The Death Of Conservatism

It is fair to say that American conservatism is dead, at least the version that has been sold to us by the conservative industrial complex. They still rake in millions from corporate donors, but the public audience for this stuff is largely confined to rest homes in the sun belt. Flag waving and tax breaks for corporations is just not the crowd pleaser it was a decade ago, much less forty years ago. Conservatism as a political force is headed to the dustbin of history.

The question is, why did it fail? Lost in the endless stream of outrage, real and manufactured, is the fact that the winners are ridiculous. Conservatism lost to men in sundresses demanding to wave their genitals in the face of school children. They lost to people who think Hitler is hiding under their bed. They lost to childless middle-aged women drunk on cheap wine, complaining about men on Twitter. It took effort to lose to this collection of bourgeois misfits.

One reason conservatism failed in America is that conservatives could never accept that people lie in politics. In fact, lying is an essential part of politics. The reason is you must paint your opponents as the bad guys and your side as the good guys, which means gross exaggeration. Conservatives never accepted this. Instead, they demanded as much factual accuracy from their side as possible. When people on their side would exaggerate, conservatives were there to set the record straight.

This was not the result of stupidity. American conservatism evolved into the 1980’s as the antidote to politics. They used to make this point in the Reagan years. Conservatism was the lack of politics. Instead, it was just problem solving. That was very appealing to people who did not like rolling around on the mud with left-wing kooks, but it was a terrible way to engage in politics. It is part of what made conservatism the beautiful losers described by Sam Francis.

Related to this was the fact that American conservatism embraced the libertarian idea that people are motivated by rational self-interest. For conservatives in the 20th century, people were not spiritual beings, so much as moist robots who naturally responded to incentives, particularly economic incentives. This is why conservatism was the accounting department for the welfare state. The only way they could relate to their audience was through the jargon of popular economics.

Another result of this was the habit of conservatives to rely on charts and graphs in response to moral claims. The Left would demand we do something about some victim group and conservatives would respond with a table of figures showing that the victims were not really victims. It was not that it made conservatism heartless, but that it made them seem brainless. They kept falling for the same traps, eventually succumbing to the moral claims of the Left.

That is the probably the main failing of American conservatism. To this day they insist that politics is about solving problems. This is false. Politics is always about friends and enemies and those are defined on moral terms. No one wants to fight someone for making a math error. Politics is so nasty and feral because the opponents see one another in moral terms. The other guy is the bad guy because he does not love what you love and hate what you hate.

The Left has always understood this. The reason that the demand for Nazis exceeds the historic global supply is the Left always needs villains. Even when their opponents agree with them, they still call them the worst names in their book. Donald Trump would have been happy to make generous deals with the Democrats, but they needed to hate him more than they wanted a deal. This is why the Left steamrolled conservatives on every issue. They work only in morality, not facts and reason.

This inability to understand what drives politics may explain the inability to accept that their opponents genuinely believe what they are saying. Much of what makes up conservative commentary is a claim that the Left does not actually believe what they are saying, but instead they are using it as cover for money and power. For conservatives, everything is reduced to money and power, because this is what motivates the moist robots they imagine as their audience.

This is why conservatives have always underestimated the Left. Because they cannot accept that these people believe what they are saying, they just assume they will stop saying it once they have money and power. Instead, the Left uses their newly acquired money and power to act on what they said and produce more outlandish things they can push onto society. When you think people are moist robots, you stop believing that people can be evil, which is how evil triumphs.

Finally, the great failure of American conservatism will be seen in the Republican primary that kicks off this summer. The field challenging Trump will insist that everyone must rally around cleaning up the mess created by the Left. They will make the oldest of conservative arguments. That is, you must forget about the crimes committed against you by the other side and instead rally with your fellow citizens, even the ones who hate you, to fight for America!

Of course, this requires you to not get anything you want and instead normalize the latest insanity from the Left. You see, it is your duty as an American to sacrifice your interests for the nebulous concept of America. This was powerful magic forty years ago when the country was 85% white and had a handful of foreigners. In a country being overrun by migrants and hyper-racialized lunatics attacking white people, this rallying cry sounds like a suicide cult.

Robert Lewis Dabney famously described conservatism as “merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition.” This was always true, for sure, but it worked for a long time because the radicals were still aspirational, rather than suicidal. The dialectic between the Left and the Right in American was a useful engine for maintaining the ruling class consensus. One side proposed, the other side opposed, and the consensus was some compromise.

This changed just as conservatism reached its peak. The triumph of conservatism in the 1980’s was followed by the descent of progressivism into the dark, suicidal politics of nihilism and Gnosticism. Conservatives have never come to terms with this and as a result have been a steep decline ever since. As America descends into tribal politics that must follow the transition to majority-minority demographics, conservatism will become a museum piece and then forgotten.


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Andrea Ostrov Letania
Andrea Ostrov Letania
1 year ago

American Conservatism was more about conserving wealth, status, privilege, and connections than heritage, tradition, values, and convictions. Such a shallow ‘ideology’ was bound to fail when prestige came to be determined by subversive Jews. Today, if you want to conserve your status, you have to embrace globo-homo. American Liberalism is dead for a similar reason. It’s not well-thought out but based on conceit of being ahead of the game, more evolved. It vapes on vanity of being ahead of the rubes. Like conservatives, most liberals don’t or can’t think on their own and just look for cues from the authoritative… Read more »

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
1 year ago

Gotta disagree with you here Z. American Conservatism inc didn’t fail at all. They succeed brilliantly. In the only dimension that they cared about. Which was preserving and extending the wealth of American oligarchs. The billionaire class has done fantastically well over the last forty years. The working class not so much. And really, that is what “conservatism” was after. All the rest, the moralizing and traditionalism were just a marketing pitch to get the rubes’ support in protecting the leaders wealth. That’s why they always “lost” on the issues that mattered to their voters, even as they won on… Read more »

Yman
Yman
1 year ago

Majority-minority is another grifter’s term to normalizing dispossessed every right formally you had

You either majority who has custodianship nor minority who politically and socially can’t accomplish nothing
Don’t call Jewish people as majority-minority group
Jews in America are simply a foreign-oligarchic group

Majority-minority nonsense is more retarded than rainbow nation used by Desmond Tutu
You either white country or non-white country
There is no rainbow nation because everything is black as Gupta looting shenanigan

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/how-the-gupta-brothers-hijacked-south-africa-corruption-bribes

Pasaran
Pasaran
1 year ago

What’s the name of a 30yo communist opinion ?

Answer : an actual conservative opinion.

Pasaran
Pasaran
Reply to  Pasaran
1 year ago

(I chose my pseudonym in the glorious era of 2016…If I could, I would change it)

Celticbiker
Celticbiker
1 year ago

The chews pick and place your puppet leaders long before you or they appear at a voting booth.. Its all kosher theatre, as ugly, demonic and sad as anything else on talmudvision. When you print the money, you call the shots.. Put the freemason muppet out there for the goyim to bicker over…while they rob you blind, fuck you in the ass and murder your kids.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Celticbiker
1 year ago

I don’t know about the Saxon just yet, but it sure does sound like the Potato Kneegr0w is beginning to hate.

BOO-YAH!!!!!

DFCtomm
Member
1 year ago

Zman,

I think you are painting with too broad a brush. The purple haired freak working the register at your local Dollar General is a true believer, but Biden isn’t. He has no religion other than the church of Biden. I think that has always been the problem with organized religion. The leadership must be just as concerned with the organization as they are with the religion, but the followers are free to just be religious. This means the leadership will always be less religious than the flock.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  DFCtomm
1 year ago

DFCtomm: “The leadership must be just as concerned with the organization as they are with the religion…” Now work the omnipotent power of the Passive Aggressive Industrial Complex into your thinking, and you’re got a slam-bang PhD dissertation in Sociology rot thar. Sadly, the Passive Aggressive Industrial Complex is now so powerful in the academy that I doubt you’d be able to find a thesis advisor who would sign off on it. Although I have to admit that the professional psychology literature [the stuff which the plebes never encounter] is shockingly honest about many of these phenomena. If you could… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

Convincing grillers that he was one of them, cared about them, shared their values, was Dubya’s greatest political accomplishment. Say what you want about the left, and certainly this only happened because Dubya was an R, but at least they were able to see him for what he was. Conservatism was already dead at this point, here we were getting to the part where the dancing on its grave began, both by Dubya’s band of neocons, and by the left which was now ready to receive a major dose of the Mind Virus from Chicago Jesus in the form of… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

Democrats Presidents since Carter have not faded away. If anything, they became more powerful (and more wealthy) out of office.

Yes, the grillers were totally had by dubya.

Ahab's Shoe Discount
Ahab's Shoe Discount
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

“Dancing on the grave” is the best and most succinct description of our current political environment.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
1 year ago

There was a thread where Ann Coulter made a joke about blacks not tipping, the left outrage mob ensued, and some guy posted how it was actually Church-going Christians who were the worst tippers, and blacks were just wonderful. He got about 30k likes. Now, it’s clear most people who liked it knew it wasn’t true, but since it hurt the perception their enemies, they were more than willing to pile on. If the tables were reversed and in some strange dimension blacks were better tippers, you know all of Con Inc would denounce their colleagues and say how terrible… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Chet Rollins
1 year ago

This reminds me of when Conan O’Brien went to Haiti and posted a selfie to show how wrong Trump was for calling it a shithole

Horace
Horace
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

I remember that. I busted out laughing because you can see in the background the fence separating the resort from the rest of Haiti. It is clear that the vegetation on the outside is cropped as if by goats. This signal is most apparent from aerial or satellite imagery of the border boundary with the Dominican Republic: 2-legged African goats on one side and mestizos on the other side who understand perfectly well that it is retarded to destroy one’s own habitat. All this ‘data’ stuff passes completely over the heads of the retarded left. I wonder if creatures like… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

Haiti has the most valuable real estate on earth.
After the 2010 earthquake the Clinton Foundation raise some $5 Billion for which they were able to build 6 houses.

Bloated Boomer
Bloated Boomer
Reply to  Chet Rollins
1 year ago

” it’s clear most people who liked it knew it wasn’t true”

Doesn’t this fall under what Zedman was saying about not taking the left seriously?

Redpill Boomer
Redpill Boomer
1 year ago

Your remarks about “emergent behavior” a few shows back really stuck with me. Only the core of the Left need be True Believers, many on the fringes may indeed be opportunists. Lying opportunists, true, but not necessarily dedicated to The Cause. Case in point: A friend of mine is a political consultant who works mostly with Democratic candidates and issues. He’s definitely not a lunatic, but in the end that’s who pays his salary.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  Redpill Boomer
1 year ago

People will justify anything for a paycheck. It’s very disheartening. “Doctors,” whose motto is supposedly “do no harm,” will cut off the penis of a little boy for coin while other “doctors” will spend their life killing babies. The business class sold out their country for coin. The people who make fools of themselves on cable TV do so for coin. Money may or may not be the root of all evil, but you can certainly buy an awful lot of evil for it.

usNthem
usNthem
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

I think the here was an old slogan that went something like the “business of America is business”. Today it’s more like the business of America is killing and degeneracy.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

And big business pushes the missiles and the butt plugs like a steroidal hybrid of David Frum and Dylan Mulvaney.

Crabe-tambour
Crabe-tambour
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

I might add “grifting” and “grafting” and make it The Four Scootermen of the Apocalypse.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

True. And, alas, it seems to be the free marketers who are most in love with filthy lucre. Perhaps their ideology is just a fig leaf for their mindless greed.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 year ago

Ostei Kozelskii: “Perhaps their ideology is just a fig leaf for their mindless greed.”

Didn’t we do that just yesterday, with the discussion of Leo “EARLY LIFE” Strauss and Alyssa “EARLY LIFE” Rosenbaum?

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 year ago

The real value of “free markets” is in the fact that to some degree at least they reward the most productive.
All the political alternatives reward those best at politics, they are rarely the most ethically sound.

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Redpill Boomer
1 year ago

Marx himself actually talks about this distorting power of money; how it can distort morality and distorts what is strong or noble. A worm with money can be a demi-god, while in a more natural state he’d be a worm. Money as a corrupt element is a tale as old as time. Selling out your family, your people, you soul, your God. But I get it; there is a reason for this. Money buys a lot. The amount of work, time, and drudgery that is required to have a decent home and life in the world is staggering. People naturally… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  fakeemail
1 year ago

Things I could never figure out. I agree with most of lefty’s premises, but her conclusions are usually insane.

Righty has sound logic, but his premises are usually stupid.

Good premises + sound logic = good conclusions. It isn’t that hard! It’s why I entertain conspiracism to a not-insignificant extent. Even if the average person really is that mixed up, you’re going to end up with a small number of people running things.

In fact, that’s probably the state of affairs, and conspiracy is necessary to maintain the appearance of popular rule.

usNthem
usNthem
1 year ago

Not only did conservatism not conserve anything, it didn’t solve any problems either. Because according to the left, traditional societal norm conservation and/or problem solving is immoral – it’s not fair to consider blacks as different from Whites. It’s not fair that women can’t have abortions on demand. It’s not fair that fags aren’t allowed to marry. It’s not fair that a boy or girl who thinks they’re the opposite sex can’t become one. It’s not fair that anyone in the world can’t become American legally or not. Instead of saying tough F-ing s***, conservatives have no answers to the… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  usNthem
1 year ago

usNthem: Conservatives have no answers because they share the left’s basic moral imperatives. If we are all equal, and 50% + 1 = ‘the people’s will,’ then all else flows from that. There is no room for argument or discussion, let alone biological reality.

Any man who cannot accept the ineluctable reality of biological differences (between the sexes, amongst the races, etc.) cannot be reasoned with nor trusted.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

“Any man who cannot accept the ineluctable reality of biological differences (between the sexes, amongst the races, etc.) cannot be reasoned with nor trusted.” I got an email the other day, from a longtime friend, a democrat, and he mentioned doing something with his oldest son. I was kinda shocked, because I was not aware that he had had another boy out of wedlock. I was only aware that he had had a daughter and then a son. But after ten or fifteen minutes, the lightbulb suddenly lit up in muh glacially-slow mind, and I realized: His daughter [the older… Read more »

Steve
Steve
1 year ago

I’m absolutely convinced that I grew up in a completely different world than the rest of you. Just for reference, in my world, the sky is blue, the grass green. “Conservatives” have always had a major emphasis on values. Falwell’s Moral Majority was not centered around marginal tax rates or Fed funds rates or the absurd homo economicus strawman. The debate about abortion was never about profit and loss. Nor gay, well, anything. 2A was never about whether it was more cost effective to have an armed citizenry. Internet censorship of porn was never based on evaluating someone’s business plan.… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Steve
1 year ago

The moral conservatism movement of the 80s and 90s was undermined by the seemingly limitless prosperity which AINO enjoyed during that time, a historically exceptional economic state of affairs which assuredly we will never see again, but it lasted so long people thought it was normal. Why heed those old wet blankets when you could do the exact opposite of everything they said while watching your 401k make a moonshot

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

Jeffrey Zoar: Genuine conservatism was undermined long before the ’80s and the Moral Majority. Certain groups had been at work destroying the cultural and moral consensus of heritage America since the late 1800s, but the killing blow was the ‘globalist’ myths and consensus that emerged from the rubble of WWII.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

A good case can be made that a major inflection point was WW I: by 1918 the old dynasties of Europe were gone, the USSR was brand-new, while over in the USA we had the shiny new Federal Reserve. A lot changed in 1914 or so, and I’d say not for the better. But yeah, add twenty years and you’ve got the Great Depression, FDR, gold confiscation, and eventually, unprecedented growth of Federal powers WW II. Even for the oldest of us, a lot looks “normal. It’s hard to believe that (for example) in your father’s/grandfather’s/great-grandfather’s time, you could legally… Read more »

DLS
DLS
1 year ago

Great post. As an example of how far conservatism has fallen, I as a former civnat/patriot/free-marketer/constitutionalist find myself sounding more and more like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. That is, if they really meant it, and weren’t just fake/gay grifters. At this point, I would be fine with: 1. Cutting the military budget from its current level of $900 trillion down to say China’s at under $300 trillion, or Russia’s under $100 trillion. White men should sit back and let the trannies and minorities get blown up in shit-holes so the neocons can play global chess. 2. Taxing the hell… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

DLS: Bravo, Sir. Sincerely agree.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

We certainly live in interesting times, do we not?

Jack Dodson
Jack Dodson
1 year ago

I don’t know whether “moist robots” is original, but it is being stolen. Spectacular turn of the phrase or use of it. That aside, it is mistake to discount the raw cowardice of conservatives. Not only do they want to engage on a level that is foolish, they are afraid not to do so. The brilliant line, now a cliche, that “conservatives didn’t even conserve a little girl’s right to use the bathroom without being molested by male perverts,” falls shorts. Conservatives originally didn’t preserve the rights of little white children not to be raped, assaulted and annoyed by blacks… Read more »

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Reply to  Jack Dodson
1 year ago

Democrats NEVER criticize their fringe element figures like Maxine Waters or Sheila Jackson Lee. When someone on the right says anything even slightly controversial conservative “leaders” fall all over themselves to be the first at the microphone to “disavow” their colleague. Congressman Steve King of Iowa said that White people had a right to exist and his fellow Republicans stabbed him in the back.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Nick Nolte's Mugshot
1 year ago

What’s fringe about Maxine?

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

You’re right, the Left is so far out there that there really is no “fringe”.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Nick Nolte's Mugshot
1 year ago

There was a young woman named Inge,
Who went on a binge with a dinge.
I can’t breath a word
Of what really occurred
But her cunt has a chocolate fringe.

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Jack Dodson
1 year ago

I think “moist robots” was originally from Scott Adams, who actually believes it.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  Jack Dodson
1 year ago

> I don’t know whether “moist robots” is original, but it is being stolen. Spectacular turn of the phrase or use of it.

I originally heard it from from a Scott Adams book. Not sure if he is the originator though.

Vxxc
Vxxc
1 year ago

Most of this dead accurate Z but must point out when your opponents actually ARE evil, insane child rapists you can at last simply recite facts , mind you with passion and venom;

“ Conservatism lost to men in sundresses demanding to wave their genitals in the face of school children. They lost to people who think Hitler is hiding under their bed. They lost to childless middle-aged women drunk on Twitter…”. < THE FACTS

The Time of Facts has come 🤣

Diversity Heretic
Member
1 year ago

Like other commentators, I admire Z-man’s post but wonder what the way out is. I’m beginning to think that a white ethnonationalist form of Islam might be it–there are already Black Muslims, so white not White Muslims? I know Islam has some significant downsides, but I don’t see much in the way of other solutions.

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Diversity Heretic
1 year ago

Polygamy, and by extension cousin marriage, are arguably worse for a society than rampant perversion.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
1 year ago

Apparently you can have both under Islam. At least some of them have the reputation of pederasty. I don’t know if this is one of those hush-hust shameful secrets or if it’s just black propaganda spread by non-Muslims. I guess Allah will forgive much. Just be sure that your little sister is pure, or else you will have to get the boys together and stone her to death. Wouldn’t want to dishonor the family.

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Reply to  Diversity Heretic
1 year ago

Organized Christianity in the West has been subverted and is definitely too weak currently to battle the evil that unleashed upon us.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Diversity Heretic
1 year ago

There already are white Moslems. In fact, they have their own nation–Bosnia.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Diversity Heretic
1 year ago

Islam is universalist just like Christianity is. Using Islam or Christianity as a vehicle to promote ethno-nationalism is an bad fit, and maybe heresy.

If you want a white ethnostate, you’d need to leave major religions out of it, or at best turn one of them into a cult. Like Jehova’s Witnesses, but call it Jared Taylor’s Witnesses. Where Jared’s writings are grafted onto scripture. The Gospel of Jared. Something like that.

The Mormons, come to think of it, could have been it. But they cucked in the late 1970s.

trackback
1 year ago

[…] The Death Of Conservatism   […]

DLS
DLS
1 year ago

“When you think people are moist robots, you stop believing that people can be evil, which is how evil triumphs.”

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
-The Usual Suspects

Compsci
Compsci
1 year ago

“As America descends into tribal politics…” Perhaps we are seeing the beginning here in AZ. Kerri Lake’s case (improper election methodology) was again toss’d by the Court. Lake showed that 300k ballot signature verifications were done in *less* than three seconds each! Even showed that such verifications were illegally done by poll workers from home. With one worker averaging 1 second per verification—about as fast as one can hit the approve button and the next ballot appear on the screen. 🙁 The Court’s reasoning was that AZ law does *not* state a rule for signature verification wrt time spent in… Read more »

Old Prude
Old Prude
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

I will be attending what may be the final meeting of an immigration restriction group of which I am treasurer. I have tried to convince the other members to manipulate political rules to advance the cause, write under pseudonyms when writing Letter to the Editors etc… and they all recoil in horror that I would suggest such underhanded stuff. Instead they insist on talking to politicians, testifying before legislative committees, putting up a booth at the Republican convention… I have fond regard for these folks but they are hopelessly lost in the past, and can’t let go. I hate to… Read more »

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

“Whether the Rep’s are up to it is an entirely different question.” Spoiler alert: they are not. And even if they were, it’s much harder to pull off in 100 counties with 10,000 voters each, than in one city with a million voters, a corrupt DA and a few cheating poll workers.

Celt Darnell
Member
1 year ago

Mired in the 1980s sums it up. Like it or not, liberalizing the economy, tackling crime (which had greatly increased thanks to the 1960s) and standing up to and defeating the Soviet Union were all good ideas. Thereafter….nothing. Conservatives’ rejection of Buchanan in 1992 demonstrates they were done. By then, immigration was a problem (yes, I know, it was Reagan who granted amnesty); the now liberated corporations began outsourcing; and then there was political correctness. Conservatives’ failure to actually go to war against the last in the manner they had against communism is why many of us use pseudonyms: conservatives… Read more »

Tarl Cabot
Tarl Cabot
Reply to  Celt Darnell
1 year ago

Separation, nullification, secession, and war.

Not necessarily in that order, as the neocon fanatics may try war first, as a way of avoiding the other three.

mrburns
mrburns
Reply to  Tarl Cabot
1 year ago

Agreed but thats only if we are incredibly lucky. We would need a great leader to arise to lead us to war and then have to actually win that war. The prize for second place is death and slavery. I don’t see that happening. The White race outside of Russia is finished.

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Tarl Cabot
1 year ago

I sometimes ask liberals why they wouldn’t want us to simply go our separate ways. Wouldn’t you want to be free of the deplorable Nazis you are forced to share a country with? They look at me like I have two heads. They just can’t quit us. They know their lives would have no meaning without us. Like the Joker who needs Batman. They want to watch the world burn, but they need us to keep putting out their fires.

Celt Darnell
Member
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

Not just putting out the fires, but preventing them in the first place. Someone has to maintain the infrastructure that gives them clean water, light, heat and air conditioning. The current state of South Africa demonstrates this is not something their pets can do…

Bloated Boomer
Bloated Boomer
Reply to  Celt Darnell
1 year ago

This is more “the left are actually driven by material comfort / money / power” thinking

Bloated Boomer
Bloated Boomer
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

In my experience the average libtard thought process is more along the lines that human society would approach utopia if evil people (right wingers) weren’t mucking it up throughout history, doin’ the slavery and gay-bashing etc. Rightwingers are almost by definition the cause of all problems.

Right Wingers aren’t allowed to escape because they’d just be doing evil elsewhere, and if they prospered it would be due to exploitation or theft from the have-nots. In which case they deserve severe punishment again anyway.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Tarl Cabot
1 year ago

The nullification has begun in small ways. In open defiance of Federal law, marijuana has been partly or fully legalized in many States. The Unviersity of California reportedly is going to hire illegal aliens in violation of existing (I assume) Federal laws. Although these two examples are traditional Liberal/Blue agenda, I for one champion any move to strengthen States’ rights, although that phrase hasn’t (yet?) regained the connotation it had oh, say in the mid-20th century 😀 On a less happy note, I suspect any Red/Conservative “fuck you” to the Feds will not be received with the same acquiescence apparently… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
1 year ago

The cons NEVER played hardball with the libs. Maybe they were never supposed to, I don’t know. Reagan would say things like, “it’s not that our liberal friends are dumb, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” This was a light critique of “fellow Americans” who hold the same noble ends, but just believe in different means. This was NOT the case. The libs were enemies and they ALWAYS spoke of the right as the enemy in not unclear terms. They didn’t call us their misinformed friends, nor did they care if a rising tide would lift… Read more »

Wkathman
Wkathman
1 year ago

Zman is an extremely smart guy and therefore has a tendency to over-philosophize these matters. He also remains too wedded to the irrelevant dichotomy of Democrats/Republicans (a distinction without a difference, if ever there was one). Conservatives failed because they operated by a defining value that guaranteed their failure. Conservatives adopted the same fundamental ethos that animates progressives: (something I call) the Convenience-First orientation. This is the planted axiom that that which produces the greatest benefit/comfort/convenience at the lowest effort/cost is automatically superior to all other potential alternatives. Regardless of all the principles and values conservatives delusionally claimed to hold… Read more »

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Wkathman
1 year ago

“Convenience-First orientation”

Great point! I never thought of it from a convenience perspective.

Bloated Boomer
Bloated Boomer
Reply to  Wkathman
1 year ago

There’s nothing efficient or convenient about people having ambiguous genders or bespoke pro-nouns, and especially then needing to tip-toe around establishing what they are and using them correctly in a sentence. Your example works against your premise.

This is a silly theory.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
1 year ago

This is a marvelous essay. In delineating the decline of conservatism, however, I would note a couple of additional points. First, during the Cold War, conservatives were–with a certain amount of justification–fixated upon defeating global communism. This monomania, alas, allowed a viper to batten right under their feet. This serpent, the postmodern New Left, was and is nothing like the Marxist Left, but was and is even more lethal and malicious, and it conquered all of America’s institutions while conservatives were off in Vietnam and El Salvador slaying commie dragons. The conservatives rid the nation of remote demons while allowing… Read more »

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 year ago

The Conservatives did a Faustian bargain with the Trotskyite devil – the Neocons. When the Cold War was over, much of the apparatus of domestic tyranny had been put in place. Chalmers Johnson documented this very well in his trilogy. (Color Revolution; Phony Patriotism; Coordinated inter-Anglo spying on the populace; MIC; Accepting the Keynesian premise of spending equals economic growth …; News Media taken over by CIA and turned into PsyOp against the American nation.) This cabal openly admitted the Cold War wasn’t fought to defeat communism, but to create an empire and make themselves rich. Mourning the loss of… Read more »

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 year ago

I’ll admit that I did not see the Left’s takeover of the Fortune 500 coming. I subscribed to the old bromide that business is business and you don’t mix politics and religion with business. Each company that they now control has an annual budget that exceeds the GDP of the majority of the 195 countries on the planet. That is an awful lot of power at their disposal and they have not been reticent to use it.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Nick Nolte's Mugshot
1 year ago

This gets back to the “presumption of abundance” that I keep going on about. Things were so good, for so long, it came to be seen as normal for it to be that way, and unimaginable for it to be any other way. So management was free to adopt bad business practices in the name of Changing The World because what could it hurt? The decline generally happens too slowly for the error to be self diagnosed.

ray
ray
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 year ago

‘[Conservatives] were reduced to waging bloodless battles over tax policy, deficits and guns, but were entirely unequipped to wage war upon the Left’s cultural deformations and maledictions.’ Conservatives — who are mostly men — cannot confront much less overthrow the Prog Politburo largely because of a simple reason that nobody, including the OP, mentioned. Progressivism and the Modern Left are composed largely of women, and Anglosphere men (including Christians and ‘conservatives’) are submissive to women. I need only dwell in America and observe around me the behavior of married couples, court and office environments, classrooms . . . and the… Read more »

whatever2020
whatever2020
Member
Reply to  ray
1 year ago

This is an enormous part of it right here. Those childless middle-aged women drunk on cheap wine, complaining about men on Twitter, are legion. They exist in very large number, much larger than any more than a few on any side of the divide care to look at. The members of this voter demographic get substantial extra credit if they maintain a herd of cats, the larger the better of course. Also, if the cheap wine is box wine, that’s a little more extra credit. With a big enough cat herd and enough boxes of wine, a woman not childless… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  ray
1 year ago

If anyone needs proof of women’s dominance, and man’s submission, I invite them to declare in mixed company: “Happy husband happy life” and watch the reactions. Of course no one will bat an eye at the more common reverse of this statement.

whatever2020
whatever2020
Member
Reply to  ray
1 year ago

I don’t suggest anybody try Jeffry Zoar’s “happy husband happy life” experiment; the odds of such a simple statement actually ruining your life, counterintuitive/impossible as that seems at first glance, are actually substantial. Depending on the crowd you’re in, results can include getting canceled/unpersoned (Clown World shitlib version of run out on a rail), or perhaps criminally convicted (no evidence at all required) on some false accusation (Clown World shitlib version of hung from an oak tree). No, it’s best to simply let go of the false religion beliefs that have been drummed into us since birth, take off the… Read more »

ray
ray
Reply to  whatever2020
1 year ago

Right.

The fact that a man would be gang-crushed merely for making a non-feminist statement in company in America illustrates exactly who has the power and who rules.

The Conservatives do not want to talk about this, much less reform it.

TomA
TomA
1 year ago

Today’s posting is jam-packed with hard truths, but ultimately avoids addressing the elephant in the room. Which is . . . what do we do about it? Find better magic words in service to yet another failed persuasion campaign. Or the old standby of vote harder, we’ll get em next time boys! Or the ultimate cop-out of “the Constitution will save us sometime in the future.” This last canard is the only thing that can rile a ConInc warrior to tangibly fight. Whenever anyone suggests actually fighting back against the madness of the Left, Dan Bongino will come to your… Read more »

Fred
Fred
Reply to  TomA
1 year ago

I have come to question the let’s roll story. Too many lies, since then.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

What took me a long to figure out was that conservatives – both politicians and voters – believed in the same morality as liberals. They believe in the blank slate and the sanctity of minorities. Once you accept that, you have no moral authority to challenge anything coming from the Left. Crime, immigration, trannies, you name it. You have to accept the Left’s view on everything. Black crime, has to be white people’s fault. Immigration, we’re all the same, so why keep someone out. Gay marriage, we’re all the same, how can you deny rights to some and not others.… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

“Black crime, has to be white people’s fault”

Ain’t that the truth. Progressives blame slavery Mr Crow, conservatives blame the welfare state. Two sides of the “blame-whitey” coin.

Yes, “conservatives” are low tax or warmongering progressives at heart. I just posted about that here.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

Liberals blame a racist system for the ills of society. Conservatives blame culture and incentives.

The real difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals can answer the question “Who are your people” whereas conservatives can’t. (Sure, they’ll say “American,” but that means nothing and even they can’t say what it means anymore.)

Conservatives are so utterly worthless.

Brandon Laskow
Brandon Laskow
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

How would liberals identify “their people?” Wouldn’t the more generous of them say “Americans” while the rest would identify as one tribe or another and perhaps show some real or contrived concern for some other tribe?

I’m reminded of an old girlfriend who said she was a “world citizen”.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

With Mexican mass immigration, conservatives have always liked to proclaim that the newcomers are “natural conservatives.” Something about being Catholic and loving their family or whatever.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Wolf Barney
1 year ago

They say that because the alternative is too terrifying for them to contemplate. It’s escapism, just as everything about conservatism is escapism.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

Yep, the R word. (gasp!)

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Wolf Barney
1 year ago

“Something about being Catholic and loving their family or whatever.” This was always so stupid it is amazing anyone believed it. Politician A offers you free stuff, and Politician B says he shares your religion. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together would say, “How does sharing a religion help me? Give me the free stuff.”

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

While all this is true, “Conservatives” believe in all of the moral principles of the “left.” The “Conservative Movement” is made up of low-tax progressives and war mongering progressives. Their alleged opposition to abortion is being exposed right now as a larp, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They are feminists at heart and believe in baby killing. They believe in equality. I’m convinced most of them have a statue of MLK in their basement they pray to every day. To get into Conservative, Inc, you have to attend university and take the most progressive courses. The most common… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

Yep, made the same point.

At least liberals show a loyalty to their own tribes. Conservatives are liberals with no loyalty to their own people, and thus are far, far worse.

Lucius Sulla
Lucius Sulla
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

Re: abortion… This is where us dissidents need to agree and amplify, driving it to its ridiculous conclusion, which could also be advantageous for our people. I used to be staunchly pro-life. I regularly attend Catholic mass. I find the concept of abortion abhorrent. But, at this point I don’t care if my enemies want to murder their progeny. We’re playing for keeps now. Frankly, I’d encourage my enemies to have as many abortions as possible and prune their family trees down to the stump. AWFLs, non-whites, juice, do your civic duty and abort! abort! abort! for our democracy. People… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

It’s not about the pros and cons of abortion and which demographic is harmed or helped. My point was to simply point out that all the kvetching about abortion was fake and gay. They strongly opposed abortion because it was an issue they believed they couldn’t win. As long as unrestricted abortion remained the status quo, it was “safe” for them to oppose it. That made it easy for them to take a strong moral stance and endlessly fund raise and made a great wedge issue to get conservatives to the polls. But it was all a grift. They never… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

I agree; abortion in and of itself is prima facie monstrous and satanic. I think it should only be legal in cases of rape and if the the baby has severe handicaps. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves about what it IS; it is the killing of a human life; not a fetus; not a clump of cells. Being pro-life only works in a community of decent upstanding people. People who want to build families, take care of their kids, value life, and don’t treat sex like some amusement park free for all. Once the pro-lifers start justifying their position so… Read more »

DLS
DLS
Reply to  fakeemail
1 year ago

In debates, I concede the rape/incest point rhetorically, and then ask if we can then agree that 98% of abortions should be illegal. It wins the argument, but as a practical matter you could never allow this exception since it would negate all restrictions. What proof would Planned Parenthood ask for that you were raped? A police report? A rape kit? What would be the objection to: “I was drugged and raped at a party three months ago, didn’t report it and can’t identify my assailant.”

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

Good point; I was thinking of an actual violent rape that happened.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

That’s what the morning after pill is for. Any woman who is raped who could get pregnant could take an abortion pill. As it is, the hospitals offer women one of these pills if they are reporting a rape. I seriously doubt there are 100 cases of abortions because of incest. As you point out, if you make the exceptions, they negate the rule. But it is still a good way to sidestep the issue in debate or discussions with friends/family. This is the problem with leftists. You give an inch, they take a mile. The minute you stop “oppressing”… Read more »

whatever2020
whatever2020
Member
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

DLS makes a very good point here. This is where the “childless middle-aged women drunk on cheap wine, complaining about men on Twitter” voting bloc – a very large and powerful one — comes in for the brazillionth time. Thanks to this voting block’s fastidious zeal over the past 55+ years, false accusations are now the norm, large enough in number to amount to an infestation. Worse, not only do the tradcuck, cuckservative Repulicucks go along with this, they endorse and sign on to believing and acting on each false accusation with verve and vigor, without any investigation or questions… Read more »

DLS
DLS
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

I threw in incest, but that additional inclusion by the Left is utterly sensationalistic. When has a women ever gotten pregnant by incest when it wasn’t rape? And the few times it wasn’t rape would be consensual, in which case it is just a regular abortion. I really hate the Left.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
1 year ago

Conservatism was pointless after the last Reagan tax cuts in 86 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 89. Conservatives couldn’t even reverse Roe v. Wade until last year, when it was too late. And they refused to control the borders. The “movement’s” only function became purging Sobran, Buchanan, Francis, et al.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Jack Boniface
1 year ago

The PragerU coaster set (only $29.95!), of coasters emblazoned with the faces of famous “conservatives,” doesn’t feature anyone more recent than Reagan. Telling.

It’s Reagan, Thatcher, Lincoln, and Prager himself, if you were wondering. You can put them under your PragerU coffee cup, only $24.95!

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

these talk radio guys always do well for themselves, that’s for sure. World keeps getting worse while they blather on about civ-nattery, but at least Prager can sell his crap.

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

When Prager came out advocating pornography, there was a funny Gab meme with a picture of him and a fake quote saying that porn didn’t hurt any of his three marriages.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  DLS
1 year ago

Citation for Prager promoting pornography. After listening to him for years, I’ve never heard a word supporting this.

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

The filters won’t let me post links. Just Google “Prager on pornography.”

whatever2020
whatever2020
Member
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

Dennis Prager is a top-level poster child cuckservative, a veritable king of the tradcucks! A few years back, PragerU uploaded a video by a “guest creator” hard selling marriage for the present day and age, and prodding young men to prioritize getting married ASAP. To do this, he utilized the father figure from the Leave It to Beaver show as his example to be emulated, pushing this as his main theme, over and over again, throughout the entire video. Not only is “example” somebody who never existed (an entirely fictional character), it is a fictional character from 60+ years ago!!… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  whatever2020
1 year ago

That one has been married more than once is not necessarily a disconnect wrt marriage. Your implicit implication is that Prager is a hypocrite. Marriage breakdown is a problem in this country as it leads to the dissolution of the family unit—the most basic structure of society. Whether Prager represents a good example of a marriage is entirely aside from this fact, nor have I ever heard him infer he is a good example in this regard.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  Jack Boniface
1 year ago

Conservatives were worthless long before Reagan. Reagan himself was pretty worthless too. Reagan was a dedicated leftist. He signed off on amnesty. He blew up the budget. He failed to deal with social security. His failure to deal with SS is one the main drivers of the nonstop immigration into the US today. Though I do grant that Reagan is not the cause of the SS problem. It’s been a bipartisan effort. Reagan gets credit he doesn’t deserve for the collapse of the Soviets. It was going to collapse with or without Reagan and his 20 Dollar nails and bolts.… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

Reagan was the best that was possible. He didn’t have the power to end the bureaucracies or fix SS; the president simply does NOT really run things. His amnesty was shameful and I’d have preferred the USSR was still here then that happened. I disagree that the USSR was just simply going to fall by itself; there was a MAJOR change in policy under Reagan toward the Soviets. I also think Reagan does deserve credit for the economic boom; but your point is well-taken that the hollowing-out had all ready begun. But in hindsight, it’s all pretty disappointing. Especially when… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  fakeemail
1 year ago

Carter created it, Reagan could have ended it. A lot of the boom of the 80s had to do with integrated circuits and computers. There was also the financialization of the economy which largely started under Reagan. Maybe it would have taken longer, but I think the SU would have collapsed on its own without Reagan. But like you said, knowing what happened, it might have been better for us had it not collapsed. I agree that he brought optimism to the country when just a few years before Carter delivered his “malaise” speech. The Boomers were still young and… Read more »

ray
ray
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
1 year ago

Ronnie Raygun also pushed through No Fault Divorce. Otherwise known in the court system as Men’s Fault Divorce.

A Hollywood Leftie. Righties are so desperate they pretend he was a conservative hero.

whatever2020
whatever2020
Member
Reply to  ray
1 year ago

This. Right here.

Foundational architect of “our” present family law/divorce system and midwife to all the feminazi extreme leftist/Maoist features that seamlessly plug right in to it (a design feature from the start), now in place in all 50 states and pretty much all (formerly) Western nations (now provincial territories of the Globohomo Empire).

Zman has, perceptively and correctly, pointed out Ronnie Raygun as the first carny president. Yes, her certainly was. Eff Ronnie “the Clown” Raygun. Eff him straight to hell.

ray
ray
Reply to  whatever2020
1 year ago

Yessir.

Nancy had tremendous influence with Ronnie. He called her ‘Mother’ all the time. [cringe]

Ronald hung tough after he’d been shot and I admired that about him, showed some character and manliness. But like the vast majority of modern conservative and Christian men, Ronald was a cuck and a simp when it came to females. Stoopid Romanticist and ‘chivalrous’ nonsense still embraced this very day in the West. His ‘poor poor women’ policies led to disaster. Sigh.

RealityRules
RealityRules
1 year ago

Speaking of liars and grifters who will say anything and do something completely different, I stumbled upon this last night. https://www.seeker.com/videos/space-innovation/spacex-is-about-to-make-history-again-heres-how Look at the course of study that the, “Dr.”, pursued. Elon’s JEDIs include the first woman with a prosthetic in space. A fellow space company, Relativity, lauds its diversity on its website and calls out in a great search for, “Hyphenated Human Beings.” Could you imagine the American Government’s calls for pioneers looking for indigents to cross the continent or build the railroad, or call people with Phd’s in “education”, Dr? Well, here in the next great frontier, that… Read more »

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  RealityRules
1 year ago

Maybe he’s really into that stuff, but any space-company is almost wholly dependent on the regime permission for everything they do. You see the same thing with defense contractors and sub-sub-contractors: only those who are least pretending to be of the one true faith will be allowed in the temple.

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
1 year ago

Musk and the Feds are mutually dependent. If they want their big space budgets, but no longer have the brain power to run a space program, they need him as much as he needs them.

My Comment
My Comment
1 year ago

Conservatism failed because they were only allowed to talk about things that didn’t ultimately matter and didn’t threaten the rulers especially a certain malicious tribe.

They could make the conservative case for war. The rulers like that.

They could make the conservative case for reducing the role of government as long as they steadfastly didn’t reduce it.

They could talc about crime as long as they didn’t mention race.

They could make the conservative case for squashing free speech against holocaust denial.

They could complain about foreign aid as long as they didn’t mention aid to Israel.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  My Comment
1 year ago

By giving or withholding funding, donors select the GOP candidates that the country ever even hears about. We never hear about politicians who don’t agree with the donors, because those politicians don’t get funded.

If the donors of both parties agree on a particular issue, say, massive immigration, then there is no possibility of a candidate who opposes massive immigration to get the necessary funding to even become known to the country.

My Comment
My Comment
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

You are right that the donors select the allowable topics for the actors to address.

There is also a moral system that prevents conservative candidates from addressing important issues. Everyone goes to the same type of country clubs, lives in the same neighborhoods and their kids go to same schools. Conservative media sites are usually owned or heavily funded by the same tribe as the left’s propaganda arm.

It just wouldn’t do to say things that won’t play well there.

joey jünger
joey jünger
1 year ago

The left is ruled by religious zeal, but you sell that short at your own peril. Most of what we think of as science is an outgrowth of what’s now commonly derided as pseudoscience, but should more accurately be called protoscience. We only found out how to distill phosphorus because some alchemist kept peeing in a barrel in the hope of distilling the philosopher’s stone from it. Astronomers only had such thorough star charts to work with because astrologers before them had kept such meticulous records to predict good and bad omens for the kingdoms. Where the left makes a… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  joey jünger
1 year ago

That is a tremendous and unique insight, JJ. Well done.

B125
B125
Reply to  joey jünger
1 year ago

Great comment

We drive our enemies mad by simply existing. And sometimes we dont even exist but they are mad with just with the idea of us.

And i kind of support them forcing us to be the “other”. I want to be other from the giant mass of diversity. Let them mix with themselves and worship satan but keep me out of it.

george 1
george 1
1 year ago

Today conservatives look nearly as ridiculous to me as those on the left. The political class of so called conservatives is obviously just in the game for money. We have the Governor of Idaho for example. He took the fed money for all of the covid nonsense, long after it was obviously nonsense. Idaho still runs ads for the vax, presumably the fed gov pays for this to be done. During his recent campaign in which he was reelected, he refused to debate his challengers. He stated that he did not need to debate because: ” The actions of his… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  george 1
1 year ago

“ He stated that he did not need to debate because: ” The actions of his administration were unassailable.” The actions of his administration were indefensible not unassailable but the idiots here voted him in again.” I can’t judge because I’m not from Idaho, but we had the same situation here. A Dem gubernatorial candidate who did not debate and did not give interviews—and that for an open seat! She was also the Director of State elections and refused to resign upon running for the governorship. In short, she ran/oversaw the propriety of her *own* election! Could it be however,… Read more »

george 1
george 1
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

I don’t think it was fortified here so much as people here just vote for the incumbent R. There were other options. One being Ammon Bundy. He had a little too much baggage and gave the conservative grand mothers the jitters.

So, they reelected a crook.

Neoliberal Feudalism
1 year ago

Well, the core reason that conservatism fails, imo, is that it accepts the morality of the left; once you do that all you can do is drag your feet and push back timidly on specifics. But the right wing populists are unfortunately not much better. The European blogger Kynosarges had a succinct summary of their problem back in a 2019 post, which he believes has six major deficiencies: “Right-wing populists have no awareness of the depth of the [societal] problem and the necessity of a massive social transformation. Right-wing populists consider metapolitics irrelevant. They view our plight as strictly a… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
1 year ago

Perhaps off topic, but local news (to Z man): https://nypost.com/2023/05/23/maryland-dad-beaten-to-death-after-group-attacks-him-over-middle-school-fight/ Now, fights at an urban middle school aren’t that unusual. But when 5 thugs come to the kid’s home and beat Dad to death, I’d say a line has been crossed. Curiously, I could find no mention of the incident at the Baltimore Sun’s site, including Anne Arundel, the country where the incident(s) occurred on Friday 05/19. I stand corrected. By searching the surname of the victim, I find this: https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/anne-arundel/ac-cn-homicide-brooklyn-investigation-20230522-gjjv6v4vcrdwfihmsoe453c6ym-story.html It’s worth noting how little detail the Sun’s account gives. It’s almost as if they’re trying to hide something;… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
1 year ago

Ben: Pointed out that same story to my husband this morning. The man died of a ‘traumatic brain injury.” This, to me, indicates being kicked/stomped in/on the head. So yes, fairly obvious it was blaqs.

But everyone thinks his own suburb is ‘safe’ and simply plans to keep his head down. Meanwhile, I can go days seeing no one but my husband. With him, the local wildlife, and the internet, I am content. And even when the internet goes, we will be fine where we are, far from the madding crowds.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

Can’t tell you how many times such an attack has resulted in a simple assault accusation rather than an attempted murder accusation. If you are mobbed and hit the ground, odds are you’ll never get up. But Lord help you if, when approached by an enraged mob, you start to shoot the leaders and claim self defense.

george 1
george 1
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

Oh Yea!! The local constabularies will be along in short order to arrest you for your anti-revolutionary behavior.

You won’t be getting out anytime soon.

FooBarr
FooBarr
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
1 year ago

Dad be lookin’ wigger-iffic.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  FooBarr
1 year ago

And he’s got his sportsball shrine in the home, too.

Wkathman
Wkathman
1 year ago

“The question is, why did [conservatism] fail?” I think Uncle Ted provided the best answer: “The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can’t make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.” – Industrial Society & Its Future That some of a guy’s extracurriculars include heinous destruction in no way debunks… Read more »

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Wkathman
1 year ago

It’s hard to know if they were fighting a battle that could be won even if they did a (better) job. The fight to keep modernity from ruining society has been going on at least since the printing press with only very modest success via rearguard actions (as it’s impossible to know the future).

How do we achieve technological success without having the victory defeat us? Perhaps conservativism’s big failure was in not even making an effort to find out.

OldBeer
OldBeer
Reply to  Wkathman
1 year ago

Old Uncle Ted was right about far more than he was wrong about. People who think that his writings are just a bunch of Luddite ravings against technology should think again and give him a look. He actually had quite a bit of very intelligent observations about culture, politics and where our civilization was headed that have turned out to be true.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
1 year ago

Sam Francis gets some much-deserved attention today for coming up with “Anarcho-Tyranny.” He also had a name for the Republican Party that he used often: “The Stupid Party.”

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Wolf Barney
1 year ago

John Stuart Mill called out the stupidity of conservatives long ago.

Whitney
Member
1 year ago

I thought conservatism failed because it always fails? The minute we pick up the pieces of broken civilization, root everything and kith and kin once again, and start the process all over, we are just moving inexorably to where we are now.

David Wright
Member
1 year ago

There is no way to win or achieve some sort of dominance in this framework anymore, if there ever was. Lying, cheating and manipulating like the Left will not get us anywhere except to be the very same empty damned souls they are. Short of some sort of armed takeover and instituting a dictatorial theocratic control over the populace, we are destined for more of the same. Even our founders were not too optimistic about any long term success with the American experiment. John Adams: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate… Read more »

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
1 year ago

Indeed! Conservative friends still insist that there is always a rational, usually financial, reason for the Left’s demolition of America..It’s a form of autism…

Maxda
Maxda
1 year ago

“they cannot accept that these people believe what they are saying, they just assume they will stop saying it once they have money and power.”

That’s because this is how conservatives behave every time they win. All the promises and supposed principles go out the window as soon as they are sworn in. “Read my lips” should be the party’s epitaph.

ArthurinCali
1 year ago

Powerful essay. The realisation that conservatism is a dead ideology is hard for most normies to accept. They still want to believe that we have a Constitution that protects citizens, and that the rule of law applies to all. Even with daily examples of this not being true, they prefer to live with the delusion because the truth is too hard to face.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  ArthurinCali
1 year ago

I identify as a “Conservative Radical” these days, 😉