Note: The weekly Taki post is up. This week I respond to a critic who took me to task for saying mean things about libertarianism. Behind the green door there is the Sunday podcast on some news items of the past week.

Turning Point USA is one of the many grifts from Conservative Inc. aimed at corralling young people into the pointless enterprise of modern conservatism. It is the creation of the late William T. Montgomery, a former marketing guru. He decided to turn Charlie Kirk into the modern day Billy Ray Valentine of conservatism. The result was Turning Point USA, a campus group that holds events around the country. They host 6 National Summits and 8 Regional Conferences each year.

The most recent event, which was staged in Florida this past weekend, ended in a bit of controversy when TP-USA decided to ban someone named Brandi Love. She was scheduled to address a group of teenagers as a VIP. Brandi Love, in addition to being a distinguished contributor to conservative publications, is also a retired porn actress who advertises herself as such on-line. She now uses the skills that made her a star in the oldest profession to be a star in the second oldest one.

TP-USA knew who she was before they extended the invitation and they provided her with VIP access as an honored guest. Clearly, they saw nothing wrong with having an over-the-hill porn star promoting her work to teenagers. The reason they shifted gears is they were getting mocked for it by their critics on the Right. Their critics had a field day with it as another example of how TP-USA is just another grift peddling degeneracy in the name of conservative values.

In fairness to the organizers of TP-USA, they probably assumed there was nothing wrong with having an aging porn actress at their event. After all, the Federalist website has her as a featured contributor. Sean Davis, one of the founders of the site, must think she is acceptable for young people. His partner, Ben Domenech, made this clear on Twitter over the weekend. Later he blamed anti-Semites for getting her booted, which sets up an interesting moral dynamic.

It is these sorts of things that suggest the universe has a sense of humor. Brandi Love is the prefect representative of conservatism. She is an old whore well past her prime, desperate to keep what little audience she can. Of course, conservatism is also an old whore well past its prime willing to degrade itself for attention. When you look at it objectively, Brandi Love should have been the keynote speaker. She is the near perfect representative of the conservative movement.

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at this, but it points to the primary reason that conservatism was a complete failure. It was always hollow. Despite all their pretensions, they never really stood for anything. Conservatism was nothing more than a way for the unpopular kids to get a chance to sit at the cool kids’ table. The reason they welcomed an old porn actress to their ranks was to show the cool kids they were not a bunch of stuck up prudes. They liked degeneracy too!

Beyond that, it shows that the people running TP-USA know they have nothing to offer, so they have to rely on gimmicks. Last year they got grief for having scantily clad bimbos with t-shirt guns on stage like it was spring break. They are not offering young people a chance to be a part of something important. They are offering them a chance to get drunk and have easy access to whores. Clubs in Ft. Lauderdale have more dignity than to use these tactics to get attention.

Of course, we live in an age in which conspiracy theories turn out to be previews of tomorrow’s news, so you have to wonder if this was really an error. TP-USA has been pushing degeneracy to young people since its inception. They used to have promiscuous homosexuals speak to college audiences to promote sodomy. That is how Nick Fuentes got famous. He got his fans to show up at events and ask people like Charlie Kirk why he thought anal sex was a conservative principle.

Given the times, one can be forgiven for wondering if the whole point of this operation is to be the other side of the sandwich for young people. One side is left-wing antiwhite politics, while the alternative is libertine degeneracy. It is not as if this old porn actress tried to crash the party. People at the very top of the organization reached out and invited her as a VIP. It is impossible for them to claim they did not know who she was, as that is the only reason anyone knows who she is.

It is a good example of how the market corrupts. The people running this group are sure that the marketplace must always decide. That means they measure their own efforts in terms of box office. The more tickets they sell, the better they think they are doing, even if they are peddling smut to teenagers in order to do it. They probably think this was a good result, as it got them some unearned media. Conservatism submitted to the marketplace and became just another carny act in the process.

The good news in all of this is TP-USA seems to be collapsing. Their event was lightly attended, and their on-line shows had crickets as a soundtrack. Despite the fact that young people today are terribly naïve, they still retain the ability to see through these efforts to exploit them. Yesterday men peddling nostalgia for an age that will never return are not going to get far with young people worried about being hated minorities, even if the sales pitch is festooned with smut.

The crackdown by the oligarchs on dissidents has had the happy result of a proliferation of new ways to support your favorite creator. If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!

Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.

The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.

Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link.   If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb.  Just email them directly to book at sa***@*********************ns.com.

One of the weird things about this age is how certain groups of people remain locked in a form of psychological stasis. Their views of the world remain the same as they were at some point in the past. For some it is always 1985 and the biggest fear is the commies will get control. Some are locked in 1968 where they are trying to keep corporate interests from crushing the working man. These people live like modern people, but their worldview remains in the world of the past.

From the perspective of dissidents, the most obvious of these groups are the civic nationalist types. Long time users of Gab have suddenly been made aware of these folks after Trump and Trump fans were dumped from Twitter. The J21’er is a person who signed up for Gab in January of 2021. They decorate their profile with patriotic symbols and far too much information about themselves. Politics for them is right out of a civics textbook from the late 1980’s.

These people are not just lost in the past. They have plenty of examples in the media who are right there with them. This post in the American Conservative is a good example of the type. It is a long piece about the future of conservatism that reads like it was written in 1992. No mention of immigration, the  most important issue facing the world at this time. No mention of race and racial politics, which has convulsed the country since the end of the Obama administration.

The writer is a regular at the site so it is safe to assume his views reflect those of the editorial staff. It links to many other sites that wave the conservative flag, so it is in tune with the sensibilities of that old tribe. This is the right world to use as they exist like an isolated tribe in the Amazon, unaware of the world that exists outside their remote villages. This is one of the links in the post. It is a debate about conservatism by people who should be in a museum exhibit about the 1990’s.

It is not just a phenomenon of the legacy Right. The BreadTube phenomenon is an example from the Left that parallels the one on the Right. These are people promoting things like socialism, communism and anarchism, but from the perspective of the 1970’s when such topics were actually discussed by adults. They want to steer young people away from identity politics, but they also want to combat what they call “far-right extremism” that appears on YouTube and other places.

This is where you see the time warp. The people they consider to be far-right are people like Ben Shapiro or Jordan Peterson. Not only that, they stick to an old 1970’s liberal view of politics when the Left was sure their ideas were so convincing, they could engage with their opponents and win every time. Like their analogs on the other side, they seem to have missed the last couple of decades. They are unaware of the fact that people get fired from their job for holding the wrong opinions.

Of course, the establishment Left itself is trapped in a time warp. The people banging on about structural racism and white supremacy also bang on about the dangers of corporate media and corporate power. They do so on global corporate platforms, often from the corporate offices. If people actually wore the labels of their supporters, the street protestors would look like NASCAR drivers. Their little outfits would be festooned with corporate sponsors. “This riot brought to you by Amazon!”

Listen to the people behind the Critical Race Theory stuff and they carry on as if it is 1955 and the imaginary Jim Crow stuff is real. They claim to be fighting the racism of whites and the oppression of the white power structure. They are weirdly unaware of the fact that none of this ever existed or exists today. Everyone with the least bit of power is on their side. Their people they are attacking are without any representation in the halls of power. For the antiwhites, time stopped in 1968.

Some of this is just human nature. People stubbornly cling to old ways of thinking about things out of habit. There were still supporters of the Whigs long after they had disappeared into the past. Ideology provides structure and a way to understand the world, so abandoning it is difficult for some. Until they find a suitable replacement, they stick with the old views. We see this with the Trump phenomenon. Many jumped on it simply as a way out of conservatism.

Then we have demographics. White people are the oldest tribe in tribal America now, so whites are going to be slower to adapt to the new reality. The fans of Ben Shapiro are old people mostly. He is what they hoped the future would be like and what they imagine it was like in their past. For someone who is 70 years old, it is tough to accept that all they fought to preserve will be washed away. The dream of returning to the civic nationalist paradise is better than facing present reality.

Reality is the thing that does not go away when you stop believing it. The people locked in these time warps will eventually return to this part of the timeline. Again, you can see this on Gab. Many of those J21’er have quickly adapted to their new home. Every time a bell rings a new dissident is born and every day the bells are ringing, thanks mostly to the behavior of the ruling class. The behavior of the government the last year has collapsed many of these time bubbles.

Something similar is happening on the Left. Jimmy Dore, for example, is a man who considers himself on the Left. Yet, he is every bit as skeptical about the radicals as the typical dissident. Glenn Greenwald is another good example. Matt Taibbi is another guy who is having an awakening. These are people looking around and coming to the realization that their old views on things no longer track with reality. The old Left is starting to have their own red pill moment.

Political transformation is like the old line about bankruptcy. It is slow at first, often glacial, then it happens all of a sudden. The individual begins to break free from their time bubble and then all off a sudden they have their awakening. As is always true about the behavior of people, some are too timid to look up. They fiercely cling to their ole ideas like a dog with a bone. Their fight to remain trapped in the past is a weird sort of conformation. Some people will just be lost to time.

The crackdown by the oligarchs on dissidents has had the happy result of a proliferation of new ways to support your favorite creator. If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!

Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.

The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.

Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link.   If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb.  Just email them directly to book at sa***@*********************ns.com.

People often join mass movements as a way to replace their own hated identity with that of the group. They immerse themselves in the movement or cause, losing themselves in the identity of the group. Their sense of who they are gets blended with the cause so that they are one with it. It is why their life is quickly organized around the cause they are in at the moment. Not everyone does this, of course, but every mass movement has true believers, people who become one with it.

This is why the true believer reacts to all criticism of the movement as if it were a physical attack on their person. They treat all opposition to their cause as a violent threat, because from their perspective, it is an attack on their person. Once who they are is indistinguishable from the identity of the group, any criticism of the group becomes a threat to their very existence. It is why reasoning with a true believer makes them more belligerent and hostile.

Another consequence of this fusing of identities is that the true believer tends to project onto others the things he hates or fears about the group. Since the very nature of the true believer precludes self-examination, it also precludes a critical examination of the cause they have joined. For the same reason they look at criticism of the group as an attack on their person, they cannot criticize the group. Instead, they project these faults and fears onto some external entity.

A good example is this post from the neocon website the Bulwark. The neocons, of course, have been driven berserk by Trump and the rise of populism. They were sure their scaly tentacles were so tightly wrapped around the Republican Party that it was nothing more than their personal golem. Then Trump comes along and shatters that certainty by sweeping the primaries. Not only that, but he also pointed the finger at them as the reason for why things have gone wrong in America.

This is a good bit of evidence that whatever it was, neoconservatism had transformed into a weird political cult. The first generation had practical reasons for the transition from Trotskyists to Buckley conservatives. They saw that the American Left was getting cozy with the Soviet Union. It was not so much their flirtation with communism, but their friendliness with the ancient enemy in the East. The neocons dropped their own communism and became libertarian Cold War hawks.

The following generations, on the other hand, were not so clever. Bill Kristol, for example, has been wrong about everything for thirty years. He thought Dan Quayle would make a good second for Poppy Bush. He though Sarah Palin would make a good second for John McCain. Quayle and Palin were decent people trying to do the right thing, but their appeal to Kristol was that he believed he could outwit them, which meant they were not the sharpest tools in the toolshed.

Putting that aside, you really see the cult-like aspect in this post. It is pure projection of neoconservative defects onto their enemy. The post’s subhead says it all. “Claiming to love America while believing that it is broken and that many of your fellow citizens are your enemies.” These are people who spent the last six years claiming that Trump and his voters need to be exterminated on the grounds that they are evil. Bill Kristol wants to genocide the “lazy” white working class.

Later in the post we get this gem, “In his public addresses, President Biden has made a conscious effort to speak to all Americans. Donald Trump, by contrast, typically reverts to the language of us-versus-them…” This is the sort of thing you get from someone who is no longer engaged with reality. It is also the way a cult member projects the defects of his cult onto enemies. The hive-minded neocon is projecting the things he most despises about his cult onto the enemies of the cult.

The transformation of neoconservatism into this bizarre hyper-violent subculture raises an interesting set of questions. Was it always a blood-soaked political cult obsessed with bringing about the end times? On the other hand, is this what happens when a bespoke identity cult loses its primary purpose? After all, neoconservatism was built for the Cold War, so when that ended, their purpose ended. Like a hive who loses its queen, the remaining members of this cult buzz around in anger.

There is another angle here. The first generation of neoconservatives went through a period where they aggressively attacked their former host. It was as if they were trying to purge themselves of the old identity to make room for the new one. That could be what we are seeing here. The current neocons are shedding their old conservative skin in order to grow a neoliberal skin. This will allow them to attach themselves to what they think is the permanent new order in Washington.

Additional support for this the tone and language in their posts. Note that in the past they differentiated between “Trumpists” and conservatives. Increasingly they conflate the terms, using them as synonyms. Note also they are not trying to reconcile with their old allies in Conservative Inc. Instead, they have retreated into their own ghettos while they go through the transformation. The next chapter of neoconservatism will take place within the neoliberal order, they hope.

It is an interesting phenomenon to behold, if you can avoid being emotionally drawn in by their projection. Perhaps that is another reason that cults project their hatreds, fears, and insecurities onto others. It is a distraction. The endless feverish attacks on alleged enemies draw the eye away from what is happening in the cult. That old self-loathing, the desire for self-abnegation, at the root of the true believer, results in a group behavior that always seeks to distract from what is happening in the cult.

The crackdown by the oligarchs on dissidents has had the happy result of a proliferation of new ways to support your favorite creator. If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!

Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.

The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.

Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link.   If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb.  Just email them directly to book at sa***@*********************ns.com.

One of the weird aspects of liberal democracy is that the state takes every opportunity to celebrate itself. Every public event has rituals before the event where members of the state are marched out to be cheered by the crowd. Sporting events have a weird North Korean vibe to them. July 4th has always been a chance for the office holders to celebrate themselves. This year, the F.B.I. decided to hold a parade in the city of Philadelphia to let us know they are always on the job.

Patriot Front is the latest carnival act to get a chance to perform on the big stage of democracy, at the direction of the usual suspects. They are based in Texas, but decided to hold a parade in Philadelphia over the long weekend. Allegedly, they got a permit from the city, but their event looked ad hoc. They showed up, danced around just long enough to get media attention and a reaction from locals. Then they got back in their vehicles and headed for parts unknown.

Some will no doubt say it is unfair to assume these guys are just another honeypot cooked up by the secret police, but that is the way to bet these days. The Oath Keepers are looking like they were created by the secret police a decade ago. This exhaustive deep dive by Darren Beatty into the origins of the group and the dodgy nature of the founder should cause everyone to rethink the authenticity of these groups. The best you can say about any of them is they are led by unstable people.

The Oath Keepers are not an outlier. The Proud Boys, which was started by Gavin McInnes, went from goofy fan club to paramilitary operation. Instead of drinking beer and celebrating western chauvinism, they were rolling around in the dirt with Antifa and other state-sponsored extremist groups. It turns out that the guy who took over the group was a “serial informer” for the secret police. This is  pattern with these groups that goes back a very long way. It is the default position.

The essential tool of all secret police operations is to use unstable informers to infiltrate the target group. The reason this works is outsider politics tends to attract people just looking for a home, many of whom are unstable. Go to a Libertarian Party event and it feels like the day room of a local insane asylum. One of the results is people organizing outside the system will encounter a lot of crazies. They get used to seeing them, so the one that is actually an informer slips through.

A good example of how this works is the Bolsheviks. A fellow named Roman Malinovsky was a prominent Bolshevik before the revolution. He was also an agent of the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police. He was able to become close friends with Lenin and Stalin, two highly paranoid and suspicious men. Malinovsky even setup Stalin so he could be arrested at a social event. He was so good at his work that even when everyone was in jail but him, they still did not think he was a spy.

Malinovsky was always the most enthusiastic supporter of the cause. This is what won him notice from Bolshevik leaders. He was a guy who never deviated from the party line, however it was being expressed by the leaders. It was why Lenin could not accept that he was a spy, even when the evidence was clear. It is always hard to distrust the guy who is your most loyal supporter. Eventually he was betrayed by his ex-mistress and the Bolsheviks had him killed.

Another reason the secret police find it easy to infiltrate outsider groups, especially those claiming to be on the Right, is that they are usually run by stupid people who never learn from the past. Look at this Patriot Front outfit. The “flag and costume” act has been a failure in America going back to George Lincoln Rockwell. The general public find it weird and off-putting. The only thing these antics do is isolate the group from normal society, making them easy targets.

What did the Patriot Front people think they were doing? They already managed to get themselves put on the terror watchlist. If they were hoping for attention by the Feds, they need not worry. Was anyone in Philly going to be impressed with this stunt and say to themselves, “You know, I think I may consider becoming a fascist”? Was this event going to bring them positive coverage from the media? As Jason Köhne noted, the only thing it did was drag young men further into the abyss.

Politics in a liberal democracy is a drama run by the ruling class. Think of it as a big stage on which politics is acted out for the masses. In America, this means the Left opens the show by demanding action against some threat to “our democracy” or demanding action to defend a victim group. Their fluffers go into the crowd to get the audience excited for the next drama. The actors perform the familiar story, sometimes combining the two into a single story.

At this point, the so-called conservatives waddle onto the stage in their comfort-fit chinos and golf shirts. They dismiss the claims of the Left, either claiming they are  exaggerating or that the issue is just not important. The crowd is encouraged to boo and hiss at them, which causes their knees to shake. Before long, some of them break ranks and join the Left in jeering at their old colleagues. The crowd keeps booing and the conservative are eventually run off the stage.

Every once in a while, for reasons science has yet to explain, the conservatives do not start to shiver and quake. They hold their ground. This is when the the spotlight illuminates the right side of the stage and we see the Hitler outfit. Over the sound system comes, “Who in the crowd will perform this vital role?” Sure enough, some idiot from a group fond of weird flags runs up on stage, dons the costume and begins to strut around on stage as the crowd throws rotten vegetables.

This is what the Patriot Front did over the weekend. They also took credit for defacing the statue of the blessed George Floyd, peace be upon him. These guys are performing a vital role in the political drama. This is why the Feds are endlessly trying to coopt and create groups that will perform this role. It turns out that the supply of idiots willing to do this without prompting can never meet demand. The secret police make sure the supply is always there so the show can keep staggering on.

The crackdown by the oligarchs on dissidents has had the happy result of a proliferation of new ways to support your favorite creator. If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!

Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.

The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.

Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link.   If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb.  Just email them directly to book at sa***@*********************ns.com.