I was reading Jim Geraghty’s “Morning Ace Quotes” column today and it occurred to me: a multitude of disparate voices aren’t really necessary any longer in a failed erstwhile constitutional republic like ours, especially so long as we have properly networked realists pointing out, to each other and in an endless feedback loop of links and retweets, should their barometers tell them the time is ripe, how, eg., the media is unfair to conservatives and has a double standard when it comes to probing wedge issues (unless, of course, the conservative in question happens to be some dumb snowbilly embarrassment; or maybe a former witch apprentice; or some businessman or doctor with no “practical” experience to run the government — and therefore, an unserious player whose very intrusion into big boy politics is just so much distraction: those presumptuous fuckers get the beatings they deserve, and the pragmatists who join the left in excoriating them are merely doing some pruning, for our own electoral good!).
I mean, the right-side blogosphere has done the “liberal hypocrisy” thing for over a dozen years now, and it seems to be what sells, particularly among the insular crowd who has taken an Army of Davids and “managed it” into a more elite fighting force of its own conceit. Call it, “an army of centrally-edited clearinghouse sites who will decide for you who is given a voice and who isn’t.” We, as a movement, have become but the scribblers of finger-in-the-wind jeremiads — of endlessly changing philosophical stances designed to fit the mood of the current political climate.
That kind of atmosphere is completely alien to me, and I can no longer breathe in it. It is petty, egotistical, and carefully policed — not just on blogs but on Twitter and other social media platforms, as well.
I thank you all for your support over the years, my dear readers and online friends — those few of you who are left — but my time on the stage, such as it was and has been, is through.
Party politics as team sport is not something I’m interested in playing. I’ll leave that to the fake wonks and the wannabe amateur pollsters who litter the “new media” landscape like so many discarded bumperstickers. The political blogosphere is not the place of academic or even philosophical ideas, nor is it any longer conducive to unearthing, examining, and revealing the kinds of kernel assumptions that create the very conditions we conservatives (a label whose meaning has been watered so thin that Oliver Twist would need several helpings just to fill his stomach) constantly bitch about.
Instead, it’s all about the bitching — though the more “nuanced” writers on “our” side will often take a different tack and try to appear more equanimous, a stance they believe sets them apart from the typical shrieking wingnuttery that so embarrasses them and that therefore evinces from them a kind of “thoughtful” waffling that in actuality is intellectual cowardice masquerading as sober deference. But hey, at least they get invited to the internet version of the Oscars every year, where they celebrate each other and, beyond that, provide very little that amounts to anything but a reinforcement of the status quo. And maybe bring home a collectible mug with a flag on it.
Since I started writing daily, back in Dec of 2001, I’ve watched a once robust blogosphere become a cheerleading competition, a pair of competing Mean Girls tables, and the backstabbing and cliquishness of the thing has so thoroughly soured me on it all that most days I don’t know why I bother.
And if I can’t figure out any longer why I bother, it seems to me best not to.
It’s really no secret what’s happened to protein wisdom — a “has been” site that certain people worked very hard to leave in that condition. People I once championed and defended. People I worked with on occasion. People whom I’ve visited and who have visited me. People who I thought would have my back, but instead who only viewed it as a place to stick their knives. Never in plain site. Never from the front. But always from behind, and in stealth. For which they’ll eventually have to swallow the shame.
Frankly, it’s time for me to tell them all to go to hell. And I can do that with impunity, because they don’t much care what I have to say, my reach having been effectively stymied, all by design. Though most of them haven’t the sack to admit it.
As this month’s fundraiser dribbles to a lackluster close, with the marketplace clearly telling me my insights aren’t especially valuable any longer, it seems like a good time for me to bow off the stage. Unless and until I can re-invent myself as something other than the shunned, pseudo academic, pyschosexually violent and predatory destroyer of the Noble and Virtuous and politically sane champions of the GOP cause — which ain’t gonna happen.
I mean, I gotta be me, right?
And staying true to that means I surrender the field to the positioners, the poseurs, the “pragmatists,” the “realists,” the “serious” and “sober” and “nuanced” thinkers on our side who have, since the initial boom of the political blogosphere, given us a supermajority Democrat Congress, the disastrous end to the Bush years, McCain and Romney presidential runs, the “Good Man” Obama with his crisp pant crease and the debt and destruction he had hidden in his pockets, and a spirited defense of every justification why it’s good and righteous to savage activist conservatives, particularly those running for office, who make any kind of gaffe that can be “used against us” by a media that will always find a way to create the soundbite they need to harm us, context be damned.
In short? Gggghah. Last bridges burned. With no regrets. The field belongs to the I’M OUTRAGED crowd — whose answer to every real question concerning the unraveling of our republic is to find moderates “who can be elected.” Frankly? They’re impotent preachers to the choir, and they bore the everloving shit out of me these days.
[…Aaaaaaaannnnd exeunt]
Well shit, Jeff. Where else am I going to go for dancing armadillos?
More seriously, I’ve almost had my fill of this kind of bullshit. Unlike you, though, no one ever visited my site for serious discussions on anything. I’m more of the dick and fart joke guy; life is serious enough. All this bloodletting from people ostensibly on my side are unnecessary own goals. Politely disagree, point out why you think he/she is mistaken, and then move on. Instead, it’s a race to the bottom to see who can most loudly and publicly disavow the heretic. Frankly, it’s disheartening.
You’ve stayed true to your roots as a classical liberal, regardless of the economic and social consequences. For that, you have my respect, for what it’s worth. I’ll miss the in depth discussions here, but I understand why you feel the need to exit the stage. Here’s hoping that life outside the blogshitsphere continues to treat you well. And next time I’m in the Denver area, I’ll buy you a beer, if your family life permits.
Take care, and see you around.
On the one hand I find myself wondering what’s taken you so long. On the other hand, I find something particularly unsatisfying about the decision, if only because what matters matters, regardless of the frivolous conditions or circumstances swirling around at any time, no less twenty days ago, twenty years ago or twenty centuries ago. So. There’s an argument to be made for just ignoring all the bullshit and fixing instead on the enduring stuff.
I hope it’s not true, but fear the worst.
You’re right, of course. I was having coffee with my 85 year old mother this morning and she said, “I’m tired. This is no place for me anymore. I’ve watched the United States move from a place where we upheld what was right and good to something I don’t recognize anymore. I pray everyday that God calls me home.”
She’s right, too.
The betrayal has become too much to take. Yet, we must keep the faith for our children’s sake.
I wish you well. Take some time off if you need it, but some of us need to believe we’re not alone.
If I might offer one suggestion? Maybe it’s time to put some of your analyses into a collection and then self-publish said collection? My guess is that, despite blogosphere evidence to the contrary, there is a strong desire for such a thing. At least then the worst you’d have to deal with our the “I didn’t read it, but it obviously sucks” reviews on Amazon.
I get it. I’ve been around since December of 2001 myself, and I’m no stranger to this surges of utter disgust, depresssion, and hopelessness.
But I’ll keep on going as long as I can, because I can’t think of what else to do that might help at least a few.
I’ll miss your writing and thinking. Good luck. Enjoy your family.
Well, I’m not giving up the Fight.
Samuel Adams didn’t when he faced the same situation [and neither, it seems did Bill Quick], so I’ll be damned if I do.
OUTLAW.
:-(
You will be sorely missed, sir. And your “demise” is further proof of the depths to which political discussion has sunk. Ah, to be young and rich! I’d lavish this site with filthy lucre. As it is, I and many of my like-minded brethren are struggling to keep jobs that are dangling by a thread, facing dwindling retirement accounts, and wondering where our next free breath will come from (or if we’ll ever get another). I’ll continue to do what I can, which lately entails footwork, writing, and volunteering for local candidates that really do understand the dire straits we’re in…and where has Mark Knopfler been lately, anyway? Best of luck to you and yours.
I’ll have to mull this over.
I mean, there is the blogsphere – which isn’t terribly important – and then there are the ideas, and issues.
Which are important.
I personally don’t give a shit about the big voices/big sites issue. They can all eat a bag of dicks.
I do far more lurking than commenting — and I’ve been remiss in not donating — but I do think the ideas you focus on desperately need to be championed, Jeff.
I think Physics Geek is right, and I think the ideas need to be distilled into a permanent argument designed for the broadest popular audience.
And I hope that, with co-bloggers like Darleen, this site doesn’t die as a meeting place for people who have the courage to see what guys like Ace don’t see — at least, not with any consistency and not with enough conviction to act on what ought to be plain to a lot more people.
I’ve got nothing to lose here, so let me pull out a Big Gun [re-paragraphing mine]:
—Samuel Adams, writing as ‘CANDIDUS’, 14 October 1771
What Lawrence wrote — in spades.
And I quibble, but you didn’t start writing daily in 2011. I think we need to subtract 10 years from that?
no this is not the way forward
Nothing last forever I guess.
MST3K begat Riff Trax so there is always hope.
Maybe it’s worth rereading, Albert Jay Nock’s essay “Isaiah’s Job” about public writing that is really intended for the small and overwhelmed Remnant.
Five years ago I was miserable in my day-to-day routine. My wife was beginning to see enough success in her profession that my salary was really extraneous. Still I was really hesitant to leave this job that made me so unhappy, but someone whose writing and philosophy I had admired for years communicated with me a bit about it and made my decision a lot easier.
You probably don’t remember that but it changed my life for the better in innumerable ways, and I’ll always be grateful for how you treated me like an equal and a friend even though we had never met. (Still haven’t actually but if you’re ever in the Springs my door is always open.)
Whatever you decide to fill your time with going forward, I wish you nothing but the best. Although I have no right to, all I ask is that you don’t disappear completely. The world just wouldn’t be the same.
Jeff, I wish you the best and will be very sorry to have no site of similar erudition to go to when I tire of what seems to be the remainder of the entire internet, a place that which once seemed a world where actual thoughts were presented and discussed by rational people. I do hope that you resurface renewed and refreshed, but I understand the feeling of despair at the state of, well, almost everything!
Best Regards
Hrothgar
Thanks for the opportunities to guest post here & best wishes.
The news clove through me like lightning through an old barn. I felt the bitter political wind dragging me down like some old dead cotton wood tree to lie split and moldering in the same filthy dust that had once rested in my shadow. Soon I would join the dust and know its secret well, that it too had been raised up and hauled back down by the capricious rhythms of nature and time. Dust to dust, and whatever lies between the wise tongue names illusion.
I agree with the notion that you should self-publish. Go through Amazon where it doesn’t cost anything to get started. Use this site, as long as it’s up, to advertise your works.
Protein Wisdom is the ONLY blog I visit regularly now. I used to be a regular follower of several other sites, and one by one I watched them sell their conservatism and originality for the price of popularity. You have been the only consistent voice.
I have not always agreed with your opinion, but those times have been sporadic. You also have real quality to your prose that stands out in the blogosphere’s crowded field. I don’t think you should stop producing, but instead transfer to another medium.
I personally think the one-man political blogosphere has long peaked and is now in decline. Save yourself the grief of watching it die around you.
But please don’t go completely away.
This is the only site I always visit as well. The rest of them are, for the most part, out of touch with reality.
The only thing I watch on Fox News anymore is red eye on the dvr.
My ostensible allies have pretty much abandoned me to wallow in pragmatism, and I’m not represented in this government by more than a few who actually represent the interest of other states or counties.
Stick a fork in it.
Whatever you do, Jeff, remember that I’ve got your back. Keep me in your rolodex, please.
I guess Space Titties and the many faces of Miley can throw their big e-fap party now.
Not again.
More from Samuel Adams, from the same letter to the Boston Gazette [re-paragraphing mine]:
OUTLAW.
mr g.
re: the art v stuff.
we should move forward with a defined art v convention. levin’s open
ended convention just invites leftard lawfare. so 2 matters on the table:
1)levin’s term limits and 2)3/4 of the state legislatures vote to increase the federal gov’t debt ceiling beyond $22 trillion.
from there we need the legal team of artVinc to draft a standardize legislature bill for a convention of the states for these 2 matters.
with that in hand, artVinc needs to talk to governor abbot in texas to call
a special session(he can do this by texas constitution) for considering this measure.
we have the ground game covered with tea party/911 groups. they need a goal to achieve.
hopefully, with victory in texas, team artVinc can go to 49 other states and with standard process for this procedure in hand, get the 2/3 or 3/4 (forgot no.)
that’s why i have trepidation concerning scott walker. he is to entangled with paul ryan and reeces pieces and the rovester.
might be fun to get rick perry/ted cruz/texas into the mix.
if the spirit moves use what i have spake with eloquence.
join this fight sir!
I hate this.
“i spake” works better > i have spaken or yo bitch;)
OK, investigate this.
I was searching for this ‘Jim Geherty’ (sp?) fellow, came across that site, and perhaps this, this is the block-faced dork who cannot write you speak of? In his unimaginative words, I’m not finding a path to impressed.
I wouldn’t spend thirty seconds reading his crap, ever. I don’t have thirty seconds to waste. No wonder you’re in a bad mood. The Geherty guy cannot write.
YOU can write. Better than any of these bloggers who’ve turned their backs on you.
Ace is but a mean-spirited hack who collects others like him. He can hack. YOU can write.
Instapundit is a hand-shaking, pragmatic, middle-of-the-road link-sponge who lucked into his gig (a gig that is getting as shaky as all of blogdom is getting right now); he’s pushed around and manipulated by the same consortium you’ve crossed, but he isn’t big enough to push back. I spit on his links, and on his Amazon pushiness.
Also, he cannot write. YOU can write.
Point me to one other ‘writer’ who can put words together as well as you can, consistently? I don’t think you can bottle that talent that up for very long. Leave yourself this platform; forget the daily crunching. That way when you do want to write, you can do so.
I’m guessing many will be here to read you.
And I hope that, with co-bloggers like Darleen, this site doesn’t die as a meeting place for people who have the courage to see what guys like Ace don’t see — at least, not with any consistency and not with enough conviction to act on what ought to be plain to a lot more people.
Agreed, and I don’t visit Ace any longer for this reason among others.
Goddamn.
Living well is the best revenge said some dude at some point.
Dominus vobiscum, I’d add.
But would you be willing to eat some sleazy pancakes for saintly Alfonso?
perhaps you should be the anti > i found a new tool let us attack the system<. levin is #occupysomethingartv
mr g.
i want to dispose of ” one eye” harry reid, mitchy mcconnel, nancy pelosi, and johny boner in one swoop. i want to take their credit card , in one swoop, and cut it up. i want to throw uncertaincy into the ruining class.
i want to take America back.
I am very sorry to read this, Jeff. Yours is one of the few one-man politically-oriented blogs that I read anymore. I long ago gave up on such sites as Ace of Spades and Hot Air. I haven’t been commenting much over the past few years, but I have been coming here and reading the blog daily. You will be missed, and I hope you reconsider.
I’m sorry to hear you received such a jolt from that fellow’s column, and agree regarding the depths to which the discourse has sunk. It’s all about affiliation and not the ideas that it’s really meant to turn on.
To an extent I blame the killer bunny foo foos of the twitterverse, though as we all know there was an decision made at some point that you were no longer to be linked un
politepartisan company; which is bad for traffic but good for keep the conversation focused on ideas…For some time now I’ve been only able to read quickly, and seldom comment, or even lurk! because of my duties seeing to Bob the younger. But it’s also due to my decision to enter a graduate program at a seminary here on Long Island that’s part of the deacon formation program in the Catholic church. The subject matter is very lofty and philosophical. It’s the opposite the engineering programs I’ve studied in the past, and quite a lot of the subject matter for the first couple of semesters revolves around exegetical techniques, and avoiding the pitfalls of bad hermeneutics. If it’s any consolation to a lot of your writing over the years on that matter, my familiarity with the terms as well as the need to respect the intentions of the author have made my studies a lot easier.
As always, I agree with the commenters who hope that you might instead decide to keep up the fight, and keep tickling the gray cells of the best commentariat on the web. And also agree with those who still believe you should take advantage of e-publishing to at least make some decent money off of your labors. I’d love to help more myself, but we still haven’t had our day in court with the Feds regarding meeting their obligation and paying off on the flood insurance policy from October 2012; things are a little tight all over…
I know, though, whatever you choose to do moving forward that you’ll be a success. Which, as you are certainly aware, is present in ways that defy quantifying metrics. Part of that, of course, is one’s ability to be satisfied with the course chosen, a measurement that only you can furnish.
So I think what I’m trying to say is that you’d be missed more than you may realize looking at the traffic indicators and the tip jar. But if this indeed the last roundup, then I’d like to echo bh’s sentiments: Benedicat tibi Dominus et custodiat te. Ostendat Dominus faciem suam tibi et misereatur tui. Convertat Dominus vultum suum ad te et det tibi pacem. Amen
Dominus vobiscum et familia.
I remember two distinct occasions, Jeff, when you commented to me on my own abating interest in political blogging. The first, which came as I recall not long after you ended your first hiatus, was that you were already once again burned out. Of course what followed was many years of your best (IMHO) work.
More recently, you argued that if you still had the determination to keep plugging, so should I. And I did delay my eventual this-time-I-mean-it withdraaal from blogging until last spring in part because of your encouragement.
But in my case I ultimately did end my blog in its last incarnation because even though there were fewer blogs on my blogroll the ones that were still there were a hundred times more effective in presenting the message than I could ever do at my best. PW especially, even during your own times of deepest despair.
Meatspace life distracts us all, and in my case it distracts me, not from blogging, but from writing my fiction. I remain determined to go back to it when things simmer down at home (extended family is in chemo, in case anyone wonders), but I’m directing my energies homeward for now, as anyone I know whom I’d consider worth knowing, would do.
Someday when I’ve finished my novel and published it, I may reinstall WordPress and resume blogging. Or if it’s still an option by then maybe I’ll do my blogging here instead. The latter would ensure me a larger audience under any circumstances, FWIW. Any. Circumstances.
My 1/57th of a dollar.
Sorry for all the typos, but it’s late and I’ve spent more than 10 hours shoveling and breaking very thick ice over the past couple of days, all while chasing a 3 year old :)
My mind and fingers aren’t working too well, but I thought I should weigh in.
My regards to all.
By the way, today I thought I saw a familiar-looking armadillo rustling in my hedgerow. Not sure it was him though, because the bottle he was brandishing was Skyy.
I always thought he was a Grey Goose guy.
You did a lot of good, more than you may be aware of. Damned good run.
Best of luck Jeff. It was a great run. You’ve made a mark on digital history that will live forever. Or until the progs put the lights out.
Damn!…I just remembered, Jeff: I was going to ask you what you thought about applying ‘the need to respect the intentions of the author’ to composers of music. As a composer and musician myself, I’ve been internally debating this issue for, quite literally, decades, and it finally dawned on me that you’d be a perfect person to ask for more objective thoughts on the subject. But, well, I’m a day late, once again.
[You see: we highly value your opinion. There’s a reason several years ago I called you our modern John Adams.]
Well, Jeff…
The whole post deserves a quote, but among all the quotable parts, that part will do.
I quit commenting in any partisan sense when it became clear the difference between the Parties, as they say, wasn’t; which was about the Goldwater era. I quit commenting entirely when it became clear the problems we face weren’t being exposed, really, hardly anywhere.
Worst case: Nobody’s on the stick. Best case: Those who are are either ignored, marginalized, or ridiculed. Ridiculed more by the ostensible right than the real left; more by the Establicans than the Liberals. I’ve come to expect Liberals but I loathe Republicans for their arrogant, terminal codependency.
The poor in mind ye have with ye always but why ye have to persistently kiss their leftist ass escapes me.
Still not content, the establishment right has gone out and gathered all sorts of crap causes – business is always right; war is peace; there are Good Socialisms and there is bad socialism; and even idiocy like sniper movies are patriotism and spiritual American revival, or butchering bacon is akin to God’s will because it pisses off the Whole Foods crowd. That’s lifestyle obsession, not thought.
In other words, it’s predictable, aimless, petty, social reactionism. And then the kingpin, this:
Careful, willful capitulation is the way to get soft statists elected and all set to oppose the left…by cowing to 60% rather than 100% of its acts and actions. This is today’s right.
The list goes on, but none of these various bullshit themes have crap to do with why the land is both burning and sinking. With why it’s going to be a champion of a new statism instead of protector of old liberties and why it’s going to clothe itself in those idiotic Republican appearances, memes, fictions, and myths.
(Need a refresher course? Try America’s top Libertarian blogger and professor, whose topics chronically range from rank, pop partisanship to cheap sex links to lousy Amazon products – to support the cause, you know – to crap science, and to the weakest pet writers online, at least in the political sense.
This is Libertarianism. And the commentariat there are foolish, rote, hidebound, and wrong.)
And so it goes. We’ve lost our will, our intent, our purpose, and our integrity. Speaking in the royal them we, that is.
It’s truly all bullshit. I don’t blame you.
Ironically, it takes bowing out to write one’s best commentaries. Maybe there’s a future in it.
…and I do think there’s a future in it, actually: Write precisely to the real problems, one by one, and never ever address the assholes themselves.
You’re the best writer doing this, Jeff. In the present sense. Just never let them see you react. Instead, do what you do: Just be right.
If you stop blogging, I’ll wind up a complete social recluse. And we all know what comes after that. Manifestos and mail bombs and sniping from towers.
Don’t brag about all the fun you’re going to have, Ernst.
Ah, hell.
All that’s missing is the inevitable explosive crash. Frankly, I’m bored waiting for it. We had a great run.
Obama’s working on that. As much as Obama works on anything other than his golf swing, that is.
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There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom.
Pablo: “All that’s missing is the inevitable explosive crash. Frankly, I’m bored waiting for it. We had a great run.”
It took the statists a long time to destroy the Republic, but it is a testament to incrementalism that they did it the new way, a small easily digestible piece at a time and succeeded. The old way, of violence and camps, is still in the toolbox if needed, but so far the sheep seem pretty happy!
Only until other people’s money runs out.
There are very few political blogs worth reading, and this was the only one of those worth commenting at. But then, the beauty of PW was that it hasn’t been just political. Sometimes, there have been recipes too.
Who gets custody of ‘feets???
Fuck slewfoot.
number one i do not accept this decision to stop doing the bloggings number two there will be no fucking of the slewfoot
yeah, don’cha be doing that
Ovee. . . uh . . . Cindy.If what you’re doing is not fulfilling your needs, then it’s only reasonable that you look for something else to do. If writing PW columns has become a chore and an obligation, I don’t think anyone would blame you for walking away.
That being said, there’s no reason it needs to be permanent. I suspect you’ll still have the occasional conversation with the panzer rat, and you may also find a couple of pills in the sofa cushions once in a while. When inspiration strikes, you still have an outlet and an audience.
Sure, your audience may never have grown into the legions of adoring fans you dreamt of, for reasons we’ve discussed to death already. Still, we’re a pretty bright group, and loyal as hell, so don’t get hung up on what might have been, but focus instead on how lucky you are to have people like me on your side. (FWIW: I built my own crew of 30-40 clever people once, and I’m still damn proud of that bunch.)
You can also take some pride in knowing that there’s a dozen or more of us who regularly wander into the hordes of the unenlightened, preaching the gospel. We may never convert the masses, but I like to think that we’re keeping the torch burning, and at least trying to keep some of the more “acceptable” voices honest.
Today, you’ve got a great family, a new house, and a budding champion to keep you busy. Enjoy these years, and don’t lose any sleep because Somebody Is Wrong On The Internet. And if you should decide to follow the advice above and write something a bit longer and dead-tree based, I hope you’ll do it in the form of an absurdist memoir, because I’ve always loved that stuff.
Instead of commenting on the current panem et circensis (which tips all principled people into despair), we (and Jeff, if he likes) can instead focus on preparing for the dollar’s inevitable crash, followed by widespread panic, violence, the deaths of those who depend on medicines, and any weather-releated casualties during summer and winter, as well as the urban riots that will take many lives as well. (A supply of huge garbage bags and quicklime is a good start.)
And especially how to reorganize and rebuild in Galt’s Gulch(es).
In the meantime, pushing the Article V convention is a worthy cause, and if events eclipse the actual convention, the principles enumerated therein will help with The Rebuilding.
Might as well. The best way to cope emotionally with an impending flood is to build an ark.
What Dicentra said works for me.
(A supply of huge garbage bags and quicklime is a good start.)
Or a full tank of gas. Just head up north, and let the scavengers and carrion-eaters do all the hard work.
The best way to cope emotionally with an impending flood is to build an ark.
But the
Deputy District Attorneyscool kids might make fun of us! How am I supposed to live with myself when all the Voices of Reason are making fun of my carpentry efforts?heh, that recalls the old saw: carpenters build to the nearest 1/8″, shipwrights build to the nearest ship
Speaking of bread and circuses.
If if looks like the latest iteration of losing more slowly is winning, help yourself to the absinthe.
In the meantime, enjoy these fantastic goalie saves.
Been reading your stuff and comments since the early 00’s. Best on the interwebs by a mile. Best commenters by 1/2 mile. Here’s hoping you keep at it in some form or other. I’ll by your book.
VERITAS ODIUM PARIT
Igotnowherelsetogo!
Me neither, LMC. Let’s wander the earth like Kwai Chang Caine, kicking ass in slow-mo.
“That is no blogosphere for old men…”
“If you stop blogging, I’ll wind up a complete social recluse. And we all know what comes after that. Manifestos and mail bombs and sniping from towers.”
Oh. See, I thought that after social reclusiveness came some serious and exhaustive (in all senses of the word) exploration of the webporn manifold.
you can’t do that with a56k modem.
But you can look up bath-tub dynamite recipes!
Squid
(A supply of huge garbage bags and quicklime is a good start.)
Don’t forget duct tape.
~~~~
Ernst Schreiber
If if looks like the latest iteration of losing more slowly is winning, help yourself to the absinthe.
This is the new generation of pseudo0conservative political wonks who have never actually done anything themselves, but are convinced that if only “they” were at the helm, the Titanic could be righted.
I have lurked a lot, read a lot, learned some, and enjoyed almost all of it.
I’m fairly bright, but feel I can’t really play in this league, so I’ve rarely posted replies.
Squid has the right of it. If doing this isn’t making you happy, or even satisfying you on a consistent basis, then “Don’t do this”.
Thank you, Jeff, for clearly stating what needed to be said, over and over. It seems a number of bloggers I’ve read on a consistent basis over the years have said goodbye and turns out the lights, lately. Maybe it’s Gresham’s Law for the Internet: mediocre, childish blogging driving out excellent, mature blogging.
If everybody who says it better than me goes away, I’ll have to restart my blog.
And nobody wants that.
I think “Webporn Manifold” would be a fantastic name for a band, come to think of it.
Very sorry to hear it, Jeff. I can’t think of any author I’ve quoted and linked to anywhere near as often as you.
From He’s a Good Man to Isn’t That Todd Akin Just So Embarrassing to That Grizzly Mom Hoochie Needs to Shut Up, you have been the speaker of uncomfortable, undeniable truth and a scourge of the bien pensant, mealymouthed accommodationists that run the GOP.
I’m going to miss you, man.
Thank you for what you have done. You may feel like you are a lonely voice in the wilderness…and in some ways you are. But you touch and influence more people than you might realize.
And if you run into Andrew Sullivan in blogging retirement, slap him for Sarah Palin.
but are convinced that if only “they” were at the helm, the Titanic could be righted.
Except that they think the Titanic is just fine. They just want to spin the wheel and toot the horn.
You’ve always been one of the truest voices on the internets and even though I don’t comment much, this has always been a daily stop for me. You are absolutely right about the many sellouts on “our” side, which was reinforced after Palins Iowa speech. Many “Conservatives” wrote critical articles on what was a fine and typical Sarah Palin speech and then circle-jerked (linked) each other so that they could reinforce their weak arguments.
It still disappoints me that Michelle Malkin treated you the way she did. I remember her writing about reading PW which inspired her to start her own blog, if I’m not mistaken. As a matter of fact, it was a link to Protein Wisdom from her that I found this site and have been getting my non intellectual mind twisted into a pretzel ever since. You will be missed.
No?
Fuck you, twice.
Go swim with jd and the rest of porkerpatty’s pulpiteers.
youguysarentreallybuyingthischaradeyetagainareyouallowmetosetyourmindsateaseyouhaveabout2-3weeksofdarleenclickfilleraheadofyoubeforegoldsteinheroicallydecidestoreturnforthegoodofthenationatwhichpointyoullbeslightlymoreapttodonatetohisnextfundraiserthatswhatthisisallaboutcomeonpeoplefoolyouonceshameonhimfoolyousixorseventimestheblamesallyoursapresidentialcycleisabouttobeginwhichwilllikelyfindjebpussyandthejerseyfatmanbattlingitoutwithcheeseheadmcderpfaceandtedlosercruiserforcontrolofyourpartyifyouthinkthatanunemployedgoldsteinisgoingtobeabletositonhishandsandnotwriteduringthattimeyouresadlymistakenwhatelseishegoingtodoatthispointseekgainfulemploymentwitha10yeargaponhisresumesodontworryproteinwisdomwillbearounduntilwesee404errornotfoundthatsnotgonnahappen
*yawn*
Bwa-what was that fart-like noise?!
Oh, it’s the obsessed troll again, flinging poo in desperation.
hey Mr. guins guess what i got in this big jar of pickles
Brine to go with your wheeze?
dicentra
Upon reflection, I think you have stated their core belief system better than I did.
“All ahead, flank!”
Typically thoughtful piece by VDH
no it’s filled with pickles actually Mr. McGehee
Ernst Schreiber
Your pointer to this article reminded me of why I rarely read VDH anymore. Since I know he is intelligent and honest, reading his analyses makes me even more despondent than the current headlines do.
“Fundamental transformation” placed in the hands of children leads to destruction of everything old because new, with them in charge of course, just has to be better!
Just checking in to offer an observation: of all the people who worked actively to facilitate my marginalization, the most notable among those WHO DID NOT — and in fact, has always helped me along and promoted me whenever he felt it justified — is Glen Reynolds.
Glen does a whole lot of good, and he is fair and a person of (IMO) enormous integrity. He can’t be bullied. He just possesses social graces, a knack for useful diplomacy, and a very quick mind — which is why he’s been so successful for so long. His energy is astounding. And frankly, I don’t know how he does it.
I feel honored to call him my online friend. And unlike others — Malkin, Allah, Ace, Treacher, and the lesser-tier “new media” sycophants of those personages who followed their lead and lived off their largess and mutual networking model: the Hamm’s, the Bruce’s, et al., — Glen has never been caught up in the mass shunning that was led by the importuning and dishonesty of a man who celebrates his Honor while demonstrably showing, to all those who care to probe, that he has absolutely none to speak of.
What he has is a position. And the calculus among many whom he convinced was that it was more socially beneficial to stay on the happy side of a malignant, unethical Deputy prosecutor in California than it was some hausfrau in Colorado who could, at any given moment, make hash of many of their “pragmatic” arguments.
They decided to believe his bullshit to justify their stance toward me. And they did it knowing deep down that I hadn’t earned it — and in fact, that I was and had been a very important voice at one point for the cause of constitutionalism.
That they aren’t constitutionalists — except when playing to same — made their decision that much easier.
So please. Glen doesn’t deserve anything but respect. You may not like his style of blogging; that’s fine. You may not like that he gives greater profile to some of dubious conservative or libertarian sensibilities (like, eg., Ms Althouse). But I don’t for a second question his integrity, and neither should any of you.
The reach of others — especially a few higher profile bloggers who have cultivated friends in the more conventional new media — has been extensive enough to cause my freeze out. As I’ve mentioned before, I think I’ve received maybe one Twitchy mention, and I’m sure thereafter whomever made that mistake was told what the score was, and the flub wasn’t repeated.
Being persona non grata on the establishment right — especially to those whose views have “evolved” to mirror mine of 6+ years ago, and so can’t have me around as a reminder of their journey (real or not: we’ll see, come election time) — and the progressive left, who stopped engaging me and started changing the spelling of my name so I wouldn’t find their posts and so take them on directly, forcing them to justify their inane beliefs,. which invariably ended with their facade of scholarship eroding under the pressure of one who knows their argot and can distill their bullshit to its central ideological kernels, means I’ve cultivated the right enemies.
One of Hot Air’s main writers is a guy who years ago misrepresented my views on fighting an enemy like al Qaeda with ruthless force — or at least, showing that we were willing to do so, whether we ultimately had to or not.
I don’t know where he stands today, now that he went from quasi-prog to Hot Air writer, but I suspect he’s not too pleased with ISIS and the feckless way we’ve attempted to deal with it.
Frankly, it’s no wonder people like these shunned me. Not a whit of them are interested in real intellectual debate. They’re all interested in position and power and networking and finding employment, replacing the very structure they once railed against with a similar one in which they get to pull the strings.
There are a host of others who have stayed in my corner. And to them I’m thankful. But in the end, it wasn’t enough. So we’re left with a kind of self-policed intellectual circle jerk that plays down to the “masses.” This is packaged as pragmatism and it appeals to the rah-rah partisan cheerleaders.
Good on them for making a living. I don’t begrudge that. But that they needed to harm me to do it, for whatever reason? Well, for that they can go fuck themselves. Sideways. With a frozen Monkfish.
Having spent some significant time in a commercial kitchen preparing Monkfish for various uses, it would be far more entertaining, I think, that they should fuck themselves with a room-temp sucha critter. Think of that as my own personal revenge on the Monkfish, though.
And here I had “your mommy and your daddy” in our office pool.
Blast.
They also nominate each other for awards!
Except for the obvious truth of #5 as a standalone statement, the rest of it is more of The Guild congratulating itself for being The Guild.
As awful as it is to be the target of a Mean Girls campaign, thus marginalizing a much-needed voice, there’s also a degree of freedom in it. Glenn Beck left Fox precisely because they didn’t really have his back (Murdoch told him to lay off with the Soros exposés). I can assure you that he’s persona non grata among the Salem Radio Network crowd (and many at Fox), who consider him to be unseemly and hysterical and extreme.
Now look at him: in control of all his own content and building the first multi-media empire from the ground up. He’d have his own cable channel if FCC regs didn’t prevent it. Had he stayed in the system, he’d have kept compromising his principles to maintain his position until he had nothing but a position and no principles at all. To be a member of that inner circle, you’d have to be as vain and shallow as they.
And we can’t have that.
There’s still stuff to do, Jeff, especially outside the framework of those who value vanity tokens more than operating from principle. The ratio of the vain to the principled has always been in the favor of the vain, thus explaining all of human history. Ask Churchill.
I wouldn’t expect you to start your own media empire or anything like that. But I’m sure you’re aware that commenting on the Outrage of the Day is increasingly an exercise in deck-chair rearrangement.
Change focus.
When the time comes to rebuild, which things are needful and which should be avoided? Can we dust off the Constitution as it stands or do we need to plug some holes?
All of the people who are enjoying their position at the top of the heap will be humbled or humiliated or otherwise rendered useless. A few will come to their senses and be helpful. People like you are more likely to be the vanguard.
Either that or you can return to comedy and movie reviews. I’m good either way.
On the subject of back-scratching, I saw that Gabriel Malor had two different essays published on Wednesday of last week, one at NRO taking aim at Cruz and Steve King, and one at the Federalist taking aim at Huckabee, neither coming from a recognizably conservative point of view. In the former he argues that Congress cannot revoke citizenship status even from Americans who join ISIS, and in the latter he argues that states have no right to nullify plainly unconstitutional acts.
Seeing that, by wide margins, Malor is both the least conservative AND the most intellectually dishonest co-blogger at Ace of Spades, I can’t imagine a good reason to give him a higher profile: NRO is already untrustworthy enough as it is, and The Federalist needs to avoid pro-establishment hacks to avoid garbling the strong editorial voice that they’re establishing.
Maybe The Federalist was just giving Malor rope enough to hang himself, as today they’ve posted an explicit rebuttal:
http://thefederalist.com/2015/02/05/huckabee-understands-the-constitution-like-those-who-wrote-it/
Good for them.
BTW: ignore the troll. He’s just discovered his entire reason for living has been taken away. Poor, poor dear.
Unless there’s a sudden uptick in demand for mannered space-titty drawings by a guy who likes to throw around the word “kike.”
But that they needed to harm me to do it, for whatever reason?
— If you are right about their bad linguistic habits, then they have to admit their published opinions have been wrong, and they’ll have to rethink things they’ve published and defended for a long time. That’s hard. Few people have the moral fortitude to do that.
— If they admit that you’re right, that makes them the enemy of the vain, shallow, and influential crowd and puts them on the sidelines along with you. Except for having the keys to your liquor cabinet, where’s the upside?
— If they’re an enemy of That Crowd, they can’t get sweet gigs at CPAC and Blogcom. Going to those events is a lot of fun, and some of the people they meet are worth knowing, for a variety of reasons. Some of those people even pay for drinks.
— Some of the members of That Crowd are charming and engaging and some of their material is pretty funny and often popular and being their associate translates into links and hits and blog revenue.
Few human beings have the intestinal fortitude to operate on principle regardless of the cost. Most of them also haven’t got the intellectual capacity to understand what you’re saying or to grok the implications, and you can’t operate on a principle you don’t comprehend.
Again my mantra: They may forgive you for being wrong but they’ll never forgive you for being right.
It sucks to be Churchill in 1938.
Or Glenn Beck in 2015. He commented this morning that he met with a roomful of Big Wigs the other day and tried to explain to them what Russia is up to and what ISIS really wants and oil prices and WWIII and the collapse of the dollar, etc., and their eyes glazed over. They’d never heard such things, and they weren’t about to upend their entire lives (and fortunes and enterprises) over some absurd view of the future.
Thus has it ever been: the wise and the principled beat their heads against the wall trying to persuade the foolish and prominent (BIRM) to get OUT the poppy fields and deal with reality before reality deals with them.
Speaking of…
That guy Beck has on sometimes, David Buckner, who talks about poppy fields and worldwide financial collapse (he also fainted on set once): I went to school with him K-12. I remember him as loud and obnoxious and insecure (and heavily freckled) and also as our school’s first school-spirit director or something, and he set up a yearly theme song (“Gemini Dream” in ’81 then “Eye of the Tiger” in ’82 after our mascot) and lots of unity-type activities. None of which I ever understood (why do we need school spirit?) but I guess he went on to study crowds and corporate cultures and how large numbers of people behave.
And now look at him. I suspect he’s the one who turned Glenn on to the impending financial collapse of 2008, which led to Glenn’s transformation into Cassandra from his previos, wickedly funny schtick.
Strange how things turn out, innit?
In a recent article, Gabriel Malor rakes Mike Huckabee over the coals. Huckabee’s sin? In an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Huckabee rejected judicial supremacy. Huckabee says the courts can neither make nor enforce law. The context of his comments concern the ruling of federal courts on the matter of same-sex marriage and on the rights of states to resist what he considers judicial overreach.
Malor is gay and has always staunchly defended SSM regardless of how it comes about. Talk about not recognizing (or caring about) your own biases.
Dicentra wrote:
That is a great idea.
Though I still blog on a regular basis and am still seeking to explain Leftist Thinking [which was one of the major reasons I began blogging in 2008 – perhaps, the top reason] my focus in my studies has shifted to where I am reading primary sources from The Founding Era [pre- and post-War For Independence, especially]. I have undertaken this task in order to (1) understand as completely as possible, the time leading up to Concord and Lexington and (2) understand the concerns of those Patriots during the Ratification of The Constitution.
This latter task was undertaken specifically for the possible future needs that Di lists.
Something must break. And we must be ready to marshal our energies to save and restore what we can. We owe that to our Posterity.
BTW: We’ve definitely got some holes to plug.
May I highly recommend Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 by the late Pauline Maier.
Oops, and, of course, the four volume The Writings of Samuel Adams collected and edited by Harry Alonso Cushing. Available via Amazon as print-on-demand scanned books.
Then there goes my northbynorthwest instead joke.
Bitch.
As long as we’re all deploring the fact that the intellectual bacchanal keeps degenerating into partisan circle-jerking:
Did you know that the very height of republican virtue is to vote for an aristocracy?
Why yes it is!
I’ll bite: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/02/05/tyranny-of-the-anti-jebusites-gop-bush-haters-jettison-merit-in-favor-of-a-genetic-litmus-test/?show-at-comment=1206420#comment-1206420
Somewhere a farmer’s barn is missing a truckload of straw.
Et Tu Scrappleface? At least Green and Whittle ain’t sniffin’ the stab-farts and pronouncing them most rosy.
Yet.
Since you address what presumably I’d raised, Jeff, allow me to follow up.
The right press isn’t right. It’s not conservative. It cannot define conservativism because it cannot define principle, much less Founding principle.
It pays lip service to itself. It does not analyze, it does not probe, it does not correct, and it does not self-correct.
It is a Press phenomenon, strictly and interminably self-oriented, without imagination, without vision, and without scope.
That’s a generalization but it’ll do as such for a very great majority of the “conservative” press, blogosphere, commentary, and most distressingly, common point of view.
It is into this vacuum of reason and integrity that steps, for want of a single defining label, the constitutional, libertarian, classically-liberal, conservative mind. And of these types, as self-identified as such, Reynolds is, at least through his blog, paramount.
As that example I’m appalled at the commentariat there. I don’t know Glenn from a hole in the ground and I’ll defer to your more intimate knowledge of the man. But as a leading Libertarian blog, the purely partisan bullshit there – fomented by a set of commenters so dim and so unprincipled in the theories, ways, and means of original, constitutional conservatism as to be wholesale enablers of leftism – has derailed any semblance of working, restorative, conservative classical liberalism.
That’s one example. How many others are there? In the swamp that is contemporary conservatism, how many writers can even define the Founding principles? How many select constitutionally healthy topics? How many refuse the rank partisanship and unending, useless Obama/Reid/Clinton-bashing?
How many look at foundational problems; how many contrast founding principles with even a small fraction of the GOP’s official policies; and when do we ever once see a thorough, convincing, and principled deconstruction of the unmitigated folly of a willful strategy of giving in – always via that same GOP – to the 20% of the nation defining itself as Progressive -even before the next election?
When does this unhealthy relationship with the left, where all of its simply mental moralities and profoundly dysfunctional political failures and life-wrecking policies become all of the ostensible right’s daily talking points, get challenged for being what it clearly is?
Look, the strategy by now is clear: The Republicans excoriate anything that even vaguely looks “Libertarian”. They obliterate any mention of constitutional principle. They demand fealty to the GOP. They willingly capitulate to the left even before the left arrives.
Of all the hope the real right can muster – it already polling in the majority for years against a minority leftist contingent – the real conservatives like the Cruzes, the Pauls, the Walkers are expected to either go away or capitulate in order to be granted access to some odd hamstrung, “bipartisan” power to co-create yet more statism.
This is today’s right doing this – the average Republican on the street. The average Republican, because the rest of the nation isn’t Republican, at least not by this measure.
But we need to realize this. The left is predictable. But the Republican right is literally the finest ally that left can hope for.
The GOP is enabling statism. The GOP has ruined the nation. The GOP is stealing all the oxygen and the GOP, as the minority it is (not speaking of its complicit, codependent Republicans here, its people on the street) demands the unconditional defeat of conservatism. Of, for a more concise label, of constitutional classical liberalism and, when it’s not being smeared as something it’s not, of Libertarianism.
The Libertarian press, blogosphere, and commentariat need to be that reformative, restorative thing the right wing press is not. They need to stop capitulating even a sentence to the statists on the right who are enabling the statists on the left and who have been for a century.
I don’t know how you hung on as long as you have, Jeff, and I’ve said that before. But of the tireless libertarians out there who carry on, they need to be libertarians.
I’m just a consumer; I don’t speak for or to personal character. But I know meaningful, correct content when I see it. Obliquely to one of what I thought were your points above, the real right needs to get it together and go slay the false right because it’s the false right ruining the nation, not the left.
JHoward
With all due respect, it isn’t *just* the GOP. We are working against human nature. From Franklin’s “…a republic, if you can keep it” to Adams “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” to Reagan’s “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” it all comes down to fighting human nature to lie, cheat, steal.
We have reached the tipping point where honor in the form of “I earned it” has moved into the entitlement of “I deserve it”
Unquestionably true, Darleen. It’s just that I finally realized that,
1. In round numbers the progressive left is 20% of the nation; the middle right is 40%, and the disenfranchised voters who stay home are the other 40%.
2. We just experienced a landslide repudiation of leftism.
3. Polls show that liberal policies are unpopular, with Obamacare being rejected by what, some 70% of the nation?
4. The Republican Congress will not repeal Obamacare. Any incremental corrections to it will be those “replacements” they always pin to the repeal word. Same for immigration. Or reforming, say, the IRS. Prosecuting any of the malfeasance in the WH. Balancing the budget and paying the debt. And so on and so on an so on. What the Republicans will do, however, is pan endless lip service to bullshit jobs programs or fixing school lunches or magically relieving small business of a percentage point in tax.
There’s only one take-away: The GOP is primarily statist and only slightly beholden to its constituents. Remember that Princeton study that showed that voters have zero effect on policy?
The GOP is the embodiment of statism. It cannot but intellectually capitulate if it is to be what it must be to exist. And yes that’s a problem that exists on a variety of levels and in a number of domains, not least among them personal character.
If we were to restore this nation we’d have reverse the condition you’ve pointed out, and then the first thing we’d have to accomplish is a thorough analysis of what’s really going on that’s wrecked the place. The “right” is just never going to do that. Nearly it’s entire MO is to simply bitch about the worst, most visible leftist nonsense it can find.
They don’t call it the political class for nothing. Republican/Democrat is just how they organize themselves to divide the spoils.
Sorry to see you go Jeff, I learned a lot here.
I’m appalled at the commentariat there. I don’t know Glenn from a hole in the ground and I’ll defer to your more intimate knowledge of the man. But as a leading Libertarian blog, the purely partisan bullshit there – fomented by a set of commenters so dim and so unprincipled in the theories, ways, and means of original, constitutional conservatism as to be wholesale enablers of leftism – has derailed any semblance of working, restorative, conservative classical liberalism.
Whoa, Nelly. I regularly comment at Insty’s. Sometimes I get up-clicked into the top three.
I’d be curious to know which types of comments you find most distressing.
Ernst Schreiber says February 5, 2015 at 4:30 pm
They don’t call it the political class for nothing. Republican/Democrat is just how they organize themselves to divide the spoils.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My conclusion is that there is really only one party now, the DC Establishment Party with Republican and Democrat wings to confuse the voters into thinking they are making a meaningful choice!
Jesus Is Just Alright
It’s just that I finally realized that [we’re battling human nature].
There’s a certain degree of entropy at work. Astronauts who spend any time in null gravity inevitably lose bone and muscle mass. There’s nothing they can do to stop it, not even exercise and calcium supplements.
Likewise, when a society prospers to our degree, when we can shelter ourselves from Nature’s arbitrary wrath, we also lose intestinal fortitude, as if we were zoo-born animals with no way to fend for ourselves or even recognize a predator.
The collapse of the USSR detached us from reality more than any other event since the Boomers were born. Those of us who remember Exhibit A of how bad a country can get are surrounded by those who have no idea what tyranny looks like.
But don’t worry: gravity will assert itself soon enough and those who survive will be made stronger.
Jesus, Friend of Sinners
No, what happened is the ‘community organized’ voters who swept BHO into office in ’08 and re-upped him in ’12 didn’t turn out, because largely they were satisfied with their handouts.
If another ‘community organizer’ stirs them up again in ’16, offering yet more goodies to these marginal nobodies who underperform and expect to get compensated for it, or the goodies they are getting are threatened by Winning Team ’14, then again they will come out in droves and elect another Leftist president.
We are, as de Tocqueville warned, now more Democracy than Republic, and the Pied Pipers leading the stupids to ruin are at the controls. Next up, the inevitable financial hard-reset, then probably a dictatorship lasting for more decades than most of us have left.
Matt Drudge is also gay; it’s easy enough to spot his carefully-chosen gay links for to steer his readership towards gayambivalence.
Assistance Requested:
I would like to read a well-done history of The Glorious Revolution.
Can anyone recommend a work, or works?
Kinda related.
The answer: Not if the established right has any say in it. It’d leave them jobless.
The pendulum might swing a bit to Right, but #LosingMoreSlowly ensured it will never return far enough Right to stabilize, much less preserve our little Republic. Barn door’s been left open for far too long.
I do not care about gay marriage. I care about ISIS, Boko Haram and al Qaeda rampages and what that might mean to the rest of the world.
I would think gays would care about that too, given they are throwing them off buildings and stoning them.
Movement gays would rather make common cause with the jihadis than with anyone who might ever have willingly associated with someone who might have thought, silently, “You know, maybe same-sex marriage isn’t the most terrific idea ever dreamed up.”
It’s a matter of priorities. Microaggression is way more hurtful than mass extermination.
i love gay marriage i love matt drudge i love chocolate gummy frogs heavenly stars above just believe what’s in your heart
Boobs Randolph.
Rare is the audience which can competently keep time.
Serr8d wrote:
This is why I think our only hope of preserving what The Founder’s bequeathed us is to exit the barn and build a smaller barn on the same property.
With apologies to Ben Franklin: Either we band together or we get sniped separately.
Jihadis hate people who love gummy frogs.
Ain’t halal, y’see.
i will cut them
Bob, find something written by Hugh Trevor-Roper.
Thank you, Ernst.
Jeff,
Over the years, due to the fact that life with several kids is so hectic, I’ve lurked more than I should have, but I have to say I’ve read nearly every article you’ve penned.
After seeing this the other day, I really didn’t feel up to commenting. See, on January 29th I lost my dad. He was probably the only person I can say I never saw quit anything. He cared nothing if he stood completely alone, whether in opposition to strangers, friends, or even family. Principle drove him, to a fault sometimes.
I miss him like crazy. He instilled many of his attributes in me, so part of him remains in an imperfect reflection, but there aren’t nearly enough of his kind left. Nearly everyone values affirmation over conviction. Nearly everyone substitutes consensus for principle. Quite frankly, your words on my computer or phone screen have been my only sliver of hope that the strength he possessed might still become more commonplace.
Yet three days after I laid him to rest, I learn that those words, at least on some quasi-regular basis, are going away as well.
You don’t owe me or anyone else a damned thing, Jeff. If anything you owe yourself some rest and peace. But know that you will be missed in a very personal way by many of us out here.
Buy This Magazine or We’ll Shoot This Dog
Hey! It’s worked before, even with brighter people than the ClownDisaster.
RT’d & Favorited
“It’s a matter of priorities. Microaggression is way more hurtful than mass extermination.”
McGee I think the problem is that with such “crusaders” there remains a small crack through which reality leaks in. They realize that the mass exterminators and their sympathizers are capable and willing to burn houses down and put someone down a long flight of stairs head first.
The microaggrassives generally roll their eyes or cross their arms and break off contact. It’s much less dangerous and less likely to lead to expensive dental procedures, dead pets, spontaneous online purchases of drugs or child porn along with tips to the local police, getting slashed with a broken bottle, etc. You get to lord it over people who don’t much want to fight and convince a lot of walking wounded sheep that you stood up for them, so they should hit your patreon or buy you something from your amazon wishlist, or purchase a t-shirt from your cafe press store, or your self published perfect bound book with public domain cover art (also available as an e-book or PDF!).
Low people who hate the expense and effort of climbing, must content themselves with low hanging fruit and what the squirrels throw down. Let the crazy mobs in the streets deal with any rough stuff.
It is a sort of caste system and your caste is determined by how likely you are to swap some time under a policeman’s (or fanatic thug’s) tonfa for a social media project. The microaggression caste knows not to hunt beyond the shadow cast by the canopy of their fruit tree. The hungry ghosts of the wilderness keep them to their menial and mostly verbal duties as effectively as manacles and walls.
For some reason I have never been accused of being a microaggressor. I’m not being funny, it’s actually true.
I’m never been accused of it by anyone over 23.
So their’s hope that it is being quickly socialized away by adulthood, apart from those few twisted academic grotesques and aging San Francisco trust fund kids (who live a simulated Tumblr/crowdfunding/organizing/self promotion oriented life) continuing to attempt to infect the youth with it.
their’s -> there’s hope.
“Microaggressor” is the new “racist.” As such, it’s never going to work on those who have lost their fear of the latter accusation.
Its purpose is to allow its wielders to pursue the fearful deeper into their fear-paralyzed psyches and deprive them of any individual will whatsoever.
Any overly aggressive attempt to apply it to the non-fearful, they know, will result in sudden and very non-micro response.
Brought a tear to my eye, Jamiec – well-said.
[…] In commenting over at Protein Wisdom the other day, Serr8d remarked: […]