So, I’m of two minds these days.
On the one hand, I don’t see how the ruling class’s current social/cultural movements (wokism, greenism) can prevail, for one simple reason: they admit of no limiting principle and their proponents are incapable of compromise. OK, that’s two reasons, but they are interdependent.
On the other, the backlash from the normies that has been relentlessly predicted for years simply will not materialize in any meaningful way. Without this backlash, what’s to stop the ruling class from imposing their quasi-religious nuttery on everyone else?
Wokism and greenism are fundamentally driven by a sense of self-righteous morality, which results (perhaps inevitably) in what I have seen referred to as a “purity spiral”, a sort of status competition to see who can be the most righteous. This status dynamic requires that (a) you maintain or acquire high status and (b) to do so, you must find something that the people you are competing with haven’t promoted yet. You can’t maintain your place on the ever-collapsing sand heap of social status by saying “Well, we took care of that problem. What’s for lunch?”. Thus, gay marriage quickly gave way to transsexual “rights” (there was a brief flirtation with plural relationships, but that has the stink of deeply conservative religions/societies on it). And now that Everyone Who Matters is fully on board with transsexual “rights”, what’s next? Because there must be a next. The purity spiral demands it.
And there it is – the normalization of pedophilia. One state legislature is considering making pedophiles a protected class. The trial balloons on “minor-attracted persons” being just, you know, another group on the spectrum of sexual behavior (don’t judge!) are being flown. Teaching sexual behaviors (and deviancy) to grade schoolers is now embedded in the curriculum.
The green wing also has a purity spiral going. At one time, replacing coal with natural gas was a green thing. Now, its shutting down natural gas – no more generators, no more production (there is a “whole of government” assault on the entire petrochemical industry, you know). Even the most carbon-neutral forms of energy – hydro and nuclear – are being shut down even though “carbon-neutral” is the sine qua non of greenism these days. There’s even some rumbling about wind and solar – dead whales and birds, anyone? And, of course, banning home use of natural gas is spreading, as well.
Ideologically, there’s always the opportunity to oppose or propose something else that has heretofore been unacceptable. And its very unacceptability is the magnetic attraction to people trapped in a purity spiral – the point is to be on the cutting edge, to take a stand that lets you look down on someone. The status competition isn’t with the deplorables – other than as a foil that Everyone Who Matters can sneer at for amusement, they count for nothing. The status competition is with the people who you agreed with, yesterday – the other People Who Matter.
And the self-righteous morality (and status competition) is what prevents greens and wokists from ever compromising. To compromise is to abandon the purity spiral and status competition by agreeing to something that is, in part, impure and immoral, after all. Greenism and wokism, by their very natures, cannot reach a stable state that is broadly accepted, however reluctantly.
This seems inherently unsustainable, a machine built to flame out at some point. But what point?
When the normies revolt, perhaps? OK, that would be nice. Where is the backlash, though? Oh, sure, you see pockets of it here and there. Angry moms are escorted out of school board meetings. The (very) occasional school board is even taken over by “conservatives”. But even that bastion of anti-wokism, Florida, passed a law saying that, while you can’t proselytize sexual deviancy to third graders, fourth grade and up, have at it. And wokism and greenism have an iron grip on the capital markets and many corporations. Sure, Bud Light is a punchline now following its embrace (ick) of a female impersonator, but A-B followed what should have been a debacle by fronting another female impersonator, this time from the Navy.
What will it take to get the normies to say “No more!”? Not pornography in grade schools. Not drag queens performing in front of 8 year olds (or 8 year olds performing as drag queens). Not $5 gas (remember a couple of years ago when that was a bad thing; well, its back, and not a peep from anyone). Not rolling brownouts and blackouts, which have become SOP in California. Not being prohibited from buying gas appliances. Not the destruction of statues and paintings. Not the indoctrination of their children into an anti-American, anti-white cult. Not the destruction of inner cities by the Riot-American community affiliated with the wokists and greens. And, finally, not being forced to take an experimental drug to keep your job or being forced to wear a mask when you leave the house.
What, then? As long as Netflix comes on and you can scroll the Tickety-Tok on your Big Tech surveillance device, nothing else matters?
Or is the backlash happening under the radar, with the Great Resorting of Americans into Red and Blue states? I’m still on the fence as to how many of those moving to Red states (on net, nobody is moving to Blue states) are missionaries or refugees. The results seem mixed, at this point. Even so, the cultural and social high ground is unaffected by this resorting – wokism and greenism are mind viruses that are not dependent on geography, and no wokist or greenist has a road to Damascus moment while driving a U-Haul to Florida.
Wokism/greenism is doomed by its inherent and irremediable internal flaws. The very thing that drives it, self-righteous moralism, will drive it off a cliff. There’s your white pill, of sorts. But nothing seems to arouse Americans from their complacent stupor as the guts are torn out of their society by malevolent arrested development cases and their hollow masters. I’m genuinely baffled by how this will play out.
Status is the primitive primate behavior we just can’t get over.
I’ve said this before, but I think it bears repeating:
Politics may be downstream of culture, but culture is downstream of economics. Once the first couple of food riots get started in earnest, all this ‘groke’ shit will disappear like it had never existed.
I would say that food riots and other assorted unrest may be unlikely, but possible – and less unlikely than I would have guessed a few years ago.
We’ll be fine up here. Our two kids in small-town Iowa should be OK. I worry some over our two kids and my in-laws who still live on the outskirts of a big city.
I’m leaving the big city for a small city. It’s lefty AF but they’re all earnest farm-to-table types, not the evil hypocrites that exist just to amass power where I currently live.
Or so I hope.
Whoa! Good luck to your country mouse adventure!
Oh, I’m still a (small) city mouse.
Still NYS or are you hitting the road?
NYS college town. I can swap war stories with Old Man.
Congrats! College towns can be fun if you can hold your nose regarding the dumb politics.
No worse than here, as I think about it…
Yeah, that’s my thought process.
I spent the weekend there, getting the lay of the land. It’s very pleasant. There are a lot of signs of the dumb politics but as a resident of NYC for the last 25 years I think I’m pretty good at holding my nose.
Sounds cool, Rhy.
If we get to food riots, it means it’s all over.
The only way to run out of food in the lower 48 is for systemic failures in production and transportation.
Food will only be part of the problem if that happens.
Of course, the current administration seems intent on destroying the energy and transportation sectors. So, this is way more likely that I am comfortable with.
Brandon is doing all he can to make The Running Man a plausible scenario.
*eats a handful of black pills*
Mmmmm. Licorice.
I suspect the greenism stuff will fail before wokeism only because greenism has material consequences. Between reading Watts Up With That and Manhattan Contrarian, I convinced all the green power mandates are leading to an unreliable grid in the near future. Whether New York or California will be the first state to experience frequent blackouts is unclear to me. What is clear is it will happen in the next several years. An unseasonably hot summer should do the trick in either locale. A cold winter will do it in New York.
As EvilSheldon pointed out above, culture is downstream of economics. Power has gotten quite expensive in California and will only get more expensive. The peasants are starting to notice. At some point in the near future, it will be more than people can stand. People on the center left are going to start asking difficult questions. It won’t snap them out of their wokeness but it will temper their greenism.
A cold winter will do it in New York.
As it did in Texas.
The theory of a perma-govt by Democrats – though means foul or fouler is a fantasy, both for them and for others. Oh sure, AOC’s seat will never go to anyone but a Democrat – including trans-Hitler, but those are exceptions, not the rule.
AOC’s district is “just” D+28. Mine is D+35 🙄
Lol. You must have the woke Olympics every 2 years.
It’s all so very stupid.
Depending on where in CA you are, you might be worse:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Partisan_Voting_Index
What an interesting site. I didn’t know that existed. My ‘burb is R +9
My future district is “EVEN”. 😮
The only one in my state.
lol I’m in D+21. No GOP in this district back to Schwarzenegger.
D+14 for me. There has never been a GOP member elected in the history of the state.
Feh. Mine is R+6 and it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference in a one-party state.
I remember when Rove was dreaming of a permanent Republican majority.
“Bush’s Brain” was a fool.
Turd blossom was accurate. But not the flower.
Yep, you would think that would be fresh in other people’s minds, but no.
2022 laughs at you. Should have been a landslide for Team Stupid. 2024 will not be a Trump victory.
There’s some noticing going on, but the goodthinkers are still trying to gaslight the people.
I mentioned in another post today about how Ireland’s state broadcaster can apparently no longer get away with blaming supermarkets for high grocery prices, and have taken to demonizing farmers, as here:
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22251355/
Not also how the headline puts “dishonesty” in sneer quotes.
I heard another report a few months back from one of those rural at fairs, and pretty much the reporter’s first question was to hector the farmer about CO2 emissions from livestock.
The MSM is also doing its damnedest to make people believe that all the housing problems are due to greedy landlords.
That won’t take them very far. Look at what happened in the Dutch elections.
The Center Left aren’t Wolk, they are Wolk adjacent. And that is important. They might agree with some of the BS (as we call it) but they aren’t down with the whole shebang. And, further, they are going to be the ones who will start the preference cascade that will end this.
Why, you might ask? Because the left have walled themselves off from the right, who can see all of this, plain as day. So, another group needs to be added to the, not coalition, but more like a second front in the war. The attacks have to be coming from both outside, and inside the bubble. These wolk adjacent will bring in with them the wavering, less wolk, those who are not scared of the ideas, but of the methods. IE those who think protest is cool, but burning down a house is a little over the line.
And this is why I think the Repubs, not the right in general, need to stay away from the culture war. Now, let me explain that, as it is counter-intuitive. They need to focus on rights, and not specifics. Parental rights, and not trans ideology. Self defense, and not gun culture. I know some of that isn’t what the meat eaters want to hear, but the party needs to bring in black people, Asians, Latinos, gays, and other groups, and not look like a bunch of kooks to those groups. Don’t worry about people using a capital b with African Americans, worry about the family groups in that community. And so on.
Pushback hasn’t started, as there is no organization for it. People want to know that if they feel it is time to step up, there will be someone there to step with them. This was shown in Covid, and when groups started to form, the whole thing fizzled. But we are seeing pushback in other countries, mostly farmers, but it will have to start there, as they are the first affected by the BS.
Nice rant.
Well said.
A strong man will rise, not a trump (lower case) but an Honest to God dictator, no holds barred.
I think he already took power in 2020. His second term will see the police state solidify and destroy the U.S.
The Dem Machine can fuck the Presidential and Senate races, but cannot control the House races.
I expect we’ll see the House and Senate split into stronger majorities for the two parties.
This is pretty much it, and why they hate the system we have. I don’t think the D’s will pull off the Senate completely, it will always be close at this point.
Unless they give up, and go full authoritarian.
I expect full authoritarian, backed by WEF and the Chinese.
One other thing; the reason But Light and Target are getting hit with the boycotts so successfully, is that, and yes, I have been saying this all day but it bares repeating, people feel that they have been eating shit around this wolk BS for too long, and here is the first chance to really stick it too the purveyors of that crap. Pronoun police, tampon machines in the boys locker room, “girls” on the girls team, “bake the fuckin’ cake!” and so on. All of that, though each is small in the moment, adds up, and people are sick of this junk. So what do they do? Well, here is something.
And it’s something they can do without someone siccing the FBI on them.
What backlash do you expect? We’ve all seen the blatant political prosecutions of the J6 crowd. That guy in Texas convicted in a case of self defense during civil unrest?
And don’t get me started on fucking Canada…
It’s only going to get hot when the chips are *really* down.
The alt-text for the photos should be “Why not a threesome?”
the Great Resorting of Americans into Red and Blue states
As if this would ever result in some sort of stasis. People will move to places where there’s opportunities and stay in places where there aren’t for a variety of reasons.
For similar results, India has the third largest Muslim population in the world, and not much further behind Pakistan.
I’m not sure that wokism and greenism are true movements of the ruling class but rather dovetailing. As with past movements, once they start inconveniencing the (actual) ruling class, they will get rolled up quicker than a flauta on all you can eat taco night.
We’re having a very dry spring here in the woods. That translates to the local farm country being dry. I can get away with irrigating my garden as long as I have electricity to run a shallow well pump but the farmers need a lot of energy and deep wells to irrigate corn and sugar beets. The price of fertilizer has really increased plus energy and a scarcity of labor and farmers are having a tough time making a living.
While I don’t remember the Dust Bowl personally, I did see Henry Fonda in the Grapes of Wrath. When the can can no longer be kicked poorer people will be displaced.
The Woke/Greenies are going to have to figure out what to do about the decline in the larger cities, the homeless of all stripes. It’s moving pretty fast and gaining momentum as the pie is getting smaller with fewer people being productive.
This part is really beginning to piss me off.
There are way, way too many people who have simply dropped out. I’ve been there – I know what it’s like. Except with the knowledge that I needed to stop being that person ASAP. Not make it a permanent lifestyle.
The working parasitic class is worse than the drop-outs.
Please elaborate.
I don’t see how being a government dependent is worse than working.
I read “working parasitic class” as “government-sector worker”.
One of the things people do not know about farming is that all of the factory food, so to speak, was to feed people who moved to the cities and couldn’t raise their own or drive out and get good stuff from farmers. And while they hate it, it is what makes a city work, so to speak. And if that supply gets cut off, then there will be food riots. Not that there isn’t food, but it isn’t available.
Resistance to wokism is in pockets and will probably continue to be. Bud Light and Target are recent ones, but also the QUILTBAGS desperately wanted that new Harry Potter game to fail. School choice is becoming a distinctly anti=woke position, and one not just confined to far right extremists, despite what TMITE wants to say. Hell, the crumbling of legacy media is another element of it.
Fuck this, Celtics are done. Pathetic.
They have been done since the Normans came.
That was pathetic.
People say that children are the future, but that is wrong. Children are no more than a continuation of the seconding world. It is in fact Firsters, and only Firsters, who will bring us to where we need to be.
Always remember – FIRST POWER.
The First That Shall Change Everything will seemingly come out of nowhere to the uninitiated.
It wasn’t all that long ago that NAMBLA was, not necessarily embraced, but tolerated.
There was a song in the musical “Hair” with the lines, “Sodomy, fellatio, cunnilingus, pederasty” as if all were acceptable.
“B.C. woman wins Gloucester cheese-roll.” She did so unconscious, at high speed. Tumbly tumbly. I wonder if she returned home to a government phone call asking if she needed assisted suicide?
https://globalnews.ca/news/9731018/bc-woman-wins-gloucester-cheese-roll-concussion/
Ugh, that gives me uncomfortable memories of falling on my ass while “bike riding” a couple days ago – actually, just getting the fucking thing moving for the first time. Thank God it was just around the corner from the nice lady who rented it to me or I would have been embarrassed or something.
Ibuprofen is your friend. I took some daily after I broke my foot in a bad fall last year. Stuff helps with swelling.
I swore off ibuprofen after I learned from all the hospital staff that it contributed to my need for some intestinal switcheroo a few years ago.
Acetaminophen helped a little today, if not much. I’m kind of thankful that it’s just some back and ass pain, and not like a hospital situation in a town I don’t live in yet.
I did learn some things though. Like, I want to get into biking again but it might have to be something more old-person appropriate.
I should add that I think the bike was not properly sized for me. I did manage to lower the saddle an hour or so into my adventure but the cross bar was still too high and crushing my junk during stops. Which were another adventure as I don’t have the flexibility to swing my legs onto the goddamn thing the way I used to – I almost tumbled a couple more times just trying to mount the fucking thing.
https://archive.is/aEY5t/c48eb04fa1d6a64a221dc03a19e9c5927307a834.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/xUgo5/e3587e65b25cdd65d0d615a8a0b4e03f604d3cba.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/pgffb/657e0830df155392e2af977cbf68013886a9985a.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/2TnFx/fd65e0949d59f83c7bcc28ff70fe42bf72ffb8e2.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/RRjpT/bb196f837ec05510a46cf644be70c1ad614181af.png
NSFW.
Actually a fan of her eyes
I’m ready for a swim.
I’m no gourmet chef, but damn. I just made walnut crusted chicken on a bed of spinach leaves, roasted apples, coated in a fig glaze with goat cheese sprinkled over the top.
It was yummy.
Gonna play with that jam as marinade stuff some more.//
“As long as Netflix comes on and you can scroll the Tickety-Tok on your Big Tech surveillance device, nothing else matters?”
Bingo.
Panem et circenses my friend. It’ll come to an end yes, but we likely won’t be around to see it. And what it will be replaced with is not going to be pretty. We won’t be going back to the “good ole days”, we’ll be moving into something more hardcore, something that has the stones to stand up to the greens and the wokists. Age of Enlightenment Western culture is moribund, unable to find a reason to keep living; what comes next is likely to be something bearing more resemblance to Volksgemeinschaft or Allah Akbar than Adam Smith or John Locke.
Pax Sinarum?
The show Silo seems to be AppleTV attempt to beat Amazon to a Fallout series.
And hooked. Plays out like a recent Animal short story
The books are great. I won’t pay above and beyond cable to watch them, but those who do should enjoy.
Just discovered that I’ve had ataxia for the last two decades. Fun times! A little bit of warning would have been nice before the crippling effect.
Read a 30 page report about my health. Fuck it. I care no longer.
Man buddy. I am not sure what to say.
*Googles*
Fuck. Sorry Festus.
That’s a lot to process!
Are the docs planning to figure out the underlying cause? Looks like there are treatment options, but it all depends on what brought the ataxia “constellation of symptoms” to begin with.
If your doc doesn’t follow up with investigating the root cause, get a second opinion!!
Good luck. We’re hear for you. 👍
Morning peeps.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VQH8ZTgna3Q
🎶🎶
Good morning, Sean!
Morning.
Good morning, U! I didn’t expect to see you up so early today!
I woke up at ~1pm and decided to not go to bed until later today.
👍🏼
Most important, of course – Are you enjoying your vacation?
Not sure. I wanted to be more productive than I have been, but the sleep trouble impeded that.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/great-balls-fire-uproar-after-26-foot-statue/
Heh.
Maybe the artist has a fetish for inguinal hernias.
Giving the sculptor the exceedingly generous benefit of the doubt, I wonder if the statue was based on a photo. Or maybe it’s an Argentinian cultural thing.
“the sculptor deliberately gave him a massive, bulging package. The 26-foot-tall bronze fig…”
Brass would have been more appropriate.
Look like the gilded the statue for maximum good taste points.
I always tell the greenes that if you are not pro nuclear, nothing else matters.
Period.
Generally that ends that conversation.
My personal pronoun is ” Panzerschiffe” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschland-class_cruiser) don’t you dare misgender me.
Hope everyone has an awesome morninig.
“You’re against carbon dioxide? Why do you hate Plants!”
Meh, once they reduce the earth’s population to 500 million in harmony with nature it won’t be needed.
Hmmm, looks like Moscow’s been attacked by Ukrainian drones.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/30/drone-attack-on-moscow-causes-minor-damage-no-casualties-mayor
Way to escalate fellas, try not to get yourselves (or us) nuked. I still can’t believe the brinksmanship we’re encouraging over that corrupt and backwater country.
Meh. When you’re at war it’s kind of rich to complain that the country you invaded is striking you back.
All’s fair in war but the Ukrainians don’t wipe their asses without our approval. It’s not so much stupid on their part, it’s stupid on ours.
Based on the minimal damage, I’m thinking possible false flag to gin up anti-Uke support on the home front. Predator drones firing Hellfire missiles would have caused an actual shitload of damage and casualties.
Albany Mayor Cindy Sheehan welcomed the first busload of migrants from NYC.
…which are not going to Albany, but rather a suburb where THAT mayor said he was never informed until the contract with Ramada was done.
Also Rhy? Small City/College town? Those exist here? Surely you don’t mean Butlerville nor Ithaca… maybe former cities that are now just college towns like Rochester or Syracuse?
Which suburb?
IIRC, Colonie.
Mornin’, reprobates! I hope everyone had a splendiferous long weekend. Back to work now, blecch.
Good morning, ‘patzie! My boss is back from his vacation today, and I have one more day of covering for Reliable Co-Worker, so…yup. Back to work.
Morning. Was a very nice break. I get four days then start road tripping. Any time away from a desk is good.
I find it bitterly hilarious that my orders from Slovenia arrive faster than those from WA.
West coast, messed coast bro!
Good Morning, Good Morning, the best to you this morning.!
The predicted rain is looking less and less. I have a lot of work to do but I have found that if it doesn’t get done nothing bad happens.
Wow! A porcupine was looking in the window at me, 5 feet away. By the the time I got a Farmer’s Helper ready (about 45 seconds) he was out of sight. I have no shoes on so I couldn’t track the critter.