Tag: Autocrats Never Lose

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If I had the means, I will already be making practical plans for how I was going to get out of the United States and never come back. I honestly believe that the America I have known my entire life is in its twilight. Either we’re going to have a civil war or we’re going to slide into autocracy without firing a shot.

Given how relatively chill everyone was — in a practical sense — to the Dobbs decision, it definitely seems we’re going to become A Very American Autocracy. Initially, nothing is going to change other than it becoming very clear that “vote harder” simply is not an option. Voting will be seen as meaningless and people will gradually just stop voting because they will now that, in the end, Republicans will always maintain power.

And that will be that.

There will be a lot gritting of teeth and yelling about this or that thing that should happen, but, in the end, it will all be meaningless. Millions of well educated, wealthy liberals will flee the country. They will do the same meaningless things they did before the Very American Autocracy was established, only in a different country.

In fact, I suggest that the massive outflux of wealthy American liberals will likely be THE news story of 2025 -2030. It’s going to change global history as American ideals and tastes begin to be pumped throughout the world in force. This will all be happening, potentially, in the context of the US leaving NATO and generally “bringing the boys home.”

Fortress America will be established and, as such, the world will grow so unstable that WW3 might break out as several regional conflicts become hot at the same time and WMD are used.

The liberal “brain drain” out of America will grow so bad that President DeSantis will make a big deal about passing legislation that will make it harder for it continue. Form follows function, after all. And, while we’re mentioning form follows function, President DeSantis at some point in his decades-long reign is probably going go full Putin and invade Canada for this or that reason. Autocrats do shit like that.

Now, of course, there is a very small chance of a civil war. But I just don’t see it happening. The only way there might possibly be a civil war in the United States is if Trump, not DeSantis, is the Republican nominee in 2024 and he personally, single-handedly is such a deranged asshole that Blue States feel that they have no choice but to secede.

I know I’m a nobody in the middle of nowhere, but all this talk about “civil war being on the table” for MAGA is totally oblivious. MAGA has no reason to start a civil war! MAGA is getting everything it wants without firing a shot. Why would they possibly start a civil war?

I’m well aware that a lot of fucking cocksucker MAGA types stumble across this obscure Website because they have a boner for civil war so they can finally murder people like me in cold political blood. But that’s just mental masturbation. They’re all excited about the idea of civil war because it’s the worst thing they can think of happen — that and a “MAGA revolution” — but, in the end, it’s just bunch of bluster. They just have no reason to start organized political violence and if they did, it would be a blunder of epic proportions.

I suppose, if you really wanted to have a fever dream, that if Trump became Speaker of the House and then went transactional by saying Red States would leave the Union unless both Biden and Harris were convicted in the Senate as part of impeachment trials…THEN, MAYBE, there MIGHT be a civil war.

Otherwise, lulz. And you’re an idiot to think MAGA is going to start a civil war. It’s just wouldn’t make any sense.

But the crux of the issue is — no one is going to save us. There will be no reform. Nothing is going to change. This is it. We’re beyond the event horizon when it comes to autocracy or civil war. We’re in the twilight of America’s democracy and, as I mentioned, if I could leave the country forever, I would.

I can’t thought. So, I suppose I’m going to either have to take my chances when it comes to crossing our new autocrat (which is inevitable because of my loud mouth) or figuring out a way to leave my deep Red portion of a purple state for some Blue state in the North should there be a civil war.

Yet, to be clear — enjoy these last few months of traditional free America while you can. Good luck.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Talk about dumb and clueless. Everyone is so fixated on how fascist MAGA is, they keep making some basic assumptions about our future which simply are not true. The MAGA New Right is politically ascendant and are gradually getting everything they want through the courts, if not politics. They have absolutely no reason to start a civil war.

You start a civil war when you feel disenfranchised and turn to violence because you don’t feel you have any other way to effect change. While Republicans feel disenfranchised, that has more to do with bent up rage over the browning of America than what’s happening practically on the ground.

MAGA is doing the hard work of corrupting the administration of elections to the point that telling people within the center-Left to “vote harder” is even more meaningless than it would be otherwise. The time is well on its way when Republicans lock in national power for generations to come and Blue States either bend a knee, or they secede from the Union and start a civil war.

So, it won’t be Reds who start a civil war — they have no reason to. It will be Blues who finally grow so exasperated that they see no other option than to leave the Union en mass. Now, everything to date leads me to believe this isn’t going to happen.

What’s probably going to happen is there will be a final spasm in late 2024 – early 2025 and then we’re going to be an autocracy. Millions of wealthy, well educated and well trained liberals will flee the country for the four corners of the globe and Fox News will start to complain about a liberal brain drain instead of scary immigrant carvans.

That, for the moment, definitely seems to be our fate. In fact, the only way I could possibly see MAGA starting a civil war is if history intervened (probably because of a 9/11 sized tragedy) and they felt their gradual ascendancy was being stymied for some reason.

Or, of course, Trump could go transactional at some point after Republicans gain control of Congress again and he could demand that Red states threaten to leave the Union if the Senate doesn’t successfully convict both Biden and Harris during their inevitable impeachment trials.

We are in for a very bumpy ride between now and Certification Day 2025, but nothing the center-Left has done of late would indicate to me they have the gumption to leave the Union. So, we’re doomed. We’re totally fucking doomed. I suppose your best bet is to leave the country sooner rather than later with all the Twitter liberals.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continue to see Twitter Liberals go out of their way to point out the shameless hypocrisy of MAGA “thought leaders.” It’s all very dumb. Nothing is going to change. MAGA is without shame and they continue to their craven drive to end American democracy and establish white autocracy minority rule.

Unless we have a civil war, it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re going to careen into autocracy and that will be that. No amount of earnest or angry tweet is going to change that. MAGA is ascendant and, as I keep telling my Traditionalists relatives, they’re going to get everything they ever wanted — and more — they just have to be patient. (This doesn’t seem to register with them, they’re still as angry as ever about the “woke cancel culture mob” personally canceling them for a stray remark that is recorded, goes viral and then ruins their life.)

And, what’s worse, we all know that when the time comes, Twitter Liberals will be the first to flee the country when it’s clear the United States is no longer a Western democracy. They have the means, motive and opportunity to flee the country en masse — maybe even in the millions. Fox News will turn from ranting about scary immigrant caravans to ranting about the liberal brain drain that has to be stopped at all costs. This will happen after a brief period of smugness on their part. It won’t be until the Autocrat gets angry at this brain drain that Fox News will change its tune.

If you want to position yourself for the future financially, I might suggest thinking out the global serves that might service all those Americans in Canada, Europe and Oceania. Think about how a million or so highly educated and trained American liberals suddenly living outside the country and what services and products they will want ready access to. This would be a very speculative and risky thing to do, but it might work out given what I feel is going to happen.

America is on the cusp of entering a very, vary dark period in it history. One that will transform us to a nation that at least like to think it’s the “freest in the world” to one that is no better than Hungary, Turkey or Russia. This transition to autocracy will upend the post-WW2 global liberal order and all sorts of unusual things may happen. We might see the United States ally with Russia and generally begin to become Fortress America.

We’re definitely going to become a theocratic white Christian ethno state. Or, like I said, we’re going to have a civil war. Take your pick. But no matter which direction we go, Twitter liberals are wasting their time pointing out the shameless hypocrisy of MAGA.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, I have a relative — who I love dearly — who, whenever I bring up the latest egregious law breaking by Trump says, flatly, “Well, if he broke the law, he needs to be charged.”

I think of that when we learn that Trump’s Administration was involved in the very Nixonesque practice of siccing the IRS on this political opponents. If your metric is to blandly and in a rather blasé manner say that you’re not outraged, but just want the courts to sort things out, you feed into the cancer of unaccountability that is MAGA.

We don’t have any political will to do anything about Trump! If you’re a conservative who hides behind the idea of the courts sorting things out, then you’re feeding into the cancer, making it bigger. You have to have an opinion! You have to get angry! Don’t vote for anyone who won’t hold Trump accountable! Make common cause with other people who believe in American freedom and democracy!

For once, don’t let your abstract fear of the “woke cancel culture mob” blind you to the rise of fascism in the America!

But I’ve given up hope. My Traditionalists relatives — who I love dearly — want autocracy and, but for me inevitably running afoul of the autocrat — would be quite content to be Good Germans under President DeSantis’ reign. And that’s pretty much things where things stand — we’re fucked.

The cancer is going to kill our democracy and we’re going to become an autocracy and my Traditionalists relatives are going to have to figure out a way to get me out of a Trump-branded ICE camp.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If I ever blow up with my DJ money, as they say, I will immediately become the subject of scrutiny and, as such, all my drunken women chasing and general bad behavior over the years will be probably be picked part. I know this is a very real possibility — I’m a very flawed person and I’ve done my fair share of things that some people will put me in the “canceled” dustbin of history for.

Having said that, in my experience, whenever I have a run-in with “woke” people on Twitter my biggest complaint is I just don’t know how to deescalate things. The moment they start using “woke cancel culture mob” buzzwords I’m taken aback. They frame things in a way that it’s impossible for me to say, “But, but, I’m on your side…:

Which gets me to thinking, what, exactly does it mean to be “woke.” The first instance of gratuitous wokeness that I remember is when in one of the Jurassic Park sequels everyone was saved by a young African American woman gymnast out of the blue. It was totally out of place and weird and I immediately realized that Spielberg was, in a very ham handed manner, trying to make a point, even if making that point was to the detriment of the story.

Now, of course, that young African American woman would probably be transgendered or something. Which, there’s nothing wrong with that, but unless the storyteller did the hard work of setting up her heroic turn would just be weird and take you out of the movie.

But, again, what does it mean to be “woke?”

I think it means different things to different people. It’s so abused by the Right to score political points that its use has grown very grating. But I suppose one definition would be framing things in such a way that straight white men are seen as the enemy. I’m not saying this is my definition, but it is a definition. To me, I see being “woke” often as a crutch that over sensitive people use on Twitter to start a fight even if what you said was just a random, stray thought without any deeper meaning.

But I will say this — people who are excessively woke are doing the cause of liberal democracy no favors. It’s extremely corrosive because if you totally alienate conservative white straight men then they’re going to vote for fucking fascists. And then where are you with your wokeness?

And, yet, I don’t think there really is any unified, agreed upon meaning for “being woke.” It’s generally so broad and so apt to be warped for the political motives of the Far Right that it’s kind of a “know it when you see it” kind of thing.

All I want is Leftist not to attack me if I don’t follow their orthodox. I generally am not Leftist and don’t even like them, but I’m willing to make common cause with them if that’s what I have to do to defeat the rise of the fascist MAGA New Right.