Tag: community on the right

We Interrupt This Rant.  Moving Forward, Getting on With It, Recalibrating

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We all have to get used to the new reality.  It’s a different world we now live in and some things are no longer news and other things are still useful.  And priorities change.  In 2015 and 2016 Donald Trump opened up a new way of looking at the world and that change filled up the internet and mesmerized the Right for eight years.  Well, now that outlook has spread to everybody it can reach.  And that news isn’t news anymore.  And the Left has asserted itself and plugged up the holes in its walls and stopped the peasants from crashing the castle gates.  The party’s over.  It’s time to adjust.

For me the adjustment is to dividing up my time differently.  A daily blog post can’t be only about the war between the Left and the Right.  That will be too repetitive.  Even taking events from the news and reacting or critiquing them cannot be a daily occurrence.  There’s just too much overlap from story to story.  Too much, Joe Biden, too much Deep State, too much woke capitalism, too much fake news.  Same old, same old.

Now I’m not going to abandon these things.  I’m just going to cut back on the frequency and pick my opportunities judiciously.  I’ll look for an occasion when the example has some special emphasis.  As an example, the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action would be an occurrence that merits a discussion.  It’s more than the usual background noise, it’s a significant story.  But it’s exceptional and it will be treated as an exception.

So then, what will I fill up my time with?  Well, two buckets.

One will be public interest.  And that can be anything that might interest people who read this site.  For instance, I like science fiction and fantasy.  Reviewing movies and books is something I like to do.  And not just sf&f.  I like all kinds of books and movies and I like to share things I think are good.  And I’ll share businesses that I find that are run by folks on our side of the culture war.  I’m hoping that will become a bigger part of the world we live in.  Hopefully one day there’ll be an ad on this site for a every product that I believe in and can recommend.  Who knows?  Maybe it’ll be for a right-wing beer company that Dylan Mulvaney won’t ever be asked to “partner with.”

And the other bucket is writing my book.  Currently I’ve got slightly more than 49,000 words finished.  But last year I thought I’d be completely finished by this July.  Obviously, I need to get religion.  And by that, I mean make fiction writing the first priority of my available time.  Now for the last few weeks I’ve been pulled in multiple directions and I can forgive myself for getting behind on everything; posts, pictures, quotes and fiction writing.

But I have to start somewhere and so I’ve been prioritizing the fiction writing this week.  And I’ll continue with that plan going forward.  So, while I’m adjusting there may be some dry spells on the site.  Nothing drastic just some less busy periods.  But once I get the hang of this new routine, I expect things will return to about the same output in terms of posts and other content.  The only difference will be that repetitive rants should be way, way down.

But that won’t change the fact that Joe Biden sucks.

And now having said that I return you to end of western civilization already in progress.  Have a nice day.

Michael Anton, Paul Gottfried and the Z-Man – A Fractured Spectrum on the Right

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I have been an advocate of dialog on the Right.  And recently there has been quite a bit of it.  And now I think I can see the present limits of what can be achieved by dialog.  Based on what I have seen I would say that at the point on the Dissident Right where Civic Nationalism starts to be viewed as anathema, then from there on, common ground can no longer exist with the more mainstream right.  The level of hostility is too extreme to allow for civility or even meaningful communication.

So be it.  But that still leaves plenty of latitude for dialog.  After all, the Z-Man and Paul Gottfried have several times shared the stage on various podcasts and they have been extremely cordial.  And Gottfried and Anton have debated on the pages of various right-wing publications with clearly evident collegial respect and politeness.  So, there is a bridge across the chasm but it is more of a shuttle that on its own can visit the two sides.

I can see the point of view of both these sides.  But I will say I have more sympathy for Anton because he has extended himself to try to communicate across the divide in a friendly manner.  The Z-Man was far from friendly.  In fact, he was pointedly hostile and rude.  And maybe that’s the requirement of the position he has staked out.  He has readers who exceed him in their anger toward any moderate figure or group in America.  Maybe politeness toward someone like Anton is a disqualifying act.  But maybe I’m wrong about that.  Maybe he truly feels that Anton is part of the enemy he faces.  And that is every man’s prerogative; to select his own friends and enemies.  But I give the moral high ground to Anton.  He wasn’t demanding any concessions, only extending an olive branch or a flag of truce for a parley.

Almost equally I think I know why the Dissident Right resents the Civic Nationalists.  They see them as the descendants of the mainstream conservatives who allowed themselves to be led along by the Buckleyites and the Neo-Conservatives and never did anything to prevent the takeover of the country by the Left.  They see the egalitarianism of the Civic Nationalists as the stepping stone to all the evils we see today; the LGBTQ madness and the destruction of personal freedoms in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion.  And there’s some truth in that.  In fact, I feel I was one of the pawns who believed in men like George Bush Jr. and his endless wars that accomplished nothing but killing Americans.

I see myself as someone who sees both sides of this divide.  But even though I have sympathy for the dissidents I think Anton’s side is where there may be a chance to take constructive action.  Someone like Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis will reach out to a Michael Anton or a JD Vance because they are interested in practical steps that can actually be accomplished.  Anton has reached out to people on the fringes of the Right like Curtis Yarvin and BAP in order to try to understand their point of view.  And while his viewpoint is still quite different from any of these people he is at least engaging in dialog.  And if nothing else it allows for some measure of coordination on practical things like supporting political candidates and networking.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at how this contact between two worlds ended up.  But I am a little disappointed.  I wasn’t hoping for rapprochement but some kind of dialog and détente with a little glasnost thrown in for good measure.  Oh well.

But something was learned and nowadays that’s the first step to constructive actions.  Apparently, it’s not yet time for the opposite ends of the Right to talk to each other.  Whatever coordination gets done it will not include the Dissident Right.  At least not yet.

Reactions to Yesterday’s Post (A Red-Pilled America)

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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.

How Do Things Get Better?

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Even though it’s clear that Biden’s presidency and by extension, the Left’s management of the blue cities and states, and the Left’s social hegemony are all demonstrably crashing and burning around us, it’s not clear to me how we reverse the course we’re on.

For example, the Supreme Court has ruled against Biden’s corporate vaccine mandate.  Okay, but how do we go from there to getting our lives back from all aspects of the COVID regime.  When can we stop pretending that being forced to wear a mask is a normal part of living in a free country?  When will forcing people to have their children injected with an unsafe vaccine be recognized as a crime?  When will we prosecute government doctors for lying about the actual numbers of people being harmed by COVID?  Currently none of those things seem even remotely close to happening.

I won’t even go into the crime wave engulfing the blue cities.  With leftists firmly entrenched in the city governments, there is not even a possibility of those places returning to normalcy in the foreseeable future.  Those areas will become no-go zones for normal people who don’t want to risk life and limb.

I’m afraid the answer to my question is they don’t anytime soon.  We will have to wait until November of this year to see the first chapter to the road to recovery.  When the Dems lose control of the Senate and House that will deprive Dementia Joe of one of his levers of power.  We will no longer have to depend on Joe Manchin to protect us from unlimited looting of the treasury by pork-filled trillion-dollar bills that line the pockets of “green” lobbyists and their Congressional clients.  And it should put an end to corrupt judges that Biden has been seating on the federal judiciary.  But think of it.  We have three more years of this nightmare.

So, what that tells me is the only way things get better is when we make them better ourselves.  And that begins when we stop pretending that we can depend on the federal government and their woke cronies for anything.  Lies and betrayal are their stock in trade.  Look over your assumptions on how you live your life.  For instance, if you live in or near a blue city do you assume that the police department in your area will keep you, your family and your possessions safe?  In the wake of the 2020 riots and looting is that a realistic assumption?  And if not, what is your smartest realistic option?  Should you move?  Should you buy a gun?  Should you make changes in the way you live your life?

These same questions should be asked about the state you live in.  If you’re tired of wearing a mask and being injected with unsafe medicines maybe living in a place like Florida might make more sense.  And that goes for other problems with blue states.  The high cost of living and the restrictions on freedoms are quite oppressive for some people’s tastes.

Look at who your friends are.  Can you depend on them?  Do they believe in what you do?  If not, maybe you need to find some people who do.  Seek out like minded people and get to know them.

And how about the way you spend your money?  Are you supporting the worst corporate offenders when it comes to Woke capitalism?  Coca Cola, Nike, and a whole host of corporations spit in your face every day.  Don’t you think you should go out of your way to seek out the few companies that at least stay neutral on the culture wars and reward them with your patronage.  Maybe you can make it a goal of finding one good company or website or movie every year and spending your money with that thing.  Here’s something easy.  Stop using Google for your search engine.  Use DuckDuckGo.  That will be helping them, hurting Google (infinitesimally) and helping yourself by avoiding Google’s prying eyes.  And most importantly tell ten conservative friends to check out Orion’s Cold Fire.  What better way is there to stick it to Dementia Joe?

My takeaway is things only get better when you act to make them better.  I’m not saying don’t vote for the better candidate.  You must.  But it’s not enough.  Your life has to reflect the things you believe in and that may mean making some changes.  And then maybe things will get better.  At least for you.

You Can’t Save Everyone

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Not everyone can be saved.  Not everyone wants to be saved.  Not everyone should be saved because some people are part of the problem.

I was talking to an old friend and he was very excited about all the problems that the Democrats are having right now and the prospects for Republican success in the midterms and beyond.  And it was fun.  But I had to remind him that we’ve seen this play before.  Unless there is someone with a plan that includes capitalizing on these opportunities in the form of meaningful change to the status quo then it will be just part of familiar Democrat/Republican Two Step.  They take a giant step forward; we take a tiny step sideways, then repeat ad infinitum.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t hear a word I said.  Now this way of thinking isn’t the primary problem but it sure as hell isn’t a solution.

Somebody who definitely is part of the problem is Mitt Romney, the quintessential RINO.  Imagine anyone who could be Governor of Massachusetts and US Senator for Utah.  Think of how supple a spine you would have to possess to bend into the pretzel needed to accommodate those two elected offices.  He is an example of who can’t be saved.  In fact, I claim that ejecting him from the Republican party should be one of, if not the highest priority of the Right.  The man is a poison in the body politic.  And if the people of Utah can’t see that then they’re doomed to become just another Colorado.  People like Romney, Cheney and Murkowski need to be targeted for primary challenges and never permitted back in the party.  Let them become Democrats and peddle their brand of poison to their rightful customers.  In this endeavor it’s instructive to see just how sound Donald Trump’s instincts are when he goes after the back stabbers and advocates for their replacement.  Even if the replacement politician is almost as bad, hell, even if he’s worse, the important effect is teaching the snakes that they won’t benefit from their treachery.  It’s a simple feedback loop.

And in a similar but less extreme case are the “allies” we’ve picked up.  People Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald are honest men.  They are liberals.  They believe in left wing causes.  They want the same ends that our enemies want.  The only difference is that they are also committed to the constitutional freedoms that all Americans used to subscribe to.  In other words, they don’t believe that the ends justify the means.  At least now that they’ve seen how it translates into their profession.  I applaud their honesty and scruples.  But I am not so foolish to let them become my voice in the media world.  I think of them as an honest foe.  Honorable and to be respected but not an ally.  I can see situations where some kind of support for them could produce positive results for our side.  But my formulation is, “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy and no more than that.”

In the end, the only way we will make progress will be to make common cause with those who agree with us on a relatively broad set of principles and social norms.  It won’t require us to become Puritans.  But we will have to eject all sorts of extremists and nonconformists.  Luckily, we won’t have to burn anyone at the stake.  We can just banish them to Blue State America.  In fact, with something like thirty states to choose from I could see even the Red States presenting more than one vision of what a conservative republic should look like.  After all, Alabama isn’t Alaska and Utah isn’t West Virginia.  I won’t use the awful expression a big tent.  Let’s say there are a bunch of small tents that make up our federation.

So, I’ve made my peace with living under a smaller tent.  I’m a live and let live kind of guy as long as I don’t have to live by rules that I find abhorrent.  I’d rather see small communities living by rules that everyone there believes in.  How that ends up happening is dependent on how the macropolitical situation evolves.  Under the present system the only way we can do this is under a chartered community that regulates many communal functions like law enforcement, education, drug policy, even social activities.  But if the states obtain greater autonomy these things can be enshrined in the state constitutions and reinforced by the powers of the state.

So, you can’t say everyone.  Not everyone can live together.  To contradict Rodney King, “No, we can’t all just get along.”

But we can agree to disagree.  And that’s what we should do.  After the revolution we’ll pack Crazy Aunt Alice off to San Francisco and when the deadbeats stop receiving welfare checks they’ll be happy to take a bus trip to live in New York City (assuming there still is a New York after the cannibal reset).  And we’ll all be better off for it.

Know Your Friends, Know Your Enemies, Align Yourself Accordingly

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As I sit here drinking a Coke that I bought at Walmart while typing on the laptop that I bought on Amazon using the data highway that I pay Spectrum to use I often wonder why corporate America craps all over me.  And then I remember, Oh yeah, it’s because I’m a chump that just gives them my money and doesn’t do anything to force them to care what I think.   And that makes me one of at least a hundred million non-Leftists that gets kicked in the teeth hourly by the stooges that toady for our godlike elites.  You might be wondering, “What’s his point?”  Well, follow me a little bit further along.

Let’s start with the heavy hitters.  Amazon hates you.  Not just a little, a lot.  They’ve even started refusing books based on their politics.  And Amazon will sell almost anything else.  And Amazon is at this point, half the retail economy of the planet.  But, but, but.  What can I do about that?  Well, here’s a thought.  Look at the sellers on Amazon.  Find out something about them.  If you find a company that supplies a lot of things you like but doesn’t celebrate their hatred of everything you stand for then start buying directly from them.  Cut out the leftist middle-man.  I buy all my camera gear from B&H Photo.  The store was founded by a couple of Jewish guys in Manhattan.  They’re closed on Saturday.  Are they Leftists?  Maybe yes maybe no.  Do they announce their possible leftism anywhere on their website or celebrate all the craziness that’s all around them in New York City?  Not that I can find.  So, they get all my business.  And over the course of 15-20 years that’s actually into middle five figures.  Could I have saved a few bucks on Amazon?  Probably, but they hate me so why should I add to their power?

And the same goes for whatever else I like.  Used books is a no brainer.  There are tons of used book sellers.  Why go through Amazon?  To save on the shipping?  Meh.  To get it overnight?  Meh.

How about Hardware?  I could go to Walmart and get whatever I want there.  But I go to the local hardware store.  Why?  Well, the guy who owns the store is theoretically my neighbor.  He pays his taxes in my town and sends his kids to the local school and I rub elbows with him at my grandson’s baseball and basketball games.  Am I losing some money?  Definitely.  But he can also give advice on a tool or on an alternate way of doing something.  Is he a leftist?  As it turns out he’s not.  He has a Trump sticker on his car as does my auto mechanic.

And don’t buy anything from Coke or Pepsi.  They both suck.  I have inside information on that.  They are among the worst.

Look at your neighborhood businesses.  If they aren’t big corporations and they don’t have any rainbow coalition or BLM signs, banners or stickers in sight take that as at least a sign of respect for our half of the population.  Get your coffee from a small shop or if that’s impossible at least don’t go to Starbuck’s.

Don’t pay to watch Disney, or any of its subsidiaries like ESPN.  Buy some of the classic Disney movies on DVD (used) and call it a day.  Don’t watch the NBA, NFL and at this point the MLB.  Find a minor league park and bring your kids to that.  If they take a knee during the anthem walk out and never come back after telling the management why.

Find authors and websites that reflect your values and patronize them.  Very, very carefully rate politicians and if you find one who is honest and actually conservative, spread the word.  If you have the cash you could contribute to his campaign.

But most importantly, educate yourself on who is on your side and who is not.  And do something about it.  Make a point of withholding your money from the Left and patronizing the Right.  And socialize with people who believe what you do.  And shun the Left.  It actually has an effect.  It may seem cruel but it’s not wrong it’s necessary.

More Interviews – War Pig

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As hoped we have another volunteer to take a crack at my questionnaire for our community.  Thanks War Pig.

Here is my questionnaire and War Pig’s answers.  Anyone who feels like commenting is welcome.  I am interested in how other people got to where a lot of us are now.  Watching as normal politics completely failed to prevent the progressives from destroying our country has been a powerful object lesson for me and probably many others.

 

1. How would you describe your political stripe? Libertarian, social conservative, fiscal conservative, civic nationalist? Feel free to elaborate with examples if conventional labels are not precise enough.

I would categorize myself as a rational anarchist. For the textbook definition:

*A Rational Anarchist:
Believes the state, society, and government are concepts which do not exist apart from the physical acts of self-answerable individuals.

Believes blame, guilt, responsibility, and answerability makes it impossible for a person to shift, share, or distribute blame.

Being rational, the rational anarchist understands not everyone shares his or her views; yet, he or she strives to live perfectly in an imperfect world; completely aware he or she is not capable of achieving perfection.

Accepts all rules society deems necessary to secure its freedom and liberty.

Is free no matter what the rules are in his or her society. If the rules are tolerable, he or she will tolerate them. If not, the rational anarchist will break them.

Is free because the rational anarchist knows only he or she is morally responsible for everything he or she does.*

Basically I believe that government is, at it’s heart, no damned good. Government, like a cancer, always seeks to grow. That was the great fear of the Founding Fathers. They put checks and balances in place but government, when it controls the military, police, courts and legislature does as it damn well pleases. The states should never have relinquished power to the feds. At the same time I realize that there are some things which government should do. Thereby rational anarchy. Settle disputes between the states, allocate bands in the radio frequencies, trade treaties, declare war, or peace, national defense, and a few more. If I could go back in time I’d hang the SOBs who proposed the 16th Amendment. My political musings were unformed until I picked up a copy of “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert Heinlein. I thought, there is the government for me. I was further influenced by his “Starship Troopers”, both of which I read after Vietnam. Governments, to be controlled, need to be kept on the ragged edge of pecuniary strangulation. With each new tax, license, fee, fine, “fair share” and other means by which the gut-sucking parasites of congress try to keep us in penury, they engorge themselves at the public trough which they demand we keep filled.

2. What events or circumstances most impacted your political outlook? If more than one thing was responsible how do you feel they were tied together?

My parents were Democrats, they loved FDR. I, on the other hand, saw entirely too much of what happens on this planet when government is the Crown. Especially when the government calls itself a People’s Government/Republic. Look around. I saw it up front and personal. I have seen slaves auctions in the Middle East. I have seen the remains of Spetsnaz and KGB and GRU operations. I have seen what Castro did to people at his “Isle of Pines” torture prison. When I see the same tactics of restricting political speech, use of cancel culture, brown shirts militias under the name Antifa and BLM, etc, used by the Democratic Party and their hounds it makes my blood boil. As Orwell could say; “Goddamn them, I warned them!”

When the Democrats surrendered in a war they started it meant all those men and women who died or were maimed or psychologically scarred in Vietnam, died and continue to suffer in vain. I carry scars to this day, both outside and inside. Many have it worse than me. The left is the side of deceit. They have no morals (Cuomo still in his chair?) and no shame. They are dishonorable.

3. What aspect of the progressive attack on our culture do you find the most personally troubling?

The attack on the Bill of Rights. I hold the Bill to be inviolable. Without it we are just another mob of peasants to be ruled over by our betters. The attacks on the First Amendment and on the Second (the protector of the First) are but the beginning. There is a reason those two were the first two. They are the most important. As Orwell showed when you control the dialog, you control the actions. Funny, but I remember all the protests in the 60s over free speech and all. The very same Marxist-taught hippies of that day are the Nancy Pelosi clones of today. Demanding free speech, as long as it is their speech. I disagree with what Pelosi, AOC, et al, say but I will defend their right to say it. The reverse is, sadly, not true.

4. If one thing could be restored to the way it was in the old days what would you want it to be?

I agree with Tyler in that the nuclear family’s destruction is the main problem. But I want to see the states take back their powers under the Constitution. The bribery of federal monies has corrupted the states. The other one I see is overpopulation. I want to see our population reduced by forbidding immigration except for those with needed skills. With limited resources we cannot support our current population. I remember when our population was around a third of what it is today. Familiarity breeds contempt and overcrowding breeds unwanted familiarity. The lack of respect for just laws and the senseless making of new laws which few ever read once passed as part of a boondoggle spending bill are anathema to freedom. With the crush of people we have situations as in LA where homeless sleep on the streets and harass and endanger lawful citizens and especially children. Overpopulation also makes it harder to identify the wrongdoers by legal means. I knew every family on the block where I grew up. Even the adults with no children in the home. They all knew my parents, too, so I couldn’t get away with much. Now I know maybe two families on sight in my neighborhood. Look at the crime rates per capita in LA, then Idaho. Then look at the population figures. Detroit, LA, Chicago, Memphis, anywhere large numbers of people are crushed together, trouble brews. My great uncle, who traveled, told me that in the 1920s White people could walk the streets of Harlem in perfect safety. Look at the population of Harlem then and now.

5. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future? Why?

I am pessimistic in the short run. The rot has so great a hold it would almost take an armed uprising of civil war proportions to enact any near term change. On the long run, I am confident that Americans will eventually find a way. It may be painful, austere or even violent, but Americans as a breed are too tough and too ornery to enslave, even by each other.

A Questionnaire For Our Community

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Here are the questions I sent to Tyler over at the Portly Politico.  I’ll post his answers tomorrow (Tuesday 3/16 at 6:30 am).  Tyler came up with a similar set of questions that I answered and he will post my answers at the same time tomorrow on his site the Portly Politico.

If you would like to give your own answers then attach them to the post tomorrow.

 

  1. How would you describe your political stripe? Libertarian, social conservative, fiscal conservative, civic nationalist?  Feel free to elaborate with examples if conventional labels are not precise enough.
  2. What events or circumstances most impacted your political outlook? If more than one thing was responsible how do you feel they were tied together?
  3. What aspect of the progressive attack on our culture do you find the most personally troubling?
  4. If one thing could be restored to the way it was in the old days what would you want it to be?
  5. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future? Why?

14MAR2021 – OCF Update – Comparing Notes and Sharing Stories

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As I’ve mentioned in a few of my latest posts it’s time to move on from just following the national news and hoping for a savior to appear.  I’d like to start reaching out to others in the community to hear what they have to say and find out a little bit about them.  I’ve asked the Portly Politico (Tyler Cook) to participate in a little cross platform event.  We’ll each come up with some questions for the other and post the answer on our own blogs.  I want to see how my experiences and opinions differ from the next guy in our community.  I think it will be fun and maybe we’ll both learn something.

I’d also like to expand it out to other folks out there.  I am interested in talking to the people in our community.  I don’t need any personal information and don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable.  I’ll make the questions very general and feel free to answer them as carefully as you like.  But I am interested in knowing whether a lot of people think the way I do or otherwise.  And I like stories.  I’d like to know how people got here.

And if anyone wants to join in by asking questions I’ll post them and we’ll see how it goes.  If I do think any question is too revealing I will intervene by saying so.  But in general I want everyone to remember that we are on an open website and all the world can see it.

So I if you are interested leave a comment to that effect here or send me an email at the site (orionscoldfire@charter.net) and we can discuss what you are interested in.

I think the kind of questions I will ask are things like, “What convinced you that normal Republican politics were no longer going to be enough to keep America free?”

Update:

  I will post the questions that I asked the Portly Politico tomorrow and the answers Tuesday.  He’ll post my answers to his questions on Tuesday on his site.

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

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I’ve been writing this blog for almost five years.  And now that I’m providing enough content to warrant people keeping up with it it’s begun expanding its following, which is of course very gratifying to me.  And I am especially grateful to those of you who have passed along the site address or the link to a particular post.  I think this is the real “organic” growth mechanism as opposed to a Google or even a DuckDuckGo search link.  The opinion of the target audience is the only meaningful measure of the success of a journal.

But I must take the time to ask you all for a favor.  I am not looking for money or more clicks from you.  I’m not even looking for compliments, although praise is a wonderful narcotic that I crave as much as the next man.  What I’m looking for is feedback of some sort.  And it doesn’t even have to be agreement, in fact, disagreement combined with your opinion on the subject at hand would be splendid.  And I’m certainly not looking for histrionics and mock squabbling.  The last thing I think we need is more Jerry Springer theatrics.  And I’m not looking for people to make declarations that they consider dangerous for them to make.  I am quite aware that government and corporate busybodies are everywhere attempting to imitate the KGB on a Keystone Cops basis.  What I’m looking for is a real dialog with the audience.

As much as I like hearing my own voice and as much as I enjoy the scintillating brilliance of my every captured thought, I still believe that there are other people out there in the universe who have something that they can add to all this marvellousness.  I hold to the idea that there is intelligent life in the universe besides me.  And my goal is to discover it and make contact with it and learn something from it and even enjoy the camaraderie of shared humanity.  I feel like that character from the Pink Floyd song saying, “Hello, hello, hello is there anybody out there?”  But I know there are many somebodies out there.  I’ve met some of them.  And they are fantastic people.  But what would be more fantastic would be to reach a critical mass where the conversations become self-sustaining and I become almost an insignificant part of the dialog.

Think of all the brilliant and thoughtful and experienced people that are out there.  And they’re being thrown off social media by the hundreds of thousands and they’re rooting around on the internet looking for a community.  Some have probably found some good ones.  I’ve done it myself.  But many of these places are extremely odd.  Maybe it’s the times we live in.  Maybe it’s some artifact of the monetizing system but there is just too much anger and confusion.  Even the ones that seem to have a lot of good information on what is going on are strange and sort of depressing.  I’m looking to build some kind of community that at least can function in a way that allows information and some kind of dialog to go on.

I think that with the stalinesque woke purges going on almost everywhere in our society; in social media, in corporations, in government, in schools, in churches, even in the military; it’s necessary to have a place where we can go and be able to say what we want to without having someone tell us that we’re not allowed to.  That’s actually the origin of this site.  I got tired of being censored on photography web sites when I disagreed with the ridiculous leftist slant to everything on those sites.

Now, I’m sure there will be plenty of readers who will find that their views fall so far to the Left and the Right of where I am that this site will be uninteresting to them.  The woke will think I’m just a hateful racist.  In fact, I’ve been told that repeatedly.  And there are people way out on the edges of the dissident right who will find my beliefs hopelessly naïve and useless to their taste.  And that is reasonable.  I have no desire to straddle hopeless opposites.  It can’t be done.  But I know that there is an enormous swath of people that exist in the spectrum of conservative thought that would benefit from a chance to talk to people like themselves without being lectured to and hectored and treated like bad children or criminals.

So, if you have anything at all to say.  Say it!  I don’t need your name or even your actual e-mail address.  Put down whatever you like.  But pitch into the conversation with me.  It’ll help me.  It will help other people who are shy.  And who knows, you might really enjoy talking to other intelligent and like-minded people.  So come out, come out, wherever you are.

And if you like what you read here, tell a friend or two or three who are like you and might enjoy it too.