The real superweapon is located in your intro paragraphs. There is discontent that appears both Left and Right but is actually neither. The old categories are breaking down.
For example, the R3VOLution was not all that right wing. It was a ragtag coalition from all over the place: gold bugs, militant southerners, hippie peaceniks, conspiracy theorists, pot heads, hardcore libertarians, and more. I ran a Ron Paul meetup and was surprised at how many hippie lefties showed up, including some serious green types.
I've walked the neighborhoods and I've distributed a libertarian propaganda newspaper in archetypical Portlandia types of coffee shops. "Anti capitalist" is not identical to socialist. Many of the green lefties want locally owned businesses. They want small scale capitalism vs. Wall St. calling the shots. "Buy local" is a battle cry that's Trumpier than Trump. There are Small is Beautiful green "lefties" who have created local currencies and experimented with alternative voting systems.
The overlap between the Green Left and the Froggy Right is much greater than most people realize.
Meanwhile the Wall St. Right has made a devil's alliance with the Marxissist Left...
I hope and pray we've reached a tipping point. There are many subtle signs that the spell has been broken for a critical mass of people, so we have reason to be hopeful. Of course, psychopathic rulers are dangerous when they get desperate, as they feel their control slipping away. Right now we, as a civilization, really are on the razor's edge; the situation is much more of a powder keg than most people realize. I believe the parasitic elites know the current order is unsustainable, so more of them, like Musk, will probably defect. As for the elites who do not defect, will they go down with the ship? And if so, how much damage will they cause on their way down? The next few years are almost certainly going to have some of those "weeks where decades happen."
Great essay. Since so much of the future is uncertain, might as well stay hopeful! The path through these times may be perilous, but good things and great possibilities are on the other side!
"In any case, Musk ultimately grew frustrated enough with the Sacramento iron-clad and impenetrable hysteria that he finally moved his Tesla factory to California. " This sentence should be FROM California TO Texas.
Somewhat tangential to your point, the publication of; The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure, by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein in 1994 was a watershed in the culture of censorship. A positive review of the book was hard to find and the backlash against anyone daring to endorse The Bell Curve's data and conclusions was withering. Yet it was very obviously true. It became unacceptable to discuss the obvious differences in intelligence between ethnic and racial cohorts. The author's conclusions were happy enough. The category differences are remediable, or at least they have been historically. My comment is just a footnote. The media response to the book was eye opening. A virulent, hysteric and darn near unanimous condemnation of the authors and the book. Just for telling the truth.
I think the sacking of Tucker is the most significant event of 2023 thus far. It makes absolutely no sense financially, and even brain dead TV watching boomers might start to question why Fox would do something this crazy. Maybe they will start to realize that the internet can be used for other things besides "looking at pictures of my grandkids".
Slightly off subject.......I would love to see these two charts compiled with crime data from the years prior to the onset of "The Great Society" welfare programs.
In politics, as in war, the character and aims of any 'ally' are of less immediate significance than their capacity and their demonstrated, observable, role.
With that in mind, Musk is potentially as close to a good guy as we may ever see in the oligarchy. His personal motives are irrelevant. The South Africans who ended up in America are a very mixed bunch indeed. There is no reason to believe that Musk is anything like a natural ally to North American populists or populist-adjacent types. However, he has enough brains to realize that turning North America into a parody of ELYSIUM is not going to end well. All sane people understand that.
For now Musk is maneuvring between the competing forces pretty well, better than Rupert Murdoch (with whom he has much in common).
The troon stuff so close to Musk is not surprising. Silicon Valley is full of transhumanists, ultra-progressives, crypto-reactionaries, accelerationists, spooks, chancers and grifters. Throw in all the migrants, the Burners (as in Burning Man), the kids spawned in the Lebensborn programme at the Stanford sperm bank and DARPA and it is quite a mix. Transexuals embody the experience of being alive in a world besotten with the idea of being rid of unchosen obligations/identities of all kinds...there is no better place on earth for them than the Valley.
What matters is not Musk's views, but the momentum of the forces involved. The most powerful actors are now constrained by the unanticipated strength of what they have unleashed: NATO has overplayed its hand, the geopolitical fall-out from Ukraine is resetting the global economy, the much-accelerated deindustrialization of the US since NAFTA is unsustainable while the social peace established by the New Deal and the Civil Rights eras is eroding fast and the Boomers are (to their surprise) aging and dying. Social media is the only means of mass communication with any credibility whatsoever, so Musk gets to play at being king. His decisions are unlikely to be personal but very, very, strategic.
At this point we all just need to chill, touch grass, eat non-processed food and stay alert.
Great stuff!
The real superweapon is located in your intro paragraphs. There is discontent that appears both Left and Right but is actually neither. The old categories are breaking down.
For example, the R3VOLution was not all that right wing. It was a ragtag coalition from all over the place: gold bugs, militant southerners, hippie peaceniks, conspiracy theorists, pot heads, hardcore libertarians, and more. I ran a Ron Paul meetup and was surprised at how many hippie lefties showed up, including some serious green types.
I've walked the neighborhoods and I've distributed a libertarian propaganda newspaper in archetypical Portlandia types of coffee shops. "Anti capitalist" is not identical to socialist. Many of the green lefties want locally owned businesses. They want small scale capitalism vs. Wall St. calling the shots. "Buy local" is a battle cry that's Trumpier than Trump. There are Small is Beautiful green "lefties" who have created local currencies and experimented with alternative voting systems.
The overlap between the Green Left and the Froggy Right is much greater than most people realize.
Meanwhile the Wall St. Right has made a devil's alliance with the Marxissist Left...
Great article!
It reminds me of what the German philosopher Arthur SCHOPENHAUER once said:
“All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
second, it is violently opposed;
and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”
I can not watch/listen to NPR, CNN, .... they are black holes for truth.
lots of blogs I used to read have dissapeared in the great rendering. Substack has been a light in he darkness.
Every lie incurs a debt to truth, and the chickens are finally coming home to roost
MSNBBCNNBCBS
👍🤣🤣🤣🤣
I hope and pray we've reached a tipping point. There are many subtle signs that the spell has been broken for a critical mass of people, so we have reason to be hopeful. Of course, psychopathic rulers are dangerous when they get desperate, as they feel their control slipping away. Right now we, as a civilization, really are on the razor's edge; the situation is much more of a powder keg than most people realize. I believe the parasitic elites know the current order is unsustainable, so more of them, like Musk, will probably defect. As for the elites who do not defect, will they go down with the ship? And if so, how much damage will they cause on their way down? The next few years are almost certainly going to have some of those "weeks where decades happen."
Great essay. Since so much of the future is uncertain, might as well stay hopeful! The path through these times may be perilous, but good things and great possibilities are on the other side!
Made my day! I pray you are right, John Carter!
Interesting
Not for nothing, South Africa is easily the wokest country in the world now. With all the devastating consequences that entails.
"In any case, Musk ultimately grew frustrated enough with the Sacramento iron-clad and impenetrable hysteria that he finally moved his Tesla factory to California. " This sentence should be FROM California TO Texas.
Great analysis. Thanks.
Somewhat tangential to your point, the publication of; The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure, by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein in 1994 was a watershed in the culture of censorship. A positive review of the book was hard to find and the backlash against anyone daring to endorse The Bell Curve's data and conclusions was withering. Yet it was very obviously true. It became unacceptable to discuss the obvious differences in intelligence between ethnic and racial cohorts. The author's conclusions were happy enough. The category differences are remediable, or at least they have been historically. My comment is just a footnote. The media response to the book was eye opening. A virulent, hysteric and darn near unanimous condemnation of the authors and the book. Just for telling the truth.
I think the sacking of Tucker is the most significant event of 2023 thus far. It makes absolutely no sense financially, and even brain dead TV watching boomers might start to question why Fox would do something this crazy. Maybe they will start to realize that the internet can be used for other things besides "looking at pictures of my grandkids".
Extremely well crafted. Okay, so that was three words. Still somewhat economical.
(please delete this comment. sent apparent typos via demios station)
Slightly off subject.......I would love to see these two charts compiled with crime data from the years prior to the onset of "The Great Society" welfare programs.
An insightful piece.
In politics, as in war, the character and aims of any 'ally' are of less immediate significance than their capacity and their demonstrated, observable, role.
With that in mind, Musk is potentially as close to a good guy as we may ever see in the oligarchy. His personal motives are irrelevant. The South Africans who ended up in America are a very mixed bunch indeed. There is no reason to believe that Musk is anything like a natural ally to North American populists or populist-adjacent types. However, he has enough brains to realize that turning North America into a parody of ELYSIUM is not going to end well. All sane people understand that.
For now Musk is maneuvring between the competing forces pretty well, better than Rupert Murdoch (with whom he has much in common).
The troon stuff so close to Musk is not surprising. Silicon Valley is full of transhumanists, ultra-progressives, crypto-reactionaries, accelerationists, spooks, chancers and grifters. Throw in all the migrants, the Burners (as in Burning Man), the kids spawned in the Lebensborn programme at the Stanford sperm bank and DARPA and it is quite a mix. Transexuals embody the experience of being alive in a world besotten with the idea of being rid of unchosen obligations/identities of all kinds...there is no better place on earth for them than the Valley.
What matters is not Musk's views, but the momentum of the forces involved. The most powerful actors are now constrained by the unanticipated strength of what they have unleashed: NATO has overplayed its hand, the geopolitical fall-out from Ukraine is resetting the global economy, the much-accelerated deindustrialization of the US since NAFTA is unsustainable while the social peace established by the New Deal and the Civil Rights eras is eroding fast and the Boomers are (to their surprise) aging and dying. Social media is the only means of mass communication with any credibility whatsoever, so Musk gets to play at being king. His decisions are unlikely to be personal but very, very, strategic.
At this point we all just need to chill, touch grass, eat non-processed food and stay alert.