Tag: the culture war

Figuring the Odds

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Galaxy’s Edge is a science fiction series by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole that I quite enjoy.  In the series there is a character that I guess you’d say is a “space pirate.”  And when he is deciding whether to attack some ship or raid a port, he asks a particular member of his crew, “What are the odds?”  And this character being some kind of mystical being immediately spits out a percentage for success.  One percent or forty percent or whatever.  And then later on at a different juncture, he’ll ask him again, “What are the odds” until he finally gets the odds he likes and then he strikes.

Well, that’s what I’d like.  I’d like to know what are the odds of success.  I mean, eventually this whole rotten system we live under will collapse just based on the plain awfulness of the people in charge and the illogic of the things they claim to believe.  But when?

We’ve been seeing the very beginnings of popular discontent with the creepier, more nightmarish aspects of the current social structure.  I think the transgender cause has been the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  The Target and Bud Light boycotts have shown that people can finally get so sick of being gaslit about some obviously crazy idea that they will revolt against it.

And maybe this will be happening more and more.  But the question remains, will it reach a critical mass and bring down the regime or will this thing go on for many years to come?  I think the answer comes down to one thing, money.

Specifically, if a Tucker Carlson or an Elon Musk or PublicSq can’t make a profit providing a platform for the partisans on our side of the culture war then there won’t be any platforms.  Up till now the answer has been no.  The Right used to have Fox News but now they’ve capitulated.  But this year Elon Musk stepped up and bought Twitter.  In my opinion this was unprecedented.  Musk was betting forty-four billion dollars that he could make money by providing a social media home for the ~ 50% of the American population that up until now has been marginalized by Silicon Valley.

And this enormous bet that Musk has placed seems to have inspired a few other entrepreneurs to try to capitalize on the enormously underserviced market for non-woke products and services.  For instance, we’ve read how Disney’s movies and even theme parks have of late been underperforming.  At the same time a movie by a Christian studio that was ignored by all the mainstream critics beat out Indiana Jones at the box office.  So, there are hints and sparks of hope.  Something seems to be happening.

But the ratio between what they have going for them and what is going on for our side is so large, so daunting, that I hesitate to dare to hope that the status quo could be changed.  And let’s face it.  We’re not hoping to destroy their side.  That would be laughably absurd.  All we hope for is that our side can have stuff of our own.  We don’t need Disney to change.  We just need a small studio that can make movies we’d pay to see.  We don’t need Google and YouTube to see the light.  We’d just like Twitter and Rumble to make enough advertising money to stay in business.  We don’t need beer companies and department stores to cater to our ideology we just want ones that don’t rub our noses in their warped beliefs.

And so, we get back to my original question, “What are the odds?”  Have we reached the point where the madness of the Left has finally alienated enough normal people that they’re willing to boycott woke companies and pay subscription fees to avoid reading straight up propaganda and buy old movies to avoid having Disney proselytize their kids into the rainbow coalition.

So have we reached that magical point?  Are we 50/50?  Could something really break out and alter the status quo?  What do you think?

What Are the Odds that a Major Change is Imminent?

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Woke Disney Kids’ Movie with Gay Teen Love Interest Crashes and Burns on the Runway

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I think I know why Disney brought Iger back.  They just launched a movie that cost more than $180 million and will be lucky if it makes twenty percent of that back.  Listen:

““Strange World,” is bombing, grossing a disappointing $4.2 million on Wednesday as it eyes a five-day haul of under $24 million. That’s a terrible result for the $180 million-budgeted animated adventure. For comparison sake, “Encanto,” another recent Disney animated offering, earned $40.3 million over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2021 — and that was considered to be a soft result for the family film.”

 

Here’s why.  This is one of the plot lines in this “kid’s movie.”:

“Ethan Clade, Searcher’s 16-year-old gay son longs for adventure beyond his father’s farm while also navigating a school crush.  One year later, Ethan is in a relationship with Diazo.”

What mother or father of eight- to twelve-year-olds doesn’t want to explain to his kids why two boys on the screen are acting like girls and gushing over each other.  Why would that make parents stay away in droves?  Disney warned us this is what they wanted to do.  But most of us assumed they were just talking.  No one thought they could be this stupid.  We were wrong.

 

So, I went over to Rotten Tomatoes to see what people were saying.  The professional reviews said it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  But the customer reviews were full of things like this:

“jonathon b:  Stop bringing homosexual things into kids movies. Kids these days have it hard enough and do not need that influence in their lives.

firedup33:  We walked out of the movie! Disney is trying to indoctrinate children with this evil movie! Do not spend one penny on anything Disney. Boycott them! It should not be rated PG should be rated as Highway to Hell!

Sana W:  Awful!!! Walked out of it with my kids! I will never watch another Disney movie!

Xander C:  Lets put it this way. My little boys asked me to walk out of the theater. They said the movie was weird, and asked me why the “boy” in the movie was acting kind of girly. I should have learned my lesson after the lightyear movie. Disney, my family is DONE with you.

Anonymous:  Do not take young kids to this. I had no idea how woke this movie was. Unless you want to explain homosexuality to a your young children, avoid at all costs. My child asked me in the movie “why are the boys acting that way?” I am DONE with Disney in all forms.

Gerrixx O:  I want my money back… I’m not sure if it was bad or just boring. I’m tired of being preached at and I’m a minority many times over. JUST MAKE GOOD MOVIES… we don’t need to see a salad, we have imaginations unlike the people at Disney.

Stephanie A:  Absolutely terrible, if I want to teach my children about sex and or sexual preferences at 7 and 8 I would do it in my home. I don’t need a Disney movie to help me out with it. STOP making everything sexual, its unbelievable. Nothing in the trailer would lead you to believe that this is in the movie. I will no longer take my children to a Disney movie without reading reviews. Nothing is safe anymore, school, movies, internet (not that, that was ever safe), etc.. So disappointing!!!!

Anonymous:  I wish I would have read the reviews before wasting mine and my daughters time on this movie. It’s my choice as a parent to decide if I want my children to know about same sex relationships. Even with this world evolving I never expected Disney to shove it at my children during a kids movie. I’m very disappointed that Disney feels like they have to evolve with this world. Stand out use your voice and don’t try to be like all the rest. Stick to the the wholesome family friendly movies….Walt Disney would be ashamed.

Linda:  I went along with my daughter and two young grandchildren to see this movie. After seeing this movie, we will never take them to see another Disney movie again. Disney was trying so hard to be politically correct, they failed miserably to create a good family, classic movie as so many in past years. Don’t waste your money on this one, it is destined to be a Disney flop!!!

Adrian P:  Haven’t seen the movie yet but I’m violently homophobic

Kelly:  Last Disney movie I will waste my money on. As a parent I would like to be the one to talk to my child about same sex relationships. Way out of line for a childrens movie.

Jessie M:  Easily the worst Disney animated movie. I liked 1 character hense the half star. But it’s like Disney went out of their way to make every single scene a cringy woke competition from the last.

Olga:  So disappointed with Disney. I love Disney movies but not this one. The story line and plot was terrible. Lots of messages being sent that are confusing and not good for young children. Half the auditorium left the movie. Poor Disney. They can do better than this.”

This is so great.  There’s nothing like a nine-digit financial loss to really catch a corporate board’s attention.  They booted that dullard Bob Chapek out so fast that he’s probably still bouncing down the road.  Now Bob Iger, who is probably twice as woke, has to figure out a way to reverse the disastrous path he launched the company on without triggering the LGBTQ gestapo to denounce him.

This is so great.  Instead of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” it’ll bring new meaning to “Don’t Say Gay.”  Maybe they can persuade Ron DeSantis to give them some pointers on how to effectively say no to the gay mafia.  After this movie debacle Disney is going to have to have a string of successes just to catch up.

I’ve heard that G-rated kids movies have been known to make money.  Hey maybe they could make some of those.  If they need a template there used to be a company that made such hits as Snow White, Dumbo, Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, Mary Poppins, Cinderella and on and on and on.

Oh, I forgot.  Disney isn’t allowed to make movies like those anymore.  They don’t reflect diversity, equity and inclusion.  They’re not who we are.  Too bad.  Well, good luck selling deviant sex to the parents of young children.  While you’re at it you might as well include puberty blockers and genital amputation to the plot lines and cover all the bases.

Well, this is good news.  Disney put their money where their mouth is and most parents have reacted the way they should.  They’ve put their kids’ well-being in front of virtue-signaling.  Even better news is that because traditional societies like China and most of the third world absolutely abhor this kind of stuff the world-wide box office isn’t going to save this turkey.  Disney isn’t even releasing this film in China or other areas of the world.  Europe and North America will have to suffice and we already see how that’s going.  What a great way for Disney to start off a recession, with a catastrophic box-office disaster.

M-I-C- (see ya later)

K-E-Y  (why, because we’re awful)

M-O-U-S-E.

Walt would be so proud!

Culture Future Shock

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Today I had to bring my car into the local Dunwich auto shop for some routine maintenance.  I dutifully signed my name to the work invoice without pricing and shuffled over to the waiting area with its free coffee station, now coffee-less because of COVID and the free popcorn which is likewise sans popcorn.

They’ve got a hi-def 80-inch tv that plays millennium talk shows endlessly so I knew to bring a book to read and sit in one of the chairs facing away from the screen.  But unfortunately, it was a technical book that required pretty serious concentration to follow the thread of the argument and what I found was the tv was horribly distracting.  I could hear these three voices jabbering and crooning at each other in a patois that I assume was hip-hop speak.  I tried my best to tune it out but the tv was blaring at 80 decibels and these three bozos were shouting at the top of their lungs as if what they were saying was some life and death matter.

Finally, I gave up trying to read and I figured I’d just vegetate and that way the tv wouldn’t be such a nuisance.  But I couldn’t do that either.  Now I couldn’t even distract myself with the hopeless task of reading the book.  Now I couldn’t help hearing their moronic conversation.  And the true stupidity of what they were saying hit home.  They were a popular culture review program.  They were reviewing things like some kind of hip-hop award ceremony and the associated red carpet activity.

The descriptions were hard to understand because it was larded with words that, though English, were being used in senses that you could not find in a dictionary.  Although maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe the urban dictionary was invented for these meanings.  As an example, they were describing the probably pornographic outfit and “dancing” that one female rapper was wearing at the afterparty and they were full of approbation for this sight and they kept saying that she was “always giving.”  And I couldn’t quite imagine what “giving” referred to.  I think it involved not covering up her primary and secondary sex organs but I wasn’t completely sure.

I did understand what twerking was.  That detail was something that Miley Cyrus explained back in 2016 when she was campaigning for Hillary Clinton.  Now it appears to be as routine a part of hip-hop activity as to be the equivalent of saying hello.  Anyway, the awfulness of the discussion never got better.  And I found that I was becoming increasingly aggravated by listening to these cretins.  So, I got up and turned around to see who these people were and who was watching this crap on the screen.

The three “hosts” were somewhat young.  There was a black woman, a Latina and a gay black man dressed in spandex with a bow in his hair.  Then I looked at the audience.  There were four guys between the ages of about forty and sixty.  And they were sitting there with glazed over expressions.  I read my audience and acted.  I went over to the side of the flat screen and hit the power button.  The screen went black and the voices ended.  All four men looked up at me surprised.  But then one guy smiled and said “Thank you.”

I got back to my seat and started to read my book.  But I half expected someone to turn the tv back on and was resigned to waiting outside in the hot noon time sun just to avoid listening to any more of that drivel.  But it never came back on.  And I couldn’t concentrate on my book.  I was thinking about the putrid level our culture has reached.  And it wasn’t even just the perversity of the subject matter.  It was the abysmal level of the discussion.  These people weren’t just vapid.  They were clearly morons.  Communicating with them would be like trying to discuss politics or morality with a cow or a horse.  Absurd.

I sometimes feel that the Dissident Right exaggerates the falling off of intelligence in the new America.  After all, the baby boomers had their weird and moronic cultural moments when they were young.  No one could claim that watching “The Monkees” was an intellectual pursuit.  But this is different.  This is the victory of stupidity.  This is the mainstreaming of dimwit chic.

Well, I did get to see something of the world today.  But it wasn’t good.

Guest Contributor – Chemist – Hollywood Hates Us

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I recently wrote the below to a friend and they are seeing the same thing:

It seems that the mega entertainment corporations hate their customers so much that they are happy to commit suicide just to hurt their customers.

A crazy statement? Hear me out:
The latest Star Wars trilogy featured all female leads (The poor black dude who featured large in the first movie was a tertiary character at best in the second two.)
“OK, fine,” I thought. “The force can be used by male and female. No big deal. On with the story.” And I’m sure lots of people like myself felt the same way.
But Disney went further. It wasn’t enough to have STRONG FEMALE LEADS (TM) they had to destroy the male leads that came before. Luke wasn’t just a Jedi who was past his prime, he was a coward, a loser and a child murderer. It’s like Disney was saying: “Take that! All you losers who loved the original movies and characters. We’ll wreck them for you.”
Yes, the movies made money – lots of it, but only about a third of what they should have made. Did you hear of anyone standing in line to see those movies 4 times? 3? even twice?

OK, that’s a single example. . . .

The latest Marvel movie – Black Widow – has a scene consisting of women discussing their menstruation issues. I am told that Disney put that in the movie “Just to make men uncomfortable”.
Who watches comic book movies starring sexy women wearing tiny tight costumes? Is it pre-teen girls? Is it soccer moms? Is it the local Karen group of wine and whine?
No! Its men! Men and adolescent boys are your target audience. Why would you put in a scene just to make them uncomfortable?
Because Disney / Marvel hates their audience.
Black Widow is going to be the lowest grossing Marvel movie ever and may not even break even.
But it’s worth it, because they hate their audience and want to hurt them.

OK, that’s 2 examples, but they are both from the same company.

Let’s talk about Dr. Who. (Do we have to?) The BBC recently introduced a female Doctor Who. Not a female Gallifreyan – that had been seen before – but a female Dr. Who – the title character. OK, Its Sci-Fi, anything is possible. The fans will still watch as long as the writing is good. . .
But the writing was horrible. Every single plot revolved around social justice and other Woke topics. The fans stopped watching in droves. Remember that this is the longest running series in the history of television – almost 60 years of fans. There are people who grew up watching the show who are now collecting social security who have turned it off. The ratings are so bad that the BBC is considering cancelling the show.
But it’s worth it because they hate their fans.

The thing is that these companies are hurting themselves. The fans will go elsewhere – Japanese Manga is a big winner. They still feature male characters defeating bad guys and saving the day. (For now.) But the dollars the fans of Star Wars, Marvel, and Dr. Who would have spent on the movies, and products won’t be going to those mega corporations.

This is insanity. This is mental illness. And in the case of a publicly traded company, this might well be criminal.

Reclaiming the Family – Part 6 – The Miracle of a Traditional Wife

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I never tire of reminding Camera Girl that in my mind she and I are very close in behavior to the married couple in W. C. Fields two classic movies, “It’s A Gift” and “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.”  In both movies Field’s hen-pecked character has a wife played by Kathleen Howard a tall, stout woman who affects the character of a cultured, histrionic scold who constantly hectors and nags at Fields’ character.  And Fields’ answer to almost every utterance of his wife is a meek, “yes dear.”  And I tell her this not because there is any resemblance physically or temperamentally between her and this shrewish character but because this reminds me of the natural antagonism that husband and wife experience in the course of their wedded bliss.  Well, also because I am sort of a jerk.

A few weeks ago, we were sitting down to dinner and she had cooked a soup using the leftovers from a ham we had for the holidays.  It was a ham and lentil soup and she decided to make it so thick that we call it a stoup, meaning stew/soup.  As I started eating dinner it occurred to me that being married to a woman like my wife is probably the greatest good that a man can have in his life.

A traditional wife makes your house into a home and raises a family.  And a family is the only true wealth that any man ever actually possesses.  And if she’s also pretty and a good cook like mine then it’s as close to heaven as any man can hope to see on this side of the great divide.  That’s the information I can provide to the young guys around today.

But where can you find such a woman today?  All the American girls have been sold on the idea that they have to have a career to be fulfilled in the modern world.  That is the root of the problem.  There are only two solutions, either convince some woman that there is a better option or go outside of the local pool of women.

As far as convincing women to move away from careers I think a man has to have the wherewithal to convince a woman that he can support a stay-at-home wife.  Probably that means owning your own home and having a stable income.  It would be best if you are up front about your plans and expectations so that you can eliminate the girls that will never work out.  I’m too old to know anything about on-line dating services but I would imagine a primary function would be trying to line up marital expectations.  Correct me if I’m mistaken that they must have a profile that corresponds to a traditional homemaker.

One thing that might be a starting point is avoid any girl who is planning on going to some very expensive college.  Unless her parents have funded her entire education, she is going to have to pay back those student loans and that will make it doubly difficult for you to afford a one income lifestyle.  So maybe you should be looking at women who go to the local community college or even better ones working in local jobs that do not require high powered college credentials.

But however you find one, if she has all the qualifications I mentioned in my intro then marry her and never let her work a day of her life outside of the home.  Have a passel of kids and enjoy every day of it for as long as you both shall live.  Raising a family is a challenging and sometimes a confusing task but as you get older, you’ll find that it really is the only meaningful thing that most human beings ever accomplish.    Ray Bradbury wrote a story called the Happiness Machine.  In it an inventor tried to make a machine that would make a person happy if he sat in it.  It had all the sights and sounds that he imagined could make a person happy.  Music, exotic vistas, delicious aromas, everything he thought he would want.  But by the end of the story, he discovers the truth when he looks into the window of his own house and sees his family, his wife and his children, performing their routine daily activities together in his own home.  That is the true happiness machine.  And if a man can’t find happiness in that then maybe he never will.

Why We Boycott the Leftist Businesses

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Not using Google or walking away from the NFL or avoiding Hollywood’s leftist insults like Star Wars is a way to take money out of the Left’s pocket.  But let’s face it, there are plenty of other people that are lined up to spend their cash on those things.  So, we’re not going to topple any of those behemoths anytime soon.

But what it does do is create demand and available cash for alternatives on the Right that either currently exist or should be created now.  Take Google.  Other options already exist.  DuckDuckGo and Brave already exists and can be used as your browser without any loss of functionality.  Is Google faster or more comprehensive?  Maybe but who cares?  Am I splitting the atom and need the cutting edge of technology to check on the weather?  But DuckDuckGo and Brave don’t track my every move and don’t sell my information.

As far as professional sports go, I have now finished with all of them.  They can kneel and grovel to whomever they want.  I won’t be seeing another minute of the NFL, MLB or the NBA until I hear they’re ready to apologize to the patriotic Americans they’ve defamed and denounce the thugs at BLM and Antifa instead.  And so, the time and money that could have gone to cable packages and tickets can go elsewhere.  How about joining a bowling league with some friends or a membership at a gun range?  That will utilize the time and money left available by abandoning those millionaire jocks who hate America.  Not to mention the money it will deprive the networks and cable channels of.

As for Hollywood, there aren’t many options for motion picture production.  But there will be soon.  And until there are, think about other options.  Old movies, old books, old tv shows, new books by people on our side of the fence.  With the pent-up demand that shutting down the Hollywood sleaze train would produce you can afford to look around and find the books that are out there from authors on our side of the fence.  On the science fiction and fantasy side of things I happen to like Larry Correia with his Monster Hunter books (and his other series).  The military science fiction series “Galaxy’s Edge” by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole is one of my current favorites.  Neither series features any trace of social justice or hate for traditional beliefs, just adventure and excitement.  Vox Day has a publishing company, Castalia House that publishes book, and comic books and soon even some kind of movies that are oriented in our direction.  Supporting all of these and more is a way to help our side to grow its own culture independent of the Left.

And there should be plenty of other companies and people out there that don’t insult us on a daily basis and would be a much better place for us to spend money on.  If you know of any, pass the names along and I’ll list them in a database as a reference for others.

But that’s the idea.  Consciously shifting time and money away from enemy institutions and locating alternatives is better than just saying you will boycott the Left’s companies.  The pent-up demand for entertainment will still exist if you boycott.  And if you become bored you may drift back to the enemy.  Use that demand and the money saved to do something worthwhile.  Add to all the things I’ve mentioned anything else that you are interested in, camping, bird watching, hunting, fishing, baseball, softball, hockey, whatever.  Find people on our side and spend time and money with them.  It’s the smartest way to make our side stronger and coincidentally you’ll make the Left weaker at the same time.

I bang this drum pretty often because I think there’s more that can actually be done on these small personal choices than all the yelling and screaming about the latest Leftist outrage.  Talking politics is fine and has its place but this is a culture war that will go on as long as we live and probably longer.  We need to start making our lives better and theirs worse.  So, invest the time to find alternatives to the Left’s stranglehold on the culture.

Defund the Universities

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This article aligns with my own feelings on the subject.  The universities are hotbeds of anti-Americanism.  Why should our tax dollars be used to fund their hatred of us?  Starving them of funds is the perfect solution to weakening antifa and BLM.  Let these revolutionaries look for real jobs.  While we’re at it we should send a contingent of BLM to burn down Harvard, Yale and the other Ivies.  They’ve got plenty of statues to offend the savages.  We would lose nothing and gain a great deal.

 

 

 

The Fourth of July Is All Ours

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Independence Day is a movie that I have spent a goodly number of hours mocking.  And rightly so.  One of my favorite targets is that truly annoying paeon to globalism when President Whitmore declares that because all of humanity is under attack and the final battle will be fought on July 4th that from now on the Fourth of July will no longer be an American holiday but will be the Independence Day for the whole world.

I think it’s interesting that instead of that reality we live in a world where a large swath of Americans is now rejecting the Fourth of July as being racist and therefore un-American.  Just as the American flag is now racist and to be avoided so too is our Independence Day.  To the Left, the true Independence Day is Juneteenth.  This goes along with their idea that America wasn’t founded in 1776 but in 1619 when slaves reached the colonies.

I think that’s great.  It suits me to a tee.  I prefer not to have to share the Fourth of July with these losers anyway.  It goes along with all the other things which now are forbidden to them but we can celebrate exclusively and joyously.  Christopher Columbus, Magellan, Henry Hudson, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, Lewis and Clark, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, The Wright Brothers, Theodore Roosevelt, John J. Pershing, George S. Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, Ronald Reagan and countless other great men who created a new world that inherited the Renaissance civilization from Europe and brought it to unparalleled heights in the formation of the United States of America.  These are the people we read about in our history classes before the revisionists vilified them and replaced them with nobodies that fit better into the race and gender categories that they hoped to fill in their false history of our founding.

And I look forward to passing along all the details of how our country was actually built.  And I won’t care about cataloging some of the darker incidents of our story.  The cruelty and the war; the greed and the foolishness of some of the pages in our story.  These things are human and looking at the whole course of human history I can say without fear of contradiction that the American chapter is the brightest and best part of the whole story.

So, rejoice my fellow Americans.  And be glad that only true Americans now celebrate the Fourth of July and honor the lives of all the great men who built this land and made possible this most remarkable nation in all the history of humanity and anywhere on God’s green Earth.  Gather together with your friends and family and grill some steaks or barbecue some burgers and dogs and eat your potato salad and watermelon and drink your beer and lemonade and have a baseball catch with the kids and jump in the pool and sit around and have some ice cream and watch the fireworks.  And remember the Fourth of July when you were ten and tell your kids or grandkids about it.

I find it liberating to no longer make believe we are one people with a changing understanding of “who we are.”  In reality we are one nation, the American people, that still believes all the things we always believed.  And alongside this nation there is a hodge-podge of outsiders who do not want to belong.  They have formed a coalition for the sake of trying to disinherit the Americans by convincing us that we are evil undeserving racists.  But they have shown their hand too soon and the mask is off.  They hate us and they are not part of us.  We owe them nothing and we no longer have to accommodate them.  They are a separate thing from us and deserve none of our sympathy or consideration.  The only thing they require is our caution to avoid being harmed by their malice.

So, enjoy the Fourth and flaunt your happiness about it with your fellow Americans, especially in front of those who despise this country and its true history.  It’s your holiday and your birthright.

Tuning In and Tuning Out – Part I

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During a recent discussion I was having with a friend, I was told to stop worrying about the culture wars because, “It’s not ideological, it’s just the globalists pitting people against each other to maximize their profits.”  I couldn’t convince my friend that this wasn’t very comforting.  Knowing that the Elite that offshores our jobs and the rabid Leftists who want to destroy everything normal and wholesome in our live aren’t really ideological allies is cold comfort because despite their differences they have managed between them to destroy the United States of America.

But one good comes from the realization that the old America is gone.  You no longer have to try to fix the country.  There are just two things you have to do.  You have to look for the good things that are out there and tune into them and strengthen them.  And you have to tune out the bad things and insulate yourself from them and do whatever you can to weaken them.

Easier said than done.  Try if you can, to figure out how to do those two things.  Think of examples from your daily life.  For instance, during the recent riots my employer decided to have managers engage their direct reports about injustice toward blacks in America.  So, I’m listening over the computer to a Canadian telling us that he hadn’t heard of “Juneteenth” before.  And then he wanted to know if we had any thoughts.  Well, what I wanted to do was tell him that since the rioters had looted and burned down the downtown areas of numerous American cities, I no longer cared about their centuries-old tribulations.  But that would have been unwise if I wanted to keep getting a paycheck from them.  What I did do was tune this nonsense out.  I actually spent the time while this sermonizing was going on checking my e-mail and replying to some comments on this site.  And because of that I felt better.

And as far as tuning in, I spent time last week reading a couple of authors from our side of the political spectrum.  Larry Correia, the author of the Grimnoir series was the leader of the revolt of science fiction authors against the social justice school of science fiction.  He led the Sad Puppies movement that revealed the Hugo Awards as the social justice fraud that it really is.  And he writes fantasy stories that are 100% free of political correctness and social justice whining.  And Jason Anspach and Nick Cole’s Galaxy’s Edge series is a military science fiction breath of fresh air in a world of Star Wars gender confused losers.  Enjoying those books and spreading the word on them is my way of tuning in to a part of the world that I want to strengthen.  And because of that I felt better.

In that way, I can endure the endless betrayals of John Roberts and the other traitors to America that daily sully the news with their crimes.  I can endure the cowards on the supposed right and the thugs and lunatics on the Left and the corporatist parasites who work to sell off what is left of the nation.  I concentrate on what is good and do my small part to pass the word along.  And I work to help the people in my locale who are on my side.  I first off, help my family and my friends.  Then I work outward to my acquaintances.  And that can be fertile ground.  I’ve found like minded people at work where I never expected it.  It can open up your circle of friends dramatically.  Making new links and building new friendships is exciting and makes life better.

Your life is very valuable.  Your happiness is also valuable.  When the Leftists commit their atrocities, your misery is part of their victory.  Your unhappiness weakens you and it weakens our side collectively.  And, conversely, when you are happy it strengthens our side.  That’s part of the logic of this shutdown.  The unhappiness and loneliness it breeds is demoralizing.  But if you can tune out the psyops propaganda then they lose and we win.

So, come on.  Strike a blow for our side.  Call a friend and set up a party or a poker game.  Or just get in touch with an old friend you haven’t spoken to in an age and say hi.  Send a good book or a link to a good article (maybe this one) to someone who is on our side of the fence.  Contribute to President Trump’s re-election campaign.

And tune out the nonsense from the other side.  Ignore the doom and gloom.  Stop worrying about the elections.  Stop worrying about the COVID stuff.  Stop worrying about the House and the Senate and the Supreme Court.  None of those things are helped by you worrying.  Sure, you can convince people on our side to vote and you can make sure you do too.  But you aren’t going to turn any tides by yourself so stop worrying.

There, don’t you feel a little better already?  I do because writing this is my way of tuning in.

How Do We Live Our Lives in an Upside-Down World?

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I think most people reading this post know precisely what I mean by the title.  And it doesn’t have anything to do with lockdowns or pandemics or even the upcoming election, even though every one of those things highlights the craziness of the world around us.  But I mean to look at the world as a whole and address the larger issue of how we can make our lives better and also add to the effort to push the world toward a course correction away from the madness we see all around us.

The leftists are always fond of saying “act locally but think globally.”  In a sense that is what I’m saying.  But it’s more like think and act locally, think and act globally.  What we will need is a multi-track approach to existence.  We can’t use the same tactics with our family and friends as we use with the town government and PTA.  And we can’t use the same tactics with the state government as we use for our town.  And finally, we have a completely different situation on the national level.  There isn’t a one size fits all strategy.  Maybe surprisingly, the approach we take with family and friends is closer to the way we handle the federal government.  Unless you live in a deep red state there is a lot more opportunity at the national level for the kind of openness you can have with friends and family than is possible in many of the communities, we live in.

There are national organizations that are working to make government policy changes.  Look for organizations that advocate for clear cut goals.  Forget anything that’s generic Republican.  Look for someone who says “we are doing this.”  And then see if they say how they are going to do it.  And then ask them what they’ve already done to make it happen.  Some examples that come to mind are Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Federalist Society.  The ADF is known for defending in court individuals who are being prosecuted for laws that criminalize Christian beliefs.  Florists and wedding bakers who refuse to create products for homosexual marriages are prosecuted in blue states and forced out of business.  The ADF comes to their aid and is helping them to win their rights to religious freedom.  The Federalist Society has been a powerful force for resisting the unconstitutional actions of judges who put social advocacy above the law.  Many of the lawyers that are members of the federalist Society have gone on to careers as judges on the local and federal judiciary all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Supporting organizations that show results in the causes you believe in is an example of global action you can take.  Research the problems that you want solved and find out who is making a difference and then get involved.  Be critical and careful about who you support but don’t become pessimistic.  Donate money, time, or whatever else you have that can help.  Get to know what’s actually out there.  Educate those around you about the bad and the good.

Now what about the local side?  Obviously, you must get involved in the family and friends around you and do everything you can to protect them from the rot and confusion that surrounds everything in our environment.  For the young give them positive role models and provide normal alternatives for the debased entertainment that the popular culture and schools foist upon our young people.  Typically, you can find movies and books from the time before the progressive capture of the entertainment industries and many of these are vastly more entertaining than the propaganda currently being pumped out.  Sponsor activities that allow parents that you trust to join with you to give the kids healthy activities without the loaded messaging that the sanctioned activities always include in their program.  And make sure to get together with your family whenever you can.  A Sunday dinner with your children and grandchildren is one of the nicest ways of spending an afternoon.  A barbecue with your brothers and sisters and their families is a remarkable way to reinforce family solidarity.  Cousins talking about what’s going on in their lives is a great chance to reinforce family ties and lend help and maybe launch a family business.

And for yourself get involved in activities and social organizations that will allow you to find like-minded men whom you can befriend.  Build up a circle of friends who will make your leisure time enjoyable.  Also contacts of this type allow you to build a circle of acquaintances that may have a range of skills and occupations that you can draw on for your own needs.  After all, many of the tradesmen and business owners are on our side of the fence.  Why not throw your business to people that you like and agree with politically and culturally?

And finally, if you have the time and the inclination get involved in local politics.  This is the most difficult aspect of activism especially if you live in a deep blue state.  Basically, you will be in the belly of the beast and surrounded on every side by the enemy.  Everything you say and do will be scrutinized by progressives and measured against progressive dictates.  It would be like the scenes in that old movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” where normal humans try to pass themselves off as pod people.  Eventually some glimmer of emotion or humanity will expose them as “not of the body,” not part of the collective mind.  Working under such conditions would be painful and stressful but also has the potential of getting very important things done.

It’s important to make sure that while we’re all fighting the good fight, we also take care of ourselves and those we love.  What good is winning the culture war if we lose our happiness?  Enjoy your life and your family and friends.  Have fun and do good for those you love.  Think about what is important to you and make sure you take care of the important things.  Go outside and look at the amazing world that exists even in the hellish climate of New England.  Say a little prayer of thanks for the good things you have in your life and be grateful for your health and the health of those you love.  Use your time wisely and don’t let pessimism and depression get a hold of your mind.  Live!

I’ve listed a couple of organizations that I think are doing good work and making a difference to advance our interests, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Federalist Society.  If you know of other organizations doing good work then please list them in the comments section along with an explanation of what their mission are.  All of us need to share information whenever we can.