The Wayward Axolotl

Now that we have a little distance from the Charlottesville disaster, and we've experienced some of the aftermath, it's a good time to think about the alt-right, the alt-left, and what is going on in the United States these days. It isn't going to be fun to dig through this mess, but it has to be done. Here are some of the things I want to discuss. I'll list them first and then talk a bit about each one. Why the rally was a big mistake. Why Antifa gets a pass and Nazis don't. Why leftists love to hate on Nazis. Anarcho-tyranny for the US. The corporate crackdown on free speech. Strategies for saving the West from itself. Strategies for saving yourself from the West. OK, here we go. The rally was a huge mistake because it played into the moral narrative of the left. The left is desperately hungry for events that fit its moral narrative of evil white males being oppressive to victim class X. They jump on everything that remotely resembles this narrative:...

Human nature isn't equipped to deal with the problems that we currently face, as individuals, as societies, and as a species. Long term solutions to social problems require creating systems that are stable. They require systems-thinking, not emotional tribalism. Unfortunately, systems-theoretic solutions to problems are politically unpopular, because they don't engage people's social emotions. As I have said before (and will probably say again), we evolved to live in small groups that were perpetually at war. They were internally cooperative (with some competition) and externally competitive (with some cooperation). Outsiders were divided into strangers, toward whom the group was indifferent, and enemies, toward whom the group was violent. Enemies were outsiders who were in conflict with the group. That conflict could be based on a history of violence (making each side incapable of cooperation) or on a conflict over limited resources. In most cases it was both. Just a...