There’s a new realignment taking place in American politics. Because of shit like this, this, this and this, being socially liberal is now the authoritarian and in-group socially policing position that being conservative once was.
The new conservative kids, if they think conservatism has any future at all, have to adopt a neutral stance toward social issues – live and let live. Trans people? Their choice. Free speech? Absolute. Abortion? Again, your choice.
Even if the conservatives aren’t here yet, this is clearly the only coherent social view remaining in America. The young right knows this. They are pouncing upon the opportunity. And here’s the problem: through the culture wars and anti-SJWism, conservatives have lied and pretended to be the ‘new punk’.
Now, being against SJWs will also involve being slipped a red pill that thinks authoritarian policing is great, universal healthcare is a joke, the flat tax is amazing, and the only function of the state is to police and wage war. This aspect of the conservative/libertarian soul is morally and spiritually corrupt.
It leads people like Ben Shapiro to make absurd arguments, like that corporations don’t influence government policy and subvert democracy through big money, that lobbying the government is no different from any private exchange of money, that socialized medicine is impossible and morally evil, and that, as I said before, the only function of the state is to wage war and beat black people with batons.
Conservatives have played a smart game. They’ve used the absurdity of the SJW and anti-individualist left to peddle supply-side economics and racist myths about crime, justifying mass incarceration and poverty as just a part of the natural dominance hierarchy.
The left is losing this culture war. Saying that the founding fathers were racist fascists, and thus individual rights are inherently racist and fascist, is like Fox News for the left. So, even though I’m screaming into the wind here, my advice for the left is simple:
Organize the working class on the basis of a better life. Don’t be anti free speech. Be culturally libertine, like the left used to be, when it was up against George W. Bush and conservatives were (and still are) the ones threatening free speech.
An enclosed and socially restrictive left will only allow conservatism to survive the generational gap and thrive 30 years from now.
But, I’m sure that will happen, and the 2020 election will be narrowed on one issue:
“We, noble Democrats, are not Nazis, and Trump is. So vote for us.”
The 2016 election will repeat, but far worse this time. Some insane illiberal tech baron who happens to be a Democrat could run against Trump, and by default, again, we’d have no choice.
“We’re not Nazis. Let’s censor these Nazis,” is the most limited and unimaginative political project possible. Destroying cultural freedom on the basis of fighting Nazis will only speed along decadence while far-right movements continue to grow, citing the left’s repressive attitudes toward speech and unwillingness to debate as their main superiority. And that message will have far more broad appeal than “White people should shut up and fuck themselves, you’re problematic, bend the knee to me.”
And then, they’ll sneak neoliberalism into the pudding, and the fake ‘center’ will continue to truck on, making money and locking people up, but at least we’ll feel good if a few Nazis feel bad…
(The death of political imagination is here)
Greetings! I’ve been reading your weblog for a while now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Lubbock Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the good job!
I don’t think Social Conservatism will change much – and why should it? It supposed to be built upon tradition.
Trans people? Their choice? Maybe. But morally and scientifically wrong. No many how much you butcher your body and take the gender bending pills you will never become the other sex. You can identify as anything – but I can identify as a carrot. It’s just a thought process, a bad thought process. The genitalia between your legs decides – and if you are an hermaphrodite then you are raised as one or the other, until the child is capable of making their own decision. They should be the utmost exception because they have a genuine scientific argument – not just because they have an error on the brain or simply want to identify as something because they don’t feel “special” enough.
Abortion? Again, your choice? In my opinion I’ll go half way with the pro-choice campaigners and say they have up to 4 weeks to decide what to do. At 8 weeks that heart has begun beating and therefore you are killing an innocent child. However, I am completely sympathetic too with the pro-life campaigners as it probably would have developed into a life that we have ceased to naturally develop.
Gay Marriage. Their choice? Well, the Pandora’s box has already opened somewhat. You can’t shut it again. Politics should have stayed out and pointed the gay community to the direction of the churches. It should be up to the church to decide. Not Governments.
End of evening rant ha ha.