I’ve long believe that National Service would fix most, if not all, of America’s modern problems. If every 18 year old no matter what gender was forced to interact with people outside of their comfort zone, then that would do wonders for keeping the country together.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize that window of opportunity has past. If National Service had been enacted in, say, 1993, then, yes, by now, we would be in a lot better shape. We would all be on the same page culturally and we would all agree on what it meant to be “American.”
Yet, now, it’s too late.
The real reason for National Service is, of course, sort of light touch indoctrination. And that’s why trying it now wouldn’t work. What Blues would want to be the indoctrination would be totally different than want the Reds would want. And, ultimately, because Reds are ascendant, they would game the system such that they would cram all those young minds with visions of an autocratic Christian ethnostate.
So, it’s over. I don’t have any solutions for you. We either turn into an autocracy or we have a civil war– or maybe have a military junta. But, Something Big and Bad is going to happen between now and spring 2025.
You see a lot of dumb hot takes on the Left about how people have been complaining about “effeminate” men and “masculine” women since dirt. And all of that is very true. And, yet, a part of me thinks that most of the social problems facing America would be solved by, I don’t know, bringing back the Draft.
Or, more specifically — unisex National Service.
This will never happen, of course, because the fucking GQP MAGA Republicans know that National Service would probably close the tap on ignorant, crazed young white men wanting to join their deranged movement. So if something like National Service ever happens, it’s going to be the Draft and it’s going to be because of either a civil war or WW3 or a combination of the two.
The reason why a Draft would fix a lot of America’s problems is one, it would force people from all over the country to have to deal with each other in the real world. It would give even the poorest white boy in West Virginia something akin to the college experience where they might have to bunk near a dude from New York City.
But also, it would force young people to face an existential choice in their late teens and early 20s. They would no longer have the luxury of worrying about their fucking pronouns, or safe spaces, or micro aggressions or whatever fucking dumb thing the “woke cancel culture mob” has come up with of late. The very real prospect of being cannon fodder would focus their minds on concrete things like getting married, having babies and just surviving long enough to get stuff like that.
Excuse me, I’m feeling old and crabby.
It just seems to me that a lot of the things that are so important to the “woke cancel culture mob,” the things that the Right harps on and what is so corrosive to the country as a whole will no longer be important when we either become an autocracy or we have a civil war. When you’re struggling to survive on a day to day basis that does tend to focus the mind.
I thought maybe the pandemic would do the trick, but it wasn’t bad enough, it wasn’t apocalyptic enough. It was too easy for the two sides to spin the reality of the pandemic for their own crass, shorterm political needs. But if WW3 or a civil war happened, well, that would be a different matter altogether. I don’t want a civil war or WW3 to happen — obviously — but it sure would force fucking Leftists to pull their heads out of their smug asses.
I know a lot of people poo-poo the following idea, but it’s difficult for me to dispute that the white “birth dearth” is at the heart of pretty much everything that’s fucked up with America right now. Everything from the rise of popular autocracy, to white nationalism, to the freak out about the border, to the end of abortion rights all boils down to: white women aren’t having enough babies to keep racist happy.
And that’s why it’s so difficult for people like Ezra Klein to give us any actionable solutions in an otherwise great book, “Why We’re Polarized.” He probably didn’t want to bring the issue of race into what is causing everything, even though he does mention that as long as whites were in the clear majority that even racist whites felt comfortable giving more rights to minorities. And, really, I suppose there isn’t any solution. We’re fucked.
No amount of ending abortion rights is going to make enough of those sweet, sweet white babies that White Nationalists crave. Wealthy liberal white women are going to just go to Canada to have abortions if need be. And no amount of making it impossible for young people to college is going to make enough ignorant people that MAGA is happy. America is now two nations, one Red, one Blue and either we turn into a white Christian ethnostate with everything that entails, or we have a civil war and pretty much bomb ourselves into oblivion.
There just isn’t any simple answer to the decline and coming fall of the Pax America. We’re on our own. And either you see it or you don’t. I still believe that MAGA Republicans will probably be the direct cause of more deaths than the Nazis no matter what happens. Either they turn us into an autocracy, pull us out of the post-WW2 liberal order and empty the cities like fucking Pol Pot, or we have a civil war using WMD and, well, that will be that.
We’ve passed the event horizon. America as we know it is over, all we’re doing now is quibbling over the details of exactly how everything is going down.
America is increasingly two nations, one Red, one Blue. The two sides simply can not, will not agree on anything. We can’t agree on what’s funny. We can’t agree on the meaning of some basic, huge events…even when there is video footage of what happened!
I continue to do a lot of reading about why and how all of this is happening, but I just am not finding the answers I need. Some of the authors punt on giving any answers because there just aren’t any. It’s like we’ve collectively, as a nation, given up. Either we become all fascist (Red) or we have a civil war in split into two nations. Or, maybe, have some sort of military junta.
But what won’t happen, can’t happen is some sort of gauzy slouch into the future where we don’t address any of our problems. Everything is coming to a head between now and something around spring 2025. And, what’s worse, it’s not like any of this is happening in secret.
MAGA Republicans make it very clear what they’re up to and what their agenda is. The only question at this point is what the ultimate reaction of Blues will be when the choice of “bending a knee” to autocracy or having a civil war arrives. I just don’t know which one will be the engame.
The imagery of the “semi-mobilization” in Russia is alarming, to say the least. It definitely feels as though we’ve entered a new stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War one that might see an escalation between the two nations either now before it snows or in the spring.
Add to this that Russia has cut Europe off from its gas reserves and we really do have the winter of our discontent rushing towards us. But the question is, of course, is Russia going to remain stable going forward or is this mobilization the first step in a rapid decline in the stability of the world’s largest nuclear power?
I honestly don’t know. But history would definitely indicate that that is a real possibility. Repeatedly in Russian history major political debacles have caused massive political change.
Or, put another way, the world is a lot less stable than you might otherwise think. It’s at least possible that we’ll look back upon 2022 as a modern day 1937, where we got a shot across the bow that a world war was brewing. It seems to me very possible that what might happen is the United States for some reason withdraws from the global order — be it because of civil war, military junta or MAGA themed autocracy — and that is the thing that pushes into something akin to a new world war in 2024 – 2025.
The point is — Pax Americana is in its last days. We’re about to go through a very, very turbulent period in human history. There will be no narrative or value to any of it until it’s over and we figure out who the winners are.
It’s growing alarmingly clear that in an abstract fashion, Reds fucking hate Blues with a white hot rage. I’m not particularly fond of MAGA Republicans, either, so you could say the feeling is mutual. And, yet, given how at the moment everyone assumes that if there’s a National Divorce that it will be Republicans (Reds) who serve the papers, what will be the reaction with the opposite happens?
I suspect there will initially be a big difference between rank-and-file Reds and the Establishment. Initially, your average Republican will be ecstatic that they have finally gotten rid of those given “groomer” libtards who want to take their guns and turn everyone gay. Meanwhile, up in the upper echelons of the Federal government, Republicans are going to freak the fuck out.
And things get interesting. While the MAGA base is celebrating in the streets that the United States can finally become a white Christian ethnostate in peace, there is going to be a lot of messaging on the part of the Republican Establishment to try to get MAGA to support crushing Blue states in an effort to keep the country in one piece.
It will be ironic and surreal, but that’s usually the path that history takes. Whatever the most ironic and surreal thing history can possibly do is the direction it goes. It happens all the time.
Anyway, hopefully we won’t have to deal with that. Hopefully we somehow manage to punt our massive number of structural problems down the road and don’t have to deal with the possibilities of autocracy, civil war or military junta.
Because the issue of “wokeness” is so often demagogued by Right wing nutjobs, the whole issue is so conflated and muddled that generally in the minds of conservatives is just means “something I don’t like and may ruin my life.” But let’s try to break down not just what “being woke” means, but it’s causes as well.
A lot of the issue of “being woke” comes from generational changes combined with technological changes. It’s easy for the most idealistic and touchy voices of the Zoomer generation (or whatever) to be the one we all hear about the most to the point that even if you don’t agree with the most woke of concepts, you still somehow find yourself having to defend them.
I mean, in the 70s there were some spicy takes on the part of second wave feminists that were so extreme that even your most woke person today might blanch at them a little bit. So “wokeness” has existed since dirt, but technology — to a limited extent — has given these spicy woke takes a lot more potency. Add to this dramatic differences in what different generations believe on the hot button issues of the day and you have a recipe for conservatives getting really angry about people being “woke.”
Also, another issue is a matter of audience. Outside of the horrible men who were justifiably canceled as part of the #MeToo movement, most of the other people who have been canceled, well, just didn’t read the room. In my experience, there is usually some other factor that aggravates the situation whenever someone is “canceled.”
So, JK Rowling was far more suspectable to being successfully “canceled” than, say, Louis CK. And Louis CK is doing quite well for himself, even though he did, in my opinion, things far worse than what JK Rowling is accused of doing. But you have to give Rowling credit — she’s stuck to her guns, even though her audience loathes her as a person.
But that doesn’t stop conservatives from believing that, by definition, for the average person to be conservative is to risk having their life ruined. They think this in such an abstract manner that it’s easy for Republican shithead cocksuckers to demagogue the whole idea to the point that an already divided America gets more and more divided.
The crux of what makes it so difficult for me to talk to my Traditionalist relatives — who I love dearly — about Trump and MAGA is they are primed and ready to be “Good Germans.” They don’t really think of it in those terms, even if pressed, but when they say they “like what Trump has to say, just not how he says it” what they’re saying is they are prepared to serve the purpose of “Good Germans” in the American political system.
And from what I can garner, they have two red lines. One red line is “violence in the streets” and the only is the personal — if I get snatched up by a weaponized ICE they’re going to help get out of the concentration camp I’m cooling my heels in.
So, if it’s DeSantis not Trump who is our next POTUS, then there won’t be any political violence “in the streets” because he’s so smooth, which will leave the other, final red line of the personal. I don’t expect to get snatched off the street by ICE immediately when DeSantis is sworn in, but it’s inevitable that it will happen.
But the key thing is that fascism is very, very popular in the United States. A lot of people want a white autocratic Christian ethnostate to the point that they don’t even realize the implications of what they want. Want they want describes fascism, but they get really angry when you point this out to them.
The point is –the United States is fucking doomed. We’re either going to slide peacefully into a MAGA themed autocracy, have a civil war or have military junta. There is no middle ground and this is not an abstract to me — I’m going to inevitably cross our new MAGA autocrat, whomever that may be, and that’s going to be that.
As I’ve written before, my Traditionalist relatives look at me with concern whenever Ron DeSantis comes up in our now-rare political conversations and say, “Why do you hate Ron DeSantis?”
Let me be clear — I do not hate Ron DeSantis. I hate the MAGA Republican movement with a white hot rage equal to the center of the sun that is so powerful that it’s generating a six novel project on my part. But I don’t hate Ron DeSantis.
The reason why this is relevant is when it comes to shipping hapless undocumented immigrants to strategic sites in Blue states, DeSantis has struck political gold. It’s a very “cruelty is the point” Trump-ish thing to do and, as such plays exceedingly well with the MAGA Republican base. And, if something should happen politically to Trump, then DeSantis will cruse into the presidency and be our first autocrat.
This cruel ploy by DeSantis works so well with the base because it’s simple and plays well with their preconceived notions of evil “groomer” liberals. It’s a perfect plan for DeSantis because we wins, just by doing it. There is NO reaction on the part of Blues that he can’t credit as a win. And, if need be, MAGA will simply lie or spin whatever reaction there is so it fits their media narrative.
It’s times like these when I am reminded at how alarmed we should all be about the future of the United States. As I keep saying, we face the choices of autocracy, civil war or military junta between now and, say, spring 2025. If you have the means, I would suggest you prepare to leave the country and never look back.
The simple explanation for why MAGA Republicans are so adamant that the United State is a constitutional republic rather a democracy is it’s a form of debate nullification. It gets MAGA Republicans, who are fucking fascists, a retort against liberal-progressives who talk about how MAGA Republicans are a “threat to our democracy.”
MAGA Republicans hear this so much that they have come up with, “Oh yeah? Well fuck you, the United States isn’t a democracy in the first place, it’s a constitutional republic!” Then it becomes obvious that the two people talking can’t even agree on the terms they’re using and the conversation trails off to something else.
There is so much wrong with the growing insistence by MAGA Republicans that we can’t defend democracy because, lulz, the United States isn’t even one to begin with. They have a number of talking points thought out about all of this, everything from “Are you going to challenge the wisdom of the Founding Fathers?” to a garbled, misinterpretation of Alexis de Tocqueville.
That this is even an issue, is also something of a tell as to the agenda of MAGA Republicans. That they get so wrapped up in this dumb conflation about the nature of our Constitution tells us that they don’t believe in democracy and they want to establish a white Christian ethnostate. Or, more specifically, rather than work within the bounds of our democracy and change their policy agenda to win elections fair and square, they’re so fucking racist that they want to play lesser democratic elements of the Constitution like a xylophone so they can establish an autocracy and that will be that.
The point is — another reason why this is a tell is the idea that the United States is a “constitutional republic” is not mutually exclusive with it being a democracy. It’s both and has been, to varying degrees, since its conception. It’s only now, when MAGA Republicans are looking for some retort to evil libtards that the two equally true concepts have been muddled by MAGA Republicans’ partisan needs.
I would note that “What form of government does the United States have?” is following the same path as any number of other hot button issues where the two sides are so far as apart that they can’t agree on the basics. If you bring it up MAGA Republicans laugh at you, use a joke they heard on some fetid MAGA podcast and then you spend all your time not talking about the issue, but wading through bullshit designed to make it impossible to even debate the topic at hand in the first place.
It’s happened with gun control. It’s happened with the Green New Deal. It’s happened to a variety of topics and it’s happening with the very basic idea of the Untied States being a democracy. If that’s not a sign that at some point between now and spring 2025 we’re going to have a civil war, turn into a MAGA autocracy or have a military junta, I don’t know what is.
This is where I have to bring up the great irony of this bullshit. I have people in my family to believe “the United States isn’t a democracy.” I love them dearly, even if I’ve actively given up debating politics with them because of shit like this. The irony is that given that I’ve made it very clear that I’m not going to ever stop ranting about how much I fucking hate the MAGA Republican movement, should the United States turn into an autocracy, it’s inevitable that I’m probably going to be sent to a camp.
THEN, of course, my Traditionalist conservative relatives will sit up and take notice and have to figure out how to get me out of my concentration camp. Once things get personal — their only red line other than violence in the streets — then they will start to get upset about America no longer being a democracy. Then, of course, it will be fucking too late. This is not an abstract to me. I’m never going to be a “Good German” and any shift on the part of the United States into autocracy poses real risks for me, personally.
But my Traditionalist relatives scoff at these fears or just don’t want to talk about it. They hate the soft power of the “woke cancel culture mob” SO MUCH that they willing to give up their American birth right of democracy so they can live in a white Christian ethnostate, even if it puts my life in real danger.
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