> distributing government land (though I think government-owned land is a valuable asset, so this should be very cautiously done)
I read "cautiously" as: in ways which ultimately empower rightists and disempower leftists.
I don't believe any reparations plan can be implemented. You can't get Republican voters to go along. It's against their moral instincts. They are too politically naive to understand political capital. Especially boomers and genx.
The problem is the base. They accept, and even cheer for, deplorable traitors as leaders. They avoid participating in politics. They have no on the ground game to speak of. Change must be pushed from the top down via organization and education.
I don't think "doomer" is fair to Dave. Christians have an ultimate positive vision: Jesus Christ is Lord forever. You don't see it or appreciate it because you don't believe.
There were a couple of other items which stood out to me, but I've blathered more than enough. Appreciate the article. Keep it up and stay positive.
Interesting article. I’m a trad Cath myself so obviously I’m going to lean towards Dave, but I think the fundamental difference is you think religion is just superstition or whatever dismissed by Darwin when it’s actually much more sophisticated than that, with quite advanced Scholastic Philosophy, might want to check out a guy like Ed Feser for more on this. Also worth noting you just aren’t going to have the 90s no matter how hard you try. The 90s were full of woman like your Queen Elizabeth who were raised in a Christian cultural setting and influenced their behavior for life. Once that’s gone good luck having enough family formation to even have a high enough birth rate to go into the future. Just imagine the average TikTok hoe as a 70 year old woman, do you think that society will be sustainable? No its going to require mass migration to stay alive which is why every great empire that has collapsed has gone through the same cycle of native born men and women not having enough children due to hedonism and then the government recruiting actual helpful members of society through mass migration and this leads to collapse. The reason for this is because belief is required to have the next generation because it requires sacrifice over hedonism and when you habituate yourself from hedonism you don’t break the cycle unless you have a belief in transcendence.
Whatifalthist has a video where he points out that societies rely on religion to support social norms. And the only thing that can support a functioning society for any length of time without religion is a totalitarian state that can enforce norms through mass surveillance, fear, and threat of direct force.
Frankly "reparations in exchange for repealing all civil rights law" will turn out about as well as "amnesty in exchange for stopping all future illegal immigration" did.
You and Walt are not the first to attempt what you call "meta-ploitics" and each time it has worked out about the same.
The problem with attempting to negotiate between political factions as if one is negotiating a business deal is that political factions don't actually have representatives with the ability to negotiate on their behalf.
I really think you should look into the subject of climate change a bit more if you're going to keep complaining about "climate change denial." Climate change is different from abortion, it's already widely recognized as a leftist scam and I would expect that trend to continue. Great post overall though.
If 'the right' wanted to scoop up a bunch of people, especially those who are more secular and techno-optimist, and cut through the left's framing and ownership of climate messaging, they should just become unabashedly & fully-pro nuclear. They can even tie this stance to creating domestic jobs that help America become more energy independent. The fact that they don't this is because of what Arcto points to – fossil fuel lobby.
Nuclear should be promoted, but this does not address the core issue. The core issue is the narrative that fossil fuels are bad. Until that is dealt with, the left will retain "climate change denial" as a sword in its arsenal. The other option I suppose would be to actually try and eliminate fossil fuels so that leftists can't complain about them, but if you think this is any way reasonable or plausible, then again, I encourage you to go and do some serious research.
Getting rid of all fossils fuels is obviously both a bad idea and unrealistic. Personally, if the global/Westernized markets were a lot less financialized, I think the externalities from carbon emissions would naturally be priced into most products and services. Maybe the government would need to provide *temporary* subsidies to small players looking to enter the nuclear industry, as they get off the ground, because it has a prohibitive barrier to entry. Beyond that though, a natural equilibrium would arise that automatically decreases fossil fuel usage except in circumstances where other energy sources are not portable nor storeable enough.
Market preferences and behavior would suggest that the "externalities" of fossil fuels have been greatly exaggerated. Government has been throwing the kitchen sink at this supposed problem and yet people simply refuse to stop using them.
The part where Dave was talking about the hypocrisy around dating in the 90s and early 2000s was good. I am British so I saw the more secular British version of it, but it was definitely there. Part of the experience of dating in that time was discovering that what Michel Houellebecq wrote about the sexual marketplace in his early novels was true. I think the romantic discourse that existed around the topic did reflect the fact that many people in their 20s were still not enjoying a lot of varied casual sex.
What is written in the other thread about your political journey from the left is interesting; have you ever had the chance to visit Belarus? The old European socialist and working class culture still sort of exists there in a Neo-Soviet form. I started visiting in the early 2010s, it was good to see something like that directly and see how that kind of society worked and had been maintained, thanks to the 'Soviet freezer' effect. (The period of stagnation from the 1970s through the era of collapse in the 90s). Now it is relatively hard to visit and has shifted back into police state mode, which again is interesting to observe what a European country without the influence of the EU or liberalism is like.
Not 100% sure why you find Dave's views that strange, he is an American, Christianity is a bigger thing there even if it is shrinking, and we still have a Christian monarchy in Britain. Looking to BAP, Hitler and Alain de Benoist and the GRECE guys for inspiration seems as radical. They did not lack intense belief (looking at how Dominique Venner died) and Vitalism starts to seem like larp if it is not translated into deeds.
I generally agree with your pov about the Anglo D/R becoming too detached from actual politics, it got me into reading some political philosophy that seems more realistic and connected to understanding contemporary political culture, mostly French (I tend to be more interested in France and EE than the US), Marcel Gauchet, Pierre Manent, the guys at the Institut Iliade which is an off-shoot from GRECE. Some interesting writers.
Despite propaganda against it, the people seem to live rather comfortably. It's why the support for the opposition was limited. Lukashenko's support is genuine.
The biggest issue I have with countries like Belarus and Russia is that they still pretend to be liberal democracies, but their elections are corrupt and rigged. Why keep on pretending?
Konstantin Pat's of Estonia, who drafted the 1938 Estonian constitution, had I think the best blueprint of what a 'formalised authoritarian system' could look like.
He does have a decent support base among pensioners, the security services and military and people in small and medium towns and cities. I think in 2020 he did lose the urban middle class and the young, they have had to use very methodical low level intimidation and censorship to control the opposition (for example, all of the guys in my sister-in-law's office ended up in prison at one point due to a curbside protest they staged, and they are accountants). Lots of professionals have been encouraged to leave and are now living in neighbouring countries. The atmosphere is less relaxed than it was pre-2020, the war has also made this worse.
They seem have their own version of boomer truth around democracy. With Lukashenko people have been aware of the electoral fraud for a long time, but there seems to have been widespread belief he was still winning majorities, just more in the ~45% range than the 80%+ official results. People would go and vote because subsidised food, alcohol and entertainment was often on offer around voting booths, and voting is an official expectation if a person works for the state.
For some reason he allowed somewhat credible opposition candidates to run in 2020 for the first time, this is when more people started to lose belief even in a 45% victory. The Estonian constitution looks interesting.
Dave, Dave, Dave sigh. He used to be one of my most admired people on the "dissident right," but he is faking it if he thinks he realist. One of his biggest issues is natalism which is based on the fully delusional meme level cope of culturally homogenous, low crime communities to raise kids in that don't exist in reality. I think he may be losing his shit, TBH I am a little worried about him, he alluded to stress and family problems in a livestream a while ago.
"family problems" you mean because my father is on his deathbed and it's causing me stress, Mr. Raven? Why is that relevant to your point? Please explain.
I am deeply sorry to hear that Dave, I wish you no ill will at all. All you had said that I heard was “family problems.” We are on the same team, against “woke” depravity, and for restoration of western civilization, no need to fight.
> One of his biggest issues is natalism which is based on the fully delusional meme level cope of culturally homogenous, low crime communities to raise kids in that don't exist in reality.
"I'm not going to have kids because I don't want them to grow up in a nation where Whites aren't in the majority".
Yes, and the whites who are still here have been programmed by the (((media))) to have destructive chaotic values. Go ahead and call me a racist, and zero fucks given.
I like where this is going.
> distributing government land (though I think government-owned land is a valuable asset, so this should be very cautiously done)
I read "cautiously" as: in ways which ultimately empower rightists and disempower leftists.
I don't believe any reparations plan can be implemented. You can't get Republican voters to go along. It's against their moral instincts. They are too politically naive to understand political capital. Especially boomers and genx.
The problem is the base. They accept, and even cheer for, deplorable traitors as leaders. They avoid participating in politics. They have no on the ground game to speak of. Change must be pushed from the top down via organization and education.
I don't think "doomer" is fair to Dave. Christians have an ultimate positive vision: Jesus Christ is Lord forever. You don't see it or appreciate it because you don't believe.
There were a couple of other items which stood out to me, but I've blathered more than enough. Appreciate the article. Keep it up and stay positive.
Interesting article. I’m a trad Cath myself so obviously I’m going to lean towards Dave, but I think the fundamental difference is you think religion is just superstition or whatever dismissed by Darwin when it’s actually much more sophisticated than that, with quite advanced Scholastic Philosophy, might want to check out a guy like Ed Feser for more on this. Also worth noting you just aren’t going to have the 90s no matter how hard you try. The 90s were full of woman like your Queen Elizabeth who were raised in a Christian cultural setting and influenced their behavior for life. Once that’s gone good luck having enough family formation to even have a high enough birth rate to go into the future. Just imagine the average TikTok hoe as a 70 year old woman, do you think that society will be sustainable? No its going to require mass migration to stay alive which is why every great empire that has collapsed has gone through the same cycle of native born men and women not having enough children due to hedonism and then the government recruiting actual helpful members of society through mass migration and this leads to collapse. The reason for this is because belief is required to have the next generation because it requires sacrifice over hedonism and when you habituate yourself from hedonism you don’t break the cycle unless you have a belief in transcendence.
It's even worse than that.
Whatifalthist has a video where he points out that societies rely on religion to support social norms. And the only thing that can support a functioning society for any length of time without religion is a totalitarian state that can enforce norms through mass surveillance, fear, and threat of direct force.
Frankly "reparations in exchange for repealing all civil rights law" will turn out about as well as "amnesty in exchange for stopping all future illegal immigration" did.
Did you read anything I wrote?
Yes, it was extremely politically naive.
You didn’t read about how reparations is a meta-political strategy rather than an actual policy we legislate for?
You and Walt are not the first to attempt what you call "meta-ploitics" and each time it has worked out about the same.
The problem with attempting to negotiate between political factions as if one is negotiating a business deal is that political factions don't actually have representatives with the ability to negotiate on their behalf.
I really think you should look into the subject of climate change a bit more if you're going to keep complaining about "climate change denial." Climate change is different from abortion, it's already widely recognized as a leftist scam and I would expect that trend to continue. Great post overall though.
If 'the right' wanted to scoop up a bunch of people, especially those who are more secular and techno-optimist, and cut through the left's framing and ownership of climate messaging, they should just become unabashedly & fully-pro nuclear. They can even tie this stance to creating domestic jobs that help America become more energy independent. The fact that they don't this is because of what Arcto points to – fossil fuel lobby.
Nuclear should be promoted, but this does not address the core issue. The core issue is the narrative that fossil fuels are bad. Until that is dealt with, the left will retain "climate change denial" as a sword in its arsenal. The other option I suppose would be to actually try and eliminate fossil fuels so that leftists can't complain about them, but if you think this is any way reasonable or plausible, then again, I encourage you to go and do some serious research.
Getting rid of all fossils fuels is obviously both a bad idea and unrealistic. Personally, if the global/Westernized markets were a lot less financialized, I think the externalities from carbon emissions would naturally be priced into most products and services. Maybe the government would need to provide *temporary* subsidies to small players looking to enter the nuclear industry, as they get off the ground, because it has a prohibitive barrier to entry. Beyond that though, a natural equilibrium would arise that automatically decreases fossil fuel usage except in circumstances where other energy sources are not portable nor storeable enough.
Market preferences and behavior would suggest that the "externalities" of fossil fuels have been greatly exaggerated. Government has been throwing the kitchen sink at this supposed problem and yet people simply refuse to stop using them.
Nuclear is dumb with the competency crisis coming. Do you trust manager Shaneeqa from Detroit to operate that effectively?
The problem with nuclear is that it's clean and can be safe until something goes wrong. And then you have a spectacular black swan.
Thorium sounds pretty clean though.
Even if something goes wrong?
There's always a risk, sometimes we just have to accept it. Though the competency crisis will put the Nuclear Goal to bed.
I'm in awe of your writing output. How did manage to turn over something of this size, scale, and quality so quickly?
The part where Dave was talking about the hypocrisy around dating in the 90s and early 2000s was good. I am British so I saw the more secular British version of it, but it was definitely there. Part of the experience of dating in that time was discovering that what Michel Houellebecq wrote about the sexual marketplace in his early novels was true. I think the romantic discourse that existed around the topic did reflect the fact that many people in their 20s were still not enjoying a lot of varied casual sex.
What is written in the other thread about your political journey from the left is interesting; have you ever had the chance to visit Belarus? The old European socialist and working class culture still sort of exists there in a Neo-Soviet form. I started visiting in the early 2010s, it was good to see something like that directly and see how that kind of society worked and had been maintained, thanks to the 'Soviet freezer' effect. (The period of stagnation from the 1970s through the era of collapse in the 90s). Now it is relatively hard to visit and has shifted back into police state mode, which again is interesting to observe what a European country without the influence of the EU or liberalism is like.
Not 100% sure why you find Dave's views that strange, he is an American, Christianity is a bigger thing there even if it is shrinking, and we still have a Christian monarchy in Britain. Looking to BAP, Hitler and Alain de Benoist and the GRECE guys for inspiration seems as radical. They did not lack intense belief (looking at how Dominique Venner died) and Vitalism starts to seem like larp if it is not translated into deeds.
I generally agree with your pov about the Anglo D/R becoming too detached from actual politics, it got me into reading some political philosophy that seems more realistic and connected to understanding contemporary political culture, mostly French (I tend to be more interested in France and EE than the US), Marcel Gauchet, Pierre Manent, the guys at the Institut Iliade which is an off-shoot from GRECE. Some interesting writers.
Yeah, I'd like to visit Belarus at some point.
Despite propaganda against it, the people seem to live rather comfortably. It's why the support for the opposition was limited. Lukashenko's support is genuine.
The biggest issue I have with countries like Belarus and Russia is that they still pretend to be liberal democracies, but their elections are corrupt and rigged. Why keep on pretending?
Konstantin Pat's of Estonia, who drafted the 1938 Estonian constitution, had I think the best blueprint of what a 'formalised authoritarian system' could look like.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Estonia#Second_Constitution_(1938%E2%80%931940/92)
He does have a decent support base among pensioners, the security services and military and people in small and medium towns and cities. I think in 2020 he did lose the urban middle class and the young, they have had to use very methodical low level intimidation and censorship to control the opposition (for example, all of the guys in my sister-in-law's office ended up in prison at one point due to a curbside protest they staged, and they are accountants). Lots of professionals have been encouraged to leave and are now living in neighbouring countries. The atmosphere is less relaxed than it was pre-2020, the war has also made this worse.
They seem have their own version of boomer truth around democracy. With Lukashenko people have been aware of the electoral fraud for a long time, but there seems to have been widespread belief he was still winning majorities, just more in the ~45% range than the 80%+ official results. People would go and vote because subsidised food, alcohol and entertainment was often on offer around voting booths, and voting is an official expectation if a person works for the state.
For some reason he allowed somewhat credible opposition candidates to run in 2020 for the first time, this is when more people started to lose belief even in a 45% victory. The Estonian constitution looks interesting.
Dave, Dave, Dave sigh. He used to be one of my most admired people on the "dissident right," but he is faking it if he thinks he realist. One of his biggest issues is natalism which is based on the fully delusional meme level cope of culturally homogenous, low crime communities to raise kids in that don't exist in reality. I think he may be losing his shit, TBH I am a little worried about him, he alluded to stress and family problems in a livestream a while ago.
"family problems" you mean because my father is on his deathbed and it's causing me stress, Mr. Raven? Why is that relevant to your point? Please explain.
I am deeply sorry to hear that Dave, I wish you no ill will at all. All you had said that I heard was “family problems.” We are on the same team, against “woke” depravity, and for restoration of western civilization, no need to fight.
I don't think passively aggressively referencing these things inside an attempt to "own" someone is particularly good form.
Let's table this now, because you having a serious family crisis. But I do want to get back to it after your time of trouble is over.
Get back to what? I am not debating in-group anti-natalism.
Of course you aren’t because you have no argument, only cope.
> One of his biggest issues is natalism which is based on the fully delusional meme level cope of culturally homogenous, low crime communities to raise kids in that don't exist in reality.
"I'm not going to have kids because I don't want them to grow up in a nation where Whites aren't in the majority".
Yes, and the whites who are still here have been programmed by the (((media))) to have destructive chaotic values. Go ahead and call me a racist, and zero fucks given.
And my point went right over your head.
Hint: the reason Whites are becoming a minority is because so few Whites are having kids.