When the state feels more threatened by the citizenry who are invested in society’s success than they are by those who undermine it, that society is in big trouble.
"I’m sure that if Biden had it his way, he’d replace all the hard-working, productive Americans whose only fault is that they don’t worship the ground he walks on or doesn’t recognize the federal government as the supreme authority in their lives with criminals, rioters, and migrants from all over the world."
Well . . . that's what he and the DemocRATS are doing.
Trying to draft my daughters to "queer the Donbass" is a red line for me. I will leave the country before I allow that. Big picture, a society led to war by its girls has already lost everything worth defending.
"Gone are the days of putting large numbers of rifle-toting troops through the proverbial meat grinder."
I hope you're right, but half a million soldiers in Eastern Europe right now might disagree. All the advanced technology is great, but in the end, war has always come down to burly men with big guns being willing to shoot other burly men with big guns. AI and robotics are the only thing that might alter that -- cheap drones are already demonstrating that in Ukraine. If so, wars will then be capital-intensive (like everything else in modern capitalism) instead of labor-intensive. They will be decided by GDP (not per-capita, but total) and industrial capacity.
The need for mass armies (longbowmen and pikemen) were critical for ending feudalism. Perhaps it's not accidental that we're veering back toward a new form of feudalism as technology renders the mass army unnecessary again. Future wars will once again be fought by elites on battlefields populated with the corpses of civilian commoners.
Regarding France (the most important election of my lifetime that no one in America is talking about), my question is: now that Les Republicans (the centrist-right) has imploded and a party further to their right (Reconquiste) has materialized, doesn't that make RN the new "center-right" of France? Answer: of course it does, but the EU press will never admit it. Oh, and after spouting off about his politics, Mbappe broke his nose today. Karma sucks, man. Mbappe should take Michael Jordan's advice about endorsing left-wing politics: "Republicans buy sneakers too."
The bigger problem is that the Regime and leftist Americans take for granted that there always will be people willing to fight and die for the country. Maybe in practice there always will be. But they also shouldn't be surprised that fewer White males, those who make up the bulk of the military want to serve. Why would anyone want to fight and die for a social order that hates them and views their existence as expendable?
Your thesis statement (“when the state feels more threatened by the citizenry who are invested in society’s success…”) is spot-on, but I don’t think Biden idly making a dumb joke about F-15’s is that big a deal. I see it more like that soundbite where he said something along the lines of “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.” It’s a stupid thing to say, but it betrays laziness or ignorance more than malice. The folks he hangs around with are so convinced that they’re on the right side of these controversial topics that they long ago stopped trying to understand the arguments against them.
That attitude informs all the other cultural issues you and Rod Dreher (and I’m sure plenty of others) write about. What scares me most about The Regime, if you want to call it that, is its unbridled moral supremacy. Folks in the upper echelons of our society seem to think that discussing, say, the bad aspects of illegal immigration (or defunding the police, or bankrupting farmers to fight climate change, or throwing $60 billion toward Ukraine, etc.), somehow makes you an awful person. Agreeing with someone isn’t the end of it, either: straying from the party line, or acknowledging there’s trade-offs, or even listening to someone who isn’t totally on board has become taboo among a large cohort of Americans.
If these were just rank-and-file citizens, that’d be one thing. But where the moral supremacy gets really dangerous is that a critical mass of the ruling class seems to think this way about a host of issues. It’s like they’ve forgotten their first responsibility is to represent the nation at large! And so they end up violating all sorts of norms in order to keep the Bad People away from the halls of power, no matter how popular the idea at hand. (I’m reminded of this anytime I read about the “rise of the far right” or some similar claptrap: when 30% of people vote for a party, it ceases being “far” anything!) And so that combination—proximity to power and an unwavering belief that your opponents are morally beneath you—is a toxic brew. If Trump wins in 2024, I don’t think they’ll go gentle into that good night…
In various cases, I seen personally how leadership and admins will turn more of their ire against those who raise legitimate issues than against those who bring violence or uncivil discord. It’s easier for them to debate, smear, or betray a person who is honest and trying to solve an issue. To confront an actual dangerous person is very alarming to them. We have tough, highly trained law enforcement for a reason as they have to make difficult and dangerous decisions on the public’s behalf. To a degree, they are self selected for that unique challenge. So many leaders, at least nowadays, delight in dressing down people who look for positive reform and ignore the actual outrages and the people committing them. The tone has certainly shifted in the present administration. I remember Palin (whom I didn’t like) caught infinite flak for talking about “real Americans” on her side during the presidential campaign. She never once threatened any American with the full force of the US military. She never said you better bring your F16 jets if you have a problem with how she wants to run things.
I too was never impressed by Sarah Palin. But the idea that the guy who says, "You better have an F-15 if you want to resist us" is more patriotic or no less patriotic as the person who doesn't is absurd. It's all part of an inversion of values. "Protest is patriotic" another egregious example. The idea you can say "F**k America" or "America is racist" and that's considered patriotic defies common sense. It's amazing the lies we've been forced to swallow. It's a bottomless pit.
"I’m sure that if Biden had it his way, he’d replace all the hard-working, productive Americans whose only fault is that they don’t worship the ground he walks on or doesn’t recognize the federal government as the supreme authority in their lives with criminals, rioters, and migrants from all over the world."
Well . . . that's what he and the DemocRATS are doing.
Trying to draft my daughters to "queer the Donbass" is a red line for me. I will leave the country before I allow that. Big picture, a society led to war by its girls has already lost everything worth defending.
"Gone are the days of putting large numbers of rifle-toting troops through the proverbial meat grinder."
I hope you're right, but half a million soldiers in Eastern Europe right now might disagree. All the advanced technology is great, but in the end, war has always come down to burly men with big guns being willing to shoot other burly men with big guns. AI and robotics are the only thing that might alter that -- cheap drones are already demonstrating that in Ukraine. If so, wars will then be capital-intensive (like everything else in modern capitalism) instead of labor-intensive. They will be decided by GDP (not per-capita, but total) and industrial capacity.
The need for mass armies (longbowmen and pikemen) were critical for ending feudalism. Perhaps it's not accidental that we're veering back toward a new form of feudalism as technology renders the mass army unnecessary again. Future wars will once again be fought by elites on battlefields populated with the corpses of civilian commoners.
Regarding France (the most important election of my lifetime that no one in America is talking about), my question is: now that Les Republicans (the centrist-right) has imploded and a party further to their right (Reconquiste) has materialized, doesn't that make RN the new "center-right" of France? Answer: of course it does, but the EU press will never admit it. Oh, and after spouting off about his politics, Mbappe broke his nose today. Karma sucks, man. Mbappe should take Michael Jordan's advice about endorsing left-wing politics: "Republicans buy sneakers too."
The bigger problem is that the Regime and leftist Americans take for granted that there always will be people willing to fight and die for the country. Maybe in practice there always will be. But they also shouldn't be surprised that fewer White males, those who make up the bulk of the military want to serve. Why would anyone want to fight and die for a social order that hates them and views their existence as expendable?
But they believe they should just because.
Your thesis statement (“when the state feels more threatened by the citizenry who are invested in society’s success…”) is spot-on, but I don’t think Biden idly making a dumb joke about F-15’s is that big a deal. I see it more like that soundbite where he said something along the lines of “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.” It’s a stupid thing to say, but it betrays laziness or ignorance more than malice. The folks he hangs around with are so convinced that they’re on the right side of these controversial topics that they long ago stopped trying to understand the arguments against them.
That attitude informs all the other cultural issues you and Rod Dreher (and I’m sure plenty of others) write about. What scares me most about The Regime, if you want to call it that, is its unbridled moral supremacy. Folks in the upper echelons of our society seem to think that discussing, say, the bad aspects of illegal immigration (or defunding the police, or bankrupting farmers to fight climate change, or throwing $60 billion toward Ukraine, etc.), somehow makes you an awful person. Agreeing with someone isn’t the end of it, either: straying from the party line, or acknowledging there’s trade-offs, or even listening to someone who isn’t totally on board has become taboo among a large cohort of Americans.
If these were just rank-and-file citizens, that’d be one thing. But where the moral supremacy gets really dangerous is that a critical mass of the ruling class seems to think this way about a host of issues. It’s like they’ve forgotten their first responsibility is to represent the nation at large! And so they end up violating all sorts of norms in order to keep the Bad People away from the halls of power, no matter how popular the idea at hand. (I’m reminded of this anytime I read about the “rise of the far right” or some similar claptrap: when 30% of people vote for a party, it ceases being “far” anything!) And so that combination—proximity to power and an unwavering belief that your opponents are morally beneath you—is a toxic brew. If Trump wins in 2024, I don’t think they’ll go gentle into that good night…
In various cases, I seen personally how leadership and admins will turn more of their ire against those who raise legitimate issues than against those who bring violence or uncivil discord. It’s easier for them to debate, smear, or betray a person who is honest and trying to solve an issue. To confront an actual dangerous person is very alarming to them. We have tough, highly trained law enforcement for a reason as they have to make difficult and dangerous decisions on the public’s behalf. To a degree, they are self selected for that unique challenge. So many leaders, at least nowadays, delight in dressing down people who look for positive reform and ignore the actual outrages and the people committing them. The tone has certainly shifted in the present administration. I remember Palin (whom I didn’t like) caught infinite flak for talking about “real Americans” on her side during the presidential campaign. She never once threatened any American with the full force of the US military. She never said you better bring your F16 jets if you have a problem with how she wants to run things.
I too was never impressed by Sarah Palin. But the idea that the guy who says, "You better have an F-15 if you want to resist us" is more patriotic or no less patriotic as the person who doesn't is absurd. It's all part of an inversion of values. "Protest is patriotic" another egregious example. The idea you can say "F**k America" or "America is racist" and that's considered patriotic defies common sense. It's amazing the lies we've been forced to swallow. It's a bottomless pit.