202 Comments
User's avatar
SCA's avatar

You nailed this so hard the damn door splintered. Right through the heartwood.

Gonna be a rough two or three generations before a few real men break through.

el gato malo's avatar

i think it may come a lot more quickly that that.

you can feel the stirrings in later gen Z and in gen alpha. "based" has found its base and frankly, gen X is flipping hard to join them because we have known better and have had it with the current regimes of longhouse misrule.

i'd be careful about framing this too much as a gender war though. it's not. lots of based women out there too and allowing this to become a gender split seems like a tactic to divide natural allies.

keeping the fight on the line of based vs cringe is where we want to be. it's a winning hand and a winning solution.

Tim R's avatar

My 3 boys, and one's gf, are all very based gen Z (older end). The problem I see is their based life perspective makes them disdain all politicians and reluctant to vote. They despise the woke leftist worldview, but see, maybe correctly, that the Republican/so-called Conservative serve pretty much the same masters. They prefer to vote with their money and their feet, which are probably more effective than the ballot box these days.

SCA's avatar

The most important votes are in one's local community because every elected office, no matter how minor, is the feeder for those of higher aspirations. It's necessary to thwart the worst from rising; to control the school boards and the taxing and permitting authorities. That's how one achieves one's most important goals.

Julinthecrown's avatar

Totally agree, but that is a much slower process than we have time for today.

SCA's avatar

Durability over speed is probably a better strategic plan. Save one's own home first.

JC's avatar

The Soros plans were all about local elections. Get in those sheriffs, councillors, police chiefs, school boards, etc. to push through (for example) minimum sentencing laws to keep the prisons full & productive.

Voting locally is far far more powerful than that presidential run.

Julinthecrown's avatar

Stay the course on your views - without being preachy. Your thoughts/discussions etc can have a more profound impact than you realize. Your kids may be rolling their eyes but their ears are still open. Behavior is contagious.

Christopher Graf's avatar

I say this all the time, no matter how hard we try we always become our parents.

Sconnie's avatar

They would probably like RFK Jr

Gym+Fritz's avatar

Everyone should be forced to read this post, twice, and then made to attend a group discussion session.

Kamala in the baby seat (Joe used to be there) with the DNC actually driving is the perfect image for what our political system is drifting towards.

We may soon have a one party government, with a nominal opposition party, if the media gets its way. . . . but all of the politicians will continue to prosper, and all of the donors will get richer; and thanks to fifty kinds of censorship, voters won’t know about it, much less be able do anything about it. Sort of like the Soviets and the CCP.

Tammany Hall, once thought dead, is now, along with its Chicago affiliate, trying to shove the California political model down our throat.

Julinthecrown's avatar

Don't underestimate the power of people to hear and see the truth. You are right that the media has its giant thumb on the scale of what is disseminated in our culture. But more and more spots of awareness & determination to do something about it are popping up all the time. Let's just hope there's enough time to make the difference.

SimulationCommander's avatar

Exactly! We're in a full court press, but independent media is the key to breaking it.

https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/full-court-press

CMCM's avatar

Everyone should study California. It a fairly short time it has become of crown jewel of the radical leftism of the Democrat party. They have total control to an extent most Americans don't realize. Democrats hold 84% of all elected offices (including national representatives). Republicans or any other opposition parties have less than zero hope of influencing anything at this point. This is the Democrats' national goal as well.

Lucy's avatar

Based woman here ! 💃🏻

SCA's avatar

I sure hope you're right. And though I would never choose to use a current term like "based" for myself--

--funny how Diamond Boy below thinks I sound like a guy.

SCA's avatar

Happens all the time.

Rosemary B's avatar

change your profile picture to your bad fairy super power image

SCA's avatar

That's exactly what it is.

Ryan Gardner's avatar

I agree. My only quibble is with GCC. GenZ holds that sacrosanct.

Little more work to do on that topic imo.

Rosemary B's avatar

Gulf Cooperation Council?

Geographic Combatant Command???

Germana Community College?

Great Commission of Churches?

ahhhh Good country cookin'

Ryan Gardner's avatar

Good country cooking. LOLOLOL

Rosemary B's avatar

I say that bc since caring for my parents 12 years ago, my joy of cooking and kitchen duty has diminished

I hope that returns some day.

Ryan Gardner's avatar

Global climate change

fsy's avatar

It actually stands for the GNU C Compiler. Any other use is a mistake.

Ryan Gardner's avatar

Global climate change.

Epaminondas's avatar

I assume he's referring to global climate change.

Ryan Gardner's avatar

Did you block me?! I never get your responses anymore in my email or the app!...lol...but serious

Rosemary B's avatar

blocked? How do you get blocked and how do you know😱

Delred's avatar

I’m generation x and I concur, we are “flipping hard…”

Mahir Abbas's avatar

Of all the "longhouse" talk and the "gender war" talk, it's insane to me you haven't realised that the vast majority of this bullshit occurs due to the catastrophe of women's suffrage. For all your talk about seeing the world as it really is, this is probably your greatest blindspots.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy reading your work, and you are one of my favourite writers, but please, stop prostrating at the altar of gender equality.

Once again, thanks for your writing, and please don't take this as an insult.

Diamond Boy's avatar

OK dear author, this SCA guy suggests that it’s going to be 40 or 60 years before anything changes : two or three generations. That’s what I’ve been arguing, I said the liberals have a Stranglehold. Nothing is about to change.

SCA's avatar

You got to prepare the soil before you get a real good crop. You got to plant the sapling as soon as you can if you are hoping for fruit later.

Etc.

Rikard's avatar

Kamala has already won.

Now how can I say that? (Please have some salt and a bib ready for Novemeber; I'll happily eat those wrods if I'm wrong.)

Because she, despite who she is, was selected for being the candidate.

It tells us a couple of things:

There exists inside the DNC a power-mongering cabal that appoints and deposes candidates no matter what party members or caucauses want. Said cabal does not want a candidate with his/her own powerbase; they want someone beholden to and depenpent on them.

To said cabal, Kamala is the ideal candidate: no approval anywhere, no powerbase, no real skills, experience or knowledge or ability to fall back on - totally dependent on her benefactors.

She should be the best campaign-marketing tool for a second Trump presidency, and therefore uneligible in a fair and open causus/election, this we know from her older polling-numbers and such. Yet, she was selected anyway, despite everything in her disfavour. Which you would only do if the voting-process is a foregone conclusion anyway, and if you want a figure-head under your control. And as said cabal is allied to the very few owners of capitalist media corporations, themselves owned by even shadier or nebulous capitalists, Kamala can coast on the propaganda-wave until November, being given scripted softball-questions.

Can you imagine Kamala Harris trying to answer real, in-depth and detailed questions about real things, without any earplug and a team on standby, unscripted, and unedited?

That reaction you just had to the above question should be all the proof needed that the election is already rigged, and that she is under several thumbs.

el gato malo's avatar

a potential flipside to that is that she was put in place to grab joe's money and probably to lose.

look who pushed it: nanci pelosi.

what does nanci want? not kamala. she wants someone from her ecosystem (like gavin).

but gavin was not an option this cycle. so you get a patsy out front to lose.

win/win for NP

if kammy wins, you get a puppet, if she loses, you're set to contest 2028 on an open field.

what nanci could NOT have is a strong dem candidate that could win and gather support because that could box her out for 8-12 years, and she'll be dead by then (at least politically)

Rikard's avatar

Sounds eminently plausible and reasonable to me (that's approval of your explanation, not of the intrigue as such, just for clarity's sake).

On the one hand, one might think that someone as old as Pelosi wouldn't care who gets to try and succeed Biden; on the other hand, people who thinks like that fatally underestimate spitefulness as a driving force.

Tangent:

We had a similar case ca 20 years ago, when the Socialist Democrat party needed a new leader, and all the different phalanxes failed to unite around a candidate to present to the local party districts to vote for (that's the way the socialists do it: the party nominates it's own candidate for party leadership and then the disctricts approves the appointee; any district not doing that will get a new district leader...) and no-one leader of a phalanx had enough of a powerbase:

So a "spare part" was selected to lose the next election, while the party entrenched itself inside the civil services.

That, and of course "defectors" to the other parties, to ensure Socialist Democrat representation in every party and moving the middle ever closer the the party proper.

If there's one thing that would benefit americans re: the actions and strategies of the DNC, it would be to look at UK, Germany, France, and the Nordic/Scandinavian nations from ca 1970s to today, to learn how you can vote and vote and vote, and you still get the same politics and policies no matter the party/-ies in power.

Tardigrade's avatar

'it would be to look at UK, Germany, France, and the Nordic/Scandinavian nations from ca 1970s to today, to learn how you can vote and vote and vote, and you still get the same politics and policies no matter the party/-ies in power.'

No need, we only have to look at our own homegrown history ;)

SimulationCommander's avatar

"No matter who we elect, we get John McCain."

David Christopher's avatar

This nuance should be ammended to your article.

At least the democraps are feigning to fabricate popular support for their surrogate this session.

Is RFK a complete nonentity in this drama?

JC's avatar

"They" are trying to make it so, certainly.

Tonya's avatar

How is Pelosi not already dead physically?

YM's avatar

Unfortunately, those in The Swamp seem to have very long lifespans.

Pi Guy's avatar

"what nanci could NOT have is a strong dem candidate that could win and gather support because that could box her out for 8-12 years"

🤔 Wow, interesting.

SimulationCommander's avatar

Agreed. If Biden runs, the DNC has a Kamala problem in 2028, no matter if he wins or loses. If she loses, she'll be disappeared from politics and end up with a cushy media/university gig.

Diana's avatar

How will Kamala be boxed out? She isn't running for president. Do you mean that she is concerned about the Dems losing their house majority? But she still would be speaker with a powerful Dem President, wouldn't she?

John Henry Holliday, DDS's avatar

I agree with your assessment. They didn't steal 2020 just to let Trump in 4 years later.

With all of the West following an eerily similar path (disdain/crackdown of native populations and untrammeled immigration), we are dealing with a supranational cabal, imo. One that despises the lands and people of what used to be called Christendom.

Swabbie Robbie's avatar

I see the demonrat playbook is the same as the Brandon pResidency. = A front person to read the teleprompter while no one knows who is really running the country. An equally unqualified VP who will also fill the role should the new pResident need to be removed or catches disease or a bullet. Rinse and repeat.

Pi Guy's avatar

*John Gill has entered all the chats*

The Radical Individualist's avatar

The reason Trump is so hated in DC is that he is his own man. Politicians feel threatened by people who think for themselves. That's right, 'based'.

Rikard's avatar

Same as here: any politician who has had a real life outside politics is quickly isolated and ostracised by the "partigängare" (means: "married to the party", but can also be read as "partyfucker").

I'd say that "Politicians feel threatened by people who think" is enoug, but that's me quibbling while Rome burns, to mangle a phrase.

JC's avatar

He's a wild card. Too unpredictable to leash.

SimulationCommander's avatar

"Can you imagine Kamala Harris trying to answer real, in-depth and detailed questions about real things, without any earplug and a team on standby, unscripted, and unedited?"

-------

Nope, but I wrote up a list of questions anyway:

https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/a-few-questions-for-kamala

Diana's avatar

I was wrong. I thought Kamala was heartless and power hungry and she would prolong wars, sign on to WHO, impose pandemic vaccine mandates--and ignore the needs of the citizens. I thought she had worse policies than Biden. WRONG. Yes, she is heartless--but also a bit brainless. That's why I was wrong. I thought she had a powerful agenda, and the Democrats chose her because they liked it. NO, El gato and you showed me my error. She was selected precisely BECAUSE she would follow the Democrat party line. We will get the same policies that Dems imposed on us for the last 4 years under Biden. In a way this is comforting. Same old, same old. Now I know why a brilliant pollster predicts that she will win. How can this be? For exactly the reasons that you listed above. BOO HOO! Now I'm going to sit in the corner and cry.

Tardigrade's avatar

At the rate big crazy events are coming so thick and fast this year, I wouldn't figure on anything being inevitable.

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Aug 12, 2024
Comment deleted
Rikard's avatar

Perhaps read what I wrote instead?

Since you bring up apathy: look at voter participation for the US, broken down by age, ethnicity, et c.

There's your apathy.

Diana's avatar

I have a sociology degree from Columbia University. In 1965 I attended lectures by Robert King Merton. He stated apathy is necessary for Democracy to work. If everybody cared deeply about voting and their candidate--we would be prone to civil war. Another journalist urged us to decline to vote. THAT will send a message to the parties that they are not desirable--and they will have to change their ways.

Ha ha. We already have a large number of people who do not vote. Many of them are in nursing homes, have jobs that keep them away from the polls, --or simply don't care. How can they be distinguished from those rejecting the political machine from principle?

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/07/12/voter-turnout-2018-2022/

The elections of 2018, 2020 and 2022 were three of the highest-turnout U.S. elections of their respective types in decades. About two-thirds (66%) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election – the highest rate for any national election since 1900. The 2018 election (49% turnout) had the highest rate for a midterm since 1914. Even the 2022 election’s turnout, with a slightly lower rate of 46%, exceeded that of all midterm elections since 1970.

Rikard's avatar

First off: sorry for Doomsaying earlier, but it came to me in a flash that the only reason for letting someone like Kamala run is because she's harmless (to the real powers in the party); in all other ways she's an albatross around the neck, as per Coleridge's poem.

Voter turnout seems to be a real problem in the US? The cynic in me would agree with Merton - conscientous and informed voters with longer memories than last weekend is the last thing politicians want (it's highly analogous to cult leaders and corporations) as it makes them beholden to the populace, and then what's the point of being a ruler or at least a vizier or a mandarin?

Declining to vote benefit the largest parties, that's the only tangible effect.

Here, voting is always done over a weekend, and you can vote several days in advance, and withing 12-24 hours, we have the results. Paper ballots and voter id, works rather well, and tallying the votes is done by local volunteers and it is open to the public, should anyone wish to attend.

I dare not even imagine what would happen to numbers for either party in the US if you tried that.

Speaking of turnout, the trend here is downwards, has been since the early 1970s as people more and more realise that it doesn't really matter all that much. Around 2003, turnout dipped briefly under 80% which caused a scandal.

I wonder what would happen in the US with a 80% voter turnout? As per your numbers, there's enough non-voters for a third party or candidate.

Diana's avatar

The truth may be painful--no need to apologize for it.

Epaminondas's avatar

Unsurprisingy, Gato is right on target. If Trump had the self-control of a 12 year old, he would be able to easily win this election. He's by far his own worst enemy.

AM Schimberg's avatar

I really thought post-assassination attempt Trump could be different. Possibly even an inspiring figure. I was wrong. And naive.

SCA's avatar

He rose to greatness for about two days. Just long enough for us to see that he could if he wanted to. But he's wearing the treads off his greatest hits instead of trying to win.

Tardigrade's avatar

Ah, the bloom is coming off the rose?

SCA's avatar

I had that one week of experiencing strange and unsettling feelings including the dreadful burden of thinking I had to vote for him.

All better now.

Epaminondas's avatar

Yes, you would think if anything would potentially spark a change, it would be a near death experience. Alas, Trump's too set in his ways, and he's now in the process of sabotaging his own election.

VHMan's avatar

Trump, alas, has become boring with his cringe-worthy narcissism and reflexive self-promotion. They, and his unresolved father/son problems make it difficult to be a good leader.

BigBlueSky's avatar

I don't foresee anything really changing until people look up from their screens and learn how to re-engage in a real way with each other. The longhouse that the internet has created is really more like a fun-house with carnival mirrors. Everything is distorted and turned upside-down. It's created a generation of people that literally have such a narrow field of vision that they can't see the forest for the trees.

Roman S Shapoval's avatar

No one is coming to save us, but us.

Pawletto's avatar

Ever the balanced reporting, you provide the glimmer of hope in the idea that based will return to the fore (or may well, anyway). I can hang my hat on that.

Ludwig Von Rothbard's avatar

Hey, as a long time an-cap, don't pull back on hard criticisms of both candidates and parties.

A pox on both their houses. Albert Jay Nock in his "Our Enemy, the State" laid out the idea that the state is just a massive privilege peddling machine constantly warred over by two criminal gangs...

Pi Guy's avatar

"A pox on both their houses."

Yaaaaas.

Uniparty delenda est!

Pbr's avatar

No one is going to win this election. First I don’t believe any poll that says overnight that Kamala is tearing up the poles. The fact that once her name became the candidate money poured in is a lie. Second of all, please by all means let her talk, imagine, if you dare, her handling a question she doesn’t have a script for. Third, no one voted for her. No one. She dropped out of the race against Biden and the only reason she is there is because of race, and gender. Four look at California, just look at it socially, economically, look at infrastructure, homelessness, food prices, and their go green initiatives. How are they doing? Everyone who can is leaving including big technology companies. Five look at our economy now. It sucks. We are being lied to about rate of inflation, how many unemployed we have, numbers are constantly being revised which no one is talking about or acknowledging . Six, if you are smart and can afford it get away from the east coast and west coast. I lived there and can say, it is not an accurate picture of the real United States. Seven, liberty is a constant battle so is freedom in all its forms. There are always going to be people who want to follow the crowd, be a part of the cool kids/adults, we partly survive by being in a group, but if we conform too much to group thought/machinations we are useless.

Does this make me a Trump lover, not exactly. I know once the election is over, if Trump wins, the country will probably have riots, inflation, job loss, and wars. The same will happen with a Harris win. With Trump I feel like there is a sliver of hope, with Harris we have a figurehead. Someone who was chosen not for what she has accomplished but who can be told do this, do that. I expect a further erosion of the constitution and certain states actually leaving the union. If you ignore someone long enough they leave, especially when they realize there is no hope of a decent life for them or their children.

So really the public loses no matter who wins.

Maybe I will vote sweet meteor of death 2024, but I am afraid that is a vote for Harris. We are all sitting on a time bomb.

Swabbie Robbie's avatar

There comes the time when certain courses are set and reversal and backing down isn't likely. I think we near that point, so we must work for the best but expect a long struggle. ie: shit happens!

Art's avatar

“When you find yourself in a room surrounded by your enemies, you should tell yourself, “I am not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me!” This is the kind of mindset you should have if you want to succeed in life. Get rid of that victim mentality.” Bruce Lee

VeryVer's avatar

God, if Trump doesn't win -- is he going to run again in 2028? A perpetually losing Trump who crashes around the RNC like a bull in china shop is the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats -- endlessly distracting and extremely motivating for the cat ladies (but ultimately powerless, and harmless.) Always makes me wonder who Trump's working for anyway.

AM Schimberg's avatar

Thanks for the truly depressing thought of the day. 🫤

JC's avatar

Himself.

Was that so hard?

Crixcyon's avatar

If you still think that elections matter, you are dreaming just as the DC Swamp hopes you are.

el gato malo's avatar

like many things, i think the truth is more complex than simple binaries.

elections do matter. they matter a lot. but they are not panaceas and are not going to save us either. who wins this election will have meaningful effects on regulatory reach and aspiration, the economy, immigration, and a dozen other aspects of life.

what it will not do is fundamentally safeguard any rights, balance the budget, fix entitlements, or restore civility or civilization. such thing do and must fall to us.

i'd be careful taking to extreme a frame on either side of this issue.

believing that you can vote your way to freedom is just falling for "the stripper really likes me" but believing that "elections don't matter" is ceding the commanding heights in such wrangles as are to come and seems like a cope to justify doing nothing while things get worse.

Tonya's avatar

Refusing to prop up the DC criminal enterprise is not necessarily a "cope to justify doing nothing while things get worse." As you said, the truth is more complex than simple binaries, like voting or not voting, for example.

Voting Republican when so many establishment Republicans do not uphold conservative principles does not help dismantle the regulatory reach, for instance. Just look at how poorly they did by voting for covid aid, for example. Pumping trillions of federal dollars into the pandemic lie allowed states like Michigan to weaponize every state agency against small businesses.

I still haven't decided whether or not I will vote in this election, but here is something for your readers to consider.

https://bretigne.substack.com/p/is-not-voting-the-most-socially-responsible

JERKSTORE!!!'s avatar

"the US election system is so broken and corrupt"

Exactly, the people screaming that DeSantis would win in a landslide are delusional, the entire SYSTEM is rigged. It's a UniParty, controlled by the Deep State and Globalists, it's patently obvious if you even take a passing glance at things.

No way to "vote" our way out of this, for those of us who want out.

Sadly, too many sheep love how things are going, as long as they can get drunk and watch Netflix.

I wish I had hope, I do not. All Empires fall.

Art's avatar

Look up which states are the swing states. Send money to the effective campaigns in those states, not limited to president, but also the congressional races. If you have time and not money, volunteer. If the democrats can pay influencers $20k to write propaganda, so can the republicans. And screw the people saying this fight is over. It’s just getting started.

SCA's avatar

It's not money but controlling one's own community. If the school board is run by morons then kids will continue to get the worst of educations. Abandoning other people's children to the public schools is a considerable part of why we are here now.

JC's avatar

Soros - and Koch's - love packing school boards, prison wardens, sheriffs, etc. Great way to make it look grassroots.

SCA's avatar

Every team loves packing everything. This ain't new.

Invisible Sun's avatar

The media bias is so vast, the Democrats are literally running "let's pretend" candidates. Sure, Kamala and Waltz are real people. But they are people with no positive accomplishments! Whatever fingerprints they have on laws and policies are proof of crimes against the American people.

Doesn't matter.

How does any opposition party defeat the figment of people's imagination?

SamizBOT's avatar

Pinochet snuffed out communism for fifty years at the low cost of 3k dead. I fear we won't have an easier time of it

kertch's avatar

Yes, but like termites and roaches, they always come back. What was it that Jefferson said about the Tree of Liberty?

Dr Tara Slatton's avatar

I mean considering we lost that many in GWOT and we murder a million babies a year 3000 dead would be rookie stats.

VeryVer's avatar

I figure this election (like all of them?) will be rigged no matter what -- if the Deep State needs Trump to be the Big Bad Wolf and take care of some unpleasant business overseas (nuke Iran?) or actually tighten up immigration or be the scapegoat for a depression or civil war or some other catastrophe, then they'll let him win. Otherwise, it's Kamala time!

John (jc) Comeau's avatar

I'm going to be Grumpy Cat and hope they both lose. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

JenniferS's avatar

Oops; liked by mistake. I understand the sentiment; but if Kamala wins, I'm going to have to unplug for four years.

Rosemary B's avatar

I will be right there with you Jennifer, if you do not mind.

Then again, It could get crowded. Let's not tell anyone

NormaJeanne's avatar

Not only will I have to unplug, I’m going to have to become a recluse and reduce my social circle to about 12 people, including my UPS guy.