As Mohammad and José will soon be the most popular names of Democrat children, perhaps a generation from now Neo will be a common name among children of conservatives. I know that I am raising a Red Pill child -- a red diaper baby -- from the ground up. At 11 he already has more politico-economic sense than I did at 40. Of note, I don't force anything down his throat. That would be the way of the blue pillheads.
Rather, I ask him to explain from first principles or economic logic what is wrong with this or that Democrat promise -- for example, raising the minimum wage, or raising taxes, or a federal law forcing "gender pay equality." Each of these has an emotional appeal -- and only an emotional appeal -- but is easily demolished via an understanding of first principles (such as supply and demand) and the incentives being put in place.
This goes to why I transitioned from left to right. Did I already mention this? I'm forgetting, because I detailed it in a lengthy comment while attending a seminar a couple of weeks ago, but then the comment was lost due to malfunctioning hotel wifi.
You could say that it had to do with accidentally stumbling upon a number of what I thought to be "universal truths" to which any intellectually honest person would be forced to assent, irrespective of whether one calls oneself liberal or conservative. Truth is truth, obviously.
Actually, that tautology goes to one of the things I discovered after realizing that Truth is true: that for the left, this is not the case. Rather, what they say is true. But this simply follows from the principle that truth is relative -- or, as it is more commonly expressed, that no one can know the truth, such that all opinions are equally valid.
We have seen this principle ruthlessly applied during the Obama era. For example, it is at the very heart of all the racial healing Obama has brought about over these past eight years. We don't need to rehearse the whole disgusting record, but on numerous occasions I have seen liberal apologists on TV being confronted with the facts of the Michael Brown case (among others), only to respond that the facts were in the eye of the beholder, and besides, it illustrated a much greater problem -- for example, of police brutality toward minorities, or discrepant rates of incarceration.
But when shown that those are equally bogus, the blacktivists simply retreat into deeper swamps of bogosity. There is simply no reaching them with fact or logic. While I have the highest admiration for scholars such as Heather MacDonald who dispassionately lay out the facts, she is coming from one level, while the left is coming from another.
Or, back to our original theme, she is coming from outside the Matrix, while her detractors are coming from deep within it, such that it would require a muscular proctologist to pry them out.
Let's pause for a moment. This is not a political disagreement per se, because that would presume two sides operating from the same level. For example, let's say I am having a mathematical argument with someone holding a baseball bat. I suggest that 2+2=4, and he expresses his disagreement by fracturing my skull. Has he actually prevailed? Well, yes. But has truth been vanquished? No. Truth remains true, regardless.
The structure of that little absurd scenario is identical in form to most any argument with a liberal. For example, I say: labor, like anything else, doesn't escape the principle of supply and demand -- increase its cost and you will have less of it, AKA more unemployment. The liberal responds with his verbal brickbat: YOU HATE POOR PEOPLE YOU ARE A TOOL OF CORPORATE GREED YADA YADA!
Different levels, you see.
Here's a principle we can surely agree upon, right? After all, we're all Americans. Freedom of speech. Why do we have free speech, anyway? A typical liberal might suggest that it is gift of the government, but that is not what the founders had in mind.
Rather, it is a natural right that comes from the Creator; or in other words, it is in the nature of things. If you understand what a human being is, then you understand why he is entitled to freedom of thought, speech, and association -- why he requires these things in order to be human.
Which is why there are no speech codes on the right. Taste, yes. Decorum too. But on what possible divine-human principle can one ground governmental restrictions on speech? (And they are of course governmental so long as universities are propped up by federal and state funding.) To deny speech is to deny man; more insidiously, it is to prevent man, i.e., man in his principial fullness.
Or, as the Aphorist says: "All truths converge on the one truth, but the routes have been barricaded." Conversely, "God is the impediment to modern man."
In other words, the road to God is assiduously blocked by the left, for the very reason that God is the left's biggest roadblock. Discover God, and the left's principles disintegrate. This is precisely why "The left's theses are trains of thought that are carefully stopped before they reach the argument that demolishes them" (NGD).
Now, the only way out of the Matrix is via God. And I mean this quite literally, for any escape from the Matrix is categorically impossible without divine aid.
What I mean is that absent the transcendent Absolute, we truly are consigned to Kant's phenomenal Matrix. Of course we cannot know reality, rather, only the appearances given us by our neurology. We are in a closed circle from which we can never escape. End of story. Relativism reigns supreme, in which case it is indeed just as valid to say that Michael Brown was a Gentle Giant as it is to say he was a vicious thug too stupid to anticipate what happens when you charge a policeman and try to separate him from his gun.
I know I mention him a lot, but if you don't believe me, then believe Gödel. For our purposes, what Gödel proved with epic finality is that every Matrix has a hole. It brings to mind Leonard Cohen's great line that There is a crack, a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in.
Ponder that one for a moment, for it extends vertically all the way back to our implicit memories of Eden, for what exactly happened there? We could say that man, faced with a primordial choice, chose the blue pill. For which reason we have the second commandment reminding us not to worship our own manmade idols, or to take up residence in our blue pill hallucinations.
Come to think of it, that is also why we have the second amendment to defend ourselves from blue pill poppers who want to force their barbarous idols upon us.
The left long ago lost the debate of ideas. Which is why their most effective idea is to just flood the zone with blue bodies:
50 comments:
The structure of that little absurd scenario is identical in form to most any argument with a liberal.
Lord, yes - you just described a very painful interaction between family members we suffered through recently. One decided that it was important to educate everyone about the dangers of global warming per the recent DiCaprio & Al Gore tv show that apparently nobody watched. When rebuffed, this person could not let it go - first doubling down by appealing to our religion (Pope Francis was in it! Won't you listen to Pope Francis!!), then by denigrating our faith and making us out to be backwards and hypocrites, then by rejecting outright any reasonable arguments put forth by other scientists, ultimately ending in Godwin's law (of course) and insulting our parenting. It stopped there, but some serious wounds were inflicted this week. They will heal, God willing, but the whole exchange was literally sickening; we don't like fighting with family. But we are also tired of backing down to leftist crybullies.
Interestingly, though, this person kept going back to an argument about faith: claiming that our Catholicism demands that we go along with the AGW narrative. Notably, this person is not even Christian, though supposedly a believer in God. Really, though, it's that the AGW narrative is that person's religion, and we laughed at it. For that, we had to be brought into line.
There is such a simple principle at the heart of it all: if your model fails to predict, then your theory is wrong.
If you don't get that, then you don't get science.
Sad thing is, this person is a doctor.
For any California readers out there, here is Dennis Prager's voter guide, which corresponds almost exactly with mine. Vote for Loretta Sanchez? Yes, she is indeed stupid. But her opponent is Obama-level depraved.
Has he actually prevailed? Well, yes. But has truth been vanquished? No. Truth remains true, regardless.
Whether I agree with secession or not, that's one of the arguments that causes me to frown when it is offered. "We settled the debate about secession in 1865." No, what we settled was that the southern states did not have a big a bat as the northern states. The same principle applies with judicial rulings. A judge or a panel of judges was found that agreed with X and ruled against Y, and the state now uses its police power to make sure a Christian will be punished for refusing to bake your gay cake.
Doesn't make it right, and it doesn't stop those gods of the copybook headings.
Which is why the most important issue in this election is the Supreme Court. It is the left's biggest club.
That's my main reason for heading to the polls today.
Julie, quite a story. We have conflated intelligence with wisdom. Pentecostals believe in the gifts of the Spirit, and some want the gift of prophecy or healing. All I ever wanted was the gift of wisdom. I was smart enough to kind of get by when I was younger, but I wasn't very wise. I like to think I might have gotten at least a touch. In any case, I have white hair so I look wiser.
I don't know what it means, but I've never seen our polling place close to as crowded as today. There's never actually been a crowd of any kind, but today there was, so therefore... I have no idea.
When you get right down to it, all roads lead back to Roe v. Wade. That's when utter selfishness was enshrined in our own system of laws, replacing God's, and the necessity of playing whack-a-mole with the truth arose.
Assuming a negative outcome today, and nothing short of a Trump landslide will make much difference, it looks like refusal to groove on the leftist psychosis will become more and more painful. More necessary but more painful.
Don Colacho has an ironic aphorism to the effect that one can only embrace lost causes without ambivalence.
We live in the infamous Broward County. Our polling place was practically empty around 10 this morning. While filling out our votes, there was a rather loud discussion going on between poll workers and a man who apparently decided to just stay and observe. They were trying hard to get him to leave, to little avail. Brenda Snipes' rules were mentioned. I hope he or people like him are there all day.
She was on the ballot today, as well. I'd happily nominate her for a jail cell close to Hillary's.
I voted about an hour and a half ago. Middle of the afternoon, out in the middle of nowhere, and as soon as a booth opened somebody went in. I stood to fill out my ballot. This is the busiest I've seen it.
"Sad thing is, this person is a doctor."
I love a joke with 2 punchlines.
Also, RE AGW, the thing is, it could be true; the problem is to know what's the proper course to take (if any). I believe Crichton has cited a number of well documented cases where environmental "solutions" have made environmental "problems" much worse.
MAGA
I voted about 8am - my usual time. This is coastal CT, eastern end of the state:
1) it was easily 3x as busy as usual
2) they were very prepared with extra helpers
3) we use paper ballots
Only a couple hillary signs on lawns have shown up in the past couple of days. It's 10 to 1 Trump lawn signs. Saw a "crooked hillary" sign yesterday. In this state.
Way more active than usual at our polling place at 10AM this morning, too. The woman in front of my wife pretended she'd voted for Hildebeast and then quietly said she'd gone for Trump but didn't want anyone to know.
The best thing in life is to to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of MSNBC.
CNN is pretty amusing, too. They are trying soooo hard to make the math somehow work in her favor.
Speaking of dreams, if this is one don't wake me up!
MSNBC announcer is actually crying. I can sort of sympathize, because if the beast had won I'd want to be crying, too. But he needs to man up - it's time to MAGA!
God bless you, Bob! I am out of the matrix for good!
Maineman, you're absolutely right! That is the line in the sand and we are free to choose which side we want to be on.
The bullies now feel bullied. Such projection! Van Jones on CNN was also crying. Proves once again that bullies are just cowards in disguise.
Van Jones was asking what he and other parents are supposed to tell their children this morning. How about not scaring them with your insane fantasies to begin with?
Note what another bully, Paul Krugman, said:
"What we do know is that people like me, and probably like most readers of The New York Times, truly didn’t understand the country we live in."
Well, no shit! But then he is compelled to display the very ignorance he just acknowledged:
"There turn out to be a huge number of people — white people, living mainly in rural areas — who don’t share at all our idea of what America is about. For them, it is about blood and soil, about traditional patriarchy and racial hierarchy."
Blood and soil? WTF? Racial hierarchy?
The only people who believe in racial hierarchy are liberals. Likewise the centrality of blood, AKA multiculturalism.
The more unhinged, the more projection, as projection is a way to deal with the persecutory parts that have become unhinged.
Iowahawk nails it: "If you think Trumps says a lot of horrible things about immigrants, you should see the stuff MSNBC says about midwesterners."
But Iowahawk was actually an anti-Trumper, and that statement could be made even stronger. The same people who rain abuse on conservatives 24/7 are now feeling abused.
When a person has a nervous breakdown, defense mechanisms that were subtle either break down altogether or become visibly hypertrophied to the point of absurdity. So, pay attention to what and how much the left projects. It is completely self-revealing. It is like a psychic incision that allows us to see what in going on inside of them. Fascinating.
Van Jones -- the poor Marxist victim -- said this was a "whitelash against a changing country.”
Note how the psychic incision reveals the inner racist.
If Van Jones could only see outside his rectum, he would notice that everything he could see in the studio in which he sat was likely invented by a white man. That's just a fact. But imagine the amount of psychic power required to obscure this elementary fact, and then turn it into persecution.
If leftists such as Jones want to talk about unfairness, you know what is the greatest unfairness of all, because it is a priceless but unmerited gift denied to the vast majority of human beings?
Being born in America.
"The election of Donald Trump to the presidency sparked protests early Wednesday across California, drawing crowds to city streets and college campuses. The demonstrations reflected sadness, anger and bursts of rage"
Oh, and pathetic immaturity. Let's not forget that.
Orange is the new black.
The thing to do, which I have kind of learned from the alt-right and which Trump demonstrated, is embrace their animosity and feed off of it.
I read Krugman's wailings early this morning and laughed. He doesn't know what country he lives in. He doesn't know how economics and a free market work. He has no idea what motivates someone to grow food, build cars, install plumbing, or work at any productive occupation. Like the media, he lives in a very small, insular world.
"At UC Santa Barbara, hundreds marched near the campus, with some chanting, “Not my president. Not my president.” One person carried a Mexican flag, according to video posted by the student newspaper, the Daily Nexus."
Can't we agree to agree? Trump is not your president and Mexico is not my country.
Mushroom:
Yes, I read somewhere that Trump dominated in places where they actually manufacture stuff. Perhaps the biggest split in the election was makers vs. takers.
Also doers vs. talkers.
Rachel Maddow says "you haven't died and gone to hell. This is real. This is our country."
It is literally hell for liberals to not have control over the rest of us.
The full statement:
"You’re awake by the way. You’re not having a terrible, terrible dream. Also you’re not dead and you haven’t gone to hell. This is your life now, this is our election now, this is us, this is our country – it’s real.”
Get a grip! It's only America.
Whee! I'll allow myself a day or so of happiness and hope until the next inevitable betrayal by Congress. And I have been very much enjoying the tears of my Wife's liberal Facebook friends this morning.
Still, much DOOM to come. But maybe we bought a little time here.
:-)
Imagine my joy last night, a return to slow acting poison, over both left shotgun barrels to the head! IOW, Life!
Toldja it could happen. Yuge!
A few 3:00a.m. scribblings: Never, Never, ever, say NeverTrump - Identify the greater evil, oppose that, and continue pursuing the Truth.
Re. crying, I must admit I almost cried this morning when the reality set in - for relief that we have dodged such a terrible bullet.
My husband had some observations about Obama's speech today that I thought worth sharing:
"Couple quick thoughts on Obama's speech. First, his overall tone, while using the right words, had a terribly condescending attitude. Basically seemed like he was saying evil people won, they are monsters, but we have to take it. For now. But don't give up, we'll get whitey next time.
That said, his demeanor and words he used could have been used to such great effect these past 8 years to actually heal the racial divide in this country. If he had given that type of speech and explained to black people that it's not racist to disagree with you or oppose you politically; if he had taken this tone on Trayvon, Ferguson, black live matter, even that idiot Harvard professor, he really could have done a lot to move beyond race in this country.
That speech was a side of Obama we never got until the end. Before that he was all punish your enemies, the only reason you disagree with me is because you're racist, etc. it's tragic, but I had the sense watching him that he wasted such a huge opportunity these past 8 years to heal this country. Instead he made things worse. As Trump would say, so sad.
Oh, and had he done those things, Hilary would have won yesterday."
The Guide and I into that hidden road
Now entered, to return to the bright world;
And without care of having any rest
We mounted up, he first and I the second,
Till I beheld through a round aperture
Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;
Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.
This is just the beginning; all true success depends on his ability to take on and defeat the permanent government; to succeed where Reagan failed.
Of course, if you are voter (and I am not--) that part of the process is now out of your hands.
It is however a huge hangout for crony donors and neo-conservatives. Interesting thing is my dad would have identified as a neoconservative up to about eight years ago (around Obama's 1st term.) Now both are hung out to dry, perhaps for good (though don't count them out.)
Would be interesting to see someone lustrate the agencies in place: that is, freeze hiring, and give them no new projects, but keep paying and retiring the bureaucrats. Meanwhile, create from scratch a new structure to do whatever duties remain (say, collecting tax.) This needn't be done too loudly...
Well, Julie, I admit that I actually did cry for a few moments. The bullet we just dodged, as serious people of faith, was the size of a shell from the Bismark.
Last weekend, I was talking to the lady who birthed and runs the Catholic radio network here in Maine, which has been marvelously influential but runs on a shoestring because of the lack of Catholics as the Franco-American contingent dies off. She said that one of the first things she expected a President Hillary to do was to go after their tax-exempt status, which would have been a major blow and possibly fatal. Then there's the Little Sisters of the Poor and I'm sure the list that could go on and on. This was going to be one of the Father of Lies biggest moves yet, it seems to me.
I remember Bob's riff, back in the day, on Sarah Palin's ability to run the gauntlet, something about Batman and the forces of evil. She never did make it. But Trump did, for some reason. What we have just seen is the most remarkable political achievement since, when? The birth of the country?
And we cannot allow this to be another pendulum swing. We simply must shake as many of the deceived out of their dreamworld as we possibly can. It's still about saving souls, that and repentence, because we have been far too lax, far too indifferent to the will of He who created us and without whose constant action everything would simply disappear.
Maineman, well said.
There was a moment last night watching things unfold on Fox when things were going south for FL and then it turned around. There's that pivot point in the 1st Rocky movie when he hits Apolo and Apolo feels it and gets angry. You hear the liberty bell sound and that music starts we all know with the trumpets and now it is very exciting. I was thinking this was like Rocky, an absurd long shot from an outsider and so forth. But the character profiles are not quite right. Rocky was in it for himself and is kind of a submissive type very sensitive and full of self doubt; so it was discarded. When we look at odds against the cause, outsider, but resilient, situational awareness, faith, I settle on George Washington.
I read somewhere that Trump won Pennsylvania because of the Amish votes. Like the Ents showing up for the fight.
I like that thought.
Joan, I love that description.
Maineman, well said. One of our priests said at Bible study a couple of weeks back that he would not be at all surprised if we reached a point soon where priests would have to go into hiding again as they did in England in the 16th century. Perhaps a bit of hyperbole, but considering the direction of the law in recent times, perhaps not. I think he considered it unlikely that Hillary would lose. It'll be interesting to see people's reactions at the study tomorrow.
Incidentally, we've been reading Jeremiah - slogging through the suffering and frustration of both God and the prophet at a people who refused to repent, but instead did everything evil while expecting no consequences. Tomorrow, we reach the part where there is instead a promise of freedom from bondage for those who returned to the faith and remained faithful - a light at the end of a long, dark passage.
God is funny. And so very good.
My husband told me about the Amish voting for Trump sometime before the election -- and putting in $100,000 toward the effort, as well as distributing paper flyers. Who would have thought in the '80s that the Amish would be breaking code to support Donald Trump?!
Also -- a belated hi back to Julie! Good to hear from you in re. my last two comments. I've been sparse around here but am never far in truth and heart from the OC. My arms are full with two pretty toddler girls, ages 2 3/4 and 1. Fun and very involving, as you know. It's my Coon practicum!
Hi to everyone else here, too... We were seriously relieved around here last night. I checked into the OC in the morning and was prepared for the worst but hoped for a colossal surprise as 3pm approached. Loved the grand slam leads all day.
Amish Voters Needed 20 Cars for Rides to Polls, Get 1500 Instead!
Apparently Mitt Romney tried to get them involved in 2012, but they didn't take up the cause, at least not overtly.
Rick, here is my parallel:
On October 7, 1571, the galleys of the Holy League, under the command of Don John of Austria, squared off against the galleys of the Ottoman Turks in the most important sea battle of all time. Before the battle, the men of the Holy League fell to their knees and prayed the rosary. After which, aided by the sudden advantage of a miraculous shift in the wind, the Holy League sunk or captured all but thirteen of the Ottomans’ 300 ships. The Christian West was spared the terror of Islamic conquest.
On Saturday, 10/29/16, when Comey reopened the case against Hildebeast, I remarked aloud to some friends that it felt like the wind had shifted in the same way. Someone told me of a cartoon they’d seen at about that time in which St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, was reading a newspaper with a headline to that effect and winking at the reader.
Just caught up on the comments... To go along with what River, er, Ephrem, said, and Rick and Maineman... I thought last night that maybe the damage of Hil. would have been so great that God had mercy and allowed Trump to win, perhaps even to honor the legacy of the likes of George Washington himself, and his co-inaugurators. Reagan came to mind as well, and I concur with Trump needing to succeed where Reagan failed with regards to taking on the permanent government.
Maineman said, "And we cannot allow this to be another pendulum swing. We simply must shake as many of the deceived out of their dreamworld as we possibly can."
Yep, and I'd add with much prayer leading the way. It really has been a long, drawn-out re-battle to fend off the Brits, just another form of control. It really, really is a battle to keep the victorious outcome of independence day so long ago.
So I pray that Trump restores 'linking' (as Bob has called it) when it comes to understanding the Constitution... All those autistic readings that stopped *granting* religious liberty and started to gag them outright. In the Obama pres., it seemed that religious liberty was literally read as a Constitutional violation, so that the only thing constitutional at that point was a-theism! What a slight of hand! What a trick! This just one example that can be applied in many areas, of course. Others would be a natural sloughing off of extraneous busy-workers. What did Reagan say? "I believe the best social program is a job." Of course, not fake employment but real.
i.e. Shedding of much weird busy-work bureaucracy, etc.
Yes, I recall too that in the Revolution we had essentially no Navy against the greatest Navy in the world at the time.
Yay ! A break in the space-time fabric is trump... As I predicted long ago. Polite doesn't work with leftists like Hillary... You have to go for the jugular...
You absolutely cannot defeat these bullies without bullying back. Genteel conservatives such as George Will and Charles Krauthammer win the argument but lose the war.
The first instinct of a normal human being in this situation -- in other words, a conservative -- is to be magnanimous, to seek unity, to reach across the aisle, and all that. Ignore this instinct! This is spiritual warfare, not cricket.
"Ignore this instinct!"
I slightly disagree. There's a lot of stable to clean out, for sure. That requires strong, firm work. But our forefathers knew how to manage the franchise. There are ways of being magnanimous that allow the opposition to feel that it participates, but also that it not have latitude. Yes, you can ride in the car. But I'm driving, and no, you can't have the keys.
Granted, it's a dangerous game. At this point, we've told them to get out of the car. We're backing it up, away from the cliff.
Really relieved, fellow raccoons. But you should see the campus here: lots of people walking around gut-punched. I was in line for a cup of joe this morning (because I like to see the vanquished), and the college gal in front of me looked like she was about to go axe murder a male locker room. She turned to me and had a look of pure venom. I smiled and was nice to everyone.
But here's the real kick to her head: Trump's campaign was run by Kellyanne Conway, a Catholic mother of four. She's the first woman ever to run a successful presidential campaign. I'm sure her chromosomes had nothing to do with her success, but it makes me smile to know that these college harridans in the making were defeated by a smart, successful, Catholic mother of four.
Tell me that ain't beautiful.
I agree, up to a point. As Churchill said, if you have to kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite. But you still have to kill him.
Today's post takes up this theme...
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