Month: September 2022

Yesterday’s post got a lot of new eyes because it got linked on several external sites.  Four of these folks left comments.  I’ve copied those comments below:

• I enjoy your well written posts. Just for my education, you mentioned “FBI sponsored inner city crime”. Could you elaborate? Thanks.
• I’ve said it before, and it is worth repeating: The salvation of the American people rests with the states and the state governments. Only these entities can protect and defend the people from the predators in DC. Only the states can marshal the resources necessary to prevent the federal government goons from harassing and harming citizens. Just as state governments have refused to cooperate with federal goons on various issues, it is time for states to utterly nullify the federal government. By no longer allowing collection of federal taxes within their jurisdictions, and also not allowing agents of the DC to operate within their borders, Americans can be freed of the criminality inflicted upon them by the unaccountable criminals at the US Capitol. It is time to take Federalism to the next level. A convention of states could, in a single day, invalidate the entire swamp and begin a new era of freedom and government accountability in this once great nation.
• I think tribunals, and executions, will go a LOOONNNNNGGGGGGGG way to healing this country. The “great experiment” (i.e. the black man, women’s “rights”) is an ABJECT FAILURE!!!  We HAVE to move forward Or NO ONE DOES, and of course, NO ONE LIVES.
• And you honestly think the R’s are the genuine answer?  You are a bigger fool and bigger part of the problem than originally calculated.

Well, I think this represents an interesting cross-section of people on the Right.  The first commentor didn’t explicitly provide his position on the topic I was discussing but he definitely read my words and had a specific question about one of my statements.  He also said polite things about my writing (which is always greatly appreciated) so I assume that we are at least not too far apart on basic beliefs on the American political situation (at least that could be the case).

The second and third commentors wanted to address specific actions that they hope some groups will take to force changes in the political situation.  These are actions that will not occur under the current political framework but would require some kind of rupture of the political structure, either through a civil war or a loosening of the federal arrangement that might involve some kind of implicit or explicit nullification of federal laws that are deemed harmful by various states.

The fourth commentor is especially interesting.  And not only because he recognized that I am, “a bigger fool and bigger part of the problem than originally calculated.”  He also seems to have gotten the impression that I think the Republicans are somehow the “genuine answer” to our problems.  What I find interesting is that not only didn’t I say or imply that the Republicans were part of any solution, but my post never mentioned the Republicans at all.  What this tells me is that many of us are already locked into points of view and ways of looking at things that almost preclude hearing what people with other points of view have to say.

And I see this in my own discussions with others.  I already have a narrative about what’s going on.  If someone has a different way of looking at things, often I attribute this different point of view to a lack of understanding or ignorance of the facts.  We develop tunnel vision to simplify the playing field.  We’re tuned into a few general indicators.  Maybe they’re key phrases or buzzwords that we use to size up whether someone is on “our side” or not.  And from these we extrapolate everything else about that person.  But the conversations between people even on the “same side” aren’t very helpful.

I’ve been of the opinion that people on the right have become more extreme because they’ve been shut out of the conversation by gatekeepers at places like National Review and the Weekly Standard (when it still existed).  Being silenced by the mainstream of your own side tends to radicalize those who are excluded.  And by the same token excluding dissident voices will weaken the reasoning abilities of those who are left.  They no longer have to defend their opinions against real opponents and so they descend into lazy idealism that is ungrounded in reality.  And so, we end up with echo chambers and silos where we preach to the choir.

There have been some positive steps taken.   In 2022 Marjorie Taylor Greene attended the America First Political Action Conference.  She became the first member of Congress to show she was not afraid of the white supremacist label associated with attending a dissident right event.  J.D. Vance refused to condemn her for it.  The Claremont Institute in California has taken small steps to have dialog with members of the dissident community.  There are the beginnings of dissident ideas being mainstreamed on national shows like Tucker Carlson’s broadcast.  These are small things but they are a beginning.

As for my humble part, I’m just glad when people leave comments; good, bad or confusing.  Any communication is better than none, I guess.  So, onward and upward.  Please leave your comments below.