-ratifying emotion. Sure, with all that newfound emotion they carp incessantly about things, but the ability to do that is part of their happiness.
It’s a crucial point because if this is true then it means we’re never going to win. Only when everyone is *seriously* unhappy is there any chance of changing the system. I’m thinking asteroid strike.
Anson:
“I’m thinking asteroid strike”.
I’m thinking $50 bread & butter.
Hungry people are unhappy AND dangerous people.
“That’s a fantastic last paragraph but “The sharp decline in the quality of life for most Americans over the last generation” is difficult to quantify.”
No. Its the easiest thing in the world to quantify:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2756187
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7877587/
Monkeywerx does some interesting breakdowns on flights and ships:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=1384&v=_d9KLVT-4zE&feature=youtu.be
Shortages of goods from China appear to be 3-6 months out tops.
He also notes we’re positioning assets in Eastern Europe and the Western Pacific, probably to kick things off right before the midterm election so they can suspend it indefinitely.
His thinks the deployments will be so large CONUS will be left to the NG.
Prep accordingly.
NG? what is that
National Guard I’m guessing
I have a real problem with this “Opposite Rule”. If the Russians are actually committing war crimes in Ukraine, or if covid has actually killed a million Americans, do you think the New York Times would fail to notice these facts and report them? The Left is extremely biased, and this makes it untrustworthy, but even extremely biased sources can be very good at identifying the truth if the truth happens to line up with their biases. It is never safe to say “A is untrustworthy, so if A says ‘X’ then the truth must be closer to ‘not X'”. It is always possible that in this particular instance A is exactly right.
This is an example of the larger problem I have with Z. I read this blog because its take on race is more or less aligned with my own, and because Z sometimes has interesting ideas, but I would never refer anyone else to it, because far too much of it consists of dense sequences of unsupported and often questionable assertions. Consider for example this particular assertion:
“They are in support of child molesters in the schools, for example, because it gives them people to hate.”
Is this statement actually true? Is the Left knowingly supporting “child molesters”, and is the reason they are doing so because “it gives them people to hate”? That just seems wrong! I think David Cole’s recent Taki’s article “Doom and Groomer”, where he argues that the whole “groomer” narrative is wrongheaded and plays into the hands of the Left, is much closer to the truth.
I chose Z’s assertion about pedos in the schools because I could point to Cole’s article as a counterpoint, but Z’s writing is filled with assertions that strike me as similarly unsupported and unconvincing. Say what you will about someone like Charles Murray, but I can imagine his writing changing people’s minds — those who are already on the fence for sure, and maybe others beyond that. With Z though it is almost like he is actively trying to drive away anyone who doesn’t already agree with him 100%. It’s hard for me to see how this can be helpful!
This is an example of the larger problem I have with Z. I read this blog because its take on race is more or less aligned with my own, and because Z sometimes has interesting ideas, but I would never refer anyone else to it, because far too much of it consists of dense sequences of unsupported and often questionable assertions. Consider for example this particular assertion:
“They are in support of child molesters in the schools, for example, because it gives them people to hate.”
Is this statement actually true? Is the Left knowingly supporting “child molesters”, and is the reason they are doing so because “it gives them people to hate”? That just seems wrong! I think David Cole’s recent Taki’s article “Doom and Groomer”, where he argues that the whole “groomer” narrative is wrongheaded and plays into the hands of the Left, is much closer to the truth.
Is this statement actually true? Is the Left knowingly supporting “child molesters”, and is the reason they are doing so because “it gives them people to hate”? That just seems wrong! I think the recent Taki’s article “Doom and Groomer”, which argues that the whole “groomer” narrative is wrongheaded and plays into the hands of the Left, is much closer to the truth.
https://www.takimag.com/article/doom-and-groomer/
I chose Z’s assertion about pedos in the schools because I could point to the article as a counterpoint, but Z’s writing is filled with assertions that strike me as similarly unsupported and unconvincing. Say what you will about someone like Charles Murray, but I can imagine his writing changing people’s minds — those who are already on the fence for sure, and maybe others beyond that. With Z though it is almost like he is actively trying to drive away anyone who doesn’t already agree with him 100%. It’s hard for me to see how this can be helpful!
jeb , you have been away from the grill to long. you need to get back to the patio.
Just checking to see if I am being blocked, since my previous and longer comments never showed up.
OK, this got through, but I tried again to repost my earlier comment and it’s still not working. Maybe it’s just too long; I’ll try breaking it up.
Aha, I figured out the problem! Apparently the author of the Taki’s article I linked to, one DC, cannot be named here!
Yeah, what is the deal with DC? I think the guy is hilarious.
“once you hear warnings from left-wing people about some threat, you can assume they are planning it or they are actively engaged in it.”
There’s been lots of talk in the media about Russia having to use tactical nuclear weapons in the near future. This does not bode well. When the elite of the Cloud People start traveling to New Zealand watch out !
They are trying to goad Russia into using a tac nuke so they can begin popping off their own in response.
“ Most of them were probably sincere about this.” – even on a sliding-scale of sincerity, I’m not so sure about this.
From what little I know of the personal lives of the neos, they actually seem to have an overly romantic, sentimental view of Middle Easterners (Wolfowitz being the notorious example here). The people with personal animus against Arabs, i.e. Israelis, prefer a controlled police action to global war in defense of democracy.
Marx’s best argument was that people choose their ideology based on how their bread is buttered, class interests in other words. The neo’s were managerial dweebs who disdained Pattonesque manful combat between patriotic barbarians. So the Patriot Act was a way to aggrandize their own spreadsheet-manipulator class and augment their administrative toolkit, camouflaged as red-blooded Murican pounding of sand heathens. As I recall they were quite cynical about this amongst themselves and openly bragged about exploiting the End Times evangelical mouthbreathers for their goo-goo reform counter-jihad.
(This is a repost. My first try didn’t go through, possibly because I included a link to the Taki’s article I mention — which will be easy to find on your own — or perhaps because I am being blocked for not being a dittohead, which would be lame).
I have a real problem with this “Opposite Rule”. If the Russians are actually committing war crimes in Ukraine, or if covid has actually killed a million Americans, do you think the New York Times would fail to notice these facts and report them? The Left is extremely biased, and this makes it untrustworthy, but even extremely biased sources can be very good at identifying the truth if the truth happens to line up with their biases. It is never safe to say “A is untrustworthy, so if A says ‘X’ then the truth must be closer to ‘not X'”. It is always possible that in this particular instance A is exactly right.
This is an example of the larger problem I have with Z. I read this blog because its take on race is more or less aligned with my own, and because Z sometimes has interesting ideas, but I would never refer anyone else to it, because far too much of it consists of dense sequences of unsupported and often questionable assertions. Consider for example this particular assertion:
“They are in support of child molesters in the schools, for example, because it gives them people to hate.”
Is this statement actually true? Is the Left knowingly supporting “child molesters”, and is the reason they are doing so because “it gives them people to hate”? That just seems wrong! I think David Cole’s recent Taki’s article “Doom and Groomer”, where he argues that the whole “groomer” narrative is wrongheaded and plays into the hands of the Left, is much closer to the truth.
I chose Z’s assertion about pedos in the schools because I could point to Cole’s article as a counterpoint, but Z’s writing is filled with assertions that strike me as similarly unsupported and unconvincing. Say what you will about someone like Charles Murray, but I can imagine his writing changing people’s minds — those who are already on the fence for sure, and maybe others beyond that. With Z though it is almost like he is actively trying to drive away anyone who doesn’t already agree with him 100%. It’s hard for me to see how this can be helpful!
The weaponization of the police state against ordinary Americans was already well underway during the Bush administration. Subpoenas from the FISA Court under secrecy orders were already being issued in the early Bush years. The secrecy was never quite airtight so we got to find out about some of them. Who knows how many were issued that were never heard of.
They also had the CIA black sites for extraordinary renditions during the early Bush years.
Most embarrassingly, around that time the Milanese police ended several undercover CIA careers due to the exceedingly poor opsec of the agents who ran a snatch and grab in Milan without even a courtesy call to anyone on the Italian side.
All they needed to begin breaking down the op was the estimated time of abduction. That allowed them to get a warrant to begin searching the cell phone records to find which towers were talking to phones with American SIMs.
They were able to track those back to particular hotels. That allowed them to get warrants for the hotels’ financial records so they could see who was using American credit cards.
The rest is history.
And NSA can use exactly the same primitive techniques to roll up all of the BLM organized crime cartel any time they chose.
They don’t chose.
The monomaniacal focus on J6 participants versus the total lack of interest in Antifa and BLM tells us everything we need to know.
Agree with it all except the “maybe soon” part. I fear they can keep this farce going longer than many of us can survive it. Hope I’m wrong.
Off topic but does anyone know what happened to the mamas and the Pepe’s? They have disappeared off the web and I don’t know why. They were quite good
Eating the seed grain is typically an a act of desperation, deprivation, or banditry. In each case, the act is deliberate. That is to say conscious.
The seed grain that is social capital is clearly being eaten here in America. Is this desperation? Deprivation? Banditry? I could make arguments for each and would likely end up arguing it is all three combined.
But is it conscious?
If being depraved is conscious, then yes. Depravity can infect everything.
UsN— You are right, those things aren’t fair. You almost had me blue-pilled, but it also isn’t fair to take one person’s earnings and bestow them un-earned on another. I’ll remain Red. It’s not the problems that separate us. It’s the ill-conceived solutions.
“At some point, maybe soon, they run out of things to burn and the system becomes unstable.” – They’ll get it in spades. The whole decade will practically be a wipeout, with each year worse than the next. All of their lies are financed. If we escape this era without a major war we should count our blessings. But these are the types of people to gamble it all to save themselves, thinking they can just get on a plane to Fiji or something if the gamble fails.
Z’s comment about the left not being bothered by hypocrisy because factual accuracy doesn’t matter to them reminds me of a Biden comment during the 2020 campaign: “In the democratic party we don’t want facts, we want the truth.” He inadvertently stated an unspoken truth of the left. The facts and the truth do not necessarily align because the truth is what they SAY it is.
At the time I thought that was an idiotic thing to say only to later realize it as an unspoken truth and probably something he was not supposed to say.
He does that sometimes, ya know.
Not bothering about your own hypocrisy / inconsistency is also a demonstration of power. “Yeah, you did a nice job pointing out our shortcomings and defects. Now, what are you gonna do about it, upstanding and moral citizen? See?”
What was it again why dogs lick their balls?
This goes back to truth itself being personalized decades ago. How many times have you heard “that may be true for you but not for me.” Society has transitioned from fixed truths to variable, floating truths. About the same time the world went from fixed currencies to floating ons. The Democrats have just taken these concepts to their logical consequences. We should be thanking them for showing how stupid and naive the right has been for the past hundred years.
This concept of Truth being not absolute but dependent on the direction the wind blows was well described in the 1950s book The Lonely Crowd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lonely_Crowd
Essentially, with the advent of the age of mass-media, the Outer-directed man who behaves to please others has supplanted the Inner-directed man, who behaves according to a set of principles etched in his conscience during his formative years, and who gives lesser consideration to social pressure.
Looks like a great read. Thanks.
And like all things that try to relativize truths that are absolute, it ends badly. It may take a while for reality to catch up, but it inevitably will.
To prove facts mean nothing, about 2+ years ago when I still stupidly thought some left wing people could be “saved”, I asked a close friend’s wife how many unarmed black men are shot by police each year. I asked her to give me numbers from 2017 to 2019. Without hesitation she blurted out, “10s of thousands”. When I told her the number was close to 12 in 2019, she immediately flew into a frenzy like all leftist she-creatures do and told me I was laying and to stop watching Fox news.
This is the level of their intellect you are dealing with. Facts mean nothing. That was the last time I cared to discuss anything factual with a leftist. It is a pointless exercise. Now I don’t bother to engage. I ignore comments they make, even if they ask me my thoughts directly. Waste of time. You cannot help or fix them.
Get the same reaction. And generally follow up with “and I get these directly from the BoJ statistics database, not the news”. But really don’t bother anymore since we live in a post-factual society.
“Later this week I will have a longer post on the event at the castle and the issues discussed there.”
And, you shall entitle it, “The Z Man In The High Castle”. Please DO get the script right this time! 🙂
As is often the case, a very well written and thought provoking essay. Even so, I must offer some criticisms. Get ready to hit that “frown” button, folks!!!
What is an unstated assumption in today’s essay? One that fairly screams at me is the perhaps implicit belief that bad behavior described is only found on the Left. Oh really, a moral failing unique to only one group of people? Now, where have we heard such claims before? Indeed, I would class that a form of the very sin he is denouncing, projection!
Now, please understand that I am not saying that we on the dissident right are liars, nor authoritarians on the whole. I do personally believe that I am in the group that most aligns with my deeply-held beliefs. Indeed, our side may be more “correct” in the sense that our plans, speech and so on better reflect reality.
That being said, nothing exempts us from perpetrating the same behavior that we accuse our enemy of. The shortcomings are most likely universal to human beings. They can surely be managed and minimized (or, sadly, in the Left’s case, enhanced). But to wish them away or ascribe them all to one’s evil enemies? That smacks of wishful thinking and a denial of one’s in-built weaknesses, at least to me.
Well, moral hypocrisy and “the ends always justify the means” is characteristic of the wider category of “evil”, of which the political left is a subset.
Mustache guy pissed away the lives of countless Germans for the sake of the “volk”, and there are plenty of bible-thumping pastors running around bilking little old ladies out of their social security checks for Jesus. So, while all leftists are wicked people, not all wicked people are leftists.
I do not disagree with you at all. I believe the caveat would be the unity and power of the Left as opposed to the marginal movement of “dissident” or even the utter hodgepodge that is the Right. In other words, it is fair for all people and groups, but the Left is the unified group, and thus it is the Left that provides the largest barometer of truth in politics, for their actions will define where the political spotlight will next shine.
Ben:
1. You’re not always the smartest monkey in the room
2. You’re not the only one here who considers the human condition
3. Certain things (i.e. all people/groups of all political persuasions have failings) go without saying.
4. A downvote would indicate your comment was worth taking seriously.
#4 – not necessarily. I have one of Vox Day’s cellar dweller incels that follows me round and downvoats everything I poast. 😉
the behavior is exhibited by both branches of the uniparty. pretty sure zman does not subscribe to the notion that the left/right paradigm is still existent.
I might disagree with that, Karl. I would say rather that the left/right axis is now only one political axis. the y-axis is now easily observed and quantifiable. Call it the ‘Dirts/Clouds’ axis. There is now also a z-axis that might put legacy Americans on one side against the vibrant/queer/groomer demographic on the other.
It is interesting to note that as our national IQ begins to dive, our politics become incredibly more complex and complicated. The political spectrum is now three dimensional
We must also keep in mind that we are now living in unstable times. This state of affairs cannot continue. It is possible that as our situation deepens and becomes more dire… a lot of the tribulations today will just go away as people are forced to return to life in the real world.
The Dissident Right is powerless, so its behavior is not a significant factor. All power is with the Left.
If we are powerless, why the persecution? Even if we consider the need for the “devil”, there are numerous, other candidates. Yes, we can’t pass laws or reverse (yet) historical trends, but we remain an alternative thinking and a light in the darkness for the benighted.
The Left can never allow that. We are the “The Voice of America” being broadcast into the Soviet Union of old. Ideas matter.
” Ideas matter.”
No doubt. Ideas also are how power is attained. So far, very few people accept our ideas, hence we are powerless.
Yes, perhaps I should redefine rather than attempt to usurp your definition of powerless. We are a threat, at least for now, to the narrative they would have the people accept. If we were powerful, we’d simply refuse to comply and drive them from the stage like a Cyrano.
“Ideas matter”
A successful entrepreneur once told me
“Ideas are almost worthless, they are a dime a dozen, everyone has an idea. Its the execution that counts”
Rings true to me. Which side of the left/right divide is incapable of executing anything?
The successful side is very good at executing bad ideas.
We have potential hard power. A power so hard that it would cut through the miasma they have inflicted.
They have power, but the hold on it is precarious. Can’t let a small pebble of truth turn into the avalanche that wipes them out.
“Why the persecution” — read some of the O’Brien speeches from 1984. We make the brain perfect before we blow it out.
The fact that we are dissidents means our views are the most heavily scrutinized and we cannot live in a bubble the way the left and conservative right does.
While yes indeed, we are prone to the kind of thinking pointed out here just like anyone else. Even if we were just as bad, we have no power. Our hypocrisy and self-delusion are meaningless in the broad scheme of things. Self reflection is for those with power or the religious. Until we have power, we need to be zealots convinced of our own righteousness.
I don’t look at that button as a down vote but more of a disappointed face. That’s how I feel with you right now Ben. Not that your wrong but this is your first and salient point on zmans view here.
That’s what you lead with?
Hardcore leftists are self-selected outliers as Zman has stated. They suffer from various maladaptions, the root causes of which are substantially innate. This ipso facto means that dedicated leftists will share a panoply of traits — the selection filter — that occur at far higher rates than the population mean, i.e. self-loathing, schizoform or delusional thinking, an extreme tendency to prioritize emotion over reason, borderline personality, self-medicating drug/alcohol abuse, parasitic or dissolute lifestyle, weak agency etc.
We aren’t talking about a dichotomy but of one group of outliers that shows any or all of these traits at vastly higher rates than other groups.
“That being said, nothing exempts us from perpetrating the same behavior that we accuse our enemy of.”
True enough. So I always look at who is trying to impose their views by force. Which side is disallowing free speech and physically controlling the freedom of the other side? In my personal view, the Left can say whatever it wants, inject whatever into their bodies, have sex with whoever or whatever, and cover their faces all they want. But when one side forces the other to bend the knee, shut their mouths and give up their physical autonomy, the line between the good guys and bad guys becomes pretty clear.
Not even sure what your point is. The projection thing politically is pretty much a patent, trademark and copyright of the left. The left accused Trump of collusion with foreign powers, while sleeping with China and Ukraine. The left accused Trump of tampering with elections, while stuffing mail in ballots during a strange coordinated “counting break.” The left accused the J6 of insurrection and riot, while BLMing cities to the ground. The left screams “my body, my choice” while force injecting you with experimental drugs . . . and on and on. Can you point to similar shenanigans of the Right?
My biggest gripe with the dissidents of the right, which Z has mentioned in his way throughout the podcasts, is their touching belief that blood/soil effusive fellow-feeling is actually popular (as distinct from: more pragmatic, or dictated by prudence, etc.). Nationalistic movements fail because techno-liberalism is actually what’s popular. That’s axiomatic, but rightist dummies think they have the real box-office winner that is suffering under the heel of “censorship.”
It’s easy to blame this on the women except they are naturally obedient and tend to follow the macro society men set up for them (note this is a different subject from behavior in the meso- and micro-society levels, the realms in which women are more positively Adolfian and bronze-age perverse than most hombres could muster).
Interesting. Could you expand on, or at least summarize what macro, meso, micro-societal behavior is, and how men and women differ in this?
Explaining and complaining is not enough. We have to fight back.
The Cloud People need to foment war between white guys in order to kill off as many alphas as possible before unleashing the jackboots and going full tyrant. See Ukraine war as an example. Toward this end, they are using their complete control of government, judiciary, federal police, and social/news media to piss off everyone and create intense anxiety, anger, and mayhem throughout society. Their ideal is for patriots and LEOs to face off in a war of annihilation.
So smarter, not harder. The leading edge of anger right now is in the Black community where random crazy men are striking out against an odd array of innocent plebs (e.g. pushing old women onto subway tracks or shooting up random commuters). And they largely can get away with this because black men are now sacrosanct.
But what if black men start shooting up the Cloud People instead of random innocent plebs? And they do so using the weapons that the Cloud People sent to Ukraine to kill Putin’s white guys and which are now available on the Black Market. Any LEO foolish enough to go after a black man carrying a javelin would be accused of racism and fired on the spot.
Just brainstorming outside the box.
Blacks infact have precedence over Cloud people, the issue was settled a couple years ago in the Birdwatching incident.
It is by now considered a canonical precedent, with its own Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_birdwatching_incident
The woman worked in Wall Street so technically liberal and Cloud.
The take away? The Cloud people fanatically believe in the hierarchy of grievance of their making, they don’t hesitate to punish one of their own who go astray from it.
The cloud people don’t really believe their own bullshit on that, at least not sub-consciously or at the top. Sure, they were willing to throw that woman to the wolves, but in the heirarchy of cloud people, she’s a mere foot soldier and being sacrificed is part of her job description, just like the gay/trans/pedo teachers they’re periodically willing to throw under the bus while engaged in PR for their big missions: destroy normalcy. I’s not like they love blacks, gays, feminists or pan-sexual blue-haired kindergarten teachers, they just hate normal Americans. If they have to sacrifice a few foot soldiers in pursuit of the greater goal, that’s perfectly fine. It’s the same reason why they’re immune to charges of hypocrisy.
The left doesn’t have enemies to the left, but sometimes they strategically sacrifice troops to the right.
“Of course we don’t support pedophiles in schools, you crazy racist transphobes! We totally support punishment of actual pedophiles! Loo at this example right here!* You’re misusing the term groomer against caring, dedicated teachers!” While with the other hand, they build a system that makes children more ripe for pedophilic exploitation than ever.
* Steve Sailer showed he totally bought into this tactic in a recent column when he mentioned that back in 1955 Lolita was a popular novel while now it’s considered pedophilic, and that laws against child sex are actually stricter now.
Meanwhile he ignores the state of anarcho-tyranny we live in and the massive sexualization of children on social media. The elite haven’t gotten more prudish since they paraded poor 12-year-old Brooke Shields around in the nude and in explicit sexual scenes as a child prostitute in Pretty Baby, they’ve just gotten more circumspect and sophisticated in their methods.
Pretty Baby maybe corrupted adults and of course Shields herself, but mostly just teased the prurient interests of adults who were already likely to see such films, anyway. Hardly any children were inclined to embrace child prostitution by a film they never saw, though maybe some suffered at the hands of adults who were indoctrinated by it.
Now, Tik-Tok and OnlyFans are teaching teenagers to sexually exploit themselves and pretend they can change their gender by the millions. Sailer is so freaking naive. Lolita and Pretty Baby were small time. but even still, they slip out something like Cuties every now and then to see what avenues of attack they might be able to get away with. Teaching the children to corrupt themselves in the name of free expression has been far the most successful thing the demons have yet come up with.
Remember, the goal isn’t pedophilia. That’s just a method. The goal is destruction of normalcy and faith.
For a much better explanation than I could ever give, I recommend reading The Screwtape Letters.
“Remember, the goal isn’t pedophilia. That’s just a method. The goal is destruction of normalcy and faith.”
The Left’s goal is and always will be the acquisition of power. If the Left could acquire power through Mormonism, it would become the State religion. PoMo was and still is seen as the express train to power, so we get pedophilia and transgenderism.
Whatever it takes.
But what do they want with their power? Power is a tool. People — even the people seeking it — may think power is an end in itself, but it is not. Power is turned toward ends.
Wow, great post.
But let’s shed light onto one thing: what do we intend as Cloud people? A liberal woman making six figures in the putative capital of poz, Jew York, does not fit into the term?
If she does not, then the Clouds can be superimposed with the numerically thin Elite. The Elite have always been ferociously kicking down the social ladder since the dawn of organised living.
For instance this is what they came up with to fight pesky outliers in the XVII century: “The Dragonnades were a French government policy instituted by King Louis XIV in 1681 to intimidate Huguenot (Protestant) families into converting to Catholicism. This involved the billeting of ill-disciplined dragoons in Protestant households with implied permission to abuse the inhabitants and destroy or steal their possessions.”
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonnades
Imagine a current version of the dragonnades, whereupon, e.g., “in order to fight racism and social inequality”, they impose vibrant dwellings in Suburbia to stomp dead any dissident thought on potential fertile grounds. Or intersperse Somali refugees throughout based Idaho.
*New York , apologies, typo not intentional, the J and N keys are much too close.
“A liberal woman making six figures in the putative capital of poz, Jew York, does not fit into the term?”
Of course she fits the term. But there is heirarchy in cloud world. She is near the bottom.
Just ran across this, by coincidence:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/marxists-seek-destabilize-american-society-through-sexualization-young-people-expert
I’d argue the gangs that have begun following the wealthy home from the high-end malls to rob and carjack them have already begun to act on your question.
The schadenfreude is too much with that recent development. Also, take note that the BLM riots, which were state-sponsored terrorism, largely could not be called off when they reached the Clouds (the mayor of Portland begging to be left alone was priceless).
People constantly mention Latin America, particularly Brazil, as an example of how Clouds can live well while everyone else suffers. Take a look at the number of Clouds frequently savaged there.
Setting your words to music, Jack.
I live on an apartment
On the ninety-ninth floor of my block
And I sit at home lookin’ out the window
Imaginin’ the world has stopped
I say hey hey you there get off of my cloud!
I say hey hey you there get off of my cloud!
Jumping Jack Dobson approves those lyrics.
Personally I find it difficult to muster a lot of sympathy for that set because I feel there is a huge overlap between them and the demographic that benefitted enormously from 2+ years of psychotic Covid hysteria as well as the Floydian insurrection.
There was a rap song a few years ago on how to rob wealthy Asians in California. That is exactly what they were doing. They would follow Asians home and then come back with a car with a few guys to do the home invasion. Asians supposedly don’t like banks and keep cash in their homes. Colin Flaherty used to cover this kind of stuff, though he suffered from the cuckservative affinity for “hard-working-immigrants.”
The fascinating contradictory belief du jour of our betters has to be Australia outraged over the rumor that China may build a base in the Solomon Islands. Australian head actor states that is a red line. Of course Australia also believes that it is none of Russia’s business what happens military wise in the Ukraine.
This is just a side show to America being outraged that Russia thinks it has the right to invade another country. After all it isn’t as though America would ever do that.
White people should be embarrassed that the majority of Western Whites fall for this nonsense. Whites are the race that most consistently falls wholeheartedly for the tribe’s Narratives. The dumber the better.
“Australian head actor states that is a red line.”
Usually one only draws red lines that one can enforce. In the 1870s, The British Isles could enforce it’s will practically anywhere on the planet. Ditto the US since WWII…
The Australians have neither the will nor the power. And if they’re so concerned about Chinese bases, they can start by removing the one established in Sydney Airport.
The Solomon Islands lie in the middle of the Pacific islands chain and are a key springboard to Oceania, the Australians are justified in their concern. In WW2 the battle of Guadalcanal (Solomon islands) was a turning point in the Pacific theatre.
Defence against the expansionism of a radically non-Western society as China should be a priority beyond internal class squabbles (even in the remote event the Dirt people succeed in defeating the Cloud people, you shall see them morphing into some kind of unforeseeable Clouds themselves in a matter of 1 or 2 generations). If the Chinese gain strength on the international set comparable to what United States, and Western countries more in general enjoy today, then it’s all over for our customs and way of life.
I don’t believe even for a second the rhetoric of the peaceful Chinese merchants, have you read the document on Chinese suprematism the Zman attaches a link to in every other of his posts? Currently, they are at the Stone Age of self-awareness as a nation, 19th century Jingoism was more nuanced than their current view of themselves and their relations to the outer world. Which gives hope their schemes of grandeur are going to fail miserably.
“If the Chinese gain strength on the international set comparable to what United States, and Western countries more in general enjoy today, then it’s all over for our customs and way of life.”
I have no love for the Middle Kingdom nor desire to live under their suzerainity, but my immediate concerns are far away from losing “our customs and way of life”.
Frankly, the sooner we lose said customs and way of life, the better.
Well if you want to become an insect in a hive-society (and a lower status one because you aren’t Han but subjugated people), literally and not figuratively – as when in here you grandstand against “the hive-mind” of the Left -, then stay on your current course, and don’t pay attention at the recent vast expansion of the Chinese navy (mainly fast coastal vessels). Be casual and oblivious over the unknown danger the new stock of hypersonic long range missiles constitute, as they can potentially annihilate in the space of an afternoon the aircraft carriers on which American sea supremacy is built upon. This all in the frame of the evident preparations towards an assault on Taiwan that would open them ocean lines, in so doing greatly complicating any future conflict your sons and grandsons will find themselves forced to fight against the insects.
Hmmmmm. Agreed.
Kinda-sorta.
Missiles are the new king makers nowadays. The problem though… is anti missile technology has also advanced to the point where maybe a stalemate may be in the offing? Spoofing and stealth will be the virtues of the new breed of ballistic robotic warriors…
Sure, it depends on who has the crack weapon without counters at the particular point in time when hostilities start.
We are in the midst of becoming “insects” in a hive society right now! No help needed from China. We are doing it to ourselves.
Numerous laws are being touted for things like digital currency, hate crimes enhancement, banking monitoring and reporting, etc. Repression/censorship partnership with social media. Laws prohibiting gas cars being sold in favor of EV’s. I won’t even mention the specifics of Covid and national health tyranny that followed.
Even when such policy attempts are shot down, they come back year, after year, until they take hold—and freedom dies, little by little. Everything we laugh at today has an antecedent we “laughed at” yesterday.
This is the future.
Of course the situation in the West is bad, but are not people disgruntled (about 50% or more according to Brexit and 2016 US presidential election voting results) and congregating – only virtually at the moment – in places like this blog, so that eventually some praxis may spring out, and such a dystopian future can potentially be avoided?
China already lives in a Panopticon. The inner Chinese soul actually longs for social control, it has been so shaped by thousands of years of the most archetypal Oriental Despotism.
China wins, then practice your best impression of stone-faced, slumbering, humiliatingly-obsequious-to-authority, deindividualized (if not for the most petty materialistic pursuits) absorption into the collective swarm.
Yep.
The bloody HYPOCRASY of it!!!!! 🙂
The answer to that is simple. Arm the hell out of Japan and camp them out on China’s doorstep. Mind you, that is going to happen anyway at some point. By all accounts the USN is on its last legs and besides, aircraft carriers are going the same way the battleship and the buffalo did.
There is always the possibility that the hypersonic missiles could not be very good in reality, the umpteenth Chinese lie.
In any case a process is ongoing to bring back real, materiel production to North America within the present decade. So it’s important they don’t strike Formosa before the process is completed.
Done that, it’s only a matter of isolating them internationally and kick them away from resources in underdeveloped world regions. The Leftists are working on it all, one has to give it to them.
Problem is if they win it’s over for us as well. Better a slave with the Chinas or a dead man with the Clouds? Hard to call.
*a dead man because of Great Replacement, I should have specified above
Neocons hate Arabs more than Europeans?
Who do the neocons favor importing into the West, Arabs or White South Africans?
Since 1948, for some reason. Although the grudge against Europe and Europeans has been there since the Romans did a number on Jerusalem in 70, the Germans have been gelded pretty effectively. What probably gives them nightmares is ethnic Germans becoming Muslim, thus combining the monsters they fear most.
Muslims in Germany and France could be directed to fight eastward against Russia.
Highly doubtful. Mohammed isn’t likely to join a Globohomo crusade, when the living is easy at “home”. Plus the fact that Arab armies aren’t exactly the best at war.
The Arabs are harder to control, also keep in mind that Islamic governments don’t like usury, and plenty of other things that the tribe are involved in
do arab tribes cross class lines? i.e. do the tribes in charge of a given country, have members who are lower down the totem pole, as well?
Yes, since the former is statistically less Jewish than the latter 😀 Of course Arabs with a lot of oil are granted an exemption, as that fat slob Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911” amply showed ~ 20 years ago. 🙁
He’s a lot fatter and slobbier today.
The carnage in big metro areas was the canary in the coal mine decades ago. Across the board you could see the rot: crime, violence, moral degradation, urban hellscapes, and brand new architectural structures that uglified formerly pleasant neighborhoods. I personally know very wealthy city dwellers who are losing confidence in their ability to stay one step ahead of the tsunami. These are people with three or more homes and private planes. I hate to be the guy who said “I told you so.” But damnit, I told you so, you self-absorbed morons!
Yeah. I used to be the guy who hated saying that too. Now, I don’t say it too much, mind; but when I do, boy is it satisfying.
But it serves to illustrate an important lesson: we won’t change most people’s minds. We must focus on elements immediately within our control.
My revenge on these pricks is living deep within the countryside of a red state with everything I need safely at my fingertips.
Yep, and since they could never live in redneck country, they will continue to lie in the bed they made.
BLM and No Such Thing As An Illegal Person signs still adorn many of the affluent home and church lawns here in Wokeville as those with the greatest degree of white privilege demand that less privileged whites, in the working class town next door, part with their privilege.
“Well aren’t YOU the hypocrites,” some might say.
“Yeah, so…?” would be the response.
You might expect cognitive dissonance to kick in. “We’re not really hypocrites when you look a the larger picture.” But it doesn’t. Our Senator Liz is a good example. There are minds that don’t perceive contradictions obvious to a normal mind. Orwell pointed this out, the ability sincerely to believe two contradictory things at once without internal disturbance.
As today’s piece notes,and it’s a point to come back to often, what’s called The Left isn’t cynical though one might think it is. And it’s not religious fundamentalism in the usual sense. It’s some kind of mental dissociation the causes of which the psychology or psychiatry journals may one day delve into.
I’m also a citizen of Wokeville, New England. My town is littered with the same signs. Here’s a few more that you can’t walk down a street without seeing here:
~Stop Asian hate
~Racism is a virus
~No matter where you’re from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor (in English, Spanish, and Arabic)
~In this house we believe in…
The houses that make me laugh out loud are the ones with both BLM and Stop Asian hate signs. Who is it that they think are committing the crimes against Asians? Normie whitey after watching a sports match? The hordes of KKK members in the shadows of their communities?
The dead-tree paper in my area ran a headline last month on page 1, above the fold: “SJC asks how far is too far when humanizing crime victims.” (They changed it in the online version.) Those crime victims or their survivors having a say in court with their victim impact statements! /s Have people lost their minds?
“Who is it that they think are committing the crimes against Asians? Normie whitey after watching a sports match? The hordes of KKK members in the shadows of their communities?”
Yes.
There’s no hypocrisy involved: We are the enemy and applying different rules to enemies than to allies is perfectly morally consistent; just because you bomb enemy troop concentrations doesn’t mean you’re morally obliged to bomb your own as well.
Well put. Whether the upper middle class NPC’s realize it or not, they are foot soldiers and everything is permitted to win. Rules are for idiots.
The hypocrisy argument never works. But going on the morally offensive sometimes can. One method: “What have you done lately to increase the numbers of poor and minority people in your own neighborhood?” High jinks inevitably ensue as people try to thread the ‘not in my neighborhood’ reality with their desire to virtue signal. Another method: take the moral high road and extend it in directions people don’t anticipate. For example, “I am astonished that our country is engaging in human trafficking at levels unseen since the days of slavery!” Re-frames the narrative and usually results in people trying to claim that cartels moving human flesh over the border are in no way comparable to slave traders moving people across the ocean.
Doesn’t always work but can be fun.
It is fun, as long as you don’t get irritated when they forget the whole conversation five minutes later.
It’s almost like they have not the slightest recollection of the day before, they rattle off their same old nonsense as though nothing at all had happened, and, if indignantly challenged, affect amazement; they can’t remember a thing, except that they had proved the correctness of their assertions the previous day.
Gradually you begin to hate them. 😉
One of my favorite arguments: “The worst thing America ever did, by far its greatest sin which has caused unimaginable suffering, was participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. If I could change one thing about history, it would be that.”
Wait for the agreement, then clarify: “If we hadn’t engaged in the slave trade, there would be virtually no black people in America at all, and we’d be far better off.”
I recently listened to an excerpt of Zuckerborg introducing the “meta-verse”. He covered virtual, augmented, and synthetic reality. He spoke of flying though outer space and deep sea diving without ever leaving your home. Moving items just by using your thoughts- Connecting deeply with others using your “avatar”-?
I couldn’t help but wonder who on earth might find any of that the slightest bit appealing? It all sounds miserable. Then I realized that the lunatics behind all of this are absolutely miserable. They loathe themselves and spend every moment creating ways to destroy any goodness or hope.
Misery loves company.
All the more reason to disconnect from it all.
My dear, most of the estrogen soaked vacuum sacks that pass for ‘men’ that are in control of such companies, spent their lives at High School being shunned, mocked and possibly beaten.
Yes, they’re miserable. But misery loves company, so welcome to the Meta-verse!
Zuckerberg must be a fan of the old movie “Brainstorm”. Still a good movie to watch—and it has Cristopher Walken in it to boot!
Their self-loathing is transformed into a virtue while they express their hatred for qualities they fear they possess.
What is this self-loathing thing? Is there any clinical evidence of it? Is it some invention of Freud or Jung? Perhaps similar to other mystery mental issues like ADHD or autism? If it is genuine what’s the treatment? There are people that should indeed by consumed by self-loathing but wouldn’t that be more likely to end in suicide rather than left-wing politics?
I think the self loathing Mikey, springs from general unhappiness. Lack of meaning & purpose, no religion and social isolation, weak or no close friendships or community ties. Immigrants may feel like cultural misfits.
This unhappiness, why? Is it me or is it others? If it’s me I may become depressed and suicidal. If it’s others i may want to hurt or destroy them instead.
self-loathing stems from having crappy DNA and knowing it every time you look in the mirror, or interact with a member of the opposite sex. i.e. drawing the short straw in life’s lottery. with modern telecommunications (and social media) you are immersed in negative stimulation 24/7; stoking envy to unbearable levels.
You may be on to something. But there is also something many of us have—perhaps most in this group— and that’s the ability to accept our shortcomings and respect what (few?) gifts we have in life. Perhaps that’s genetic as well, but it has helped get this imperfect being this far in a long life. Self loathing must stem in part from envy, and I’ve never been aware of that as a motivating factor in my behavior.
I always liked the saying that the first step toward happiness is appreciating what you have.
part of being happy in life is having realistic expectations. tv and social media have jacked up many people’s expectations to unrealistic levels.
They don’t loathe themselves – on the contrary – they loathe other white people, working class whites, usually.
Disagree. Narcissists hate themselves at the core.
Surfaces count, too.
“Disagree. Narcissists hate themselves at the core.”
It’s just so hard to believe because they seem so confident, but yeah.
> If it is genuine what’s the treatment?
There is a treatment. You need to page Dr. Pinochet.
Yes, but as the current political state of Chile indicates, you need generational inoculations of “Pinochet” vaccine. Such is the much discussed problem with democracy.
I think it’s easier to ditch democracy—as practiced via universal suffrage—than find generational saviors.
I’m with you, Mikey. Self-loathing is a common theme here, but I know a lot of liberals, and none strike me as self-loathing. In fact, most have too high of an opinion of themselves.
The only way to solve the crisis that is upon us is to have ethical, moral, competent white male leaders.
Patriarchy.
Those kind of white male leaders are becoming as rare as a truffle, they are still around but you gotta dig for them.
Right now white societies prefer softer men or women as leaders.
Or living under blacks.
I live in a metro area governed by blacks.
It takes 30 minutes for 911 to pick up.
Cities ruled by leftists whites are only slightly better or sometimes worse, I have been to Portland.
But perhaps in leftist white run cities 911 picks up? They just send transvestites to help?
There is no good answer right now except to watch it all collapse.
the system is already unstable. very much so. the clou people are great at conning normies, not so great at keeping the country running. killing the USD as a reserve currency is going to prove fatal to the low interest rate model for the economy; mortgage rates have already doubled once, in less than 6 months. wonder what is going to happen to the valuations of all those homes blackrock just purchased at prime prices? wonder what the imminent recession is going to do to rental prices?
one little noticed consequence of the ukraine sanctions is that intellectual property rights are not going to be respected, outside of the US and EU. that is going to punch a huge hole in multinational earnings by US companies. my point is, the cloud people are doing real damage to their own assets, unintentionally. and it is clear they have no idea how to stop doing so.
oh, and the damage done by cloud world covid policies is on going and horrific. now reports of heretofore unseen liver ailments in children are coming out, with likely ties to EU vaxx formulations. ironically the mud people will be spared much of the vaxx consequences because they were too poor to afford them.
” ironically the mud people will be spared much of the vaxx consequences because they were too poor to afford them.”
Possibly intentionally. The Cloud People also have a lot of stupid in them, too.
Intellectual property rights have never been respected outside the US and EU. China specifically has been actively stealing intellectual property for decades. Entertainment is constantly pirated, blueprints are stolen, and fake duplicates of name brands are made at night in many of the factories. Famously, there are many Apple stores in China which have zero affiliation with Apple and sell imitations. The Chinese government gives zero f*** as long as they are screwing with an American company’s profits.
The Greek: Bingo!
Another reason why having an economy that makes hardly anything and that refuses to use it’s most abundant energy sources (because ‘Gaia’), yet relies on it’s IP (Science!) is doomed to failure.
Can’t pinch a coal mine or untapped ore reserves. But the tiddly-winks have been half-inching IP from the US (amongst others) like there is no tomorrow. If it’s not actual Chinese graduate students or engineers returning dossiers of data, it’ll be whites like Swalwell who got bang banged by Fang Fang.
The Chinese government gives zero f*** as long as they are screwing with an American company’s profits.
—
I think you’re wrong there as they always give zero f****. The whole concept of “intellectual property” in such a collectivist culture is a completely foreign concept.
I think a lot of the evil the left has foisted onto society originated from their “fairness” doctrine. It wasn’t fair that blacks couldn’t participate in many aspects of society, it wasn’t fair that jews couldn’t join the country club, it wasn’t fair that women had to stay home and take care of the kids instead of climbing the corporate/government ladder, it wasn’t fair that queers had to stay in the closet instead of celebrating their queerness publicly, it wasn’t fair that if a woman foolishly got knocked up she couldn’t get an abortion on demand, it wasn’t fair that Pedro the wetback had to return to Mexico after the lettuce picking season was over, etc. Who could possibly argue against such a “fairness” doctrine? Of course, “fairness” gets applied these days to ever more degenerate causes and groups. The end of this insanity can’t be too much further down the road.
usNthem: Fairness is just the social extension of the belief in equality. All our ills stem from that one core tenet of the other side. That’s really the simplest, most fundamental way to determine where someone sits on the political and dissident spectrum. Do they believe in human equality? Do they believe such a thing would be not merely possible, but good? If so everything else they believe will be fundamentally in opposition to reality, to human history, and to genuine fundamental Christian religious doctrine, so they cannot be relied upon or trusted.
3g4me: So true. And possibly the number one reason I’ll be homeschooling my sons: to teach them that folks are not equal, in any measure.
Of course, I’ll also get to do fun practical experiments, like demonstrate the energy efficiency of a crossbow compared to a weight driven catapult. Hopefully, a neighnourhood wokeist will walk right on by and provide a handy target.
But back to your point – when you think about that statement, you can see how much of bizarro-world doctrine and insanity flows from it. It was always obvious to me, but some seem to deeply believe in it.
I suspect there is a solid reason why no special mathematical prodigy was ever born in deepest, darkest Congo.
OrangeFrog: It’s also important for both your sons to see it in themselves. One may be more skilled in area x and the other in y. One may be quicker to understand, the other less balanced, etc. I love both my sons but, unlike most mothers imo, I still try to look at them dispassionately when considering these things.
We recently decided that, when we get around to updating our wills, we will make our less intellectually gifted son the executor. Sure, he will need some expert advice and assistance, but we trust him to do his absolute best to be honest and fair. His brother would not actively attempt to cheat him, but we could easily see him doing so while convincing himself that what he was doing was truly equitable. In these circumstances, we’ve decided absolute honesty is better than cleverness. YMMV.
Thanks for the advice, I’ve not really considered yet too much how they’ll differ, as I’ve just been enjoying their youth. But it’s a serious thing to think about – and that time will come.
Your second paragraph indicates a sound bit of reasoning. On the subject of cleverness, my wife and I have reasoned that we’d probably prefer an honest, strong-willed lad to a precociously clever one; but we’ll handle whatever comes our way. I have siblings who I suspect may act in the same way your clever son would, so it comes as no surprise.
It always sounds like you’ve done well with your lads, and I must say, I always enjoy seeing your comments as they combine insight with practical advice. Godspeed.
I would urge you to reconsider having a son, or indeed ANY family member, be the executor of an estate. I’m no lawyer of course, but I have read a few books on the topic of estate planning in my day. I’ve also seen and heard what happens in families where one of the children was in charge of dividing up the property. The best suggestion is a trusted family friend. Second choice, I suspect, any anonymous person.
If you use a family member, you almost guarantee much bickering and enmity after your passing. By the way, in most States, the executor cannot share in any proceeds of the estate, so that alone might defeat your idea if you expected Sonny to receive a share.
Finally is the wise advice: give some of your property away while you’re alive. You are in a much better position to decide who gets what, as well as to (hopefully) see the recipient enjoy it.
All factors that, notably, will not be available to you when you’re in the ground.
Ben the Layabout – great advice. Even if the honest son does everything right, the clever son might still feel he was not treated fairly.
Fairness, equality, tolerance, nondiscrimination…all of it sounds nice and all of it runs counter to reality, which is where differences among people and races exist.
I think the most accurate description of left and right is between extremist egalitarianism and hierarchy. As dissidents, we recognize that all people, cultures, and ways of life are not equal. However, dissidents must also acknowledge the dangers of extreme hierarchical societies. In these societies, the upper class literally gets away with tape and murder. An example of this is primae noctis, where medieval lords were given first right to sleep with lower class women. To be fair, our cloud people today get away with numerous crimes that you or I would get but behind bars for. The beauty in the original American founders was that they tried to minimize this by emphasizing that everyone was treated equally under the law, while the founding documents showed that they knew not everyone was equal (women could not vote or be in the military, IQ and property requirements for voting, etc). It was a balance they were trying to strike, which worked for a time.
The Greek: I agree the founders sought to provide a reasonable balance between egalitarianism and hierarchy, which has obviously failed. What precisely that proper balance entails and how to prevent future failure remains to be determined.
Never forget, the Founders were not for equality of individuals, only of opportunity. Initially there was no universal suffrage, but such was within grasp (White males at least) if earned.
” … and how to prevent future failure remains to be determined.”
No Puritans (Yankees) and no Jews.
The founders wore knickers, buckles on their shoes and wigs. It was the 18th century and they didn’t know from germs. The ideas of English philosopher John Locke were the justification of many of their policies. They wouldn’t fit in very well today.
My guess is even leftards know the “equality” racket is all BS, although I wouldn’t necessarily lay good money down on a bet. Some are smarter, taller, faster, better looking, talented, nicer, whatever. Deep down, everyone knows these things to be true – even your average leftard – though getting them to admit it out loud may be difficult. To pretend they’re not and that anyone can achieve the same outcome in any endeavor is ludicrous in the extreme. This is what the leftard “fairness” doctrine has done to this (former) country. Equality before the law, maybe. Equality wrt everything else can be shoved where the sun don’t shine.
Nonsense. Even the most rabid Leftist would readily allow any Black family on welfare to live in one of the multi-million dollar homes in their neighborhood, if they have the means. Or for poor black and brown urchins to attend the $50,000/year private academy if said urchin has the aptitude. 😀
UsN— You are right, those things aren’t fair. You almost had me blue-pilled, but it also isn’t fair to take one person’s earnings and bestow them un-earned on another. I’ll remain Red.
The hate Ponzi scheme is unsustainable. Social trust and institutional respect have died. The last leg propping up the machine, economic prosperity, is dying. Once it is gone, the Regime has two options: (a) flee to a bunker with its winnings, or (b) unleash genocide and annihilate all opposition. It has decided to go with the second, but of late I believe the Clouds are just as reckless and impulsive as the fanatically religious NPC’s they used to prop everything up. Even many Clouds will die when that last leg buckles. The only question is how many Dirts they take out with them. Those New Zealand bunkers are a pipe dream and at best they will emulate the defeated National Socialists who escaped and blend into the general population somewhere, somehow.
There’s a third option you missed, which is clearly their strategy. 3) Whip up a war frenzy against an external enemy to redirect peoples frustration outward. They are marching us dutifully into a reckless war with Russia and probably China. This is a war that could have nuclear ramifications, and Normie cons are generally marching right along with it.
War, particularly in Ukraine and Russia, will exacerbate the food supply dramatically. Not to say we aren’t being pushed toward war–we are–but a whole hell of a lot of people would have to be wiped out to avoid famine and shortages.
Back in the day when a disingenuous jerk kept lying to your face and gaslighting you, a good sock to the face or the town getting together and putting him in the stocks for a few days did the trick. Now it’s difficult to impose any penalty on liars and gaslighters. Mockery and derision were useful weapons, which is why social media companies started imposing rigid standards in order to make people “nicer”.
There’s a lady at work who writes long posts on the company open blog, essentially passive aggressively ripping on white men while pontificating about equality. When people commented and directly called her out on her B.S. she wrote another post on how important it was to be civil and respectful, with more passive aggressive jabs at her enemies.
It’s infuriating, and feels like being stuck in a cave with people who are all frenemies.
The fact the company has a blog is kind of hilarious. Corporations had internal newsletters for decades but also had enough sense to limit the content to professionally trained propagandists. This lady’s time there will end badly for her.
Right, I am stunned they would have an open forum for employees like this. Even the dimmest corporate drone should understand it is going to cause unnecessary arguments and hurt morale.
Perhaps a honeypot to bring “dissenters” to light?
“This lady’s time there will end badly for her.”
If by end badly you mean promotion to Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, yes, horribly.
I think your watch stopped in 2012. That type of virtue signaling and passive aggressive shaming is a rocket to the top of nearly any corporate structure today. Poz-free zones are becoming more & more rare.
My watch is working fine. When a serious downturn happens, and we are on the verge, lots of dead weight will be burned out of corporations. This lady likely will be among it. Until then, though, right.
if the shit ever hits the fan where you are, light that lady on fire in the parking lot.
With a flamethrower.
They are vastly underrated; and loads of fun!
I would love a stab at the comment section of that blog. Are they hiring any part timers?
People will put up with a lot of bullshit IF they live a high trust society with a high degree of government legitimacy. It’s why Americans didn’t go all Bolshie during the Great Depression; people had faith, under FDR, in the institutions of government (whether that faith was misplaced is another question) and govt’s ability in general to deal with a myriad number of problems.
Our elites today act as though they’re ruling over a high trust society while doing everything they possibly can to destroy a high trust society. “Hey you filthy crackers need to continue to believe in us!” is not a great message.
People will tolerate oppression as long as their bellies are full. Take that away, and all bets are off. It will have to get to that point, though.
Jack: I have been operating under the assumption that Americans will not experience genuine hunger. Shortages of favorites, of course. Massively increased prices, certainly. Limited choices – goes without saying. But genuine hunger – I don’t yet see it.
That being said, in addition to all the suspicious fires and other food and fertilizer related happenings, per the opposite rule we now have the FBI warning of cyber attacks on food suppliers. And just this morning I got an email from freeze dry wholesalers claiming the situation isn’t that bad, limits and shortages are only temporary, and all will be well. And panic buying would wipe them out, so no need to panic.
Except that they can’t open their new facility with the new machinery they invested in because they can’t get enough skilled tradesmen to get things working. They can’t get needed components and HVAC equipment because it all comes from China. And they can’t get enough additional amps to operate it because the power company (in AZ) is two years out, can’t get enough engineers, and the electrical transformers are all in China.
This tells me the situation is more serious than even I thought. Would appreciate other perspectives from Zman and commenters.
Joseph Tainter wrote about the collapse of overly complex civilization; too many things to write about here: The new Tower of Babylon is falling.
The only thing keeping this sh!tfest from absolute collapse is a handful of white (or near-white) people who are competent and still believe in the system, and there are fewer and fewer of them every day.
There is a dire shortage of airline pilots at the moment. I wonder why?
They are dog paddling across the Rio Grande.
Give em time.
because they are dying from the vaxx in large numbers (saw a stat on this from pilots union). plus if they have a non-fatal heart event, they are grounded. it’s only a matter of time before a plane drops out of the sky because both pilots croak at same time.
Vax mandates (after a shocking number of pilot deaths) and the fact that flying commercial airliners is no longer a premium-pay, prestige gig.
I believe the destruction of the food supply, including the clusters of fires and cyber attacks, is intentional. Rationing seems to be the desired outcome. I don’t think famine will occur in the United States just yet (but will not rule it out two to three years out), but shortages already are starting to appear here and there. Labor-intensive chicken is a good example.
Keep your ears open to talk about rationing. It either will start with the higher end products, fresh produce and meat, or the lower end staples. I would put my money on the latter since fresh meat and produce can be priced out of reach in short order. The questions about how much someone is willing to sacrifice for the Ukraine are trial balloons.
Probably the skillset that most needs to be developed is canning and drying, and to the extent it counts as a skill, hoarding.
Jack Dobson: I’ve seen/read reports of various limits on certain products by certain retailers in certain areas; have not encountered any here. However, was just checking out some links this morning and there’s an interesting post on general inflation (with specific examples) at another site and one of his links mentions the price of local corn in Florida.
Which brought to mind how I had almost stopped buying fresh corn because so many stores here gave up trying to prevent the Han from shucking ears in the store and just put large garbage cans around in a fruitless attempt to minimize the mess. Which further brought to mind that ordinarily, I’d see corn advertised 4 ears for $1.00. Haven’t seen any fresh corn advertised yet but if/when I do I don’t expect it to be $1.00 any more.
@3g4me:
Good Lord. The Han shuck inside the store???
One of the odder items to disappear the soonest was chicken liver (I use it as fishing bait sometimes). It is obviously a byproduct of processing the whole chicken and when that takes a downturn liver becomes hard to find. I cannot help but notice that a new avian flu has started to decimate American and Canadian poultry. That’s a quicker route to Nirvana for certain folks than the Covid they released.
” … I don’t think famine will occur in the United States just yet (but will not rule it out two to three years out), … .”
Don’t forget that one of the “reliable” effects of a Grand Solar Minimum is catastrophic crop failures.
And we have been in the Eddy GSM since 2015.
That’s what the catastrophic rains (and the Three Gorges Dam) drama was all about a year or to ago.
And even then, China was already a net importer of food.
But catastrophic crop failures can be expected to happen everywhere at various times.
Including the AINO.
The climate really *is* changing. Just not for the reasons “they” claim.
@IP:
Solar flares (or lack thereof) probably cannot be monetized, then.
a deliberate famine is not going to work out quite the way these new bolsheviks have envisioned. starving zombie leftards may ‘eat the rich’ after all…