horseshoe theory and the politics of lizard people

implications on what we face and how we must respond

some of you are likely familiar with horseshoe theory. for those who are not, a quick precis:

horseshoe theory posits that political views from left to right are not a spectrum but rather comprise a horseshoe. thus, the far right and the far left are not opposite ends, they actually bend around until they are quite close to one another.

i very much believe this to be the case.

the totalitarian communist or fascist of the extreme left has FAR more in common with the authoritarian dictator or theocrat from the extreme right than they do with anyone in the center.

they may vary in terms of what they want to do with society, but they find common confluence in presuming both the need and the right to do it TO you irrespective of your consent.

they share views about the people being subjects rather than citizens and this makes them terribly, terribly dangerous. it also makes them natural allies.

fear the red box, not the other side of the aisle.

neither right nor left affords protection for “we the people.” members of each are happy to tyrannize us according to their own predilections and a commissar or a mullah can put his boot on your neck with equal fluency.

most worrying is the time when the far right and the far left form a sort of bridge to one another and join forces. i tend to refer to this as “the place where google touches halliburton.”

this is where the real atrocities take place.

and this is a vexingly easy place to wind up not only under but also as a reflex to fascist systems.

fascism is a left wing ideology and always has been. all the fascist parties in the 30’s were leftists. FDR was, by most reasonable definitions, a fascist (and wilson certainly was). this modern whitewash of “fascism is right wing” is simply wrong. wikipedia can say whatever it likes, history calls it a liar. BUT, and this is a large but, this issue does get confused because as fascists take power, they build a bridge from far left to far right, because fascism is ultimately a form of authoritarian corporatism and it generates and attracts defections from opportunistic business interests.

these are traditionally right leaning entities. mercedes benz, big pharma, aerospace and military contractors, you name it. they are pulled into the orbit of the left wing fascists and are happy to pay obeisance and lip service to their ideologies in exchange for getting huge contracts, becoming filthier rich, having competition thwarted, and having their status, both social and financial, assured.

that’s the trade. and they clamor to accept it. because big business is NOT pro free market. big business is pro big business and it is FAR cheaper to buy a senator or a president or a health minister than it is to compete freely in markets at market clearing prices and amidst uncertain outcomes.

once this bridge is in place, it becomes very, very hard to escape from authoritarianism if you are still mired in notions of left vs right.

you become a ping pong ball batted back and forth between corporatist tyrants.

the lizard people own you.

they will vilify one another and play up the left/right divide and sword fight with the reckless glee of a 7th grade shakespeare production, but at a deep level, the level that matters, it’s about as real as corrugated tin thunder.

they will howl to you that the center is the far right and that wanting freedom is fascism. then they will bellow that any who oppose their community values are marxists and evil. they will do anything they can to pit middle against middle so that they can be ruled from the red box.

the left may lose the election, but if the lizards keep the bridge intact, not much is going to change except the pretexts issuing forth from scaly mouths.

it’s a show. it’s the flourish of the stage magician to keep your eyes off of the place where the trick is being played.

and the bunny they are seeking to obscure as they place it in the hat is this:

it’s always going to be lizard people ruling you because the lizard people of the far right and far left have FAR more in common with one another than they ever will with you.

if this trick takes you in, no matter which side you choose, the lizards win.

and make no mistake, this crop of “globalists” are all lizard people.

and their interests are not in concordance with your liberty.

when you see the neocons reaching across the aisle to join hands with the democrats, america’s traditional party of MOAR WAR, that’s what’s going on. the left got us into WW1, WW2, korea, and viet nam and contrary to what they currently claim, they nearly ALL voted for the iraq and iran wars.

the neocons were, on a historical basis, a weird outcome for the right in america. it was the corporatist right wing looking to “nation build” and war profiteer.

predictably, it was a disaster because 90% of american foreign policy is run like an episode of “mr magoo drives a mining dumptruck through baghdad” and that cavalcade of muppets was no different.

but it built a right to left bridge over the horseshoe points and when those two groups align, you get serious debacles.

every time.

we got the patriot act. we got it because we were scared. (sound familiar?) the vote was near unanimous. and it has NEVER gone away, has it? not the spying on us, the 200 new ways to take our rights without due process, the secret courts and black sites and 3 hop FISA warrants handed out like halloween candy.

much of the power it devolved and enabled is how we got all this election interference and active spying on political campaigns. it’s how we got the covid health tyranny. and that is building the corporatist horseshoe bridge again.

the minute covid starts to wind down, we get war. they wanted gazillion dollar public works and domestic nation building programs, but you go with what you can achieve.

surely, this dog is getting tired of being wagged…

this game of handball with our civilizations and societies gets stuck in “authoritarian” and becomes demagogue vs demagogue, tyrant vs tyrant.

right and left make no difference. it’s just a debate about who will oppress you and what they will take and under what pretext.

it sets up that most pernicious of hobson’s choices: the lesser of two evils.

we find ourselves yet again at this crossroads and at such a time if one would not be the cat toy batted between devils, one must remember these simple mantras:

the lesser of two evils is STILL evil;

and the enemy of my enemy is NOT always my friend.

that’s the ballgame because the pitch, when it comes, is always “you must side with us and elect OUR despot because if you do not, they will elect THEIR despot and it will be worse for you.”

you can literally use this framing to champion outright evil that you know to be evil because it’s better than some other evil.

and that is how you know that such a framing is ethically bankrupt.

worse, it’s a trap because if the horseshoe bridge has been built and the two parties in a political system such as the american system live in the red box on either side, “lesser evil” starts to get less and less meaningful.

pretty soon, it’s all just evil.

you’re locked into a game with NO good choices. you face election after election where you don’t like any of the candidates.

in short, you’re screwed.

and as long as this system persists, you shall remain so.

we broke the US constitution in important ways and that allowed the federal government to become MUCH too powerful and entrenched in ways our framers never imagined.

honestly, if you want to meet the real lizard people, you need to wander into the horrifying and endless phantasmagoria of the federal bureaucracy and regulatory agencies.

they have become a power and self-interest base unto themselves and serve no constituency outside of one another and the various flotsam and jet set alike that they have drawn into their revolving doors of sinecure and subsidy, board seats and special treats for those that know how to play ball. it’s all crony corporatism and private jets to collect climate awards.

it has created literal dynasties of byzantine level corruption and extra governmental power brokerage through foundations and NGO’s and lobbying firms and globalist conclaves.

it cannot be fixed.

it needs to be ended.

and we start by shoveling it back.

it’s easy to get cynical, because so much cynicism is warranted. i’m not here to tell you you can vote your way to freedom.

probably, you can’t.

probably, this is more true that most would like to admit.

but the fact that it cannot be the whole solution does not mean it cannot comprise some part of the solution.

perhaps it can.

perhaps if when next you vote, you think not about left or right, about us or them, about the lesser evil vs the greater, but rather about “which of these people is most likely to take power way from government and defend the rights of the people” it may start to matter.

the framing matters. it’s not right vs left. it’s authoritarian vs liberty.

it’s about rights instead of rulers.

no one can be trusted with the kind of power currently invested in our leviathans.

and our best hope to to start chiseling it back at every side to gain purchase from which to resist it further.

we need to eat this elephant from both ends, trunk and tail.

we must become less governable and at the same time strive to have less government trying to govern.

and perhaps we can meet in the middle in some attainable place that looks a lot better and freer than this place.

individualist ideologies are all well and good, but real progress toward lived individualism is better and speaking for what i suspect is the majority of us, i have very little interest in growing my own food and making my own shoes.

and this means we’re not moving to galt’s gulch of wonderous parallel structures tomorrow.

first we must build. and also, we must tear down.

and this implies working not only outside, but inside systems as well.

but perhaps a few us us can help move the many.

and perhaps this is the time to do it because so many have just seen so much of what lies down the road of being fed by inches to the regulatasaurus and of trying to trade a little freedom for a little safety.

perhaps they have witnessed where the cult of “build back better” leads and will take another path with us.

perhaps we this is the time to elbow out more freedom from the bottom and roll back more encroachment from the top, because as the hypnosis of the big lie ends and the people snap awake, they are ready for a new way.

and that makes this our time if we are brave enough to rise to it.

the society you save may be your own.