It Has To Die Here

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is not a post about the pandemic. Well, not that pandemic.

More about the peculiar cult — malware for the western civilization — known as Marxism.

But first let’s talk about how a virus works, okay? Bear with me. I know I don’t precisely — snort — write hard science fiction, and there is a reason for that: I wanted to write exciting and “cool” stories like the ones I grew up reading. This requires setting them five hundred or ten thousand years in the future, and a lot of handwavium, so we can have anti-grav devices and the like. Look it’s possible, for a definition of possible. A lot of what we do now was considered impossible in the past. (And if you’re going to say their science was defective, do you really believe we’ve discovered everything as is and can be, world without end?)

But the one thing I researched very carefully for the Darkship books was biology, which to be honest has long been a hobby, but also because that was the crux of the “change to society” I was introducing and playing with.

In the process I spent a lot of time reading books about biology. And let me tell you, viruses are fascinating little biological machines and one of the ways to deliver a “change in DNA”. Because what they do is get into a cell in your body, defeat your immune system, and start pumping out copies of themselves.

Given long enough, and not killing you, part of their DNA becomes part of your genetic code. It is believed — and please, remember despite the very knowledgeable noises emanating from that area of science, that genetics is in its infancy, like physics in the late 19th century — that a lot of our so called “junk DNA” is remains of viruses our ancestors contracted and fought off.

Marxism works a lot like a virus. In the wake of weakening by the two long wars in the 20th century, what was a minor intellectual obsession of particularly maladapted intellectuals — like writers — took over our cultural institutions, and started pumping out copies of itself.

It did so by defeating our immune system, by convincing those that should have known better that the long war had happened due to ultranationalism and not through stupid early attempts at internationalism (What do you think the royal marriages and imperialism were? They were certainly not national.) and by convincing most of the older — tired, often left childless by the war — people who ruled intellectual life that the young people had a better idea, one that would stop war and bring about instant earthly paradise.

(Note when any philosophy, or religion for that matter, promises paradise in this world, with no more suffering or death, you should take a step back and then start running very fast. Says she who has been reading about cults. It’s a very old promise, and it always ends in tears and blood. Man, the creature, was made to strive, and barring some redemptive, transformative external to us and by definition divine event that gives us back Eden, we can’t go back there. Angel with flaming sword. Or you know, mass graves of communism. Whichever.)

And so all the institutions were infiltrated. All of them. It started with universities, but it went on to politics, to public life, and is now spreading through the hard sciences.

It spread particularly through America because — and this is hard to explain to you if you grew up here — the future comes from America. Other countries tend to look at what we’re doing and imitate it. They accept our irreproducible research as the gospel truth, and they try to do what we do.

This is how European cities became infected with homeless. Because the USSR had managed to convince our psychological establishment that when we imprisoned people we were just like the USSR and that the mentally ill were only political dissidents traumatized by “capitalism.” So, you know, the only decent thing was to let them go their own way and de-institutionalize them.

And unfortunately in the sixties and seventies, European universities used American textbooks and manuals.

I have heard from both academics and people in business in Europe that it’s almost impossible to work for all the “Woke” everywhere. This is because they not only took American research, but they have a tradition of worshiping intellectuals. So while we take it with a mountain of salt, they piously believe it. (Part of their conceit is that they’re smarter than we are, and therefore respect “the science” more.) Which btw explains how hard they fell for the covidiocy, and why they’re having a lot more trouble than us pulling out of it. They don’t know, as we do, our scammers and frauds. And they have trouble cocking a snook at them. While we frankly are born snook cockers and do at every opportunity.

Here, what is preventing us from completely speaking out against the nonsense, or openly ignoring them, is that a lot of people are where I was when I decided I had no more copulation to give and started telling the truth and shaming the devil.

Your job, your credentials, your very ability to function in society depends on not saying the king goes naked. Because if you do all opportunities will melt, and you’re suddenly unable to feed your family. (Why, it’s starting to make me think of my fundamentalist friends and their apocalyptic visions, even though that’s not my tradition.)

Recently one of you asked what hope we have of fighting back against that. If the people who are in the institutions, or even simply who have jobs can’t rebel, all hope is lost, and yadda yadda black pill.

Oh. Sure. It could be that way. In another universe. One in which the Marxists can run anything without falling on their faces. A universe in which Marxism is congruent with reality and doesn’t need to keep generating increasingly crazier theories to cover up its blatant failures. More importantly, one in which — as for many years it was here — Marxism is invisible.

Viruses persist and reproduce at massive rate as long as they can convince the body they don’t exist. That they’re part of the normal functioning of the body.

Or the body politic.

Once they are detected and visible, by the guardian systems of the body, the body fights back against the infection.

Look, for Marxism to work and stay in power forever, humans would need to be creatures that can be molded into something completely different by government. No, seriously. This was part of Marxist theory. Like most Christian heresies, it removed G-d, but retained the “you shall be made anew”. They thought that self-interest and greed were not natural, but things introduced by “capitalism” (the fall.) And that removing capitalism could make us into perfectly selfless, communitarian beings. (Well, it’s sort of true, since what they called capitalism are normal means of exchange between human beings — or possibly apes. There’s evidence, looks like — when you remove that, people die in batches, which means they become indeed selfless. Also very peaceful.)

So, when they take over, things stop working, fast. As they have in almost every institution that has gone “woke.” — Yes, now spreading to the hard sciences.

And every time they fail they come up with crazier things more distant from reality, so now we’re supposed to believe the most multi-racial (and to an extent unseen since the Roman empire, race-blind) nation that ever was is plagued by “systemic racism.” And you can’t tell what a woman is. And men and women equally can give birth, and–

There is a difference between promising that once workers seize the means of production there will be paradise, and claiming that your son is really your daughter if you only let him be castrated, or that you should eat bugs (these people have no clue how much bugs eat to produce scant protein) to save the Earth, or–

The point is they can only keep hold as long as their insanity isn’t visible. Marxism needs complete — complete — control over the means of communication to succeed.

Even then the wheels come off, which is why neither China nor Russia can feed themselves.

“Capitalism” being natural is adaptable, and can survive a lot of intrusion and body-blows, and will chug along as long as not completely stopped.

Meanwhile Marxism needs secrecy, protection, complete vigilance and that no one with a remote bit of sense look at it.

When you’re saying “If people in the institutions can’t rebel because they’ll be cancelled, we’ve already lost” you’re looking at it wrong.

Sure, a lot of people who are on our side — a lot of people who read this blog — are keeping their mouths shut so they can eat.

But what you have to do is look at this the other way: In the forties and fifties, “progressivism” was out and proud. Even the GOP was progressive. It was believed the government not only could but should perform great intrusions upon the economy, to lead us to the great paradisical future. Price controls were considered sane, and the only way to go, to prevent people from starving, etc.

Now, yeah, they still would like to have price controls and all the attendant intrusion, but they keep running into a public who knows that’s crazy cakes. And not just that, but the craziness of locking up healthy people to prevent disease is obvious, and it has caused — alas mostly in the US — a healthy bout of disbelief in the gospel of “science.”

Yeah, people in “positions where they should talk” can’t because they’ve been muzzled at the cost of their ability to survive.

But turn it around. If the left had really won, if their way worked, if they had absolute power and had convinced everyone, why would they be trying so hard to muzzle speech? Why the shrieking attack on the first ammendment? Why the threats to revoke professional licenses, or the ability to be employed if you step out of line?

Because they know they’re a small minority, barely holding on to power. At some level, too, I think they know that cannot last. It’s the only reason I can figure for pre-appointing a successor for a supreme court judge who maybe might retire, perhaps. Because they think it’s their last chance.

Now, you’ll say “But they can hold onto power indefinitely by threatening people.

Can they? Can they really?

Look, in every occasion in history that this happened, where a small but vocal minority held the reins of power, while the people under them no longer believed in the tenets that held these people in power — be they the divine right of kings, or the little red book — the result is that those people fall. And usually they fall hard.

Now, it’s entirely possible that America — we tend to work weirdly — will manage a soft escape from this. Maybe. Part of the thing to remember is that the people at the top of the crumbling, tottering lefty edifice are old. I mean, really old, and often more cognitively impaired than people their age should be. (Does alcohol and drugs really silence conscience? I don’t know. I do know it seems to impair cognitive abilities. Significant look at the FICUS and Nancy Grey Goose.) Part of the reason their “rule” seems to have gone extreme and, let’s face it, insanely surreal, is that they are in a hurry. They’re out of time to “win.”

Their problem is that they’re now in the open. And everything they try to do to stop the not so subtle disgust and rebellion of the masses only makes them more disgusted and rebellious.

Now they’re comparing everything to “another 9-11” and can’t imagine why that doesn’t work. And they spend six months market-testing a slogan to turn people against Trump, and come up with Ultra-MAGA and “The MAGA king.” And can’t imagine why it blows up in their faces. (As for me, if you spell out Make America Great Again, I’m not Ultra-MAGA. I’m Super Ultra MAGA, with special MAGA powers, and sharks with lasers on their heads, and every day from this blog, I let out the cry “Ultra, Super MAGA: ASSEMBLE.”)

Seriously. They are that out of touch, and that desperate.

And it’s bad. For them.

Go read any book of political theory. Regimes can survive anything but general public derision. Once that starts, the fall will happen. Fast or slow, soft or hard, but it will happen. You can survive people hating you. Not people laughing at you.

Now, yeah, they’ll do a lot of damage on the way out. And because of the enforced silence, it will take a long time for people to trust professionals. ANY professionals. This will not be helped by what will seem like waves of overnight turn coats in everything from the arts to science. A lot of them will be people who are finally free to talk, but how do you distinguish that from those who will say anything to stay in power?

You can’t. Which is how Russia became ruled by old Soviet horrors. And Germany ended up with Frau Komissar Merkel.

So it is important to not lose sight of that, and to be ruthless and practical about who we choose to trust and why.

They have already lost. They can’t hold onto power.

They can only extend their hold a little bit by convincing us to give up. And to stop pointing out they’re wrong. And to — LOL — stop laughing. That last one is the most genuine expression of rebellion, and the most impossible to stop.

Their regime is an hot house flower. It can only survive so long as they control everything, and even then not for long, because reality always kills it.

Ladies and gentlemen: in the measure of the possible (and I do realize that might be very little where and when you are) point out the incongruences. Make fun of them, even if it’s no more than let’s go Brandon or I did that stickers. Do not let up.

Light up the Marxist virus, and point it out, so the immune system of western civilization can work. Sure, they’re everywhere. Well, that just gives us a target rich environment.

They can only work in the dark and in secret.

Let the sunshine in.

328 thoughts on “It Has To Die Here”

    1. Sorry, don’t have time right now to listen to the whole thing, but to me the underlying difference between reputation (honor) cultures and guilt cultures, is whether you have personal responsibility for your standing in regards to heaven based on what you do, or whether you have collective responsibility for all your ancestors did, and your biggest sin is to bring shame to them. The latter is the current attempted transformation of our culture. One of the startling truths brought forth by Christianity was a sense of personal responsibility for your own actions and only for your own actions as well as a possibility of forgiveness through spiritual/moral transformation. Maybe I will find you get there when I have time to listen to the whole video. If so, never mind.

    2. Good presentation. And a bit worrisome, especially your conclusion (which I can easily see happening), but thanks.

  2. Poul Anderson had a short story where an alien civilization fell to Communism.

    When a human spaceship (refugees from an Earth where the Soviet Union won) found it, the humans discovered that the “civilization” was now like an ant society with the aliens having no more intelligence than ants.

    The aliens were managed by non-thinking super-computers. One of the last thinking alien programmers had programmed the computers to “handle” alien visitors (to a degree).

    The humans manage to escape the computers’ trap but realize that they can settle the second planet in the star system as long as they avoid the alien miners visiting the second planet.

    Oh, the story was titled “The High Ones”.

  3. Really need an Ultramagnus in a MAGA hat.

    And a Super-Ultramagnus combiner with MAGA hats on all of the combiners. That would be hilarious.

    Most of all, because Ultramagnus is always the autobot with the stick up his backside, and if the leftist insta insanity brigade have managed to convince him, of all bots, that its time to bend the rules, you know they’ve truly lost their marbles.

  4. I think their failure is already underway, though obviously they haven’t realized it.

    With Musk moving to buy Twitter, the mask has come off that organization re: bots. Now that they’re going through and purging bot accounts (apparently to “shred the evidence” so to speak that they were fudging their subscriber numbers) influencers are allegedly seeing their follower counts nosedive. So may bots have been purged that I think Musk is actually putting his acquisition on hold. So TPTB are realizing that the “Angry Twitter Majority” (which everyone with two braincells knew was an “Angry Twitter Minority” from the word “go”) not only wasn’t real, it was a deliberate and probably malicious fabrication.

    Then you have the Discovery-Time Warner Merger. Discovery’s CEO only cares about the $$$, and he’s looked at the numbers and seen that wokism is killing Time Warner. So he’s cancelling shows, comics, etc. that aren’t bringing in the cash and purging woke leadership from the ranks. Because he’s realized that Wokism killed Time Warner, and it looks like he won’t let it kill Discovery too.

    Same with Netflix. They’ve apparently put out a memo telling woke employees that if they don’t want to work on non-woke projects, then they are more than welcome to leave the company. i.e. you don’t like it, then quit. And are allegedly cancelling “underperforming” programs too.

    So the folks in charge have finally realized that “wokism” isn’t mainstream and “Get Woke, Go Broke” isn’t a pithy MAGA slogan. Hopefully they didn’t realize it too late: i.e. after their companies/the economy as a whole passed The Point of No Return.

      1. Hope so. Was just reading about the chaos in Sri Lanka. Apparently they went all organic farming last year and yield crashed hard, and it took their economy with it. Reports are they’ve got one day worth of gas left, are running out of food, and their government has completely defaulted.

        And it looks like they’re going full lamp posts, but I have no idea how they’re going to recover from this. Even if they repealed the all organic farming laws, it would be at least a full growing season before they saw effects, if they could afford to buy fertilizer or gas as is.

        It’s going to be really bad.

          1. Does make me wonder what we’re going to look like a year from now. The whole world just took a hit because we nimby’ed all fertilizer production to Russia and the Ukraine, and they’re currently on fire.

            1. On that subject, I need to stock up on food and wanted to ask for recommendations. I’m looking for:

              1) Stores for at least a couple of years without needing temperature control (it gets both hot and cold here)

              2) Preferably not too high in carbs (though high-carb still beats starvation, obviously)

              3) Hopefully won’t break the bank

              Any suggestions? And can you vouch for the product from experience?

          2. “Sri Lanka is going to experience a massive die off regardless of how many leaders end up on lamp posts…”

            Which says to me that they had damn well better make sure ALL of the available lamp posts are put to the purpose. Ugly is definitely a good word for it, but there’s no reason for mercy or any halfhearted efforts at that point.

            1. Actually, there’s a compelling reason for the exact opposite; maybe after it all shakes out, and if you don’t go all “pollyanna” on the perps, some of your people will survive to rebuild. Hopefully none of the “wokie perps” will…

            2. IMO, once the machetes have done, burn the bits. Leave nothing behind.

              1. Actually, if they burn some of their hardwoods in the right way, it would leave potash behind. Not the bestest way to make fertilizer, but they have a lot of jungle/woods in Sri Lanka.

                1. It occurs to me that soap originally used ashes as a necessary ingredient.

          3. They also apparently are down to a single day’s worth of gas/oil for fuel. Democrats would of course celebrate were that to happen in the USA.

            1. Given FICUS America Last philosophy, they’ll feed anyone but Americans.

              1. August into September it’s going to start getting real, so bad our fearless leaders can no longer cover up the collapse of food production world wide. I expect FICUS and company to lobby for massive American aid to areas where starvation has become rampant with the abysmal yield of so many essential crops after a growing season of reduced fertilizer utilization and a serious reduction in tillage due to prohibitive fuel and energy costs.
                So naturally the Powers That Be will be guilt shaming Americans over not tightening our own belts and giving freely enough of our resources to the starving world masses right about the few weeks preceding the mid term elections. Along with a litany of “it’s all Trump’s fault” and “you cannot blame us, it’s just bad luck!”

                1. Don’t be a Seer, or Prophet. It isn’t healthy.

                  FWIW. Agree. I’m no Prophet.

                  Powers That Be will be guilt shaming Americans over not tightening our own belts and giving freely enough of our resources to the starving world masses right about the few weeks preceding the mid term elections. Along with a litany of “it’s all Trump’s fault” and “you cannot blame us, it’s just bad luck!”

                  –

                    1. Your old Uncle Lar freely admits that there are still a great many things he can learn from his dear niece and the disreputable lot of scallywags who hang out with her.

                2. Imposing famine on America seems a likely trigger for the boog. Although I’m sure they’re stupid enough to try anyway.

        2. They were stoning politicians and trying to tear them apart with their bare hands in the video clip I watched.

          Ugly doesn’t even cover this.

          1. I’m not sure “ugly” is the right term. “Deserved even though nauseating” seems better.

            1. More descriptive for sure. “Ugly” covers everything from a bathroom repair gone bad to…. Sri Lanka.

          3. A quick search on Sri Lanka food riots gets a lot of reprints of a Zero Hedge post by “Tyler Durden”. Politician’s houses being torched (after pro-gov thugs burned down protester’s tents and did a general beatdown). I saw something about police cars getting carried and dumped in a handy river.

            And of course, TPTB figure the best way to solve the protestor problem is to have the troops shoot people on sight. Not sure if the troops are sufficiently insulated from the people, but I think it might just be very dangerous for a PFC shooter…

        3. Why are we not hearing about this? Where is all the media coverage? Oh, right, they’re all in Ukraine clamoring for war, or screaming at the families of Supreme Court justices.
          ———————————
          Candidate Joe Biden, August 2020: “We have assembled the most extensive, comprehensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.”

          Minutes later: “What do you mean, I wasn’t supposed to say that?”

      1. If the way their stock is cratering (boy was THAT a bad gamble on my part!) is any indication, he won’t have to.

      2. Musk has done more for America than the entire Republican party, and that’s an understatement…

        1. Granted, by screwing things up so royally we got Trump, his highness Obama did more than the GOP

    3. In a shrinking economy with high inflation, there are some who understand that catering to the woke will rapidly put their companies out of business whereas in a good economy the dead weight of wokeness was able to be carried.

    4. Another example: days ago the Washington Post complained about video game development companies not taking positions on Roe v. Wade.

        1. No, it’s a good sign. The point is that those companies were keeping their mouths shut instead of jumping aboard the woke bandwagon. Slowly but surely, companies are abandoning our enemies.

  5. The waiting is hard and complicated by me being ‘older’ as well. Had a nice evening with a neighbor who moved a few blocks away so we could see the new house. I found a kindred spirit who agrees that the current conditions are “insane” and can’t last. They too have (very quietly) prepared and it’s nice to know there is another fox hole just down the block.

    We both have gone to daily carry and have simple support plans that we hope we never have to use but, heaven help the crazies if they go overboard because there is a huge number out there like us. The pressure on the current insane policies and practices will increase and the crazy will start to crack and crash. I just want to hang on.

    Thanks for the encouragement from all the folks here and a huge thanks to our delightful host too!

  6. I do it for the Rebellion Clothing. Shallow? Maybe, but the idea of flames, flame throwers, howling banshees, and never giving up till we restore the Republic appeals to me.

    Shadilay!

      1. I stand on the parapet with Boromir! Gather the assembled armies! Play the outlawed tunes!

        1. As I look out over the sea of Uruk Hai assembled against us, my first thought is, “We never should have let the damned government take our assault rifles.”

          1. ROFL.
            “Ride out and meet them” because you got nuthin’…. 🙂

          2. “They shouldn’t have bunched up so much.” fires Blaster Launcher

            2. Knowledge: Galaxy Quest is not a Star Trek movie

              Wisdom: Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek movie

    5. With a bang (exclamation point) after “ASSEMBLE”, and a print of an A10, front view, firing.

      1. The Warthog is the finest aircraft ever assembled.
        One of my favorite bits of the “mad minute” in Basic Training was when the A10 came rumbling in and blew hell out of the “enemy” line.

        1. The A10 was designed specifically as a Close Air Support platform for ground troops and to kill Russian tanks. Ground pounders love it, Air Farce hates it with a passion, similar to the intense dislike some of the modern wonder nine gun bunnies have for the 1911.
          The Warthog could most certainly stand a major refit with among other things state of the art avionics, but AF would never stand for the funding that would involve, rather spend the budget on ever exotic fighter craft that have no legitimate role in modern warfare.

          1. I’ll say nothing against the Air Force. If I were a pilot I’d rather be in something that wasn’t flying through gunfire.
            And the 1911 is still the finest piece of sidearm metal, especially if you carry a Kimber version.

          2. There’s history. The Warthog, like other fine Air Force planes, was designed by Col. John Boyd, and he is still kind of an Unperson in the Air Force for having been constantly correct and annoying, and for contradicting Pentagon doctrine. Also for being adopted as Head Warfighting Prophet by the Marine Corps.

            The Warthog is perfect for the purpose, and they can’t let it die. But a lot of the bureaucrats have inherited the hatred.

              1. Amusingly, the Smithsonian/Air and Space Museum does have some Boyd material, albeit by force of donor money; Quantico practically has a dedicated museum/memorial; and I gather that Nellis has a nice exhibit (which is very fitting, but also proves they are out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fighter pilots). But nada at the National Museum of the Air Force.

              2. Right, they’ve got an A-10 on exhibit, but nothing about Boyd. I should take my wife up there one weekend now that the mask requirement appears to have been dropped.

          3. Last weekend, I watched an F-22 fly in formation, as the wingman, with a P-51. I had no idea a modern jet could fly so slowly. I kept waiting for it to fall out of the sky. It can also stop in mid-air and do 90 degree turns (probably not actually, but it looks that way).
            I’m not sure if that gives it any advantages in combat, but it sure is impressive to watch.

            1. Something thrills in me when I see the old planes flying alongside the new beasts. It feels solid, and important somehow.
              Random tangent: we flew on a sea plane from Key West to Fort whatever it was, and our pilot had flown helicopters in Viet Nam. He and my Dad (also a pilot) agreed that landing a sea plane on tarmac was like landing a shopping cart. Adding to the fun, when you fly back to KW, you have to do it on an exact path and time, otherwise they scramble a jet from Boca Chica NAS and escort you back home.

          4. Just curious; did you ever read/see any of the reports of what happened to the “fast movers” in air combat against A10s? I read a Janes(?) article back when the A10 was first in service, and the conclusion was that, while no A10 could perform the high-speed interceptor role, it was more than effective in close combat, especially at lower altitudes. There’s this thing they called the “Warthog Stomp”… 🙂

            BTW, I’m Marine-no-longer-active, and I thought the Corps made a mistake selecting the Harrier instead of the A10, although I recognize the reasons.

            1. I love watching Harriers, as long as I don’t have to depend on them for anything.

    6. …I need to create a new SPARK for XCOM2. Already have Optimus Prime and Liberty Prime, with appropriate voicepacks. Maybe I should download the Bender voicepack for this one?

      1. I’ve always wanted a System Shock 2 mod that replaced the protocol droids with Marvin from the BBC version of Hitchhiker’s Guide. For some reason I’m amused by the thought of Marvin droning “Oh God, I’m so depressed” right before self-destructing.

          1. Oh, and speaking of Marvin, I have something that some of you might enjoy. There’s a guy on YouTube named Nick Page who takes bits of the radio play and makes animations to go with them. My favorite one so far stars our beloved paranoid android:

  8. If we postulate an enemy who’s greatest strength is narrative control, is it unreasonable to suppose that a part of that mechanism would be a counter-narrative about how it is impossible to resist and if you don’t like the main narrative you should just crawl into a corner and die?

    The black-pilled should do a little thinking before engaging in their public vomiting fetish.

    2. Everything is psychological warfare. Narrative control is their center of gravity.

      1. Remember, the USSR was brought low by a disarmed population that had been hammered down for centuries, and a few handfuls of xerox machines.

        We’re going to win.

        1. We will. But limiting ourselves to xerox machines will have the same results as it did for the Russians. See Vladimir Putin, ex KGB.

  10. You would think that the Left would know better.

    Early during Trump’s term, some guy in Europe (Italy, I think) who makes floats with political connotations made a gigantic Trump float depicting Trump as the God Emperor in the Wahammer 40,000 setting (pre-Golden Throne, for those familiar with that game). People quickly determined that the float was anti-Trump (for ex. one of the float’s armored shoulder pads had Putin’s face, since the float-maker believed the claims that Trump was a Russian stooge). But they didn’t care. And the reason why they didn’t care was because the float was an impressive, amazing looking piece of craftsmanship. And as a result, some began to jokingly refer to Trump as GEOTUS Trump (instead of POTUS).

    And those idiots on the left thought that calling people Ultra-MAGA would push people away from Trump?

    /whistles “Yankee Doodle”

      2. I didn’t know that, either, I’ve just called him that because of Patriots.win. And it triggers the communists like nothing else.

        1. Somehow I didn’t hear about this one. I remember the Trump Baby balloon, though, and how disappointed everyone was that it was really not very large when the media had been portraying it as huge.

          1. The balloon thing got a lot of advance PR. It was talked up beforehand, likely because no one would have paid much attention to the real thing if they’d waited until after it was unveiled.

            This float, on the other hand, just showed up one day.

    3. He was the GEOM long before that float; the float was riffing off of the existing meme.

      Also we aren’t actually 100% sure the float was anti-Trump, even if the artist claimed such. Was the Putin face on one of the marines, or on Trump’s armor? Because if it was the latter, in-lore that would signify Trump defeating Putin.

      1. I stand corrected on the original source of the nickname. As for the float, my recollection is that there were words – in the creator’s native language, of course – that confirmed its anti-Trump design.

  11. The Bourbons aicked kass for over three hundred years, the Habsburgs, at least seven hundred.

    Those other guys the people, not you or me, of course, seem quite willing to accept totalitarianism, be it monarchist, Marxists or corporate CEOist, to bend a knee or grab a forelock when the betters pass. Go along to get along.

    Yep we can win, maybe relatively soon, most likely a bit later but could be a very long haul
    so,
    meanwhile,
    we need keep our powder dry and we can and should build and maintain the world we want in our immediate vicinity.

    Hence I’ll be out in the yard for a couple of hours salvaging lead from old car batteries I didn’t exchange for core value, lead stores nicely as short 0.38 inch cylindrical rods or 12 gauge balls.

      1. To use bit of now-old commercial: Marxism is now failing at the speed of business.

        In some cases, spending gobs of money to shave a few microseconds off of communication times is considered worthwhile. Milliseconds moreso.

        “We haven’t got all second!”* – ReBoot (cartoon)

        As I recall. It’s been a while…

          1. Although perhaps not as much as people like Kipling thought it would in 1903:

            https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/peace_of_dives.html

            “Wilt thou call again thy peoples, wilt thou craze anew thy Kings?
            “Lo! my lightnings pass before thee, and their whistling servant brings,
            “Ere the drowsy street hath stirred,
            “Every masked and midnight word,
            “And the nations break their fast upon these things.

            “So I make a jest of Wonder, and a mock of Time and Space,
            “The roofless Seas an hostel, and the Earth a market-place,
            “Where the anxious traders know
            “Each is surety for his foe,
            “And none may thrive without his fellows’ grace.

            “Now this is all my subtlety and this is all my Wit,
            “God give thee good enlightenment. My Master in the Pit.
            “But behold all Earth is laid
            “In the Peace which I have made,
            “And behold I wait on thee to trouble it!”

    2. I suppose if you start by ignoring what changed us from a world of Kings, Nobles, Peasants, and Slaves, to the one we are in now you could make that example work.

      Meanwhile the people who aren’t fully paid up members of the enemy dezinformatsiya services remember that the era of Nobility died on a Wednesday in 1415.

          2. I knew it wasn’t when a guy bit a piece of the true cross because that was one Friday night in Jerusalem, and is the reason we can’t have nice things.

            1. He didn’t just bite it, folks. He bit it off and carried it away in his mouth.

              Wasn’t the first or last time that someone stole a relic, either.

        2. Some people did something.

          While that was happening a bunch of French knights discovered that the only thing worse than charging across mud is charging across mud while English longbows are raining death and destruction on you.

          1. “Some people did something.” ROFLMAO!

            I was right! Also, note to self: look up answer BEFORE asking the dumbass question.

          2. You know, I always wonder what the farmers who plowed that field were thinking.

            “Louis, we don’t have enough fertilizer for the forest field!”
            “Ah, Renee, old friend, Henry is marching his army right at us. And D’Albret is going to look for a good place to attack him. I’ll bet they end up right on top of our field. And you know how well grain grows in blooded fields, eh?”
            “Louis, that’s genius!”, said Renee, as he knocked back his brew. “I’ll have the oxen plowing it before dawn.”

      2. Ehh, I’d say it died in the 1780s. There was a lot of nobility-and-kings stuff after the 15th century. Including the religious wars after the Reformation.

        Although it occurs to me that you might be obliquely referring to the Magna Carta, which was in 1215, not 1415, and also that was specifically the king against the nobles, and wasn’t supposed to apply to the common man. They just neglected to write out that it didn’t. Often the kings had the support of the middle class and peasantry, because it was the nobles who were oppressing them, not the king. The immediate government, that is, against whom they appealed to a higher authority.

        1. True, the death was really caused by the spread of practical individual firearms. But I listed it as 1415 because the effects of peasant yeomen presaged that.

          1. It did indeed. And the useless parasites (Read: nobility and wannabe nobility) have been trying to roll it back ever since. And failing.

        2. I put it at 1320, when a king admitted he served at the pleasure of the country.

          2. The Declaration of Arbroath?
            It’s a good candidate.

            But I like to be a bit more mythic and declare 1099 and the Assizes of Jerusalem.
            Supply me with beer, and I’ll spin you a conspiracy theory of how the European Powers That Were let Outremer fall in an attempt to prevent the ideals from spreading.

            And of course, there’s a whole mythology ain’ around the Norse in general, and the Saxons in specific.

        3. Eh.
          There’s plenty of reason to believe that John did that deliberately as a poison pill.
          There were tons of little carveouts giving this village the right to a weir, or that city an elected mayor, all of which were advanced by the King’s negotiators.
          It would be of a piece with other reforms he advanced, which empowered the yeoman class, limited the nobility, or both.
          And the Plantagenet kings had been actively using “forest law” to limit the power of the Barons since Henry II.

          Granted, he probably did it with an eye towards the Barons violating it, and thereby voiding it.
          (And they did, but the agreement was valuable enough to both sides of the continuing struggle that it was never declared null.)

          Which gets you an uneasy status quo until you get to Henry III, Simon de Montfort, and Longshanks.

        4. It had a long deathbed scene. There was a lot of nobility and kings in the 19th century. Regions differed, to be sure.

    3. The Hapsburgs survived because they adapted and they were the best alternative available, their fall was a calamity. Woodrow Wilson has much to answer for. The Bourbon’s fell because they learned nothing and forgot nothing. Yes, Napoleon was a calamity, but Orleans wasn’t all that bad and after two empires, two royal dynasties, and five republics the French seem to have settled down.

      1. Yep. A lot of the more recent research into the documents and other things is coming to the conclusion that the Habsburgs weren’t perfect, but they were actually fairly decent IF you were not a hard-core nationalist or independence promoter. A confederation under Charles VI might have been a good, stable successor to the empire. We’ll never know, but they were not as bad as often painted.

        1. I came to the conclusion that the anti Hapsburg view in America was mostly anti Catholic bigotry a long time ago. It was right around the same time I realized that American, papish schoolboys learning about good queen Bess and the “glorious” revolution was totally absurd. now, of course, you don’t learn about any of it.

          I’ve had a fascination with the Empire for a long time, especially the Irish under Maria Theresa who fought that Prussian nonce Fritz. Frederick is one of those people you like less the more you know.

          1. And it was heavily reinforced by European anti-Hapsburg sentiments, both in intellectual circles and among many immigrating to the US.

    4. How many of those miniature cylinders can you get out of a car battery? I’ve got a couple of old batteries sitting around, probably need to look into upcycling them. Reduce, reuse, recycle and all that…

      1. Be really careful about handling that; the lead in car batteries is far from pure, and IIRC cadmium is one of the impurities (it’s used for hardening lead plates). You do not want to mess with cadmium.

        1. the first thing that went through my mind was, “So much the better when he donates some to the local feds when they come around.” But I think you were referring to an earlier part of the process.

        2. Don’t know about cadmium (which is NOBODY’s friend.. and that’s on the good days) but there can be Antimony, which is also… well, it’s not known for being nice. The “anti-monk” story may be apocryphal, but is utterly believable – at least as regard the element. As for the people allegedly involved I cannot rightly say. Humans are… rather strange? Sometimes that’s Truly Wonderful.. other times it’s Horribly Terrifying. And that can even be the SAME human. Complicated, these creatures.

            1. I forget exactly where I encountered the discussion. It might well have been for molding (counter)weights for telescopes and, as you say, the advice was DO NOT USE CAR BATTERIES. Bullets, sure. Sinkers, fine. (Hey, it was a while ago… when lead was a grudgingly useful Known Nasty, but NOT Herr Boogeyman).

              1. The telescope project on the very back burner is going to use steel counterweights if I ever complete restart it. I’d like to get it done while my eyes have some night-vision. Aging ain’t for wimps. 🙂

                I wonder about modern sources of lead for cast bullets. In the early ’90s, I used clip-on wheel weights, a couple of ingots of linotype metal, plumber’s 50-50 solder and such. Even a block or two of plumber’s lead. Stick-on wheel weren’t popular, since the alloy was soft, but those might be the dominant source of lead alloy now. Hmm.

                1. Nope; most modern wheelweights are not pure lead, and those that contain lead at all have unwanted (read: screws up the casting) additives. Some are simply zinc or zinc alloy, also a good way to screw up casting. And forget about linotype; it’s essentially unused today. The place I use is:

                  https://www.rotometals.com/

                  Reasonable (for today) prices, good quality.

                  1. Clip-on wheelweights seem to have been a lead-antimony alloy; they melted at a low enough temperature that antimony wasn’t freed. I did cast bullets a few decades ago, still have the melting rig and a lube-sizer, but no mold blocks. I might see what I can find for a .30-30 lever action.

                    Linotype was rare in the late ’80s, but a friend kept a supply of everything and would sell some at times. RIP, L.

      2. Do a little research. I had similar thoughts and ran across an article I think in some black powder reference on the web, perhaps in rec.guns, detailing why it really wasn’t a good idea. Noxious things outgassing as I recall. YMMV.

      3. About 20 pounds of lead in a 60 amp battery, near half (the negative plates, if I remember right.) are salvageable. the others will be mostly lead oxide. I didn’t weigh it but I’d guess I get 5 to 8 pounds from a battery. So, more than 80 12 gauge one ounce slugs for example.

    5. With respect to salvaging lead from car batteries, sounds like a Really Bad Idea. A more-or-less accurate article on it is here:

      https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/bullet-casting-bullets-on-the-cheap/

      They mention Arsine and Stibine as offgassed materials (the latter is from Antimony, not directly mentioned in the article, but that’s the way to get Stibine). And that’s beyond dealing with the H2SO4 residue.

      Back in the Clinton era, I transformed a few hundred pounds of clip-on wheel weights to Lyman #2. I also managed to get a couple of ingots of linotype metal–wonderful stuff.

      Safer to load a trebuchet with the car batteries.

      1. A trebuchet…now you’re talking!

        As for melting down the car battery, it was more of an idle what-if than anything else. I don’t actually reload and ain’t likely to want to start unless things get really desperate (in which case I probably wouldn’t be able to start anyway; supplies would probably disappear and startup is already expensive).

        I wonder how @JimInAlaska manages the toxic alloys problem?

        1. Last question first: I don’t know; haven’t seen any fresh posts from Jim. I’m hoping he’s OK.

          Supplies for a lot of rounds disappeared long ago. I have everything to load .357 Magnum except the primers, and have been looking since 12/2020 for retail quantities. I’m told my best bet is to try barter. Commonly used powder is short, though really common cases and bullets can be found. I hit a couple of gun counters each week when I’m in town. Some odd stuff shows up, but “primer drought” is common. One store had some Hodgdon powder that I’d never heard of; that guy said he was getting dribs and drabs of the oddballs.

          Remington’s ammunition factory traded hands, and is supposed to be ramping up. Same for a former military factory somewhere in Texas. Haven’t seen anything concrete. OTOH, as the junta and the wannabe overlords keep putting pressure on firearms, the demand is going to stay high.

          1. It appears that the ammo factories have focused on providing finished ammo in popular calibers. There is no shortage of either 556 or 9 mm for sale at this point, unlike a year ago. More specialized items are catch as catch can and primers are still not available. Got to feed the Glocks and ARs of all the new gun owners.

            1. Thankfully. Finally got my emergency stash set up.

              What’s your opinion on the best shotgun ammunition? Strictly tactical, home use weapon. Mossberg 590, stainless steel (started life as a boat gun for sea lions).

              1. #4, also known as “goose shot”. Peter Capstick recommended #3, but he was hunting leopard in Africa, and #3 is the old British SSG, which he found it easier to get hold of.

              2. Different loads for different purposes. I prefer #4 for indoors, #2 for outdoors, and always have a box or two of slugs on hand, just in case.

                Shotguns are SOOO versatile!

                1. They are, and yet I confess it’s my least favorite of all I used to possess or have fired. Heavy, kicks like an angry mule. So I’ve not spent much time at all getting familiar. That shall change.

                  Sorry to be ignorant, but what is a “slug” in this context?

                  1. Basically, instead of lots of small round lead balls, you have 1 large one. Slug loads are not compatible with all shotguns (full choke), but they can convert one into a short-range deer killer.

                  2. If the kick of a 12 guage is too much, you might want to look at a 16 gauge, or a 20 gauge. 20 gauge is likely to have better ammo availability.

                    1. I probably need to get to the range and check out the various gauges. I’m annoyed because I can’t ignore the task anymore. AND I still need to sight in an AR that was built years ago.

                    2. The Reader seconds the notion of a 20 gauge if the 12 gauge kicks excessively. It would still be more than adequate for self defense. Having a flinch reaction to firing the shotgun because of recoil is bad for self defense.

      2. Thanks for the heads up. I’m comfortable salvaging lead from batteries.

        Regarding arsine and stibine ;

        arsine is 0.05 ppm (0.2 mg/cu m of air) as a time-weighted average in any 8-hour work shift of a 40-hour work week. IDLH: 3 ppm

        The recommended workplace limit for stibine is 0.1 ppm as an 8-hour time-weighted average. The air level considered immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) is 5 ppm.

        Outdoors and up wind, my exposure is several orders of magnitude lower than any of those numbers.

        Seriously, thanks for pointing out the risks. I’m comfortable with the way I handle such but am not recommending anyone else deal with such my way. Check things out and make your own decisions.

  12. I’ve always known that communism won’t ever work in anything more than a small organization of total volunteers. It demands perfection of humans, and humans are just not perfect. So it’s a matter of volunteers only, or institute coercion to keep the imperfect humans in line, and eventually it all breaks, as ordinary humans rebel, and the coercion ratchets tighter, until it can’t hold any more.
    That, and when large numbers of ordinary people begin laughing contemptuously at authorities – that’s when it breaks down for good and all.

    1. Communism, like all theories that fantasize about human nature, is always crushed by physical reality…from the Pilgrims to the Soviets, collectivization has always caused disaster..And our new native communists will meet the same fate…Unfortunately, America will go through a collapse in the process, but worse things have happened…

    2. One of the more interesting economic insights I’ve come across was the concept of “crunchy” and “soggy.” Crunchy is when you immediately feel the consequences of your actions, while soggy is when you don’t. Crunchy is working on commission, while soggy is an annual salary.

      I like this framework because it explains why communism fails at anything larger than the family unit — at that level, life is still crunchy — and why big businesses often make as terrible decisions as state-run industries — the middle managers are just as soggy, just as insulated from the immediate consequences of bad decisions as apparatchiks.

      1. There’s some stuff to say about inherent information changes as seen in a bureaucracy.

        There’s also information change for an individual with time and distance.

        What is the decision, what kind of information does it /need/ and who or what can have that information?

        Some people may have the information to perfectly schedule their restroom breaks a week, or maybe even months, in advance. I definitely can’t, and I suspect that few can.

        If a bureaucracy tried to schedule bathroom breaks for a large number of people, the enterprise becomes pretty impossible at some point.

        Some of the sales pitches for bureaucracy and central control are emotional; that the results of the decisions will be better because the decision makers will emotionally care more. Tends to ignore the question of whether, for a given implementation, it is at all likely that the decision makers /can/ care. When looking at enough people, a sane human being sees them only as abstractions, and the way that they care about abstractions, may not be how the people in question would prefer. Some flavors of crazy only ever see people as ‘abstractions’, that only exist to serve the appetites of the crazy person. Compounding that the caring cannot actually occur, selecting decision makers for the appearance of caring may select for crazy people who are skilled at lying.

        If information leads to best decisions, then individuals are very often best informed about their own specific instances of certain types of problem. This leads to rules of thumb like subsidiarity, minarchism, and individualism.

        Statistics is a process of aggregation of information about individual instances, and by discarding data obtaining more data. It is a field of mathematics. Some of the arguments for a central decision are based in the theory that the statistical data is much more important than the individual data. A subset of those arguments are made by rote. Many of that subset may be using statistical reasoning that should be considered invalid.

        In theory, with enough of the right machines, we could find out more about what some of the fundamental limits are. I’m not sure that this would be useful, the folks who don’t go deep into that theory may already have a lot of good answers.

        1. Another argument for central control has been that it would “not” be emotional, but rational. The bureaucrat would be unmoved by personal favoritism and make calm, dispassionate decisions based on Reason, and therefore those decisions would be good for society as a whole.
          In that version, individuality is a bug, not a feature.

      2. The Leftists economist Kenneth Galbraith actually did some good work on the topic, and demonstrated pretty conclusively that the magic number was 30.
        Any organization that gets larger than that, becomes a bureaucracy, and hence inherently inefficient.

        (Being Kenneth Galbraith, the conclusion he drew was “Therefore nationalize all the things!” which really isn’t supported by his evidence.)

    3. My husband paraphrases deToqueville as, “when the citizens of a democracy learn they can vote themselves benefits,” the democracy is doomed.
      His communist variation is, “when the people, in a communist system realize the lazy receive ss many benefits as the hard working, the communism is doomed.”

  13. Thanks for the boost in hope.
    I think that we, as a nation, may be able to muddle through the hard times coming, mainly on a local and State level, if we can keep the Federal “gatherers and sharers” at bay, because, after all, we are the hoarders, wreckers, Kulaks, and all-around no-goodniks of the world.
    John in Indy

    1. I’ve been known to use “Make Appliances Great Again,” referring to the regulatory mandates that screw up the function of various appliances by demanding “No Freon” “Use less water” etc. ad nauseam.

      1. Simple high school chemistry and physics tells me that the freon causes the ozone layer to get holy argument is garbage. So does anyone know why I have never seen the people (supposedly scientists) making the argument called out with the actual facts?

        1. Enlighten?

          Let me guess: Freon is DENSE and SINKS thus upper atmosphere Freon is kinda like expecting to find clouds of lead or barium?

        2. Ozone is a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms, which is ordinarily present in the stratosphere at about 10 parts per million, or about one-thousandth of one percent.

          Ordinary oxygen molecules contain two oxygen atoms, and make up almost 21% of the entire atmosphere, or 209,500 parts per million.

          Oxygen atoms absorb ultraviolet light, whether they are arranged in twos or threes. We have fifty miles of oxygen over our heads. I don’t see that it makes much difference whether the stratosphere contains 10 PPM of ozone, or 7 PPM.

          We could find out. Somebody could measure the amount of ultraviolet light reaching the ground underneath the ‘ozone holes’ and compare to the amount under normal ozone areas. I am not aware of any such comparisons ever being made. Could that be because they wouldn’t show any significant difference?
          ———————————
          Governments can’t create prosperity; at best, they can refrain from destroying it.

          1. Supposedly there was a “Hole” in the Ozone Layer, somewhere around the northern pole. Some speculation, questions, were “Um. Maybe that is natural? That it has always been thinner here? Or that it varies?” Can you hear the REEEEEEE through history? Those questions got shut out, shutdown.

            1. South Pole, too, which is why for a while (perhaps still) Patagonia and parts of Australia and New Zealand would get UV warnings and people of pallor were encouraged to stay indoors. rolls eyes

              1. Well as someone already stated … It has been a few decades ….

                Besides already died from so many global catastrophes I can’t keep track of all of them, let alone the specifics 🙂

        3. Ozone is formed when a photon of ultraviolet light breaks an O2 molecule into two single oxygen atoms. If the first thing a highly reactive lone oxygen atom encounters is another O2 molecule, it latches on and forms O3, ozone.

          Ozone is unstable, and gradually breaks down. Certain compounds like chlorofluorocarbons and sulfur dioxide accelerate the breakdown.

          During the Antarctic winter, when sunlight doesn’t reach the south pole for months on end, the summer’s ozone breaks down and no new ozone is formed. Winds constantly circle around Antarctica, so there is very little mixing of polar air with the rest of the atmosphere. By spring, the ozone is depleted, thus the ‘ozone hole’ — a natural, annual phenomenon.

          Activists claim that Freon makes the ‘ozone hole’ bigger, more depleted and longer-lasting than it would be naturally, AND that this causes elevated levels of ultraviolet light reaching the ground. There is some evidence for a more pronounced ‘ozone hole’ in some years, but none has been presented regarding increased ultraviolet exposure as a result.

          If the ‘ozone hole’ does not cause significantly elevated UV levels on the ground, it is merely a curiosity rather than an existential threat to the planet.
          ———————————
          They’re the Experts! They only sound stupid to you because you’re not as Educated as they are.

  15. I tell people, “Please don’t try to save the world. That’s a temptation from the evil one that lures many of us in. Just be the best person you can be.”

    2. Indeed the minions of the Evil One like Screwtape love to convince us that we can do it all on our own so we stop trying and fall into despair when things go wrong.

    4. That’s like what Jordan Peterson said about ‘Activists!’ — they pretend that virtue signaling about some Grand Existential Crisis they can’t reasonably be expected to do anything about excuses them for their failures to accomplish anything at all. Even if they have to invent the Grand Existential Crisis themselves. Thus, Globull Wormening!! Systemic RRRAAACISSSM!!! College Debt Apocalypse!! REEEEE!!!
      ———————————
      “If she talked any faster the audience would start bidding.”

  16. Looking down the road the Reader wonders how we inoculate the body politic against the Marxism virus. Since 100 million deaths attributed to it in the 20th Century didn’t produce antibodies and the damn thing mutates faster than Covid, we are going to need a substantial change from what has happened in the past. One thing the Reader does know is those of us who lived our lives and limited our civic involvement to voting for whatever seemed the lesser evil are going to have to change our habits. The Reader welcomes ideas here.

    1. What we really need is a painful example to inflict on all of our children for them to understand. Similar to the concept of the burnt hand teaches best.

      1. It’s called “Group Project”… alas, there is almost always the one slacker that —–‘s off and does nothing or near nothing, and (too often) gets away with it: That’s the —– communist. I have heard (possibly here) of folks involved in such who had a Clueful (not comm-symp) instructor who Dealt With such nonsense. Alas, such creatures are Astonishingly Rare. As in, I’ve met more unicorns rare.

        1. I ran into exactly 1 (Uno) example of clueful instructor, who let me put up a big slide in the presentation “This section was not delivered by $LazyA$$” for each section not delivered. She might not have let me use that exact word…. but named and shamed was involved.

        2. I’ve experienced too many of those over the years, and was often the one having to pick up the slack, though a few times I let somebody else pick up the slack while I just did my part. The instructor for one college class had a semi-fair way of dealing with this, where the group project assignment earned a single grade for all, except if you weren’t there to do your part for the actual presentation at the end you got an F.

    2. Well, the “Nazi” and “Fascist” variants produce a pretty strong immune response. What gives the other Marxist variants their power is the Great Fraud of the 20th Century: Stalin and his minions establishing as the conventional wisdom that the “Commie” and (left) “Socialist” variants are completely utterly 100% the total absolute opposite of Nazis and Fascists.

      1. Unfortunately the recent use of Nazi and Fascist are making them seem like not such bad deals for everyone. Once again, we can thank the Democrats for that.

        1. I suspect that is exactly why everything is Nazi and Fascist.

          The biggest single infection to be lanced lately was Soviet Russia. We know they had deep claws sunk in the US, especially the Progressive Left.

          So, same way that Putin calls anybody he wants to attack a ‘nazi’, they do, as well.

        1. ROFLOL ❤

          I can see someone screaming that. And Reeeeee when a USAIAN says “Exactly! Now you understand!”

          “360 degrees apart!”

          🙂

          1. Of course if they were spin 1/2 particles, that wouldn’t be correct…

    3. Since 100 million deaths attributed to it in the 20th Century didn’t produce antibodies

      Are you sure?

      Because in the body, you can relapse even with antibodies, because you’re still too damaged to fight it off.

      Since there’s still a systematic infection, but we’ve battered it back some— why not keep going with what we’re doing?

        1. I am disagreeing with your notion that the body politic hasn’t produced antibodies, which is the foundation for your belief that we need to make a massive change.

          1. Fair. However, the Reader believed that the events of the 1980’s were going to produce adequate antibodies going forward. He was wrong then and suspects a future resurgence will find humanity in 20 to 50 years unless we figure out how to eradicate the virus once and for all. He doesn’t have an answer…

            1. ….you think that the freaking eighties was recovered from the original infection of socialism?!?

              What, because the immune system recovered enough to give us Regan, Thatcher and Saint Pope JPII?!

              1. Heck, we never corrected Soviet propaganda at schools– well, I did, personally, with the whole “the Rosenbergs were innocent” section in history class being thrown off the rails because of the declassified documents that can be summed up as “no, they really weren’t.”

                But that was YEARS after they’d been declassified, it was even written up in news papers… but it didn’t penetrate much.

                The folks who grew up soaked in misinformation without any other valid voices have a hard time recognizing it.

                Some did and do, of course– but it’s a lot easier when you can research, and get decent information, and check then cross check it again.

        1. Given human nature, quite likely.

          I think we have large pockets of infection still ongoing, though; it’s not as if communism’s death counter has stopped rolling up.

  17. The notion that we are powerless because they control all the institutions is nonsense. If all else fails, we have Irish democracy. We can simply not consent. This is why they are so afraid of Musk and Twitter. People consent because they believe they’re alone. Once one finds out one is not alone, it’s easier to withdraw consent. Of course, we odds do it anyway but then we’re odd.

    1. Echoing what Pyrrhus said above… I’d love for Elon Musk to buy Twitter and turn it into a reasonably honest business (he couldn’t possibly make it any worse).

      But even if all that comes of this is that he loses a big chunk of his fortune in pulling back the curtain and going “nope!” upon seeing the vile mess behind it, by doing it in public view he’ll have done more for this country all by himself than all the “conservative” politicians and power brokers combined.

        1. The “lead a horse to water” idiom seems appropriate here. What makes you think that any of the afflicted “want* to look?

              1. Twitter is, by admission, not adhering to the terms and conditions they claim are binding.

                1. I’ve never used Twitter, Facebook, or any other antisocial media. But I believe those “terms of service” are binding on their victims (pardon me: “clients”), not on themselves.

        2. An interesting ramification of the high bot percentage is more than a credibility problem for Twitter. (Granted, that’s huge…)
          Where it gets entertaining is the fact that they charge advertisers by the amount of traffic the advert is shown to. With some tests on major players (FICUS among others) showing as many as 90% bot rates, one might imagine that there are going to be some royally pissed off advertisers. Sure would be a shame if they got sued for fraud.

          No expectation that the Department of (in)Justice would do a damned thing, at least not in this maladministration, but it could be a juicy target for suits.

          1. “Sure would be a shame if they got sued for fraud.” Yes, it would indeed. Such a shame that I might have to pour myself a glass of whiskey to deal with the disappointment.

  18. As our Hostess notes Marxism steals from Christianity shamelessly. Besides it’s removing the Author/Trinity (a really huge heresy) it steals from two other heresies. The first is Gnosticism, that is that there is some magic knowledge that the enlightened informed have and that the Hoi Polloi do not. Learning the secrets of enlightened (in this case the Marxist creed) usually at their feet is part of the process of becoming part of the enlightened and helps you on your path to your (in this case earthly) reward. The second heresy is the Pelagian heresy. Here the nonsense is you can achieve perfection because there is no natural failing (original Sin) and you can do this WITHOUT the intervention of the Creator or his Son. The Gnostic heresy Paul of Tarsus (St. Paul) was already fighting and discrediting in the 50AD period when he was writing his letters to the various churches. The Pelagian issue comes from a philosopher named Pelagius in the 4th and early 5th centuries AD. In general his view was opposed by Augustine of Hippo (St. Augustine), who tore giant holes in the logic based on Pelagius’ tendency to use just general reasoning without recourse to scriptures and other existing revelation (i.e. church teachings). As far as I can tell there are no new heresies, people just come up with the same old nonsense and wrap it in new “pretty” clothes.

  19. When European intellectuals perceived that the Leninist variety of Marxism wasn’t working and that preaching bloody revolution tended to produce more blood than revolution, many of them decided on a softer and slower method for reaching a socialist utopia, that is, persuading a majority of the people to elect their own dictators and legislate their own chains. Hence we see former 60’s radicals deciding not to fight the law, (because the law was winning) and going into education. It was safer and more respectable to preach the gospel of class envy and hatred from outside prison. The amazing thing is that the educational establishment bought it. Now the camel is in the tent and there’s not enough room for those who don’t give at least lip service to Marxist doctrine or one of its derivatives.

  20. “Look, for Marxism to work and stay in power forever, humans would need to be creatures that can be molded into something completely different by government.”

    This is why I fear the misuse of genetic engineering. Just imagine if the Left ever circles back to eugenics and decides that what we really need are new humans. New humans who just happen to have traits totally in accordance with Leftist doctrine.

    “It’s just two generations of mandatory genetic editing to flatten the individualism curve . . .”

    2. Given the complexity of genetics, do we believe that they can produce such anti-survival drones and have them functional, or are they more likely to ruin their lands with crippled Orcs of their own making?

      I recall hearing one of the reasons the WWI era naval battle after-action reports were classified for so long was because the British didn’t want to let the Soviets just how horribly badly their system sucked at producing a functional navy.

      Will they do better for having even more secondary effects to pile on?

        1. Like Sauron and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings they will try to create something like Man as the Author did and end up with miserable copies and many failed attempts. Orcs and Morlocks is all I see… Makes you wonder how we have to deal with them if (when) we win that would be a crime that would make the Final solution, the Holodomor, The great leap forward, the killing fields etc look like the work of a piker. The Evil One truly has his hooks in them.

          1. I’ve got more faith in humans, even those maimed before birth, than that.

            I think that we’ll deal with them by helping pull them out.

            Those that survive the maiming, at least.

            1. Agree.

              About the only ones that we might not “help” are the ones too insane to be allowed out in public.

              1. Concur.

                Two supporting arguments.

                One is that if /I/ can be talked around to more reasonable sanity, is not possible that others can?

                Another, is that my nuts is pretty far in favor of extreme measures. If I am persuaded that less extreme may well be sufficient, it may be an admission against interest.

            2. At least in Tolkien’s universe I think the Morgoth/Sauron/Saruman attempt to create new creatures included creating souls, something that Iluvatar (~= to G*d/YHWH) had not granted them the power to do. So they were essentially not of the same standing/nature as Elves/Humans/Hobbits/Dwarves/Ents. Here I presume our folks would start with human embryos. At this point the Theological/Philosophical discussion heads in to the deep woo woo end of things, but at least my interpretation is if it started from human genes/gametes its human and yes we would have to help them. That is why this would be worse than any atrocity to date. Killing humans indiscriminately is bad enough, but intentionally maiming/constraining them makes Moloch/Baal worship look like a mere peccadillo. I wish these idiots would stop treating Brave New World/1984/Soylent Green/Dystopia of your choice as a guidebook to running things.

              1. They’ll probably start with embryos, and then move on to copying the genetic patterns without using gametes directly…. but painting a copy by eye is still copying.

                Assuming we get to that level, anyways. It’s going to be mangling embryos to start with. Already is, actually, but I digress….

                I figure their philosophy is flawed, and that’s why any functional being will not fit it.

              2. The orcs/goblins were damaged elves. Apparently they still had fea and hroa, and were eligible to go to the halls of Mandos when they died. They do seem to have produced more orcs per century than elves ever did, and there don’t seem to have been any female orcs. This argues that some kind of hinky magical cloning in the lab was going on; but they were still ruined elves with elf fea and hroa.

                2. Ok this is new to me, poking around (here primarily https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/F%C3%ABa_and_hr%C3%B6a clearly some fan site) it looks like the spirits (fea) of Elves who die can refuse to return to the Halls of Mandos. It is possible that is where Sauron gets the fea to “ensoul”
                  the hroa of the Orcs he creates (thus why he is sometimes referred to as the Necromancer). My little knowledge of this came from Treebeards talking about Trolls being twisted ents (and orcs twisted Elves). Tolkien had one whale of a lot of back story…

                  1. The other theory is that there are female orcs somewhere, but we just don’t see them.

                    In The Hobbit, there are references to some kind of immature goblins running around the mountain tunnels. They had an idea that something dangerous (ie, Gollum) was out there, and that it would eat them if caught. I think Tolkien called the goblin kids “squeakers,” but I can’t find the quote.

                    1. We also never see female dwarves, and the only reference to them is in Two Towers, between Gimli and Eowyn.

                    2. And in the Appendixes, Tolkien mentions female Dwarves.

                    3. Okay. The narrator called the strangulation victim “a small goblin-imp,” and Gollum later referred to “when I twisted that nasty young squeaker.”

                  2. http://www.ringgame.net/riddles.html shows both versions of the “Riddles in the Dark” chapter. Gollum strangling a “young squeaker” was one of the additions done to make Gollum more of a villain, and to fit him better to his role in LOTR. (Although to be fair, Tolkien also changed Bilbo to be more of a liar in his book writing and a sharp dealer with Gollum.)

            3. I was ambiguous/unlcear. The “them” I referred to were/was the creators of the mangled humans. The mangled humans we would help as best we could of course.

          1. Then watch MaligNancy Pelosi rub her fists together like a hungry fly…

            I don’t think I’ll ever forget those few seconds of video. FICUS Biden maundering on about ‘the burn pits in Iraq’ with NecroNancy in the background wearing a ghoulish grin and doing that creepy fist-rub.
            ———————————
            Everybody has to be right once in a while. Nobody is perfect, not even perfectly full of shit.

      2. On some level I think that a pretty major part of “human nature” would apply to any sentient species that survived hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. The individuals would have to be “selfish” enough to survive and “altruistic” enough to cooperate with others. Lots of other aspects of “human” nature would likewise be necessary…

        But since the left generally prefers to deny the reality of human nature, some of them are certainly going to try changing it genetically, in order to produce utopia.

        The search for utopia is one of the major sins, I’ve come to believe.

        1. Rather than genetic engineering they are going to try to sedate the populace Brave New World style with drugs; there is a reason the same Democrats adamant about banning cigarette smoking everywhere are aggressively pushing legalizing pot and allowing it to be smoked everywhere.

          1. Remember also Brave New World had genetic engineering with Alphas, Betas. Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. One of the other distinctives was that humans were artificially conceived and gestated in artificial wombs. Children went to a creche to be raised. Mother, Father, Family were all dirty(i.e. obscene) words and its a major point of the story. Also children were trained in sexuality from the earliest (pre kindergarten) ages and being other than promiscuous and gender/sex role fluid was considered a sign of a mental issue needing adjustment. All of this was to break up the family ties or any person to person ties. I really do think our brahmandarins have bought into this far to much with their “your child is not yours” and the current grooming behaviors. As I note previously their tendency to use Dystopias as guidebooks for society is really beginning to annoy me.

            1. I don’t recall any genetic engineering; Gamma and Delta fetuses were oxygen-deprived to inhibit proper brain development. Alphas and Betas were produced by controlled breeding. Then they were all intensively indoctrinated in the government schools.

              ‘Progressives’ hate families because a stable, secure family doesn’t need ‘help’ from the government — except to deal with problems caused BY the government.
              ———————————
              Today, every child in America is born $91,000 in debt.

              1. Genetic engineering (i.e. splicing) per se no. But they hit deltas and epsilons with radiation (also caused them to split into multiple fetus earlier). And yes effectively hundreds of years of good old horse breeding to help enhance the Alphas and Betas and get the right temperaments in the gamma’s and down. All backed up with lots of sleep education/indoctrination. Our Brahmandarins WISH it was that easy and then they would be the Alphas (Snort Turnip in chief and Willy’s side piece as alphas SNORT).

            2. Actually they were pretty rigid in sex roles. After all, it was easiest to condition everyone to be straight and have no kinks, and it would have been fatal if some people were not sexually attracted to people who were sexually attracted to them in any non-fluke cases.

                1. Thank you Dear hostess. My memory was almost anything goes (went?) in Brave New World, massive orgies were a kind of religious event where participation was required on a weekly basis. Georgie Porgy rhyme got changed to Orgy Porgy for like pre schoolers. I’m surprised it could be published in much of the US in the 30’s

                2. No, they had a little boy running away from a little girl, and the nurse was all taking him to the doctor to checked out, that was not normal.

  21. ‘Cock a snook’ brought on a tangent.

    Do you recall the 1996 movie Romeo + Juliet, the DeCaprio and Danes vehicle? When a character might draw a rapier, we’d be treated to a shot of a fancily-engraved Beretta with “Rapier” engraved on the slide.

    Imagine, if you will, a Smith and Wesson model Snook revolver.

    Gives a differerent image for cock a Snook, eh?

    1. Hmmm. I have a 6″ 586 I will be getting cerakoted (I want a deep blue S&W never did as well as Colt did) to be my “barbecue gun”. Now I have to ask the shop if they can put the word “Snook” on the barrel. In cursive.

  22. “Look, for Marxism to work and stay in power forever, humans would need to be creatures that can be molded into something completely different by government. No, seriously. This was part of Marxist theory.”

    This is something that the Soviets were fully aware of. In his play “The Bedbug”, Soviet playwright and poet Mayakav has two of his characters get accidentally cryogenically frozen. Centuries later, they wake up. What they’re confronted with is a completely different communist society that we would consider quite dull and boring. One of the frozen characters is a corrupt member of the local party leadership who is completely unable to adapt. His attempts to live as he always has cause the local students to start doing things like spending lots of time sighing and moping while thinking about the object of their affection. These actions by the students cause the adults to react in befuddlement. They have no idea what the students are doing, as the adults have never seen anything even remotely similar in their lifetimes.

    Eventually, unable to figure out what to do with the man, they put him in a zoo.

    The other frozen individual is a young woman who had a crush on the corrupt party member. But she woke up a few years before he did, and has acclimated to the society.

  24. I had not heard the term, The MAGA king. I’m already visualizing t-shirts with red white and blue crowns on them 👑 🇺🇸. Ultra MAGA makes me think of an upgraded mech. May be a USA themed mech on the front with MAGA, and then the back of the t-shirt has a super upgraded version with Ultra MAGA?

    Feel free to run with these ideas, I have no time or knowledge of how to make t- shirts.

      1. First thought was: “Foxfier will watch the hell out of that and inflict every YouTube clip she can find on us.” 😛

          1. [sighs and shakes head]

            I know you far too well, don’t I?

            Item 1 – If SIX of these godawful things is your idea of “a couple,” I hope you’re not handling the math portion of your children’s homeschooling.

            Item 2 – I shall be avenged. You monster.

            1. Oh, and just out of curiosity: did you learn how to post multiple YouTube videos in a single comment from me? Because if so, I’m going to need some time alone for kicking myself. 😛

                1. Agreed. I wish I knew exactly [i]why[/i] using YouTube’s embed option gets around the limit; if I did I might be able to figure out how to apply the trick to other types of links.

                  1. I’m pretty sure it’s a specific carve-out for Youtube, exactly because six videos in one comment is less obnoxious than six comments with a video, and there’s legit uses for it.

                    1. There’s plenty of legit uses for multiple links that don’t involve YouTube, too. Did YT bribe them or something?

                    3. Mostly I put a hard limit on links (and didn’t exclude you tube. That’s a WP thing) because otherwise spammers will drop ten or twenty links in a comment. I don’t want those going through automatically.

                    4. Yeah, I went through TAC’s spam box, it was like ten solid minutes of scrolling because you have twenty, twenty-five links in one comment, along with all the nasty keywords.

                    6. > “Probably just fewer illegitimate uses.”

                      Uh-huh. ‘Fess up; most of those “legit uses” for YouTube are just you spamming anime/Dan Vasc videos, aren’t they?

                1. Hey, you gotta click the play button….

                  That said, I’ve had that song stuck in my head for the last three days, and the anime is just delightful thus far.

                  1. Your support is greatly appreciated. [rolls eyes]

                    But speaking of the baby… Fox, I hope you’re not having any troubling feeding him given the shortages.

                    2. > ‘LOL. I have heard her mutter about “moo”’

                      …She’s having Orvan feed him? Now I’m REALLY confused. 😛

                      > “you can always send me pictures of your baby….”

                      Not fair; I won’t be having one.

                    3. Thankfully, no, I milk like a milk cow. If I do 6 ounces of milk, one ounce is solid after it cools, too.

                      And Iowa is only having shortages of specialty stuff– “sensitive/colic” and similar formula. I’m not sure how much is actual shortage and how much is “buy and sell for five times that online” at this point, since it’s only dry formula that is out.

  26. “Marxism works a lot like a virus. ”

    Because that’s exactly what it is. A virus of the mind, not the body.

    The term “meme” has an undeserved silly reputation, in this age of the internet. When Richard Dawkins coined the term, he meant it as “the informational equivalent of a gene.” Memes mutate and adapt and evolve, just like genes. And the ultimate goal of a meme is to perpetuate itself – also just like genes. It doesn’t care what happens to the host at all. As long as there are new hosts it can spread to, it will do so. Marxism is an especially contagious meme, because it hits so many of the psychological buttons for people who genuinely want to make things better.

  27. That the left spent 6 months coming up with a slur like “ultra MAGA” and thought we wouldn’t adopt it as a positive (kind of like Yankee and a bunch of others) just shows how out of touch they are with Americans, and especially USAIANS.

    1. No surprise there, since they’re pretty much out of touch with all of reality…

  28. There is a book by Dean Ing from 1979 called “Soft Targets.” The enemies in that book are the terrorists of the 70s-80s, but radicals are as they are and ours now have the same Achilles heel, laughter. That is the story in that book, humor as a weapon that radicals, by their very nature, can’t withstand but can only try to eliminate it through terror and death. Thank you for pointing it out.

    1. In the end, they offer the main character’s wife (girlfriend?) a million bucks to kill him. Her last line implies that she’s going to accept.

      Our media need to make a few changes to their reporting language. Instead of announcing that this group or that ‘takes responsibility’ or ‘claims credit’ for the latest atrocity, they should say ‘admits guilt’. They should only be allowed guilt and shame, never fame.
      ———————————
      The Democrats trust violent criminals and terrorists with guns more than they trust you.

  29. Choose Life over fear. 2 Timothy 1:7, if you’re a Christ-follower.

    Covid is just another disease caused by people tampering with nature. And yet it too is incapable of “destroying the eorld.” Unlike the fearmongering propaganda we’ve been inundated with.

    All non-totalitarian regimes are recognizing that and loosening their grip on people’s throats. But take heed as they liked that power and will try to regain it.

    We’re not promised an easy life. We’re not promised a life with no struggles, strife, or sickness.

    But Humanity’s greatest foe is not other people, it’s our own desire to reject God and set ourselves up on His thrown.

    And we know we’re not up to the job.

    And we try to blame others, hating them, fearing they might see how weak and lonely and inadequate we are.

    We even strike out at those who love us.

    Until we win the war within, we cannot stop anything without us. And we cannot win the inner struggle by ourselves. Read Romans 5:8, 6:23, 8:1, and 10:13 and start making friends with Someone who loves you and wants to stand with you.

    1. I know what’s happening. They’re a small, poor country, too close to the bone. The winter will hurt here, but not THAT much.
      And if they try to give all our food away, then…. well….

  31. And they spend six months market-testing a slogan to turn people against Trump, and come up with Ultra-MAGA and “The MAGA king.” And can’t imagine why it blows up in their faces.

    Yeah, even I didn’t think they were that stupid and out of touch, but here we are.

    Now, yeah, they’ll do a lot of damage on the way out. And because of the enforced silence, it will take a long time for people to trust professionals. ANY professionals. This will not be helped by what will seem like waves of overnight turn coats in everything from the arts to science.

    Then add in during COVIDity and George Floyd (remember, don’t gather to play D&D because COVID will get you but please go to BLM) and now TRANSTRANSTRANS how many people went along to go along and how much that destroyed trust in professions.

    Or how all mental health fields have embraced toxic masculinity (and then published a report about “why men aren’t coming to help for us to cure their masculinity?”) and transtranstrans and the CDC with racism as the leading cause of death and and and and how much that destroyed trust in professions.

    And how debanking for bad politics has been stealth required by Comptroller of the Currency for a decade and become open and expanded beyond the CoC’s demands and how every institution has changed its mission from whatever it was to Social Justice, even the Churches. And not just the Church of England or half the Catholic Bishops or even mainstream Protestants like the PCUSA. The Southern Baptist Convention is going woke.

    All that adds up to what really worries me. I don’t believe they can’t win, but their not winning does not mean we lose. We have suffered the cultural equivalent of a nuclear strike and it might be we lack the cadre of institutions and elites to revive a version of the prior culture.

    1. Lots of prior American culture was doing your own thing, and not caring about institutions in other far away places.

      Bet Appalachian frontier folk cared little about the Boston silversmith’s guild.

      Spread of influence of and formation of national institutions was perhaps a bit of a recent development,and not necessarily strictly for the better.

      OTOH, I am pretty salty and doomer wrt a bunch of institutions.

  32. Envy is part of humanity. Using it to gain power will last until there is but one human left in creation. Remember, tyranny and poverty are the default state of humanity.

  33. They are dystopians! Who would want to live in the world that they imagine for us?

    1. I have this theory that people subconsciously try to make the future conform to what they expected as kids. We’re reaping the fruits of the rusty-future of the seventies and eighties. And the “dystopia is our only choice”. Remember that. Stop it now.
      Stories are how humans function. Tell hopeful ones.

      1. Here’s a quick dose of hopeful for anyone who needs it!
        Today is the anniversary of Mount St Helens blowing apart. My Dad, a mountaineer, was leading a climbing class on Rainier, quite a bit to the north. They heard a “KA-BOOOOOM!” and thought it was an avalanche. Then they saw “weather” forming down near St. Helens, a big black cloud that was moving like crebain from Dunland, as in the wrong way.
        My Dad was a hero that day, at least to all of us kids. He immediately gathered the class, took a compass reading on the parking lot they wouldn’t be able to see in about ten minutes, got everyone to put something over their faces so they wouldn’t be inhaling ash, and they f*cking RAN down the mountainside. Remember: many of these people were beginning climbers with nearly zero experience, and they get catastrophic everything dumped on them.
        It turned into a photo negative–footsteps into the black ash turned white when the snow underneath showed under their boot print.
        I can hear him yelling at his students “Piece of cake! Tighten that rope!” He was famous for making the impossible seem like you just hadn’t quite tried hard enough.
        They drove in convoy back down the mountain, a winding, nasty road on a good day, and everyone made it back just fine. And they had raging coughs for a few weeks, but suffered nothing much more than that.

        Dad was just a normal guy who knew how to do things. And circumstances made him a hero.

        We can do this.

        1. ❤

          We read stories of those who were on Rainer that morning. We were suppose to be there …

          We didn’t hear the “KA-BOOOOOM!” as we were in what the experts termed a sound umbrella. My parents heard it off the Oregon Coast out of Windy Cove (Reedsport Oregon). Inlaws heard it in Bend Oregon. Longview/Kelso and communities in the way of the mud flows coming toward them? Nothing.

          My introduction was hubby coming running in from the front of the house (he’d gone out to unpack the car), yelling “Turn everything off”, I was fixing Sunday breakfast, “Turn on the TV”. Caught the video of the muddy Toutle trying to take out the I-5 bridge north of the Kelso I-5 exits. They’d just closed I-5.

          Hubby was unpacking from our Rainer overnight “camping” trip. We’d gotten home at 2 AM, after spending all day Saturday in Rainer National Park. We were packed for camping, but someone (me) forgot the dog’s 6′ leash. Had her shorter leather loop, which was okay for the day, with her training, but not good for (very small) tent camping overnight. So we just headed home. (Just as well. Would rather talk of the near miss than tell the tale of actually surviving.)

          We watched the storm from west of St Helen from top of Columbia Heights Ridge. Hubby took a lot of slides that day. Saw lightening the ash cloud generated.

          The road off the mountain, out of the park, is very nasty winding twisty, narrow road, on nice days. With cliffs on one side and steep drop offs on the other (just not as visible because of trees, until you realize you are looking at the top of big trees). Driving the road in the dark pitch black generated by the ash? Glad we missed it.

          1. You got all the good parts without the boiling hot mudslide. Great story.

  34. This has been going on for a long time. Thomas More wrote “Utopia,” an early version of leftism, in the early 1500s. Plato denied dealing with actual reality @2000 years before that.

    This is a really helpful essay and I’m doing a lot of thinking about it, just wanted to make that point.

  37. Following your comparison, communism may become part of our culture’s DNA forever, like the French Revolution did. There will always be countries and parties calling themselves communist or socialist, hopefully with no true understanding of the horrors of the original. And it will be seen as a mostly good thing.
    I guess this is how people are, indeed.

    1. Um. No. The impulse will be there. But not once the blinders are ripped off the horrors. The last time it was run with was Catalina. Think on.

    2. If it had become part of our DNA, they wouldn’t have to keep saying that it’s really [some good thing] instead of what communism actually is.

      1. I hope you’re both right, but I think Marxism in general and communism and socialism in particular have become quite acceptable nowadays. Nobody is ostracized for believing in them. They are idealist and dream of revolution, isn’t it nice.
        Anyway, this is part of the analogy with the virus. It might live forever in our culture’s DNA once it loses (some of) its virulence. Future generations will be mutants and reconciled with it.
        I’d rather think of communism as a malign tumor: a mass of undifferentiated cells that is part of the organism and yet alien to it and that does not contribute anything useful, having lost its original function; which also weakens and threatens to kill off the organism and die together with it, but doesn’t care, having no purpose except short-term survival and the extraction of resources (and a twisted kind of reproduction). Then communism needs to be cured, one way or another.
        These organicist metaphors are nice and work surprisingly well, but they prove nothing. People are not disposable cells and organically part of a greater whole, they are self-aware individuals (hopefully). Also, communism is not alien like a virus, it is all too human (hence the cancer metaphor).

        1. No. They haven’t become quite acceptable. They’re lied about like crazy. Kids are taught in school that if you want public roads, that means you have socialism.
          Please, truly, find out what’s behind it.

          1. I have written a long and quite depressing (and realistic) response and could still post it if anyone is curious, but I hope you are right and future will be better, communists will lose influence, etc., so I’d rather not post it.

            1. Go ahead and post it. Maybe you’re wrong, and some of us can pick it apart and show why. Maybe you’re right, and we need to know.

              Most likely you’re partly right, and partly wrong. Most attempts to extrapolate the future are. Getting your ideas in front of many sets of eyeballs should at least generate some useful feedback. Ideas you keep to yourself are not very useful.

              I would suggest putting it on today’s post, not one that’s four days old.
              ———————————
              “I have never known the truth or Delenn to speak only when it is appropriate.”

        2. They are idealist and dream of revolution, isn’t it nice.

          Go read the Lord Peter Wiimsey books– they started out that way. It’s an aspect of their infection vector being weaponized ‘nice’.

          There’s a reason I was boggled at the idea of us recovering fully from this nonsense in just a decade or three.

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