Excellent summary of where we are and where we need to go. I've read your comments on other stacks but this is my first visit to yours. Glad I clicked.
Thank you so much Suzi! I quit Facebook probably 6 years ago now, though I think I am technically still on it. I never opened a twitter account because I didn't trust myself necessarily to spout off hot-takes in the moment, as my initial read on things can be ferocious, it being healthier for me and probably the world to think on it for awhile. Should I begin to use any of the alternative media sites I will surely let all know. My best to you and your son.
I totally agree. Backing a competing political party is not going to resolve this issue when it is the entire current political establishment that is at the root of the problem. Infiltration of the establishment would be more useful but only to serve the purpose of helping to bring it down so that it can be replaced with something better for the people of society.
There is no reforming this leviathan. There is throwing sand in it's gears and preparing for the day it finally seizes up, and then rebuilding, while preventing the corporate globalists swooping in with their globally centralized digital currency.
"Infiltration of the establishment would be more useful but only to serve the purpose of helping to bring it down so that it can be replaced with something better for the people of society."
This is exactly what the woke have done during the past decade or two. It is what we will now need to do in reverse. They rotted all of our institutions from the inside. We now need to heal them, or isolate them as we build our own institutions. They were very effective in their subtle but steady subversion of all of our institutions. Enough people are on the verge of waking up that this won't go on much longer before there is a huge counter-revolution against the woke.
I like this essay, except for the conclusion. An anarchist and a libertarian have nothing to conserve, and cannot conserve anything. If you do want to conserve Western civilization, anarchy cannot do so. Having said all that, I would still prefer the minimum "archy" (minarchy?) that can conserve Judeo-Christian Western civilization.
I can't speak for libertarianism, but anarchy is a manifold thing. There are socialist anarchists and there are free-market anarchists as example, with a thousand shades in between. I call myself a philosophical anarchist, insofar as I don't see anarchy as a political stance as much as I do a philosophical one. As for not being able to conserve anything, much of my point is, the conservative movement might depose the woke and globalists, but not without opening up the tent to all those who believe in freedom.
I agree with many of the things said by the 'conservatives'. It is probably more accurate to say I agree with truly spiritual people, whatever their religion might be, but certainly NOT the evangelical 'Christians' that seem to dominate team red.
I have lived under the red evangelical boot my entire life. It has become second nature to navigate this world with this boot on my neck. The fact that the boot is changing color isn't that big of a deal to me, I will learn to navigate under this boot too.
Would I prefer to not have any boot at all? Of course. But I will NEVER support the red boot (and thus 'conservatives'). For me, it is mostly amusing to see team red squirm uncomfortably coming to terms with what they have wrought. Namely, the pendulum swinging to the other side. They made their bed, now they can lie in it, but I won't be joining them, EVER.
I hesitated posting this after I wrote it, in part for that reason. Raised evangelical, I have zero desire to live under the neo-theocratic notions of many of that crowd. But the greater bulk of conservatives are moms and dads with kids, trying to navigate all this. At this point I would rather try to reason with conservatives, than accept a transhumanist, anti-human future policed by woke.
I get it, believe me. I want to go there, I really do. We are probably very closely aligned in philosophy. My guess is there are many in a similar boat.
But I just can't get past the fact that the moms and dads with kids stood idly by and did NOTHING, said NOTHING, while seeing racism, police brutality, corruption, government overreach, and countless other travesties inflicted upon the public.
Even now, they still cannot acknowledge, as an example, the systemic racism that pervades this country. And their IS systemic racism. All one has to do is read a little history and observe how the legal system works. Anyone denying it is being intellectually dishonest.
There is systemic racism, but there is also if we are being intellectually honest, a cultural antagonism to the system that precludes free association in that system, that is considerably less prominent in minority communities that are not African American. And now the pendulum has swung in some liberal cities, such that crime is treated like an acceptable response to oppression. Here in Minneapolis 2021 saw the highest crime rates in a generation. 2022 is dwarfing 2021. Crime is getting worse, increasingly out of control and nobody seems to want to talk about the fact that after the defund the police movement started, black on black murders in America went from 8000 per year to 10,000+.
> Surely there are trans and they should receive all the respect befitting any citizen of America.
There are delusional people. The specific delusions depend on what's fashionable. A century ago men thought they were Napoleon. Today men think they're women.
A man is free to be delusional. Imposing that delusion on the rest of us in this case seems to be about normalizing pederasty and otherwise emasculating men and colonizing women. I have clarified that elsewhere.
I just found your substack through Mickey Z's,and I do resonate with much of what I have read of yours. However, I do not think conservatives are going to help heal this world any more than the liberal. If you want an example of why, go to the comment section of bad cattitudes article you linked to. While the article itself was fine, the insanity displayed in the comment section is frightening in its ignorance. Aside from couple decent comments, the people on there are missing the big picture entirely. They decry public education, then ramble endlessly about the importance of work, money, paying taxes and being a "good citizen". They have done well within this System, and desperately want to see its continuation. Sadly, I think they must lose everything, just like the woke, before any real thoughts that weren't fed to them by the system will begin to percolate within them.
Thanks for the feedback, Ann, and welcome to my substack.
It is true, the right is just as propagandized as the left, much of it off in Netherland. This post was simply me trying to articulate a need, not really expecting for it to get much traction or make much difference. Though I will say, it is the most read post of mine here by orders of magnitude, so it did strike something of a nerve.
The Republican party is in no way capable of addressing America's myriad problems. I'm confident though there are many conservative allies for what is truly needed.
Excellent summary of where we are and where we need to go. I've read your comments on other stacks but this is my first visit to yours. Glad I clicked.
A good summary of the key points.
Excellent . Every day one finds a new dissident and a freedom activist is a good day Paul Scott > New Zealand
My 33-year-old son lives in Minneapolis. Oh my Lord, how I wish you were friends. He’s an amazing person, but I wish he would just wake up.
You are brilliant and a wonderful writer. I would love to follow you on Facebook and Twitter if you even use them. Please advise.
My hat is off to you.
Thank you so much Suzi! I quit Facebook probably 6 years ago now, though I think I am technically still on it. I never opened a twitter account because I didn't trust myself necessarily to spout off hot-takes in the moment, as my initial read on things can be ferocious, it being healthier for me and probably the world to think on it for awhile. Should I begin to use any of the alternative media sites I will surely let all know. My best to you and your son.
I totally agree. Backing a competing political party is not going to resolve this issue when it is the entire current political establishment that is at the root of the problem. Infiltration of the establishment would be more useful but only to serve the purpose of helping to bring it down so that it can be replaced with something better for the people of society.
There is no reforming this leviathan. There is throwing sand in it's gears and preparing for the day it finally seizes up, and then rebuilding, while preventing the corporate globalists swooping in with their globally centralized digital currency.
"Infiltration of the establishment would be more useful but only to serve the purpose of helping to bring it down so that it can be replaced with something better for the people of society."
This is exactly what the woke have done during the past decade or two. It is what we will now need to do in reverse. They rotted all of our institutions from the inside. We now need to heal them, or isolate them as we build our own institutions. They were very effective in their subtle but steady subversion of all of our institutions. Enough people are on the verge of waking up that this won't go on much longer before there is a huge counter-revolution against the woke.
This was fabulous...found you on Mickey Z's substack.....
I like this essay, except for the conclusion. An anarchist and a libertarian have nothing to conserve, and cannot conserve anything. If you do want to conserve Western civilization, anarchy cannot do so. Having said all that, I would still prefer the minimum "archy" (minarchy?) that can conserve Judeo-Christian Western civilization.
Good luck with this project!
I can't speak for libertarianism, but anarchy is a manifold thing. There are socialist anarchists and there are free-market anarchists as example, with a thousand shades in between. I call myself a philosophical anarchist, insofar as I don't see anarchy as a political stance as much as I do a philosophical one. As for not being able to conserve anything, much of my point is, the conservative movement might depose the woke and globalists, but not without opening up the tent to all those who believe in freedom.
I agree with many of the things said by the 'conservatives'. It is probably more accurate to say I agree with truly spiritual people, whatever their religion might be, but certainly NOT the evangelical 'Christians' that seem to dominate team red.
I have lived under the red evangelical boot my entire life. It has become second nature to navigate this world with this boot on my neck. The fact that the boot is changing color isn't that big of a deal to me, I will learn to navigate under this boot too.
Would I prefer to not have any boot at all? Of course. But I will NEVER support the red boot (and thus 'conservatives'). For me, it is mostly amusing to see team red squirm uncomfortably coming to terms with what they have wrought. Namely, the pendulum swinging to the other side. They made their bed, now they can lie in it, but I won't be joining them, EVER.
I hesitated posting this after I wrote it, in part for that reason. Raised evangelical, I have zero desire to live under the neo-theocratic notions of many of that crowd. But the greater bulk of conservatives are moms and dads with kids, trying to navigate all this. At this point I would rather try to reason with conservatives, than accept a transhumanist, anti-human future policed by woke.
I get it, believe me. I want to go there, I really do. We are probably very closely aligned in philosophy. My guess is there are many in a similar boat.
But I just can't get past the fact that the moms and dads with kids stood idly by and did NOTHING, said NOTHING, while seeing racism, police brutality, corruption, government overreach, and countless other travesties inflicted upon the public.
Even now, they still cannot acknowledge, as an example, the systemic racism that pervades this country. And their IS systemic racism. All one has to do is read a little history and observe how the legal system works. Anyone denying it is being intellectually dishonest.
There is systemic racism, but there is also if we are being intellectually honest, a cultural antagonism to the system that precludes free association in that system, that is considerably less prominent in minority communities that are not African American. And now the pendulum has swung in some liberal cities, such that crime is treated like an acceptable response to oppression. Here in Minneapolis 2021 saw the highest crime rates in a generation. 2022 is dwarfing 2021. Crime is getting worse, increasingly out of control and nobody seems to want to talk about the fact that after the defund the police movement started, black on black murders in America went from 8000 per year to 10,000+.
Thank you for your philosophical discourse on the American/Global tapestry of cultures and histories.
💯💯💯
> Surely there are trans and they should receive all the respect befitting any citizen of America.
There are delusional people. The specific delusions depend on what's fashionable. A century ago men thought they were Napoleon. Today men think they're women.
A man is free to be delusional. Imposing that delusion on the rest of us in this case seems to be about normalizing pederasty and otherwise emasculating men and colonizing women. I have clarified that elsewhere.
I just found your substack through Mickey Z's,and I do resonate with much of what I have read of yours. However, I do not think conservatives are going to help heal this world any more than the liberal. If you want an example of why, go to the comment section of bad cattitudes article you linked to. While the article itself was fine, the insanity displayed in the comment section is frightening in its ignorance. Aside from couple decent comments, the people on there are missing the big picture entirely. They decry public education, then ramble endlessly about the importance of work, money, paying taxes and being a "good citizen". They have done well within this System, and desperately want to see its continuation. Sadly, I think they must lose everything, just like the woke, before any real thoughts that weren't fed to them by the system will begin to percolate within them.
Thanks for the feedback, Ann, and welcome to my substack.
It is true, the right is just as propagandized as the left, much of it off in Netherland. This post was simply me trying to articulate a need, not really expecting for it to get much traction or make much difference. Though I will say, it is the most read post of mine here by orders of magnitude, so it did strike something of a nerve.
The Republican party is in no way capable of addressing America's myriad problems. I'm confident though there are many conservative allies for what is truly needed.