The Era of Biden

[Smitty-48]

the effect is like the Communists launching a WMD attack on America

that weapon was simply education

they infiltrated the schools, brainwashed the children

now the fallout is raining down, fall back to your bunkers to wait it out

could be awhile, so make sure those bunkers are as comfortable as possible

[Fife]

Smoke em if you got em

And if you partake, check Granny's depression recipe for canning weed

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Oh, Amerika can go until the foreseeable future, just look at Europe, but Liberty America, that's gone and can't come back: feminists & minorities & weirdos are in charge from here on out, just like in Europe.

Populism was gaining ground all over the world but the Shamdemic put a stop to that.

I don't get that sentiment.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has had a stunning run of victories since it was founded. There are now more legally reified protections for free speech in America than ever.

I've never seen such negative attention and push back for a Pulitzer prize as what Nicole Hanah-Jones got for her absurd 1619 Project. The NYT, in a particularly callow move, quietly edited out her most spurious bullshit. That, combined with other nonsense from the Old Grey Lady, means that fewer serious people take the NYT seriously than ever. What is that but a win for the condemnation of new woke staffers in media?

I have not seen any serious support for the Seuss Company's removal of pieces of its catalog - only mockery and condemnation. Plus, opportunities for anyone with first editions of the banned books, since demand for them has sky rocketed and they now command a pretty high price. That looks to me like a sign that the censors are not popular or supported.

You used to have to dig past the front page in the WSJ to find anything about Chinese treatment of non-Han Chinese. Now I see something about the Uighers almost every day. This is a great sign.

The extent to which we fail to live up to our value of liberty is only in relation to how unique we are in valuing liberty so highly, and I don't see that going away. I don't see every setback as proof that the fight is lost, or that liberty has been abandoned.

The current struggles for liberty are all about how we censure each other in a free society, and how we operationalize our country's liberty protections for new technology. I don't see the struggle for liberty as lost - I see it running into obstacles as it pushes into new territory and spreads.

Sorry, that kind of went on and on - I just really don't understand this liberty-pessimism.

I'm in the same boat, keep trying to tell them we are winning, and that is why the propaganda is turned up to 11. They are desperate, and don't know what else to do. It is the same thing with China, they see their demographics, and know they are about to peek. They've turned up their aggressiveness in an attempt to change their future. The best thing we can do is not be silent, but we also need to be intelligent about how we speak.

This may sound weird, or not, but the best way to know the trajectory of society is to pay attention to the drama surrounding Disney, specifically with Star Wars. That is the canary in the mine.

The posters here spend a lot of time talking about various cancellations, idiotic restrictions on liberty, or absurd mainstream media manipulations. I'm not knocking that - it is good to amplify and spread those stories as much as possible. I, for one, gain a lot from it. But, I think it starts to look like it is nothing but defeats, end over end with no victories in sight.

But, it used to be that for low-level cancellations of non-famous people that didn't somehow go viral for one reason or another, this was literally the only place I would hear about them. Now I can easily think of 3 or 4 very popular long(ish) form podcasts that cover them, and the stories are then repeated ad nauseam down the stream of smaller platforms. A lot of the people that cover them now are broadly liberal talking to liberal and left audiences too.

I think you are right, and that the propaganda is at maximum right now - because the woke know they do not have good or defensible ideas. They will blame false consciousness, or systemic racism, or whatever - but they know they have to punish even the quietest whispers of dissent if they are going to stay on top. That is how desperate people who know they are losing fight - frantic and berserk. And, I don't think it is working.

The more people learn about their ideas, the more they are rejected - and they have already absolutely peaked in their intensity. They don't have a reserve of strength or support that hasn't been tapped into. It is just a matter of time - as long as the rest of us don't become defeatist and do they're work for them.

I predict we are already passed the nadir. There will be more cancellations. More attacks on heterodox publishers and thinkers. But there will be fewer and fewer defenders of those attacks and cancellations.

[Smitty-48]

I predict that the hunters will become the hunted

it's already happening, conservatives are fighting fire with fire, cancellation is being turned back on the left

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Maybe.

But, most cancellations have been against people on the left already. It is largely an intra-left phenomenon, with the wings attacking the center.

The more conservative you are, the more immunity to cancellation you've always had.

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Honestly, anyone who is anti-centrist should be the most pro-cancel culture folks around.

[Martin Hash]

[Smitty-48]

Maybe.

But, most cancellations have been against people on the left already. It is largely an intra-left phenomenon, with the wings attacking the center.

The more conservative you are, the more immunity to cancellation you've always had.

I was simply cancelled many years ago,

I have been enjoying myself in a much smaller yet happier world ever since

I totally internalized the state as an infantryman,

but when I turned my kit in, I went all the way

retired from even being Canadian never mind being a Canadian soldier

[Smitty-48]

in the end I am half American

my American father raised me with the American religion

as Canada became increasingly Woke and so radically anti-American,

I was simply rendered a stranger in this land

to paraphrase the Gipper, I didn't leave the Canada party, the Canada party left me

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Maybe.

But, most cancellations have been against people on the left already. It is largely an intra-left phenomenon, with the wings attacking the center.

The more conservative you are, the more immunity to cancellation you've always had.

I was simply cancelled many years ago,

I have been enjoying myself in a much smaller yet happier world ever since

I totally internalized the state as an infantryman,

but when I turned my kit in, I went all the way

retired from even being Canadian never mind being a Canadian soldier

Don't know how you cancel an infantryman - not much of an expectation of liberty for a soldier to begin with.