Category: On-Line Article Reviews

Reviews of blog posts and other articles

The Z-Man Had a Very Interesting Post Yesterday – The Cancer of Fanaticism

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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.

The Cancer of Fanaticism

Tucker Carlson Interviews Michael Anton on the Birthright Citizenship Question

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Publius Decius Mus (aka Michael Anton) seems to always be a go-to guy for every important argument.  And birthright citizenship is no exception.  Listen to Tucker Carlson question him on the history of the 14th Amendment and why it has been used to justify giving the children of illegal immigrants automatic citizenship.

Very useful information to have  when you want to answer some idiot like Paul Ryan.

What Can We Learn from the Death of Gab?

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Vox and the Z-Man have posts up on the shutting down of Gab.

http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=15418

https://voxday.blogspot.com/2018/10/they-cant-say-i-didnt-warn-them_28.html

There are a few ways of talking about this.  First off, we can discuss what is lost by a Gab shutdown.  Personally, I’ve never really completely understood Twitter or Gab.  It just seemed like everyone linking to everyone else but not actually reading the content.  What the actual value of that is escapes me.  I tried reading my linked content many times and found it a muddled mess.  Maybe that’s what happens when a million people are mixed in a blender together.  But I will confess I probably just didn’t know what I was doing.  So, all in all from a personal point of view it won’t actually affect me.  Now, maybe it has actually been useful for other folks for communication and publicity.  If anyone has found it valuable, say so in the comments.  But from my point of view it wasn’t very useful.

The next way we can look at it is what can we learn from how it was shut down.  Andrew Torba was vehement that he wanted freedom of speech to be the defining characteristic of Gab.  That sounds like a laudable ideal.  In practice, however, the content became pretty foul.  There were some pretty crazy people on the site.  Now, it’s unclear how much was just trolling by those looking to destroy Gab and which was legitimate nutbaggery.  But regardless, the result was unpleasant and chaotic.  Not being a Twitter user maybe I’m just unaware that this is par for the course in a social media arena.  If that is so then it sort of reinforces my impression that Twitter and all these social media environments are toxic places that are mostly about battling your enemies for sport.  I run a very different type of website.  It’s a microscopic place compared to Gab (never mind Twitter).  But we have to deal with the same questions of how to regulate the written interactions between real people.  I have the advantage that I can monitor the discussions on my own.  The scope is possible in a small venue.  For a place like Twitter or Gab it becomes expensive and difficult to maintain a consistent policy because of the need for multiple individuals with their individual points of view.  With respect to freedom of speech on my site, I tell people they can speak their minds but keep it reasonable.  Obviously, that isn’t a highly precise statement.  What I’m trying to say is stay within legal and cultural norms.  Different people have different perspectives on those and the only standard that I have to decide on what conforms and what doesn’t is my own judgement.  But that isn’t too different from any other venue where people interact and debate.  I’m guessing that a truly free speech site will always be a sort of giant demolition derby.  If your site is perceived as being on the right-wing it is clear that you will be punished whenever the opportunity presents itself so allowing the crazier individuals to let it all hang out will eventually lead to the situation that occurred at Gab.  So, the lesson to learn is a fully free speech site is not going to happen in the present environment.

And finally, we can look at what should be changed to avoid this waste of resources.  The first thing that comes to mind is an analysis could be done to find out exactly what are the useful functions that a Twitter, Facebook or YouTube serves and how, if at all, they could be replicated in a competing right-wing entity.  I am hardly qualified to do such an analysis but I’ll at least attempt to discuss some of the more obvious answers.  The two most important functions these sites accomplish is communication and commerce.  The sites allow people to find their audience.  To the extent that they are right-wing sites I guess that will help pre-select for the audience intended.  The second function is allowing content creators to monetize their product.  This will be tied into advertising revenue.  From what I’ve heard advertising revenues, even on established giants like YouTube and Instagram, are shrinking drastically.  What I think this all means is that a viable right-wing social media site will be a site where content providers will pay a fee to obtain visibility and the site will provide amenities like video storage space, band-width and some amount of moderation of the trolls.  Eventually, popular content producers will be able to sell advertising on their videos and other content products.  To me this seem to be the future of right-wing social media.  And it seems like a reasonable model.  Eventually the site will develop other ways to monetize its value.  Subscriptions like Netflix and Amazon eventually will be the end state.

So that’s my take on what can be learned from the Gab debacle.  Experience is the cruelest teacher but the most effective.

Codevilla’s “Our Revolution’s Logic” Resonates on the Right, but is He Right?

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Codevilla’s lengthy article outlining the path forward he sees for the American republic is ricocheting around the right-wing blogosphere pretty heavily.  And that makes sense.  Here is a civic nationalist of unimpeachable credentials sadly confirming what the Dissident Right has been saying for several years.  Codevilla’s thesis is that we’ve gone over the cliff and there’s no going back to a united America.

Without a doubt, the naïve belief that a third of the population can publicly foment the disenfranchisement of 60% of the population without damaging the unity and even the existence of the nation has been exploded.  But does that mean that a coalition of people (of whatever ethnicity) who would prefer to live in a country corresponding to the pre-1965 way of life can’t be cobbled together?  Of that, I’m not convinced.  The Left has appealed to all the various grievances of women, minorities and sexual deviants against the traditional society as a way to build a coalition.  But what would happen if you take away the advantage for that coalition?  What if protected status was removed from these categories so that there was no longer any advantage to uniting under the banner of victimhood?  Suddenly moslems, feminists and trans-women don’t seem to have that much in common.  Just looking at the various minority groups, it doesn’t appear that East and South Asians have very much in common with Hispanics who don’t really get along very well with black folk.  Suddenly it makes a lot more sense for all of us to play by the rules that actually protect each group from the law of the jungle.  The real losers in this type of situation would be the really weird characters in the LGBTQ camp.  It’s pretty certain that there are much worse societies to be noticeably strange than in pre-1965 America.  Just ask the queer folk in Iran (if you could find any alive that is).  And considering the recent statistics on female college degrees and employment advancement I think women are the least entitled to demand special privileges.

I think what made the social and political situation in the last couple of decades seem like a lost cause to the Right was the fact that the only Republican leaders that we had on the scene weren’t really on our side.  Even in the short time that Donald Trump has been on the scene and even hog-tied as he has been by the machinations of the Deep State it’s obvious that our ideas are not unacceptable to the American electorate.  Imagine if a relatively united Republican establishment started to actually espouse the welfare of its constituency on a consistent basis.  I think we could easily sway many of the groups that currently vote in lock step with the Democrats.  What is needed is an assertive stance in demanding the end of unconstitutional practices that disadvantage and disrespect the majority of American citizens in the name of grievances that have no basis in reality.  The American legal system provides more than sufficient protection for all law-abiding individuals and the American business climate when nurtured by a responsible government provides opportunities to thrive for anyone who wants to work.

Anyway, that’s my take on the situation.  That’s why I haven’t despaired yet for the ability of America to revive.  I’m not saying any of this will happen.  I’m speculating that it could be done.  I also freely admit that it’s a long shot.  But if recent history has shown us anything it’s that long shots do actually happen.

I’m interested in your opinions.  Do you agree with Codevilla that all that’s left is dividing up the country or that there’s still a path forward for a United States.  Feel free to leave your comments below.

Our Revolution’s Logic – Angelo Codevilla – An On-Line Article Review

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In an earlier post I said that Angelo Codevilla’s article was sure to be interesting and depressing.  And so it is.  Basically he seems to concur with the Dissident Right on the point that there is no longer any going back to one America.  His thesis is that the Progressives have let the genie fully out of the bottle and the Right is now radicalized to the point that there will be an unending ratcheting up of tactics on both sides.  And he does not think political victory by the Right will deter the Left.  They are now in the go for broke business.  And of course the most apt metaphor for this situation is the Corcyran Civil War in Thucydides.  There we see class warfare unleashed to its most diabolical conclusion, complete annihilation of the hated enemy down to the last man.  The only ray of sunshine allowed is if Republicans win the next few elections we’ll able to convince the Progressives to peacefully divide the country into mutually exclusive populations of us and them.  So the story is bleak.

Luckily I’m an optimist.  I still think we may beat the bastards.  But I don’t say Mr. Codevilla can’t be right.  He makes a convincing case.  Well, I’m still staying up for the Mid-Terms.  They should be very instructive.

It’s a very long article and there are no laughs but if you are interested in a political perspective on the Resistance and what it will spawn from a very thoughtful writer of the Right you might want to read this.  If you want the Cliff Notes version I’d say start prepping for the troubles.

 

Our Revolution’s Logic

A Manatee for All Seasons

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For fans of Larry Correia, Wendell T. Manatee is running for the Senate under the Libertarian Space Cowboy Revolution Party.  Larry interviews Wendell, shamelessly hawks his manatee campaign bumper stickers and manages to make a number of good points in the proceedings.

Hoon for America. Manatee Party Stickers Available Now

Even NBC News Thinks the Dems are Heading for a George McGovern Disaster

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Hard to believe NBC News is talking sense.  They are comparing the hard left turn the Democrats took in 1972 to the freak show that’s happening today.  Of course the difference is that the number of imbeciles has increased significantly in the interim.  But for anyone with a functioning cerebral cortex the spectacle on display during the Kavanaugh meltdown should have been sufficient to scare him off the Democrat side.

Pretty good read.  https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/how-will-democrats-do-midterms-richard-nixon-s-1972-re-ncna923076

 

Prioritizing the Problems – The Bill of Rights – Part 1

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So many aspects of life under the leftist regime are unpleasant that sometimes it’s difficult to decide what should be fixed first.  I think this is part of what leads to the apocalyptic mindset when the Right thinks of how all this will have to be resolved.  Back in September the ZMan had a podcast that looked at the current state of the Bill of Rights in America.  http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=14969

He makes a pretty compelling case that even though theoretically we still have freedoms of speech and religion and the right to bear arms all of these have been hamstrung through the efforts of courts, state governments, bureaucrats and even corporations that want to tell you how to live.

And that has been in the back of my mind ever since.  And now that Brett Kavanaugh has been added to the Supreme Court I think it’s clear what the first priority should be.  It’s time to restore the Bill of Rights.  It’s time to take a stand against the Courts and States that have criminalized traditional beliefs and practices.  And the most egregious example is the gay marriage bamboozle.  It’s time for the Supreme Court to tell the Blue States that normal people don’t have to pretend that gay marriage is something they need to celebrate.  We can leave the question of the constitutionality of protecting the right to gay marriage for another day but it’s obvious to any reasonable man that eschewing any involvement with it is squarely under the jurisdiction of the Freedom of Religion aspect of the First Amendment.  Not being a lawyer, I’m not exactly sure what the best way to provide blanket protection for this.  I would guess that a decision from the Supreme Court recognizing the tenets of traditional marriage as protected under the First Amendment should do it.  Then if any of the states disobey the ruling the President can send the National Guard in and follow up with some kind of federal oversight to ensure that it sticks.

In addition to the cake bakers and photographers this will also aid the religious organizations, schools and social agencies.  For instance, Catholic Adoption agencies have been put out of business because states like Massachusetts prosecuted them for refusing adoption to homosexuals.  Now, it may already be too late for some organizations like the Boy Scouts.  They seem to have folded. But new organizations can step forward to fill the gap.  So, these protections will benefit many parts of traditional life.  And in the aggregate, they will make life more tolerable for traditional individuals in America.  In fact, what they will allow is the ability for normal people to separate from the progressives in the aspects of life that are most important to people, namely their most strongly held beliefs.

So, this is the first and most critically needed change that the Right needs enacted.  There are plenty of other areas where push back against the progressives is needed and I will address these subsequently but without a doubt, this one is first.

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22OCT2018 – Mid-Terms Update

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The Dems have written off taking over the Senate.  So they’ve thrown all their money and all their gas-lighting to retaking the House.  But even there, things are not going as planned.  Instead of the towering Blue Wave they are down to the ebb and flow of the tide coming in and out and the Republicans look just as likely as not to hold the House this time.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/22/five_reasons_republicans_can_hold_the_house.html

And of course, if the American people spare the House Republicans once again there’s no guarantee that these Republican Rats will honor this trust and get the president’s agenda moving in the House.  They are a feckless bunch and only marginally better than the Dems.  But somehow I think that with Ryan gone the House will somewhat make up for their past sins by getting the Wall on the agenda.  I know it seems crazy to believe they’ll come through but somehow I think they realize it’s the only thing that can save their precious jobs in the long run.  I’m already looking forward to the event.  I’ll have a post up to allow the comments to run as a discussion area.

 

 

Angelo Codevilla Addresses the Civil War

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Codevilla is one of my favorite political writers going all the way back to the prehistory of the 2015 darkness.  I haven’t even finished reading this lengthy essay but I look forward to weighing his opinions against my own.  I’m sure it will be dark and pessimistic.  Good.  I need something to curb my unbridled enthusiasm.

Our Revolution’s Logic – Angelo Codevilla – An On-Line Article Review

Our Revolution’s Logic