Dogs And Bones

Note: Behind the green door, there is a post about the coming troubles for Europe with regards to Ukraine, a post the eternal war between mice and cats, a video from the bed of my truck and the Sunday podcast. Subscribe here or here.


“A dog who will bring a bone will carry a bone” is an old-time expression that usually is meant to say that someone who will steal for you will steal from you. More generally it means that an immoral person on your side will eventually let you down or go over on the other side. The underlying assumption is that even in an adversarial environment, there are rules. The person who violates those rules can never be trusted, even when their rule breaking favors you.

This “lack of a code” lies at the heart of the traitor in wartime. The person who makes a deal with the enemy is harshly punished, usually executed, not because of the practical aspects of their crime. It is not that they gave the enemy an advantage or useful information. It is that they violated the code that holds everyone together in the fight. They have excluded themselves from the company of men who can be trusted to uphold the code when no one is looking.

Similarly, the traitor that comes over from the other side is usually treated with suspicion. In the Cold War, defectors were rarely treated well by either side. Russians who betrayed their countrymen just so they could get an American passport were treated well enough to encourage others, but they were assumed to be disreputable people. The Russians took the same view. Famous spies like Kim Philby, who defected to the Soviet Union, were never welcomed by Russia.

Again, the underlying reason for the way traitors have been treated by their own people as well as the enemies of their people is that someone who breaks trust for any reason cannot be trusted. Someone who deliberately breaks a sacred trust is especially suspicious. It is why American corporations used to discriminate against divorced men. If your wife cannot trust, why should your boss? Adultery used to be a serious social crime when we were a proper society.

It is a good thing to keep in mind as we head into what is looking like another interregnum. Suddenly, the people who were sure Donald Trump was Hitler are now strangely quiet. Much of it is simply the fact that their emotional tank is drained. A decade of hysteria has run it course. At the same time, many have just decided to change tactics, seeing that their Hitler lies failed to stop Trump. They will come up with new lies because it is what liars do. They lie.

The same should apply to those who look like converts. Someone who was an implacable opponent of even the slightest pushback but is now “coming around” on things like immigration should be treated with a great deal of suspicion. They could simply be opportunists. That is, after all, the spring that motivates every traitor. They see an opportunity for themselves in violating the trust of others. Often, they lure their victims into trusting them so they can betray the trust.

A great example is Ben Shapiro. Everyone with two brain cells knows his deal. He is an ultra-Zionist whose only interest is his people. He is willing to lie promiscuously for that cause. It speaks to the nature of Zionism that its most fervent practitioners are the least endowed with European morality. Even the most fervent Nazi understood that there is such a thing as truth. It was the Nazis, after all, who gave us the expression “The Big Lie.”

That aside, even when a Ben Shapiro is doing damage to the enemy, it is important to always qualify the praise so no one forgets that a dog that will bring a bone will carry a bone. If an arsonist burns down the house of that guy selling drugs near the high school, it is normal and healthy to be happy for his suffering or death, but it should never be an endorsement of arson. If the arsonist, however, is one of your guys, then that is another matter. “Who” is what matters, not how.

Those are easy cases, but a more challenging example is someone like James Lindsay, who started out in life as an anti-Christian bigot. He then moved on from that hustle to tricking academic journals with fake grievance studies papers. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian made up fake studies using the bizarre jargon of the grievance studies rackets. These papers were made deliberately ridiculous to expose the vacuity of the so-called social sciences.

This was hilarious and it confirmed that the people involved in these fields are mostly hucksters making a living off lunatics. The trouble though is Lindsay and Boghossian were deceiving people not on behalf of their cause or for their people. They were betraying people for personal advantage. In other words, they were bringing a bone to one group but would eventually carry a bone from that group. This is what we now see with their attacks on populists and Christians.

Whatever benefit came from these two subverting the grievance studies people came at the cost of having them attack the people who cheered for them, but from a position of greater authority. When James Linday was just a chubby massage therapist hating on Christians, no one cared. Now that he is a famous internet influencer; he can do real damage. It is a good reminder that giving power to immoral people is never a good idea.

None of this means that political actors must be purer than Caeser’s wife. As Mr. Dooley said, “Sure, politics ain’t bean-bag. ‘Tis a man’s game, an’ women, childer, cripples an’ prohybitionists’d do well to keep out iv it.” Or as Carl Schmitt would put it, politics is about friends and enemies. The thing to remember is that it is a commitment to the morality of the cause that distinguishes the friend from the enemy, so even though an enemy can be useful, they remain enemies.


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Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
1 month ago

Donald Trump used to be a Clinton Democrat. So maybe it shouldn’t have surprised anyone when he didn’t lock her up, and when he governs like a 1990s Democrat, and “has a heart” for “dreamers.” I remember “hillbillies” getting rather rough treatment in JD Vance’s book/movie. So maybe it shouldn’t surprise anyone when he appears not all that enthusiastic about pardoning J6ers. Sure these guys are better than the alternative. So what else is new? Same old “lesser evil” politics. If I thought it mattered who the Secretary of Defense was, then I might spend more time questioning the judgment… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 month ago

Interesting observation wrt Trump. We have a “need” to think of “converts” coming over to “our side”. But really, the converse could also be true. The country has swung so far to the left, that Rep’s now really are little more than “Clinton era” Dem’s.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Compsci
1 month ago

I thought this was obvious (that Trump was basically a ’90s Democrat who looks conservative by the ZOG’s giant leap leftward). But as JZ says, what was the alternative (other than disengagement)?

Arthur Metcalf
Arthur Metcalf
Reply to  c matt
1 month ago

It has always been difficult if not impossible for me (a former Buchanan staffer in 1992 and 1996) to take Trump’s “America First” claims even remotely seriously, given that he called Pat an anti-Semite in 2000 for his use of the term and views of Israel. If it didn’t appeal to Trump in 2000, it sure as hell didn’t in 2015 — but he knew it would work on voters, who are about to get it good and hard from him for a 2nd time.

Piffle
Piffle
Reply to  Arthur Metcalf
1 month ago

I voted for Trump as the “not totally crazy” and “possibly likes some Americans” candidate. I don’t understand the rock star/savior treatment at this point. His first term was lackluster on anything people at his rallies actually cared about it. I don’t have high hopes for the 2nd.

Arthur Metcalf
Arthur Metcalf
Reply to  Piffle
1 month ago

If you notice, he is much greyer and thinner than just several months ago. He has aged more since November than in the eight years previous. He was given a deal to go to prison for the rest of his life and lose most of his money, or get four years and fight a war.

Piffle
Piffle
Reply to  Arthur Metcalf
1 month ago

It would not surprise me in the least that something like that happened.

Dr_Mantis_Toboggan_MD
Member
1 month ago

I think Z’s “bus theory” applies here. I, like our host, thoroughly enjoyed Vivek destroying the GOP field on the debate stage. It served an end and it was great entertainment. Vivek grew too big for his britches as we say down South by saying we need infinite Indian immigration to create a new South Asian overlord class to replace the Jewish/WASP regime that runs the country. At that moment, I realized his usefulness to the cause had come to an end. For him to do so on Christmas of all days was telling of his alien nature. When one… Read more »

Pozymandias
Reply to  Dr_Mantis_Toboggan_MD
1 month ago

This is a bit of a tangent but personally I’ve always had more contempt for the WASP elite than the Jewish one. The reason is that the WASPs seem to have slavishly copied all the Jews’ ideology (especially the part about “a nation of immigrants”) without understanding that it made no sense outside the Jewish context. Flooding your country with alien migrants makes some sense if it’s not really your country anyway and your main concern is to turn the society into the Star Wars cantina so that you don’t look any more weird than anyone else. It also sure… Read more »

Piffle
Piffle
Reply to  Pozymandias
1 month ago

“This is a bit of a tangent but personally I’ve always had more contempt for the WASP elite than the Jewish one. The reason is that the WASPs seem to have slavishly copied all the Jews’ ideology (especially the part about “a nation of immigrants”) without understanding that it made no sense outside the Jewish context. “ I should disagree with as an American loyalist, but I don’t. It appears “It’s ALL da Jews fault” in the Anglosphere is occasionally also about not facing how traitorous and idiotic our elite have been.. If it’s all the Jews who brought us down,… Read more »

mikebravo
mikebravo
1 month ago

Having trouble accessing the site today from gang rape central.
Perhaps you are subject to a DOS attack.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  mikebravo
1 month ago

Sometime this weekend a few different browsers told me that Z’s certificate had an invalid date, which probably means that it had expired, baring malevolent activity.

Pozymandias
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 month ago

“certificate expired”. To anyone who’s having a problem, try Firefox. The site is virtually unreadable in Chrome even if you click “advanced options” and then make a security exception for the site. I’m using the site just fine in Firefox though after making an exception for it.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 month ago

I went to incognito and now I can like, ‘read more’, and post.

Please let me know if I’m spreading malware parasites like the Fogvid spreading Serratia Marcescens bacteriophages.

Last edited 1 month ago by Alzaebo
pyrrhus
Reply to  mikebravo
1 month ago

Me too…

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
1 month ago

I think trusting anyone in politics is a cardinal mistake which can easily be compounded. It is that rotten

David Wright
Member
1 month ago

So Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian are not our friends now? Cpac says so ,soon even Tucker will knight them.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  David Wright
1 month ago

Cenk is an easy one to spot as he was such a vitriolic lier for the Left in his previous incarnation. Ana I’ve never heard of. In any event, I took today’s missive as pertaining to those more borderline grifters. Hard to believe anyone with adequate prior knowledge can fall for such conversions.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Compsci
1 month ago

Ana was every bit the lunatic as Cenk. Watch her comical performance on election night 2016, for evidence. But women like her are true believers at every turn. It she comes to the right, she’ll remain rabidly partisan on its behalf. Until she isn’t. And the warning signs will be quite obvious. In other words, she won’t be prone to subterfuge. What you see is what you get.

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  David Wright
1 month ago

A Turk and an Armenian?

Nikolai Vladivostok
Reply to  TempoNick
1 month ago

…walk into a bar…

Sgt. Joe Friday
Sgt. Joe Friday
1 month ago

The Soviet view of traitors broke down into two distinct groups: those who were motivated by money, and those motivated by ideology. The former group was looked down on, while the latter, which included Philby were viewed more favorably, although never entirely trusted. The KGB was not persuaded that Philby’s loyalties were genuine, even up until the time he passed away.

FWIW, Philby was also a serial adulterer.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
1 month ago

Philby spent his remaining days going to the Moscow Library to read The Times.

usNthem
usNthem
1 month ago

I’d say dogs bringing and (mostly) taking bones pretty much describes all our politicians at every level in the US and across the entire west, for that matter. Morality has been so perverted and nuanced over the past few decades, will the clear distinction between right and wrong, trustworthiness and untrustworthiness ever make a comeback?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  usNthem
1 month ago

“…will the clear distinction between right and wrong, trustworthiness and untrustworthiness ever make a comeback?”

This! I can no longer trust anyone except in my personal, close circle of friends whom I’ve known for years. Trust simply can’t be earned through media contact anymore. That is what we’ve (and others) have discussed before. We have lost our innocence and now live in a society of distrust. Multiracialism has destroyed this society’s greatest strength.

Last edited 1 month ago by Compsci
Ride-By Shooter
Ride-By Shooter
Reply to  Compsci
1 month ago

Multiracialism has destroyed this society’s greatest strength.

Causal oversimplification. You belong to a people who have casually dissembled about reality for thousands of years. Many of you are so fond of fiction that, to amuse yourselves, you bamboozle your own children to believe happy drivel like Santa Claus and his gifts, but this is just one of your many small lies. Gigantic lies include “We the People…do ordain and establish…” and “Jesus is lord”. When the lies are exposed you feign innocence and shift blame to the dusky replacements.

Ye have no shame.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

Robert Putnam desperately wanted to agree with you about multiracialism, but his research in “Bowling Alone” forced him to agree with Compsci. Although Putnam was a liberal, he could not go against the European respect for truth, which Z Man mentioned.

Ride-By Shooter
Ride-By Shooter
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 month ago

“European respect for truth”? LOL. That’s found among very few Europeans, esp. those of the USA, and Compsci isn’t one of these people. How can we know that I’m right? Think of the Religious Wars of a few centuries ago. While not exclusively religious, they were fired up by disgreement about how best to idolize a dirty, rotten Israelite who premeditated his own death at the hands of the Sanhedrin and the Romans. (Fyi, that’s like suicide by cop.)  Had there been any great and widespread respect in Europe for truth, the rulers and many of the people would have… Read more »

Last edited 1 month ago by Ride-By Shooter
Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

Man, you’re one sick dude.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 month ago

i think the word you’re looking for is Kunt.

Ketchup-stained Griller
Ketchup-stained Griller
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 month ago

Somebody never got that pony.

Lakelander
Lakelander
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

So Compsci makes a valid point about our countries becoming low trust cesspools of multiracial discord and your retort is claim we’re delusional people who push lies because we allow children to believe in Santa? I swear you trolls create arguments in your head and then argue points completely unrelated to what the poster said.

Ride-By Shooter
Ride-By Shooter
Reply to  Lakelander
1 month ago

Compsci insists that “Multiracialism has destroyed this society’s greatest strength [trust]”. The falsity is so obvious that you need to be a moron not to recognize it. Whether or not there is multiracial discord now is irrelevant to the point, which you don’t understand.

Lakelander
Lakelander
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

“Whether or not there is multiracial discord now is irrelevant to the point”… that multiracialism destroys trust? Fascinating deductive reasoning there. You’re a real intellectual heavyweight.

The falsity is so obvious you can’t even explain it, can you?

Our greatest strength was homogeneity and the unity that comes with a homogeneous society. Unity produces trust since most everyone is of the same race/culture/religion and is working towards the same goal. I could see why this would upset you.

Horace
Horace
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

Ride-By Shooter reminds me of Barbara Specter Lerner’s admonishment to the Swedes which essentially was “if you don’t commit suicide, you will be destroyed.”

Santa Claus
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

That’s it, you’re on the “naughty” list for ’25. Bituminous or Anthracite? Also, I’m telling Jesus what you said about him.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Santa Claus
1 month ago

Those are too high a grade for the likes of him. I suggest lignite.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

There’s a significant difference between “myth” and “lie”.
The Greeks really didn’t think earthquakes happened because Hephaestus was hammering at his forge, or because Herakles was nailing the Serpent Queen.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Ride-By Shooter
1 month ago

I wish I had a better word for this than “stupid”, but it will have to do until a better one comes along.

Once kids reach the age of reason, they are able to appreciate the cultural lessons of Kris Kringle without having to believe there actually was such a person.

Please don’t pawn this off as that as the average six-year old is smarter than you…

Tom K
Tom K
1 month ago

Somehow I feel a Mark Zuckerberg retrospective coming on.

Arthur Metcalf
Arthur Metcalf
1 month ago

Only 37 comments. So many are seeing what is happening. What is the point of continuing to comment upon this movie? You can feel the disappointment and fear. Sure, the MAGA army will be there on the 20th in DC, much like the convention this summer (Tattoo MAGA, ex-porn star MAGA, Rappin’ MAGA), but for serious people, the finality of this has been extremely sobering over the past few weeks. It’s like a steel door has shut forever. The fires in California are an exclamation point on something that many are realizing, which is that there is no way back… Read more »

Jesse
Jesse
1 month ago

Watched a video of Jean Chretien last night. When speaking of the house of parliament he said “a leader needs to remember, his opponents face him on the other bench. His enemies are behind him…..

David
David
1 month ago

Another spot on observation Z man- Ben Shapiro was and still is a “never Trumper”; The thing is that NPCs, normies and many Boomer Cons and Grill Cons do not care- The Republicans will fail to make significant change and suffer defeat in 2026.The laws and crack downs will impact far more low social/ economic class Americans with fines and long prison time. I can say we will have a big was in the middle east- it will whip up military recruitment and shut down debate of the conservative and nationalist and many of those peoples children will be forced… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
1 month ago

Haven’t been able to post a comment.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  3g4me
1 month ago

I haven’t seen any comments from you.

Dutchboy
Dutchboy
1 month ago

The version I’ve heard is: “If he’ll cheat with you, he’ll cheat on you.” There is a scene in the John Ford movie “The Informer” that illustrates the attitude toward a traitor: A Black and Tan is tasked with giving the reward to the informer. He slides the money across the table, careful not to make any contact with the man.

Ratio Ning
Ratio Ning
1 month ago

Ratio scorecards for media?

Why not start with the legacy print and broadcast media as they have broad and deep commentary and stenography. Use some type of metric that is less subject to bots or NPC inputs. League tables to show who is doing what to whom.

Results should show that outlets once trusted have earned the opprobrium of their shrinking customer base.

Beta test that, then expand to include politicians.