Charlottesville
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.
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: the Trayvon Martin killing, the Michael Brown killing, and of course Trump, who is the second coming of Hitler to the left. An in-your-face pro-white march was obviously going to plug right into their moral narrative and trigger moral outrage. Plus, the crowd was out of control and the circumstances were out of control, so the whole thing got out of hand quickly. To top it off, someone died. Now, I know that is almost entirely the fault of the authorities and the leftist rioters, not the "Nazis". But in a situation like that, the narrative trumps the truth.
And that brings me to why Antifa and other violent leftists get a pass and "Nazis" don't. Leftism fits the dominant moral paradigm of the modern West: Humanism. The core value of Humanism is altruism: being nice to others. Leftism claims to be altruistic. It is about "social justice", "helping victims", etc. This moral crusade fits the dominant moral paradigm, which is why leftists get a pass for their violent behavior, while "Nazis" don't. Everyone in the West has gone through years of conditioning that "Nazis" and "white supremacists" are evil, and it is OK to hate people who fall into those categories.
More generally, communism as an ideology gets a pass for its death toll because communism fits the dominant moral paradigm. In theory, communism is altruistic. Its goal is to help the poor and downtrodden, and so the effects of communism are always blamed on something other than the ideology. Nazism, on the other hand, is viewed as an evil ideology, and its death toll is viewed as a direct consequence of the ideology, not an accident of history. Nazis are moral outsiders. Communists are viewed as misguided or overly idealistic. Nazis are viewed as pure evil.
Of course, leftists aren't actually altruistic. They are selfish like everyone else. But, like almost everyone else, they pretend to be altruistic. The pretense of altruism is based on virtue-signaling. Instead of actually helping people, they demand "justice" for "victims". This is a cheap way of signaling virtue. This creates a demand for "victims" to use as virtue-signaling props. That's one reason why leftists are so quick to jump on anything that seems to fit their moral narrative: they are desperate to find white men behaving badly.
Also, people love to hate. We have an innate capacity for hate. Just as a cat wants to hunt even if it gets its food from a can, humans want to fight wars even if we don't need to. War just feels good, at least if you win. Because Humanism's in-group is humanity, that leaves Humanists without many morally acceptable targets for hatred. For leftists, the only acceptable targets of hate are "haters" (ironically): racists, sexists, xenophobes, etc., if they are white men. Those are the only socially acceptable targets of hatred. Leftists, and normies in general, are desperate for socially acceptable targets to unleash their hatred on. Nazis make the perfect target.
As an aside, Humanism will always lead to something like Leftism, because people need an out-group and people want a cheap way to virtue signal. Actual altruism is hard, so no one wants to do it. Leftism offers people an out-group to hate (the oppressors) and a cheap way to signal virtue to the in-group.
So, that's why leftists are so hateful toward Trump and "Nazis", and also why they don't really care about the truth. They want something that fits their moral narrative, for virtue-signaling purposes and to indulge their hatred. The leftists roaming the streets with baseball bats to beat up Nazis are not brave warriors fighting against a real threat. They are cowardly sycophants and conformists using Nazis as a safe outlet for their hatred.
At Charlottesville the authorities were complicit in creating a riot. This is an example of anarcho-tyranny: the state using the mob to crack down on a minority by selectively enforcing the law. Ironically, that is one of the reasons the real Nazis were able to seize power in Germany: the authorities went easy on them. Hitler attempted a putsch (revolution) and instead of being shot for treason he was put in a cushy jail where he wrote Mein Kampf. Anarcho-tyranny is a common way that governments extend their power beyond its legal bounds.
Why do the authorities take the side of the leftists? Because the moral paradigm of our culture is leftist. Everyone has been indoctrinated into leftist/Humanist ideals and myths from an early age. That moral paradigm is now associated with the power structures of our society, even the police and military. The police march in gay pride parades and preferentially hire racial minorities and women. They will go along with the dominant power structure and dominant moral paradigm. Everyone has been trained that racism is the ultimate sin.
There are other reasons that powerful people in our society promote leftism. As long as leftism does not demand a radical redistribution of existing wealth, the extremely wealthy will benefit from it, because it keeps their potential competition down. That's true even if leftist policies make the rich poorer in absolute terms. Once you have enough wealth to live in comfort, the accumulation of wealth becomes a zero-sum game for social status and power. The wealthy are concerned with their relative positions in the social hierarchy, not with the absolute amount of wealth that they have. Socialism helps the wealthy to stay on top, because it reduces market competition.
Mega-corporations such as Google and Apple push a social justice agenda because it benefits elites, but also because it is part of their culture and our culture. They use "social justice" as a marketing device. They use it to signal virtue in the the same way that individuals do. Also, corporate culture is pozzed because it is full of good little B-student conformists who went to college and were indoctrinated into the religion of Humanism and its social justice sect.
We now face a version of 1984 in which corporate power is the main agent of totalitarian mind control. Mega-corporations are shutting down free speech in the name of "social justice" and "fighting hate". This is about controlling the narrative and thus controlling the minds of the masses. There is not much to say about this, except that it is very scary, especially that almost no one seems to care.
Now, how can we fight the culture war going forward? It will be more difficult as a result of Charlottesville, unfortunately. The "UniteTheRight" event should have been titled "UndermineTheRight" because that was the effect. It will be much harder for dissidents of the right (or simply of the non-left) to speak and organize going forward. However, such is life. Let's assume we have some freedom of speech for some time to come. What can we do?
The key to fighting the left is to bring out their internal contradictions. Instead of reinforcing their moral narrative, we have to poke holes in it. The leftist position is maintained by denial of reality, outright lying, hypocrisy, censorship, childhood indoctrination, and so on. Simply telling the truth is the best tactic for fighting the left. In addition, we need to exploit the internal conflicts between the different factions of the leftist-establishment coalition. Many academic liberals could be pulled away from the left, and so could many Asians and Hispanics. Not by white nationalism, of course, but by a more moderate, pragmatic right wing. Muslims will not get along with feminists and gays for long. The police don't get along with the anarcho-communist mob. We need to bring out the functional and logical conflicts within leftism.
Can we just sit back and wait for the left to destroy itself? Without opposition, the left would eventually destroy itself, but in the process it would also destroy our civilization. I don't think we can afford to sit back and wait. We have to try to stop it. But now is a good time for a tactical retreat.
Last but not least, what can we do as individuals as our civilization slides into dystopia?
Don't panic. Don't go rogue and do something stupid. Be pragmatic and realistic, not idealistic. Separate the personal from the political. Get a job, find a nice girl and make some babies, but don't expect a peaceful, middle class life. Don't invest yourself too deeply in a system that hates you and is going to collapse eventually. Take what you can from that system, but maintain a certain aloofness from it. Don't buy property in the city. Don't expect a corporation to reward you in the long run. Keep a gun and ammunition in a safe place, because one day you might need it. Don't invest yourself too much in fighting the system. You can't change history by yourself, so don't allow politics to keep you from personal success. On the other hand, you should seek out politically like-minded people and form networks with them. In short, engage with the post-modern world, but lean out and prepare for dark times ahead.
Good luck.
- 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: the Trayvon Martin killing, the Michael Brown killing, and of course Trump, who is the second coming of Hitler to the left. An in-your-face pro-white march was obviously going to plug right into their moral narrative and trigger moral outrage. Plus, the crowd was out of control and the circumstances were out of control, so the whole thing got out of hand quickly. To top it off, someone died. Now, I know that is almost entirely the fault of the authorities and the leftist rioters, not the "Nazis". But in a situation like that, the narrative trumps the truth.
And that brings me to why Antifa and other violent leftists get a pass and "Nazis" don't. Leftism fits the dominant moral paradigm of the modern West: Humanism. The core value of Humanism is altruism: being nice to others. Leftism claims to be altruistic. It is about "social justice", "helping victims", etc. This moral crusade fits the dominant moral paradigm, which is why leftists get a pass for their violent behavior, while "Nazis" don't. Everyone in the West has gone through years of conditioning that "Nazis" and "white supremacists" are evil, and it is OK to hate people who fall into those categories.
More generally, communism as an ideology gets a pass for its death toll because communism fits the dominant moral paradigm. In theory, communism is altruistic. Its goal is to help the poor and downtrodden, and so the effects of communism are always blamed on something other than the ideology. Nazism, on the other hand, is viewed as an evil ideology, and its death toll is viewed as a direct consequence of the ideology, not an accident of history. Nazis are moral outsiders. Communists are viewed as misguided or overly idealistic. Nazis are viewed as pure evil.
Of course, leftists aren't actually altruistic. They are selfish like everyone else. But, like almost everyone else, they pretend to be altruistic. The pretense of altruism is based on virtue-signaling. Instead of actually helping people, they demand "justice" for "victims". This is a cheap way of signaling virtue. This creates a demand for "victims" to use as virtue-signaling props. That's one reason why leftists are so quick to jump on anything that seems to fit their moral narrative: they are desperate to find white men behaving badly.
Also, people love to hate. We have an innate capacity for hate. Just as a cat wants to hunt even if it gets its food from a can, humans want to fight wars even if we don't need to. War just feels good, at least if you win. Because Humanism's in-group is humanity, that leaves Humanists without many morally acceptable targets for hatred. For leftists, the only acceptable targets of hate are "haters" (ironically): racists, sexists, xenophobes, etc., if they are white men. Those are the only socially acceptable targets of hatred. Leftists, and normies in general, are desperate for socially acceptable targets to unleash their hatred on. Nazis make the perfect target.
As an aside, Humanism will always lead to something like Leftism, because people need an out-group and people want a cheap way to virtue signal. Actual altruism is hard, so no one wants to do it. Leftism offers people an out-group to hate (the oppressors) and a cheap way to signal virtue to the in-group.
So, that's why leftists are so hateful toward Trump and "Nazis", and also why they don't really care about the truth. They want something that fits their moral narrative, for virtue-signaling purposes and to indulge their hatred. The leftists roaming the streets with baseball bats to beat up Nazis are not brave warriors fighting against a real threat. They are cowardly sycophants and conformists using Nazis as a safe outlet for their hatred.
At Charlottesville the authorities were complicit in creating a riot. This is an example of anarcho-tyranny: the state using the mob to crack down on a minority by selectively enforcing the law. Ironically, that is one of the reasons the real Nazis were able to seize power in Germany: the authorities went easy on them. Hitler attempted a putsch (revolution) and instead of being shot for treason he was put in a cushy jail where he wrote Mein Kampf. Anarcho-tyranny is a common way that governments extend their power beyond its legal bounds.
Why do the authorities take the side of the leftists? Because the moral paradigm of our culture is leftist. Everyone has been indoctrinated into leftist/Humanist ideals and myths from an early age. That moral paradigm is now associated with the power structures of our society, even the police and military. The police march in gay pride parades and preferentially hire racial minorities and women. They will go along with the dominant power structure and dominant moral paradigm. Everyone has been trained that racism is the ultimate sin.
There are other reasons that powerful people in our society promote leftism. As long as leftism does not demand a radical redistribution of existing wealth, the extremely wealthy will benefit from it, because it keeps their potential competition down. That's true even if leftist policies make the rich poorer in absolute terms. Once you have enough wealth to live in comfort, the accumulation of wealth becomes a zero-sum game for social status and power. The wealthy are concerned with their relative positions in the social hierarchy, not with the absolute amount of wealth that they have. Socialism helps the wealthy to stay on top, because it reduces market competition.
Mega-corporations such as Google and Apple push a social justice agenda because it benefits elites, but also because it is part of their culture and our culture. They use "social justice" as a marketing device. They use it to signal virtue in the the same way that individuals do. Also, corporate culture is pozzed because it is full of good little B-student conformists who went to college and were indoctrinated into the religion of Humanism and its social justice sect.
We now face a version of 1984 in which corporate power is the main agent of totalitarian mind control. Mega-corporations are shutting down free speech in the name of "social justice" and "fighting hate". This is about controlling the narrative and thus controlling the minds of the masses. There is not much to say about this, except that it is very scary, especially that almost no one seems to care.
Now, how can we fight the culture war going forward? It will be more difficult as a result of Charlottesville, unfortunately. The "UniteTheRight" event should have been titled "UndermineTheRight" because that was the effect. It will be much harder for dissidents of the right (or simply of the non-left) to speak and organize going forward. However, such is life. Let's assume we have some freedom of speech for some time to come. What can we do?
The key to fighting the left is to bring out their internal contradictions. Instead of reinforcing their moral narrative, we have to poke holes in it. The leftist position is maintained by denial of reality, outright lying, hypocrisy, censorship, childhood indoctrination, and so on. Simply telling the truth is the best tactic for fighting the left. In addition, we need to exploit the internal conflicts between the different factions of the leftist-establishment coalition. Many academic liberals could be pulled away from the left, and so could many Asians and Hispanics. Not by white nationalism, of course, but by a more moderate, pragmatic right wing. Muslims will not get along with feminists and gays for long. The police don't get along with the anarcho-communist mob. We need to bring out the functional and logical conflicts within leftism.
Can we just sit back and wait for the left to destroy itself? Without opposition, the left would eventually destroy itself, but in the process it would also destroy our civilization. I don't think we can afford to sit back and wait. We have to try to stop it. But now is a good time for a tactical retreat.
Last but not least, what can we do as individuals as our civilization slides into dystopia?
Don't panic. Don't go rogue and do something stupid. Be pragmatic and realistic, not idealistic. Separate the personal from the political. Get a job, find a nice girl and make some babies, but don't expect a peaceful, middle class life. Don't invest yourself too deeply in a system that hates you and is going to collapse eventually. Take what you can from that system, but maintain a certain aloofness from it. Don't buy property in the city. Don't expect a corporation to reward you in the long run. Keep a gun and ammunition in a safe place, because one day you might need it. Don't invest yourself too much in fighting the system. You can't change history by yourself, so don't allow politics to keep you from personal success. On the other hand, you should seek out politically like-minded people and form networks with them. In short, engage with the post-modern world, but lean out and prepare for dark times ahead.
Good luck.
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