An interesting meme crossed my path today. Perhaps worth commenting on? The GIF linked is a variation of an old StoneToss comic called “Opposites Attract”. It’s probably not “old” in any real sense, but if you have been to right-wing spheres online this last half-decade then you’ve all seen this strip re-memed with each new iteration of the culture war since 2018.
What you're saying here certainly rings true to me, as a prediction. We will be forced, as Lewis would say, to finally have faces and then come face to face for the first time, with the world and each other. The first challenge for us will be navigating these hardships, simply as hardships. The second, dealing with those who find the world isn't theirs anymore. Morgoth's recent post about being a good man among a bunch of vicious brutes comes to mind.
When those who openly proclaimed their moral victimhood and secretly reveled in their officially sanctioned status have both ripped away from them by this political splintering, they'll be pissed and violent to boot. When those who believed we were nothing but obsolete relics collide with the eternal truths of mankind, they'll want someone to blame for the death of their dream.
Worse still, the authorities used to holding power and some semblance of stability through optics and containment will see their power and rank slipping through their fingers. What happens when foxes, forced in the lion's role, panic?
As you said some years back, "It won't be 'the government doxxed me.' It will be 'the government doxxed me and men with machetes just showed up outside my door.'"
There are so many examples of this confusion. It's afflicting not just the left but also equally the right. For instance the Islam debate. Everyone on the left supports Islam, even though it seems to be their natural enemy, and everyone on the right opposes Islam, even though on cultural issues it seems to be their natural ally. Muslims for their part view both as enemies to be destroyed. Every time the conservative talking points go something like this:
"Mass-immigration of Muslims is horrible. Look at the extreme fundamentalist positions they are advocating. That doesn't look like diversity to me. The left are self-destructive hypocrites."
I understand why conservatives are terrified of Islam. It is an external threat that promises to replace our ethnicities, culture, and religion with a foreign one. What's really bizarre to me is not the opposition to Islam, though. It is how conservatives start talking like leftists when criticizing Islam. The problem with Islam from what I hear all the time seems to be that they are anti-homosexual, have strict sexual roles, and are religious fundamentalists. But these are actually their virtues. Their vices are that they are anti-Christian, misapply their principles, and are currently aiding our enemies to hasten our destruction. Pointing out the hypocrisy on the left regarding the contradiction obviously apparent in their embrace of Muslims only works if we assume the values the left is failing to defend are actually worth anything, which they obviously aren't.
Under closer analysis, many of those on the right who oppose Islam, especially in countries like Germany, really are just liberals trying to preserve an older, more coherent version of their ideology. But that vision of a gay, tolerant utopia is just as insane as what is now replacing it. As far as I can tell the only influential actors with any coherent principles on the world stage right now are Muslims, though they're certainly willing to conceal their ultimate ends if it gains them power for a time. Everyone else, whether the Russians, the Chinese, the mainstream left, the internet far-left, the mainstream conservatives, even many on the dissident right, all of them, seem to lack any coherent understanding of what they actually stand for, changing their rhetoric routinely depending on the current thing, often resulting in contradictions from what they say in one context and in another.
Traditional Christianity is a real alternative to Islam, but it is so marginal that it is effectively irrelevant. I suppose this just requires patience, waiting for the dark ages to end while we preserve a remnant of Truth. I appreciate how you are doing that.
Are you a real nationalist that stands up for the sovereignty of East European states?
Or are you an irrelevant quantity disillusioned pseudo-rightist that'll just "stand this one out" as your European brothers and sister die? Or worse, will you side with the pseudo-antifa imperial state of Russia?
What you're saying here certainly rings true to me, as a prediction. We will be forced, as Lewis would say, to finally have faces and then come face to face for the first time, with the world and each other. The first challenge for us will be navigating these hardships, simply as hardships. The second, dealing with those who find the world isn't theirs anymore. Morgoth's recent post about being a good man among a bunch of vicious brutes comes to mind.
When those who openly proclaimed their moral victimhood and secretly reveled in their officially sanctioned status have both ripped away from them by this political splintering, they'll be pissed and violent to boot. When those who believed we were nothing but obsolete relics collide with the eternal truths of mankind, they'll want someone to blame for the death of their dream.
Worse still, the authorities used to holding power and some semblance of stability through optics and containment will see their power and rank slipping through their fingers. What happens when foxes, forced in the lion's role, panic?
As you said some years back, "It won't be 'the government doxxed me.' It will be 'the government doxxed me and men with machetes just showed up outside my door.'"
There are so many examples of this confusion. It's afflicting not just the left but also equally the right. For instance the Islam debate. Everyone on the left supports Islam, even though it seems to be their natural enemy, and everyone on the right opposes Islam, even though on cultural issues it seems to be their natural ally. Muslims for their part view both as enemies to be destroyed. Every time the conservative talking points go something like this:
"Mass-immigration of Muslims is horrible. Look at the extreme fundamentalist positions they are advocating. That doesn't look like diversity to me. The left are self-destructive hypocrites."
I understand why conservatives are terrified of Islam. It is an external threat that promises to replace our ethnicities, culture, and religion with a foreign one. What's really bizarre to me is not the opposition to Islam, though. It is how conservatives start talking like leftists when criticizing Islam. The problem with Islam from what I hear all the time seems to be that they are anti-homosexual, have strict sexual roles, and are religious fundamentalists. But these are actually their virtues. Their vices are that they are anti-Christian, misapply their principles, and are currently aiding our enemies to hasten our destruction. Pointing out the hypocrisy on the left regarding the contradiction obviously apparent in their embrace of Muslims only works if we assume the values the left is failing to defend are actually worth anything, which they obviously aren't.
Under closer analysis, many of those on the right who oppose Islam, especially in countries like Germany, really are just liberals trying to preserve an older, more coherent version of their ideology. But that vision of a gay, tolerant utopia is just as insane as what is now replacing it. As far as I can tell the only influential actors with any coherent principles on the world stage right now are Muslims, though they're certainly willing to conceal their ultimate ends if it gains them power for a time. Everyone else, whether the Russians, the Chinese, the mainstream left, the internet far-left, the mainstream conservatives, even many on the dissident right, all of them, seem to lack any coherent understanding of what they actually stand for, changing their rhetoric routinely depending on the current thing, often resulting in contradictions from what they say in one context and in another.
Traditional Christianity is a real alternative to Islam, but it is so marginal that it is effectively irrelevant. I suppose this just requires patience, waiting for the dark ages to end while we preserve a remnant of Truth. I appreciate how you are doing that.
But have you chosen a SIDE Dave my boy?
Are you a real nationalist that stands up for the sovereignty of East European states?
Or are you an irrelevant quantity disillusioned pseudo-rightist that'll just "stand this one out" as your European brothers and sister die? Or worse, will you side with the pseudo-antifa imperial state of Russia?
Nuance, schmuance.
Really? You standing and fighting or just handing out white feathers?
"nooo why can't my heckin based nation state neighboring a great power freely enter into a military alliance with their rival 😭😭😭"
thanks