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One of the great truths of American politics is that for the last few generations one side has been motivated by dreams of destroying their enemies, while the other side dreams of befriending the enemy. The people we call the Left in America are the former case and this is their primary definition. Their ideology changes, but the one constant is their desire to clear the field of their enemies. The other side is the Right, which exists to find some sort of accommodation with their friends on the Left.
This impulse to seek a compromise is why American politics has followed a familiar pattern since the Civil War. The Left proposes some novelty and the Right resists, always trying to reason with them. In the end they always cave. As Robert Lewis Dabney observed a century ago, “it (conservatism) demurs to each aggression of the progressive party and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation.”
In the main, this is a good way to describe the political dynamic, but this relationship has had a strange effect on people. The selection pressure for both camps has molded generations of Americans. On the Left, of course, the pressure had been in favor of a feminine histrionics. On the Right, the pressure has been in favor of those who are sure there is some right answer to every trouble. They just need the right guy to say the right words so the kingdom of heaven will open.
We are seeing this with the Twitter story. In the early days of the internet, there was little moderation as no one wanted it. Early adopters liked that it was a place where they could experience heterodox opinion. This openness drove technological innovation and helped make the internet a part of civic life. This is why the Left felt it needed to take control of it. They saw the internet as another institution that they must control in their war on normal society.
As the harpies gained control of Twitter, the so-called conservatives demurred to each new aggression, making angry noises while acquiescing. They supported free speech but demanded the end of anonymity. They supported free speech, but not hate speech, whatever that means. Every “defense” of principle included an important concession to the other side, in the hope of finding a middle ground. Conservative principles are always just a retreat from those principles.
Now we have Elon Musk buying Twitter. Musk has claimed to be a free speech absolutist who is buying the company to open it up again. He has closed on the company and will take it private. It is unclear as to what he intends to do with it in terms of censorship, but he clearly wants his fans to think he will throw open the doors of the platform so it can be what it was ten years ago. Time will tell if he is willing to do what is required to make that happen, but that is the dream.
Here we see those conservative attributes that have been carefully evolved over the last century or so. The first of which is the savior complex. Conservative people have been sure that what they need is a great man who not only has the ability to make conservative arguments, but the courage to do so. The same enthusiasm that put Trump in the White House is what will flood Twitter with new signups. Elon Musk is here to save us from the Twitter mobs.
Another attribute, the most destructive, in fact, is the conservative desire to mix it up with the Left. The reason Twitter exists is otherwise normal people are compelled to interact with people who hate them and want them dead. To be a conservative is to lie awake at night dreaming of left-wing approval. The right argument from the right guy will cause lefty to throw down his arms and embrace you as a brother. Twitter exists so conservatives can beg the Left for forgiveness.
This is obviously true, but conservatives cannot accept it. Gab has been up and running since 2016 and it offers what conservatives claim they want in a platform. Even better, it is free from the deranged lunatics that have ruined other platforms. Conservatives dismiss it because they say it is an echo chamber, by which they mean it lacks the people they claim to hate. They avoid alternatives to Twitter because they want to beg lefty for forgiveness and those platforms do not provide it.
The other conservative quality on display with the Twitter story is the desire to win the approval of the mobs. The same lack of self-worth that drives the conservative to beg lefty for attention is there in their love of the mob. Conservatives are sure if they can get a clear shot on stage, the crowd will reward them with flowers and applause. In a prior age, they would crawl on their belly to be on left-wing television or land a speaking gig at a university. Now they just want to be on Twitter.
Back in the old days, conservatives would argue that they had to be on far-left television shows in order to reach an audience. Today they claim they have to be on far-left internet platforms in order to reach an audience. In Dabney’s time, northern conservatives said they needed to speak with progressive newspapers in order to reach the broader audience. In reality, what the conservative wants is the approval of the Left and there is no limit in how far he will degrade himself to get it.
Twitter is American politics at is most basic. Since Gettysburg, politics in American has been a theater show. The Left hustles everyone inside the theater and puts on a show about a victim or a villain. Sometimes they combine the two. The crowd is told about the plight of some victim group and is supposed to sympathize. Maybe they are warned about some villain, which is always the same villain. Old Scratch takes many forms and the producers of American theater use all of them.
At some point conservatives are brought onto the stage. They shuffle out in their comfort fit slacks and polo shirts. Their job is to dismiss the warnings about the villain or tell the victim to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” The crowd is supposed to boo and hiss, but that does not always happen. Often the villain is so ridiculous that the crowd just laughs about it. Other times the victim is too creepy and weird for the crowd to muster anything other than contempt.
Often, the Left brings out their secret weapon, the Hitler costume. The spotlight focuses on the right of the stage and there it is. Then the Left asks if anyone in the crowd will play that role. Sure enough, an idiot runs up, puts on the costume and does the Hitler act. The crowd then starts throwing cabbages and tomatoes at Richard Spencer as he prances around on stage. The conservatives freak out, run behind lefty looking for safety and the curtain falls. The show is over.
This was Twitter from its inception through the 2020 election. The problem is the producers went bonkers and burned down the theater. In that meeting with the board of directors, everyone realized they needed to rebuild the theater. Despite some moaning from the blue checks, the truth is they want the conservatives back in the theater as much as they want to perform for them. The privatization of Twitter is going to be the rebuilding of the virtual stage of political theater.
Time will tell with regards to Musk and Twitter. He will quickly learn that he must obey the rules of Apple and Google with regards to speech. Maybe he has had some sort of conversion and he will go to war over it. Most likely he will compromise in order to get their approval. This will titivate the conservatives, who will see in his capitulation the stamp of approval for their capitulation. Twitter will go from a woke site to a woke site full of conservatives begging the woke for acceptance.
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There’s always the theory that the American right does in fact win arguments in the long run, but this is always nullified by yet another boatload of immigrants to prop up the declining liberal population. Europeans didn’t do that, but rather the right tended to get itself killed in meaningless brother wars.
Sometime in this century the world’s population will stabilize and the argument by immigrant strategy won’t work anymore on average. It’s going to be a completely new era of politics.
Thought No. 1: Lefties will weep and wail, but will remain on (or soon return to) their Twitter home. They can’t build another platform to compete, just as the conservatives (of whatever subspecies) foundered in every attempt to create a competing platform. Besides, lefties are as much creatures of habit as anyone else. Moreover, they understand that, under the rules of engagement, they will eventually retake control, as we all know that unless Twitter stands forthrightly and explicitly conservative, the platform will gradually migrate left.
No. 2: Understanding that many on teh dissident right never expressed support fo the opinions expressed by Rush Limbaugh, inasmuch as they considered him too boomer for their taste, he was correct in expressing his belief that there is no accomodation to be reached with the left; they can only be engaged with the intent to defeat them. The reason his comment that he hoped Obama would fail was met with so much leftist/mainstream (but I repeat myself) vitriol was that they recognized that he was accurate, and they could not accept this. As usual, the left’s hysteria was simply projection, inasmuch as they recognized that there was never to be any reconciliation with conservatives, but only opposition. The left has been ratcheting our national consciousness in their direction since Wilson, and on no major point did the conservative forces push back with equal vigor. The best conservatives ever did was slow down the gradual movement, never reversing it. So now here we are.
It appears the West is talking of “red lines” and military action, directly threatening the sovereignty of the Solomon Islands:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/26/us-wont-rule-out-military-action-if-china-establishes-base-in-solomon-islands
“One of the most senior US officials in the Pacific has refused to rule out military action against Solomon Islands if it were to allow China to establish a military base there”.
“Of course, we have respect for the Solomon Islands sovereignty, but we also wanted to let them know that if steps were taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power projection capabilities, or a military installation, then we would have significant concerns, and we would very naturally respond to those concerns,”
Pressed on whether he would rule out the prospect of the US taking military action against Solomon Islands were a naval base to be established, and, if not, whether he was comfortable with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison’s talk of the base being a “red line” for Australia, he said: “I don’t have a lot to add beyond what I’ve already stated.
Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, saying Australia had “the same red line” as the US when it came to China’s involvement in Solomon Islands, and defence minister Peter Dutton using his Anzac Day address on Monday to declare: “Australia should prepare for war”…
Chutzpah. This regime is waging war against Russia as it did exactly what they are claiming to do themselves.
My guess is that Musk will push the reforms too far too fast and the left will move to another platform, leaving Twitter a shadow of what it used to be.
The bigger issue is why the harpies of the left came to power so easily? Seems the gentlemen on the right have yielded out of an archaic sense of gallantry, decency, and indulgence towards the weaker members of society with the result that the weak are now *running* society. Society has become so henpecked that nothing can function anymore without approval of the left, as we all know. Thing is, that cat is already out of the bag and I can see no way at all to wind the situation back, other than force majeure.
It seems unwise to cede ground before we’ve at least probed it.
I say coordinate to seize and hold space on the platform, establish a toe-hold from which to launch a campaign of groomer removal. Unite the camps on that one non-negotiable MORAL issue.
Then grab Musk by the belt and hold on.
I’d suggest putting the Alaric artwork on the next run of merch
Conservatives always have to seek the approval and legitimacy of the Left because the Left has controlled the narratives and the stories for so long. All the great moral forces, all the heroes, and all the cool kids are “liberals.” They own “legitimacy.”
Conservatives have been BF Skinner-ed into masochists deathly afraid of being “racist” and craving the “superior” touch of approval from the “Great Liberals.”
George Lincoln Rockwell had conservatives pegged way before Z-man:
“But I reckoned without any knowledge of the human content of the ‘right-wing’. From the millionaires to the scared little people who attend the endless, pitiful ‘conservative’, ‘100% American’, ‘old-fashioned’, ‘constitutional’, ‘states’ rights’ meetings, I learned by bitter experience that the human material of the right-wing consists 90% of cowards, dopes, nuts, one-track minds, blabbermouths, boobs, incurable tightwads and — worst of all — hobbyists, people who have come to enjoy a perverted, masochistic pleasure in telling each other forever how we are all being raped by the “shhh — you know whos,” but who, under no condition, would risk their two cars, landscaped homes, or juicy jobs to DO something about.”
https://counter-currents.com/2011/03/rockwell-was-right/
Your timing couldn’t be better on the merch. All of Europe is eschewing the letter Z because of the Russian Connection.
Well done.
A Z hoodie. A line has been crossed, lolz.
Yeah, Z is ambigous. Something more subversive. More subtle.
Zulu?
Da Da dit dit?
We need a secret handshake too, for when we spot a Zulu person on the street!
Hey Zman – What are your thoughts regarding DeSantis for 2024? I’m cautiously impressed with his willingness to fight against the progressive onslaught but still have concerns on who is backing him.
Have you considered a podcast on his sudden rise in Republican politics? Who owns him? We know that he is controlled by the money brokers and elites. So, why is he looking to be the 2024 guy. I’m suspicious and am curious as to what you think is really going on.
He is owned by the neo-cons. He actually held a Florida legislative session in Israel. I cannot support him for that reason.
Jerusalem, Israel – Today, Governor Ron DeSantis and members of the Florida Cabinet held a historic ceremonial meeting at the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. The meeting served as a chance for the Governor and Cabinet members to exchange best practices and hear from Israeli leaders on issues of mutual interest to Florida and Israel.
https://www.flgov.com/2019/05/29/governor-ron-desantis-leads-historic-ceremonial-meeting-with-florida-cabinet-members-at-the-u-s-embassy-in-jerusalem/
Just the kind of thing to give the Jew haters the vapors.
Beggars can’t be choosers, guys.
Who else we got? Trump or DeSantis. Tucker?
Miami, an outpost. Berkley Springs? A Modern day Constantinople is what we need.
If you wait for a candidate who checks off all of the right boxes, you’ll be waiting for a long time. The good outweighs the bad.
Growing up, I thought I must be a liberal because people who leaned that way were always reaching out to me in friendship, but I’d always end up at odds with them. Meanwhile, conservatives always seemed suspicious of me. I think the common thread was that I’m willing to fight. Lefty thought I must be his sort, only to find otherwise. Conservatives were unsettled by the idea of actually trying to win and dominate. I despised them back then, too. Took me until well into adulthood to figure out I must’ve always been a man of the right, just not the conservative sort, and even that there was more than conservatives on the right.
What drives me nuts about conservatives is, often said, that they don’t conserve anything. As hits close to home for me, they make places fancy and prosperous, and abandon them to lefty at a profit, crying foul as they go. Cities, burbs, the rural red state enclaves they’re building these days– it’ll all end the same way at conservatives’ hands. Whether or not they know they’re lefty’s herald, they certainly know they’re his bitch.
The good news is it’s possible to get off your knees and stop being conservative. The sooner they lose clout, the better.
There is a path to our side of the great divide through conservatism. I was once there. I remember watching Fox News, believing in voting, thinking there was a way to meet in the middle. It was beaten out of me over the years through real life experience. Then, as ZMan has often pointed out, once you see it, you cannot un-see it. Your view of the world is forever changed.
I do believe my conservative friends can be saved and pushed to our side. I see them moving closer every day. They are coming to grips with the reality of race along with the problems of diversity. They are realizing that there is no co-existing with people who believe 4 year olds should be taught gay sex and that men can get pregnant. There is no amount of empirical data or facts that can be presented to fix a leftist. They are evil, rotten to the core scum who must be removed from society. There are conservatives who are realizing this.
OT:
I was a fly on the wall for a second time and now a believer in what follows. The pusch toward renewable energy sources and also electric vehicles is driven by futures in copper metal. It’s considered a hedge against inflation by at least two MNC/Fortune Tens. On information and belief, this is why the California leadership cadre is playing strict against the adiabatic cycle. They expect to profit off the swing in copper for the EV chargers and hedge against weimer hyperinflation. 0.02
I don’t think it is quite that simple.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rivian-ceo-warns-looming-ev-161805505.html
Another Green New Deal fiasco in the making. Ideology vaults ahead of capability, and in the offing undercuts proven technologies employing fossil fuels while imposing huge costs and burdens upon the society that it can ill afford.
Actually, the difference makes sense. The Left believes that the royal road to justice is politics. But, “There is no politics without an enemy.” Therefore anyone that resists the March to Justice is an enemy and must be destroyed.
The rest of the world takes Mr. Brooke’s position, that you don’t want to “go too far.”
And the rest of us are reluctant to decide that people that disagree with us are the enemy. Because we don’t believe politics can much more than stop the Nazis and the Commies.
Tell you what. If we could only get a majority of blacks on our side…
“ One of the great truths of American politics is that for the last few generations one side has been motivated by dreams of destroying their enemies, while the other side dreams of befriending the enemy. ”
I remember trying to choke down that red pill ten years ago. The only way I managed was that the lefties in my hive were going batshit crazy, and my only choice was to take that pill…or go nuts with my hive mates. Normies with less dire choices will have a much, much harder time with that. This red pill only makes sense if you are having your nose rubbed in the alternative.
This is why Gab scares them. There is no white washing or fake and gay allowed there. Normie gets his nose rubbed in leftie’s lunacy and evil… and all he can do is recoil in rage and fright. He doesn’t want to believe what he sees, and will resent your efforts to make him see.
For me … I’m sticking with Torba. I like mayhem and pandemonium, and I admire the courage of the dissidents. I can breathe there. I don’t see Elon standing up like Torba did. I don’t think there can be any meaningful exchanges with the left anymore either. There WAS a day when we could seriously debate with them on a fair platform… but that was 20~30 years ago. Today they are just too far gone, and I hate them right back and want to see them dead too. A fair Twitter platform is not going to change that. This culture war can only end by cracking skulls and stretching necks, I’m afraid.
In defense of them (I seem to have the “liberal” gene at least when it comes to playing devil’s advocate): Social media giants, and for largely the same reason credit card systems, seem to be anti-free speech. And to varying extents, they are. But consider that there are dozens of nations they operate in, and widely varying standards of what is acceptable speech.
To give you an example, simply consider what is sometimes discussed here or in even more no holds barred sites, like Unz or ….
It is no exaggeration that such “hate speech” would at the least risk huge fines, and even prison terms, for those making the “speech.” Probably the platform providers are liable too.
Social media and many other corporations thus are legally bound by multifarious, and probably at times conflicting, laws in the diverse countries they operate in.
If they were remotely liable for anything on their platforms then the TOS policies would be evenly enforced to make sure everyone only talks about puppies and whatever the latest HBO TV drama is. In practice they let leftists endlessly spew hate speech and calls for violence, so it’s pretty obvious that the purpose of social media is propaganda and demoralization against their ideological enemies, not apolitical corporate profit-seeking and risk management..
GlenFilthie – best comment I’ve read in quite some time. I could not agree more.
“This red pill only makes sense if you are having your nose rubbed in the alternative.”
This is exactly what happened to me.
“Today they are just too far gone, and I hate them right back and want to see them dead too. A fair Twitter platform is not going to change that. This culture war can only end by cracking skulls and stretching necks, I’m afraid.”
Could not have said it better myself. Well played.
Twitter existed so that I could tell morons that they should protect their society, that they hate, because without it someone was going to put a bullet in their head and take all their stuff.
A lot of this has to do with Christianity. Originally, sin was considered inescapable. One could never live without sin. Then, sin became something to avoid at all costs.
I recall conversations regarding guns. The latter Christians stating they would never kill, even if their families were at risk. So they would rather watch their loved ones being assaulted than sinning by killing to protect their families. I call these people “moral narcissists.” This also describes your typical conservative. The average conservative will sacrifice everything that matters, as long as they can prove their goodness. The left understands this implicitly, which is why they play the morality card for all it’s worth.
Regards,
Mike
Hmmmm. Not sure I’d agree. My Christianity is about redeeming sinners. You have to make the honest effort to do that, and it often cuts us like a double edged sword. The SJWs and the faggotry will see that as bigotry and hate speech and part of the eeeevil Christian Superiority Complex. The hardline conservatives will see that as trying to compromise with sin and perversion.
The Bible is not a suicide pact. Most Christians I know see it as a call to repentance and sometimes it is heard. There are any number of queers and trannies that heard that call, saw the error of their ways, straightened themselves out and flew right. Christians and dissidents will need to work together in cleaning up the mess when the current order implodes.
I commented on this awhile ago. Failure to protect one’s family is more akin (IMO) to moral idiocy or ignorance than narcissism.
Perhaps the Old Testament is out of fashion, but
“Leviticus 19:16 Do not go around slandering your people. Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed; I am the LORD”
And
Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder”
Pretty much sums it up for me.
“I know see it as a call to repentance ”
So do I, and I have a list of actions that I’m prepared to repent for.
I’d call them “moral eunuchs.”
If you were the American ruling class – would you in a way want to turn the clock back 55-60 years? It seems like you had high functioning institutions, a roaring economy and a lot more attractive girls (since this was before piercings and tattoos). Now it seems harder for the elite to get away with bullshit since the economy is so screwed up.
Perhaps not. The ruling elite, say 60-100 years ago, had quite a duty to their communities. Most any town small, or large, has all sorts of public works and institutions named after their successful *fellow* citizens—hospitals, libraries, schools, etc—all in recognition of fulfillment of their “noblesse oblige”.
What the hell has Zuckerberg or Bezos (global-homo) done for you lately?
Zuckerberg has his name affixed to San Francisco General Hospital. No doubt he kicked in megabucks but I have no idea what improvements if any have been made.
You’re talking about a lost civilization, White America. This small hat%charging, morally bankrupt mudcoloney is life on another fuckin planet.
assuming you’re talking about the tribe – they ran the country back in the 60s too. So them being in charge isn’t the problem per se.
Look at the Gini coefficient. The ruling class have done very very well through the destruction they’ve wrought.
theZman ™ is trapped in Lagos, and all I got was this lousy tee shirt.
Great poast.
The Speaker’s Corner mirage around Twitter — a glorified bulletin board plug-in from 2004 — needs puncturing. The problem is the medium, not the quality/degree of message censorship. As Z correctly notes and as Torba consistently pointed out, it is the Google/Apple App Store that holds the whip hand in all Silicon Valley Nurse Ratched melodrama. Conservatives are too dumb to realize that the people have already spoken, and chosen this system.
You reminded me of a not bad book from 2004 by Myrna Blyth, “Spin Sisters.” It’s a Regnery-style tract but it came out through a bigger publishing house (presumably owing to the author’s connections in that industry). If you are old enough to have witnessed the media stylist extreme makeover of the 90s when we got every woman’s Mr. Wonderful as POTUS, then you are aware absolutely that liberalism sells. It is absolutely hotter than any story in history. Lately it is having a Marx/Lenin internal contradictions glitch, so we’re getting scolded ever more about “misinformation” which is when some declasse frumpy outsider correctly identifies cool fun fictions as such.
I have a serious question for you Z: where are you going with all this?
What I mean is, what are your goals? What end state do you think we should be trying to reach? Your posts are all pretty much the same: you display your vast insight into the inner thinking of both the Left and the Right to let us know what is really going on, but you have little to say about the most important question: “What is to Be Done?”.
As an example of what I am talking about, there are racial separatists who advocate partitioning the country. I don’t see much chance of this, but at least it’s a target, so it’s possible to come up with programs intended to reach it. But what is your target? What do you think we should be doing to try to reach it?
What little you do have to say in this regard doesn’t seem that helpful. We should stop voting. (Because it couldn’t possibly matter whether Stephen Miller or Alejandro Mayorkas is running our immigration system). We should withdraw, and stop talking to people to the left of us. (Because there are already so many people who think like us that we don’t need any new recruits). We shouldn’t wait for a Great Man to save us. (Not entirely unreasonably, but it seems undeniable that Trump was in a position to say things that would have helped enormously, had he not been a total idiot).
I guess what I’m looking for is your best case scenario. If everything somehow were to go right, what would your world look like? And what should we be doing to make everything go right?
A special courier shall come to you.
You will receive the necessaries to travel by chauffeur, to Gulfstream, to luxury speedboat.
The captain will have the passcodes to deactivate the laser sharks.
You will be escorted into the hidden volcano lair.
Avast! Once he has you trapped in the lava room, the nefarious Zman will gleefully explain to you in full, livid detail, his evil genius plan!
His masterwork of malice!
Nothing can be done. Our individualistic culture marinates us in the idea that we can move the needle if only we do (insert x). We just have to find out what variable x is that we have to do. In reality, humanity is a hive, and the hive itself has to collapse before the solution can be found.
We’ve already spiritually collapsed, socially collapsed, intellectually collapsed, we’re just waiting for the final economic collapse as the last of the honey is eaten, and all wealth emptied out, consumed, and replaced with bond issues. This isn’t a black pill, just a hat tip to humanity and nature which operates in social cycles. No one will repair the aqueduct. It will collapse. Whether it’s rebuilt in five years or a thousand years, is the question.
Attempting to “save society” is the social equivalent of buying a compact car to save the Earth. You’re not moving the needle and never will. We have to take care of ourselves first, and then pick and choose the people we like to take care of it we have extra resources, like a Filipino giving an extra helping of Adobo to another Filipino, while whitey pays full price for a stingy serving.
The collapse is the renewal. We don’t like that because it means we’ll suffer and probably die in the transition. We want the change but want to keep our stuff, and that is improbable.
Z bounces around a bit. He says things like “we aren’t going to vote our way out of this” but then leaves you to fill in the blanks. He does think institutionally, so it makes you wonder how he plans to work inside American institutions without any votes? He gives the impression that he has no use for democracy, and so what American institutions could be saved during such a drastic change?
I was thinking the same thing. I love Z’s insight on just about everything, but an article like this is such a gut punch for the right. I don’t see sitting back and waiting for total societal collapse to be the solution, even if that is most likely where we are headed.
In the last month we’ve seen a couple of very promising developments. Disney seemingly had all the wealth and power in the world until they pushed their perversion just a little too far. Next thing you know they have lost a 55 year old sweetheart deal that they took for granted, and it will only get worse. Now they are stuck in a crossfire between their customers and the monster they created, with no escape.
The Karens at Twitter have been banning everything they want with impunity, but suddenly they banned a harmless parody site and the whole thing came crashing down. Hopefully musk will find that person and publicly fire her and her entire chain of command first.
How many more houses of cards are there on the left? With momentum on our side, I feel optimistic for once. DeSantis is showing Republicans how it’s done, without selling out to their donors. Conservative Inc. will never again succeed with their antics on a national scale.
Those who have keen insight into the psychological dynamics of cultural evolution don’t always have recommendations for political action or even know, in any detail, what they’d like to see.
Z’s tone suggests to me an acceptance of the cyclical nature of empires in their rise and fall, accompanied by the humility of not imagining anyone can accurately predict the specifics of the fall.
Economic collapse may be certain but the how, where, when and how severe effects are hard to predict. Here’s where the Left had and may still have the advantage in that organzing for future scenarios was the Left’s forte before the Left became the establishment and its vision foreshortened by its necessary support for the status quo.
I come from the Left. Discussions of how to create the type of communities that can hopefully survive the coming impoverishment in the face of current corruption and incompetence occur on a dialy basis but far from the mainstream that occupies itself with the issues du jour. For example, no one I know is on Twitter, and many don’t know what Twitter is except it’s in the news and it’s something online that they’ve heard of.
JEB, if you’re a guy who needs to be told what to do—step by step—then this blog is not for you. Perhaps reading from the government health sites is a better use of your time?
I’m a guy who thinks it’s generally a good idea to know where you are trying to go and have some idea how you might get there. Aren’t you?
To be honest, if Z were simply to say “I have no plans or goals, I’m just doing this for the lulz” I would consider that a satisfactory answer to my question. I’m guessing though some people here might be a bit disappointed.
I am not Z but I have a plan. Party like its 1980. With the Good Mustache Man — Lech Walesa. Consider what he did — a series of rolling, constant strikes off/on from 1970 onwards over basic living and pay conditions under food inflation forced Jaruzelski into declaring Martial Law and destroying what legitimacy remained in Poland of the Communist Party, as the Regime became nothing more than a tool of the USSR.
So massive food inflation? Check.
Regime illegitimacy? Check.
Limits on skilled labor vs. a strong back floating over the Rio Grande? Check.
Real prices to be paid in terms of deaths, long prison terms, for labor organizing against the Regime? Double check.
But we have leverage. You cannot run a complex industrial nation now openly trying regime change against both Russia and China on Third World immigrant labor. Or now, Chinese labor as regime change in China is now an open goal. We are needed. And we should go on strike. The Ukraine war so far has been a godsend to us. Admiral Levine is not going to be flying the F-35 Raptor into combat any time soon.
A t-shirt and /or coffee mug with the word “Dissident” written on it.
Gab back under A list, I don’t believe in glitches….
Musk is to business what orange man is to politics…and business. He’s a huckster. You have to completely bifurcate what he says and what he does, as what he says is as flawed as Tesla accounting practices (See Q1 COGS). There is no there there with Musk. He’s the living embodiment of our unicorn economy, where no one will die of radiation poisoning on Mars. So when he says he wants to have a completely open platform, I read that, “If you verify yourself and give us your SSN, you’ll have special privileges.” This is a guy who sold full self driving and five years later people are still waiting AFTER making the deposit. In any ordinary time he would be in jail, in the golden age of fraud and decadence, he’s celebrated.
What makes Twitter valuable is what makes the LA or NYC metro areas valuable. They’re a living hell to be unless you’re upper class and can insulate yourself, but they offer a critical mass of people to every sub group known to humanity. So if you’re a lesbian with obscure fetishes, there’ll be a little bar in an alley just for you. You belong to some obscure religious sect, Caucasian-Orthodox-Dunbas Rite, whatever, there’s a church five miles down the road for you. If you’re in finance, little groups of obscure bankers have their clicks too. Etc. Gab doesn’t quite have that yet, I hope it does in five years or so.
Just as with YouTube, it was never really the politics that made Twitter valuable, so they were able to snuff out every right winger worth his salt. Also, if any “conservative” commenter still have an account on there, it exposes them as a regime supporter. Does Tim Pool really have your back or is he a gatekeeper running a con with his fake-ass saw mill employee look? Same with Cernovich. Same with Andy Ngo.
Interesting take on Tim Pool. He touted the Lefty line for quite awhile, but now touts conservative talking points while professing he’s still a center Lefty. So what is he?
So much deception these days to wade through.
I agree its going to be the start of the biometric online identity pushed under the guise of the all new FreeSpeech twitter.
Musk is just the man to pull through the normies into voluntary sign up. Its all about getting rid of the bots says Musk, but of course you are going to want to prove you are human to be part of the new Musk venture to stick it to the borg.
Just ignore the tie up with the other tech sites and the ISPs that will follow the online identity, cause Musk is definitely your guy.
Some times it’s OK to take people for what they are saying. Not everyone is lying & grifting all the time. If later you find otherwise they are added to the list. Constant edge is so tiresome.
True, not everyone is lying and grifting all the time. The people I mentioned are.
It’s hard not to be totally cynical these days.
I’m trying to figure out what you really mean saying that 🙂
Going to disagree on Andy Ngo. I can’t think of another journo (indie or msm) who has done the reporting on Antifa crimes and its relationship to the corrupt justice systems where they’re allowed to operate with impunity. To bring it back to Twitter, Antifa orgs are allowed to organize on the platform and make death threats against their “enemies” with impunity while frog accounts that only post Bible verses get banned.
Got his bloody head bashed, he did. He’s one of ours.
Arch Neo-Con Mark Levin loudly and proudly announced his return to Twitter. It’s all so fake and gay.
” Does Tim Pool really have your back or is he a gatekeeper running a con with his fake-ass saw mill employee look? Same with Cernovich. Same with Andy Ngo.”
Well, Ngo is gay, so ultimately no, he doesn’t have your back. Some betrayals are inevitable, even though I value some of his reporting. I’ve never paid attention to the other two.
FWIW, I dismiss Cerno out of hand as a supplement seller. I have no knowledge of Pool, but the fact that he wears a knit cap indoors in all seasons is maybe a little bit weird. Maybe he’s an autist? I understand that Ngo is gay, but to what extent does influence his reporting? My point is that nobody else is doing what he does reporting-wise in Antifa-land.
I thought Ngo began reporting on the hijinks because his family immigrated there and raised him in Portland.
That seems to suggest he has at least a basic sense of community and concern for what happens to it.
Anyone noticed no Gab under A list items today?
“I have teamed up with a bunch of libertarians to start selling some branded items.”
You’ve teamed up with libertarians to sell merch and there’s no Official Zman Clown Horn? Wow, you really have sold out! 🙂
Also, some of that merch will get you locked up in Germany!
A “Reason Magazine” bike horn would be perfect.
A bumper sticker stating :
“When you see a libertarian, punch him in the face. He’ll know why”. Would also be perfect.
“As heard on the Zcast!”
It’d sell itself.
Better yet, make it in rainbow colors!
I have been looking around for imprint Tchotchkes and I’ve been able to find stadium horns and bicycle bells (both mechanical and electronic), but I haven’t found one of those horns with the rubber squeeze ball — the classic clown/bike horn.
I watch Musk’s acquisition of Twitter with slight interest. Here we have the world’s richest man apparently branding himself as the savior of free speech. Why do I remain dubious of his intent? 🙂
Re Zman joining the grift, more power to him! At least he’s open in his motives, at least what I see anyway. Go ahead and criticize him if you like. I would find it amusing, as some of the anti-vaxxers think Robert Malone is a plant, because he has ties to big government (and he’s quite open about his past and present connections). It’s always good to be on guard, but for some reason, I place more confidence in the wolf if he’s wearing wolf’s clothing, rather than a sheep costume 😀
Regardless of intent, I’m not sure Elon, even with $100 billion+, has the financial firepower to defeat the forces aligning against him.
The problem is that Larry Fink at Blackrock has $13 trillion under management and has stated in writing that he wants to force companies into the Woke ESG cartel. He also has direct lines to JPow and the NY Fed.
This doesn’t even account for the trillions parked at State Street and Vanguard, who appear aligned with Blackrock’s ESG push.
And somewhere, Madame Defarge is knitting . . .
At least one pundit is suggesting that Soros and crew need to short Tesla to $570 to force a margin call on Elon’s loan for purchasing Twitter.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bonds-surged-bitcoin-purged-tesla-tanked-tech-stocks
Methinks we will soon find out if the Soros/Blackrock/NY Fed Death Star is indeed fully operational.
They got a fair start today on TSLA – that was a bit of a beat down.
Yes, the conservatives always growl menacingly, flash their claws and fangs, and then go hide under a bush. The leftward march is inexorable because resistance is confined to a bit of hissing and spitting. Can anybody think of a single policy or cultural innovation the Left has desired over the last 40 years that they didn’t get? Outside of the abolition of the 2nd amendment, the right hasn’t denied the Left sweet Fatty Arbuckle. That being the case, I agree with Z’s extrapolation to Twitter. There will be a temporary rollback of Leftist censorship, but in 10 years all will return to square one.
I doubt we see much of a roll back. There will be some symbolic stuff, but otherwise it will be business as usual.
I disagree. There will be rollback, but the left will go after Musk with all their weapons. There are hit piece documentaries in the making. They’ve already indicated they’re going to use the state to look into all of his market moves. Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.
They’re also going to try and break him financially. His purchase was made using 75% of his Tesla stock as loan leverage. If Tesla stock goes down, the debtors can use the call option and force him to sell some or all of those stocks, further forcing the price down. There are members of the hive all over the market, not to mention Soros who has already made a fortune on manipulating the market. They will break him within a year or two max.
If Musk’s financing is as you described, shame on him. What a monumentally stupid thing to do. So he’s basically buying Twitter on margin, and as others just noted, perhaps leaving himself wide open to a margin call he either can’t meet or one that will erase much of his net worth.
The left has wanted high taxes on the rich and corporations. They had to settle for every rich person and corporation joining their culture. We win!
Excellent analysis, Zman. I often wonder what exactly is the driver behind the average conservative mans need for acceptance, pushing that capitulation to the left we’ve seen for so long..
Conservative Man has bought the Left’s moral framework of isms and phobias–racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. When you do that, your only recourse is to argue that the Leftists are the true ists and phobes. Conservative Man seeks to out tolerate those who claim to be the soul of tolerance. In the process, he offers up all western norms and normal people to the pyre.
Bingo. There’s a very easy way to identify “Conservative Man.” Ask for his opinion on Abe Lincoln.
“I often wonder what exactly is the driver behind the average conservative mans need for acceptance, … .”
It’s the mass media. He consumes a steady diet of it and so does *everybody* he knows. So he thinks that *everybody* loves miscegenation and gay sex.
Oh, yeah, and Jake from State Farm.
“I often wonder what exactly is the driver behind the average conservative mans need for acceptance, … .” A bit of skirt.
Pingback: DYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » The Virtual Theater Returns
I have a virtual theater prediction.
If Russia should somehow manage to zap Zelensky, watch the Western narrative spinners turn him into the first virtual reality martyr that speaks to us from beyond the grave in YouTube clips.
Heck, I can even see them creating a life-sized Zelensky hologram and sending it on a speaking tour, just like George Floyd.
Why not? they did it with all the different Stephen Hawking guys for years.
We have a great movie to make, thanks to Melissa’s coining of “Zuckerborg”.
A new Star Trek movie! At last we know where and how the Borg began: in the tumultuous 20th and 21st centuries, on Earth.
The posters are already done.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/13/e5/18/13e518acd3d50b3c1536b11311363398.jpg
Hint for the WEF’s transhumanist future, of identity QR codes, virtual tracking tatoos, of socially-scored digital “cash” and ration schemes:
A great Gates of Vienna article asked, “who do you shoot?”
The best answer:
Shoot the transformers.
All their schemes and rackets depend on the Electric Age, as Infant has pointed out. When Leviathan comes to town, it’s already over, and you’ll have not much left to lose.
Yes. We all get a vote as to who has the ‘leccie and wireless….. The New Luddites indeed.
Here’s a thought -is it possible that bill clinton actually moved the democrats to the left? The consensus was that he moved the party to the center and allowed them to win the suburban voter. His rhetoric in theory was supposed to be a departure from the goofy liberalism of Mondale or McGovern.
But I feel like when people think of a liberal – they really aren’t thinking of a Mondale or McGovern but on sort of a mbaese postmodern style of thought that I feel originates in the Clinton era
at its core, leftist governance uses a gangster model. and that is what clinton amplified in the dems.
Given the Clinton’s heavy involvement with the drug running as part of Inran-Contra (with the Bushes and hangers on) they would know the model inside out.
You beat me to it. But Bush the Elder wasn’t a “hanger-on,” he and the intelligence service he once ran were at the heart of it.
i agree entirely.
I meant the Bushes and their numerous hangers on in and around the govt.
Judging by this morning’s price action it looks like Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street are trying to shave several billion fron Elon’s stash.
They are not being subtle, either. Lots of quotes in the fake news financial columns about how “concern” over Twitter led to the cratering of Tesla funds. The loss is staggering enough to make me almost think Musk isn’t running a scam with Twitter. Naah, he is, but almost.
The Banana Empire’s markets and money are just as fake and gay as “our democracy.” Any doubt was removed after the FBI investigated Gamestop over unapproved financial success.
Maybe yes, maybe no. It took a bigger drop this past Nov. – Feb. Even with Tuesday’s drop, it’s still well above a few months ago.
For reference, TSLA is still roughly 8x what it was before it became everybody’s darling, just about two years ago. I hope Musk doesn’t have all his eggs in one basket.
Shameless! Shameless and defiant.
Like Johnny Rotten said, “Selling out is actually a very punk thing to do.”
Middle finger to the audience!
But really, an upscale priced Z hoodie is just the thing for my next vibrant discount shopping spree at Nordstrom’s.
Accessorize, accessorize is the key to fashion success. To complete my Dissident ensemble, may I suggest…
“Z” masks.
Perfect for the ball, the gala, fine dining, and vibrant shopping!
When they ask what the Z means, I’ll affect my stony thousand yard stare, and tell them I was with the Russian 6th Czarist in Karkiv…
Johnny Rotten was also banned from the BBC for outing a predator. Good for him. He was proven right.
“Since Gettysburg, politics in America has been a theater show.”
We need more Ford Theaters to stage more productions of Our American Cousin.
Beginning with the corpse of Abe Lincoln and all the dismal myths about that terrible man.
I’d like to know how he thinks he can solve the economics of Twitter. He needs twitter to at least pay for its running costs. If he allows anything resembling free speech, the credit card companies will blacklist it. Advertisers will pull out. And, worse, as pointed out in the article, Google and Apple will kick them out of the app store.
In modern America, in order to have anything remotely resembling free speech, you need anonymity. If you want to say anything remotely out of line with the orthodoxy of the day, it cannot be linked to your real life identity. That line about “authenticating all humans” is kind of vague, but it sounds like it could mean an internet ID or sorts.
One problem with Gab is it is ALL politics. No matter what your hobbies are, there is a Twitter scene about it. Gab has the groups, but most are empty or near empty with very little content. The truth is, Gab is just not a very good Twitter substitute.
Gab gets worse every time it is “updated” The newest thing is if you try to comment on a post, you can no longer do it from your feed, which wouldn’t be a big deal if the back button worked properly. It doesn’t take you back to where you were, but to the top of the feed of whatever you were in. Then it takes 10 minutes to get back to where you were.
I’m hardly the only one in this mindset, but at this point the persistent issues with Gab seem deliberate as only the “hardcore” users will continue to use it while the glitches will scare off any “normies”. When I used Poast for a bit I noticed that the platform was more stable and had more features than Gab, despite being built on the same technology and only being run part-time by one guy.
Agree. The way he nerfed Dissenter is as good as admitting he’s sucking GAE benis – that, and his fake-ass Jesus-shtick.
Back when Dissenter launched, you could cross-post to Gab at the click of a button, you got notifications and stuff, and when you went to a website – like fx. Guardian.co.uk – you could see which articles had Dissenter comments on it, providing an excellent sniper nest for exiled Ciffers.
When Scandinavian Airline System launched a shaking-with-racial-hate, anti-Scandinavian eff-u-screed disguised as an ad, me and a handful of fellow Scandi Dissenters crapped all over their mainpage until they had to change their ULR!
Dissenter was a free-speech killer app, pure shitposting mayhem because you could take a dump right on their living room table and there was NOTHING they could do about it.
Gab is just another lame social network, a closed ecosystem. Torba is no more for real than Musk, he’s operating a honey pot, making it easier for GAE to keep tabs on nationalists. I never had a social media account before (I only made an account because you needed one to log into Dissenter) so I have no opinion on how it compares to Twitter, but it sure is buggy.
“Twitter will go from a woke site to a woke site full of conservatives begging the woke for acceptance.”
I’m sure there are a handful of “conservatives” like you describe because there are stupid people everywhere. But, what you are calling “conservatives” is usually CHINO’s. Conservative Hitlers In Name Only. CHINO’s are just part of the dialectic, paid for by the same usual suspects that promote the self-destructive policies of the left. If they are being banned, they may have uttered an unpleasant truth that is “not who we are”. If they return to grovel for the left’s approval, they are just trying to keep the grift going.
I don’t really know how I feel about this. I’m sure Tucker Carlson, Babylon Bee, Alex Jones, etc. will make a return. But so what? They can keep making tweets like “People with penises are men” and “Democrats are hypocrites”?
It seems counter-intuitive but “the right” has made the most progress under a hostile and censored environment. Some examples:
– angry parents taking control of school meetings
– increase in homeschooling
– bans on CRT curriculums and LGBT promotion
– freedom convoy(s) in Canada (US had one too but it didn’t do much – this time)
– some churches telling the gov to F off when they tried to shut them down
Small wins, but without the loud but useless grifters sucking out all the oxygen in the room, ie. Trump, Alex Jones, Richard Spencer etc. people have been organizing in real life. These are real people fighting back, in real life. I’ve been forced out into real life more so than 2015-2017, and I’ve met tons of quality people through covid protests and other places.
Anyways, I don’t expect Musk to be some saviour. Musk will do what is best for Musk. Just like Trump. It doesn’t mean we can’t gain something from his moves but until we see exactly what he’s doing it’s a big notherburger to me.
Very interesting take. Plenty of historical examples of forbidden “ sects” flourishing only when they were persecuted and in the literal or figurative catacombs. Then they emerged and the real struggle was on.
“We don’t organize!” is the cry, while all the Left does, has ever done, is organize. It has indeed made them formidable. It looks like it’s given them the world.
What is forgotten is the deep character of White American men and women, well hidden. Of Euros too, as seen in the joyous crowds at the Nuremberg rallies.
Oh, we organize, all right. Spontaneously, instinctively, and seamlessly. We show up at a disaster site, unbidden, and ask, “what do you need me to do?”
We wait, UNTIL disaster strikes.
Then we right well take care of business. Parasites and locusts beware- when you become a real threat, we’ll remember who we are.
“It seems counter-intuitive but “the right” has made the most progress under a hostile and censored environment. ”
Brilliant point. The Left has decided to dispense with even the artifice of controlled opposition, so that has forced some pushback among those who have the constitution for it.
Something with the phrase “Dirt people” would be awesome!
TomA’s “Between the Progs and the Cucks” should go on that z-shirt, along with one for the Dirts vs the Clouds!
Zirl science, always good for a laugh.
Be good on a hoodie. Might serve as a secret handshake of sorts.
Regret missing the inaugural castle event.
Too many irons in the fire getting our own castle in order.
How about “after the revolution ______(insert word/meme of preference)?
It always amused me to see putative “conservatives” going into the libtard lion den to show they really weren’t the meanies they were portrayed as – and getting torn a new one start to finish. In the old days, it’d have been something like the Phil Donahue show or more recently a nagfest like The View, maybe (((Howard stern))). They’re all pretty much embarrassingly pathetic.
I’ve never especially liked Stern. He was briefly (very briefly) a “shock jock” at a DC Rock & Roll station. Although I have the account second hand, after the crash of an Air Florida jet into a bridge during take-off in a snow storm in January 1982, Stern called Air Florida to inquire how much a ticket to the 14th Street Bridge was. Not surprisingly, he was quick fired.
I’d go on the view, wearing a bomb vest.
Are you fuggin nuts?
There’s more gawddamn bohunk Ukrainians up here in Alberta than there are blacks in Lagos. There’s more Uke flags than maple loafs. A guy could get shot round here, wearing that shirt like that!
Do they come in Extra- rotund size, Z? Or maybe an extra caption that says “Rootin’ For Putin”? That would be so awesome…
😂👍
I’ve never used Twitter and probably never will, but I do have to say in the last 48 hours since it’s sale I’ve certainly derived substantial pleasure from the fireworks!
Bashing conservatives (and normies) is therapeutic sport here on the Z blog, and it’s a guilty pleasure that nearly all of us practice from time to time. It often acts as a pressure relief valve when prominent media cons do something particularly infuriating. In my case, I listen to Bongino a couple times each week in order to gauge the mood of ConInc. Lately, he’s been continuously ejaculating in anticipation of the November elections and demanding that everyone vote harder or die. He also sees Musk as a messiah that will part the seas and free us all from internet tyranny. Between the Progs and the Cucks, I’m not sure the USA is worth saving anymore. The good news is that 4S & Focus is still useful whether your aim is repair or constructive destruction. I’m so old that I can remember when the therapeutic sport of choice was shooting varmints out on the range. And we have no shortage of varmints these days.
what this post is highlighting is the foundation of the uniparty. maybe i am misreading things, but the article strongly implies that these conservative crawlers are somehow a different group than the left. they are not. they are two sides to the same coin. who zman is describing is the normie wing of the prog movement. that is why it is counter productive to try and persuade or convert these people to any oppositional or alternative group. it is also important to consider this when calculating the size of the uniparty, and the remainder of the population that *is* reachable. we are never going to take power through force of numbers (or any other way) and should focus on building a community that is about self-preservation.
karl: It doesn’t appear to me that Zman is drawing a distinction between left and right politics, merely drawing attention to the role of each side in the uniparty morality play. As Zman notes, if putative conservatives wanted a platform or had any legitimate and distinct views from their opponents, they would make use of existing alternatives such as gab.
But they don’t want just any platform; they want the left-approved platform, just as they want to go to leftist dinner parties and remain within their self-appointed role among their chosen social group.
I applaud Zman for so clearly portraying the bathos of conservatards who will compromise everything and profess anything in their desperate desire to be back in with the kool kids. Except this is not the standard meme of Lucy pulling the football away – this is reality where the kool kids want to kill the grovelers and molest their children and they think it’s funny. And still the conservatards grovel.
And still everyone thinks if they just use the right argument they will win ‘the people’ over. Once folks realize the increasing deaths from the magic vaxx, they will turn on the government with a vengeance. Once people realize Hunter’s laptop was real and Biden was bought and paid for long before he was officially senile, they’ll bring magic charges. Once ‘x’ happens, 50% + 1 will realize that 50% + 1 doesn’t work. Ad infinitum.
Most people putatively on the right – even too many on the DR – still think if they just vote for the right school board member or just get the right tech overlord on board, the ship will be righted. They never want to go back to first things, and actually confront and destroy the lie of equality.
Like a dog returns to its vomit, a conservative returns to . . . tv, football, Hollywood movies, Thai restaurants, and twitter.
Seems we like to “argue” with the Left, and as Z-man astutely points out, we seek out their platforms to do so.
There can be no purpose in forming arguments with anyone if there is no agreement on the premises. In my simple view of things, I’ve rarely met a Lefty that could form a valid argument—and if so, then never a sound one.
It’s all so boring. Guess that’s why I’m here.
Good post. Lots to unpack. Re the vax: The silencing of vax victims, doctors, and journos on this score has been unprecedented in my lifetime. No public debate at all. Even those advocating for investigating treatments were de-platformed. It’s been vax now, vax always, vax forever with little justification.
In parallel with that, add the discarding of traditional safeguards and other standards. In fairness, it’s impossible to generate a “warp speed” (claimed) “vaccine” without cutting a lot of corners. Once accomplished, though, it is far less clear why the discouraging of any investigation into efficacy or side effects, in fact, quite the opposite.
You are dead on noting the propaganda has been “vax, vax, vax” from the outset. It still is. Some localities are up to dose #4 now, less than 1 1/2 years into deployment. I don’t recall them admitting that multiple doses would be needed, but then their narrative has changed so often it’s hard to keep track without a scorecard.
But what’s dismaying if not downright appalling is if one investigates into a bit of detail just how many corners WERE cut and the likely price that (potentially) hundreds of millions of vax takers may have to pay. To a large degree, much of the regulatory infrastructure was in place even before the pandemic “conveniently” started. A case can even be made the virus was deliberately released. Very powerful people and organizations were (and still are) deeply involved in all this. Money and arrogating power explain a lot, but perhaps not all. Censorship is only one of the tools.
Much of the background information to prove a lot of the above, at least to a reasonable standard, is not even hidden, it’s in laws, public filings and so on. To be sure, you won’t hear it on the evening news, NPR or a Twitter or Facebook feed, however. You see, it’s all “misinformation.”
There are probably lots of books written by now. The best I’ve read is RFK Jr.’s Fauci book.
(Please forgive my prolixity — the Covid-19 conspiracies are one of my favorite obsessions.)
Separation is the only way.
The Prog flagship, Tom Hartmann, got all panicky and strident when a caller said Goodwhites should sunder the Union, and get away from those useless eaters, the gap-toothed Trumpist deplorables in their rural sh*tholes.
“We must save the Union!”, cried Hartmann, “to defend global democracy!”
If there is one thing post-2016 internet has taught us, it’s that there is an entire ecosystem behind the internet. Once upon a time if you knew what stripe was you were informed. But then stripe revealed that the credit cards themselves were giving them a ban list. Which may have come from the investor class themselves through “ethical” investing guidelines.
That’s just the money side to internet business. It’s a shame Elon is going to learn this all again. Maybe this time It’ll warrant a Tucker segment.
Z your mind, your ass will follow.
George Clinton (Parliament Funkadelic) said something fairly close to that 😀
Unlike a lot of their stuff not to my taste, if one likes funky rock and roll (mostly) instrumental, give Eddie Hazel’s famous “Maggot Brain” a listen. Clinton’s monologue at the opening is one of his best, IMO.
One positive about getting more thought criminals back on Twitter is their being able to show another perspective to normies on the right and in the middle. Gab is filled with various shades of true believers on the right. They do get a chance to interact and share ideas but no opportunity for bringing normies closer to our way of seeing reality. That is very different than trying to score points against or gain approval from Good Whites which is a fool’s errand
A century of showing “another perspective to normies on the right and in the middle” to no effect seems like a pretty good real world test of the theory. It turns out that what normie sees when conservatives go on lefty platforms is confirmation that lefty should control the platforms.
sit down, i have something important to tell you.
sigh. you are a normie….and always will be. there is no cure.
Semi-related, but the full-throated roaring of “principled conservatism” (eg, space lawyer Glenn Reynolds) demonstrates there is, truly, one party in “america,” with a shared platform of radical egalitarianism and endless “crusades” for “freedom” and “democracy.” The Republic did indeed die at Appomattox.
I’m sorry, full throated roaring in support of “defending freedom” in Ukraine with arms supplied by the “american” defense industry. F*cking war pigs.
They are scrambling so hard to find more material to chuck into Ukraine the US just cinvened an emergency meeting with 40 countries in Germany.
check with afghanistan, i hear they have some stuff to sell…
It’s worse than you know.
They’re already invoking another “Marshall Plan” to “rebuild Ukraine”.
Sell weapons to Ukraine on a payment plan. Buy weapons to replenish “donated” NATO stockpiles. Use weapons to blow up critical infrastructure to declare “Marshal Plan!!!” In the most corrupt country in Eastern Europe.
This may be the grift-gasm that causes the (little) death of the US dollar.
1000 digital Satanbux for “grift-gasm”!
I suspect that a new “Marshall” plan will be fine with Russia. They’d prefer it to dumping their rubles down a rat hole.
What I want to see on twitter is the left and the neocons relentlessly mocked and ridiculed.
A couple of weeks ago on Gab, Marjorie Taylor Green posted “There is one race, the human race.” The replies overwhelmingly picked apart and refuted and hilariously made fun of her statement.
That’s what needs to happen on twitter. Make them cry and shriek.
That is the one argument for Twitter I like. It’s good for mocking and poking lefties and normies; nothing more. I don’t see it as a “town square”. Elon is one of those guys who has taken whiffs of edgytarian smoke but he is, at base, a business conservative who is young enough to know what’s cool and what’s whack. He’s a mix of Trump energy and Joe Rogan intellect.
Or if you have any interests outside of politics. Gab is all politics all the time.
Its the Amsterdam of politics, since what’s allowed there isn’t legal anywhere else.
Wait, I know!
Youtube, Twitter, and now Tiktok are becoming vast libraries of “How-to”‘s.
So, Gab, Odysee, Bitchute, Poast?, etc. are big subscribe-to niche channels.
Like permaculture or truck wrecks or Freightliner mechanics, the Gabs are a niche you’ll find if you want to.
A Dissident Reddit, and quite a bit easier to access.
(I still have no idea how to read 4chan or reddit, but Gab Explore has largely replaced my twitter surfing for light, quick takes.)
I’ve never had a Twitter account yet, somehow, I miraculously have outlets for my interests outside of politics.
Yeah, Gab has become an outrage machine for the extremely online right-winger. They do have groups following other interests but c’mon, we’re all there for the spicy takes. Sometimes, I don’t want to assume that everything is shit because we’re all imperfect human beings bouncing off each other. Sometimes, I want to see things blamed on the J**s or secret pedophile rings.
From your mouth to Musk’s ears. Id only use twatter at this point to mock and deride the cucks and progs. Civil discussions are for sane, rational people. The “twitterverse” has shown it is neither. Time to burn down the Ivory Towers.
Ha. It is often said these days that comedy is dead but the crap show created by these clowns is hilarious. In so many ways.
Robert Reich just posted “where else would consumers go to post short messages that can reach millions…?” Of course he is concerned about short messages in particular; he is 4 feet tall.
Melissa: Reich and Greg Gutfeld look like brothers from another mother. Of course, given special group genetics, they likely are actual cousins.
Twitter exists to sell advertising to corporate customers – that’s the business model and the raison d’etre. Zman absolutely nails the conservative begging/simping dynamic – most of these grifting jokers would crawl over broken glass to get a blue checkmark. But we have to acknowledge that Twitter’s corporate ad clients want a “curated” environment in which to hawk their wares. The left/right dynamic is tangential to this main event.
So it’s impossible to separate the “free speech” stuff from the business model issues at Twitter. Musk will learn this the hard way. He sells cars (and dreams), not advertising. It’s a different business. In the final analysis, the advertisers will dictate what Twitter will become. “And now, a word from our sponsor….”
One rumor over at ZH was that Musk was buying Twitter to make sure his personal plugging of Tesla remained open on the platform as that is pretty much the only advertising avenue for the company. The extreme dollar math of the acquisition actually makes some sense if that’s the case.
Possibly, though I would note how many money losing newspapers and news channels there are out there (most of them). At some point, making money was no longer the game, and influencing public opinion took over. You think Bezos cares if the Washington Post ever makes a profit?
Musk will never, ever be allowed to make Twitter a “free speech” platform.
The drumbeats to repeal Section 230 protections for Twitter are already being sounded.
The left understands power; they are not afraid to reward their friends, and punish their enemies. Government applauded when even buffoonish men like Trump or satirical sites like Babylon Bee were banned, because they didn’t tow the line.
The urge to destroy Twitter by declaring it a “mature” technology and destroying it’s viability by making it a “publisher” will be irresistible.
(Elon must know this, which make’s me curious as to why he’s even bothering with it)
Mr. Musk personally is worth more than Toyota, Ford, GM and Fiat combined. Aside from billions in wildly inflated Tesla stock, he has billions in cash. Like Trump running for President, the man has everything he could possibly want.
I see Musk more like The Joker character in the Batman movie, where the villain takes a giant pile of money and burns it all. He burns it all because he can. Musk is doing what he wants because he can.
Musk has gotten rich selling the Cloud its own gaslit fantasies.
That says something complicated about how the world really works, but this Dirtsider is smelling an IPO or options play in the works.
He’s happily taking their money, and they’re happily giving it to him, as delighted as a Baptist church with scandal.
This is a Cloud soap opera, Hollywood celebrity news, as Shakespearean a play as “A Johnny in Amber.”
“This is a Cloud soap opera”
Great description.
Interesting conjecture. I say let them revise the law. Then they will have to show how it’d only apply to Twitter and none of the other similar, if not identical services. The equal protection of the law still applies. Sometimes.
Its going to be used to push out biometric online digital identities and even the libertarian FedCoin. Start up that social credit system for the new MAGA web.
What Griller could resist their new checkmark identity on the Musk Freespeech Twatter and the currency tie in with Musk that FB failed to get traction with?
They are just using Musk as the proxy to start pushing this out for the normies jumping on the Musk bandwagon.
Huxley was right.
I see all the surviving blue check conservatives are asking for reinstatement of their friends like Ann Coulter with Gavin McInnes. Trump says he’s not going back so you know he will. Really nothing for me there then again I’m no influencer.
As far as what so called conservatives really stand for and just clap like seals for the latest indignities this is from Good Morning America 2018. Making rounds now.
https://twitter.com/michael20224/status/1518281119224922112?s=21&t=OZrd2vZn16bsMkNwyqqsZg
Alex Berenson, the former NY Times reporter who was banned from Twitter for his accurate claims about the Covid vaccine being ineffective, is lobbying Musk to reinstate him on his Substack page. I wonder how many people will get reinstated. I doubt it will be more than a few high profile ones.
Well, there’s something you don’t see every day: a black guy wearing denim jeans.
Is it an omen of some kind? A coded message?
I gave up trying to second-guess changes in social norms when I saw Blacks riding skateboards and driving pick up trucks (the “lifestyle” kind, not the “work” kind.) 😀
And the old alt-lite will rise again, probably. But they were always best at grifting and being a gateway to the real dissident right. This is not the worst thing in the world.
Words fail me. May Walt rise from the grave in full Nazi regalia and begin the slaying with a lightning sword of righteous wrath.
I mean, could any propaganda be packed more chock full of Progressive family values than that one?
I … I just can’t. I started to write what I really feel about those people and what they deserve and realized it would be unwise.
Twitter has transformed into State sponsored social media. There is no truth on Twitter.
Twitter and the Biden Administration are pushing/funding the Ukraine Russia war.
Russia may now take all of Ukraine Here https://abrahamstein.substack.com/p/the-usa-just-gave-russia-an-excuse?s=w
Uncle Loyd and Blankin’ barely missed being blown to bits, if the reports are anywhere near true. Russia apparently demolished the transport hubs the two used after they departed. Again, if true, this indicates the Russkies have intelligence inside the American DOD/Security State and sent the two grifting maggots a message.
Oh, for the days when the United States could at least pretend to be neutral as it peddled arms to one or both sides of a conflict. Or even “peddled” arms rather than run a Ponzi scheme that enriches the MIC, and, of course, its whores.
Is it really just peddling the arms when you create the need for them?
If someone hacks a hole in my roof and then tries to sell me roof repair services is it really appropriate to say he’s peddling shingles?
Cynically provoking a war happens to be the best way to peddle arms, quite often to both sides. The golden moment in the current provocation was when Uncle Loyd and Company met with Raytheon, Boeing and all the other usual suspects to discuss what arms would need to be produced to satisfy demand. No doubt the subsidiaries based out of Beijing will meet with Putin to discuss what he needs.
Twisted logic has its place. Like the old “Arkansas Traveler” song where the visitor asks the farmer why he doesn’t mend his roof. The farmer, an eminently practical man, notes that he can’t fix the roof today, because it’s raining. And when it’s not raining, it’s as s good as any man’s roof. 🙂
Russia has to, otherwise a rump Ukraine will just be a completely US-controlled satrapy that will be flooded with endless amounts of weapons and mercs.
The problem is that gives them a border with Poland, a historical rival and significant NATO country. Romania also becomes a new, significant thorn.
Anyway, I’m having a hard time seeing how this doesn’t go nuclear. The West keeps popping off about nukes every 5 seconds, and Putin has finally realized no one in the West will negotiate in good faith. On top of that, there are plenty of hardliners in Russia who think Kiev should have been nuked a month ago.
On the other hand, free canned sunshine sounds like a lot more fun than the Bolshevik technocrat plan to convert the Earth into a planetary beehive for humanity. That’s actually an insult to bees, since the average drone has more freedom and a better quality of life than what they have planned for us.
I’ve worked with 20+ year retired Air Force officers who’ve confirmed what the Derb has speculated on : no one knows if the US nuclear inventory even works after the nearly 30 year ban on testing.
Interestingly: to a man say that Russia and China routinely test their inventory.
Makes you think.
I can’t claim an Air Force officer’s experience, but I was in the military and worked with their electronics. At least until the 1980s, stuff built for military specification (MIL-SPEC) which generally means very high quality, reliability and (of course) expensive. We routinely used equipment that was 30, even 40 years old. And I’m talking about major commands, not some little podunk site out in the boonies. Electronic goods (no moving parts) often still in operation, continuously or nearly so. Even existing on a shelf as spare parts for as long merits bragging rights.
Nukes were probably made to even tighter quality standards. For better or worse, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that they’ve been maintained up to the present. But perhaps not test fired. I would hazard most of them would be fully functional.
I have a Gab account, there are a ton of deranged lunatics on it. The difference is they don’t have any power to censor others on the platform and are a different stripe of lunatic than the ones on Twitter.
I have blocked thousands of accounts on Gab. I only follow people who are funny or interesting. That makes Gab a nice little hobby for me. I support it for ideological reasons.
I’ve noticed but you have severely hampered Torba’s servers with all your banishments to the mute motel.
I’m told there is a server farm for the mute motel now.
I have always wondered at the “right’s” (for convenience) obsession about “engaging” with the Left. I was a fairly early adopter of social media (for boring career reasons) and it was a real eye-opener. I was as bad as the worst Normie at first: Oh, you wanna talk politics, Lefty? I’m going to turn you into hamburger with my facts and logic…
But even when I “won” those “arguments,” I lost. Make that especially when I won. Because I quickly realized that the dynamic isn’t win / loss, it’s ingroup / outgroup. On social media, as in life, the Left’s standard tactic when they’re losing on facts and reason (and when are they not?) is to go shrieking hysterical damsel in distress. Yes yes, you may have your facts and reason, but you’re such a big meanie!
Even — especially — the ones who agreed with me on facts and reason were firmly in Lefty’s camp by the end of the day, because c’mon man, can’t we all get along? Can’t you see how traumatic this is for poor Snowflake?
The only thing that works in a social media “argument” is what the PUAs call “amused mastery.” The Leftist pretty obviously has lines xzhey need you to say in order to unleash their little canned “Oh woe is me!” spiel… so come right up to the verge of giving it to them, then yank it away with a classic Trumpian smirk. You know, and they know, and they know you know, and you know they know you know, and that’s what you have to keep jabbing at.
It’s exhausting, and it’s ultimately pointless. The only thing useful the Dissident can do on social media is inject triggering yet plausibly deniable memes into their ecosystem and watch them freak out. Otherwise it’s just masturbation. I never could figure out why “our” people are compelled to do it, even though I did it myself.
Sorry Severian but you’re no Rob Reiner.
When you look at what happened in the pre-social media days on forums as decrepit as AOL message boards, now-defunct on line newspaper comment sections, and so forth, the Left masterfully developed digital banning and censorship skills in very short order. The template was there, so social media was low-hanging fruit for them, and soon enough the national security state joined hands with the Left and it was game, set, match. This followed the pattern of Left/State-controlled and censored media starting with radio and eventually broadcast and cable television. The only exception that springs to mind was late era conservatard talk radio, largely confined to AM, which was largely an echo chamber.
Memes may be worth it, but I’m not even ready to concede that point.
Severian: As I believe Wild Geese noted the other day, for all his ‘quirks’ Vox Day has been spot on regarding rhetoric versus dialectic. He’s also correct that most people are idiots. Combine the two, and you have the picture of America Zman has brilliantly sketched.
(Slow gears a’grinin’?
Yeah. But I just found out how to access Severian’s blog: just touch his highlit name, and voila! Blog magic.
For Sev’s Onlyfans, we who are a-pinin’ away with forlorn yearning.)
Jeez
a-grindin’
My Hillbilly is a bit rusty
Thanks for the definition. It describes what I occasionally do, say, at the FT, a leftist hive if there ever was one. I have a free account and I’ve at times left some saucy comments. I’m come near the edge a few times, too. I’m quite amazed I’ve not been banned. FT seems to allow comments but closes them after a certain number have accumulated. As with many sites that still allow commenting, the reader’s remarks often make better reading than the insipid articles they appear under. I think that legacy sites like FT, desperate as they usually are to keep any readership, grudgingly allow some dissenting commentary, as long as it perhaps doesn’t descend into overt Neo-Nazism, Rare Realism, and sundry other Unpardonable Sins Whose Names Must Not Even Be Whispered. 😀
“Twitter will go from a woke site to a woke site full of conservatives begging the woke for acceptance.”
Brilliant and spot on. The only thing more retarded than a conservative bitching about Twitter is a conservative who uses Twitter, and usually they are one and the same. There is little doubt Twitter was and probably still is an arm of the national security state. Will Musk fire each and every employee who acted as an informant or outright agent of the American KGB? Of course not, so welcome to the Trump presidency, Mr. Musk. The calls are coming from inside the house.
Correction: the Tweets are coming from inside the house.
Unrelated: when you publish your book, Z, will it also be sold on your grift page? I hate, hate, hate putting a dime into Bezos’ pocket.
The dream is to have a new site by then with my own shop to sell my stuff and handle paywall material. Plugging away at all of these projects, but it feels like trench warfare at times.
A potential big seller, and also greatly appreciated, would be
1) a slim outline, leading to
2) a blog based course (that is, with subscriber comments input)
on the practicals of building your own site, comment section, videos, podcasts, own server and software, etc.
An outline of equipment and costs, to begin.
Definitely worth paying for. I’m hoping you kept notes and reciepts in your usual disciplined, businesslike manner.
I also have a special request of Citizen Silly to give us “Understanding Financials, Forex, and Trading for Dummies,” or products such as:
Junger’s rundown on Wiemar,
BTP’s short History of Eastern Europe,
Geese’s take on How the MIC Sausage Is Made,
3g’s State & Foreign Affairs Sausage,
and Links to Off-Grid Buildings and Food Preservation,
Layabout’s Tour of Latin America,
Severian and Compsci’s Understanding University Finance,
and Practical Community College / Uncredited Education Alternatives,
Vizzini’s Guide for Selling Your Meat (Animals),
And Practical Rental Properties,
Anyone on Hospital and Insurance Finance,
Aggregator sites for prepping, arming, investigative politics and stats, practical local political organizing,
e-entrepreneurship,
Etc. Etc
Oops! and, most importantly, How To Organize, by the Zman’s scattered network of confidants.
In short, I’d like to see the powerhouse of Z Publishing, putting out practical guides by the dissident community.
Enough polemics.
How ’bout alternative economy, because experience and saving time is well worth paying for.
I have my own strange interest that I’d like to explore and bring to a site or channel, but lordy am I behind.
And now we have all this prepping and rescuing and building latifundia getting in the way.
My elderly mother was curious of what I thought about the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk. I replied with a shrug.
I don’t like Elon Musk because he’s an odious degenerate and rent seeker who’s helped kick into overdrive the push by our overlords to eliminate personal transportation by forcing the proles to buy EVs that aren’t worth a tinker’s cuss as transportation devices and cost 30% to 50% more than a normal car with a gasoline or diesel engine. His car company wouldn’t exist if not for government largesse and regulation forcing existing automakers to pay his firm in carbon credits.
Twitter won’t change one iota. It’s still a place filled with left-wing loons who hate our guts and wish us dead. I’m not going there and I suspect most people on our side of the great divide won’t either.
dr_mantis_toboggan-md: Very well said.
Deja Vu. Just now had the discussion with wife before she left for lunch with the girls. She’s all enamored with Musk based on Twitter news. I don’t really get into much of these things with her, but could not help a bit of a lecture—almost identical to Z-man today—on the need we have for hero’s and in essence the desire for “saviors” in trouble times, like DeSantos, Trump, Musk. All failed individuals in many ways—morally and ethically. In short, I told her not to get he hopes up too much.
Selling “Z” shirts, clearly a Putin-puppet.
Putin is fine.
It’s the alliance with the “libertarians” (Honka-honka) that I find most concerning.
Going to have to look for coded eyelid level Morse code messages in the missives now to make sure Zman hasn’t been captured.
Not to worry!
The Zman is about to realize his greatest ambition…
To conquer the libertarians, and make them his slaves!
Like Lenin and the Mensheviks, he is.
Vis-a-vis the merch……an obvious catchphrase [someone else can come up with the visual] is:
“Putting that aside”
Conspicuous by its absence is a monikered “Z Club” for the post-revolution holiday when libertarians will be beaten. They’ll know why.
Someone else suggested, “I mean, it truly is remarkable.” I do say that a lot. I’m thinking “Z your mind” with Morpheus in the background.
I love “Z your mind.” That’s awesome.
Have you considered getting a cruise together? People on this side love to go on cruises, I’ve heard…
try and work a miniature guillotine in as part f your logo.
“try and work a miniature guillotine in as part f your logo.”
And an upside-down Ukrainian flag.
That raises an interesting question: if you burned a Uke flag in public–a real one unattached to a social media account–would a single Prog or cuck realize what it was to feign outrage?
Bringing about the only red wave that will truly change things.
A coffee mug or t-shirt with Z on one side and “This will not end well” or something like that, on the back.
I endorse this.