The ZMan is one of my favorite bad thinkers. Even if I disagree with his conclusions sometimes he is always entertaining and thought provoking. Here he looks at the civic nationalism of a loyal roman general and that of Kris Kobach who is running for the Senate in Kansas. A good read.
Tag: ZMan
Interesting Article Over at the Z-Man, “The Long Road”
The folks on the dissident right are known for making the statement that “we aren’t going to vote our way out of this.” For that reason, it’s interesting to see the Z-Man discussing the importance of tactical flexibility with respect to political opportunities.
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=17824
The gist of it is that even if you don’t think that political reform can solve all our problems it doesn’t make sense to ignore the advantages that can be obtained at the ballot box.
And this is a good sign. A lot of the time, the gloom and doom and apocalyptic language coming from the fringe is unhelpful and self-defeating. President Trump has actually made some good progress (against unbelievable headwind) in judicial appointments, business and trade policies, reining in the bureaucrats and declawing the Justice Department.
While the question of whether restoring the values of the Old America is possible under our present system is still in doubt, it doesn’t seem to me to be the time to give up. Especially since we’ve actually had some measure of success at the ballot box recently.
After you’ve read enough sexbot articles on Drudge maybe switch to something interesting
Thoughts on the Smollett Travesty
As with everyone else I’ve been amused by the level of dishonesty on exhibit by the various Progressive participants in this farce. At the primary level we have Smollett and his Nigerian-American assistants who faked an attack and made a false police report. They sparked a spate of politician and celebrity condemnations of President Trump, republicans, and in general, anyone who doubted the story.
At the secondary level we have all of these defenders of Smollett who even after the Chicago police confirmed Smollett’s part in the event refused to condemn him. This is despite the testimony of the brothers who assisted him in the hoax. They still doubt his culpability, preferring to doubt the police testimony rather than face reality about their ally.
And finally, at the tertiary level we have the media which has gone to great lengths to provide support for Smollett and his defenders in an ever-changing narrative for why all of this is President Trump’s fault. Initially, the story was that President Trump’s supporters were the attackers. Then we were told that background levels of racism were what inspired Smollett to exaggerate this particular incident. And now the story says that the real victims are those poor future victims of racism who won’t be believed because of this present event.
But just as interesting is looking at the way the various voices on the Right have looked at it. One of the more interesting discussions came from the Z-Man. http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=16618
His main point was that the Left isn’t going to acknowledge their error and they aren’t going to learn a lesson. That is why a long string of hoaxes will never lead to an apology from the Left. And that is why right-wing pundits hoping to reason with the Left are wasting their time.
Perhaps the only useful thing that can happen during one of these events is to help sort out the real allegiance of those in the middle. When some allegedly neutral party starts telling us not to judge or excuses the hoax based on historical oppression you’ve learned something. On the other hand, if you ever find an assumed leftist who finally sees the light you’ve probably found a normie who has finally had enough hypocrisy.
Interestingly, even someone who in the last few years has been vilified by the Alt-Right as the epitome of Never-Trump foolishness can be acknowledged for a sensible insight into the phoniness of these leftist hoaxes. Here Vox Day acknowledges that even Jonah Goldberg can provide a sensible argument to show the absurdity of these hoaxes. https://voxday.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-obvious-implication-of-hoax-crimes.html
The only way I can see good coming from all these events is if someone made a movie out of all these hoax exposures and let it be distributed as widely as possible. Of course, Hollywood and the media companies would never allow their distribution network to show it and the colleges would probably unleash antifa on any student groups that attempted to show it on campus but even internet access would be something useful. It really is remarkable how outrageous some of these phony hate crimes are.
I wonder what the next one will be.
The Z-Man Addresses Fraternal Isolation
This post is along the same lines as my ideas about the need for a new fraternal organization.
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=16461#comments
Without a doubt the isolation is one of the biggest penalties we are paying for allowing leftists to destroy our society. Reading this reinforces my belief that starting something new is the way forward.
08FEB2019 – Z-Man’s Podcast Chronicles the Paleocon History
Z-Man provides a good primer on the Paleocons. Very interesting. And I heard him use one of my favorite of his expressions “Never Trump Clown Car.”
22JAN2019 – Commentary on the State of Things
It’s a remarkable thing. The world is noticeably shifting into a new shape. Indisputably the middle ground is disappearing. People are being forced by their circumstances to pick one side or the other. The tactics are becoming uglier and more damaging. Everyone wants to know where this is going and what is the end point.
I’ll add another question. What will Donald Trump achieve? This I think is the lynchpin for the Right’s desperate effort to stop the Progressives from repealing the Bill of Rights. Although many on the Right say that a revolt against the Left is inevitable I am skeptical. Even a gasoline soaked room needs a spark to explode and up till now the Left has kept the matches under lock and key. Donald Trump is the match. He has withstood all of their supposedly irresistible forces and is still standing. The questions that remains are what will he achieve and what will come after him?
If he breaks the Left’s stranglehold on the levers of power in the judiciary and executive branches and renders the gatekeepers in the Media and Social Media docile then he will have levelled the playing field sufficiently to allow the right to break free from the shackles we are currently in. And if he can select a successor who has even a tenth of his skills at sparring with the Left then we have a chance of keeping the momentum we have to finally get the upper hand against these terrible people.
The Dissident Right (or whatever you call them) says it’s a foregone conclusion that the process will continue irrespective of whether Trump succeeds or not. I wish I had their confidence (or seeming confidence). They say that the Left’s unmasking will drive everyone in the middle either left or right. They say the normies will be red pilled and it will be game on. Until recently I was very skeptical of this. But two recent occurrences have given me reason to reconsider.
The first is the definite shift to the right of a formerly mainstream journalist. Tucker Carlson was never on the Left. He has always been a conservative but of late he has sounded a lot like someone on the dissident side. Granted he isn’t as extreme as self-described dissident writers out there but he is daring to say that the Democrats and Republicans are gaming the system against the middle class. He’s skirting the edge of actual revolt. That is an exciting situation coming from someone in the mainstream.
The second occurrence happened today. American Greatness is a very mainstream right outlet. There are some angrier voices there and some calmer but I wouldn’t call any of them dissident right. Today I saw a post that quoted the Z-Man. The Z-Man is a very polished voice on the Dissident Right but no one would claim he is in the mainstream. He himself often talks about the river that separates the dissidents from the normies. I think he says it is narrow but it is deep and the only way to cross it is by consciously swimming. So, never the twain shall meet. When the mainstream begins quoting the Dissident Right there seems to be a step change happening.
So all that said, I’m waiting for one more step. I’m waiting for the true moderates to cross the line. When the mainstream women start deserting the GOP establishment and get red-pilled I’ll know it’s done. I’ll know we’ve passed the point of no return.
22JAN2019 – American Greatness Post of the Day – The Left Won’t Allow a Peaceful Separation – Christopher Roach
When American Greatness starts quoting the Z-Man by name the apocalypse can’t be far behind. The Z-Man has often made the point that the Progressives of today are the direct descendants of the “vinegar drinking scolds of New England hell bent on making sure nobody is enjoying life at all. Christopher Roach quotes a chunk of his Puritan origin argument and then amplifies his own opinion about how this will prevent a peaceful separation of the United States into separate Left and Right populations.
It’s getting harder and harder to believe that some of the predictions of the Dissident Right are not correct. The normies are waking up. The Overton Window is way over to the right.
The Z-Man Has an Essay on the The Economics Of Democratic Empire
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=15929
He compares the economics of monarchical empires to the modern multi-ethnic states like the Soviet Union and present day America. Z-Man says that the monarchical empires valued their vassals because they produced wealth for the emperor but that the USA openly exploits the “social capital” of its society for short term gain. His thesis is that this is a new situation and it is not clear whether this exploitation can be made stable or whether it will completely undermine the state and collapse the whole enterprise.
Pretty depressing reading for the holidays but well thought out.
Z-Man Gives the NeoCons a Drubbing
I used to read Jonah Goldberg and am not as adamant in my condemnation of him as I am for the more traitorous neo-cons like Max Boot and Bill Kristol. But it is always useful to read the most severe critics of the neocons. There is a lot to be condemned.
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=15909
The Z-Man Had a Very Interesting Post Yesterday – The Cancer of Fanaticism
The Z-Man posits that the ideologies can differ but the “true believer” is what gives them their strength and their frightening ferocity and consequences.
“The only person I have read, other than myself, who bothered to contemplate the mindset of the typical Nazi, Bolshevik or Progressive was Eric Hoffer. His classic book, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, is the field guide to understanding the mind of the political zealot. Over the years I have referenced it many times, when posting about the American Left. Hoffer’s book is not the definitive work, more of a skeleton key to unlock a mode of analysis. It is a starting point in thinking about the Left.”
Very interesting read.