Shiny! Let’s be Bad! (A blast from the past from January 2018)

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

*I won’t lie. I came up dry this morning, mostly because I have two novels being loud at me. But I remembered this post and decided to check how close my predictions tracked. Well… pretty well. And it explains why the left has no idea who we are and what we’re up to. That their projection of their beliefs onto us are sometimes tragic and hurt everyone is unfortunate. But they’re the ones who silenced and continue to silence all opposition. (Openly so, under the Auto-Pen administration.) There’s not much we can do for that. And it sets in motion certain inevitable mechanics. – SAH*
Most humans want to fit in, and will go a long way to fit in.  In fact, most if not all dictatorships in the 20th century depended on this impulse.  “You don’t want the neighbors to think you’re a bad person” or mutatis mutandi, Jew/Jew sympathizer/wrecker/hoarder/saboteur/running dog of the imperialism/etc etc.

No army in the world can hold even a small mutinous fraction of a large population in subjection, if they are not held back by internal controls and stops, and the ancient social-ape impulse to be liked and accepted by the band.

What strikes me when reading books about the holocaust or the various communist massacres is not that these were horrible people and monsters.  It’s that 99.9% of the people involved were just “human beings” put in a position where the unthinkable had become normal, and there was no one to say “oh, wait, this is objectively not only evil, but one of the craziest things ever.”

The same instinct that made us civilized, that creates rules of behavior like “I will not kill and eat the neighbors” can be turned around completely on its head, where killing and eating the neighbors, or at least their children, is acceptable, as something you do to survive.  (See holodomor.)  In that case, of course, it was needed to survive, because you and yours were being deliberately starved.  However, the fact humans can do things like that then move on, get past it, go back to normal life, tells you how plastic humanity is, when faced with times/a community gone crazy.

Manners, good behavior, lack of social aggressiveness, all of that which we take for granted is in fact, completely part of the “we all do this, and that’s how we fit in society.”

And in the west at least, for a long time, it has been part of the public facade that we’re a meritocratic society, that people will succeed or fail, sure, with some element of luck, but mostly based on what you can do, what you know, and how hard you’re willing to work.

Now all of us have been in jobs and situations where … we knew it wasn’t precisely so.  Sometimes it was simply that, you know, the editor’s ex-roommate or the boss’s son in law were going to get promotion and advantages no one else could have.  This happens, and is, unfortunately human.  You lumped it, and you moved on, looking for another situation where your talents were better appreciated.

In the last few decades, in certain industries and certain fields of endeavor, it would slowly (or fast, in my case, since I’d seen the movie before) dawn on you that you weren’t going to get anywhere if your political opinions weren’t left.  It became clear, hearing say editors talk, that the furthest to the left, the better — which is why some bright lads and lassies formed the “young communists club” for science fiction writers, AFTER the wall fell, and by the time it was formed not one of them under 30 — but if you believed in the free market, individual freedom, and despised the idea of benes for protected classes (even if — particularly if — you fit at least two of them) you’d better keep your opinions to yourself and pretend you were too stupid to understand politics.  Because the moment you revealed your politics your career was done.

This was particularly insidious because the pretense wasn’t that it was your politics.  Even the people shutting you out might not realize that’s why they were doing it.  The fact is that the left has erected a facile self-image as both concerned underdogs (they’re not, they’ve had most of the power most places since world war II) and the “smart” ones.  In fact, of course, they are not that.  All of us, even the blind ones, could see the writing on the wall.  It took a thoroughly disconnected geek not to perceive leftism as a social positional good. Most of us aren’t that.

The people who embraced the “easiest setting” of life as a leftist intellectual were two categories: The first is the genuine good boys and girls.  In this case “good” doesn’t imply moral.  It implies people in whom the fitting-in impulse is stronger than thought.  They are the kids teachers’ loved and parents praised.  They instinctively figured out leftism was how to be “good” and therefore followed it.  The other category, of course, are the amoral SOBs, which usually went the furthest.  They knew how the wind blew.  They were smart enough to know it was wrong, and that communism was the charnel house of history.  The brightest might even know why and that the corpses inhere from the principles.  But they didn’t care.  The way to the top of most professions (except some stem) was to play that game as hard as they could.  What if they were screwing future generations.  They’d got theirs.  I have no proof, but I have long suspected this second group were the ones that were catapulted to leadership.

However, the self image of both groups is that they were the smart ones, the caring ones, and — this is very important — the SANE ones.

This meant the minute you outed yourself as not belonging to either group, as in fact, having too many principles for your own good, you were considered stupid, uncaring (racist/sexist/homophobic) AND insane.  So it was easy enough to exclude you “per cause.” “Yeah, so and so is a good writer/worker, but he/she is insane.”  “Difficult to work with.”  “Couldn’t be part of the team.”  “Isn’t googly.” (Follow that link if you have a strong stomach.)

I’ll never forget — pre twitter — the day I voiced a mildly non-conformist opinion in an email list for female writers.  I don’t know which was crazier: the public pile on, inferring things about me that my worst enemy couldn’t say, or the private panicked emails, saying “I agree with you, but…”

There is a term for this.  It’s preference falsification.  And in totalitarian societies it can be so total that each individual can’t figure out that his opinions are in fact the majority and only a small minority at the top actually believes the opinions they enforce.  It’s what explains Ceausescu and his equally brutal wife being beloved figures in the morning, and cooling piles of bullet-riddled meat by the afternoon.  It’s also what gave us Trump’s victory.

Since then… things have changed.

Look, I kept my peace for many years, and because I couldn’t pretend to be a liberal (because, reasons.  I know too much about the nature of the beast.  I like to sleep at night.  More importantly, I like to look at myself in the mirror in the morning.  Putting on makeup by touch is possible, but can yield inconsistent results) I pretended to be apolitical, and would let political references, jokes and barbs roll off my back.  Now, that required me to work mostly in historical fiction, of course, but that was fine.

It was only two things that allowed me come out of the political closet — besides something that was either my subconscious or perhaps the divine applying iron-clad boot to my behind — a) the existence of indie.  b) the fact that the left had gone so far they were demanding vocal endorsement.  And that I couldn’t give.

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

Even after Trump’s victory most people held their social facade.  If you were in a certain set of professions you’d never (still) admit you voted for Trump.  Wild horses couldn’t make you. For one, you’re probably addicted to food on the table and a roof over your head.  For another, the left is so busy demonizing everyone who voted against Hillary, that it would be the same as stepping forward and saying “Yes, I’m racist, sexist and homophobic.”  EVEN if objectively not only are you not any of those, but there is no evidence Trump is any of those. (I was told there would be prison camps.  Honestly, worst Hitler, EVER.  Not even Hillary’s promised “adult fun camps.”  Sheesh.)

But the left has now gone as zany everywhere and publicly as it’s been for years in my field and covertly.  (As for my field it has gone…. I think it’s achieved terminal velocity on the way to insanity.)  You must loudly proclaim your hatred for Trump, you must exhibit something like Tourette’s about everything the man says and does, no matter how unimportant.  And you must at all times proclaim yourself of the body and stamp out heresy with all your being.

Of course this sends all the wrong signals.  A confident ideology doesn’t engage in heretic hunts, and tolerates the philosophical fringes.

But more importantly, what the left is doing is sending out the same signal I got loud and clear five or six years ago “you can’t pretend well enough for us to leave you alone.  You must join, or we’ll destroy you.  We’ll make sure you never work in this town/business/field/world again.  We’ll leave you nothing, not even your reputation.”

What they’re forgetting, again, is that freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. Or put another way, if you take away everything because someone failed to conform PERFECTLY, then you leave people free to act the way they always wanted to.

And us, on the right?  Us, the damned?  We were never “good boys and girls.” We were just conforming enough to fake it.  A lot of us were the people who cut classes, spit in the teacher’s eye, and still had straight As.  We are the people who have spent a lot of time infiltrating YOUR organizations, just so we could survive.  And, oh, yeah, we do have a moral code.  And it’s not yours.  And you’ll never get us to kiss ass again, because you’ve proven yourselves unstable, narcissistic buffoons.

We’re evil you say?  We’re crazy?  We don’t play well with others?

Aw, shucks, honey.  That was us being good.  But you wouldn’t leave us alone.  And now many of us are coming to the conclusion the masquerade isn’t worth the reward.

We’re looking at all the work we put in not to disturb you, and the things you call us, nonetheless, and we’re going “Oh, yeah?  You think we’re bad?  You ain’t seen nothing yet.  Shiny.  Let’s be bad guys.”

The only question is how fast what I think is a majority gets there.  But the worm is already turning, and you can’t stop it.  Screaming and name calling will only increase the speed of the turn.

You’d better learn to swim, or you’ll sink like a stone.  For the times, they are achanging.

49 thoughts on “Shiny! Let’s be Bad! (A blast from the past from January 2018)”

  1. It’s an old, old technique — they demonize some minority and ride to power on the hate they stirred up. See some of the most famous tyrants in history.

    It’s not working so well for the Democrats. They’re trying to demonize the majority while pretending that’s not what they’re doing.
    ———————————
    Not everybody should go to college. Some folks, you send ’em to college and you just wind up with an educated idiot.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “trying to demonize the majority while pretending that’s not what they’re doing.“

      –

      Which is why pointing and laughing works so well. Better than the alternative. Now we have memes to reinforce the pointing and laughing. Doesn’t normally get through to the targets. But those who are staying quiet can feel less alone.

      Normally, doesn’t get through to targets. Now, OTOH, the oligarchs are retreating into obscurity others are starting to say the “hell with this!”. The latter illustrated by: https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2025/11/18/some-celebrities-are-finally-getting-that-we-dont-care-what-they-think-n4946086

      The former by announced retirements of Pelosi and Shummer (with projection they may not last that long). I’ll believe either scenario when it happens. Another public left loony is reporting to be fading into private life out of the spot light because of connections to Epstein. Apparently that is a case of probably so sorry, if DOJ can piece the proof needed, too late won’t matter. These are just a few who are backing out voluntarily.

      Others? They may not, like Capone, get convicted for what they’ve done to the people, but what they did in private (mortgage fraud is the big one right now). What it’ll do is get them out of politics and into history as cautionary tales.

      The tide is turning. The pendulum is swinging. OTOH it is up to the rational sane to insure it doesn’t swing toward the reported Fuentes of this lifeline (he is a false front for the left whether he and his followers know it or not). Must swing past center, because the current center put JFK, MLK, and other democratic figures right of center. The middle is somewhere right of them.

      Liked by 2 people

            1. Heh heh. Serves Ol’ Joe right for starting the lie (still widely repeated today) that the National Socialist German Workers Party was right-wing.
              ———————————
              ‘Progressives’ suppress free speech because they don’t have the means to suppress free thought.

              Yet.

              Liked by 1 person

            2. Ah. That may not be a shifting center thing. I have seen someone argue in all seriousness that the problem is NOT that Communism is murderous, it’s that a right-winger takes it over and uses it to commit mass murder.

              Why we should exonerate Communism for setting things up for that right-winger was not a concept that penetrated her exoneration.

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              1. If Communism provably cannot prevent 8 or 9 figure mass murderers, then perhaps it isn’t worth risking.

                Not another 8 or 9 figures, again.

                Liked by 1 person

            3. Most of the time, in most people’s usage, Left-Wing, Right-Wing, Socialist, Communist, Capitalist, Fascist, “Big-L Libertarian”… are all synonyms. They all mean “icky-poopy-doody-head!!!”

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  2. It hasn’t gone preference cascade, maybe because most of rural America was not required to have preference falsification. I did note at WonderCon back in March that the anti-trump statements were whispered now instead of loudly proclaimed to great applause. I’m heading to LosCon after Thanksgiving, and they proclaim no politics in their code of conduct. I’ll see how far it goes.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. “We will force you to care!”

    For some of us force is a choice we make not to use on a regular basis. You really, really, do not want to put us into a position where we decide to use it. Our definition of force tends to be more kinetic than rhetorical.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I recognize myself a little too much in one of the descriptions. You see, I like behaving well. I like to go along with well-ordered systems that hold off the chaos. This doesn’t mean I’m not Odd in my own way: I guess you could call me Lawful Odd.

    But, to use your terms, my fitting-in impulse is not stronger than my thought. And I am so thankful that my intellect wins that match. That’s painful to my urges to get along, but I need to get along with decency and justice and sanity, not with whatever is being served to me.

    Not that I’m perfectly adjusted in resolving the contradictions, but I can only wonder how much worse it is for younger people with a similar personality, who see what’s offered as good order being so far from anything that can properly be called good order. Some of them have spiraled into despair. Some of them are part of a pocket religious revival. And some break themselves to fit in, Lord help them and Lord forgive them.

    Republica restituendae, et, je suis Charlie.

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    1. I like a nice tranquil order. It can itch a bit, but it allows me to be highly productive.

      But part of me simply -relishes- surfing the maelstrom. My soul roars at the prospect. I keep it leashed, caged if needed. But come the calamitous storm, I wont flinch. I grab a board and howl with joy, and dive right in.

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      1. Do “I misread that as _____” count as mondegreens? Because I just had an amusing one: I misread that as “surfing the mushroom”, and the mental picture was wild.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I am reminded of an interview I read in European Conservative’s on-line edition. It was with a young man, late 20s, who just wanted to practice sincere Christianity and have a family. The politics in Germany and the political culture are such that he finds himself pushed toward the hard-core “tear it all down” loony right. He detests them, but if that’s the group he has to work with in order to be left alone by the national government, then he’s reluctantly willing to do it.

    The US is not Europe [thank you, G-d!], but the VileProgs seem determined to do the same thing to moderates and conservatives.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. It would seem likely, since the left can then say, “See? We told you they were evil/bad! They’re (pejorative of choice) too!”

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  8. I long for the days that half the population no longer devolves into a spittle-flecked tirade at the mention of the name of the duly elected President of these United States.

    I’m so old I remember when a good portion of people of voting age couldn’t reliably name both the President and Vice President when stopped on the street. Embarrassing for them, yes. So much more peaceful for us though.

    I am seriously this close (holds thumb and forefinger up a millimeter apart) to telling the next person who goes off on a rampage about TrumpMcHitler and his fascist party to me…

    “Unless you can define the term, fascist, explain why the partitioning of Eastern Europe was a direct result of the fall of the Russian Czar and the defeat of the German Army on the Eastern Front, and why Imperial Japan became an economic powerhouse under the tutelage of American Indistry following their defeat but the Soviet Union and China went on to murder millions and destroy their economic and their society’s futures, you are too ignorant to have an opinion on anything political at all and you are too embarrassingly stupid to offer anything of any worth to this, or any other discussion more deep than whether or not Kim Kardashian should sue the several psychics who told her she would pass the Bar Exam. Good day to you.”

    But I probably won’t.

    I’m too shy.

    I’ll definitely think it very hard in their general direction though.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Get it printed* up on 3×5 cards, and hand them out to the morons you encounter.

      *Block printing, please; cursive is a foreign country these days.

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      1. We were required to draw cursive in elementary school. Somewhere in junior high we didn’t have to do that any more.

        Since I never saw a book printed in cursive, I never learned to read it. It was strictly a one-way thing.

        Cursive was a technological fluke. Unlike writing on wax or slate, lifting a pen off paper left a blot. If you could keep the pen moving you could minimize that. There was no sane reason to insist that, say, a someone using a pencil would be required to write in cursive.

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        2. “There was no sane reason to insist that, say, a someone using a pencil would be required to write in cursive.” Point taken, although some cursive, especially by “old-school” Europeans, can be incredibly beautiful.

          I had to learn cursive in grammar school (about 3rd grade, IIRC), but I tend to use all-caps printing for almost everything except signatures, since literate people can read it.

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    3. “Unless you can define the term, fascist, 

      The argument is biased in their favor; Mussolini himself was notoriously vague about the details of Fascism, other than Mussolini being the Boss.

      The Germans had detailed definitions of National Socialism, but they were only Fascists because it was convenient for the Italians to treat them as such.

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          1. As long as they aren’t dripping ichor on the page while I’m trying to read, I won’t notice.

            If they smelled like a nice cup of tea or a lovely chocolate, I might look up.

            Liked by 2 people

      2. My Dad did that to me for a week, once, because he felt I had been disrespectful to my Mom. No books or newspapers other than textbooks. Then at the end of the week he didn’t like the quality of my repentance, or something, and extended it for another week.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. My parents did that to me before my fourth grade exam. A nationally graded exam that was the first cut off between low grade vocational training and the path to highter vocational training and eventually college for a small minority.
          I read six books that week. Mostly because I had a book hidden in each room where I had an excuse to linger, and read them all concurrently a few pages at the time.
          …. I was already bad to the bone.

          Liked by 1 person

  11. Grumble Grumble

    Word Press is “Being Bad” to me right now.

    I’m not getting emails from it. 😡

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  12. An appropriate post from the past. The leftists are still trying to impose their BS, if anything they are pushing even harder. But, from what I see it isn’t working like it used to and they can’t figure that out……….. So, they just continue with the same old crap expecting that “It will work this time!” They are certainly still dangerous and capable of causing trouble and harm. They still have some base among the brainwashed and true believers and my biggest concern is some of the more loony ones doing something stupid and violent. Their continual use of lawfare against anyone who opposes them is concerning too. Still, I think they are on a downward slide because they have gotten so extreme and out of touch with reality and their domination of information has been collapsing.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. They’ve gotten out of touch, because they controlled the discourse. They broke the fire alarm and thought that would prevent flames.
      We already won. Yes, we’ll suffer casualties. The mop up usually is what piles up casualties. But we already won.

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  13. so there was a question or statemetn elsewhere that I responded to this morning

    has me thinking

    I think that maybe everyone is a lunatic who has fundamental problems estimating the true economy.

    Which, is not really throwing shade at everyone, as much as I was thinking about the problem, and modeling flaws.

    So we have our personal experiences, some amount of historical data, plus other estimators.

    The key assumption in all economics reasoning is cetarus paribus, and cetarus are never paribus.

    Still it often seems to us that we can forecast a little, and also that often things do nto change much.

    The question was basically about national policy changes on the ten month scale.

    I don’t know.

    I’d hoped that the firings would go through, things would settle, and that the displaced workers would be able to create new jobs due to an absence of regulation. (Clue right there that I am a theory obsessive, and an optimist, and misestimate speeds.)

    The basic core to all economic questions about the ten month scale, what exactly are the real fundamentals? The baseline heading into that time period, was a lot of fraudulent valuations assigned to various things.

    Concrete things are maybe easier to reality check. A person’s personal economic is all in all, pretty concrete.

    A nation’s economy is a bunch of abstractions.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The U.S. economy is an inconceivably complex system with 320 million moving parts, and the parts are people. Believing that anyone can understand, predict or control it is a fool’s conceit. And by that I mean a much bigger fool than you. 😛
      ———————————
      The government can mandate stupidity, but they can’t make it not be stupid.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Magic dude theory (or magic king thoery) is somewhat common.

        Magical thinking about federal policy is fairly common.

        So we are going find ourselves talking about whether Jim’s new lucky rabbit foot helped our fourth quarter returns far more frequently than anyone sensible would expect.

        It is reasonable to talk about whether the control of interest by the fed is an illusion or not.

        But the measurement problem for economies is hard enough to make actual experiments very difficult.

        Liked by 1 person

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