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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| For the Times They are Achanging |
| 2017-01-28 |
| [AccordingToHoyt] Sixteen years ago, when I was first on the blogs (under deep cover, with mustache and sunglasses) there was a lot of talk about the cold civil war. It is only now that I understand the name wasn’t EXACTLY right. Sure, there were two camps sharply divided, and the fact that we were geographically enmeshed meant that it couldn’t go hot in the traditional way. But there were other factors too. In the cold war, what prevented it going hot was Mutual Assured Destruction. Sure, the Soviets were fanatics, but they weren’t the sort of fanatics who want to make sure they die TOO. They wanted to win. They wanted for various and complicated reasons, among them that the only way a communist society can be prosperous is through theft, to own the Earth. We weren’t about to allow that and we had the nukes to enforce it. IMO, this wasn't (isn't) socialism but Russian national character: for Russians, through their entire history, border is that invaders come across - so safety = no abroad. Oh, they grabbed what they could, mostly because the left here were very susceptible to Soviet propaganda, and the idea MAD was wrong, and we should disarm first. (Honestly, sometimes I think they’re aliens. That’s not how the world works, that’s not how humans work. That’s not how any of this works. The one who disarms first is known as "victim" or perhaps "dead.") But in the Civil War we fought, they commanded all the positions of power. It wasn’t just the arts, or publishing, just the press or universities. If you were fairly wealthy, even back in the eighties, you made "left noises" because being leftist was aspirational and a positional good. Their control of the rest of the culture had a hard lock on the idea that leftist ideas were not just right and good but "Smart". Opening your mouth in public and revealing right-wing (and right wing was anything non-left, like supporting Ronald Reagan) opinions was the equivalent of committing social suicide. And, in my experience, by 90es just keeping your mouth shut i.e., not expressing strong leftist sentiments loudly at every possible occasion, became social (and professional in the academia) suicide. This is not a Cold Civil War. We were occupied. The Vichy had full control of society, and we were the plucky resistance. We didn’t even have a flight helmet, or an egg beater, but we were doing what we could, in the shadows. Those of us in the arts ported seemingly incongruous bits into our stuff, at great risk of discovery or at least suspicion. Local journalists sometimes broke with the narrative. But none of this had a great deal of effect. We were mostly sidelined, and when someone managed to break through, he or she was immediately demonized. Even a hero of the gonzo right like P. J. O’Rourke had to refer to Reagan as "his dumbness" to prove he was cool and hip enough. (No one referred to Carter as his dumbness, and having heard the man, this is a miracle of the controlled press.) It is no longer like that. Things have changed. Now we are in a cold civil war with occasional flare ups. ...What I’m saying is that if they could demonize a squishy left and frankly morally impeccable man like Romney as an uber-fascist, they could demonize anyone and anything. Which meant for a long time, when the right got pressured, they buckled. They had to. It wasn’t a cold civil war. It was a guerilla war. ...I don’t know what happened with this election cycle. Perhaps it was that the economy is really, stupendously, bad. We don’t know for sure, because the press would rather die than report on it until a year from now, when they can blame it all on Trump, and also because Obama played tiddly winks with our number gathering, making things mean not what they say they mean. But the signs on the ground, they suck. IMO, the economy is really bad - but that's not the reason. The reason is, republicans got (enforced on them) a candidate who does not believes the Left hold the high moral ground. One who, being a bit of a con man himself, sees them as what they are - a bunch of slogan mouthing thieves and murderers. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #2 The economy was part of it, but let's not forget the triumphal malevolence of "Whitey is gonna die out and that's a good thing", and "We will take things away from you for your own good" and the attempted normalization of p*dophilia, and so many other things. They didn't think that we were listening, or that we could do anything about if we were. Simply put, they let the mask slip a little too soon. They'll be more careful next time. (not the hysterics in the streets, but the true powers of the left) Don't get cocky. |
| Posted by: charger 2017-01-28 13:00 |
| #1 David Shoup at Tarawa: "Casualties: many. Percentage dead: unknown. Combat efficiency: We are winning." |
| Posted by: Matt 2017-01-28 09:44 |