Long time lurker, first time commenter. I believe that the importance of humor and irony cannot be overstated. The enemy class has firmly staked out the ground of somberness and seriousness which is an absolute blessing. Please let them have itTry to imagine Don Lemon lor Ibram X. Kendi laughing and what they might laugh at. Do you not pity such a man? I certainly do, almost more than the pity I have for serious Trump-clingers who believe him to be gold and not just gold plating.
I have no keen insight beyond this: if you practice joy and humor, it will become a powerful habit. The two operating modes should be light-heartedness and absolute earnestness, never solemnity unless it is utterly ironic. Yarvin has mastered this magnetic combination and Malice is very close. If we are not having fun, hearts and minds will not be won. Imagine a well-orchestrated march of yoked Vitalists across BLM plaza in full circus clown regalia, drilling in perfect unison with lines of Majorettes wielding 6-foot long bright pink dildos.
Im seriously all in on this. There is something seriously sad about the fake laughter of Colbert and Kamala and their followers. Moldbug doesnt need to force his own laughter like they do. His perspective is hilarious and would be even bettter if he adopted a Steven Wright style.
I've been thinking lately, the core principles of a culture or civilization sow the seeds of its own destruction. All else equal, The US can't beat China because the CCP is chiefly concerned with power not principles. They have no qualms with a Uighur concentration camp.
Also, when the ends justify the means you lose any moral high ground and it becomes purely about power. What are we fighting for if we give them up? Just power, and it gives your enemies license discard them as well. You mentioned that you can still hold these values but relax them in pursuit of victory, I hope you are right. If there is ever is a victory.
That said, The establishment already tactically discards rules. And does so seemingly in accordance with the core principle of the meek and unfairly treated being sacred. They have no qualms treating Republicans unfairly because tactically relaxing that rule enables them to seize more power.
I think I'm starting to understand.
Is this a race to the bottom that ends with nothing but the law of the jungle?
When the establishment holds the mic they can punish the conservatives for discarding principles while not having to ever come to terms with their own transgressions. So this still doesn't seem like an effective strategy for victory.
I forgot to mention something. The core principles of a culture or civilization sow the seeds of its own destruction BECAUSE those principles are held sacred, and inflexible then taken to absurdity.
I also upvoted my own comment because it gave me more relative power in exchange for a small principle.
I don't disagree completely (particularly about the moving company part), and the tendency to lose one's virtues in this process also occurred to me. But we won't implement any if we're eliminated by people who are (frankly, have been for years) increasingly openly talking about exterminating us ("ending whiteness" isn't just some benign euphemism). We will implement nothing when we're gone. Our beliefs will go to the grave with us, our virtues are no virtue if they cannot defend themselves (each virtue, classically, has two vices. One of the errors of enlightenment thought was to discard this - treating each good, effectively, as unqualified, rather than as something counterbalanced on both ends. Note that this is what Aristotle meant by moderation [not some squishy centrism] - each virtue is the mean between two vices. But I digress a bit now).
Faced with a tiger in the jungle, do you fight it according to the code duello? What if that tiger is about to eat your child, not just you? Your entire people? You wait till they do it, while issuing challenges via your second? These might seem like rhetorical gotcha questions, but, as I said, I too am troubled by what has happened. And it makes me despise with a hot passion the so-called "leaders" on the so-called "right" that we have had: They could have done something when things would require far less dire action than I think they will, now. But no - they were hollow men leading a toy opposition party, just happy to get the crumbs of tax breaks all the while fundraising on "do you see the latest outrage of the left is perpetuating? Send money! We'll fight it! We'll stand athwart history yelling. . .but doing nothing but being the demon the left needs, not with any real fight." Send money!
IN any case, yes - your concerns are not unwarranted. But: pack for where? Europe? Things are dire there too (E Europe may have a shot, the rest is already in the same trouble we are).
Your comments about counterbalanced virtues is reminiscent of the Buddhist concept of a virtue’s near and far “enemies”. For example: the virtue of compassion has an obvious “far enemy” of cruelty, but a “near enemy” of pity.
There’s a chart of it. Perhaps a similar sort of thing for practical virtues could be designed for what we’re discussing. It sounds like the Aristotelian concept would do nicely.
I wonder about how one can get to the point of feeling detached and compassionate towards those who exert power over you. It's easy to "unconditionally" love pets and small children.
You become the Tiger, remembering that if you can find your balls you are the biggest tiger of all. You eat them instead. They bought this on themselves.
Don’t worry, if you live any remorse fades with time. Along with the other emotions. The eating part is repulsive- afterwards- and shameful. But survival and protecting your family and people is more important. Later will come pride.
Listen if we fight we win, it will be costly.
Appeasement and demoralization over decades will take a terrible toll, but in the end we’ll win. If we fight. If we don’t we’re genocided, they mean to erase whiteness.
Yes I can imagine that. I'm drawn deeply towards it. And then I look at the long game.
Save the world from one amoral power over another? This is a war that never actually reaches a victory condition for either side. It's a war of attrition of principles. It's the slippery slope that ends in the jungle. (I guess we might have a chance outnumbered in the jungle if we don't lose our guns on the ride down).
At the moment I think the best we can do is establish our own media channels via the distributed web ala libp2p maybe urbit (if that shit ever gets off the ground). In other words, things that can't be censored or taken down. Once those are established we need to build momentum. I'm Temped to say apply Alinsky's rules but I'm not even sure those would be effective at that point. Surely by the time a distributed web re emerges the landscape will be so different that no strategy from this period will be viable.
This is a long march approach. possibly many generations.
Be certain we have turned a corner. DeeCee has only now realized they went too far, stole too much- the election. Their reach has exceeded their grasp but they can’t let go. They have no way back and no way forward to hold their gains.
Wesley allen beeler for instance doesn’t care that he may get unlikes on FB, he probably cares that he is free. The DC prosecutors don’t care to hold him. He will not be deplatformed, as he is a gun bearer, oh excuse me security guard.
Gun bearers shall not want for work.
Your capitol now has 25K troops from the provinces crammed literally into every nook and cranny in this town, including weezus. We are for the most part out of sight, and importantly out of smell for the elites. It is undoubtedly unwise to bring the provincials here to imbue the atmosphere of terror, hysteria and be snubbed, to return to all corners of america with contempt bred rapidly in the superspreader of the town at this point.
(As an aside the pictures from the Capitol building are accurate; so weezus at least will gift you all with Herd Immunity from Coofus. Indeed your Congressmen may have it, this may be a unique opportunity to benefit from personal exposure to your representative).
Shall I return I shall have more tails to tell of legions of weezus. I perhaps should mention in context of jumping curbs, rails, and leaving the map altogether that without the Constitution the military is ...unmoored. In Star Trek terms this would be not Evil Kirk and good Kirk and crew coming to the alternative universe but the entire evil starfleet appearing in the “good” universe.
Just in case you didn’t read the ending of Color Revolutions... when they end...its not very pretty. See Syria.
Two views. If you are not my friend you are my enemy. Anyone not my enemy is my friend.
We are in the former position. The GOP insists that it is always in the latter. Conservatism has always thought this way, that is why they have always been cowards. This cowardice (the outer party, the managed party) is why they always lose, why we cannot win. They are more of a problem than the left itself in this.
An example, I have long watched on and off two big alt media political pundits. One I hate & one I love, neither of which is on our side. Ben Shapiro & Jimmy Dore. One is left and one is right. Shapiro is left wing, Dore is right wing. Hun? No, oh no. A la Moldbug, who is giving and taking energy from each side. Shapiro is on the back of 70 years keeping the right from moving more right. He, like Cthulhu slowly swims left. Dore, is the opposite of Shapiro. He does not critique the right, just the left, in fact the left has decided he is right wing, he is not. A simple concept, no, ok, I'll make it simpler. Shapiro is in the right, yet he swims left. Dore is on the left, yet he swims right. Now do you see? What matters in politics is not where someone is, but where he's going, kinda like the stock market. I don't know where we all are, but I hope we all see where we are going.
Good poem, but using the actual tactics of the left—protest, street counterculture, mass movements— will never work because it didn’t even work for the LEFT.
Those worked because they already had the elites on their side, meaning people who already embraced their worldview enough so that their transgressions would be accommodated, little by little, every time. This technique cannot be repeated.
On the other hand, an actual top-down elite counterculture (one based on adherence to truth, beauty and the principles of power Curtis outlined above) is highly desirable.
It definitely will work. Even if you are looking to install an "undemocratic" gov, democratic/popular will is still a powerful force. Being cool is also an incredibly powerful force. If you are cool the mob will follow. The point is to use these tools in genuinely funny/ironic ways. The point of a protest isn't to change minds, its to get PRESS.
"On the other hand, an actual top-down elite counterculture (one based on adherence to truth, beauty and the principles of power Curtis outlined above) is highly desirable."
Forgive me for being petty now. The quantitative limit of daily BTC transactions precludes its general usage beyond a means of daily settlements between, for example, banks or states.
I've installed Urbit several times but only ever posted one message. At the moment I don't have any planets. I guess I'm waiting for the network to stabilise and the interface to become more human-friendly.
I'm digging this with my Sunday morning coffee, man,...tactical nihilism, yeah absolutely, makes a lot of sense but who are we talking about here? Anyone reading Big Curts Substack (BCSx) working their way up the ranks of a Cathedral prestige institution - no interns at Brookings here? Anyone on here crazy or dumb enough to be active in their county republican party? You look at the redpill part of the world - I'm seeing a lot of transgressive idiots, new age QAnoners and Trump dead-enders - there are a handful of people - BCSx, Mike Malice, Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, a few others, but institutions or politics, I just don't see it - for me its keep reading, keep watching, keep your mouth shut and head down the next few years - if this is the Sovietization of dissent under the new old regime, the next few years ain't going to be pretty or have many open doors out there for positive movement, the best shot I see isn't anything "we" do - its overreach and incompetency by the cathedral and perhaps some dumb luck - we can thrive as individuals and families and small communities, we can work to make some small changes to culture and for the near future that's about it at least in the US - am I missing something?
I agree to a point, but I think as the success (and subsequent failure) of "based boomers" Gonal Drump and Jordan Peterson shows. The market for anti-cathedral heroes is vast. And I think it will certainly be a heroic figure who turns the tide in the end.
Depends highly on whatever constitutes "post leftism". One cannot use the ring of Sauron against him. It is designed to serve one end. A leftist can defeat a leftist but a leftist cannot defeat leftism.
We are the leftists now. The "left" has been in power so long and is so married to their status quo how are they anything but the "right"? We are the ones seeking a radical departure.
The Left is the force of entropy and destruction. Thats all it is, and all it will ever be. The left isnt simply defined as "revolutionary". Its much more complicated.
"The Left" are the ones who decided to sit on one side of the Assembly and ever since we've had a horrifically skewed way of interpreting politics based on how mean girls cliquishness resulted in a seating chart. It's really not complicated at all. We want a radical departure from the current order, we're the leftists now. That's it.
"The Ring" is power itself, not the means of acquiring it. The Orcs are bearing down on us and you'd chastise us for fighting back, for fear we become like them?
How did that work out for Isildur? The Left sat on the left side because they represent the destruction of tradition for the sake of destruction. How did their France do? The left isnt any given revolutionary. It is a principle of physics manifested in human action. The principle of entropy. The Right broadly represents order. This is fundamental.
'If you regard the methods of your victory as evil, you will not win' - don't remember who said that and it's entirely likely that I'm butchering the quote. Overall getting strong 'Meditations on Moloch' vibes from this post.
One related issue here is that the Right is currently hobbled by its constant need to police its right wing. The Left has no such problem. At worst, Left wing extremism is ignored (Che is on T-Shirts; Bill Ayers is at Columbia); at best, the Left uses its extreme wing in a “good cop, bad cop” routine to manipulate normies into doing what it wants. Take the Capitol situation: the mainstream Right couldn’t fall over itself with denunciation and apology more if it tried. If there is to be a “post-Left revolutionary party,” how does the Right overcome this two-front war?
Yes, our real problem is republican elites. They just desperately want the lefts approval and think there will be no consequences for throwing us under the bus (such as losing in Georgia).
If the other side had stormed the capital, the democrats would have said it was peaceful and that we really need to address the lack of investment in the qanon community by giving the qanons more money. Why, they would ask, does the other side continue to be cruel and antagonize the MAGA people?
Whataboutism itself falls into this category, ie it's only whataboutism when it's attacking my side and it's valid criticism when directed at the other side. A new revolutionary GOP must simultaneously expose the insincerity of the priests while not appearing as an equally insincere alternative. Civil Rights era demonstrations were excellent at this, forcing the enemy to be the aggressor while genuinely being peaceful in most cases, e.g. sit ins. Antifa attempts to ape this by actually provoking cops, doesn't really work as well with cell phones around.
Don't focus on hypocritical belief systems, doesn't work. Owning true believer libs really only preaches to the choir. Focus on hypocritical priests, and always punch up. Ragging on antifa larpers confirms the belief that they have that antifa is fighting the power.
Many leftists are acutely aware of this, I also think the right needs a symbolic issue like Med4All, such as ending corporate welfare. It's overwhelmingly popular and while good policy, more of an emotional issue than a policy one. Anti war doesn't have quite the same oomph emotionally to struggling americans
You have to go further. Medicare for all? Why can't we have medicare for all? We're spending all the money on the fat cats at raytheon? Well let's nationalize defense manufacturing (Smedley Butler) and use the money for the new Medicare and Public Health administration which will replace several old govt. bureaus also it will be staffed entirely by members of the party. We're going for power here, remember.
Was it a rubicon who once said: “ I wanted to find out then and quickly whether I was a louse like everybody else or a man. Whether I can step over barriers or not, whether I dare stoop to pick up or not, whether I am a trembling creature or whether I have the right”?
How do you win a war when the enemy is nihilism itself ? My thinking is I'd rather lose the war for the values I cherish than win and have nothing left. Victory for its own sake doesn't make me feel good.
This is a call to be strategic nihilists, i.e. realists and pragmatists. The last thing the agents of nihilism expect is to have their own weapons used against them, it seriously messes with their mental frame.
With caveat here that Curtis is right that going out and just aping the tactics of the enemy, esp violence which is both counterproductive and morally wrong, is the wrong path. You have to get creative; as stated get in to the mindset of deploying "weapons" that break their frame, build up your side, and jam their narrative.
I’m not sure I know what a “post-leftist revolutionary party” is? Guess: post-leftist = non-woke defected leftist. Revolutionary party = idk really but I guess literally just a revolutionary party aimed at unseating power. Or is it more of an appeal to a teaming up of post-leftists and current GOP? Am I on the right track?
I see nothing done, talk and settling on a better manifesto is not deeds.
In truth none in history have done less with more.
As for kicking the dogs, why yes the more kicks the dog receives the weaker dogs get. A few hard kicks will kill the dog. In fighting if you are doing injury and your opponent is simply receiving injury - esp kicks - the weaker the kicked and the stronger the kicker.
Chuck Norris for example isn’t seen as the weaker position.
Finally putting the ends at beginning with no means organized and ways as ‘whatever’ shall rally none. Why none now rally.
For me, I think the hardest part is that I try so very, very hard to be even handed. I would go so far as to say I take pride in being even handed.
So when someone, especially someone I love, blantanly disregards their own rules, it wounds me. It's like, why am I even putting so much energy into being fair and even handed.
Their perpetual thumb on the scales is contempt for balance itself.
I shouldn't care, but not caring is hard. The reality is that I'm probably addicted to another drug, not the political heroin leftists take or moldbugs clear pill.
Its a work in progress, but I can get to not caring eventually.
I think I'm like you. To me, reading Yarvin (and others, like Hugo Mercier -- I highly recommend _The Enigma of Reason_, if you haven't already read it) makes me much more detached. I now look a lot less at "is what he says true?" or "how does that square with what he said elsewhere?" and much more at "what are his incentives for saying this?" and "will saying this benefit him?" and "does his saying this indicate anything about how he'll act?"
It's a bit depressing, though ... one of the things, for instance, that I've lost track of is what Yarvin even wants. I think all he wants is order. As long as there's some order, which it's Swiss, Chinese, Singaporean, or whatever, he's happy.
Long time lurker, first time commenter. I believe that the importance of humor and irony cannot be overstated. The enemy class has firmly staked out the ground of somberness and seriousness which is an absolute blessing. Please let them have itTry to imagine Don Lemon lor Ibram X. Kendi laughing and what they might laugh at. Do you not pity such a man? I certainly do, almost more than the pity I have for serious Trump-clingers who believe him to be gold and not just gold plating.
I have no keen insight beyond this: if you practice joy and humor, it will become a powerful habit. The two operating modes should be light-heartedness and absolute earnestness, never solemnity unless it is utterly ironic. Yarvin has mastered this magnetic combination and Malice is very close. If we are not having fun, hearts and minds will not be won. Imagine a well-orchestrated march of yoked Vitalists across BLM plaza in full circus clown regalia, drilling in perfect unison with lines of Majorettes wielding 6-foot long bright pink dildos.
Im seriously all in on this. There is something seriously sad about the fake laughter of Colbert and Kamala and their followers. Moldbug doesnt need to force his own laughter like they do. His perspective is hilarious and would be even bettter if he adopted a Steven Wright style.
Apologies for the typos; please don't get any sperg on me, it's really hard to get out in the wash.
We might end up with some gloomy Shatovs, though we’d all certainly benefit from more Stavrogins.
I've been thinking lately, the core principles of a culture or civilization sow the seeds of its own destruction. All else equal, The US can't beat China because the CCP is chiefly concerned with power not principles. They have no qualms with a Uighur concentration camp.
Also, when the ends justify the means you lose any moral high ground and it becomes purely about power. What are we fighting for if we give them up? Just power, and it gives your enemies license discard them as well. You mentioned that you can still hold these values but relax them in pursuit of victory, I hope you are right. If there is ever is a victory.
That said, The establishment already tactically discards rules. And does so seemingly in accordance with the core principle of the meek and unfairly treated being sacred. They have no qualms treating Republicans unfairly because tactically relaxing that rule enables them to seize more power.
I think I'm starting to understand.
Is this a race to the bottom that ends with nothing but the law of the jungle?
When the establishment holds the mic they can punish the conservatives for discarding principles while not having to ever come to terms with their own transgressions. So this still doesn't seem like an effective strategy for victory.
I think it's time to call the moving company.
I forgot to mention something. The core principles of a culture or civilization sow the seeds of its own destruction BECAUSE those principles are held sacred, and inflexible then taken to absurdity.
I also upvoted my own comment because it gave me more relative power in exchange for a small principle.
I don't disagree completely (particularly about the moving company part), and the tendency to lose one's virtues in this process also occurred to me. But we won't implement any if we're eliminated by people who are (frankly, have been for years) increasingly openly talking about exterminating us ("ending whiteness" isn't just some benign euphemism). We will implement nothing when we're gone. Our beliefs will go to the grave with us, our virtues are no virtue if they cannot defend themselves (each virtue, classically, has two vices. One of the errors of enlightenment thought was to discard this - treating each good, effectively, as unqualified, rather than as something counterbalanced on both ends. Note that this is what Aristotle meant by moderation [not some squishy centrism] - each virtue is the mean between two vices. But I digress a bit now).
Faced with a tiger in the jungle, do you fight it according to the code duello? What if that tiger is about to eat your child, not just you? Your entire people? You wait till they do it, while issuing challenges via your second? These might seem like rhetorical gotcha questions, but, as I said, I too am troubled by what has happened. And it makes me despise with a hot passion the so-called "leaders" on the so-called "right" that we have had: They could have done something when things would require far less dire action than I think they will, now. But no - they were hollow men leading a toy opposition party, just happy to get the crumbs of tax breaks all the while fundraising on "do you see the latest outrage of the left is perpetuating? Send money! We'll fight it! We'll stand athwart history yelling. . .but doing nothing but being the demon the left needs, not with any real fight." Send money!
IN any case, yes - your concerns are not unwarranted. But: pack for where? Europe? Things are dire there too (E Europe may have a shot, the rest is already in the same trouble we are).
Your comments about counterbalanced virtues is reminiscent of the Buddhist concept of a virtue’s near and far “enemies”. For example: the virtue of compassion has an obvious “far enemy” of cruelty, but a “near enemy” of pity.
There’s a chart of it. Perhaps a similar sort of thing for practical virtues could be designed for what we’re discussing. It sounds like the Aristotelian concept would do nicely.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/ArVKq.png
Thanks.
I wonder about how one can get to the point of feeling detached and compassionate towards those who exert power over you. It's easy to "unconditionally" love pets and small children.
You fight to live.
You become the Tiger, remembering that if you can find your balls you are the biggest tiger of all. You eat them instead. They bought this on themselves.
Don’t worry, if you live any remorse fades with time. Along with the other emotions. The eating part is repulsive- afterwards- and shameful. But survival and protecting your family and people is more important. Later will come pride.
Listen if we fight we win, it will be costly.
Appeasement and demoralization over decades will take a terrible toll, but in the end we’ll win. If we fight. If we don’t we’re genocided, they mean to erase whiteness.
> when the ends justify the means you lose any moral high ground
Why? Can’t you imagine someone feeling like it’s the only moral way to act? If you want to save the world?
Yes I can imagine that. I'm drawn deeply towards it. And then I look at the long game.
Save the world from one amoral power over another? This is a war that never actually reaches a victory condition for either side. It's a war of attrition of principles. It's the slippery slope that ends in the jungle. (I guess we might have a chance outnumbered in the jungle if we don't lose our guns on the ride down).
At the moment I think the best we can do is establish our own media channels via the distributed web ala libp2p maybe urbit (if that shit ever gets off the ground). In other words, things that can't be censored or taken down. Once those are established we need to build momentum. I'm Temped to say apply Alinsky's rules but I'm not even sure those would be effective at that point. Surely by the time a distributed web re emerges the landscape will be so different that no strategy from this period will be viable.
This is a long march approach. possibly many generations.
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Leave libp2p to the libs
You’re now fighting, if you fight , for survival.
You may die anyway.
Be certain we have turned a corner. DeeCee has only now realized they went too far, stole too much- the election. Their reach has exceeded their grasp but they can’t let go. They have no way back and no way forward to hold their gains.
Wesley allen beeler for instance doesn’t care that he may get unlikes on FB, he probably cares that he is free. The DC prosecutors don’t care to hold him. He will not be deplatformed, as he is a gun bearer, oh excuse me security guard.
Gun bearers shall not want for work.
Your capitol now has 25K troops from the provinces crammed literally into every nook and cranny in this town, including weezus. We are for the most part out of sight, and importantly out of smell for the elites. It is undoubtedly unwise to bring the provincials here to imbue the atmosphere of terror, hysteria and be snubbed, to return to all corners of america with contempt bred rapidly in the superspreader of the town at this point.
(As an aside the pictures from the Capitol building are accurate; so weezus at least will gift you all with Herd Immunity from Coofus. Indeed your Congressmen may have it, this may be a unique opportunity to benefit from personal exposure to your representative).
Shall I return I shall have more tails to tell of legions of weezus. I perhaps should mention in context of jumping curbs, rails, and leaving the map altogether that without the Constitution the military is ...unmoored. In Star Trek terms this would be not Evil Kirk and good Kirk and crew coming to the alternative universe but the entire evil starfleet appearing in the “good” universe.
Just in case you didn’t read the ending of Color Revolutions... when they end...its not very pretty. See Syria.
Now imagine it without Assad.
Two views. If you are not my friend you are my enemy. Anyone not my enemy is my friend.
We are in the former position. The GOP insists that it is always in the latter. Conservatism has always thought this way, that is why they have always been cowards. This cowardice (the outer party, the managed party) is why they always lose, why we cannot win. They are more of a problem than the left itself in this.
An example, I have long watched on and off two big alt media political pundits. One I hate & one I love, neither of which is on our side. Ben Shapiro & Jimmy Dore. One is left and one is right. Shapiro is left wing, Dore is right wing. Hun? No, oh no. A la Moldbug, who is giving and taking energy from each side. Shapiro is on the back of 70 years keeping the right from moving more right. He, like Cthulhu slowly swims left. Dore, is the opposite of Shapiro. He does not critique the right, just the left, in fact the left has decided he is right wing, he is not. A simple concept, no, ok, I'll make it simpler. Shapiro is in the right, yet he swims left. Dore is on the left, yet he swims right. Now do you see? What matters in politics is not where someone is, but where he's going, kinda like the stock market. I don't know where we all are, but I hope we all see where we are going.
__On the Future of Conservatism__
Some say that the future of conservatism will be
The GOP as post-leftist revolutionary party
Think youths in Che t-shirts with Dishonored tats
Sporting whitey dreads, lattes and MAGA hats
We're so woke we've gone broke!
Cry the hip young folk
Having stormed the capitol, they turn to institutions
In a ruder-than-Rudi middle-wing revolution
So what about Whiteness studies, look at these teeth
As they gleam with a whiteness that's black underneath
With racism out, but clannishness in
And a post-Christian soul that vanquishes Sin
This is a generation called Millennial, contrarian
But turning to be more po-faced, Millenarian
It's time for Hope, and for Hoppe, and for Change
And for Bitcoin to be our medium of exchange
To be a young person in 2021
Is like owning a tiger 'cause you can't own a gun
So out with the old, and in with the new
It's the politics of profit from saying "Fuck you!"
Good poem, but using the actual tactics of the left—protest, street counterculture, mass movements— will never work because it didn’t even work for the LEFT.
Those worked because they already had the elites on their side, meaning people who already embraced their worldview enough so that their transgressions would be accommodated, little by little, every time. This technique cannot be repeated.
On the other hand, an actual top-down elite counterculture (one based on adherence to truth, beauty and the principles of power Curtis outlined above) is highly desirable.
It definitely will work. Even if you are looking to install an "undemocratic" gov, democratic/popular will is still a powerful force. Being cool is also an incredibly powerful force. If you are cool the mob will follow. The point is to use these tools in genuinely funny/ironic ways. The point of a protest isn't to change minds, its to get PRESS.
"On the other hand, an actual top-down elite counterculture (one based on adherence to truth, beauty and the principles of power Curtis outlined above) is highly desirable."
Yes for sure.
Forgive me for being petty now. The quantitative limit of daily BTC transactions precludes its general usage beyond a means of daily settlements between, for example, banks or states.
James are you on urbit? ~walfer-marren
I've installed Urbit several times but only ever posted one message. At the moment I don't have any planets. I guess I'm waiting for the network to stabilise and the interface to become more human-friendly.
When you get a planet up and running you should put in an application to the Dead Link Poets Society: ~walfer-marren/dead-link-poets-society
I'm digging this with my Sunday morning coffee, man,...tactical nihilism, yeah absolutely, makes a lot of sense but who are we talking about here? Anyone reading Big Curts Substack (BCSx) working their way up the ranks of a Cathedral prestige institution - no interns at Brookings here? Anyone on here crazy or dumb enough to be active in their county republican party? You look at the redpill part of the world - I'm seeing a lot of transgressive idiots, new age QAnoners and Trump dead-enders - there are a handful of people - BCSx, Mike Malice, Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, a few others, but institutions or politics, I just don't see it - for me its keep reading, keep watching, keep your mouth shut and head down the next few years - if this is the Sovietization of dissent under the new old regime, the next few years ain't going to be pretty or have many open doors out there for positive movement, the best shot I see isn't anything "we" do - its overreach and incompetency by the cathedral and perhaps some dumb luck - we can thrive as individuals and families and small communities, we can work to make some small changes to culture and for the near future that's about it at least in the US - am I missing something?
I agree to a point, but I think as the success (and subsequent failure) of "based boomers" Gonal Drump and Jordan Peterson shows. The market for anti-cathedral heroes is vast. And I think it will certainly be a heroic figure who turns the tide in the end.
Yarvin is so close to just telling the dimwit MAGA saboteurs on the right “to clean their room”.
Depends highly on whatever constitutes "post leftism". One cannot use the ring of Sauron against him. It is designed to serve one end. A leftist can defeat a leftist but a leftist cannot defeat leftism.
sorry can you translate this into harry potter for me? I've only read one book.
We are the leftists now. The "left" has been in power so long and is so married to their status quo how are they anything but the "right"? We are the ones seeking a radical departure.
The Left is the force of entropy and destruction. Thats all it is, and all it will ever be. The left isnt simply defined as "revolutionary". Its much more complicated.
"The Left" are the ones who decided to sit on one side of the Assembly and ever since we've had a horrifically skewed way of interpreting politics based on how mean girls cliquishness resulted in a seating chart. It's really not complicated at all. We want a radical departure from the current order, we're the leftists now. That's it.
Careful with that ring, Mr. Frodo...
"The Ring" is power itself, not the means of acquiring it. The Orcs are bearing down on us and you'd chastise us for fighting back, for fear we become like them?
How did that work out for Isildur? The Left sat on the left side because they represent the destruction of tradition for the sake of destruction. How did their France do? The left isnt any given revolutionary. It is a principle of physics manifested in human action. The principle of entropy. The Right broadly represents order. This is fundamental.
They’re not rebelling, they’re serving another master.
'If you regard the methods of your victory as evil, you will not win' - don't remember who said that and it's entirely likely that I'm butchering the quote. Overall getting strong 'Meditations on Moloch' vibes from this post.
Genug.
Axe the Super, save Squiggles, burn the building down.
One related issue here is that the Right is currently hobbled by its constant need to police its right wing. The Left has no such problem. At worst, Left wing extremism is ignored (Che is on T-Shirts; Bill Ayers is at Columbia); at best, the Left uses its extreme wing in a “good cop, bad cop” routine to manipulate normies into doing what it wants. Take the Capitol situation: the mainstream Right couldn’t fall over itself with denunciation and apology more if it tried. If there is to be a “post-Left revolutionary party,” how does the Right overcome this two-front war?
Yes, our real problem is republican elites. They just desperately want the lefts approval and think there will be no consequences for throwing us under the bus (such as losing in Georgia).
If the other side had stormed the capital, the democrats would have said it was peaceful and that we really need to address the lack of investment in the qanon community by giving the qanons more money. Why, they would ask, does the other side continue to be cruel and antagonize the MAGA people?
Whataboutism itself falls into this category, ie it's only whataboutism when it's attacking my side and it's valid criticism when directed at the other side. A new revolutionary GOP must simultaneously expose the insincerity of the priests while not appearing as an equally insincere alternative. Civil Rights era demonstrations were excellent at this, forcing the enemy to be the aggressor while genuinely being peaceful in most cases, e.g. sit ins. Antifa attempts to ape this by actually provoking cops, doesn't really work as well with cell phones around.
Don't focus on hypocritical belief systems, doesn't work. Owning true believer libs really only preaches to the choir. Focus on hypocritical priests, and always punch up. Ragging on antifa larpers confirms the belief that they have that antifa is fighting the power.
The proper strategy is to point out the Cathedral working the antifa like marionettes, both in their ideology and irl strategy
Many leftists are acutely aware of this, I also think the right needs a symbolic issue like Med4All, such as ending corporate welfare. It's overwhelmingly popular and while good policy, more of an emotional issue than a policy one. Anti war doesn't have quite the same oomph emotionally to struggling americans
You have to go further. Medicare for all? Why can't we have medicare for all? We're spending all the money on the fat cats at raytheon? Well let's nationalize defense manufacturing (Smedley Butler) and use the money for the new Medicare and Public Health administration which will replace several old govt. bureaus also it will be staffed entirely by members of the party. We're going for power here, remember.
Not the ultimate goal obv but a good wedge issue that points out the glaring hypocrisy of the left currently
Was it a rubicon who once said: “ I wanted to find out then and quickly whether I was a louse like everybody else or a man. Whether I can step over barriers or not, whether I dare stoop to pick up or not, whether I am a trembling creature or whether I have the right”?
Answer: he killed Spotto and found out that he was a trembling creature
1. The answer is certainly not to form a party of political atheists. People hate atheists.
2. I don’t think that the question of the prime directive is something that can or should be brushed aside
3. Non-violence or, at the very least, NAP has to be at the core
I totally agree and feel the change in the air.
Democrats - all socially woke people will align regardless of economic policy including those who support “democracy” abroad
Republicans - all of us who believe in a nationstate, liberty and the four freedoms restoring community
And historically I’m a Democrat but things are weird now
Join us...
How do you win a war when the enemy is nihilism itself ? My thinking is I'd rather lose the war for the values I cherish than win and have nothing left. Victory for its own sake doesn't make me feel good.
This is a call to be strategic nihilists, i.e. realists and pragmatists. The last thing the agents of nihilism expect is to have their own weapons used against them, it seriously messes with their mental frame.
With caveat here that Curtis is right that going out and just aping the tactics of the enemy, esp violence which is both counterproductive and morally wrong, is the wrong path. You have to get creative; as stated get in to the mindset of deploying "weapons" that break their frame, build up your side, and jam their narrative.
I’m not sure I know what a “post-leftist revolutionary party” is? Guess: post-leftist = non-woke defected leftist. Revolutionary party = idk really but I guess literally just a revolutionary party aimed at unseating power. Or is it more of an appeal to a teaming up of post-leftists and current GOP? Am I on the right track?
I'd guess it's just a temporal qualifier. A Ted Cruz Glenn Greenwald gattai would be pretty funny though.
This is not related to anything you posted, but I just wanted to say that you have a truly BASED avatar pic.
It means he wants to run the clock out as long as he can. He forgot to keep legs and put down some roots.
There must be a ceiling, but no floor. Oh dear.
There’s neither.
Based. And these are more or less my politics if you see my comment above
How?
America Socialism with American Characteristics not phrased as such
This presumes current permissive environment.
I see nothing done, talk and settling on a better manifesto is not deeds.
In truth none in history have done less with more.
As for kicking the dogs, why yes the more kicks the dog receives the weaker dogs get. A few hard kicks will kill the dog. In fighting if you are doing injury and your opponent is simply receiving injury - esp kicks - the weaker the kicked and the stronger the kicker.
Chuck Norris for example isn’t seen as the weaker position.
Finally putting the ends at beginning with no means organized and ways as ‘whatever’ shall rally none. Why none now rally.
For me, I think the hardest part is that I try so very, very hard to be even handed. I would go so far as to say I take pride in being even handed.
So when someone, especially someone I love, blantanly disregards their own rules, it wounds me. It's like, why am I even putting so much energy into being fair and even handed.
Their perpetual thumb on the scales is contempt for balance itself.
I shouldn't care, but not caring is hard. The reality is that I'm probably addicted to another drug, not the political heroin leftists take or moldbugs clear pill.
Its a work in progress, but I can get to not caring eventually.
I think I'm like you. To me, reading Yarvin (and others, like Hugo Mercier -- I highly recommend _The Enigma of Reason_, if you haven't already read it) makes me much more detached. I now look a lot less at "is what he says true?" or "how does that square with what he said elsewhere?" and much more at "what are his incentives for saying this?" and "will saying this benefit him?" and "does his saying this indicate anything about how he'll act?"
It's a bit depressing, though ... one of the things, for instance, that I've lost track of is what Yarvin even wants. I think all he wants is order. As long as there's some order, which it's Swiss, Chinese, Singaporean, or whatever, he's happy.