The Mind is Mightier than The Progressive – by Marshall Hoyt

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

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The Mind is Mightier than The Progressive – by Marshall Hoyt

On paper, I have a pretty simple political background. Both my parents are pretty conservative. They are against abortion, for gun rights, and will always vote towards lessened government control. These are views I share, and I obviously grew up in the same household as them. To most of the left- that’s all they really need to know, or care about. I’m a conservative, indoctrinated with right-wing politics by my parents, and my opinion is unimportant because I just follow the politics set by them.

But that’s not really true, at all.

I never discussed politics with my parents growing up, not on a single policy, social issue or ethical dilemma. There were certainly things they taught me- they were my parents after all. They taught me about how important it is to give a helping hand, to offer kindness and respect to others. They taught me that stealing is wrong, that violence should not be the first step in a confrontation, and that you should be careful what you say, as to not unintentionally offend or hurt others. They taught me to respect others, regardless of their skin color, or their sex. They taught me many things, but not a single political talking point was enforced.

I’m certain most hardcore leftists believe these lessons to be a taboo in conservative households, that two right-winger parents whip their children, making them read the bible and repeat the second amendment before bed. They likely believe that all those aforementioned lessons would never be taught to a child of conservative parents. But, it is in fact the norm in most households (Regardless of politics) to convey these basic life lessons, to teach children how to be a reasonable person.

I also should note that neither parent came to their politics naturally. My father grew up in a liberal household, and my mother grew up in socialist Portugal. Their upbringings, and environment, are what lead them away from the ideals of liberalism and made them more conservative. But, to stop there would be to ignore the fact that my mother leans more libertarian, and my father more socially liberal in many ways- or at least has a greater tolerance for liberal narrative than my mother.

And what about me?  By the time I was in my 20’s and started having political discussions with my mother, I found I aligned with her views pretty closely, by pure coincidence. My parents didn’t even know my political stances until a few short years ago.  They had no clue where I stood on basically every issue. To some extent they thought I might even be liberal, just because we discussed politics so little. I came to my beliefs on my own, through research, evaluation and discussion with friends.

I also came to my politics as a response to my environment, much like my parents before me.

The world around me, growing up, was subtly liberal in almost every sense. From my school throwing fascism on to the far-right in an already troublesome left-right spectrum of beliefs to the immersion ruining lines that would often be thrown into TV shows and movies to make a statement, my world was surrounded with progressive talking points. Despite the fact that the two regimes that are most often associated with fascism share their worst aspects with their neighbors in the developing USSR, or that often characters became mouthpieces and did little to develop the plot or show any solid character development, I had nary a person in my immediate environment to point out the obvious. Complaints about Bush, fear mongering over weapons and global warming, lessons about the “positive” morality of abortions, anti-war discussions, the inherent evilness of men, and the demonization of republicans and their allies was what filled the world around me. Anyone who didn’t agree with the talking points thrown out on screen, on paper and through the mouths of people who are supposed to be guiding voices was ignored and often made fun of. Without talking to my parents, my environment was almost exclusively liberal.

I hated it.

I hated it not because I was taught to, or was expected to, but because I took to heart of the most important lesson my parents taught me growing up: Question everything.

Take nothing for granted, look deeper into every opinion, every line, and every belief. What I did with that deeper look, they left up to me. But when I took a deeper look into these things, I found the ugly beast that was under the surface. I found what years of quiet leftist take-over did. What happened when companies did discriminate on political lines. When teachers, screenwriters, and authors were all hired or heard because they had the correct politics. And now the “wrong” politics ARE grounds for firing. I observed how over the years, what started as a character dismissing another for a right-wing political belief, or a teacher omitting important details about economics or history, became characters with conservative viewpoints being the antagonists exactly because of their political beliefs, and teachers making everyone watch Obama’s inauguration because it was a “Historic Event” [Well, it was. Fourth generation red diaper baby as American president was novel. Horrifying, too. But yes, point taken they never made you guys watch ANY OTHER inauguration.  And though I don’t have kids in high school now, I’d bet you teachers would rather chew their own legs off than make kids watch Trump’s inauguration.- SAH]

Over time I only saw this get worse. A kid getting in trouble for having a pop-tart shaped like a gun, a woman claiming to a trans-species cat and people defending her, Stanford proudly holding a separate graduation for black students under the guise of being good for the black students, and so much worse. Crazy events that in all honesty, I could not have predicted when I was in high school a decade ago, sneaking away from class during that “historic event” of Obama’s inauguration. [You made me pick you up after you sneaked out of the school, you wretch! You were skulking around downtown like a really large skulker.– SAH]

Frankly, I never knew how much of a death grip liberalism, and in particular radical progressivism had on our culture until it was drowning me, and I had to fight the current to escape. A culture so infatuated with progressive leanings, that many things conservatives warned as potentially dangerous outcomes of poorly thought out progressive legislation, were not only buried under the rug, [yeah. I’m more afraid of being buried-buried, like you know 100 million before us. – SAH] but when those things did come to pass, the progressive left started to act like it wasn’t predictable. Even worse, sometimes they started to defends that crazy outcome and act like they supported it all along. The culture and many people in it, moved from questionable to insane in the course of my own lifetime. For every libertarian or conservative classmate I had until I was of legal drinking age, I had 10 more liberals telling me how anything but leftist beliefs were wrong.

In a lot of ways, like most humans, the prospect of being told something was awful and dangerous in my formative years only drew me closer to it. The fact that so many old high school classmates fell into the traps that were set for them, and are now out-right socialists sometimes keeps me up at night. Having at least a basic command of history, this didn’t push me from the leftist culture to an extreme endpoint on the even further left, like it did far too people I knew. Rather, it pushed me further right. But everyone ended up on pretty divided lines, with little overlap of core beliefs. Today, I have more political beliefs in common with Nancy Pelosi than I do most of my old classmates from the high school I attended for two years. [What? I’ve talked to you. What are your beliefs in common with NP? “Standing upright is best?” or perhaps “If I don’t breathe, I’ll die?” I know you don’t drink anywhere close to Nancy Dypsomaniac Pelosi.  Or do you mean you have more in common with her than occasional Cortex?  – SAH]  I share even less with the classmates of my older brother, a mere 4 years older. [A generation Occasionally Cortexing right enough.-SAH]

For a long time, I thought the culture war was over. Progressivism had won. Progressive voices seeped into every conceivable industry, and what would have been called out as biased or overly-political by most people on both sides of the political spectrum, within a few short years became the norm. Over the presidency of Obama, people got crazier, bolder, and a startling amount of people popped out to forgive and support them. By 2015, there didn’t seem to be a way to move the public opinion away from the bright blue tidal waves that were crashing against the shores of our very culture.

But, as many of you know, I was wrong.

Perhaps I was just ahead of the curve, being as I saw the subtle attempts at indoctrination and moved away from them. I didn’t merely accept what was being thrown at me, and I looked into those damned political beliefs I was told to stay away from. Political beliefs that I discovered to be far more common than I was told they were. Perhaps it was an indication of things to come.

One man became the wrench in the progressive machine. Trump.

He was a raging bull in the carefully arranged china shop of progressive beliefs; he was destroying the very foundation that the left had built the culture up on. He showed that there wasn’t a way to simply slowly move the culture way from progressivism, that you couldn’t be subtle or even kind; you couldn’t stop the machine by asking or by throwing a switch. You needed to make progressives go mad, make them furious that you’ve even dared show your face in public, make them destroy themselves in uncontrollable fits of rage and disbelief. What do they destroy themselves over, you might ask? Usually things that honestly have no effect on anything. Whether or not Trump thanks someone for holding an umbrella has literally no effect on how heavily you’re taxed, and his wife’s clothing choices certainly don’t determine the healthcare system. Yet the media, teachers, and screenwriters started blowing these things out a proportion. Speeches, not policies, were proof of a fascist agenda and everything was scrutinized regardless of its impact.

Progressives stopped being subtle, in any sense. They got pushed too far, and they started pushing people away. People started thinking for themselves. Instead of aligning themselves with the “LGBTQ+ Revision DUM.8, 9th Edition” community, they started to question why being gay instantly meant they had to approve of transgenderism. People asked why despising racism meant you should approve of affirmative action. Why did simply *watching* a person like Ben Shapiro mean you were personally comparable to actual Nazis who detained and murdered people? Why was there an expectation of absolute progressive beliefs, and anything out of line instantly made you the enemy?

I’ve heard many people call the upcoming generation, that being the one that’ll be hitting voting age by the time the next presidential election rolls around (Or arguably already did back in 2016), the most conservative generation to date. I wouldn’t say that’s strictly true. While yes, a fairly large number ranging around 59% of the upcoming generation leans more conservative or moderate (As of 2+ years ago), I’d argue that this generation is instead anti-progressive. Children, who saw progressivism at its worst, grew up not only being drowned by liberalism but being dragged into the depths by progressivism and its insanity, having to learn to fight back and pull themselves up above the waves. They’re not all necessarily conservative, but for every liberal golden boy and girl sacrificed at the altar for saying one thing wrong, or having one wrong opinion, another person is moved away from the progressive left.

For a long time I thought the culture was lost. But I suppose I should have had more faith that others would do as I did. That they would be attracted to the forbidden fruit of conservatism, just because they were told it was poison. I should have realized that the culture would start moving away from the ramping up craziness, and not only highlight it, but mock it. I should have seen that a culture under such progressivism couldn’t survive for long. Regardless of their upbringing, the world around them, and the indoctrination attempts, they moved away from the progressive world surrounding of them. They started to dominate the internet, tear down “safe spaces”, and utilize the world around them in a way the older generation could never do nearly as efficiently.

They took the pen, the keyboard, the power of voice itself, and told the progressive left to fuck off.

For the most part I can be at peace with this. I do have a concern about the amount of actual Nazis that the left it creating, both within their own ranks, and by imprinting on the impressionable and rebellious youth on the idea Nazism is bad [and all powerful, that’s the dangerous lie- SAH]. Which is obviously true, Nazism is bad. But when approving of border security or questioning the Russian conspiracy is enough to make you a full scale Nazi, some kids will just mindlessly embrace that title since it’s so meaningless now anyway. But I’ll leave Nazi-creation on the progressives’ conscience.  Frankly that’s a discussion for another time.

What’s clear is that society fought back at that culture, in a way none of us could really expect it to. It fought back in big waves, and in small ones. From the reaction to the … ah… problematic director of The Last Jedi, to the immediate mocking of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer being racist, this past year alone has shown an increased scrutiny of the progressive agenda shoved down our throats at every turn. Though the progressive left is sometimes deaf this change, to the waves tearing their ship apart, they will notice when it starts sinking.  They’ll eventually come to realize that they’re in a world that’s against them now. We are the waves now, an ocean of people that are spitting progressivism out.

From a political ideology that’s been quiet — out sometimes of mere curtesy — for the past few decades, the loud and obnoxious progressives are now meeting a growing (conservative and libertarian) force that has been finally pushed too far. A force they don’t know how to deal with, except by being more elitist, more exclusionary [more stone-cold insane- SAH] and pushing more people into opposing them.

We’ve all started to become that wrench in the machine, and the left is ripping out the cogs to try and fix it.

 

201 thoughts on “The Mind is Mightier than The Progressive – by Marshall Hoyt”

        2. well, if you restore to an older backup…

          yes, i realize we’d end up restoring them backup from age 5 or so.

      2. Orvan in many cases the data backed up was nonsense to start with. Massive balls of illogical thoughts and uncontrolled feels. In the tradition of my profession I quote GIGO, Garbage In Garbage Out.

  3. There is open question as to whether this ought be labeled a Guest Post. While the author is (presumably) NOT Sarah, and thus a “guest,” the author is (apparently) a Hoyt, and the blog title is “According to Hoyt” — not “According to Sarah.” Technically this therefore constitutes an adherence to label and does not require a disclaimer … but MSM Fact Checkers would denounce it as false in spirit and assign three Pinocchios.

    Thus the determination is: MSM Fact Checkers are caught in fiery trousers and need to run away.

    1. … this was always intended as a group blog. The rest of them are just slow in stepping up to the plate. OTOH younger son contacted me out of the blue and said “I have this post, and I’m working on four more.” So… there’s hope.

        1. “Thermionic valves!”

          No technology ever really fades completely away… someday spacecraft and stations will need some really high power radio equipment, and there’s all that free vacuum…

          1. Vacuum is not a problem. Heat and volume are.
            Then again, efficiency means less waste heat, and it matters more for high power equipment, so gyrocons for one are not going to lose their niche anytime soon.

      2. By all means let’s ease the child in carefully. First a few well received blog posts, then a short story or two, before long we’ll have yet another Hoyt entering the exciting lucrative world of indie publishing.

      3. I’ll give him a A+ on this one. Well done Marshall.

        Heck, submit it to PJ Media or Fox too while you’re at it.

      1. Reminds me that this is the 30th anniversary of Reagan’s famous farewell speech when he left the White House, and his referencing the”shining city on a hill”. Of course now the light coming from DC is much more likely coming from leftists burning books, etc,, that they don’t like.

  5. Well Marsh, reciting the 2nd Amendment each night before going to bed wouldn’t be a bad idea…and Sarah, the thought of watching a teacher gnaw her leg off rather than allow her students to watch Trump’s next inauguration makes me smile. It would be a mighty entertaining sight!

    1. I read that part about the Bible and the second amendment and thought “Well, there were years when we discussed the daily Torah lesson, because I was taking a course online. Sure, it was more a “did you know that historically?” and “Where’s that passage, let me see. Where is my annotated Torah? No, the KJV is not a good translation for meaning, more for poetry. Where is my French translation?” And reciting the second amendment is a great idea. I wish I’d thought of it.”

        1. It’s incredibly sad that so few American citizens have ever been taught that our Bill of Rights is a shopping list of those things the founders wanted to make damn sure the government kept its stinking paws far away from.

          2. “See those things added as ‘The Bill Of Rights’? That means whatever you might think, they cannot be changed to suit your whim.”
            Said versions of that throughout my life. Some day, it might get through a thick skull.

                1. Well, nobody — nobody decent — wants Hate Speech. And should Freedom to Assemble* be extended to Fascists?

                  *Yes, actually – makes it easier to take them down with grapeshot.

              2. They are up to publishing articles where they say that since the Constitution only talks about not amending the Constitution to deprive a state of equal suffrage in the Senate, it does not mean they can’t abolish it by statute. Which is one of those camel’s nose things

                1. the Constitution only talks about not amending the Constitution to deprive a state of equal suffrage in the Senate, it does not mean they can’t abolish it by statute.

                  That sounds like “time to start shooting” words.

                  1. I think we need to wait until at least politicians start to say it for shooting.

                    Watching like a hawk for them saying it, to be sure

                2. Good lord these liberals are denser than neutronium. Here is the last bit of Article V

                  and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

                  The plain sense of that is equal suffrage == equal representation per state == same number of senators per state. States may consent to be deprived of equal suffrage. Perhaps deep blue eastern states like Rhode Island or Vermont might consent in an act of political seppuku but I think it unlikely that western states like Wyoming, Montana or the Dakotas would consent given their issues with federal holdings in their states.

                  It MIGHT be possible to amend that part of article 5 away and then amend article I to have proportional representation. There is debate among scholars if this would have to be a one step or two step process or if the consent clause means that there would need to be unanimous agreement between all states to forgo equal suffrage. But in NO case does anyone but a looney tune suggest that this can be changed by any means other than constitutional amendment or an Article V convention.

                  1. It would certainly be possible to amend that part of Article V, all it would take is a Constitutional Amendment approved by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, followed by ratification by three-fourths of the States.

                    It probably gets through the House, albeit narrowly, but I suspect there would be less than a simple majority in the Senate to transfer seats from small population states to California, Texas and Florida. Nor do I think even one-fourth of the States would participate in the self-immolation.

                    There would likely be a greater probability of abolishing the Senate altogether.

        3. And yet the damn courts have let them infringe far too much on it. Thankfully SCOTUS drew the line in D.C.

          1. Handwiggle. Now they just gotta actually follow thru. Since states are free to outlaw pretty much every semi auto theres a lot more needed

      2. Now I lay me down to sleep,
        I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
        If I should die before I wake,
        I pray my brothers revenge to take.
        G-d bless Mommy, G-d bless Daddy,
        G-d bless all my brothers and sisters in Faith.
        G-d bless John Moses Browning and David Marshall “Carbine” Williams and Mikhail Kalashnikov and all their progeny.
        Amen.

    2. It is Sarah. She had him reciting “There are no such things as a free lunch” every night.

        1. ‘They can’t talk to us because they don’t understand anything else, poor dears.’  

          If this really were the case Marshall would not have been able to write what this non scientist finds such a clear and comprehensible post. 

    3. Well Marsh, reciting the 2nd Amendment each night before going to bed wouldn’t be a bad idea

      For some reason this reminds me of “Dreams Are Sacred” by Peter Phillips. ;]

  6. So… society has the critical thing needed to keep it from going *KERBLOOEY* – a negative feedback loop. It might still ‘hunt’ or even oscillate… but no *KERBLOOEY*. When the feedback is distorted, however, all bets are off. (Why, yes, Virginia, transistors CAN explode…)

      1. However, generally a bit less of a surprise. The capacitors were loud, yes, but the transistors (MPF102, I think) had me very glad for wearing the proper eye shields.

        1. Back in my PC Repair days, had a computer that took a lighting strike power surge. Pulled the sound card and couldn’t figure out what the components in the bottom were, until I realized they were the cans from the capacitors on the mother board below the card that had exploded and embedded themselves into the sound card.

          2. THIS is why everything I have in way of electronics is run through high grade surge protectors.

            1. We get electrical storms occasionally. More, recently, that the climate people are saying is caused by global warming … uh, no, they were more frequent in the ’60 – ’70s … used to watch the storms over the mountains as a kid, regularly. Plus lightening caused fires were the source of district OT during the summer; still happens outside wilderness areas, just they don’t have the staff to send out anymore … but I digress.

              We don’t get electrical storm, or power outage storms, often enough to bother with heavy duty power surge protectors. Storming … time to turn off electrical & unplug where can. Threat of storm but hasn’t hit before going to bed, or heading to work (when we were working), turn off & unplug. Do use good surge protectors, just don’t go overboard.

            2. Which really doesn’t help when some moron at D-Cat modems decides that they’ll economize on components by making the power supply that provides 120v from the wall with the part that plugs into the modem an exact fit for the original 9 pin 5v keyboard port on the IBM PC…..

              I’d never seen chips on a motherboard (and every other card) with craters blown out of the center. 😎

        2. The Advanced Linear design group used to do burn-in on new designs of Nat Semi regulators. Every once in a while, one of the regulators would de-regulate and turn itself and the nearest capacitor into shrapnel. Plexiglas shields were essential.

          Good times. 🙂

      4. Exploding caps were one of the penalties I paid for not ground checking my rectifier.
        But one of the happy things about tube circuits is they tend to be pretty dang robust. Especially if you use carbon comp resistors.

      5. Discharging capacitors are no fun though. Built a Heathkit terminal with CRT (cathode ray tube for the young ‘uns) in it. Part of the assembly was to power things up and check voltages at various test points and verify test patterns on the CRT. You then switched off the terminal and discharged the CRT (which acts as a rather LARGE capacitor) to the ground. However, before I got to the discharge step I was reaching into the case to brush out some stray objects when I brushed the (metal ) frame with arm and the CRT with my elbow. The rather large charge in the CRT discharged through my forearm which made it twitch like the poor frog in some ancient biology experiments. That evening I learned software engineers had best leave hardware engineering to Electrical Engineers :-), or at least know where NOT to stick our fingers…

    2. One of these days, I’ve got to work out a NFB for my 20w Frankenamp (Marshall 20w style PA, 18w PI, with a Sunn style preamp).
      Tried one style this weekend, and the goofy thing just teakettled.

    3. “Light Emitting Transistors” are a thing, as well. Here’s how:
      1. Take a good-sized power-transistor. One of the ones with a trapezoidal base and two (large) pins. For this use, it doesn’t really matter whether the transistor actually works.
      2. Using WELL INSULATED pliers, plug the pins into either side of a live US-standard electrical outlet. (Pro-tip: Typical spacing on the pins of transistors with this form factor _exactly_ match the spacing of the hot and neutral sockets on such an outlet.)
      3. Wait for the transistor to overheat, glow, and either melt or burst.
      3a. If necessary, reset the circuit breaker you just tripped…

      Voilá — Light Emitting Transistor!

      (Disclaimer: Kids, don’t try this at home; we’re trained professionals. Really: DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU LACK FULL UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!)

  7. You were obviously brainwashed as a child, I suspect mostly by your mother as she’s the more sneaky one. I’ll bet you thought that her leaving all those books by Heinlein where you could get at them was pure accident, didn’t you?
    As for the premise that the progressive ship is sinking, from your lips to Odin’s ear. But we must remember that as is being aptly demonstrated by the constant string of batshit crazy coming from the left and the media (but I repeat myself) when the card carrying progressives feel they are losing control it only inspires them to double down on stupid. They always over reach, and have no problem with violence unless it’s used against them, so I fully expect any number of bloody incidents peppering the ongoing culture war, before its final resolution. But ultimately we will win simply because reality just is, and people can mistrust their lying eyes for only so long.

    1. BRAINWASH? We had trouble enough getting him to wash-wash.
      There were episodes of Merry Melodies like madness of me chasing him all over the house to throw in the tub, while he ran like greased lightning. (Sometimes naked and soapy, having escaped the tub-of-doom when he was under 5.)
      This one is all mine. He’d rather break than bend.

      2. Two simple obvious facts tend to support his premise.
        First off, the anointed one HRC lost big time despite polls, predictions, and the full support of the media.
        Bret Kavanaugh is a sitting SCOTUS judge despite a classic progressive left smear campaign where it was fully expected that he would slink off and decline the nomination or that Trump would withdraw him from consideration. Terrible shock must have been that such a proven tactic would fail.

        2. “Sing sorrow, sorrow, but good win out in the end.”
          -Some portion of the Oedipus Cycle, danged if I remember, other than that the Greeks took it negative and we’d look at it positive.

    4. Some brains just don’t wash, friend. You can soak them and scrub them and scour them with lye (and lies) but the red gets all streaky white and fields of blue innit. Best to just give it up as a bad job.

  8. I remember, the day of Obama’s inauguration. Jonathan had the day off, for some reason, and we went out to do some fun stuff. Caught part of the inauguration on the tv at the restaurant at lunch.

    Tried not to react to it too much.

    That night, our choir director told how he watched it, and it almost made him cry (by context, from joy). With difficulty, I managed to not say “me too”.

    1. I take comfort from the simply fact that, like every other President I can recall, Obumbles seems to have aged two years for every year he spent in office.

  9. “I never discussed politics with my parents growing up”

    This entire screed is proof of the harm done by parental neglect, by failure to carefully indoctrinate a child into patterns of political correctness. Children, innocent of context, are prone to hear leading politicians declare that “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism!” and think that applies to all presidents, not just those who are comparable to Hitler. Children are at risk of believing that “Black listing is EVIL!” applies to all black lists, even those naming counter-revolutionary right-wing extremists.

    Such parental failure is why schools and Culture must constantly reinforce the messages Marshall complains of; had his parents attended properly to their duty he would have grasped that his obligation was to cheer such expressions, not question them. “Question Everything” does not apply to Mother State (except, of course, when she is captured by right-wing extremists who force her into making hostage videos, mouthing such slogans as “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”)

      1. Nah – I was born extra cheeky and have a forked tongue, so it’s no effort, no effort at all.

    2. With the frequent and public failures of various Government figures and Agencies you would be a fool not to question them. With the VA being a preview of what a US Government run health care system would look like, who in in anything resembling their right mind would want that? I have never been able to figure out why so many on the Left assume that Government will suddenly become competent at anything besides collecting taxes in the face of so much evidence to the contrary.

      1. I strongly suspect most of them believe they’ll never be subject to the inadequacies of such a thing due to their obvious superiority. The accuracy of said belief is another kettle of (very smelly, exceedingly rotten) fish.

        1. Sadly true, it will be us ‘peasants’ that suffer from inferior care and treatment while the ‘elite’ enjoy what we can all already get. How can you feel like a proper elite when the peasants are treated so well?

      2. “With the frequent and public failures of various Government figures and Agencies you would be a fool not to question them. … why so many on the Left assume that Government will suddenly become competent”

        I’ve simplified the equation, now do the math.

          1. Okay, let me try it in syllogism form:

            “With the frequent and public failures of various Government figures and Agencies you would be a fool not to question them. ” becomes:

            Only a fool would not question government figures and agencies.

            “many on the Left assume that Government will suddenly become competent” becomes:

            Many on the Left believe government figures and agencies should not be questioned.

            Complete the syllogism:
            Only a fool would not question government figures and agencies.
            Many on the Left believe the competency of government figures and agencies should not be doubted.
            THEREFORE, many on the Left are ?

            1. Extremely intelligent people we should respect and imitate?

              Hold on, lemme get a plastic shredder, and see if I can nudge the blockage through while the thing is energized.

            2. I completely get that they are fools. I just don’t understand how their particular brand of foolishness can exist.

              1. Wishful thinking on their part mostly. And a disconnect from reality. There’s also the factor that a lot of folk don’t believe the government is as bumbling as it is.

        2. Reminds of a college professor I had who talked about regulatory capture and how the regulated entities eventually take control of agencies and use them to crush competition and to enrich themselves. The professors “solution” of course was to adhere to the Einstein definition of insanity and claim that what was needed was even more regulation with more powerful agencies; as if these more powerful agencies wouldn’t result in the same capture. I raised my hand and then politely explained why this “solution” was patently illogical and how the “solution” was to reduce government interventionism so that government couldn’t be used as a weapon to stifle competition. Back then, in the 1980’s, I just got a disappointed look but it probably cost me on a little on my grade. Now, I would be hauled off to the administration office, charged with something with a fancy name that is a wordy way of saying “thought crime” and expelled from school.

    3. Jumping off in a serious direction…. I actually wish my folks had bothered to talk politics with me.

      I don’t WANT to figure out why tehy think what they do at 25, I want to talk it out (argue it out ) when I’m actually there.

      ….

      I am TRYING to let the kids know what we think, and why, without pushing it.

        1. Mine is extroverted. Talking it out is not a problem. (I am still boggled as to how we got onto WWI and sleeping sickness when she was four years old…)

          1. I started having knock-out drag-out fights with Marsh’s older brother over things like the advisability of state-ordered monopolies when he was that age. He was a Rome geek, see?

  10. “You made me pick you up after you sneaked out of the school, you wretch! You were skulking around downtown like a really large skulker.– SAH”

    Dang. Down, Sarah. Apple, tree, etc.

    Hopefully the undercurrent keeps moving along. Just seeing so many lose their minds because of the propaganda merchants.

  11. Quickly, Sarah! You must denounce him at the next self-criticism session before someone criticizes you for harboring an antisocial element!

      1. Just about. Before puberty kicked in he even looked like my young self (now he looks more like my dad. Grandma said I looked just like my dad before puberty kicked in.)
        He’s evil in all the right ways, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.
        This one is mine from his horns to his little hoofkins, which he don’t got.

    1. Even today, with video and “security”, most places it just involves walking out the door and down the street…

    2. Actually, he didn’t “sneak”. It was a matter of nobody wanted to stop him. 😈

    4. As a rather large individual myself, I find that “traditional sneaking” (especially if accompanied by string plucking noises like in the old cartoons) will only make you more likely to get caught. However, walking like you belong there and are doing what you are supposed to be doing, with confidence, and people don’t seem to register that anything is amiss.

      1. Exactly. I learned that in the army. If you walk like you have somewhere to be, very confidently, you’ll seldom get stopped. But to really sell the deal, you need to carry a clipboard and stop and write something on it occasionally. It doesn’t matter what.

        Now if you just want to stand around doing nothing, pick up a can of paint…

        3. We used to joke you could walk onto any Navy ship in the harbor if you were dressed in blue coveralls, holding a clipboard, and wearing sunglasses. There were always contractors running around the ships doing things and that was the standard contractor uniform.

          1. The initial advice our aspiring executive in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying receives is to find a company that is “at least big enough so that nobody knows exactly what anyone else is doing.”

            True for Corporate America in 1962, true in the American military in 2018.

          2. In college, it was our drama club’s techies in striped coveralls, with the clipboard but no shades, because mostly they were working at night, in places where they had no right to be.
            Security would usually just wave back; never got close enough to read the logo on the coverall pockets: Fly By Night Enterprises, Inc.

      2. I’m a total runt, and have never snuck anywhere that it wasn’t because I as acting like I should be there.

        (about 75% of the time because I thought I did.)

  13. Had one kid say he thought Bernie had a point about banks and I replied “Okay, but what if his solutions are worse than the problem?”
    Might have gotten through. Might.
    He was rather thoughtful for some time afterwards.

    1. The thing now seems to be explaining how it’s not socialism that ruined Venezuela but various other pre-existing problems.

      I think that we can all agree that there were legitimate pre-existing problems and a great deal of corruption before Chavez took over.

      So… at what point does it make any sense to take a corrupt culture of business and government and apply a system to it which requires veritable angels to work at all?

      And this sort of fantasy is standard. “Business buys it’s way to success by buying politicians!” “Let’s solve this problem by turning over even more areas of life to politicians!”

      1. doesn’t seem to matter where it’s done, the only thing is how fast it all crumbles. Oh, and always, the richest end up being those in charge, it is just in communism and socialism those tend to be politicians, and those not politicians now have no way to change the fact, and they end up with way less than they had beforehand.

      2. Pre-existing problems like a huge amount of oil and knowledgeable experienced oil field workers who could extract and sell it? And a working infrastructure to deal with moving it around? Ensuring a constant inflow of cold hard cash? That kind of problem?

        They solved that problem all by themselves. No outside help needed.

        1. And the biggest agricultural exporter in South America. Socialism ruined Venezuala’s farming well before the price of oil tanked.

      3. or my neice explaining to me on FB that kids kept in cages during the Obama administration is totally different from kids kept in cages during the Trump administration…. etc

        1. It’s the scale of it, man. *takes a hit* Like, there were never this many, dude. *takes another hit* It’s so totally different this time *grabs a bag of cheetos* Yeah, man. Can’t you understand that?

      4. Business only buys it’s way to success by buying politicians now because more than 100 years ago politicians started making businesses do things that they didn’t want to, like break up into smaller businesses. Businesses had to get politically active in self-defense, and we are now suffering through the consequences.

  15. Well done Marshall. Good, clear elucidation of what you went through. Thanks for taking the time to express it.

  17. “…when I was in high school a decade ago, sneaking away from class during that “historic event” of Obama’s inauguration.”

    As Heinlein said, “A young man who gets a C in Appreciation of Television can’t be all bad.” Have you considered a military career?

  18. My Daddy taught me to think for myself and became startled when I showed signs of developing my own opinions which did not align with his.  I think this all came as less of a surprise to Momma who had always know that I had a mind of my own.  Well, she would have framed it as obstinate.  

    Years later, after I had become a Christian, Daddy once tried to argue that I only took a pro-life opinion because my pastor had dictated it.  Never mind that I had embraced that position, supported by scientific knowledge, long before becoming a Christian.

    1. I’ve been told I only oppose abortion because of my religion. Like I “only” do something or don’t do something because of my religion. I don’t even believe myself unadulterated.
      Weirdly with me it was both the experience of infertility and of being pregnant that convinced me “no, you listen. This is a person.” And I’m not in the business of supporting the murder of people — jokes aside — if I were there wouldn’t be a single politician left alive.

      1. I’ve been told the same….

        Piss off thing is, NOBODY IN MY RELIGIOUS TRAINING MENTIONED DON’T KILL BABIES.

        I came to my “anti-abortion” stance because I understand basic biology. If you want to pin it on anything, it’s the calf fetus in my science classroom, which was in a pickle jar because somebody had a cow that miscarried andwent “Hey, you know what this would be good for? A science class sample.”

        Mid second trimester, for those curious.

        My mom actually avoided any chance to bring up the subject, such as when a local farmer had a cow that had a half-Siamese calf born full development. Mom REFUSED to let us come see it– calf had two heads, one heart, two(or 1.5) tails and I can’t remember ATM what internal organs were divided and which weren’t, but it was live born because the lungs were clear of fluid. Major part of the autopsy the 4H did.

        There’s a pretty standard birth defect (Juniper?) that’s cyclopian calves.

        My religious training beyond “Hey, humans are important” had jack all to do with it…which really worked to immunize me to the A-holes’ shrieking.

        1. Okay, yeah, later on the science played a role.

          But the earliest factor, which wasn’t religious? (Or at least, not religious if you discount the assumption that I would not have one rule for what is right to do to me, and another rule for what is right to do to someone else. The assumption of one set of rules for both groups was motivated by religious instruction in my case. Even if there are also huge practical reasons for it.)

          Twofold, both before the age of ten.

          One was figuring out that pedophiles were a thing, that a lot of child disappearances were a result of the kidnapper-rapist-murderer subset of pedophiles, and that I didn’t want that happening to me. So I decided I would have a moral code that forbids such. I reasoned that if it wasn’t right to do it to me, it wasn’t right for it to be done to anyone.

          Second element, I was not happy with my family situation. I wanted different outcomes. So I decided I would have a moral code that prioritized those outcomes.

          I had that moral framework in place well before I developed any actual sexual desires of my own. And the stubborn insistence that I would keep my own counsel, and not submit to any external coercive force. I’ll admit the last is also a teaching of the Christian religion, but a major element of my focus was seeing it as a fundamental necessity of survival.

      2. “I’ve been told I only oppose abortion”

        Yes, my religious faith tells me that murder is wrong. Does yours say otherwise?

        My understanding of frickin’ SCIENCE informs me that a developing embryo, unless acted upon adversely, will become a living, breathing, functioning person — and that nobody can say at what point that personhood invests, so I believe in granting the benefit of the doubt before convicting somebody.

        And yes, “acted upon adversely” means killed, executed, snuffed, made dead, destroyed, obliterated slain, MURDERED.

        1. I have recently seen someone declare that carrying a baby full term and giving birth is extraordinary care.

          Yes, folks, something that happens to every mammal ever born is extraordinary. One would think that the definition of “ordinary.”

          1. The latest insanity from Twitter is a nonsatirical use of the phrase “nonconsensual puberty”: I am in AWE.

              1. It’s the trans movement. They assure us it is Perfectly Safe and Without Important Negative Consequences to administer drugs to delay puberty, and if they can convince a kid to question his or her gender identity early enough (or, you know, the kid is the kind to play at being a different sex, express discontent with expectations, or do anything nonstereotypical), it’s oppressive to allow puberty to proceed normally because of the risk of dysphoria.

                1. I am deeply outside of the ordinary. I would have fit some of these criteria. I have never seriously doubted that I was male. All that physical evidence is strongly persuasive, you know.

                  1. Isn’t that sexist bigotry against the ‘theologians’ that teach other things about the sex of God? 🙂

              1. I want to know whether the O2 that person took in consented to being divorced and pair bonded to those carbon molecules?

        2. Yes, I am much the same. It boggles my mind when someone tries to argue that God commits abortion because X number of fertilized eggs “spontaneously abort” so there is no difference. I’m like, whaaat? You mean someone walking beside the river, slipping and falling in and subsequently drowning is exactly the same as someone being pushed into the river, held down and drowning? Perhaps I need to take a couple hundred walks along the river with some politicians….

          1. All religions but Judaism and Christianity do. It’s wired so deep in humans, it too Isaac and Christ to stop it. One as an example, the other as a substitute.
            But the great enemy will take us ululating back there.

            1. Judaism used to.

              It’s one of those things that annoy me about fictional pagan religions. Though not so much as the pick-the-god-as-if-they-were-denominations stuff.

    2. Funny how developing one’s own opinions gets called obstinate by the parents. In my case it was “mule stubborn and hardheaded.” *chuckle*

      1. This might be so for many, but in my case … I am stubborn. I wouldn’t be alive today if I wasn’t.

  19. I had nary a person in my immediate environment to point out the obvious

    This is part of why I have an annoying habit of pointing out the obvious– in watching the development of moral arguments, one that sticks out is stuff like the development post the bombing of Japan in WWII.

    Initially:
    Support, but “hey watch out this is how it COULD go bad.”
    Second wave, roughly their parents were involved: “Hey this is problematic.”
    Now, when their grandparents are dead or quiet: “ZOMGA TOTALLY EVIL NEVAAAR OK!”

    Usually all referring to the prior generation….and ignoring obvious stuff like “Japan had forcibly conscripted the entire population.”

    So, I state the obvious. A lot.

    2. Poe’s Law News coverage of this thread:
      Point: Sarah Hoyt is promoting White Identity politics against Hispanics.
      Counterpoint: Since Texas split off during one of the Mexican civil wars, the admission of Texas means that Trump can unilaterally wage total war against Mexico.

      “Poe’s Law News: We may be full of shit, but you’d be better off listening to insane vagabonds than industry standard journalists.”

    3. Well, he’s not wrong.

      And damn, can he say it really amusingly. Dude’s got a serious gift for humour

  22. Yes. If you are a young person today you can be a good little boy and learn to hate and to fear just as you are carefully taught.

    Or you can say Bullsh*t.

    Note to Sarah: Looks like you got a son growing up straight and true!

  23. I’m just looking at the rolling dumpster fire that’s Gillette’s Toxic Masculinity advert. “You’re horrible; buy our product.”

    How (and why) do they let the creators of such drivel walk around with sharp objects in hand? (Thinking of Weird Al Yankovic’s Running With Scissors CD. Appropriate album art there.) I’ll take that back. Such people should be encouraged to walk and run with sharp objects… VBEG.

    1. I am clean shaven because it is a custom that I have inherited. There have been times when facial hair has been in fashion in America. Forex, Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman. George Washington, Ben Franklin, Curtis LeMay, Ed Teller, and Herman Kahn are clean shaven on wikipedia. My father and grandfathers were clean shaven, at least when they were ready for company. These men were perhaps more tolerant of feminist bullshit than I, but that does not mean that they would have been acceptable to the modern extreme feminist.

      I have not bought safety razors for some time, because I only use them when I have forgotten to use the electric for long enough that I need to thin the stubble out first.

      1. I’m allergic to nickel, and stainless steel anything does a number on my body; skin and bones. I also have a few scars that would make shaving a more interesting experience than I’d prefer, so I grow a beard (and use Beard and Whiskers Head and Shoulders to keep things sort-of under control. When it starts to itch, I haul out the Oster hair cutter and go to town.

        That’s a long way of saying I can’t boycott Gillette, but I can think twice about anything made by Procter and Gamble. $SPOUSE stopped using Tide when we got the latest washing machine, and the machine has much less trouble with gunk growth.

      2. I have a beard because I have a five o’clock shadow before noon, and it’s not just tough and wiry enough to tear up the lining of a full-face crash helmet, it’s also patchy enough to look really scruffy when the shadow is noticeable.

        The beard probably doesn’t look much better – at least it’s all one color now that it’s gray – but at least it’s a whole lot easier to maintain.

    2. I just tried to watch that ad. I got about 40 seconds in before “FFS, what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is this ad supposed to be selling?” and turned it off. Yeesh, what a mess.

    3. I have been down with noro for a few days and have been off the net, watching retro tv channels, so I had not see this.

      I think I am going to be sick again.

      Good thing I use Schick.

      1. I am so annoyed. I like Gillette blades. I was hoping I’d be able to take the commercial as affirming that real men are better than the kind of jerks who get a lot of talk lately, but….

  24. Thank-you. This is more hope than I have had in years. Just maybe we can get out of this without a bloodbath. When I have a chance I will ask a teenager that I know and trust what her experience with her peers has been.
    Once more, thank-you.

  25. I fully understand that it’s your blog, but I found the interpolated comments to be distracting from Marshall’s argument. Perhaps it would have been better to have composed a separate post to comment.

      1. Putting them in italics or a different font (if possible) might make the distinction clearer. I had no trouble, so I am not the best one to judge.

    2. Potato / Patatoe (or however the latter is spelled) … I like it when Sarah interposes her thoughts into the guest posts. Sarah doesn’t always, but you can expect it.

      My 2 cents, if it matters.

  26. Marshall shouldn’t write “That’s a discussion for another time” unless he intends to write that one, too.

    1. Worthless CO, ignored training, squabbling about who is responsible for what and the thing never gets done, and the poor SOB who can actually DO the CIC job is stuck in there so long he has to piss in a bottle especially during a dangerous/high intensity time?

      Just about, yeah. Ran it past Elf, he thinks it looks about right, too; reminds me of my DivO managing to alienate surface so much that we didn’t get ANY of the support we were supposed to in AIMD, although we weren’t at the “and then it stopped working” stage yet.
      There’s a LOT of ruin in a ship– they just finally hit it.

      1. How our division officer screwed it: we’re pretty sure he had Alzheimer’s. And a nasty temper that would jump to scolding when he forgot that he’d done something, so blamed others.

      2. The whole piss in a bottle need reminds me of the situation Stephanie put one of her tertiary characters in in her Definitions and Alignment story. At least it sounds like the Navy person apparently stayed on post.

  28. I guess this is a question for Marshall … is it your experience that “your generation” or perhaps the people a few years younger than you are actually turning away from teh craaazy in the universities and the media? In significant numbers? In such a way that you foresee a cultural shift coming along? I am not plugged into that demographic at all … so it leaves me blank in that regard …. where would I look to encounter these people/culture?

  29. Another perspective, as summarized at the NY Post:

    First the bad news: Polls suggest the majority of American millennials identify as socialist, reports Michael Knowles at Fox News. The good news: “Just 32 percent of millennials can define socialist.” Which suggests that “the frequently wrong but never-in-doubt” Rep. Alexandria ­Ocasio-Cortez “may indeed be the voice of her ignorant generation.” In her recent “60 Minutes” interview, AOC said her socialist policies “most closely resemble what we see” in the UK and Scandinavia. Yet both regions, having seen socialism cause “economic growth to stagnate,” long ago moved to privatize their retirement and pension programs and none have policies as socialistic as hers. If, in the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king, then “among a blithely ignorant generation, the lightly educated activist is congresswoman.”

    1. Hell, neither has policies as socialist as the US in certain aspects. Same as immigration and abortion

  30. To most of the left- that’s all they really need to know, or care about. I’m a conservative, indoctrinated

    The third law is SJWs: SJWs always project.

    I’m certain most hardcore leftists believe

    Not necessarily. They habitually preach what they don’t believe. Like with the “belief” in ManBearPig: there’s no evidence for this (except for that one loon), while there is evidence against this. So they don’t.
    Self-congratulatory doublethink is widespread: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2008/09/08/false-witnesses/

    Their upbringings, and environment, are what lead them away from the ideals of liberalism
    […]my world was surrounded with progressive talking points.
    _
    I found I aligned with her views pretty closely, by pure coincidence.

    How it’s a pure coincidence if you wrote yourself?..
    And it consistently works this way: «People from all lands can be found in a kibbutz… except one. Those raised in the spirit of collectivism can’t stand the smell of it.» (Voinovich, long ago)

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