Thread by @RichardBSpencer

The conflict in Ukraine is depressing and sickening—and could have been avoided. But I ultimately think it is a positive and necessary development for European civilization and consciousness.

We are returning to the 20th century, to a divided world (probably a trifurcated, instead of a bifurcated one). The 30-year period of true globalism—"The End of History," Unipolar Moment"—is over. It was America's time, when it projected itself across the globe, and it is over.

The difference between the new 20th century and the old is that the three sides (U.S./EU/NATO; Russia; and China) have been evacuated of ideology.

The Soviet Union (for better and for worse) was in the hopes and dreams of intellectuals around the world: a grand vision of progress and futurism. The new Russian sphere will be attractive to no one.

Putin looks the part of a Great White Leaders—and, to his credit, he is actively seeking to enter the stage of Russian, and world, history, alongside Peter. But he's just a gangster; and Russia's "traditionalism" is mostly a function of poverty, alcoholism, and backwardness.

Ideologies like "Eurasianism" are vague, fantasy-projections onto a petrol-state. There are many good reasons to hate America and Western liberalism, but an ideology cannot be born simply out of resentment and an embrace of being left behind.

Right-wingers going gaga over Russia are simply powerlessly lashing out at the world (again, perhaps with good reason, but without any vision of a future or any will or ability to enact it).

America and the West were once attractive to higher minds; so much of that has been lost due to the stupidity and hypocrisy of Washington's Middle East boondoggles and, more recently, its unbearable "woke" ideology.

But "wokeness" is obviously a symptom of too much luxury—of not having a real enemy in the globalist era and turning on one's self.

What Putin has accomplished by his action is a making clear of what was once ambiguous, a consolidation of the Russian sphere. He has, perhaps unwittingly, revived the original purpose of the NATO alliance and reestablished "The West" as an identitarian and fighting bloc.

We can laugh at the silliness of the "Woke Empire"—with quite a bit of justification. But we should remember that the "woke" are the ones in charge of armies and institutions; they are the ones with nuclear weapons; they are the ones who must face this moment.

The reality of the situation—facing off against Russia—and the cunning of reason will force the West to move off its "woke" fantasies and self-destructive path and define itself as an identitarian and fighting bloc.

There's nothing like enmity, violence, and danger to sharpen the mind and redefine consciousness. In embracing Russia, the populist Right (already waning and descending into stupidity) is simply lashing out at the powerful and the one's tasked with making decisions.

The "woke," on the other hand, will be forced into an existential dilemma; either pursue their self-reconstructive agenda to its finale or redefine themselves in terms of territory and power. I have hope.