The flip side of the shitlib yokel is the would-be coastal striver class-traitor who has lived through the ravages of prog rule and foresworn his shitlib inheritance for hardened reactionism. Think Stephen Miller.
Many in this sphere fall into this category. Born into and expressing all the outward trappings of shitlibbery but “mugged by reality” as it were, or perhaps always sensing something rotten and self-defeating at the core of the progressive heart, have whipsawed back to the right
There is a lot of insight that comes from this perspective, including if one has lived first hand through the destruction of a place like California, a window into the future through which to demonstrate to a Red America what awaits it
But there is also a danger in presuming this experience is universally understood by the Amerikaner, who is still in many ways years behind and clinging to old nostrums and identities. The Blue State reactionary must be patient with the Amerikaner and meet him where he is at
After all, the deep red Amerikaner has much to teach the Blue State Reactionary and one must be open to accepting what is potentially “cringe” or anachronistic and folding that into some larger political and cultural aesthetic that weds these two perspectives against the shitlib
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This is right but it is a lot more complicated. By and large, it is not the Californians but the native “shitlib yokels” ruining these towns, the embarrassed sons and daughters of red state America who are the most zealous adherents to the new religion
BAP recently talked about the phenomenon of the shitlib yokel, many of whom move from the interior to the “big shitty” and adopt all the raiments of post-American culture to which they aspire, and take great pains to distance themselves from their hinterland origins
But there are also increasingly many who do not venture to the “shitty” or only do so briefly. What red Californians bring to places like Idaho etc. is money and taste, much less so than lib politics, and the money and taste in turn brings the shitlib yokel home
Civil Rights Law produces ambiguous, difficult to enact requirements for firms. This leads to the rapid rise in HR departments, compliance offices, etc. Much of this traced out by Caldwell...
These offices, in concert with managerial consultants, legal pros, and regulatory bodies, continually inflate the threat of liability to justify their positions and continued services...
This was a huge story that generated weeks of breathless coverage and millions in donations for Lincoln Project types, but the only people who will see or comment on this correction are the people who never believed it to begin with.
As a friend points out, it’s a nice touch that they are walking back the bounty story, which remember was used to prevent Trump from withdrawing from Afghanistan, the day after Biden announces his own withdrawal plan.
It’s not that they are counting on you not noticing, they are counting on it not mattering. The people behind it will pay zero costs, and in fact have already been rewarded
Under appreciated how much wokeness stems from a certain End of History ethos that instructed Millenials it was their birthright to “change the world,” but who are now stuck in soulless corporate Bullshit Job hellworld and see wokeness as a way to finally fulfill their destiny
Can’t understate how pervasive this mentality was, that in the bright new morning of uncontested Pax Americana you could “be anything you want” and also it would matter in some grand historical sense, but then the crushing realization for millions of world changer aspirants...
of history’s reassertion of itself and that even if you went off to Teach for America or whatever, the takeaway lesson was that the world mostly resents your ambitions and despises the presumption it requires or wants your guidance (see also: Iraq)...