The End Times

Note: The Monday Taki post is up. Not entirely related to this post. The Covid stuff does tie into the new religion. Sunday Thoughts is up behind the green door. There is the SubscribeStar version and the Substack version.


Many commenters have noted that American political discourse is much coarser and nastier today than it was a generation ago. The change can be dated to the arrival of the Clintons on the national stage in the 1990’s. They brought with them a crudeness that has become the norm in national politics. The great interregnum that lasted from the 1980’s into the 1990’s was replaced with an ugly and vulgar brand of politics that eventually led to the nasty and censorious present.

The question that never gets asked is why has public discourse become so nasty and unforgiving over the last three decades? The time for intolerance was the Cold War when mistakes could mean nuclear war with Russia. Instead, it was a time of relative tolerance compared to the present. Technological and material advances have made the margin for error extremely broad, yet the people seeking to shape public discourse carry on like one misused pronoun will end the world.

There can be no denying that the nastiness and intolerance is coming from the people we call the Left. The so-called conservatives continue to carry on like they are at high tea with the queen. The censorship, cancel culture and the harassment of dissenters all comes from the tribes of the Left. They are the ones trying to ruin people for explicitly stating obvious truths that suddenly run contrary to official dogma. The mobs threatening social order are all left-wing.

The funny thing is, the Left should be riding high, given that they control all of the high ground of American society. If the new fad on the Left is for “birthing people” to wear flowerpots on their heads, every news anchor will either have the flowerpot on her head or state in advance that they are not a person of uterus so they are respecting the culture of the birthing people. The Left has never had more power in American society, yet they have never been angrier.

One reason for the nastiness is left-wing politics has always attracted people who are full of self-loathing and have a resentment toward normal society. This was true in the French Revolution and it is true today. The conformity and identity provided by the hive mentality of radical politics is the appeal. Radical politics is by definition anti-social, so it attracts anti-social people. The phrase “happy go-lucky communist” is not a staple of our language for a reason.

Of course, the cult-like atmosphere of radical politics limits the ways in which a member can get attention. To get noticed by senior members of the hive means being more extreme than the rest of the hive. Without a limiting principle, virtue signaling quickly becomes a race to the most extreme position. This is how we quickly went from finding a legal accommodation to cohabitating homosexuals to a world where the Left demands that child molesters in drag have unlimited access to grammar schools.

Then there is the fact that people into left-wing politics tend to live in isolation from normal people. They may interact with normals at work or in daily life, but their political activity is exclusively around fellow believers. These ideas arise in a world insulated from the daily realty of normal society. The people operating like spiritual masters inside these movements are never challenged or questioned. They are never exposed to scrutiny or forced to defend their positions.

Someone like Robin DiAngelo is never going to sit down for a tough interview by a knowledgeable critic of her ideas. All of the thought leaders and influencers on the Left are like stage psychics in that they only ever allow themselves to be tested under conditions that allow for success. This serves to promote their brand, to use a marketing term, but it also legitimizes their ideas to their followers. DiAngelo always sounds authoritative, which serves to give authority to her ideas.

The counter here is that people on the Right do the same thing but the big difference is the institutions are run by the Left. A normal person cannot go about their life without running into left-wing assertions. Watch a TV show and it is full of propaganda about the latest causes. Ads are mostly for cultural ideas, rather than products. The workplace is littered with warning signs about offending the believers. There is no escaping the cult of progressive beliefs.

People on the Left can avoid almost all counter-programming. Normal people are naturally polite and non-confrontational. As soon as they learn that Sarah from accounting is a woke believer, word goes forth to avoid talking current events with Sarah or her friends. On the other hand, if a normal person dead names Barbara, formerly known as Robert, Sarah and her coevals will be all over the poor guy, demanding he be hurled into the void for intolerance.

This tendency toward politeness has the perverse effect of providing social proof to the people in these subcultures. The guy getting thrown into the void must deserve his fate as no one defends him, thus his crime is validated. On the other hand, the lack of pushback from the people around them, plus the intense loyalty of the people inside the subculture, is daily confirmation. There is no social cost to holding extreme ideas so the incentives to holding them are unchecked.

Compounding this is a poverty of information inside these movements. Since the leaders are never exposed to scrutiny, their ideas are never tested. In an environment of conformity, showing any doubt about the ideas risks a loss of status inside the group, so no one dares question anything. In the rare occasion when the members confront someone who directly challenges their belief, it is as if the person is questioning the very nature of reality. There must be something wrong with them.

This leads to the sort of performative confrontation we saw in the Senate between Josh Hawley and Berkeley Law Professor Khiara Bridges. To normal people, the professor came of as obnoxious and unbalanced. To the people in the subculture, she heroically defended the one true faith against the violent attacks of a bigot. In other words, their brief confrontations with reality are quickly turned into confirmation. The normal feedback loop is warped by their general isolation.

All of this explains the increasing weirdness of the Left and the intensity of belief, but it does not explain the nastiness. Fifty years ago, progressives were just as committed to their agenda as they are today, but back then they were prepared to debate anyone in public on their issues. Today, the Left is trying hard to purge anyone from the public square who is not enthusiastic for their cause. Fifty years ago, the Left said you had to be open minded. Today, an open mind is violence.

The most likely reason for this is the focus of belief has shifted from the material world to the spiritual realm. In the 1980’s, lefty was all about economics. Progressivism was a material cause, not a cultural one. Today, the Left does not care about economics or the material wellbeing of people. In fact, they seem to think the material wellbeing of people is a danger to their cause. The evolving assault on food production in the name of Gaia is looking like the actions of a suicide cult.

There is the key to the nastiness. Radical politics has always had a religious vibe because ideology is a secular replacement for religion. Instead of God providing authority to the beliefs, it is the will of the people or the tides of history. Until this age, ideology was rooted in the material world. The door through which mankind would enter paradise was economic relations. Today, the door is cultural relations. Once all cultural barriers are removed, everyone is free to fulfill their potential.

The old ideology of the Left had a tangible vision. They thought that in the future, a man would be able to fish in the morning, hunt in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening and do critical theory at night. He would be free to live as he chose because his material wellbeing would be secure. The new religion offers an image of the present like a haunted house, in which the monsters are normal people. How can you be a happy warrior when you imagine yourself surrounded by spiritual enemies?

What we may be seeing is the end of ideology. Ideology is a new thing in human history, which means it has a beginning and therefore an end. This great replacement for religion as the set of shared societal beliefs may be in an end phase. The reason it is so nasty and violent is the same reason a trapped animal is nasty and violent. Suicide cults choose death over disbelief. This last ideology is looking to destroy this fallen world rather than give up their beliefs.


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trackback
2 years ago

[…] ZMan is apparently waiting for the rapture. […]

miforest
Member
2 years ago

here is a video that explains what they want with this nastiness. https://vladtepesblog.com/2022/07/24/computing-forever-throwing-the-kitchen-sink-at-us-now/

Juan
Juan
2 years ago

Nah it’s all about the quest for power, cynicism, and psychopathy. At least for the handlers. The mob is always dumb, irrational, stupid.

krustykurmudgeon
krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

as someone who sort of is politically bipolar – I can tell you that a lot of it is a search for a big bad guy. As I’ve said a few times this last month – everyone has an imaginary composite of a villain. To me it was a cross between Christopher Plummer in the sound of music and Marmalard/Niedermeyer in Animal House. I do kind of wonder if there is a part of me that wants there to be a villain. Like there have been times where I keep thinking “maybe conservatives are actually more tolerant/understanding than liberals”. But… Read more »

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Z, this was a brilliant piece today. It’s amazing how perfectly you articulate the description of the leftist cult. It hits home for me because I know some leftists and you could not be more on point in how you describe them. My buddy’s wife once told me and a friend of mine that she was willing to finally concede that masks do not prevent the spread of Covid, but we should wear one anyway. I am not making this up. Even more alarming was the conviction with which she said it. These people are sick, I do not want… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

The problem is that most people have a limited ability to think independently and want to conform to those they believe are good. This is why I think control of the media is everything. The media determines which issues are significant and what causes are virtuous. Most people are programmed by the media. Even a majority of Republicans support homo marriage because of the decades long media barrage. If we want to win, we must control the media. There are simply no other options (except societal collapse). I highly value free speech, but in this world there is no neutrality.… Read more »

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Your buddy’s wife is not sick.

She is dangerously stupid.

Avoid her at all costs.

People like that don’t realize when they are destroying other people’s lives.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

Z

WRT the Taki post.

I don’t think Western leadership panicked.

I think they saw an opening to further their agenda, and make some nice chedda via being in bed with Big Pharma in the process.

That’s called a win/win!

It really is that simple.

Oh, and they could get a jump in whittling down that pesky world population via the Jab.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 years ago

This is so yummy an example, I’ve got to paste a Clusterf*ck comment here:

Call: “You MUST believe that a man can get pregnant or it is off to the streets for you.
Those are the people providing 100% of your media.”

Raise: “And then, as a “pregnant person,” has a right to abortion, to preserve bodily autonomy.”

Gman
Gman
Member
2 years ago

And….this is is why I read every essay by Z. It clicks into focus what you know and sense instinctually but can’t always quite frame and dial in. If I had had this resource while in all those humanities and theory grad school seminars back in the 90s it would have made things even more hilarious and understandable. I didn’t buy into the wackiness then, and don’t now, but back then there were almost no such clarifying resources. No dissident internet sites of course, and not much in print beyond Paige Smith’s magisterial ‘Killing the Spirit.’ There we’re just a… Read more »

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Gman
2 years ago

This ^^^. Exactly right. I always had a hard time finding the proper language to depict my views of leftism. I found it here with Z and many commenters.

Gman
Gman
Member
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Clarity of ideas is generally unmatched here, in the essays and many of the comments—and I read *all* of them but rarely comment myself. I rarely feel I have much if significance to add, and plenty to learn. No other site has such thoughtful commenter-expansion on the presented topic, without rapidly degenerating into stupid tomfoolery, thuggish ambiguity, muddled ideas, and name calling. I work hard to wrangle my undergrads and grad students every single class to work through ideas with the level of clarity I find here. There are some amazing kids but their ability to think and speak well… Read more »

Willy
Willy
Reply to  Gman
2 years ago

Z had a similar effect on me. A few years ago my wife (our politics are similar) and I watched the news and I became enraged at a segment “41% of ASIO budget spent combating White supremacy “, ASIO is Australia Secret Intelligence. This segment was so contrived and biased I couldn’t find the words to describe the sheer nonsense. Even to my wife I could only ramble. Maybe ASIO do allocate that much of their budget to combating White supremacists. Later that week on Zs podcast Power Hour (he also did an essay), he read the written article that… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Willy
2 years ago

I remember the segment you’re talking about, where he read the story but replaced “white supremacists” with “leprechauns”. It was obvious from the first instance what leprechauns was supposed to represent, which made it even more devastating. There’s simply no nuance to what the Cloud People try to pull off.

usNthem
usNthem
2 years ago

I swear, my loathing for these leftards and their ideology is getting real close to knowing no bounds. It’s also getting easier to ponder the way others dealt with their opponents – think Afghan, Apache, Comanche etc….

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

Feel exactly the same way. I keep coming back to Z saying how they must be “removed”.

trackback
2 years ago

[…] The End Times […]

B125
B125
2 years ago

The “left” controls just about every institution now. The color revolution, stolen election & coup in 2020 cemented it. What’s changing is that normal people are starting to just tune out and ignore them. People are learning not to engage & “debate” with leftists arguing in bad faith. Normal people are just doing normal things and cutting them out. This seems to drive them insane. COVID was an enormous loss for the “left”. I have no idea why they wasted so much social capital to push their BS vaccine and flu hysteria. I myself was open to the “2 week”… Read more »

B125
B125
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

Fall 2020* , not 2021

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

My GloboBank came out with a new memo last week, “Remember when we said you had to be jabbed and boosted in order to work here? Just kidding: never mind.”

Gman
Gman
Member
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

Yes—the covidian cult cost a lot of social capital for the Left. It’s already entering a surprising death-spiral here in LA. A LOT of locals, including normies, grillers, civnats, and even some liberals, have had the big red pill shoved down their throats…they don’t really quite understand yet, but they feel perhaps they’ve been bent over and violated. Sans-lube.

J. Burns
J. Burns
2 years ago

Why is the left so angry? One insight may come from Epictetus – “Our hatred of being deceived, our inability to accept as true what we clearly see to be false, is the most basic fact about human beings and the most promising.” Believing falsehoods and chasing utopian goals that will never be achieved will cause disquiet in the soul. A life of 24/7 outrage, looking for micro-aggressions, denouncing your own race as being irredeemably racist (but nobody else), supporting the latest “thing” has to be mentally destabilizing and draining – hence the anger. The Epictetus quote could explain why… Read more »

Winter
Winter
Reply to  J. Burns
2 years ago

“If one believes the current Republican party is useless, what challenges and replaces leftist progressivism? A traditional religious revival, nationalism, traditional American pragmatism?”

Lack-of-Food-and-Gassism?

I’m only half-joking. It may take real suffering before regular Americans embrace any of the other “isms” out there, except perhaps accelerationism.

David Wright
Member
Reply to  J. Burns
2 years ago

It will only end when it has to end. When that will be I don’t know, but the mother of all backlashes has to happen.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  J. Burns
2 years ago

What replaces it is dual occupation by Russia and China leading the BRIC Axis. Euros and Americans will splinter into groups trying to get the best deal.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

PS- somewhere, in an alternate universe, the Man In The High Castle is laughing.

orsotoro2011
orsotoro2011
Reply to  J. Burns
2 years ago

if the gathering stormclouds are to be believed, either / both tribalism and survivalism.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
2 years ago

The difference between Leftist political temperament in 1972 compared to 2022, stems from an ideological shift within the Left and altered power relations between the Left and everybody else. In 1972 old fashioned mainline liberals still ruled the Leftist roost. Sure, they could be nasty, too, but Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey were not of the same stuff as Fritz Schumer and Eric Swalwell. Those comparatively reasonable and normal liberals have been, over the past half century, purged and replaced by New Leftists, the bloody-eyed wack-jobs of the counterculture. These people were baleful lunatics in 1968 and they still are.… Read more »

Winter
Winter
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 years ago

Great point. And in the meantime, the Right has been purging anyone with real courage of their convictions. So now we’ve got squishy conservatives facing off against rabid leftists.

The contrast is pretty striking. The establishment Left empowers their lunatics while the establishment Right boots anyone with an actual right-leaning opinion.

And consider how each side treats their protestors and dissidents. The Left defends and bails theirs out no matter how odious their crimes. The Right disavows and leaves their protestors to rot even if their only “crime” is walking through open doors.

Is it any wonder we’re losing ground?

Member
Reply to  Winter
2 years ago

Hey, are you casting shade on great men like David French, Kevin Williamson, Jonah Goldberg, Max Boot and John Podhoretz?

Winter
Winter
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

Indeed. My personal favorite is Bill Kristol, because nothing says, “I’m fighting for you” like suggesting heritage Americans are lazy and deserve to be replaced.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Winter
2 years ago

We aren’t losing ground. Leftism is increasingly unpopular for the precise reason that it never disavows any odious leftist. The lack of standards, in the extreme, is a huge turn-off to normal people.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Uh huh. And what are normal people doing about it?

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Winter
2 years ago

Exactly. To this day, the Weathermen and the Black Panthers, bona fide murderous terrorists rather than a ragtag band of protesters like the Jan. 6 bunch, are heroes to the Left. And yet that sorry-ass Trump has basically disavowed the very people who went to the mat for him and now languish in AINO’s dungeons. As much as I abominate the Left, I have perhaps even more contempt for the so-called “Right.”

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 years ago

Wear your mask. Take the jab.

If you don’t want to, it is your choice.

Your choice to lose your job, your pension, freely travel, not buy food, ability to get a new job…

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 years ago

Ostei: “The monsters are in charge and they are unopposed”.
Barring a cataclysm such as an earthquake @ 9 on the Richter scale, a famine of Biblical scale, or the like – these monsters will continue to hunt for fresh prey to stuff in its’ maw.
Before any cataclysmic event destroys both hunter and prey – perhaps the prey will choose the fight option vs the current choices of freeze and flight.
Here in AINO, the fight option does not appear to be just over the next hill.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 years ago

Well said, but the question has to be asked “are there any actual conservatives left in DC..”? Not more than a handful I would wager, so we are left relying on a handful of traditional Justices on the Court to protect our rights…a fragile situation to be sure….

Member
Reply to  pyrrhus
2 years ago

Conservatives have been a disaster. We don’t need “actual conservatives.” There’s nothing left to conserve. We need revolutionaries.

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
2 years ago

When the next chapter of your eco-religion is a war on fertilizer, you know that you’re hitting a wall. Sadly, the world will have to go through a period of tremendous want, with very expensive food and energy to get rid of this anti-human cult. Due to misappropriated investment flows, new energy investment never happened. There’s now about a $1Trillion hole, worldwide, in new energy outlays that will take a decade to repair. The $10 gas will be like the toddler touching the hot pan and beginning to cry. Even worse, this will be a collective punishment. Let’s hope that… Read more »

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

A high priest / shaman of the eco-religion – former VP Al Gore (peace be on him) – has compared climate “deniers” to the Uvalde police officers who failed to stop a shooter.
Climate denier sinners repent!

Drew
Drew
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

The war on fertilizer isn’t as unreasonable as it seems industrial monocropping tends to deplete soil fertility fairly quickly, so synthetic fertilizers enable bad crop management. One of the biggest issues with fertilizers is the runoff and it’s consequent effect on water supply and local ecosystems, which is hugely negative. Of course, the main driver of modern agricultural practices is federal subsidies, but frankly it’s not illogical or even unreasonable to say that modern agricultural practices are destructive and unsustainable. Conversely, if agriculture were more focused on sustainability, there would of necessity be more people working in fields and fewer… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Yes, Drew, you do raise valid issues, but the way in which to address them is not for a “cold turkey” approach. Big Ag has way too much sway over addressing sustainability, and that is a significant problem. The “straight to ethanol” lobby is a subset of this. Back in the Dust Bowl days, problems were addressed through better plowing practices and such. Those had a substantial impact in ameliorating the losses of topsoil. But when your government policies are mere artifacts of monied peessure groups’ institutional capture of the setting of policies, as today, turning the ocean liner around… Read more »

Drew
Drew
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

I don’t support a cold turkey approach at all. I’d prefer to see an end to all subsidies, and ban or sharp reduction of exports, and a ban on depletive irrigation first. I suspect that, say, making it impossible to grow fodder crops for the Saudis in the American SW would be tremendously helpful, as would be reducing the incentive for growing so much corn. Anyhow, my point was more geared to the anti-leftist sort who’s knee jerk reaction to any leftist policy is to go in the opposite direction without once considering whether there is any merit to it,… Read more »

Horace
Horace
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

The attempts to reduce agricultural output in the West are certainly in part directed at reducing population growth in the 3rd world. (they didn’t fail the trust test and hence did not take the ~vax) However, utterly unsurprisingly the rulers decided to do it in such a way that local costs would be borne by the little people, not themselves.

Gunner Q
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Wildlife management is the same way. There are legit reasons to reintroduce wolves, for example, and it can be done without causing damage to livestock herds, but neither the industrial-scale ranchers nor the eco-nuts want to hear about it. One side has a money machine running and the other side is possessed by a vision of utopia. Neither is concerned with delayed consequences.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

And the solution is paramagnetic rock dust and azomite mineral powder (pulverized montmorillonite clay).

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Equally important is Big Agriculture’s war on heritage crops. This battle was lost long ago in the USA, but currently they’re waging war on third world nations. Now the “Green Revolution” (remember that term from decades ago) did in fact vastly improve crop yields and feed the hungry. What critical aspect is never mentioned in that happy faced message? Simple: those increased yields (usually) require hybrid seeds whose seeds are unsuitable for future plantings, as well as copious amounts of synthetic pesticide and fertilizer, also produced by the First World. Drew’s points are all well made. And I’m no latter-day… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
2 years ago

” All of the thought leaders and influencers on the Left are like stage psychics in that they only ever allow themselves to be tested under conditions that allow for success.” True, but doesn’t this indicate that at some level they realize there are holes in their arguments that can be readily exploited? It certainly is the reason stage psychics control the testing. This is excellent, Z. To add what little I can, the Left’s echo chamber has paved the way for it to become violent, because any response it takes is justified in its mind. Yet, as I noted… Read more »

Hyperborean Pioneer
Hyperborean Pioneer
2 years ago

In conversation with progressives, I’m going to start arguing that elementary school sex-ed classes should include groomers leading students on guided masturbations sessions—see if they have the courage of their convictions.

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  Hyperborean Pioneer
2 years ago

Little early for that, HP. Give it time. Who would have thought we would be where we are today, even 10 years ago?

Part of the graduation requirement will be to perform adequately in a circle jerk.

KGB
KGB
2 years ago

Unmentioned is the success the cultural left has had in embittering people during the course of their day to day activities. It’s as if the cloudies decided to make assholes of the broad populace in an effort to mask their own douchebaggery. You see this every time you walk through a Big Box store. How many people have scowls on their faces? How many are looking for the first reason to berate the staff or management? How many are wearing t-shirts with some sort of anti-social message, some version of “I’m not deaf, I’m just ignoring you!” or “Queen of… Read more »

Member
2 years ago

I wonder, if the US continues to push escalation of the war in Ukraine, will the American public act like it did under Wilson and dutifully ship its young men over to die in a pointless war that has little to do with us, or will the American people, finally, simply refuse to show up?

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

I think you are already seeing the result of the traditional sources of recruiting dry up in the pathetic (despite dropped standards) numbers. My own family has staffed every conflict since King Philip’s War and the concensus in the extended clan is “we’re out”. One of my own kids, who was a Navy recruiters masturbatory dream recruit for OCS as a reservist, quit the process after it was clear there was no place in the Navy for an un-woke white guy who happened to have degrees in both Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and was a great athlete. They are… Read more »

Horace
Horace
Reply to  SamlAdams
2 years ago

I was wearing a uniform 3 months after high school graduation. If I had to do it all over again, there is no way in hell I would. Benjamin Netanyahu said “America is a thing easily moved.” Alas, he was right and we have been moved so far towards Sodom and Gomorrah that “America has become a thing that needs to die, so that the American people have a chance to live.”

dr_mantis_toboggan_md
dr_mantis_toboggan_md
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

I retired a few years ago from the U.S. Air Force Reserve. I had a nice, cushy second job teaching new C-130 pilots how to fly the world’s greatest transport aircraft. I got paid by the taxpayers to fly, which is marvelous. And I gave it all up, as did many in my age cohort. I’d had enough. Getting emails about El Aid or Pride Month or whatever. The Soviet-like propaganda posters everywhere extolling the virtues of diversity and butt sex/scissor sex. Getting pressure from the higher-ups to make the pilot corps “more diverse” even though most of these diverse… Read more »

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
Reply to  dr_mantis_toboggan_md
2 years ago

He has two friends that graduated from the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M and another who is a USMC Lt. Basically the feedback from all three was they are exiting as soon as obligation is up. And I know these three kids well, they are exactly who you want “manning the wall”

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  SamlAdams
2 years ago

Colonel Jessup was completely correct.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

I was having a conversation with a guy while on line at the local bakery this past Saturday morning and he mentioned that he was an E-7 in the guard. Because of my choice of headgear (Woodland Camo BDU cap w/Jump wings sewn on the front), he asked if I was still in the service and I told him no. He then asked if I was wiling to “suit up” one more time for my country and I almost laughed out loud for a few reasons. Chief among them being that I told him that as a straight, white, Christian… Read more »

Member
2 years ago

From the Taki column: “The reason the politicians keep talking about potential revolts is the same reason Washington is obsessing over fictional insurrections. These are people who think they deserve a revolution.”

Nailed it.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
2 years ago

“One reason for the nastiness is left-wing politics has always attracted people who are full of self-loathing and have a resentment toward normal society.” I say lefty is more insightful but comes up with terrible solutions. This is why. The outsider can be more objective, but her self-loathing will always lead her to err. That’s what hatred does. Hence also cultishness, arising from a warped need to belong, and ultimately self-destruction. Righty enables by being weak, unable to say No, unable to stand up for himself. Revenge of the Nerds. Issue swirlies, flush the turds, things get better. Maybe of… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

I’m ready for a sequel to be called Revenge On The Nerds. I’ve just about had it with the glorification and promotion of neuroticism and anti-social behaviors. Until the Alpha Betas retake their rightful place at the apex of society, we’ll continue to spin our wheels.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

There’s never been a time where movies and TV shows have such rich material to use as now. Of course they won’t take advantage because of who controls the content.

But here and there, you see glimpses of what could be. The recent Beavis and Butthead cartoon segment on white privilege is funny. So is Jim Breuer’s recent standup comedy special on youtube “Somebody had to Say it,” which has a lot of views and is hilarious.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

“Angry black man”

That’s a redundant phrase.

They’re all angry.

It’s a cultural thang.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

Lots of mama’s boys. Ask a black guy about his mom, see if he doesn’t get emotional.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

https://youtu.be/Mb1ZvUDvLDY

Evidence not proof lol

mikey
mikey
2 years ago

Democracy is a secular religion that the US has been proselytizing world-wide for over 200 years. Just like the 17th century Catholic church, which also attempted to spread its dogma universally, in the most devout areas of democracy a reformation is taking place, for good or ill. The Constitution, a kind of Ten Commandments reinforced by thousands of pages of mostly ignored federal and state laws, is being rejected by the reformers. The “conservatives”, who uphold the current status quo, are in the same place as the popes and their faithful were when Savonarola and Luther came to the fore.… Read more »

Coalclinker
Coalclinker
2 years ago

Right now we’re seeing the stage being set up for the collapse and dissolution of the United States, not unlike what happened in the Soviet Union between 1985 to 1991. Then as now few saw the handwriting on the law. We’re right on the threshold of events that will set all of this into concrete. They’re staring us right in the face! They are in my opinion these 3 items: 1) The Democrat January 6 Show Trial will sic Mr. Garfinkle ((( Oops, I mean Garland!))) into action where Mr. Trump et al. are indicted for whatever. 2) There’s a… Read more »

David Wright
Member
Reply to  Coalclinker
2 years ago

Don’t worry , if these events come to happen as you predict Americans will finally rise up and resist at all costs just like the Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians did with the draconian police state tyranny during covid.

Oh wait.

Coalclinker
Coalclinker
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

If that murderous racket known as Soviet Communism, the one that slaughtered many tens of millions, collapsed with few shots being fired, then it can happen here. Once everyone loses all faith in the institutions, there’s no one left willing to fight or die for something no one believes in. And the lefties who are the nastiest are the cowards the Cloud People put up front for everyone to hear.. No one will willingly die for those bastards, especially if the money they pay buys little or nothing.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Coalclinker
2 years ago

“No one will willingly die for those bastards, especially if the money they pay buys little or nothing.”

When there is little to no product to buy with the money, and that seems the end game, it is worthless in another, more tangible way. This will go on until those behind it are ousted, and, yes, that will happen although the form of removal remains uncertain.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Many of the Davos types honestly seem to believe they can collapse existing fiat currencies and flip everyone into CBDC-based UBI schemes that are enforced by an electronic gulag.

I think they will do so much damage to the workforce and industrial capacity during that attempted transition that their system will implode.

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

Serfdom isn’t so bad as long as there are cricket protein brats to grill.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

If it comes to gun confiscation, American’s certainly won’t “revolt”, but it doesn’t mean comply, either.

Canada did this; banned certain types of firearms. Very, very few were actually turned in. It’ll be much the same in the US.

Ad it to the list of one of a thousand “extra charges” your government can throw at you if you capture the gaze of Sauron.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Coalclinker
2 years ago

Re: guns It’s nothing to worry about. As soon as the law is passed, a gun advocate will file suit in a friendly circuit, law will be ruled unconstitutional, it’ll be challenged all the way to the supreme court and be ruled unconstitutional there too. If that doesn’t happen, then a lot of fun owners will lose the offending guns in a variety of fish-shooting accidents, and won’t be able to turn their guns in since said guns will be at the bottom of a large body of water, which the enforcement officer will be undoubtedly welcome to jump into.… Read more »

mikey
mikey
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Firearms that look like flashlights, cell phones, battery-powered drills, etc. will be easily manufactured in people’s basement shops. There’ll never be a lack of defensive weapons.

SidVic
SidVic
2 years ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GrrjNTVH42M
Wanted to post this here. Tucker rips David French and Kristin very very hard. Still pissed about neff but…

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  SidVic
2 years ago

I plan on watching this later. Tucker didn’t do the “race is only about skin color” thing did he?

Member
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

He does the usual conservative thing about insisting that he is absolutely, in no way a racist, because being a racist is the worst thing ever and every conservative has to insist he’s not a racist before proceeding, because otherwise people might think he’s a racist. (Then, the left says anyway: Racist!)

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

The “pre” apology, “I’m not a racist” is a tell of sorts (for me anyway). It means a person who is not up for the real fight and not a supporter of his race (almost always, White). It tells me immediately to ignore him.

Member
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Oh, yes, he just did the skin color thing.

Member
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

Aaaand he decries “White identity politics.”

Member
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

And, oh, god, that hysterical girlie laugh.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

I HAVE A DREAM where Tucker finally says, “I did my best to denounce identity politics and push for a colorblind society, but now I’ve realized it’s clear that non-White groups aren’t interested, and in fact attack Whites, who aren’t allowed to respond under the same terms in which they’re being attacked.”

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

“A dream where my children will be judged by the content of their character and the color of their skin!”

SidVic
SidVic
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Yeah, but I think it’s sincere. The kid that interviews him knows the score and they came dangerously close to the JQ.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  SidVic
2 years ago

This may be true, but never apologize “pre” or “post” Leftist criticism/commentary. The apology gets you nowhere and simply emboldens your opposition—who, after all, made the accusation to simply discredit and silence you. True, experienced, DR folk know this.

Now one does not necessarily need to be fire brands in this regard. Sensitive subjects can be avoided to fit the situation and audience to get a salient point across. That’s often good strategy as ones audience often needs to be brought up to realization more slowly after a lifetime of indoctrination.

Member
Reply to  SidVic
2 years ago

Tucker, born with a silver spoon his mouth, gives young people the advice to “Go balls out” and take risks. Like he’d know anything about that.

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

Trouble is, if Carlson ever failed to properly cuck on Race whenever addressing the issue, Fox News would fire him in a nanosecond, regardless of how high his ratings are. That’s how hopeless the mainstream media are. And it’s why I won’t watch that clip. Carlson seems like one massive coping outlet for his audience. I have a cousin who very much shares our dissident views, yet still clings to Carlson as “one of our guys.” What can I do? My cousin has six kids and needs hope wherever he can find it.

Member
Reply to  Wkathman
2 years ago

So you’re saying he’ll never go “balls out.”

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

Who will never go “balls out” — Carlson or my cousin? Carlson’s too pampered to ever do something like that, as you suggested above. My cousin has too much to lose. Those who have a lot to protect tend to be extremely risk-averse. But you already know that, of course.

Member
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

I meant Carlson.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

Ambivalent about TC, but he’s had mobs banging on his home residence with his family inside.

That’s not nothing.

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

Undeniably true. However, that has much more to do with the insanity of those mobs than any genuine fierceness on Carlson’s part. I suppose we can give him credit for not going into hiding after those lunatics targeted his family. Still, we should couple any credit we give him with the understanding that he has a fat paycheck incentivizing him to remain in the public eye no matter what the personal danger to him or his kin. I too am largely ambivalent toward the man — except to the extent that he keeps potential dissidents in a state of false… Read more »

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Wkathman
2 years ago

I will say this—yes Tucker’s “race is just skin color” stance is nonsense—but he did go scorched earth on the “vaccines” a few nights ago.

He reported on a study from Lancet that shows the vax deteriorates the immune system, and said some other things about the dangerous side effects.

We’re not going to get everything we want from Tucker, but he does score some significant points at times.

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
Reply to  SidVic
2 years ago

Thanks for this. I can’t believe I heard Tucker say the f word, and ‘banged’ and other cuss words. It’s interesting that the host mentioned a certain demographic (couched as ‘middle aged men in Israel’) on the subject of onlyfans ‘pimping’ and Tucker didn’t recoil. I would have liked the kid to counter ‘why is white identity politics bad’, as Tucker seemed to have a problem with that specifically. Carlson seems to think that white advocacy is the death knell of the country, whereas many of us believe it’s the long overdue wakeup call that can save everything we hold… Read more »

AG7
AG7
2 years ago

This comes back to the differences in the way men and women approach conflict. Men confront conflict because they want to prove their ideas are right. Women avoid conflict because they want to believe nobody disagrees with them. The end result is that men seek truth while women seek consensus, almost as if the truth is beside the point. Among the Democrats you can see this dichotomy play out between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Bernie is obsessed with the idea that his economic agenda works best for everybody. By contrast, you can’t listen to an Elizabeth Warren person talk… Read more »

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
2 years ago

Passive aggressiveness is also a feature of the modern left. Almost every time I think of our left now days I am reminded of my recent studies of the Jim Jones cult. That cult was a leftist cult with passive aggressive tendencies, they spent an untold amount of time debating stupid stuff in all night sessions much of it related to sexuality and in the end they could not accept that the utopia of their mind might not be reality so they choose to end their lives in their own version of reality.

Marko
Marko
2 years ago

I was a typical lefty teen in the later 1990s. The Clintons did definitely break something. Politics got meaner and showier, and the media became “infotainment” along with it. In 1990 the newscasts were still sober. By 1998 they were highly edited and produced like a TV show. But I don’t think it was all the left’s fault. Republicans under Gingrich, as I understood it, hated the Clintons with a passion. They were out to get him. I know the Clintons are awful people, but Gingrich (along with the rise of right-wing radio and Fox News) turned genteel politics of… Read more »

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

Politics as entertainment began in the 90’s. Roger Ailes and Fox News saw the profit potential in appealing to middle America.
Also the technology of television was changing things instead of a serious anchor with serious news we got fancy graphics and fancy news sets with lots of camera angles and production effects.
It all became a big show tent with the degenerate Clintons verses the clean cut Gingrich clones who kept the show going.
Nobody was going to actually do anything worthwhile for the viewers and citizens but it sure was and is a great carnival.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

I agree. Gingrich and Bush II were nasty and spiteful. Bush II pushed nearly my entire family from solid true conservatives to raving lunatics desperate to show they were not Republicans. It is to the point where some of us dread the grandkids spending time alone with Grandma lest they show up at dinner doing an “acknowledgment” that their home is built on the ancestral grounds of some stone age hunter gatherers. Gingrich and those guys got very nasty. Bush II was a complete wrecking ball. His junta also set up the advanced surveillance state and legal apparatus that the… Read more »

Auld Mark
Auld Mark
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

Cute trick trying to blame the ugliness of the Clinton machine on newtie and the boys. That might have been the last time the moral indignation of the real middle America was heard in government.
Not defending the ulterior motives of any or all politicians, but they got Joe griller to put down his spatula and say”hey, what’s going on here?”

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Auld Mark
2 years ago

Newt & Rush & Fox contributed to it. The right was not blameless in making politics poisonous. It’s hard to imagine now, but the right of the 1990s was actually an opposition with teeth, and had some morality behind it with the Christian Conservatives. The right of today is just the left’s running dogs.

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Reply to  Auld Mark
2 years ago

Has the Arkancide body count hit 100 yet? I haven’t checked recently. Is there any American politician that has had this many close associates die violent deaths? Are we supposed to be OK with that just because Bill seemed cool and played the saxophone on a late night TV show?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

Yep, trying to make “I did not have sex with that woman” into a national impeachment offense was lowering the bar, and the favor has been returned in spades.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Yet Newt never said, “you murdered a bunker full of toddlers.”

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

If that was on Newt’s mind, he should have stated that. Clintons were sociopathic grifters, I admit. Lowlifes. Bill a serial rapist, Hillary a liar without scruples. However, the charge against Clinton was without precedent and pretty much doomed to failure. It was more politics—ala Newt, than moral outrage. Newt knew, or should have known, that 2/3’s vote in the Senate was not to be had. Exactly the same with Pelosi and her 2 or was it 3 impeachments of Trump. Perhaps Newt thought Clinton would resign or do the right thing, who knows. Point is that Pelosi did nothing… Read more »

David Wright
Member
2 years ago

I don’t think our founders would be that surprised by our current society. They feared the system was best suited for a certain type, not just white European. Doomed to fail before the ink was dry, but what else is there if you are freedom loving and anti monarchial. How old is Burnham’s book? He was blackpilled back then on the current state. By the way, ever challenge a nice person with a reputation for niceness and goodness? The bile that comes out of how dare you. I’m the good one you are bad. I remember challenging the nice motives… Read more »

Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

Canadians who I’ve encountered in recent years are just brimming with resentment vs Americans. In Florida one time this guy went on and on about their fabled govt health “care” system — waving his stupid govt card in my face — which is why the hospitals in Buffalo NY are so busy, wink* wink* He was triggered by having to pay FL state/local sales tax on some food item in a bait store I was in. Another time at a US summer resort on the shared international waters of the Great Lakes, an Independence Day parade had just started up,… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Dr. Dre
2 years ago

What’s hilarious is that the Canadian flag is flown all over Western New York; at shopping malls, airports, marinas, and so many other public facilities. But when you cross the border you almost never see an American flag flown.

It brings to mind a joke I believe the Norwegians and Swedes came up with. “What’s the one thing Canadians have that Americans don’t? Good neighbors”.

David Wright
Member
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

I know a long haul truck repair guy who’s business takes care of fleet of trucks and trailers. Living near major border crossing with Canada they sometimes need him to go at the breakdown site there.

The crap the border and toll guys give him is ridiculous. Why can’t one of ours fix this, why don’t you have it towed back and remedy it. On and on with these envious simpletons/

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

I remember that back when I was 19 and we took a trip up to BC to drink in bars. The Canadian customs people were rude as hell, barking orders in a snotty tone. The funny thing is that coming back the US customs people were all extremely polite, yet my friend was so steeped in his Lefty “Bush lied people died no war for oil maaan” beliefs he was convinced the US people were the rude ones and that they “probably” ruined his camera with their x-ray scanner.

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
Reply to  Dr. Dre
2 years ago

“The fabled health system”. Which is why a Canadian born banker friend had to bring his dad to the US a few years ago for bypass surgery. Guy was otherwise and extremely—chop your own wood—76 year old. But despite having two ticking time bomb (ala Clinton) blockages, was old enough to be 18 months down the list for surgery. Flew him to NY, had it done, Canadian system picked up some of the cost since he conveniently “complained” of chest pain, went to a US ER and they cardiologist shit his pants and had him admitted. My friend just picked… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  SamlAdams
2 years ago

These stories abound, too many to ignore. When you have a universal medical system, you see inevitable rationing and that takes the form of wait times most often—rather than direct denial of treatment. As one gets older, or needs more elaborate procedures, one sees this most often. That’s why lot of folk in these counties love their socialized health care. They are younger and the worse problem they have is perhaps a broken leg. Quick treatment and free med’s is their norm—heart transplants, not so much. As wife and I have aged, we’ve been the recipient of extraordinary medical treatment—always… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

For years and years, I couldn’t get a straight answer out of Canucks.

So, how much do you pay in taxes for da health care, I axed ’em.

I finally saw “28%” in an article- does that sound about right, anybody?

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Time is money and you have to pay for scarcity, one way or another. If you can’t pay with money, then you pay with time.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Drew. Yes time is money and often one is traded for the other. I can see my doctor in 24 hours or less—that’s what I pay him for in the contract. I never have done that as seeing him in a week is fine—and the once it wasn’t he was contacted and we handled over the phone. However, in medical care *time* is death in certain care situations. For example, I have recently seen a case of a glioblastoma. In two months it had grown from imperceptible to the size of a large egg! This cancer is invasive and grows… Read more »

WOPR
WOPR
2 years ago

Partially, politics is more coarse because society is more coarse. Movies that in the 80’s would have been considered rough language wise are quaint in today’s world. Dress, language, and actions today are coarse and barbaric compared to just 40 years ago.

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  WOPR
2 years ago

WOPE:
“…society is more coarse.”

When you replace one population with another, you should expect to see a cultural replacement also.

As our population darkens so too our culture. This is reflected in the level of violence, coarseness of language, manners, music, the arts, movies, politeness, sexual transgressions of all kinds.

Dan Doffs
Dan Doffs
Reply to  BeAprepper
2 years ago

“As our population darkens so too our culture. This is reflected in the level of violence, coarseness of language, manners, music, the arts, movies, politeness, sexual transgressions of all kinds.”

Well said and spot on. I’m surprised Z had nothing in his essay about this aspect of our decline.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Dan Doffs
2 years ago

Oh, he has and will, Mr.Doffs. The Zman is more like a Chinese feast, where small servings just keep coming one after the other, each more delicious than the last.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  WOPR
2 years ago

Society more coarse, I’ll say. Remember the 1930’s James Cagney gangster movie when he smashed his wife’s face with his morning breakfast grapefruit? They had to fight to get that one past the censors of the time. The scene is still spoken of today for how it *shocked* the public of the time. Now it’s quite common to see men hit and abuse women in all sorts of interactions.

Violence, how about Sam Peckinpah’s “Wild Bunch”? Greatest blood bath in slow motion of the decade. Now predictably common in any action movie.

And so it goes.

CorkyAgain
CorkyAgain
Reply to  WOPR
2 years ago

Women have become more prominent in politics at the same time as feminism has made role models of brassy, sarcastic, “strong” women.

The nastiest voices in politics today are almost always women’s.

Memebro
Memebro
2 years ago

Also, the reason for leftists behaving like rabid, angry lunatics is because it WORKS. They intimidate normal people into giving into their propositions because normal people do not want an angry mob following them around and harassing them. Without law enforcement willing to do their jobs, because they’re just as scared and intimidated as everyone else, the left can run amok. They get increasingly angry and rabid because if angriness (x3) gets you X, then angriness (x6) gets you X+Y and so on. It either ends with gulags and everyone so scared of everyone else that nobody speaks up, or… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Memebro
2 years ago

I don’t think we should lose sight of the fact that most of this intimidation and nastiness occurs on the internet. I will run into lots of lefties, in stores, on sidewalks, and they may want to pipe up but in real life they know their little game isn’t going to work as smoothly as it does on the internet. I live in the belly of the beast and I can say unequivocally I have never seen a crazy lefty dare say anything to a person’s face like they do on the internet. I also suspect that this may be… Read more »

Memebro
Memebro
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

They’re only willing to do it in mobs. They either hide behind the anonymity and protection of the Internet, or they act as a large group in public.

The dissident right isn’t innocent of the Internet behavior. It’s the only place we feel we can speak up and sometimes we use bully tactics. So I wouldn’t place all this on leftists. But the right has little other option, as we aren’t allowed to demonstrate in public without retribution.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Memebro
2 years ago

There’s another group of people that favor acting aggressively when in mobs….

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

Exactly. This was the first thought that came to mind as I read memebro’s post.

Learning from bad examples. A form of moral “miscegenation”. Becoming muds by emulation.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Memebro
2 years ago

In my last paid job (working for a Swamp contractor in DC suburbs) I can’t remember the context, but I had the impudence to say something cynical like “That will be about as successful as Brown vs. Board of Education was for our cities.” I had a speaking-to by my supervisor soon thereafter 😀

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

In the summer of 2020, the Internet viciousness jumped over into real life with the Floyd riots. Those mostly peaceful arsons and murders were the direct result of the same thing that drives the Internet venom: one side is allowed to do whatever it wants, and the other is persecuted and censored if it even tries to defend itself. That was state-sponsored terrorism at its most despicable, and the fields were seeded by the digital norms.

p
p
Reply to  Memebro
2 years ago

Unfortunately this equates to a toddler throwing a hissy fit in the store because he’s pretty sure he will then get that candy bar. Rewarding bad behavior just gets you more of the same. Instead pick up said toddler and go home without buying anything, now there’s nothing for din din tonight because Tommy couldn’t behave in the store. We’ll try again tomorrow ok Tommy? I have no problem getting loud and in someone’s face in public regardless of how embarrassing it is, once they try to bully me, once someone knows you won’t back down they don’t usually try… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  p
2 years ago

When I was young—like little—waaay back when. You *never* wanted to be taken out of the restaurant or store when you were misbehaving—if you know what I mean. 😉

TomA
TomA
2 years ago

Yes, the normal feedback mechanisms of a civil society no longer exist in any meaningful sense. Most have been co-opted by the Left or cowed into subservience. Most notable are law enforcement and the judiciary. Hunter Biden is a walking crime wave, but untouchable. Jan 6th protestors were clearly entrapped, but their persecution is boundless. These examples are tragic and wrong, but the bigger impact is that no one trusts cops or judges anymore, and with good reason. Although not all of them are dirty, all must now be painted with the same broad brush, and “no rules means no… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

Right on Tom. We’ve mentioned this before, our (White) virtue of “respect for law” was used against us most vividly on Jan 6 and its aftermath. They (Leftists) would like to paint it as the opposite—that is to say the imprisoned “rioters” lacked respect for law and order, but the videos show a much more nuanced perspective of events. The persecution of those rounded up and imprisoned *without* bail—something even many murderers are allowed everyday—is without precedent outside Gitmo. Just yesterday there was an interview I heard on the radio with an 84 yo, grandmother currently going to prison for… Read more »

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Even before Trump finished his speech on Jan 6th, undercover federal agents began maneuvering the crowd down a specific pathway to a specific gate at the Capitol Grounds. These same federal agent then took down the barrier and fencing in order to make it appear that entering was permissible. When the crowd arrived, they saw open access and no Capitol police opposed them. Then these federal agents started barking orders and encouragement at the protestors to proceed to a specific side entrance and enter the Capitol Building, where again, Capitol police stood aside to allow entry. One of the federal… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

I would upvote this a thousand times if possible. “The persecution of those rounded up and imprisoned *without* bail—something even many murderers are allowed everyday—is without precedent outside Gitmo. ” The persecution is at the hands of the same people who bitch about Putin’s lack of respect for human rights. “When we have a judicial system that tolerates, even promotes, locking up grandma, while allowing murderers free, then we have system not worth of respect or obedience.” It appears most Americans, at least, have arrived at this very conclusion and see the United States as the lawless, despicable thing it… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

In many cultures and times, even here in the USA among certain ethnic groups, taking matters into one’s own hands, either as an individual or a group, has often occurred. I’m not advocating mob or vigilante action, but it does happen. As some author once noted, this is the default with marginalized groups: If one drug ring or other criminal gang has been scammed in a deal gone bad, they can’t really take the case to the local court, can they? They must resort to more — direct — means of settling disputes. At least in olden times, this wasn’t… Read more »

Old Codger
Member
2 years ago

“Once all cultural barriers are removed, everyone is free to fulfill their potential.”
Which, for the majority of the mouth-breathing leftist masses approaches zero.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 years ago

“The conformity and identity provided by the hive mentality of radical politics is the appeal.” This seems a bit puzzling, but think of it this way: we are taught that we are killer apes, but no, what we are, is prey. Being more like bonobos*, we learned in the hot, wet Miocene to climb trees or jump in the water and swim away from the many things with bigger fangs and claws. Our fantasies are often a dream of uniting to defeat a larger threat. A monster movie writ large. This deep instinct enabled us to tackle large game- mammoths… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
2 years ago

We say that they control “everything,” but that’s not true. They don’t control us, and that’s the problem. They are finding that controlling the institutions isn’t bringing them control over all the people.

It’s like a teacher not being able to control the students. She has the authority, the school behind her, the city, the cops even. And yet the kids just don’t want to be told what to do.

Memebro
Memebro
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

I would tweak what you’re saying to amend it with this: They do control our behavior in sooo many ways. Think about it, few of us say anything to anyone about what we truly believe without interrogating that person first, and then we are still guarded. Most of us posting online prefer anonymity. So yes they have partial control over us, but they KNOW, they know oh so well, that they don’t control our minds. It is this certain knowledge that half the population is thinking bad-think, even while outwardly complying with the rules of the good-thinkers. They know their… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

People here always mention 1984, and Brave New world as the guides to modern society. Sometimes Kafka or Nietzsche get a mention. To my mind, Lord of The Flies captures leftist rule almost perfectly. I see Kevin Williamson in the role of “Piggy”…

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Those books: Warnings turned into instruction manuals.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

The film THX-1138 appears to be one of their favorite video training seminars.

Gman
Gman
Member
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

And, not as well known but very gripping—approaching Orwell level for paranoia and dystopian nightmare fever dream—I can recommend Ira Levin’s ‘This Perfect Day.’ Like his ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ had a love child with ‘1984’….if you can imagine that. Best thing is, its plot line centers around a group of active rebels and their plans to wreck the ideological ship of state. It’s on Kindle…for now…

imbroglio
imbroglio
2 years ago

Well, Fukayama talked about the end of history. What may be in the offing, short-term, is a totalitarian future for the rump of the U.S followed, long-term, by the U.S., its people divided and set against one another, becoming colonized by the rising pan-Asian hegemon that may loot North American resources (the Canada/U.S. merger) and leave the new “Native Americans” impoverished and living, via a social credit system, on reservations. This scenario is fanciful, but an end to ideology in the sense of a “transvaluation of progressive values” could be the prelude to a social/political leveling in which groups, hating… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
2 years ago

I’m speculating but you probably have to go back a but further, to the 1960s counter-culture. It was (possibly) in the early 1990s that these creatures of the counter-culture came to the forefront of national politics. Including Slick Willy (“I smoked but didn’t inhale”). I believe whole books have been written on the nature of the ’60s counter-culture, including how anti-intellectual, superficial, and self-centered it was. In essence it was a pampered post-WW2 generation that was “rebelling without a cause.” The so-called “left” we see today is the bastard child of that counter-culture. Over the years I’ve encountered many aging… Read more »

Larval
Larval
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

“These people have no foundation in books, in history, in the development of ideas, and more generally speaking, Western civilization.” And this points up why one cannot have “discussions” with these people – and I would tender that they are in the vast majority of ‘educated’ whites. Forget the rest, they’re existing between meals, b*&w jobs, and alcohol intake. It is the whites, and the crypto-whites, such as the Indian banker I know. They have opinions, manufactured wherever, but ZERO basis to back them up. Nor “discuss” them. And if pushed even a little bit, get agitated and repeat their… Read more »

Larval
Larval
Reply to  Larval
2 years ago

Oh lookee, I touched a nerve….

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

might the left have turned nasty *because* they have achieved dominion over the country? they now want to hold onto *all* power. wasn’t this what the pigs in Animal Farm did, as well?

mikeski
Member
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom, because that is according to my principles.”

(Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

DLS
DLS
Reply to  mikeski
2 years ago

This reply to Karl could have also been a comment on Zman’s article. The increasing nastiness on the Left correlates to their increase in power.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
2 years ago

You can see the nastiness and religious impulse with the J6 defenders, all of which are forced to stand trial with a Jury of their “peers” in Washington D.C. The Juries are, of course, deciding they are guilty of all counts. If the FBI added a murder charge to people just walking around in a building, the Jury would rubber stamp that also. The entire idea of a jury of peers is to ensure the legal system is treating their fellow in the community fairly, with our new brave society, it’s all about whether the person is a bad thinker.… Read more »

joe tentpeg
Member
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Aye.

Re. ‘fbi’.

Always scratched my head on fbi records found laying around in ‘Ceegar Bill’s White House…and the lack of investigation on how they got there.

No more.

The ‘weaponization’ of 3 letter agencies against political enemies…

…began with the Clintons.

DLS
DLS
Reply to  joe tentpeg
2 years ago

I believe the weaponization of the FBI began with its founding. J. Edgar Hoover was the foundation for Comey. The only solution is to disband it, but that will never happen.

crabe-tambour
crabe-tambour
Reply to  DLS
2 years ago

Hoover has a prominent place in the two Kennedy Babylon books, authored by Boston radio talk show Howie Carr. His show has declined in recent years: his interviews have dried up, and he relies on extricating cheap yuks from Biden’s reliable and steady supply of audio gaffes, as if Howie believes that Biden generates new material each day. No, Howie: they’re differences that make no difference. To be fair, Howie was a star investigative reporter who didn’t just dog the Kennedys; he also ran afoul of the Bulger brothers. Bill the legislator endured him, but Whitey seriously considered dispatching Carr.… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

I can honestly say that I have no idea who Robin DiAngelo is. I ascribe this to my studious avoidance of the mainstream media.

Manc
Manc
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

She’s this century’s greatest con artist, a low level academic who hit it big with CRT and theories of white fragility peddled to suburban white lady dingbats.

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

I salute you for not knowing who Ms. DiAngelo is; wish I could say the same. Because your ignorance of her is good and honorable, I will only say two things about her: 1. She is a White lady who wrote a book called WHITE FRAGILITY (I don’t hate myself enough to read it), which catapulted her to academic and ideological superstardom, thanks to all the usual suspects. 2. She is practically an avatar of ethnomasochism.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Robin DiAngelo makes a lot of money on the speaker circuit. Perhaps she saw how much Tim Wise makes with his “anti-racist” (really anti-White) speeches. Ibram X. Kendi (not his real name) is another prominent anti-White activist and author.

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Somebody on “our side of the great divide” should write a book-length expose on the industry of ANTI-WHITENESS. Pack it with all the information one can find — with a particular emphasis on how profitable the field has become. Try to get a reasonably accurate estimate on how much the DiAngelos, Wises, Kendis, etc., have made from their grievance-mongering. Maybe I should write that book. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do anywhere near the amount of research required to fully flesh out the topic.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Wkathman
2 years ago

That’s an outstanding idea for a book. The first guy who came to mind to write it is Jared Taylor, since he talks about those anti-white people often, and has actually debated Tim Wise several years ago. I could also see Paul Kersey, Taylor’s podcast partner writing it and doing a great job.

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Thanks! Good call on suggesting Taylor. He would be already starting with a strong gasp of the subject. You’re right that Kersey would be another good possibility. I would add Greg Hood to that list. P.S.: Now that you mention it, I remember a while back watching clips of the Taylor-Wise debate. Of all the famed anti-White lecture circuit grifters I have seen, Wise is probably the most contemptuous and contemptible. He is a perfect embodiment of the idea that “leftists always project” in that he spews hate while claiming to oppose it. If I ever came across that man… Read more »

Tyupi
Tyupi
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Already written. English translation of title was “My Struggle” IIRC.

Gman
Gman
Member
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

I read Kendi’s dissertation in under an hour. No discernible argument, no grounding in either a viable theoretical or historical framework, rather poorly written, a bit on the short side for a supposed research PhD, and unbelievably weak apparatus with most of his sources in popular level writing and journalism. I would not give a pass on that level of work for one of my undergraduates. Especially if I liked them and wanted them to become a good scholar.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

See? Layabout’s a perfect example of white fragility. Aloof, imperious, privileged- he just doesn’t care enough about racism.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

I resemble that remark. I would only dispute that I don’t care about racism (against Whites for instance.) It’s not clear what I can do about it. I persist here and elsewhere, because I may yet learn new insights.

Member
2 years ago

If modern left wing ideology is indeed a suicide cult, how do we encourage its leading proponents be first in line to shuffle off their mortal coil?

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Raymond R
2 years ago

jim jones died last…

Davidcito
Davidcito
2 years ago

I think the internet has also made it easy to prove that leftists were wrong on every issue in the last 60 years. In a few keystrokes we can see the data on how awful society has become thanks to their ideas. Immediately after all of their 1960s victories, murder, rape, violent assault, teen pregnancy, drug addiction, homelessness, and single motherhood all shot through the roof, while math and reading scores plummeted. Turns out, giving $50k a year in free stuff to female, low IQ, highschool dropouts in exchange for having more babies yields exactly the permanent underclass breed that… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Davidcito
2 years ago

Fully agree. And I’d add that the damage is not immediately apparent. This is captured in many phrases, like “there is much ruin in a nation,” or borrowing from the future for present consumption (we’ve done that, in spades!), and so forth.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  Davidcito
2 years ago

One whitepill is the almost universal realization outside the D.C. beltway class that forced bussing was a disaster. We haven’t gotten to the point where we can say point blank WHY it was a disaster, but baby steps and all.

Even Kamala supporters were blasting her when she gave her fake story of how forced bussing benefitted her, largely because of many progressives realize how it destroyed the old ethnic communities, even if there is extreme cognitive dissonance about the ramifications of that.

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Unfortunately, they are working on something even worse than school integration, force integration of neighborhoods. Currently, there are 500 apartments under construction on the edge of my 50 year old 99 percent White subdivision. I am sure that a certain amount of these apartments will be occupied by POC resettled at taxpayer expense. This serves two purposes, disrupting stable communities and diminishing the net worth of Whites by causing property values to drop as crime and urban decay increases.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Nick Nolte's Mugshot
2 years ago

Probably some unfortunate, border-jumping “refugees” will also be dropped on your communiry as well.

The one constant in all of these “progressive” schemes is that they must serve to corrupt and destroy. Section 8, tranny story hour, criminal law “reform”, what have you.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

A-a-and into moderation my comment goes, sans trigger words insofar as I can tell.

Unjustly delayed commentary is denied commentary, to turn a phrase. Sigh.

Dinodxy
Dinodxy
2 years ago

The Left has never had more power in American society, yet they have never been angrier The liberal-enlightenment movement is nearing the end of the line. They’ve been successful at every step over the last two centuries, liberating individuals from one thing after another. And yet utopia is still as far, or further, away than it was at the beginning of the project. Their multi generation reason for existence has turned to shit so explicitly that even they cant deny it. Worse, the only things left to liberate, to advance the ball, are reality and life itself. Who wouldn’t be… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Dinodxy
2 years ago

Exactly. The reason that they’re so angry is because they are in control of every facet of society and their utopia still isn’t materializing.

This means that either their beliefs are wrong, which they don’t accept, or there is this unseen force (white male racism and misogyny) preventing their utopia from arising.

Because this mysterious force is hidden, they lash out wildly at anything that might be associated with it in hopes of landing a blow.

crabe-tambour
crabe-tambour
Reply to  Dinodxy
2 years ago

Quite right. The Utopian can never be satisfied, even if their realized aspirations DON’T “couler dans la merde.” Add to that the proliferation of psychotropic drugs, the comfortable complacency and narcissism of many of my fellow Boomers (“what’s posterity done for us?”) and…well, here we are. It’s enjoyable to make fun of Millennials and Zoomers, but, like the X-ers, they haven’t been well-served by us Postwar types.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  crabe-tambour
2 years ago

Actually, I quite like Zoomers. The Western ones I’ve met overseas usually don’t have a stick up their ass and act fairly normal, like relatable humans. With a few exceptions, I can’t say the same for millies. That said, they were screwed over hard by boomers; though even there are some caveats to that as well.

crabe-tambour
crabe-tambour
Reply to  Forever Templar
2 years ago

True, the Zoomers are works in progress; there’s some hope for them. My generation of males was socially engineered by feminism into “sensitivity.” Subsequent generations of males seem to have been socially engineered into weakness and passivity, like that annoying kid who permeates those Killers videos. In my day-to-day life, I’m not blind to peoples’ group identities, but I try to look for the individuality in others, if only to preserve my sanity.

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
2 years ago

The question that never gets asked is why has public discourse become so nasty and unforgiving over the last three decades? In a word, multi-culturalism? America has always consisted of multiple cultures – but those were mostly geographically based. And from roughly 1880 – 1980 industrialization and mass media were heterogonizing forces. Which hit peak heterogeneity ca 1965, following the success of WWII and the exongenous threat of Soviet communism. But since that time America has ceased being a heterogeneous culture. Some of that was inevitable in such a large and populous area. But it was accelerated by policies pushed… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Then one has to wonder why there is only one ideology

Why no competing ideologies going to war against each other?

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

What does it matter? You don’t share their ideology and are assigned one by them anyway.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Dinodoxy
2 years ago

Gab:
“The government that forced integration at gunpoint is trying to divide us.”